Land of The Rising Sun!!

So here we are in Japan! Land of sushi and really well organised gigs!
Everything runs like clockwork here. Its pretty crazy!! After a 10 hour flight in Japanese person sized seats we arrive in tropical heat in Japan. Easily 100 degrees today!!

Today we spent the day walking around Osaka. Went to the palace as you can see above. Pretty interesting. It was built over 400 years ago by Hideyoshi Toyotomi. Its 8 stories high and has a museum inside with some displays of armour and swords and general facts about the castle. App the biggest single piece of stone weighs 135 tonnes.
Thats bloody heavy!!
They also had a kinda cool model recreation of a battle.

Inside they had a range of Kabuto. Which was the traditional head piece worn by the ancient Samurai warriors.
Some were very ornate...such as this one

Others looked more like frat boys should be wearin them with straws coming out of them!!!

After that bit of culture, we decided we needed to see a bit of modern japan. So off into downtown Osaka we headed.

It is a bizarre place. There is lots of people rushing everywhere. Makes Times Sq looks laid back.
Neon and Fluroescent light everywhere, but its still quite inviting. Has some of the best streetlights known to Man though!!

After some more sightseeing. We decided it was time to check out another thing Japan is famous for....Video Game Arcades!!
After a round of Time Crisis 4 it was time to give the local equivalent of slot machines a go. Its a game called Pachinko and it certainly provided me with a laugh. The basic idea was apparently.....You start with a pile of small ball bearings and you launch them into something that looks kinda like a vertical pinball table. If you get enough through the "Oyster" you get to spin the wheel and thats app how you win!!

So you win...and you get...more ball bearings. After accumulating about 6 or 7 trays of these i decide to leave and i have crazy japanese ladies insisting i stay as app im on a winning streak. This goes on for about another 45 mins and i eventually leave with 13 trays of ball bearings. I get up and some guy comes running over, takes the trays and weighs them. He then gives me a receipt and points me to a desk. The girl behind the desk hands me some tubes of coins and i start to realise that this may have been a waste of time. Its then pointed out to me by Nigel (AM guitar tech) that the coins are actually gold plated. Then another guy shows me out through the back door of the arcade into an alleyway and points me towards a small unmarked hatch. I start to think we are about to get beaten up for our Gold. Im shown to put the tubes through the hatch. As soon as i do. I am handed a wad of notes. App it is illeagal to gamble for money in Japan, but you can win a prize. So you win the gold and the club immediately buy it back from you. Very Bizzarre!!
From an inital stake of 1000 Yen (US$8), i won 46,500 Yen (US$ 400)
RESULT!!!

That should cover any excess baggage costs ive got flying home and it paid for my new camera!!

Anyway tomorrow is a show day. So off to work we go. Summersonic festival featuring Linkin Park, Metallica, Placebo, Daft Punk, Massive Attack, Muse, Secret Machines, My Chemical Romance, Deftones, Fall out Boy and We Are Scientists amongst others.

I think thats enough for today dont you??