These pics were taken yesterday evening as I walked from Shibuya to Daikanyama for the Snow Patrol show (which I didn't end up getting into because I'm a moron and didn't get round to buying advance tickets.)
This is gonna be a kind of "Day in the life of..." entry about yesterday.
Yesterday was a great day for catching up with old friends...
After my first lesson of the day, with the ever delightful Machiko (whose Dad died the day of my Dad's funeral), I met with an old friend, Tamara, who's been off in Australia for the past 3 or 4 months. She came back for a wonderful man and is feeling overwhelmed by the immensity of the situation and, of course, the cold weather having just come from Sydneys summer. Darin happened to be at Starbucks so he hung out with us for a coffee before we headed off to Mumtaj, my favourite Kichijoji Indian restaurant. The Indian guy there is having a hard time coz his partner is in hospital with liver and kidney problems because he's an alcoholic and so he had to start a lunchtime buffet so he could stay open. Somehow he always manages to give us little extra bits - yesterday it was some samosa's and some chai tea.
Then back to Starbucks for another lesson, this time the professional dancer, Sayaka, who is becoming more and more beautiful each year. She's 21 now. We've been having lessons together for almost 2 years and her English has improved markedly. When we first started she didn't even know how to do basic greetings... It's rewarding to see long term results.
Then it was off to Shibuya to teach Akiko at Wired cafe in the Q-Front building. I love that cafe - it has free internet for customers, and the staff rock. I'm there at least twice a week so they sometimes sneak me free coffees and always have a chat. It took a while but I'm managed to train them all into giving me 2 sugars with my coffee. Anyways, Akiko is a fantastically talented interior designer, with a studio in Daikanyama. She just got back from a week in Hawaii and showed me some amazing lava pics.
After Akiko's lesson, I finally caught up with my old friend Mr Maxwell. We drank coffees and beers then headed out into the cold to Bic camera (my electronics store of choice, primarily because of the excellent point card system - I'm saving for a new memory card for my camera, got the last one for free through my points too) where I finally bought an airport express wireless base (love it already, I can hang out in the sunroom and read my emails and listen to itunes now without having to be connected to that hideous blue ADSL cord or a speaker cord). We stood on the corner outside Bic at Shibuya Miyumasazaka awhile, trying to decide what to do next....
I had checked the Smash website the night before so I knew the Snow Patrol show was sold out, but I thought I'd try my luck standing outside the venue with a little sign. We decided to walk to Daikanyama, under (and over) the train tracks and that's where I shot all the pics used above. On the way we ran into Genta, this punky-feral chick from Brisbane, my home town - we used to work together at Nova. She's leaving Japan in 2 weeks to travel around the world. Fantastic.
The walk was cool but the wait outside the venue in the cold was not. Mr Maxwell had to head off for his dinner date and I waited for about an hour and a half until this revolting huge drunk Russian guy (drinking gin straight from the bottle) decided to try to get in too. He attached himself to me and made it his mission to totally piss off everyone in the area with his seedy attempts at black marketeering, leering in close "I vill gif yuuu ten sousand 'en for tooo tickeets to zis show" (tickets were 4000 each) then swaggering back to me shrugging his shoulders. I would have laughed if I hadn't wanted to go to the show so much. Snow Patrol are a great band.
I gave up. All I could think about was how if I had been in Australia I would have been on a fucking guest list instead of waiting outside the venue with a stupid sign in the freezing cold! Ah, the things we leave behind. I usually regret little about my move, but last night the irony wasn't amusing.
On the train back to Shibuya this young suit leaned over to me:
Him: Do you like Snow Patrol?
Me: Oh, yes
Him: Yes, I couldn't get tickets either. What country you?
Me: Australia
Him: Do you know Motorace?
Me: Yes, I do!
Him: my favourite Australian band. Good rock.
Me: Wow. Yes, they are good. (Actually, I met and worked with them several times but musically they didn't do much for me)
Back home and Charlene was packing for her 4 day adventure in Hong Kong. Wish it was me.
Now I'm heading out to my first lesson for today. Looks like I'm going to be late.
UPDATED. Was in such a hurry this morning that I skipped out without doing a spell check or filling in the links, so I've fixed all that now...
Martine wrote this on February 22, 2006 10:13 AM