Lost in Ogawa

NFL in Tokyo? God, I miss football! It’s been one year since I watched an NFL game. Well….that’s not true, I did download last years SuperBowl from the internet! Good old internet! I was walking in Tokyo one day, and I randomly came across a poster that advertised NFL in Tokyo called the “American Bowl.” For a moment, I was stunned because I was thinking to myself, NFL? Japan? Really?!! It was the Indianapolis Colts vs. the Atlanta Falcons. These were the two teams that were runner ups to the SuperBowl last year. I actually didn’t realize this until much later on. Anyway, the poster featured star quarterbacks Peyton Manning for the Colts and Michael Vick for the Falcons, both whom I would love to see in action. Believe it not, I have never seen a LIVE NFL game before in my life. I remember myself starting to watch NFL football as early as when I was in Junior High over ten years ago?! And with no professional team in LA now, my chances of seeing a NFL game was even lower. I was dead set on seeing this game. I thought, “NFL in Tokyo? When am I going to get another chance to watch professional American Football in Japan?(well, maybe next year if I’m still living in Japan!)” As I researched prices and availabilities for the seats in Tokyo Dome where they plan to hold the match, I began asking friends who would be interested in going with me. I knew right away my Japanese friends wouldn’t be interested but when I started asking my fellow American friends, I was surprised nobody was as enthusiastic as I was or showed interested in going. In fact at the end, I found nobody to go with and I went by MYSELF!! I really didn’t mind at all. I was just so thrilled that I was going to see a NFL game!

Prior to the game outside the Dome, representative cheerleaders from both teams were signing autographs. Unfortunately, I got there at the end of the autograph session so I didn’t have the chance to get any signatures. I did get some pictures of them but it wouldn’t it be more cool if I had picture taken with them? This is where a friend would come in handy and take a picture FOR me. I was expecting to see only guys lining up for the autographs but there were plenty of Japanese women as well. Actually, I think these women were girlfriends or wives of the Japanese men! Maybe they’re there to keep the guys from drooling too much. Among the cheerleaders, there was one Asian girl that seems to be everybody’s favorite cheerleader. I don’t know if she’s Japanese but she got a lot of attention from the attending fans. She also got a lot of coverage on the Jumbo Tron in the Dome.

I was SO excited waiting for the game to start I almost pissed my pants!! Not literally of course, haha. As I expected, it was not a sellout crowd but there were still a good amount of people that attended. I didn’t even think the Japanese would even have interest in watching football but I was wrong. And of course, there were plenty of foreigners wherever I looked. I had a good view of the whole field but I couldn’t see any players in detail. I was only able to make out the player’s jersey number if I squint hard enough. I was able to pinpoint Manning and Vick who were the only two players I wanted to watch closely. As the first kickoff began, my adrenaline was at its ultimate high, I think I was screaming like a maniac throughout the game, yelling things like, “sack him! SACK HIM!!” or “GET his ASS, GET HIM!” Fortunately the seats around me were unoccupied. Every time a great play was taking place, I would stand up and cheer but then I would look around and see myself and other foreigners be the only people standing. When a bad play or somebody gets hit hard, I would “Boo” and “Awww” but I wouldn’t hear a peep from my Japanese neighbors. Once in awhile, I would hear the Japanese couple behind me say “sugoi ne (that’s wonderful/cool isn’t it).” They must think I’m weird when I put both my arms straight up into the air every time a field goal is made! I’m sure the Japanese are equally excited as I am if they were watching a football, I mean SOCCER game. It was an awesome game overall. I wish they would play Manning, Vick and other starters longer than one quarter! The Falcons were the winner and it was a close game. The Colts lost by a touchdown and it came down to 4th and 10 as the last play. The MVP for the Falcons received a pair of katana, or Japanese sword (you know the thing that Morpheus used in the Matrix) in place of a trophy, that was interesting. I enjoyed the experience immensely especially being reacquainted again with the hard hitting sounds of football. Boy, do I miss the violence haha! The last thing I saw on the Jumbo Tron before I left Tokyo Dome was “Winng Team, Atlanta Falcons.” Oh yeah, one last thing, only girls sold beer in the dome. They wore a uniform advertising the brand of the beer and carried a keg on their back with a portable dispenser. Now THAT was cool!
[read on]

“Oh my god I can’t believe, I’ve never been this far away from home!” This line is repeating over and over in my head and I can’t seem to get it out! This past weekend, I spent 3 days with some of my ALT friends at a music/rock and roll festival in Nigata Prefecture (2-3 hr. north of where I live). The festival is known as “FujiRock” or as you would say it in Japanese, “FujiRocku!” Supposedly, this is the largest music festival in Japan held once a year. The festival started on Friday and lasted until Sunday but we actually made our way there Thursday afternoon and got back Monday afternoon so it turned out to be almost a 5 day ordeal. Of course I had to take Friday and Monday off from work but was it worth it? HELL YEAH!! I don’t know and listen much to Rock and Roll music (or as I like to call it “Angry Music!”) I wasn’t planning on attending this event at all. Given the fact that the 3 day festival pass cost the same amount as one month’s rent, it did not appeal to me at all. However, my neighbor, fellow ALT friend and a HUGE music feign was all too thrilled for this upcoming festival. I think he started talking about it back in April! When we approached July and the semester finished for summer vacation, he was literally bouncing off the wall waiting for FujiRock to come. The last couple of months, we’ve been hanging out more and more, just chilling, having some beer while listening to tunes. Most of the tunes he played I really didn’t know at all but at some point, some songs started to grow on me. After nights of drinking, listening to music and convincing me to go, I finally decided to do it. The decision came down not because how much I love the music or the artist/band that was going to be there but the experience of going to a 3 day rock n roll festival with my English speaking friends in Japan. In addition, it was 3 days of music and staying in a tent we bring ourselves!

So what made this festival so special for foreigners like myself and others in Japan was that the bands that came were mainly bands from the States and the UK and these bands were top named bands that has already made it big! I’m about to tell you who they are and I still can’t believe I saw them! I wasn’t all that thrilled at first when I saw who was coming considering I don’t listen to their music much or only know a few of their songs but here are some of the big bands LIVE!! I saw COLDPLAY, FOO FIGHTERS, CAKE, BECK, FATBOY SLIM, THE BEACH BOYS(yup, still alive and touring! Kokomo rocked!!), MOBY, and NEW ORDER! Other bands I never heard of at all such as Kaiser Chiefs, The Bravery, The Futureheads, The Go Team, and DJs like Vitalic and Mylo were awesome. They had great shows and great tunes. Thanks to my neighbor who constantly played their songs for me prior to FujiRock, I was able to enjoy them more. Coldplay and Foo Fighter were one of my favorite bands to see live since I was standing relatively close to the front. Coldplay was just beautiful! Chris Martin, the lead singer, was amazing. I knew all of the music they played so I enjoyed that the most. Foo Fighter I only recognized a few songs but the energy of that performance was OFF the HOOK!! There was just so much ENERGY and Dave Grohl was insanely awesome in a rock n roll way. His rock n roll head bobbing and his scream reminded me of Steve Tyler from Aerosmith which was crazy cool. Of course Coldplay and Foo Fighter played at the largest stage with an audience capacity of up to 30,000 people. Did I mention FujiRock was held at a ski resort with 6 stages? While they played on stage, from time to time, I would awe myself by looking back at how many people there were watching, jumping, screaming, and dancing like I was. It’s an amazing feeling that I would have to say you must experience for yourself to understand it. I was definitely on a natural high! According to my friends who have seen Foo Fighter live before, that was one of their best performances he has ever seen from them. I think that was my ultimate rock n roll concert experience for FujiRock! Overall I think I saw about 20 bands or artist over the 3 days period. Each day, there were at least 50 shows going on, can you imagine how big this festival is?!

Even though FujiRock sounded it went so well, which it did overall, nature wasn’t too kind to us. It rained and it rained a lot! Saturday was the worst when it rained ALL day long. Most of us did not bring our rain gear and my windbreaker, although a little waterproof was not much help at all. Surprisingly the rain didn’t scatter the crowd and they continued to stand out in the pouring rain dancing and screaming. Kudos to the Japanese audience! I wasn’t too thrilled with the rain because it made the grounds very very muddy and when you have couple of thousands people trotting in it, it gets REALLY ugly and messy. I was wearing strapped on sandals so my feet were pretty much taking a mud bath. I don’t know if it would be worse wearing shoes and socks because the socks eventually get soggy and the inside of the shoes are completely wet. I hate that feeling! At least my sandals dried up the next day with mud crust but I bet my friends who wore shoes still had wet shoes and socks the next day. Let see, what else? Oh yeah, having just the tent is not enough. It would have been nice if there was a little padding to sleep on and a thin blanket to cover myself. I had to use a shirt to cover my cold feet and used my windbreaker in place of a blanket. I should have brought a towel too, either to wipe off the sweat or the cold rain. It was also a pain in the ass to wait in long lines in the morning to use the porta-potty and the porta-sink to wash my face and brush my teeth. I had many incidents where I just used a bush to do my waste disposal business. 3 days of not showering didn’t bother me that much since I had deodorant but not washing my hair was getting to me when it started to itch on the 3rd day. Well, that’s about it that I have to complain about but other than the, FujiRock Festival 2005 was awesome, probably something that will be unforgettable! FujiRock Festival 2006? We’ll see! I still think it’s “Angry Music!” but I like it now! Hehe..

I wish I could show you pictures but its all on a disposable camera!