9.25のコンサート

I have been meaning to write this since Saturday night, but I keep getting distracted and doing something else...

So Finally here it is!

This day started out like any other day that ends awesome, horribly!  First I try to catch the door before it slams from the wind and instead get my finger slammed in there and a lovely chunk of skin got taken off.  And right when I'm leaving the house I almost fell off a small step by the gate.  I'm starting to see a trend of days that i do see concerts...

Anyways, after the wonderful Yakisoba my Okaasan made for lunch I caught up with Meri at Hirakata shi station and we headed off to Shinsaibashi.  We got there with plenty of time so she wanted to run into Book Off.  Once again I was SO tempted to buy Kagrra's concert that they had.  I also found IRIS (Korean drama) there!!!  But the thought of Japanese subs rather than English made me turn away.  But they also had the first 2 disks of Kimura Takuya's Beautiful Life, and that is also very much tempting me, with or without subs of any kind!

After that we meet up with Sandra and Ebba and made our way to OSAKA MUSE for the concert!  I think there is something about us and concert halls that make them not want to be found.  Just like when we went to KYOTO MUSE for Kagrra, we couldn't find with when it was right there.  This time  though we walked right past it.  And to make it worse right at the spot where I though "Hey i bet it's right down one of these side streets", it was right down THAT side street...

OSAKA MUSE was even smaller than KYOTO MUSE!  It could probably only hold about 200 people and there weren't even that many there.

So first up was 2nd Dyz.  First off their outfits had lights in them!  So even before the curtain opened we could see them.  They had an awesome sound, they we're on of my favorite of the night.  They guitarist with the red hair was awesome and jumping all over the stage.  The drummer also had some sweet skills!

Best part about them, I got to talk to them after the show (when I say talk, I mean say a few random words in Japanese and make lots of big hand movements).  And they were so shy can cute!  One of them got kinda red in the face and turned away from us.  The guitarist and one of the others got big smiles on their faces and kinda repeated what we said then thanked us!

Lycaon was next.  They were by far the most entertaining band of the night!  Can you see the picture above?  If you can't click on it to make it bigger.  This is what they were wearing for the concert!  I kid you not, there was less clothes on them than it looks!  We got a strip show from Yuki, the vocalist (red hat).  You can't really see his pants in the picture, but there are no sides to them at all, had to have been about 4 inches or so of skin and the strings holding the pants on all the way down his leg, and to top that off he kept playing with his red thong...pulling it up and his pants down!  It was quite distracting, in a very good way!!!  Then there was the guitarist!  His pants were literally half way down his butt and he also had a thong on!  Between each song he had to pull them up.  And his shirt!  All that there was to it was the cloth on the front and 2 straps that crossed in the back.  And let me tell you he had an AMAZING back (thank god he kept turning around and playing backwards!!!)!

Anyways about their songs...They played all my favorite songs!  RED RUM was so awesome to hear live!  They were also super energetic and they kept calling out to us to sing along!  Yuki has such a great voice!  I love listening to it.  Both the guitarist had a little battle at the front of the stage for their solos.

Next on stage was EVER+LAST.  Along with 2nd Dyz, they were the other band I hadn't heard of before.  And to give them the props they deserve they were my favorite of the whole concert.  That is saying something, cuz I love Lycaon and Sel'm quite a lot!  It all had to do with their transformation.

When they first came on stage, I'm not kidding you I thought they were a couple of Hosts that picked up instruments and decided to start a band...I was really freaking out that they were going to be cheesy or try to hard.  But they were amazing!!!  The bassist (with the dreads) was awesome!  And the vocalist's voice was so good!  But the best thing about them was how they acted, the whole time where were up there smiling and playing around with each other!  The bassist got a solo in one of the songs and the vocalist and one of the guitarists kept smacking him on the head.  And the vocalist was head banging so much he fell of the back of the cage at the front of the stage and almost took out the bassist and drums!

東京ヒーローズ (Tokyo Heroes) after EVER+LAST.  They weren't bad at all.  The bassist (blonde guy) was VERY entertaining to watch.  And the guitarist on the left of the picture had an amazing voice!  I was surprised I almost liked him more than the vocalist.  They had some great songs.  But they ended on kinda a slow note.  The last song the played wasn't anything special.

However after the show I got to meet the bassist and drummer.  They were at the merch table selling their merch rather than having other people.  I had to buy something since they were out there personally!  So I got their new single and apparently it came with a free poster, I think they said something about it being signed but I haven't opened it yet to check cuz I know I'll never get it rolled up nicely again!

Sle'm was next!  This is about when the crowd started to get crazy!!!  When an adorable five foot tall Japanese girl dressed in a cute Gothic Lolita dress with matching headband starts growling, it is time to get scared!!!  You really wouldn't think someone fitting this description would be all that fearsome, but take my word IT FREAKING IS!!!

When the band started up there was lots of head banging and jumping around.  It was pretty energetic.  They were much more hardcore than the one before them and Kagrra.  There is this one move, it's kinda like moshing, you throw your hands up alternating them and start hoping one way then the other!  So fun!!!  UNTIL...Until the cute little girl next to you comes flying at you and sends you into the group of people next to you!  You really wouldn't expect that to come from her!

SHE SCARED ME!!!

The vocalist was pretty awesome to watch.  There was one point in one of the songs where he just fell backwards onto the stage and was just laying there singing and making his feet, which was about all of him you could see, dance.  So fun!

Awoi was the headliner and last to go on stage!  They had a stage presence that was epic.  I mean it was a small theater so being that close to any of them was pretty epic, but as soon as they came on you could feel the crowd waiting in anticipation for them.  Before this I'd heard of Awoi, but never really many of their songs.  They have a very heavy dark sound to them, but the songs are beautiful at the same time.  The Drummer was amazing, I usually don't pick up on the drums in a song, but I did for some of their songs.  And the Vocalist's voice was amazing.  He screamed a lot, but when he sang it was awesome!

They kinds ended on a bad/sad note though.  They were on one of their last songs and and the vocalist was sitting on the metal cage and was about to stand up.  But his foot slipped off the cage and he went crashing to the ground where we all were.  There was a collective gasp as he fell.  The girls in the front bent over the rail to check on him and some of the band members did to.  Now it wouldn't really seem all that bad, because it was only about a 3 maybe 4 foot drop, but there was a large metal pipe that I'm pretty sure he landed right on!

After a few moments he popped up and slowly crawled back up on stage.  He went to the back by the drums and in a few more moments he was back singing and screaming!  But I happened to notice there was some red stuff on his face that hadn't been there before, it was blood.  I think when he fell he hit his head on the pipe.  Because as soon as they finished that song he ran off stage.  The rest of the band did their thing, thanked us for coming and supporting them and they too left.  And that was it, they still had a few songs to go I think, but since the vocalist fell they had to end early.

Over all it was one hell of a concert!  I love going to the One-Man concerts, but going to see a bunch of smaller bands was so much fun!  After it was over and we bought a bunch of merch, I had to by something from TOKYO Heroes just because the bassist and drummer were the ones selling the stuff, we passed by 2nd Dyz out on the street.  I mean at the larger One-Mans you will never see the bands after the show just standing there in broad night light!

More concert recaps coming soon!

Gilli

手話

I know this isn't an update at all, but I wanted to share my new blog project that I'm going to be working on.

I haven't mentioned it on here, but I've been learning 手話(しゅわ), Japanese Sign Language, over the last three weeks and I've really developed a bit of a passion for it, so I wanted to make a blog while I'm learning it.

http://lifewithoutears.blogspot.com/

It's mostly going to be my experiences, but I also am going to post pictures and videos of myself doing Shuwa.

So if you're interested at all, take a look.

Gilli

Kagrra,のコンサート

Ok, so the next journal I was going to write was going to be about my host family, but after tonight I really can't write about anything but the concert!



So to start from the beginning, last Thursday Sandra, a girl in my Interculteral Communications class, stopped me as I was leaving after class and wanted to make sure she heard right that I liked Visual Kei. So we got started talking a little about VK, and she happened to mention Kagrra, was going to be in Osaka over the weekend. And of course I knew they were on a tour and that it was their 10th Anniversary Tour. I've known Sandra for a grand total of about 10 minutes and we're already making plans to go to a concert!

On Saturday we got together to try to figure out how to get ticket, but we couldn't really figure it out, so I had it in my mind that the plan was off. But later that night I get a message from her that her okaasan knows how to get tickets. Sunday we meet up again all ready to go to the concert, but when we go to buy the tickets they're all SOLD OUT!!! So depressing!!! But we noticed they where going to be in Kyoto in a few days. Even though it was a school night we said hell to it and bought the tickets. They were about 4700yen each, which as J-Rock concert tickets go is REALLY GOOD!

There was a slight mix up where I though it was yesterday and scared the crap out of both of us, but it was in fact today! Obviously!

The background is done so now I'm getting to today!

Well today started out like any other day that I really don't want to go wrong. I fell down the stairs. So Japanese houses have lovely skinny, steep, and small stairs. From the first time I saw these stairs I knew I was going to eventually fall down them. And that day was today! Thankfully the only thing I got was a painful blister on my hand and a soon to be 10 inch bruise down my left shin where I slid down.

But that was about the only bad thing today! Classes went super fast and there were all amazing! (BTW gestures are haunting me in EVERY class and in real life now!)

Finally Interculteral Communications ended and Sandra and I headed out. It's amazing just how close to Kyoto we are! It literally only took about 20 min or less on the express train.

We're all excited once we get off the train and start heading for KYOTO MUSE. We're walking and walking and still haven't found it, so we head back thinking we passed it. Only to find that if we had kept walking about 10 feet past were we turned around we would have found it!

While we were waiting in line we meet 2 girls from France who were going to the concert as well. One of them had an awesome phoenix tattoo!

Finally they called our number, this was amazing practice for listening to numbers BTW! And KYOTO MUSE is super small!!! There was less than 300 people in there! And we were nice and close to the stage!

The first thing we do when we get in of course is by some merch! Sadly there were already SOLD OUT of the shirts, but I will find it on ebay no matter what!!! So I ended up buying a fan and tour pamphlet. This fan is the best 4000yen (aka $45) I've ever spent!

So we move to the floor and are about 10-15 feet from the stage! And the first thing I look for and find is Sin's Koto!!! Sadly it's on the other side of the hall, but everyone else only comes up to my chin so I can see it fine!

The lights dim and...Kagrra, appears through the back curtain!!! First Izume(drums) came out, he looked so adorable! Next Nao(bass) came out. Akiya(guitar) was next, we were directly in front of Akiya! Then Sin(guitar/koto) came out and headed for is guitar, his hair looked amazing! Finally Ishi(vocal) wondered out of stage. At this point the hall is filled with people calling their names! It was so loud!

But then the most amazing thing, that would never happen in a thousand years in America happened. Nao hit one note on his bass and everyone went silent! It was so quiet in there!

After a few more notes, they started playing!!! And I think one of the most beautiful thing ever happened. Everyone in the crowd raised their fans and copied Ishi swaying them though the air. It was literally a sea of fans!

I don't know really any of the songs they played, but there were all amazing!!! And the dances that went with them were so fun! I kept watching Ishi to see what hand movement was next, but I broke away a lot to see what the others were also doing!

Sin was my first to look for, I really wanted to see him play his Koto, and when he did it was beautiful! He seemed to be having a few problems with his guitar through out the concert though, but he managed and sounded awesome! I think of all the amazing things I've seen and experienced since coming to Japan, seeing Sin play his Koto live has to be the most amazing thing!

But Akiya kept stilling my attention. As he was directly in front of us on stage it was easy to watch him. But I noticed he kept looking in out direction a majority of the time he looked out. I finally realized he was looking not in our direction, but at us!!! When you are a foreigner and stand nearly a head taller that everyone else you get noticed. Akiya actually pointed at me!!! And cheered Sandra along when everyone was jumping! I also thing I got a small wink like thing that came along with a salute, which I of course returned and received a big smile!!!

When they talked to us, I was happy in that I think I could understand about 30% maybe even 40% of what they were saying! Ishi seemed to be making fun of Nao for how he posed in some pictures, then Nao tried to bring Izumi in to pick on him!

When it came to the end, like all concerts must they left stage. It didn't take very long for the audience to start calling their name to get them back on stage. After Sandra and I spent a few minutes giggling over some REALLY high pitched voiced girl, they finally came back out!

This time though Nao cam out first and sat down at the drums. He was followed by Ishi who picked up Nao's bass and Izumi who took Akiya's guitar. After a few minutes of them playing on the instruments Sin and Akiya came out looking very shy! They both took up microphones, they were going to sing!!! They said a few things, well Akiya did, Sin kinda bounced around looking awkward. They all started up the song, which happened to have a good bass and drums and a semi messed up guitar(Izumi kept laughing). All Sin could manage was to keep saying "JUMP JUMP JUMP..." and even with my feet about to fall off I couldn't stop when ever he would start up! Akiya was actually pretty good!

After that song they all took up their normal places, only to have Ishi decided to play musical instruments again! Right off the bat Nao volunteered to play the drums again. But Akiya, Izumi, and Sin all wanted to play bass, so Ishi made them play Jen Kan to see who got to be bass. Izumi won! Which meant Ishi got guitar and Sin and Akiya were forced to sing again. Sin was so shy up there he couldn't manage more than a few words before cracking up! Akiya was almost as bad.

After Ishi said some beautiful things about thanking us for being fans and staying with them for 10 years (I totally though he was near tears!), finally they played one final song, all in the original places. And of course they had us all sing the chorus acoustic! Which was amazing!

As their all throwing their picks and drum sticks into the crowd, Akiya was totally looking at us and threw his pick strait for us. It grazed my hand and bounced off Sandra's head and someone else got it. I think he saw that we didn't get it and throw his next one for us too, but it was short and the girl in front of me got it! But it was so amazing that he tried to get it to us!!!

The whole was back to Hirakatashi we couldn't stop talking about it, and I couldn't stop smiling walking home from the train station!

So I didn't think anything could be better than Sacred Ceremony, but I think this beats it! The whole experience was just so amazing and unique that it was just so much better! I mean the way the crowd got silent from just one note from them and how everyone danced along almost completely in time with each other. Also how Kagrra, interacted with the crowd! And the fact that Akiya paid so much attention so 2 little foreign fans throughout the whole concert!

Next time I shall update about my host family, though I think I'll back date it so it seems like I posted it before the concert! tehehe

I'd post pictures, but I wasn't allowed to take any, but I might post some of my fan and pamphlet.

Gilli

奈良 (Nara)

They say if you can crawl through it you get luck. Gabe and Tan both went through, and Emmanuel the awesome spaz that he is actually went though twice, almost getting stuck the second time!

I got some pretty awesome gifts there. A change purse, but you live on change here! A pin with the Toudaiji on it, and a charm for strength and good health. I was very tempted to get the charm for love, but I thought I`d wait a bit before I got that desperate.

Since it was HOT and we were getting tired we stopped off at a little strip mall like in Namba and got dinner. The place we stopped at was called BABY FACE PLANET`S. OH MY GOD WAS IT AMAZING!!! Tan, Emmanuel, Gabe, and I split this thing called `popi omre raisu` (spelling is so off on that), which is basically a rice filled omelet. And it had some ham, spinach (hence the popi), and a cream sauce. It was to die for. The thing was for 4-5 people, and I could have eaten at least half of on myself. And after we had that we got a `choco banana parfait`. Chocolate ice cream, bananas, peaches, oranges, and corn flakes. TO DIE FOR!!!

Since we didn`t really want to leave yet we walked around the mall for a bit more. Emmanuel found this TINY manga store down one of the alleys. I wasn`t planning on buying any manga while I was here, but they had a deal I couldn`t pass up. ALL 10 RG VEDA (CLAMP`S VERY FIRST SERIES, OUT OF PRINT, SUPER RARE) FOR 1800 YEN!!! That is 10 RARE manga for about $2 each! I had to buy it! And I`s so happy I did, if I passed it by I would be kicking myself right now so hard!

By the time we got back all of us were ready to pass out. And it didn`t help that a lot of the people who went on the Kyoto trip got back at the same time as us. So the bus was full of hot, LOUD college students all the way back to the library stop...

Just as a side not for me, Tan was telling me about how the awesome xxxHolic was even so much more awesome in the latest few chapters. So now I need to start reading it again!

Tomorrow I`ll post on my host family.

And I got my laptop ordered so when I get it in a week or 2, I`ll go back and add pictures to all of these posts.

Gilli

お好み焼き (Okonomiyaki)

Not much has been going on the last few days, mostly all just orientation stuff. Which required a lot of walking back and forth to and from school.

But on Tuesday night a bunch of us decided to go out for Okomomiyaki for dinner. So we headed over to this little, and I mean little, place by Kansai Gaidai's East Gate. The people in there were so sweet. They all moved so we could sit together and they were helping the owners out by taking our orders and everything.

I got Okonomiyaki with pork on it, and HOLY CRAP, it was amazing!!! And so big, I couldn't finish it.

The best part was after we finished the old man who ran the place with his wife gave us some Sake, for free. I wasn't planning on drinking while I was here, but I have a fascination with Sake so I tried it. First sip went right to my head. I could feel it working right away! It was one of the sweetest Sakes I've ever had, which in reality isn't saying much. He also started giving us Japanese lessons, he said we didn't need to go to Kansai Gaidai he would teach us everything we needed to know. Then he showed us pictures of him and his wife on their wedding day, they were so cute!!!

After being here 4 days we found our hang out place!

Yesterday we went shopping. I only have one pair of shorts so I needed more. I can fit in Japanese clothes!!! But I wanted to get a pair of Chiko Chiko shorts (men's clothes), but my butt won't allow my in them. So one of my goals is to lose enough weight to get into a pair of them! They were so awesome!!!

Gilli