SO, after delay, here's my official report detailing our trip to Japan! I'll try to keep the non-Pillows stuff brief but I figure I'd give details of everything!
We arrived at Narita Airport around 7pm Japan time and took the NEX to Shinjuku where we were staying...took a little while to figure out how to get OUT of the station hahaha...we purchased a Suica card and tried to use it on the subway...we finally learned they were for trains only hahaha! The next few days were devoted to sightseeing in Harajuku, the Ameyoko Market, Electric City (I've never seen so many toys in my life, TOTALLY Japan here), the Musical Instrument area, obviously the imperial garden in Chiyoda, Roppongi, the Tokyo Tower, ARCADES FILLED WITH TEKKEN 6!!!! the list continues! We walked basically everywhere hahaha. It was a good way to take in the sights and sounds AND save money. Vending machines everywhere. Nice people everywhere. Narrow streets. It was truly amazing to see, to stand in a foreign country for the first time and realize this world is so different from where I'm from. Of course, things were also similar. There were lots of english translations in the subways and restaurants. Everyone spoke a little english hahaha. Pointing to orders helped us out at some points, but we also had fun mastering all the basic phrases. Tokyo is huge. Its like Manhattan 100x, and much more maze like. I loved it. I'm a big Metroid fan and I often wondered how Samus Aran would do getting around town.
So on to the meat, the Pillows 20th show. We hit the Imperial Garden first while walking to the Bodukan, and it was like a rite of passage. Beautiful day, awesome scenery right in the middle of town. The line was pretty long already when we got there, about 3 hours before the doors opened. People were lined up all afternoon. We got there and started taking pictures with fans and those who recognized us from the contest. Passed out a few business cards before the Budokan police shooed us away! We were with Lo-Fi Boy, Tidus, and Brye for the most part until we entered the show, and the guys can testify to how fun it was to connect with the Japanese Pillows fans. They are all nice and so much fun! As soon as one recognized us from the contest we had five more coming for pictures!
We met up with Hide, our Avex contact who directed us for most of the night. The team was awesome. We met up with the other top 5 winners and were given gifts from the label/band, and we hung out for a bit before being taken in to the show. We were square in the middle of the stadium, perfect for spotting the action all around us.
The concert was amazing with that screen. Awesome imagery, but more awesome when Thank You My Twilight opens the show hahaha. The set list I agree was boring for a 20th anniversary show, but that's my fanboy self coming out. It was solid when I thought back on it, almost every album represented. Surprisingly there was a lot of new/Wake Upx3 songs on the setlist....why? Bracey leaned over to me at one point and said "no wonder they're not going as crazy as usual, think about how much MONEY was put into this show?" True, think about all the singles and newest releases they played? This show could have been as much a publicity driven show from the label as it was a 20th anniversary party. Either way, it was The Pillows, in Japan, on their 20th anniversary. Holy Shit.
So after the show we exit the stadium and meet up with the other winners. We grabbed our stuff and then went back in to meet the band after briefly meeting Kurikun (the Tiny Boat cover in the contest!). The media room was downstairs, so they come out and give a speech, we take pictures and exchange gifts, and they're off to the after party. Before we leave, we meet a ton of radio people, one chick Shirley was from America!! We also met the president of Avex, who actually submitted a vid in the contest and was in the top 20! This guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNIbOLGW ... annel_page He was joking with us that we were all going to Roppongi to hang with Geisha girls hahahahaha. We were talking to Manabe about how clean Tokyo was to us and he laughed, saying New York was DIRT hahaha!! Had to agree here.
http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv14 ... G_4208.jpghttp://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv14 ... G_4240.jpghttp://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv14 ... G_4242.jpgSo again after the meet and greet and the toasts Sawao makes sure the Charm Facers get invited to the after party. Hide and us talk business for a while and then we go to Shinjuku RIGHT DOWN THE ROAD from where we're staying to a bar they often go to for band functions. The after party was insane! At first we were introduced to a magazine company and The Pillows official photographer, Kazu. Also there were a ton of Delicious label bands there, we took pics with Noodles, the lead singer from Flower Companies (can't remember his name), and a lot of the female entourage there
We talked with the Pillows recording engineer and friends for a few hours over drinks, towards the end of the night everyone was so wasted all we did was yell out band names we loved and we all cheered. It was magic hahaha, Japanese and American culture uniting and celebrating years and years of music and influence. HUP!
http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv14 ... G_4296.jpgWe talked to Sawao's brother Hidetoshi for like an hour hahaha...highlights include the story of Hidetoshi and Sawao going to see Star Wars as kids and how Sawao was "annoying" because he would ask his brother constantly what everything translated to (he couldn't understand english!). So to this day his brother is the source of most of the english translations we hear in the songs, but funny, Gazelle City is one of the only english songs Sawao wrote exclusively (Hide said he did a good job at it hahahaha!). Hidetoshi was extremely humble and it was nice to hear he and his brother talk daily. He was so intellectual hahaha, he wore a Clockwork Orange t shirt, so rock and roll.
http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv14 ... G_4273.jpgThe band members were enjoying drinks, as you can imagine! Shin was off his rocker. Friends of theirs had made these Shin valentine hearts on sticks, looked like a giant popsicle! I don't even remember now how all this started, but I began giving Shin kisses on the cheek and he referred to me for the rest of the night as "Gay boy!" We have hilarious video of him saying "I don't like Gay boy, its ok if you are gay but I am not gay", this being translated through one of the english speaking friends in attendance. Totally funny as hell. He had such a good time with us, he spent most of the time with us and the girls!
http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv14 ... G_4280.jpgManabe was smooth and awesome as always. He said he doesn't play his Mustang anymore because too many Japanese artists play out of em. He was impressed that we shot the Gazelle City video using the same Cannon HD cam we were shooting with at the party! That was a funny moment. He's hoping we can do some work for him and his Nine Miles work
A truly nice man with great insight, says the new album is awesome!
http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv14 ... G_4239.jpgJun we didn't spend too much time with, Sawao is shy when it comes to speaking english, he said it takes him forever to speak it so he doesn't like to. I told him we need more Kool Spice smooth jazz songs and he laughed, saying he's been there, done that hahaha. He wants to come to America again next year but its tough to get Shin to agree, its a tough flight for these old men these days! Sawao said they played Gazelle City in our honor when they decided on us as winners, I said WHY was I not there for this???? We told him we'd open for them when they came to New York again so we'll see, he said they'd reach out to us if they come back!
That's pretty much the gist, its hard to describe every moment of what went down, and no words can describe how awesome and humbling being in that room was. The history there, and also the fact that these are just normal human beings who got popular playing in a band, I was watching them celebrate their accomplishments like any of us would celebrate a graduation or our own concert after parties. We are all the same
Where do we go from here? I'm having my company in NYC talk with our new Avex contacts to start working professionally to promote The Pillows and other J pop/rock bands in North America. There are great opportunities in the social media realm of online business that Avex is just tapping in to, and we had very promising conversations with our new friends so we'll see. I may recruit all of you one day to work for this new conduit, if we can get it off the ground! I'll keep you posted on everything of course. They may also use our footage we filmed for the 20th DVD, so look for us there too!
I have a great deal of video but I'm torn on whether or not I can get it to you guys to view. We already had certain vids taken off our youtube channel due to copyright, and uploading our footage to share sites would be even worse of a violation. I might put some private vids together on youtube and post direct URLs, we'll see, it won't be ready for a while. For now, you can view our pictures of the concert on photobucket
http://s678.photobucket.com/albums/vv146/ladybirdgirl/ I'll probably make a music video in the next few weeks as well, I'll post it here.
The band is very happy, still going strong, and we hope to see them in America next year. Thanks guys again for watching our videos and support over the whole summer, its been an unforgettable experience. It is our intention to keep moving forward with the relationships we made, so see you at the next Pillows show and stay in touch! God bless.
haha 
I want to see those videos so bad now, I hope there's some to work around it. Great insight on the English songs with Sawao and his brother. Also, I hope your promotion of your band, and the pillows and their labelmates go good as well. I'm actually going to be doing a J-rock radio show next year, and the college's station is right in the middle downtown Chicago. If there's anyway I can help, please let me know, I'll be more than willing. That being said, I really hope they get back here next year. Sawao and the rest just need to convince Shin. But I think they'll do it. They know they have the fanbase here. Hell, you guys friggin won the entire contest! What does that say? I hope to be rocking out again to them soon. 
!!
