Fuk 8/07 - pt 4 - Mega-Trance

Sorry for the delay in my Japan blogs!  As you can see from my recent blogs, things have been very hectic since I came back from that trip! And this blog had a video to edit....

Anyway, this is from a fun clubbing event I caught last last Saturday night.  Once a month, a group puts on an event called 'Mega-Trance',  which I used to attend regularly when I was living there.  This is the Fukuoka version, they actually do them in many different cities throughout Japan on different weekends.... The venue is not fancy (at all),  but the crowd that comes out is fun.

ごめん！遅過ぎよ！ビデオの準備したから、次の日本旅行ブログ遅書いた！今回福岡のメガ-トランスパティを参加した！

My last year in Japan a local friend introduced me to this wonderful world of pop culture:  the ' Para Para' / ' Euro Trance' scene(s).  For those who aren't familiar, these people are closely related to the ' ganguro' or ' gyaru' fashion subcultures in Japan....  basically Japanese people with BIG, bleached hair and tanned, dark skin...   (it ranges from the mild to the extreme)... who like to dance strangely to electronic music...

Rejects from society you say?  People devoted to out-of-date music and dancing you say?  well you may be right... but they're actually nice people and relatively friendly...  they don't give a crap about meeting foreigners or getting wasted,  just about the music and the dancing and the fun.

僕の最後年日本に住んでいた時、このトランスエベント見つけました、日本人友達は福岡のトランスとパラパラエベントを教えた。この人とても面白い！普通”外人・バー”人より良人ですよ。服と髪面白いけど、もとフレンドリーし親切し。

To give you a better idea, here's the video:　もちろんビデオを撮った。見てください！

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ihLWV7yTww Since I used to come to these all the time, and I'm usually one of only a few foreigners who ever come (or come back) to these things, I know or at least recognize a lot of familiar faces.  Here are some of the pics I took throughout the night... some of them are in the video too, but you can click to see a bigger version to enjoy the bizarre fashions in all their glory!

実は外国人、祖なの所で一寸珍しい、でも僕は前よく行ったから、彼達僕は知っている、たくさん度も立ち見つけました。面白し友誼し人でしょ。。。服もすごい！

  DJ Stanllie on the turntables. 

It was hot as hell in there - pretty full, people dancing and lots of big hair trapping the heat. so if everyone looks sweaty, thats why...  they distributed free fans, but it wasn't enough!

今回とても暑かった！人一杯だったから。。。

As you could see in the video, for some reason they had a 'special guest' doing an appearence...

  it was a new 'pop idol' girl named Aira Mitsuki,  ( website),  who according to the poster, won some kind of national dance contest... coming in first out of like 6000 people.  She has some album out (i'm guessing by the same record company that promotes 'Mega-Trance',  therefore she did her single in front of the crowd... 

But it was pretty horrible... just lip-synching and doing a kind of lame dance...  Most people (including myself) were rather disinterested after the first 30 seconds or so. ( her MV on youtube is not bad, but...)

今回アイラミツキは特別のゲーストでした。日本に有名ですか？（ ユウツブ）あまり面白くないのパフォルマンスした。１００％リプシンクした。一寸変よ！

as you may be able to tell, even the DJs were clowning her dance moves in the back while people were waiting for her to finish. 

DJ Emi does a bit more dancing after the 'idol' is done. ;-)

DJエミはアイラミツキより綺麗よ！

During the evening one ganguro-esque guy came up to me and said hi... he asked me to take a picture of him and his friends.　　このエベントで、外国の友達為に僕はよく人の写真を撮りたいでした。毎回メガ-トランス福岡に居た、この人は写を撮らせた：

I immediately recognized him as the guy who always asks me to take his picture... last time he asked me THREE times...  if only they were a more handsome lot!

去年も 写真を撮らせました、4月時 三回も撮りました！如何して,わからない。。。 ：-P

OK, thats a little bit better! ;-)

彼女達は前の男達より綺麗よ。

Let's try it without the guy now:

much better. ;-)

As I mentioned, the people dress a bit weird, and their style is a bit off the wall, but thats part of the fun,   in my case, the more unique the fashion, the better... this is one of my favorite things about Japan!  Here are some more pics I snapped around the club:

面白いセンス人の写真撮るを大好き。例えば：

  This tattoo-ed bosom girl passed out about half way through, but was able to wake up and was back out there dancing by the end of the night.

I always make jokes about the fact that the patrons at these events actively contribute to the depletion of the ozone later with all their hair product usage,  this particular night this guy was the winner for 'biggest hair':

実は日本のトランスのファンスの一番好きな物は：ヘアスプレーですよ！如何して？わからない。。。でも毎回もともと大へアーの人見ます。。。

  He was hardcore,  he stood up on a stool and trance-danced in place almost the whole night through,  his hair didn't move an inch either.

彼はすごいハードコーアでしょ！

The highlight of the night  was bumping into my old pal Emi...

一番嬉しなことは長間の福岡友達はここで会った！エーちゃん！

  She is by far the cutest, most fun, most sexy girl I met in Japan... she speaks zero English, loves having her picture taken, is drunk every time I met her (which is why she is seemingly always in a very good mood),  but thats ok, she is super fun to hang with. 

彼女は福岡で一番綺麗、 一番楽しい会ったの女の子。2005年から知っているな人ですよ。。。彼女英語ぜんぜん知っていませんけど、いつでも僕を見たとき嬉なります。それから、makes me feel happy. ;-)

Just for Patdoubt, I made this nice animated gif:

Funny story:  towards the end she asked me "後で セフェリ へ 行きますか？  一緒行きましょうか?"  (translation: "Are you going to Seferi afterwards?  Let's go together.")

I looked at her puzzled for a minute...  At first I thought she was saying 'セフレ'('Sefure')... which means something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT... Then I realized she was trying to say ' Safari', which is the name of  lounge that is open late night after the rest of the clubs close down.  very awkward there for a moment. :-P

Anyway, back to the party:　このエベントのスタフとお客様大体友達ですから、たくさん誕生日ケーキ、ETCをする。。。アメリカのクラブ違うよ！

Since most of the people know eachother,  they did a lot of birthdays,  coming on the mic to announce someone's birthday and showing up with a cake.  In this case... Super-Tan girl's turn. I think there were like 4 throughout the course of the night while I was there.

As it was quite hot in Japan this week (well over 33 C / 90+ F),  and the club was packed, we were all sweatin'... a lot of the guys started taking their shirts off,  at which point DJ Ken Go did the same:

to reveal a '4' on his chest.... (this was actually the fourth anniversary event)

厚かったから、ふくを脱ぎました、4周年Anniversaryから、DJケン・ゴは'4号’が有りました。

But this guy took it just a bit too far!  yikes!

この人も厚過ぎでしたか？怖い！

Now that I'm putting all my vids on youtube, i'm hoping to go back and upload a lot of my old mega-trance vids up there when I get a chance... i'll let you guys know when I do...

(meanwhile I have another week's worth of pics to catch up on!)