life is beautiful

writing from the inside of a 10x10 plastic tent in the middle of downtown las vegas, nevada. 

the winds are gusting at i would have to say 20-25 miles per hour; dust and dirt everywhere.

a few feet away, the killers approach the  halfway mark of their set and i can't wait. 

these past 4 days have been fun but along the way i've learned a few things about myself.

one of them being that I can only do 2-day doses of vegas .

this is the first year of the life is beautiful music festival in downtown las vegas.

it's been a solid weekend of good music:

cults

purity ring

joey bada$$

passion pit

danny brown

dawes 

*played half a song, then took off

vampire weekend 

empire of the sun

the killers

had a great time. and what's best about it is that i call it work; i get paid for this! 

killers is almost done, and soon afterwards we'll be able to drive the trucks and load all of our stuff out. 

cheers to another great festival and good music! 

japan through a vegas rearview mirror

in the midst of last night's bass and crowded casino hallways, i brought myself back past the international date line, back to the broken place i had found myself a few days ago. 

seems like a litimetime since i found myself alone, lost in rappongi but life goes on and unfortunately a few suckers will follow in my footsteps.

but today, and actually at the moment I find myself inside the MGM arena, at kanye's yeezus tour.

the place is nuts!

people are all over the place. countless hands sprawled in the air chanting yeezy's anthems.

it's a bit spooky to see so though, so many my age adoring this dude.

he's good at what he does but what I don't understand is the level of worship he commands. coming to this show sure feels a bit idolatrous but then just like that he drops another one of his countless hits.

alone in rappongi

my squinted eyes are fixed on the bright opening from up above. it's the first sign of light i've seen in what seems like years.
it's funny how eyes quickly distinguish the light of dawn; nothing like it.
i remember the feeling of finally reaching the top of reppongi metro station. a brisk and gentle breeze pecks my face; at my shame
150 yen in my pockets, but sadly not 170. 

all i need is 20.

for a second i contemplate begging but the thought quickly leaves as i begin to walk.
to where? not sure. but i keep walking because in this moment, it's the only thing i can do
i usually carry a good internal compass but right now, it's completely shot. 

i glance at my phone. it's alive
i spot a coffee shop.

it's like an oasis in the middle of a japanese sahara. i frantically walk. 

the coffe clerk spots me: a shady, bearded mess of a man. 

i flick through my phone's settings and check the wi-fi. nothing

i lean next to the building and inch closer and closer to the invisible halo. signal!

the jubilee fades as i begin the trek. i've been in this situation my mind keeps telling. 

nothing new, ain't no thing. 

determined to get there as soon as possible, i develop a good pace but shortly after, my senses dig feet. 

the sound of japense children saying goodbye to their parents.

the glow of the october morning sun breaking through the misty japense dew.

i approach a cementery and notice the regulars in their cold, concrete homes.

it's eerie but i can't hear anything anymore. i am underwater and the only thing i hear are muted sounds. my vision all in vignettes 

a low hum slowly catches my attention and just like that i'm underneath shibuya subway station. 

everyone walks past and around me. speedy little people 

i approach 5-corners intersection and instantly i begin to recognize.

the trek is over

i walk-up to my apartment with hope of finding my friend phillip, sprawled all across the deck. 

nothing.

i worried for a few minutes but sleep overcomes me.

a few hard pounds on the door was all it took to get me up. what time is it?

i open the door and there he is, wearing the face of a disgraced marco polo. i look at him 

an anger slowly begins to catch.

--sentence remnants woven together--

and in this moment it hits me 

all i see is faces, expressions. and 

the only single sense that functions is sight  

but i can't stop and absorb

instead it's replaced by 

reppongi's face. 

land of the rising sun via tijuana, mexico

i must've been a boy since the last time i flew out of tijuana's general abelardo l. rodríguez international airport. 

as a kid, i would fly out of here frequently. i used to have a fear of flying and i would say that it was a legitimate one; mainly because my family booked our family trips to southern mexico on an airline called aero-california. 

to those who are not familiar, aero-california was probably one of the worst maintained airlines in mexico. since then, it went bankrupt, twice, and the only remnants of their existence are the skeletal crj remains strewn across the lancaster/palmdale desert. 

i can still smell the smoke of cigarettes in the cabin and the grimy nicotine covered seats. 

for some reason i'd always get stuck with the window and as we climbed higher through the sky, i would sink deeper and deeper into my seat with sweaty palms clinching the armrests.  

my attention would shift and look at the wing, which jolted back-and-fro during turbulence. 

back then i didn't know that it was normal for wings to bend but when i looked at the wings, i couldn't help but notice the splotchy tar stains around the region where the wing and fuselage met. add the imagination of a 8-year old mexican kid to the mix and well, let's just say i was a wreck. 

so now, 20 years later, i am back. 

i never thought i'd be flying to tokyo from this place but i guess it seems fitting. 

i no longer have a fear of flying and as i sit on my window seat, i'm staring at the beautiful wings of aeromexico's brand new boeing 787-dreamliner. this is actually aeromexico's maiden voyage using the dreamliner, so in a way i'm kind of pioneer of sorts. 

our flight to tokyo was supposed to leave at 02:00am but typhoon whipa would have none of that. this category-3 typhoon delayed us about 8 hours. to our fortune, aeromexico's staff has been nothing but phenomenal. 

they kept us informed and even offered us entrance into their premiere lounge for the night where i was introduced to a comfy couch and bohemia's obscura. 

in about two hours we will be landing in narita. according to google maps, it takes about 2 hours by train to get to the apartment we booked on air bnb. 

i'll be lying if i said that i wasn't nervous/scared. the same exact feelings i had back when i was a boy are starting to come back. what did i get myself into?

i'll keep asking myself this question a few more times until the moment we land. from there something usually else takes over. 

but till then, all i could do is sit tight and try and enjoy the ride!