Marc's Public Blog

But those repots are only worth the time I take to write them (sometimes more than one day of work for some of them), if people can find and read them. In the old days I could just post them on facebook, or people would even find them with a google search. Nowadays, things are very different and Facebook does their best so that any post with external links are viewed by as few people as possible since they do not control external sites and want to keep their product (i.e. the users) locked in their site so that they can continue to feed them lying ads, fake AI videos and posts, and the other crap that is now all over FB.

Instagram is not better, although they make things worse by not even really allowing any links in posts, so that takes care of that problem.

So, how do you, my dear reader, find my new posts if both FB and IG have a vested interest in you never seeing them?

The best 3 ways to get future posts/festival reports:

For real time stories and posts from festivals and to follow/friend/DM me, FB and IG are still best, and you should follow both if you can, but expect that FB will make it hard for you to actually see my blog posts, while IG only allows me to make links you can't click on, so you have to cut and paste them.

If you have an RSS reader or you're just happy to reload a web page on occasion:

Hope this helps. For bonus points, you can even subscribe to multiple of them :)

Now that it's out of the way, this trip allowed me to see how Korea had changed in 9 years, as well as do the Western part of the Korea tour (last time I only had time for the Eastern part).

For the rest, compared to my previous report, I don't have a lot to add. I was super excited to have seen my first mudskippers in the wild during the western tour. Glad to have been back.

Otherwise, being there for EDC Korea was loads of fun! (clickme)

so glad to see the ever cheerful and colorful insomniac entertainers

and we had a meetup with the international EDC crew :)

The Grounds... How was EDC in Asia and how does it compare with EDCLV, EDCMX, and EDC Orlando?

Footprint-wise, the event was pretty big, but it also had some dead space in the middle and hills that were a bit of a pain to navigate. The ground was also uneven and somehow wet in places despite no rain, that was a bit weird. But we got the stages we are used to, and they were top notch.

beautiful

It wasn't the plan, but this ended up not only being the coldest EDC I've been to, but flat out the coldest festival I've been to, and that includes some cold EDC Vegas nights as well as cold Dreamstate San Bernardino nights. It was around 10C, but the wind was relentless and windchill made it feel freezing or below freezing. On day 2, I came with a full sweater and basically 3 layers on the top and I was still kind of cold. I was also wearing a ski hat below my dreamstate LED hat, and gloves. It was that cold, really.

The painful cold did not ruin our party spirits though, people soldiered on :) And double thumbs up to all the insomniac entertainers wearing those colorful outfits that did not seem that warm, and somehow surviving through those cold nights. That was some serious dedication!

how on earth did they survive, wearing this?

The Merch store lost an opportunity to sell over a thousand sweatshirts. They ran out quickly :)

that was the shortest the line ever was, it got much much longer later

There was one combined beauty/kandi station:

felt a bit weird that they were combined :)

And then there was this. Lost in translation? haha :)

There was a pretty big skydeck, I'm not sure how occupied it got, but it looked fairly nice. It was only for mainstage:

Of course a big plus of EDC is all the pretty lights. and the insomniac crew did a good job bringing a nice pixel forest to the venue:

the fire from the statue was a good place to be a big warmer in the siberia-like cold :)

And of course the were more lights:

The nearby Inspire hotel had its own:

And the fun thing was that we were a stone's throw (almost) from Seoul/Incheon International Airport, where I flew out of the next day back to SFO, but the planes were not landing over the festival, so you could not hear them and they were barely noticeable. except maybe to the pilot geeks like me :)

EDM Lovers in Korea and Asia

But the crowds that did come were dedicated. There were a good amount of professional kandi traders who made the event even more fun, and enough people who came with cool costumes despite the cold. Thanks to all of you.

Some professional Kandi traders :)

Plus a few pictures with friends:

Blaztoyz!

PvD!

G.O.

Marlo

The 2 days of festival

The first day, I opened the window of the hotel and thought "mmmmh, it's a bit cold, I'll put an extra layer between my t-shirt and my LED shirt (in blue in this picture):

Kataklops!

OMG, what a mistake in planning. Yeah, 10C is already cold but that not account for the siberian wind that brought the wind chill level to below freezing. I'm not going to lie, I was cold and uncomfortable the entire first day. So on Day #2, I came with a full sweater as my 3rd in between layer, a ski hat below my LED hat, and gloves. Well, even with all of that I was still kind of cold, but less uncomfortable at least:

Anyway, here are some pictures from both days:

Day 2 was trance day at Stereo Bloom:

great trance from Casepeat

and my friend Kataploks

Giuseppe Ottaviani

Paul Van Dyk

Marlo

A bit of bass at Circuit Grounds:

And what's a better way to end the night than with Blastoyz?

Because the taxi/rideshare situation, was iffy, at best, I left a tiny bit early right after Blastoyz's set, and barely got a glimpse of the very legit fireworks to close the show at mainstage. They were pretty. Too bad they were so late:

Video Summary of Day 2:

Thought/Impressions/Suggestions/Conclusion

In somewhat random order:

Now, was this EDC remotely close to EDC Vegas? Of course not, nothing is. Even EDC Mexico definitely felt bigger and better if you wanted to travel to another EDC outside of the Vegas one, but EDC Korea still went well and was lots of fun outside of the cold. If you're in Asia or it's an easy flight, EDC Korea definitely is worth going to. If it's not an easy flight but you wanted an excuse to go visit Korea, which is very much worth visiting (that was my case), it's also a very good reason to go. The koreans at EDC were all lovely and fun to be with (as opposed to my recent report on Ultra Miami where PLUR was somewhat lacking, for instance).

Thanks to everyone who welcomed us (both the local korean trance family and EDM lovers, and the insomniac crews and entertainers)!

Links

That said, this is what I found nearby (and that was stil 30 to 40mn drive, ICN airport is really out of the way):

let's start with a great find I made, 'with orange pieces', haha

Found a nice museum on writings around the ages:

Nice buildings in the area:

Then went for a nearby chinatown and portion of the town with cute decors:

yum :)

Then, went to a waterfront:

I love puffers

Nice octopus:

Very cool robot fish:

yes, it is a bit scary :)

The elevator ride, was fun:

Nice view from the top:

this was a bit scary :)

Getting ready to go out:

perfect timing

And more nice views afterwards:

So yes, it was definitely well worth it and challenging of you have agrophobia ;)

Markets:

Nice buildings and sandcastles:

Next morning, started early:

and went to Haedong Younggungsa Temple:

very nice area

Next, went to check the Busam Museum and the UN Memorial Cemetery:

Next Huinnyeoul Cultural Village:

found another cat

this one was closed

After that, |Sindonga Fish Market:

what are these, again?

oh no, cuttlefish, please don't eat those, so sad :(

more :(

yum

My plan for the cable car was good on paper, but with the heavy rain, not as much:

Un Petit Prince Expo:

Cool bridge:

Gamcheon Culture Village was nice, but the rain made it hard:

more petit prince

not great weather, though

Then, went to check out Texas Street by the train station:

nice fast train to Seoul every 10 to 20mn

I had done the Eastern South Korea Tour 9 years prior, so it was very nice to be able to do the other half. The tour guy was full of energy and lots of fun :)

Started with an old fortress site that didn't have a lot left, but nice park:

royal tomb

Next stop was Jeonju Hanok Village, definitely a highlight, very cute village:

a few cats, but not very friendly :)

Got to try local clothing:

got the king's clothes :)

Next morning, went to some small village murals:

Quick walk around:

our driver, taking us place to place, was decked out :)

After that was a nice monk center in a lovely forest:

we did a guided meditation with the monk who hosted us

The next day, we went to see a tea growing field:

and the exciting part after that was the Suncheon Bay Nature Reserve, which was very exciting to me because it had mudskippers, the first ones I've seen in the wild:

Check out the video:

From there, the next day was supposed to be in Busan, but given how much there was to do there, I opted to skip the group and do my own tour (read Busan on this page)

It was nice to be back in Seoul. I had seen most of it last time

Quick flight from Japan, in a plane way big for such a 2H flight :)

Shopping streets are lively:

Gyeongbokgung Palace is always impressive:

Some random picts, they are geotagged:

Nice cultural villages:

making friends :)

Seoul still has the longest city wall in the world:

Next door was Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) with the DDP Digital Art Museum (clickme):

Great to meet my former coworker Adam Lazur who nicely came to have dinner with me

The next morning, went to check out another museum I hadn't seen yet:

Then went to Lotte tower and park:

cool park, didn't have time for it

It had a folk museum inside:

Next was the Aquarium (clickme):

Skybridge and buildings around were cool:

The last half day, I went to check out Namsangol Hanok Village:

part of the very long wall around the city

And finished with the Myeongdong Shopping Street area, and a few cat cafés (clickme):

I tried:

They had troublemakers :)

Nice fish :)

Takayama to Nikko is not an obvious route, 3 different trains:

Prius train, diesel and with electric assist and recharging electric to brake

lunch stop before the first shinkansen

connection to the next train, Japan always wins for the best colorful sign boards

one more train to Nikko, and it's indeed very well signed, hard to miss :)

made it!

Finally made it to our lovely Ryokan, Nikko Tokanso, with nice dinner:

Then it was time to enjoy the onsen:

the food was amazing

Then it was time to go pick up a rental car to reach farther destinations:

the town was already getting ready for the festival

pretty indeed

Picked up the rental car to have more flexibility in sightseeing, and then I drove the tiny 3 cylinder car up to lake Chuzenj on the InitialD road I had always wanted to drive :)

cute little toyota roomy with limited power, but it did the job

any driver will get excited by a GPS map like this :)

Obviously it was a terrible car to do high performance driving in, in, and definitely no drifting, but I had a fun time anyway :) Watch this video for details:

the ropeway seems fun but a bit unnecessary as well as impractical without a tour bus

a bit of snow, left

Once at the top, started with Kegon Waterfall:

snow under the waterfall, cool!

nice rainbows

Visitor center of Kegon waterfall:

beautiful nature all year long

Town was very windy that day, getting to that gate was challenging:

Then went to nearby temples:

and a small fishery nearby:

Back to town, Chuzenji temple, and a higher up viewing point:

Then, had the fun Initial-D drive back down:

To go check out some slightly farther temples:

There was still time for the Nikko Imperial Villa:

Tried to drive up another road wit hsome nice nature, but it was still snowed up:

Back to the ryokan for another nice dinner:

unlimited drinks option :)

plenty of food, again

The next morning, another nice breakfast:

And then an early walk to the beautiful temples next to our ryokan:

magestic is the only word I have

the famous nemui neko, sleepy cat

good to be early, later in the morning, it got busy

and since I lined up temple viewing with the festival timing, the floats arrived then:

they then dragged the floats up a ramp made just for the festival

no joke

then, there was some time to go back to the festival and enjoy the outfits:

We then joined a free walking tour, mostly to chat with the guide and get his perspective on things:

those things were heavy, some of the people were suffering

Because it was a special day, we even got free tea and sweets:

Next was a nearby museum, that was not essential:

And then I took the trusty rental car up a road to Edo Wonderland Nikko (click me for more), which was lots of fun and worth more than the 2H we had left. It was still beautiful to visit:

And the next morning was a return trip to Narita to fly to Korea, and that was a slightly challenging trip, barely made the subway connection by running between 2 train systems in the middle of Tokyo Skytree Mall:

barely had time for this picture

so happy to have made this subway, the next one was 40mn later

early morning bus from shinjuku

8:15 direct bus to Takyama

no more new snow, but rain

plenty of snow

Once arrived in Takayama, started with the float museum:

Then went to the folk village museum:

On the way back to town, found a cafe rescue cafe, worth a stop :)

The very expensive hotel with the only room left:

the first restaurant looked interesting, but the meat was not great

The next morning, first went to visit a local museum and market:

After that, it was time to see the floats and puppet show on top of floats. Those puppets were very nicely animated:

lots of people came to see the show

Then it was a good time for a walk around town and its small museums:

The floats were being displayed around town:

After that, it was a good time to go for for a the pretty mountain walk around town. Higashiyama Walking Course is tricky to follow, thankfully I had my GPS track from 2016 that helped a lot:

found a wild mountain goat

At the end of the walk, was the float museum which, turns out, only had the autumn floats, while the spring floats were outside:

Nextdoor was a small indoor museum with a recreation of Nikko:

After that, it was time to go back to town to visit and see the float parade:

Old town has nice little shops including some beef sushi and yummy ice cream :)

Then the float parade finally arrived:

After that, there was more time to visit town and see fun things:

Unfortunately the evening festival was cancelled due to rain. It looked like a lot of fun, but didn't happen.

And then I did my best to find a better meat restaurant after the disappointing one from the previous night. It was indeed a lot better:

The next morning, there was about 2h to visit town before the trains to Nikko:

Due to light rain, the floats were not able to get out and performed in their respective shelters:

But there was time to see one last museum and a few nice views of town:

the sunflower seeds I almost always carry, came in handy :)

always love those little birds

even the chicks loved them

first time seeing Capibara, finally. They are kind of very big docile rats :)

soft and nice, also loved sunflower seeds

giant rabbit

also an owl café :)

even a sloth

Pretty indoors:

they have new menus every few weeks for sub seasons of the year

display of the food that was going to be served

Post dinner photo, thanks for the yummy food:

It took a while to find the building museum at the basement of a building, but found it eventually:

One inside, it was very nice:

The very impressive hanging LED room:

And the Tea Room was simply amazing. That was beautiful and magical at the same time:

Summary of Instagram Videos:

Long story short, absolutely recommended, book early.

piggie overload ;)

more piglets :)

Then, cute dogs :)

Then another cute dog café:

And more:

chinchilla!

Cuteness overload ;)

Even had a nice dessert:

First, I tried Warp Shinjuku, and they simply denied me entry. Even after I agreed to turn off my LEDs (they didn't like them, and that was crappy because I had been there in the afternoon, asked their staff if it would be ok, they said yes, and when I came that night that staff said the afternoon staff was wrong and the answer was now "no"), they showed typical Japanese inflexibility and denied me entry, even after I offered to give them my battery pack so I could not turn the LEDs on. Sigh....

Atom Shinjuku was nicer, they also had a rule about nothing lit up inside, which is obviously not my favorite, but it's their club and I'm the tourist, so I get to abide by their rules. They were fine with my word that I wouldn't turn anything on (I didn't), and I got to see the several rooms. It was a nice club overall, but the music that night was a mix that I didn't love. Nothing really wrong with the club, I'm sure similar music is being played in San Francisco in many clubs I never go to, unless it's trance night :)
Oh, and entry was free before 23:00, so that was nice :)

First room that had everyone until the main room opened at 23:00:

23:00 and the main room opened:

I looked all dark and sad :)

plenty of people came with suits and ties, looked like they came straight from the office

I didn't stay super long, it felt very dark and a bit sad for my (maybe unusual) taste :) but it was nice to see a Japanese club and I thank Atom for being reasonable people compared to Warp.

Instead, they simply denied me entry. Even after I agreed to turn off my LEDs (they didn't like them, and that was crappy because I had been there in the afternoon, asked their staff if it would be ok, they said yes, and when I came that night that staff said the afternoon staff was wrong and the answer was now "no"), they showed typical Japanese inflexibility and denied me entry, even after I offered to give them my battery pack so I could not turn the LEDs on. Sigh....

Before you tell me, yes, each country and culture are different. I would have been ok with them letting me in with the condition that I keep all my stuff off (which really was just a few strips on my arms and legs that are not even visible in the dark, as the clubs seem to be quite dark in Japan). Also, I probably wouldn't even have brought my outfit except for having been in that same club during the afternoon to see their ninja show (which was good) and having 2 of their day staff confirm the outfit would be fine and I could bring it that evening :-//

This is what I looked like in Atom Shinjuku a few minutes away (they nicely let me in after confirming I had to keep my lights off, and I of course complied). I don't think this was terrible, I was black and dark like everyone else :)

Anyway, there is that, Wrap Shinjuku, not a friendly place, even if they seemed to have nice rooms, lights and decors inside. Instead of getting a +1 and potential new customers, they get this blog entry instead, bummer.
Now, in full fairness, I need to state that some clubs in Vegas are no better than this (actually likely worse), so this is not a jab at Japan, just stating factual experience in some clubs being somewhat inflexible and not very customer friendly, while some others are super accomodating and nice.

So, things started in Tokyo. I picked Shinjuku since it's nearby most things I cared about. The first day was really just the end of the day, but enough to go out for dinner and walk around:

meat is not cheap in Japan but it's very good

Then a quick walk through Golden Gai and its streets filled with little bars;

And random things in the streets that are fun:

unfortunately the original robot restaurant is dead. The new one is nowhere close

Next morning, went to the MET, thinking it we could go up somewhere by 08:30, but the information was confusing and we'd only be allowed up at 09:30, which was too late due to a reservation at Shibuya Sky at 10:00:

So, not much of a view at MET before you can go to the top (it's free, but opened too late that morning), however, there was time to go walk though Yoyo-ji on the way to Shibuya Sky:

Tnen, it was finally time for Shibuya Sky, which does require reservations weeks in advance. I found it nice and fun to visit, but probably overhyped and not worth the headaches to try and get a last minute timeslot:

Yoyo-ji Park

Shibuya crossing

Mario Karts :)

Didn't realize there was a google building nextdoor ;)

A few pictures from lower down before going back to Shibuya crossing:

It was then fun to go visit Takeshita Street:

Yum

One fun thing in Takeshita Street, are all the animal cafés:

There were also nearby fancy dog cafés:

After cute animal overload, went to visit Gyoen National Garden, which was beautiful during cherry blossom season:

Then, it was time to go back to Shinjuku for the Ninja Show:

Then back around Shinjuku to find dinner:

yummy teppanyaki

For day #2, took a cab towards Odaiba to save time over public transport:

Went back to Maraikan, which is still an inteeresting and unusual science museum:

The park outside had plenty of pretty tulips:

Then, we got to diver city shopping mall:

And the Unko museum:

Then more walking around the area:

And found another animal café, there:

More about Odaiba Animal Cafe Here

Inside the mall, lots more shops and fun museums, didn't have time for them all:

At that time, I got the great news that we could go to Teamlab Borderless (my online ticket chagne, was approved, so it made sense to cut things short a bit and head towards the Mori buidling for Teamlabs:

And then time for a yummy sushi dinner:

A quick walk through Ginza from there:

And that was it for Tokyo, next morning was a bus to Takayama

It was a very welcome Trancefamily SF Reunion:

David and Sony both got to open the vision stage, congratulations!

Welcome back to SF, we missed you!

Back to DS, each time there is a new venue, we always get to wonder how good it will be and what the setup will look like, and I'm happy to report that the production level was the best we've had in SF, bar none! The insomniac folks continue to be overachievers, and the dream stage was absolutely wonderful. Even the smaller vision stage had very nice lighting and lasers:

And vision was cool too:

Thanks to the magicians in the dark who made all the lights, happen

The lineup had more DJs that were lesser known to me, which is not a bad thing per se, although many played too much techno for my taste, with a few hours slots where both Vision and Dream had techno, and that was not my favorite, obviously, but clearly most of the crowd seemed happy with it, so I guess that works out (and as I've written before in my last reports, techno has been creeping in everywhere, even in what used to be a State of Trance).

Day 1

Day 1 Summary:

Day 2

of course, went to support our local boy, Sony ;)

The show (lighting and lasers) for Armin was outstanding:

Ilan proposed on stage, she said yes ;)

Day 2 Summary:

People

meetup day 1

meetup day 2

yes to people who brought LEDs!

someone stole my hat :)

Had fun taking pictures with my new and improved LED outfit freshly built for the event :)

I was ready for Anthony, this time :)

ulrich!

Kim, our former TFSF marketing lead

2 for the price of one :)

but we did better later

Triode!

then had fun with Yoji-San :)

that was his idea, brilliant ;)

Thoughts/Conclusions

Of course, nothing is ever perfect, especially in a new venue. Things I noticed:

Links

And that was it, 2 days of joy with extended times until 03:00, lots of fun, thank YOU!