There was just me, Siobhan and Guy going and we all met up in Yamagata shi to have a few drinks and wind down with some other guys before we could catch our bus. The place we went to was fantastic. It had a Japanese 1950s theme to it, quite retro and the coolest thing was that they served their beer in old fashioned tin kettles!
Being suitably tipsy enough to face the nightbus (only in the hope that it would act as a bit of a night-cap and help us get to sleep on an otherwise uncomfortable method of transport), we finally reached Tokyo in the early hours of the morning. Still a little rough and tired, we had the clever idea of finding an Internet/Comic book cafe in which to have another few hours of rest before we headed over to Chiba-ken where Daft Punk would be playing.
The Internet cafe's are slightly more than cafe's. They're often open 24 hours and you pay a set amount for a private room. These often have TV's, DVD players, games consoles, computers with Internet, comfy chairs or even beds. Japanese people seem to like to spend hours in these places as a way to relax and unwind or escape the stresses, or perhaps the daily routines of their life. They often offer food in these venues, libraries of DVDs and Japanese comic books, magazines, CDs and you are welcome to unlimited drinks at the drinks bar - anything from a variety of teas, coffee to Coke.
Anyway, after a few hours in that venue (still not quite comfortable enough to sleep but better than nothing). We went off to get something to eat and stroll around Tokyo. Whilst it was freezing up in Yamagata, it was still Autumn in Tokyo and one of the parks we stumbled across in Harajuku had amazing Yellow and orange leaves on the trees and the ground.
The park in Harajuku filled with oranges and yellows.
The happy trio enjoying the park.
The concert in Chiba started at 3pm with a bunch of support acts, but Daft Punk weren't expected to play until 7.30 so we didn't bother with the other acts and headed off to the venue in good time to see Daft Punk. We got a good location with a good view of the stage and despite my poorly ankle, I managed to dance OK!
The happy trio enjoying the concert!
It was only after the gig that things started to go significantly wrong. Firstly, we managed to collect our stuff from storage very quickly, but then we went the wrong way out of the huge venue (Makuhari Messe) and so had to walk back to the exit towards the train station. THEN, we somehow (to this day we don't understand how) got the wrong train going AWAY from Tokyo main station.
We reached the end of the line and then still unsure what had happened, had to get another one going back. By this time it was getting dangerously close to when our bus would depart. Our train was a slow local type and we arrived in Tokyo main station 10 minutes after our bus had set off. A small fortune wasted! We had two options: try and catch another, later night bus in time, or stay in Tokyo. That option wasn't possible for me because I had the big Nanyo City 40th Anniversery concert the very next day! So we rushed over to Shinjuku station where the next night bus would leave and managed to buy tickets and get on the bus with one minute to spare!
An intense day of travelling, concerts, wrong trains and racing for buses was inevitably too much for me!!!
Unfortunately that bus didn't stop in Nanyo, so me and Siobhan had to wait longer for the trains to start in the morning so that we could catch a train from Yamagata City back down to Nanyo - I had one hour of sleep in my bed before I had to be up for the last rehearsal before the actual concert!
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