The flight from Bangkok was turbulent and drawn out as I waited in Shanghai for a 13 hour stop over.
The airport was a huge beautifully overwhelming but somehow lifeless drab building and I was stuck there for 13 hours. With this time I walked from end to end listening to my ipod until tired. I bought some Peanut M&M’s and in the process had the lovely people at my bank in England block my card for the suspicious use of a purchase outside of the UK. Despite of course the fact that if you were to fraud a card then buying a solitary pack Peanut M&M’s would not be the first thing you would think of. And the fact that before I left the UK – I told them!!!!
Anyway after a long time of not really sleeping I boarded the flight to Narita Airport. Once in Japan the first couple of days were spent doing not really all that much. I eat sushi, slept and felt more earthquakes per day than I have ever felt and will probably feel again in my whole life. It is of course no secret that Japan had only 3 weeks prior felt the largest earthquake in it’s history (9 on the richter scale) and the aftershocks were also ferocious (usually around 7).
This was my 4th tour of Japan and it was clear that the impact of the disaster to the people was huge. My first run of shows were tragically sparse in numbers and all the Japanese people kept thanking me for not being put off visiting their country. It had become somewhat of a stigma that so many foreign people living in Japan had got the first flight out so by fate I was being praised by being one of the first foreign visitors to come. I was just lucky that I had 3 weeks to think about it whilst I was still touring Thailand.
I was also very lucky in that a friend Callum was leaving the Tokyo area for a few days and he was happy for me to house sit for him. This saved me a stupendous amount in Hotel bills and gave me somewhere I could use as a base during this time in Tokyo.
Without this I fear the tour would have spiralled massively into debt.
Next stop Osaka.
Stuart O'Connor 
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