Birthday Miracles

... only if you ride the subway

Birthday Princess

Those of you who knew our agenda for yesterday (Monday the 18th) are probably anxiously awaiting the story, and hopefully you will find it well worth the wait. For the rest who are discovering for the first time, let me just preface with the fact that yesterday was The Art Girl's 40th birthday. That ties in, pretty heavily with how this trip came about. Back home, a few months ago, she was listening to the radio (93.1 XRT) when they started talking about a trip they were doing a contest for to go see Paul McCartney in Tokyo, Japan. Well as it turned out the concert was on her birthday, and from that moment she knew she was going to win that trip. 

To qualify you had to be the 931st person to text in when they played one of Paul's songs at certain times. To win the grand prize, you had to be randomly selected from all the people who qualified, and receive a call from the radio station on the day of the drawing. Most of us hear all that and say, "I wouldn't win anyway," and don't even try. In fact, getting a radio station to even play a request has been impossible for me since I was a young boy. Not The Art Girl; it's her super-power. She can win just about anything from a radio station. 

It was just too unbelievable

The Art Girl's winning streak with radio started in the summer of 1987 by the building of a sand castle with Tony Sump for tickets to see Herman's Hermits in concert. Since then she has won numerous prizes, such as Blue Man Group tickets, money, donuts and coffee, but her primary cache has been concert tickets. To name a few: Paul McCartney (recently), Cage the Elephant, Alanis Morissette, The Knack, Cowboy Junkies, and a couple others she is having a hard time remembering. So if there is a radio contest you really want the prize for, see if she'll try and win it for you.

Back to this story. So, unsurprisingly The Art Girl did qualify, and even won a small visa gift card as part of it. To me, that was the win, because again so much more than I ever get from stuff like that, but she had proclaimed, "Oh no, I'm winning the grand prize." When will I ever learn not to doubt? Well time went by, I tried to qualify a few times as well, but like I said I don't win stuff, then eventually the whole idea faded from my thoughts. There I was, in a meeting with my boss, Mr. Mojo Risin' (MMR) when a simple text message from The Art Girl popped up on my phone, "I won". Now being the good skeptical, show-me-state boy that I am, I didn't believe it and sent back, "You're lyin'!" The Art Girl returned a couple expletives, and several "OMG"s. It still wasn't until a little while later, when we spoke on the phone, that it started to sink in... this was really happening.

The card I secretly brought with

Even Chicago radio personality Lin Brehmer was taken a bit by The Art Girl's story and how the concert would be on her birthday (listen to the conversation here). This is, by the way, where one of the birthday miracles came into play. Thanks to the time difference, because the day of the concert at home was the 17th, her birthday was able to actually move forward in time to coincide with the show. If you allow yourself into the same perspective we saw it, it really felt like a magical alignment.

Getting back to the day. Our intention was to sleep in late (meaning, not wake up at 3:30 AM) so we weren't exhausted before the concert started, but that didn't happen. By 4:00 AM we were both not only awake, but out of bed. I wished my beautiful wife happy birthday, and retrieved two surprises from my bags that I brought for her. One a card from me, and the other a present (the tiara seen above) from our friend, Ladybug, she left with me to give her.

Being still very early and before sun-up, The Art Girl decided to go for a walk, and seek out more substantial coffee than our in-room, instant Nescafe. I laid back down and read my Geek in Japan book to think of more ideas of sights to see, and learn more about getting around and local culture. Some of the most interesting stuff about here is the culture change being brought on by the youth and others from younger generations. Japan is really changing, especially in the more cosmopolitan Tokyo (less so in places like Osaka and Nagoya). Traditionally here, when you reach the end of high-school you take college placement exams, which will determine which college you will attend. That will in turn determine, essentially, the rest of your life. Corporations will typically have their college of preference, and business men, known as salarymen, will, from college, sign on and acquire their job for life. This is normal because to change jobs requires starting again from the bottom, so, without complaint, they rise in the morning, eat breakfast, commute to work, work overtime every day, go out for a drink and karaoke with colleagues after, and return home late. Their weekends being reserved for family time.

Spicy tuna sushi

This rigid path through life has begun meeting resistance by some of their youth. There are thousands, known as Hikikomori, who are so frightened of transitioning to adulthood that they shut off from society. They stay home, watch anime, surf the Internet, and rarely leave home. I know, sounds like a typical teenager to many, but this is something more severe. The reaction, unfortunately, doesn't seem to help them. Having a Hikikomori in the family is seen as shameful, and an embarrassment to the family, as such parents attempt to hide the existence of the problem all-together. Other, less extreme, forms of anti-conformity comes with the 'Gals' who, seemingly influenced by western culture, seek to stand out, rather than fit in, with brightly colored hair, and expressive clothing. Where in America some see rebellious teenagers, see it as trouble and even call the police on them, here there are glanced at, quietly judged as shameful, but that's as far as it goes. Even the 'rebellious' youth maintain a respectful distance and keep their music quiet or activities reserved. It's fascinating.

My favorite sushi so far,
wish I knew what it was!

Onigiri

The Art Girl returned with another bounty from the local 7-11 (detailed in her post before this one), and while eating we decided to take it easy and leave the "Do not disturb" sign up. Much of my time went to learning how the subway system worked. We talked, watched some Japanese TV (which is awesome by the way, especially the commercials), and kept it low-key to save ourselves for the evening. Eventually we wandered back to street level for lunch, again at the 7-11. If you stay here, don't put your nose up at convenience marts. The prices are cheap, the food is good, and that's where many of the locals go for lunch as well. In fact, we arrived right at the height of lunch rush. I've never felt so in everyone's way. That feeling was even stronger once we arrived at Tokyo Dome.

Lunch behind us it was time to clean up, and get ready for the concert. I had brought a nice shirt and slacks, but forgot a tie, and black socks so I improvised and opted for the open collar with jeans look. The Art Girl had a black dress, shoes that looked a lot like what women here like except they fit correctly, and some fancy hose she bought at, I kid you not, 7-11. We looked good!

Our view on the Oedo line to Kasuga Station

 The train system information stored safely in my internal GPS we set out for Tochōmae station (below our hotel). Thanks to our walk, the night prior, I spotted the station we wanted while en route to Shinjuku station. We went down, and quickly found the ticketing station, which promptly looked very confusing. Since we were still figuring out how everything worked, we didn't get any pictures, but plan on visiting the subway again and will get some then. It didn't take long, based on our befuddled look, for a station employee to come by asking if we needed help. You see, back home, you say where you want to go, from where you're leaving, and buy a ticket accordingly. Here, you determine the cost of where you want to go from where you are, then buy your ticket based on that. Then before getting on the train you go through a ticket eater, and bring your recorded ticket with you. Then when you get off the train the exits block you until you provide that same ticket again. If it was the correct price for your origin to where you are, it will let you out. Otherwise, presumably, the guard nearby will scold and shame you.

Tickets in hand we made our way to the line that would take us where we were going. This time it was the Oedo line to Kusaga station (E-07). The letters and numbers make it really easy to figure things out. Our origin was E-28, and it would go from there through E-01~07. All the signage in the stations use the letters to denote the specific train lines, and arrows to indicate which way to go. It's kind of like following signs on our freeway system. We needed track 2, and when we go there a train was already there, so we hopped on. It wasn't too crowded and we were able to find seats. The train was clean, the people were quiet, and everything was very much just a way of life. We did, though, get to be the two people who looked different from everyone, and you could catch people sneaking peeks at us when they thought we weren't looking. It was kind of funny.

The Art Girl in front of the Kasuga Station entrance

Just a few moments later we were at Kasuga, and made our way from the train to the street level. It was surprisingly far underground. Once above ground I took a moment to get my bearings and we headed the short walk to the Tokyo Dome. At first it appeared as though people were lined up for something, and we worried it was going to be difficult getting in. As it turned out, however, they were just hanging out on bridge, which is a popular gathering place here. Not that specific bridge, but rather bridges in general.

People hanging out on a bridge

Unhindered we crossed over to the Tokyo Dome complex and took pictures of our views of Tokyo Dome City amusement park, most notably the roller coaster "Thunder Dolphin" (pronounced in the deepest, manliest voice you can muster). From there we quickly moved around the Tokyo Dome building and found where they were selling T-Shirts, and other souvenirs. There was a board showing what was available for purchase and their prices. After determining what met the cost/value match of acceptability we headed towards the back of the line, which seemed long, until we got to what we thought was the end, only to find another stretch just as long. There had to be at least 1,000 people in that line, and it was too much for us to dare attempting.

 The line for souvenirs was HUGE!

After our defeat at the souvenir line we went in search of something to drink, which afforded me another opportunity to practice my, limited, conversational Japanese. I walked up to the counter and said, "Konbanwa. Eigo o hanasemass-ka?". He responded with a big smile, a hand gesture indicating 'a little', and cheefuly laughed. Everyone here seems genuinely tickled when I greet them and ask if they speak English in their language. So from there, we completed most of our transaction using pointing and brand names. Next we sought out a program where I again asked if they spoke English, but this time was met with "Ie" and a head shake, but still a smile. Again, a transaction completed primarily with pointing, and smiles. ¥30,000 later, I handed the program to The Art Girl, and parted from the vendor with my typical "Arigato" and a quick bow.

Such a pretty place

Tokyo Giants

Still with time to kill before the doors opened, we wandered through Tokyo Giants (their baseball team) merch store, people watched, posed for selfies, talked, etc. A couple times we tried to go down and visit the will-call desk, but the doors ended opening late and we were sent away a few times. While waiting, however, I noticed a very interesting aspect of the Japanese culture. Not only did the disabled and elderly get to enter the concert from a quieter, easier to access, back entrance, but while waiting for the doors to open, security officials would run to them to offer a chair if the person was not already in a wheelchair. It was really very endearing.

The 'cool-people' entrance

In contrast, however, was the guy from somewhere in Northern Europe that kept looking back at The Art Girl. I kept missing it, but eventually I just stared at him until he did it again, and it seemed to surprise him once he realized I was looking him right in the eyes. He seemed to act a bit less slimy after that.

During this wait is also where we met Martin from Argentina. He too was waiting because he plays drums for the guitarist that was performing with Paul McCartney (not in this show, but at others), and was invited to a pre-show toast with the band. We talked about where we were from, what brought us each to the show, about how long of a flight it is to Japan from our respective countries, his three boys and our two girls, and even how his wife didn't join him because she doesn't like Paul (whaaaaaaaaaat!?).

About a half hour after doors open, they finally called us back to the guest tickets table. Naturally our tickets were not there. We did our best to communicate to them who our contact was, and they started bustling around to try and figure it out. Our new friend Martin was also finding difficulty in getting where he needed to go too and the three of us were asked to stand off to the side while they sorted it out. As it turned out, he had the mobile phone and email address for the person who was our contact so he gave those to us in case the staff couldn't figure it out. Thankfully that wasn't necessary and our contact came down to talk to us. She also seemed to have no idea what we were talking about; not the contest, or that XRT was sending any guests. By that point we were starting to get tired and were almost okay with the idea of just going back to the hotel and going to bed (wow, how lame are we?), but now that she was there, and understood us clearly we kept explaining.

We showed her the email messages The Art Girl had mentioning her by name, and dropped all the names we knew. She eventually pulled out a couple tickets from an envelope and apologized for not being informed, but we knew the right names and had the right story so all was well! Looking at our tickets, we had no idea where to go, or what our seats were. Eventually I found a security guard and asked what on our tickets told us the gate. He sent us off in the right direction, we found our gate, made it quickly through security, who simply glanced at me and peaked briefly in The Art Girl's purse. Such a different experience. Once in through the doors, we spotted a guide and asked where to go, well it turned out that another woman with seats very close to ours came by and offered, through the guide, to help lead us to our "Arena" seats.

In we went, and the place was HUGE. Our seats were on the floor, and as we finally connected the letters and numbers on the tickets with how the seats were laid out, it dawned on us. We were right there, in front, just a bit off to stage right. Like incredibly, never been this close before in our lives, close. It was incredible. So much space behind us, and so little in front of us. From my seat, there was nothing in between me and my view of center stage. Here is a selection of pictures from our seats.

Us, still in total disbelief in how amazing this night was about to become

A small panorama of the stage from our seats

A large 360­°+ view of the entire stadium (for best viewing, download and open in your photo viewer locally)

Another view of the stage, The Art Girl trying to keep it together, and The Art Girl with 'beers'

We had a while to wait for the show to start, and even talked to a few people. There was a couple of young girls we recognized from will-call, who won tickets and were from England (HUGE Paul fans), and there was a woman who came over and asked us if we knew "Yoko". All I could think to reply was, "As in Ono?" From there we got into a lengthy conversation about how her husband was a really big fan of Paul's and they go to the sound checks and follow Paul around the world, and Yoko was another regular that they've gotten to know a little. We also took the opportunity to get a couple drinks from one of the girls walking around selling them. They looked like beers, but had ice cubes in them. At first I thought it smelled like tequila, but after taking a few sips, it seemed more like it was some sort of scotch / beer mixture. This one remains a mystery as I was unable to find more information about the drink.

Once the show started, the whole place was electric and the energy was incredible. We had never really felt the buzz of so many people from behind before. Usually most of them are in front of us and everything about the experience came from the same direction. This turned out to be another part of the miracles. The feeling this provided with the legendary Paul McCartney and an amazing musical and visual experience in front of us, and the deeply moved and charged crowd behind us was beyond words. I sincerely wish every one of you reading this could have been there with us to feel as we did. With the music going, loud in front, you could hear his voice bounce off the people and building behind us, and it was like being transported to another dimension of existence. 

From song to song, each was an experience in its own right. His banter with the crows was natural and personal feeling. His Japanese was understandable (by the crowd) but as awkward as I'm sure I sound. He held the crowd in his hand, and the level people around us were moved was unbelievable. Often to tears. Japan truly loves Paul, and he seems to feel the same for them.

Through the show we got to know Iisa, a Japanese woman who lives in Canada that traveled to see this show with her daughter and her son-in-law. For whatever reason she wasn't seated by her daughter, and she was so thoroughly enjoying the show that I didn't even get bothered by her regular encroachment on my space, rather just dodging the occasional sign corner towards my eyes, or glow stick. Her giddy excitement really made it fun.

Paul played all of your favorites from The Beetles, Wings, and his new solo efforts, but most notable was the performance of "Live and Let Die". By the time he got to this part of the set, we were quite tired, and our legs were burning, so before we knew what was about to happen we had sat down, when pyrotechnics started going off with loud booms and fire we could feel from our seats. It was incredible from such a close distance, and far from the end. At one point something, on fire, fell down at the base of the stage, but his crew was quick to run over and stamp it out. Throughout I took pictures when I could and took a couple brief videos, but there was a Japanese guard that looked like someone you really didn't want to mess with that didn't like the use of cameras, so I kept it to a minimum. 

Below are my pictures from the concert, and after you're done with those, check out this link of the set list and videos of him performing them from this tour and others.

The pyrotechnics for "Live and Let Die" were unbelievable

Iisa and her daughter talked with us awhile after the show and were kind enough to pose with us for pictures.

After the concert, we were blown away by how meticulous of a process it is for disembarking everyone from the stadium. Each section was instructed when to leave, and no one went against this. Everyone casually sat and conversed while waiting their turn to leave. It worked incredibly well and served to further enforce what an incredibly organized culture we were in; truly a study in cooperative efficiency. Even not understanding the instructions on the PA, we instinctively could tell it was best to remain where we were. Then when it was our section's turn to depart we did and made our way into the corridor that led out of the building. It was completely full of people, but continued to move with no chaos involved. All in the group were talking, but markedly absent was the drunken, obstinate fans of Chicago that we've all come to know and 'love'. There was a really interesting air pressure thing going on with the stadium, however, and when we reached the doors to the outside we were literally blown out of the building, to the point that security officials were 'catching' people to prevent injuries.

From there we casually and easily found our way back to the subway station. This time with a better handle on how to work the system, and managed to purchase our return tickets without even pressing the "English" button. It was interesting to note, though, that the machines were not standard from station to station, nor were the station maps, but that's okay, we managed, found our track, and train and made our way back to the hotel without issue.

The view in Tochōmae station stepping off our train, and commuters trying to fit in a suburban bound train

Thank you Paul for a wonderful night, but now we are completely exhausted!

Once back in the room, I had wanted to get this blog post done so everyone could read it on their Monday, but that was not in the cards. It was we had been up for more than 20 hours, and couldn't take it anymore. Once our heads so much as touched pillows, were were out.

So again, hopefully that was well worth the wait, and now we're off to learn and experience more!

-Geek