The Return Of The Kiichi-Kun III (as published in Burrn magazine)

The Return Of Kiichi-kun III

In our epic conclusion to the trio that is "The Return Of Kiichi-kun III," Ashely and I were finally able to venture into Tokyo and begin our exploration of all things Japan.

The first expedition found us wandering the back streets of Shibuya to head towards Harajuku. At first, we felt as if we were completely lost, attempting to utilize my phone maps (which for a USA phone in Japan, it doesn't quite work right). Eventually we found the shops getting cooler, the food stalls becoming far more interesting looking. We popped in and out of punk-clothing shops, a baby clothes store that featured graffiti-style printed clothes for toddlers, some thrift shops, then gradually made our way towards Kiddy Land; the king of all toy stores. I've hit Kiddy Land each time in Japan, collecting my Final Fantasy toys, but this time they had none! We stocked up on omiyage for our friends and family, then went for food.

This trip was mainly about food, so I'll be sure to summarize the choicest eats: 

Harajuku Gyozalo was lunch; and man, lemme tell ya, gyoza is one of my favorite things on earth. Meat stored in little packets of carbohydrate-y goodness is always what I have a craving for. Needless to say, this legendary gyoza shack was amazing. 

Shabuzen was dinner. We reunited with Koji from Roadrunner to sit back and chow down on all things meat. My okasan would always make sukiyaki at home, but I've never tried it in Japan; my goodness was this place good. Shabuzen was Ashley's favorite meal of the whole trip; this restaurant is the spot where Bill Murray and Scarlet J. had their fight in "Lost In Translation."

The following day found us traveling as a duo towards Asakusa to wander the shops and eat fresh senbei. A good friend of mine - Ken Sakurada - who owns Shin Sushi in Orlando (sushi as good as Japan basically) told me to meet up with his friend who works at Yoshikami, Azuma-san.

Yoshikami for me was one of the truly most unique things I've ever eaten. Yoshikami's food reflects the American soldier's description of the diner in Japan; it's basically the Japanese interpretation of what the American diner is, but utilizing a Japanese spin on it all. Omme-rice and pork cutlets were our lunch, along with some ice cream for desert, and for me it was a wonderfully unique experience. Omme-rice is something my okasan would always make for me for breakfast.

After our lunch, we grabbed the train to Ueno park and the Tokyo art museum. It was a Japanese cultural tour that inspired "Shogun," and this time around the limitless sea of inspiration I found within the museum will certainly be seen throughout many musical things I create next in Trivium and Mrityu. Spanning from ancient triptychs that could be new tattoos for me, to busts of ancient demons and goddesses who could be referenced in song, wandering the halls of the art museum in Tokyo was fuel to the creativity that I always long for.

Ashley had a step-tracker wrist band that she had on for the day, when we finally got back to our room after our day of sightseeing, it said we logged 10 miles!

I Love Meat was our dinner pick for the night: Yaki niku; always a crowd pleaser. We had multiple cuts of beef here, unfortunately we had no Japanese speaking friend with us, so it was a lot of pointing at images of cartoon cows to figure out the cuts of what we were eating.

Afterwords, we hit Ishinohana for a Pisco Sour and something fancy I can't recall the name of that Ash guzzled down. Ishonohana was a seriously fancy little joint for cocktails. The waiters were dressed in the prohibition-era style that is so popular in America; these guys sure had their craft down. Watching the bartenders here is watching artists at work.

Our final day saw tempura udon for breakfast, followed by a trek into Loft (for cute omiyage), Mandarake (to browse some anime comics), Blitz (for a metal T shirt or two), a panchinko arcade, then some photo booths that turn everyone into giant-eyed anime-girls. Yes - I did this as well. Lunch? More ramen and gyoza!!

For dinner, we found ourselves at an all chicken restaurant called Toriyoshi that we had with Koji-san. We had: Kirin, a thick chicken soup, a salad featuring chicken, a thick and rich oden with all parts of the chicken, yaki-tori chicken parts, oyaku-donburi, then even more chicken in the form of tempura. Holy chicken, Batman! It was a delicious final meal with our beloved pal Koji.

The morning of our flight, naturally - I wanted ramen again, but Ashley said she was “ramen-ed out”. My favorite breakfast is the Japanese breakfast (rice, salmon, miso soup, and tea), Ashley’s - the French breakfast (croque madame and cafe’ au lait). Lo and behold in all it’s combined splendor, we found the best of both worlds, we found a Japanese/French bakery. We had matcha croissants and scones; crossaints with cheese; a hotdog-stuffed pastry of some sort; and another cheesy roll. Ashley was a very happy Francophile. 

Unfortunately for us, it was time to fly back home; Ashley was to get back to her job as Creative Director at a local creative agency, and it was time for me to get back on tour again in North America, melting the faces of countless metalheads around the USA and Canada. 

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Japan is the greatest place on Earth.

The Return Of The Kiichi-Kun II (as published in Burrn magazine)

The Return Of The Kiichi-kun II

It was a short van ride to Saitama from the Tokyu Excel for Loud Park; when we finally arrived, we all grabbed our bags and stage clothes and headed to the dressing rooms. 

Like pretty much everything else in this country, Japan really has the dressing room situation figured out; not only figured out, but basically has all things hospitality, nailed down better than any other country could even fathom. Each band has their own large private space, a decent rider in their room, temperature controls for your room (you’d be surprised how rare this feature is typically), a clean bathroom and showers nearby (a rarity in some countries to even have a shower or toilet), world-class catering (with Japanese food), and really pro backstage crew (including stage crew, caterers, hospitality, security, press, etc.). Japan, just like in everything else, does the backstage world better than anyone else.

To preserve my voice pre-show, I usually limit myself from little to no press before a show, but today there were a couple big bits, like a cross-talk interview with Baby Metal! It really is astounding to see a band so young, not only playing metal, but playing metal to thousands and thousands of people already. I felt a linking parallel to the band in that I joined Trivium when I was 12 as well; it’s just that they’re playing to way more people than I did initially. My first several years of shows never saw more than 15-50 people at a time.  

After a bit of press, we each warmed up in our usual fashion. My warm up routine is as follows: 4 hours before show, I need to be sure to cut off any and all food; 2 hours before is when I start to warm up guitar (utilizing selected warm ups from John Petrucci’s “Rock Discipline”); 1 and a half hours before show, I warm up my voice with Melissa Cross’s vocal warm ups (first baritone, then tenor); an hour before set, I stretch using my yoga mat, using selected stretches from the Ashtanga yoga series; 30 minutes before set, I change into my stage gear, put in my in-ears; then 15 before set, I make sure I’m by the stage, ready to rock. 

The show this time around in Tokyo truly was not only the best Japanese show of Trivium’s career, but one of the greatest shows of our career. The entire crowd knew every single word, knew every part to jump, mosh, clap, or circle pit. The circle pit we saw in the arena was so big, spanning so many barricades, that it created a giant “heart-shaped” circle pit in the crowd. We played rather early that day for such a massive audience, roughly some time around 2:00pm. I heard that our crowd was the most insane of the entire festival, and that’s always a good feeling.  

After the show, we had a large batch of press to take care of; everything we did was performed by some of the best press people in the industry. I even was interviewed by one of my favorite bands on the planet: Sigh; Japan’s best black metal band.  

When everything wrapped up, the entire Trivium band and crew headed back to the hotel, and then to Jyanka for yaki niku. Each of us loaded up on Suntory Premium Malts and meat. We started with Korean-style pickles, various cuts of impeccably delectable beef, a couple vegetables (for good measure), into beef with ground wasabi, more meat, cow stomach, even more meat, then a few sweets for everyone to share. Yaki niku is one of my favorites to chow down on in Japan; it encourages sharing, it encourages everyone to partake of the same thing, so each can really enjoy the same experience together; that’s my favorite way to eat. 

Needless to say, we celebrated the perfect show in the best way possible. 

The following morning, we assembled the entire team for one final meal out together; we hit Kamakura as a group since it was the only thing open that early in the morning for breakfast. I had my usual ramen, gyudon, gyoza, oni-giri breakfast. We all walked back to the hotel where Ashley and I said our farewells to 3/4’s of the Trivium band and our entire crew, it was now finally vacation time in Tokyo.