North America Guitar Tour
To LA
June 19, 2014
San Francisco to LA doesn't seem like that far because it's within the same state of California, but in fact, California alone is larger than the entire land area of Japan. I made the round trip twice when I was younger, and it took me 6 hours almost non-stop on the highway, and if possible, I would have liked to stay overnight on the way. However, since this was a travel day, I didn't have any plans for the evening, and at worst, I only had to arrive while the T couple, who I was staying with, were awake, so I was at ease. I left the motel in Sunnyvale at 8am, with plenty of time to spare, and walked around, stopping at any rest areas I could find to use the restroom, and if I got hungry, I would get off the freeway, relying on the hamburger and pizza signs I could see along the freeway. I made my trip to south leisurely.
On the way, my rough plans for Colorado started to take shape little by little, and my schedule for the future gradually started to fill up, such as deciding to go to a town near Little Rock, Arkansas instead of Memphis, Tennessee, which I had originally planned to go to. Also, by this time, my driving instincts had completely returned, and I was no longer a beginner who had only gotten my license a month earlier. However, although it was a mid-size car, there was almost no play in the steering wheel like in a small car, and it would take a while to get used to the way it reacts to the slightest movement. Most of the cars I had driven before were used large cars that were over 5000cc in Japan, so this was probably my first time driving such a small car.
I was introduced to Mr. and Mrs. T by someone who had bought my CD in Japan, and all I knew about them was that they were Japanese and that they had previously worked for Apple, but they had also lived in the US for a long time, so I straightened up a little to avoid being distanced, hoping that we wouldn't have to say goodbye just after we started to get to know each other like in Japan.
As we got closer to LA, the number of lanes on the freeway gradually increased, and the traffic volume increased accordingly. When I came to LA from Portland in 1992, I was caught by the highway patrol while zigzagging because of heavy traffic and reckless driving, and was forced to get off the freeway. However, this time I took plenty of breaks, so there was no such thing, and I arrived safely while sun was still out. I called Mr. T to tell him I was nearby. After arriving, he took me to a nearby open-terrace restaurant, and we gradually started to talk in Japanese for the first time in almost a week.
Mr. T is from Kyushu like me, and we have a lot in common, such as being the same age and working at Apple, so at least I felt at ease right away. By the way, I don't work at Apple, but I do things like translating documents issued by Apple, and I frequented Apple so much that I even passed a translation exam with a 7% pass rate. It's ironic that I got less work after passing this exam. There was a guy from Apple Japan and I couldn't accept guy's attitude, so it's possible that I was the one who pulled away.
*The people appearing in this article have been given their initials until their identities can be confirmed.
Contents
Introduction
Until Departure
Seattle
To California
Day Off
Sunnyvale
To La
LA 2 Days
To Tucson
Albuquerque
To Colorado (beginning of Miracle)
Berthoud
Denver
to Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City 2 days
To Texas
San Antonio
Georgetown
Dallas
Houston 2 Days
Benton
Nashville (CAAS)
Roswell
Tampa 2 Days
Miami
Orland 2 Days
Myrtle Beach
Chapel Hill 3 Days
Kingsport
To Indiana
Indiana State Fingerstyle Guitar Festival
To Staten Island
Manhattan
Phillipsburg
Nazareth (Martin Guitar Factory)
To Massachusetts (end of Miracle)
Methuen
To Montreal
To Buffalo
Meadvill A Day Before
Meadvill Ghost Hotel
Detroit
Chicago
Minneapolice
Spin Off #1
Spin Off #2 "EU Tour IN 2008 / Until Departure
Czech 1
Czech 2
London
Liverpool
Chesham
To Germany
Lemgo
Ingolstadt
Bregenz
To Italy
Florence
The Last Gig
Going Home