Thursday February 15, 2007
After a journey of more then 20 hours we land at Narita airport in Tokyo, Japan. For every one of us this is a dream come true, and as we set foot on Japanese soil, we all get really worked up about our coming tour.
Daiki, the president of Alliance Traxx, our label in Japan, is there to pick us up and introduces us to our driver for the coming two weeks, Hiro. After our first traditional Japanese meal (McDonalds), we head out to a temple close to Narita Airport, were we get our fist taste of a bit more traditional Japan. The cherry blossom is coming out, and the park surrounding the temple is beautiful. After a short visit to Shibuju, a neighbourhood in Tokyo where there are a lot of cool things to do and see, we get our first real Japanese food.
That night we crash at Daikis house, in one of Tokyo's suburbs. It's a close fit and every inch of the floor is used.
Friday February 16, 2007
This is the day of our first show in Japan, and Osaka is the lucky city to have this honour. In a ride were we get an unclouded, prominent view of Mount Fuji, or Fuji-San as the Japanese people call it, we get our first taste of life on the road here. Typical Japanese food is served at road-restaurants, were we are kind of an attraction to the people who are eating there. Having 8 Europeans, including 4 people close to 2 meters walking around isn't a daily sight apparently.
We arrive at club Tribe, located in the centre of amusement of Osaka with restaurants, Pachinko halls, massage parlours and sketchy porn stores. The place to be, as we notice by walking around. The neon lights with Japanese characters are all around, as we walk around feeling like giants. The show is very good, everybody is enjoying the NTB set, and some people are singing along and dancing, but the most striking is the look on everybody's face, smiles all around, with not even a hint of aggression. The tone is set for this tour.
After the show we happen to sleep in a hotel, which is located across the street from Osaka's biggest hip-hop club, where we witness hip-hop as it is done in Japan, with Japanese lyrics and a dance battle, and we hit our beds at 5.00 in the morning.
Saturday February 17, 2007
Yamaguchi Iwakuni is the location of the second show of our tour, a city with an American Navy base, so we see a lot of foreign people on the streets and at the show. This isn't a big city like Osaka, and we walk around a bit to check all the little stores in the neighbourhood of Club Squat out.
The show is a blast as we are embraced by enthusiastic Japanese youth and foreign army men and English teachers. Spontaneous circle pits, dancing and singing along makes this our second cool show.
That night we travel to our sleeping place for the coming nights, a Buddhist Temple near Fukuoka, where we arrive in the dark. A sleeping room with traditional tatami mats and paper windows is prepared to lodge the 10 of us and we all go to sleep after a hilarious drive full of mischief.
Sunday February 18, 2007
When we wake up we notice the beauty of our sleeping place, which is owned by the parents of Yoko, our host in Fukuoka for the following days, and singer of Friends Forever, the band we play with in Club Decadent later this week. The temple is surrounded by statues, all clothed for protection, and we wander around for a while.
Today is a day off, so we go sightseeing in the village where the temple is located. We notice foreigners are not common here, as we are watched by a lot of people, and when we enter a restaurant, everybody there is laughing aloud as they check us out. A bizarre experience, but we aren't offended by this, as we laugh about this ourselves.
Then we head out to Fukuoka, the biggest city on the southern island of Japan, surrounding us with neon and cool shops again, where we go bowling and enjoy a BMX party, where there is also an air guitar competition, what in Japan means that all the guys take their pants of and show their wieners. Another thing learned about Japan and its people.
Monday February 19, 2007
Having enjoyed a good night's sleep on the tatami mats again, we go to Fukuoka, as today is the day of our show at Club Decadent there. First some of us ride the biggest Ferris wheel of Japan, and we enjoy a visit to a Nike store, basically essential on a NTB tour.
The club is located in a Gaudi style building and an ideal place for a hardcore show, filled with enthusiastic people. A lot of people do not only know the latest NTB material, but also the previous albums and some songs make the room a place of havoc. As always NTB is thriving on this kind of energy, which makes the show even better.
After the show we are taken care of by Yoko, who takes us to a restaurant with his friends, and an innocent looking restaurant changes into a substitute for the carnival in Brabant, our home area. Lots of beer, sake, cigars, great unknown food, shouting, a Reaching Forward fan humming songs together with DaxMila, the writer of the songs, and the singing of the Brabant traditional "zonne goeie hebben wij nog niet gehad", conclude this day in a marvellous way. Fukuoka feels like home.
Tuesday February 20, 2007
Today is the day of the NTB Japan tour tattoo, as Yoko arranged an appointment at a tattoo parlour in the city. Tomi, a great artist draws us a traditional dragon head, with the characters for Nippon (Japanese for Japan) and 2007 below it. Martijn, Johan, Theon and Sander our camera guys are up for a few hours of pain, the rest is taken to a show of Balzac, the Japanese Misfits.
After this we head out for Japanese food again, and we go to a drum and bass party located in the same club we played yesterday. Drum and bass is really big in Japan, but as the night is still young it is not that busy, and as the tattoo artist puts the finishing touch on Johans leg, we leave the club to travel back to our temple. Buddha must be looking out for us, because we get another long good night sleep.
Wednesday February 21, 2007
Okayama is the next stop on our tour, and we arrive there around sunset. It is not a big city and we wander around stared up and down by shameless Japanese schoolgirls. A warehouse with a 100 Yen store on the top floor is the place to be there, and after hanging out a bit the show starts.
There a not a lot of people, but we where greeted in the town by two die hard NYHC fans, who where very happy NTB played there town, and the two of them have a great time dancing and trying to make the rest of the people following them.
After the show we head out for a night drive to Nagoya, where we arrive early that morning at the house of a hardcore kid with 5 x-swatches who lets us crash in his nice apartment with a heated toilet seat. A treat, let me assure you.
Thursday February 22, 2007
Waking up around noon, first thing on our list this day is a visit to Nagoya Castle, once home to a big samurai lord, and now a museum and excavation site. The place is great and for many of us this is what we imagined Japan to be, the traditional building style and cherry blossoms in the park surrounding the buildings. Absorbing the beauty and culture we wander around for one and a half hour, then we head out to the club for that day, club Tightrope.
First we enjoy some excellent Japanese food again, and walk around in the area a bit. The show is great, as me meet cool people, fans of Abusive Action (our drummer's previous band) and State of Mind, the band of our good friend Emile. The hardcore world is small. People pressed upfront to a fence make it a great show, as Martijn unleashes his anger.
That night the new Prison Break episode and The DaVinci Code are watched before going to sleep.
Friday February 23, 2007
Driving trough Japan the next day, passing gas pumps where the employers rush out as we pull in, and bowing as we leave, and eating at roadside restaurants gets us through the beautiful mountain scenery of the Japanese Alps, as we head back to Tokyo, the starting point of our trip.
Today we are headlining a show in Shibuya, Tokyo, a really cool area, where we hang around at busy crossroads, watching a lot of people crossing the streets in all directions. This is the place you see on pictures of Tokyo, with the diagonal crossings. Definitely a highlight of our trip and an excellent hangout spot.
The show is great, with our driver on bass in the band As We Let Go, and they let it go, what a great show. The rest of the show is great too, as the scene in Tokyo is the biggest in the country. We got the chance to be ourselves on stage and we got rewarded with a great response. Martijn lost some blood, always a good sign.
Saturday February 24, 2007
As we head out to Chiba Kashiwa, a suburb like city of Tokyo, we get another chance to see more of Tokyo, because this drive takes us about 2,5 hours through the busy metropole. We are greeted by Gian, the singer of the band Thorn, who is the promoter of today's show. Then we head out for diner at Yoshinoya, a Japanese fast food style restaurant, where we are surrounded by Japanese people who think we are brave we choose the spicy version of our menu.
After some good shopping we go back to the venue, where a NYHC feel takes over the club. A lot of good bands that play this style, and as NTB sets up for their show, it is clear that these people aren't joking about their hardcore state of mind. From the first tunes the crowd sets it off, and as one of the coolest shows of the Japan tour is played, NTB and the kids go wilder and wilder, resulting in stage dives, singalongs, pile-ons and a raging pit.
Sunday February 25, 2007
Our destination for today is the red light district of Tokyo, called Shinjuku, where the club we play our final show is smack dab in the middle of the neighbourhood of massage parlours and hustlers. ACB, as the club is called is a great venue, where all our befriended bands that have been to Japan have played. It is really an honour to share this stage with them.
Off course we get the chance to look around a bit, and man, what a place this is. Highlights include a batting cage for baseball practice, great shops for all kind of stuff and as it is Sunday a lot of people, dressing from normal to fucking insane. Culture shock all around. The show is the biggest we play, and friends from around Japan are showing up. Party people from Fukuoka, the guys from Chiba, and a lot of faces from our first show in Tokyo.
Needles to say this show was fucking great; Martijn got used as a climbing device and disappeared under a raging cloud of Japanese kids trying to sing along. The crowd reaction during the whole show was heart warming, and we can't wait to see the video footage our man Sander shot of this show, and it will certainly appear on the DVD he is going to make of our world tour.
After twelve it is time for Emiels birthday, and as he receives his typical Japanese present, a turd on a stick, we head out to the bowling ally. With a high score of 137, Giel rules the competition. After this it is chill out time at Daikis, where we prepare for our final days in Japan.
Monday February 26, 2007
This day is spend shopping, and on our list is a visit to record stores, shoe stores and the area where the Bape store is located, and we all enjoy this a lot. Later that day some of us get the chance to go to a Strike Anywhere show, as they play three days in a row in Tokyo. Tired we go to sleep.
Tuesday February 27, 2007
A visit to the biggest Temple of Tokyo starts the day, and as it is the best place to pick up gifts for our loved ones too, we spend a couple of hours there. Then we head out to an outlet centre, where we visit some stores before heading out to the Outback Steakhouse, where we eat like kings, as it is our last diner in Japan. We are going to get dropped of at Narita Airport that night.
Wednesday February 28, 2007
At 4.00 we arrive at the airport, and when it opens at 5.00 we are the first ones to enter. We have to wait till 10.30 for checking in, because our flight leaves at 13.00, and we watch another episode of Dexter, our new favourite series. Then we crash on the benches and get looked on like trash by all the passing travellers at this super clean airport.
After a journey of about 18 hours we finally hit Dutch soil again, where we get the joyful news our guitars and drum stuff is left in London. Then we head out to get our first frikandel. (Update: our guitars and drumstuff were safely brought to us by courier the next day).
We would like to thank Daiki to make this all possible, Domo Arigato again, you made our dream come true.
Further thanks to Hiro for driving us around safely, to all the promoters of the shows we played and all the band we played with and who lend us their equipment. Last but not least we like to thank all the people who showed up at our shows, thank you for your support, you have a great scene to be fucking proud of.
Further thanks to the rest of the people of Japan, for our amusement as they turned their heads to see our strange entourage walking the streets of Japan, you made this an unforgettable experience. The scenery, the cities, the food, the girls, the hardcore scene;
NTB loves Japan!