FRF05

SpongeBob managed to tag along...

It's mid-summer and It's that time of year again where people flocked to Naeba Ski Resort for the one of the year's greatest event...FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL(FRF05)
This year's FRF05 was held from August 29th till 31th.This 3 day event featured more than 200 artists/bands foreign and local including Foo Fighters,Cold Play,Simple Plan,Beck,Moby,etc.

some of the people who managed to get the tickets for FRF05

Our journey began on friday night at 23:30 in Akihabara where 3 of us(Yokota-san,Hirano-san and me)met.
We drove off Akihabara sometime at 0:30 took the Kanetsu highway and then arrived at Akagi Kougen R&R sometime at 2:30.There we could see people with thier convoys who are heading to FRF refueling their strength for the other half way of their journey.
We had a nap about 3 hours and started our journey again at 5:30 and arrived at Kanndatu Highland(FRF carpark) at 7:30 to park our car.
From there we took a shuttle bus to Naeba Ski Resort and the journey took about 30 minutes.

we came by car...then we took the bus...???

Since FRF05 was a 3 day event,for people who cannot afford to rent a room at Naeba Ski Resort Prince Hotel where the room charge doubled the average charge and if you were some spoiled brat who can use your bapak's money to rent the most expensive suite,you have to reserve the room at least 6 months earlier...with 2500 yen(USD20) per-head,you can bring a long a tent and spend some nights there.

one of the largest camping jamboree around...

Briefly on FRF05,there were 6 main stages:green stage,white stage,red marquee,field of heaven,orange court and gypsy avalon.there was quite a distance between the stages and some you would need to walk thru some jungle tracking route to get there.There were no official statement of what differs a stage to another but if looking at the names of the performer or band who were playing on each stage,you probably notice that there were slight differences on the genres of which stage they were playing.

i made my own analysis:

• green stage- the biggest stage.major bands/artist regardless of their genre.
  
• white stage - up coming rock bands/artist(crowd diving compartable)
  
• red marquee - smaller version/scale of white stage.
  
• field of heaven - for music that keep you sky high,minus the weed and dope.
  
• gypsy avalon - the smallest stage,for acoustic music...a bit of SKA won't hurt.
  
• orange court - for artists like Lisa Loeb and Los Lobos should go.
  

it's the best time of year to visit Disneyland.

Since FRF entered it's 9th year this year,lessons learned from the past experience(including typhoons,congested parking lot,unauthorized re-entrance,food hygiene,drunkard bustards,etc)which made FRF this year less stressful,clean(if minus the rain) and friendly to all ages.The event once known as a japanese version of Woodstock is now more of a one big picnic event.There were families bringing their kids along and also sightings of middle-aged people picnicking next to a group of leather claded blokes with mohawk hairdos,sharing their beers...what a pleasant sight.

The toilet-anywhere + the endless queue.

About the usage of toilets,although hundreds of toilets were set inside the FRF area,but due to the overwhelming amount of people who came(about 40 thousand),long(i mean really queues) on every toilet area...I'm sure somebody made a real good mess inside their pants.I was glad that i had done mine before arriving.

The building crowd near the Green stage...2 hours before the 1st performance.

It was hot in the morning.According the weather forecast,it was 40% chances of raining but later at noon it started to rain.Guess the odds won't be on us.

rain...as usual...

and it continued to rain all day....

mud...also as usual...later,stinkin' sludge

say like this:

Fuji Rock = Music + Mud

in front of wet and muddy Field Of Heaven

We got Sherbets,lotsa people,Dachambo,lotsa people,SKA CUBANO,lotsa people,BECK,lotsa people,lotsa lotsa people,etc.

so,if you're looking forward to go to FRF in the future,please consider below:

1. Get rid of your day's crap before entering the FRF area.
   
2. If you try to pee at somewhere other than the toilet, make sure nobody sees you or it will cause everybody else will pee at the same place where you did and it will cause a major case of biohazard polution.
   
3. spend more on your rain gear.if possible,wear everything made of GORE-TEX.
   
4. wear rubber boots(the same one like the foreign pencuci tandas usually wear) if you don't want your feet to get stuck on the mud.
   
5. bring along a big(i mean real big ones) picnic sheet because i'm sure you'll need a rest during the intervals.i suggest that inflatable air mattress on smart-shop.
   
6. reserve a room the nearby hotel months before FRF unless you're able to drive back home wet,covered with mud and exhausted.
   
7. FRF is no place for dating.unless you bring your tent along...secret rendezvous,you know what i mean.
   

feel the vibes...

OK...I fully understand and realised that i'm buncit...but what i don't understand is since they called it beer belly,why in the world i have although i don't drink beer?is it because i take a lot of nasi,carbohydrates especially right before i go to bed?it is the lack of exercise?...naaa,i go to the gym like twice every week.i also usually participate on gotong-royongs...clearing bushes,cutting the grass and swinging some scythes around...like i did yesterday.

spot the fat bastard

a mystery it is...why...buncit....

some of CTW 2005:Preserve our Kamakura project members

Later that day....

I was only with my bath towel and when i was about to open my shower tap,it suddenly happened...the magnatude 5.
for me earthquake is a normal thing.it's happening like everyweek and sometimes i could not distinct whether it's a magnatute 3 earthquake or just another dump truck passing next to my apartment until the earthquake warning notice pings out on the television.
but the 'coolest' thing about this earthquake not only the fact that the scale was quite big....it's centered on the the place where live!...just imagine you're living in kobe when the great kobe earthquake(magnitute 7+) in 1995 strucked.
back to my saturday evening + earthquake episode,the 1st quake lasted about a minute and during that moment i was totally in the moment of pause...trying to figure out whether was it due to my gotong-royong fatigue which resulted my brain to play tricks on my balance receptors or was it the ground was really shaking...until i could hear the sound of things falling,then i realised it was an earthquake.
...with my right left hand holding on the shower tap and the other holding to my towel.frankly speaking,if the quake were long than a minute,the first thing i could think of is to rush out from my apartment,jump 2 floors from the corridor to the next parking lot.the worst senario is i would be dead jumping off the 2nd floor,naked on the parking lot....well,better chance of surviving my rather than staying indoors and later being crushed under my 31 year old apartment.

(a big earthquake will usually be followed by several aftershocks.)

Right after the 1st quake,i went out from my bath room and tried to put on my boxer pants and again...quakes(aftershocks),continuous ones occured(fortunately the weaker ones) which eventually disappeared in few minutes.
me,that time who was still had my boxer pants put on only until my knees was rather relieved exspecially when the the earthquake warning notice pings out on the television which usually indicates the quake was completely over...THE END

Zekkyou Tuaa

It's summer again here in japan...and it's freakin HOT!!!!
It's not as hot as in malaysia but it's still freakin HOT!!!!
So what most japanese people usually do during summer when it's weekend with a beautiful sunny weather(and freakin HOT)?....and the answer is they will try to clog every single roads,expressways and interstate highways with their cars.These casual drivers will only use the weekends for their recreation activity so called doraibinngu*.Say you have countless of these drivers driving their car for recreation....just imagine how many roadhogs you can get.

And so was I...I went to Fuji-Q Highland last saturday with Naoya and Satomi for our 1st zekkyou tuaa** of this year according to Naoya.
Fuji-Q Highland is located in Yamanashi Prefecture(not Shizouka) which is about 200km from Tokyo.The best way to get there is but car which will take about 3 hours(min) from Tokyo via the Tomei Expressway.Although i'm kinda person who enjoy having adrenaline being pumped all accoss my body and always thrilled by the extremes,due to the distance from where i live,It was still my second time for me to go there.

Naoya,me and Satomi...normal look

One of the coolest attractions which is a must for every visitor to Fuji-Q is Fujiyama.Although Fujiyama is not the longest,fastest nor the scariest roller coaster in the world,it's the nearest i could get.Check-out the record holders.The specs of Fujiyama is below:

sorry,no english translation.well,you can still agak2 what the data means.

I wonder who's crazy idea inventing this thing on the first place.

Naoya,me and Satomi...not so normal look

Overall...Yeah...we had a great time...

*Doraibinngu=recreation activity of driving an automobile.
(Related)Info on Japanese Culture:Since tokyo has one of the best network of public transport(especially trains and subways) in the world,many japanese people tend to use the public transport to work and traveling to one place to another.Due to the convienience of the public transport,having a personal automobile is virtually unnecessary moreover with it's expensive road tax,insurance and maintenance fee,it's also considered as a luxury.According to Goldman Sach Economic Research data,the number of automobile per-family(average of 4 people per family) in tokyo is 0.54 which is the lowest in japan and one of the lowest among the developed countries.For people who can afford an automobile,driving is no longer considered as a way to move from one place to another,it is more recognized as a recreation activity
**Zekkyou tuaa=thrilling and scary tour

MALAS

The common MALAS is a mild infectious disease which effects the limbs,arms and especially the brain.Its symptom is the lack of desire to act or to work,to stretch one's forces:tendency to rest and do nothing(often these occur simultaneously) which will last from matter of moments(few micro seconds) or up to several years...Ha,ha,ha
I have to admit it that I'm suffering from this MALAS disease recently.Why?...as you can see,my blog is not being updated for more than a month!!!another new record there.
I know!!!The climate may affect the desease by some means.Some of you may already know that I just came back from my 2 weeks vacation in malaysia so...malaysian(bukit gambir,muar) climate vs japanese(adachi ward,tokyo) climate.
The obvious diffence between those 2 climates is the daily 4 scheduled free,instant and eat-all-u-want meals...which resulted a dramatic 5 kg increase on my weight.I've summarized a calculation below:

(My Life x daily 4 scheduled meals) / 14days = 5Kg

(My Life - daily 4 scheduled meals) x 0.15* = MALAS

*=personal hypoactivity variable

OK,I've exaggerated enough.

Bringing your attention away from my MALAS syndrome which is awfully contageous, I finally could find some time to go a photoshop near my apartment to get myself a batery for my APS camera.My APS camera had been dead for sometime due to it's flat lithium batery.
When I turned it on,it seemed to be in a good condition...the lense was not blurred,the flash was still working(far more brighter than my Sony T-1) and the optical zoom which goes 'zheeet...zheeet'.Then came the real test whether the film was still OK or already rot after 4,5 years of neglection.I still could not remember how many shots were take but I'm sure at least there is one.So I sent the APS film to the same photoshop for imaging and the result is below:

only 2/25 shots were taken...such a waste

This is rather a nostalgic shot,me with Mikey near SFMOMA(San Francisco Museum Of Modern Arts) in spring 2001.

The latest shot...5 years later - the less prettier side of my room...blurred,evidence of a deteriorating APS film.

Back to my MALAS issues...hey!I won't stop blogging like some peeps that I know...probably a little late on the updates but I'll go on.

Post scriptum : It's summer now in Japan with temperatures between 25-29 degrees celcious.So,it's not the weather.