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.........