Robby's Lobby #99

BlogMarch, 2014Inrock.co.jp

Hey Hey IN ROCKERS, and Welcome to another edition of Robby's Lobby ! This month's column is being written in the dead of the night here in my hometown of Buffalo, NY, I'm up wrestling jetlag after another amazing 2 week trip to Japan meeting friends old and new, visiting with some bands and just having a great time in my favorite place to visit and explore!

I hope you've had a great new year so far, 2014 began with a New Years Eve show with Goo Goo Dolls at the legendary House of Blues on Sunset in LA. We had a great crowd show up to ring in the New Year with us! Goo Goo Dolls have a huge 2014 planned with a Canadian Tour in February, and Acoustic tour planned for early spring and another enormous Summer Tour package planned through September. No Japanese dates are planned as of yet, but I will keep you informed on any rumblings of a trip to Asia with the band as things develop.

Shortly after the NYE show my family packed our bags for Japan as we made our way on the long trip from NY to Japan. We have so many things we love to do and some many people we love to see when we visit, but this time was extra special as our daughter Hana got to spend her 2nd birthday with her family in Japan, but more on that later.

Our trips always seem to be centered around our stomachs when we visit Japan, on the first day we enjoyed a nice Tonkatsu dinner and ran into a temporary shop in Shinjuku station selling Dagashi that made my wife very nostalgic for the time she was a child growing up. The next morning I made my way to my favorite clothing store ''Hysteric Glamour'' and got some great new T-shirts for our upcoming tours, and now we get to shop at ''Hysteric Mini'' as well to dress up our little girl in some rocker clothing too ! After the first of many, many visits to have Curry, this first time at Tari-ya Curry (Indian Style) we visited Muji for some travel supplies and made our way back to the hotel.

The next day we woke up, got some breakfast at the hotel and spent some time in Harajuku, once again visiting some of the places we love including Takashita Dori, The Oriental Bazaar (I desperately needed a new Yukata.) After a trip to the Kiddy Land to pick up some Funassyi keychain (my new favorite), we were all set to get back to the hotel and fall asleep at''5pm''and try to catch up with the time change and adjust ourselves for the rest of the trip!

The next day we went to do some shopping on Ameyoko and later that night I went to the now infamous Robot Restaurant in Shinjuku. I must say this is the most intense show I have ever seen, robots, cows, sharks, drums, and lots of pretty girls in bikinis performing amongst lazers, video screens and many bewildered gaijin as we enjoyed bento and some cold green tea. I recommend this experience to anyone who thinks they've seen it all, because I guarantee you they have not seen anything like this before!

The next week was filled with visits to Taiyo No Marche in Kachidoki, dinner with Pinky Doodle Poodle (who we are releasing an album for here in the U.S. on Good Charamel records this spring), a trip to an awesome Onsen in Izu, visits with my wife's High School friends and numerous trips to have Sushi, Curry and Ramen at our favorite spots!

I met up with a new friend who is one of the hosts of the NHK English show Otona No Kiso Eigo named Jason Hancock, an American who has been in Japan for the past 15 years teaching, acting and loving Japan. We met him after watching him on NHK and reaching out to him through Twitter. We hung many times in Japan over the 2 weeks we were visiting and became great friends sharing Yuzu ramen, enjoying cookies at Cookie Time in Harajuku and shopping at Don Quixoteハjust to name a few of our adventures!

On our last day in Japan we visited the Anpanman Museum to have a birthday party for our daughter's 2nd Birthday, she had a great time (although she was a little scared of Anpanman) and so did we, enjoying the museum as well as some awesome pan and curry with Birthday Cake to make a great day for our little girl!

Another amazing trip to Japan, but now it's time to get back to work and we'll keep you filled in on everything coming up for me right here at Robby's Lobby! Please follow me on Twitter at @robbytakac ...sometimes I post in Nihongo!!!

Peace

Robby