My Jazz Travel to Gold Coast, Australia

As you know, it is the middle of winter in Australia right now (June). Sydney is a warm place with no snow in winter, but here on the Gold Coast, even in the middle of winter, the morning and evening temperatures do not drop below 10 degrees Celsius. And during the daytime, you can play in the ocean or at the pool. Daytime temperatures range from 20 to 28 degrees Celsius.
After all, in February this year, the temperature was 42 degrees Celsius, and several people died of heat stroke. I think it is more painful than you can imagine because the temperature is much higher than your body temperature.

This place is like "Atami" in Japan, a complete resort area. Many middle-class Australian families come here to play, but it is also famous for attracting surfers from all over the world.
However, the nights at such resorts are miserable. Japanese honeymooners are rarely seen in town. Local young people gather at piano bars where they can dance and seek out music in search of a place to play. But even so, piano bars are few and far between, and those who play the piano and sing are quite the stars.
They play very dexterously on twin pianos (two red-painted grand pianos with a drum in the middle, and only the drum as the rhythm section), and both sing old-timey tunes. There are Beatles, ABBA, and many other songs from the 1970s to the 1990s.
There is a keyboard on the lid of the piano and I play the bass notes with my left hand. To my surprise, a number of big girls climbed up on top of the piano and danced like a stand in their dresses....... I play the piano myself. I had no time to feel sorry for the poor piano, and as soon as I heard the intro to the next song, I was .......
The moment I saw their navels through their short sweaters and jackets (a common fashion nowadays all over the world), I was so excited and cheered loudly! and a big cheer. This song was just that "Y-M-C-A" (almost like an oldie but goodie). (It was almost like an old all-dies song).
Everyone's faces were all uplifted, and the narrow floor of the piano bar was packed with about 200 young people dancing rhythmically to the same dance, of course with the same choreography (Bon Odori in Japan used to have the same choreography, didn't it? I was overwhelmed and so wrapped up in the excitement that all I could do was watch in amazement.... And somehow, it was a woman who invited me to dance.

My personal opinion is that this is a very safe place, but I feel that there are not many places for working young people to play. The trends flow slowly, and apparently the difference between Japan and the rest of the world is about 20 years off. ...... There are really too many souvenir shops! (It's Atami, after all, so I guess it can't be helped.)
And the cab meter turns faster than in Japan, even though it is a small town! Prices are considerably higher than in Sydney because it is a resort area. High-rise resort condominiums built by Japanese (although many are still under construction) are left as gara-gara to see who will buy them.
Five or six young Japanese who have come to work for a year on a working visa are crammed into one room, doing hard work. Of course, it would be nice if they could learn English....... Some of the girls, who seem to have fled to Japan, are looking for work in dirty, scruffy clothes, but no one is willing to help them. These young people from Japan had become almost homeless, and the local people did not like this because they said it was disturbing public order and morals.

Even for Jazz, unlike in Sydney, there are no stores where Jazz is played. So it seems that my piano performance was more well received than I had imagined.
In fact, this trip was made in response to a love call from people who are trying to spread Jazz on the Gold Coast, and they said, "Bury your bones in this place! I want you to open a jazz bar for the people of this town so that every night the townspeople don't have to go to the casino in their spare time. I miss them now that I don't have a place where I can wear a dress..." He even brokered a storefront for us.
It was a very beautiful store on a corner lot on a main street where all the rich people in town gather. (Of course, the rent is on par with Roppongi.) But, however,...! What would you do?
What would you do? Seeing is believing. The climate is great.


For Snapshots of the Gold Coast