Fumi and I are in Sapporo at the moment – working with the awesome team at the City of Sapporo to plan next year’s iSummit. Inoue-san took us to the Rising Sun Rock Festival yesterday. It was a truly awesome experience. 37,000 people, 6 stages, loads of artwork (by kids, professionals and amateurs), tree stump carving with chain saws, so many different kinds of food (from Russian to Chinese) and lots of beer.

In this picture, Fumi, Ellie and I are sitting waiting for ‘Begin‘ to start playing. They’re an amazing band. A vocalist (who also plays a variety of other instruments including ), a pianist and lead guitarist. They have an amazing diversity of songs – from blues to rock, jazz and pop.

It was an incredible feeling to be standing in this crowd of hundreds of people all knowing the words to their songs.

Pic: Heather Ford, CC BY-SA 2.0