Tokyo Day 8

You've probably never heard of Ken Adamany, but many of you have heardhim.

His is the voice that opens not only one of the greatest live albums ever, but one of the defining records of my generation:

"All right Tokyo! Are you ready? Will you welcome...

Epic recording artists... Cheap Trick!"

"I Want You to Want Me" (one of the few songs I could sing in Cantonese, given its paucity of verbiage) and "Ain't that a shame"  from At Budokanwere on the radio constantlyat the tail end of the 1970s. The Nippon Budokan is one of the great storied venues in rock and roll (probably in other music too, but I couldn't really give a flying f@#$ if ABBA played there...), and everybody has played there. I had always said that if I ever got to Tokyo, I would have to go and see the place. In fact, it was the onlything in Tokyo I wanted to see besides guitar stores.

My Christmas dinner guest found that particularly funny, though she did understand that it was obviously part of the whole guitar fixation...

Today I made that long-standing wish come true. Buck Tick is there tonight, and I could hear them soundchecking. They sounded loud. Thank God. Soft music is as useful as a soft you-know-what. Good news, and Peachey will be proud of me: I finallyate in a restaurant.

But only because there is a small restaurant in the basement of the Budokan. I'll never get to play there, but at least I can say I ate there. During soundcheck.

It was empty except for me, but I doubt it was the food. Or me.

There just weren't many people at the place, and those that were wouldn't think of losing their place in line for what was probably a general admission show just to eat...

Given the language barrier, I had to go back outside and take a photo of what I wanted and then show it to the waiter, but at least I did it.

It occurred to me as I walked around the place that this would be like some Japanese rock fan visiting NYC and only going to see Madison Square Garden. But hey, it's my vacation.

Besides, the Imperial Gardens are closed on Mondays. I didat least check.

Later that afternoon, I met up with Kevin, aka The Golden Rock. He studied here for a year (in fact, he's the one who introduced me to Motoki, my interpreter for my interview). We went to Shibuya for noodles at Ichiran, and they were excellent. Without him, I'd have never figured out the intricacies of ordering. I like the Orwellian anonymity of the individualized booths at the counter. I followed Kevin around as he bought stuff like a map and cold remedies.

Apparently, there's more to Shibuya than guitars...

We decided to walk from Shibuya to Akasaka. It took us almost an hour, and in the end I wasn't really late for dinner. I was meeting Mio and her friends at the Ninja Restaurant, which was a lot of fun. I am sure Mio has pictures. After dinner, around midnight, they all went to Karaoke, but I came back to the hotel, because I had to get up early. I was meeting Kevin for what would be my first breakfast in Tokyo.

It's no secret that Kevin was mysecond choice for Person I'd Most Like to Have Breakfast in Tokyo With, but all things considered, I am still highly appreciative.