Flashback to 2010 - Flowers for the Broken Spirits Live.

I miss this band.

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10 Patty Tower Cheese Burger of DOOM! - (It's not Sushi 03)

in 2010 Lotteria (A Japanese fast food chain) had a 10 patty tower cheese burger. Some mates of mine manned up to the challenge.
It is old footage to be fair but since there are frequently big tower burger specials from many of the chains in Japan, It is still pretty relevant today.

WARNING! It's not for the faint of stomach.

JHS Students ~5 hit combo~ No.5

教えている生徒たち個人個人が判定できないという理由から、これらの写真を選びましたが、いずれも削除の要望があれば、メールにて受け付け、迅速な対応を取らせていただきます。よろしくお願いいたします。

Shots #44 Winter 2010-11

This might be the best winter I have experienced here. Leaving aside the recent brutally bitter cold and my massive use of kerosene, I am thouroughly enjoying this winter compared to the previous 2.

My first winter here was a shocker. February gets down to Harrismith levels but even during Jozi temps, the lack of insulation made it brutal. Apparently it was a warm winter. The lakes didn't fully freeze and there wasn’t much great snow on the slopes. In total it had snowed 4 times in Shibukawa and there was a good load of piled up ice around the place.

My second winter here I was prepared for, or so I thought, It was quite a bit colder than the previous year. There was record snow in Shibukawa and it snowed 7 or 8 times (I lost count) and it was quite annoying getting around. The ski goers were going on and on about that white fluffy crap… I on the other hand had not been so depressed in my life.

This year seems to be the best of both worlds. The slopes are covered in craptonnes of the finest powder (thats good right?) and only once so far has it made it over Komochi, Akagi and Haruna to sprinkle 3-5 cm on Shibs. Added to the fact that I don7t spare any expense in keeping warm, It has been a very pleasant winter. My lady might also have something to do with it too. So far so good. It may snow again here but its already feb. It shouldnt be bucketloads.

With the snow is in the mountains… All is right with the world.

EXTREME AGGRESSION #6 Kichijoji Crescendo *2010-12-18* live report

I have been looking for a Blood Stain Child live show for a long time. Being from Osaka and being famous in the west means that they don’t often come through to Tokyo, and the nature of the Metal industry in Japan means that When there are good lives they are not often at the most convenient times. When I found this event, I jumped on it.

It was one of those many band festival type events with BSC headlining. The downside was that BSC had a very short set, the upside is that i discovered 2 new bands.

full report after the jump.

Nagano Part 2

continued…

We returned to the present day with a trip to their primary school. The building that molded the mind of my lady and all her little sibs. I was surprised at the size, or the lack thereof. but apparently there are only 130 odd students there so that would explain it.

Messing around on the playground for no reason in particular. Was fun. It had no real purpose but then not much of the trip did. It was more about spending time with them than doing anything in particular.

But it was physical activity. and physical activity takes energy which needs to be replaced before long.

Good thing the city is famous for it’s soba. The restaurant we attacked was special indeed. It was attached to an old sake winery that had been converted to a museum.

 

Nagano Part 1

On the last day of 2010 I went over the border to The frozen mountainous wild lands of Nagano. Apart from the briefest of visits to the Karuizawa town limits when I drove Usui, It is a prefecture that I had never been to, never wanted to go to and for that matter never really knew anything about apart from the fact that it was cold, covered in snow and had monkeys that bathed in hot springs. It took on a different meaning when I started dating my lady, since it is where she hails from. Over the months we have been together, Her little siblings had grown to know and show fondness for me so We decided it was time that I got around to meeting them. So I boarded a Shinkansen (bullet train) and took the (rather short) trip into the unknown.

Hit the jump to

Shots #35 & #36 Faster than a speeding bullet

Not really but its still quick. A magnificent machine that carried me to Nagano for a great final day of the first decade of the 21st century. Well not quite…

Mine was a little less impressive looking:

It will be a long post…For now, this will do for a preview.

Shots #34 Moo Mofo!

Shots #33 Oh…

indeed.

Let there be light.

The lady and I took a trip up the mountain to see the Illumination at Lake Haruna.

The town and part of the lake atop the mountain was turned into a magical illuminated wonderland of LEDs and snow… more after the jump ;)

The Clutch and the Master

So the shifting on my new car had been getting progressively harder. I first got me some badass (and pricy) Motul tranny oil but it didn’t fix it, just stopped the grinding. I decided before I go spending TOO much getting it overhauled or replaced, to replace the clutch Master and slave cylinders. Contacted a buddy and he ordered the parts and helped with the install this past weekend.

The result………

Omlette Cake

No shit… that's what it was called. Needless to say I was a little skeptical.

Upon closer inspection it was just a foldover cake of sorts. had nothing to do with omlettes aside from maybe the shape. It could just as easily have been a Calzone cake.

Mad Metal Misdemeanors [2010-12-11] A live report of sorts

Last year around this time I went to a live show at a University in IIdabashi. I went through again this year to have an epic time partying to epic music with epic people. This year was no different. I just took waaay more pictures.

Hit the jump for the full report!

Shots #32 Salute

This is more of a test than anything else. Finally got me a windows virtual machine running on the mac. Basically now I can use Windows Live blog writer which is more powerful than any of the sorry mac blog writers. and most importantly. Its free!

The pic is also awesome!

Its also a preview of the next big post. Stay tuned.

Shots #31 This is how we roll.

 

The ALT Chapter of the Gunma Hi-Octane Club.

left to right:

Jeevy (Subaru Vivio RX-R), Me (Nissan Silvia S14 K’s Zenki), Li (Nissan Silvia S14 Q’s Kouki), Mike (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution II), Allen (Mazda Roadster NA6)

Black and beautiful by the lake.

No... not what you may have imagined. if I got your hopes up, I apologize. Let me make it up with these pictures instead.

After shooting footage for the next episode of Shin Yamato Damacy, Allen and I rolled over to Haruna-ko to have a little bit of a shoot with our sexy beasts.

Tearing up the Touge ~5 hit combo~ No.4

 

Gunma’s Nocturnal Wildlife

If you go up to the mountains at night you’re in for a big surprise…

If you go up to the mountains at night  you better have extra tires…

‘cos every drifter that ever there was, will gather there for certain because…

THEY CAN!

LOUD PARK 2010 ~ Part 4

Yeah

I haven’t forgotten… but it takes a long time to write up all this awesome.

If you haven’t read the rest, DO IT!!!!

Alexisonfire

Would have been more interesting if Alexis was actually on fire… whoever Alexis actually is. The band sounded like a conversation with the manager of the Pearl Drums stand and tasted like a Lotteria Supper. Hey. Since I discovered the wonders of one handed moshing to Turisas before this, I needed to pack in the power to continue the fight.

I heard them once on YouTube… didn’t care much for them. and after a power act like Turisas. It wasn’t worth the effort.

Kuni

With a full belly I returned to the seating area to watch some metal in comfort (I may be getting old, but I really like having comfy seating between moshes)

Kuni was, and for that matter, still is an anomaly to me. He is one of those monster Japanese metal legends from back in the day. and I DO mean LEGEND. He is a guitarist that gets a bunch of other awesome names in metal to occasionally form a band and perform.

“You could say he was

a metal Santana.”

Great metal. a bit too old school for me but it was enjoyable (since I had a comfy chair) I liked the act better than I liked Alexisonfire… but it wasn’t mind-blowing. Having said that… A few thousand fans did disagree with me. The stage was packed and the audience was generating some epic energy. Its possible that that's the reason I found watching them so enjoyable. Because honestly. They really are not my style.

Spiritual Beggars.

Wait WHAT??? Blasted hippies in bellbottoms singing about love. hehehe.

Yeah basically they were hippies that make metal. Its proper metal. just not my style.

Angra

What is it about Brazil and steel. They pump out power metal like a Thai hooker pumps out ping pong balls! And its damn good stuff! Ok so like the old school power puritans would probably call it crap but then ALL puritans (even metal ones) need to wake up and realise the world is turning.

“…long flowing hair blown around by stage fans”

Angra was power. Proper power. They even had the Stratovarius like power stance and long flowing hair blown around by stage fans. There was one member who didn’t have hair though. It would have gotten caught in his instrument. Yup they had a Violin. While violins in metal are not new I have never seen one so effectively used in power metal before. These guys were unreal. and they fed of the crowd more voraciously than any band at the festival… up to that point anyway..

MOTÖRHEAD

I  saw MOTÖRHEAD!!!!!!

When I think about this I wonder if it was real or if I was having some weird ass dream. I mean. On stage. Right there. Was THE MOTÖRHEAD. and they sounded excellent. When you see an artist with that reputation you expect top quality. Halford didn’t cut it. These guys flayed it! It was intense. They played a few new tracks but for me it was hearing all those classics that made them the legendary band that they they are.

I will be the first to admit that they are not nearly my favourite metal act. but they are quality.

Besides seeing Metal grannies screaming for Lemmy like high school girls was priceless.

Avenged Sevenfold

The last mosh of Loud Park 2010. While not the last mosh of the year I am going to be hard-pressed to find one on this scale the rest of this year so I had to give it my all. Sadly Avenged sevenfold lacks the power of some of the other bands that played but they were by no means weak. They got the circles going good.

The tone of their show was tempered by the loss of their drummer James "The Rev" Sullivan but the crowd fuelled their energy and it was a mix of power and remembrance.

They played a fair amount from their latest album ‘Nightmare’ which was known by the crowd but had skipped my attention while I have been here. It was impressive stuff. I feel it sounds a little more (for lack of a better word) mature than the earlier stuff. In the end it is up to you whether you like it or not… Me? I was 60/40 toward like but Loud Park being Loud Park I tended to gravitate toward genki over maturity.

“Avenged sevenfold lacks the power… but they were

by no means weak.”

Its ok. They played plenty of their classics.

I attempted to get the figure 8 pit going again but the fans were not as intense as the ones in 3 inches of blood. very few got the idea. even though it seemed like the only logical thing to do given the proximity of the two circles. I may have needed another usher to help guide the flow. It may have been the fact that A7X fans lack the will to break out of their comfort zones. Maybe they just aren’t insane. In the end I still had a great time.a and i kept the gap from clogging up with spectators with the occasional well placed charge…

Ozzy Ozbourne

Rob Halford may be the (self proclaimed) god of metal. But Ozzy IS the prince of darkness (and his new music is actually good).

What would be a synonym for Ozzy Osbourne?

I can’t think of just one. In fact I needed help from the web to make a list of enough words that mean Ozzy Osbourne.

alarming, astonishing, awe-inspiring, awful,beautiful, breathtaking, exalted,  fearsome, formidable, frantic, frightening, grand,  impressive, intimidating, magnificent,majestic, mind-blowing*, moving, overwhelming, shocking, something else, striking, stunning, stupefying, terrible,terrifying, wonderful, wondrous…   You get the idea.

You will get those who say ‘Oh I saw Ozzy at this and this festival and he was alright I suppose’ or things along those lines. In fact a number of people, when I asked them to come to loud park, said things just like that.

“…seeing someone as old as my dad on stage just having the time of his life was in itself worth the effort and money.”

They have many reasons why Ozzy is in some way not anything special. And to be fair, metal is such that he actually isn’t anything special. So he did a lot for the music but times change and I am all for the changing and evolving of metal as a musical force (yes I am growing up). But wow. He was amazing. and seeing someone as old as my dad on stage just having the time of his life was in itself worth the effort and money. Yeah ‘Iron Man’, ‘Paranoid’ and ‘Mr Crowly’ live did help some. Just a bit ;P

But yeah. People have said he is old and a bit of a fool. Which is true. His reality show didn’t really paint him in the best light (or rather just told the truth). But wow. I have never seen someone (aside from me :P ) having so much fun before. He was almost like a child in his delight.

He will never stop performing. He can never stop performing. He will likely die on stage to a packed house. I am honoured to have seen him and before he does. To have felt his energy. To have tasted the legend that he has built up. It was truly a spectacular experience.

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