April Adventures Across Japan; Phase 1 in Tokyo: Punkspring, Breakfast & a giant spider!

The Departure Point.

A few months back I got a heads up about an event called "Punkspring 2013". The English bands were NoFX, Pennywise, Lagwagon and Weezer. Naturally I signed up for that right away. While many folks sounded interested, only Chris and I were keen enough to actually go through with it. We took an overnight bus (helluv cheap! ￥4500!) from
Misawa down to Tokyo Saturday night and arrived Sunday morning at way-too-early in the AM (I'm talking before Starbucks was open), eventually we located coffee, located the Kinshichou Capsule Hotel (also helluv cheap! ￥2500 a night) we were going to stay in and went out in search of something we'd both been craving for a long time... a North American-style breakfast. Bacon, eggs, hashbrowns... we figgered if anywhere would have it, it would be Tokyo. We found a place that sounded promising and set out to the Roppongi (六本木）area of Tokyo.  There was a giant spider there for some reason...

37 Steakhouse & Bar does not open before 11 (as per the usual Japanese style) so we had a wander about Roppongi hills and saw some strange things. While banana and pancake dish I originally had my eye on lost it's appeal upon closer inspection, their BLTAE did not. Bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado and egg. Jebus. Delicious.

Coat check...

Our next mission, once we had taken the trains to Makuhari Messe in the Mihama-ku ward of Chiba city for the concert. After what should have been a quick side mission of tracking down some ear plugs (cuz I couldn't find the pair that I had in my bag for some reason... I located them a few days later and still don't know why I couldn't track them down the first time...) we made our way to the punk rawk show.

There were two stages, a red stage and a blue stage and the acts would alternate between them. There were also opportunities to get autographs, there were dancing chicks at the back (?), and Jack Daniels had a few booths set up (Jack & ginger = awesome, btw).
Notable Japanese acts: Numba 69 (hurr hurr) did a great cover of Daft Punk's "One More Time", Man with a Mission played their entire set wearing big Wolf masks and did a great cover of "Smells like Teen Spirit". I tried to get some good pics, but my camera just wasn't having it.

The American acts were great (for the most part). Sadly, Lagwagon were a little... lacking. They just couldn't get the crowd going save for when they played "Sleep" (which they released on the Survival of the Fattest comp). Pennywise inspired an awesome pit, NoFX embodied the "fuckit" attitude, yet played a great selection of songs, including "Champs Elysee","Radio", "The Brews", "Don't Call Me White", "Stickin' in my Eye", "It's my job to keep Punk Rock elite" and more. Weezer was amazing. While I wouldn't quite call them punk (way more nerd-core if-ya-ask-me-but-no-one-ever-does) but still, a great set. The crowd loved them and we all sang along with every single song they played.

I think this picture sums up the love of Weezer nicely.

This was a phenomenal time, and I think my favorite part about it was watching the kids dancing to the 'local' bands. I managed to get a little video to show you just how much fun this time was. Now, that's not to say that they don't know how to have a circle pit, quite the opposite  these kids know how to thrash, but they're also looking out for each other. What a great experience.