aomori city, same fancy shopping center free internet corner, hungover.

i rolled into the park on a fine day in aomori! there were all the usual attrations, food stands and the like. but what's this huge crowd gathered around?

i met mark in mid show - in fact at the part where a little girl from the audience throws him his third fire club. he was running his show in japanese and he wasn't half bad. he made fun of the unhappy looking old men and got a few laughs. he then proceded to juggle a chainsaw and finished by eating his fire. he pulled out a huge bag and standing on his big filthy suitcase had it filled with money. youch - i wouldn't be working aomori with a pro like that around.

"that wasn't even worth doing!" he said - what a lousy hat! it was his 5th and last show for the day - he had only made a lousy 800 dollers.. "what shit - i used to really clean up in the good old days". i hung around and talked to the guy for a while (he reminded me so much of eric, even looked quite like him). he stopped me to make occational advances on passing highshool girls. he'd been working street fairs, trains, pitches all over the world for the last 16 years. man, over dinner i got all kinds of advice and expert knowledge on how to turn my act into a real money maker. he had lots of wild stories, as you can imagine.

besides mark, there was a team of old men in yukata rolling a giant karaoke machine around on a cart. they were loud and anoying as all fuck, didn't think twice about setting up right next to mark in mid show or me busking on the street. there was lots of angry fist shaking from me, but it did no good at all. mark got ran off his pitch by a mean old lady with a sweet potato cart. i made some money when i felt like it and then met some cool people and joined there party. off the clock, i even invited over the cowboy-hatted karaoke guitarist, labamba/stand by me/country road, etc. he and i had been in silent competitiion in 4 cities and it felt good to help him do his thing.

when i got back to my capsul last night those pan-pipe fuckers were just getting in and changing out of their super ethnic panchos! haha! i hate them so much and thankfully hadn't seen them since iwakuni. but i was friendly and gave them the lowdown on the pitch. i'm leaving today anyway - i'm off to catch a ferry to HOKAIDO!!! i'm almost done, baby!! 2 more cities to go and i'll be at the end of my road!!