TOKYO Week 2 and Chuck says:

Wasting Time in Tokyo

After that first show, we had four days off…and again, it became a challenge to kill the time. This is not the best time of year to be in Tokyo….it was cold and rained quite a lot, so not all that great for getting around the city or going to gardens, etc. I had contacted my pal Athan Billias, who works for Yamaha and while he lives in Southern California, often goes over to Japan for business…and fortunately, he was there. We arranged to tour the Yamaha Building on March 1…Matt Clifford and Mike Klvana joined us as well as a nice Japanese fellow named Taku. They took us to lunch at a sushi place and then gave the tour. It was all in Ginza, so a short distance. We saw a couple of their performance rooms…one of which was quite impressive with the design of specific woods on the walls, floors and even the seats…mahogany, cyprus, maple and I believe spruce were used in various ways…all for acoustic properties. It was a lovely room that seated about 300 or so. There was a classical piano concert going on…but we didn’t stay for it…just got a glimpse of the room and were given the story on it. Then we visited several of the other floors…one with the digital musical instruments, guitars and so on…one had all the brass and reed instruments….one sold cds, one had nothing but sheet music. They were very gracious to us and it made for a nice few hours.

The next day we had arranged to meet up with our friend Rio Takahashi. Rio used to work for KORG many years ago, and that is how we met. We became friends and stayed in touch through all the years. Some 10-12 years or so ago he had a tragic stroke and lost some use of one of his arms, and contracted a limp. It was a tough blow for him, but to his credit, he took up the challenge of trying to bring attention to folks in Japan that had suffered strokes by taking long bicycle rides between cities and in some cases walking. He sent us some articles about it over the years. But since then, he’s had more difficulty…in and out of hospitals, nearly dying…losing the capability to walk, then regaining it….barely. So when we saw him, it was not a surprise to see him worse off than we have ever seen him…but not easy to see. He drools and his speech is very slurred, and he can barely walk…but to his credit, he is tough and keeps on trying his best to recover. He is a great guy…but somewhat stressed out, which is one reason he had a stroke in the first place. In any case, we met him in the lobby of the hotel with his girlfriend (can’t remember her name) who has been with him a long time and who looks after him with great love and affection…his middle son, Rio…and his new wife (again, couldn’t get name) and a couple of friends. We all went to Rio’s friend’s restaurant…Mr. Obsuto. Rio has taken us there a couple of times before. A very small tempura restaurant….very good. Obsuto-San speaks enough English to get his points across, and his wife, who assists him at the restaurant speaks quite good English. We all made a good time of it….talking about our various ventures in recent years and what was and is happening in our respective lives.

Rio picked up the tab, God bless him…and then we caught cabs back to the Peninsula, saying our goodbyes at the front door. Rose Lane and I went back to our room as they made their way back home. 

3/4/

Show day number two….finally! Great to get back on track and back on the stage. Rose Lane usually leaves for the gig before I do these days, as she helps get things in order for Caroline Clements (makeup) and Isobel Work (wardrobe). I went with our usual team…Darryl, Bernard, Lisa, Tim and Bobby…as well as some of the staff. Rio and his folks would be there and I had arranged VIP passes for them. I went through the routine of doing the set list draft, practicing some in the dressing room, doing sound check and finalizing the set list with Mick. Then to catering for a bite to eat. As show time approached, I made my way (waaaaay across the Tokyo Dome to the opposite side) to see Rio and company. I had suggested, (and thank heaven his family had agreed) to put him him a wheelchair to get him around the Dome. It is such a HUGE facility. I had also asked Shelley Lazar, our ticket rep, to get Rio and isle seat so he could settle in without too much trouble, and she kindly accommodated. It was good to see them all again…and they were very excited about the show. I stayed as long as I could, but as showtime was approaching, had to say goodbye to them again and head to “the office”. 

The show that night was much better than the first one. Everyone was on top of their game, and the audience was enthusiastic and responded strongly. Afterwards it was back to the room, sip some wine and wind down.

Guitar World

3/5

This is the day I had arranged to do a session with my pal Kunio Kishida. He picked me up at 1pm with a nice young fellow that drove for us named “Pony” and we made our way to the studio. It was quite close to our hotel…maybe only a mile or two. Kunio had never used it, but had found out about it and they apparently made him a great deal…he was very happy about it. It was indeed a very good studio…with a fine 9’ Model D Steinway piano that sounded great. The folks there were as nice as they could be and had everything set up for us. Kunio had demos of some six songs that he had written, so we went to work. I wanted to do a good job for him…he’s a fine man and has been so nice to me through the years when I see him….which granted is not often, but I just wanted to pull out all the stops and spice up his project. After doing the first track, which didn’t take long…I asked them if they had a Hammond B-3. Luckily they did, and went to fetch it. I wound up putting piano and organ on all six tracks and Kunio and all the folks there seemed to be pleased with the results. After doing those, Kunio and I jammed with just the two of us on a couple of blues tracks, so he had some bonus material. All went well and we were done by 7pm. Pony drove us back to the hotel and we said our goodbyes…they were going to a club called Red Shoes where some of our crew was to play and Kunio was to sit in. I was invited, but Rosie and I had dinner plans with an old school chum of mine….Shigeru Mayagawa. I  went to Jr. High with him back in Tuscaloosa, but have not seen him since then…maybe 45 years! He had found me through the Internet and we re-connected. It turns out that he is Professor of Linguistics at MIT and has now taken a position with the University of Tokyo as well, as Director of Online Courses.

So he was already waiting at the lobby of the hotel…and I invited him up to the room to chat with us a bit before heading to dinner. We wound up going back to the Bangkok Gardens…and had a wonderful time catching up about our families, our “missing years” and life in general. So all this made for a really fun and productive day…

3/6

Only in Japan....

Last show in Tokyo. Again, a great one. I didn’t make it to the VIP to see Shigeru, but we had already said our farewells the night before. It was even better then the second show, so we left on a high note. One fun part of it was that we had a special guest…Tomoyasu Hotei. He is HUGE in Japan as a guitar player and artist. He had a big worldwide hit with an instrumental song called “Battle Without Honor or Humanity”. It was a main theme in the “Kill Bill” film. He has sold over 40 million records in Japan. I went to meet him in his dressing room…and he was as nice as he could be. Even mentioned Sea Level, which as a surprise. Not long after, we met in Mick’s dressing room to go over “Respectable”, which was the song he guested on. Ronnie popped in with him and we had a good time going through it. We also did it at sound check with the whole band, which went well.

When Mick introduced him, he got a tremendous response, and played great. He stayed through all the set and as we departed the stage to do the “runner”, he was there to say goodbye to everyone. Very cool.

That ended our stint in Tokyo….a fun and productive stay. In some ways we hated to leave…but it was time to move on and get the show back on the road.