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Voodooland Photos from Japan 2003 |
Here's a picture of Karl and Bruce at the start of the flight after we were already in the air.
...and here's us after about 10 or 11 hours in the air. |
Location: Club Phase in Tokyo, Japan
November 16 - 17, 2003
Voodooland: Karl Cochran, Bruce Terkildsen, and Brent Fitz
Photos and Narration by: Chris
The flight
To say that the trip to Japan was a blast would be an understatement!! Karl, Bruce, Brent and myself would like to thank Takeshi Numadate, Kaoru Hoshino, Masami, the staff at Hotel Kaiyo, the staff and owner of Club Phase, and all the fans in Tokyo for a totally awesome time. It was the experience of a lifetime, and none of us will ever forget. The planning for this sucker was several months in the making. Taking 4 guys and about 150 pounds of gear on a plane halfway across the world is not an easy task. Think of the Porky Pig and Daffy Duck cartoon where they cram all those suitcases into the trunk of the car, and when the police officer pulls them over and opens the trunk, everything comes shooting out. That's very similar to what we did to get all our stuff into as few suitcases as possible.
We flew out of Newark Liberty International Airport for our 13 and a half hour plane flight to Narita Airport in Japan.
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Notice Brent and Karl's bloodshot eyes, and my goofy face (I was pretty delirious at that point). Hey, see how good you look after you've played every game and watched the same two Friends and CSI episodes for the 3rd time on those little TV's, and the only sleep you get is from the time your eyes close until your head nods and wakes you up. Word of advice to any taking long distance flights: ASK FOR AN EXIT ROW SEAT!!! Otherwise, you're a sardine in a can. |
Arrival in Japan
13+ hours later, we landed in Narita Airport, went through customs (a relatively painless process considering all the gear we had), and tried to find a bathroom (apparently, the change in air pressure effects the human body in a number of ways, not only just popped ears).
Yes, that is one version of the Japanese toilet bowl,
the other version being the one Americans are accustomed to seeing. --- >
We did our business, and brought all our gear out to the terminal entrance. Karl and Brent then looked for Takeshi, the promoter, for
almost an hour before finally finding him.
We went to Hotel Kaiyo, near Okubo train station
(I think I spelled that right). |
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Here's what Brent found when he opened one of the stalls. |
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Here's Karl posing in front of
Hotel Kaiyo |
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Voodooland band - in front of
Hotel Kaiyo |
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The view from one of our rooms at the
Hotel Kaiyo |
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Karl and Brent pigging out at Shabu Shabu. |
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Settling in...
We showered, changed and everyone except Bruce (too tired) went to a Shabu Shabu (again, the spelling is questionable). That's a Korean style restaurant where they have a big metal bowl of boiling water in the middle of a table. The wait staff brings out very thinly sliced beef, vegetables, noodles and all the drinks (including hot Saki) you can handle. The meat and vegetables are thrown into the bowl where they cook, no exaggeration, in 5 to 10 SECONDS. They are removed from the bowl and dipped into various tasty sauces and consumed in great quantities. A couple of hours, many plates of food, and several bottles of saki later, we went back to our hotels, and slept.... and slept......and slept. |
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Sound check
Sound check came early the next day, 12:30pm, which is fine considering we were scheduled to go on at 8:30pm if I remember correctly. Kaoru Hoshino helped Takeshi at the club to get various issues resolved.
After the show |
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I call this the Hot Dog Shot. This huge thing came out at some point during the night.With some of us in various stages of inebriation (take note: beer is stronger in Japan than in the U.S.), we found this hysterical. |
Eventually, we made our way back to our Hotel, and went to sleep.
Next day, sound check was later (2:30pm), because there were only 2 opening bands, instead of the three the previous night. That gave us time to sleep, and do a LITTLE sight seeing. |
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Eventually, all good things must come to an end. Karl and Brent got back to New Jersey on Thursday night. I drove Brent to Long Island McArthur Airport Friday morning (thanks to Vince Neil's management for booking a flight 3 hours away from where they ended the tour). Apologies to Brent for my bad driving going to the airport.
All in all, a totally awesome time was had by all, and I know each one of us would do it again in a heartbeat. |
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