Ken's Goodbye Party

This past week was a rough one. We lost Ronald Reagan and Ray Charles; Donald Duck turned 70 and he's still not wearing any pants; and Ken, another American, decided to move back home to Chicago.

Ken lived in Mie Prefecture in the city of Yokaichi. Its located SW of Nagoya about 45mins by car. He was a public school English teacher by day and played bass in a Japanese funk band by night, but after four years here he decided to pack it in.

His band played a goodbye party for him Friday night in Yokaichi at a live house called 'Rock On'. It was a strange venue that seemed slightly out of place. It was located back up off a country road at the end of a very narrow parking lot that also served a Ramen shop and a Yakitori restaurant.

Inside the place looked like a converted ice cream parlor. It was more suited for tables and chairs rather than a live band, but there was ragtag, gray carpet tacked up on all the walls to muffle the sound. Also, there was a waist high barrier that cut diagonal across the room with pillars that blocked most people's view of the band.

However, none of this seemed to bother the band from having a good time. The lead singer was a very spastic and obnoxious Japanese guy that reminded me of Cheech from the final scene of "Up in Smoke." He performed every stage antic imaginable, but went just shy of wearing a pink tutu and diving into the drum set. His redeeming factor was inviting girls from the audience on stage to dance and shake tambourines to give Ken a good send off.

I did not know Ken very well, but I wish him the best of luck.

He will be missed.