Cafes in Japan are not the same as cafes in England.

Greetings again from the TIMNS Touring Machine!

We now have our tourbus (tourminivan) and are currently chilling in a hostel before our first gig tonight. The van is far too small, and hence we have to play tetris each time we load it up. This is slightly worrying given that our tour partner, Fumi, hasn't actually joined us yet... but we are sure we can fit her and her gear in as well with a bit of good old fashioned elbow-grease and some rock n' roll attitude. Dave and Mike have also had to adapt to driving an automatic van, as both have previously only driven tiny manuals. Dave is actually missing his suped-down micra. Let this be a lesson to appreciate the small things. As well as English roadsigns and taxi drivers - good grief Japan!

The past few days have been most eventful in Japan's answer to the humble cafe. In the first kind, the maid cafe, you are served by girls who are dressed up as, you guessed it, maids (or in the slightly more seedy ones, schoolgirls, or even schoolgirls in bathing costumes!) You're charged a fee to sit, and can also pay to have a polaroid taken of you with your girl, or to play a game with them (apparently involving a plastic crocodile). We opted for the former (pictures to come) mainly for the novelty factor. On the menu there are such delights as 'love drink', which you imbibe with the power of cute ('moe! moe! cuuuuuuute!') with the help of the girls, and a 'Mr Bear Chocolate Cake' made of oreos lovingly prepared in the style of a bear.

The second type of cafe, the Manga Cafe, is where we stayed last night. It's far cheaper to stay in a manga cafe than a hotel/hostel if you're out late as they charge by the hour. You get a small cubby-hole type area, complete with computer, TV, and if you're lucky, a games console, plus free drinks (iced coffee, various luminescently-coloured juices, etc). Plus of course stacks and stacks of manga comics. Waking up in this environment is a bit like waking up in someone else's house after a houseparty. Except for with a lot of snoring Japanese people and the alarmingly loud hum of computer monitors.

Tonight is our first gig. We managed to have a practice yesterday (we turned up 3 hours late for a 3 hour practice due to picking up the van, but they were cool about it) and for once, no gear seems to be broken. Win.

Pictures no doubt to come soon!

Much love,

Dave & TIMNS