Playing in a ryokan, a traditional Japanese hotel. (Image via soundfly.com)
This article originally appeared on Soundfly.
Japan is one of the best places to share your music. If you weren't already planning your tour there when this article popped up, you might as well start now!
I just got off the plane not three hours ago, and looking back it was the best tour of my life. Let me share with you some of the tips I picked up along the way. But first, how come this faraway land of manga and sushi is so kind to the touring musician?
Firstly, as expected, Japanese audiences are absolutely some of the best listeners in the world. They will give you every ounce of their quiet attention during your concert, they will shower you with earnest compliments and honest criticisms, and they will try as hard as they can to articulate their thoughts in English, just for you.
Secondly, tickets to concerts are quite expensive by US standards. An average small concert ticket is around $20 to $25 USD and club-sized shows pull in anywhere from $30 to $45 USD. Keep in mind also that CDs are sold at retail for around $18 to $23 USD and up, and vinyl is about $28 to $32 USD. So there's a great opportunity for you to make good money on each of your concerts if you play your cards right. Now here's a short breakdown of your typical DIY tour concerns and how they differ in Japan.
What are your costs?
Expensive
Well, your plane ticket is the elephant in the room; that's an obvious mega-cost to get over. If you can get your label or a festival promoter to help with airfare or apply for a touring grant, it makes all the difference. See if you can position your band into one of these amazing summer festivals.
If you're driving, the tolls will really hurt your wallet. For a four-hour drive, tolls cost upwards of $90 USD. Almost every time you get on a highway, you'll be paying a toll. Parking is the other untamable beast, since there's no street parking in metropolitan areas.
Driving in general is expensive, though extremely fun and convenient if you're lugging gear. All in all for an 11-date tour, our rental car cost $780 USD, parking was around $150 USD, and tolls came out between $300 to $400 USD.
Cheap
Sorry to bum you out with those costs, but the good thing is that there are solutions to everything! If you don't want to rent a car, Japan's trains are among the most efficient, fast, and wide-spread in the world! Book yourself a Japan Rail Pass, and take almost any train throughout the country for no additional cost!
Try to stay with local musicians and promoters wherever possible. When that wasn't available, Airbnb and Couchsurfing helped my band save a lot of money. For a real cultural treat, try staying at a capsule hotel, where you'll essentially be sleeping in a morgue-like pod with WiFi, a personal TV, and access to an in-house spa. Pretty trippy.
Food is moderately priced, but for cheap and filling meals you can always count on bento boxes, curry houses, and ramen. Ramen is basically a religion in Japan.
Touring dos and dont's
Do
- Always shoot to work with a local (or national) promoter, and invite at least one local artist/band onto your gigs. Having somebody on the ground in the cities you're touring through to help spread the word is essential. And not as many people speak English as you might expect, so it's great to have someone who knows what you need and is ready to help you communicate.
- Print flyers and drop them at cafés, live music venues, music stores, etc. It's a great way to get a few more people to the gigs. A bunch of people who came to see us had never heard of our band before but picked up a flyer and decided to take a chance!
- Carry a black marker. Audiences will jump at the chance to get your autograph on their newly purchased copy of your album after the gig. Just remember to bow and thank the crowd immensely – anything less is a sign of disrespect.
- Learn at least the following phrases in Japanese:
- Thank you/Thanks so much – "Dōmo arigatō gozaimasu" どうもありがとうございます
- Hello! – "Kon'nichiwa" こんにちは
- Good morning/Good evening – "Ohayō"/"Konbanwa" おはよう / こんばんは
- It's really difficult to balance the daily routine of load-in, soundcheck, performance, and load-out with tourist activities, so try to take a day or two off, and spend it with the fellow musicians around you. Develop your relationships, because in Japan, they may last forever!
- Try to play and stay at a ryokan. One per tour will do. But if you end up with a deeply memorable night like we had in Kyoto (a 200-year-old inn jam-packed with music lovers in one of the most pristine-sounding wooden rooms we've ever played), you might need to book a few more gigs like that. Keep in mind these establishments aren't for everyone. There are sound curfews and quiet rules, so book accordingly.
- Download some Japanese history podcasts or language tapes for your travels. Seriously, we had a blast listening to the shogunate tales of Oda Nobunaga and the Tokugawa clan on long car rides through beautiful terrain! Here are a couple recommended ones.
Don't
- Forget to bow!
- Wear complicated shoes with crazy laces. You're required to take off your shoes in almost every indoor location. Wear shoes that slip on and off easily. My bandmate couldn't have made a more annoying decision to bring lace-up leather boots!
- Plan on drinking too much at your concerts; there usually isn't more than one drink ticket allotted per musician.
- Underestimate the smaller cities. All we looked for were venues with nice pianos around the country, so we booked both small and large cities and managed to play to a decent-sized audience pretty much every night. Curiosity counts in Japan (make sure you have a ton of music streaming online so people can check you out in advance).
- Give in to the temptation to eat ramen for every meal of the day.
- Be late for trains/buses if you're using them. Every vehicle in the entire country is perfectly on schedule all the time. It's actually incredible.
- Perhaps this goes without saying, but don't break any rules or ask too many favors. Japan loves its rules. Respect is everything here; you get back tenfold what you put in.
Some bonuses for the culturally curious: in Tokyo, try to attend a Sumo wrestling match, definitely look into booking a ticket and bento box at The Robot Restaurant for one of the strangest and most enjoyable nights of your life, and if you're into sports, nothing beats a Japanese baseball game (go Yomiuri Giants!).
We had the extremely powerful privilege of visiting Japan during the sakura season, when the cherry blossoms emerge and take over the entire landscape. We were able to share bonding experiences with tons of people for hanami, evening drinking under the lanterns hanging from the cherry blossom trees. We highly recommend touring during the springtime.
Lastly, touring can get pretty gritty. After you wrap up your tour and are certified Japanese celebrities, cleanse your mind, body, and spirit in one of Japan’s thousands of onsen, or natural hot spring spas!
Have you ever toured in Japan or anywhere internationally? Share your favorite tips, sights, and venues in the comments!
Jeremy Young is a music business guru and loves giving advice to young, emerging bands on how to make their tours more effective. He also plays guitar, publishes audiobooks, runs a record label, and is an artist working in sound media. He has performed and released material throughout Europe, Asia, the US, UK, and Canada, mostly with his trio Sontag Shogun.
