hear the army

16(2003)★6/20 (fri) LOFT RECORD PRESENTS ～WAIT FOR THE BLACKOUT～ at/下北沢shelter w/MORGUE SIDE SINEMA→タイガン→25m.FLOATER→manos
and who am i there to see? you guessed it – the girl band! and with good reason – Belters rock (thank you Yuka!)! a night out with good friends – some risking their friday to go see a band i love – others already fans. before we can say pinkeye we are confronted with a wall of guitar and a vocalist that sounds and looks nothing like any local Japanese band. think hair. think fun. think pixies meets weezer. were we dancing?? oh yeah.
“hey, is he singing in english?”
“sounds like it”
“where do you think he’s from?”
“i dunno. maybe south america? brazil has the highest population of japanese other than japan, you know”
“hummm” dance dance dance
soon we were being informed of the Morgue Side Cinema vocalist’s dental details and moving in for a chat with this english singing hair slinging vocalist/guitarist.
“oh – wow! Heather is my FAVORITE name!” were his first words to me (immediately after meeting my pals Anouska and Sheryda’!?!). i was firmly settled into my “no guy in japan is ever going to be interested in me” mode after 1.5 years with barely a complimentary glance from the male species so this comment made no impression on me – but i did want to see this band again! we discovered he was Japanese (or at least was never told any different) and had a bizarre grasp of english – at least at that hour and state of mind – words he could pull out from his lexicon were “spontaneous” “spectacular” and similar vocabulary that i fail to recall but he could barely put together anything simple! it was almost as entertaining as his show. i remember he laughed easily. he remembers my smile. i wanted a website for future show dates – i got his email address. i wrote about a month later barely expecting a response. my subject “ISSEKI!!!!”. his response “HEATHER!!! what took you so long?”.

thus ensued a relationship built on shared music tastes and a crush on words. we took one step forward and two steps back for a few months…then, despite all my attempts to convince myself otherwise, i realized i had fallen for him after i had already booked a ticket home. feeling as though it was too late and imprudent to change my mind – i returned to the US only to find myself spending half of my days on MSN messenger with him, unable to put one foot in front of the other to begin my life again there.

just over 3 months and another 17 hour flight later i’m back in Japan determined to either a) decide i cannot live here with him and i was delusional to think so and therefore be able to return after my tourist visa is up and go on with my life, or b) find a lifetime playmate. with my return flight scheduled to depart in 11 days he finally asks. i chose b.