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Niijima - The Great Sprayer.

Niijima - a small Island maybe 200 miles from Tokyo was the location for a big Trance/Ambient party organised by the collective known as Anoyo. I picked up the flyer for this event at a trance gig in the Yokohama Bay Hall, and when I suggested that we should go everyone seemed to like the idea - although as usual people started having second thoughts as the date drew closer. A big crowd of us went in the end though. The main worry was the weather. The weekend chosen was at the tailend of the rainy season and there was a very high probability that it was going to lash. The forecast was crap as well but we just hoped for the best.

The gang. On the boat. Locked.

We left on the Friday night. A huge overnight ferry packed with Japanese ravers was our means of transport. Great craic on the Ferry. Everyone was trollied and in a party mood apart from Anna who decided to save herself for the next day so she took a sleeping tablet and slept through people falling over her, pouring beer on her and God knows what else. I think the rest of us got about 2 hours sleep before the boat docked at 6am in Niijima. Oh my head was in poor shape that morning.

Well the good news was that the weather was good. Too good in fact - It was a real scorcher. First step - hire out bikes. Second step - put up the tents. Steve had bought secondhand two man tent and I'd bagsed the second space, which I began to regret when we started putting it up. This was the first time Steve had seen the tent as well, and there were a few .... problems with it, mainly that the outer cover was the size of a teacloth. We stuck it up anyway and hoped for the best. It would only be a problem if it rained and that seemed like a far away possibility at the time. After that Most of us headed to the beach. The surfing dudes had brought their surf boards so they went surfing while the rest of us frolicked in the waves .......... Martin was one of the surf dudes but he exhausted himself fairly quickly and ended up spending the day lying in the sun which turned out to be a bad mistake. He had put suncream on but had missed a couple of stripes on his legs and boy did he pay for that later ............ Actually I'm the one to be talking. I had a great disdain for "that wuss stuff" and paid for it when my face turned an alarming shade of purple - never again ........ We spent most of the day on the beach, and then headed to the onsen to clean ourselves off before heading back to the campsite to start gearing ourselves up for the rave.

The rave was divided up into two parts. The first part was going to be right beside the campsite, and that was going to last until about 1.00am. Then we were expected to make our way over to the beach on the far side of the island where "stage 2" was kicking off at 3.00am. There was a lot of grumbling and moaning about this when we heard about it with McAuley giving it loads. Sean didn't give a toss though. He had moved into party/nampa (bird hunting) mode and didn't care about anything. Any woman he saw was fair game and there was no holding back. He must have gotten about 20 pictures over the weekend each one of him with a different girl everytime.

Seanie with yet another girl posing for photos

Unfortunately he didn't score. As he said himself coming back after disappearing for an hour "I don't know lads - do you think I'm trying hard enough ??" - that wasn't the problem anyway ............ The first stage was fairly unremarkable. We spent most of the time just talking and meeting people and whatever. Martin had moved into disgrace mode at this stage. We were all sitting around on the ground talking and he was flat out on his back unconscious. When we all started getting ready for the cycle across the Island someone woke him up and he just says that he wants to go to bed. In retrospect the best thing would probably have been to leave him because he had no intention of enjoying himself, but Paul and Sean wouldn't hear of leaving him. The two of them practically carried him across the Island, and everytime they stopped Martin would just fall into the ditch and start snoring again - as I said, an absolute disgrace.

Martin collapses yet again on the way to the rave - an absolute disgrace.

The cycle across was an experience. Pitch dark and our rented bikes had no lights. Everyone off their heads on God know what substances. It was a miracle that no-one got killed. Half way across the Island we had to stop and we were guided into a field where we were to stay until the rave was starting. People started conking out at this stage. McAuley decided on the middle of the road as a suitable spot to sleep, Browner went into a coma and Martin wandered off God knows where. The rest of us were still feeling fairly genki so we just sat around impatiently waiting. One of the funnier things that happened was when some Auzzie lad came into the field and roared out at random in a really Auzzie accent "Does anyone know how to lock these boikes ??" and an other Auzzie unseen in the darkness roared back - "just leave it there ya DICK !!" Paul was the only one who heard this exchange and he cracked up laughing. He then told us the story and we just fell about the place. Seanie insisted on Paul telling the story about 20 times, and it seemed to just get funnier each time ............

Finally it was time to move. Cars started moving and Paul nearly had a heart attack when he saw where McAuley had chosen for a resting place. Getting Browner back to the land of the living was a bit of a tough job, but after much bitching he finally moved. We weren't quite there yet though. We had to queue through the jungle for ages and between insects and pure impatience it was a sore trial on the nerves. We Finally made it to the beach at around 3.30, just when the sky was beginning to get a bit bright. The first thing Martin did after basically sleeping on Pauls shoulder all the way through the jungle was to go up to one of the organisers and ask where he could get a taxi home - have I mentioned that he was a complete disgrace ??

Action picture of the rave just after sunrise.

Around 1.00ish we decided it was time to head away after watching Browner puke up the dodgy burritos he'd bought to stave off the munchies. McAuley had headed off earlier to catch the boat back to Tokyo because he was working on Monday, and Martin later after he woke up decided to do the same thing. Browner was telling us about it later :

Martin goes - "im leaving"
me and sean laugh
" you dont fuckin get it - do yas? im leaving the fucking island now"
me and sean have the best laugh all night

Martin of course fucked it up. He missed the boat and ended up heading back to the campsite to get still more sleep. The rest of us slowly climbed up the ravine back through the jungle to where the bikes were, where I discovered that my bike had been nicked. That was just great ....................... Its a small Island on a bike but it suddenly takes on enormous proportions when you start walking everywhere. We spent most of the Sunday taking it very easy. Sean - not having slept since he arrived on the island - was still in a really genki mood and he kept us all laughing for the day. I wasn't in the best of moods because I had to walk everywhere with mosquitoes - which are strangely attracted to me - trying to eat me while the sun beat down trying to change my face color to a nice shade of black. I survived though. We arrived back to the campsite in the evening just as a more low key ambient rave was starting. Martin turned up with a South African girl called Lindsey that he'd met somewhere and spent the day sightseeing with. She was really nice. Travelling around with everything of importance she owned in the pocket of her combat trousers.

We basically chilled out that night. No-one except Sean did anything very energetic. Sean - again - spent the whole night trying to score.
Next morning we were woken up by Sean - just back from a mammoth all-night nampa session, and still as genki as ever. A lot of people were heading home that day - including Sean. All that was left was StevoB, me, Paul and Martin. I decided to head to the village to tell the bike renter about the fate of his bike, while Steve and Paul headed over to the farside of the island to surf. Martin unsurprisingly decided to get more sleep. I went as far as the harbor and waved off the crowd who were heading back and walked into the village to the bike shop. The owner didn't seem too distressed at the news that the bike was nicked and gave me a new one. I was cycling back towards the campsite - I was about half way back when I got a bit of a shock. There was a little hut on the way with a canopy on the side providing shade. Who had found a deckchair God knows where and was conked out in the shade ?? - Martin of course !! I woke him up and told him that we had to go over to the other side to join the lads - he wasn't very happy about it but in the end agreed to go and that when the most chilled out bike ride I've ever taken started. It normally takes around 10 minutes to cycle the distance. It took myself and Martin a whopping two hours !!! Every bit of shade, shop or vending machine on the way was an excuse to stop for a break. It was amazing, and since I was in no hurry I enjoyed it.

Anyway thats it really. Monday was spent resting and recovering and Tuesday what was left of us headed back to Tokyo and normality. I think everyone that was there said that it was one of the best weekends ever. The sunrise rave - which could so easily have been screwed by the weather - was perfect, and those people who were supposed to come with us but dropped out regretted it when the heard all about it.

Fair Play To Anoyo ......................

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