| Nano Mugen Festival 2008 | Monday, July 21, 8:27:06 PM |
Yesterday I took a two hour train ride out to Yokohama to see the Nano Mugen Festival, a two day rock festival put on by the Asian Kung Fu Generation and many other bands they invited. Yesterday's line up included Ash, Space Cowboy, hellogoodbye, Third Eye Blind, Ellegarden and of course AKFG. I mainly went to see Ellegarden, but I also wante to see AKFG. However, in order to catch the last train home I ended up having to leave half way through AKFG's gig when it was just getting really good... :( But at least I got to get down in the crowd with Ellegarden's fans and jump around to Space Sonic and Make a Wish one last time before the band goes on an hiatus of indeterminate length. This year is the last time they will play lives for awhile... but they do sound hopeful that they will come back together again someday...
I don't remember noticing it so much at the concert last year, but I think Japanese concerts are quite different from American concerts. In particular the hellogoodbye band had their mind's blown by the strange reactions from the audience... well partly the audience can't understand their English, and probably doesn't know most of their songs... but, for example during the breaks in between songs the Japanese get really quiet and stop cheering. Just waiting I guess for the band to speak or start the next song. But the lead singer seemed really uncomfortable about it and kept saying things like "this is so weird. it is so f*cking quiet in here..." which I can understand must have seemed particularly strange from his point of view looking out at this enormous arena filled to the brim with people, and it was, literally dead silent. At one point during a song of theirs it got to a slow quiet point, and everyone began clapping slowly in sync with the beat and he muttered with a chuckle in the microphone "what is this shit?" hehe... certainly it must have been interesting for them. The quietness of the Japanese and their unwillingness to scream and cheer, even though they are at a rock concert reminded me of my class. Trying to teach the upperclassmen where no matter what I say they all just stare at me. Even when I speak in Japanese they just look at me like I'm retarded or as if my words don't make any sense. But, when I talk to them after class, or read their impressions of the day's class in their notes/journal I realize that they are paying attention, and some of them even really enjoy class even though they show absolutely nothing when they are gathered in a group.
The girl in the seat next to me sat in her seat from noon until 8pm checking her cell phone from time to time and generally looking pissed off. I wondered if her date had stood her up or something... or maybe he had left her in the bleachers so he could rock out with is cack out in the standing area... A couple of times like during 3rd eye blind, I saw her clap or tap her feet a little bit... but otherwise I would have thought she was completely miserable to be here. However! When, at the very end, Asian Kung Fu Generation came out, everyone in the bleachers stood up (for the first time all day) and she did too. Not only did she stand and cheer, she danced and jumped and waved around having a grand old time. It seemed like a different person, it totally surprised me... But I guess AKFG, being the main event, had that power on the whole arena. I have to say, looking out on the whole stadium it was really a spectacular sight to see everyone shaking their fists together or waving their hands. There were so many people, and while the previous bands had only got that response from the people in the front row of the floor, AKFG got the whole studium up on their feet cheering.
I bought lots of goods, and I had to ride the bullet train back part way in order to make the last train... so I ended up spending a lot of money on the whole trip... It makes me think I don't want to go to Rock in Japan after all.. It is so far, and it will be crowded like this, but it will be outside in the burning sun... uhg... it doesn't sound so great after all..
Oh one more thing about the Japanese concerts. At least this one... the standing area sucks! They had these fences up in various places that basically made little pens in various sections of the floor. To get into the pens you had to file in through one entrance and when they started to get full (which was not very crowded at all) the staff would close off the entrance. So if you didn't get there ahead of time then you wouldn't be able to bounce with the crowd in the front row, and once you got in, you couldn't leave for fear that you might not be able to get back. The result is that people who wanted to see Ellegarden up close had to get their 2 or 3, even 4 bands ahead of time and stand and wait. That kind of sucks, especially if you need to go to the bathroom or get a drink to keep you from dehydrating in that nasty hot pressure cooker. I guess maybe it is necessary to ensure safety or prevent people from being so crammed together they all faint from the heat... but it seems like another example of the Japanese needing someone to take care of them rather than taking care of themselves. In other concerts I've gone to you can go up front, get hot to the point of exhaustion then move back and relax until you are ready to go back up again. This creates a natural flow that people move in and out allowing lots of people the chance to get as close as they want, while the people who don't want to be smashed and sweaty stay a few steps back. The people who are up front then are naturally the ones who have the most energy and want to be there jumping. Anyway, I guess it wasn't all that bad... but it is just frustrating that you have to wait in line to get up front and then get locked out of the closer gates while people who aren't even dancing stand in there waiting for the next band. Perhaps this isn't so much a piece of Japanese culture though, as it is a necessity of the enormous crowds. Have you guys ever been to American concerts like this?
By the way, Summer Break started! :D Next weekend I am going to an Obon Dance with my host mother Haruchan, then next month I will be going to a summer camp with some of the town kids at a camp near Mt. Fuji. It's nice to be able to relax now and have a month off... This job certainly has its perks. :D






