Age-paku is a food festival that revolves around fried foods (agemono). It's one of the several -pakus (aipaku = ice cream, choco-paku = Valentine's Day chocolates) held throughout the year at Amu Plaza. This time, it's running from the 13th to the 22nd, with some live music on the weekends. All of the fried stuff is twice as expensive as it's worth, and I was only willing to buy the fries - 500 yen ($4.75 USD) for a small bag. They were ok, but would have been a better deal at 300 yen. I didn't bother with the beer, because that was 500 yen for an 8 ounce cup.
I had to work Friday and Saturday, so I missed the music then. There were only three performances on Sunday - Thanks Pets Day at 4 PM, and nano at 5 and 6 PM. TPD, pictured above, was a soft electronica duo. They were doing some interesting things with the synths, samplers and sequencers, but it was a bit too slow, and not that interesting to record. I listened to them for a couple songs, then went into the department store for some food shopping for the week.
They were still playing when I came back out on the 2nd floor balcony to check them out. This gave me a good opportunity to zoom in on their gear.
I've seen nano before, and she is a very energetic singer. Unfortunately, she does a mix of copyrighted covers, and "voice-over-CD songs" which are largely just karaoke performances. Again, nothing I feel is worth putting on youtube.
The weather had been crappy up to about 1 week ago, with fairly constant rain, but then tsuyu (rainy season) ended and we went straight into typhoon season. On top of this, the wind had shifted, blowing ash from the Sakurajima volcano into the city for a couple of days. I don't know what, if any of this, triggered my allergies, but I was coughing up my lungs for over a week. Every single student asked me what was wrong, simply because I'd been tearing my throat up and my voice was sounding weird. I went to a clinic and got 10 days worth of medicine, which I used up by Thursday. At that point, some of the coughing had subsided, but I still have a seriously runny nose. Bottom line is that now that the weather has turned sunny, hot and very humid, I'm still not feeling all that great, and I'm perfectly happy staying indoors and working on the computer, when I'm not sleeping.
Monday is a national holiday (Umi no Hi = Sea Day), but I have to teach 2 classes in the evening. Age-paku has sui performing at 1 and 2 PM, Yuki Yamashita at 5 PM, Sakura Togo at 6 PM, and Saori Yoshimura at 7 PM. I think I've seen sui before, but she's the only one I may have a chance to catch in the afternoon, if I'm up then (and not out food shopping). Otherwise, the other three women will be playing when I have to be at the school. Not a big loss, since none of them really do the kind of music I like. Then, there's nothing until Friday, when I have more classes, same on Saturday. Then, next Sunday only has 1 BELIEVE FNC (two shows) and Yoko (who also played last Friday). I'm curious about 1 Believe - I think they're another pop idol group. I've seen Yoko - more covers and karaoke, but I'd like to get a few photos for the blog. Unfortunately, next weekend is the Ogionsa portable shrine parade on Saturday and Sunday, and I always like getting photos of that, too, if I can. So, we'll see what happens. If there's no typhoons...
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