alright... we made it to Japan.
Singapore airlines is proper. Probably the most comfortable international flight I`ve experienced. Charlie and I watched Toy Story 3 and we held back the tears. We took a train to Funabashi, Chiba, where we met Kenny (of Facialmess) and stayed with him and his wife Yuki and daughter Iommi.
Thursday we wandered around Shinjuku and Koenji. I like Koenji, it`s mellow and there are tons of little alleyway shops and record stores. Charlie bought a Japanese press Village People 7`` for $0.50 and I passed up an O.V. Wright record for $25 that I`m still thinking about. We also visited a beautiful cemetery.
Oh, and about 95 percent of food products in Japan contain seafood or meat. Brutally difficult finding vegetarian eatz over here. We`ve been mostly eating inari, peanuts, grapes and coffee.
on Friday we took the Shinkansen train to Kyoto, where we met Takahiro and Nobuto and saw 1,000 Buddah statues then played a killer show at Socrates. Mortalized were incredible. Charlie and I borrowed a drum kit, guitar and amps and played a Backpatch set and some V.H.A.B. songs. So fun. Nobuto-san hosted us in his amazing crib with the most adorably steep staircase I`ve ever seen and Taka-san cooked us a bangin` curry for breakfast. Thanks dudes.
Saturday we took a nice, slow train to Osaka through some smaller cities in Kansai. We hung out with Kohei-san and his friends and went to Timebomb and Punk and Destroy before the show. Came up on tons of amazing hardcore records I`ve never found in the US that I had to pass up. Charlie found an original copy of Plutocracy `Dankstahs` LP That night we played at Hokage. One of my favorite PA systems ever. Everyone sounded so good. Fortitude was incredible. Charlie and I played solo and did another, unannounced Backpatch set. It was a trainwreck in the best way. (RCGC represent).
After the show, Charlie stayed in Osaka to see Corrupted, Laudanum and Guilty Connector and I hitched a ride to Nara with Abe and Kohei and the other Fortitude guys. Kohei lives on the top of a fucking mountain. I kept my eyes peeled for tanukis and monkeys but did not peep any. We got some groceries from TRIAL supermarket and Abe made me some really awkward (but delightful) tofu/lettuce/fermented beans(?)/seaweed/Old El Paso tacos and a grip of tea. Abe-san is the best. He`s a king among hosts. I slept for one hour then we left for Yokohama at 4:00 AM. There was an accident and it took about 9 hours to get there. I totally saw Mt Fuji behind a McDonald`s at a rest stop. We arrived at CLUB LIZARD in Yokohama for the Bayside Genocide festival about two hours late. I was immediately ushered in and told to set up my gear in barely comprehensible japanglish, in the middle of a very awkward free jazz `workshop` (basically I was flanked by dudes playing saxophones in my face). My equipment was then ushered to the `B` stage on the floor of the venue and performed 10 minutes later. I was then ushered back to the free jazz workshop area and told to break down my gear as fast as possible while said saxophone dudes free-jazzed my face again. Christ. After that, the stress level waned and I enjoyed the rest of the festival. I was very pleased to see Endon, K2 and Fortitude. It was a very strange festival. Awkward mix of noise, grindcore, make-up industrial metal and some other shit. Kenny and I took the train back to Funabashi, and today is a day off. Tomorrow is the first Tokyo gig, then Charlie and I will take a long train far north to Sapporo, Hokkaido. More updates as the tour progresses. Peace and noise.
-Gordog
