Konnichiwa, Los Angeles!

Eagle has landed....

I arrived to Los Angeles. October 3rd, 2016 is my new birthday. The new chapter of my life had just begun! My success starts right here in LA! Sky is not the limit because I can go further!

Sayonara, Boston...

Phew, I almost cried when I saw the buildings of Downtown Boston while I was riding on the shuttle bus to Airport.

It's been a year since I moved back to Boston. One year had passed so quickly with the speed of light. I blinked and one year was gone. Oh well. What're you gonna do?

In LA, I will be a different person. I know so. This is the first time in a long time that I am so determined to do what I love. It's like when I decided to become a musician when I was eighteen.

Friends in Boston and New York, thank you very very much for everything for the last 21 years. Please come and visit me in LA.

Everyone, be well! See you again soon! 👋😄

Big Announcement!

Hello friends,

I want to make an announcement. I have been planning on moving to LA for one year and I am going to carry out that plan on October 3rd.

Boston is a great place. I have all the connections in here and I have job in here. The apartment I live right now is the best place I have ever lived in my life. So why am I moving? For the style of music, for the kind of job I want to take, LA is the best place. I have to work my butts off and maybe I won't get anything but, in the end, I believe it's worth the risk. I live dangerously, you know.

Friends in Boston & New York, thanks a million for the last two decades. Friends in LA, the storm is coming. Bwa- ha-ha.

Band rehearsal!

Rehearsal at JamSpot, the rehearsal studio in Boston. I haven’t been here for a year. There used to be a funny guy who speaks Japanese fluently but he was not there. Oh well, I wanted to see him after such a long time.

Beard Papa's Boston --- Japanese Cream Puff Shop!

I came to the famous Japanese cream puff shop in Boston, Beard Papa's! Cream puffs are quite popular desserts in Japan. I love cream puffs said nice my childhood and it's been my dream to stuff myself up with cream puff!

Harvard Club in Boston

Ten days since the last tour. Ten days to the next tour. Phew. I’m living too peaceful days in Boston. I have been taking the dust out from the dryer and wiping water drops off from the wall of the shower room. (hey people, it’s best to clean the shower room five minutes every day than 30 minutes once a week). I’m so ready to go back on the road.

The pics are from the wedding gig on the last weekend after four months of wedding drought. Of course I haven’t been to the majestic church like this or the noble place like the Harvard Club for a while. Well, on the road, I was like living in wild like a baboon, so these things look so fresh now. Though the wedding musician might be more like my real occupation……

Wandering around in Boston

Taking a walk on the Longfellow Bridge.

I walked around Beacon Hill & Longfellow Bridge after a business meeting. Though I have toured and seen so many beautiful places, there are lots of beautiful views in everywhere right here in Boston!

Leaving for a tour!

Howdy-ho Off to the four-week tour with International String Trio. Here we go again. We'll go around Midwest like last year. This is going to be a fun tour with lots of concerts. I am also looking forward to seeing lots of beautiful views!

Boston is frozen up

It’s been a long time since I woke with chill. It’s -9F (-23C) with the real feel of -45F (-43C). This is almost funny because it’s too absurd. This is like the North Pole. If I go out now, I’ll turn into an ice sculpture.

Come to think of it, I was on the road in the mid-Winter a few years back and I went on nagging it was too cold and too much snow. Then I came back to Boston and found out that the coldest and the place with the most snow was actually Boston. I sometimes forget Boston is in northern province and snowy country.

22 years have passed since I stopped drinking!

Hello,

Today is my 22nd anniversary of quitting alcohol! I still haven't fallen off the wagon and I'll try to stay on it. I am definitely in the healthiest state of mind in my whole life, and, yep, my physique is getting close to the shape when I was still fighting in martial arts. I feel I'm getting stronger everyday.

I'll keep advancing. I'll keep at it. Ha-ha.

Pat Metheny Songbook

It's been ten days since I posted on the blog last time.

I have locked myself at my apartment and have been working on the stuff that I'll be needing in the near future. That's long and an exhausting process. Then I happened to see something interesting in my bookshelves, that was Pat Metheny Songbook.

I played the tunes on the book with the recordings and, OMG, it was tremendous fun! I can play forever! I re-realized that it is important to do something you love. I think I'll play it everyday from now on.

Short tour to North Carolina!

I've been checking and recharging the equipments for the short three-day tour starting tomorrow. We are heading to North Carolina driving right through the blizzard for twelve hours. It's going to be like the documentary of The Day After Tomorrow according to the weather forecast.

Well, I think I became a real traveling musician over the years and I developed the tolerance on physical and mental sufferings. In the year 2015 alone, I saw (and had troubles with) deer, bears, bisons, fresh-eating parrots, -20F (-30C) temperature, deadly desert, 100 mph wind gusts etc. After I went through all that, I take the natural disasters like blizzards come with it as a matter of course. To tell the truth, I'm almost looking forward to facing up to the blizzard. Hee-hee. Bring it on. I'm feeling the adrenaline rush already.

Apron & I

Just got an apron from Amazon! This is man’s cooking time and I don’t take it lightly! I’ll put my blood, sweat & tears onto my cooking! Aaaaargh! So, who wants to eat it?

Checking out iPad Pro and the accessories

Came to Apple Store to check out iPad Pro! I have been waiting for this bigger-sized iPad for a long time because I wanted to read music on tablet on stage but the previous iPad was a bit too small for me. It's on the horizontal position on the pic but it's great to read music on the vertical position as well. This is just perfect size for me. Well, but I want to mention some (maybe a nerdy) stuff. First of all, the $800 basic model only has 32GB of memory which is really tiny. The next model up is souped up to 128GB but it costs $950 which goes over $1000 with tax. I don't know about a tablet for more than a grand. The smart keyboard on the pic works great but it is another $170 on top of the $950. You can buy a good MacBook Air with that money. The keyboard is really good so I wish they put not only iOS but OS X. That way, I would be able to use it on the road and leave my MacBook home. (BTW, I didn't even think about the Apple Pencil because it is another $100 for a pencil!). Conclusion: too expensive for a traveling musician. Apple, please bring it down to 90% off! Maybe I should go with iPad mini 4 just for now. Mmm, I have to sleep on it.

Harvard Faculty Club

I played a holiday party at the Harvard Faculty Club yesterday. The party was hosted by the founder of a super famous beer company. The party was just excellent. We were fed so well. I don’t know what I ate but it was great and that must be expensive. We were tipped well too. Yippie! Happy Holidays, everyone!

State Room, Boston

I played at the State Room which has one of the best night views in Boston! This is one of the musicians perk to see lots of great views in everywhere. Well, I don’t know if non-musicians even realize but actually “Rudolf” and “Frosty” are so similar without lyrics. Especially the chorus section is more than so similar; they are so same! I was afraid that I was going to accidentally mix them up, and last night I did it for the first time…..this year. Oh well, we bassists don’t always have to play the melody so I have never put too much time into memorizing them. Maybe it’s the time to do the overdue homework.

Center for Life Sciences in Boston

Jingle all the way! Another fun Holiday gig in Boston! I love the daytime gig. I was nonstop till today and half of the December has already disappeared. I didn’t do for my birthday either. Oh well, I have two-day off now so I’ll have some rest. First, I'm going to shopping!

My birthday!

Hello friends! Thank you very very very much for the sweetest comments and messages! Love you all! I turned 42 today and I feel so blessed to have great friends like you guys! I’ll be locked in at the recording studio till tomorrow but I promise to reply to all messages! This last one year had been really upheaval time of my life (mostly in good way). Till last year, my life was in mess but I was okay with it because I am a touring musician and our lives are supposed to be messed up. I changed that crooked way of thinking and started doing self-coaching. I changed my apartment, things I eat, things I wear etc. I completely changed how I live. I am still on the process but now I am happier and healthier both in mind and body. The biggest change I made is that now I have unthinkably ridiculously big goal. I’ll make it.

Off to the International String Trio Midwest Tour 2015!

The traveling musician is leaving to the one-month tour in a few hours. 11 states, 21 shows, and no airplanes! We'll drive the hell out of it for a month starting with 13-hour drive to Ohio! This is going to be hell of a drive, or hell.

The final check of the cargo. Bass, uke, video & audio recording devices, and lots of protein! It seems a lot but it's for one whole month.