Japan tour 2018, day 5
Nagoya, Lovely
I am fond of residing at the Daini Fuji hotel. The accommodations are spacious and the staff is incredibly hospitable. On this particular trip, I was scheduled to perform at Lovely, so the club’s owner covered the cost of my hotel stay. This was my third visit to Nagoya and I had already become familiar with the area.
Nagoya, also known as (名古屋), is the largest city in Japan’s Chūbu region. It ranks third in terms of incorporated cities and fourth in terms of population density. Located on central Honshu’s Pacific coast, Nagoya serves as the capital of Aichi Prefecture and is a major port, along with Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Yokohama, Chiba, and Kitakyushu. It is the center of the Chūkyō metropolitan area, which is Japan’s third-largest metropolitan region. In 2015, Nagoya had a population of 2.28 million, and the Chūkyō Metropolitan Area had a total of 10.11 million people. It is one of the 50 largest urban areas in the world and serves as a hub for manufacturing and shipping.
This morning, I overslept and headed to the 24/7 store across from the hotel to grab some breakfast. Upon returning to the lobby, I ran into Gaku and Shunichi who had already checked into the hotel. They were planning a visit to a popular Korean restaurant and asked me to join them. We agreed to meet at 5 PM to walk to the club together, which was nearby. I really enjoyed my time in Nagoya, it felt different than Tokyo, with wide roads and an organized layout. Despite the beautiful weather, there were warnings of an incoming typhoon in the air.
Together with Gaku and Shunichi, we reached the club, Jazz Inn Lovely, after a 10-minute walk. This historic club is renowned and known to be difficult to get a date at. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to play there again and my tour manager, Satoshi, did an excellent job. This concert marked the end of the first part of the tour, and we would be saying goodbye to Yuuki and Nana as we travelled to Tokyo the next day to perform five shows with the original line-up of the Tokyo’s Bad Boys album. Upon arrival at the club, Nana, Satoshi, and Yuuki were already setting up. We had a quick sound check and ran through the tunes. The band was already familiar with the songs, so there was no need for a long rehearsal.
After my rehearsal, I stepped outside and was pleasantly surprised to see my friend Dustin Brown already there. It was great to see him again after so long. We first met in 2015 when I was recording my album Tokyo’s Bad Boys when we were both staying in the same hotel in Tokyo.
Dustin is from Los Angeles, California, and frequently travels to Japan. He is a talented writer, photographer, and all-around great guy to hang out with. He even wrote a piece about me and my musical adventures in Japan that was published on Hollywood Press Corps, a website he contributes to. We have kept in touch through social media and this time, he was also in Japan, so we had plans to catch up. He introduced me to his friend Kaoru Sato, who is a big fan of my album Tokyo’s Bad Boys. It was so nice to finally meet her. It was her first free day in 4 years, and she wanted to attend one of the shows on my tour. How cool is that? We decided to have some delicious export draft beers at the bar next to the club.
Dustin told me that the upcoming hurricane was going to be a big one and he was planning to leave Nagoya the next day as soon as possible. The weather was already starting to change, and the wind was picking up. It would be a challenge to get out of Nagoya before the storm hit. By Japanese standards, this would be one of the largest storms to hit Japan in a long time.
