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After a music session in an Irish pub in Sakae, I knocked on the window of a taxi to let me in. He waved me to the car in front and I saw that there was a line-up. I got in the car and then remembered that I had approximately no money in my wallet since I had paid two months of electricity bills in the morning that included the massive cost of winter-time air conditioning. That missing 18,900 yen sent me begging back to Tom, my bandmate, who was still standing on the sidewalk trying to unlock his bicycle while his fingers froze. Tom gave me 2,000 yen. "I owe you", I said. "No, you don't - you gave me extra at the gig the other day." Whether that's true or not, I don't recall, but it was the best money that I had earned all night.
When I got into a taxi (probably the same one) the second time, the taxi driver was a jovial chap. He immediately started talking. Usual stuff - it's cold.
Used to work at many different jobs.
- Painted kimonos by hand in Kyoto. He was from Kyoto.
- Was a music producer. Set up enka shows. A good enka singer can earn 1,800 Man En in a night! That's enough to buy the apartment that I gave away in my divorce and surely one of the subconcious reasons that drove me to write this taxi-driven diatribe.
- An unknown or unpopular enka singer earns only 50,000 yen in a night.
- I explained that I had earned a beer - after playing for several hours on a mandolin with a flute player. But it was fun. He smiled as I got out of the taxi and wished me well.