North America Guitar Tour

Spin Off #1

August 12th - September 9th, 2014

The journey ended happily in Minneapolis, but the one month before returning home was just as long as the previous two months in terms of distance traveled. The only difference was that until then, I had been traveling with a mixture of excitement and anxiety, wondering "What kind of people will I meet next?", but from this point on, I traveled with the aim of meeting people I had already met on this trip and old acquaintances.

First, I headed for Berthoud, Colorado, where the miraculous encounter in Phillipsburg, New Jersey had been a big hit. Although I had only stayed there for one night about a month and a half ago, I felt as if I was going to meet an old friend. It took me a total of three days to arrive in Berthoud, and there was already a sense of nostalgia in the air. I ended up staying there for almost a week, performing a free concert at a hall near Chuck's house, and visiting the home of Chuck's friend Jack, who was unable to attend the concert due to poor health.

Here, too, I made new encounters. One day, I went to a garden party where the drummer of a band was an Asian woman, and from her face I could tell she was Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, or Japanese, meaning she was of East Asian descent. I was curious, but I didn't say anything in particular, so I just casually went near the stage, and the female bass player started talking to me. She was quite unique, playing the double bass with her butt facing the audience. The drummer behind the bass must have heard my name during the conversation. She said, "I'm Ms. M!" and spoke to me in Japanese. It was a real-life version of the "Japanese in a place like this" experience I had when I met someone from Takatsuki at a pub the night before a contest in Indiana. She lives in Austin, Texas, and graduated from Berklee College of Music.

Epilogue: This drummer, Ms. M, came to Japan at the end of April 2016 while I was writing this "Tour journal," and I met her again at a live show in Yokohama.

Also, the guitarist Dakota Dave Hull, who helped me out in Minneapolis, the final stop in the main story, came to Denver for a workshop, so I met him again at a delicious coffee shop he found in the city.

Epilogue: I also ran into Dave in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at the end of January 2015, and he told me, "I'm never surprised to see you anywhere," so I returned the same line.

Next, I returned to Redondo Beach, California. I played again at the coffee house I had played at two months earlier, got a haircut at the beauty salon run by the wife of Mr. T, who helped me out here, and went to a nearby super public bath to relieve the fatigue of my long journey. I met an Australian friend I met in Japan, who was a little southeast of Los Angeles.

On the way back to Seattle, I passed through San Francisco, which I missed on the way there, and took an inland route from Sacramento to enter Washington State from Idaho on the east side. When I first visited the United States in 1973, I stayed with a host family for two weeks in a town called Pameroy, near the southeast corner of Washington State (diagonally opposite Seattle). Thankfully, many of the people I met in this town still remembered those days after more than 40 years. The sudden arrival of more than 100 Japanese high school students in a small rural town with a population of less than 2,000 may have been the biggest event in the town's history. On the way back, I also reunited with my old musical friend, Ms. K in Yakima.

After returning to Seattle, I went to the apartment where I lived and the towns I often visited while studying abroad to reminisce, and crossed the border to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, to meet people I met in Japan and classmates from junior high and high school. On my way back to the US, I was stopped at the border and was warned that I would overstay my flight if I didn't book my return ticket a day earlier, so I contacted the airline at the first rest area I found and had them change my flight to two days earlier, which allowed me to get through without any problems.

I also performed at the facility where the mother of Mr. I, a senior high school student who had looked after me in Seattle, was staying. It was like a hypnotism to see the people who had been lively until then fall asleep one after another. When she saw Mr. I, her playful mother said, "You're just like my son.

When I rented the car, the mileage was 2,000 miles, but when I returned it, it had increased by a digit to 20,000. In other words, it had been driven 18,000 miles (about 28,000 km). Fortunately, it never malfunctioned or had any trouble with contact, but the day before I returned it, I was hit from behind. The other person happened to be a car mechanic, so I went to his garage to have it repaired, but when I was hit, I couldn't help but laugh, thinking, "Today? a day before I return it?"

Thus, I returned home safely. I am grateful to the people who helped me in various places, the people I bumped into at rest areas and parking lots, the people who helped me prepare before I left, the people who donated to help me with my finances, my alma mater that removed the barrier to English, my parents who got me started on the guitar, the artists who colored my youth with great music in the 60s and 70s, and the fact that I am still in good health even at nearly 60 years old. Thanks to all of them, I was able to have a truly luxurious trip.

Note: The photo management software rebelled, and the dates of the photos became all over the place, and many of the photos were lost. The photo above is a composite of what was barely left.

May 11, 2016

*The people who appear in the text are written with their initials until their identities can be confirmed.

Minneapolis • Supporter's Area • Spin Off #2 EU Tour in 2008 / Until Departure

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