It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen...or more precisely, midnight JST. Though they weren't so much striking as silently slipping past the moonlit hour like a distant whisper of waves wafting through the riverside* air with an odd accompanying smell of tires & rosemary. I was listening to Afrirampo on my ipod nano as I suddenly came upon an unexpected darkness. It was more than a little creepy to bike down a familiar path enveloped in a fresh lacquer of black vinyl nighttime sheen as Oni & Pikachu yelped back and forth to one another from opposing sides of my grey matter. There was nothing to be seen except for the tiny light on my Harlem Globetrotter** that shone(n knife'd) a small circle only a few feet ahead. I almost hit three people, but swerved to avoid plowing through them just in the nick of time. Though, I suppose, the more accurate way to look at that situation is probably to say they almost hit me, since, I was the one blazing down memory lane with the bat-signal on full beam, warning all of my forthcoming, while they, draped in blacker than black attire, stalked about in their ninja ways on a narrow path in the naked night. This darkness is all part of a plan for Tokyo to conserve energy during the continuing crisis, and while I support that decision, I just wasn't expecting to be unexpectedly confronted with the unusual eeriness of it while heading down my usual cycling/running path.
Afrirampo broke up less than a year ago. What makes it especially sad is that it was two days after my birthday, and 7 months before I myself would be anywhere near Osaka, where they hail from. There's something about missed opportunities that stings like fresh squeezed turnip juice in your eyes while you want nothing more than turnip-ade to quench your ever maddening thirst for sweet-sweet turnips...though, it is promising that Oni & Pikachu have openly stated that they would consider playing together again, if & when, they basically feel like it. Hopefully that urge overtakes them sometime soon. This video, for their titular track, only hints at what, I can only imagine, their raucously renowned live shows delivered on. Shhh...you can almost taste the turnips.
Footnotes...
*There is a hotel along this path (the same path leads to Tokyo Disney, mind you) that is called "Hotel River Side", and while that name is quite accurate, considering its placement right alongside the river, and it is a hotel, they really don't have any windows that truly take advantage of the titular vista. Seems a bit misleading...they should at least modify the name to include "boink-boink" or some such euphemistic phrase. Though, for a family of 4 looking for a fair deal on a hotel not far from Tokyo Disney, the prudent parent would probably already know to avoid such places that post hourly rates to their rooms on dry-erase boards. Still, the neon glow of Hotel River Side ボインクボインク (Boink-boink) really would add a certain touch of class to the neighborhood.
**Harlem Globetrotter is the official name for my borrowed bicycle. Naming factors include, but are not limited to: 1) it has a basket 2) I came halfway around the world to ride it 3) my friend Mariko is going to Harlem at the end of the month.
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