Survivor’s blog

Because Japan is crazy about food, there are a number of minor 'food celebrities' here. One of whom is American Ramen shop owner Ivan Orkin. I've seen him on TV a few times and a couple of weeks ago I was asked to do a restaurant review for his place. People I've told seem interested in my article, resulting in some mild kudos at work! It's nice to get another cover story too.

The print master Mr. Nakata produced a number of prints from each Cherry wood block, then proceded to build up each image one layer of colour at a time. He worked very quickly (as things dried up quickly) putting water on the block, spreading it, then adding ink and glue. When the prints started to take shape there were audible gasps and 'C'est magnifique!' from one French lady. I was surprised at how inquisitive the audience were ... they really kept the curator busy! When the prints were done they passed them around the room for everyone to see and touch.

If you compare the grey gradient around Mount Fuji to the one on the Wikipedia page, you can see a real difference. Apparently these prints were only done roughly for the presentation ... the quality (although very good by our eyes) wasn't good enough for sale. There were a number of other impressive Ukiyo-e prints around the showroom, including others from the same series as today's print '36 Views Of Mount Fuji'. (Which is mis-leadingly titled as the series was extended to 46 in total).

Hokusai's 'South Wind, Clear Sky' (Top Right) is also very famous ... but I'd never seen 'Rainstorm Beneath the Summit' before (Top Left) which is equally as impressive. I'd like to get behind the scenes of some more traditional or modern Japanese art some time soon ... let's see if I can make it happen.

For this reason I wasn't able to see the complete set of Silversun Pickups. SP were the first band I put an mp3 of on Vox way back when ...so I was a fan but I've become really bored of them and the incessive 'next Smashing Pumpkins' hype ...live they were ok, but they still need to develop their own sound.

Like Perfume yesterday The Ting Tings had a massive audience awaiting them at the Mountain stage ...the largest crowd of the day that I saw there. I'm not sure what size venues TTT are playing in the UK, but for their 2nd Japanese show this was insane! They were more than up to the challenge of pulling off such a huge show with only the two of them. Plenty of hits, plenty of fun ... thumbs up all around.
I got to see part of MGMT's set next... and it was mostly noodling. Really indulgent stuff, and less than thrilling.

I've only discovered Nottingham's Late Of The Pier recently. About half of their songs hit the spot today. They're a bit weird influence wise ...Klaxons meets Gary Numan... but any band that plays a hand made instument consisting of three planks of wood is alright in my book.

Danceable French act The Teenagers were next over at the Dance stage. Their set was ok ...at this point I was getting bored at hearing songs I didn't know...but 'Make It Happen' & 'Feeling Better' really stood out and were great fun to dance to. Lead singer Quentin Delafon seemed to be dressed as unfashionably as possible...for some reason.

Immediately after was Biffy Clyro's set over at the Sonic stage. It's been a good few years since I've seen them live, so this was a bit nostalgic for me. Biffy burst into action from complete silence to teeth-gnashingly loud in an instant with a double speed 'Semi-Mental'. The crowd was disappointingly small, despite not clashing with any other famous bands. Their recent gig in Shibuya was also similarly empty I'm told...Maybe because BC are so serious they can't seem to make much impact here. Singer Neil Simon had a really deathly vibe about him, and didn't seem to enjoy the performance much this time. Most of the set was from 'Puzzle' ...with no songs I can recollect from any older albums. The highlight was new single 'Mountains' which sounded immense, and may well be their best song to date.

The Boom Boom Satellites were the only Japanese act I saw all day. I had been interested in them while I was living in B'ham ... although their set today was a bit same old same old. They've been around since the mid-nineties ... and haven't really progressed much in recent years. Electronic music has come a long way in the noughties... something you can see by watching someone like Justice. They've got a lot of different influences in the mix...and while it was only strictly a DJ set these guys are cutting /pasting and mixing things up beyond anyone else I've heard at the moment.

Kozue was really excited to see Devo's set... and they were plenty of fans in the audience with Devo's plant pot hat™ on. Mark Mothersbaugh and co. are properly old guys, but they can still put on a great show. Listening to their songs it was truly amazing how many bands have ripped off Devo's stuff. (We can excuse Polysics as they are openly DEVOtees)

We had to dash over to the Marine's Arena to get there to see Coldplay... we got there in time, but I would have liked to have been closer. Coldplay have really gone up in my estimations recently. 'Viva La Vida' is one of my favourite albums of the year. And despite being far too popular... they're the only band that have installed me a with a feeling of hope this year. They were in fine form in front of a packed arena crowd. 'Violet Hill' & 'Viva La Vida' have become really popular here, and suitably went down a storm. There were a few songs I weren't so keen on in the set ('Politik', '42')... but the songs I'd been waiting to hear all summer came: 'Fix You', 'Lovers In Japan', 'Yellow' to name a few. The Japanese crowd got a nice surprise in the form of a cover of cover version of SMAP's 'Sekai hitotsu dake no hana'. Chris Martin did a really good job of singing in Japanese too. Less thrilling was the appearance of Alicia Keys for 'Clocks' ...but at least they didn't let her warble all over it. The big surprise of the night for us came about 3/4 through the performance when Coldplay ran down the divide in the centre of the audience and played an acoustic set on a podium directly behind us! The crowd surged forward, Kozue lost a shoe, but we got to see 'The Scientist' and 'DWNC' really, really close. What a surprise! We totally didn't notice them setting up the podium at all. The show rounded off with 'Death and All His Friends / The Escapist' ...with a large explosion of glow in the dark butterflies, which looked like they were flying gently above the crowd. The band played for much longer then they were scheduled to play (which suited us all fine), I think everybody was more than satisfied ...I'd say it was my best festival experience so far.

Kozue had tried to see them perform at another festival recently, and couldn't get in they were so popular. Which is why we got there super early to guarantee a place. I knew they would be miming, but the show (disappointingly) featured no instrumentation/ musicians / or effort of any kind...just a karaoke concert. We did try and get into the show...Perfume's thumping beats sounded great played at full blast...and it was fun to dance along to. But, after one song the band took a (lazy) break, and proceeded to chat with the audience for about 8 minutes. Which, in a 30 minutes set was just CRAZY. After a while it just felt like they were killing time so they didn't have to perform. Eventually we got a couple more songs...but every chance they got to kill some more time with chatting they did it. The faithful crowd got a meazly four songs in half an hour, I dread to think how much time wasting is in one of their normal concerts. Only in Japan could someone get away with such a vacuous, non-performance. How you've disappointed me Perfume.

Onwards and upwards. I did a fair amount of wandering around on the Saturday. I managed to avoid the scorching heat by staying out of the Chiba Marines stage, and thus had a much better time all around this year. I was drawn in by Yelle's performance at the Dance stage again next. She was a whole load of fun. Her songs sounded like playground chants with a funky electronica backing (check out Je Veux Te Voir and A Cause Des Garcons to see what I mean) I could count the amount of French musicians I liked on a fingerless hand before, so it was good to discover her...and to see a proper performance. I caught bits of Kids In Glass Houses and New Found Glory's sets at the Mountain stage next. It's a biiiiiig indoor stage, and has the worst sound of all the stages. KIGH were kinda same-old same-old E-M-O fare, while NFG just sounded like a big rumbly mush.

I lasted one song of We Smoke Fags before walking out...Band Of Horses, I kinda like but they were a bit too sombre to watch for too long. The f***up of the day award went to The Kills. Who flew to Japan to perform at Summersonic, set up their gear, and just didn't perform. Singer Alison Mosshart came onstage to a massive chorus of boos and explained their drum machine had all of it's data deleted, and they couldn't perform. Was it the truth? Who knows, but they're idiots for disappointing all their fans.

I watched a bit of Panic At The Disco's show on the big screen from another arena. Unfortunately they they were in full on Beatles mode (well, more like the Rutles) from the start. They clashed with Death Cab For Cutie's set anyway so I wasn't going to miss that.


DCFC were the best band of the day for me. I'd never seen them live before, but I've become a pretty big fan of the band. Aisa told me she was quite underwhelmed with their gig recently... I gotta say they were really outstanding that day. It may be be the 'bands only try hard in gig cities' syndrome, but either way all four guys put in a really passionate performance. 

Starting with 'Bixby Canyon Bridge' Ben Gibbard shattered the stodgy, professor image I had of him, proving to be quite the cool and intense frontman. Chris Walla turned out to be quite the geek I didn't imagine him to be though! The set was a bit light on 'Plans' material ...but featured most of the best tunes from 'Transatlanticism' & 'Narrow Stairs'.

The rest of the day was spent at the main stage, now thankfully cooler in the evening. I got to see most of The Verve's set. I'm not a massive fan of the Verve, but I wanted to see them just for posterity. The majority of the set was musically interesting, but really quite depressing. Richard Ashcroft in particular seemed lost in his own hopelessness. They pulled things around in the end with a strong finale of 'Lucky Man', 'Bittersweet Symphony' & 'Love Is Noise' to their credit.

Not tempted by the chance to see the Sex Pistols, I chose to finish off the day watching The Prodigy. They're in something of no-man's land career wise now...one album in the last ten years...and they haven't had a successful single in almost as long. Which made tonight's performance something of a nostalgia trip. Forgetting how old some of these tunes were I had a great time dancing away to their greatest hits set. 'Voodoo People', 'Firestarter', 'Breathe'... there were plenty of great tunes. Keith Flint & Maxim Reality are both really weird frontmen... and great to see in an age of so many bland hipsters. Maxim spouted a lot of random stuff that went right over the head of the audience ('Do you wanna go deeper?!') ...but he & Keith did a great job of riling up the crowd. 'Smack My Bitch Up' rounded off an energetic and fun show in controversial style... with a huge fireworks display wowing the crowd to mark the end of the day.

Come to think of it I really was quite lucky to see so many top UK acts in one place here. If this were England, there's no way I could've seen all of these bands on the same bill. Lucky me. Next: Day Two.

Yesterday we went to a mini amusement park in Chiba, 'Nyanda-land'...named after the sound that cats make (in Japan) 'Nyar'!

Most of the cats inside were sleeping...and the rest of them were a mixed bag. Take a look!

Kozue was happy though, she misses having a cat at home.

This place was weird! Completely sound-proof and otherwordly. The room detects when people come in there...and is almost made to disorientate you. And the lights go out soon after you go in, which freaked some people out!

One of my favourite pieces was the nicely titled rgb f__cker by Japanese duo Exonemo. You create your own artwork on the computers there, submit it...then it gets displayed on the large screens instantly around the room...amazing! There's an online version you can play with as well. Check it out.



I won't go through all of the individual exhibits...but Drifnet is definitely worth mentioning. It's actually a bit different to the photo here...you stand inside a small room then the visuals on the wall react to your body movements with sound. It's gotta be seen to be believed.

I'll definitely be back here soon. It's really filled me with a sense of wonder that I haven't felt from art in a long time. Compared to the modern art on display in Birmingham I think I'm really in the right place for creative art.