popped early, probably somewhere around the three 'o clock mark. but i descided to 'sleep in' a little bit and stay in bed till 530 or there abouts. had been pushing it too hard and burned out major a few days earlier. had to go to bed early and get some asperin. willpower is one thing, but one should never forget to take proper care of their body. and even though i'd been eating quite well, i'd been pushing my body too hard physicly. doing crazy 20 mile city-strolls every day, with a guitar on my back, not taking any breaks, all of that. so after i popped i went down and chimped some mail. i think we might have some new readers, so for those new to the list; it's chimping, like a room full of monkeys behind typewriters. it's said that one will eventually write shakespeare, if given proper time. you might have heard this story somewhere before. 'round the clock of eight i went out to the 7/11 real quick (yes, they have those over here too....) and got some rice and tea, for breakfast. darn it's cold outside, i wish i hadn't send my scarf back home. i don't want to go out buying one again, so i'll be okay for now. my mom remarked how it reeked of cigarette smoke, when she got it. courtesty of abe reid, i told her. so i went on back, made and ate my rice, and went upstairs to pack my bags. i gave my friend jeff the herman hesse book, 'journey to the east', which i'd bought and read on scott's recommendation, after i told him i'd read 'siddhartha'. i'd spend some good time with jeff a few days earlier. righteous dude, punker at heart. but the right way. straight up sst, punk is whatever you make it to be guy. oldschool, dug hanging out with him much. gracias. i procedeed to pack my bags and brought them downstairs. put my linnen in the designated back and checked out of the khaosan tokyo annex hostel at around 930. man, traveling light feels great, just a guitar and a packback. but darn if the backpack's zipper didn't just bust when i was packing it! i guess i should be greatfull it's lasted as long as it has. it 'kwam uit de handel', that age-old expression (atleast to me) that i'm still unable to find a proper english translation for. thanks dad, it's served me well. the good thing is that i won't have to go anywhere for a good little while, so we'll be allright for now, me and my luggage, that is. will have to go out and get a new bag in a few weeks, i guess, or atleast eventually. i've been checking out the many music shops here, and they actually sell roadcases (like a fortified briefcase, for musicians) made of the fender tweed material. they's righteous and would fit my stuff real well, so i'll probably get me one of those to replace my broken backpack when the need arises. took the train to nakano (中野）and check in at this new place i found. an 8 bed dorm room for 35 000 yen a month (+ 10 000 key deposit), definitly the cheapest place you'll find in tokyo. the woman at the reception was real friendly and walked me to the place herself. the guesthouse is made up out of different branches scattered throughout 中野. when we got to the place it turned out to be this old time 20's bar converted into a small guesthouse. sleeping on the floor, on tatami mats. exactly what i'd been looking for. rad bunch of housemates, classic japanese layout, made me feel right at home. my japanese seems to be improving with leaps and bounds. being around it all day certainly helps. but it's like gabe (not abe, gabe) always said; came so far, still got a long way to go. still got ways to go, indeed. put my bag away and went out again, strolled around the city some more. by god, i can't remember what i did, but it sure wasn't anything worth mentioning. just roamed around with that restless mind of mine, rode the train a little bit, took the long round trip so i could sleep some. strolled around ueno park for quite some bit, sat down to soak up the sunshine. had this weird little interaction with these school kids. i asked them for the time, in japanese, and they (12 years old, i guess) tried to talk to me in english. so the conversation ended up in this weird bilingual joke, kind of hard to translate. but man, it made me feel good. i like kids. they's devils sometimes, but they aren't dissilusioned by the world too much yet, i like that alot about kids. so all in all i had a good day. just trying to keep myself busy. man, i'm having a hard time finishing this log, thinking of more spiel. there's bunches i could put down but i kind of feel drained. am writing is the day after and i just played out all day, so as you might suspect, i'm drained, man. a drained man. it's all good though, music is just this intense thing, you're creating something when you're playing, but when you're done, it's gone, it's been done. it's not like a painting or a poem, what happens is done right then right there and gone right then right there. recording don't capture it all, and we's don't record all the time. so you're creating this thing, but at the end of the day, you pack up your bags and have nothing to show, nothing tangible to show that you created something, exept for this intense pleasant exhaustion throughout your body. it's quite allright, goodnight.
