Possibly The Perfect Place To Blog

From the streets to the beach in only an hour. Tokyo and Zushi are almost liketwo totally different countries that strangely yet wonderfully neighbour each other, but still here in Japan an air similar to that of Hawaii drifts from palm tree to palm tree in this little surfer’s paradise. Lucky I am to have been blessed with the opportunity to venture to a place I would have never known existed if it wasn’t for the fortunate position I am with music.

What makes it all the more special for me on top of just hanging out in this little seventh heaven is the chance to play (on the beach) to an audience of super appreciative Japanese fans, who solely want to see you succeed so that they can do so in the process. I find sometimes when playing a gig in other places it’s an aura of ‘guilty until proven innocent’, whereas here in Japan it’s quite the opposite – innocent until proven guilty, just like it should be.

The show I played was called Otodama Sea Studio, a 72 day mini festival on the sea-front started 7 years ago by a couple of guys in a successful Japanese band called Kimaguren; last year I was lucky enough to go on stage with them on the last song of their headline spot and jam out a Bob Marley song. For me, moments like those are what makes music so special. 2010 Otodama landed me in the middle of all the wonders my memory last left it in; sunny, exciting, hot, fun and always a cracking photo from the stage:

This year also found me on the same bill as a guy called Jason Reeves, a very talented singer-songwriter from America who just so transpired to have written the song ‘Bubbly’ for Colbie Caillat, which reached #1 in the US. Not too long later the sun was in and the mohitos were out, and with the bonfire burning strong a glance to my left saw me two acoustics shimmering in the flame’s reflections. A glance to my right to see Jason eyeing the trusty 6strings himself, and all it took was two excitable smiles to begin one of the best jams I’ve had in a very longtime.

Today I sit on the beach I yesterday played on, this time enjoying it all from the other side of the stage. Some cool reggae bands to some hip hop DJ’s rocked the beach hut all day and left many in the Zushi utopia, needless to say, another super day on the sand ensued. I’ll let the photos do the talking now because I want to play Frisbee, but all I hope is that you can appreciate Japan is so much more than just those bright lights of Tokyo.

(All the pics coming on facebook soon)