Travellin' in Japan

An international conference brought me to Japan recently and I decided to pay a longer visit to the land of the rising sun. Of course, I worked, quite hard actually, and then enjoyed the cities, culture, nature, and ages old shrines and temples.

This is not a vacation blog, so I will make some observation on music in Japan.

First off, at the official opening reception hosted by the Japanese government a traditional band played, with a surprisingly modern almost punk-like attitude. The fantastic drumming and percussion made a great impression on me and the audience. A lady played a guitar-like instrument strummed with a huge plectrum, for lack of a better word. It was undoubtedly a very traditional form of music, but I noticed that especially to two younger percussionists came to the music with a zest that is more connected with drumming in Rancid or The Offspring than in this band. The mix surprised me but also the fanaticism the band members had as a driving force. Their hairdo did the rest to give the impression that in their free time they play quite different music.

Photo: Talant Sultanov

The next evening I found myself on stage as member of GEMS, the festival band. This year I was on stage with several familiar faces but also with several people I had not met ever before going on stage and in one case, I found myself wondering what I heard through my monitor. The sound wasn't supposed to be there. Taking two steps back, I noticed a harmonica player had joined on stage spontaneously and could really play. I didn't even know his name, but found out after the show he is actually a semi-professional player. It is an interesting challenge to play songs you know and then play them with people who also practised them at home or not, as it sometimes turns out. Most people in the audience know what to expect and have come out to party. Some songs come out quite well, others less so. It doesn't matter. Fun was had by all. Thank you all for playing together and create the fun for the very receptive and thankful audience. As an amateur guitarist and singer I can now say I've played on three continents and in multiple countries. This does sound of cool.

Where Japan is concerned, I have to state to not have heard a lot of music but what I heard was mostly Japanese music. The kind that runs in the background unobtrusively. The kind that makes little impression, if any at all. I have heard some singing/chanting in temples though. In a strange way it resembles the church songs from my youth. There's a difference but also similarities, e.g. in the seriousness and intonation.

K-pop and J-pop must be huge as nearly all music adds I saw was on this kind of music. The way these artists present themselves obviously has a huge influence on fashion in Japan. Youth and youngsters pay a lot of attention to what they wear and to their hairdo. I've never seen so many people putting subtle and huge individualism in their dress and image, looking different and far more individualistic than here in NL.

Apple Juice? Wout de Natris

In the more rural city Matsumoto or as the voice welcoming train travellers arriving at the JR station says "Matsumotoooo, Matsumotoooo", the most cheerful thing I've heard in all of Japan, we encountered the soundcheck of a Japanese jazz band in a bar-restaurant with an American owner. The formal side of how the Japanese interact with one another came through when the members gave hints to each other on how a song should be played, while the fun of being and playing together came through in all other parts of interaction, showing the informal side. We heard a French chanson, an American jazz classic, a Japanese jazz song and then a guitarist arrived; much to our surprise, as the music we heard certainly did not need one. Immediately the volume went up and a jazz rock piece was played that did not go well the first three tries and then it gelled. We did not stay for the show itself. The name of the band? Perhaps something with Apple Juice. I forgot to look when we left the bar.

During my holiday The Rolling Stones released 'Hackney Diamonds', soon on this blog, and I wanted a Japanese copy, after my U.S. 'Steel Wheels' copy from 1989 and 'Black and Blue' UK lp from 1976. This quest brought me to four Japanese record stores. The first two in Shinjuku, the gay-Korean-pose, see and be seen- clubbing neighbourhood of Tokyo. The first one was a small building with seven or eight stories filled with cds. Like in two of the others K and J-pop floors were rampant. Like at two branches of Tower Records, in Japan it did not go bankrupt, all adds were on this music, except for one band, The Rolling Stones. 'Hackney Diamonds' was totally sold out in Shinjuku. The last copy went out of the store, just when I arrived. It is quite clear that the Stones release was a big thing in Tokyo. The third store I visited in a totally different neighbourhood only had traditional Japanese artists from several decades. Finally, in Shibuya in the biggest Tower Records I found my Japanese copy.

Photo: Wout de Natris

What struck me, is the enormous assortment in the stores. Not just a row of The Rolling Stones but a whole wall, with all sorts of versions of an album. I wonder whether I could find a single Humble Pie record in any shop here in NL. At Tower Records they had at least 20 different albums, including a host of live albums never released officially. Not the album I wanted to find, the band's first. I was amazed by the variety but had come to Japan to do something else, to travel and not to buy records. Had I had more time and more room in my suitcase, I would definitely have found more interesting albums and not just a one cd release containing 'Exile On Main Streets'' outtakes, that I did buy.

Anyone travelling to Japan and has a keen interest in music should keep some space in the suitcase for cds. Japanese cds often have an extra in the form of songs elsewhere unreleased. 'Hackney Diamonds' has the 2020 single 'Living In A Ghost Town' on it for example. I already have it, of course, but it's nice to hear it at the end of the album as well.

Wout de Natris