It’s not even 24 hours that I got back from Japan so I don’t feel very rested to be writing all this, but I do not want to do what I have been doing for the past year and wait too long before writing about my tours because then I just lose the freshness of the passion felt during my trips, and once that’s gone I just can’t tell my stories the way they really happened. This is why I haven’t been writing much lately, because my schedule is just busier and busier and crazier than ever before, since I am always abroad but chose to live in Montreal. That makes me always on a plane on my way abroad or on my way back, not a lot in front of my computer and so not many TRUTHS written. It’s sad for the readers, great for my career, and it’s how it is right now. Although tonight no matter how tired I am I really want to tell you about Japan before I crash! On September 12th 2001, yes the 12th, the day after… I was leaving for Japan! Unsurprisingly, what happened the day before didn’t make my tour happen. No flights were leaving for over a week from North America and so I got stuck at home and couldn’t get there. After having dreamt about going to Japan since the beginning of my career it was finally going to happen, but it didn’t. I remember on that day when I was speaking to some people in Japan to announce that I wasn’t able to come anymore no one really understood why 2 towers went down in NYC and I, who was in Canada, wasn’t coming to Japan!! A day after 09-11, in that part of the world, they hadn’t yet really understood that what happened in NYC was going to be the beginning of a sery of problems in the whole world for so many years to come. They didn’t feel it for a few months, until it would hit them too later on! Yes, them too! And this is my explanation about it: I was walking in the streets of Tokyo eating a banana and was desperately looking for a garbage to throw the peel away, but never found one. So I got back to my super nice hotel with a banana peel in hands! How chique! When you get to that hotel the staff almost want to help you carry your purse up to your room so much that they are polite and nice and happy to serve you, so imagine what they did to me when they saw me with the banana peel! Anyway, all this is to say that when I asked why there were no garbage in the streets they told me it was because they were afraid of terrorism and bombs!…….. So there, it has affected them too!! But back in 2001 when it had just happened I remember that they didn’t really get it, because when I went to Australia 3 weeks after 09-11 they were still not speaking about it very much in the news and it wasn’t an everyday thing that you would see on each channel as soon as you’d turn on the TV, as it was in North America! But at that moment, little did I know of what that whole cancellation was going to do between me and Japan… When I couldn’t fly out there, I was thinking that the minimum they could have done was to reschedule the tour right away. But nothing ever got rescheduled, until now. Though this was a complete new tour, not a rescheduled tour. You can’t call it rescheduled when it’s 3 years later! So this was really what proved me that they all probably thought I was scared of flying and I just told a lie and didn’t go there to do my work! And it’s a shame because that really wasn’t the case. I was all ready to go, and flights kept on showing the “cancelled” status! I also have to say that I found out that there have been numerous requests from Japan for me, but my ex management never even told me about them! How nice eh!? They knew how bad I wanted to go to Japan though! Anyway, now I am in control of my own career and I grabbed the opportunity to go right away as soon as it came up! So it happened. A week from today I left for Tokyo. I arrived there completely exhausted because I never managed to sleep on my flight, and just decided to stay up and enjoy the experience. And, God have I enjoyed it! My first night was a welcome night by my Tokyo hosts Francesco Fiore and his business partner Jens, with way too much sake! 🙂 Thank God I didn’t have to check out from my hotel the next day, and slept 12 hours on that night, because it could have been so painful to be jetlag and to have to get over that sake without sleep when I had 3 gigs in a row in 3 different cities. But it was all fine! I played hard as I was going to work hard! Friday night I was in perfect shape, already adjusted to the Japanese time, ready to rock it. I played WOMB, same place where I was scheduled to play 3 years before. That mythic club that everyone spoke to me about. Finally I was there, in front of that really sweet and hungry crowd. Sweet for their smiles and their very generous screams, sweet for their love for music and their sincere looks in the eyes, hungry for beats, hungry to dance and hungry to have fun! What can I ask more when making people dance is the thing I love to do the most?? 🙂 I had such a great gig, it’s impossible to describe it. It was real, it was true, it was fresh. All the people were so nice and so happy! A few had my records and wanted my autograph on them. Quite a few more wanted pictures and gave me all kinds of CDs. I was not unknown and I was surprised about it! I know it’s silly, but I was really starting to wonder why I hadn’t been to Japan yet! The Saturday night I played in Osaka, at Underlounge. That was also a great gig. Very different though. I played only housy stuff, very, very housy. And from how much I was sweating in terms or hard work in the beginning of my set as it wasn’t very busy and I had to make it all happen, I ended up sweating because the club filled up so quickly and became so hot and I was dancing so much during the whole time I was playing! It was really an incredible night! When I left the club, all the staff at the door applauded at me. I had never been treated so nicely! I didn’t know such nice people existed! Really! Nagoya, small city, on the last night, Sunday, was a very small club and not very busy as it was rainy and it was a Sunday night, but very fun and it has been the place where I played the hardest. They just seemed to want it that way over there! In Nagoya I got to see the Castle of the Emperor and his big big garden and I have never been so amazed to visit a Museum. I have always loved that typical Japanese architecture and there it was all in front of me. Absolutely beautiful! The food I have eaten for those 5 days was SOOOO good! I thought I was going to have sushi sushi sushi and only sushi, but I discovered a whole new world of food! I love food so much that every day I was excited about discovering something new! The best sushi I ever had though was in Osaka, it was a special sushi place where they put a flame over their salmon, put a bit of salt on it and it just tastes incredible! I am dreaming to eat that salmon (I had about 12 pieces of it) every day now and I will dream about it until the day I go back! My Osaka and Nagoya hosts: Laura and Masau from Arc Tokyo. The sweetest people I have ever met. I was so happy to be spending time with such nice and polite people! I really feel like I made new friends and I want to cherish this even though I live so far away! I have not felt like this for the longest time, but when I had to leave from there I was really nervous. It was the first time that I wasn’t looking forward to come back to Montreal, my beautiful home town! I wasn’t excited at all about returning home and this is very weird and special. I would go back there anytime! No matter how far away it is, I cannot explain how good it was. I have heard about it so much, but I could have never imagined it the way it really was, so let me stop right here, because the same will be for you… you just won’t catch it until you go! I want to give my best regards to the whole Japanese crowds who came out and listen to me play and who made my 3 gigs so special. I know I have always said that my favorite crowds to play for were Latin crowds, but from now on this will have to be after Japanese crowds. Or, are Japanese Latins? 😉 Ha ha ha, I am only joking, I know they aren’t, but they are the warmest people on earth, the nicest and the most respectful! When I am in a country like that, I get automatically reminded of my last management who stole from me so much, because these things there just don’t happen, and I just cannot understand how people can be so horrible. They just deserve karma to kick them down really bad, and it will happen soon or later! I know. I have just had the most amazing week of my year, I do not expect anything better now until 2005, I feel satisfied and I will be ok if I don’t get anything like this again, until I go back there. I want to give my best regards to all the people who inspired me so much while I was there. They are people in the streets, in the cafes, in the restaurants, in the trains, in the airports, in the hotels, in the clubs, everywhere! They don’t know what they did to me, they don’t know why I was looking at them so much and how much I was inspired by them, but I have never felt so calm and peaceful (believe it or not, my skin irritation due to stress has gone away while I was there), so happy and relaxed, and so capable of being without my mobile phone for a week without stressing about it. Paradise island? Yes. Sorry the spelling coming up if it’s wrong, but this is to Japan for my unforgettable great time! DOMO ARIGATO GOSAIMAS Barbara xxx
