The New Grey

Like they used to say - or hum, rather - in the 80's: Everybody's working for the weekend.

The last Friday I've had the unmitigated pleasure of living through was a pretty good one. Mainly in a mind-numbingly boring, work-related way. Well, partly because it was payday, and partly because I got word that I'd passed the first interview for a job I think I might not suck at. Not that I really know what said job entails, really-really, but the deal is fair, the people seem nice, and it would enable me to sustain some sort of Tokyo (or, God forbid, Kobe!) lifestyle for an appropriate time. So here's hoping they don't stop liking me before the end of the second interview.

I'm sure there was a lot of other stuff going on as well, but I'll just not mention any of it. Why? Because just as surely as sunshine follows rain (or is that the opposite? I can never remember that), Saturday follows Friday.

Saturday, the word, actually originates from the latin Saturdae, for "sit your lazy ass down and watch a movie or something". Which of course means that I spend part of my Saturday "helping" - yes, those quotation marks are there for a reason - Micke move from a snazzy part of Tokyo to another snazzy part of Tokyo, across a great big road, and some smaller ones. It took quite the driving feat - signed Mr Tiki - to navigate through that warren of streets, but it was, as they say, all good. The following is a picture of a place which is not-there.


Yes, tall buildings and people crossing roads in front of them still impress me.

After lunch, we left Micke to sort through all of the belongings I hadn't managed to completely destroy (yet!), and headed back north to return the rented Suzuki Swift (which, in accordance with the laws of advertising, is anything but). Of course, this being Tokyo on a Saturday afternoon, things didn't really go according to plan. What resulted, however, was a fine drive through a fine city. We also got to see the great-big-gigant LOVE-sculpture-thing outside the office building where my girlfriend works on the 23rd floor. Hell, we were so taken with that sculpture that we got to see it twice, just to make sure, or something.


But yeah, it was a fine drive. However, it was about to be topped by a musical performance on Sunday. Sure, some people would place those two in different categories, but not I.

For you see, that evening, in a tiny club in Otsuka, just a stop or so away from that haven of... something which man calls Ikebukuro, a band called LAB4 (yes, the letters have meaning) were about to take the stage for the first time ever. In a complete contrast to last weekend's Riot, this was... nice. Last week was "nice" too, but in a drastically differnt sense of the word. This was nice in a more grown-up and sensual sort of way, if you'll allow it. The performance surpassed all expectations, the talkie-bits in between contained actual entertainment value, and no, I'm certainly not biased since I know one of the people in the band. Feel free to guess who. Wow, 25 years on this Earth and I've finally made it. I am now a groupie.

Also, in stark contrast to the Greatest Riot, this did not make my ears ring for six straight days, for which I am very thankful.

And you just have to love the sign which welcomes everybody back.

That's all, folks! Tune in next week to see if I get sued by Warner Bros for using their catch-phrase, and also... other things.