"Our third halt was at Hiroshima. We traveled Fukuoka to Hiroshima by train, so we finally got to a bit of the Japanese countryside.

On the evening of our arrival, Magne suggested going to a Teppanyaki restaurant. [ IMAGE ] This is a restaurant where you are sitting at a large table, while the chefs are preparing the wonderful food on huge stove at the center of the table. We had a really wonderful time there. Magne told us that some time ago, he had been thinking about installing such a cooking place at home. But in the end, he had decided against it - when you sit next to this stove for so many hours, you end up smelling like a piece of fried beef yourself! Yet this was definitely not going to prevent any of us from returning to a Tepanyaki restaurant.

On our way back to the hotel we crossed a Japanese amusement center - one of the noisiest places I have ever experienced. We were amazed by the sheer number of game-machines they do have over here... People were dancing in front of a TV wall (apparently, the dancing is according to some pattern, but I was unable to figure out which one exactly...) or singing at a karaoke machine, never minding the noise soming from all the slots and game machines and screens. Inspired by this, Anneli, Magne, sound technician Sven Persson and I continued to a Karaoke bar. We had a lot of fun when Magne discovered 'Take On Me' in the karaoke's jukebox. This was one that he had to try! And mind you, he delivered a really great version of it, too. He and Anneli then also dueted on 'When I fall in love'. Regretably, there are no pictures of this memorable event...

On the day of the show, the guys had some pictures taken by Janne Møller Hansen, the photographer from VG, who together with journalist Stein Østbø has travelled all the way from Norway to report on a-ha's first live shows in six years. The photosession took place in front of a small temple next to our hotel [ IMAGE 1 | IMAGE 2 ], and after this was done, it was time for the soundcheck. Everything went smoothly, and after the soundcheck, there was still plenty of time to kill before the show would begin.

At 6:00pm, the doors opened and the people rushed in. Once again, the tour program was a highly requested merchandising item. [ IMAGE ] Then the band hit the stage and played an absolutely amazing show - the audience rose from their seats as soon as Magne, Paul and Morten came into view and was with them from the first second until the last. The sound was absolutely brilliant (Sven Persson is a genius, he really is) and the band's performance was overwhelming.

So also the third show in Japan went extremely well and we are now looking forward to the next two dates in Tokyo."

More images from the digital scrapbook

• Behind the scenes: [ Magne | Paul | Morten | Two Swedish Guys | The Crew ]