Japan Tour #3
April 2, 2007 | posted by Braddigan | 2 Comments
so Rey, Tiago, and i just got back from our first full band trip to Japan! it was such a good time, packed with plenty of adventures, sushi, and laughs... returning this time was cool too bc it was our third trip, so we had a boatload of friends to return to- and everyone there was so stoked to meet Tiago after all that we went through last time to try to get him there, but to no avail... this time though everything came together for us and Tiago was able to fly 11,000 miles from Brazil to meet us in Japan (via DC?? ouch!)- it was pretty crazy bc while Tiago was up in the air for days, Rey flew direct from NYC to tokyo... and i flew from denver- san fran- hawaii- to tokyo... so all 3 of us were up in the air criss crossing all over the globe, eventually to come back to the ground to hook up in the Narita airport by our favorite fresh mango juice stand... we just laughed man to think what random band mates we seem to be- God's got a great sense of humor :)
we also forgot about the international date line somehow and ended up arriving a day later than we had planned?! now that was a rude awakening... so much for a day of rest before starting to play our shows?! so we ended up driving straight to the first venue with no sleep and completely confused jet lagged heads to play the kick off gig to our japan tour- Jedidiah ended up co-sponsoring our tour, alongside the US Navy that brought us in to play a base-wide Presidents' Day concert... so we were able to reconnect with all our Jedidiah Japan buddies for the first few days, and then made our way over to Yokosuka to step into a little bubble of America over there on the Navy base- just such a cool experience for us to get closer to the reality of what life looks like in the military, and to be able to support and bless the families that are sacrificing so much in their daily lives over seas for us back home- i keep coming away from there so humbled and thankful that i live in the US near my family bc of all they do...
then the third chapter of our trip was playing the Interstyle trade-show again... It's the biggest surf, skate, and snow convention in Japan, where we've been invited to play the last two times- it happens twice a year, and this one was the biggest yet. It was incredible getting to be a part of it, meeting so many huge names in the surf world, riding all of these new fangled skate boards and funky bikes around the convention hall, reconnecting with our friends from Cobian, Keen, Jedidiah, Arbor, Surf Tech etc... Just one big party with loads of smiles and laughs, and as always there were plenty plenty "lost in translation" moments!
Other than than, all i have to report is this: Koyuki is still playing hard to get, Japan has the coolest vending machines in the world, Royal Milk Tea is definitely still my favorite beverage anywhere anytime (hot or cold watch out Starbucks!!), Jedidiah Japan will someday rule the universe, 7/11 is crazy crazy crazy over there, (if you've been there before you know what i'm talking about!) japanese taxi drivers wear white gloves, Yen bills are like little pieces of art compared to our boring dollars, and the newest discovery for us this time around was definitely trying out an "Ontsin," which is a Japanese hot spring that feeds into a bunch of different pools/baths- sort of like a natural water park, with all of these hot restful pools carved out of the rocks along a mountain side... and then if that's not cool enough, each bath has a different blend of ingredients from green tea, sake, charcoal, red wine, eucalyptus etc... yea, cold chillin' in J-pan- can't wait to get back...
