Several years ago a new music festival started in Okayama called Eight Ball. It is held at Convex Okayama every year at the end of March. It is mainly a rock festival, and several famous Japanese bands and artists have attended the event. I had been interested in it for several years, but this year I finally went for the first time.

I was little unsure about the venue. I had been to Convex Okayama for a different event, and it was not so big. I could not imagine how they were going to hold a music festival there, not to mention it had three stages. Surprisingly, it was well put together. The main stage was inside the biggest hall, and they had one other inside stage using a different hall of the venue. The last stage was outside and was right next to the food stalls. It was easy to get something to eat while enjoying some music outside.

The main reason I went to the festival was to see the bands Man with a Mission and Frederic. But I also wanted to see 10-Feet and Kitani Tatsuya. They mostly played their well-known songs, but they were still really entertaining to watch. Some of the fans, especially the ones in the front were a little crazy. There was a lot of crowd surfing.

Music festivals are also a great chance to discover new musicians that you may have never heard of or not listened to much. There was a younger band I recently heard about called Retroriron who I also got to enjoy at the event. And there is a comedy band from Shikoku called Su-xing-cyu who often like to attend music festivals and pull in large crowds. They like to wear strange costumes, do quizzes during songs and many other crazy things. They were very funny.

I was surprised by how good Eight Ball festival was. I hope I will have the chance to go again in the future.

Last Sunday, NEO had its annual cherry blossom viewing party along the Asahi River.

Dave-sensei went there at 6:30am to put down the groundsheet and save a space for the party.

It rained all day Saturday, so the ground was a little wet, but Sunday was a hot and sunny day, so it wasn’t a problem.

It was very crowded along the river on Sunday because the weather was good and many people changed their plans from Saturday to Sunday.

The party was from 11:30am until around 7:00pm.

Many people came and went at different times all day long.

We were able to see some former NEO students as well.

One student is now living in Australia but was back in Okayama to visit her family.

Other than NEO students and staff, there were a lot of the staff’s friends at the party.

There were also a lot of friends of friends there, so it was an excellent chance to meet new and interesting people.

Of course, a lot of Japanese people were enjoying the flowers and the weather, but there were also people from all around the world.

We talked to people from Chile, Columbia, Spain, Belgium, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

A long-time family friend of ours, Elina Miyake, presented her first movie recently at the Nishi-Fureai Center in Senoo.

The film, which Elina both directed and stars in, portrays a busy mother who grows increasingly worried about the best way to feed her child. How can we keep our meals both healthy and affordable? From where should it be sourced? How should we feel about the use of pesticides and fertilizers in agriculture?

Part drama, part documentary, つちのたま / Tsuchi no Tama explores these questions through a series of interviews with farmers and other experts. It’s contemplative, educational, and a good reflection of life here in Okayama. If you’ve ever found yourself with similar concerns – or if you just like to support independent film – you won’t be disappointed.

You can read more about the film at elinamiyake.com. Note that there are additional private screenings in April and May in Yokohama and Tokyo, respectively. There will be future screenings in Okayama as well, but the dates and locations haven’t been announced yet. I’ll post an update when they’re available.

P.S. Here’s an article from RSK about the premier!

Last year I posted about our local football team ‘Fagiano’ being in J1 for the first time. My interest in the team and the Japanese football league has only gotten stronger since then. This year, the main season has been moved to August to match the league timings in other countries. So, during this part of the year, the J-League has decided to do a special one-time tournament league which has separated the teams into East and West. This also means it is half the length of the regular season. It has an irregular schedule, and by chance we ended up with three home games, three weeks in a row. All of them were luckily on Sundays too. I did not want to miss this opportunity, so I went to all three.

I thought it would be hard to get tickets, but it was surprisingly not a challenge at all. While a lot of seating areas sold out quickly, some took a while to eventually sell. I got to see games against Gamba Osaka, Nagoya Grampus and Kyoto Sanga F.C. All three games were exciting to watch, and our new players stood out a lot. I also feel like we were the better team in all three games, even though the results were a little mixed. In English, we like to use the phrase ‘growing pains’. But I think with more time, we can become one of the strongest teams in the west league. We have managed to pick up more points since these three games, so I have some hope.

Yesterday, a mini-documentary about me was published on a popular YouTube channel. The topic is about owning guns and hunting in Japan.

My friend Bobby is a professional videographer and producer here in Okayama. He worked on making this video for the past year. He attended many hunting events with me and took a lot of video and interviews.

The video is really amazing. He put everything together in a way that makes it easy for the audience to understand. The channel it is on a very well known channel about Japan. The video has over 20,000 views so far.