Riding the Shonan Shinjuku express from Shinjuku down to Chigasaki is a bit like having a death wish. Whilst not quite getting to shinkansen speeds it feels like it is trying its best. How on earth it would stop if it had to is hard to imagine. The trip takes about an hour and Chigasaki, like everywhere else in this part of Japan, is full of people. The difference is that it is by the beach and, according to Mojo World, people go surfing there before work when the waves are up. Mojo World met me at the station and then his friend Rie san picked us up and drove us to the Ozu café. The café had been open for three years and whilst it wasn't very big, liked to present live music to its diners. Mojo World specialises in music that he plays on various instruments that he has collected from around the wold. When I first met Mojo World he still liked to play Dock of the Bay and other R and B classics on an acoustic guitar. Quitting his job to go overseas he came back to Japan and began importing musical instruments from around the world. He plays as much live music as he can in the summer months and then records music in the winter months. Whilst setting up he decided that there would be two sets. Mojo World would play the first set himself and then after a short break the three of us would lay before he would finish the set accompanied by Rie san on percussion. Rie san had a variety of weapons in her percussion arsenal and had been playing since high school. By day, she said later, she was a life insurance saleswoman. With a small audience in the house, the owner turned off the reggae music on the sound system and then turned down the lights. Mojo World would take a different instrument for each song and build up several layers on a loop and then play over this. It was quite effective and for a passerby to just come in off the street it would have made quite an impression. Especially if they came in during the first song which was a rather unique interpretation of Silent Night which Mojo World had chosen because of it being Christmas season. Given the sounds that he was making, it was lucky that he had shaved off his big bushy beard so that he didn't look like a cult leader so much anymore. For the rest of the performance he didn't really sing so much when he used his voice as make sounds. After the performance a tambourine was passed around for donations and I had some cheese cake and a hot coffee. Then it was back to the station and the last train to Hashimoto before changing to the Keio line for Shinjuku. By this time of night there were no express trains, they were all local and were never in the slightest danger of coming off the rails.
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