North America Guitar Tour
Oklahoma City 2 Days
June 28-29, 2014
When I shower, I usually put my right hand on top back and my left hand on bottom back to measure my body stiffness. For the past few years, if our fingertips could touch, it was fine, but if they couldn't touch, it was stiff. However, from around this time, our fingers started to overlap. This was surprising, as I drive a considerable distance almost every day and always fall asleep with my guitar in my arms at motels. In fact, my chronic shoulder stiffness had disappeared. Perhaps in Japan, where people are closer to each other, I naturally tend to be on guard, and the stress from that is manifesting itself as stiffness.
On this day, I was scheduled to play at a dinner party for Mr. D, who will be taking care of me for the next two days, so I had to arrive before dinner at the latest, so I left the motel in Hayes at around 6am and headed straight for Oklahoma City. There are still more than 500 kilometers to go, so if we are not careful, we will end up repeating the same mistake as in Redding.
After that, everything went smoothly, and I arrived safely at Mr. D's house at dusk. As soon as we brought our suitcases into the house, Mr. D said he was going out. It seems that the dinner party will not be held at Mr. D's house, but at the house of his child who lives nearby. So I decided to follow Mr. D, but at one intersection, the light was already turning yellow and Mr. D's car forced its way through, so I, who was a little distance away, was left alone. Mr. D must have noticed this, but he just disappeared somewhere. I was suddenly lost in Oklahoma City, my first time in my life. I had no choice but to park my car in the parking lot of a convenience store at the corner of the intersection and wait for Mr. D to contact me. At this point, we had not exchanged phone numbers, so I only had Facebook messages or Apple messages to rely on. Soon I received a message asking, "Where are you?" and I replied, "I'm in the parking lot of a convenience store at the intersection near where I was left alone." He ended up picking me up, and somehow we arrived at the house where the dinner party was to be held.
The house was a truly luxurious mansion, and it was so spacious that I would not have been able to handle it without the AER that I had brought with me just in case. Although I had heard it was a family dinner, the number of people was large and the party was grand. I had been driving all day and got lost, so I had no time to calm down before starting the performance, so the performance itself was not a problem, but even when I was introduced, I found myself unable to remember who was who.
On the way back from the party, his wife said that she wanted to go home in my car, so I entered Mr. D's address into my iPhone without thinking too much about it and drove according to the navigation system's instructions, but Mr. D, who was driving right in front of me, suddenly went off on a different road than the navigation system. Having learned my lesson on the way there, I followed the navigation system, but his wife, who was next to me at that time, said that Mr. D has a habit of trying to take shortcuts, so she didn't worry about it and just followed the navigation system. I can understand why he left me behind on the way there.
Not only was a room prepared for me, but a shower room was also prepared for me, and I was truly pampered, but there was no shampoo in the shower room. Actually, I brought my own shampoo because the motel-class accommodation only had soap, but I used up all of it at the motel in Hayes, and I was planning to prepare it by the time I stayed at the next motel. However, halfway through asking "What about shampoo?", I realized that this question was completely meaningless.
The next day, I was scheduled to perform at an event held at a church, so I was urged to go to the church where the event was held and participate in the morning service. When I heard about this from Mr. D in advance, I asked if it was okay for me to be an atheist, but he said it was no problem at all. The church was built like a magnificent hall, and there was a choir and a band on the large stage, and it was a grand event with music and sermons. Then, I was introduced by name as someone who had come from Japan to perform at the event that day, and I stood up and bowed 360 degrees in the venue, which seemed to have several hundred people. I have never felt more embarrassed about not being a Christian than I did at that moment.
The event started in the afternoon and was held in a large field next to the church, and I used the AER for my own monitors and the PA that was prepared for the outside sound. In the end, without knowing what the event was, the performance ended without incident, and we returned to Mr. D's house before setting off for our next destination, San Antonio, Texas. As expected, our farewell was a warm hug followed by no face-to-face exchange, something I've gotten used to. I briskly headed for the car without turning around. The navigation system said it would be eight hours, so if I left Oklahoma City while it was still light, I should have plenty of time to get there, even if we took a nap in a rest area.
*People appearing in the text are listed by their initials until we can confirm their identity.
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