Konichiwa everybody!
So, how many of you watched Caspar's live performance on stage at What The Dickens? To the unfortunate ones not able to see it, I will write a small review of the show intermingled with a recollection of the evening as a whole.
The show was a charity show against human trafficking. The lady that we met Friday, Ami, had arranged the concert and some of her musician friends also came to give their support with a live show. Ami, having recently come back from Bangkok where she had participated in some arrests of human traffickers, had had little time arranging the show and promoting it, so Annette and I helped her handing out flyers a couple of hours before the show.
We had come early to the pub, Annette and I, to support Caspar for his sound check. Being that early presented us with the opportunity to get to know the staff behind the bar and the other musicians (their band was called Moonshine and they were from San Francisco) that was there to play later in the evening. It was quite nice to actually have a longer talk with someone who knew the city and could talk English.
When Ami came, she recruited us for the promotion thing and we went out on the street to attract a crowd for the show. There were mostly Japanese people hanging around, so we had to try our best with a "Sumimasen, live music?". Sumimasen means 'excuse me'. Ami had prepared us before hand that Japanese are extremely shy when approached by foreigners or gaijins, so we mostly just got a shy look from people and very little response. It was easier to talk to other foreigners, of course, and we got a few interested.
When it was time for the show, we went back to the pub to listen to Caspar's playing. The music was quite good, but as they had only practiced for an hour, a lot of it was improvised. It was not a bad concert at all, there was just some confusion once in a while between songs.
While listening to the music, we talked a bit with the other musicians and it turned out that they were part of an organization (Ami called it a cult), where they knew a couple of Scandinavian people through. We were told that we should come for another concert they would be playing, so we could get in contact with some of the people they know. Maybe they could help us out.
I am not sure if they will be helping us out or trying to recruit us but it could be interesting to see. The concert is Friday, so I might go there.
So, anyways, back to Caspar's concert. It was very good, actually. And the mood was very good too. Annette and I helped a bit with sitting in the door to take the entrance fee during the night as well and we got to talk to more people that way, even though it was just brief chats.
In between concerts I went down on the street again to get more people inside, and I ended up trying to talk to a Japanese man. The outcome of it all was him misunderstanding me and me misunderstanding him, resulting in him giving me his can of ice coffee and me trying to humbly give it back. He promptly, but gently, refused to take it back and he left me to myself and my promotional duties. Puzzled by how I had acquired my unexpected bounty, I went back up to the pub and drank the ice coffee.
At the end of the night, I was given a free shot of extremely well tasting tequila, of which I have forgotten the name thoroughly, sadly. I also talked to another photographer about light trails and the wider focal ranges of canon lenses. Then, when the concerts were pretty much over, we headed home with the last subway train.
Monday afternoon all three of us went to Shinjuku, as I had found out about a Canon Repair Center situated there. So, merrily we went on our way and reached the Shinjuku station and with Google Maps directions we went out to the streets. Only problem we had was just that Google Maps was wrong, leading us the wrong way, and that the repair center was closed because of a national holiday. Great! So, we went to Ginza, another part of the town where Caspar and I hadn't been yet, and walked around until it started raining. Then we went home and had some food and did a bit of chatting with our respective loved ones before going to bed.
Today I got up early to go to Shinjuku again to hand in my camera. This time I was more successful and got it send in for a check-up. The camera repairs will run up in a total of 30.000 yen - if I am lucky. Every big camera (SLR or Digital SLR - DSLR) has an expected life span - an amount of actuations (clicks with the shutter) that the camera can survive before the motor, that does the movement, breaks. With my camera it is around 200.000 clicks. If that mark has been reached, the repair costs will run up in 90.000 yen! Having read about the problem on the net, I have found out that the shutter can break prematurely with my kind of camera and that it is a known malfunction. Hopefully that is what has happened to my camera, as I was told by the guy I bought it off that it had taken around 70.000 pictures, which is the same as a click with the shutter button. I have taken less that 10.000 pictures with it since I have had it, so there should be no problem.
I can pick up the camera again on the first of October, so there will be a lack of pictures posted on the blog, sadly. I made the decision to buy a very cheap old-school film-SLR, which can use all of my lenses, so I won't be completely without photos the next ten days. They will just be harder to upload as they will be analogue and I will need a scanner to get them digital.
Matta ne and take care!
Esben.
PS: I hope this wasn't too boring and dry without the photos.
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