Great gig...then off to Mikurajima!

Hi,all you faithfull Tengoophiles! Many of you have been checking the blog for months, only to be disappointed to find that there were no new postings. All I can cough up as an excuse is that so much had been happening with the music,travelling and studies that to tell you honestly, I didnt write because I just didnt know where to begin! After a summer packed with musical encounters and UNUSUAL adventures I realized that I simply have to restart the blog. So.... here we go!

Today I will begin with the most recent events. We had a marathon 5 hour rehearsal,as part of our preparation for our Australian road trip.Before that,on August 26th was our LIVE at Corkheads, where we have built up our most loyal following and have had some of our greatest nights. Though we made some mistkes here and there, the show went over really well.People know our songs and sing along with a few of them, especially Face to Face, Johnny I and Running. We played on till about 1 am and them brought all the gear back to my place and I packed up for my adventure on Mikurajima(御蔵島 if you have Japanese fonts).

Mikurajima

Few Japanese people have even heard of this small Pacific island only 200 km from Tokyo,so it is a true hidden treasure.Mikurajima offers 3 major attractions:ancient gnarled trees amid lush and expansive forest,a huge flock

of shearwaters(ohmizunagidori), a pelagic bird which can't take off without climbing up trees to get a jumping start,

and most importantly, probably the best dolphin swimming in the world.

I caught an hour or two of sleep before starting off by plane and helicopter. There is no airport, so access is either by ferry or heli. I got some interesting vies of the Izu islands and landed for a few minutes on volcano devastated Miyake Island. I was dropped off(alone) at the heliport on Mikura and left alone on the landing pad as the chopper headed back home.

To land on Mikura you need to have a reservation at one of the ten or so small guest houses. When coming by ferry, the sole policeman on the island makes sure you have one. He didnt come to greet me at the heliport, so I mozied down the path in what I hoped was the right direction,until I was met by Mio, who had arrived a day earlier by ferry with 9 other friends.

The dolphin swimming was spectacular. The island is unique in that there are ALWAYS groups of dolphins swimming close to the shore.In 4 days we could experience a full range of dolphin behavior.The views of the coast were reminiscent of Polynesia and alone would have made the trip worthwhile.

We also enjoyed a pleasant hike to admire some of the ancient trees, and as usual I drew energy and inspiration from being among and touching such ancient living things.

If you have any qustions about Mikura,please contact me for more details. Its definitely a place you should go to if you enjoy NATURE and getting away from it all!

I will be back with more about my trip to Hokkaido and Aomori and also my climb to the top of MT Fuji.