January Birthdays 
(well, Ruiko and Naomi. Yuta had an urgent meeting with Mr Beer at a nearby unidentified bar).
Recently, your intrepid reporter headed for the Land of the Rising Sun, the home of raw fish, pachinko, really good beer and, of courseâ¦â¦â¦â¦â¦.cool music.
First stop was Fukuoka, to catch up with surf garage stompers â The Whys. Fukuoka, the Whysâ hometown, is the largest city on the southernmost island of Japan, Kyushu, and is famous for ramen (a kind of noodle) and locals who love to party.
After settling down into the comfy seats at Mister Donut in downtown Fukuoka with Ruiko and Naomi, and between mouthfuls of iced donut and drags on cigarettes, this is what they told me about the Whys recent activities.
Currently, the Whys are practising once or twice a week, with a view to getting another CD together, hopefully, for next year. Theyâve already got a few new songs written and these early efforts donât see them breaking with the minimalist âsurf garageâ style of âSan Jyoâ, their CD of last year. This year, it looks like theyâll be part of a compilation on Dionysus Records but this contribution will only be an already recorded track (boo hoo).
Gigwise, just after I met the Whys, they were heading for Osaka to headline âEndless Summer 2007â (what the English would call an âall-nighterâ). âEndless Summer 2007â would probably attract around 200 odd diehard surf fans and had a bill that included most of the coolest bands in Japan at the moment.
More interestingly, the band are trying something different artistically, but in a very familiar Japanese form. At upcoming shows, they will be selling a Japanese style âmangaâ comic (called in English âThe Legend of the Whysâ) which tells the story of Whys â Ruiko, Naomi and Yuta, set during their high school days.
The Whys also revealed that they stay firmly in the great tradition of surf bands, in that they donât know one end of a longboard from the other. (After lots of giggling, the girls confessed that they actually canât even swim !) The Whys are though planning a beach trip, but for their next gig. Theyâll play at the "Sunset Live" music festival on Keya Beach, outside of their hometown of Fukuoka, starting September 1. 15000 odd music fans turn up to this chilled out summer beach festival, and there are big name international rock acts. So this should be a good opportunity for the Whys to showcase their music to music fans who maybe havenât listened to too much surf music before.
Sayonara from Kyushu!
Pineapple Geoff
(This forms part of a longer article on the Whys, and hopefully some other Japanese surf bands, thatâll appear in the next issue of Continental Magazine, early 2008 http://www.dblcrown.com/contmag.html. I thought Surf Guitar 101 readers might be interested in it.)
