Day 3: Okinawa
Here?s a shot of Kawasaki at 5 in the morning, right in front of my hotel.
Had to get up that early, as did the rest of my party, to catch an early flight to Okinawa. Thus far the trip was going extremely well. I had enjoyed my small taste of a Japanese city, and was looking forward to checking out Okinawa since I had heard it was like Hawaii. And naturally, I was super psyched to delve into the heart of Tokyo, which was immediately afterwards. And everyone in our small party couldn?t be happier. We were half way across the globe, in a glorious new land with fresh new sights, smells, and tastes. We couldn?t be happier.
And then we arrived at the airport, and the trip began to adopt a different flavor…
It was the first time encountering other America since first setting foot on Japanese soil two days prior. They were the American acts for Magma. And many of them were pissed. Some for good reason; one band was stuck in the airport the day prior for over eight hours. Yikes. A few others were just pissed by the lack of organization behind Magma. And granted, some things hadn?t been exactly smooth sailing on our end as well, but we tried not to dwell on them. After all, everyone in my party kept on saying to ourselves ?OMG, WE?RE IN JAPAN!!!? Unfortunately, some of the “rock stars” just couldn?t seem to share the sentiment or enthusiasm. Though rockers themselves weren?t the only ones who were all uptight and agitated; their girlfriends and wives were also clearly miffed and all sorted these looks of utter disdain and annoyance.
A friend of mine, who?s quite the prominent musician, once stated: “When you play music, you keep your woman at home.” And I never fully understood what he meant till this trip…
Case in point: when I boarded the plane and went to my seat, there was someone already sitting in it. The girlfriend of a lead singer to be exact. Her face was buried in a magazine when I tried to grab her attention and point out she was in my seat. Her response was simply ?Yeah, sure.? and just kept on reading/ignoring me. Okay…
At that moment, a flight attendant came up and asked that I take my seat, since we were close to taking off. I showed her my ticket and she knew instantly what the deal was. And when she asked the blonde in my seat to move, in the nicest way possible, with some not so bad broken English, the response was “I?m not fucking getting up.” Again, she didn?t even bother to look. And all I can say is that the one only real negative about the Japanese?s insane degree of niceness is that they totally avoid conflict and confrontation at all costs. So the flight attendant simply asked me to take an empty seat, presumably hers. What a fucking cunt. And she would be a source of great fun later on in the trip as well!
At least the in-flight magazines helped to get my mind off the annoyance. Here?s a spread that has some helpful info, and I can?t understand why the same isn?t included in Western/American mags…
And here?s another cartoon sighting of myself…
Here?s a shot of some traditional looking “thing at the airport…
Also, real quick, I grabbed a shot of this shortly before boarding the plane in Haneda…
Back to reality at hand: once everyone got their bags, and also in the case of musicians, their equipment as well, and assembled outside since it was mentioned that vans would take everyone to the venue to set things up (instead of going directly to the hotel, since it was like 10 in the morning and check-in wasn?t till 3). And what was waiting for us? Three very tiny Japanese vans. For about 50-60 people and about four times that amount of baggage. Yet another sign that things weren?t exactly properly organized…
Eventually more van was brought in, and my party was off. A few shots to the venue…
The place itself was not as expected. It was hella small. I had heard beforehand that the organizers had hoped to pack in the house with a couple hundred kids, and the venue looked to be able to barely fit one hundred, let alone seventy-five. Though overcrowding wasn?t a bit concern since the word was that ticket sales were extremely low, at least for this particular event. I won?t get into the whole history of the fest, since I still don?t know the whole story, but that spot was not their first choice and was only nabbed since it was the best thing going, due to price and scheduling. But there was also the question of whether Okinanwa was a good placed to hold an event in the first place.
One thing that was immediately clear was that, because of the ceiling being so low, there would be no way to have the inflatables present (like I said, huge balloons based on Joe?s characters for the show had been produced), which really blew. But we were told that the venue in Yokohama would have plenty of space, which was technically ?the? event.
At this point, it was a bit past 10, and since check-in at the hotel wasn?t for a few hours, and there really wasn?t a lot to do at the venue, due to the space and not being in a band, plus it was warm and I was pretty thirsty, I decided to take advantage of the free beer that was on-hand. So by like 10:30 in the morning, I was already kinda drunk! But in my defense, it was 9:30 in the evening in NYC.
Also early on, I noticed one guy, a somewhat short, tattooed covered, a surly looking fellow, who was fairly visibly upset. He was pacing back and forth, somewhat muttering to himself, but in a way that allowed everyone around him to know that something was seriously wrong. I asked him what the problem was and he explained that his video camera had all a sudden stopped working. Actually, he could get sound, but no picture. And then he comment that I looked like ?a computer type? and wondering if I could figure out the problem, so I went ?sure? and offered to take a look. I had assumed that maybe a button was accidentally pressed but it turned out that there really was something wrong with the camera; my guess was that the chip that handles picture has become faulty because instead of pure black there was still some snow coming through. After a while of messing around, I couldn?t figure it out, so I went back to him, as he was practicing some mixed martial arts moves. It was then when I realized that, during a previous conversation with my crew that, when explaining that I was into MMA, Keith had said ?Oh yeah? Well there?s one guy I know who you really likes that stuff? is WAY into that stuff actually.? And that dude was right in front of me; his name was Harley, of the band Harley?s War (which is either part of, or used to be the ?legendary? NYC hardcore band Cro-Mags, or so I?ve been told).
Right as I was about to tell him sorry, I couldn?t get it to work, the picture magically came back! And Harley was super pleased. And hey, I would be pissed off too if I had lugged a video camera to my first trip to Japan and it all of a sudden stopped working. He gave me a big manly hug and mentioned that I was his new best friend, and also noted that he was happy that he no longer had to kick a guy?s ass out of anger. I figured he was joking? but was later told that he was the type to randomly beat some one up just because he was angry. So in the end, I perhaps saved some poor soul from a random pummeling. My newfound relationship with Harley was quite the surprise with everyone in my crew? and also a valuable poker chip in the days to come.
Its kinda funny how I often become buddy-buddy?s with folks that many assume I?d most likely want to get into a serious fight with, like other super pissed off individuals (like the time John was shocked when I made friends with Harlen Ellison on the sandwich line at ICON a few years back). It should also be noted that, despite Harely?s reputation, him and his band mates were total gentlemen, at least to myself, and didn?t have the same primodonna attitude that 95% of all the other Americans would exhibit during the tour. Same with Murhy?s Law as well, everyone in that crew was totally chill and relaxed. Though I forgot to mention how when we first encountered them at the airport, the lead singer was already drunk from sake, but it was nice to had encountered other gaijin who were in just as good sprits as us.
Again, with not much to do, I decided to check out the neighborhood. Dead would be one apt description.
The street up front, and the surrounding alleys were like ghost towns. We were in the red-light district, one that was dormant during daylight (and I?d find out first hand how things would change during the evening the next day). But at least it offered another chance to check out the awesome Japanese architecture, as well as nab more pics of the super awesome small vehicles everyone drives around in.
Near the venue was the main highway…
And right on our corner was this info booth that tells visitors all about the bars and clubs in the area. Rather convenient.
Of course, vending machines were everywhere. As previously mentioned over at Zedge, Cameron Diaz shills cell phones in Japan. And Tommy Lee Jones sells canned coffee.
Tommy, meet Pikachi.
I really wish I had found time to try out a can of Bubble Man 2…
Another Power Ranger in an ad…
As well as more cutsey characters, this time for dry-cleaning?
And car parking?
There were also plenty of stray cats in the neighborhood, many of them looking quite beat-up and broken. Kinda sad. Though Joe and June did come across at least one guy who just went around in his bike, feeding all the cats in the neighborhood.
It eventually dawned on me as to why there was doubt regarding the location; it really didn?t seem like a place that many punk kids frequent, let alone any kind of youth. Once again, we were smack in the middle of sex city. But kids must hang out there, otherwise, why a barbershop for them?
Eventually, myself, Joe, and June got hungry, so we went to a place across the street, small, laid back looking restaurant that was manned by a kindly old lady. I didn?t expect to, but I would end up having hot dogs/corndogs quite a bit throughout my stay, though hot dogs at least are served up rather differently…
Here?s Joe with Taka and his girlfriend Rie, who also helped run the show. She also spoke English and was therefore a pretty pivotal player…
Anney making repairs to Keith?s cat costume which sprung a leak the night before…
And here?s some shots of Harley?s War during their sound check. I guess it should also be noted that only a few of the American acts actually bothered to do one. Maybe they had ?better? things to do…
Backstage, more Engrish…
After a number of hours, it was time to check-in at the hotel. And we had no idea what was in-stored for us.
