Japanese company employees have to undergo a compulsory health check called Ningen-dock (人間ドック) once a year. I went for mine today at a clinic in Roppongi Hills, Tokyo. The clinic used to be located inside Mori Tower, but just recently moved into a smaller adjacent building.
One perk at this hospital is that upon completion of the checkup, they hand out a lunch voucher that can be redeemed at one of a few fairly fancy restaurants in Mori Tower. More about this in the post linked below.
I then went to Ochanomizu, where I had lunch at Excelsior Caffe. Their food menu changes over the year based on availability of seasonal ingredients - currently, they have a “Creamy Doria (a Japanese rice gratin) of Smoked Chicken and Asparagus with Lemon”, which is a tasty and light meal that I chose, together with an iced Caffe Latte. I still had some time before my reservation at the rental studio for drumming practice would start, so I started reading the German version of Jørn Lier Horst’s “The Katharina Code”. I quite like its calm and deliberate storytelling so far.
Then it was time to go to the rental studio, which is just a five-minute walk from the coffee shop. I went to the same studio where I had already gone for my first practice two weeks ago. I had reserved the same room for two hours, which gave me a good amount of time to practice some of the 8-th note beats from my previous drumming lesson. I am finding fast bass drum patterns quite challenging, and need to work on improving my foot technique more, but overall, I had a lot of fun. Here is a short clip of me drumming along to “Fine Line” from Paul McCartney’s 2005 Chaos and Creation in the Backyard album.
Unedited photos shot with iPhone 15 Pro.