Gondry's Japan

At a moment's notice on Saturday I headed out into the mountains to a tiny music festival hosted by various artists, musicians and other cool people from Onomichi - my favourite dinky town ten minutes from Mihara. It was tiny, maybe 150 people in total and, without being too effusive, I have to say it was the best thing I have done in Japan thus far! The setting was too beautiful to be true - a tiny clean campsite surrounded by pines and mountains with a steep slope on one side leading to a deep grey damn. The weather has finally let up and the days were crisp, the night pleasantly chilly. There wasn't a stage so to speak, in the middle of the clearing stood one lone pine tree under which was a wooden bench for musicians (which at night, like everything in this country) was lit spectacularly. It seems everyone who attended brought their own stall or display or toy and everything was free and available at all hours. Under a clump of trees someone had brought two fat white goats who lazed about and made children hysterical with delight and terror. A small wooden desk next to the goat had a notepad and pencil. You would write a letter (private wishes and secrets) and hang it from the trees from coloured string and at the end of the festival the letters were lowered and fed to the goats, your secrets excreted as tiny turds all over the field. A particularly ingenious addition to the festival was a blimp size white balloon made from hundreds of garbage bags and inflated by a fan. Inside the floor was covered with patchwork quilts, the light was clean and surreal. It was like being in a whale in a particularly friendly picturebook. At night the blimp was illuminated with projections from the outside of fireworks, water and trees. You could just sit for hours watching the colours leak all over, every now and again sharp shadows of men with guitars walking around you. There were rainbow hammocks (that were again there, it seems, to delight and terrify children), stalls selling chai and tom yum and curry. There was an enourmous cardboard house lit with dangling bulbs that you could walk inside and decorate with paints and crayons.

If this all sounds psychedelic its because it was! I kept thinking to myself, where are the drugs? people do this without drugs? indeed! they do! which means it had the magic of a hippie festival but none of the filth and none of the sordidness. It was truly truly magical. I'll post the photos on flickr soon and you can see for yourself.

The highlight of the performances was a man in dungarees who did a one-man-band guitar n harmonica puppet show. I didnt understand what he was saying but he was very fervent which made it very funny. I especially liked the two photo cardboard cut out puppets which were mini replicas of himself (big sunglasses, floral hat) with which he did a short but slick dance routine.

Everyone at the festival was so kind and chilled out. Ah! I thought, this is where the cool people in Japan are, the ones who arent teachers and salarymen (who until now, were the only people I had encountered). The food was delicious, the music was gentle and sweet, the stalls really did make you feel like a five year old (except maybe you werent scared of goats). It was like living in the movie Science of Sleep. Utterly surreal. Utterly magical. The best place in the whole world. I almost feel like I shouldnt be writing about it, like it doesnt actually exist, it was just a dream made of plastercine in a forest with a snow white goat.