My first trip to Japan

In 1992 I was teaching bass guitar at Musicians Institute in Los Angeles.  At the time we had an exchange program with two schools here in Japan - Osaka School of Music and Tokyo School of Music.  These schools had a two year program for Japanese students where the students would spend one year here and one year in Los Angeles at our school.  Every summer the schools would have open houses to attract new students, and they would have a group of our teachers come over to play concerts to promote the exchange program.  In 1992 heavy metal was popular here, and as I was teaching a metal performance class I came over with a group of teachers. 

To this day I cannot really describe what my first visit to Japan was like.  I often tell people it was like the scene in The Wizard Of Oz where it goes from black and white to color.  I was just enthralled with every aspect of Japan.  The buildings, the people, the food.  I felt such a connection to Japanese people.  Every morning when everyone else was sleeping in our hotel I would get up early and go out and just walk among Japanese people.  Sounds odd, I know.  For reasons I still can't describe I just wanted to live and breathe Japan. 

I had learned a few phrases in Japanese before the trip, and for the kids we were playing for the combination of a long-haired American rock musician who could speak even a little Japanese seemed to have great appeal.  For me, this was like catnip.  After years of playing the Sunset Strip with less-than-spectacular results suddenly kids were clamoring for me.  I just thought this is where I have to be.  The path of my life took a hard left, and from that point on I had one vision - one goal.  To live and work in Japan.

Next blog - studying Japanese at UCLA.