16.1. HELSINKI-OSAKA

Yes we are Finnish. Catching up on emais & mobile phone calls already at the airport..

What could be less interesting than describing an eleven hour flight? Well maybe writing about an eleven hour van journey through our favorite countries Sweden and Denmark to Germany but that doesn't count... and swedish gas stations don't serve free wine, which was the only thing that made the flight bearable. The sunset was really beautiful though, thumbs up!

17.1. OSAKA-TOKUSIMA

Phew... the biggest relief. We made it safely though the customs! The officers luckily did not recognize the fact that instead of smelling, weary tourists we were international rock stars, har har...

After arriving at the airport we had to wait quite a while for Yoichi / Snuffy Smile, who had set up the tour and everything, and his right arm Tomo cos they could not get the tour van from the rental company any earlier.

But after the wait came the reward :

Umm... yeah. They really sold these shirts at an Asahi brewery in Kobe, which is where Yoichi took us the first thing after arriving! At some point of the tour we started to doubt he has some kind of sponsorship from the Asahi company as we did not drink any other beer during the tour after so great introduction - it was really good! ;) Hard work though. We had to watch an introduction film in japanese only, and take a tour through the manufacturing process, with the hostess only speaking japanese. But in the end we were allowed to drink 3 pints of Asahi in 20 minutes. Ahh, japanese efficiency! But, not having caught any sleep in about 30 hours, most of us were almost drunk after those three cold ones.

After hours and hours... and hours in the small van, driving small roads through small towns and small villages we arrived in Tokusima, where the first show would be next day. We crashed at our friend (former Minority Blues Band singer) Spalding's place. After a nice meal our hosts cooked, it was nice to hang out for a while.

18.1. TOKUSIMA, Crowbar

First thing in the morning we drove around town trying to find a european -> japanese power adapter for the organ and Antti's effect board but to no avail. So decided to worry about the show at the show and went sightseeing.

Yoichi and Tomo took us to this mountain with the most amazing view of the city... there were temples and shrines too, so stupid finnish tourist = happy.

In addition to temples and shrines, more japanese essentials : the vending machine. They have these things for everything, not least alcohol. Bring one of these to any given place in Finland, it would be surrounded by passed out children in no time ;( But anyways...

...more essentials. They call it a toilet, for us it's a super computer beyond our control.

The Crowbar was a nice small club, and we managed to borrow a keyboard for the night too. No pictures of it though, it was small and more like teenager bedroom disco than rock'n'roll in appereance!

Lucky us. Yoichi and Tomo took care of EVERYTHING on this tour, merch included. Well, because of the language barrier if would have been very difficult for us to do anything even if we had wanted to, so every night before the show we would just wander around the city. Not bad!

After one, two, or more shows in Germany i've typed one of my favorite Murder City Devils quotes.. the show was bad but the drinks were free. Well now, the drinks were not free but also the show was not bad! Quite the opposite, a great kick-off for the tour! And to our surprise one of the opening bands, The Wedding Night, played a cover by The Hurriganes, one of the best Finnish rock'n'roll bands ever so we were honored!

19.1. MATSUYAMA, Hoshizora Jet

Steady diet of noodles. In hangover. For breakfast. For lunch. For dinner. But for real.. eating the japanese food actually made you feel good.

After the first of the 100 noodle meals on this trip we drove to Matsuyama and Yoichi took us to one of the oldest hot springs in Japan, that was an amazing experience! So relaxing.

After that we drove to the venue - even smaller than the previous night, clearly not designed for us vikings and why would it be? After the soundcheck we had to try to find a way to call to Finland cos we had to do an interview about the tour for this radio show but that turned out to be pretty tricky. Getting out of the country is not so easy. We finally found an international phone booth and Anna did just fine. Maybe we had to stretch the truth about doing well here a bit as we had only played one show but hey at least it was pretty packed and we got an encore, heh!

The show in Matsuyama was smaller than the previous night but it was good still. Unfortunately i missed one of the bands i had been waiting for the most of this tour, Big Hand Family, while hunting down the phone booth and doing the interview. They are just one of the most entertaining NYHC bands out there, period!

20.1. FUKUOKA, Artin

The day started with a hell of a roller coaster ride, racing up and down small mountain roads trying to catch the ferry to the southern island of Kyushu. Phew.. we made it in the end!

Once again after the soundcheck we had time to explore Japan : Pachinko. A hall crammed full of 100s and 100s of games and whatnot, all blasting ear-shattering noise at full volume. Looking forward to the US tour, pretty sure i will prefer Las Vegas over these places he he.. well at least Anna got to try the power of her dancing shoes!

Back to the show.. whoa, haven't played in an antique gallery before and most likely won't play after this! Looking at the price tags on the things and thinking this is a punk show was a bit much..

This show was just great too! Finally got the adapter for the organ but for whatever reason, maybe the different electricity source, the damn this was out of tune! You'd think that would not be possible but.. umm so we had to tune the guitars a bit too high, to match the organ. Whatever. The after-show party was pretty good too, sez Yoichi-bunny!

21.1. KOKURA, Megahertz

Yep, they clearly know how to have fun in Kokura.. we didn't though ;( The show was intense for us but i managed to miss THE band i had waited for the most on this whole tour, 1000 Travels Of Jawaharlal. Japan is too organized for us it seems, duh! On the whole, it was not really our night. Even the walls were falling on us at the sleeping place..

22.1. OSAKA, Free People

Rarely have we waited so much for the early wake-up call.. anyways, this was the last day of the first leg of the tour and everything went well. Before the show Tomo took us to a nice (=the beer was cheap) restaurant. We played with Anti-Justice who were good, kind of early California punk type stuff, and Gon of I Excuse's new band Old Shit who were a lot more experimental than IE. After the show we drove to Kyoto where we were going to spend the next 3 days.

23.1.-25.1. KYOTO, holiday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We spent three really nice days (and nights) in Kyoto, thanks to the people who took such a good care of us! We bought shoes, bought more shoes, visited temples, visited more temples, spent one night in an amazing restaurant drinking & preparing and eating the most amazing meal, spent yet another night eating the most amazing meal, spent all night drinking (though it was only us in the end!), went to a huge outdoor market to buy kimonos, got electric shocks at a bath and thought i am physically falling apart cos i didn't know baths like that exist, got thrown out of one bath because of our tattoos, got stuck in an elevator between the 5th and 6th floor, got rescued in the end..

26.1. YOKOHAMA, Bar Gig

GET IN THE VAN! But it could be worse. The sights were kind of all right on this drive.

Upon arrival to Yokohama, it was time for a record-shopping spree at Disk Union, then chilling out the this nice small (what a surprise!) bar owned by the guy from Zero Fast, one of the night's bands..

The ultimate feeling-faking photo if we ever had one, and then the real thing.. don't the city lights look cool. Well in truth both are from the same place, the backstage was outdoors in the dark freezing rain, he he..

27.1. TOKYO, Jam

This guy is not a passed out hobo - for sure he has spent all night on the line, making sure to get the ticket to our show ;) We, on the other hand, had been waiting to finally go crazy in Tokyo and do all our stupid tourist shit. So we went out and did it.

It was amazing and so was the show, this was definitely the best day on the tour! All bands, The Urchin, Viagra, 3 Minute Movie, Blotto and Gleam Garden ruled. Was easy to smile afterwards :)

28.1. KYOTO, East

The last show at the small East club in Kyoto was really intense. Also we were pretty damn near to missing it as we were literally lost in the supermarket.. or shopping mall at least. Oh and at the mall we met this punk who taught us to say "all cops are bastards" or something like that in japanese. Then we went for a pizza, ordered a couple of litres of wine and came up with the bright idea to play a d-beat song with those japanese lyrics at the show, so we agreed to just play d-beat in A.. and we actually did it! Oh well oh well.. a good way to end the tour!

29.1. KYOTO-OSAKA-HELL.

It was a long way home but somehow we made it...

...until the happy end!!!!!!!!! Until next time!!!!!!!!!!