day five

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