Japan pt. 2 - KOBE. SUMO. ROCK!

This writing comes as we near the end of quite an awesome trip to Nippon! Just about every day we've had KILLER FOOD! Every city was known for something special, weather it be Unagi (eel), chicken wings, or ramen. Timothy and I even went out to a Robata restaurant in the Roppongi area on our first stay in Tokyo. I call it the most expensive date I've ever been on, but I gotta say- the food was fabulous. You point to any uncooked food you want, and 1 of 2 chefs grills it up for you. Live seafood and Kobe beef stood out to me. ESPECIALLY THE KOBE BEEF! I've never tasted anything like it... It really is ridiculously good. We've met many cool folks along the way. Our Japanese promotion team has really done well in taking care of us, which includes coordination of nocturnal activities (thanks Toshi)! Local bars and late night food.

The memorial museum in Hiroshima moved me to tears. Unfathomable that we (humans; americans) were capable of such atrocities so recently in our history. There's a pic of the park and Atomic dome in my previous post.

Yesterday's show in Sendai will go down in history for Whitesnake. Why? Dare I say it? We performed one of the new songs! Finally Whitesnake has debuted new material for the first time in how many years? 17? The crowd was paralyzed at first, but a few bars into it they lost control. It went over fabulously! I can't wait to do it tomorrow in Tokyo. The fans deserve this!

Today, on the eve of our final show here, I feel my Japanese experience was really topped off. I woke up and went to a touristy shopping area, but found cool side streets and little shops and food places (food REALLY is the running theme for me here!). It was 90 degrees and sunny! I even found some more blue hair dye (it's been fading to green after every wash- no more!) After a few hours of walking I made it back to the hotel at about 3:30. I met with our man-about-town Toshi, drummer Tommy Aldridge and 2 crew members to go to see LIVE SUMO! It's the finals right now and the place was packed! We've been watching the matches on TV, but this was something else. What an experience! I'll put up pics of all this stuff. Back at the hotel, I had a massage and accupuncture treatment (for my lower back disc-issue). What an amazing day. Someone told me there was even an earthquake around 2pm.

So now it's Saturday night and I think I'll keep it mellow. It's been such a full day!
But then again, maybe I'll get dressed and go for a quick solo Udon hunt- I AM getting hungry again!

Packin' on the pounds in Nippon!
-Uriah