So after a delicious noodle lunch in one of our favorite airports (Tokyo, Norita), Rachel and I continued on to our (just a couple days shy of a) month-long visit to Micronesia (in particular, Yap and Palau.)  We had to spend a night and day in Guam (which at least broke up the trip.)  Tumon bay in Guam was um, interesting in it’s own way.  Everything was geared up for Japanese tourists, with a mix of hotels, upscale shops and strip-mallesque sections that contained both restaurants AND strip clubs/”massage centers” and adult shops.  Kinda amusing, but we did have an excellant dinner at a Korean restaurant (we ate bimbim bop, tastey.)  We skipped out on the strip club next door.   Besides all of this, nearby there was what is supposed to be the world’s largest Kmart, as well as the Mall of Micronesia (a HUGE mall of upscale shops that I believe is focused on Japanese tourists.)   I commented to Rachel that Guam struck me as being the Miami of Micronesia, but I quickly downgraded that to Ft. Lauderdale (or maybe Daytona Beach.)  However, we did enjoy a short dip on the beach behind the Outrigger hotel, as well as a trip down their waterslide.  Ha!  The strip of Guam gave me the same feeling as Las Vegas: very amusing if I’m there for a reason, but I would not choose it as a vacation spot.  Ok, that night it was on to Yap, our first real destination.

From an email sent to a good friend from the WONDERFUL city of Berlin (no sarcasm there, I enjoyed my time there very much, and will return…) Saw Wolfmother tonight. Har har…I have a like/not always like relationship with that band, but they did rock (but other bands do the 70s rock thing better), the Germans loved them. Germans make for GREAT rock audiences. Califone played to a pretty full (for the club) audience, maybe 75 to 100 people, and they were loved and cheered on for an encore (and favorite songs acknowledged.) Wolfmother (or as I jokingingly have been saying in my head with a German accent VULF MOOTER!) played to a few thousand people who were super enthusiastic. Ya know how in NYC at some bigger shows the singer trys to get the audience going with handclaps, and maybe a third the crowd does it for 15 seconds or so (have to admit I am one of the lazy ones!) Well, at this show the crowd started it numerous times, everybody into it. They love rock in Berlin (well, techno, dub, etc, too, and some punks around as well.) What was interesting was the crowd. In NYC at a show like this, the majority of the audience would be well under 30. But at this show I would say a third of the crowd was 30 or over, and I kid you not that besides numerous folks in my age range (late 30s to early 40), I saw at least a couple people who had to be 50 !  It was not like one of those shows were I look around and all I see are early 20 somethings and I start to feel older. It seems like there are more people here who stay seriously into music (or at least going out) as they get older. Nice. At Califone, saw one German couple who were somewhere in that end of 40 or beginning of 50 bracket, and they were the most excited and loudest people at the show in regard to their cheering. Interesting.Bobby Conn rules! I had a great time seeing them in Philadelphia at lil ol Kyber Pass a few years ago. They rocked. Like Queen.