Haha, yes the rain was beautiful. The slide was so much fun, I went on twice.
Here I am at the airport with Yuka (Kenta’s girlfriend) getting ready to get on the plane.
Well here I am with Kenta, saying my last goodbyes for the tour. I’d like to thank him for this invaluable experience, along with Mat Gonzo, and Pat Dwyer for the opportunity and learning experience.
After 36 shows, 4 radio shows, camping, hiking, and visiting temples, it’s great to finally head back home to all my friends who were very supportive about the tour. Thanks everyone, can’t wait to see you!
cheers!
-anthony
The last show of the tour was in Iwaki, a city in Fukushima (one of the prefectures affected by the March 11th tsunami) at clubSONIC. It was a great last show because we were joined by many other bands we had grown close with during the tour. The show went all day into the night. We spent some time afterwards shooting for Mat’s documentary, and celebrating the end of the tour.
We wore our haori that were given to us in Nara for the show.
The show was very emotional for all of us, for many reasons.
Here’s Kenta and I celebrating after the show.
Now it’s back to Tokyo to see Mat off, then we’re heading to Nagoya so I can catch my flight back home!
Today we played at another festival in Gifu.
A crowd of young high schoolers lined up to watch some of the bands (not sure what was with the line, but it was interesting to say the least).
Here I am posing with the Japanese character Kappa.
Here we are playing our acoustic set.
You may or may not be wondering where my glasses went… well they fell in the Pacific Ocean at yesterday’s beach festival when I decided to go for a morning swim. So unfortunately, I’m a little blind for the remainder of the week out here.
I made a friend during our picnic after our acoustic set.
Mmmmm sweet potatoes!
Kenta’s mom wrapping up lunch… mid-sentence, hahahaha.
Kenta’s grandmother, wiping her face (it was quite a hot day outside).
After lunch, Kenta’s girlfriend Yuka and I went down a really really large slide permanently installed in the park where the festival was. The view from the top was gorgeous.
There’s Yuka, just ahead of me on the slide!
Sadly, it started down-pouring right before our electric set later that day, so we didn’t get to play. Although I got to play… in the rain! I had a little fun of my own doing a rain dance while I watched all the vendors rush indoors, as well as everyone else outside.
A fellow American spotted me and decided it would be fun to dance with me in the rain.
When the rain stopped, our new American friend took us to a nearby waterfall! 
Uh-oh, almost bumped into this guy on the bridge!
Here we are just below the fall!
We’re supposed to go to Mt. Fuji tomorrow, but there’s a serious typhoon amidst Japan, so it’s not looking too promising… we’ll see!
Last night we played a festival on the beach in Toyohashi, we arrived as the sun was setting.
The bands and vendors received a wood necklace and the guests received seashell necklaces.
One of our Japan favorites, The Dubnationalies, also played that night. Our first show of the tour at Club Reon we played with them, and we’ve been bumping their CD across Japan ever since.
A few painters also set up shop during the festival.
This was a wallboard that an artist painted on for other’s to sign. And no that’s not Gaga for Lady Gaga, Gaga is the Japanese artist who designed the t-shirts for our High Knight Tour.
Next the crowd was pushed back to make room for fire dancers!
After the fire dancers, they began to set fireworks off on the beach, near a bonfire that had also been blazing the entire night (into the next morning).
After the fireworks was a tyco drum show, they really got the crowd going!
I even made a friend as we were unloading our equipment from the car!
Here’s a shot of the crowd I took from onstage, we met so many amazing people that night!
Tomorrow we return to Gifu for another festival!
Tonight we were on NHK FM Radio in Nagoya on their show “Twilight.”
The lady who interviewed us was very nice, but like everyone else in the station, seemed a little high strung.
Here she is posing with us just after the interview was conducted.
I told her (and everyone else in the office) not to take everything so seriously all the time, and asked her for a funny picture. By the time we left we had everyone sniffing their colored markers (cause only certain colors stunk really bad… weird) and laughing at our antics.
The exit was lined with beautiful art, this was a ceiling installation next to the escalator that led down to the bottom floor.
This piece near the door also caught my eye.
The night was young and we were ready to find something else to get into, so we decided to visit “Thank You Mart,” a shop in Nagoya where everything costs 390 yen or less (about $5 American dollars).
Well Mat kept himself occupied by filming the cashiers as part of his documentary, Kenta and I had other plans…
Here we are modeling Japanese masks, you can get sick in style in Japan!
Next I decided to check out some of the interesting phrases on the hat rack. A few of them read “United States America,” “Everything Always Has Beauty,” and the one I tried on: “Danger: Poison, A pot of milk is ruined by a drop of poison.” LOL
On to the sunglasses rack <3
Whoa man, 3D!
Here I am with one of the employees of the Thank You Mart. She was straightening book bags, but I told her that modeling hats and glasses with me would be more fun.
Well Nagoya, I hope a visit from the Kenta Hayashi band was a good reminder not to always take things so seriously.
Until next time, oyasumi!
Tonight we were on a radio show in Gifu, Kenta’s hometown. 
This is the building where the station was located.
The station was Radio80 Gifu FM 80.0MHz.
This was the DJ who interviewed us, she was quite a bubbly personality.
Here’s Kenta performing his song “The Bell of Notre Dame” from his new CD on the air.
Mat was filming for a documentary he’s putting together.
Here’s us with the DJ just after the interview.
Tomorrow we’re back on the road, heading to Kyoto to play at Muse. We played there before in Osaka and it was an amazing venue, so it should be an exciting show!
We played our last show in Tokyo on the tour, and are now enjoying a much needed few days off. The show was at Eggman in Shibuya and it was a ton of fun, so many friends and fans came out, as well as new faces! There was a photographer, 3 videographers, and a camera in the back of the room, so there should be some great video from this show. Also two different record labels and producers were in the audience that night as well.
I was very happy to find a bunch of sunflowers planted right outside the club in a small garden in the middle of the city.
When we went to eat before the show, I had lunch with the Terminator!
Here are some kids in a window display of a clothing store sporting New Jersey shirts! 
Kenta Hayashi and Anthony Hayashi both sporting their hats and flannels!
Here we are rocking out during the song Lost Souls!
Kenta, sinking his teeth into it once again…
Here’s Kenta and Yuka working the merch stand after the show.
It was a really fun night, but since Mat and I are both fighting off colds, we’re looking forward to these next three days off! Videos from this show and other shows soon to come, stay posted!
After a much needed and well deserved day off, we hit the road today.
We stopped a few times along the way to eat and for bathroom breaks, but we were determined to get to Tokyo on time for our radio interview.
Does the Kenta Hayashi band have SARS? No.. just colds, well at least Mat and I do, Kenta’s wearing a mask to prevent himself from getting sick. We’re wearing them to keep our throats moist, which actually has helped a lot.
We made it! Although the GPS took us in circles before we finally found the radio station.
A shot of the itinerary, along with a few of the questions we would be asked.
Here’s the producer, engineer, and the DJs live in the next room.
Inside the studio we were interviewed and listen to two of Kenta’s songs on the air (Kenta translated our questions for us).
Here’s a shot of us with the DJs just outside of the booth after the interview was conducted.
Tomorrow we’re back at Powers2 which will be streaming live on uStream again!
Today we were supposed to play an outdoor festival, but due to the typhoon that we’ve been having the last few days, that was cancelled, and instead a few of the bands who were supposed to play went over to Advantage Bar in Mie and we had an acoustic show there as well as few DJs. The show was streamed online on uStream on Advantage’s channel. We had a lot of fun and the place with packed with both new and familiar faces.
We played to a packed house who really enjoyed the songs. It was an interesting experience because it was the first time we had played many of these songs acoustically so we kind of improvised as we went along. Mat played tabla for the first two tunes and then switched over to a cajon which was a nice change.
Later on in the night Stockman (from Tokyo) played and everyone went nuts. They’re a pretty popular funky band from here.
After the show we partied into the night, and then ended up crashing at the bar, tomorrow we have another show at Club Reon, then we get to enjoy our first day off in a while. After Club Reon, we’re headed back to Tokyo for an FM radio show/interview, another show at Powers2 which will be streamed online on uStream, and then our last show in Tokyo (Shibuya) at Eggman!
