After our 2nd Osaka show, we headed by train back to Tokyo, for the last three shows of the tour.

Train trip was fun, and picturesque.

Hmm, that view of Robert by the train window looks awfully familiar to me…

I’m seeing ghosts from 40 years ago….

And, a lucky day, what one hopes for on the Shinkansen - a clear view of the amazing Mt Fuji out your window. (You can click on it a few times and get a bigger version.) (In fact, if you single click on any photo, you can then scroll through all the photos of the page, larger and without the text.)

To cap off this day of sights, we arrive back to our Tokyo hotel just in time for sunset, Mt. Fuji looking pretty different through the city smog, but still commanding.

The next day is our 3rd Tokyo show. It’s at Tachikawa Stage Garden - really outside of Tokyo. It’s the first time I’ve been at this venue, and I’m told that, like the remaining shows, tonight is sold out.

Now, here is something really unsual; I refrain from taking photos during the show, until after the encore, as we ask the audience to do. But, there’s a point in 21st Century Schizoid Man where the three drummers each toss a drumstick in the air… and for years now, I’ve been wishing I could get a shot of that from my vantage point onstage, right behind them.

Well, tonight I tried it, just a quick snap with the 360 panoramic camera. But… something else happened that was also a first. For a long time I’ve asked Jeremy if he might consider tossing his stick toward me, so that, hopefully, I might catch his drumstick and finish out the piece playing a la funk fingers, with that stick in my hand. How cool would that be.

Surprise, he chose to do it tonight, as I was holding the camera, taking the picture.

It didn’t come out as well as I’d hoped, but what a moment…

That’s a photo that won’t happen again. The the fisheye lense makes it look like I’m not right behind Jeremy, but I am, with some shock showing. You can just make out the sticks of Gavin and Pat, high above them. The whole thing’s a bit blurred because, well, I didn’t hold the camera steady enough!

I also didn’t catch the stick! But did manage to not get hit, and to pick it up and make my entrance with it for the remaining few bars of the piece.

Tomorrow we’ll enjoy a day off, and a final dinner with the crew. Then to a different venue in Tokyo, the Bunkamora Orchard Hall, where we’ve played many times before - for the historic final two shows of the year and of King Crimson touring in Japan.

And I’ll be putting up a few more road diaries of other things from this trip. More soon.