Festival on Nanikore

First Matsuri of 2012

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 13:31:14 +0000

I’ll admit that this post is two weeks late. What can I say, I’ve been busy. In my world, ‘busy’ isn’t just the day job, it also covers drinking tea, drinking beer, and sleeping, and I’ll confess to having done all three of these in the last month. Quite often. So on with the post. On May 19th., we went to our first matsuri of the year. For those few of you who don’t know what a matsuri is, a matsuri（祭り）is a community festival, and many are held in the Summer around Japan. I like these things.

This one was a little atypical, in that it wasn’t really a community one, but one organised by the local council in a nice stretch of family oriented park down by the river. There were a few game stalls, a few food stalls, some free popcorn, free balloon animals (though I got a balloon katana and tried to claim it was for my kids), some ponies to ride, and inflatable castle, a monkey and some vegetable stands. This is typical faire, even for a small one like this, though I admit, the ponies and monkey are a little out of the norm.

Given the beautiful weather and park locale, it was a really relaxing day, starting around 10.30am, and winding down at 3pm, which again is a little unusual as matsuris tend to be afternoon and even affairs.

I enjoyed all of the bits and pieces, and we did ponder getting a house nameplate carved on the spot by a local joinery company who had a stall, but somehow managed not to. I do like kakigoori (かき氷), which is a bowl of shaved ice - not ice chunks, but very thinly sliced ice, which makes it more like snow - with some syrup added. It’s a staple of the hot summers here at these kind of things, and something to look forward to. There was a stall selling what seemed to be edible gelatinous spheres. More than that I can’t say - I didn’t try them, and though they looked nice, at least candyfloss is straight-up honest sugar.

I have to admit to not have been sure about the monkey - part of me balks at that, and kids love it, but that thick rope didn’t make it look too friendly to me. The ponies looked a little happier, and their owner didn’t pan-handle for tips.

One game involves a small paddling pool filled with water with what are referred to here as balloon yoyos - kind of water filled balloons on long elastic bands if you can visualise that. Each person gets a hook on the end of a length of tissue paper, and has to hook the elastic band and retrieve the yoyo from the water before the paper breaks. In reality the kids all get one to prevent riots.

One energetic tyke was bouncing his balloon up and down and then tried a trick at the precise time the elastic band broke, and the balloon flew off and smacked me in the face. For a second I had a mosh pit flashback for some reason, but calmly picked the balloon up as this clueless kid just stood there with his mouth doing that guppy fish thing whilst his poor grandmother had to apologise. I tossed it back to him and asked him to be more careful in the future.

So this was a gentle introduction to the fervour of the matsuri season in Japan, and I look forward to a lot more in the next few months.

Chigasaki Hanabi 2010

Sat, 07 Aug 2010 14:13:19 +0000

Every summer, places the length and breadth of Japan celebrate summer with festivals and fireworks displays ( 花火). Since we moved out of Tokyo, we’ve been going to the Chigasaki hanabi at their South Beach, and this year was as fantastic as before. Despite the thousands of people, there was a mix of people on dates, families, parties of friends, but as ever, behaviour was good, the venue (essentially the beach!) was well organised, and we sat back to watch a fantastic (almost) hour of big fireworks.

I put a few more pictures up on the Flickr! page. Since I’m no longer a Pro member, I guess those pictures will disappear at some point.

Kamakura Beach Party '06

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 13:01:11 +0000

Just a reminder that the Kamakura Beach Party ‘06 will be this Saturday (19th). It ’s a great day at the beach with live music, lots of beer and food, and to top it all, it’s all for a good cause - the Christina Noble Foundation. There’s an e-mail version of the flier with a map below, so have a look. Also, the ‘Rocking Buddha’ image was done by old friend Rudolf, so thanks again for that.

Or take a look at the web page of one of the organisers at BrentoLeary.com.

Dog Day (犬の日)

Fri, 02 Jun 2006 17:39:12 +0000

The subject of religious days in Japan can be fairly complex as most are a fusion of indigenous Shintoism, Bhuddism and whatever else was around, so if any of the following is not 100% correct to some, then my apologies in advance.

That said, one of Japan’s main religions is Shintoism, which is a mainly animistic/nature - based religion, based on the concept that kami (deities or spirits) are a part of most things, and should be worshipped in accordance with certain times of year and requirements.

As my wife is expecting our first child, she’s chosen to observe Dog Day (’ Inu no hi’), which is every twelfth day in accordance with the Chinese calendar, known mainly around the world for its designation of years by animals. There’s also the concept that this should be done in the fifth and ninth month of pregnancy, so on June 2nd, there we were at Suitengu Jinja in Tokyo, ready to get prayed for.

Why dogs? It seems it’s believed in many cultures that dogs are thought to have very easy deliveries of many puppies, so on this day you call to the deity for dogs to deliver a healthy baby as easily as possible.

The first part requires you to wash your hands correctly from ladles in the water founts in the shrine yard, washing your hands, then mouth, then hands again, before going to have the mother-to-be’s name (and age - shock!) written in calligraphy style on some paper, and then join the queue with other pregnant ladies to be prayed for.

Every half an hour whatever group has amassed are taken to a private part of the shrine, where a monk carries out individual prayers for each woman, calling out her name, and praying for an easy, safe delivery for her and her baby.

I wasn’t there for this part, as it’s women only (and the monk I suppose), but I’m told he did a double check of our katakana name that had been thrust in front of him, as, looking around the shrine for the hour or so we were there, there wasn’t much of an international contingent.

In fact, it was just me, smiling, bowing, and observing the security guards gently moving the women in the queuing area. Really, how much security do a bunch of pregnant women and grand-parents really need?

Later, having been prayed for and looking very happy about it, my wife emerged, to pick up her ’ fukutai’ ’ omamori’ and ’ ofuda’ from the shrine workers. Each of these plays a part of the Dog Day ritual, away from the shrine.

The ofuda looks like a small folded envelope, tied around the middle, and is to be kept in the family residence (i.e. our apartment) until after the birth, in a high place facing south.
After the birth this will be returned to the shrine with a gift as thanks.

An omamori is a small material pouch used as a talisman to protect. In this case, it should be placed inside the fukutai which I’ll discuss next. The only caveat with an omamori is that they should never be opened. In true Japanese spirit, I notice someone has opened an e-omamori site!

The fukutai is a belly wrap, a long piece of material the mother wraps around her ‘bump’ for a day, placing the omamori inside it. Generic fukutai can be purchased for everyday use, as they’re seen as practical for assisting back support (something my wife would appreciate). However, this one should be worn for just one day, then used to make baby clothes (but not nappies) or something positive for the child.

So, with these items in hand we passed by the small bronze statue of a dog and it’s puppy which is also often touch for good luck too, and left to place everything in our apartment.

I have to say, it was an interesting morning out, and though I am not affiliated to any real belief system, this did fulfil one requirement I have for these things, be it, Shintoist, Christian, Muslim, or whatever, in that it’s a supportive rite, which people genuinely believe helps them and makes them happy. Certainly can’t say fairer than that.

Original Comments

Comments from the original WordPress blog post.

Paul Brown — 2006-06-12

Congrats on the baby (although I do find the mental image of a “mini Graham” a little disturbing). Babies are basically very mush like small drunks - emotional, inexplicably angry, incapable of communication and prone to throwing up. Just think of the next few years like trying to get Steve Tolley home from Gullivers and you’ll do fine ;)

All the best,

Paul

graham — 2006-06-13

Thanks Paul. All I can say is that we’re hoping the new arrival takes more after the wife in terms of looks, and definitely in the sun resistance stakes!

All the descriptions I’ve had seem to tie up with what you say there. A bit of a mini student but without the kebab smell. or maybe I speak too soon.

Fuji Rock Festival '05

Mon, 01 Aug 2005 03:04:59 +0000

We got back late last night from three great days and nights at the Fuji Rock at Naeba in Niigata prefecture. I’ll try to upload a full review later, but for now, here are some photos.

2005 Fuji Rock Festival

Summer Sonic 2004

Sun, 08 Aug 2004 02:00:40 +0000

Yesterday was day 1 of the 2004 Summer Sonic music festival in Chiba. It was a great line up and is similar to an urban Fuji Rock festival, as half of the stages are indoor at the Makuhari Messe the rest outdoor in the Chiba Marine Stadium, or on the beach. In an added twist, the two-days are swapped with a twin venue in Osaka, so Chiba’s Saturday bands play Sunday in Osaka.

We spent a couple of hours checking out some of the smaller bands at the indoor stage, but they weren’t as interesting as the smaller bands from FujiRock. Then we headed out to the sweltering Marine Stadium to watch some of the bigger bands.

Pennywise were on when we arrived, and they did an OK set. I was looking forward to seeing The Darkness, but unfortunately they cancelled earlier that morning so the organisers got another band in to play - old British rockers The Wildhearts, who I haven’t seen live for about a decade, but I have to say that even though they’d only landed at Narita a few hours before, and minus a lot of their own stage gear they actually did a damn good set.

Inaba (one half of the group B’z) did a great set too - the guy is pretty good on stage, and mixed with rock and more blues influenced songs. Next up were Canadian band Sum41 who I’d never heard of, but to their credit they did a pretty good set, with some good festival music. Then the first of the ‘headlines’ came on - Avril Lavigne - but I was a bit disappointed - it all sounded and looked like it was straight off the album to me - I’m not saying it wasn’t good, but it was a bit formulaic, especially for a festival.

Finally the day’s headliner came on - Green Day, and they didn’t disappoint - a rocking 90minutes of fun and good music and stage work. They did many of their top songs, and now just from the last ‘Warning!’ album. They also got a guy out of the crowd to play guitar on one of the songs. All in all, it was a great set, complete with a couple of fun cover versions, ending on Queen’s ‘We are the Champions’.

The venue itself was very good indeed, but suffered from a complete lack of decent signposting and staff who knew where things were, but overall summersonic is a great festival to check out. Is it better than FujiRock? Maybe not - it feels more ‘corporate presentation’ than festival, but it’s proximity to Tokyo (and Osaka) make it a pretty simple way to see quite a few bands over a weekend.

Original Comments

Comments from the original WordPress blog post.

Tohoku Ben — 2004-08-13

Hey - I checked out the first day of SS as well. Pretty much agree. Avril was a disappointment - Zero crowd interaction; she didn’t seem to have a care of where she was or who she was playing too. Was basically already headed off stage by the last cymbal crash. Who knows, maybe she was having a bad day, but I think fans expected more. The All American Reject who opened on the Marine Stadium were GREAT. Good tunes, good repoire with the crowd; impressive. As was Sivertide. Not sure if you caught these guys or not, as you said you headed to Pennywise; we left Pennywise and headed indoors, and just caught the last tune of ST. REALLY impressed. SAD SAD SAD that I missed their set. Kind of straight ahead, 70’s style rock. What I heard reminded me of the Black Crowes first album (in the sence of classic, olderstyle rock). Solid singer, rock/blues riffed guitarist, and they don’t even have a full length album out. They were almost as excited as the crowd; singer thanked them all afterwards, brought out the previous band and thanked them, then came back onstage 3 times while the crew was taking down just to video tape the audience, toss some EP CD’s to the crowd, then finally to toss his vest into the crowd. Check out silvertidemusic.com - looking foward to their album.

Yes, was also d’pointed that the Darkness in all of their falsetto-hood cancelled as well - they would have been good to see.

Greenday was impressive as well. I’ve liked their hits, but wouldn’t consider myself a CD buying fan. They level-up a few notches for sure though - GREAT interaction with the crowd; smooth set. To hear the whole stadium singing, and then chatting OOOOOOOooooooo for the encore was something else. The guy-out-of-the-crowd-stand-in guitar’s song-ending guitar jump was classic, and finishing with Queen’s WRTChampions, and then fireworks; will see them live again if given the chance.

graham (nanikore) — 2004-08-13

Hi Ben,

Thanks for the posts!

Yeah, the temperature has been pretty hot this summer. I’m hoping for a matching cold winter for the snowboarding, but I’m not sure if it follows. I’ve been using the fan where possible, but the humidity is what seems to get me.

I’m wondering if my electricity bill goes up when they do some more checks on the powerstations and realise they all need rebuilding. I was pleased actually at SummerSonic that I didn’t get any sunburn for being out all day (factor 50 and a good hat!). Can’t wait till the end of the month for the Kamakura Beach Party.

Graham

Fuji Rock Festival 2003

Tue, 29 Jul 2003 02:45:17 +0000

OK, the Fuji Rock Festival 2003 was absolutely amazing. It’s been a while since I’ve been to a weekend music festival, and this was as good as I remember. I actually went to the Fuji Rock Festival since, and it just seems to get bigger and better - building facilities and stages, without sacrificing the overall feel - the all night DJ sessions and lights, artists, sculptures…and rain made it a great event.

The camping area was pretty good, and I have to say that though the toilet queues were long, no one can say that they didn’t try. There was lots of food to be had too - from Fish and Chips to Ramen to Curry (lots of curry actually).

As I mentioned Asian Dub Foundation were great, delivering great music and a rant about the occupation of Iraq. Primal Scream were awesome as ever, lots of energy, and Saturday night rounded off with Bjork and a cool light show and fireworks. I have to say that I thought Primal’ would have been a better closer, but Bjork seems a bit more famous here - if only for her film role last year rather than as ex-Sugarcubes/solo singer.

The rain was falling well from about 7, but most people had given up on staying dry anyway, so it didn’t seem to spoil it for anyone. Of the bands we saw, it was a great place to hear new stuff. On Sunday we started off with a young Japanese band called Sugardonuts, who, despite the drummer’s kick drum breaking, put in an amazing show in front of the handful of people awake at 11am! We took the opportunity to walk around the huge site, try some food and see the smaller acts on the side stage, and a lot of them were really good - no one can say this festival was just a couple of big names - the support was great too.

We were impressed by a new band Evanescence to the point that we bought their CD on the way out. We ducked out of the Coldplay gig to go and see Anthrax on the second stage, and I’m glad to say I did - they rocked like never before, ripping through a greatest hits set including ‘Bring the Noise’. As we made our way back afterwards to the crowds at the main stage in front of Coldplay we knew we made the right choice - I like Coldplay, but at this kind of festival, you need a few bands to kick up some noise. Finally, we listened to a bit of Steve Winwood to chill out before putting the tent away and making our way back to the last Shinkansen. Tired, wet and a little sun burned.

Despite it’s name, the festival is held yearly in Naeba, in the mountains north of Tokyo - it’s 75 min. shinkansen ride, followed by a 40 min. bus ride, so not too bad. The scenery is beautiful, and makes a welcome change from Tokyo - if you’re in Tokyo in the summer and want to get out - get to the Fuji Rock Festival.

2003 Fuji Rock Festival