2009/01/20＊Takuro

「Bring iiit」

1/20 (Tue) Nagasaki DRUM BE-7

With the chanpon shop behind BE-7 having their regular holiday and the HARD OFF in the neighborhood having closed shop (they’re moving?), today’s was a show of trying to overcome these two regrettable coincidences. There were some troubles as well but overall it was good, and playing “Sundome” after a while was nice. The post-soundcheck jam continues to get better as well. Today’s version was considerably nice so I wish we’d recorded it. I think I’ll look for a simple recorder in Fukuoka. Not that there are any plans whatsoever to release it or anything, don’t get me wrong.

In the end, we got our revenge by going to eat chanpon at Ringer Hut, so we can head on over to Fukuoka without any regrets. Once returning to my hotel room, Obama’s presidential inaugural speech was airing. The audience was really fired up. Just goes to show that a live is a live. I don’t know the man at all, but I was thinking he sure has great fans. With that, thank you Nagasaki. See you tomorrow.

2009/01/19＊Takuro

1/19 (Mon) Kagoshima → Nagasaki

The streets of Nagasaki are busy with the preparations for a matsuri, so there’s lots of paper lanterns dangling about. It’s like a Chinese or Korean matsuri — someone told me a little about it but I forgot. There are lanterns (is that what you call them?) of giraffes, ostriches, pandas, the whole assortment regardless of nationality, lined up at the park. The streets don’t really feel Japanese-y, so it feels like we’re in a foreign country.

Our commute from Kagoshima today took us about 5 hours. Once you step out of the car after being inside one for that long, this light sort of car sickness and listless feeling lingers on. I wonder what it is… maybe the vibrations from being in the car still keep continuing. It’s the same even if you sleep. Tomorrow we won’t have to travel by car as much, so don’t worry about me. It’s been a while since we were last in Nagasaki. Let’s do this.

2009/01/19＊Staff

9mm is on their way from Kagoshima to Nagasaki.
With such fine weather and clear skies, I was able to take some soothing pictures.

『Black and white』

↑ *sits*

↑ Obstructing his bashing in the sun.
(If you look closely, you can see the white cat is in Black Kazuhiko’s shadow)

2009/01/18＊Takuro

「Jam session number 2」

1/18 (Sun) Kagoshima CAPARVO HALL

It seems all the shows for our ’09 tour are sold out. Thank you. The Kagoshima crowd was fired up as well! And there being a 9mm phrase during the jam section… great. Made me laugh. Also, excluding the Zepp venues, CAPARVO HALL was probably the biggest venue we’re playing on this tour. The dressing room was amusing as there was this hole in the ceiling as if it was a prefabricated house. If it was sunny, it would’ve looked really nice but it was unfortunately raining. We’ll have to visit Sakurajima the next time we’re here. Also, as for our post-soundcheck jam, it’s gradually getting better. Today it was Ryota on drums, Serizawa on keyboards, Taki on guitar and me on bass. There was also Yagi on pianica(?) today. Even though more than half of the members are from SPECIAL OTHERS, right now the band’s called 4.5mm Parabellum Bullet. I hope we’ll come up with a better name before we part ways. We’re commuting to Nagasaki tomorrow and in the evening we’ll be doing a radio appearance I think, so check that out! I’m tired so that’s all for now, see you tomorrow～.

2009/01/17＊Takuro

「If you’re exhausted even during the MC’s」

1/17 (Sat) Kumamoto DRUM BE-9

Since I don’t like it when my paragraphs end at weird places I tried writing one long paragraph yesterday, but looking at the post after uploading it, it still ends at a weird place. I wonder why. But writing long-windedly is fun so I’ll keep going like this for a while more.

I ended up sleeping until noon so I didn’t get to see Kumamoto Castle… The hotel we were staying in was smack center in the city so I thought I’d at least do some shopping, but I didn’t get around to doing that either. Nmumumu. So to pull myself together, I headed for the venue. They have gradual flooring at BE-9 (like at Shibuya Yaneura) for people in the back, too, to be able to see the band easily. That also works the other way around as we were able to see the faces of everyone all the way back.

After the soundcheck, we jammed with SPECIAL OTHERS’ equipment. This is something we’re always doing with the bands we’re playing with. It’s really fun～. Although it’s true that we basically just love all instruments, these guys especially have a lot of vintage equipment. An authentic Fender Rhodes (a keyboard that pretty much looks like a desk), Leslie speakers (equipment that swells the sound of the instruments. Serizawa’s is transparent so it’s super cool.) and their guitars are all born in the 50’s (ours are all newborns from ’08). It’s like paradise to us. It feels like we don’t deserve to play with them but since it’s that fun, I guess I won’t object. Well, I won’t show this post to them though.

Though it was our first show in Kumamoto, everyone in the audience was really fired up. I heard everyone singing. I’m glad I decided to use different sneakers than usual for this show. “Does that really make a difference?” is what some of you might be thinking though. Nhaha. We’ll definitely come again, so we’ll see you again then.

We’re already in Kagoshima.
With that, see you tomorrow.

2009/01/16＊Takuro

「Blogging about food all the time makes it look like we’re just traveling」

1/16 (Fri) Oita → Kumamoto

We did a live radio broadcast where we received shochu during the broadcast and after it was over, we immediately took it to with us to a bar. I’m abstaining from drinking on this tour so I didn’t have any, but the rest of the 9mm team took turns in turning their glasses bottoms up and the shochu was gone in no time. The food we had there was also all astonishingly delicious. There was of course the local specialty of horse-meat sashimi, tara sprout tenpura, goosefish karaage, mustard lotus root, etc., all of them aimed at keeping the drinks flowing I’m sure. Thank you to all the staff from the program. With this, we should be perfectly prepared for tomorrow’s show. After leaving the bar, we split into two groups with me in the group heading for a Kumamoto ramen shop. The delicious tonkotsu with the flavor of charred garlic, although a taste that really packs a punch,  was really easy to eat. It was our first time trying something with such a strong impression of Kyushu ramen, or rather, Hakata ramen. I was already full by the time we left the first place, but I just kept on eating. Tomorrow I’ll wake up early and if I can, I’ll go and see Kumamoto Castle. Seeing it all lit-up after the sun had gone down, Kumamoto Castle so incredibly cool, I can’t put it into words. If I got to see it up close, I think it’d even affect how well I play at the show. I’ll try my best to go.

I wonder if it’s because it’s Friday that the people walking on the streets, be it youngsters or the elderly, they all look so lively, whereas me, I’ve been feeling (something that feels like) car sickness ever since our commute this morning. But, passing by all the lively people, it rubbed off on me as well. I’ll play at tomorrow’s show with this same feeling intact. Oh, and my literary style for this post was an experiment. See you tomorrow. Good night.

2009/01/15＊Takuro

1/15 (Thu) Oita T.O.P.S

It’s our first time being in Oita in two years, and it’s also our first show with SPECIAL OTHERS. It was the first time for both of us bands seeing each other perform. I was checking them out several time during their performance and they were fantastic today.

9mm probably falls in the “people with fear of strangers” category, but we were saved by SPECIAL OTHERS and how openhearted they are. If they’re open towards us, even our performance improves as a result. We’ll be playing together for all the shows on the Kyushu leg, so I’m excited about the upcoming shows, too.

Tomorrow we’ll be hanging out, doing PR in Kumamoto.
There might or might not be a live radio broadcast or something.

Thanks to everyone who came today.
Until tomorrow.

2009/01/14＊Takuro

「25th show of the tour at Oita」

1/14 (Wed) Matsuyama → Oita

After parting with POLYSICS we got on the road, arriving safely at dusk. Oita’s cold, too～. Japan sure is getting chilly. I was saying stuff about thinking about our health first and foremost, but I actually went and caught a cold which is somehow better now. Not good, not good. Everyone, watch out for the influenza and cold.

However, I’m looking forward to playing with SPECIAL OTHERS so much, I’m getting impatient. Try your best to make it to the venue tomorrow for 19 o’clock when the show starts.

Today I’ll get some rest early and make a complete recovery!
Until tomorrow!

2009/01/13＊Takuro

「Last day with POLY」

1/13 (Tue) Matsuyama SALONKITTY

It was a pretty hot show I’d say!! Looked to me like the audience was having fun, too.

We were full of regret at having to part as always. There really is that extra bit of added feeling during the last day, eh. But, all the shows we did together were wonderful and we had a lot of fun. We just parted our ways after the wrap-up party where I must’ve said this to them a hundred times, but thank you to POLYSICS. We’ll most definitely play together again!

Now them, we’ll be rushing right into Kyushu next!

2009/01/12＊Takuro

「Keyword!?」

1/12 (Mon) Takamatsu DIME

The venue was originally a movie theater and that atmosphere still clearly remains. It looked like the movie theater I went to as a child in my hometown to see Dragon Ball and Doraemon. It wasn’t like Warner Mycal 109 Cinema, iss what I thought as I was having my udon. The second floor is special seating as well, so I guess the band should play for them first.

Tomorrow’s our last show playing with POLY.
We’ll have fun!!

Today’s show was good. I got fired up.
Thanks to everyone who came.

See you tomorrow.