Right, I'm off

At first I was just going to agree with the title and ask: why state the obvious?

Have a good one mate. Get your shots.

Have fun.

Greetings from Japan. The CD stores here are awesome, there`s a disgustingly good amount of metal on offer unlike back at home.

I`ve been staying with relatives in Tokyo for the last 5 days, then on Saturday, my friend Alex and I will begin our actual journeying around the country. Should be fun!

sounds like fun... grab me an asian gal while you're there. i'll try & talk my wife into letting me keep her.

Hey buddy! Glad you made it safe. Took good pics and enjoy!

Watch out for Godzilla and his pals!

Godzilla attacks are a very real concern. I`ve started keeping a blog of some description, but I have no clue how often I`m going to be updating it. Regardless, here`s the link for anyone interested, it might be a tad sloppily written and hard to follow - no different than my posts, really!

http://smindas-biginjapan.blogspot.com

Cool blog, Smindas.

As for the Godzilla attacks, don't they have Giant Monster Attack sirens stationed in strategic places around the big cities over there? I thought they were required for when Godzilla or some other critter comes ashore. That way the population hears the sirens and they know that it's time to start running through the streets screaming and pointing upward.

Seriously, see if you can find some cans of Godzilla and Rodan meat. I think the Godzilla meat is corned beef and the Rodan meat is chicken. They started manufacturing this stuff several years ago. I don't know if they still make it or not.

While you're there could you translate the beginning of "Urotsukidoji" by Testament??

Can`t say I`d be able to translate it Evy, all I know is the voices are all samples from an anime film of the same name.

I`ll keep an eye out for that Godzilla meat Toho, but so far, I`ve seen none

Trip`s been going great so far, albeit tiring. I`ve added a couple of posts to the blog for anyone interested.

Oh I also picked up Shadow Gallery`s Carved In Stone for about two pounds sterling (there`s no symbol for sterling on this keyboard, which saddens me).

I return! Jet lagged and already missing Japan. I eventually decided to go see Avantasia in Tokyo BTW - amazing gig, indeed!

What have I missed?

Welcome back! Tell us and show us all about it when you get a chance. Tell Kimiko "hi".

Yeah, tell us about Avatansia, and about CD hunting!

And the Geishas?????

Avantasia was fantastic. Great concert, Tobi, Andre, Jorn and everyone else were on top form. Going to a concept in Japan was rather different to home, everything's so much more orderly - the crowd even go completely silent when the frontman speaks. Unfortunately, I get the impression a lot of the crowd didn't quite get a lot of the jokes Tobi was making, which was a shame as he's quite the funny man.

CD hunting in Japan was rather hit and miss. Sometimes you could find a good second hand store, but in general CDs are quite expensive out there so I didn't pick many up. The best ones I picked up though were probably hide's Psyence (hide being the ex-guitarist to X Japan), which is a fantastic CD, anfd then this CD I bought from this traditional folk band who were busking on the streets of Kyoto. I didn't not expect a bunch of 17-18 year old Japanese guys to be playing British style folk music, but damn were they impressive!

Unfortunately, I didn't see any real Geishas. My friend Alex did one night when he went out for a walk around our hostel in Kyoto, but the photo he got was quite poor quality unfortunately. When I got back to Tokyo and was visiting the temple in Asakusa, I did see one woman in incredibly elaborate traditional Japanese clothing and make up - a sort of fake Geisha is you will. That was interesting.