Ah, the final part of my Japan trip. I actually feel a little sad…like now it really is 
over. heh. Or maybe I’m just reliving the feeling of the trip being over.




Beauty and Design permeates Japanese culture…all the way down to the sewer grates.
























A little flashback photo for those of you that are familiar with my stuff…





Hockey playing Samurai?









Another morning with little to no sleep…luckily I wasn’t nearly as hungover this time. I must have
 drank 3 liters of water the last night/early morning. Still, it was a little bit of a mystery how exactly
to get to the train station. Luckily, some part of my subconscious must have payed attention
 when Hiro took us there the other morning.



The streets were so narrow and of course, lacking signs. Cars actually drive down these…can you imagine an Escalade trying to navigate this route?





I’m really not sure what these things are. If I had to guess I’d say they were places for school
kids to line up.







Micah + snacks. We stopped at a 7-11 on the way there…and this time I knew where the 
hot coffee was.





This is another one of my favorite pics from the trip. I can’t say it really says “Japan” but I really like it.





I really love train stations. I love riding the train. With so many lines in Japan I was happy as a clam.





We had 3 trains to take to get home. The first one took us from by Hiro’s (which I couldn’t find on a map
now) to Shibuya, then the JR to Shinkjuku, then the Odakyu to Sobudai. 



And we could use our PASMO cards for all of them. BAM!



Here’s Shibuya with a normal volume of people (maybe a little low actually)


And here’s what it looked like on Sunday morning…it was kind of shocking to see it so empty.





This river was so pretty. On one side were dirt ball fields were we saw people playing baseball
 on the other we’d see people fishing.




I’m sure no one messed with this guy. He probably slept until he woke up. Because he was scary? 
Because he smelled bad? No. Because the Japanese are polite.





Back “home.” I packed, tried to buy some shoes, but they didn’t have the ones I wanted in my size…
I bought some snacks and treats for the flight. Mmmmmm dried squid.



I sorted and bagged up my stuff. Some of it I was carrying on the plane, some of it I was going to have
 Micah mail me. I really didn’t want to get stuck checking a bag.





By the time I finished my errands and gotten packed it was time to go. In fact, the bus was finishing 
loading by the time Micah and I walked up to it.



This kid waved as we were stopped at the red light, then the whole way as we passed each
other.





It wasn’t until I was on my way to leave Japan that I started to see the countryside. Behind 
the biker is what looks like a community garden, a bunch of small plots all together.





Another view from the bus.





I got the airport with plenty of time, I wandered around, had some noodles and tempura, bought
 some whiskey…oh yeah! I used a “Japanese” toilet. I could have used a western one, but I thought 
it would be a shame if I didn’t use one at least once while I was in Japan.



Whenever I fly, I always like to go wait at gate other than my own. Like one with no people. So I 
wandered down the terminal until I found one that was pretty empty. There was a little souvenir/snack shop/bar
and I got a beer. Sooo tasty. Everywhere has good Japanese beer. It’s not like here where you might end
 up w/ a bar that only has Bud Light & Coors on tap.



I drank the beer, stretched, watched the sunset, and wrote a little bit in my journal.


The flight was long, but not too bad. With the beer and food I slept pretty good. I think the hardest part of the 
trip was waiting for the airport. Man, I really hate waiting for the airporter. Perhaps because the only time 
I’ve gotten consistently picked up at the airport has been when I’ve had a girlfriend to do so…and so waiting
 just reminds me that I don’t have someone “obligated” to pick me up.



In the van with me were some people traveling from Australia. I gave them some tips about the LA area
 and when they reached their destinations I gave them cards and offered to answer any questions they had. 



None them of them called, but I can’t say I’m really surprised back that.



It was about 11:30am when I got back to my apartment. I think I’d been traveling for about 20 hours…if you start 
the trip leaving Hiro’s. I was really exhausted but I knew I couldn’t go to sleep. Must…stay..up…



Also, I was in the midst of an emotional crash. It usually happens to me after trips. Anyone else experience this?



Something about traveling, when I return, it’s like I was peaking at 11 for days, then I drop down to 4. Even thing 
seems a little less interesting and this time especially I felt really lonely. I tried to think of where I could go
to be around people.



And then it hit me, it was Sunday morning. Too late for Church, but not too late for the Farmer’s Market. I thru
 on a hat and headed out. I don’t even think I bought anything (besides some thai food) probably I just wandered around in a daze 
and enjoyed being in the presence of a bunch of strangers.







That evening I went to an AFI screening with my friend Erica. 



The next morning I worked on Carebears and gave gifts to my coworkers and my client Davis. 




I was like a Zombie.




It was awesome.





-Luke

yo yo.

dude.

duuuuude. dude. it’s been a while, I don’t know how I got off track…but I thought I should finish up
 the pics from my Japan trip.



I learned many lessons on this trip. At the beginning of Day 7 one was very apparent.



Lesson 1

“Don’t try to keep up when drinking with a Japanese guy and an Army guy.”



You know those guys wearing sunglasses at 9am in the subway? Yeah. That was me. I wanted to 
take them off…really I did. But the lights…oww. They hurts.



Our first stop in the day was the world famous Tsukiji Fish Market.



I can barely describe how incredibly big it is. Have any of you been to the Pasadena swap meet? It circles
 the entire Rose Bowl Stadium…I think it’s safe to bet that most people have been to a big sporting event at
least once…imagine shops ALL THE WAY AROUND the venue.



Ok, now imagine that all of them are selling fish. And it all in a big-covered open-air warehouse type place.



And squid.



And eels.



And basically anything else that would be found in the sea…or fruit. Or knives…or…



These guys were everywhere. Flying in between the stands. They’d just barrel down the isles, 
cigarettes hanging out of their mouths. The people working in the market were exactly who you’d
expect.





Micah commented that it was “more real than real.” Like it was part of a movie. You couldn’t
 cast better people to be Tokyo Fish Mongers. 3 hours of sleep and a wicked hangover didn’t
 hurt the surreal aspect of the day either.





Each stand had a little booth in the back…and each booth had a lady in it. Some looked like
 they’d been working their whole lives there.




Part of going to the market is getting a sushi breakfast. We saw a bunch of people lining up
and figured that must be a good place. So we joined the cue. The place had been operating since the 60’s.



It sat 10 people and had a fixed menu.



Everyone would finish eating, then they’d bring in the next 10. We had to wait for about 30 minutes…but they 
brought us some Jasmine tea…


The Japanese love their uniforms.




No photos were allowed in the restaurant…(it was written in English w/ a pict-o-gram) The food was pretty
 amazing at least I think it was. Too bad I was feeling sick. I thought I was going to throw up…and I was mortified of offending
 the sushi chefs…and Hiro. Somehow I made it thru the dinner (er…breakfast).



Micah and I said goodbye to Hiro and headed back home.


We ran into some friends at the terminal…Americans! That night we’d all be going to Karaoke. 




Machida is the nearest gaming/amusement center. It’s full of Karaoke parlors, Pachinko places, and 
hostess clubs.


I made it an early night…still wasn’t feeling tip-top.



That night some of Micah’s Japanese friends wanted to go out with us. Too bad I was in bed by 11:30.



Lesson 2.

“If you go too big, you might not get to party with cute Japanese girls that speak English.”





Ok. So that one might not be that applicable to day to day life…but whatevs.




This is how I started, well pretty much every morning. The cans w/ the red line under them – those are
hot. Dang. I’’m totally craving some BOSS right now…if my car wasn’t acting up, I might just drive down
to Japan town and grab some.


It took a while, but I can read these things now. Different colors = Different types of trains (local, limited, express, etc.)




I love how colorful it is behind this guy…we were on our way to a mall I read about online…a place with good toy shops.




There were soooo many shop selling toys. It was kinda distracting, er maybe not distracting, but all the places kinda
 blended together after a while. I remember we did a lot of walking around in circles.



I let my blood sugar get too low….and I started to get cranky. Eventually we found a good place w/
noodles and tempura and soon I was right as rain.


Back towards Shibuya.


Our friends from Seattle, Jason and his wife Erin just so happened to be in Tokyo for Design Week.



We’d tried to do some sort of fun, “Surprise, Luke’s Here!!!” meeting, but it looked like it wasn’t going 
to happen. So we just up and told them. Or rather, while Micah was talking to Jason, he passed me the 
cell phone and I said hello.



It was pretty sweet. Several years back, Erin had suggested that we all save up and go to Japan
 together. Not just Micah and I, but a whole group of Seattlites. And here we all were…coincidentally in Japan
all at the same time for 3 different reasons.



Jason & Micah.


My friend/co-worker Bruce editing this…and here it was playing in the theatre! Micah and I actually went and saw it
 a couple days before. It was kind of a big deal in Japan…cause it’s a Japanese-anime, but voiced w/ big 
American actors…so it’s subtitled in Japanese. Go figure.



Next to the theatre is the A BATHING APE store…where I got some totally sweet shoes.




I think this is my favorite picture from Shibuya.


Micah and Jason and I went on an EPIC journey looking for a jeans shop for Drew. We walked around sooo 
much. Our feet hurt. We got hungry.



Eventually we found a map…as in a real map with ALL the streets, not just a few random ones. I still haven’t exactly figured 
out the Japanese mapping system. I think it does something like this.



• Reads south->North…or at least down->up

• Does not include all streets

• Counts streets up from the bottom until the correct street – then there might be a lot of absent streets before the next landmark.



We finally found the jeans place…it was right about the XLarge store. Micah and I had been there the day before.
 dangnabbit! heh



We headed back to Shibuya to have dinner with Erin and her friend from Seattle. Who was Japanese 
and living in Japan again…





Erin was tired of eating Japanese food. (Eeeeee-ehh? I didn’t know such things were possible!!!)



So we went to an “Italian” place…



Bruschetta…with squid. And garlic bread.



Sautéed mushrooms.



Curry Seafood Pasta.


Micah never failed to impressive with ordering the weirdest stuff. This is fish egg and mayonnaise pasta.



yeah. serious.




and it was actually pretty tasty.


After dinner we head back to the Ruby room…met up with Hiro and a friend of his and smoked some really nice Cuban 
cigars.



We ended up staying out super late…but it was my last night. All we needed to do in the morning was get home and pack.



I needed to catch the airport bus to Narita at 1pm…the trains started at 7…the more tired I was, the more I’d sleep on the plane 
and in theory – the less jet-lagged I’d be when I arrived in LA at 9am…the same day I left.






Still, I was out a bit later than I would have like. Hiro kept introducing me to girls at the bar, but between the loud music 
and the language barrier, it was kinda frustrating to try and talk to people. Plus, I’d hit that “I’m ready to go home” point
 and I wasn’t really interested in anything but falling asleep.



That’s it for now…I need to do some ’The Real Luke’ stuff now…one more day in Japan…and cool stuff on the ground=)



-Luke

Hello interweb friends,



This isn’t the complete list…but this is the list of bands that I’d like to see again.



Thursday

Low Vs. Diamond

Arthur Dent

Eastern Conference Champions

Le Loop

Make Model

Electric Touch

Big Bang



Friday

Dr. Dog

Moby

Basha Bulla

The Virgins

Handsome Furs

The Helio Sequence



Saturday

Sirens and Sailors

The Cops

Holy Ghost Revival

Nyles Lannon

Voxhaul Broadcast

Yaysayer

Black Mountain

Neon Neon

Two Gallants

Tokyo Police Club



Probably the best party I went to was the sxSeattle party thrown by KEXP (and others). I only stayed for 3 bands – cause I wanted to see Voxhaul Broadcast play…but all three were stellar. I wished I could have stayed for the other bands too.



Neon Neon was probably my biggest surprise band. Aria had told me about them, but I had really no idea what to expect. If you like electronic music – they won’t disappoint. Check out this mixtape I found of theirs. Free to download!



http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/download/47233-neon-neon-mixtape-mp3



It was soooo much good music. So much so much. It’s almost overwhelming just thinking about it. For 4 straight days it like one non-stop rock fest.



I’m really looking forward to seeing “The Handsome Furs” when they play in LA in a couple of weeks.

4/12 @ Troubador



——-



This week is the first part of The Real Luke: Season 2. I’m gonna hold off on the ’making off’ blog until the whole season airs…don’t want to give any spoilers.




-Luke

On the way to the airport my car overheated. 

Then the parking lot was 2x as expensive as I expected.

Then my assistant Aria forgot her ID and missed the flight.





Purevolume Ranch. A den of debauchery. Stolen free wine opened with a makeup brush after
 drinking jack & cokes is not the best idea…












The next morning Haleh took me to a couple funky fresh Austin hangouts. It was my first morning
 and I was already diggin this town.



Spider house had a funky patio that was filled with about 30 chairs that looked like they had
 been assembled from 30 crazy old ladies yards…inside was all dark rooms and big leather 
seats filled w/ hipster Austintonians on their laptops.





$0.85 tacos. bam.












The first band I saw was LA group “Low vs. Diamond” I was pretty hung over…but I 
still dug them. Later I ran into the group at another show and chatted w/ the guitarist on the right.




Arthur Dent




$6.95. bam.




Austin, 4th St. (I think)




Tony Booch, Tony & David



The Electric Touch.





The next day on the way to the set of Austin City Limits for the KEXP live broadcast. It was
kind of a pain to hunt this place down…it’s on Guadalupe and about 25th, 6th floor. (in case
 you want to go next year…)


I’m such a huge KEXP dork. I got all giddy when I saw Sheryl Waters.



Dr. Dog. This was the best sounding venue of the entire trip. Absolutely perfect.





Moby.





Tony (another Tony) and Aria.


The Frost Tower.





I love these things.





Just a random group playing in a random club on some random Austin corner.





Me and Tony.




The Handsome Furs.




Aria at the Dresden. It was hot and muggy in there…and we didn’t get a drink. I think we
 walked around for an hour that night – trying to get in places, not getting any booze…my 
feet hurt.




The sxSeattle Party rocked. Coffee, snacks, beer, kick ass bands.



Sirens & Sailors.




Holy Ghost Revival. They’re from Bainbridge Island…the place where the “rich kids” lived
 near Bremerton. As John the guitarist for the band explained to Aria.



“Bainbridge = Sushi, Bremerton = TV Dinners.”



yuuup.



We still kicked their asses in soccer. heh.





Nyles Lasson (I think) at the sfSXSW show.





David and his GF. (note: BGP staring at camera. heh)





Voxhaul Broadcast. This show had free snowcones. I should have got booze in mine.





The gigantic free – FU-SXSW show blocks away from the “real” SXSW shows. I really don’t like
 big open air shows…the energy from the band gets so dissipated.



Yaysayer





Neon Neon. 





Two Gallants.





Tokyo Police Club.





Vice Party.






Sunday was a lazy day…I was bright-eyed and bushy tailed…but most everyone else was
 dragging. Or they had already left. 



So I got to hang out with Haleh and Mari and do Austin-ee stuff.



Like go the UT Tower!







This part of campus is referred to as the “six pack.” Ahhh got love the University System.





Original Gold Leaf.




Straight ahead is the Capitol Dome…that’s on 11th St…so look South (right) and you’ll get an 
idea of where the 6th St. madness goes down.





After the UT Tower we headed out of downtown and to a dog park…



Chacha.





Texas, bitches.





Apparently, in the rest of Austin “crime” is a-ok.





A real creek! In Texas! Outdoors and stuff!




This dog kept running thru this one section and barking. Heh, then chasing much larger dogs. 
It was a fun relaxing break from the madness of SXSW. And walking thru the creek felt really nice
 on my sore feet.





A Cardinal! I’ve never seen this type of bird before! Weeee!




I told Haleh the sign should also read “Now with Outdoor Seating!”



She laughed and gave me one of those “you are such a dork” looks. =)



Polvos. Badass margaritas and tex-mex food.






I made it back to LA a little after 1am. My parking bill was $150. I got home at 2am…and the next
 morning I was editing ’My Little Pony’ at 9am. Nice.



I can’t wait to do it again next year…



-Luke