Smog, Newsom and Kafka

Thanks to my friend Bob (that's Bob from Gunma, not to be confused with Bob from Accounting) I got to go see Smog and Joanna Newsom last night in Tokyo for free. Bob wrote in a drippingly sweet and sentimental postcard about how he desperately wanted to see Newsom and in returned received an invite (plus 1) to see her and Smog put on a small show/recording at an NHK sound studio. The venue was small and intimate, normally good things, but add a bunch of over-polite Japanese and you get some odd results. For example, Smog commented that this was the first show he had ever played where he could actually hear the rustling of people's pants. Then there was that funny part where Bob opened his Coke bottle and loud fizzing resulted, which made literally everyone in the room look at him, but luckily we could all laugh. Not so funny was when I choked on my own spit (I swallowed and it went down the wrong way) and drew everyone's attention with my hideous hacking. All and all though it was great to see both of them, Smog was really good and had some surprising dance moves, and Joanna Newsome was, well, just too cute.
And on the train I finished Murakami's newest feat Kafka on the Shore. Really, really good. Still don't get it, but I'm working on it.