Water and Music Festival! Free Fun Family Event This Weekend at Heiwajima!

There's a great charity event coming up this weekend at Heiwajima that looks like great fun for the entire family! It's the "Mizu to Ongaku no Saiten" (Water and Music Festival). All proceeds will be donated to relief efforts of the disaster stricken areas in Tohoku and admission is free with a donation (of any amount!)

今週末9/22(土),23(日)に行われる、
水と音楽の祭典 in ボートレース平和島のお話を伺いました。
興味を持たれた方は、是非遊びに行ってみてはいかがでしょうか？
京急開発株式会社のHPでも詳しい情報がご覧になれます↓

http://www.keikyu-kaihatsu.co.jp/
http://www.big-fun.jp/10anniversary.pdf

 

The event runs from Saturday to Sunday opening at 10:30 am until 5 pm every night and it looks like it's going to be a blast!

You can do all these things for free:

*Join a free raffle to win prizes including vacation and stays at hotels
*Watch boats races (You get to bet for free and if your boat wins, you get a prize! Cool!)
*Kids can make handmade musical instruments
*The World Percussion group will perform
*There's all sort of boat rides for the kids (free!)
*Of course there's tons of real police cars, ambulances, fire engines etc, that the kids can go inside of and take pictures!
*A marching band parade
*Awa-Odori (Traditional Japanese dance) 
*A battle of the bands that includes many famous Jazz and rock and world music artists (the fans get to vote for the winners too!)
* Of course there's a food court too with all sorts of festival foods and snacks!

The Water and Music Festival sounds like a lot of fun and we are going to go this weekend. Hope to see you there too!

Here's a map to the festival: http://www.heiwajima.gr.jp/en/traffic/traffic.htm

Beautiful Views of Japan Taken With Cellphones!

It's a Sunday morning at 10:30 am here in Tokyo and I've been up since 4 am doing work. I'm pooped and it's hot as heck out there!

So, since it is Sunday, I want to relax.... How about a Japan photo mini-matsuri?

Here's some photos that my friends have taken in Japan recently that I thought were wonderful and, simply enough, these were taken with cell phones. 

That's Sheena (OK, that one is not taken with a cellphone!)

I took this photo of my mini-barbecue (Shichirin) and my favorite BBQ squid!

InterFM DJ George Cockle took this wonderful photo of the shore off Enoshima (Look very closely and you can see the outline of Mt. Fuji)....

Alright, already! A friend says he can't see Mt. Fuji. There it is marked in red. The arrow shows the snow line:

Tsukasa Sato took this breathtaking view of Tokyo

Toru Tsuno captured this great shot of Mt. Fuji in spring

Takatoshi Uchiyama from 76.1 InterFM shot this great photo of Zushi beach

I was going to work one day when I came upon this gentleman and his friends going to play baseball. I loved that handlebar moustache! I shot the photo with my iPhone then used Photoshop to add the baseball diamond in the background to give it a "Baseball card" feel.

James F. Setz took this great late afternoon shot of Tokyo (Shinjuku)

My ex-wife, Masako, with my daughters Wendy and Sheena at Narita Temple. (That's Sheena who was in the kimono at the very top of this article).

Marketing Japan: Announcing LOSERFES '10 - Japan's First Free Online Concert/Festival Sept. 12, 2010!

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

Proudly announcing the first of the Loser Festival (appropriately called, "Loserfes") series is George Williams. LOSERFES '10 will be the very first digital festival in Japan and you are invited! Admission is absolutely free!

CLICK ON POSTER TO SEE LARGER IMAGE

 

LOSERFES '10 online poster

CLICK ON POSTER TO SEE LARGER IMAGE

What is LOSERFES '10? LOSERFES '10 will be Japan's very first completely free, completely online digital concert, broadcast to you live on U-Stream (accessible on georgewilliams.jp) and the rebroadcast for your pleasure on YouTube (URL to be announced)... Free! No sign ups, no surveys, no gimmicks, no catches - it's just free!

Why LOSERFES '10? The summer festivals in Japan have become prohibitively expensive. Who can afford $1000 (USD) for a few days of music anymore?  So George and his friend, Koji Kurumatani, decided that they wanted to give something back to the people by holding a free live concert/festival for everyone in the world who has an Internet connection. LOSERFES '10 features some of Japan's best artists all getting together in a true festival atmosphere and enjoying a barbeque, drinks, sunshine, music and fun. The best part of all? You and your friends are invited!  

Who are the artists performing in LOSERFES '10? LOSERFES '10 line-up for the first show is going to be a great one. Besides George Williams hosting the festival, the artists slated to appear are Koji Kurumatani as Laika Came Back, Mufas and Hoff Dylan.

Where can you see LOSERFES '10? LOSERFES '10 can be enjoyed from the comfort of your own home or with your friends - wherever you have an Internet connection, LOSERFES '10 can be with you! It will be the first free live concert/festival in Japan that goes wherever you go!

How much does LOSERFES '10 cost to view? Nothing. LOSERFES '10 is absolutely free. It is a present from George and Koji, and the guests artists back to you, the people, for all these years of great support. Thank you!

When is LOSERFES '10? The show will be broadcast live on Sunday September 12, 2010. The show starts at 2 pm Japan time and officially ends at 3 pm Japan Time (but viewers to the live show get in on the after party for free too!) so set your calendars!

LOSERFES '10 background info: The idea for LOSERFES '10 came originally from George and Koji Kurumatani who decided that they wanted to extend the reach of GeorgeTV (www.georgewilliams.jp) and bring the first truly digital online show to the people for absolutely free.

When the idea was first pitched to several TV stations, they all balked as most replied "Major labels will not allow their artists to participate in such a free concert program." This caused a problem for George and Koji; if they could not get major label artists to participate, then, what were they to do? How could they have a lineup that many would want to watch yet not have major labels acts?

Aha! The idea came! Since Indie acts are the coolest anyway - and so many of today's top Indie artists are formerly major label acts - they decided to get former major label artists onboard! George called his friends, Koji called his and they all eagerly joined in!

Hence, the name "Loser Festival" (LOSERFES '10) was born!

Former major label artists now gone Indie! They are all losers! So, we call the festival LOSERFES '10!

LOSERFES '10 "non-" performers welcome you to the LOSERFES '10. There will be gifts for those who tune in live so make sure that you are there and tell your friends. We aim for 50,000 viewers to the live broadcast.

Please come out to support LOSERFES '10! It's free and it's all for you, the people!

See you then.

LOSERFES '10
Sept. 12, 2010　　2 pm Japan Time　 
９月１２日、２０１０年　１４：００〜
GeorgeTV: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/kungfugeorge
Georgewilliams.jp: www.georgewilliams.jp

ARTISTS:
Koji Kurumatani (Air PV): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8Q7yHRKD7Y
Laika Came back: http://laikacameback.blogspot.com/
Mufas: http://www.mufas.net/
Hoff Dylan: http://hoff.jp/media/

For more information contact Mike Rogers: mike.rogers @ universal-vision.jp