Final Saturday: Campus Summit!

first thanks to Senh for letting me steal his internet access in his hotel (my hotel is too ghetto, it doesn't even have furniture, much less internet). On to the entry:

My last saturday in Japan was a big event. As I mentioned a week or two ago, my friend Aska was the main organizer for the kyu$hu installments of an Avex Trax sponsored club event across the country, called 'Campus Summit.'

It was held at a place called Battleship Crea, which I had never been to, it wasn't very big (most clubs here aren't), but it was pretty nice, and a good crowd.

One thing I've learned in my few months of attending these events is about 'circles', aka 'dance circles'-- a lot of these people belong to teams or groups -- informal associations, loosely organized around their favorite genres of music. They have a team name and maybe a team t-shirt, logo, web page, etc. Sometimes they help as a group at events as door staff, etc. Aska's group is called 'Mom0hime'(the Peach princesses). The 'Seven' team also helped out at this one too.

Unlike the Mega-Trance events, this one wasn't just 'trance' (in its many variations), it was also para para, so the crowd was slightly different and the music was too. You get the Euro-beat (aka para para music) and other various forms of electronic stuff and some stuff which I would just call regular 'club music' (stuff they play at the Regal Beagle, etc).

This is 'DJ Ken Go', after he finished his set he came by and said hi and bought me a drink (the first time I think that's happened). He usually is one of the headliners at the mega-trance events and was happy to be recognized. He was like  'This is not Mega-Trance, its not trance music, its euro-beat, psycadellic trance, para trance, techno trance, etc etc' - (I didn't tell him that I still have no idea what the difference is...)

But let me cut to the chase and give you guys what you are waiting for, more unnatural coloration Japanese girls:

You may recognize that one on the left from  the last mega-trance. Actually she's less orange and more bronze here, it looks 'less' freaky (or at least a different kind of freaky). 

But speaking of Orange... you may be wondering what happened to the former queen of Orange, Aska's friend Momo. Well there's a funny story about that. When I was checking in on the guest list this cute girl was like  'oh yes, you're Aska's friend, I know you...' -- I was like  "uh, what was your name?" - it turns out it was Momo... who you may know by the name  Momo the Orange . I ended up hanging out with her and her friend outside later on when I went to grab a bite to eat:

I totally didn't recognize her. Here's a side by side so you can see why:

  Before (May) and After (August)

Amazing! When she told me I was like "no way!", her and her friend thought it was quite funny. I told them that I preferred naturally shaded people, and I even went so far as to say that being 'orange' was a little scary. 

Momo and her friend are both part of Aska's group, so I showed them some of my the videos I had of their team para para performance last March. Prompting a life demonstration:

Para para practice  (600kb - DIVX)

On the right,  Mohei, another team member was also there. She was passing out flyers for her nail salon, apparently she does her own nails...

As the evening went on, they switched over to para para mode:

Team Parazoo and Team  Non-sensical English T-shirt.

A lot of interesting people there too including:

Ganguros, both female and male!

Yasuy0, random z00m staff guy and Kame, who is one of the z00m bartenders, they were there for moral support, they're not really para para types...

I've seen the guy on the left before at some para para events, he's extremely pear shaped, but he's a mean dancer.

Next to him you may recognize the super anime otaku ojisan para para guy (first  mentioned here, classic  photo here). You may notice he's wearing a Dragon Ball costume for some reason... and check out this hat. I gotta get one. It says simply  'Meido Kisaten' (Maid Cafe)

You might not be able to tell, but thats a giant Stitch costume. I've seen girls dress up like this before... (sometimes in a Piccachu outfit instead) This is first time I've gotten a good one on film....

Speaking of strange...

 

L: That weird cross dressing guy was here again... While he was on the stage orange girl started lifting up his skirt and he made a weak attempt to protect dignity. Very disturbing.

R: Comedically large haired guy. Actually there were two or three of them, I'm not sure which one was  the same from the June mega-trance, but that slack jawed expression looks very similar...

Aska takes over the turntables.

I'm sure DJBam would scoff at the unprofessionalism, but Aska started crying when they did a thank you announcement for her during her set.

At the end of the night they did some thank yous for the organizers, showed some video clips on the screen and then the  M0mo Hime's did a final para para dance:

But why settle for just pictures, when you can enjoy the whole thing on video:

Campus Summit The Video - (9.5mb DIVX)  

Be sure to catch the  Street Fighter 2  based techno song and the  Hard Gay woots during the para para...

Last but not least:

A bunch of people were hanging outside afterwards, the funny thing is that this entire area (including the building right behind me) is full of love hotels. I'm wondering how many annoyed love hotel patrons were wondering why there were all these tanned weirdos loitering outside their secret sin liason point...