July 17
July 18
July 19
July 20
July 21
July 22
July 23
July 24
July 25
July 26
July 27
July 28
July 29
July 30
July 31
August 1
August 2-3
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Japan Holiday, August 02-03 (So Long, Farewell)
And so the long trip back. Just for fun I'll document how long the damn thing took, then some random notes about Japan.
Left our hotel for the festival's bus pickup at 9:30 AM Monday, I was unnecessarily worried that we'd get stuck in a massive bus line and be late for the train. I was one of the last people on the bus so had to stand. Normally wouldn't be a problem, except there were so many tight bends. Got to the train station by 10:30 AM, with the train due to leave at 12:00 PM - oh well. The town of Yuzawa is a little bigger than Naeba but not by much, so wasn't a whole lot to see and do there.
Train made it to Tokyo shortly after 1:30PM so had two hours to collect our other bags and look around for a bit, about the right amount of time I thought. My shoes were so muddy and beat up I thought I'd try and get a new pair for the trip home. So where's a good place to go to get shoes ? Akiba Electric Town ? Yes that's what I thought too, but I didn't find one of the ABC Mart shoe stores that were everywhere (except when I needed one). I knew where some were in other parts of Tokyo, just not nearby. So I gave up on that pretty quickly - since carrying around a suitcase in the middle of a hot, sunny afternoon is no fun.
Just had a look around Tokyo station instead, and found a frozen yoghurt store! and unloaded another batch of coins on them!! I still failed the challenge though.
The express train to the airport was about 10 minutes late, and then stopped for a while just before arrival! First time there's been any significant delay with the trains, but then I have no idea what kind of schedule any of the local ones were operating on - just turn up and within 5 minutes a train is there, it really was that easy.
The plane for the Gold Coast wasn't until 8:00 PM so we had a few hours to kill in Narita Airport. It's alright as far as airports go, unfortunately after I'd already had something to eat I found a McDonalds selling cinnamelts! First frozen yoghurt and now cinnamelts, it's like I'm in the USA. I must have been tired because I wasn't paying attention and bought two Vitamin Waters BEFORE going through security. So I had to sit down and drink one litre of vitamins in five minutes. While I was doing that and repacking my carry-on suitcase the Japanese police on patrol must have thought I was acting suspicious, so they had a sit down with me and asked some questions. Thankfully one of the two could speak enough English that I could address their concerns and they were on their way.
The flight itself was all kinds of leg pain and discomfort, I'd say between 8:00 PM and 6:00 AM I got less than half an hour of sleep. Being the middle of the night I didn't really feel like reading (so I've completed the trip without evening opening my heavy-as-hell hardcover book - I really would like to know what I was thinking when I packed that) or using a computer, so it was several hours more of staring at upholstery. I think I need to buy a DS before my next trip, just not sure if I'd use it at any other time.
Gold Coast were pretty understaffed for customs, so that took a while. I had to declare some snacks and my old, muddy shoes, but they were both cleared in seconds which was good. Due to lack of passengers our connecting flight had been moved back a few hours, so we had to wait until 11:00 AM to leave for Melbourne. That was bad since there's absolutely nothing to do at Gold Coast airport. Add to that check-in only opens around 9:00 AM and it was only 6:00 AM, we couldn't even go out for a few hours for some surfing (or something), just had to sit around with all of our bags.
So the flight finally came and went, and 29 hours later I was back in Melbourne at last.
So to summarise in point form, good things about Japan:
And the things that weren't so good:
Left our hotel for the festival's bus pickup at 9:30 AM Monday, I was unnecessarily worried that we'd get stuck in a massive bus line and be late for the train. I was one of the last people on the bus so had to stand. Normally wouldn't be a problem, except there were so many tight bends. Got to the train station by 10:30 AM, with the train due to leave at 12:00 PM - oh well. The town of Yuzawa is a little bigger than Naeba but not by much, so wasn't a whole lot to see and do there.
Train made it to Tokyo shortly after 1:30PM so had two hours to collect our other bags and look around for a bit, about the right amount of time I thought. My shoes were so muddy and beat up I thought I'd try and get a new pair for the trip home. So where's a good place to go to get shoes ? Akiba Electric Town ? Yes that's what I thought too, but I didn't find one of the ABC Mart shoe stores that were everywhere (except when I needed one). I knew where some were in other parts of Tokyo, just not nearby. So I gave up on that pretty quickly - since carrying around a suitcase in the middle of a hot, sunny afternoon is no fun.
Just had a look around Tokyo station instead, and found a frozen yoghurt store! and unloaded another batch of coins on them!! I still failed the challenge though.
The express train to the airport was about 10 minutes late, and then stopped for a while just before arrival! First time there's been any significant delay with the trains, but then I have no idea what kind of schedule any of the local ones were operating on - just turn up and within 5 minutes a train is there, it really was that easy.
The plane for the Gold Coast wasn't until 8:00 PM so we had a few hours to kill in Narita Airport. It's alright as far as airports go, unfortunately after I'd already had something to eat I found a McDonalds selling cinnamelts! First frozen yoghurt and now cinnamelts, it's like I'm in the USA. I must have been tired because I wasn't paying attention and bought two Vitamin Waters BEFORE going through security. So I had to sit down and drink one litre of vitamins in five minutes. While I was doing that and repacking my carry-on suitcase the Japanese police on patrol must have thought I was acting suspicious, so they had a sit down with me and asked some questions. Thankfully one of the two could speak enough English that I could address their concerns and they were on their way.
The flight itself was all kinds of leg pain and discomfort, I'd say between 8:00 PM and 6:00 AM I got less than half an hour of sleep. Being the middle of the night I didn't really feel like reading (so I've completed the trip without evening opening my heavy-as-hell hardcover book - I really would like to know what I was thinking when I packed that) or using a computer, so it was several hours more of staring at upholstery. I think I need to buy a DS before my next trip, just not sure if I'd use it at any other time.
Gold Coast were pretty understaffed for customs, so that took a while. I had to declare some snacks and my old, muddy shoes, but they were both cleared in seconds which was good. Due to lack of passengers our connecting flight had been moved back a few hours, so we had to wait until 11:00 AM to leave for Melbourne. That was bad since there's absolutely nothing to do at Gold Coast airport. Add to that check-in only opens around 9:00 AM and it was only 6:00 AM, we couldn't even go out for a few hours for some surfing (or something), just had to sit around with all of our bags.
So the flight finally came and went, and 29 hours later I was back in Melbourne at last.
So to summarise in point form, good things about Japan:
- It was summer
- It wasn't winter
- Japanese girls
- Efficient and accessible public transportation
- Lots of vending machines & convenience stores
- Big cities (and lots of districts - not one crappy, centrally located city)
- Azuki
- Low theft rate
- Fanta (Grape, USA Hip Hop, Waikiki Hula)
And the things that weren't so good:
- Quite expensive (hotels and trains in particular)
- Vending machines ONLY sell drinks (and beer)
- Smoking is more acceptable
- Not enough English
- No supermarkets
- Stores don't open until late (but do stay open later)
- Free To Air TV pretty crap
- Not many rubbish and recycling bins
- Narrow aisles in stores
- Loud salespeople outside every store
- Fanta (Cola with Orange)
Sunday, August 01, 2010
Japan Holiday, August 01 (High And Dry)
I forgot to mention I started Fuji weekend with a challenge. The convenience stores (in particular) like to price things at 105 or 110 yen, vending machine cans cost 120 yen, so you end up with HEAPS of 10 yen coins and other metal capable of sinking a battleship. So, my challenge was to get rid of about 110 x 10 yen coins and about another 1000 yen of others (50, 5 and 1). After a Sunday morning trip to the convenience store I'm down to about 50 x 10 yen and a whole bunch of 5's and 1's that just aren't going anywhere. So I failed the mission, but gave it a good run. I also found some ear plugs, so I'm all set for a bumper Sunday.
First up on the main stage was Vampire Weekend. After last nights downpour the hill isn't in as bad shape as I thought. I'd already bought tickets to see VW in Melbourne before the Fuji lineup was announced, so I'd seen them less than six months ago. Still, they have some cool songs and best of all they don't go for too long. They played A-Punk and Cousins too, so 8/10.
Caught the second half of Foals who were playing at the same time as Vampire Weekend. Usually I don't get much value from listening to bands live for the first time, but these guys weren't too bad, 6/10. LCD Soundsystem were following them on the white stage, so I waited around for that. Their songs often focus on repetition, which is cool if you know the song and like the beat, but it would otherwise be less than ideal. They played some songs I knew and some I didn't, so I was just wanting them to hurry up and get onto the next one, 7/10.
Walked past Atoms For Peace (Thom Yorke from Radiohead's new band) playing on the main stage. The songs sounded pretty boring - basically he ONLY plays songs from his one solo album Eraser and NOTHING from Radiohead. It should be the other way around.
Air was next in the tent. I was really looking forward to Air, hoping they could deliver a lesser version of a Chemical Brothers show. What I got wasn't all that I'd hoped, some of the lyrics they put into their songs were computer generated, in particular Kelly Watch The Stars (my favourite) and didn't seem to match the original song. They made up for it with a good version of Sexy Boy though. Overall they were worth seeing, 7/10.
Walked past Massive Attack, also playing on the main stage. Waited through a couple of songs to see if I could catch Teardrop, but it didn't come so I continued on over to see Belle And Sebastian. Didn't have much expectation for them, but was a bit disappointed these were my only two choices to end the festival. I think they were definitely better than Massive Attack though and played a few I didn't mind. About two thirds of the way through their set the rain kicked in, so I decided I'd end up there and head back via a couple more Massive Attack tracks. Scissors Sisters were playing a very late set on the main stage, but I would have been waiting over an hour for that, so didn't bother.
So to recap the festival as a whole, I'd say it was good and worth going to. If I'd spent that much money to see the equivalent in Melbourne I'd be a little disappointed, so I guess the experience is something intangible that you factor in to your decision. That's not to say there weren't a lot of things that could have been improved: less people with chairs, better weather, better scheduling of bands. The most important thing is the lineup, which was probably not enough to stretch three days. If I hadn't seen a few of the bands already it would have been much less of an issue. I think part of the problem was that there was another festival running on the same weekend in Australia - some bands played both (Friday one and Sunday the other) while others had to choose between the two (I missed out on seeing BRMC again for one). I'd do it again, probably in another country, but only with a strong lineup.
 |
| Walking to the white stage. |
 |
| Walking to the main stage. |
 |
| Main stage aka Mud stage. |
First up on the main stage was Vampire Weekend. After last nights downpour the hill isn't in as bad shape as I thought. I'd already bought tickets to see VW in Melbourne before the Fuji lineup was announced, so I'd seen them less than six months ago. Still, they have some cool songs and best of all they don't go for too long. They played A-Punk and Cousins too, so 8/10.
 |
| Vampire Weekend |
Caught the second half of Foals who were playing at the same time as Vampire Weekend. Usually I don't get much value from listening to bands live for the first time, but these guys weren't too bad, 6/10. LCD Soundsystem were following them on the white stage, so I waited around for that. Their songs often focus on repetition, which is cool if you know the song and like the beat, but it would otherwise be less than ideal. They played some songs I knew and some I didn't, so I was just wanting them to hurry up and get onto the next one, 7/10.
 |
| LCD Soundsystem |
Walked past Atoms For Peace (Thom Yorke from Radiohead's new band) playing on the main stage. The songs sounded pretty boring - basically he ONLY plays songs from his one solo album Eraser and NOTHING from Radiohead. It should be the other way around.
Air was next in the tent. I was really looking forward to Air, hoping they could deliver a lesser version of a Chemical Brothers show. What I got wasn't all that I'd hoped, some of the lyrics they put into their songs were computer generated, in particular Kelly Watch The Stars (my favourite) and didn't seem to match the original song. They made up for it with a good version of Sexy Boy though. Overall they were worth seeing, 7/10.
Walked past Massive Attack, also playing on the main stage. Waited through a couple of songs to see if I could catch Teardrop, but it didn't come so I continued on over to see Belle And Sebastian. Didn't have much expectation for them, but was a bit disappointed these were my only two choices to end the festival. I think they were definitely better than Massive Attack though and played a few I didn't mind. About two thirds of the way through their set the rain kicked in, so I decided I'd end up there and head back via a couple more Massive Attack tracks. Scissors Sisters were playing a very late set on the main stage, but I would have been waiting over an hour for that, so didn't bother.
So to recap the festival as a whole, I'd say it was good and worth going to. If I'd spent that much money to see the equivalent in Melbourne I'd be a little disappointed, so I guess the experience is something intangible that you factor in to your decision. That's not to say there weren't a lot of things that could have been improved: less people with chairs, better weather, better scheduling of bands. The most important thing is the lineup, which was probably not enough to stretch three days. If I hadn't seen a few of the bands already it would have been much less of an issue. I think part of the problem was that there was another festival running on the same weekend in Australia - some bands played both (Friday one and Sunday the other) while others had to choose between the two (I missed out on seeing BRMC again for one). I'd do it again, probably in another country, but only with a strong lineup.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)