Bass: How low can you go?

Hello. Stephen here. I have to say that now, since we've found how to let Anne post to this diary (see below - remember the latest posts appear at the top), so it's now no longer a monologue.

So yes, I have bought a digital camera. Only a cheap one (but that's all relative) but it's 2 megapixels, has a view screen and a flash, so good enough for my purposes. It took some time to convince Anne of the obvious benefits, but she saw sense in the end, and is now even, I think, pleased I have it. I can see her smiling face as I write this.

I have to fill in a couple of gaps in Anne's entry (bless her). When we returned from our six hour stroll (phew) to the fish market (gruesome) et al on Thursday we watched Erin Brokervich (sp?) on DVD. I quite enjoyed this. It was well done and pleasant so I'm awarding it four stars on the SKT scale. Julia Roberts made you forget she can be quite annoying and Albert Finney hammed it up nicely as a Yank. Friday evening, after a very long day in Hakone, we watched Scarface (the Brian DePalma version) on DVD. Almost three hours, and pretty good, but suffering IMO from third act problems. Pacino's character's meteoric rise as crime lord is matched by an inevitable plummet in the last hour, but is it all too much? (Yes, it is.) 3 stars.

It's Sunday now. Last night was a bit of a bloody nightmare. Let me tell you why...

We went to Roppongi for a meal. This is a very "Western-friendly" area, meaning that there are lots of annoying western tourists there. More westerners than I've seen in total the whole rest of the time we've been here. It makes you appreciate the Japanese. Anyway, we had an Italian meal in a nice little place, and arrived home, after a walk, at about 10.30pm. Not for us the late-night partying.

However, next door were having a party. Loud loud music. S'OK, it's still early. When it was still going at 11.30, when we were about to go to bed I had a great idea. Let's watch an hour of a film on DVD, and then by the time we've done that it'll be nearly 1a.m. and they'll have quietened down by then. OK - it's all good. We watched an hour and a bit of The Beach. (No star award yet, since we've not finished watching it.) But by 1am the music was still pumping. Very loud. We looked out of the front door and saw hundreds of pairs of shoes outside the neighbours' door, which was quite a funny sight. We then went to bed. Once in bed I decided I wanted a photo of the shoes, so nipped downstairs in my pants to use my new, flashy camera (see photo by right-clicking on the "Big Adventure photos" link in this frame and select "Open in new window"). I didn't realise someone was out there. They spoke to me (in foreign) and I got embarrassed due to being caught out in my pants. It's OK, they'll probably think I'm Wayne (who lives here)!

Anyway, the music kept going. I say music, but really it was just beat after beat after beat. I didn't keep track of the number of beats per minute so I can't report whether this noise was house, garage, speed garage or convenience store, but it was loud and bloody annoying. (Sorry for the swear-word, but I think it helps to demonstrate my anger.) It felt like I was in a cartoon and the whole room (and my head) was throbbing to each beat. I have to assume these youths were smoking an E or mashed off their pylons on some other modern drug - how else would they derive any pleasure from such a racket. Gaaaaah! I was going mad and it was still going at 3am. I came away to relax and was at the end of my tether after just a week (and a bit). I tried to calm myself down by imagining the noise was actually some angry Yakuza neighbours banging the party's hosts' heads against the wall very quickly, but it didn't seem to help much. 3am - haven't these people heard of chill-out music?

I asked the to turn it down, politely, a few times by leaning out of the window and pleading politely. Eventually at 3.30am they did. It was bliss, but it still took me some time to get to sleep as I was so furious. I think they were English, or American or something. Having seen the Japanese for a week or so I find it hard to believe they'd have so little respect for others. The guests I spoke to were all Brits or Yanks anyhow.

Anyway, calm now. Have had some sleep and must relax. Must relax. I suppose people are rude the world over. Especially the Brits. Off to Sydney tonight so very excited.