My friend on stage at Cream Soda Night 2015

My rock-n-roll friend was playing with his band again at this years Cream Soda Night, so again I went to see him. Last year he ended up going up on stage at around 2 a.m. on a weekday, which meant not many of his friends with normal jobs were there to see him. This year, his band was on stage at 19:00, which is also problematic for people with normal jobs in Japan (you can rarely leave work that early). The performance was quite nice, though.

The event was held in two different live houses, so you got a stamp on your hand to show that you were allowed back in when you ran back and forth between them.

Apart from my friend's band, I saw about 10 other bands too. They were all good. I also ran into a girl who knew me from having seen me perform magic somewhere. I also met a guy I know from the bar Ropossa, and some friends I have in common with my friend who was on stage. I was most surprised by having a fairly old Japanese man come up to me and ask: "Where you dressed as a zombie in the park four years ago?" I said I was, and he said that he had also participated in the Sapporo Zombie Walk in 2011 (the only year we had a zombie walk) and he remembered me from there. I was impressed that he even recognized me without zombie makeup.

My friend and his band

My friend plays the guitar and sings pretty well, but he is not so good at English. He had placed papers with the English lyrics all over the floor, but still managed to lose his way in the lyrics at a few times, haha.

I liked this band

This band had a female lead guitar player who was good

My friend with his eyes closed (and some girls he knows)

My friend with his eyes open

This saxophone player is famous, I was told.

My friend and one of his friends with similarly colorful hair

This band, the Apollos, was probably the best band I saw.

This guy and I were zombies together in 2011, apparently.

This band managed to get people to stage dive.

This band played rock on violin, accordion, and bagpipe!

I remembered this band from last year, and they were good this year too.

My friend with his rock-n-roll leather jacket.

And with his rock-n-roll sunglasses.

When I left (since I had to get up early the next morning for work), people were fighting outside. Probably play-fighting.

Zombie pictures of me, found on the Internet

At "alife"

I stumbled over some photos from Halloween by chance today, and inspired by the Googled for some other likely sources. It was nice to see some photos taken by someone with a good camera. Most people just used their smart phones.

Then I also stumbled over a photo of me from two years ago at the Sapporo Zombie Walk.

At "alife" again, but with too much camera flash

At the "FIFO" party

My first ever zombie make-up

A famous zombie!

Me at the zombie walk

Today a group of eight fairly young men came to our magic bar when I was there performing. One of them asked me: "Didn't you participate in the Sapporo Zombie Walk three months ago?" Indeed I did. He even had a photo of himself posing with me when I was in my zombie make-up, in his cell phone. Small world. And quite impressive of him to see that it was me, and to remember me.

Me today

I also asked a colleague to take a movie of me doing a silly trick using my t-shirt. I have bought a fair number of t-shirts with animals being cannibals, pigs eating pork, chickens eating fried eggs, cows eating beef steak, etc. Today I wore a shirt with a salmon eating salmon sushi with a sad face. Recently I have started using these t-shirts for magic tricks. These are not very sophisticated tricks, more of a silly gag kind of magic, but they are kind of cute I think. People seem to like them too. Here is the salmon version.

And here is the salmon:

150 people dead in the middle of Sapporo!

I finally got some more photos from one of my friends who was at the Sapporo Zombie Walk 2011 back in October. He did not dress up because apparently he hates sticky stuff. That meant he could take pictures unhindered, so not all bad!

Zombies waiting at a red light.

Zombies have ripped off the head of someone and are fighting over this delicious food.

Japanese ghost style zombie.

Zombies posing for tourists.

Some people asked to be attacked for better pictures.

Zombies milling about aimlessly.

More milling about, with me in the picture.

Me drooling blood.

Everyone trying to gather for a shot of the whole group.

The effects of the Fukushima incident?

My skin turning whiter than normal. Probably not Fukushima related.

 

After the Sapporo Zombie Walk and the Halloween party I got home and finally had a chance to wash off my zombie makeup. The syrup based blood comes off from your skin really easy, so that is not a problem. It does stick to anything, though, and getting the red food coloring out of clothes is more difficult. I still have blood spatter all over my bathroom even though I cleaned it three times by now. The stuff has apparently ended up everywhere, and I find new spots of blood every time I go near the bathroom.

My bathroom turned messy.

The face paint was more difficult to get rid of. I spent 45 minutes in the shower, finally resorting to using a Scotch Brite pad with a very rough texture to try to scrub paint off. Most of the paint is gone, I think, though there is still some stuck around my eyes, in my eyelashes, in my ears, and under my nails. My hair still has paint and possibly some syrup in it too.

Time to wash the shirt?

I still have not begun cleaning my clothes. I like the look of the t-shirt, so I might keep it as it is (though it smells quite strongly of maple). The jacket will be difficult, I think.

Sapporo Zombie Walk 2011-10-30 ・ ゾンビ会議

Me in front of the TV tower.

On October 30, 2011, we had the Sapporo Zombie Walk (札幌ゾンビ・ウォーク) here in Sapporo. About 150 zombies gathered in Odori Koen park in the center of Sapporo and walked around for two hours. It was great.


I got up early and turned myself into a zombie using some quick and simple (since I did not have any time) things. A description of how I became a zombie can be found in another blog post.

Once I looked like a zombie I set off for Odori. There were some problems. First, I had smeared my hands with fake blood based on syrup, which sticks to everything. Trying to get out of my apartment without turning it into a bloodbath was tricky. Using elbows etc. in a surprisingly successful way, I managed to get out into the corridor and when trying to lock my door by holding my keys through my t-shirt (which was already covered in blood), someone came out from my neighbors apartment. I said hello, and he gave me an uninterested look and said nothing... Not surprised or anything... which was a bit disappointing.

There were a lot of bloody nurses at the event.

The elevator opens automatically, as does our front door, so the rest was not so difficult. Some people were staring when I walked through town towards the park, though. Once I got to the park, I started looking around for other zombies or the registration people for the event. I saw no one. No zombies. No other people. No one... Hmm, if I am here on the wrong day, this may turn a bit awkward, I thought. Then I spotted to nurses with huge amounts of blood on them and was a bit relieved. I also found the registration people soon afterwards. I was just early. I got zombie number 8 (the registration staff had the lower numbers themselves), so I was just early.


They had lots of registered people on a printout, and asked me for my name. I said "Jonas", and they asked when I had registered as a participant. "5 A.M. today". That helped, because then I would probably be on the last page. I was, but there were about 5 people who had registered even later.

More zombies arriving.

Zombies lining up to register.

After awhile, more and more zombies started arriving. An American guy came riding a bicycle in a full zombie outfit. He asked me what I had used to paint my face and I said I found makeup face paint at Donkihoote. He had not found any, so he had used stuff like building plaster and car paint to build his own zombie face... He was worried that it might not come off after the event was finished.

Me, my favorite zombie (and the most popular to take pictures with): the bride; and an American guy who was unsure if his makeup would come off.

Lots of people asked to take pictures (of me, but also of many of the other zombies). Both zombies taking pictures of each other, and random tourists visiting the park or Sapporo people passing by. I was quite popular since there were very few foreigners and since my blood looked very real. Many zombies only had makeup in their face, so I was complimented on my hands a lot. Having hand drenched in blood quickly turned my camera into a syrup covered camera that did not work that well (the shutter was hard to open), so it was not only good, though...

Receiving instructions.

When about 150 zombies had showed up there was an introductory speech by the organizer. He explained the rules: no walking on the grass, no pulling up flowers, no crossing the streets at a red light, no scaring innocent bystanders, no running like zombies in recent movies (Sapporo Zombie Walk are traditionalists). He also gave an overview of the plan for today: shuffle from Odori West 5 to Odori West 3, mill around at West 3 for 30 minutes posing for tourists, shuffle back to West 5. There was some quick zombie training: how to stare vacantly like a zombie, how to moan like a zombie, and how to walk like a zombie. Then we shuffled off towards West 3.

Lots of zombies, and even more people taking pictures of zombies. Including some of my friends from Poland.

Lots of people stopped to watch. Odori park is normally heavily trafficked, and there are also many big streets crossing through the park, and one of the largest shopping areas is located right by Odori West 3. It is also a popular tourist destination, where people take pictures of the park and the Sapporo TV Tower, located in Odori West 1.

Many people also showed up just to take pictures of the event (or friends participating). There were professional cameramen from the event itself too, as well as TV crews, freelance photographers, and whatnot. I was asked "Can I take a picture with you?" more than 100 times during the day I think. Other people were even more popular.

The event was a lot of fun. The organizers had prepared food (a mannequin) for zombies to eat etc.

After the event was over there was apparently a party where they ate zombie like food (sausages looking like fingers etc.) and watched zombie movies. They also voted on who was the cutest zombie, the scariest zombie, etc. but I did not have time to go to the party so I do not know how that went.

I had to go to a friend's Halloween Party instead. Getting there dressed as a zombie was a small adventure in itself (more about that in the next blog post).

Here are some of my pictures from the event:

Me.

My favorite.

This woman is eating a hand. She was also very good at walking like a zombie. Unfortunately, she was always moving so my picture is not so good.

A zombie with a knife (?) throught the chest.

Possibly the youngest zombie there.

Another foreigner, with very nice makeup for the chin damage.

This guy was really funny.

One of my favorites, the surgeon. He also had a zombie nurse with him.

The bride was the most popular zombie to have your picture taken with.

Another newly wedded zombie, checking her iPhone.

Another of my favorites, the pilot and stewardess team!

The pilot and stewardess zombies waiting in line with a French maid zombie.

The school girl zombie with a big plastic bag. She lugged it around all day. I wonder what was in it?

I have no idea what kind of zombie that is, but an A for effort!

I liked the yukata wearing zombies a lot. And looking at this photo now, I think I actually know the girl in red, though I did not recognize her at the time (and she not me either).

Apparently this (red clothed girl) is a character from the manga/anime Onepiece. Possibly a zombie character. Very cute girl.

The girl behind the bride had very very nice cuts opening up her mouth to three times its normal width. She also had great eye makeup. And a funny dress.