東京時間凍結再興 Resurrection Tokyo Time Freeze

時間凍結 Time Freeze

Many of you will surely have seen the video of the Time Freeze in New York Grand Central Station, but if not have a look right here:

Frozen Grand Central

Looks preety awesome doesn't it? I found this video created a world wide movement to perform similar random meetings and after a while I was able to find one in Tokyo too.

東京時間凍結再興 Resurrection Tokyo Time Freeze

So there were some girls and guys in the internet planning a time freeze event for Tokyo and I was eager to join in. But the more the merrier, so I advertised for the event at work and was able to convince most of the other interns in joining either as actor or as photographer.

We met in Yoyogi Park near Harajuku and got briefed by the organizers. we would make two Time Freezes, one in 竹下通 Takeshitadoori in Harajuku, and another one in 八子 Hachiko in Shibuya 2 hours later. There was still 1 hour to the first one, and we watched some of the strange creatures living in Yoyogi Park, like Elvis Presley performers, a Kendo group and a Japanese / Scottish back piper.

from left to right: mark, mika, alex



mission briefing

Kendo



and a back piper

原宿凍結 Harajuku Freeze

The location was badly selected. While being the most popular spot in Harajuku, 竹下通 Takeshitadoori is crowded like hell, especially on weekends. So even though we froze neatly in time, the frozen people were only a tiny fraction of the ever on moving crowd, and therefore hardly noticeable. Anyway some curious people stopped and wondered, why there is a couple of people frozen in time.

too many people to ...



notice two guys with a map

video 01

I performed together with Mark holding a map from Atsugi and a Compass wondering where we were. Some crossing people uttered a surprised "Atsugi?!", when they saw us and our map. But when they saw that we didn't move and were frozen, they didn't bother offering us some help. Some other people posed for a picture, and just when the photographer pressed the button, all of them froze in time. Brian froze reading a book, Marko and Satsuki walking holding hands, Ningning taking a picture and Pedro walking with some friend.

note the sign in the upper left corner

video 02

渋谷凍結 Shibuya Freeze

Two hours later we found each other again in Shibuya, where the next freeze was going to happen. We gathered in front of the station in 八子 Hachiko right in front of the 交番 police box, daring as we were. When the signal came again everybody froze into time. This time with less people around, we could draw much more attention and a lot of people took pictures of us and asked us what we are doing. Of course they didn't get an answer, since we were frozen in time.

This time me and Mark borrowed Alex Frisbee, Alex was taking pictures, and we started throwing the Frisbee to each other. When the signal came we froze with Mark just in the moment of throwing the Frisbee to me and me ready to catch. When we unfroze Mark actually was able to throw the Frisbee from his pose and me luckily able to catch it. What a show! Brian this time lost some money and started to pick it up, when he froze in time. Marko and Satsuki were again performing together and Pedro was playing Rock Paper Scissors (Jankenpo) with some guy.

ningning wondered what was going on, when she froze



brian was picking up some money, when he froze



Pedro lost when the time froze



marko said, someone looked in his bag, while they were frozen

mark threw the Firsbee when we unfroze

---

It was a lot of fun and a great day. My thanks to the great organizers, who made this possible. One single remark of criticism is, that because we were somewhat between 200 and 400 people, the organizers decided to split us into three groups. I think this decisions was bad, because all acting together would have given a much more incredible picture of so many people freezing together at the same time.

pictures from the second Harajuku Freeze group

Anyway it was really great, and I am also grateful for the video and the sideshow, the organizers put together:

Slide Show

Video

Medgadeth Live In Concert

Prequel

When I was only here for about one month, my Japanese teacher from Wednesday's class asked me if I like the band Megadeth.
I said: "Well sure, they make some pretty nice music".
"So wanna come to their concert in Tokyo in November?"
"Yeah sure, why not; I'd like to know what a big concert is like in Japan."

Metal In Japan



And thus it was decided. The concert was yesterday, first of November in Shibuya AX Concert Hall. I had to leave work a bit early, so we would make it in time, since the concert already started at 7 pm. The reason probably is one the one hand that the next day is a work day and that trains in Tokyo stop moving around midnight. But we made it with plety of time left to Shibuya and didn't even need to check where to go, we just had to follow the cool looking peoples. It's the first time I have seen "alternative" Japanese people on a large scale. There were some cool punks and of course many many metaler. Even though in comparison there are less of them having long hair, quite some do and the others also look just like the metaler in Germany. That means they don't give much on how they look are genuinely friendly and very open minded. Also as in my birth country, Metal as a really open and old musical scene, has a lot of people above 40 or even 50. :)

For a first difference however the merchandising stand had his own mountebank (German: Marktschreier), as you can find them everywhere in Japan. What I would not have expected, I think the ratio between girls and boys was roughly the same as in Germany (4/5 boys).
Oh and for your information, the Gaijin (foreigner) / Japanese ratio was at best 1 out of 100 or even less. :)

After waiting a bit just looking at the people and talking about who we find handsome ;p we entered the concert hall.

Breed77



The Opening was a band from Gibraltar (a small peninsula below Spain). For an opening band, they were pretty awesome. I loved both the melody of the songs (some using Gibraltar instruments and rhythms) as well as their lyrics. I am sure I want to hear them again :)
Also it was very cute, when the singer admitted that they never believed that they could make it as far as Tokyo!

However another point disappointed me a bit. The Japanese people where a bit silent and didn't move or dance very much, although I think the band really was great. On the other hand I stayed on Rumi-sensei's side for this and we were about in the middle, not in the front rows. So I couldn't really make a objective impression yet.

Megadeth



After a short break outside, we went back in. After a while of waiting, a speaker voice suddenly announced:

大変お待たせしました。まもなくまもなく　メガデス　メガデス　です。
(taihen omataseshimashita. mamonaku mamonaku megadesu megadesu desu)
(~ Sorry for making you wait. Now next is Megadeth).

Everyone who has been in Japan, remembers these lines from trains in Japan, because that is the way they announce the next station. I found it hilarious, though Rumi-sensei couldn't tell me whether it was on purpose or not ^=^

Then sensei made me go to the first row, while she stayed a bit behind, where we watched Breed before. I didn't argue and went straight ahead.
Right after the band started or even before I was able to make some Japanese friends, as it is in such situations, by just screaming, making excited faces, starting "MEGADETH" or "HEY!" chants, dancing and jumping ;p
For the first time in a long time I felt at home again. I could just go crazy and nobody would mind or remind me of rules of society, because just everyone else was also getting crazy. So that's what we did. We jumped, danced, screamed, played air guitar, sang, made the metal hand sign |_| and clapped. I really missed being in the midst of a excited dancing crowd of people not caring about sweating, not caring about getting pushed around, not caring about getting the wet hair of others into your face, just not worrying about anything. It just shows so much, how stupid all these society behave rules are and how wonderful life is without them (everybody being friends and having a great time together).
It was really awesome, I had a really wonderful time amongst friends, which I have never met before.
Oh and Megadeth of course kicked ass! They didn't loose any passion. And they sightly enjoyed being here just as much as we did. They gave a lot of extra songs, and in the end throw tons of guitar plectra into the crowds, they even got some more from backstage, because people were so happy about getting them ^_^. And they spoke quite some words Japanese, way more than just Good Evening, and Hello. In the end they bowed before us and promised to yet come again, as long as passion allows them to go on making incredible cool music.

Differences And Similarities Between Concerts In Germany And Japan



So here's what I found out. The sign for crowd surfing (stage diving) is international, I just had to try it and it worked immediately. Crowd surfing in Japan is just as cool as anywhere else and I sure wasn't the only one.

Curiously enough Japanese people don't stink when they are sweaty all over. As you can guess from my description above, all of us sweated until we were soaked wet all over and even our hair was wet like after a shower. However I was quite surprised that the people around me didn't stink, in contrast they smelled very good ^=^. So finally I found out, why it is very hard to find deodorant in Japan or in other words, why it sells so bad ;)

Pogo in Japan is really cool. Unlike in Germany, at least as far as I can judge from a single concert, there are less crazy brutal dancers, so that pogo is totally exciting while still being totally enjoyable and friendly. :)

In the end I am really glad to have out that there are many many cool Japanese people breaking the clichés about Japan. And as I said before, I really felt at home.

After the concert I hugged the friends I had found and they hugged me. We shook hands, and being in Japan after all, bowed before each other ^=^. I really thank those guys and girls, whose names I never will know, for giving me such a great time.

screaming and dancing at home
mika