Summer of 2004... Once again I traveled to Japan to perform.
Unfortunately or big Onishi Concert was canceled due to a Typhoon.

We decided to reschedule the same concert for October 2004. October is was a good choice as the typhoon season would be over and fall in Japan was a beautiful time of year. (Not too hot!)

The new outdoor concert we titled "The Revenge of the Typhoon Concert"

So again, off to Japan I went, however, this trip was very, very interesting...

The journey began as usual. I flew from Vancouver to Tokyo. My first stop was to meet my good friend Daisuke Osawa. Daisuke is a music producer / Engineer in living in Tokyo. The first day we went to the Canadian Embassy to get future help with new performances in Japan. (Daisuke helped me record, produce & engineer my cd Peace)

The embassy is a wonderful place to help Canadian musicians traveling and performing in Japan. Thanks to our Embassy meeting I was invited and performed at Expo 2006 in Aichi, Japan.

The next morning I was to meet another good friend Vincent Degiorgio. Vince has been a really big help shopping my music to people around the world. He was in Japan the same time as I and wanted to introduce me to a colleague of his while in Tokyo. Just as Daisuke and I were to leave to meet with Vince we received a call from Robert and Machiko (Robert & Machiko are friends from Canada now living in Japan. Together they have been bringing me to Japan to perform a very special concert in Onishi.)

Roberts call was regarding another typhoon! This typhoon was at the south end of Shikoku island and would arrive at Imabari exactly at the time my flight was to leave Tokyo to Shikoku island. The typhoon was then going to continue to move into tokyo the next morning. We all had to make some very quick decisions.

If I left that moment there was a chance I could get an earlier flight and beat the typhoon before it arrived at Imabari. I would miss my meeting with Vince at 11am that morning. The other choice would be to stay, attend the meeting and wait for the typhoon to pass tokyo.

If the typhoon moved to slow  I would miss some or all of the media events on Shikoku (The media events were very important to promote our Typhoon Revenge Onishi Concert later that week). Daisuke and I called everyone we could to help with our decision. Because the flight could not fly through or around the typhoon, we decided it better to cancel my meeting with Vincent and leave that moment for the airport as the media day on Shikoku would most likely be in our best interest.

Daisuke and I took off to the airport. When we arrived we found some flights were already being canceled to the southern part of Shikoku. We decided I take the earliest flight to Takamatsu on the north end of Shikoku Island.

Takamatsu was a 2 hour drive north of my final destination, Imabari. The flight would leave at 12:45pm however, Japan Airlines would not sell us the ticket until they knew the flight would not be canceled. There would be an anoucement at noon to let us know.

Ten minutes after 12 noon there was still no announcement so we decided to get back into the very long line for a ticket any ways. At 12:30 we were at the front of the line however, there was still no announcement. Daisuke had a great idea to stay where we were in the front of the line and just let people move ahead of us until the announcement was made.

At 12:35 the announcement was made that the flight would leave however, if the typhoon moved to quick the flight would be rerouted to a different city such as Kobe or Osaka or the plane would return back to Tokyo. We decided to take the flight, if the flight detoured I would catch the shinkansen (the bullet train) to get me the rest of the way. If the flight returned to Tokyo again I could still take the shinkansen. (about a 6 hour trip from tokyo to Imabari on Shikoku island, Japan)

We bought the plane ticket and I had less than 10 minutes to get to the gate to catch it. I managed to get to the gate with no problems and caught my flight. The flight was wonderful, blue sky all the way, which was nice as Tokyo had been cloudy and overcast all the time I was there. Twenty minutes before landing I could see the ground and Takamatsu city and we also began entering the dark typhoon clouds. A very spooky and interesting experience. We flew into the clouds, solid white with water pouring past the windows like flying through a river. the ride was like a roller coaster, bumping up and down as we prepared to land.

A few minutes later we touched down in Takamatsu and everyone on the plane cheered. There was a lady who I sat with on the plane who spoke a little English. She was very kind and allowed me to use her phone to call Daisuke to let him know I had arrived safely. I gave her a few cd's and thanked her for her help.

Daisuke was still waiting at the Tokyo airport in case the flight came back so he could help me catch the shinkansen. He told me that Robert and Machiko were about an hour away from picking me up at Takamatsu. When they arrived the winds and rain were getting much stronger. The drive would be about 2 hours to Matsuyama for a meeting with NHK's Hiroshi San. (then we would continue to Imabari)

Hiroshi San owns a piano jazz bar, he's a great musician and is also a radio Dj for NHK Matsuyama. I had performed at Hiroshi's jazz bar a few months ago to promote our original Onish concert. Hiroshi has been very kind to promote my music on NHK Radio Japan. (Japans national radio station, similar to Canada's CBC)

We drove as far as a small town called Doi Cho were the traffic had began to crawl. The rain at this point was very heavy and blowing. Some people in the town were sand bagging and some of the streets we drove though were under a foot of water. We began to crawl in traffic inch by inch. Fortunately the storm was beginning to calm. We thought we may have been in the center of the typhoon however, we realized later it had passed.

Because we weren't moving, we decided to call on people in Doi Cho for help. We performed in Doi last year and met a some great new friends there. They're big fans of my music and big supporters of Machiko and Robert.

It was now beginning to get dark and one of our friends came to meet us. We followed her through numerous side streets to a road that would take us to Imabari. (by this time it was to late to go to our meeting in Matsuyama)

Once we were moving again we heard on the radio (a station in Ehime where Robert and Machiko have their own radio program),  that there was a mud slide in Doi and the freeway was closed. Part of the concrete wall that protects the freeway broke and mud washed out the freeway.

A few moments later the traffic stopped and we were once again moving inch by inch.

We called our friend to let them know how we were doing and that the traffic had stopped. Once again our local friends came back to our car while we were waiting and brought us special rice balls, drinks and deserts. We moved a few meters forward and discovered that the road we were on was also closed.

Robert decided that maybe Machiko should call the radio station to report what was going on out here. We found that none of the radio stations could tell anyone anything and Japan doesn't have a number to call to find out road info, etc... Machiko called her producer and she was patched to the station manager who just happened to be running his own program from 10pm to midnight. Machiko began to tell the live listening audience where we were and what was happening here.

Because of our network of friends in Doi, we could keep every one in their cars up to date with all the road conditions, etc... Machiko also told the radio audience how they were trying to get me (the canadian musician) to Onishi for the Revenge of the Typhoon Concert. Not only was Machiko's reporting becoming a real time voice to what was happening in Doi Cho, it also became a story of how the people here in Doi Cho were trying to help me get to Onishi to perform at the Revenge of the Typhoon concert.

I have discovered that the people here in japan really like foreign visitors and were very, very worried about me not liking Japan because of my experience now with canceled concerts, typhoons, etc... I have found that the japanese people are some of the most gracious, giving and caring people I have ever met. 

The Ehime radio program was now extended to 4am, to keep everyone up to date with the events in Doi and the surrounding area. The program was also broadcasting my story. How I had returned to Japan to perform the "Revenge of the Typhoon Concert" Machiko kept calling in live on the radio to let everyone know how we were progressing.

Once we found our new route was closed we decided to go back into town to get a bite to eat and wait it out till the road re-opened. We found that on our way back to town that the traffic also stopped moving as everyone was waiting for the main free way entrance to open. The main roads out of Dio Cho were now blocked to the east and west. We had mountains with no roads to the north and the sea beside us to the south.

It seemed we were trapped with no way out!

Again we called on our Doi Cho group of friends. One man was an architect who I had met at the Doi Cho concert. He knew all the roads very well and had us meet him on a side road. He then took us up the mountain to a maintenance access road that follows along side the highway. Once we got along side the freeway we were stopped by a maintenance worker who told us we could not go any further. We got out of our car and saw were the freeway had been washed away due to big mud slide. We reported back to the radio station and continued to another service road. We went further up the mountain and found we had to turn around as this road was also washed out.

Our only route out now was to head to a service road traveling away from the slides. back to were we came from towards the Takamatsu airport were I had originally arrived. From Takamatsu we would take the Seito Bridge (I believe it's the largest bridge in Japan, joining Shikoku Island to Osaka on Honshu island)

Once in Osaka we could drive south to Hiroshima and take another bridge back to Shikoku island. Our architect friend escorted us for close to an hour taking side roads to avoid all the traffic jams. Once out of Doi Cho we followed freight trucks who seem to know were to go to avoid the traffic. We finally made it off shikoku island and continued reporting live to Ehime radio.

Our original 2 hour drive from Takamatsu to Imabari, turned into a 12 hour adventure I'll never forget! Traveling from Takamatsu to Doi, back to Takamatsu leaving Shikoku for Honshu Island to Osaka, south to Hiroshima back to Shikoku Island to Imabari! Wow!

Thanks to the good people at Doi Choi we arrived in Imabari and were ready for our Big Media Day...

I had 4 hours sleep that night and it was off to Bari Bari radio in Imabari for the 1st program on our media blitz. After the program we went to Matsuyama to perform on TV Ehime. Then we rushed to NHK radio to perform live on Hiroshi San's program. We then had a quick bit to eat and again, off we went to perform on Ehime radio. I performed live on the program and then we opened up the phone lines. We receiving tons of emails and calls as everyone in Ehime loved the music and wanted to know my impressions of Japan, Typhoons, etc...

Because there was so little information regarding the events surrounding Doi Cho, everyone was very thankful for Machiko's detailed coverage of the typhoon and the radio programs broadcasting. Normaly programs would never deviate from their programing in japan. Because Radio Ehime dropped all there scheduling to inform people what was happening, it has created a huge buzz around the program and around Robert, Machiko and myself. Even NHK radio began pulling a few strings for me, putting my music into their archives and sending cd copies to NHK Radio Tokyo, etc...  

The next day was a lot busier than expected, a lot more networking and rehearsing for the big show. Not only was I to perform my own music. I would also perform with Machiko's group.

The following day I was again up early to be at Fujiyama Park for the Onish Typhoon Concert. We arrived at 8am to set up for the 2pm concert. The concert was wonderful and was broadcasted live on Ehime radio.

So ends another incredible adventure in Japan!

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