Saturday 8th June - this turned out to be the most memorable day of the tour. We caught the 0808hrs train from Nagoya, arriving in Hiroshima at 1105hrs (such precise train times but so accurate). We asked at tourist information again for maps and cheap accommodation. They found us a hotel, made a reservation and we went straight there. It was a Japanese style Ryokan called 'Mikawa' which was excellent, we paid for the room on arrival, left our bags and headed into Hiroshima. Our journey started by tram and we looked round a few shops taking in some of the sights of the city. The weather was not pleasant as it had started raining, although it was still warm. Dave bought himself an umbrella.

From there we made our way to the venue, the Koseinenkin Kaikan. Another small venue seating under 3000. Our first enquiry was tickets, we spoke to a guy outside who tried to help but he didn't know. He took us to the back stage entrance to ask there. We learned that they would be available from the box office at around 1700hrs. So we went off into the city for something to eat, found a place called 'Volks', and decided to get back to the venue about 1500hrs in the hope of maybe seeing David arrive.

When we got back the security had started putting barriers up around the perimeter so we guessed David was due to arrive very soon. We took refuge under Dave's umbrella as it was still raining and watched, two Japanese girls stood behind us, one dressed in full kimono. A short while later David's car pulled in and as he got out we all shouted "David" and waved. He looked over and pointed at us saying something to Eric, his security guy, then went inside. Eric walked over to us and asked us to come with him as David wanted to say a quick 'hello'. What a feeling that moment was, being asked to see David at his own request!

We went inside and David was standing there waiting, he shook our hands and said "what are you guys doing here?" looking at us in total amazement, obviously recognising us from the UK/European shows (and the fact that we weren't locals). Steve said "what do you think". We chatted briefly and told David that we hadn't had such good seats so far as the tickets were so expensive, touts were asking anything up to ¥48000 (approx £300 / $460) for front row seats although we'd been lucky in Nagoya with our ninth row seats. Eric said he'd seen us in the audience there. I told David that the face value in Japan was £50 per ticket to which he replied "you're kidding", seeming very surprised. He asked us if we had tickets for the show that night which we told him we hadn't as yet. He said to Eric "can you sort these guys out?" to which Eric said "sure". David then said he had to go and do stuff so we thanked him and said goodbye. Eric took a poster from Steve and a Tokyo ticket from me (Dave didn't really have anything), took our names and went inside to ask David to sign them for us. He came out a few minutes later giving us back our things, now signed by David, and told us that three tickets would be reserved at the box office for us. Again, we said our thanks to Eric and left, feeling elated. We were going to be David's guests at the show that night! The two Japanese girls were standing outside by the window looking at us in awe as we walked out, bless them. Some of the Japanese fans kept asking us if we were crew or with the band or something, I guess because we were English, these two obviously thought we personally knew David. We wish!!!

On inspecting our signatures, my ticket had the usual 'Bo96' and Steve's poster was adourned with 'genki-des-ka?' which we learned, after asking a Japanese girl we had seen at other shows, meant 'how are you?' Great! We got our tickets from the box office at 1700hrs. They were invitation cards, blue, with the details hand written. Our seats were 4th row on the balcony, dead centre so we had a great view. The show was excellent, 'Telling Lies' being performed again and 'Diamond Dogs' sang earlier in the set, after 'Scary Monsters'. The encores started off rather amusingly as David engaged Reeves in some comical banter:-

David: Hello Reeves. Reeves: -. David: Hello Reeves. Are you tired? Reeves: -. David: Do you want to got shopping? Do you want to go shopping before or after dinner? Reeves: I thought I might change first. David: What do you want to change? Reeves: What do you mean? David: Do you want to change into a suit? Reeves: I thought I might change my shirt. David: That would be a good idea. But first, let's have some White Light.

This then led them into White Light White Heat. After the show we saw David leave along with loads of Japanese fans. I shouted "see you in Osaka" to Zac and Gail as they got into their minibus and they nodded. Walking back to the hotel we saw lots of people dressed in traditional kimono wear and the streets were lined with little hawker stalls selling all kinds of snacks and niknaks. We stopped at McDonalds for supper before heading back to our guesthouse. When we got there, the futons had been laid out on tatami mats ready and there was a banana on each of our pillows!

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