Other Landmarks in Yokosuka related with HIDE NII-san
=Yajima Records Store=
Before we start I want to special thank a fan of HIDEKI NII-san from Tumblr http://kyo-mo-ikita-ne.tumblr.com/ , who enabled me with the help of a map to provide you the locations of Yajima Records Store,Yamaguchi Music Store , George's bar, Ichifuku restaurant,Yokosuka Bakery, 2 Chome-6 Yonegahamadōri, Yokosuka-shi, Kanagawa-ken 238-0011, Japan
and Batleship Mikasa, important places in HIDE's childhood and teenage years. All this being said I will ceremonial bow for a Super Thank You ! and I will proceed with the post...
As you are still visiting Yokosuka let us find our way first to Yajima Records Store which was opened somewhere in late 50s by a music lover :) Mr Iwase, a man for which HIDE NII-san had a high respect, he often talk about this friendly, old man refearing to him as his 2nd father.
The store as its owner was very well known in Yokosuka among the music lovers. Yajima rocord store is part of a chian store in Knagawa pref. They used to own classical Movie Theaters as well but...the movie theaters are multiplex recently in Japan, so the old theater of Yokosuka where young HIDE went to see movies is now long time closed down. It is there in that tiny store, our HIDE discovered his musical affinity toward KISS as rock band and musical stile when he bought from Mr Iwase his first Kiss album. There is no secret to us that NII-san was a big fan of Ace Frehley and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin and that later on he became a big fan of the guitar work featured on Iron Maiden’s self-titled debut album.
Those men have influenced HIDE's work to a certain degree...tough his unique stile let no shadow of doubt when we talk about authenticity...he did not copy, HIDE NII-san enhanced everything he saw good in others incorporating everything in a craze potion of passion/madness/sublime and Rock'n Roll...
Mr Iwase is very friendly and extremely willingly to fill your soul up with bunch of stories about HIDE NII-san which is not too hard to realize he adores...he will show you old pictures and all kind of little things related with HIDE...unlike Hiroshi, this respectable old man does...share HIDE with the fans...
In that place you can feel HIDE's presence from every angle. Posters and pictures hanging on the walls are forming a kind of little shrine...some kind like my bedroom ( that's why I call it HIDE's Room )...the way he talks about HIDE...his face expressions in the morning sun...the pictures...the albums...memories...so fragrant, so...unreal. HIDE IS ALIVE THERE, in that tiny shop on that little street. let us see how to reach there...
First let us start as usually from the Yokosuka Chuo train station as land mark.
As you get out from the station on the main exit this time please chose to cross the pasarela toward your left side and use the stairs to reach down in the street it should be like this
Let us try a better approach with Google street view...
Your destination is 2 min away...walking don't get fussy for a taxi please, you're not in Britain !
that's how it looks on outside at open/closed times...unfortunately in this August I went in weekend and everything was shut down...
well didn't even try going cause every morning I was "signing work sheet" at Miura Reien...if you can get my crazy attitude...tough that grave is empty, my heart felt full, that's why I went daily...besides...internet is perfect for blogging there...HIDE NII-san has best WIFI signal evaaaa' !!!!
From bottom of my heart Thank You for reading this post too, as time and my 2 jobs will allow I will bring us more and more info here, for all those who respect and stil honor this Peter Pan made in Japan...I Love YOU HIDEKI NII-san !
How to reach to Tokiwa Jr High School, the same one HIDE went
Tokiwa Jr high school(常葉中学校)@yokosuka
横須賀市立常葉中学校
〒238-0004 神奈川県横須賀市小川町１８
046-825-7410
https://goo.gl/maps/835xDsyLBqt
As I know that many information are hard to access for the foreigner fans of HIDEKI NII-san and because I saw you are quite interested to find more places where he actually spend part of his life, here it is, I offer you another access point/gate toward HIDE. Before we start another journey, I ask you again to be cautious and discrete, Japanese people are very easy to get offended, again I say something it might be normal for us it could/will/is very much unappropriated for them, so please observe discrete the site without interact with people too much, you could ask people there about HIDEKI NII-san and they might look at you awkward, however instead of being rude to you they'll reply with "I don't speak English, sorry" this is their way to say..."stay away" or "not ready to talk about..." please do not be insistent, however if someone will know what you're talking about and is/was fan himself than you'll get lucky and be shown around...you will not find within the indoors anything reminding of him tough...people tend to go on for sake of the future, the only things reminding of HIDEKI NII-san in Yokosuka are the posters from the corner supermart's window I showed you at the train station exit and the plushies from the street window of HIDEKI NII-san's parents home...don't be sad tough :) ! There is plenty for you to see and grow memories with. Let us return to same point we started the previous post...
Here we are again in front of Yokosuka Chuo train station .
As you get out, please use the same right side to exit in the street with the elevator or using the stairs. By now you should pass front the posters announcing HIDEKI NII-san's 50th anniversary from the corner mart
...well pass it :) and walk that street straight ahead,
you will soon see from far the spiral Radio Tower , and in your left side same store with Manga adds from the intersection.
As you look toward your right side standing in the intersection you will remember maybe the road toward HIDEKI's parents home and Tado Es Elementary as I showed you in previous post,
anyways our aim for now is reaching to Tokiwa Jr High School so you will need to walk more maybe 15-20 minutes...
come on, don't be lazy!!! We Are X, YES WE CAN walk even few miles...trust me you'll enjoy the scenery !
As I was saying, you're in the intersection right now, look toward the Radio Tower and proceed ahead
Walk this road in straight ahead direction till the very end until soon you will reach in another intersection, which will look like this...
Be happy , you are closer that you can imagine, from this crossroad is about 5-10 minutes walking till you will reach your destination !
after crossing the intersection keep the road straight ahead again, you will soon find in your right side a building with blue verandas, if you reach there you are in the right direction
in about 2 min walking you will find in your left side a weird building with front facade inclined toward inside. It will be in your left side, use that as landmark too
as you stand in the street with the weird building in your left side you can now see the green trees ahead so you must proceed toward there.
Now you reached another crossroads point, good job ! Look in front and will see some yellow barele with chess board white/red pattern delimiting the road in front of you. This time you need to turn left here...attention so far you've been walking straight from the train station till here now it will be first and the only time when you need to change direction !
As you turn left , just from the beginning of the street you can see the Junior High. Take a breath and brace yourself, if you had patience following me so far than walk with me few more minutes X !
Keep walking till the end of the road, you've made it ! Yaayyyyy , congratulations !! See I told you you can do it !
You are now standing at the front entrance of Tokiwa Jr High School...hold back your tears, HIDE NII-san would be proud you came from so far away and you made it till here. Let me give you a big hug, and invite you to search for a music store where you might still find his albums on sale, and few of his guitars obviously...I am not sure I can find it tough...but I will do my best for you! Cheers and thank you for caring to return here to read posts about NII-san, I am so grateful to all 11 000 visitors who passed by to find out MORE about HIDEKI NII-san, the one Matsumoto WE DO LOVE...
1128 HIDE
Is a Photobook, the 2nd Photobook of the Solo Tour Psyence A Go Go to be more accurate.
You can find inside lots of memorable pictures from the back stage pranks till the actual stage Gig. A wonderful performance which left us as testimony sweet-bitter fragrant memories,
although there are picture of many famous poses of HIDEKI NII-san, also you could discover a new, more intriguing HIDE at every turn of the page.
The Photobook was issued on February 28th 1997 by Sony Magazines and withing its pages, hosts few hundred pictures...amazing !!! It was delivered in an classy cartboard cover case and it contained a book
(nearly 100 pages) and a Photobook with spiral binding core...the covers of the Photobook are aluminium plated (to last forever :) LOL )
and a special group photo for the Photo Collection HIDE With Spread Beaver along with a mini book "HIDE Polaroid Diary" for such 3D Stereoscopic Life Fotograph (definition for Polaroid photos).
Here I show you few pages as samples of what you could find inside :) . Enjoy and Thank You for reading another post related with HIDEKI NII-san's activity :) !
