Tuesday 31 May 2016

Tokyo Gig Guide presents SPACE FÊTE #3 - June 5 2016

This Sunday June 5th, Tokyo Gig Guide is holding the third of its Space Fête experimental music events. There will be five live music acts starting with hitodama who will do one of his ambient guitar noise pieces, followed by Barry Zogon Band and their strange electronic rock. DJ Topgear will follow them with his live variegated beats and then OPQ will bring his bank of original circuit-bent gadgets to the stage. Closing the night will be the wild free jazz of Kiyasu Orchestra, then the eclectic DJs Grant McGaheran and craig eee who will also play sets between the bands. See you there!


Tokyo Gig Guide presents SPACE FÊTE #3



LIVE: Kiyasu OrchestraOPQDJ TopgearBarry Zogon Band人魂 (hitodama)

DJ: Grant McGaheran, craig eee

Sunday June 5, 18:30. 1000 yen (+ drink)










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Tuesday 24 May 2016

Super gig weekend - 28th & 29th May

This weekend is another super weekend for gigs, especially Saturday (May 28th).

First, there are these 3 cool little festivals happening:

SHIMOKITAZAWA SOUND CRUISING
A ticket to this annual event lets you wander around the Shimokitazawa district and pop in and out of all its important live houses. You can check out lots of established and up-and-coming Japanese indie bands like Lucky Tapes, Homecomings, Learners, Lostage, Paellas, avengers in sc-fi, Fukurouzu, Halfby and plenty more. The daytime part opens at 14:00 and costs 4500 yen and the night part opens at 23:00 and costs 3000 yen, or you can pay 5900 yen to go to both.
More info


OOO! vol. 5

This is a crazy collection of noise artists mixed in with some punk, electronic and other kinds of bands held from 3 pm to 5 am at the Shinjuku JAM live house and studios. And it's only 2500 yen! See ZENI GEVA, BLACKPHONE666 x ..., BUMBUMS, PUNSUCA, AKBK and lots of other artists written in all caps.
More info



CRAFTROCK FESTIVAL

This craft beer festival held in Toyosu features some great local bands like clammbon, group_inou, toe and eastern youth, alongside beers from the likes of Baird, Brewdog and Coedo. It opens at 11:00 and tickets will set you back 6800 yen.
More info



Some other highly worthwhile events on Saturday the 28th are:

MEKARE-KARE, ReddTemple, bonstar and 1000sofcats at Studio Packs in Kita-Senju. info

Shugo Tokumaru at O-Nest in Shibuya. info

world's end girlfriend, Vampillia, VMO, BOOL, canooooopy and Metoronori at WWW in Shibuya. info



On Sunday the 29th, there are also some great gigs on including:

ROVO, De De Mouse and Clammbon at Hibiya Open Air Concert Hall. info

Shoegaze bands broken little sister, edy, Hata Yusuke Group, Shojoskip and more at High in Koenji. info

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Saturday 14 May 2016

Abandoned theme park in Tochigi

Last year I visited the abandoned Western Village theme park in Tochigi and loved it so much that I went back again recently with some friends. The second time, some of the plants that were taking over the park had been cleared and unfortunately more vandals had visited.
It's quite a creepy place to explore, especially because there are cowboy mannequins and creatures around every corner.

The photos are a mix of both visits including some iPhone photos taken after my camera batteries died. Check them all out in this flickr album.

The front:
Front

Inside, it's a really wild wild west town:
Overgrown town

It has a large game centre:
Air hockey

Giant cowboy and dummy:
Nap

Faceless animatronic guy in the shooting game:
Face off

Overgrown town:
Downtown

Collapsing balcony:
Collapsing balcony

Dentist in the horror house:
Dentist nightmare

There are lots of body parts lying around:
Torso

A real buffalo:
Real buffalo

Bed in the toilet:
Bed in toilet, of course

There is a whole building full of giant teddy bears:
Bear antics

Some depressed animal rides:
Animal rides

Creepy wheelchair:
Wheelchairs always look creepy

Some of the many cowboys:
Eye socket

Rubber face

In the saloon:
Saloon

In the offices:
Boardroom

There is also a huge replica of Mount Rushmore:
Mount Rushmore

Lots more photos in this flickr album!

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