We woke the morning of the 21st to find a note on the table from Ryuji-san for us... along with two concert tickets and a CD of his band's music. I listened to the CD while eating breakfast. His band, The Cradle, was quite good! I was looking forward to tonight's concert.

I listened to The Cradle's CD as I walked. It was good music and gave me a good walking pace. As Mom said, we were looking forward to the concert that night.

Before that we were heading to Mitaka to see the Studio Ghibli Museum. All the members of our family are fans of the works produced by Miyazaki-san and the other members of Studio Ghibli, so we really wanted to see the museum. We were able to buy the tickets more readily through a travel agency before going to Japan, so we had no trouble getting in.

We got several envious comments from the locals when we had told them that we had gone. For the locals, getting in is pretty dang hard! They sell the tickets at the beginning of the months at everyday Conbini stores, but they sell out so fast that it's first come first serve. We met some of mom's friends that had been to Tokyo Disneyland about 20 times, but had never been to the Ghibli Museum before. Even Mom's idol, Fukuyama had never been there before. Yeesh.

When we got off the densha in Mitaka, we decided to go the long way to get to the museum, which gave us a chance to see more of Mitaka and Inokashira Park. The museum was on the edge of the park.

Mitaka is beautiful and the park even more so! Even if we weren't going to the museum, Mitaka was worth the trip. Next time we go to Japan, I definitely want to go back there!

Mitaka is a very artistic type of place. It's the kind of place that if I had brought along my drawing junk, I would have sketched up quite a few pictures. All along the place were murals or art thingies in the sidewalk... even peoples yards and stuff were well taken care of and looking like pictures you'd see on a postcard. "Welcome to Mitaka" was the feel of it...

We bought some fruit from one of the local small stores.
Mitaka's strawberries are good!

On the way to the museum, mom was putting something away in her backpack... (Ironically enough, I think it was the camera...) when around the corner to the bus-stop right across from us came a bus that was covered in Gundam! The picture of Char's Red Comet Zaku was especially nice! I called over for mom to take a picture of it "now-ish!!" But she was busy digging through her pack. The bus drove off, and I ran over to her. "Did you see that?! Did you get a picture of it!?" She looked up at me. "See what?"
She did not get a picture of the Gundam bus. (Gloom...)

Mitaka

Inokashira Park

Go left to the Ghibli Museum

The museum was a lot of fun. Cameras were forbidden inside the building, but we were able to take a few pics outside. The roof was also set up for picture taking.

The building was designed by Miyazaki-san himself. As such, it is as fanciful as his movies. Much of it was designed with children in mind, with peep holes and such that anyone over 5 years old would have to kneel to see. ^-^ Still, it was equally enjoyable for adults as well. Of all the tourist sites we visited, this was the best.

The Robot is a very sad figure. It's old and broken, and looks very forlorn. Behind it, it's 'heart' lies on the ground. I felt very empty, seeing people posing and looking all smiley and doing 'peace' signs in front of such a figure. Mom and I just walked past them. From the back at a slight angle, I took a picture that I felt would capture the robot's true meaning. At least to me.

There were four acts that night:
Amber Arrival
Tico
Caramel
The Cradle

Amber Arrival was ok, I guess. Their sound wasn't bad, but it was too much the of same thing. 
Tico was downright weird. He/She (couldn't tell) said four different songs were the "last song"... it was about three songs too many.

It would be time for Tico to leave the stage, and Tico would say as he/she did a very girlish pose; "Well, y'know... I'd like to do just...one...more song." Then he/she would start singing again all on his/her own. Then he/she would repeat that same line. Only he/she would add. "It's really... really... the last song this time."

Later on when Tico finally got off the stage, we saw 'Him' talking to a friend of his. His voice was obviously male then...and personally I prefer it to the really high pitched on that reminded me of The Chipmunks. 

Next was Caramel. They were quite good. The lead singer, Miiya-san, had a good strong voice and interacted well with the audience. She also had a lot of energy. Their act was definitely not boring.

Miiya-san had told us that last year she has been a crybaby. She said that they had gone through alot of hard times. Then she said that she wasn't going to cry anymore and the concert began.

After the concert, she asked us what we thought of the concert.
I had told her that I thought it was full of energy.

The she said that the theme for this year was "Atsui." (Hot) And "Powerful." She was cool. The next time we go back, I'd want to hear Carmel and Miiya-san again.

By this time, the audience, which had started out at about a dozen people, had now reached around 50 or so.
The last act was The Cradle. They were worth the wait. While they didn't move around nearly as much as Caramel did, their music alone was enough to draw the listener in and make people want to listen.

The room grew real quiet, and several people walked up to the edge of the stage just listening. I was one of the those people.
Their music seemed as if it'd fill me... somehow. It was really good. It touched my soul, you might say... I definitely want to hear them again. Their CD is good, but Live is Live!

It was just good solid rock music! Nothing more was needed. I really enjoyed their performance. Thank you, Ryuji-san!

The Cradle
Ryuji-san is on the left.

The Cradle next concert is scheduled for
March 2, 2004 at the Koenji Showboat.

Planet K's home page
Caramel's home page
(both pages are in Japanese only)

The Cradle doesn't yet have a home page, but they can be reached through email at thecradle@tokyo.nifty.jp