My jet lag needs a beer and some sleep, so I will be brief. Japan is unbelieveable. 65albums released all over again with different photos and press, and – free fans! with our faces on! when you buy a record!

It’s like being in a dream. The hotel we’re in is taller than the sky, the view from the 40th floor is like Blade Runner, the stage we soundchecked on today is bigger than maybe two blue whales, youngish ones, laid out nose to tail, it’s hot, the moths make a screaming noise.

We went to a shrine today, it was on top of a hill in the middle of Tokyo and you had to go up two big outdoor elevators to get there (outdoor elevators? unprecedented!) and suddenly, inside the shrine, it was almost (almost) like being in the middle of the countryside. very very quiet. I bought an oracle, which is like a much more detailed fortune cookie (for the sake of a better, more respectful description). Mine said, amongst other things ‘the moon is going down behind the mountainside, and is getting brighter the sky in the east’.

Last night we went out and did drinking in several increasingly hazy bars. The best of these was probably ‘Kenny’s Bar’. After Kenny made us a bunch of drinks, he came out from behind the bar, sat behind a piano, started a drum sequencer and started singing ‘piano man’. I shit you not, it was DUMBFOUNDINGLY good. and when we shouted for some Elton John, he just launched right into ‘your song’. You kinda had to be there (the margaritas were MONUMENTAL).

What else? Squid. Fruit flavoured kit-kats. Shrimp burgers. They’re all food aren’t they? I guess I’ve lost the capacity for cognitive thought. We play tomorrow, and then fly to Osaka, so I guess someone will try to post some photos once we get internet there. Chino Moreno is somewhere in this hotel as well, and I think everyone feels just that little bit safer because of it.

Good night? Good morning? Good luck. The news on BBC news 24 is sobering at best. I guess we’ll be flying into all that next week.

Joe.xxx