GamaRock

We had a two-hour drive to a park near Gamagori, Aichi today to watch a 70s revival rock concert. It was fun watching many middle-aged Japanese guys playing some classic tunes pretty well. There was also a friend of Sian's, Devin, who performed with one of the bands called the Dododos. Here he is singing on the left:

And here are a couple other shots of different bands performing:

Unfortunately, by mid-afternoon, it started to rain and so we all found shelter under a tarp while still being able to watch:

It was a good, if wet day, and hopefully we'll get to see the people we met from Toyokawa again sometime soon.

Roland festival

If you look back at Nov. 2005 in the archives, you will see that I went to this Roland festival shortly after arriving in Japan. Roland makes pianos and synthesizers and some teachers at our school teach there. The festival is held for Roland employees and families and we were also invited to visit. The first time I went to the festival, I took a picture out the window of the lake and commented on what a beautiful view they had. Luckily now, I have almost the same view from our house. Since the Roland centre where the festival is held is just a 5-minute walk from our house, it was no problem to get there. We watched a few of the bands performing there and enjoyed some of the food they were serving. They also had horse rides and a petting zoo this time:Ayako and I enjoyed playing with the baby chicks. I taught Ayako how to hypnotize the baby chicks, which was fun:

Asagiri Jam - 2007

On the weekend, Ayako and I went with friends to Asagiri Jam, a 2-day music festival near Mt. Fuji. If you look at October from last year, you can see last year's photos from the festival. We went with Keisuke, Christine, Sam (Ayako & Rie behind):
Also joining us were Jun & Taka:We got to watch lots of good bands. Half were from Japan and half from abroad. Here's a photo of the band I was most excited to see, Malajube (best band in Canada these days IMHO):
We also enjoyed yummy food:The area is well know for their milk (which is great for making White Russians) and so there was some farm equipment on display as well:
We also enjoyed just relaxing:At night, Sam & Christine dressed up as cows (udderly amusing):
We listened to good electronica music at the Moon Shine Stage:Here are Keisuke and Rie enjoying the show:
And on the main stage, we liked the light and sound show put on by Cornelius:
I even got a well-timed shot of A & A (which I think was specifically for us, Ayako & Andy):
And here we are enjoying it all:
The next morning, they played exercise music which is played at elementary schools every morning. It was funny watching everyone trying to remember the exercise routine from their childhoods:And here's us with Mt. Fuji in the background:Unfortunately, it was cloudy most of the time, so we didn't see Mt. Fuji all that much, but luckily there was no rain. A fun time had by all.

Asagiri Jam music festival

On Saturday and Sunday, I went to a music festival at the base of Mt. Fuji with Ayako and our friends Keisuke and Rie. It was nice that our friends invited us to the festival since it is hard to get tickets as the festival sells out right away, even before they announce which bands will play that year. It was a huge area but lots of space to move around and watch the bands since they limit the number of tickets to 12,000. There were lots of people and tents there but it didn't feel too crowded:
There were 2 stages at the festival with about half of the bands being international and playing all types of music. I only knew 2 bands which were the Pogues and Ron Sexsmith from Canada who is pictured here (far away):
It was wonderful being able to sit on the grass and watch bands and also look around and see Mt. Fuji right behind us:
Here's an evening and night shot:

Roland festival

Last Saturday, I went with Mel and Jenny (2 co-workers) to a festival at a company we work at, Roland. You probably know Roland from electric keyboards. They had some keyboards there that you could play if you liked. They also had lots of balloons:

and also a lady helping kids making balloon bears:

You can see Lake Hamana out of the window in that last picture. The head office is right on the lake and has beautiful views from it:
There were a number of bands performing including my boss's band along with guys dressed as "Hard Gay" who is some popular talent here or something:
It seemed like all of the employees there were fairly young and so that they all had young children or were expecting children soon. So we had good fun playing with the kids there:

Live House

I've had a pretty relaxed weekend. I did get to go see some live music today. Another teacher's student was in a band that was part of a small rock festival downtown. We got there late, so we only saw 4 of the 9 bands playing. It was fun to see quite different bands playing.

The first band had a guy playing a electric clarinet (it looked like) surrounding by a regular band playing both mellow tunes and some rocking ones too. the next band had a small following of college kids. the played quirky short tunes with too much talking and antics between songs. the 3rd band was the one with the student we knew. All the guys were in their 40s and liked playing older English artists like Bob Marley, the Eagles and Eric Clapton. The last band was also a younger band that sounded a bit like Mighty Mighty Bosstones. There were 7 members in the band which included a trumpet, band drums and calypso drums.
Overall a fun way to spend a Sunday evening.