Can you introduce us to the band ‘Sawa’?

SAWA is a band, trying to dig out something “unique” but still very “catchy”.  We are a Japanese indie band formed in Tokyo (Japan). We strongly believe that reaching out and opening up  to each other and the world is the 1st step to move forward as a band.  My father runs a traditional Japanese public bath (sento) in his own way. Usually, Japanese public baths won’t welcome people with Tattoos, Yakuza (Japanese Mafia), elderly people who can’t take a bath without help. But my father accepts almost everyone, including those people. Only if they can keep the ethos to share the sento space together with each other.  SAWA would love to share the space, and to have space where anybody can come and enjoy, share their thoughts, time and smiles together.

Tell us! How did SAWA come to be what it is today?

SAWA started taking action in ’07 when the vocalist Sawa had decided to sing.  (That’s me! lol)

At the beginning I was a solo singer/song writer, but when I met Hizmi through making the soundtrack to the well known Nintendo DS game The World Ends With You, we decided to create something original together; that was the beginning of  Sawa.  After writing several songs, we decided to form a Band pushed by our eagerness and supports from our fans and that’s how we are today.

What are the instruments used in your band?

For the gigs, we use the usual guitars, electric, acoustic and bass, drum, and…. microphone!! lol)

My main instrument is my voice, but I also play the tambourine and blues harp depending on the situation.

Sometimes we share the stage with our friends who play keyboard, violin and/or flute.

In future gigs, we might add or subtract instruments to have more experimental sounds on stage!!

How do you describe your music to people?

Something experimental and alternative based on rock sounds.

Who writes the lyrics?

I do

Most of Sawa’s songs lyrics are in English, Why is that?

Because, we are eager to go over the boundaries and borders created by stereotypes. We don’t want to have you hear us with the first impression, “Oh! It’s a band from Japan!!”.  It’d rather you be surprised after listening to our songs and say, “Oh! They were Japanese band?” lol.

We love to surprise people!  That’s one of the biggest reasons why most of our songs are written in English.

Although, it doesn’t mean I don’t like writing songs in Japanese.  To tell the truth, we are working on some Japanese songs right now!

What are your favorite songs and why?

My favorite songs … it’s hard to pick a few… I love all of my songs! lol

hm…. if I need to pick some, I’d start to say with…

“One Thing“.  It was the song that I sent to  Hizmi as my self-introduction before our first meeting.  From this song, we decided to create songs together, and without this song the current Sawa wouldn’t even exist!  “Stay Away“, this was the first song I created together with Hizmi and that was the beginning of this Sawa project. We felt some sort of chemistry between us while listening its demo. From our current EP,  I adore “Fly High” and “Figure and Shadow“.  “Fly High” is filled with messages and words from my past.  I wanted to collect those heartfelt empowerment words in one song, and share it with my fans and friends!!  “Figure and Shadow” is one of our newest sounds, and while creating this song I felt that our new experiments on sounds are going to start from here!!

Who are your musical influences?

I used to listen lots of Canzone and Chanson music, influenced by my father in my childhood. I still love those passionate voices and emotional essence of the singers such as, Milva and Edith Piaf.  The 1st CD I ever bought was The Beatles, when I was around 10 years old. I listen to Punk, Heavy Rock, and some other sorts of music too, but when I met Nirvana around 16, I was totally soaked into the grunge world.  Later on, Mixture, Core, Metal sounds were also fun to listen but my interest was suddenly caught by some old sounds, such as Chet Baker and Tom Waits.  From the current artist, I’m a big fan of Muse.

If you could cover any song in the world, which one would you choose?

It’s hard to pick one

Okay, I’d say…

“In Un Fiore“, “Que sera“, “Milord” from Canzone.

“But Not For Me” from Chet Baker (I wish I could play trumpet like him)

I’m sure there are some more … but can’t remember now … sorry.

Do you remember your first show? How did you feel?

Yes! Of course I do.

It was at a cultural festival during High School in Virginia as an exchange student.

I was very nervous back stage, but once I started to sing, it was a great fun.  I sang 2 songs, and that was the moment I strongly felt that cultural difference didn’t matter, while we spoke through the language of music.

Can you explain how a band rehearsal goes for you?

The groove won’t come out on stage,  when our hearts are looking at different directions.  So, rehearsal becomes a genuine communication between the band members, I think.

What is the best moment you have experienced so far?

As a band Sawa, our communication between fans and friends are based on MySpace.  So, when we have a moment to see our fans and/or friends face to face and have a tight hug with each other, that’s the best moment ever.  In ’09, many of our friends came to see us in Tokyo from everywhere, overseas and in many different areas around Japan. We really want to tour the world in the year ’10 (Of course! including Australia).

How do you see SAWA in the future?

Well… I have no idea!

Maybe I’m trying not to have a detailed image of the future of Sawa, trying not to bind myself by my image.

My ambition is huge.  I want to become friends with people all around the world, and enjoy our future together.

I hope Sawa will be an inspiration for the positive power of your life.  That’s the only thing  I have always wished and I strongly believe this is the most important element when I think about the future Sawa.

Would you come play for us in Australia?

Why not.

We’ll definitely come whenever we could get the chance to come.

If you came to Australia, what would you want to see and do first?

First, I’d like to thank you for letting us step on to the land of your country, and then breath in the fresh Australian air and fill up my lungs.  One of my first Australian fans have sent me a photo a few months ago, writing Sawa (+ BIG heart message on the beach) … and that’ll be the place I personally want to visit the most!  Is it legal to sing one or two songs by the sea shore in Australia?

We hope to perform more than 1 gig at an Australian showcase in our near future.

Have you ever heard of Vegemite or tried it?

Yes! I tried it when my little sister came back from 3 month home stay in Australia.  That was a great souvenir!

Nice experience, but I just had it once!  My sister loves it but I heard it’s not easy to find it in Japan.

and, Any last words to say or advice?

As long as we won’t throw out our hope, we’ll never get lost.  I’ll declare here today, that Sawa won’t give up until our dream comes true.  I hope you can tell us the same

Thank you very much. Domo Arigato

A few months ago I had the pleasure of being able to visit the place and go on a tour around some different places. I visited a shrine, saw some Harajuku girls and ate some foods that I hope I’ll forget sometime soon.

To anyone even thinking about going to Japan, my first big and major advice is to LEARN THE LANGUAGE.

I also got to see some Harujuku girls and managed to take some pictures along with all the other tourists.

I know it sounds a bit silly, but the majority of the people in Japan don’t speak English as fluently as you might think. I was lucky because my tour guide was able to take care of the majority of talking that was needed, and was willing to translate into English whatever took the tour group’s fancy.

He couldn’t do it all however, and ordering something like McDonalds by pointing at the pretty pictures like a five year old is rather embarrassing to say the least. Besides, you can only have so much fun playing charades with a shop assistant or a waiter in a restaurant.

Once I got off the plane in Narita Airport (and had a very fun time going through customs and getting my fingerprint and picture taken) I had to make the very sad attempt of trying to catch a train to Shinjuku where my hotel was located.

Have a look at the train map below and you might have a little understanding of how difficult this task was, especially since buying train tickets is all done on computers; that are in Japanese.

After completing the task thanks to a friendly train clerk (who was there because of non-Japanese tourists like me) I managed to catch the two different trains I needed in order to get to Shinjuku.

Coming out of the train station and into the gloriousness which is Shinjuku, I was struck by large flashing neon signs and buildings, posters for various things, large crowds of non-English speakers and a horrible sense of “what the heck have I gotten myself into?”

Finally, I managed to reach the hotel after finding a taxi, walk up, tired, to the front counter with all my bags in tow. Luckily, the clerks were able to understand me (to an extent) and quickly got me to my room.

The next day I met my tour guide, who gave me a very easy English map and told me the rest of the tour group would arrive later on that day so it was a free exploring day for me.

Of course with my luck, since I couldn’t read any of the signs, I would stumble into the ‘red light district’ where the host clubs and other entertainment facilities were.

One of the main reasons I didn’t realise was because no one was avoiding the area and there were no glaringly obvious signs. However once I managed to figure out where I was thanks to the lovely pictures on buildings all around me, my walking stopped and I slowly backed out the way I came.

I think I’m cursed, because shortly after my attempts of an escape began, I had three encounters with some host club members attempting to talk to me and gesture to come in their respective host clubs with them.

I think if I was in any place besides Japan, I might have had a lot more trouble, but they were very happy to leave me alone after it became clear that I wasn’t interested and couldn’t speak the language.

I met the other people in the tour group later on that day at the hotel and became good friends with the majority of them.

We spent the next couple of days going to different places such as the Ghibli museum, which features art by Hayao Miyazaki (“Howl’s Moving Castle,” “Spirited Away”), and a lot of other really cool anime movies. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside but it was really amazing and one of those experiences you need to go and have for yourself.

One of my favourite places was Miyazaki’s studio, which featured hand-drawn rough sketches, character designs and scenery shots. Moving further into the studio, there were pictures which had been hand-painted using different techniques and it’s just incredible to think that some of the amazing pictures could actually be done by hand.

One of my other favourite places was the souvenir shop, where I bought a large amount of items for myself and friends back home.

The Meji shrine, which really looked like what you’d expect a traditional Japanese shrine to be.

Another place we visited was the Meji shrine which really looked like what you’d expect a traditional Japanese shrine to be. There were no signs of western development in the actual shrine itself and it was a lot of fun just looking around and taking pictures.

While I was there, I was actually lucky enough to see a Japanese style traditional wedding.

I also got to see some Harujuku girls and managed to take some pictures along with all the other tourists. Sadly for me, the Harujuku girls I met were just plain rude and were quite happy to confuse me by ignoring me and talking in Japanese with each other when I asked them for a photo (in very shaky Japanese).

Now I can truly sympathise with their annoyance over the fact that they’re constantly getting tourists taking their pictures like they’re some kind of animal on display. However, I don’t think it gives them the right to act like they’re ‘too cool for school’ or just plain regular jerks. Either way, I took their picture and made a run for it to Yoyogi Park, which is the home of musicians and other cosplayers who dress up like 1950s rockers and other random styles. It was a lot of fun! Some of the 1950s rockers were performing and having a great time while on the other side of the park, there were random bands blasting out their music for all to hear.

I also visited Takeshita (Ta-ke-shi-ta) street and managed to buy some very pretty costumes and clothes that I will probably never wear but like many tourists, I wanted my own little slice of cosplaying fun.

Another great arcade place to visit is ‘Akihabara’ (A-ki-ha-ba-ra) which is famous for dozens of anime, manga and electronic goods stores. It’s a shop-till-you-drop sort of place!

There was actually a store where you could buy some robots, and one of the clerks demonstrated one of their more expensive robots playing air guitar and doing a bit of a dance for my gawking pleasure.

Unfortunately because Akihabara is so big, I managed to get lost with a tour group friend when we tried to find the meeting place and couldn’t ask anyone for directions since we couldn’t speak Japanese.

We found the other tour group members-eventually.

For the rest of the tour, we got to do some pretty incredible things like visit an animation studio where artists showed their different work with special effects, animations and colouring on various animes.

We also got to take a trip to Mount Fuji (but unfortunately not all the way to the top), got to ride on the infamous bullet train, visit Sensoji (Sen-so-ji) temple and see some beautiful gardens as well as experience a traditional tea ceremony.

Those are only the few things that I managed to participate in while I had my one week holiday in Japan. It is merely scratching the surface, but what a fantastic time I still had.

For anyone who’s thinking of touring the world and needs some places to go, Japan’s certainly one of those places. I’m not saying to go because ‘it’s got really cool anime stuff’, but because there’s so much that you can enjoy there which isn’t anime. There are so many amazing sights, foods and a diverse culture that even an anti-anime fan will gain some grudging respect for Japan.

If anything, do it for the robots, because I mean, who doesn’t love robots?

Rules when Travelling to Japan:

1. Learn the language, or at least have a very good tour guide.
2. Be very good at charades or miming if you don’t follow rule number 1.
3. Go with people you know you’ll have a good time with (whiny friends excluded.)
4. Be prepared to loose your ego because you will make stuff-ups and feel foolish at times.
5. Have lots of money.
6. Enjoy yourself!