Let me start this by saying......I LOVE TOKYO! I think this is the 4th time I have been here. I am pretty sure the first 2 times I had to get over the initial shock of how huge the city is. I remember the first time I went to NYC. I hated that place! Mostly because I was petrified and completely freaked out by how many people in the city. They all loved on top of each other, in tiny, tiny overpriced apartments. Not to mention the horror of the lack of trees. Living my entire life in Texas, it is understandable. All that to say.....Tokyo is NYC on steroids! Not just any steroids. The biggest, baddest, WWF, bad mother fucker steroids!
Thats why it took me a while to warm up to the place. Now, I am completely and totally in LOVE!
We always stay in a part of town called Shibuya. Looking outside the hotel window you see the world's busiest intersection (no lie). Im sure you have seen it on TV where the traffic light changes and thousands of people cross at this certain intersection at once. Thats the place. It is insane! Needless to say, there is tons to do. More shopping, food and alcohol in 4 blocks that I have ever seen in my life. I believe we took FULL advantage it this time.
Sunday.
I think we were all pretty tired but we had to go out and do something! About 4 of us decide to settle into our rooms and meet in lobby for lunch. We walk around town for about 30 minutes, passing about 200 restaurants. Finally decide on one. Have great noodle bowls. Another thing about this town is ........everything is a maze! I could get lost in a heartbeat whether in a building or outside. after navigating our way back to the hotel we all decide to take a nap and meet in 5 hours for dinner. Very healthy lifestyle. LOL! We pick up a couple more of our peeps then go to a sushi bar. After an amazing sushi dinner and about 2 bottles of sake per person, we head to find a bar. We end up going to a Nigerian bar that plays 80's super cheese hip hop like Salt N Peppa and begin to challenge each other in a super-charged game of darts. After sucking down a few Vodka soda's of my own, we decide to leave and head back to hotel. Its probably about midnight at this time.
A couple of our crew decide to peel of and that left us with 4. As we walk back to the hotel, an small alley strikes our fancy. It has some cool lights hanging overhead so we head thru the alley like moths to a flame. This is Sunday night so we expected everything to be closed. We could see tiny, sliding doors. Obviously not being able to ready anything on the signs, we had no idea what these places were. One looked like it was open, so I slid open the door slowly, not knowing what to expect. I was also extremely tanked and adventurous / dumb as hell. I could have walked into a samurai slaughterhouse or something. As I opened the door, it was the tiniest bar I had ever seen! It literally held about 4 people uncomfortably. Hilarious. We loved every second of it! We drank sake for another 2 hours, made friends with the owner who kept the sake flowing. He talk us how to say " Go fuck yourself" in Japanese. We taught him how to say it in English.
At the end of it, we all walked a couple of blocks home and passed out.

Monday.
Wake up about noon, go to venue, play a huge, bad ass show.
There was an extremely attractive Japanese girl in front row all night. I think she had her turn making eyes at everyone on stage at some point. We are gonna name her "Asian Eyes". So person A grabs onto her after the show like his last meal. The promoter takes us all to an amazing Japanese restaurant near the hotel. At this point we have about 2 or 25 people in total. We have a huge, amazing feast of fine Japanese cuisine. We have tons of sake and beer. (another night of this----oy!)
I am sitting on one side of the table and I notice Micah and JD are on the extreme opposite side of the table cross from each other. These guys are getting completely wasted!!!!! I mean we all are but THEY are GOING AT IT! I couldnt help but be REALLY curious why they were pounding the drinks so heavily so I asked them by yelling across the table. Amused, Micah gets up from the table and walks all the way down to me. He leans over and whispers in my ear, "Dude, we all know that Person A has no game at all. So, every time he says something really dumb to Asian Eyes we take a shot of sake." OMG, I was dying laughing! So, I tell a couple of people on my side of the table. Micah goes back to his seat and continues his alcohol induced dinner. Sarah leans over to me and says, "Man, that girl is super down to get with someone! There is no way he can mess that up!" I reply, " Trust me, just watch".
After a great meal and lots of sake AGAIN, everyone heads back to the hotel. Asian eyes asks a couple of the other guys what they are gonna do now. I decide to choral a group and head to the teeny bar from Sunday. Person A offers to pay for a cab to send Asian eyes home. She says, "No, Im gonna hang out with them".
Now, at this point, Person A would normally go back to hotel and call it a night. I think now he decides to "hang" in order to play security guard with Asian eyes. Hilarious!
Now we have about 7 people walking to the bar that fit only 4 on the previous night. As we open the door, our friend is about to walk out. He is closing for the night. He sees us and decides to open back up for the potty mouthed American Musicians. We cram ourselves in and start drinking MORE sake. Now, everyone is in on the "shot game". Since the bar is so tiny......we call all hear the conversation between Asian Eyes and Person A very clearly. It was incredible! We were all yelling "Kompai!!!" and taking a shot about every 5 minutes! Person A never knew why we were drinking so much. I bailed out a bit early and left everyone at the bar.
Reports were that Person A went home alone and Asian eyes ended up going home extremely frustrated.

Tuesday.
I wake up at around 11, head around the corner to get come coffee, find a burger place and walk in and have a nice, small Japanese version of a hamburger. I havent had a burger in a loooooong time. It was close, im not complaining. I guess that would be the best beef to have if Im gonna have one. Reggie told me that with Kobe beef, they feed the cows all organic and massage them daily to keep their muscles tender. These cows are treated so great! Its like they give them everything short of a manicure before slitting their throats! Kinda gross and kinda funny at the same time. If there are any Vegan, Meat activist people reading this....sorry. Please, no hate mail. ANYWAY......
We head to do some TV show at the Japanese Music Television station. The set was beautiful and wow do these people have their jobs down pat! It was quick and turned out amazing!
After that, we head back to the venue to play our 2nd show. In my estimation of the show, the crowd wasnt as rowdy ad the first night but musically I think it was one of our best performances ever! So amazing. There was a ballad that I almost felt like I was gonna cry. We killed it!
I was really tired that day and a lot cranky. Before the show, J got everyone in a football-style huddle and said " Thank you guys for being so amazing, Thank you for sharing the stage with me and being such bad-asses every night. Thank you for being my friends and my family. I know its hard being out here. Sometimes we get in other people was, sometimes we get in our own way." Toca says "The word is Gratitude for all of us." J says, "alright, Gratitude on 3!"
then, we played our asses off!
Let me say that Jason is a true inspiration, not only as a mega talented songwriter but also as a human. I am constantly amazed about how this guy can always keep it together so much of the time. He is definitely the kindest, patient and most calm person than any one of us. And HE is the one with ALL of the stress and demands on his time. We are lucky.
Im gonna go back in time a little and write a bit about Miko. She sang a song with us about a year ago. She kept in touch with us via myspace. Her and her mother met us at the venue on Monday. They saw the show. Tuesday during the day, I saw Fern with them as I walked back to hotel from lunch. In conversation, Reggie said he was looking for the "detox-footpad things". Apparently, you stick them on your feet before you go to bed and they detox your body over night. I told them that I was looking for Makimoto Pearls. My aunt had given the mission to me......Find these pearls and bring them back.
Before the show that night, Miko and her mother brought the following:
A bag FULL of Detox footpads for Reggie.
A complete, handwritten listing and directions of all the places that carry Makimoto Pearls in Tokyo and Osaka.
A wrapped gift for everyone in the band with our names on them.

When we offered to pay for footpads, they would refuse to take the money.
HOW AMAZING ARE MIKO AND HER MOM!!!!!!!!

Another thing pre show..... As i walked to backstage, another hot Asian girl stopped me to say high. I forgot her name so we will call her blue sweater for now. More about her later......
So, we get done playing the show.
Horns go out to the front to sign autographs, take pictures and stuff. Asian Eyes comes up to me and says hello. She starts following me around, right by my side the entire time I was taking pictures with fans and signing autographs. She was like watching me like a hawk. It started creeping me out a bit. Apparently, she did the same thing to Reggie so I shouldn't feel like a stud or anything. Then, a trio of Americans came up to me. One girl with THE most beautiful eyes on the planet and two guys. The girl said she remembered me from the show this summer. She said she was sorry if she was pissing off my girlfriend. I said, "Who's my girlfriend?" She then pointed to Asian Eyes. I quickly let her know that she was NOT my girlfriend and she was kinda freaking me out. After talking to the three for a long time and facing my back to Asian Eyes, I think she got the picture and left. After a whileI invited them to come hang out later. We all went to the hotel and met at the bar for a bit and got to know each other. Turned out that they all worked for Disneyland in Tokyo. The girl was Snow White and one of the guys was the prince from the little Mermaid and the other, a dancer. We have a drink at the hotel bar, then one of the guys started talking about a bar that he went to once called "Alcatraz Emergency Room". Apparently, It is a sort of S&M, horror theme bar/restaurant. I HAD TO SEE IT! So, we all gathered our belongings and headed to Alcatraz. He also said that there is a bar where monkeys serve you. THAT bar was far away so we weren't going there. We are walking over to this bar at 11:30pm and there is more people on the street than on Times Square at 3pm!
Reflection: The thought of going to an S&M bar with Snow White in Tokyo. NEVER thought THAT would happen! LOL!!!!!!

We find a building where this restaurant resides on the 11th floor. We get in the elevator, and head up. The elevator opens, we walk out. There is a little sign that says "please press button for appropriate blood type". One of the guys presses something and these HUGE steel doors open automatically. A girl comes out and says. We are closed........SUCK!!!!!!!!! They just closed 5 minutes before we got there! Oh well.
Then, I had the brilliant idea of taking my new friends to the "teeny bar". BRILLIANT! So, we headed there! We ended up having an amazing time with our now "old friend", bar owner guy. Reggie ends up meeting us there with a friend of his who lives in Tokyo. So, lets see - tiniest bar in the world headcount.......Me, Snow white, 2 dudes, oh !....and one local guy who just happened to be there before we got there. Reggie walks in with his friend and GUESS WHO? Blue sweater! Interesting.........Now, there are 7 people in a place that holds about 4. Steamy. About 1AM, my new friends decide to call it a night because they are about an hour from home and have to work at around 8AM. We all exchange info and they head out. I am left with Reggie and his two friends. I decide to have one more sake before heading back to my hotel. Finally, I tell everyone that I am exhausted and I should be heading home so I can crash. they all decided to do the same. Reggie asks for the bill, gets it and starts trying to work out the split. My friends had already paid for my tab so I was in the clear. I watched as Blue Sweater was taking out money from her purse. Reggie said nonsense, lemme get this. Nick stopped Reggie and motioned to let her pay for everything.
I gotta go back for a sec......there was a point earlier in the bar when Reggie and his friend were talking SO much and SO into the conversation (Since they had not seen each other in around 10 years). And Blue Sweater was sitting right there in the corner watching and listening. Reggie stopped and apologized for being rude and not including her in the conversation. She replied, "Oh please, I am so lucky to be here"
K! BACK TO STORY!
she paid for the tab, we walked out. she got in a cab and left. Nick pulls us aside and says, "Look boys, I have been here for about 15 years and let me tell you something about this place and women. Here in Japan, THEY TAKE YOU OUT. THEY PAY FOR EVERYTHING. Thats just the way it is here. Completely fucking opposite."
At that moment, every single little teeny interaction, argument, stalker, relationship, fling or ANYTHING with American woman just flashed before my eyes. Ugh.
I need to come back here BAD.

Sleep time. tomorrow, get on the bullet train and head to Osaka.



Carlos