One morning on a random weekday in the early 2000s, I was strolling down avenue de l’Opera in Paris.
All of a sudden I see what looks like a group of vk-ish looking japanese dudes coming my way. Definitely out of place.
I stop them and ask them if they are a VK band by any chance?
Turns out it was El Dorado EllDorado profile | EllDoradoプロフィール | vkgy (ブイケージ)
I suspect they were there for some kind of shooting for a VK magazine back home, cause I’m pretty sure they were not playing anywhere.
I told them (in japanese) that I liked such and such stuff of them, and to keep up the good work. They were blown away. I look like a random european guy from the street.
That’s it. That’s the story.
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Thats like when i first met mao and mizuki after a The Thirteen show and told them i covered newage slicer at my school festival in nagoya and mizuki was like “newage slicer??? Sugoi!”
Was pretty funny
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I’m a shy person and I’m not big on meeting band members usually, but I got pictures with the members of RIZE after they came here, since they just started walking around the crowd after their set and I thought they put on a really great show.
I thought it was surprisingly considerate that Jesse took a moment to put on a jacket before posing for the photo, since he was shirtless and covered with sweat when I asked him. 
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I feel like we had a similar thread and I already posted this… but some time after D’espairsRay disbanded, Hizumi sold some goods he had designed and at some point there was a pop up store of it and was lucky enough to be in Tokyo at the time. Turns out he himself was standing a the cash register to sell the goods. And since it was super empty I did talk to him a bit. I am suuuuper shy with strangers to the point were I can hardly ask for directions, so it took all my courage to even start talking to him when I paid for my goods. I asked him if he would like to visit Europe again and he said that he likes photography and would like to come to europe take photos but it’s too expensive for him to travel.
I bought a necklace that holds a pick. I treasure it to this day and use it with diffrent picks.
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Rize seems fun to hang out with. I used to be more into them. Once you realize Jesse aint exactly a wordsmith and its just a band to have fun with its a lot better, just like limp bizkit
this is such a sweet story omg 
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Bumped into koichi from mejibray once at 明治神宮前駅. hard to miss him with his height and pink hair.
Another time, was randomly browsing CDs at tower records shibuya when I spotted mejibray doing a talk show. took a photo and koichi immediately angrily pointed at a staff and then at me; staff ran to me and requested that I delete the photo 
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If anyone remembers Askew magazine I did a brief stint as press from about 2009-2011 so I had the opportunity to interview and photograph several bands/members when they came to the states. I was very young at the time, like 17, and the opportunity was very precious to me.
The weekend of AX 2009 I spent a full day with the members of Auncia. I photographed them and we walked around the outdoor shopping mall in Hollywood. I fondly remember Filth in the Beauty being played in the car and the guys enjoying it. The vocalist asked me if I liked sushi which I didn’t have much of a palette for at the time, he convinced me to give it another try and of course I came to love it. I talked quite a lot with the guitarist as well. Everyone communicated with a mix of random English and Japanese, it was awesome. I met Satsuki that weekend as well though we only spoke briefly.
With the magazine I had the opportunity to interview Kaya, Uchuu Sentai Noiz, Kanon from An Cafe, Kanon Wakeshima, Fake?, Echostream, Suicide Ali, and GPKism.
GPKism was the wildest interview. This was in NYC prior to a show and Kiwamu insisted that only he would do the interview because GPK was on vocal rest. Almost the entire entire time he talked mad shit about GPK.
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To be honest, while I was a huge Dragon Ash fan, I didn’t really like RIZE all the much going into that show. But they came to my city, so I figured I might as well give them a shot. I understood the appeal a lot more after seeing them live - they’re super fun. Jesse’s lyrics aren’t the best, but he’s got this really earnest, likeable energy on stage that makes it not matter all that much.
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Was GPK the one Kiwamu wrote that iconic “he should eat my cat’s shit” line about? I still laugh thinking about that one.
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He must eat shit! He must eat my cat shit!
Yep
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omg 