Amagasaki #1

We pulled into Tokyo on Friday around 3pm. We were starving and Robb, Merritt and I went to eat some noodles at the place we found on our first day. The weather wasn't great. It was rainy and windy but not too cold. A warm bowl of noodles is the perfect recipe for a day like that. The three Gaijin (foreign) dudes were the ONLY ones in the street with raincoats and not umbrellas. Navigating these thousands of umbrellas carried by the typically short Japanese people on narrow sidewalks is a bit difficult. It's compounded by the American guy's natural inclination to move to the right when approaching oncoming people. You drive on the left side of the street in Japan. I nearly lost an eye several times! After we warmed ourselves at our favorite noodle shop, we made our way back to the hotel. Ken was meeting us in an hour or so.

Ken took us to a small British pub right off the bat. Well, it was called the Rose and Crown but they didn't have any Bass or Guinness and the fish and chips were a bit suspect. But who cares when you're in great company?? I haven't seen Ken since our families met in Hawaii seven years ago. He looked the same as he always has. I told Ken that I supposed he had the opportunity to use his English because it was in such good form. He told me he hadn't spoken it regularly since living in Sweden over a year ago. I guess when you're a neurosurgeon, you retain more than the average guy!

We wore that bar out pretty quickly and decided to find a proper sake bar. We didn't go far before we found what we were looking for. In the last three hours, we had noodles, fish and chips, and some roast beef. Ken asked if we wanted sushi. I remember saying I wasn't that hungry anymore. Well, within 20 min. we had an entire tray of sushi in front of us.

Over the course of the next two or three hours, the four of us devoured six or seven trays of sashimi and 10 or more large bottles of sake! Ken kept ordering more and more until we stuffed silly. We were laughing so hard we were crying! Ken took me down memory lane and gave Robb and Merritt an hilarious glimpse of my upbringing. We were all roaring when it was revealed that I spent a giant portion of my childhood writing the sentence "I will mind" thousands upon thousands of times. Whenever I misbehaved, my Mom would yell to me,

"100!"

"But Mom..."

"200!"

"I don't want to clean my room!"

"300!"

And on and on and on and on and on....

We eventually stopped eating and drinking and called it a night. The first Tokyo show was tomorrow.

The Tokyo International Forum is a gorgeous concert hall. It holds nearly 6,000 people. We sold out both nights. Ken came the first night and I showed him all the ins and outs of the stage. We did a fun thing before sound check. I gave Ken an IEM (in-ear monitor) pack and Merritt set him up on the keyboard rig. Ken and I used to play together back when he visited us in the States. Now it was time for our reunion gig!!! I got up on the drums and we played together for the first time in 15 or more years. First tune? Jump of course. We played many a Van Halen tune together back in the day. He was a bit rusty but we spent a good half hour playing. Loved it.

For the show, Ken sat with me on stage left and he listened to exactly the same thing that I listen to when I engineer the show. I loved being able to show him a day in my life. He was incredibly curious about the technical aspects of operating the show. I was more than delighted to give the lesson.

After the show, Ken, Merritt and I went out for some more sushi and sake. We tried a different place and once again, the sushi was phenomenal. We were a bit tired from the shenanigans the night before so we called it after that.

The next morning, I went out and explored my little area of Tokyo. I had some time before the show because we didn't have to load-in. I spent some time in a couple of Japanese shrines and got some good pics. I even saw a wedding at one of the shrines. These shrines were about 700 years old.

Our second show in Tokyo, Ken brought his mother, brother and sister. I had met Ken's parents in Hawaii but never his brother and sister. It was great to be able to finally meet them after knowing about them for over 23 years. I showed them backstage a little bit and introduced them to Huey. Then it was time for me to go to work. They all sat in the audience for the show. I went out and watched Chicago with them in the house after Huey. There was a guest guitarist that played with Chicago. His name is Hotei. He is apparently a huge Japanese rock star and he brought the house down. I took the Amagasaki's backstage afterward and we all took pictures with Hotei. They loved it.

After that, Ken's family was gracious enough to take me out for dinner. Guess what we ate... They were impressed with my chopstick dexterity. They couldn't believe that I eat sushi at least once a week at home. I learned at that meal where wasabi came from. It's a ground up root. It came in root form with a grinder and you made it fresh at the table. I don't know if I've ever had real wasabi before but this stuff was incredible. I could have sucked on the root itself! It was a wonderful time and we all actually communicated pretty well considering Ken was the only bilingual person at the table. They understood a lot of my English though. I had my computer with me so I was able to show them pictures of my family. They were particularly interested in Matthew and Molly my nephew and niece. They were all impressed that we had two Doctors in the family now - David of course but now Dad has all but completed his PhD. The Amagasaki's send all their love to all of the Teeds and Bendures and Baumwarts. They want to know who is going to visit next!!

We finished up dinner and it was time to go. Ken paid for my cab home and gave me some tips for shopping. It's my day off today and we're going to be out on the town. As always, Ken and I had so much fun together. As I've been telling everyone here, he's my brotha from anotha motha. I hope it's not too long before I see my Japanese brother again.

I'm off to explore Tokyo with my crew. It should be a fun day. We play Yokohama tomorrow and then head home on Wednesday. See ya!

Huey Lewis and the Foos

Ok. Here it is!! Teri (our asst. tour mgr.) shot the whole thing on a better camera. I'll have a copy that soon enough. The audio is distorted so don't mind that. It's time for me to buy a new camera. I have yet to see the band since the Foo's show. I can't wait to hear what happened when they went out for dinner.

I also just shot a video walking around the stage during the line check for Chicago. Our days are very relaxed and everyone is so cool. It's been a fantastic time so far.

The other pics are of Huey and the boys with Chicago during the first rehearsal in Hiroshima.

The Osaka show was great. Osaka is a gorgeous city. It is huge but clean as is everything in Japan. Even the road blocks have been beautified with flowers. The electrical grid is a bit questionable as you can see. The cops looks straight out of Godzilla. There's another picture of Robb (drum tech) bibbing himself and Ralph (guitar tech) eating his noodles in a single bite. Note the really hot Japanese girl at the other table. :) They're everywhere.

We all have been making fun of Merrit for wearing the bird flu mask everywhere in the US so now he feels right at home. Robb even helped himself to a mask.

Sorry I can't get the vertical pictures to be upright. This blog program is retarded. I've looked through the whole thing to try and fix it. I suspect I need to know html. I'm not about to figure that out. Bloody technology.

The Japanese crews are incredible. I haven't lifted a finger since the first day. I come in and I mix and I leave. If only it was always this way.

We head back Tokyo tomorrow for a day off. Ken will be going out with us tomorrow night. We might go to the fish market. I also hear the Harajuku is the happenin' place to be.

I think I'm going to start posting more videos. As long as I have a good high speed connection, I'll keep adding videos.

I'll write more from Tokyo!!

Just arrived in Nagoya

I'm really tired so I'm going to write a proper entry tomorrow morning. I just wanted to do a quick update of a really cool thing that happened a few hours ago.

Last night, Merrit (keyboard tech) and I went out with Ian (Foo Fighters monitor engineer) and we proceeded to get ridiculously wrecked. He's a Scotsman so he drank us under the table.

Anyway, about 4 hours ago, I took the band to see the Foo's. It was about a 1500 person hall. Those Japanese kids were going crazy! What a treat to see a band like that in a small place. In a couple of months, they will be playing two sold out shows at Wembley Stadium in the round. 88,000 people a night.

We got there about an hour before the show and hung out and had some drinks with them. Then we went up to a private balcony and watched the show. About 40 mins. into the show, we see Huey on stage left. The Foos tour manager had a harmonica and Huey went out and played with the Foo Fighters!!!!!! Unbelievable!!! Totally unplanned.

The other crew guys and I had to take the bullet train to Nagoya before the Foos even ended but the band stayed and even went to dinner with the Foos. Dave Grohl and Huey got along famously. Both guys are really super people and I think I've made a match of them!

It's about 12:30am Thursday morning and we've got a show tomorrow. I'm completely exhausted so I'll post the video of Huey and the Foos tomorrow. Killer stuff!!!

Until then.....

Japan!!!!

Man do I love flying. I can't wait to file into a queue and submit myself to the lot of retards who work for a government agency that has the employee turnover frequency of Taco Bell.

Getting to Japan was a two day process for all of us. On Thursday, we set out from Puerto Rico to San Francisco via Washington Dulles. That was an 11 hour ordeal. We stayed at the SF Airport Crowne Plaza for a night and got up to take the 10 hour flight to Tokyo. Usually I would have a plan to turn my hours around before I got to Japan but it was just pointless with this itinerary.

When we leveled off at 38,000 ft. and the seatbelt sign went off, I got up to purchase two bottles of Jack before they could even pull the carts out. I found a willing flight attendant and got back to my seat. I looked across the plane to see Bugsy (my fellow audio engineer) and he smiled and gave me the thumbs up. I took the opportunity to make a production of me flashing an Ambien and slamming it down with the two Jack Daniels bottles. He was cracking up.

It took about an hour for me to feel it but when it hit, I was out. Unfortunately I woke up about four hours later and that was that. I couldn't sleep anymore so I snuck up to business class to an open seat next to Teri our asst. tour manager. She was cracking up and order us a couple bottles of sake. I enjoyed the nearly prone seating for about an hour before the Purser caught on and told me I was a very bad man. I spent the last four hours in coach.

I could have upgraded to business class for 60,000 miles but that's another trip somewhere in the world. Forget it. Luckily I have some sort of status with my "Economy Plus" seating. I think I get six inches out of the deal.

So we landed in Tokyo around 2pm and immediately had a production meeting at the one of the hotel restaurants. We met all of our Japanese crew and discussed the tour. Everyone was very nice and knowledgeable. Our stomachs were growling and we were all itching to get some food. Rick, our Production Manager, led us off to a nearby street with plenty of food and drink. We eventually found a small noodle house that suited our purpose. We walked in and sat down and started pointing at pictures. Not a single person there spoke English. Oh well, kindergarten was good for something.

We eventually found out that we had to pay first at a machine that spit out our order on a piece of paper. That was given to the attendant who promptly made our food. Fortunately there was a couple that showed us what was going on or we might have sat there pointing for hours.

After dinner we all headed out to an English pub for some Guinness. Right now you might be saying that we might as well have eaten at McDonalds (which we did pass along the way) but our mission was not to start the wonderful experience of Japan. Our mission was to have a few pints from a place where we could communicate easily and get back to the hotel and crash. It was 5am Pacific.

As I walked into my hotel room, my phone rang. I thought it would be a reminder call that we had to be in the lobby at 10am the next morning. When I picked up the phone though, I heard a pleasing baritone voice.

"Pleezuh standuh-by for call from Mr. Kenichi Amagasaki"

Perfect timing!!!

For those of you who don't know, Kenichi (Ken) is my Japanese brother. He was an exchange student my family had for a year back in 1986. He has come back to visit us in the States several times and our family even met his parents in Hawaii about 7 years ago.

Ken and I caught up for a bit and then he told me he could meet me the next morning in the lobby before we took off to Hiroshima. I hadn't expected to be able to see him until next week when we play Tokyo. I was very excited for him to send me off. Shortly after, it was 10pm and I couldn't keep my eyes open. I set my alarm for 9am hoping to bang out a long nights sleep.

3am - my eyes open. They don't close again. I watched some Japanese TV, some CNN, and some BBC. Nothing worked. I got out my book and read it for about an hour. Nothing.

About 5am, I quit reading and decided to attempt to pass out to the TV again. I was flipping around the 11 channels of horrible TV when I stumbled on the third round of the Masters!! Sweet! Surely the soothing voices of the golf commentators would lull me into a new slumber!

Well, I've got news for you. Japanese golf commentators are not like Johnny Miller and David Faraday. There are no low monotone voices from the Japanese broadcast. Instead, it is filled with bounding exclamations and endless grunting of agreement.

"MMMMMMMM!! Hai! Hai!!"

So much for the lullaby. I stayed up until 8am watching golf. At least I got to see one round of the Masters this year. Tiger had a 4 under round but it doesn't look like it will be enough this year.

I think I finally fell asleep somewhere around 8am. My alarm woke me up an hour later.

When I got down to the lobby, Ken was there waiting!! It was great to see him. He looks great and hasn't aged a day. We shot the shit for 20 min. or so before I had to get to the airport and fly to Hiroshima. May I say that flying in Japan is quite a different experience than the US. If only I flew in Japan all the time...

It was a bit cloudy in Hiroshima as my flight approached that afternoon. I felt a fascinated, solemn discomfort staring out my window wondering if I was seeing the same view that a B-29 on August 6, 1945 saw. It's fucking weird. All you can do is gaze and think.

We were bussed to the hotel from the airport and settled into our rooms for about 20 min and then met up downstairs to venture out. First stop? The A-bomb Dome.

Rob, Merrit, Ralph, Rick and I walked about 5 min. to the so-called A-bomb Dome. This building was originally built in 1915 by a Czech architect as a commerce house. It was a large building with a gorgeous green dome on top that had become a proud Hiroshima landmark. It was called the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall.

At 8:15am on that day in 1945, The Bomb detonated about 600 meters nearly directly above this building. Everyone inside was vaporized instantly. But because it was just below the explosion, it was the only building to avoid the extending shockwave and it's walls and dome didn't completely fall.

Initially there was a huge movement to do away with any reminders of that day. Throughout the years following the blast, almost all of the other structures of Hiroshima were replaced. Eventually the "A-bomb Dome" as it became to be known, gained support to be a monument for peace and the city preserved it to always look just as it did the day the Bomb dropped.

It is too difficult to describe what I felt as I stood there and looked at the skeletal remains of the symbol of human destructive power. If every single head of state would be required to stand there in the shadow of that structure upon the first day of taking office, things might be a little different on this planet.

Complete world peace may never be a feasibly attainable goal but at least we could all agree to do away with complete mutual destruction. Perhaps that is what was accomplished those days in Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the sacrifice of millions.

The rest of the day was spent shopping and wondering about the city. It is now a clean, beautiful bustling city with quite the downtown marketplace. I am very surprised at the happenin' fashions of the local young people. Japan is full of incredibly pleasant and polite people. Hiroshima exemplifies this at every turn. If you ever make it all the way to Japan, I would definitely not miss it.

I'm off to bed. We've got our first show tomorrow. Tuesday we will head to Osaka by bullet train. A very cool coincidence has happened on this tour. The Foo Fighters are playing Osaka for two nights, the second being on our day off. So I called up my buddies on their crew and asked if we could come to the show. As Huey and the guys are such big fans, we've all been invited to go see the show. It should be bad ass. I haven't seen them since I toured with them two years ago. I'm really looking forward to it.

That's it for now!!! I'll let you know how the first day goes.........

Amsterdam, London, Paris, Munich

As you might be able to tell, this began the serious party phase of my trip. Because I’m basically doing two days per city, it’s been tough to find time to update the blog. I pretty much have to cover the rest of my trip with this entry so I’ll attempt to be brief.

I’ll start with Amsterdam. First thing I did was head to the Van Gogh museum. My host, Benedicte (Beni), took me there straight away. Of course we stopped at a coffee shop and picked up a joint. BEAUTIFUL.

We spent maybe two hours at the museum. It was really well put together and I learned quite a bit about Van Gogh that I did not know. He did not begin his art in earnest until he was 26. Prior to that, he had been an evangelical preacher. He had a disappointing and tragic life and never knew of the greatness he would eventually attain. I could have spent another three hours staring at the work of this amazing genius. Truly one of my favorites.

That night, we met a couple of Beni’s friends, Famke and Peter, for dinner at their house. Beni loaned me one of her bikes and we went riding through Amsterdam. Biking is so much better than the car you fat, lazy Americans. We had some fantastic soup (Zucchini I think) and a warm pasta w/ tomato, olive and greens dish. Apple pie and coffee for desert. Tasty.

Beni took me to a music bar afterward and we saw some “indie” bands. They were mostly young angst rockers fresh out of the garage. Good thing we had another joint because we might have left earlier. We called it a night around midnight.

The next day Beni had to work, so I walked around Amsterdam mostly in the red light district on the east side. I was baked all day of course. I understand that they are shutting down a good portion of the prostitute rooms so I was glad to see them before they went. Most of the girls were not exactly great to look at. But there definitely was a couple of hot ones. I headed over to the west side to see the “non touristy” part of the Dam. Beautiful town. I’d live here in a second.

That night, I met up with some couch surfers because Beni had to be to bed early for work the next day. I actually met up with a girl from Vegas and her boyfriend from Brazil. I rode the bike to meet them. Around 2am, I headed back to Beni’s, expertly navigating the streets and canals of Amsterdam. I don’t think there are any laws about bike riding completely drunk and baked!

I flew to London the next day. Ridiculously expensive. I met up with an old friend, Laura, who used to work at Disney when I was there. I haven’t seen her in almost 10 years. Laura brought her sister, Rachel, too. First thing we did was to hit the London Eye. As we got close to the eye, I leaned out the taxi to see a large clock tower. I asked Laura and Rachel,
“Is that Ben?”
They both replied,
“That’s not Big Ben. That’s just some clock.”
I said, “Are you sure?”

“Oh yeah. We would know Big Ben.”

As it turns out, the American knows more about London than the girls from Manchester. Hilarious.

We walked around a little bit before going up in the Eye. Of course we got the best view of London. It was great to get my bearings from up there. Gorgeous view.

That night we were going to go clubbing. Because I hadn’t bothered to bring any fancy shoes, the three of us set out shopping. I would have been laughed out of the line of the club if I had not. I got stuck buying shoes for 70 pounds. $140 for us poor owners of the dollar. We were going to meet up with Jill, another girl that worked at Disney years ago. She came with her boyfriend. We hit a bar to warm up and then got to the club. Laura knew some TV star there but of course I had no idea who it was. We had a 90 pound bottle of champagne (stupid) and drank and danced the night away. We ended up leaving when I had to pick Laura off the floor and forcibly dragged Rachel out. Sorry girls… Gotta to tell it like it is!!!! You Brits can’t hold your liquor!!!!

The next morning we ordered room service at 50 pounds. Posh. Laura can’t have it any other way. Off we went to see the London Bridge. We were draggin’ ass from the night before. I made those girls walk around 2 or 3 miles that day. HAHAHA. That night, we had Indian food. I had the Lamb Vindaloo. Scrumtrulescent. We stopped at another bar on the way home. I had a nice Scotch and then we hit the hay. I had to get up at 5am to catch my train. London has cost me more than the entire trip combined. I don’t think I’ll be coming back any time soon. But it was a blast, Laura. Thanks so much.

The next morning, I took the train to Paris. Paris is so beautiful. The architecture and the layout of the city is marvelous. I could live here. My host, Laure, was kind enough to meet me at the train station and ride with me back to her place. She lives across the street from the Louvre. Amazing. I dropped my gear, had a little bite to eat, and then drove to the Eiffel Tower. We walked from our killer parking spot through the park to the tower. We got tickets for 5 Euro I think. We were wondering how it was so cheap. We soon found out that we had tickets for the stairs and not the elevator. Shit. Oh well. I was up for it but I don’t think Laure was looking forward to it. We ended up only going to the second level. It was nothing. Again, starting my city tour with the bird’s eye view is a great idea.

After that, we drove back to her place and walked along the river to Notre Dame. Beautiful structure and freshly cleaned. I’ve seen so many cathedrals on this trip it’s tough to say which one was the most beautiful. This one ranks up there. Laure had to work after that so I went to the Louvre. I spent about three hours soaking in the art. Honestly, a lot of the portrait work became boring but I enjoyed the sculpture, Egyptian art and in particular discovered that I really like Goya.

It was so unbelievably gorgeous outside, I had to get out in the park. The sunset was stunning and I got some amazing shots from inside the north wing of the Louvre. I strolled around the Jardin des Tuileries and enjoyed the perfect weather and all the people and children and the moment. It’s no wonder this is one of the most desired places in the world.

I was supposed to go out with Laure and her friends that night but I ended up missing them, due to AT&T sucking my ass. I highly recommend getting a Euro SIM card if you’re coming over here. I priced it out and found that for the month, I might even save a little money without the SIM card but I certainly didn’t save any headache. Turns out AT&T is fucking worthless in the States and abroad. I will be changing my service when I get back because I’m over it.

The next day, Laure took me to the Champs D’Elysee and we strolled to the Arch di Triumph. Actually we took the metro because it so far down there. From there we headed to the Sacre Coeur and I strolled around there for a couple of hours. Beautiful part of Paris. A bit of the old world feel. I was going to head back to the Musee d’Oray but it was closing at 6pm that day. It was 5pm already so I went back to the Tuileries. I sat there and wrote in my journal for about two hours off and on, enjoying yet another amazing sunset.

While writing that night, I think I made up my mind to seriously put effort into leaving the US for a while. I’m not sure where I’ll go but I have to go. I’m not sure for how long, but I need some change. Maybe it will be something crazy like Cairo or maybe it will be something centrally located like Munich. I don’t know but a change is coming. I need to learn a foreign language fluently and the only real way to get that done is to move to that country. We shall see. I said the same thing after I went to China……

I took the overnight to Munich. The next morning (yesterday morning) I met my host, Karin Beer. Yes I’m going to Oktoberfest with Karin Beer. She explained to me the Beer doesn’t mean beer, it means berry. I told her it meant beer to me and that it was perfect. She was dressed in her red German dress with thick read high-heel shoes. Off we went.

We visited several beirgartens (tents) and drank and drank and drank. It was a raucous time with the bands playing Ein Prosit and other traditional songs. People are standing on the tables and singing at the top of their lungs. You can’t drink unless you have a place at a table so we went running around trying to find a place to sit in each tent. You always find someone different. I had bratwurst and kraut with my first beer. She told me today that I had 5 liters of beer. I don’t remember that many. I do know that both of us ended up passing out on a grassy hill for some time at the Oktoberfest. The weather was absolutely PERFECT! It is such a happy festival. Parades and amusement rides with everyone dressed in Leiderhosen and German dresses that I can’t remember the name of. Karin will scold me for that because she told me yesterday but I can barely remember how we got home.

Yesterday ended very early out of complete necessity.

Today is my last day of the trip. I’m sitting in a botanical garden in downtown Munich. The weather is again as perfect as you can get. Karin had to work today but will be finished around 2 or 3 so she is going to show me her city. Another day at the Oktoberfest is out of the question. I’m too old for that shit two days in a row.

I fly to Atlanta tomorrow to do a Huey gig. Then to California for two more Huey gigs and then I’ll get to be home. I don’t work for a week or so which is crucial because I’ll need some serious recovery time. I haven’t even seen a regular season football game yet. I’m really looking forward to that. The Cowboys have won their first two games and maybe a third. They played Chicago yesterday but I still don’t know the result of that. Maybe we’re 3-0.

I suppose I’ll write one more entry after I’ve gotten home and had time to really digest this whole trip. It will be no sooner than a week from now though.

Until then….

PS.... I didn't get this posted until Wednesday. Karin and I ended up going back to the Oktoberfest....hahahahaahh. We sat with a bunch of Aussies... I highly recommend that. They had some German snuff and we were stuffing it up our noses the whole time. I think the pictures speak for themselves. At one point, we were all singing Achy Breaky Heart...
I got a little excited and did an Ein Prosit a little too hard..... ooops. You can physically see how progressively drunk I'm getting. Priceless pics!!!

The last shot is of me at 6am attempting to pack and get to the airport. My journey has come to an end. I have to thank Karin immensely for driving me to the airport in Munich. It decided to rain hard this morning. I owe you big Karin. Thanks.