Tour- Osaka, Hiroshima, Nagoya

[This is the first of four posts of photos from a tour I went on with Jackson Browne’s band - Japan,Aus,NZ]

While my dad was sick in hospice care at home, we spent a lot of time watching the 2009 Japanese television show Midnight Diner. This got us talking about Japan, where he had traveled many times to play music on tour with Jackson Browne. When my brother was in middle school he got to go along with my dad on a Japan tour, but I never got the chance. He said Jackson was about to leave on a two month tour of Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. If he wasn’t sick he’d be going too. He suggested I ask Jackson if it were possible for me to go on the tour as a member of the crew. I reached out to Jackson but heard back from him a few days later, saying that he didn’t think it would be logistically possible at that point to add another person. It was a long shot anyways. I hadn’t gotten my hopes up.

The day my dad died, my family sat around his bed for a while after he took his last breaths. After an unbroken hour, I got a phone call. It was Jackson. My mom said I should answer it. I did. I told him that Dad had just passed, and he was the first to know. He said he just wanted to tell me that he spoke with his management and they said it would be possible for me to come on the tour with them. It was startling news to receive in such a moment.

There were three weeks between my dad’s death and the start of the tour. We held his memorial service at our house. Shortly after this, I packed up and left for the first leg of the tour, to spend two months around the people he toured with for 30 years.

We landed in Osaka. This was the view from my hotel room.

The first night, I went wandering around by myself through this vast mall of covered streets.

I was trying to find a place to eat, and nervous about the language barrier.

Ate at Yamakura, I think it’s called. A chain ramen shop. You order on a machine outside and it dispenses a ticket which you hand to the chef at the counter and he brings you your meal.

It was good ramen. Hugest bowl id ever seen

Hotel with four heads symbolizing 'the four races of the world- Asian, African, Arab, and European.

One thing I quickly noticed was there was almost no street parking anywhere in the city.

Instead of street parking, there were many small private parking lots, or garages with elaborate elevator systems and turntables.

All of this made car ownership costly and more inconvenient than simply walking or taking public transportation.

A family commuting on bike

Cast bronze bike tire.

Pebble-lined doorstep inset into the concrete entrance of this restaurant.

The first of the liquor vending machines I'd heard rumors about. This one was out of service.

Neighborhood book shop

Office tower with a highway running through it.

Jackson took a few of us on an excursion to Kyoto, to Sanjūsangen-dō temple.

No shoes (or photos) in the temple

Bandmates: Alethea (vocals), Chavonne (vocals), Jason (keys), Jackson, Bob (Bass)

Jackson took us to an old Soba restaurant later.

Chavonne and Alethea have been touring with Jackson since they were younger than me. He plucked them both out of their church choirs.

Jackson with his music journalist friend and our tour manager, Aki.

Back in Osaka, I went shopping. I wanted Japanese clothes, but most of what I could find was American.

Colombo-Nice small book and coffee shop.

I talked to the shopkeeper, who asked me where I was from.

I told him LA, and a few moments later he pulled out a photo album from a trip of his to LA 20 years ago, when he was my age.

I was looking for a very uncommon stereo-realist camera, which I found in the first camera shop I went to.

Venue of the first concert

I enjoyed sitting in the audience and watching the local crew unload all the heavy equipment on stage. The show before the show.

I didn't realize that bands toured with their own sound systems.

I loved seeing the crew and band's roadcases, customized over many decades of touring.

This was the band's stage wardrobe case.

My dad's drawer was still labeled. I hesitated to take a look inside...

I loved this huge case for the baby-grand piano.

It was really interesting to see how a tour functions. The crew arrives to the venue early in the morning and unpacks and sets up all the gear. Then LUNCH. Then the band comes and does soundcheck. Then dinner. Then the show. Then the load out.

Pinky, one of the production managers.

Someone told me there were people backstage who wanted to meet me.

They had known my Dad from previous tours, and always liked him. They gifted me a framed picture of them with him.

Then I met Toru, who also wanted to meet me.

He had spent time with my dad on previous tours and was also very fond of him.

I was touched by these strangers sharing their memory of my dad with me.

The band before the first show. Fritz (drums) Jason (Keys), Mason (Guitar), Greg (Pedal Steel)

Mason Stoops was the youngest guy in the band. He'd been subbing in for their regular guitarist on few recent tours. I'd never met or heard of him until my dad's memorial.

Mason took me out to dinner after the first show.

He told me that hanging out with me was just like hanging out with my dad.

Showing Mason the Muji section in Familymart.

The next day, we took the bullet train from Osaka to Hiroshima.

A big crowd suddenly formed as we got past the turnstiles. I didn't understand what was happening.

There were diehard fans who followed the band on tour, going to each show. They'd wait at the train station for the band to show up, then they'd take pictures and talk and get autographs. Then they'd take a later train to make it to the next show.

One man came up to me. He introduced himself as Jimi. He asked if I was Jeffrey's son.

He had some photos to show me.

A photo he had taken of my dad at a train station in 1994, on his first tour in Japan. He'd been following the band on every Japanese tour for decades.

My first time on the bullet train. I loved seeing these countryside towns.

Arrived at hotel in Hiroshima

Jackson scheduled another outing for the group- to the Atomic Bomb museum.

The first working liquor vending machine I found.

The Hiroshima dome. One of the only buildings close to the detonation site of the bomb that remained mostly intact.

This small plaque on this backstreet memorializes the spot directly beneath where the bomb detonated. It was a hospital.

I had to keep reminding myself that the entire city had been rebuilt from rubble just 80 years ago.

I went looking for postcards but couldn't find any I liked. Then I noticed this printer at 7/11.

I discovered that I could simply pop the SD Card out of my camera into the machine, and make a postcard print. These printers were in every convenience store, so I did this almost everyday for the rest of the tour: walking around, taking photos, immediately printing them out and sending them to friends back home.

Toru saw me in the hotel lobby

He wanted to show me his shirt.

Outside the concert venue before the show.

Sound check.

Standing side-stage at the show, I noticed this man in the front row holding something up to the band. They were CDs. One was an album of Jackson and David Lindley, his longtime friend and collaborator who had passed away a week after my dad.