The bus arrived right on time for our trip to the next military base – it was a crisp Japanese morning at 8 am. We were definitely sad to bit adieu to the majestic Mount Fuji, but we were excited to get on with the tour after a very successful night playing for the Marines at Camp Fuji. We made our way outside to find another 75 passenger coach bus… the folks at Armed Forces Entertainment sure knew how to make us feel special. All of us were there, except Will, who was most likely having a rough time getting it together that morning. 

We were welcomed on board by our new liaison, Spike, from Yokota Air Base, which was our next stop on the tour. Spike was a very well mannered, friendly Japanese man, who was incredibly careful while explaining to us the agenda and procedures of the upcoming days. He made us well aware that we need be sure to that we had all of our jewelry, as well as cell phone and computer adapters with us, as they are the items most commonly left at the base. He was also incredibly thorough in explaining what to do in the (apparently not-so-rare) instance that should we suffer from a heart attack while staying overnight on base – so much so that he provided a live skit to accompany his directions! He was pounding his chest while looking as if he were sucking on a lemon the same time. All of us looked at each other, grinning ever so slightly ….as to not disrespect his more than sufficient explanation. The only problem was that Will still wasn’t on the bus! It wasn’t until about 10 minutes later that we finally saw him, and after he boarded, Spike knew it his obligation to repeat his entire routine. We didn’t mind one bit seeing it again! Spike assured us that our gear and sound system from the night before, had been picked up earlier that morning, and would be there at the next base, waiting for us. Great, then! We made sure our jewelry was accounted for, and we were on our way to Yokota Air Base – a two-hour bus ride back through Tokyo.

The ride was just a scenic as we had hoped… it was magical. The outskirts of Tokyo are just as tightly occupied as the areas we had seen coming from the airport. Every little house had it’s own little garden with Banzai trees and rock gardens… many of them with small vegetable and herb gardens as well. We wanted nothing more than to have a chance to go out and really see the streets of Tokyo first hand, but we were on a serious time crunch and there was so much to do before our show that night.  We were informed by Spike that upon arriving at Yokota, we’d be interviewed by the radio station on base, and that they were hoping we would give them a short acoustic in-studio performance. Uh oh! My voice was not in a good place, so I was worried… also we hadn’t arranged any type of acoustic set.

After weighing out our options of what songs would sound best with acoustic guitar and three part harmonies, we decided we’d play our songs “Welcome”, “Search” and time permitting, “Come Over”. We ran through each tune and it wasn’t getting any easier for me to hit those extraordinarily high notes. I was confident that once we were in the studio, I’d be able to pull it together, and not embarrass us in front of hundreds of thousands of people on the air.


Soon-thereafter, we had arrived at Yokota Air Base – a massive military installment that’s situated smack dab in the middle of an incredibly congested area of Tokyo. It came out of nowhere… (Something that would prove common amongst the inner-city military bases in Japan.)  After meeting our host at the base, we checked in and received our passes for the day, and were immediately greeted with some unfortunate news: All of our gear was left at Camp Fuji, and no one, in face, had picked it up that morning.


We subdued our panic. Being in Clarias long enough, anyone would know that you merely have to shrug off misfortune and tribulation, as it’s a common occurrence for us. We had 5 hours till show time, and 1 hour till we were expected to perform live on-air, whilst our acoustic guitar was 100 miles away! Spike, being the champion of men that he was, took it upon him self to retrieve our gear in time. We didn’t know what his plan was, but he was off, and we hoped God was on his side. In the meantime, our host said he might be able to find an acoustic guitar for us. He couldn’t guarantee the shape it’d be in, but he said he’d do his best. In the meantime, we headed over to the venue, which was the grandiose dining room in the Officer’s Club. It looked a bit like something out of “The Shining”, with velvet-red carpeting and an eerie quiet about the place. We needed to hightail it to the radio station for the interview, so Will & Damian stayed at the venue to start setting up the sound system.

We were more than relieved to see our host was waiting for us at the radio station, with an acoustic guitar in hand. As it turned out, the guitar was perfect… a nice Ovation that wasn’t nearly as bad as what we had been expecting.  We went up into the studio and met with the DJ “Casey Crumbles” on his show “ The Lunch Box Rumbles” on The Eagle 810 AM.  We were delighted to meet such a hilarious radio personality, and the entire interview went off without a hitch. My voice came through, we sang and played well, and all that rehearsing in the bus ride had paid off. We spent about an hour there, and took pictures, and signed some CD’s for the employees there. Once that was over, we had to book it back to the venue, where we were so happy to see that Spike had proved champion over the obstacle of the missing equipment. All of our gear was there waiting for us! We quickly got to setting up, because we didn’t have much time before doors opened.

We didn’t know exactly what to expect that night, in terms of attendance. We had been told that audience members had been painfully void at previous shows, but we remained optimistic that our interview and acoustic set might be enough to encourage people to make it out. After sound check, we hit up the Mongolian BBQ buffet at the Officer’s Club Dining Room, and went back to our more that modest lodgings across the street to change before the show. We each had our own mini-suite, complete with living room, kitchen, bath and bedrooms. It seemed as if each night thus far, the lodgings kept getting better and better. After we quickly got ourselves together, we assembled and made our way back to the venue, with only minutes to go before our show was set to start. We didn’t know what to expect, but were immediately taken-aback when we stepped into the dining room:

There was no one there.
 
We had been warned, but we had no idea it could possibly come to this. We immediately laughed off our circumstance, and decided that instead of playing heartlessly to an empty room, we were going to give the best show that we had ever played. We wanted any passer by, or on-looker to be immediately engaged by our show, and hopefully, sit down and stay for the set. I made put it this way:

You know how in so many great (but painfully cheesy) 80’s rock videos, the band is always putting on this lavish, incredible stage show for an empty arena? That’s what we should do here tonight. Let’s pretend we’re Whitesnake, playing everything up, and putting a real show for no body.

Sounded like a fun idea…  So we got on stage, said hello to Will, Matt, Andy and Kristin (who had been there all along helping us set up) and started right into it. Everything felt great that night, between the sound and the stage set up, so we really didn’t have to try too hard to have a great time. Just liked we had hoped, almost everyone that popped in out of curiosity, ended up sitting down and enjoying our set.


After the show, we had a great time hanging out and talking with everyone further. We took pictures, signed some posters and CD’s and talked with everyone about their involvement with the military and base life. Somehow, it came up that we were all in need of a delicious beer, but had no access to procure any on base yet. Immediately, our new found friends insisted on making a run for us to the nearest package store! We couldn’t believe how awesome they were to make such a nice gesture, and within minutes, they came back with bags of Sapporos (yours truly’s all time favorite), Kirin Ichiban, and a growler (which is a huge bottle) of Super-Dry Asahi, the greatest of all beers, which they all signed for us as a souvenir from our new friends. They also brought us a bag full of various Pringles cans, so that we’d have plenty of snacks while we traveled for the remained of our tour. We never could have imagined that we’d receive such hospitality and friendship from everyone we met that night, or that our show for 10 people would be the most fun we’d have yet on the tour.

After bidding adieu to our friends, we made it back to the hotel, where we had a party in Will’s suite, complete with Mongolian BBQ, and delicious beers-a-plenty. Before we all fell asleep, due to food and Sapporo comas, we fondly reflected on what we had accomplished that night and what a great time we were indeed having on this tour. We had never been on a tour like this as a band, and especially not with such a special crew of people assembled.

The bus would be outside at 11 am the next morning, to whisk us away to our next destination, and now we figured we'd be ready for anything. 

Next up: Camp Zama and Iwakuni!