The long haul ...

Posted on September 28, 2007 by Delicious Duo

Our adventures in Japan started off on a difficult and tumultuous journey. My name is Lance Lasheras, and alongside my best friend Justin Kim, we decided to journey to Japan in order to pursue our dream of becoming world famous DJ's. The reason why we would choose to go to a country in which we know nothing about the culture, language, or industry is simply because our genre of music is very popular there. Our stories will chronicle our adventures in the country, in hopes to entertain others as well as possibly make some contacts while over here.

Our first real adventure in Japan came in the form of picking up our equipment. Anyone who has Dj'ed before is aware of the sheer volume of electronic equipment necessary for the craft. While we moved into a home in Noborito, our equipment required to be picked up from the airport, almost two and a half hours away via train. The alternative was to pay an exorbitant amount of money to ride the bus, and being the frugal fools we are we thought we could save some money simply by taking everything via train.

The journey to the airport was no challenge at all, giving us the confidence we needed to try and bring it all the way back. However we hit rush hour on the ride home. Those who have never experienced a packed train in Tokyo have no concept of the word claustrophobic. Not only do people squish together tighter then sardines, but they also push themselves on the train no matter how impossible you believe it to be. Our equipment easily took up the space of 15 people on the train, so everyone surrounding us was giving us the most evil glares possible. Let me preface this by stating that the Japanese culture is quite possibly the most polite culture in the world, and if you experience anger or disdain in any way you've done something horribly wrong.

Needless to say the three hours it took to get home felt like a lifetime, using every elevator shaft we could find. When we were on trains people would squeeze around us like fungus to a tree until we literally couldn't move.

That being said we made it home with everything and felt so happy to be there. The next week was spent getting everything in order to apply for jobs over the weekend. If you would like to hear the album we produced in our small Japanese room in order to get gigs, visit our web site. Hopefully our next story will feature some good news relating to tracking down jobs in the center of Tokyo.