Fuji Rock 2009

Posted: 07/27/2009 in Japan

This weekend was the Fuji Rock festival in Naeba Japan. 4 days of camping and 3 days of music in some beautiful mountains in the Western side of Central Japan. There was pretty big group of us including: Scott, Lockie, Simon, Grant, Shuichi, Masaki, Sagen, Tomo, Hikaru, Sam, Simon, and Jetty. Most of the guys live in Koenji and we end up drinking there nearly every weekend so I designed and made a flag for our campsite which you can see below. The flag says Koenji Kaizokudan (高円寺海賊団）or Koenji Pirates. The trip was some of the most fun I have had in Japan and really some of the most fun I have had in many years. We saw some great acts and the Franz Ferdinand show was most definitely one of the best live performances I have ever seen. I actually have to thank Flavor Flav and his criminal background for the opportunity to see Franz Ferdinand. Unfortunately throughout the festival there were many bands I wanted to see which conflicted at the same time forcing me to make some hard decisions. Franz Ferdinand and Public Enemy were one of those conflicts. I had all intentions to see Public Enemy when shortly before they were scheduled to perform Grant mentioned he noticed something on an information board regarding Flavor Flav. It turns out he was denied a Visa into Japan which was likely because of his less than clean police record. Since I felt Public Enemy without Flavor Flav would be a bit odd (even though Chuck D is really what PE is all about) I made a last minute decision to join the others at Franz Ferdinand which turned out to be fantastic. Thank you Flavor Flav and Grant!