This had been a pretty active weekend, actually, in contrast with the previous couple of months. Last Thursday and Friday, Amu Plaza had the Goods Marshe booths, with some live music, including Nonki's Ventures show on Friday. Friday and Saturday, the lead-in to the marathon was held in Central Park, with the marathon itself taking place on Sunday. Tenmonkan had the architectural Design Exibit on Saturday and Sunday. And then, back in Amu Plaza, there was the Kyuushu Fair. I didn't get a really good grasp of what exactly they were promoting, because the tables were selling local products again, but they had the event stage with a bunch of foamhead mascots for various cities around Kagoshima, so I guess it was maybe a tourism event.
Sakura-buu, for Kagoshima.
Satsu-maru, for the Satsuma region.
Some of the tables.
The character for promoting the rose gardens in Kanoya.
Guree-buu, also for Kagoshima, as part of the handing out of prizes to people that had entered a lottery.
Tsurumaru. Possibly advertising the crane viewing in Izumi.
I was on a tight schedule, so I took a few photos, did the rest of my shopping, and went home to work on the computer. Since it was drizzling most of Sunday, there wasn't a whole lot of reason for hanging around outside. But, I did get some work done at home this time.
Last Friday, the city of Kagoshima set up an "omotenashi town" in Central Park. Effectively, this was a food and running apparel booth area, in preparation for the second annual Kagoshima marathon. This is a full 25 mile run from Dolphin Port, up to Aira, and then back to finish in front of City Hall. The cool-down chute funneled the runners to Central Park, where they were given a certificate of accomplishment, and the option of sitting in a foot bath for a while. The main stage was still being set up on Friday, and there wasn't anything I wanted to buy. On Saturday, I had to work from 1 to 8 PM, and the stage events ran from 1 to 5. Naturally, the weather was perfect both days. On Sunday, there was a heavy downpour in the early morning, and then drizzle for the entire rest of the day. The run wasn't canceled, but it did put a damper on the activities in the park. Although, there were still about 100 people in front of City Hall to watch the runners come in at 2 PM (the winning runners had finished long before that.
(Stage schedule for Sunday.)
It rained last year too, but there were still more people in the park then. They didn't have the big screen TV showing the race results this year, either. Since I didn't know anyone participating in the run, I stuck around only long enough to take a few photos, mainly because I had to do food shopping afterward.
They had the timer board in the park, for anyone that wanted their photo taken with their "official" times.
The park was almost empty at 2 PM.
Jun-ei Ohsako is a concert violinist. I've seen him at a few events in the past. He's good, but I'm not a big fan of classical violin. He was supposed to start at 2 on Sunday, but he and the rest of his trio were just beginning their rehearsal at that point. I decided to record that, and then the rain started coming down harder, so I gave up and went to City Hall to watch the runners crossing the finish line.
DJ Pocky and Yuki Arima, announcers at Myu FM radio, were at the finish line, cheering the runners at the end.
There were more people in front of City Hall than in the park.
View of the finish line.
There was another set of booths on the boulevard in front of City Hall, but almost no customers. I considered getting something to eat, but all the food was overpriced and nothing looked particularly special.
I thought the mobile foot bath was an interesting idea, though. Unfortunately, the runners had to follow the chute to Central Park, 6 blocks away. Unless they had planned to come back here to meet someone, there wasn't a reason for them to keep walking to come here specifically for the foot soak. Kind of poor planning on the sponsors' part.
Seredipity is a strange thing. Back in February, I was walking through Tenmonkan and I spotted one of the guys that occasionally plays for the Bon DX SKA band - Nonki. I waved to him and he recognized me, even remembering my name. We talked for a few minutes, and I asked if he had any performances coming up. He mentioned the Kagoshima Noufuku Marshe, which is another one of those outdoor markets in Amu Plaza, on Friday, March 3rd, at 4PM. Which was a problem for me because I work up until 4 on Fridays and there'd be no time to get to Amu Plaza before the show ended. But, we said goodbye and went our separate ways. A few days later, I spotted him in Tenmonkan again - we waved, shook hands and kept going without talking. I hadn't seen him for about a year, so I took this as a sign. I arranged with the school to move my class forward half an hour for that Friday, then I ran the mile up to the main train station, arriving just as Nonki was warming up before the show. We didn't have time to talk at all then because he was acting as MC for the Marshe, trying to get the audience to look at the produce booths and spend money. Afterward, he had to talk to the event's organizer, so I couldn't get a photo with him. Either way, it was a good show.
Nonki is a Ventures fan, and he was billing this as the "Nonki Hitori (one-man) Ventures show". He'd recorded the backup drums and bass guitar on a CD himself, and he used that to back himself up for the performance. In a way, it was a guitar karaoke show, but it was still fun.
I've mentioned before that I like stage magic, and that I worked in a magic shop for about 1 year as a sales clerk/trainee magician. Well, I like the work of Penn and Teller, so when I was asked for suggestions for Christmas gifts, I said I'd like a Penn and Teller DVD. The one I received is Off the Deep End, which originally aired on NBC as a 2-hour TV special, and was released as an A&E Channel disk. If you've seen the show, then you know what to expect. Otherwise, Penn and Teller visited several resorts in the Caribbean to pull off a series of illusions and practical jokes on tourists on the beaches. The DVD includes a couple short segments with a few tricks that didn't make it into the show, like the "trained crab" (Teller hiding in the sand with an air tube) and the "moving tan line".
The main tricks were performed underwater, either in the ocean, or in one of the resort aquariums. Some of them definitely did present risks to the women swimmers acting as assistants - in one shot, Penn accidentally pulled the air hose off the helmet of the woman he was trying to cut in half. Fortunately, the camera man was a trained safety diver, and he saw the loose hose and reconnected it to the helmet before the woman could start to panic. On the other hand, one of the practical jokes had Teller cutting the air hose of an "unsuspecting" scuba diving tourist, so that was intentional...
The main set piece was the disappearance of a 65-foot long, 80-ton submarine. I'm not sure I buy their "reveal" (that the sub was air lifted out of the water by 3 cargo helicopters), but I don't have an immediately satisfying alternative suggestion just right now. I liked most of the other tricks, though, and being able to see the reveals for those. The best one was when Teller was put in a straitjacket and a wooden crate, then thrown overboard into shark-infested waters only to be torn into bloody pieces. That was funny. Overall, it's a great DVD, and I highly recommend it to other P&T fans. I'd like to see their other shows, too.
If you've ever listened to Steppen Wolf's Born to Be Wild, you're probably at least aware of the fact that it was featured in the movie Easy Rider, co-written by and co-starring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, and directed by Fonda. If you've never actually seen the movie, it's interesting to watch, and then compare it to current American events. Not much has changed. The hippie dialog is dated, as is the free love element, and the camera techniques. But the music is still as good as ever, and the moral still hits home in the end - "A man went looking for America. And couldn't find it anywhere..."
MBC Radio and TV decided to have their annual Tegetege High School event at Amu Plaza again last weekend. For the most part, it consisted of booths promoting local shops, activities by and for high school students, and a few food booths. No one was buying food, and the main focus was on the live stage, where the events alternated between foamhead mascot shows, TV personalities talking, and school bands. Above, we have an aquatic petting display.
People could also try wearing a scuba tank and wet suit. And the fish.
Poster wall advertising some of the MBC TV shows.
Mister Pork Miso Paste in a Tube Man.
The Shinpuku zebra. Not sure why he's a zebra - Shinpuku is a stationary and art supplies store.
Members of the telegraphy club.
It's kind of hard to tell from the photo, but the code key was very nice and shiny and expensive looking.
The show's MC. No idea what his name is.
One of MBC's regular comics.
There must have been a couple hundred people in the audience. The stage event at this point was live music by high school and university bands. The one on stage had just finished their set when I arrived, and they were being interviewed by the MC before the next amateur group came up.
There was really nothing on the stage schedule I had an interest in, and I don't watch TV. Plus, I had contract work I needed to finish, so I just returned home and took care of that. Not a really spectacular weekend.
I'm the guy that created the Akira Toriyama Super Database, as well as the .Hack-oriented Helba Gata. Back in the 1990's, I lived in Japan for 2 years, working as a video game programmer and as a technical writer for Hitachi. After returning to the States and living in Texas for 10 years, I've decided to try living in Japan again. I'm interested in various manga, and to a lesser extent various anime. I'm also studying nihon-go.
