From Nate Derby:

Before we start this tour update, we would like to send out our deepest condolences to everyone in Japan, especially those who have been effected by the recent earthquake and tsunami. Our time in Japan was incredible, and we hope the country a speedy recovery from the terrible events that have taken place there.
 
If you haven’t heard, there is currently a digital compilation called “Vs. The Earthquake” available for sale, featuring rare and unreleased music from a ton of amazing bands. We’ve included our cover of The Movielife tracks “I Hope You Die Soon” and “10 Seconds Too Late”. All the money raised goes directly to Japan to help with the relief efforts there. Here is a link with more information: http://vstheearthquake.limitedpressing.com/
 
After sleeping at our tour manager Mizuki’s house just outside of Tokyo, the full crew comprised of Mizuki, his girlfriend Mari, Ai, RJ and the rest of Such Gold, headed into Tokyo in the afternoon to see some of the city and get food before the show at Club Wire, in Shinjuku. One thing worth noting before I go on is that Tokyo is subdivided into a number of smaller cities, with Shinjuku being one of them. The night before, after our flight, we went into another part of the city - Shibuya. Now that that’s out of the way, in Shinjuku we stopped at Freshness Burger, an American-style hamburger joint. As we entered the restaurant we started to realize how small everything is in Japan - the restaurant was tiny…with maybe only about 12 places to sit down and eat. The food was decently priced, and actually quite tasty. They offered a wide variety of hot sauces which is something that Such Gold is all about.
 
After our late lunch we walked around for a bit longer, and then headed to Club Wire in the evening for sound check. At the venue we changed strings, did a quick sound check, and a couple of guys from Cleave - Shuhei, Daihei and Tomo - introduced themselves. As the show started, RJ and I went out for some fresh air, and noticed an old woman opening up her shop across from the club. We asked a couple of locals what the place was - when they said “traditional japanese bar” we knew we had to have a drink there.
 
The bar was so tiny. It was maybe a 6’x10’ room with enough barstools for 8 people or so. Myself, Ben, RJ and Tim filed in, took our seats, and attempted to order some japanese sake. Since the bar owner spoke zero English, it was a bit difficult trying to overcome the language barrier, but we managed to get a round of sake for everyone at 600 Yen a glass. After we received our first round of sake, 3 Japanese businessmen came in and filled up almost all of the space left in the bar. They attempted to talk to us about how old we were, where we were from, why we were in Japan, etc. We explained to them we were musicians, and that we were playing Club Wire, across from the bar. When they heard “musicians” they asked us to play some songs on the old guitar leaning against the wall of the bar.
 
Ben agreed to play a song - he did “Ever So Sweet” by The Early November, and afterwords one of the businessmen threw down 5,000 Yen for him to play another song. He played our song “Gut Rot” and again the man threw down another 5,000 Yen for yet another song. This time played an Owen cover. The businessmen wanted to hear “We Are The World”…but none of us knew it. With the money he earned, Ben bought everyone another round of sake, including the businessmen and George, a friend of RJ’s and tour manager for the Japanese band Envy, who had come in and joined us at the bar after the second song. We asked the businessmen to ask the old woman behind the bar how long she had been running the bar - she said 40 years.
 
The old woman gave us two small bowls of stringy, dried meat - which we determined to be squid jerky after a taste test. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that bad. Good, even. It had a mild fishy flavor, but the taste wasn’t offensive. I ended up eating most of it myself as to not be rude to the bar owner. After our fill of sake and dried squid we walked down into the club to watch Cleave play - they were awesome. Cleave plays a mix of Polar Bear Club and Make Do And Mend-inspired punk/hardcore, but with fast-beats backing most of the songs. After Cleave’s set I saw the three Japanese businessmen from the bar walk into the crowded room. They spotted me rather quickly and headed immediately in my direction. I tried to explain to them that we were about to play.
 
We played a great first set in Japan, albeit a slightly drunken set. It was amazing to see kids in Japan singing along to our songs. Our backline for Japan was Cleave’s gear, which was pretty good shit. We used a new JCM 800, a JCM 2000 through an Orange 4x12, and an Ampeg SVT-4 Pro head. The drum kit was a little rough around the edges, but in the end everything sounded punk as fuck, which works for us. During the last song of the night I hit my red Gibson SG against a dark corner of a wall that jutted over the stage on my side - stage right. I pulled the guitar back to notice the headstock snapped at the joint. I was devastated once again. Two broken guitars in 3 weeks of touring. Unbelievable. Thankfully the sake pumping through my veins helped me gain the courage to suck it up and move on from the loss. Shuhei heard about the guitar and generously offered up his Les Paul Studio for me to use the rest of the tour.
 
After lingering in the venue for a bit after our set Mizuki decided it was time to go and herded us out and into the van. We drove back to Mizuki’s for the night - the last thing I remember is me drunkenly saying, “Take your shoes off…this is Japan!” as we entered into his small apartment.
 
We were out pretty early the morning of the 11th so we could get to Nagoya on time. The night before I had passed out in the back of the van while everyone got food at 7/11, so I woke up starving. Luckily there was a 7/11 just around the corner from Mikuki’s - we made a quick stop there for a quick morning meal. Corner stores in Japan have tons of food options - from the weird (octopus tentacles) to the somewhat normal (penne and marinara sauce), and everything in-between. I got a chicken and rice dish, which the clerk heated up in a microwave behind the counter, and an orange juice for cheap. Everybody agreed their food was pretty good, coming from a convenience store.
 
The drive to Nagoya was cloudy and snowy - the first snow we’d seen since being up in the Northeast U.S., just a few weeks prior. The weather made it hard to see the countryside and mountains, which was disappointing, but we still got to see a lot of what suburban and rural Japan had to offer between Tokyo and Nagoya. In the van we quickly learned that the middle bench seat was actually much worse than laying down in the cargo area behind the seat, which contained most of the luggage and room for 3 or 4 people, maximum. The bench seat was comparable to sitting in a cramped airplane - no leg room or room to stretch out. Gig life at it’s finest.
 
We stopped at a rest stop along the way for food - the rest stop was a large food court and there was a ton to choose from - although it was near impossible to tell where you could order what you wanted. I saw Devon eating a chicken dish and decided it looked good enough for me. Ben got a spicy noodle dish that he thought tasted like used diapers - I tried it and thought it was actually pretty good, so we switched meals. I ended up with the way better dish.
 
We arrived in Nagoya in the afternoon; as soon as we got out of the van an old man came up to us asking for an autograph. We were confused, but obliged him. He disappeared around a corner after we signed our names on a copy of the CD, and that was the last we saw of him. Surreal. Two floors above the venue was Marble Records, a tiny, hole-in-the-wall punk/hardcore record store stocked full with amazing, rare records for unbelievably cheap prices. I was late to go up and check their selection and missed out on a few great finds - Ben and Tim got Snapcase “Progression Through Unlearning” and The Starting Line “Say It Like You Mean It” respectively, for dirt cheap, and RJ got an original pressing of The Ataris “Blue Skies, Broken Hearts…Next 12 Exits”. The owner even gave us a discount, making the already low prices even lower. I ended up buying AFI “Black Sails…” and Bad Religion “Generator” for a total of 800 Yen after the discount - around $8. What a steal!
 
The show was stacked with bands, and given the name “Hardcore For Heroes Vol. 2”. While the first band, Goonies Never Say Die! set up, I changed the strings on Shuhei’s Les Paul Studio and gave em a good stretch in preparation for the show. Ironically enough, Goonies Never Say Die! did a fun cover of the Set Your Goals song of the same name, which I half-expected anyways. After their set I had a short conversation with their singer, Hiro. The next band caught my eye because of the white singer and drummer - it turned out that the singer, Josh, was Australian. We talked outside after their set, discussing how much fun we had in Australia and how well the tour went. Josh mentioned he was in Nagoya teaching English for the time being.
 
I spent most of the rest of the night mingling in the small merch room, talking to some of our Japanese fans. I saw Suma, who we met at a Hit The Lights show we played in Patchogue, NY (on Long Island). I also talked for a bit with Daihei and Tomo from Cleave about how awesome Fest 9 was, and encouraged them to go to Fest 10. O-Rock and RJ joined us outside, both clutching giant 2 Liter cans of Asahi beer. After our chat we watched Cleave play another great set - they were even better than the night before. George, who we had met in Tokyo, mentioned the night before that the Nagoya show would probably be boring, but it actually ended up ruling pretty hard. There were more kids singing along than in Tokyo, and even a few stage dives. The crowd encouraged to play an encore, and we followed up with a new song from our upcoming split with Into It. Over It., and our Saves The Day cover.
 
After the show we decided to get some food - a few people suggested Denny’s, but I talked to Cleave and they said it was expensive for the portions and we should just go to Yoshinoya instead. We went there instead and had a small meal for 300 Yen. I felt bad because not many people ate due to the small selection and lack of vegan/vegetarian options. From Yoshinoya we headed to Shigenobu’s house. Shigenobu is a quiet, straight-edge friend of Mizuki’s, and was generous enough to let us stay in his immaculate, 3-story Japanese home. At the house we got a good WIFI connection for the first time in a while. Most of us were passed out by about 2AM, and then up early once again for the drive to Osaka.
 
During our drive to Osaka the sun finally came out for the first time, giving us much better views of the Japanese countryside. We got to Osaka just in time for soundcheck - we could hear Cleave doing theirs as we exited the van. The show was on the 4th floor of a building, in a venue called Sinkagura. Merch was put into a tiny room on the 5th floor. The venue also encompassed a space in the basement; there was a crazy thrash show going on at the same time as ours. After soundcheck both bands loaded back into the vans and we made a short drive to Osaka Castle, our first major sightseeing stop of the tour.
 
The castle was an ancient Samurai castle built in the 1600’s, fortified by huge stonewalls and steel gates to keep out enemies and intruders. Some of the boulders used to build the walls were enormous. The castle itself was a towering white, green, black and gold pagoda in pristine condition. We wanted to go up to the top floor’s observation deck but the last tour had already commenced as we arrived. We took a lot of great pictures, including a few tour photos in front of the castle. After photos we all walked over to the gift shop and bought gifts for friends and loved ones.
 
Next to the gift shop was a takoyaki stand; takoyaki is a unique Japanese food consisting of batter cooked on a special hot plate which forms small, boiling hot balls of dough with a piece of octopus inside. I tried a piece of some that Shuhei had bought - although it burned my mouth it was delicious. Ben ended up buying a small plate for himself. Our last stop was a temple within the castle’s walls, where we took a few more pictures. As we exited the temple’s courtyard Shuhei was eating once again - this time a piece of grilled squid. I declined a bite this time, although looking back now I bet it was probably pretty good. It’s serious culture shock to look over and see someone eating a piece of squid like it was a hot dog or something.
 
From that point we decided it was time to exit the castle and head back to the show - we loaded into the vans and left, thinking that we had everyone. Turns out Bentley separated from the group after the temple and got left behind, which we didn’t realize until exiting the parking lot and driving down the street a ways. Ben and I were in Cleave’s van - the rest of the crew in Mizuki’s van headed back to the castle to find him. Back at Sinkagura we watched a couple of local bands play, most notably Runner - a heavy, NYHC-style band that got Tim and Ben moshing, and my head banging. After their set Ben, Tim and I walked down the street to Time Bomb Records - which had a huge selection of overpriced rare/vintage punk/hardcore/etc vinyl. I saw a few records in the shop that I had seen the night before in Nagoya, only with exorbitant price tags. Ben bought a Modern Life Is War / Kill Your Idols split and tried to buy another record but was a mere 13 Yen short. The clerk wouldn’t sell it to him, so Ben told the non-english speaking clerk “fuck you” a few times before leaving.
 
On our way back to the venue we met up with Devon and Shuhei, and continued walking around the city. We wandered into a crazy shopping district, which took us to a famous bridge over a small river running through the city. The buildings around the bridge were covered in colorful neon signs, akin to Times Square. On the bridge we saw a white guy eyeballing us; he came over to start a conversation, and told us he was a youth pastor from Seattle. At that point most of our eyes rolled but he was nice enough so we stuck around for his spiel and Ben managed to catch most of it on camera.
 
After ditching the pastor we wandered around the area until about 8PM - Cleave took the stage at 8:30, and we were on by 9. Once again the venue was packed, although it didn’t take much to pack the tiny Japanese venues we were playing. Once again we were asked to play an encore, but this time the crowd had to start up a circle pit before we would play another song. The kids obliged and we tore into another cover of “You Vandal”.
 
Before the encore Ben mentioned on stage that we wanted to party after the show. An American came up to us after the set and told us he would take us out. Since the mercy room was too crowded to just be standing around I found myself on the 4th/5th floor staircase talking to said American. Looking at my notes I now realize that I never wrote down his name, and didn’t end up finding him on Facebook…so I have no idea what his name was. I think it was Jake; we’ll go with that. RJ suggested we go out for a quick drink while the show wrapped up, we gathered Jake, Ben and Tim and walked only a block to a building that was filled to the brim with tiny bars. We tried a few out but they were all too full for us, especially the ones where drinks were only 200 Yen. We stepped into one that had some room - “Bar Toy”, which had an American flag mural spray-painted on the outside, a ridiculous cartoony Western mural painted on the walls inside, and an assortment of Americana for decoration. We peeked our faces in and the patrons and bartenders yelled and encouraged us to come in.
 
We had a couple of beers and got into some serious Karaoke. RJ did a ridiculous cover of “Fat Lip” by Sum 41, while I did Beastie Boys’ “Fight For Your Right”. After 30 minutes in the bar I realized that we had spent too much time, so we sent RJ back to the venue to let everyone know where we had went. Naturally everyone had packed up and left the venue, except for Ai and her friend, who decided to go out with us. They took us to an Australian/New Zealand bar - Coolabah, which was obviously quite ironic since we had just left Australia. They had a few bottles of Coopers in the cooler, but it was too expensive for me, especially considering we had collectively drank our weight in Coopers in Australia. I opted for my favorite - a White Russian, for 500 Yen. RJ bought us a round of shots as well, which kept the party going.
 
Things were getting hot and heavy at the bar - most of the patrons were considerably drunk already by the time we got there, including a Japanese couple who decided it was appropriate to make out and grope each other on the couch, a fugly German girl gyrating violently to whatever dance music was pumping through the speakers, and a couple of Japanese girls that O-Rock and RJ took a liking to. Around 2AM Ai said she was going to go, and I decided to join her, as I was out of money and ready for a nice bed to sleep in. Ai and I took a taxi back to the hotel Mizuki put us up in, and I had the whole room to myself up until the rest of the guys stumbled into the room around 4AM.
 
I awoke at 7AM to the hotel room’s phone ringing off the hook - it was a wake-up call from Mizuki. I reluctantly dragged myself out of bed, collected my belongings and attempted to wake up Tim and O-Rock. I got Tim moving, but O-Rock was dead to the world. I gave Tim the responsibility of getting O-Rock up, left the hotel room and met everyone else down in the lobby. Still half-drunk, we loaded into the van and headed back to Tokyo. I was back in the bench seat and couldn’t fall asleep, so most of the day was spent staring out the window, soaking in as much as I could of Japan’s landscape. About 3/4 of the way into our drive I started to spot Mt. Fuji off in the distance. As we got closer and closer I got more and more excited to see a full view of the giant extinct volcano.
 
We passed through a couple tunnels and stopped at a small gas station, which offered an unbelievable view of Mt. Fuji. It’s beauty was emotionally overwhelming - it’s an unreal sight that can’t be fully described with words or pictures, and a true testament to how far we had come. After the view of Mt. Fuji burned itself into our memories we headed onward to Tokyo, for our final show in Japan, at Nine Spices in Shinjuku. The drive to Shibuya seemed endless - I swear we drove through Tokyo’s urban jungle for well over an hour before finally getting to Nine Spices.
 
After loading into the venue Daihei took us to a nearby McDonalds - I had been craving it the whole day, and everyone agreed it was worth a try since we had heard Japanese McDonalds were actually pretty decent. Most of us tried the Miami Burger - exclusive to Japanese McDonalds’. It consisted of a 1/4lb patty topped with chili and tortilla chips - we agreed it was pretty good, but the chili was a bit salty. Devon tried a “Shaky Chicken”…basically a piece of breaded chicken in a bag with some seasoning, you shake the chicken up with the seasoning in the bag, and you end up with…seasoned chicken. He went for the cheese seasoning, it left much to be desired.
 
Back at the venue, we watched as the small room quickly filled up with kids, including many faces we had seen before. Cleave played their best set of the whole tour, and it was followed up immediately by our best as well. The room exploded when we started with “Sycamore”. A large group of kids rushed the front of the stage and there were a good number of stage dives. It was an amazing end to an amazing tour. After our set we were greeted by a number of fans eager for autographs on their records, and for pictures with us. We were so confused by the number of kids wanting autographs - it’s just so unlike us to be signing records…we’re a punk band, not rock stars!
 
Two of the girls at the show had seen us at all of our Japanese shows, and were up front singing every word for each set. After our set at Nine Spices, one of the girls, Haruka came up to us asking for more autographs and a picture - after our picture Haruka thanked us for “making her dream come true”, and started crying. It was so touching to have met someone who loves our band so much, and amazing to see firsthand how much music has the power to move people. All in all, the whole experience was very surreal - taking pictures with fans, the number of autographs we signed. So weird.
 
After our pictures with the fans we got the whole tour together for a few pictures, loaded up the van, and took a short walk to another Ootoya, for some post-show food. When we were done stuffing our faces with more Japanese diner food, we left the restaurant, said our goodbyes to some of the guys in Cleave, and our goodbyes to Ai, who would not be joining us on our day off, and headed back to Mizuki’s for the night.
 
The next day, March 14th, was strictly a fun, sightseeing day that Mizuki and I had planned for us. We met up with Shuhei, and had another great lunch at Freshness Burger. After our lunch we found a place to park and walked to a tattoo studio, where a couple of us were going to try and get tattooed - O-Rock ended up being the only one who could afford it. We left O-Rock at the studio and headed towards our first major stop of the day - Tower Records Shinjuku.
 
We got to the floor containing the endcap featuring copies of our “Stand Tall/Pedestals” record, and asked a clerk if they still had the sign that was on the endcap when the release first hit stores. He went into a small cabinet underneath, and produced the small, foam-board sign. We autographed the sign and presented it to Mizuki as a gift; the Tower Records clerk also took a Polaroid picture of us and we signed that as well for the store.
 
When our time at Tower Records was over we continued to wander around the city for a bit, making another stop at an electronics store so RJ could pick up some headphones, and a Starbucks for a coffee break. O-Rock was just about finished up with his tattoo when we arrived back at the studio. He got a traditional Japanese demon in the ditch of his left arm; it turned out awesome.
 
Last major stop of the day was Tokyo Tower - an orange and white Eiffel Tower look-a-like, featuring two observation decks, one at 150m and the other at 250m. Naturally as soon as we arrived it starting pouring, meaning our view of the city was bound to be somewhat obscured. I couldn’t afford to go all the way up, so I opted to pay for the 150m deck. At the entrance to the lift up to the observation deck we were greeted with a small bag filled with a chocolate bar, and some amazing strawberries, in celebration of Valentines Day.
 
We took the lift up, the group walked around for a bit, and then those of us that could afford to go up to the 250m observation deck headed up while we continued to wander around down below. I took as many pictures as I could of the vast Tokyo skyline, explored the gift shop for a decent magnet - I settled on a rubber coaster I could glue a small magnet to - and then we all made our way back down to the first floor. On our way out R.J. decided to get a caricature of himself drawn up by an old Japanese man in the hallway. While we waited we explored another gift shop on the same floor, and when the caricature was done, we took pictures of R.J. holding it up, and laughed our asses off at it’s ridiculousness.
 
Since we still had time to kill we decided to go back to Rock-No-Kokoro for a few drinks before going back to Mizuki’s. As we arrived it started snowing pretty hard, and we were forced to stay until the snow died down a bit. The people in the bar were fascinated by the amount of snow coming down - I guess they really don’t see nearly as much as we do in the Northeast. RJDJ bumped all the hot punk jams behind the DJ booth, and most of the crew got a bit tipsy once again
 
When the party died down, we walked backed to the van and a small snowball fight ensued. Back at Mizuki’s, we would rest up for another long day of traveling halfway across the world. We had a morning flight from Tokyo to Moscow for a layover, then on to the UK.
 
At the airport the next morning we said our goodbyes to Mizuki and Mari, as well as R.J., who was taking a separate flight to NYC, then would meet us in the UK. The flight via Aeroflot, a Russian airline, was another long one - taking around 9 or 10 hours to cross over Eastern Asia and Siberia. While we were over Siberia I was able to snap a couple of great pictures of the barren, frozen wasteland basked in the light of a seemingly endless sunset. I sat next to a friendly Russian woman who offered me some tissues to help remedy the cold I picked up on our day off. The Russian flight attendants however, were not so friendly. Neither were any of the Russians we met after exiting the plane at Moscow airport. The security checkpoint terrifying and confusing - thoughtless commuters cutting in line to get through quicker, ornery airport employees barking orders you could barely understand. We all had the same thought on our minds after going through security and taking our seats at the gate: “fuck Russia.”
 
We caught some free Wifi in the airport, which helped kill some time while we waited to board the next flight to London. Moscow to London would be on another Aeroflot plane, it was newer and nicer this time, but still cramped. The flight to London seemed like it would never end, but eventually we arrived at London Heathrow, exhausted from an endless day of flying across the world. We made our way through immigration and exited the gate to find…no one waiting for us…and we had no way to contact anyone save for sending out emails to James Carpenter (Carpo), our tour manager who was not able to meet us at the airport since he was still at home, in Ireland. We took a seat at a cafe outside the arrivals area, and prepared to wait for who knew how long.
 
After about 30 minutes of waiting, we were greeted by Jamie, who was to be our driver for most of the tour. Jamie apologized for being late - he said he had a very hard time finding parking, which we understood. All we wanted to do was lie down and sleep somewhere, so we cut the chit chat and walked out to the van. When we tried to open the door to the cargo area we discovered that we couldn’t get the lock open - something was wrong with the key. Awesome. We had to load all of our bags in front of the back bench seat, and then sit in the bench with our legs crammed up against them. It was a miserable 30 minute drive to Kingston, where we were staying for the night.
 
We stayed at a friend of James’ from Ireland, Zach, who was now living in Kingston with his girlfriend, Lottie. They greeted us, offered tea, and we chatted for a bit while settling in. They had Wifi, which was much needed to let our friends and loved ones know we had made it into the UK safely. I passed out quickly from exhaustion; my body desperately craved the sleep it needed to get me through the beginning of another long month of touring. It was now the morning of March 16th - today we would play our first show in Europe, in Kingston at the Fighting Cocks, with Four Year Strong.