Three days at ROCK IN JAPAN FES. 2010 in Hitachinaka: quick notes on every act I saw, from Perfume and Spitz to Ketsumeishi in the front rows on the final day.

My first fireworks festival since moving to Tokyo: the Sumidagawa show with friends, a spot held since 10 a.m., and a full-kit fireworks photography battle.

So hot… Hit around 35°C again today. Felt like trying something different so I pointed the camera at the sky.

With a brutal summer ahead, I hit Tokyu Hands for festival gear: a clip that hangs a water bottle from your belt, and a hat I spent an hour choosing.

The tickets and gear lighting up my summer: a three-day ROCK IN JAPAN pass won in the second presale, a-nation, and everything I’ve assembled for festival season.

FACTORY, a Fuji TV underground music program, apparently holds a special event once a year timed with Odaiba Kuni — that’s LIVE FACTORY.

I’ve been into medal pusher games lately. (Past tense now.) Still had medals left in my bank, so I went to burn through them.

It finally arrived: the ThinkPad X201. First-day impressions from a former X24 user — the solid chassis, that full-pitch keyboard, and the trusty red TrackPoint.

Watched Shirushiru Mishiru last night and they did a segment on AD Hori-kun. He seemed a little embarrassed. Fair enough — it is a huge photo.

While digging through photos, I noticed I had one from when I went to see Tokyo Skytree and passed in front of Ryogoku Kokugikan. Kotomitsuki.

My desktop is a hand-me-down Pentium 4 and my laptop a 7-year-old ThinkPad X24. For someone working in IT, that’s embarrassing — so I finally ordered a new laptop.

I’d visited the Railway Museum before , but since I’d just bought a DSLR I went back to retake the photos.

Day one of the very first ROCKS TOKYO — Tokyo’s long-awaited outdoor festival. Bitter cold, a convenience-store raincoat, and the wildest mosh I’d been in yet.

First proper home cooking in a while — nikujaga with spring onions and new potatoes. This time I actually simmered it down properly, and the flavor proved it.

Rode out to see Tokyo Skytree mid-construction — 368 meters that day, already taller than Tokyo Tower. Like a modern-day scene out of Always: Sunset on Third Street.

There’s something to capturing darkness in a photo, too. This is taken looking south from Yokohama Minato Mirai.

Something in today’s news caught my attention.

Back home in Nagoya, a long-overdue bowl of Sugakiya ramen. Everyone says chicken wings and miso nikomi udon, but this 290-yen bowl is the real Nagoya specialty.

Golden Week in Odaiba: Venus Fort’s outlet floor packed with tourists. Two hours in, I was completely knocked out and rode the Yurikamome home.

Looking for something… Like this prairie dog, I’m at a bit of a loose end. Something, anything. A subject to shoot. Something good. Something to be happy about.