Jazz...

23rd Feb after catching up with Greg and Aaron at the Bunkyo-ku cultural festival (where they were stars of the show and the cameras followed the two male gaijins around for most of the morning) we acquired an Amy, and then spent a good few hours trying to decide what to do for the evening....

To stem Amy's chronic boredom disease, Greg cunningly suggested a Jazz club in Ikebukuro...so we all toodled down to Miles' cafe to have a listen to their Jam session.

It was a little trek from the station, and down in the basement of an unsuspecting building. We pressed the button for B1...and waled out straight into the room where the Jam session was going on. A guy, who looked like he was in charge, seemed a bit confused that we were there...and tried to direct us to B2 (where the proper Jazz musicians play for more money) but we assured him that we were where we wanted to be...and we just wanted to spectate. We paid our 1000yen each (and got our 1000Miles - ie... its worth 1000yen in drinks; there were two prices for drinks: 500miles and 1000miles and a tiny bar at the back of the long Jamming room from whence the drinks were served). We were served our drinks by another customer, who happened to be behind the bar...and kind enough to give the weird foreigners drinks. The guy we paid money to at the beginning spent the rest of the night being very VERY hospitable...giving us snacks and more drinks for free... he also explained how the people currently playing were beginners to Jazz and that more experienced people played later on (including him).

It turned out to be more of a lesson and a place to practice (I doubt many apartments would be too happy with you belting out on your sax whilst you tried to practice your Jazz skills...and the Jam sessions let you practice without upsetting your neighbors...) . The night got better and better, with one guy (a skilled piano player) switching to a kids toy (a rudimentary keyboard thing which he blew into at one end to make a sound) to join in with the music making. He was damned good. It was great fun. we'll have to go back.