Japan

I purchased my flight to Japan on the day Phish announced the tour. I'd seen some spectacular Phish shows in North America, but never outside the continent. Phish is, in my humble opinion, the greatest band of all time. To steal a line from Jerry Maguire (apologies to Ms. Zellweger), "They had me at the hot dog." I could not swing Big Cypress and the one Radio City only whetted my appetite. I was ready for a string of consecutive shows, especially in tiny venues.

My folks raised me to be a wanderlust junkie, dragging me across Europe at an early age and shipping me off to exotic spots on school breaks. Despite all my travels, I had been been to Asia only once--a two-month excursion to Southeast Asia nearly two years ago. Although exploring Asia is much more challenging than other parts of the world, the experience is
as rewarding as it is challenging. From the obvious language and culture differences to the minute details, the Far East is completely unlike anything in the west. When I left Bangkok in October of 1998, I could not wait to return to Asia.

I met a beautiful Japanese Phishead at Shoreline 9/17/99 and pulled her off tour. We spent some time together and she relayed to me the miracle that was Fuji Rock and described the burgeoning hippie community in Japan. Mayumi told me how pumped the band was to play in Japan and how much they impacted her country. I nearly exploded the day I saw it posted on Phish.com. I was not about to pass up the chance to combine my twin passions of music and travel, especially with the possibility of romance lurking in the background.

The photos on this page were taken at the third show of the tour, Hibiya.

I was so full of nervous energy about the tour that I hardly slept during the week leading up to the trip--and not at all on the 11-hour flight. There were a handful of heads on the plane, including a few professional Phish party people who had brought shirts, hysterical lamenants, temporary tattoos, lighters, and other toys for the tour. They gave me a shirt with Japanese style lettering and the slogan, "It's all about the love, baby." I was all of a sudden a member of the Phamily and considered myself very fortunate to have hooked up with such great people before we were airborne. It was gonna be a good trip.

Japan is the most expensive place on earth and a civil servant like myself really had no business taking a vacation over there. But this experience definitely falls in the "worth every penny" category. I considered staying in a capsule hotel (essentially drawers), but bit the bullet and got a hotel room. The neighborhood of the first show, Shibuya, was a cross between Times Square (with enormous talking billboards) and Greenwich Village (with Tokyo's few head shops). I'll never forget my first sight of Shibuya coming out of the subway. I felt like Harrison Ford in Blade Runner: a stranger in a strange, futuristic land.

From the very beginning I was impressed by the Japanese, an incredibly polite and courteous people.

Throughout the trip I was constantly asking for help, directions, and to take pictures. Every single Japanese was happy to help, even the ones who couldn't speak English. They are proud and for good reason; Japan is clean, safe, efficient, and wealthy.

At one point on the trip I went into a fancy hotel with my bulky pack looking quite grungy to ask for directions to the nearest hostel. They gladly provided me with a map and even called the hostel to make sure there was room. In a word, the Japanese were accommodating and it made getting around that much easier.

Having spent the first 18 years of my life in Manhattan, I'm not easily impressed with cities. But Tokyo just blew me away. It is so big and hi-tech--a megalopolis in the truest sense of the word. Skyscrapers are grand! I wore my Cities shirt to Hibiya, but Phish didn't play it. No regrets.

The Japanese women are so incredibly beautiful that words cannot do them justice. I'm talking super-model caliber. And they do it up with spiffy outfits and perfectly applied makeup. All of us heads, including the ladies, could not help but gawk as we walked the streets of Tokyo. We were like kids in an eye candy store!

An Austin Powers theme emerged, as we were all feeling quite shagadelic and randy, baby! The theme continued as we imagined Phish putting the tour together with pinkies in mouth, "let's do a really hectic tour of Japan in early June, when in pours constantly [Dr. Evil laugh]." But, for those of us who made it to the shows, they threw us some frickin' bones, so no complaints.

The journey to Nagoya got off to a shaky start. We made our train by seconds, after running like antelopes through the Tokyo station. But once we arrived in Nagoya it was all good. Jeff, a long-standing member of the Phamily, is an expatriate who teaches English in Nagoya. He let us all pre-party at his place and it was a real treat to have a home base in a random city in Japan.

I've always dreamed of being an expatriate, and there was Jeff living in this incredibly futuristic place full of gorgeous women. He was, without a doubt, the hometown hero. Pictures of him on the next page. The Nagoya show was my favorite indoor show, especially because of the Caspian. For the rest of tour I would look at Jeff and sing, "Oooh to be an expat and live in Nagoya."