Ken Minami at 5 am, Haneda Airport Train Station. The Journey Begins.
I was on tour with the amazingly talented, hard working, and inspiring duo of Ken Minami and Adam Amram, known as Ken South Rock recently. In one of the most surprising events I have ever experienced, I was asked to go on tour with them in the end of 2011, that tour being in July 2012. They proposed that I come on the road with them armed with pain, markers, and my enthusiasm and energy, and make a live painting on stage while they performed at every show I was there for. They asked me to be a hype mane, dance, sing back ups some times, and make awesome art onstage while being crazy.
Adam Amram, John Felix Arnold III, and Ken Minami, in Kyoto @ Dewey Live House. 07/24/2012
These are all things that come very naturally to me, so I happily obliged. Aside from the three of us, Ken's awesome wife Chiaki (who was like out translator and our therapist lol) came along and an amazing photographer named Walter Wlordrzyck to document the adventure. We traveled from Tokyo to Kamisuwa to Gifu to Nagoya to Osaka to Kyoto and then I embarked back to Tokyo to work on a different project in Shibuya as they continued on further south. I believe they are in Taiwan at the time of this blog post, and all I can say is that these guys go hard as fuck and that it was truly an honor to be a part of such an amazing happening.
Temple Detail near Ken and Chiaki's Apartment, near Shinjuku, Tokyo.
Every single city was awesome, each having a speciality food they are known for. As I peered out of the windows of many trains we took along the journey, I was ceaselessly bombarded with sublime, and serene countryside, mountain scape, village to town to city views, and a non stop show of visual amazement. The lushness and glow of the green in the mountain side views is no where close to being replicated in these images.
Out of the train window on our way to Gifu from Kamisuwa.
We ate amazing food that, to my surprise, came from convenience stores, mini marts, hole in the wall train station cookeries, 7/11s and more. We laughed a lot, we tried to sleep, we even were enswathed by scores of school girls in the train cars that had no idea of where we had come and what we were doing, but were none the less totally blown away by the whole thing. I have so much more to tell you guys, and so many photos I have to go through, but here is a good lead in blog post to begin to get the whole memory of this truly surreal experience into your eyes, and a good chance for me to begin regrouping and figuring out whats next after such an amazing experience.
School Girl Mob on the Train traveling from Gifu to Nagoya.
The Beautiful Yui from Suichu Blanco, the awesome band we went on Tour with.
I can't lie, I am kind of depressed on the daily that I am not there anymore, that I am surrounded by insane amounts of American over consumption, Escalades and Hummers driving by with one person inside, by a culture that revels in "fucking shit it up" just for the sake of doing so, and an overwhelming sense of people trying to get over on one another where, "its not my problem" is the motto.
The amazing Chiaki "Cheese" Minami and Walter Wlodarcyck on a train headed for Osaka.
Gyoza in Nagoya.
I love my country and I love my group of people that I am in the struggle with, but there are a lot of things I now realize that I am not okay with since I have gained some perspective. The food thing is also killing me. I ate so much healthy food, even literally from convenience stores, that tasted so good, with no growth horomones or anything, and now it is hard to get used to that food coma feeling I get here in the states after eating even small things. I have a lot of material to get back in the studio with now! I am very grateful for that!
Super Awesome Street Festival, I beleive part of the beginning of a month long festival to honor the dead in Osaka. This was right in the middle of an intersection.
Oh, and Osaka was definitely my favorite city hands down all around. The food is unbelievable.