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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Stay in a traditional Ryokan as opposed to a western style hotel for at least one night. Go to an onsen. Get a copy of Japanzine from Maruzen, that will tell you where all the gaijin bars are. Ok do the tourist bit and go to Ginza.
Take trip on the subway during rush hour where you get squeezed into the train. Not for the claustrophobic.
Take a good Japanese lady to a love hotel that has various themes. Bookable by the hour. The reception has screens so they can't see your face.
Take an international driving licence with you and take a drive through town. Very easy driving in the big cities in Japan. They drive on the same side as us, but every junction has traffic lights, and the signs are in English in the city. Best of all no roundabouts.
Take prickly heat powder with you, this time of year the humidity and heat can be very intense. June is the rainy season. Probably the worst month to visit Japan.
Go to an izakaya, traditional Japanese bars, easily spotted by the red lanterns outside. Go to a yattai ramen stall, normally set up on a riverbank. Best late at night after a few too many.
Bang every Japanese lady you meet, they really know how to look after you.
Get a blind man to give you a full body massage, shiatsu style. A very common occupation for the blind in Japan. Will come to your room and give you a complete work out. Takes about 45 mins, will make you squirm, don't be a wimp and take the pain, it's worth it.
Take the 5 lakes tour of Fuji-San, including the ice cave. You will really appreciate freezing your arse off. Drive up to station 5 of Fuji-San. From there about 5 hours to the summit if you are so inclined.
Go to a crab restaurant, easily recognisable by the huge mechanical moving crab above the entrance, go downstairs and sit round the pool and stuff yourself with king crab legs.
Don't wear shoes with shoelaces, you need shoes that are easy to kick off as many places you will have to take off shoes to enter. Socks with holes are a big no no.
Yaki-Nikku restaurants are fun. Basically a table with a built in bbq. The tables have extractor fans for the smoke. You cook your food yourself. Don't forget to ask for a new grill every now and then.
If you enjoy a drink or two pace yourself as the Japanese are great party goers. Easy to understand the end of a party there as tea or miso soup will be served. Drink mizuwari which is 10% whisky and 90% ice and water. Mind the hot sake, goes straight to your head.
Be punctual for any meeting the Japanese hate tardiness.
Get practicing with your hashi (chopsticks) and never stick them upright in your rice, that is for the dead.
Above all retain your sense of humour. Always keep smiling when something pisses you off. The Japanese can really kill you with their politeness. If you hear them say "chotto muzukashi" which means a little difficult, it really means not a chance in hell. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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What else? Go to a pachinko parlour and blow 10,000 yen. Noise levels are incredible. If you're lucky enough to win, fat chance for a newbie, take the cheesy gifts round the back of the building where they will be exchanged for cash.
Foods to avoid are things like raw sea urchin, octopus sushi, I just could not swallow a tongue size slab of broiled leg. Live bee larvae, fresh from the hive. Raw prawns are ok, just a bit disconcerting when you spot them trying to walk off the plate.
Do go to the ukai which is where you are on a boat on a river having dinner provided by the cormorants, you sit there as the fishermen come down in their traditional boats with teams of cormorants catching the aiyu which is a type of trout. Done at night and the whole river lit up by huge log burning braziers on the bows of the fishermens boats. The fish then cooked over charcoal.
You may find yourself sitting on the floor a lot of the time, watch out for pins and needles. Discreetly move your legs and change your position often. Nothing so embarrassing as standing up and keeling right over.
Get a copy of the lonely planet guide to Japan.
Take the Shinkansen down to Kyoto, that's a good day out. Those trains are so smooth, fast, clean and on time. If the train is late by even a minute makes the headline news, they run them about 3 mins apart so it's a major deal if one is late. Plus you'll go through our home town of Nagoya.
Watch the BS news at least once on the TV, it's bilingual. Will give you a different perspective on what is news over there.
Take a wee shopping trip to one of the big supermarkets, the fish section is amazing. All alive and kicking of course. Also go to the fish market.
If you get the chance get up into the mountains and go to a natural onsen. You wash thoroughly before going in the baths. Baths are for relaxing in, not for washing. Don't worry about the little old cleaning lady staring intently at your genitalia.
Japanese women can be a little confusing, if she looks 30 she's probably 15 and if she looks 15 she's probably 30.
If you enjoy a puff of or whatever, don't over there, a gram of will see you in prison. Paul McCartney was thrown straight out of the country when he got caught and being a Beatle was the only thing that saved him from prison.
Go to the electronics section of town, forget the name of the area now, but some amazing bits of kit there. Same for all the tech stuff in the music industry. It will all be 100 volts but easy enough to sort transformers in this country.
That's it for now. Have fun.
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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
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time is limited .... we have 2 days in the city then off to Nagoya for the next gig ... but i'll show the guys and we'll add some of the suggestions i'm sure ..... checking out the Elvis's in yoyogi park has been added since last night  |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Well the gigs finish early in Japan so plenty of time to enjoy the night life. You should take an extra week or so break in Japan to see the country. You ever been there before? |
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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
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"Well the gigs finish early in Japan so plenty of time to enjoy the night life. You should take an extra week or so break in Japan to see the country. You ever been there before?"
we won't be finished until all the equipment is packed away and the flight cases are rolled out and loaded onto the lorry ..... and we don't get a choice to stay on. the label bosses are paying so they call the shots on the timetable .... we do get to fly business class though |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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When we were living there often looked after various acts passing through town. We had a nightclub in Sakae in Nagoya. I used to be a sound engineer till my ears went. The Japanese road crew were pretty amazing. In those days everything was photographed with Polaroids and they all carried tape measures. Once our crew had set up out would come the cameras and measures and the next gig everything was set up exactly to perfection.
In Nagoya Mikeys sports bar , Santa Barbara, and Canal Street are the best gaijin bars. Get your Japanese liaison to check on where they are, and if they're still going. 4 years since I was last over there seeing family.
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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
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here we come mutha******s!!!! this is all rather exciting. me and the rest of the band are zooming through the sky on our way to japan. business class no less. they have wifi and a minibar and stuff ... it's surreal  |
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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
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3 hours in and we're jetlagged in a karaoke bar with our new japanese friends and nobody can understand each other but the singing is going really well .... i just did a duet of Sex On Fire with a business guy in a suit .... culture shock to the max   |
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Go to the Yen shop (their equivalent of our poundland). You will see the tiniest mobile phones.
Somewhere in Tokyo is a theme park - so technologically advanced it makes Disneyland seem like cardboard.
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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
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back now .... the gigs went fantastic ... all messed up with reverse jet lag and the band will be d*unk for a week after emptying our business class mini bars twice 
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