touring the japanese alps: my weird week in toyama
okay, so i'm sitting in this tiny ramen shop in toyama, slurping noodles at 2am, and i'm thinking...why the hell didn't anyone tell me this place was so weird?
i flew in from tokyo with my drum kit (yes, i'm that touring session drummer who hauls a kick drum through shinkansen security), and the first thing i noticed was the cold. like, not 'oh it's nippy' cold. more like 'why did i wear sneakers' cold. i just checked and it's 2.4°c there right now, hope you like that kind of thing.
anyway, my drummer brain was already ticking: this weather's gonna mess with my pedal tuning. but then i saw the mountains. huge. snow-capped. looming like they're about to eat the city. and that's when i knew this wasn't gonna be a normal gig run.
*toyama castle was my first stop. not because i'm a history nerd (though i kinda am), but because a local sound tech told me it's the best spot to warm up before soundcheck. he was right. the castle grounds are weirdly quiet, like the whole city's holding its breath. someone told me that if you go at dawn, you can hear the river under the ice. i didn't believe it until i heard it myself.
next up: kurobe gorge railway. this is where things got wild. i'm not a train guy, but this narrow-gauge ride through the mountains? chef's kiss. the views are insane, and the cold air blasting through the open windows feels like a free cryotherapy session. perfect for drummers with sore shoulders.
if you get bored, kanazawa and nagano are just a short drive away. but honestly, toyama's got enough weirdness to keep you busy. like the glass museum - yeah, a whole museum for glass. sounds boring until you see the ice sculptures they keep inside to stop the glass from cracking in the cold. genius.
i heard that the local jazz scene is underground - literally. there's a club in an old bomb shelter that only announces gigs on handwritten flyers. i found it by accident after asking three bartenders and a confused tourist. best. accident. ever.
food-wise, don't sleep on white shrimp. sounds gross, tastes like heaven. and the ramen here? richer than a drummer's bank account after a sold-out tour. (so, never.)
now, about that weather. it's not just cold; it's alive*. it creeps into your coat pockets and makes your phone battery cry. but that's toyama. it's not trying to be cute. it's just...there. like a grumpy sound engineer who secretly loves your set.
i'm already planning my next trip back. maybe next time i'll bring a thicker kick drum head. or maybe i'll just embrace the chill and write a song about it.
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