SA:On the Road: Pariah’s Child in Japan 2015

Saturday & Sunday 16-17.5.2015 - Travel Nightmare ;-)

Got up at around 0900, found our faces and belongings from the bus

and exited at the airport in Berlin. After a really confusing check-in that took forever,

we got onto the first flight. Some 2 hours later we switched planes in Helsinki and enjoyed the next 9-10 hours watching movies, drinking and trying to sleep. Upon arrival in Tokyo two vans took us from Narita Airport to Haneda Airport which took about an hour or so, another check-in, this time a lot smoother, some food, drinks and smokes and it was off towards Hiroshima. One more hour of driving from the airport and we could finally check in to the hotel. Tried to stay awake as long as possible but just after 9 in the evening I passed out…..

Monday 18.5.2015 - Hiroshima

…only to wake up at around 0400 in the morning, it’s typical when flying east and it has happend on every single occasion I’ve been here, this is my 10th or 11th time in Japan btw. Anyways since I was up I watched the IIHF final Canada-Russia on youtube. My god what a blowout, congrats to Canada for being miles ahead of everyone else throughout the tournament. I slept for a bit after the game, actually fell asleep with the ceremonies running in the background so I missed the Russians marching out. Around 9 I went for some breakfast a couple of blocks away with some of the crew guys, bought some food & drinks for the room on the way back and spent the rest of the day, watching movies and working on e-mail stuff since I couldn’t get back to sleep. At 1600 it was time to go to the venue and figure out what we’re gonna play tonight. In Europe we did the same setlist throughout the tour since it was based around playing Ecliptica but here the promoter wanted us to do the Ecliptica-thing on the last show in Tokyo as a Japan exclusive so we’ll have to see if we know any other songs for the other shows.

Tuesday 19.5.2015- Travel / Off-day

Woke up in the morning just in time for the NYR-TBL game and then it was time to head to the trainstation and towards Osaka. Went out and grabbed some food with Elias and Tommy and then we had to take a nap since we’re still totally jet-lagged. In the evening the whole band hit the HRC for a late night dinner and some of us checked out RockRock later on.

Wednesday 20.5.2015- Osaka

Slept for most of the day and in the afternoon we headed towards the venue and our soundcheck.Mr Shimizu from Roland showed up and brought a nice little keyboard for us to play around with. The show itself was quite ok, in the end Pasi decided to switch my sounds (it was an accident) during the solo in Don’t Say A Word so I totally dropped off…kinda funny but at that moment I wasn’t too happy about it. Later on the guys went out to dinner but I headed to bed, too tired to go anywhere. I think I’ll need a few days to get the sleeping pattern right.

Thursday 21.5.2015- Nagoya

Got up in time for the Rangers hockey game, actually I did wake up a couple of hours earlier. Did some work on the computer….and then watched NYR lose, actually I missed the last 10 minutes since we had to leave for Nagoya. I played a bit with the Roland keyboard that was lent to me for these few days, in the train…and one hour later we were at the hotel. Tried to get some sleep but ended up watching some Rush clips on youtube…well…can’t belive I’m still jet-lagged…guess I’m getting old. Anyways upon arrival at the venue I realized that everyone else is also quite tired so…by the time we were on, I somehow managed to wake up and I think this was the best show on this Japan Tour so far. We’ve been changing setlists every night since the last Tokyo show will be a japan exclusive Ecliptica-show, we might as well have some fun with the rest of the shows and keep it interesting. After the show we went to Outback for dinner and then it was time to hit the sack. I’m sure we’ll party in Tokyo at some point but for now, sleep is the priority.

Friday 22.5.2015- Tokyo

Woke up at around 0430, fuck…gotta try to take a nap later. Spent the morning on the computer…again. Seems the business side of things never ends….anyways by 0800 I was starving so I decided to go out and buy some breakfast. Which I did, successfully ;-) Some noodle soup, sandwiches and apple juice…as well as some smokes since I’d run out. At 0900 I started to enjoy the Ducks-Blackhawks game and at 1100 I was down and leaving the hotel towards Tokyo and our two last shows on this Japan Tour. At the hotel we met up with fellow Finnish bastards for a short while and then headed towards our rooms for a bit of r & r. Elias had to go and do some guitar magazine stuff though….poor dude. Well at the venue I got to try out the Roland JD-XA which isn’t even released yet…I think I was the first finnish dude to have that chance, on top of all it’s a killer synth. Anyways, our guys from the label showed up as well as a whole bunch of other people that we work with. The show itself was hot as hell and the place was totally packed, which of course was really nice.Afterwards we took the easy way out and went to HRC for dinner. A small patrol of gung-ho type of dudes hit the bars afterwards but eventually gave up and got back to the hotel to get some sleep.

Saturday 23.5.2015- Tokyo no2

Stayed in my room for the most part of the day. The crew did a line-check at the festival that we’re headlining tonight but we didn’t do any soundcheck. The rest of the boys did go out walking and shopping and whatnot, all in smaller groups doing different things….since this is my 10th or 11th time in Tokyo, I just wasn’t up for it. At around 1700 we left for the venue and what was to be our last show on this Japan Tour…and what a show it was, gotta be happy with an ending like that for the tour. Afterwards there was some time to party before the morning and going home. Of course there was ;-)

Sunday 24.5.2015- Travel Home

Felt kinda…hmmm…how should one say ? Hungover/drunk in the morning but there was plenty of time to sleep in the plane. It took us about 90min to drive over to Narita and then after the usual amount of hassle we boarded the aircraft. I watched a couple of movies and slept probably like 4-5 hours or so which is pretty good. Well in Helsinki we said goodbye to some of the guys and enjoyed the 6+ hours of waiting before the late night flight home to Kemi. Actually Tommy, Punky & I went to the nearby shopping mall Jumbo and did some last minute shopping as well as dinner. In the end we all got home ok and now we have around 2 weeks off before the festival season starts. Until then…cheers & beers and thank you all !!!!

cheers,

Henkka

btw may Rangers win game 7 tomorrow night !!!...and yes yes, pictures are coming later, maybe early next week...