Viva la Japan

    So here's a little story about how a young lad from England relocated to Osaka, Japan for a year.    He needed a better job to fund his personal ambitions and the opportunity that arose simply could not be refused.  

    It all started when I was given the chance to audition for a singing job in Japan; this meant that I would move across the world and pretty much change my life as I knew it.  Working a dead end job (in my case bar work) in the UK or anywhere else for that matter can grow extremely tiresome.  Especially if you have the urge to perform as opposed to shaking cocktails and pulling pints.  Luckily, I managed to land the gig at Universal Studios Japan before multiple mental breakdowns occurred.  Pretty simple really.  Leave home for ten months, perform several times a day, make a shit ton of money (yes, I swear a lot.  Shoot me down) and utilise my spare time in order to pursue a hopeful career as a musician.
    Embarking upon the perilous journey that is the life of an aspiring singer/songwriter, I thought I’d go by a different approach.  Doing gigs around the local area and self-marketing across the internet gained a handful of avid listeners but without certain resources, I was doomed to fail.  So, instead of knocking back shots of bourbon behind a bar at ridiculous o’clock, I took myself to the land of the rising sun.
    Give or take a couple of months, I’ll be out here for about a year with the possibility of an extended contract.  Cushy salary, accommodation, no bills and if that wasn’t enough, they even threw in a bicycle for good measure.  Complaining too much about my current state would make me a terrible human being so count me as grateful.  The work schedule is pretty straight forward; five days a week, several shows a day.  Evenings are still mine and my weekend is now Thursday and Friday.  This means that Wednesday is Friday, Thursday is Saturday and Friday is Sunday.  I suppose that did confuse me at first but once you spend enough time in this country, the definition of “normal” becomes an enigma no one bothers to understand anymore.  Which isn’t to say it’s nothing short of amazing.  It’s just hard to differentiate between fantasy and reality when you feel as if “Pokemon Trainer Tommy wants to fight” on a daily basis.
    The content within these posts is almost certainly going to be random.  At times I won’t make sense at all.  Diary entries have never really been my thing so please be sure to cut me a little slack if I manage to bore the absolute shite out of you.  A mixture of topics is what I would like to include so aside from this introduction, expect various tales of my exploits whilst simultaneously having to put up with my…  Well, I guess just having to put up with me in general.
    Considering I’ve been here for about five months now, I thought it was only natural to get off my arse and start writing content for my website.  It’s amazing how much you can get distracted when you have so much spare time to get things done.  There’s so much to see and learn out here, it becomes a struggle to actually sit down and concentrate.  Creating the website from scratch itself has taken up a lot of my time and now the time has come to fill it up with all kinds of crazy, starting with the blog.  It just so happens that I managed to write an entire entry not 24 hours ago.  Just as it was about to be proof read, it somehow managed to self-destruct thus, leaving me with an empty page and a slightly numb left arm.  Needless to say, my day was ruined.  Usually, I’d go home and compose a beautifully depressing song about the cause of tragedy however, even I think writing lyrics about the loss of a blog entry is a tad self-indulgent.  Look at me though, I got back on that stubbornness horse and I’m riding through the countryside that is a blank page on a computer screen, gradually filling up with the nonsensical babbling’s of a tortured artist.
    “How are you going to use this opportunity for your future?”
    Well, I’m glad you asked.  Working here gives me the chance to put enough money aside to buy recording equipment piece by piece.  With said kit at my disposal, everything becomes that little bit more professional.  Delivering material at a higher quality is the way forward so that is my sole priority.  With a bit of luck, I’ll be taken more seriously and my aspirations will flourish into a living, breathing part of reality.
    So, this is where the first instalment comes to an end.  If you have read this far, congratulations.  You win absolutely nothing.  I do hope I have achieved something greater than a general vent and casual chit chat between me, myself and I.  Having only started my adventure, I can only imagine what mysteriously exciting challenges are lying ahead.   If you would kindly lend me your eyes and ears, I’ll try my best to honour that decision by providing an ever-evolving source of quirky entertainment.