Next Stop on the Shikoku Express

LEEWAY and Thirsty Chords~

 The last two weekends have been busy with shows, and this next weekend marks the last in making our rounds of Shikoku (3.17 Ehime, 3.25 Kochi, 3.31 Kagawa 4.7 Tokushima). While our Kochi show did not have the best turn-out (and me and Matto had to pay 8000 yen out of pocket because we live in the prefecture?! Just because T. set up a poorly-attended show should not mean we have to pay him for it! >:| ), it was still a fun show, and for once we didn't have to get on the highway and drive.

The delicious Kagawa Udon from WARAYA (わら屋)

The place we practiced in was soooo tight and most of the amps were broken/looked like they'd been hidden in a closet for 10 years. THOUGH! It did have a piano in the room that I got to play <3

It also had two drum sets (???!)

This last weekend we had a show in Takamatsu at this little place called Blowin'Bar. It's a really new live house/bar and it even still had the smell of "new" floating around inside. We all got to the city early in order to eat Kagawa Udon (<3<3<3), see the castle ruins, and practice for an hour and a half at this sketchy little studio. Our usual supporting guitarist had a show with his other band the same night, so we asked someone else to help us out and needed a little more time to get everything solid before the show (plus! We decided to do a cover from Alkaline Trio, "Nose Over Tail").

Cheap Audio guitarist doing his acoustic set.

 There were only three sets for the whole show (Us, Parkmates, and the guitarist from Cheap Audio doing an acoustic set), but surprisingly a lot of people showed up, and the after party was a blast :) I love it when we don't have to go anywhere for the after party and we can just leave stay in the venue and be goofy.

寝っちゃったかな〜

The next day me and Matto toured around Takamatsu for awhile with the guitarist from Parkmates. I've been to Takamatsu three times now and have never properly driven around the city. We ended up eating more udon (curry udon FTW!), going to an amazing natural food store (that had really good soy milk, soy yogurt, and even had dairy-less margarine!!!), and walking around Ritsurin Kouen, this gorgeous park near his house that's a popular tourist location. It had some of the prettiest wooden bridges and flowered paths I've ever seen! The Sakura were also just beginning to bloom so people were out hanami-ing in the open stretches of lawn. I can't wait to do hanami!! If it's possible, and the weather is nice, I'm hoping that we'll all be able to picnic together Sunday afternoon in Tokushima~

栗林公園 in Takamatsu

LEEWAY-Tin Cans Calling Home, First 11 Track Album

Matsuyama Live, "ヤバい夜になるゼー！"

Leeway's second show was once again, speechlessly fun. I don't think I've laughed so much in one day in awhile. <3 The four of us got to hang out in Matsuyama, wandering the streets, drinking beer, taking purikura, and talking about Tanuki (Tokushima is apparently famous for Tanuki! We learned about the Tanuki war and the top three Tanuki in Tokushima!!). The day started out wonderfully when we drove from rainy-depressing Kochi into sun-shiny Matsuyama to meet up with Speed Red and Gyoza Face for some lunch. Noontime beer~

We went second out of the seven bands playing that night. Sanhose was really good and I loved that the guitarist and bassist's instruments were the colors of Christmas (BRIGHT red and BRIGHT green). The Miscasts were also really really good and I'm sooo happy I finally got to see them live (since I had only heard their seven-inch up until this point). Turncoat went last and played a bunch of their really good new songs (Mall said they are trying to make a full-length soon! Can't wait~). It was also nice having the after party at the venue (GREAT tempura <3), being able to hang out with everyone freely without being constrained to seats in a restaurant, and being able to play music from an ipod.

NO PEEING! 恥ずかしくないの？！

Purikura <3

Even Obama approves of noontime beer!

Sanhose and their Christmas-colored instruments.

The Miscasts!

After party in Hoshizora Jett with loads of tempura

Aren't we adorable?

TGIF!!!

Phew~ What a busy week it's been! After an exhausting 8 hours in the studio on Sunday, I've had to phone and e-mail with our band members in Tokushima everyday about what things we want fixed on our new 11 song album. What sort of parts we want mixed better, what parts we want brought to the forefront, what vocals we want softened, what we should do with the lyrics booklet/cover designs I drew, etc.... I even had to drive all the way back to Tokushima on Wednesday to re-record one track (a song where I have aprox 30 seconds of vocals) because the computer decided to delete the damn thing (though our producer cutely said it was because the computer was so surprised a foreigner was singing Japanese into it that it's brain died for a minute). Although, I must admit that even though I had to drive 4 hours round trip to record 30 seconds of vocals, I'm really really proud of what we created, I got the first burned copy of the tracks, and I was taken out to dinner by our producer and fed the most amazing yakitori (that, and getting our guitarist drunk enough to start spouting hilarious English phrases like "Oh Gyoza, get into my mouth. I won't use my teeth, I'll just use my tongue. Get into my dirty mouth" is always worth a 2 hour drive).

Other than that craziness, we plan on having our last practice tomorrow before looking forward to 4 weekends in a row of shows!! Yay!! After this month of shows, we'll have completed the island of Shikoku ;)

3/17: Ehime-Ken; Matsuyama, Hoshizora Jett

Frustration Never Disappear

Miscasts (京都)

Sanhose (京都)

Leeway (高知／徳島)

Turncoat (愛媛)

etc...

3/25: Kochi-Ken; Kochi, Chaotic Noise K-Club

 黒死国

Leeway (高知／徳島)

Thirsty Chords (徳島)

etc...

3/31: Kagawa-Ken; Takamatsu, Blowin'Bar

Parkmates Farewell Live

Leeway (高知／徳島)

Parkmates (香川)

Cheap Audio (香川)

etc...

4/7: Tokushima-Ken, Tokushima, Crowbar

 Leeway's "Tin Cans Calling Tokushima" CD Release Party

 Leeway (高知／徳島)

What's What (岡山)

Parkmates (香川)

Hushpuppy (徳島)

So anyway.... even though it's not all completely finished, I want to share one track from our album with you guys! The song is called "Friday Night Drinking Song" and it is destined to be the first track on our album. The sample at the beginning is from "Blues Brothers" if you weren't sure~ ;)

Friday Night Drinking Song; Leeway

Old-man Rock n' Roll

I like seeing my older Japanese friends up on the stage, performing enthusiastically even on a Wednesday night. They still have passion for something they like to do and aren't conforming to the old-man standards! Long live old punks and rock n' rollers!!!

"Frustration Never Disapear"

３月は１７日(土)にマイペースながらの自主企画、今年一発目やります。今回のゲストは先ず「TheMiscasts」。数枚のレコードシングル (DRIFTAGEとのSPLITも含む)とテープリリースが中心で音の知名度は低いかもしれないが、吐き出す激ヴォイスとポップセンスと見事なドラム捌 きは圧巻。ビート感抜群のベースと、replacementsばりのギターメロディが絡まって、最高なサウンドを奏でる。最近配布中のデモCDRではまた 新しい境地へと向かっていっている。更に今回はそのMISCASTS権氏がサポートドラムを務めるSANHOSEも初来松決定。UNDERGROUND GOVERNMENT/RECESS JAPANからアルバムもリリースされている彼らのその音はまさにドタバタPOP PUNK。初期LOOK OUT,RECESS,Plan It X等のレーベルファンからHARD CORE,オルタナファンまで必見。そして四国勢は要注目のニューカマーLEEWAY。シカゴ出身高知県在住のマット（ベース）とインディ（ギター・ ボーカル）、そして徳島のメロディックパンク若頭Thirsty Chordsのアツシ氏（ドラム・ボーカル）、サポートギターにHAMKの荒瀬を迎えた豪華BAND期待大のその中身やいかに！？

Busy weekend complete with seeing "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" (ものすごくうるさくて、ありえないほど近い) with some friends, an art exhibition opening (Sea's landlord's paintings from the past 40-ish years), once again proctoring for the Eiken interview segment (ugh, kill me), and band practice in Tokushima. Also, this poster for my band's (Leeway) next show just came out on a (locally) popular blog called "FND" that two of my friends write on. If the nihongo is okay with you, the little segment about my band is at the end. :) I'm pretty excited for this show, because we get to play with my friend Mall's band "Turncoat," as well as a band I'm rather found of called "The Miscasts" from Kyoto. I've never heard of any of the other bands.... but I'm looking forward to it all since Hoshizora Jett usually puts together some pretty excellent shows~

Day 12 - Describe a fail!gaijin moment/gaijin!smash moment.

Describe a fail!gaijin moment (where you did something wrong or completely misunderstood because you couldn’t ~read the air~ or just plain had no idea what you were supposed to do because you weren’t born and raised here). Describe a gaijin!smash moment (where your foreignness was to your benefit).

source

While I have friends who like nothing more than to yell out, "Gaijin smash!" and proceed in committing some sort of social faux-pas, I try my hardest to blend in, follow the "rules," and not increase the amount of stares I already get on a day-to-day basis here in the countryside. With that said, like anyone else who isn't a native to Japan, I do have my moments where I let my foreign-ness aid me in slipping away from awkward/complex situations. We all know that feigning ignorance can be much better than having to deal with life sometimes, right? ;P

source

However, above all of the subway-ticket-mishaps and awkward-lunch-time-incidents in bigger cities, there is one thing about being a foreigner in my particular region that has finally shown me more of an advantage than not. I am a novelty. This is nothing new, of course. Many foreigners are seen as novelty items and get special treatment/tolerance because of their "exoticism." The reason random people go out of their way to talk to us and/or buy us drinks/dinner is because some people seem to think talking to a non-Japanese is novel enough to allow such behavior. Okay, great! Free dinner and drinks!

This type of treatment, however, is not what I'm referring to. Surprising to even myself, as a member of a half Japanese band (two members of LeeWay are American and two are Japanese) who can speak Japanese, we have rendered ourselves enough of a novelty in order to get some pretty special treatment, considering even the punk scene here in Japan is heavily reliant on the sempai-kohai caste system that perpetuates through everything in this country.

A photo a friend took of our show~<3

Anywhere me and my friend Matto go, we are invited everywhere by nearly anyone we meet. As soon as people find out we're in a band, they invite us to play a show with them, go along to a show with them, go drinking with them, crash at their house... the list goes on. To top it all off, this subculture of amazing people doesn't look at us like we're alien monsters (for the most part). When people notice we speak Japanese, we are 9 out of 10 times immediately accepted into the discussion (of course, it helps that by now, we know a good portion of the people involved in this subculture in a variety of cities around Japan...).

Looking vicious

While most of these people are genuinely amazing individuals with interesting things to say, and more often than not experience with traveling abroad (for band tours and such), I think that they also realize we are not permanent fixtures in this country. They realize that our home is called America, not Kochi or even Japan, and before we escape back to that country, they want to hang out and have a good time. Whether or not Japan is the place I'm going to stay forever, I appreciate the fact that people will drop the rigid social structures (like the sempai-kohai system) and make some sacrifices in order to get to know us in the short amount of time we're here.

Live @ Crowbar

After-party, everyone hung around the live house and we sang to Arase's acoustic playing.

This past Saturday marked the first show my band, LeeWay, has gotten to perform! Everything about the night was spectacular, and I don't think I've been to a better show than that one (and I'd say that even if my band hadn't been playing). The line-up was amazing (three great Tokushima bands and two great Tokyo bands), everyone was in a good mood, and the place was the most packed I've ever seen it!

We went fourth in a line-up of six bands. At first, we were all kinda nervous about it because that meant we'd have to hold off on the drinks and just let the nerves build up over the course of three other bands.... but honestly once we got up on stage to start setting up and tuning, the nerves just kind of melted away and our set went amazingly. The bass player from FOUR TOMORROW even jumped off the stage and started crowd surfing!!

FOUR TOMORROW went second. Second time I've seen them and they were amazing <3

 After the show, instead of going out to an izakaya as usual, we all stayed at Crowbar and had a birthday party for the guitarist from THE MADWIFE (the band that set the show up in the first place). Everyone sang happy birthday and there was a very very cute cake presented~ Afterward, we all stood around the stage, singing songs to acoustic guitar (the best part of this genre, pop punk, is that even in Japan, everyone knows English songs like Weezer, Jawbreaker and Blink 182). Perfect perfect night.

Our set~

Tuning before hand

Those "speed red" glasses (originally our drummer's) really got around that night. Me with Spalding from What-A-Night's

Sea's b-day was also Saturday so we took her along to the show <3

THE MADWIFE went after us

Kana fell asleep on an amp after the show

But during the show, she showed off speed red too

ELMOC, being amazing as usual

Hikko was sooo drunk she fell over onto stage once, into the crowd once, and into an amp once <3

More speed red

After the show, presenting Ayaka with flowers and cake for her birthday.

Back To Life

AHHH a nearly perfect line-up of amazing bands that I will *probably be going to see (a few complications may stand in my way...). Mall said that he'd take me and Matto along with him on the drive up to Tokyo, so if it's possible, hellz YES I'm along for the ride! Of course, judging from the live's he's performing in that weekend, this most likely means driving up Friday night to Saitama (where they have their first show) and then going back down to Hachioji to hang out. Rough sounding-drive (11 hours to Tokyo, I don't know how long to Saitama...), but totally worth it to see WHAT-A-NIGHT'S last show until May.

Anyway, other than being back to work and back in Kochi, I wanted to write about my last day of vacation in Mie-ken with Yukine. We ended up taking an early train out of Matsusaka to Nagoya, since it's only one and a half hours from her place (and the trains are so warm and easy to fall asleep on...). Since my dear friend Yukine has recently picked up an obsession with castles and collecting castle stamps (I did not even know something like that existed), we went to Nagoya castle first. The outside of the castle is absolutely gorgeous, but the inside was a real disappointment. Instead of being one of those old, creaky castles where your feet freeze because you have to wear the provided slippers, and the staircases are so steep one wrong step could probably kill you.... it was one of those re-done castles that had a museum inside of it and central heating (LAMEEE).

Lame-ness aside, after our castle wanderings, we ate some Nagoya meibutsus and tried Kishimen (a flat noodle) and miso katsu (delicious~). They had a huge castle teishoku that we split and got served the noodles in two separate bowls (after Yukine spent ages sticking her extra 10 and 50 yen coins into the ticket machine). First time I've eaten a flat noodle in Japan!

Later, we wandered over to Osu-Kannon to check out the shrine (still packed with hatsumode visitors) and gobs of used-clothing shops in the area. There were streets and streets of shops selling used everything and it was hard to pull away from some of the cute dresses and sweaters I found (was running low on funds at the time). I did, however, find the local record shop and picked up a couple of super cheap 12 inches to add to my collection~ (Goofy's Holiday, Water Closet, 29 band comp CD, and 30 band comp double EP).

Upon arriving back to Matsusaka, Yukine took me to a well-known beef restaurant that sells 1万 200gram Matsusaka steaks and treated me to a delicious teishoku <3 Don't know how it compared to Kobe beef (since I've never tried any), but it was simply to-die-for. What a wonderful way to end an 8-day holiday~

"Tease Me, Please Me #3"

I like how our band's name is the only one not all in caps.

The flyer for our first show was finally made!! Yahoo!!! The picture used for it is one of Hikko from ELMOC in a particularly drunk-looking state, hahaha. Oh man, can't wait! Other than FOOL THE PUBLIC (which I've never seen before), the rest of the bands we are playing with are awesome. I need to be on my A game for this...yesterday, we had the singer/guitarist from THE MADWIFE, one of her friends, and the bass from WHAT-A-NIGHT'S come and listen in on our practice. I got kinda nervous the first song and royally messed up my guitar part. :P The song we always start with is a little tougher, so having an easier song to start with will help take the edge off playing a real show I think. As soon as the first song was done, I eased up a lot and was able to get through the rest of the songs fine. I wonder what they thought of it all... the singer/guitarist from WHAT-A-NIGHT'S really liked our practice recordings and mentioned that at the show me and Matto went to on Saturday evening, but no one said anything in particular when we were taking a break Sunday. Of course, I don't really think that means they didn't like it or anything. Thinking about it, when I went to the recording for Horse and Deer, it's not like me and Matto jumped up and down and yelled "OMG you guys are soooo awesooome~!" or anything. You just smile, bob along to the music, and enjoy what you're listening to.

Turncoat

Saturday, me and Matto headed out to Takamatsu to see a show at a place called Rizin. I've mentioned this before, but Takamatsu is famous for their udon, and ever since I had a taste of it (at a place apparently called "God Hand") I've craved it. I did not satisfy that craving Saturday because the place we chose to eat at was just a lame chain restaurant, so the udon was only so-so. :\ Next time I'll have to do it properly. The only notable bands were Turncoat, WHAT-A-NIGHT'S, Shipyards, and Parkmates. Everything else was pretty bad...

Wine wine win~

Friday night, one of my friends in town had a wine and cheese party that I went to. It was really nice tasting different wines and indulging in ligit tasting cheeses. Japanese cheese tends to be so mild and dull tasting... it was really nice trying a strong blue cheese and brie with apple slices and nut-filled bread. I brought a crumble cake to the party, and Sea brought some cheddar. Unfortunately, the cheese was rather mild and only had a hint of any true cheddary taste. I miss sharp cheddar's bite so badly sometimes...

Last week of classes and work until I take a 12 day vacation! Pretty busy week, actually: I have classes everyday this week, a bonenkai on Thursday and Saturday night, practice late Friday night, and I'm holding a little Christmas party on Sunday the 25th right before I head out to Korea next Monday! Me and my college buddy (that came to visit last month) living in Mie Ken are going to Korea from the 26th-30th, and then I'm bumming at her house until I have to go home on the 3rd. We decided that we are going to go to the extremely popular and very famous Ise Shrine for New Years. I've never done the traditional Japanese New Years thing before, so I'm excited to get freezing cold receive omikuji, and see what sort of fortune next year will bring me~

Atsushi's new nickname is going to be "Speed Red," after those awesome glasses we got for him in Tokyo.

Arase nicknamed himself "This is shit" after the poop stickers we also brought back for them. His Tokyo gift was a lighter that had a heart that lit up on the front when you used the lighter. Hahahaha~

Why Japan Wins At Public Holidays

Yesterday was the second public holiday this month! And really, what's a better way to get through a cold workweek than to have a holiday splitting it into two manageable halves? I do love my three-day weekends, but with how cold it's been getting recently, it was a relief to not have to wake up before the sun rose, as well as wear jeans. :x

 

Since it was labor day here in Japan, me and Matto packed up our gear and drove over to Tokushima to have band practice and see a live. Why they decided to have a live show on the actual holiday and not the night before so everyone could party.... I will never understand (but it was a fantastic show, nonetheless). We practiced for two hours in Torigoro's (practice/recording studio) nicest studio; it was soo spacious and fancy feeling, compared to the cramped old spaces they rent out here in Kochi. We finished a 6^th song together and finally decided on a band name: Leeway. It feels appropriate for our strange little group of four (our two Tokushima bandmates keep getting weirder/more interesting the more time we spend with them. I'm loving it).

Arase, our amazing teddybear-esque lead guitarist and my lyrics notebook in the spacious studio <3

Atsushi still in his work clothes. Isn't the studio fancy looking?!

After practice, Atsushi had to get to a show at another venue called Grindhouse, so Matto, Arase and I all went out to an izakaya/sushi-ya to eat, drink, and bond (I could not participate in the drinking part, seeing as I am always DD). Since there was so much time between practice ending, and the show at Crowbar beginning, we wandered over to see Thirsty Chords play at Grindhouse. They played amazingly, as usual, but for a crowd who was not thrilled to see them. Now that I've seen them enough times in enough live houses, it's interesting to see what songs they choose to play for which crowds. When they know that the crowd loves them, they play all their amazing songs from the “I Continue I...” album. Otherwise, they play either really old or really new stuff...

The band before them was a Sublime ripoff, and the guys after them (who were assholes) had this reggae/ska/rap thing going that I was really not a fan of. Thank god the tickets to the show were cheap, because we peaced out after Thirsty Chords finished and headed over to Crowbar to see anti-18, not for, Your Pest Band, Gleam Garden, and WHAT-A-NIGHT's. As usual, I love WHAT-A-NIGHT's and their perfect performances (they seriously sound like their recordings every time), but I was especially excited to see Tokyo's Your Pest Band again. I think the main vocalist got even more attractive since I saw him last time in Tokyo during the summer... and I forgot how tall he was too!

Your Pest Band

Spalding from WHAT-A-NIGHT's

Anyway, great way to spend a public holiday (even though I didn't get to sleep until 2AM): full of music and Arase's drunken kabuki poses. :D