Getting vertigo in Tokyo

Karen and I spent the night before our trip to Tokyo wondering what to wear. It sounds a bit “girly” (dare I say it for fear of women’s rights activists…), but we genuinely didn’t know what to take. How cold was Tokyo going to be? How could we be warm during the day, but not outrageously hot during the concert on Monday? How could we take the bare minimum so as not to need lockers to put our bags in? These were all considerations we had to make. And make them we did, because by Sunday morning we were walking into Saga airport ready to board our flight with little more than a day pack on our backs. I came to the conclusion, right or wrong, that a change of clothes and generally being “clean” is well overrated!

Two hours later and we were wandering the streets of Shibuya yet again. I really think its one of the best places to head straight to in Tokyo, it really puts you bang-smack in the thick of things. We had a couple of hours to kill before we were to meet up with Nick’s friend, and our host for the trip, Suraj, so we grabbed some food in a nice café and then had a quick gander at some shops.

For me though, the stand out song was ‘Where the Streets have no name’

Once we had navigated our way to Suraj’s apartment, met him (what a great guy) and dropped off our bags, we headed straight out to see some sights with Suraj, our “local”, to show us around. We travelled by taxi for most of the afternoon/night, which proved to be both economic and a great means for sight seeing. Riding the subways is fun and everything; it’s just that it makes a nice change to witness the manic streets of Tokyo firsthand in a car.

We spent the evening in Harajuku, which is a famous ‘people watching’ spot full of ‘freaks and geeks’. A ton of people dress up in “cos-play”, costumes, and walk around looking like little-miss-bow-peep’s, goths, maids and other such things. It’s funny though, cause all the people that want to be really different and out there in the same part of Tokyo… thus, making it the ‘norm’ to be different so different is not different at all...?!

We went for a walk around the HarajukuPark and saw the Dancing Elvis fans who meet up every weekend. As well as the dancing Elvis’ scattered around the park in their different “hoods” were also groups of people playing bongo drums, the jugglers, the Brazilian dancers and a group standing around a gravestone or something (a very freaky group).

After we had window shopped in the neighbouring “ritzy” shopping district, full of all the biggest name designer stores, we were in need of food and so followed Suraj’s recommendation and filed into a Mexican restaurant. In Saga-ken Mexican food doesn’t exist, much to the annoyance of every single foreigner. Therefore, I think you can imagine how big the smiles on our faces were as we looked over the menu.

The food was good, the company great, and the margarita’s splendid. We filled our bellies to bursting point, and then went for a post-dinner walk through the streets of Roppongi to the base of the TokyoTower. The TokyoTower is 333m tall (12m taller than the Eiffel tower) and can be seen shining like a beacon from many parts of Tokyo. Although I have read that it’s a waste of money going up, we did. There are some things you just have to do once, and when you’re standing at the base of a 150m elevator… well, you just got to take that ride! And anyway, it was actually cheaper than expected, so it’s always easier to say “yes” when that happens.

The observation deck provided a wonderful 360 degree view of Tokyo by night. Lights as far as the horizon stretches, each one representing a thousand or so people. I could see advertising signs all competing with each other to be biggest and brightest, but all combining for one common, sad outcome, a massive waste of precious energy. The Christmas lights flashing across the city advertising a holiday that isn’t even a holiday in this country provided yet another example of contradictions within Japan.

Once we had seen all we wanted to see, and had stood on a panel of glass looking down to 150m below, we rode the elevator to the bottom and made the trip home. We stopped off to pick up some beers and then settled on the couch for a movie at Suraj’s. Suraj has one of the meanest home set ups I have seen for a long time. He has a projector linked up to his dvd player, play station 2, and G5 apple computer. His computer just happens to be an absolute beast in all the right ways. It has 1500 Gigs of space and a massive apple monitor. It rocked my world. We watched a very good movie, ‘The Departed’, courtesy of Nick’s recent trip to China, before falling asleep on a futon in the lounge, on top of the heated floor.

Concert day arrived and brought with it pangs of hunger. Surge had to work, being a Monday, so Karen, Nick and I were left to our own devices. We quickly set about finding a café in Roppongi and went about devouring some great food.

We then navigated the complex subway system and made our second stop for the day Kudanshita, where we visited the highly controversial Yasukuni shrine. It’s a shrine dedicated to the spirits of those who have died fighting on behalf of the Japanese emperor. There are over 2 and a half million names remembered, but among them are over a thousand people who have been convicted of war crimes. 12 of the thousand were found guilty of Class A war crimes. The former Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi visited once a year from 2001 till 2006 and was always met with protests from some Japanese people, China and South Korea.

Now, I’m not sure what I expected visiting the shrine, but it definitely wasn’t what encountered. Until arriving I had no idea how large the shrine was, how beautiful the grounds were, and how peaceful and relaxed everything felt. It was a very nice spot. We went for a walk around the grounds and found Shinchi Teien, the most beautiful Japanese garden and pond. It was a stunning authentic Japanese little building with a massively contrasting modern skyscraper right behind it. A perfect example of how Tokyo has merged the old with the new.

The third stop of the day was Ueno where we spent more time walking round another nice park. With the sun shining, and not wanting to spend much money, ‘park walking’ turned out to be the “thing to do”! UenoPark is full of different museums, but, unfortunately for us, all of them turned out to be closed on a Monday.

After a nice walk in the park we headed to the streets lined with market stalls to see what bargain’s we could stumble upon. Karen was in the need of gloves, and me a scarf, but it quickly turned out that neither would be purchased this day. You take any other Asian nation and you will find the markets being full of cheap, usually counterfeit, items. Japan though, not a chance! Here the markets were full of authentic clothes, perfumes, and shoes. I guess the Japanese people only want authentic items, and the police would probably be pretty quick to stamp out any “black market” trade.

At 3pm we decided to make out move to the stadium and get our bearings. We still needed to pick up our booked and paid for tickets, and didn’t want to find ourselves in a massive queue.

All our fears were put to rest 40 minutes later when we had our tickets in hand and saw that the queue was three people long. We were also stoked to read we would be in the A section, meaning we had a chance to make it pretty close to the stage. We had a couple of hours to kill till the doors would open so we went downstairs to the road to await the arrival of the band with the hard core fans at the back stage entrance.

We didn’t have to wait long as 20 minutes later a black car with tinted windows pulled in, and who popped out? Bono, the main man himself! He kept saying hi/konnichi wa to everyone as he made his way down the barricade shaking everyone’s hand. It was so exciting; a meter away from us was Bono, lead singer for U2!!

After rechecking the photos I had taken of Bono about ten times, and pretty sure the rest of the band would not be arriving in a similar fashion, we headed back to the front of the stadium and grabbed our place in the queue.

The hour and a half, from when we started to queue to when we were walking into the stadium, passed in pretty quick fashion. We couldn’t believe our luck when we discovered that we were standing just 6 people back from the front. 6 people from the front at a U2 concert, unbelievable! We passed the time waiting for the venue to fill and the band to come on stage by chatting with other foreigners we met. One group had travelled all the way from Austria just for the show, what commitment.

Before long we knew we were minutes away from being in the presence of something truly special. We were about to witness the worlds leading band perform a set jam packed with hits spanning 25 years of dominance. The Arcade Fire’s ‘Wake Up’ blasted its way over the speakers, and I was happy to find out the crowd seemed to know it too, go Tokyo! As the song wound down we steadied ourselves, moved with the crush of bodies pushing forwards, and counted only 4 heads in front of us before the stage. The scene was now set, bring it on!

All pre-concert worry, of how little the Japanese crowd would get into it, was banished within a second as the band took to the stage. The whole crowd showed they were there for a reason, they loved U2. The edge, Adam, and Larry set about rocking their instruments, like only they can. Bono waited in the wings until the perfect moment at which time he walked out to sing the opening lines for ‘City of Blinding Lights’. Instantly one could tell we were in for a night of pure ecstasy. Bono’s voice live, the whole band live, is something else, something no DVD no matter what sound system it’s fed through, can do justice too.

After a great opening track the band picked it up a bit more with ‘Vertigo’ and then ‘Elevation’. We were stoked to find the crowd singing along just as if they all actually spoke English.

Being the third gig in Tokyo we had thought we might be treated to rather a good set list, and our thoughts were confirmed when the band struck the chords to ‘Out of Control’, a rare treat for us. Needless to say it rocked, hard!

Bono proved to us why he is such an entertainer, interacting and adlibbing with such ease. He really knows how to win over a crowd, not that he hadn’t before he even walked in the building! The Edge carved on his guitars, just oozing pure “coolness”, while Larry Mullin Jr dominated the drums to perfection. Adam Clayton really won me over on bass. He had the biggest grin on his face all night and it was so easy to tell he absolutely loves what he does for a job; he was having a blast up there rocking the stadium in the process.

The band did two encores and included the new, soon to be released, song, ‘Window in the skies’. It was very cool and I’m sure will be a classic for years to come.

During the night they dropped a couple of songs from the new album which they have been performing lots on tour, and replaced them with some old classics; ‘Bad’, ‘I still haven’t found what I’m looking for’, and ‘The First Time’ were among them.

For me though, the stand out song was ‘Where the Streets have no name’. I went into the gig rather biased, it’s my 4^th favourite all time song. They rocked it so hard, god damn it was good! What a memory I will forever have.

Being in Japan there were a number of “influences” thrown in for the fans. Apart from putting up messages in Japanese, the most notable change was in ‘With or without you’, when, instead of pulling up a girl to sing to and serenade, three geisha from Kyoto walked across the main stage. When they walked past Bono he politely bowed nice and low with a great sign of respect. It was very cool to see.

The only other major change from a normal set list was having Vertigo played twice. They played Vertigo as the second song of the night and then during their second and last encore, Bono said “This one’s for the boys” and they hit it again, much to the amped up crowds delight. What a way to finish with the whole stadium eating up every little movement, lyric, and chord.  U2 proved to everyone present they are the number one touring band in the world.  They only played 4 of my 10 favourite U2 songs, but still managed to rank as my number one concert I have ever been to, what a band!

At the conclusion of the show, and feeling exhausted from a truly special day, the four of us made our way to a local Thai restaurant near Suraj’s apartment. He assured us it was cheap and had great food, and he didn’t lie! It was probably the nicest Thai food I have ever had, much better than in actual Thailand in fact! (Unlike when we were in Thailand I can eat chicken here without fear of bird flu, and that lack of fear definitely makes for a nicer tasting meal!). We ate the great food still riding the high from the concert and reliving the most memorable moments. I just couldn’t believe I had finally seen U2. I have now seen 4 of my top 5 bands and am not really holding out much hope on seeing the 5^{th (}the Beatles are pretty well done and dusted!).

We had a brisk walk home in the cool winter’s night and quickly set up some futons on the floor.  I brushed my teeth, put my head down and was asleep almost instantly, with ‘The First Time’ running through my head.

The next morning was to be our last in Tokyo, maybe for a number of years in fact. We had brunch in Ginza, a district new to the three of us. Then we met up with Suraj at his work to drop off his key and say a huge thank you for putting us all up. Then Karen and I parted ways with Nick for the afternoon and made our way to Shibuya for a look around some shops. And then, a couple of hours later and we were checking in at Haneda airport for our return flight to Saga.

The three of us were knackered, but more so thrilled, with our mini-trip and the way it had turned out. It had been a huge success. 12 months ago, when tour dates were announced, Karen and I had thought it impossible to go to U2 and listened with envy when our friends both in Japan and NZ informed us they had tickets. Then things took an unexpected turn with the tour being postponed. When the make up dates were announced a few months ago, Nick offered us an amazing early wedding present, tickets. We just couldn’t say no. He arranged our travel and accommodation, and took leadership role navigating us around the city. I and I know Karen does too, just want to say a huge “thank you” to Nick for his amazing generosity. Without him we would not have been to the most amazing concert ever. We are glad we got to spend the occasion with him and his nice friend Suraj. As the Japanese often say “we got to make many good memories” and we know they will be with us for our lifetime.

- Complete set list -

City of Blinding Lights

Vertigo

Elevation

Out of Control

I still haven’t found what I’m looking for

Beautiful Day

Angel of Harlem

The first time

Sometimes you can’t make it on your own

Bad

Sunday bloody Sunday

Bullet the blue sky

Miss Sarajevo

Pride (In the name of love)

Where the streets have no name

One

- First encore -

The fly

Mysterious Ways

With or without you

- Second encore -

The saints are coming

Window in the skies

Vertigo (second time)