Fujirock Festival '07- The life in the mountains

2nd part of our fujirock adventure as promised!

Ladies and gents, this is the view of Nigiita's campsite. Can u see the little colourful dots on the grass tht looks like litter from afar? Those are our tents! Its a very hilly slopey place, so most of the tents are pitched on slopes.... U get the flat ground if u arrive really early.

I proudly present our tent! Its a 2 man tent (ie only enough for 2 adults to lie side by side. Lester bought the tent last year cos he thought yellow was easily identifiable, but apparently it attracts every possible insect on earth. They are attracted to yellow like bees to honey.

Our tent was pitched on a slope, so sleeping was terrible cos we kept rolling all over the place. But i'm thankful tht it gave us the shelter tht we needed at night, temp goes does to the teens usually. I was also very equipped to camp with my newly acquired VERY thick sleeping bag, inflatable pillow, self-inflate mattress, and neck pillow! Princess la...

This is our fujirock guide that we can hang around our neck....

Full lineup information with a very cute map of the entire campsite+concert layout. Dun be fooled by the cartoonish appearance of the map, the terrain is hilly and rough, one stage to another takes about half hour of brisk walking. As u can see, the campsite is far left, separate from the concert grounds, so to walk back to camp (up the slope) was incredibly strenous.

These wristbands were our proof of legit entry to both campsite and rock fest. Checkpoints everywhere to ensure there are no gatecrashers....
Armed with the necessity (Cap, sunnies, poncho and a good pair of walking shoes), we entered into the concert grounds.

This is one of the eating areas. There's a wide variety to choose from, one area for jap food, another area for International cuisine (Nasi Bryiani all). Problem with ordering good is tht we don't know what we're eating cos the menu is in japanese. So we don't order anything without pictures.

This is one of the rivers tht runs through the campsite. Its nice to dip ur feet in the water on a hot day. Will i do it when i'm in China, no. Somehow the cleanliness of the japs make communal things more appealing. I mean, thousands of pple using porta-loos and not a single choked WC in 4 days. The toilet seats are practically beaming at you.

There are always performers in between shows to entertain the idling crowd. This jap dude was juggling firesticks.

Tired party goers snoozing on a hot day. Its funny... the japs can sleep anywhere randomly. Alot of them came to the fest armed with just a backpack. So they sleep under the stars. They damn hardy...

As you can see, snoozing in between acts is common. These are our friends. Left to right, Corrine, Ching Ian, Annie and Chris. Say hi guys....No? Ok... zzz....

This is us on green stage, Day 1.... SUNNY AND SMILEY....

On Day 2, at the exact same spot. Happy but a bit tired liao...

Day 3... So dreary and jialat cos it rained! My feet was completely soaked cos i was wearing cheap fake puma shoes. So gao wei.

Night time at fujirock was the best. We did this boardwalk thing together (essentially the path from one stage to the other) and we saw the most amazing installation EVER. Multiple mirror balls hanging in the midst of the forrest. Who the hell would think of something like that??!! The effect is so amazing. u must take a look at the video.

We also took this cable car ride up the tip of Nigiita. The view of the ride overlooked the Tashiro lake, and we could see the entire campsite from up above. Amazing....

When we arrived at the tip, we entered into an adult toyland. I'd like to call this place The Paladise (after the jap pronounciation of Paradise). The place was also really awesome. It must have been 11am or so, and already there were adults dancing to trancy music. How cooollll... Pple could literally catch butterflies with nets here.

Anyway, can u believe that jap parents would bring their kids to a festival like this?? i took picture with one of them. She was so adorable, she made tht cute twist sign cos her mom told her to do it.

Lester also wanted to have a go at the tarzan thing. so here he goes....

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.......................... ahya, didn't take at the right moment.There's a restaurant in the paladise and there are proper toilets!! ARGH! FREAKOUT! Up near the toilet Q, there were a bunch of Jap folk singers crooning for the crowd. It was so warm and lovely.

Another quite warm and lovely thing is the toilet seats. Its a skii resort so the toilet seats are heated (woah.....). This is like THE funniest yet functional japanese invention. Basically, the shower and the bidet is a common concept, the japs are hygiene freaks so they'd wash after every number (even tho my gynae would advise not more than twice a day). But if u take a close look at the button on the right, it says "flushing sound", so u get like FAKE flushing sounds! HOW brilliant!!!! In true polite japanese style, they invented something to mask the embarrasing plonking sound of huge deposits. That's what you call, R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

Seriously, this trip was way more awesome than the first. There's no better way of understanding the jap culture than actually living with them in the worst possible conditions. They are really non-confrontational, polite, clean, fashionable, thoughtful, honest, efficient and SUPER KAWAII man. I'll do this again. I'll rough it out again next year, and i'll be a better camper!! HAIK!

Back to Civillisation

Of course all good things come to an end. We bid farewell to Nigiita and returned to Tokyo...

Here are some shots we took in Tokyo.

Its the summer festival in Japan, so they lined the roads in Ebisu area with these pretty lamps.

This is a picture of the Train system in Japan. A whopping 26 lines in Tokyo alone. No country can beat this.

This is the busy junction at Shibuya. One of the shopping districts we didn't cover on our first trip.

Princess must stay in hotel suited for royalty. So we stayed at the princess garden Meguro near the Yamanote Meguro Station. Lovely lovely neighbourhood. It has everything you need, and its so near to the shopping districts, strongly recommend staying there.

This is the garden complete with a coy pond....

And i really love children... so couldn't resist a picture when i saw a bunch of em playin, erm, with pebbles.

So this ends our Fujirock '07 adventure. Till next year! Sayonara!