KISS is on their way to Japan now to begin their 2015 Japan tour on Monday.
(Click here to see my post about the announcement of this tour, the tour dates, and their special guests for the Tokyo Dome show).
The T-shirts and other merchandise that KISS will be selling for their shows in Japan have been revealed.
I like towels from concerts. These types of towels are unique to Japan, aren’t they?
Click here to see the page with the complete list of official KISS Japan Tour 2015 merchandise (Japanese only).
First of all, as I mentioned in this comment, the “2011 Tokyo International Marathon” was held today.
30,000 people from Japan and other countries ran the 42.195 KM (over 26 miles) course through the streets of Tokyo.
For the past five years now, the Tokyo Marathon has been an annual event held at the end of February.
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Anyways, my friend has just informed me that the American rock band KISS will be coming to Japan this April to play seven shows around Japan to support their “Sonic Boom” album.
(I did an interview with the artist who designed this album cover, by the way.)
The dates of the shows that KISS are scheduled to play in Japan are:
2011 April 13 – Nagoya, Japan at the Aichi Prefecture Gymnasium
2011 April 14 – Yokohama, Japan at the Pacifico Yokohama
2011 April 17 – Saitama, Japan at the Saitama Super Arena
2011 April 18 – Kobe, Japan at the World Hall
2011 April 20 – Tokyo, Japan at the Nippon Budokan
2011 April 21 – Tokyo, Japan at the Nippon Budokan
2011 April 23 – Sapporo, Japan at the Makomanai Indoor Stadium
Tickets for the shows in the Tokyo area (which are Yokohama, Saitama and Tokyo) will go on sale on 2011 March 12th.
I have seen KISS play in Japan in both Yokohama and Tokyo before. In Yokohama, I saw them at the “Yokohama Arena” (not the “Pacifico”, where they’ll being playing this time). In Tokyo, I saw them at both the “Tokyo Dome” and the “Nippon Budokan”.
An interesting thing about this tour is that KISS will play a show in Sapporo, Japan. KISS has played many shows in Japan since their first time here in the 1970’s and they’ve never played northern Japan before. I’m sure that KISS fans in Hokkaido are happy to hear that there will finally be a KISS concert in their area!
The name of the 「日本武道館」 (Nippon Budokan) in Tokyo means “Japan Martial-arts Hall”.
Traditionalists don’t really like the idea of musicians playing pop music in this “sacred” hall. The first pop band to play there were The Beatles when they first came to Japan. The traditionalists protested their concerts. But The Beatles drew huge crowds to the Budokan…and they held the record for the most consecutive sell-out shows there. They played four sold-out shows in a row at the Budokan.
But KISS beat The Beatles‘s record when they played five sold-out shows at the Budokan on their first Japan tour in the late ’70s.
Since then it’s become quite normal for musicians to perform at the Nippon Budokan. Even with the bigger and newer “Tokyo Dome” not far from the Budokan, upcoming Japanese pop stars still consider it a sign of success to play at the Nippon Budokan…not unlike American musicians playing at the “Madison Square Garden”.
The famous "Nippon Budokan"; Tokyo, Japan
Have you ever seen a KISS concert? If not, you’re missing out on the best live show by any band. Their shows are quite exciting…fire-breathing, blood, flying guitars, flying musicians, outrageous costumes, kabuki-style face paint.
To get an idea, watch this music promotion video for the single “Modern Day Delilah” from their most recent album “Sonic Boom”:
And, in a more good news for us KISS fans…the band has announced that a new KISS studio album of brand-new songs is due out later this year (2011)!
A number of newspapers in Japan had articles about the upcoming KISS tour here.
I bought today’s copy of 「夕刊フジ」 (“Yuukan-Fuji“) evening paper:
Here’s a close-up of the article about KISS:
The headline says: "Hell's group" KISS return for a Japan tour after four-and-a-half years!
Have you ever heard of the “Walking With Dinosaurs” show from England?
It was originally a BBC documentary about dinosaurs…but now they have traveling exhibition / arena show with life-sized, very realistic looking dinosaur robot / costumes.
They’re bringing their show to Japan this summer for a seven-city Japan tour.
They brought one of their dinosaurs to Tokyo today to promote their show on morning talk shows on Japan’s “Fuji TV” channel.
The “baby dinosaur” and one of the show’s staff were in the TV studio in Tokyo this morning. The show’s Japanese cast were all impressed by how realistic looking, acting and sounding the dinosaur was.
I have three daughters. They’re not really interested in dinosaurs…so we won’t be seeing it.
But if you’re in Japan this summer, you can buy a ticket for ¥4,200 – ¥10,500 for adults (¥3.150 – ¥7,350 for kids).
The dates of the Japan show are:
2010 July 8 – 11: Yokohama
July 16 – 19: Hiroshima
July 22 – 25: Osaka
July 29 – August 1: Shizuoka
August 5 – 8: Saitama
August 12 – 15: Aichi
August 19 – 22: Fukuoka
"Walking With Dinosaurs" Japan Tour summer 2010
Click here for the “Walking With Dinosaurs” English site. Click here for the 「ウォーキング・ウィズ・ダイナソー」 (“Walking With Dinosaurs”) 日本語 (Japanese) site.
I have been a fan of the band KISS since I was about eight years old in the late 1970s (at the height of KISS‘s popularity in America).
I have a number of KISS-related posts on this site. For example, click here to see one that gets many visitors (I wrote it in 2008 August, and it still gets alot of hits.)
KISS has recently announced that their first studio album since their 1998 “Psycho Circus” album will be released this Autumn (2009).
KISS is getting old. Founding members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley were in their late-forties when they released their last album eleven years ago, already a bit old for a rock ‘n roll band…but now they’re both almost 60!
Although KISS is notorious for over-commercializing their brand by putting the KISS logo on anything and everything (they sell KISS notebooks, KISS golf equipment, KISS dolls, KISS comics, KISS condoms, even a KISS funeral casket and much, much more!), and KISS bassist Gene Simmons is infamous for behaving like a “dirty old man” (when he was young and single, it was acceptable for him to flirt with young women. But now that he’s old and has a family…he just embarrasses himself).
But, regardless, I’m still a KISS fan. And I’ll be buying the new KISS album when it’s released in Japan (there are about 40 albums in the KISS catalog so far, and I have them all (I have some of them on LP record, cassette tape and CD!)).
I will also see them in concert again if they include dates in Japan on the tour to promote this new album.
KISS has also announced the titles of three songs that will be included on their new album (the album has yet to be titled).
The song titles are:
“Russian Roulette“, “Modern Day Delilah“, and “Stand“.
It was also announced by KISS that on the new album, lead guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer will sing lead vocals on a song each.
This is interesting to a KISS fan because the current line-up of KISS is: bassist Gene Simmons, rhythm guitarist Paul Stanley, lead guitaris Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer…of which, only Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley have ever sung lead vocals.
Current KISS line-up
Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley are founding KISS members…but the lead guitarist and drummer position in the band has changed members a number of times (there have five different lead guitarists and three different drummers in KISS). All of the original KISS members have sung lead vocals on various songs…but of the replacement members, only Bruce Kulick and Eric Carr have been allowed to sing lead (one song and two, respectively). Vinnie Vincent and Mark St. John never sang on a KISS album.
Anyways, I’m looking forward to hearing the new KISS album (and seeing the artwork)!
Have you ever owned a KISS album? Which one? Have you ever seen one of their amazing concerts? Which tour?
What’s your favorite KISS song?
「ようこそジャパン」 (Yokoso Japan!) means “Welcome to Japan!“, and is the Japan National Tourism Organization‘s official slogan of their campaign to attract foreign visitors to Japan.
「Yokoso Japan!」 logo
Here are some of their Yokoso Japan! campaign ads.
Most of the scenes in this first one are of Tokyo (there are a few shots of Osaka, etc…but most of it is Tokyo):
These show many parts of Japan:
Do they make you want to visit this beautiful country?
Tokyo Five 
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