J-Pop Summit Festival

The festival this year had a few interesting food booths selling stuff like cupcakes. The rest of the booths seemed to be for advertising or something and didn’t really interest me. The music was loud and unique which was nice. I didn’t really get to stay for that long … too bad the festival was only one day. This was definitely better than the Nihonmachi Street Fair.

What an amazing festival! I’ve tried searching in so many ways and just can’t believe that no one else has reviewed this event. I was at this event from beginning to end on Saturday and was just blown away.
If you’re into J-​Pop (Japanese pop fashion, music, art, gaming, animé and everything else), this was the premier place to be yesterday. Of all the festivals I have ever been to in Japantown, this one was unlike any other and was the best.
Tons of people came dressed in incredible costumes and you would see them over and over walking around. It felt like one was suddenly immersed in a real world daytime version of Japanese animé. Beyond cool!!! Some amazing outfits and you could tell that everyone was having such a good time.
So much was going on that I don’t know where to begin.
Sega (great people!) was there with gaming and countless giveaways like t-​shirts, hoodies, and an inflatable yellow bird with velcro straps so that you can strap it to your arm and have it sit on your shoulder. I especially loved the latter and got a bunch of those.
There were plenty of booths that were all great and unusual in their own way. Even Amoeba was there. Had a celestial tiny cupcake from King of Kupkakes that I can’t remember the name of, but it had cinnamon on top. It was so good that I have been trying to find the place online, but nothing comes up so I’m wondering if it’s a new place.
HAAMONII was there (ultra premium shochu… good stuff!!!) and the founder and staff was super cool. Although I didn’t make it to their after party (sorry!), my friend absolutely loved it. They are still really new, but I was told that HAAMONII is already available at Ledger’s Liquor in the east bay.
Sweets Collection — The Art You Can Eat was there as well and they had a dazzling array of edible jello art. I just couldn’t believe that those things were edible… they truly were works of art and so reasonably priced too. The Honest Tea guys were also there and they were super generous with their samples. Honesty (Honest Tea) is a good thing!
The Pocky eating contest was really something too. The guy who won it was a winner from the start, jumping around from the first moment until he was chosen… so much energy and he decimated those ten boxes quickly. Handled it like a real champ… Joey Chestnut style. At the opposite end of the spectrum was a contender who barely ate two boxes before almost throwing up. The announcer told him that instead of entering the competition, if he had been hungry, he would have just given him a box. Great fun for all and all the participants ate valiantly for a chance to win a year’s supply of Pockys.
Honestly, I just can’t say enough about all the amazing costumes I saw going by all day and am still kicking myself for not bringing my camera. Been having battery issues lately so perhaps it’s time for a new camera. The website link I added does have some photos which will give you some idea of what it was like.
Lastly, I have never been happy with the music played at the Japantown festivals over the years. It has always been a pet peeve of mine how it always seems to be the same sappy, washed up soul that they always play over and over. I even sarcastically told my friends that they would probably hear Kool and the Gang’s Celebration at least three or four times and that Ai No Corrida song which seems to be a given at Japanese festivals here. Well, I am happy to say that for the first time ever, the music wasn’t like that at all… they had a bunch of Japanese bands of all types and they were all fantastic! My favorite band of the day was called Jinny Oops and they were from Osaka, Japan. They were killer!!! For lack of a good description, I guess they were Japanese punk rock. At first, I joked that they reminded me of a Japanese version of the early (good) days of Courtney Love and Hole, but after listening to them for a while, they blew me away. Jinny Oops rocks!!! Most popular band of the day and there were long lines for their CDs and autographs.
People of all ages and backgrounds… truly the most unusual and best street festival I have been to in a long time. I hope they do another one soon because this one was WILD!!!

I got a quick lunch at the festival before going to my Japanese class. The curry was good and spicy, but tasted like something I could make at home. The rice balls from Onigilly were delicious. Had the marinated eggplant and miso tuna.
After getting my food, I heard screaming coming from the music stage. It turned out to be Red Bacteria Vacuum. The music was loud, thrashy punk. I didn’t care for it at first, but RBV’s energy really drew me in. There’s something special about seeing these tiny Japanese women making so much noise. All of the bands hung out at the merchandise tent after the show. I had fun chatting with Red Bacteria Vacuum and Noodles with my limited Japanese. They urged me to see them at Yoshi’s the next day, which I did.
The festival was a nice little slice of Japanese culture. A number of teenage girls came dressed in goth lolita outfits, a giant Hello Kitty (probably close to six feet tall with the platform shoes and huge head) was on hand to greet people, and Yoshitaka Amano was signing autographs inside the New People building. I’m glad Japantown got a boost of vitality with this event. Hopefully the excitement will last.

Cool event with tons of Harajuku girls everywhere.
Alot of hype around the «New People» store which shows off the latest in J-​pop culture in a modern architectural design. New People should be a J-​town focal point for awhile.
We stood in between the heavy metal booth and the j-​pop stage to get a cool little J-​music mashup.
After visiting a couple cool vendors we had to cut the visit short since their was exhaust fumes everywhere. My favorites were the $ 1 sake shots and the cool flavor cupcakes.

This is the review that everyone was waiting for. As some of you may know I was much too tired from spending over 5 hrs at the J-​Pop summit festival to write a review. Sunday I got busy too: X.
After reading on NEW PEOPLE’s website that they would be passing out tickets for people to get into the new building, my friend and I decided to try and get there at 930. However we got there at 945 and they had already passed out all the tickets! :*(I was really bummed out, so we left and went to my friends place to hang out before the grand opening started.
We get there at about 11:45 and since we didn’t have breakfast we went straight for the food. If you can call it food, the only actual food we saw was the beef curry from Delica, which was very yummy. The rest of the things they had were snacks ranging from cupcakes, oysters, tacos, Strawberry shortcakes, pies, shaved ice, Beard Papa, Boba, Sake tasting, Onigiri and Dango. If you were in the mood for snacking then it was the place to be. On a short note the Onigilly stand (Onigiri as most of us know) was really good, they use all organic foods to make these yummy rice balls with a lil twist on the old style onigiri.
Entertainment was awesome, although I believe that they need to change how they set up their sound system because it was loud but it was also piercing loud that i was deaf for a short part of the day –_​_​-​. What made it worth being deaf was the grps that performed were SUGOI! (awesome in Japanese) The bands that were playing were Red Vacuum Bacteria, Tsushimamire, noodles, and omodaka & 6% doki doki. Tsushimamire and Red Bacteria Vacuum were so nice. I got autographs and pics with them :)
I managed to check out a good part of the Gothic & Lolita fashion show. The outfits ranged from being elegant to extravagent. At the very end of the fashion show the designer came out for a Q & A session. She was dressed in a lovely white & pink dress.
As you know from earlier in my review I wasn’t able to get into the NEW PEOPLE building however I lined up at around 330pm when the line was much shorter. I got into the building and was able to check it out as fully as I could. Stay tuned for my review for the building itself. ;)

it was pretty crowded. their music almost POP my ears, mayb that’s why it’s call jPOP for a reason. anyways, i met hello kitty! yay.

New People grand opening was exhaustingl, long, but colorful and out of this world event. Great free music (if that type of music was your ‘thang’, but gotta love all music), some food, some ‘super’ toilet vendors, lots of harajuku girls.
The music was loud and moderately understandable, but wasn’t for lack of energy. The styles and colors were amazing, and basically everywhere (people-​wise). Not exactly my cup-​o-​tea, but was still an amazing display of groups.
New people store was a lot smaller than anticipated, and only allowed in 150 first come first serve ticket holders for the initial entrance. The new store makes for a great display of a different side of Japantown. And at least it’s something new and interesting.
Took my kids too, and unfortunately had to bail home before the evening première of 20^th Century Boys. Way to much sensory overload, and they were mostly like «What the…». Too bad schools not in session, or it would have been a very interesting ‘show and tell’ day. 9-​yr old explaining ‘Harajuku girls’ to other 9-​yr olds, … yeahhh… sure.
Oh and did I mention Scientology protesters? eh, now it’s a complete package. Too lazy to post all the pix, so jump if you want a look, don’t if you don’t. :p

The whole building is Bull Shit.
The floor plan is idiotically designed.
What a Waste of Space!
Run out of the building… or vomit?
The 3 story building has NOTHING to really see inside.
The Gama-​Go store up a block is WAY better than this dump.
Fxxxin’ Maid costume, for crying out loud?
Harajuku Girls?
Sounds like HANJUKU Girls.
They got to be Fxxxin’ HANJUKU HEAD Girls!!!
Hanjuku means «half boiled» in nihongo.
Wait, there’s more.
Harajuku Girls used to be called, «Gan-​Guro-​Chahatsu» with their high socks, mini skirts and platform shoes… these girls were whores.
Why don’t they try out for amateur night at the Century Club?
I don’t care.
Harajuku isn’t really the center of J-​pop, is it?
Is it something like a KOBE Beef?
Do you think Harajuku Girls eat Kobe beef all the time?
By the way,
How long do you think this place will stay in business?
6 months? Six weeks?
This place isn’t really showing what J-​pop is, is it?
Do I even know what J-​Pop is? I doubt it but I know I don’t dig this shit!
Deal with that.
But is the place only open for no one but Harajuku Girls?
If so, there is no point for me to go back there again.
Ok, maybe I am an «traditional» J-​town kinda guy… but I was open to
the idea of some new Japanese blood in the ‘hood. This didn’t do it for me.
This is just shit stain balls.

*Food Only*
I noticed there were a lot of dessert stands. They had cupcakes, sweet potato pie, Beard Papa, mochi, strawberry shortcake, shaved ice, boba (from Belly Good) and some other goodies. They had mini cupcakes for $ 1 each. I decided to buy a dozen for $ 10.
My favorite was the ube and Thai ice tea.
I was hoping the terriyaki burger stand would be there, but it wasn’t.
They had beef curry from Delica, California rolls from Yoshi’s, oysters, tacos, onigiri and some other sfuff. Forgot to mention the Onigilly stand. I really enjoyed their chicken terriyaki «Onigilly» ($ 2.25). It was very tasty. My bf had the tuna and said it wasn’t that good.
I really wanted to go inside NEW PEOPLE but the line was sooooo long! I wanted to buy a «tooth ring.»
O-​well. We were parked at a meter anyway so we didn’t get to stay too long. Hopefully that tooth ring will still be there.

What a fun event! Genevieve’s review already sums it up so I’ll just touch on a few aspects:
FOOD
There wasn’t much in terms of «meal» food in comparison to the booths up during the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. I saw a lot of people still eating at the restaurants in/​around Japantown, and also eating bento lunches from Nijiya supermarket. This is what we did since we didn’t want to miss out on the band performances. Lots of snacks available for reasonable festival prices.
MUSIC
So awesome! I was so excited to be able to see noodles & TsuShiMaMiRe — and for free! TsuShiMaMiRe especially had such great stage presence! The girls from all bands were manning the booth and selling merchandise, taking photos with fans, and signing autographs.
I didn’t stick around for the Harajuku fashion shows and whatnot, as I spent this time doing some shopping, eating, and also waiting in line to enter the New People Store.
Overall, super fun & I had a great time. Glad I found out about it at the last minute and went!

Date & Time: Saturday August 15, 2009 @ 1pm
Company: Michael & Jack
Crowd: Harajuku Girls
Vibe: Kawaii
Entertainment: Red Bacteria Vacuum, TsuShiMaMire, Omodaka + 6% Dokidoki Girls, Noodles & Lolita+Gothic & Black Peace Now Couture Fashion Show
Must-​Haves: Red Bacteria Vacuum Band Tank Tops for $ 10
Imbibe: $ 1 Soju Shots, $ 3 Boba Drinks, $ 1 Japanese Sodas
Devour: $ 1 Mini-​Cupcakes, $ 5 Delica Curry Bowls, $ 1.50 for Mochi on A Stick