We left our hometown Osaka early in the morning on August 3rd. It was very hot and humid and I swet a lot. I feel unconfortable in a air-conditiond car. But without air-conditioner, I might be steamed like dumplings of dim sum. Whenever I got off from the car, I sweat a lot and said Ahhhhh, it’s too hot! By the way, the color of Udon noodles soup is getting changed around Nagoya. Udon soup in Kansai area is rather clear and north-east to Nagoya, it became dark.
We arrived our destination, Hitachinaka ity, Ibaragi prefecture at 8:30 p.m. We stayed at inn beside the ocean. Since I’m living in a city, I was strongly impressed with the darkness of night at the country. I was surprised about many insects, too.
The next morning, I woke up at 7:30 a.m. as usual. I took a walk to the seashore. Many ships are at anchor at the fishing port and I saw a large number of sea louses. Oh my god!!! I hate them more than cockroaches. Next to the fishing port, there was a sand beach and there were many people enjoying sea-batheing. I don’t like outdoor activities. I can’t swim in the sea. I scare live fish and the touch of seaweed. But the seescape was beautiful so I took pictures.
After I went back to the inn, I rehearsed with our drummer Etsuko and a support bassist Ritsuko. Then we went to the venue. How big the venue was! It was a big national park. Our dressing room was a prefabrication room and it was airconditioned. Very confortable. Right after we put our luggage there, we went to catering tent. I can’t play with hunger. After lunch, Etsuko went to setting the drums. Drummer always need to prepare first.
I felt dizzy after lunch by the heat. A few years ago, I became sunstroke when I was playing tennis. At that time all of my view turned white. I felt like the feeling like that. No, no. Such symptoms were came from spirit. I must not became sunstroke. I had to cheer me up. I said myselfI should keep my mind strong. I took vitamines and amino acid.
Then the show time was coming. Watering my head by my self, I rocked. But on stage, it was a hell of heat. The sun was shining, stage lights were very hot, the black floor of the stage was like a frying pan. My foot in a black sneaker was nearly burned. I watered on my foot and drank water a lot but during the guitar solo part of the song Rubber Band, I bent myself and felt dizzy. Somehow, I recovered and could finish the show.
Thanks to our fantastic audience, we could play safely. After the show, Ritsuko became sunstroke. She didn’t loose conscious but lay down at the backstage. Everybody brought ice to her and made her cool. Then we called nurse. 30 or 40 minutes later, she got well. Including her we went to the catering tent for dinner. Then we went to Tokyo by car.
We arrived in Tokyo at night and stayed one night. On August 5th, we went back to Osaka. We left Tokyo in the morning but the toll expressway around Tokyo got choked so we choose to use regular roads. But anyway, every roads in Tokoy had traffic jam as usual. It took 3 hours to go throuh Tokyo city. Ah, it was Toky’s custom. Oh, no! We couldn’t find restaurants along the road. We were starved on a choked road. Finally we found a pork cutlet restaurant. But it wasn’t air-conditioned. We ate pork cutlet with sweating.
After we got through the traffic jam we had a good drive and arrived in Osaka at night. These three days were the battle with the heat.
ROCK!!!
