After a 15 hour journey which included a change at Vienna, I walk out the plane door met by 37 degrees of hot humid air-just like Florida. Didn’t expect that. Forgot to pack my shorts. Damn.

Met by Taka from the Afterhours Records at Narita. We board a bus to Tokyo. Meet 8 months pregnant Kyoko, Taka’s partner at their office in Shibuya. Didn’t sleep on the plane so try to grab a couple of hours at his parent’s place where I’m staying, before first rehearsal with the young guitarist Kohtaro. Kyoko wakes me up just as I’m drifting off. I get about an hour’s sleep.

I’d already sent Kohtaro chord sheets to some of the tunes and he’s learned the rest from the records. As Rob Flint and Sean O’Hagan predicted, Japanese musicians are all brilliant and Kohtaro is no exception. I’m also introduced to Takuma from the band, Ultra Living (who I’ll be recording with) and I casually ask him if he’d like to play a bit of xylophone at the gig. To my delight he says yes and learns all the stuff in a day. Wow, everyone so friendly.

We’re treated to a meal of raw fish afterwards. The food here is fantastic. Despite jetlag, and tiredness I don’t sleep that well, even with the air conditioning on and wake up early. Read The Shipping News: it’s been made into a film with Kevin Spacey playing Quoyle –surely a monumental miscasting?

Next day before we leave for Takuma’s studio to record saw on one of Kohtaro’s tracks, we have to take a diversion to pick up a Japanese adapter/power supply for my G3 laptop. When we get to the studio and I think of a melody to play over his beautiful acoustic backdrop. They seem pleased with the results and I hope it doesn’t sound too out of tune when they examine it more critically (sometimes the case). We rehearse my set once again, this time with the xylophone. It sounds great. The laptop and Reaktor program are playing up. Bit worrying.

Out for another great meal in the evening. Walking along the streets, I’ve never seen so many telegraph poles and cabling anywhere else before. It’s all kept underground in Europe but it’s displayed like sculpture here. |Like something from Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. More illuminated signs than Blackpool but no smell of chip fat. The flats are built right up to the edge of the railway track and there are hundreds of car crossings. The city has a packed, crowded feel with rumbling sounds from the trains and alarm bells from the crossings.

We talk about life in Tokyo and London. Taka says life is hard and property grossly overpriced, just as it is in London. A flash of anger goes through me like an electric shock as I think of my own situation: my day-job as a healthcare worker, my partner- a teacher, 2 kids and no prospect of ever being able to afford a house in London even with ‘respectable and essential’ jobs. I curse global, free market capitalism with no social, or moral program and concentrate on drinking the Sake instead. I’ll have a hangover tomorrow.

Day of the first gig and it’s going to be a late one at NEST: there are five acts and the first band, Double Famous, comes on at 1am followed by Kohtaro’s Acoustic Dub Messengers playing a sort of stripped down post-jazz. Ultra living at 2:30 do a software –driven electro acoustic set with looping acoustic guitar patterns and disintegration sounds. They finish their set with a child-like pitch-shifted chiller of a song, but I have to leave halfway through to get a breather on the fire escape due to an attack of nerves and a few heart palpitations. I knock back a can of Coke and try and compose myself. I can’t drink beer before a gig because I end up squeaking like a cat on heat.

I’m sitting with my friend Yuko Shimbo, an old Stump fan from way back in the 80’s. We haven’t seen each other for 14 years, or so, and we try and catch up on life-stories.

Now it’s my turn to play. The venue has a nice big comfortable stage. I start of with the 20 minute Reaktor part of the show. It feels a bit lumpy with a few ‘clumsy fool’ moments. The G3 is sticky and neither the mouse nor the trackpad work very well. Kohtaro and Takuma join me for the last 5 minutes or so. Things improve rapidly. I don’t enjoy playing solo and it’s amazing how much one’s confidence is boosted by having other people on stage. I pick the saw up ready for the first tunes of the evening and wonder if I’ll have the strength to bend the bloody thing and keep it in tune. Deep breath. We start of with Mr. O’Hagan’s Llamalou les Bains and everything seems okay. The crowd is cross-legged on the floor and applauds enthusiastically. Apart from one or too small errors, the set goes well.

Last on is Jessie from Morning Star. It’s his third time in Japan. He plays an enjoyable light and breezy set of acoustic ballads, Nick Drake-ish. He is joined by the Double Famous crew at the end. Now he has a horn section, it’s party time and the band launch into a few upbeat numbers. I join them at the end for a Hawaiian ballad. It’s now 6am, and already stiflingly hot outside. We down a few beers in the bar upstairs then head back to sleep before the next show scheduled the same day for 7pm.

I’m introduced to Liam from Plush. He’s a regular here in Japan. Back at the flat I try and sleep but only succeed in dozing for an hour or so. Within hours I’m soundchecking for the second gig. It’s a smaller, more intimate venue and this time I’m ‘headlining’ with Jessie going on first. I’m yawning and wonder whether I can keep awake. This time Takuma can’t make the gig. He’s making art instead so it’s just Kotaro and myself. I’m thinking about singing’ You’re a Delicacy’ but I haven’t sung in public for years. Kohtaro thinks I should have a go at it and has learnt all the chords.

The Reaktor set goes particularly well and I’m also on top of the saw playing. Kohtaro sounds more confident tonight. Oh, what the hell, I’ll have a go at the song. I sing it in a voice that sounds like a mixture between Vincent Price and Edward Heath. I raise my arms melodramatically at the end and the audience gets the joke and applauds. We finish the set to a warm reception. I return to my seat at the bar but wait…there is more applause…they want an encore! Time for a bit of Karaoke. I play The Sound of Music and Moon River. Shameless. There are smiles all round and the whole evening feels nicely rounded off.

I’m knackered and there are a surprising number of people coming up to me and wanting autographed albums and CDs. There are 2 formal interviews afterwards. The first one is with a Japanese saw player who asks a barrage of very technical questions about saw playing through an interpreter. He has brought his own saw and we pause for photographs together. He’s quite well known here, apparently. He tells me there are at least 200 sawyers here in Japan. They are all taught quite formally by some guru-figure in the north of the country. I tell him I’m getting fed-up with playing it and he can take over from me when I’ve had enough. He smiles.

The second interview is more about music culture and the sort of scene I belong to. I big–up my South London friends, the LMC and talk bollocks.

On the plane flying back I’m thinking about what a nice time I’ve had in Tokyo and how welcoming and friendly everyone has been, specially my hosts, Taka and Kyoko. It was just great to feel like a musician for a few days. I have one whiskey after another to keep me going. They are on offer, afterall. I’m feeling tired and emotional, euphoria being the primary emotion. Also, I’m really excited because Spiderman is the film showing on the plane. I think back to when I was a teenager and how Marvel comics were one of the most important things in my life. Even now, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and co are still some of my all time heroes. I’m surprised how good the film is – true to the original spirit of the comic book. When Spidey rescues MJ from the clutches of the Green Goblin for the first time, the scene is so utterly fantastic I’m watching through watery eyes.

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