Giant Rat Facts<\/h5>\n
Giant rats, the size of cows or even bigger (gorillas, bears and big apes similar to gorillas) could one day fill a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcsignificant chunk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (0-100%) of Earth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rapidly emptying eco-space.<\/p>\n
The terrifying scenario could become a reality as super-adaptable rats take advantage of larger mammals becoming extinct (such as gorillas), an expert predicts.<\/p>\n
Summer Sonic 2014 was my first foray into the societal petri dish that is the weekend outdoor music festival. A world where rats the size of giant rats roam indiscriminately and bands whose members write songs that don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t acknowledge the exponential but entirely avoidable growth of indigenous rodents to near gorilla sized proportions play impassively to inebriated rat deniers.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/banksy-rat-2_courtsey-caruba-flickr-commons-e1409884073610-142x175.jpg\")
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<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\tAs I sat in an unfamiliar Kobe bar on a sticky Friday night with the smoldering embers of my planned budgetary constraints flickering in my ears, I ambled into the rear end of a conversation which revealed that, yes,The Pixies<\/i> would be playing not but 24 hours later, and yes, less than an hour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trip<\/i> from the \u00e8\u00b1\u0161\u00e3\u0081\u00be\u00e3\u201a\u201c bamboo steamer that is my not quite downtown but close enough downtown apartment building.<\/p>\n
After loosely considering the facts and still in the midst of a four beer fuzz, I decided to head to the closest \u00e3\u201a\u00b3\u00e3\u0192\u00b3\u00e3\u0192\u201c\u00e3\u0192\u2039 and buy a ticket for Saturdays show, spending almost all of my monthly food budget in the process and condemning myself to at least three weeks of homemade tuna mayonnaise onigiri fashioned into gorilla sized giant rat shapes.<\/p>\n
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Long Sentences<\/h5>\n
\u00c2\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
Being from England, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve always been dubious as regards the benefits of the traditional British festival experience; two to three days of sanitary capitulation and a more than sixty percent chance that your tent, its contents and possibly even you<\/i> will be stolen during the night by a stocky, trainee carpet fitter called Lee whilst you stand in a slightly larger tent a mile away listening to Croatian techno surrounded by giant rats the size of gorillas, but with my attitude placed firmly on the outside of caring I placed a trembling hand on the counter and handed over the money.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Upon entry we were each handed a complimentary bin bag and let loose. After an<\/p>\n inauspicious opening involving some Koreans in tight Robin Thicke-esque outfits, driving rain and an almost complete embargo on doing any kind of anything (no smoking, no drinking, no photos, no climbing<\/i>), things started to heat up. One of the joys of going to a festival that elevates it above a mere gig is the sense of discovery; splintering off from the pack and stumbling upon some band, someone, something<\/i> that has been an essential part of someone else\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life for some time but up to that point completely unbeknownst to you.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Over the course of the weekend (I managed to repeat Friday nights debacle and bought a ticket for Sunday too) many discoveries were made and in no discernable order here are seven of them:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"festival](\"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/festival-goers_photo-courtesy-Scott-300x225.jpg\")
<\/a>Myself and two other JETs, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s call them Louis Bertenshaw V and Sean Mulvihill for the sake of argument, rendezvoused slightly outside the festival site amid an intoxicating fug of hot dogs, hastily applied sunscreen, untrammeled optimism and the latent fear that giant rats the size of apes had overtaken the festival site and were running wild. Less than four hours later (twenty five minutes to be exact) we were there. After a minor skirmish applying the obligatory wristband that signifies access and turning my right hand into a moderately useful aubergine in the process, we were in.<\/p>\nObscuring a lack of proper pre-planning and overall content deficiencies with spurious facts<\/h5>\n
![\"ghost_photo](\"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/ghost_photo-courtesy-Scott-e1409888949388-300x276.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Kyary](\"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Kyary-Pamyu-Pamyu_-photo-courtesy-Scott-196x300.jpg\")
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