People started arriving in significantly larger numbers as the afternoon wore on, but not enough to provide Omar Apollo with the kind of crowd he deserved at the Green Stage. Wearing powder blue pajamas and lady shoes, he was in complete control and seemed unfazed by the cautious response to his poppish R&B. I think he might have done better reaction-wise if he’d been booked at the White Stage, but in any case I thought he was magnificent. “Is there a lot of gay people here?” he asked before launching into “Three Boys,” and I’m not sure it wasn’t a joke. He said this was his second time playing Japan, so he probably knows something about the country, and expressed appreciation that someone was waving the Mexican flag. “Thank you for sticking around,” he said with all sincerity before leaving the stage. 

The response was totally the opposite for King Krule over at the Red Marquee. Looking pretty dangerous for the full hour he was on, KK pretty much eschewed his quieter material and just got louder and angrier, and the crowd absolutely loved it. I stayed for the whole set, so I arrived at Awich after she’d already started. What a difference a year makes! The last time I saw her (Here? Summer Sonic?) her show was fairly lean, but this was quite a production, with costume changes, guest rappers (none of whom I knew by sight), and a contingent of Okinawan singers who were given plenty of latitude to move the audience, which they did. Is this the show she did for Coachella? In any case, Universal is spending their money well.

I was bummed that Remi Wolf cancelled, but it did allow me to see Floating Points, who mostly did a dance set. I hung outside the Red Marquee, which was packed so I didn’t actually see the stage or what was happening on it, but I assume it was the usual DJ setup. Someone said there was a rumor that Utada might show up because Floating Points had worked with them on a track, but I split before the end of the set to get something to eat before the Killers, or, more precisely, Brandon Flowers and his motley Vegas crew. Though I would have rather seen SZA, who was originally slated for this slot, the crowd was definitely into it, and they put on a righteous rock show. They were the perfect Green Stage headliner. The last time they were scheduled to play Fuji, more than 10 years ago, they cancelled for some reason, so I suppose this makes up for it. Flowers was genuinely happy to be here. For me, it started becoming redundant after about 45 minutes so I rushed over to the White Stage to watch Peggy Gou, whose music is boilerplate DJ dance stuff but her sound is so huge that she can make more out of a break beat than most of her ilk. I was pretty exhausted by that point and went back to my room to clean up with the intention of catching Christone Kingfish Ingram at the Crystal Palace at 1:30 am, but I ended up crashing and didn’t wake up until 5:30. The old stamina ain’t what it used to be.