This is something we posted on our social media pages a couple of days ago. Here we post it, with fewer photos.
Pictures – Not pretty but we post these.
Last year June 11th Tak&Marie near the burned apartment house, and Asao Christ Church on the 1st night
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This year June 9th Tak&Marie at Asao Christ Church.
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June 11th.
It was a day for us to be thankful.
Because we were fortunate. Very fortunate.
A year ago, June 11th 2023, we almost died.
But we didn’t.
June 11th 2023, early morning, we were awakend by the voice of someone shouting. There was a fire in the small apartment building we (Tak&Marie) lived in. It turned out we were the last people left in the building. Smoke came in. We literally ran through fire. (It was like a movie)
When we evacuated from home, we thought we lost everything. We thought everything would be burnt down. (I snatched my laptop on which the songs for our next album were saved, and my cellphone. It was a wise move.)
We were being thankful just because our lives were saved.
But the fire fighters and our neighbor did a good job and only half of the apartment building was burnt. Our room was not completely burned. It was just all the plastic things and bathroom melting (it was a sight to see!), everything black, and everything we had was covered with ash. (And everything smelled terrible!)
We lost most of our stuff, all the furniture, electric appliances, 80% of our clothes (20% we brought them even though they were very dirty and stinky! – including some of the indie band T-shirts we’d been wearing since 10 years ago!)
However our guitars were not burned down and we decided to rescue them.
Those guitars and basses were covered with ash. But we tried our best to clean them. We knew it was hazardous to our health, but we very carefully cleaned them. We left those guitars in the storage room in the church. All windows open, all summer. Otherwise we had to give up on them because the smell was bad. When the summer was gone, so was the terrible smell and we started to play them again.
We lost our home and we asked help from churches and Christian friends. In Japan, Christian churches are small and not many of them have facility for people to stay. Even if they do, they are not very open to strangers. However, there was one church who was generous enough to let us stay. The pastor said we could stay until we find a new home.
That was how we were guided to Asao Christ Church, in Kawasaki city, Yurigaoka area. There was no one in the church, and the pastor Yabe came a couple months ago to rebuild this dying church.
Since then, we have met so many people there. We saw miracles happen there. We did many church concerts there. Now, with the pastor Yabe and so many friends, the church is a special place and welcoming everyone. We are certain God is doing something good at this church.
It changed our life. Basically, God told us to serve this church. He told us to “get out there and work more for Him”. So, that’s what we did. We started “Heavy Metal Church Japan” project and we are excited for the future.
The most important thing.
We are very very thankful for the support we received from you.
After the fire, all the support we received from our fans and friends… it made us emotional. It made us cry. We were very very thankful. We didn’t know what to say. We still don’t. We just say thank you very much. We can’t be thankful enough.
Because of your help in the most difficult time, we could carry on and we could continue playing music.
1 year from that devastating day.
We can’t believe we are still alive and rocking.
We can’t believe it because now our new next album “Coming Back Alive” is recorded and finished. “Coming Back Alive” was the title we had had for years. But now it has a whole new meaning.
For this post, there is no promotion. Not about the best album, not about the upcoming tour.
We just want to be thankful for your help.
And we just want to say thank you to God.
Thank you. We are here. We are blessed.
(Tak&Marie)