Back in America.

If you haven't guessed, I have been back in The States for awhile now. Ten days to be exact.
I do apologize for not being more prompt with the update, and I also apologize for not finishing up my blog while in Japan.

So yeah, I survived again! Woohoo!

Hokkaido Double-Show Showdown!

Since we stayed up super late the night before, everyone had a hard time waking up anywhere near a reasonable hour. Unfortunately, we still needed to put together a bunch of CDs for the night's show. So, as you could guess, that's what we did... for hours.
BUT, before we got into the nitty gritty of it, we ate some breakfast! God damn, it was delicious!

About thirty CDs later, we finally got our butts into the car and went on our way.
One interesting thing I have noticed is that Masahiro is always answers his phone while driving. This brought to question the fact whether or not it is legal in Japan. I sort of had the idea that it may not be.. well, apparently we are criminals, because it's illegal.

Around thirty minutes later, after driving through Sapporo, we arrive in the outskirts of town, outside what looks like a large house with some taiko drums in the front window. The guys mentioned something about us staying at a Shamisen maker's house tonight... maybe this is where they meant.
Well, it turns out, we are not only staying there, but we are also playing not one, but two shows!

We spend the first hour or so settings up lights and clearing the room that is going to serve as the performance area. As that is finished up, I begin to set up the Monsters of Shamisen promotion and CD stand. I notice a certain lack of classiness to our set up, so I take it upon myself to go across the street to a mall that has a 100 Yen store inside of it. When I go in there I see all sorts of stuff, and it's pretty difficult to discern where anything is (seeing as I can't read any signage that there might actually be), but eventually I manage to find an area that has little easels for pictures. These are perfect for setting up a display. Win. And with that, the set up is complete.

The floor of the room is tatami, so naturally it lends itself to being treated with a certain amount of Japanese style. So tonight, the guys decide to all sit "seiza" (which is when you sit with both of your legs straight under you and your feet pointing behind). It only seems right.

As the beginning of the performance nears, around six thirty, people (mostly older) trickle into the room steadily. Once everyone is seated, the Monsters of Shamisen enter in via a sliding door on the left of the room.

It's pretty much the same story three hours later, except this time they are a little more wild with their set list, and Kevin goes completely feral on his solo piece he plays. Also, as an encore, I come in and play "Far Beyond The Sun" with the crew. The crowd loves it. In fact, they love the Monsters so much that they pretty much annihilate my CD display and buy them up; even have them autographed.

The remainder of the night involved everyone eating snacks, getting drunk, and playing shamisen until around four in the morning.
At around that point, when it was just Mike, Masahiro and I awake; I wanted to go for a walk because I had a headache (and the cold air always helps).
So, I hit the street. I depart with no real intentions of where to go or what to do, but I am instantly captured by a giant building with larger-than-life paintings of classic American movies; who wouldn't be?
It turns out, the place is super cool. It has musical instruments, an arcade, old action figures, magazines, and best of all OLD CLOTHES! Woohoo. They have a huge huge huge collection, ranging from vintage plaid shirts to not so vintage hip hop hoodies. I spend quite a long time there, and end up buying a cool yellow and green sweater.
By this time I am definitely ready to pass out, so I go home and quietly get into bed.

Living it big Downtown.

Today we had to get up a lot earlier than normal, this was especially unfortunate because we were all up late working on the CD, especially Masahiro, who only got a few hours sleep.

Our early rise is not in vain however, because the Monsters are going to the local radio station and getting an interview about the group and playing a song.

The guys hop into their formal clothes ( I don't ), and put the Shamisens in the van.

The drive through town is an easy one, and it only takes about five minutes to get to station.

We go up to the front desk; they are expecting us. We are handed four guest passes and are told to go up in the elevator and get ready.

We are greeted by a friendly fellow holding a few papers in his hand. He motions towards a table where we can set our things down and prepare. He says we have about twenty minutes.

Kevin and Mike warm up down the hallway, while Masahiro discusses the game plan with our pal. Myself, I just kick back and take in the sights; various posters of solo artists and bands, all of them signed and annotated with adoring messages about the radio station. I guess these guys must be legit.

Eventually the time comes. I am allowed to hang out in the mixing room and watch the interview through a glass panel with the rest of the staff.It isn't a very wild radio station, so the there aren't buzzers or naked women dancing around (probably for the best). 

The host talks to Masahiro about the band and how they all met. Also, Kevin and Mike play a couple licks to demonstrate their western influence. Once they plug the band and tour enough, the time for talk is over! And they head straight into Mozart's Turkish March. Once the song ends, that about wraps up our time there at the radio.

We all got straight out of bed to go to the station, so we all have food on our minds. Masahiro takes us to a place he really likes, it specializes in "Soup Curry", which, if you haven't guessed it, is spicy soup.

The restaurant looks unassumung enough from the street, but it turns out once inside, the whole place is themed after a log cabin, and is very cozy.

The food tastes great, and is quite potent. Still not too much for me, which I have been finding is fairly standard out here. Now back in the states however, if something says "spicy" on it, I probably don't want to eat it.

Inside the store they had all sorts of themed decorations, the most interesting however, was a spice rack full of super spicy hot sauces from around the world. I recognized a few of them from a special on the Food Network I saw once. 

Going ahead further with the day's plan, the guys drove me downtown and left me off there to go shopping.

It was a pretty cool mall that went parellel with the city's busiest street. It was set up in a style that I had only seen previously in Tokyo; Masahiro said that it was the "old style" shopping center.

The most interesting store of all that I came across, was a used clothing store (naturally), that sold American stuff. Usually this wouldn't constitute anything super amazing, but all of the previous "used" clothing places I have been to in Japan so so far consist of a basket of old sports tees, and then the rest of the place has nothing even remotely used. Imagine a Gap, with a dollar shirt bin in the front.

I also visited this tower. I'm not really sure why it's there though. 

A lot of walking, trinkets, and engrish later (more details than there are worth mentioni

ng), I call up the guys. Unfortunately they are super busy working on the album, have someone engineering the tracks and can't leave. So they commission a taxi for me to take home.

I come through the door, shopping bag in hand, greeted by the smell of some strange, foreign food. Upon further investigation, I unconver that it's spaghetti with red sauce. I wasn't expecting that one.

As the CD tracks are being mastered, Mike, Kevin, and I form an assembly line, and begin putting the inserts and CD jackets together into the jewel cases.

That happens pretty much until we pass out, one hundred and twenty of those later.

Finishing things up.

A week has gone by in a flash, and I've been so busy that I haven't been able to keep up on my blog while in Sapporo.

I will just try and to give a good summarization.

When we arrived, we spent the first two days recording for the first ever Monsters of Shamisen CD, I am on it too even. While they were mixing it and doing the tracks I wasn't on, I spent time printing labels, jackets, and making the CDs. And then when it finally came down to work that only Masahiro could do by himself; Kevin, Mike, and I all started an assembly line of cutting out the jackets and putting the jewel cases together. It took a long time, but it was cool to do it ourselves (and cheaper). Once the album was ready to be burned to CDs, we finished it all up and packaged them. That was about three days worth of work where we didn't even leave the house.

Sapporo.. you know, like the beer.

Today was super exciting.

We got up early, said goodbye to Kevin's parents, hopped on a train, and sat on it for six and a half hours, ugh. 

At one point we even went into and underwater tunnel! It was very dark.

All this work to get to Sapporo, Hokkaido.

Anyway, one good thing that happened to stifle the boredom, was 

that I met someone I could actually talk to. I noticed her when I got up to throw something away. It was obvious she was a fellow gaijin just from looking at her, although I wasn't sure if she actually spoke english.

Once I worked up the nerve to walk up to her and risk seeming like a weirdo, it turned out that 

she spoke english, and was more than willing to hang out and pass the time with me. 

Three hours later, long story short, she is from Canada and is in Japan to travel around and see the sights. We also talked about playing music and vegans too (we had plenty of time, let me tell you). We even tried to see if we could somehow coordinate a way for her to hang out with us in Sapporo one of the nights she would be staying, but it never worked out, we were too busy. 

Anyway, I was really glad to meet her, because I was not looking forward to being on that train with nothing to do. Thank you Paula!

Anyway, once we arrive in Sapporo, we call Kevin and Masahiro (who are getting on a plane in Tokyo soon to fly out and meet up with us). Well, it turns out that they haven't even gotten on the flight yet, so it looks like we have some time to kill.

We go out front of the train station and pull out or shamisens; we want to see if we can make some dinner money.

Ironically, we make some money, but not from any Japanese people, but from someone who saw Mike play a show with his band back in the states and recognized him. Small world...

We also meet another gaijin who gives us a good recommendation for somewhere to eat while we are packing up. Who walks us down to the small soba bar in the basement of the train station and 

we eat there. It's cheap, and not bad. Although Mike heard the owner of the bar talking about us, and how weird it was that we were there. So we left since Mike was feeling weird about it naturally.

We sat around and waited for a call from Kevin. We got one. 

We took a taxi to Masahiro's parents house.  I 

met his dad, Hiroshi, pretty much as soon as I got into the house, and his mother came in a couple hours later. We sat around in the living talking and playing shamisen for awhile, and then we went to the bath house to wrap up the night. While there, we also took an awesome photo booth session in the arcade that was located in the same building (those Japanese are all about convenience).

We got home and were all ready to pass out.

Aomori? Okay!

Today is our only chance on this trip to go to Aomori, so we decide to take advantage of that fact, and the one day where Mike and I have nothing planned (due to Masahiro and Kevin's absence), and hang out with Narumi Sensei.

We called him the night before to coordinate last minute, and we take an early afternoon train to meet up with him. But before we actually get on 

the train, we buy him a little thank you gift at the station to smooth things over and hopefully counterbalance even a fraction of the imposition upon him.

It takes about an hour to get to Aomori from Misawa, but we spend our time well, creating sweet rhymes and discussing what we are up to when we are back in the states.

When the train makes it's final stop (at least for us), we are about twenty minutes early to meet Narumi. So, never being one to waste time, I tell Mike I will be right back, and I start running.

My mission is a simple one: to find a mini zebra pen, only sold in a particular shop off the main drag in Aomori city. The thing about this pen, is that it used to be sold in the states a long time ago, back when I was in middle school, and now they no longer have it anywhere near where I

 live. Naturally, that would just lead me to assume that they are no longer in production, except for last year, I went to this same art supply store, and I found a whole bunch of them! Not only are the still in production, but they have them in silver and gold. So anyway, this wouldn't be a problem, and I wouldn't need this pen since I bought one last year, except that someone stole it.

Anyway, as I am running down this street, not wasting any time to take in the sights, I am slowly realizing that I can't locate the store. I jog all the way to the end of the five blocks of street with no luck. I try and take a little more time on my way back to see if I just overlooked it, but I'm still without luck

Damn.

I go back to the station defeated. But it was just a pen, so I don't really care all that much.

Mike is waiting for me at the top of the stairway. I made it with five minutes to spare - not bad.

We go to the other side of the station, and as we hand our tickets over to the person at the window and step out the exit, there Narumi is waiting for us with his van. Obviously, he recognizes us, what other two gaijin are going to be walking out of this train station?

The first destination on our journey is Narumi's place, which also serves as a small studio. He tells us that we are just going to hang out there for awhile before we move on.

Once we get there, we sit down, give him our paltry offering (which he accepts kindly), and talk about shamisen and his playing. One interesting thing he brought up was a synthetic prototype shamisen skin, rather than using dog. It's stronger and cheaper to acquire according to him, although I would question how great the tone is. I'm sure that this synthetic skin would be great for a practice shamisen, or someone just starting to learn.

When the time comes we wrap things up and head out onto the road.

The drive is through the mountains of Aomori, and it is extremely beautiful. The trees and fauna are all very green, fluffy, and inviting. It makes me want to get out of the car and start wandering into the forest.

Once we reach the other side of the mountains, we are far out from the city, and are in rural farm country again.

Weaving through small town streets and roads, we finally come to a school. Narumi is giving a lesson to a class of high school students, I wasn't expecting that.

Seeing how I've never encountered how things are done in Japan as far as schooling is done, It's quite interesting to watch the students' interaction with Narumi, and how he gets shamisen technique across.

All of his tutelage must work though, because I recognized one of his students from the Kanagi tournament. I remember her specifically because she won the Yu-Sho (first place) in the teen division, and she also had her school outfit on still.

Once that is done with we head back through the mountains and out another direction entirely; along the coast toward Noheji. We are all over the place, everywhere but Aomori!

It takes a while, but we come to the small town that he is performing in. We park in front a very nice looking building, and he tells us that we are going to eat some dinner beforehand. I don't know what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn't something as peculiar as this. The restaurant is fancy and all that, but beside that point, there is a giant pool in the middle of the place with fish swimming in it! There's a bar sorrounding it, and the people who sit there can throw food to the fish... the fish that they are going to eat. I've never seen anything like it.

The meals are traditional Japanese style, and I order the tempura, whereas Mike and Narumi get sashimi.

We gobble it up, but before Mike and I have a chance to finish, Narumi says he has to go get ready to perform and pays the bill. The restaurant was pretty chic, so it was super nice of him to cover us like that.

We finish gorging ourselves and make our way a block over to where the performance is. It looks 

to be inside of a very nice hotel in the lobby. The seats are already full when we walk inside, and all the people are dressed in robes. Obviously this place is meant to be a nice resort with an ocean view.

Narumi starts and destroys the crowd. The only way to describe his playing is "fierce". Not only is he a wild man on the Shamisen, but he plays the Shakuhachi and tells some great jokes about Tsugaru to the crowd. Definitely an entertaining show. He also invites a couple of his students to join him on stage.

Once the show is over, Narumi drops us off at the Aomori train station and we take the very last train home.

Once back in Misawa we walk back, come up with some sweet rhymes and hit the McDonalds.

Mt. Dread.

The three gaijin wake up early. We wait downstairs for awhile, and even start eating some breakfast, but Masahiro and Shiho won't get up. In normal circumstances we wouldn't really mind, and in fact, we hardly did at this point, but we had made a plan to get on the road early so that we would have time to check out the mountain, Osorezan.

So, we did what any good friends would, we wrote a "wake up" rap song... in Japanese.

Once we go over it a few times, we slowly sneak up the stairs and place ourselves in front of their door. I start out the song by providing the beats; Kevin and Mike follow.

If not a bit surprised, Masahiro responds with a mix between an "okay" and a grunt. Looks like our job is done!

The rest of the morning is spent cleaning up the house and loading the vehicle for departure.

We drive north, bound for Osorezan, legendary mountain filled with spirits and myth.

As we climb the mountain, shamisen music blaring in the car, we are greeted by many shrines and statues along the roadside; obviously this place has got some spirits clinging to it.

We spring out the mountain road and onto one that follows a lake. Not long after we park the Monster Mobile and head through the gates of Osorezan's shrine.

Despite the ancient mantle of evil the place holds, the area is beautiful, and is a combination of 

mountains, trees, statues, rocks, and mineral deposits. Words would not do it justice.

Along the path, Masahiro tells us of some of the legends sorrounding this place. One particularly comes to mind.

First thing you have to understand, is that all around the area there are piles of rocks, big and small. They are not naturally occurring, passers by stack the stones up. There is a reason for this of course.

In Japanese mythology there are many different kinds of hells, and many different ways to spend the afterlife in eternal misery. One of the sentences was that you must make stacks of rocks. And every time you would finish the stack of rocks, an oni (demon) would knock it over so that you would have to start again. Pretty fiendish huh? 

Well anyway, the reason people who 

come to Osorezan may the piles of rocks, is that they believe when they make a pile, it frees one of the damned souls from torture.

That's one example.

There's really no good way to describe walking around and looking at things, but you can take my word for it that it was amazing, I even have a couple pictures.

After a few hours of exploring and taking in the sights, we knew we had to get on the road, so we loaded back into the van.. but not before I picked up some triple flavor ice cream from a stand outside the shrine!!

The group headed straight back to Misawa, where we unloaded our things and immediately saw Masahiro (who had some business in Tokyo) and Shiho (who was going home to Yokohama) off to the train station.

Once the two rascals left, it was left up to the three America-jin to fend for ourselves. So, we did what we do best; eat.

Kevin, Mike, and I went to our favorite restaurant in Misawa. It has the very unassuming name, Ankur.

As you might have guessed, it's not Japanese food. In fact, it's Indian food, and it's all you can eat. We don't know why it's so good, but we don't care. We go and stuff ourselves silly with the delicious nan and saucy tandoori.

I can't remember anything else happening that night, so there you have it.