Wild Mood Swings #2 this Saturday

by craig


無料 DJ パーティ！
Wild Mood Swings is a free party held at the wonderfully kistch and cool Hell's Bar in Sangenjaya. The second instalment will be Saturday May 29th.
Expect to experience wild mood swings as the eclectic DJs play a large variety of music. The idea is to play good stuff that people can dance to and enjoy.

The DJs will play 2 sets and are:
Timebred (Gaijin Tonic) from UK

Craig eee (Tokyo Gig Guide) from Australia

Grant Mc Gaheran (Abikyokan) from UK

Jake Arntson (Abikyokan) from USA

Mu-tan from Japan

Brendan Smith (Belgium Internet) from UK

Junko (Chopstick) from Japan

Special K from UK

It gets going at 11:00pm and continues to the break of dawn.


Check out Wild Mood Swings on:
Tokyo Gig Guide
Facebook
Gaijin Tonic
Abikyogra
Tokyo Indie

To get to Hell's Bar take the Denentoshi like to Sangenjaya (one express stop from Shibuya). Take the North B exit, go straight ahead, past Family Mart, past Lawson, walk for a couple of minutes, and it's on the left, next to the 99yen shop. It's on the second floor, up a spiral staircase.

東急田園都市線、三軒茶屋駅下車。
北口B出口の階段を上り、そのまま進行方向に国道246号線沿いを渋谷方面に徒歩３分。
１階にコンビニエンスストアが入ったビルの２階です。
２階専用のらせん階段で２階にお上がり下さい。

Fuji Rock Festival 2010

by craig

Fuji Rock Festival this year will be on July 30th (Fri), 31st (Sat), and August 1st (Sun).
This is the 6th line-up announcement with links to the artists' myspaces/websites. Expect more announcements as the festival gets closer.

30th
MUSE / THEM CROOKED VULTURES / ASH / THE BAWDIES / BEARDYMAN / BROKEN BELLS / BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE / Char / !!! / CORINNE BAILEY RAE / THE CRIBS / DIRTY PROJECTORS / THE ENTRANCE BAND / GRAPEVINE / GREEN VELVET / HIKASHU / JAGA JAZZIST / JAMAICA-Live / KEN ISHII / KEN YOKOYAMA / KICELL / MAD PROFESSOR / MAGMA / MAGNETIC MAN / MIIKE SNOW / MUTEMATH /MYSS (ROC TRAX) / OGRE YOU ASSHOLE / RUSKO / SONHOUSE / SPECIAL OTHERS / SUPER JUNKY MONKEY / Superfly / TAKKYU ISHINO / toe / Z-TRIP / ZAPPA PLAYS ZAPPA

31st
ROXY MUSIC / JOHN FOGERTY / 22-20s / BOYS NOIZE / THE CRO-MAGNONS / DEREK TRUCKS & SUSAN TEDESCHI BAND / DETROIT SOCIAL CLUB / DEXPISTOLS & ROC TRAX CREW / DOHATSUTEN / EGO-WRAPPIN' AND THE GOSSIP OF JAXX / EMELINE MICHEL / FLOGGING MOLLY / HAWAIIAN6 / JAMIE CULLUM / JOHN BUTLER TRIO / KITTY DAISY & LEWIS / KULA SHAKER / LA RUDA / MARINES BIG BAND / MGMT / MORIARTY / MYLO (DJ SET) / OVERGROUND ACOUSTIC UNDERGROUND / PARACHUTE/ RIVA STARR / STRAIGHTENER / THEATRE BROOK / TOYODA YUZO & YUZOBAND / TRICERATOPS /TROMBONE SHORTY & ORLEANS AVENUE

1st
MASSIVE ATTACK / ATOMS FOR PEACE / AIR / ALBERTA CROSS / ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION /BELLE AND SEBASTIAN / BOOM BOOM SATELLITES / BUFFALO DAUGHTER / CODEINE VELVET CLUB / DIANE BIRCH / DONAVON FRANKENREITER / FOALS / GOOD 4 NOTHING / HOT CHIP / IAN BROWN / FUMIO ITO / JJ GREY & MOFRO / KITTY DAISY & LEWIS / LCD SOUNDSYSTEM / MALLACAN /MATT & KIM / THE MIDDLE EAST / moe. / JUNKO MORIYA Special Big Band For Fuji Rock / AKIHIRO NAMBA / OCEAN COLOUR SCENE / OZOMATLI / quasimode / RIDDIM SAUNTER / Sandii featuring SandiiBunbun and Earth Conscious / SCISSOR SISTERS / VAMPIRE WEEKEND / Y.Sunahara / YEASAYER

So how much will this all cost me?
A 3-day ticket is ¥39,800, and 1-day tickets are ¥16,800 but they are limited to 10,000 tickets per day.
If you want to camp, a campsite ticket is ¥3,000 per person for the festival duration. Car Park Passes are ¥3,000 per day per car.

How can I acquire tickets?
In Japan, get them online from Pia or eplus. From June 5th, you'll be able to buy tickets from the Pia ticket machines in Family Mart convenience stores and ticket Pia counters. The ticket code will be 782-666. More info here You'll also be able to get them from the Ganban record store (B1F Shibuya Parco Part 3).
From overseas, you can get tickets in English from Ganban.

More info:
Festival site (English) http://www.smash-uk.com/frf10/index.html
Festival site (日本語) http://www.fujirockfestival.com
Fujirockers: http://www.fujirock.com
Tokyo Gig Guide - 30th July, 31st July, 1st August.

Related posts:
My review of last year's festival
My tips for the festival last year.

Exploring abandoned love hotels

by craig

I found a whole area on Google Maps I didn't know existed so I had to go and check it out.
A stroll down from Seibukyujomae station and across Tama Lake brought me to Tamako Jitensha Dō, a long road through the trees around Tama Lake. The road is mainly used by cyclists in their ridiculous fluoro lycra. A fence along the right side of the road prevents you from entering the forest around the reservoir.



A few love hotels were nestled in the trees, seemingly a perfect quiet location for such establishments. But too quiet it seems, as a few of them had closed down.



After wandering for a while, I stumbled upon the Hotel Queen, an abandoned love hotel with piles of rubbish out the front.



Around the side, I found that the door to the office had been broken off. The little shrine on the door was a bit off-putting, but my curiosity got the better of me and I went inside.



Surprisingly, it looked like the owners had just suddenly deserted, leaving all their stuff behind. People had obviously broken in since then and made a bit of a mess.



There was a lot of old electronic equipment around the office.



The wind and the old building's creaking sounds started to make me feel a bit uneasy.



I slowly climbed the stairs as geckos scurried away. The second floor was where the owner must have lived.



Even clothes and things had been left behind.
I was trying to be as quiet as possible, but my camera was quite loud.



I was spooked by the creaking sounds in the next room and seeing a small noose hanging in the window, so I quickly went downstairs and out in to the hotel grounds.



All the guest rooms were locked but I poked my camera through a couple of windows.



I was worried about being spotted from the road so decided to leave. A police car slowly passed me a bit further down the road.
There was more and more random rubbish dumped around the place.



I came across Akasaka Hotel, another abandoned love hotel. This one was totally vandalised and obviously a popular spot for photographers. Actually, I remembered seeing it on some haikyo sites. An old man was at the ruined building (a restaurant?) next door so I couldn't explore.



It was almost 30° and I was getting sunburned, so I stopped in the shade for lunch at the end of the path, before heading back.



(Click the above pictures to see larger sizes. More photos can be seen at Flickr)