Whirlwind Day

This past weekend was a three day weekend for us here in Japan, which was a pleasant relief after our school's busy, busy, busy sports festival which we did on the Friday before the weekend started.  And before I say much more, it was also Thanksgiving in Canada -- so Happy Thanksgiving!!

So this time, I'm going to talk about one day only out of my weekend.  My whirlwind day. 

I'm calling it a whirlwind because it was a ridiculously long day.  I started by getting up super early (and if I'm saying it was early, you all know it was REALLY early!)  Anyway, the reason for that was because I went to go catch the 6:30 bus to Kobe (and it takes me about 30 minutes to get to the place where I can catch the bus).  So anyway, yes, early bus.  Ah, I suppose you're wondering why I went, right? Well, I went to go to the Radio Kansai Music Festival in Kobe, because I had such a fun time last year when I went.  The festival didn't start until 10, so I had time to wander around for a little bit and make my way down from Sannomiya to Harborland -- it takes about 30 minutes to walk there.  So, I took a walk...oh...and I also had wanted to do some shopping while I was there, but the stores also don't open until 10am, so all I could do was look at what shops there were.

By the time I got down to Harborland, the festival was just getting started, and they kicked it off with some really energetic rock music this year.  Nice!  So I listened to a couple different groups do their sets (they only got about 30 minutes to perform each...) Then I took a walk down the area where the festival was to check out what else was going on, and if there was any interesting music on any of the other stages (there were 3 of them).  One thing I noticed was it seemed a lot smaller this year.  Which is kind of strange because it was in the exact same space as last year.  Maybe it just seemed bigger last year because it was my first time there, and also my first time in Kobe. Hmmm....

Kobe Harborland...Radio Kansai Music Festival

Band called "The Best Time" that kicked off the festival



信政誠 (Nobumasa Makoto)

Anyway, after taking a look at the schedule, there weren't any bands playing for a while (they had other 'entertainment' going on in between the music) so I took a stroll through the Umie mall and Mosaic -- a shopping and restaurant area in Harborland.  While I wasn't actually able to find any of the things that I was shopping for, I did take the chance to get something to eat...since my breakfast was so early, an early lunch was a good idea.

After that, it was back to the festival to take in some more music.  I stayed there until early afternoon, and then I headed into Osaka, to do some more shopping (well... that was the plan anyway, although it didn't work out that way...although the shops are basically the same, so I don't know what I expected anyway).  Now, what I mean by it didn't work out that way is that I got distracted by some street lives that were going on.  The first ones that I stopped to listen to were some people that I've heard their music before, but it's been a while, so it was quite nice...although it was cloudy and rather windy, so it was a little cool sitting there...

馬道まさたか (Umamichi Masataka)

Tyotti

After those street lives, I got myself some dinner, and picked up some special snacks that I like to get after visiting Osaka, and then settled down for one more street live (this one was completely new to me) before I headed back to Kobe.

オカダユータ　(Okada Yuta)

By the time I got back to Kobe I had about 15-20 minutes before my bus (the last one of the evening) left. I think that by the time I finally got home and got myself to bed, I'd been awake for about 21 hours.  So as I said, a very long day.  But definitely worth it! Although I failed at my shopping mission (not that I was particularly excited for that anyway), I got to listen to some great music, and found some new bands/singers whose music I enjoy!!  Yay, music!!