Road Trip to Hippy Land

This past Friday night after work I threw some socks and underwear into the car and headed up to Mt. Aso in Kumamoto for a weekend of peace, love, and all that other hippy stuff. There was a music festival happening, and our (non-hippy) band had a gig. Yes, we were playing in the the coveted "second band after lunch" slot. (Some bands might see this as being a somewhat lowly spot on the slate of events, but they're probably more interested in exposure than the drinking time that opens up when you finish your set early...).

As an ex-rocker cum existentialist cum university teacher cum aging rocker, I'm not particularly prone to touchy-feely expressions of universal brotherhood, so I felt a bit out of place at this particular gathering. I mean, everyone was nice to us and all that, but damn, these hippies wear different clothes and are all, like, "back to nature" and stuff. And, to be honest, I didn't really like most of the music I heard performed there. (I will say, though, that every band I saw was better at their "thing" than we were at ours.)

I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. I may come back to this, if only to post a few pics (although I didn't really get very many good ones).

The following tune is a comfort to me...


... although I wonder if I'm the only one who doesn't sense something ironic about it...

Well, OK, here are a couple of pics. Maybe more to come...