A trip to Odaiba for Morning Musume event

Hey all, sswishbone's blog update for the past couple of days.  I have been slipping in my entries but then had a lot going on privately and also with my trip here in Japan!  Starting with the 19th, after three concerts in one day and two in one day before that, I needed to just have a nice relaxing day of it.  Started with a lie in until around 9am, normally due to the heat I am up at 6am!  So hey must have needed it.

Hung about doing my blog first thing and then went to Akihabara just to get some air and some lunch.  Naturally this involved me visiting the club sega arcade again!  Seriously I haven't arcade gamed this much since I was 13 and on holiday at Bashley park with my family!  (A dorset/New Forest caravan site when Point Blank was a new title!)

And speaking of ancient games, what did I happen to notice next to a pair of sega rally and daytona USA 2 arcade cabinets...   A  SUPER HANG ON arcade machine!  Proper ride on bike with the screen level with the handlebars!  I have not seen this since 1988 when I was at Naish holiday village, proper blast from the past!  Naturally I had a go but was shite at it, this game I played to death on Sega Mega Drive, but for that you use a controller not a bike you have to lean on!  I will play this more though as it is just too awesome not to.

Once I had emptied a few 100 yen coins into Outrun 2 Sp I hit a mos Burger to get a tonkatsu shrimp burger meal for my lunch, which was damn tasty.  Healthy?  Fuck no!  But I am on holiday and therefore entitled to treat my body to the bad stuff as much as I want!

Went back to my apartment after this to do some laundry and shower, when I got a message from Dean saying he was meeting a Canadian wota friend in Akihabara later that afternoon and I was more than welcome to join them.  Yup!  Never turn down the opportunity to hang out with new people, especially fellow idol lovers!

So back to akiba and first port of call was to check out the H!P store again, I am still waiting on my Mizuki A4 special photo, it should actually be in now with any luck...  Anyway, we scouted out the merch and laughed at the various silly stuff that is on sale along with the awesome.  Before we settled down in the seated area to joke about a S/mileage concert that was playing.

For all their expense on the store, they really need to sort their playing equipment out!  The resolution of the show was absolutely terrible and had this horrible golden exposure hue over the top of it, it reminded me of a show from the 1970's!  Really really sloppy, but then, I imagine they don't want you watching concerts for free but blowing money on goods!

Once this was done Dean and his mate wanted to go and talk to someone at a place they worked together in Akiba, not being authorised to go up there I went to a local bar and got a pint of Kirin.  What was cool is this place was on two sides of an open plaza, the left-hand bar that I grabbed a beer in was no smoking, whilst across the plaza was a smoking one, absolutely brilliant!  For those who say the smoking ban should be lifted, perhaps this sort of structure would be a good compromise?

Anyway we spent the next 20 or so minutes supping beer and talking about all sorts of things, mostly about how Manchester music was influential.  Not the sort of conversation I expected to have in a bar in akihabara with two fellow wota haha.  Dean was saying how this is the thing about idol fandom he can't explain to anyone else, just that it somehow pulls so many threads together and there is so much crossover interest, knowledge and debate outside of the idol world which is bound together by a love for the girls.  I agree, I remember when I first met Oroboras and we spent a 90 minute car journey debating american muscle cars haha!

Dean's mate then leapt on a train and we briefly visited Yodobashi in Akiba as Dean had been given some stunning Sony studio headphones but they had a cable that was about 4 metres long and he wanted a cable that was shorter.  Being a former music promoter and radio DJ I am familiar with a few things about cabling and setting up so was a useful wingman for the venture.  Inside we found tonnes of things like kettle to kettle leads, jack leads and colossal studio cables with a adaptors that are as thick as a thumb, not useful for plugging into a smartphone!

Eventually an assistant pointed us in the right direction and after running my keen eye over the connectors, found a 1 metre cable that was perfect fit and works fine.  So Dean can now be a smug git with audiophiles who go on about Beats audio and other stuff by just going, 'well mine are used in studios, be jealous!'  lol

We called it a night after this and I just chilled with a few beers.  So on to the 20th, this was the day where I would get to see morning musume live and also attend a handshake event for them.  For those who aren't familiar, this is literally where the group line up at a table as if doing a signing, but instead you shake hands and say stuff to them (if you're confident enough!)  And as I had not met any of the line-up I was excited to see how they'd react to someone being British lol

So first things first, leapt on the yamanote to Shimbashi where I then changed to the Yurikamomoe line (lol Yurikamoe makes me think of Akkyan from The Possible around the time they did 'young days' !)  This was a cool monorail that was quite high above the city and crossed the huge river channels of Tokyo to reach Odaiba.  It naturally had some awesome views out of the window, check these out!

Yeah pretty impressive, the monorail isn't technically cheap but I'd say it's similiar to UK for local journeys and with views like that, plus the fact it is reliable and comfortable, it easily trumps my home country!  Also was a bit strange as halfway through the journey the road and the rail track spiral through a 270 degree turn to cross the water, felt like I was being driven around the famous turn 8 at Istanbul speedway!

Eventually I disembark at the station near Fuji TV and struggled at first to find where I should be, it did not help that there was an event at Fuji TV and the event I was going for, luckily an attendant gave me an event map which I figured out and ventured on over.

Event itself was in what was literally a converted car park, with the stage being high and large, and all seats formed from rows of benches, very much a temporary facility!  Still once inside I was strolling around for a bit indulging in shaved ice and beer and looking at the one piece display, when I notice Carlos sat in a shaded bench area near some straddled gates.  After talking with him it became clear at 2:30pm they would start allowing people to pre-order the 54th Morning Musume single (it's not out until 28th) and get given a handshake ticket for post concert, thus I now have one on order that may make it to my address before I return to england or may not!

Awesome inflatable One Piece ship at Odaiba

Anyway around 1pm everyone darted from their seats and this impromptu horseshoe line was formed, at first Carlos stood with me but then saw wota he knew further forward so went to them.  For ten minutes everything was fine, when suddenly they called that this was not the real queue and it would start along the fencing that formed the exit to the venue.  Which was a good call as we would have clogged a lot of public space otherwise.

So the scramble to reform the line happens and I end up around 16th in the queue, Carlos was around 116th!  Shows that sometimes it pays to be patient and await confirmation!  Waited in line for around 90 mins and then we began to be herded forward, then had to fill in a form with my address...  I didn't want to put my UK one as doubt it would be accepted, luckily, my phone has an offline storage for my e-mail, so while internet does not work out here (deliberately so as not to incurr roaming charges!) I could access my current address, lucky!

Afterwards I grabbed some fries and then went wandering when I noticed people crowding around the arena.  Curious, I joined the throng, when suddenly Momusu walked on stage, about 90 mins ahead of schedule in street clothes.  Bemused I stood and watched as they soundchecked!  Now this is something I never expected I would get to see in the idol world.  Having done gig promotion I have seen soundchecks before, but this was odd in that the area only had gates so you could still see.

The girls even got in on the act and were waving and shouting at us lot saying how they could see us watching haha.  It was a surreal experience to see them in street gear, Mizuki wore a shirt that said 'left my heart in Hawaii' which made me chuckle.  They did four songs to check which were Help me, Brainstorming, Ai no gundan and wagamama ai no joke.  What was curious is that during the check they sometimes did not sing all the lines, mainly the high noted ones, which suggests to me they were more focussed on low end vocals and must have had some form of issue getting it right.

After this hung around for ten minutes or so when a guy with a megaphone started talking about access to the venue from the left, initially people just stood to the left but then I remembered seeing a sign earlier with the kanji for entrance pointing right not too far from where we queued.  Walked around and as a result got straight through with no queuing.

Inside I took my position on the fifth row right by the aisle, which was a fantatsic spot as it was not only close, but angled across the whole stage, plus it would transpire that Mizuki spent 80% of the gig on this side so was close to my oshi for Morning Musume, woo hoo!

Sly shot of the stage taken when staff weren't about

During the wait for the gig to start they actually played MM pv's so that alleviated some of the dullness, also at this point Maoh and Madoka came over announcing they had arrived and wanted to meet after the handshake as sadly they had not got a ticket for the handshake.  I was like sure, while I had an amazing spot, these two had some in block A tiered seats, which meant seated gig only, not cool!

Just before Momusu came on a 20 second countdown began which naturally got everyone chanting and massively excited.  When the girls came on, they looked gorgeous wearing an outfit I had not expected!  I anticipated either the Wagamama or Ai no gundan PV costumes, instead we got these.

*Pic sourced by Amped from jplop.com*

Mizuki made me howl, lace and sailor hat, aye aye captain!  Haha.  Setlist for the show was all modern tracks, which disappointed me slightly, as I think it would have been a good opportuinty to showcase a little more of their history, still it was enjoyable.  Tracks were: - Help Me, Waruteka take a chance, Brainstorming, Kimi sae, Ai no gundan and Wagamama ai no joke.  

The gig was still massivley exciting and fun, with kimi sae and ai no gundan being the standout moments.  Also some good comedy happened during the MC's, in second MC Sayumi signalled for Oda Sakura to lead on something, but was looking at the wrong side of the stage, cue Oda going 'Kochi!' to Sayu to get her attention XD

Also in the encore MC where they announced themselves and thanked the crowd, Mizuki went first and called all of the crowd amazing for the volume at which 'encore' was chanted.  After this Macchan began speaking when all of a sudden a bee or some sort of insect started swarming around Mizuki, cue her stomping and swatting furiously which got everyone laughing and Macchan looking around wondering what was going on!

Finally, after the MC, Riho signals for the song to begin and the girls all form the pose for the song...  And are greeted by total silence!  For around ten seconds we are looking around and even the members start getting this sort of 'err... What's going on?'  Look.  I then shouted '音楽どこですか'  (english 'Where's the music?) A few wota laughed and then chanted 音楽 before finally the track 'One Two Three' started to end the gig.

Afterwards joined the line for the handshake and up onto the stage we went, this was a rapid event!  Seriously, not even two seconds before you were moved on!  Anyway mostly I just said to members I was British and thanks for the gig, Suzuki kanon developed a smile wider than the Mersey tunnel when I said that!  For Mizuki I went a little further saying that I had come all the way from britain and I really liked her.  Think it shocked her a bit but she was very grateful, which is always cool.  For sayu I just spoke english and said 'cheers for leading the concert'  she understood none of it but who cares?  lol

Once outside Maoh and Madoka were waiting and we began to make our way out of the event, before leaving we took a walk around Odaiba as I hadn't had chance that morning and got to take a shot of the gigantic Gundam statue and also it turned out another idol group were having a small event at the side of the gundam.  No idea who they were but there was literally twelve people watching them, they were still energetic enough but the music really was not our thing so we scarped pretty sharp.

Once done with this, we decided to head for the station but on the way, in a really bewildering moment, I saw this.

Really don't know what to make of this, I have somehow transported to New York lol.  Not something I expected to see here in Japan that's for sure!  After seeing this Maoh was explaining that on the rivers here in Odaiba, they often have boats where people drink and party.  I explained to Madoka and Maoh that they sometimes happen in the UK but more common are the drinking buses.  Maoh then suggested Oroboras should drive one for all of us in the future XD

Once back at Shimbashi, Maoh and Madoka announced they were gonna hit a flash burger joint in Kawasaki and would I join them.  Big burgers?  Damn straight I'll join you!  So onwards we went into kawasaki train station/shopping mall, and after navigating a bizarre series of escalators where you have to walk a quarter of the upper level for the next set to emerge, we were there.

This was a proper old fashioned 1950's US diner and it was awesome!  Ordered a chicken burger and it came with one of the biggest chicken fillets I have seen!  I also had one of their oreo milkshakes for the full on diner experience, damn tasty too!  

We spent hours afterwards talking about H!P, previous trips to Japan, Madoka's residence in Oxford and how many idol events Oroboras will try and attend in october!  Maoh also had his laptop with him and tonnes of photos from his previous trips, incuding the Eurowota meet up in London during 2010.  This was wonderfully nostalgic seeing Maimai being shown off on british buses and outside royal albert hall made me chuckle as I hadn't seen them in so long.  Only downer was seeing her who shall not be named during the karaoke photos!

One thing that transpired during the evening, was that this place was where the video for 'lady mermaid' by the Satoyama unit Dialady was shot!  So that's another part of the idol history I can tick off, naturally at evening's end we had to get one of the staff to photograph us all together.

From left Myself, Madoka and Maoh

By now it had got past 10pm so jumped on the half train back to Nippori then literally came home, updated twitter with some inane babble (including how yes I had forgotten names of people, I am terrible at remembering them from meetings, I need to get over that somehow!) and hit the sack.  So today, well I think Mizuki A4 will have arrived in H!P store so gonna go there and maybe try and conquer super hang on again!  Until next time *sets sail*

Five concerts, Two days and reyuunion of old friends!

Hey everybody, sswishbone checking back in.  Ouch!  First thing I have to say, that title is no joke, five concerts, ten hours of concert time, at least fifteen including queuing/hanging about.  Yeah it was tough!  Start with the first day, got up and was on twitter talking to Nino as he was going to be at both days as a trader of goods rather than attending the concert!

Now Oroboras asked if I could grab him a t-shirt of Miyamoto Karin from Juice=Juice I said I would certainly try but Nino advised none were listed on the websites so there might not be any.  Still 9am I ventured to 中野サンプラザ where the gigs would be held.  It was a trip down memory lane for me as this was the first concert venue I ever attended in Japan, way back in November 2009 when I came for Reina's birthday gigs of the Morning Musume tour...  How time moves on!

As usual for August the weather was scorchingly hot and humid, hovered somewhere around 32 degrees, not bad when your home town has temperatures around 20 degrees!  Still left the station and crossed the street literally to be at the gig itself.  Found Nino and it turned out there were karin shirts after all, I joined the queue and got lucky, yup, Oroboras can breathe a little easier, though he owes me 2500 yen and a beer for my trouble haha!

2500 yen Oroboras, good eh?

While up there I also bought one of the mystery clearfile goods and got a Berryz groupshot, not being a fan of Berryz I consulted Nino about a trade but the guys he was with had tonnes already!  Not giving up I spoke with another trader and asked if he had any Fukumura Mizuki he'd be willing to trade and the dude agreed!  So this compliments the 2L photoset of Mizuki I picked up at the merch stall as well.

After this I just hung about with Nino for a while, trying to enjoy the shade of the trading tents and keeping fluid in my body, fortunately I showed military style preparation and had about four litres of water and sports drinks with me.  Unlike the UK, where you can only hydrate by buying a small bottle of spring water for about £2, in Japan they let you take anything so long as it is not a camera for photos or video!  Thus attendees are encouraged to carry as much fluid as possible for the gigs, I strongly reccomend it after this weekend!

Around 30 mins before concert started I went into the hall and found my position, all five tickets I bought cheaper options putting me from row 16 backwards.  As a tall guy I have an advantage in that I am much bigger than the average concert goer in Japan, so not as important to be really far forward for me!  Before the gig started they showed advertising cm's for all groups bar juice=juice, and it got really irritating!  Namely because this awful announcement of "Hello project!" shattered the silence between CM and the novelty very quicky wore off!

Still, it was better than the Avril Latrine music they had playing over the house PA.  I seriously don't understand Japanese venues, they always seem to play the most random and at times inappropriate music for gigs.  Still, I ignored it, but then out of nowhere they showed the video the 2011 earthquake charity single which had pretty much the entirety of Up front together on one track, meaning a rare chance to see hello project, nice girl project and other groups sharing the same space.  Only thing I was baffled about was why it was being shown, the quake is still affecting some people, but was not aware this will still raising funds.  Shows just how out of touch I can be!

After this was a hilarious animated video about things you are not allowed to do.  Most are common sense like don't take a seat you don't have a ticket for, or stand on the seats.  But some are just boring, one was 'no drinking alcohol'.  I booed this which caused a few fans to laugh quite hard, seriously, how can you not allow people to have a pre-show drink?  Another one which puzzled me was no throwing towels.  I was thinking, C-ute better not do Seishun song then!

Once this was over first concert started...  And it disappointed quite heavily.  The entire project came on for some song I didn't recognise which was moderately paced but featured almost no lines for my fave Mizuki and just felt a bit...  Poor.  After this MC Makoto came on and immediately I was thinking 'you're the fucking man!'  because there he was, in an awesome red coloured three piece suit with matching red cowboy hat!  I want that outfit as it was amazing!

Once a brief intro was made and the VTR showing all the groups performing got out of the way first surprise occurred when Juice=Juice joined the Hello Pro Kenshuusei for a track together.   It was a fun mid-paced number with some good chant moments, but still felt like the gig hadn't really got going.  After this was over Juice=Juice took stage along and did their two singles ロマンスの途中 and 五月雨美女がさ乱れる.  The latter was better than the former even though ロマンスの途中 is actually a decent song.  I also enjoyed watching this new group really doing what they could to show off their talents.  I am not a fan of this group yet, but I will say they impressed me, especially Sayuki  she has a very good set of pipes and tonnes of potential to improve them.  (Cue a slap from Oroboras  for not worshipping Karin!)

Smileage were up next and their first song was new single 新しい私になれ！ which is the first of their recent material I actually like, with the brooding electro and rapid paced chorus complete with defiant lyrics actually made me think 'you've finally found your balls!'  Helps that they wear these gorgeous white outfits and do tonnes of heavy kicking dancing, hey, I'm a sucker for that!

But then they did something which was a big complaint for me throughout the whole of this set-list...  A medley!  Every group did one and I felt it was an absolute waste.  Medleys are great on the group headline tours as it gives fans a chance to see stuff that is not part of the cycle.  When a stage is shared between five major groups, and four of them hog time with medleys, it just drags the experience out and drains time that could have been used for other stuff.

Still this medley wasn't too bad, it featured 夢見る 15歳 which is always a good call and also some modern tracks which sounded ok, I will also give props to the unit member Temura Meimei.  I am not a fan of hers, anytime I look at a picture of her I feel creeped out by her face and she comes across as lacking character when speaking...  But fuck me if she does not have some phenomenal power in those vocals.  For raw power she is on par with former Morning Musume member Risa Niigaki, and at her age that is extremely high praise.  Just makes me wonder if we'll see her have the chance to develop with the style of unit she is in at the moment.

Once they had their moment Makoto came back announcing a few of the satoyama units would perform and I am not entirely familiar with these so it was a voyage into the unknown somewhat.  Up first were ダイヤレディー the duo of Risako and Airi.  Having seen the PV for this song I was surprised at how old fashioned it was, it actually reminded me alot of the old idol duo Pink lady in look and sound.  Both girls really tried hard at this live and did a decent job.  Some of the lyrics have a very tough pace to replicate and each struggled at points but it was on the whole a good performance.

After them came メロウクアッド and this surprised me with how sort of tribal it was.  It helped that Maimi was performing in a sort of warrior attire with her legs on show, always a good thing!  With that distraction aired, back to the song.  As I said it was a very tribal piece, with sort of Samoan style to it.  Was a really good live number as people proper got into the swing of the movements, also props for having Kenshuusei on stage waving huge flags like some call to arms, gets my vote!

Completing this run was Hi-fin and it all felt a bit 'meh' the song was forgettable even with all five members doing random monologues, a shame.  Still the fun came flooding back afterwards when the Hello Project Kenshuusei did 彼女になりたいっ!!!  This was awesome, a proper old school eurobeat track!  If I knew the dance I'd have been paraparaing away like a lunatic with a set of glowsticks...  Just as well I didn't then or else I'd have knocked three or four people out!

Some MC followed but I used it as a drinks break before C-ute came on stirred things up with 'Akegore my star' which got the crowd going nuts, brief MC followed about a C-ute and S/mileage gig of some sort and then the C-ute medley.  This one actually was fine, it helped that it started with 'Tokkaiko Junjou' My fave of all the C-ute back catalog, although MaiMai doing the monologue irritated me, it's Maimi's spot dammit!  Give it back!!  The rest of the medley contained most of their upbeat and electro numbers such as Kiss me 愛してる and 会いたい 会いたい 会いたいな which was a great sound together, but still, wished they'd just done full versions of Tokkaiko Junjou and Kiss me 愛してる  They finished with their newer song 悲しき雨降り and the middle bit I loved about the rain, but the start was far too upbeat and killed the mood of the song, good, but not as good as it could have been!

Berryz followed and instantly wound the clock back with Madayade before their medley which was very average as focussed on the modern singles, aside from ヒロインになろうか！ it was all very average and jarring, not cool.  Their choice of new single for this setlist ゴールデン チャイナタウン was ok, listenable and fine to chant along with, but still lacked polish and depth, I think Madeyade spoiled me!

Morning Musume were up after this and shocked me by doing Mikan!  Now this track is one that didn't sell well but I have always loved, it is just an awesome upbeat track with superb synthesis of keys and guitar, vocally it is not quite the same level now as there is no Reina, Ai chan, LinLin, Gaki or Eri.  However Mizuki, Ayumi and Sakura did a great job and the others tried.

After this was Momusu's medley...  And it sucked!!  All it contained were the recent singles like help me, 123 and warateka take a chance...  They all mashed together but not in a good way, these was no sense of style or uniqueness to them and it just painful to listen to.  Too much autotune, too much synth instrumentation and too much of Riho's cracking vocals.  What annoys me massively, is that on Colourful character tour they had the greatest medley I have ever heard.  Not only did it move between periods of the group's history, but it properly fused them together as songs.  If you haven't seen it go on youtube and find it!  if you have seen it, just listen to how they mix 'sexy boy' with 'I'm lucky girl' to see what I mean.  The medley from this gig was frankly a pathetic effort!

Once this ended they performed new single わがまま 気のまま 愛のジョーク and I got a sense of missed opportunity about it.  The quiet building opening where they all sing the title is really good and mysterious making you wonder to expect.  Then after 19 seconds or so there is that awesome electro breakdown.  A proper dark and angry sounding BGM which makes you think 'oh wow they're not gonna be in a good mood with this one!' But then after it sounds like a very fast metronome has been left playing, while someone pissed about using a saw to play the bass.  I will say the chanting 'Asaretai' part was phenomenal live as the crowd proper got into it, but aside from that, this song missed the chance to be special, a pity.

Final act of the show appeared after this with S/mileage going first doing a reworked version of スキちゃん before C-ute crash the party with an excellent rendition of 超WONDERFUL! which got the crowd fired right back up and then Berryz came on with their similarly rocking track 本気ボンバー!! and at this point I was thinking 'where the fuck was this earlier instead of all the needless medleys?'  Unfortunately right at the end of the show!  As after this all groups did a communal goodbye before going into 元気ピカッピカッ！ as the climax of the show.

But what was weird...  Is that it was a semi-samba version!  It had these really heavy carribean drums to it but over the original bgm...  It was...  Odd!  Good fun though!  Also some of the girls came off stage and walked along the aisles of the crowd performing.  At one point I had Risako, Nacky, Maimi and Ayaccho about ten feet away from me, so that cheered me up somewhat!

Post concert sat outside eating ice cream and cooling down when Naoyuki found me, we chatted briefly before agreeing to meet up post show, I was hoping to see Maoh but he wasn't knocking about for some reason.  After the gap passed with unbearable heat, went inside to the second concert.  Feeling an overall sense of disappointment at the initial set list I had low expectations, mercifully the second set-list was a fuck tonne better than the first!

It kicked off with the whole group doing 'Ok yeah!' by Momusu which I am a sucker for due to its eurobeat nature.  What was cool is that it had Sayu and Riho from MM but then Captain, Maimi and Ayaccho as the initial leads before everyone else came on stage to perform and that was damn cool!  Also the nature of the song made it a perfect opener as it has immediate impact.

After another MC, with Makoto in a much more boring suit, the Kenshuusei did their song again, while Juice=Juice did their major debut and 私が言う前に抱きしめなきゃね before we got groups doing multiple tracks from the past of H!P together, it was at times a case of the  great, the good and the ugly!

The greatest undoubtedly was captain/chinami/airi doing Gomattou's  'Shall we Love?' which was absolutely superb to hear live.  And the girls did a great job on what is not an easy song, their performance wasn't as strong as High King in 2011 but it came close and that is high praise.  Another good one was a group including karin and miyabi (I think) doing Otome gumi's  'Ai no sono - touch my heart' which got me giddy being one of my favourite songs from the whole of MM's history.

The ugly though was when Sayumi and Ayaccho did a rendition of 'Love namida iro'...  Oh god this was pure pain, forget waterboarding, use this as a technique for securing information, you'd get it in a heartbeat!  Having heard Kikka's superb effort on her cover album 'Vocalist' and naturally Ayaya's stunning original, this was just terrible.  I confess, I would not have been any better, but that's not the point.  Together these two could probably do a good rendition of some songs, but definitely not 'love namida iro'

The second concert also featured more from the groups back catalogues being done.  C-ute treated us to a superb rendition of 'Seishun song' and yes, the crowd did ignore the no throwing towels rule!  Berryz also went wonderfully nostalgic and dug up 'yuke yuke monkey dance' which was all sorts of silly fun!  

Some of the newer singles did get done.  C-ute blew me away with their song アダムとイブのジレンマ this was soooooo much better than I could have ever hoped.  Superb musicianship, awesome balance to the vocals, a really sexy dance and great chanting.  Also having seen the PV since, big pops for the whole chained room ethos and them actually having a set rather than green screen, big plus points!

Not to be outdone Berryz also played their dark electro piece サヨナラ ウソつきの私 which was excellent live, really balanced BGM with those short blasts of darkness that just pin me to my seat when I hear them.  Odd, as I used to always shout about shite techno was, maybe I have just learned how any music can work if you use it properly?  What j-pop taught me for sure.

Momusu did some song I don't know before launching into Ai no gundan, which was much better live than the other a-side.  It still struggles in places like the needless 'honto honto honto honto' bit that just feels annoying, and there is the dreaded autotune which I despise more than a tv soap.  (oooh burn!)   But it still felt good live and had good crowd interaction, before the concert ended with everyone doing Berryz 'yuujou junjou oh seishun' which felt epic as a closer.

Now you're probably wondering if this was such a great concert how come I wrote less?  Simply because it was a total whirlwind from start to finish, it just felt great, even when Tasaki Asahi guested it didn't feel too jarring, despite the fact I find her to be a merely slightly less boring Mano Erina.  I find a sign of a great concert, is when you don't stand there thinking, 'in my review I am gonna say...'  I only do that if either a) I ever do a write up for a pro site (which I haven't since 2006) or b) I am bored out of my brain!

After the concert Maoh found me so we said our thank yous to each other and we joined Naoyuki and his friend to hit a local food place and get some drinks.  Nao and I speak English, Maoh and Nao's friend japanese.  So we just jumped in and tried where possible to speak Japanese...  I realise now how rusty mine is and how much improvement I need to make.  I could be understood, but it's like when you hear an Asian person speaking Engrish, well I was speaking Crapanese!  (Credit Oroboras for that term!)

Still we had fun discussing the sets and also other concerts and stuff we had been to such as idol nation.  I also was drinking big beers, while the others would either not drink at all or only have medium/small.  I explained that in England a night out is usually at least six beers!  If beer drinking were an olympic sport it'd be UK, Belgium and Germany battling for the medals everytime I think.  I did nothing to shatter that illusion anyway!  

After  a couple of hours we called it a night, Maoh headed back to Shinjuku, while Nao and I travelled together since he's rooming only a few stops on the Yamanote from me.  It was nice to switch back to English and really made me appreciate how skilled people who can do both seemlessly are.  For me, the problem is that there are very few people I speak Japanese with where I am, but I do need to sort that out somehow if I am to ever get any better and make my trips in the future even  more enjoyable!

After sleeping set off for the triple concert day.  Now there's not much I can really write, as, dissapointingly, the first concert was done TWICE on this day.  The first time I was expecting it and actually thankful as it was a good way to warm up without going too hard at it to conserve energy and fluid.  The second concert had similar vein to the first but did feature the awesome highlight of Captain, Karin and a few others doing Maki Goto's  'Daite yo!  Please go on!'  I was marking out massively as this is easily one of the greatest songs to have ever come out of the project, while again, it was no match for the High-king performance in 2010, it certainly came close and the crowd are just amazing for this song.  The nature of the chants and wotagei is just unbelievable, only 'romantic ukare mode' outdoes it in my opinion.

I did run into Carlos outside the venue though, he was doing similar to Nino in not attending the concerts but at venue for networking reasons.  He also brokered a sale of a ticket to me for Morning Musume Fuji TV event tomorrow, so another event, woo hoo!  Carlos at first wasn't sure if we knew each other and I explained we last met three years ago on the streets of Akihabara when we checked out some of the idol stores.

Carlos is only into morning musume so fired up their tour in November, but I'll be long gone by then, Oroboras will instead be in place tearing up the country!  So yeah aside from a few minor but awesome changes like C-ute doing 'Midnight tempation' the sets were very similar to the day before and I feel I could have saved quite a bit by only going for a couple of the gigs, still, it was an enjoyable experience.  I feel my biggest problem was that ever since Kikka has gone solo and most of the material in H!P went a little stale I fell out of the loop, so didn't fully know the material and groups.  If you are multi-group fandom wise you'll definitely gain enjoyment from these shows.

So on to today, rest, rest and more rest.  I need it!  Probably gonna do something small scale, see how I feel later.  Until next time *sets sail*

To the top of ze Tree!

Hey all, sswishbone checking back in with another day's activity to blog about.  Yesterday I decided I would visit the Tokyo Skytree having heard a lot about it, and namely that it didn't exist as a public facility when I last came to Japan!  Now this thing is damn colossal, it's total height is over 2000 feet while the main observation deck that the public can reach stands at 350M, over 1000 feet!

Shot from the river below the tower

Just to give you some perspective!  Now to reach this place I had to jump on the JR line to Ueno, but from there, annoyingly it is subway only, costs 300 yen each way.  Grrr...  I have a rail pass for free travel but not valid, oh well!   Got to the tower and was staggered at just how popular the place was, in order to even get a ticket I had to visit a tent and get give a card that says 'reservation to buy ticket at 4pm...'  I'd arrived at 1pm!

Right there and then I knew this was going to be a ballache in terms of waiting, so I descended to the river where I took the above shot.  Luckily for me there was an open top boat moored and they offered river tours at a cost of 1500 yen, being into boating and chilling I decided why the hell not?  So off down the river a sailing I went.

View from the prow

This was a nice relaxing way to spend the day, a few Japanese families were on board and one of the children was curious enough to ask where I was from.  When I said the UK he had no idea where it was!  I answered it was in Europe and his grandmother explained it was a long way from Japan haha.  This was a really awesome trip even if it just involved two sections of the river, just cruising taking photos, sipping chilled green tea and enjoying the sunshine, it was bliss.  Still had to come to an end after around half an hour but considering the costs to go on the Ouse or the Thames this was a decent price.

Kikkake wa...  Me!

Back at the tower I found a world beer tent on the deck before the skytree entrance so had one which was an American IPA called 'Pike' and damn was it good!  Reminded me alot of Rogue Red and that is very high praise indeed!  Not seen it anywhere but I think I'll be talking to my friends at Beermoth in Manchester to see if they can source it anytime soon!

Well eventually the time to go into the area to buy tickets appeared and oh my fucking god...  If this was not the biggest queue I have seen for any public tourist attraction since Nemesis opened for the first time at Alton Towers in the 1990's!  I had already been waiting for at least three hours and my patience was wearing quite a bit thin by this point.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please have passports and boarding cards ready for inspection!

Yes I can't say I was impressed.  Fortunately it was actually quite swift moving to get through to the ticket point but it did get me worried about whether it would be possible to actually see much.  After all, if you go back to the photo I took of the tower, the deck looks pretty rounded, could it honestly hope to cope with the crowd here?  Well only way to find out was give it a shot.  So I paid 2000 yen in order to get up the tower, easily the most expensive of all the towers I have visited so far, but still cheaper than The Shard in London!  Which is funny considering Tokyo Skytree observation deck is higher than the shard in its entirety!

Well the next leg of the ascent involved going through airport security scanners and having bags checked, by now I was really thinking that the country was trying to tell me something!  Still eventually we all huddled in a gloomy space where there were huge elevator doors and odd sparkling lights as if to be some gala/jazz club entrance.  We step on board, ride 300+ metres up the spire and then the doors open into bright sunlight, cue a mass Sugoi! from everyone on board.  

I have to say, it was a long wait, but worth it, let me show you what I mean!

 These are just a couple of the 100 or so shots I have in order to not break your internet, should you want to see these in their entirety then please click THIS LINK

I spent ages taking in the view and just looking out at the vastness of this one city.  It was impressive, like in Kyoto, to see where the old and the new collided so unusually.  Plus it was eerie to see the mist on the horizon, reminded in a way of Silent Hill.  Now there is a higher deck that costs a further 1000 yen to access but with the mist afore-mentioned I didn't feel I'd get much extra out of it so decided against it this time.

I did think that it would be good to stand a tall one as they would have said in the states so tried to find anywhere that sold beer.  There were two sky cafes but none had alcohol!  This annoyed me so I settled for an iced latte, not quite the same experience really but it was as close as I could get this time!  Speaking of odd, they didn't sell beer but did have a menu of this.

Can you honestly think of anything more ghastly than that!?  Seriously who in the name of fuck thought it was a good idea to mix milk, blueberry and fucking vinegar!?  Might as well serve vanilla ice cream and top it with ketchup!  Fucking disgusting shit, and no, I am NEVER trying it out for you!!!

After an hour or so of taking it all in and burning the memory card of my camera I decided it was time to move on, with the time I spent waiting I could have sat there all day but I didn't want to spoil it for anyone else.  It was literally a case of get up close to the glass, take your shots and move on so someone else could move in and have a go.

I did however get the following before I went.

340 metres straight down!  That's what it looks like, wish you were here?  I actually wish I could have scaled those rungs you can see beneath the grid floor!  Hey you know me, live life over the edge and flip death off on the way down!

In all I would say it is worth going but really, if possible get a Japanese friend with a credit card to order tickets online!  The hassle of getting there on the day, waiting for a slot just to join the ticket queue and then get up the tower is just a massive pain in the balls!  Still it was a worthy experience.  Now today is the cool hello concerts at Nakano Sun Plaza, so I am literally gonna finish up here, grab some breakfast and get ready to head out to said gigs!  Going to be an absolute blast!  Until next time *sets sail*

A final live report for Yuu!

Hi all, before you all start, the title is not me saying I am going home and is actually not my final live report, score for misleading journalism!  No the title is that this is the final event I can attend of Kikka's so from this point on my blogs will about my other antics!

Anyway the previous day to this I was really really really tired, constantly felt on jelly legs when walking and everything.  Initially I just wanted to stick around and do something like the Tokyo Skytree...  But I was simply too knackered, worried at first I had heat stroke or come down with something, so I just stuck my head in some books and took the day off, advantage of a month abroad, if a day feels like shite, you can write it off!

So to yesterday, well the night was Kikka's mini-live event in Shinjuku, but I wanted stuff to do in the day before it.  Fortunately, I saw on my twitter that Nino was knocking about and wanted to go scouting for a potential laptop as well as visit Akiba backstage pass so I thought, fuck it, not done that, let's roll!

So hot morning around 11:15 we meet in Akiba station and head to the huge Yodobashi shopping...  err...  Stadium!  Seriously, if you weren't aware it was a shopping store you'd at first glance think it was a stadium of some sort, they are freaky places which have tonnes of stuff for sale.  Nino and I checked out the laptops and cost was very high, as you'd expect in Japan, but specs weren't the great, mostly mid-rate, on that barrel full of disappointment we headed into Akihabara itself.

I decided I wanted to scout out the Hello Project shop again just in case there was something in there that took my fancy.  (Note: - My rather exclusive Fukumura Mizuki A4 photo is still not in!)  Inside I noticed something I hadn't seen in the H!P store very often, lots of young people!  This was cool and evidently shows the new direction of the groups is generating cross generation interest.  Though I am still not too hot on some of the younger additions (more on that later).

Still I did spy an awesome item I had to pick up featuring the aforementioned Fukumura Mizuki

Yup a lovely clearfile with photocard, what made Nino and I laugh is the blatant copyright rip-off from chupa chups, then again, Kikka-sama got away with ripping off star wars so they have previous when it comes to this sort of thing!

After this we checked a couple more computer stores which somehow had the same machines as Yodobashi but at half the price, score one for rip-off consumerism within one mile of itself.  Thing you'll notice about Akiba is the fierce competition for electronics sales.  If you are in Japan and need a new camera, shop around here is my advice as you may score a bargain!

Once done we were both feeling a little hungry and decided to hit Akihabara backstage pass, for those of you who do not know, this is Tsunku's own maidcafe.  I have never done maid cafes before but have never really been that interested as they mostly seemed about blessing your lunch and being drowned by sickeningly sweet antics.  However, Dean mentioned should at least give it a go and having someone who has been before as a guide was enough of a reason.

When we got up there it was quite amusing as the maid on door duty had to call three times for someone to take our custom haha, I think they were all terrified of these foreigners not being able to understand them, despite the door maids repeated instruction that japanese was ok.  (well...  sort of!)

Anyway eventually we got ourselves sat down and ordered some food, which was decent, usually, from what I have heard, the food is crap but the experience great.  Here it fused both which was nice.  First thing I had to do was sign this form for a members card with my 'producer's name'  (mine in other words!) which was fun.  After food arrived we suddenly got accosted by 海岬まりな who is one of the maids that Nino is a big fan of

Show beats tell usually so there you are!  She was actually very funny, she understood my Japanese and kept asking stuff like how old I was and where I was from, both of which surprised her.  Not entirely sure why me being English is such a surprise, I guess I really am from the grim northern steppes and totally out of my universe or something!

She also made us laugh because Nino and her are fans of the Japanese artist YUI, and she has a song titled 'Please stay with me'  So まりな, bless her, asks two foreigners what it means and how to translate it.  we both broke down laughing with the same wavelength thought...  "err...  is that appropriate for an idol to ask?"  I think she realised and immediately shouted 'dame!'  (Japanese for don't!)  Which just tickled us even further.

After this the stage suddenly became active and five members of the cast came on stage to perform one of their songs.  At this all maid activity stopped and instead I was treated to something I have never seen before.  The maid group on stage sang live, but all the maids suddenly danced the PV dance where they were.  This included behind the car, at tableside, entry to the cafe...  It was...  Awesome, but not something I was anticipating.  Also as a bit of fan service, if you look at one of the off-stage maids while they do this, they come over and pretty much do a one on one dance for you.  Can see now why many are attracted by these places!

I do think we got her in trouble though as she wanted to stay talking to us forever but management kept calling her away from the table, oops!  Anyway next to us two Japanese wota turned up and began talking with us, trying to get Nino to say to a maid that the word for beautiful in Japanese was actually something far worse.  Nino played along at first, before bailing out when she came over.  Maid was called もえのあずき

Japanese wota continued to hound Nino for more fail Japanese but he was just like 'dame!' which got them giggling profusely.  もえ however stuck around talking to us for some time, especially when she mentioned jackie chan and it turned out she was a fan!  I sat there talking about Rush hour, Who Am I?, dragons forever and others which was unexpectedly awesome.  Jackie chan really is the man and if he ever goes to japan I know one maid who'd fangirl massively that's for sure!  Just as we were readying to leave the Japanese wota gave us a parting gift.

Yup, copies of their singles, which was awesome!  Especially as one on the left is actually sealed, shows these guys are regulars!  We settled our bill after this and left, overall, a good experience had.  Certainly fun if you know some Japanese so can interact fully with both the maids and the other customers.  Not too expensive if you are careful, my bill was around 2400 yen for just under an hour.  However, Nino did point out one option on the bill was Dom Perigion at a whopping 40000 yen!  Firstly, champagne is horrible, secondly, especially at that price!

We settled for a swift drink in a bar near the station, though Nino began having issues with his stomach at this point so went for coke while I grabbed a shot of whiskey on the rocks, hey, I can live the high life now and again!  After this went our separate ways and I returned to my room to park my stuff and just chill for a while.

At home I got some news about Morning Musume having a semi-best of album with new arrangements and so forth.  Now, something I have never hidden, is that I do not understand the adoration for Sayashi Riho.  Yes, she can dance well, but she can't sing and just strikes me as dull.  Whenever I have seen comments about her I always get this overwhelming feeling of people being suckered by hype...  Which I broadcast on the forum Jplop...

Oh boy did this start a war!  Naturally people were defending, which is absolutely fine.  But it proceeded to degenerate when I simply said you have your opinion and I have mine, let's agree to disagree.  An attempt to move the discussion on, water under the bridge, etc...  Some people just don't know when to quit and begin talking about previous dismissals from other forums and such.  I am all for flaming my opinion, that's fine, but when you start to go 'neeer you're not welcome on this place and no surprise' it just makes you look an asshole!


Anyway I wasn't about to let this ruin my evening, with about two hours left before Kikka sama I decided to return to Akiba for some arcade gaming and some grub.  After throwing 300 yen into outrun again (seriously I am addicted to that game!)  I went for a swift matsuya, but while on the way there I saw this outthere and amazing thing.

That's just...  Wow!  Something so out of leftfield from where I am from to be absolutely awesome!  It'd be interesting to see the response if that ever took round the city of Manchester, even here there were nationals taking photos in bewilderment, and that is saying something for a town where maids stand on the street offering you flyers for their cafes lol

So train ride to Shinjuku and I happen to spy some promotion for Momusu at Shin-okubo station, two large posters for the single.  I have to say one thing, ever since these new generations have appeared, the company have finally put the effort in for promoting their singles.  Just a pity that my fave era didn't get the same sort of treatment but ah well!

Finally made it to Tower records and around 9pm bought  a copy of Kikka's album which got me access to the live and the following handshake.  What was interesting here is that the tower records in Shinjuku has a small stage in the middle of the 7th floor and like in Shibuya Tsutaya we had to queue up the stairs between floors depending on the number for your ticket.  As I was a late arrival my number was 123, but not a massive issue considering I had around 6 inches in height on most of the audience so good view regardless!

But it was still a strange experience to be about to watch a concert on the 7th floor of a shopping centre in the middle of a records shop!  Not that it stopped us doing what we usually do at concerts, yup, the glowsticks came out, the chants and more.  Makes you wonder how the staff put up with that sort of thing, then again, welcome break from the monotony maybe?

Kikka rushed on stage and opened with Time to zone which was an unexpected surprise.  Whilst it is from her best of, I wasn't prepared for it.  Worked brilliantly as an opener though being that sort of semi-acoustic dance number at slightly higher than average pace.  Got the crowd clapping and cheering loudly which is always awesome.

Following this she did a brief MC introducing herself and talking about how her next song was one produced by Kimaguren, thus I already knew that 八月の花火  was coming next, before that though, she sang a line from ''cafe ole no uta' before asking us to sing it back to her, which was pretty cool!  It was funny to hear the offset between Kikka's beautifully refined vocals and the crowds harsh rebuttal, it certainly made Kikka chuckle.  As the next song began the crowd continued where we'd left off at Idol Nation in uncharted territory with a song where no real existing wota chanting was in play.

Still we pulled through and got most of the unfamiliar to join in, whilst Kikka continued to display why she is my favourite idol with the great ability to swing between vocal styles with ease whilst having the presence to interact with as much of the crowd as possible.

After this mic went on to the stand as she launched into the ballad 世界中に君は一人だけ I was surprised as this song as it was such a change in pace, but she just absolutely nailed it everytime, really high notes and different keys without as much as hicup.  Following this the pace picked up again with こんな私でよかったら which was as flawless as idol nation before she ended with Sweetie.  The final song was funny as we at the back sort of trolled the crowd because it seemed we changed the rhythm of the chants which threw people off.  I am not sure if Kikka clocked it herself, but she at points stopped singing and pointing at the crowd, so we missed a line before singing for her and she kept giggling.  I reckon it was more coincidence but if not then she truly is amazing!

After the live it was time for the handshake and I spoke with a few of the wota beforehand as once again, in true Japanese fashion, it was pretty rapid.  Kikka2525 was saying how he much preferred the American style we enjoyed in Atlanta where you had much more time.  Still, any time is better than no time, so having queued around I reached her and decided to play safe and simply said that she was the best in the world.  She responded by going 'wow, I love you, Kikkawa Yuu' This made me XD but I just responded with 'I love you too' and she replied with thanks in English while the crowd cheered, nice crowning moment to a very good day and evening overall was that.

Final thing I did was come home, say night to my girlfriend and family before hitting the sack and getting sleep.  Now today...  Err...  Nothing planned!  I have the cool hello concerts tomorrow and sunday so probably going to get some supplies in ahead of those and generally laze about.  Isn't a holiday about relaxing and enjoying yourself?  Exactly!  And I aim to do just that!  Until next time, *sets sail*

Two very different days off

Hey all of you, yup my sunburn is still plaguing me so going to stick to the written format for now, I think I might actually do both forms once I am able to get in front of the camera again, what do you all think?  Well anyway, 12th and 13th August were two days off as I was trying to conserve a little cash and generally just have a couple of nice relaxing days.

I'll start with the 12th, morning was very simple had breakfast then went to Akihabara to once again have a shot at Outrun 2SP.  It might be an old game but boy is it fun!  I have found out that once of the club sega's has this and you can do the full 15 stage version of the game for just 100 yen, which is around £0.66, compare that with England where any place that has this game you won't get change from £2 for that so score!

Afterwards I spent the day mostly resting, talking with my girlfriend on twitter and generally having a nice quiet day.  You might think why I did that but there was the cashflow and secondly, my sunburn was killing anytime I went out, so less outside contact meant less skin warming!

Still I did have a plan for the evening in that I wanted to go to Shinjuku as any person can go up to the observation level of the Shinjuku Metropolitan building for absolutely nothing!  I aimed to get some night photos of Shinjuku and beyond as a result.  Unfortunately it was raining, very very very hard when I reached Shinjuku.  I had no umbrella and not even a coat.  In the end I rushed into the storm and dived into a starbucks, grabbed a coffee and sat observing the rain.

Once it slackened off to a minor level I decided to chance my arm and walk through the area to the tower.  Yes it was still raining, but the temperature meant it was like being in a shower, unlike manchester where when it rains it feels like you're in a freezer and someone has turned on the fire alarm system!

As I was walking though I realised that the lightning had not stopped and wondered if I could still get up there.  After all, the normally bullet proof train system out here had stopped certain lines due to lightning.  If that could be struck down, then a tower block at such a high level might also be affected.  Luckily though it was open so I rode in the elevator and started snapping photos.

Shinjuku night skyline, lighting provided by the lightning storm!

It was an awesome spectacle to take in the night view and have the lightning flashing all over the place.  This for me is what travelling is all about, doing stuff that you simply wouldn't get the chance to back home, wherever home might be.  Manchester gets lightning storms now and then, but I have not been able to get so high up to visualise it before!  I also did a simple video of this, but my HD camcorder for whatever reason would not capture the view!  So I had to, of all things, switch to my cameraphone for that!

Night skyline in the lightning storm

I would have embedded it but the 'my videos' section found none!  Useful!  But yes that link will take you there, I did stay longer and then finally I went home for the night, little bit of reading and chatting before I went to bed, all in all a cheap but thoroughly enjoyable day!

So on to the 13th, now I told myself I was going to go and see Osaka, and happened to be talking with my housemate Martin about it.  Martin is a big animal lover and also loves aquariums, it turns out Osaka has one called 'Kaiyukan Aquarium', having looked at their website it looked like an awesome place to go, ever since I happened across the aquarium at Alton Towers last year have I wanted to see more.

So morning comes and I get reserved ticket for the Shinkansen down to Shin-Osaka.  Once there it would require transferring and at first I went to Osaka itself.  I knew from the website for the aquarium that the Chou subway line in Osaka stops at a place called Osakako but I was struggling to figure out how to get to it.  So I go to Osaka itself and this train station is useful as they have english announcements on the platforms.

Problem is, their central map of the train routes is all in Kanji and only a few stations have romanised names!  Osaka, Tenoji and Shin-Osaka being ones I remember.  Now at first information told me to go to Umeda, then transfer to two other stations.  I go to the map and I am trying desperately to figure out where it is, my kanji reading level is not that high, so while I know the kanji for Ta/Da, I didn't know the one for 'Ume', process of elimination didn't help as a few stations ended with 'Ta/Da'

Thinking it might be a subway I go to a lower level and see a second information booth, fortunately the lady here knew a lot more about the routes and simply told me to ride the loop line to Bentencho then the chou line is there and Osakako only two stops along the line.  Sorted!  Only annoyance is that this is subway only, thus it cost, round-trip, approximately 500 yen.

Speaking of subway, this was not a subway, as at Bentencho I had to climb two sets of stairs to reach the platform and the track never even went to street level, let alone subterranean on the way to Osakako, only subway I have ever been on where the crux of the line is way above ground!  Still once at Osakako got to see a cool looking steam train.

After this I walked for around ten minutes and found the aquarium itself, and my was this awesome!  If you have ever played Final Fantasy 8 and done the 'deep sea research centre' side-quest, the first part of involves you going through a spiralling series of floors that are underwater.  This aquarium is exactly the same!

You literally start at the highest level of the aquarium and see the creatures right near the surface, and throughout the tour you spiral downwards, to show what I mean, I have supplied two different pics from my collection.

In the first shot we have the dolphin literally surfacing for air and then beginning to dive back down, where as the second shot, which is of the same tank, shows the dolphin at much greater depth swimming through the environment at that level!  This was the same for all the tanks which featured otters, sharks, whalesharks, mantas, penguins...  Literally almost anything you could bloody think of was here!  The great thing was that it cost just 2300 yen to get in, so with the subway fare it was 2800 in total for expense on the actual travelling, that is around about £20, absolute bargain!  (Note: - if you don't have a rail pass and are living outside of osaka...  It will be extremely costly on the Shinkansen!)

Now I have literally tonnes of photos and linking them all here would simply melt your machines, so instead, you can view the photobucket album for this aquarium by itself by clicking HERE 

I honestly have not had such a good time in ages with regards to any form of tourist attraction, this one does come reccomended.  Also when going in they asked me what country I was from since I was foreign, once again mentioning I was english got the lady behind the counter giddy with excitement, I know it is far away, but still surprising to see the reaction haha!

After this took an evening Shinkansen back to Tokyo and just read books and chilled out before getting back to my room and once again chatting with my girlfriend about all the exciting things I have done before sleeping.  

So today then?  Gonna be another rest day, I just want to relax, probably go somewhere local later but for now, just going to enjoy my morning.  Tomorrow is a mini-live and handshake for Kikka-sama in Shinjuku which will be awesome, so saving my energy for my number one idol!  Until next time *sets sail*

Another signing with Yuu

Well hey all two posts in two days, look who's spoiling you now!  Yes I am still sunburnt and itchy so not exactly hot for staring into the camera in this state so for now, my scribbling is going to have to suffice.  Yesterday was a really cool day, started out by dealing with my last blog and then heading into Akihabara.

Before I talk about that one thing I can't believe I forgot to put in my idol nation blog was another amazing thing I came close to whilst there, as part of the concourse where the food and merch were sold, was this!

Yeah now that's what I'm talking about!  The rides from Initial D.  Only reason I can put for not including them is that I was too high on Kikka energy to think about much else!  But yes they were really cool to see in person and if you haven't seen Initial D, stop reading and do so now!

But anyway, back on to yesterday.  In Akiba, they did something I haven't seen before which was shut the central road of the area!  This meant alot of heavy foot-traffic and was interesting.  We also had the Akiba go karts doing their rounds, including someone dressed as Luigi from Mario Kart!  Unfortunately the guy got too into the game and shot by before I could get the chance for a Photograph, shame!  Inspired by the speed though I hit the arcade in Akiba to do some outrun 2 SP.  Love that game and even though I ddin't make the scoreboard, I still had a blast!

Around 2pm I hit the train to Yokohama as yesterday was another signing with Kikka-sama, this time at the much more common time of 5pm.  Still I ended up getting there early and had the chance to scout the place out.  Thinking it best to find the venue first I used the subway to get to Minato-Mirai and in the subway was some unexpected attractions.

You just gotta love this country, picture the scene, it is 5pm, everyone is rushing back towards Tokyo to get home...  And they all stop to gawp at the gundam and the anime girl haha!  Absolutely superb!  I believe this is Macross but do not quote me on that, anime is no longer my biggest forte when it comes to all things Japanese!

Once I moved on from here I ended up literally crossing the road and there was a Tustaya, just to be sure I hadn't got the wrong branch of the chain, I asked the attendants if the event was there and got advised it was.  Before I ventured outside though I couldn't help but notice this piece of furniture.

Damn cool if you ask me!  After taking the photo, I found myself with about an hour of waiting, in very hot conditions.  So I ventured to a local cafe with the idea of something like an iced coffee to cool me down...

Until I saw that!  Yup, sold, I'll have one, hell. I'll have a hundred!  This beast was mainly shaved ice with strawberry sauce, pieces of real strawberry topped with classic ice cream.  It was lush!  Really cooling, tasty and filling, so colossal win win for me.  Having devoured that thing it was about 4:15 so I ventured back to Tsutaya where the staff members had started selling copies of the album that you could get signed.  Having already had the limited edition signed, I settled for the regular one to complete the set!

So woo hoo!  Signed album gets!  Before this I was waiting about and Kikka2525 came over to say hi, I advised I was going through once,  Kikka2525 on the other hand was going through four times!  People might think it strange I only went through once on these meetings considering how often I went through in Atlanta.  However, out here there is a big difference...  COST!!!  To go through the line in Atlanta I could get anything signed so theoretically didn't have to spend anything, here for each cycle it is buy either the regular or limited album, so a whopping 3000 yen a time, or £20 in Sterling!  I am a huge Kikka mark, but with the cost to actually get to Japan I limit my cycles.  Plus I also am not that greedy, having cycled in the past previously I don't want the experiences to feel lessened in any way, so thus, one time is enough! 

Anyway after this I was left alone whilst the others went to find toilets and just stood there waiting when a person comes up to me suddenly and goes, "are you sswishbone?"  I am there, 'yes I am!'  and thus Nao from Hello!Online introduced himself.  Dude is over from Singapore and a fellow fan so we naturally became very talkative.

For those hoping I will rant about H!O now, sorry to disappoint but I believe the horse is not moving!  What I will talk about is how Nao made me feel very envious about previous meetings.  You see, he met Kikka back when she was still in the eggs around 2010.  That made me go like 'wow!'  Not heard of anyone outside Japan who had done that since Gordokaba! 

Like me Nao is here for multiple things including the H!P summer shows so we are intending to catch up at Nakano!  But back to the event when it came to our turn, Nao was first and as in Shibuya, you had to write your name so it was personalised.  And Kikka seemed a bit surprised by Nao's name until he mentioned singapore.  After this it was my turn and I had on my shades so probably looked less cool and more dork but either way she seemed happy to see me again.  I mentioned once more that I was over from the UK and this made her smile,  After she finished signing I picked up the album and she suddenly yelled WAIT!! 

Well I wasn't going to rush off after that was I?  Thinking she was gonna do something like speak english I got ready for something epic, turned out she just wanted to say come see me again in Japanese.  I smiled and advised I would.

So yes, her sweetness still continues to knock me out no matter how often I see her which is awesome.  Nao and I hung around after this talking about experiences with H!P, including me reminiscing about meeting Miyabi from Berryz all the way back in 2009 and Nao having been to multiple tours before the signing ended and we got to say goodbye to Kikka.

After this, both feeling a bit hungry, we decided to try and find somewhere decent but not bank account destoying to eat, walked around Yokohama and it was either Mcdonalds or expensive, we decided to cash out and head back to Shibuya instead but not before I managed to get a shot of the awesome dusk skyline here in Japan.

Lovely isn't it?  I am hopefully gonna have more skyline shots later on, but after this we made it to shibuya and decided to hit that wonderful wota place Saizeria!  had the hamburger set with soup & rice before we both called it a night debating why anyone in the world is blown away by Sayashi Riho in Momusu.  I know she is popular but just never got why since she has an average singing voice and it isn't that appealing in character.  Still, everyone loves who they love, and I have no right telling anyone about that.   Except to worship Kikka-sama!  lol

Well that's pretty much it for this entry, taking it easy today as planning a day trip outside Tokyo tomorrow.  I am wanting to go up the shinjuku metropolitan building later so you may see some videos and photos, until next time *sets sail*.

Finally I have come back to Yuu

Well howdy all, sheesh it has been such a long time since I blogged!  Allow me to explain, as a writer, I write when empassioned, and whilst I have adored everything Kikka since Atlanta.  I just don't have the ability to do gushing blogs all the time!  That said, I feel I have neglected all of you, massive apologies on that front but I shall make up for it with this post.


I am writing this in Japan itself!  For the first time in three years I have ventured back to this amazing country and the culture I love so much.  Honestly, I don't feel like I ever really left, so much that is familiar just came flooding back to me!  I have vlogged about the first few days on my youtube account so if you're interested in all of that visit www.youtube.com/user/sswishbone


I came here as I am attending the Hello Project summer tour, I have never done the mass group concerts and decided I should break my duck and see what they are all about.  As a result I have gone a little crazy...

Yup!  Five of those are the summer gigs at Nakano sun plaza, three of which take place on one single day!  Seriously these girls are hardcore as all concerts will be around two hours each, so yeah, if you think it is easy being a J-pop idol, think again!

The ticket top-left though is the most important for me as it allowed me to attend the A-Nation island event on the 10th (yesterday) which was dubbed Idol nation.  My oshi and the undisputed queen of J-pop herself Kikka-sama was there performing!   (Well she is to me anyway!)

Before my favourite took stage there was a day of other idol units performing, this event featured very short sets, each group/artist only doing three or four tracks before making way, personally I am all for quality over quantity but I have to say, if you are into multiple groups or always up for finding more talent to become a fan of, these sorts of event are a superb method.

But oh my fucking god was it hot!  event was at Yoyogi national gymnasium...  Which is not in Yoyogi, but Harajuku!  Even more confusing was that the main banners listed the event as Shibuya, make up your fucking minds!  *breathes deeply*  Ok, well getting back to my point, hot.  england has recently had a heatwave, reached as high as about 27 degrees where I am from...  It was 38 degrees at this concert.  Most of you would say 'Big deal, indoors'  errr...  No!

Yup!  The event was outdoors, Kikka was not on stage until 5pm and at first there was a sort of open air greeting from the idol unit Supergirls not being a fan I decided to scout the area and quickly saw it had a theme of a sort of world cup of food festival with idol music!  Main eating area had loads of different country stalls including Japan, Korea, Brazil, America and UK!  Very surreal, but managed to score a delicious skewered steak at one point in the day!  I also found myself able to finally score some Kikka merch.

Everything but the signed CD was bought at Idol nation, the T-shirt is great as it actually fits!  The one in Atlanta was super tight compared to this so very nice indeed to finally have a proper t-shirt of my oshi.  Also the towel and clear file are gorgeous and one of the photos is a 'not for sale' so a rare photocard gets!

After this I changed into said t-shirt and my bright yellow trousers so full on Wota mode engaged lol  At this point went back to the stage and a group called GEM were performing.  Had never heard them before but they were actually pretty decent, aside from an annoying intro they use, but then, I only find it irritating as I am from the grim northern steppes, many other idol fans won't be too bothered!

After they had finished a truly bizarre thing happened, if you go back to the photo of the stage, you'll see a half-pipe in it...  Well they actually next had an hour long show of bmx's, skateboarders and roller bladers!  All fucking weird as they were doing it western bands like jamiroquai and Eiffel 65...  I was sat there confused as fuck and the wota were also echoing my sense of bewilderment.

What was mostly a boring show suddenly became massively interesting when a dancing troupe came on to perform at the front of the stage while the sports dudes carried on behind them.  All very freaky but entertaining!  Afterwards a solo-idol came on who I don't know the name of and she had this really odd gimmick.  She was extremely cutesy much like Yuko Ogura and Suzuko Mimori but dressed like a british trooper from the 1800's.  She then had this insane crowd interaction which involved the crowd marching with her!  I was sat there totally lucid and thinking I had begun to suffer pyschosis.  Literally crowd walking left to right with their right arms pointing towards the sun.  If you have seen  'The Wall' movie by Pink Floyd, think of how Run like hell starts, it was exactly that, very very confusing to say the least!

Once she finished some group called Chu-z came on and were really not that special, forgettable songs and if it wasn't for them handing flyers out themselves I'd have forgotten them entirely!  Following them were 7CM who were trying for the American clothing style but musically not that great, aside from a eurobeat-ish opener.  Still they scored points for one member being a dead ringer for Jenson Button's model girlfriend Jessica Michibata!  Idol college followed this unit and again, same problem as before, very forgettable style to them.

Fortunately throughout this time I was sat in a sort of beer garden area before the crowd and talking to an wota for hours about england.  Everything from what sort of beers we like to how idols are in the UK.  I was desperately trying in broken Japanese to say how we don't really have these sorts of groups, the closest ones being those Britain's got talent units who last all of two seconds because they have the musical qualities of a dead fish!

It did allow me to show off my two-shot with Kikka from Atlanta which drew a gasp from said wota, as well as being able to hear about his love for AKB48 (who I really am not a fan of but do not hate) 

With these groups at an end though it was finally time and Kikka came on stage.  She looked absolutely gorgeous in a dress that was a light shade of blue with this pretty maroon under dress, very elegant and regal.

Not my pic, think it was taken by Philippe who I spoke to for about two minutes

As I said before there was only three songs done, but a very interesting choice of tracks.  First song she was her third single Konna watashi de yokattara which was nice to hear again having not seen it done live for a year, crowd interaction for this song is interesting as it has key points where there are 'Oi' chants and long kiiiikka oshi jumping, but for me just seeing her nailing the note was most important.  Second song was her cover of Moritaka Chisato's 17sai which I had never seen live.  This was wonderfully energetic to see and she had some beaming smiles about her when she was going for it.  Kikka also channeled Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson at times by randomly pointing at the audience even though her eyes weren't looking that way lol  Cheeky, but it fired up the crowd and that's fine with me!  The third and final song was most interesting though, which was 八月の花火 

What was interesting about this, is that it is a brand new song only on her best of and she had NEVER performed it live before!  This was massive for me as I have never attended a concert where a song has been debuted and therefore the crowd chants and so forth are created on the fly.  For those who haven't heard this song, it continues with the south american vibe that Amai na Kankei had (the track she did as her unit Kikkaren) but softer and slower.  It had points where there was some decent length pauses in the singing and so I opportunistically started chanting 'Kikka' which actually got picked up, so I could technically say I led the wota in a chant on a new track...  But I won't because that'd be egotistical!

On the whole it was worth it just to see her live again and massively fires me up for her mini-live event in Shinjuku on the 15th.  After Kikka, Up Up Girls performed and I find this group quite, well,  Meh, on CD.  However, live they are extremely energetic and powerful, I won't say I am a fan by any means, but they were certainly very enjoyable and would reccomend you check them out if you are ever over here and they are doing anything.

The coolest thing was that at the end of Up Up Girls they all danced off stage whilst the music was still playing, which left me pondering a wonderfully theatrical ending.  But then they came back out and dragged Kikka with them!  Not sure which member of Up Up girls it was, but she basically said that it was a reunion of the hello pro eggs which I thought was awesome and gave me hope they would do a song together, but sadly post MC they left the stage.

Again not mine, no idea who took this

After this there was nothing else of interest for me in the day so I left to go back home, feeling very itchy as I have been quite badly sunburnt, hence why I have resurrected this blog.  I have decided to stay off camera for a while until it dies down a bit! I may get lucky and have a tan but otherwise I just want the itchiness to stop!

Having got home around 7pm I just had some dinner and then sat listening to the cricket for a while before heading to bed, quite a relaxed ending to the day.  Now today I have a Kikka album signing again but this time in Yokohama so off into the unknown on this one...  Well not really, google maps has it in a mall about four streets from Yokohama Blitz so I should be ok to find it!  Also speaking of Yokohama Blitz, annoyingly The ポッシボー are performing there today and I have had no chance to get a ticket, the evening show clashes with the signing, but the day show does not, therefore I am about to venture off towards glory hopefully and score a ticket on the door.  Until next time, sets sail!