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Published: September 11th 2005
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Thai restaurant in Yokohama A month prior, when Mika and I were having dinner after the Disneyland trip, she had asked me to go to the "Wire '05" event, which was a big trance event costing a hundred bucks a ticket, with 10,000 people attending. So Saturday was the day the event was held; it was in Yokohama Arena.
First, we looked for a
RESTAURANT to eat and decided on a Thai place. The pad thai was ok, the rice was pretty good, and the veggies were amazing. The special Thai dessert - I forgot the name - was alright too.
The
EVENT was an enjoyable experience. I was surprised at all the people there, esp. because there was lots of people already sitting around against walls, or even napping, when we got there, which was around 8pm. The first thing we did was to find a
CLOAK area... I guess that's what they call a "locker?" I mean, you just pay something like 10 bucks, and they give u a paper with a number that matches that of the label on a trash bag they put all your stuff in... It felt pretty ghetto, but
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Pad thai - good the system worked... I mean, it wasn't just a number, but a color too. But yea, that was interesting, and the name.
We went to check out the main dance floor/
ARENA. The light effects were pretty cool, and there were big screen monitors in the ceiling for the VJ (video jockey) effects. The floor was divided into "blocks" with a designated letter (i.e. "A block") where you were assigned - check your ticket! This made it somewhat organized, and there was a person to check your ticket at the entrances of each of these blocks, but they didn't seem too strict. The DJ's performed on big platforms on both ends of the arena... there were two on opposite ends, and the performances altered sides. That was pretty interesting cause it allowed the next guy to set up, and also give the people in the "back" a front-view. It was funny watching the transition because everyone in their block would run over to the other side, up against the metal bar dividers to get a closer look... which didn't really make a difference anyway.
There was also a second floor arena, which had a fat fat line to get
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Fried rice - better into cause the space was 4x smaller. Throughout the Yokohama Arena, there were booths advertising and selling t-shirts, apparel, and food/drnk. A special third floor area had all the high-tech stuff: PSP booth where you could play it, and booths for DJ/VJ equipment. Mika ws too shy to try out the DJ stuff cause she thought it would be broadcast from the booth, hehe. But the spindecks, or whatever you call em, had lotsa features and stuff that Mika didn't feel like playing with at the time anyway - it woulda taken too long for hr to figure it out.
Anyway, to cut this short, cause no one really cares, haha, the music was a slight disappointment. It was ALL techno actually. I think I said trance earlier. Yea, there's some sorta difference. And actually I like House cause its easiest to dance too. Trance would be too fast usually, and Techno is... yea, anyway, it was a good show though. Mika and I met up with her
FRIENDS early on too, and we hung out. They were pretty cool. Mika and I decided to crash and find a place to nap around 3AM too cause we were done...
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Veggies - an important part of the meal, and these were spicy and really good So, in conclusion, I don't know if I'd spend a hundred bucks myself to attend an event where you can dance and hang out... if I was single, and esp. if I had a nice wingman/nampa buddy like Lars, then it'd definitely be worth it, cause there were sooo many groups of cute girls sitting around, lookin slightly bored. We woulda saved them from all this misery, for sure! Haha.
Sunday, July 17th - Yokohama I got back from the "Wire '05" event in the morning and decided to nap for about 4 hours. I had to run around looking for a cheap yukata so I could wear one to the fireworks festival Mika and I were going to. Actually, Steph and Ced were supposedly going too? And Ari and Seth and Anthony and Mii and more were going. I was hoping we could get a big group in together, and spend some quality time together...
Well, I ran around place to place, and it sucks not having a real game plan, and not finding what you want. The cool yukatas I wanted were 250 and up, and I was about broke by this time, having to
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The dessert - there's always room for dessert! ;) budjet the rest of the week out. I decided to grab one that I sorta liked at Ito Yokado, and leave the tag on so I could return it the next day... hehe, yea yea, I'm bad. Anyway, I got it, changed, and ran off to meet Mika at around 5pm. Lots of couples were dressed in yukata too, to go to the festival. Apparently, a crapload of people attend -- in 2004, there was over 500,000 people there. That's right, you read it correctly. Man, I wondered if this was some sorta marketing technique to lure people to ths city, esp. around the China Town there, and make business boom for a day. I asked Mika why there was a festival too, and she said she didn't know. So I concluded that it was indeed something put on "for fun" to generate revenue, and wasn't actually a "festival" in the sense that it was a holiday to honor or appreciate something...
We got there at
YOKOHAMA station and decided to kill time a bit. It turns out Steph and Ced were busy and couldn't make it. The group with Ari were doing their own thing, and we would
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The flash always gets to her, hehe try to meet up later... Melissa, from home, was actually coming, so Mika and I decided to wait around to have dinner with em. Melissa and Mika had become pretty good friends by now, so it was a nice group we had. They showed up on time and we went downstairs from the station to the food area, where I grabbed some really juicy lookin gyoza and stuff. I think I remember also getting some "Annin Dohu," which is my favorite dessert in Japan!!
We headed over to the fireworks viewing area, in the park, but there were SOOOOOOO many people that the park was actually closed off. There were police everywhere, and it was... a surreal experience. We were like a herd, walking around, not knowing what to do. Some people had sat down already, on the sidewalk outside the park, so they could view the fireworks from there. I took a gambit and asked the doorman at some fancy hotel if we could go up to the roof (so we could view the fireworks from there). Unfortunately, he said "Muri." (impossible) Haha. It was worth a shot, and he had a nice laugh outta the request. He
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The "lockers" was nice about it though. So yea, we decided to sit down outside the hotel and wait around for the show then.
Ok, to cut this story short too, the freworks show was one of the best I've ever seen. Apparently, Melissa already has seen stuff like this all the time, so she didn't see what the big deal was. She and her friend left early so they could make it back, and not deal with the massive crowd on the trains later on. Smart move. Mika and I stayed to watch it. There was a cute litle girl behind me, about 5 yrs old, who spoke better than I could. Not surprising. I couldn't say much to her, and she was really darn smart. At one point, she proclaimed that the fireworks were "romantic!" Everyone had a good laugh about that - smart kid. I offered the little girl soe gyoza too, haha, but she said she wasn't hungry, but her doll was. Anyway, the food was good. The fireworks.. well, we were standing, squished between lots of people.
On the way back, we took about 3 hours to finally get home. I wanted to look for
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People hangin around... a manga kissa to chill for a few hours while crowds died down... but we ended up walking to the next station, where there were people acting... a little less Japanese. Everyone was pretty irritable, and I am sorry to say that I was a bit of an asshole to Mika that night. So, the event... I don't know. It wasn't really worth it, but to dress up in yukata is definitely a fun experience. Oh, and by the way, the mall under Yokohama station is packed full of cute girls shopping! Seriously, there were so many. I was pretty close-minded and had thought only Shibuya had cute girls everywhere, but apparently Yokohama Eki is the spot to be too. ... sigh.
Next update will be on the last weekend filled with dates with great girls. After that, the much-anticipated "sayonara party" pics... And a little something on the airport, and a thank you to all my IES friends. And then a quicky on Canada and the wedding I attended coming back. Then an update from that end of summer to my current situation in school.
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Dyb
non-member comment
Great pics man good to see the updates still coming. Just so you know its probably good you didnt meet up with us that night at the fireworks lets just say there were some marital issues in the group that night....