we're a very rare breed of people.
They gave out these fans free at the entrance. Bon Odori is a summer festival, so fans are a must. Usually, the japanese will stick these fans in the obi of their yukata when coming for summer festivals.
There was about 12 of us there, some came later. This was before the festival started. We couldn't really jam much because of the crowds and the noise, but I managed to try atheon's (borrowed) Yamaha acoustic, and play Rolling Star. I brought my Ibanez along as well.Sitting l-r: atheon, yours truly, amane kouru, bo_thug
standing: Jive, Neitsu Mizuha and Kippei.
Yes, I'm using their online nicknames to protect their privacy.
I reached at about 4.oopm, and the crowds were still not so thick yet. Above is the central stage, which we will dance around later.
Me and PeaceViolet (actually this was taken at the LRT station while waiting for ShiroNeko), whom I fetched to Shah Alam.
Priceless picture with the famous but camera-shy atheon, internationally renowned YUI fan, thanks to her blog.
Jeff and Neitsu, posing for the camera before entering. (Note: Pics are not in timeline order)
l-r: Yen&Yui, Neitsu and ShiroNeko. If you look at the pics really hard you can see the foodstalls in the background. I couldn't take any pictures at the foodstalls because it was crazy madness, but did manage to buy dinner, which was Pocari sweat and Onigiri. Was recovering from food poisoning so couldn't eat much, that's my only regret. Next year, I'll try more food. There was Japanese curry rice, all the different don, ice cream,kyoto bread, croquettes. Aargh! must eat more next year.
Crowds start to pour in as the evening progressed.
Before the dances started..There were three rounds of dancing, about 5 dances repeated at each round, so if you can't catch it the first time, you can always go again and again and again...basically we make large circles around the central stage and follow the girls dancing there. I went for round 1 and 3.
The evening started out with a drum performance. 
I spotted this bunch of girls dressed in Pajamas!? Eh? Maybe they were cosplaying. Usually extreme cosplayers aren't allowed in, but the mild ones are ok.There were lots of people in Goth and Lolita clothings too. Well, all these are part of Japanese culture.
Lady in a Yukata. wish I had one too. They're really cooling.
Kawaii-ness to the extreme!
A father and daughter in their Yukata.
Yui-lovers, from l-r: bo_thug, Shiro, Kippei, Chiyo(hidden behind), amane, me, Jive, Yen&Yui and PeaceViolet.
Even this security guard was into the whole mood of things.
The evening was almost ending, so all of us went down to the field for the final round of dancing, then it was goodbye.I really enjoyed meeting all of them, and everyone really made an effort to be warm, even though we're all practically strangers and I've never met any of them in real life before. Thanks people. Let's do this again next year, ne?
Here's some videos I took. Sorry for the poor quality. the first one (top) is the second dance session, and the other one (bottom) I actually shot while dancing the first round.
There was like a humongous crowd. Just to give a picture:
Haha..i'm somewhere down there dancing. This is the final dance session that night, I remember 'cos the crowd was very 'bersemangat'( genkii) and everyone shouted "oii" in unison at every chance.
Credits: soifung atYoutube
Ha, there' surprisingly a large amount of videos at Youtube. If you're interested, just go there and watch to get a feel of the electric atmosphere.
Currnetly struggling with: Willow by Andrew York and Classical Gas by Mason Williams
