JaME's adventures with Billy aren't over as they roam Kanazawa doing radio shows and photoshoots.
It was a perfect autumn day, the leaves on the trees having recently changed to red and yellow, while the cool air seemed to rush into your lungs every time you took a breath. Billy, having done an exciting live concert in Kanazawa AZ the day before, had just finished promoting their new album Bright in Kanazawa. After doing interviews with a local newspaper and a magazine, and appearing live on air for an FM radio station, they found their way down to Kanazawa Castle, a historic spot in the area surrounded by nature. We followed Billy around during their free time and saw some funny episodes, which will be shared here.
14:00 - Billy went to Radio Kanazawa, located in the Hokkoku Newspaper Company Building to record their comments for an FM radio program. The leader Mine did great work introducing the latest single Rebecca on their new album Bright, which will be released on November 26th, and he also announced that they will do a one-man live in Shibuya O-EAST on November 28th. Next, they had an interview with Hokkoku Newspaper, which was a first for Billy. The interview was a bit formal at first, so the group seemed a little nervous. However, the reporter was in extremely high spirits, and after a while Billy found it hard not to laugh. Somehow in between the laughs, the reporter managed to take a few notes, and the next day an article on Billy appeared in the newspaper with a nice photo!
14:30 - The band moved to YAMACHIKU109, a CD shop, and recorded their comments for an AM radio program and took some photos. They autographed a Polaroid photo and thought that was all for the day, however, another interview with a magazine suddenly fell into place and they had to rush back to the Hokkoku Newspaper Building. We all ended up running back to the building, bringing back memories of running meets in our high school days. (Some of us lost our breath along the way, too.) After making it just in time, the members talked about their new album Bright, emphasizing the inclusion of various types of songs for the local magazine Gekkan Akutasu.
After that, we went to a nearby park where we took pictures of the band members in front of autumn trees, old buildings and brick walls. Then we left, heading for Kanazawa Castle, a historic spot in the area. As we were heading up a mountain trail winding around old stone walls, the members started to fool around like naughty children as they picked up acorns and threw them at each other. In the ensuing antics, Takuma lost his favorite cellphone strap! Finally, we reached the large park where part of Kanazawa Castle has been rebuilt, and we shot some pictures in front of a nice old building which has a mix of Western and Japanese styles.
Takuma, however, kept looking in the other direction for some reason, so all of the members started to search for what he was looking at. They all started grinning when their eyes fell on a couple who (from what we could see, anyway), was very much in love! The members got so excited they wouldn't look at the camera at all, so as you can imagine, those pictures will never be used. At the top of the hill, we looked out at the grand view of Kenrokuen (a famous Japanese garden) and Hakusan peaks, then we strolled around the castle and went down the mountain. We walked a planked path on the slope of the mountain, where the leaves on the trees were lit up brightly, which was very beautiful. As we walked for quite a long time, we wanted something sweet to eat, so we stopped at a Japanese style cafe in Bukeyashiki (rows of old streets with old houses built during the samurai period). There we enjoyed hot Japanese tea and traditional Japanese cakes and rested for a while.
17:30 - Back to work again! We hurried back to FM Ishikawa for a live broadcast. This time, the radio personality was Mr. Hirayama, whose birthday and blood type just happened to be exactly the same as Hiroshi's! He was very professional, managing to engage Mine in some interesting talk about the songs on Bright, and he introduced the members of Billy; everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. When the personality said "The studio smells good whenever visual kei guests come in," Mine made everyone laugh as he answered, "Because we just took off our shoes!"
Although it was a very busy day for Billy, they managed to make unforgettable memories for themselves and create many new local fans who will be looking forward to when they come back to Kanazawa. We certainly had a lot of fun showing them around, too!
