Moshi Moshi Nippon Festival
A couple of weeks ago a sponsored tweet (of all things) alerted me of a big music festival/convention happening in Tokyo that was also somehow completely free for foreigners to attend.
I forgot all about it until someone else on my TL also started talking about it. I registered for my free tickets, and decided to go check it out on the last day of the festival.
It was... weird. I mean, the festival itself was good, but it felt really out of place in Japan. It's a festival that promotes Japanese culture and artists... so all the stands were targeting foreigners. There were also plenty of Japanese guests attending, but they had to pay ¥3000 to be there! It just made me feel really weird. The venue was made up to look like a bon odori stage, there were traditional Japanese music (performed with taiko drums and shamisen) interrupted by DJ sets and energetic dance shows before the main stage show started.
There were plenty of booths and things to experience, but being on my own, it felt a little awkward. I was only there for the music anyway, I didn't realise it would also have a whole event space.
The bon odori stage area
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu VR experience (yes, really, I didn't bother getting in line for it).
The event was held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. I've passed by this venue a couple of times on foot before, I never thought I'd get to see the inside of it.
Foreigners had to go in a separate line to get in. It makes sense for logistic reasons, but it felt really awkward!
Once inside, the venue looked like this! It was a lot more lively than anticipated. The main stage area is behind all of the stuff pictured here.
There were all sorts of booths and mascots. This one is fairly easy to recognise.
But there were also regional mascots! Known as yuru kyara in Japan, its a very popular phenomenon. I think pretty much every region (and nearly every town???) in Japan has its own mascot character. There's also an annual yuru kyara Grand Prix where they award the year's most popular mascot character. It's a whole industry.
I don't recognize the last one, but the first two are Merugyukun and Merumochan, mascot characters for Oyabe city. They even have sticker sets on LINE. Seems popular!
Oh my god, the mascots are just walking around and participating in all the booth activities. I'm dying, this is too cute. pic.twitter.com/pNwkYSZfgT
- Tove ・ とうふ (@twiss) November 27, 2016
He's back~ pic.twitter.com/MM5oaNHAwY
- Tove ・ とうふ (@twiss) November 27, 2016
I eventually made my way to the main stage area. I got there early, so I was in second row all through the show! My main draw was でんぱ組.inc. I've been a fan of them for a while, but have never seen them live before. Now I get to see them for free? And second row? Bizarre.
Before Dempagumi came on, I was treated to performances by RAM RIDER, 新しい学校のリーダーズ, and TEMPURA KIDZ. All the acts did 20-30 minute sets.
RAM RIDER did a DJ set, an amazingly nerdy DJ set, it gave me goosebumps, and I laughed a lot. The set went from Baroque Hoedown to Legend of Zelda to Final Fantasy to Mario Bros. .... interspersed with pop music and heavy beats. It was a really great set, I'd love to hear him perform again. Or just get ahold of this set to listen to, because it would be good background music for work!
新しい学校のリーダーズ really surprised me. I thought they'd be a regular idol group, but this was hardcore dark humour and fun beats. At one point, the leader of the group put on a Shinzō Abe mask and read a long speech while their DJ (yes, they had their own on-stage DJ) put on a Trump mask and provided some background beats. It was so unexpected an amazing. The girls seem a lot older than they're portraying, it's a wonderful mix of cute and absurd. The music was really good too!
Here's a music video
I was quite curious about TEMPURA KIDZ, because I've been seeing them advertised everywhere, but this was a huge disappointment. A huuuuge group of... kids... doing pop in weird costumes. One of the girls didn't actually sing, she had a different costume than the others and just pulled strange faces throughout their 20-30 minute set. It was pretty jarring. Not for me in any case.
And then.... Dempagumi came on. It was fun, they mostly did songs I knew, but one of their members weren't there, so it felt weird. 新しい学校のリーダーズ and TEMPURA KIDZ came back on and performed a song with them too! The fan chants and dances were new to me, I had a blast joining in. Hopefully I'll get to see them live again at some point!
There was a break after this, and then the second set of acts started. First up was a warm-up act, again with traditional Japanese music, but with a break in the middle with their leader giving an amazing speech.
もしもしニッポンフェスティバルに行ってきました🙌 阿波踊りチーム #寶船 が暑すぎた件😂 #もしフェス #moshifes #DAISHIDANCE pic.twitter.com/EWj5ZUANrr
- アフロマンス (@afromance) November 27, 2016
Main message is "Look around you! See all these people from other countries? They all love Japan, isn't that amazing? It doesn't matter where you're from, the US, Italy, France, Japan, it doesn't matter - what matters is this moment right now, so let's all join in!"
Then it was time for the evening's headliners. CAPSULE and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. Yuppppp. To be honest, I was way more excited about CAPSULE than Kyaryu, but I was in second row, and there was absolutely no getting out after CAPSULE was done. The place was PACKED.
CAPSULE was really amazing. Photography was not allowed and guards did confiscate cameras and phones from people standing around me, still I snuck this picture after their set
So good.
Kyaryu came on, she performed all her greatest hits, even PON PON PON, so I could actually join in and be silly. It was a good time. Her outfit was seriously ugly, tho :O Very unexpected. I kept wondering if she was pregnant, because her belly looked huge. Pretty sure it was just an unflattering cut, though!
There are more pictures of all the acts over here, if you're interested!
It was a really fun day out. I was a little disappointed with Dempagumi, but I walked away with new music discoveries. Never a bad thing. I've been looking for 新しい学校のリーダーズ stuff, but haven't found anything yet. They're either too indies to be on display in major record stores, or they haven't actually released anything yet... I'll be keeping an eye out.
I forgot all about it until someone else on my TL also started talking about it. I registered for my free tickets, and decided to go check it out on the last day of the festival.
It was... weird. I mean, the festival itself was good, but it felt really out of place in Japan. It's a festival that promotes Japanese culture and artists... so all the stands were targeting foreigners. There were also plenty of Japanese guests attending, but they had to pay ¥3000 to be there! It just made me feel really weird. The venue was made up to look like a bon odori stage, there were traditional Japanese music (performed with taiko drums and shamisen) interrupted by DJ sets and energetic dance shows before the main stage show started.
There were plenty of booths and things to experience, but being on my own, it felt a little awkward. I was only there for the music anyway, I didn't realise it would also have a whole event space.
The bon odori stage area
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu VR experience (yes, really, I didn't bother getting in line for it).
The event was held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. I've passed by this venue a couple of times on foot before, I never thought I'd get to see the inside of it.
Foreigners had to go in a separate line to get in. It makes sense for logistic reasons, but it felt really awkward!
Once inside, the venue looked like this! It was a lot more lively than anticipated. The main stage area is behind all of the stuff pictured here.
There were all sorts of booths and mascots. This one is fairly easy to recognise.
But there were also regional mascots! Known as yuru kyara in Japan, its a very popular phenomenon. I think pretty much every region (and nearly every town???) in Japan has its own mascot character. There's also an annual yuru kyara Grand Prix where they award the year's most popular mascot character. It's a whole industry.
I don't recognize the last one, but the first two are Merugyukun and Merumochan, mascot characters for Oyabe city. They even have sticker sets on LINE. Seems popular!
Oh my god, the mascots are just walking around and participating in all the booth activities. I'm dying, this is too cute. pic.twitter.com/pNwkYSZfgT
- Tove ・ とうふ (@twiss) November 27, 2016
He's back~ pic.twitter.com/MM5oaNHAwY
- Tove ・ とうふ (@twiss) November 27, 2016
I eventually made my way to the main stage area. I got there early, so I was in second row all through the show! My main draw was でんぱ組.inc. I've been a fan of them for a while, but have never seen them live before. Now I get to see them for free? And second row? Bizarre.
Before Dempagumi came on, I was treated to performances by RAM RIDER, 新しい学校のリーダーズ, and TEMPURA KIDZ. All the acts did 20-30 minute sets.
RAM RIDER did a DJ set, an amazingly nerdy DJ set, it gave me goosebumps, and I laughed a lot. The set went from Baroque Hoedown to Legend of Zelda to Final Fantasy to Mario Bros. .... interspersed with pop music and heavy beats. It was a really great set, I'd love to hear him perform again. Or just get ahold of this set to listen to, because it would be good background music for work!
新しい学校のリーダーズ really surprised me. I thought they'd be a regular idol group, but this was hardcore dark humour and fun beats. At one point, the leader of the group put on a Shinzō Abe mask and read a long speech while their DJ (yes, they had their own on-stage DJ) put on a Trump mask and provided some background beats. It was so unexpected an amazing. The girls seem a lot older than they're portraying, it's a wonderful mix of cute and absurd. The music was really good too!
Here's a music video
Click to viewI was quite curious about TEMPURA KIDZ, because I've been seeing them advertised everywhere, but this was a huge disappointment. A huuuuge group of... kids... doing pop in weird costumes. One of the girls didn't actually sing, she had a different costume than the others and just pulled strange faces throughout their 20-30 minute set. It was pretty jarring. Not for me in any case.
And then.... Dempagumi came on. It was fun, they mostly did songs I knew, but one of their members weren't there, so it felt weird. 新しい学校のリーダーズ and TEMPURA KIDZ came back on and performed a song with them too! The fan chants and dances were new to me, I had a blast joining in. Hopefully I'll get to see them live again at some point!
There was a break after this, and then the second set of acts started. First up was a warm-up act, again with traditional Japanese music, but with a break in the middle with their leader giving an amazing speech.
もしもしニッポンフェスティバルに行ってきました🙌 阿波踊りチーム #寶船 が暑すぎた件😂 #もしフェス #moshifes #DAISHIDANCE pic.twitter.com/EWj5ZUANrr
- アフロマンス (@afromance) November 27, 2016
Main message is "Look around you! See all these people from other countries? They all love Japan, isn't that amazing? It doesn't matter where you're from, the US, Italy, France, Japan, it doesn't matter - what matters is this moment right now, so let's all join in!"
Then it was time for the evening's headliners. CAPSULE and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. Yuppppp. To be honest, I was way more excited about CAPSULE than Kyaryu, but I was in second row, and there was absolutely no getting out after CAPSULE was done. The place was PACKED.
CAPSULE was really amazing. Photography was not allowed and guards did confiscate cameras and phones from people standing around me, still I snuck this picture after their set
So good.
Kyaryu came on, she performed all her greatest hits, even PON PON PON, so I could actually join in and be silly. It was a good time. Her outfit was seriously ugly, tho :O Very unexpected. I kept wondering if she was pregnant, because her belly looked huge. Pretty sure it was just an unflattering cut, though!
There are more pictures of all the acts over here, if you're interested!
It was a really fun day out. I was a little disappointed with Dempagumi, but I walked away with new music discoveries. Never a bad thing. I've been looking for 新しい学校のリーダーズ stuff, but haven't found anything yet. They're either too indies to be on display in major record stores, or they haven't actually released anything yet... I'll be keeping an eye out.