During the day Chie and I had a walk along the Meguro river. The cherry blossom (sakura) had already started a little. And a lot of people had found their way out on the streets.

We walked along the river to Konami Sports where I renewed my membership. Then we took a bus to Shibuya to find paint for Chie’s apartment and to shop around some.

It was already past 6 pm when we got back to Naka-Meguro. And we decided to not cook dinner but to have a dinner at Yasaka instead. And so we did. It was great as usual.

By 9:15 pm we got back home. I just had time to take a quick hot bath and get ready before I could have a massage. It turned out that the sensei giving massage was a big Rolling Stones fan and had been to the same show as we had.

So before the massage could start we talked about the show and Rolling Stones for more than 20 mintues. This including several of Keith’s guitarr poses as well as Mick’s strutting and arm waving by the sensei.

Finally I got a massage while sensei continued to talk with Chie about Rolling Stones. Afterwards he told us that this was his best massage ever because he could talk about his favorite group. That he was late for his next appointment did not become him. He just called in and told them he was late and stuck in a traffic jam… At 11:30 pm? Sure!?

At 8:10 pm Mick’s voice came out loud through the loudspeakers: ‘If you start me up…’. It was the begining of a 2 hours and 5 minutes show by the Rolling Stones. Maybe their millionth show or so. And although you could see that they all were not quite young anymore and not as energetic as on shows they might have performed when they first started 44 years ago their songs are still great and their performance still vivid.

They started out as you might have guessed with Start me up and continued to sing mostly old songs for more than two hours. The space between songs a little bit longer than in old times – using some Japanese phrases broken with English accent to buy some extra time – and Mick not running much at all. Keith mostly – as usual – motionless in his characteristic poses – how can one play guitarr like that in those poses?

The 2 hours included the following songs:

1. Start Me Up
2. It’s Only Rock’n Roll
3. Oh No Not You Again
4. Bitch
5. Tumbling Dice
6. Worried About You
7. Ain’t Too Proud To Beg
8. Midnight Rambler
9. Gimme Shelter
   — Introductions to the band
10. This Place Is Empty (Keith)
11. Happy (Keith)
12. Miss You (to B-stage)
13. Rough Justice (on B-stage0
14. You Got Me Rocking (on B-stage)
15. Honky Tonk Women (to main stage)
16. Sympathy For The Devil
17. Jumping Jack Flash
18. Brown Sugar
19. You Can’t Always Get What You Want (encore)
20. Satisfaction (encore)

At 10:15 pm we went out of Tokyo Dome with the Stones still sounding in our ears. A rare mix of people joined us with happy smiles ont their faces. Young people with Stone t-shirts as well as 60-something men in business suits. All of whom had jumped up and down to Honky Tonk Women and followed Mick’s every little command to raise their arms and sing along, as if indeed it was not Mick himself who sang ‘Please to meet you… hope you guessed my name…’.

The Rolling Stones show kept us awake well into the new day. Talking about the show, reliving some of the greateer moments by listening to their songs at home. It was well past 2 am when we finally got to bed.