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!

Post AWA and new Kikka release news!

Ahoy all!  Well back in England now but very little to really report after the craziness of AWA, except for this I HATE HEATHROW TERMINAL 5!!!!!  *Meditates for five minutes*  Ok, now you all must be like, 'shiiiit what did they do?'  Well let me tell you, I land from Atlanta over an hour and a half late due to a plane problem.

That's not the issue, no, what they did, was force me to go through security for the second fucking time when on an international flight!  I have done all this crap already in America.  The same country where I had to use four different trays for my bags, laptop and my fucking shoes!  The same country that takes all four fingers and thumb on EACH HAND to check your identity on databases.

So I expect, when I land in Heathrow, UK, to simply connect, after all, that's what I did on my way OUT of the country.  But no, I had to go through full ID check again, full bag check, have my photo taken and cross checked TWO TIMES, all so that I could go from London to fucking Manchester, a journey of less than 200 MILES!!

So with that crap out of the way I got home without incident, slept for twelve hours and woke up at 8am this morning right as rain.  After that shitstorm though comes the surprising news of a NEW KIKKA ALBUM!  Well, maybe not new...  What it is, is a release called ボカリスト? or "Vocalist" in English.  Which is a collection of songs from 1970 until 2000, sung by Kikka but produced by vocaloid producers, tracklist as follows: -

01　私がオバさんになっても（Sound Produced by. 八王子P）
02　恋しさと 切なさと 心強さと（Sound Produced by. ダルビッシュP）
03　風は秋色（Sound Produced by. KEI）
04　Secret Base～君がくれたもの～（Sound Produced by. 西沢さんP）
05　MajiでKoiする5秒前（Sound Produced by. Junky）
06　淋しい熱帯魚（Sound Produced by. やいり）
07　17才（Sound Produced by. 八王子P）
08　抱いてHOLD ON ME!（Sound Produced by. MSR）
09　少女A(Sound Produced by. MSR)
10　夏色のナンシー（Sound Produced by. colete*）
11　卒業（Sound Produced by. かめりあ）
12　LOVE涙色（Sound Produced by. T-Pocket）

This sounds really really interesting, I am especially bemused by the inclusion of Daite hold on me!  for this, a vocaloid of that song done solo?  Sounds intriguing and very very different!

So yes!  My Kikka binge is not at an end, but a beginning!  And I am really looking forward to owning this, not yet available on CDJapan but it will be, everyone order it, or Kikka will smite Yuu!  Until next time, sets sail.

Anime Weekend Atlanta day 7 - Kikka's last day amongst Yuu

Well blow me down has this been one hell of a week, but alas, the final day of the expo fun was upon us.  After the energy draining concert and signing sessions I managed to sleep in until around 7 in the morning, after doing my previous blog post I set off for the convention.  On the way I ran into Tomasz, catchfivebats and Manami kawai so we all walked on towards the convention together.  Randomly in the car park of the cumberland mall we also ran into Shug and needmorebuono!  None of these meetings were planned but they worked out very well in our favour!

Due to the final day happening on sunday, most of the places to eat were shut, so I ended up grabbing a subway in the cobb galleria itself.  After hanging around for a little while longer, Kikka gave us her final autograph session at 11am.  I got a second two shot photo that was taken by needmorebuono!

 
After all of these events from this week I have got a ridiculous amongst of signed merchandise, fourteen items in total, here's a shot of it all compiled together.

Kikka was her wonderfully elegant self and very energetic when we all came to speak with her and have things signed.  She was also up for yet another group photo, only this time, while it was being shot I noticed a tonne of random anime fans started to take our photograph as well which had me going 'why?'  Well when I saw the photo I found out why!

Yup randomly a Venom cosplayer joined in the fun!  It's cute how Kikka has pulled his tongue here, though if that were the real Venom I don't think that would be such a good idea!  After this was shot Kikka hung around for a little while longer before she disappeared.  With only a short time between the end of the autographing session and the final panel she would be part of, we all headed over to the main auditorium to get a good spot.  We ended up seeing half of a panel by Eyeshine and it was a poor knock off of Tenacious D, still we endured and as about 80% of the room left, we all went forward to get right up front for the Q&A.

This panel was interesting in that the Q&A was themed around Kikka's rise to becoming a soloist and questions about performing in general.  To guide us in this, Kikka had actually drawn some really cute pictures about the experiences she had, all the way from failing the 8th generation Morning Musume audition up to debuting.  During this we found out some really interesting things about the whole affair.

First of which was how she and other eggs would finish a school day and then travel to the training centre.  Kikka did it every day from Ibaraki to Tokyo, so she would find herself on a two hour bus ride, studying all the way!  Secondly, she talked about how leading up to the debut, both UFA and Universal were looking to make a solo artist and Kikka was the only one they saw who fit!  This was a really nice feeling as the debut has always seemed a little different from most.

In between this, Kikka opened herself up for being quizzed by the crowd, which led to some cruel questions like who was the first president of the united states? Kikka tried, but like me, she had absolutely no idea!  Although she did instantly answer one question about who the American commodore was who sailed there in 1852 or something!  so don't underestimate her! As Kikka's presentation carried on, she explained how going solo was very difficult for her, as she had always featured as part of a group.  Where as now, she was on her own, so she was faced with remembering a lot more things by herself, such as the MC's, the dances, lyrics, and that she could sometimes remember parts of one but not the other and it took a lot of time to get used to!

She also told us about the CM's she does for Kappa Zushi before she asked if everyone liked it, pretty much all of us said yes and she asked which sushi was our favourite.  I told her Tamago (egg) and Kani (crab), but lots of others such as salmon and mackerel were announced, but Tuna was left off which surprised her.  Kikka demanded that when we go to Japan, we all eat at Kappa Zushi!  After this, she presented a picture of a mountain saying she is aiming to climb to the top and that she requires a lot of energy to make it there, so we will as well to follow her.

Following this was the open floor Q&A so I asked if she had any idea when on her way to the Universal building that she would be debuting.  The answer was pretty much that the management and Universal were making a plan and that Kikka was the best fit which is how the solo debut occurred.  Her translator asked us if Universal were a good company and I was like 'err...  I guess so!'  Later in the Q&A I also asked a second question of which outfit was her favourite from all of the ones she has used so far.  Kikka chose the one from Konna watashi de yokattara, not only because it was quite girly with tassles and fluffy edges, but also that she has a black heart so needed a lot of white to hide it XD  She is just too funny.

A lot of other really interesting things came about from the Q&A.  One question asked what an average day in the eggs was like, Kikka explained that the eggs vary so much in age that all members must firstly finish their school day, then travel to the centre for training.  Once there they would spend around three hours doing dancing training, singing and so forth.  Kikka explained that this usually happened between 6pm and 9pm, then she would travel home for at least two hours by bus.  Meaning she would sometimes not get home until around midnight or 1am, then be up at 7am to go to school and she did this pretty muc h everyday!  That is astonishing effort and hard work, not just from Kikka, but everyone in the Eggs/Kenshusei.

Catchfivebats asked about the shift in music from her very idol-ish debut track kikkake wa you!  up to and including darling to Madonna.  The answer was really surprising in that there is a meeting of everyone from Kikka, Management, UFA and so forth and they all communally come to a decision of what sort of sound they all like to explore and everything, meaning that Kikka technically has creative control...  That blew my mind!

A question arose about the vocaloid production with the vocals and how she felt with her voice transformation.  The answer itself was a little bland in that it just simply she sang and then effects changed it.  However, she asked us to watch the MMD version of Koko kara hajimarunda together, there was some chanting from both us and Kikka herself during the video which was cool.  Afterwards was the interesting bit though, where she actually said she was jealous of the MMD version because she is very thin but has big breasts!  She even had a worry that we liked the MMD version better XD

Her translator fell apart laughing and most of us were thinking 'there is no way she will translate that!'  But credit to her she did, Kikka also said she hoped at one point to do a joint concert between herself and the MMD clone, with the idea being that when she gets tired the MMD version can take over!  A girl after my own heart!

A question was also asked about the fact she covered tan tan taan, romantic ukare mode and daite hold on me, asking if there were any other songs she wanted to do that got left out and also why she did them over some of her other solo stuff.  Kikka stated that she loved those songs to sing herself, but that the main reason for the inclusion was that some of the attendees may not be aware of her own songs but may recognise some of the big ones.  She did say as well that she wants to have a big versatile set of songs and may soon surprise us before going an evil laugh, terribly cute XD

Kikka also demonstrated her leg stretch for us for the first time ever live at an event, she had only ever done it before on television!  At first though it looked like it would not happen as she said her jeans were too tight XD But she just went for it and managed to avoid ripping her trousers, it really is quite a disturbing sight but stilll very cool.  No one nearly vomitted like those on television here.  She also joked that she had ate too much at cheesecake factory hence they were too tight lol

Kikka stated that she was close to Kitahara Sayaka when she was still part of the eggs, also explained that one of the moments she remembers from the days of Kirarin revolution her most memorable moment was quite a bad one where she went to Disneyland the day before recording it, and ruined her voice through screaming on the rollercoasters XD

A cosplayer asked in japanese if she liked ice-cream, Kikka immediately shouted out "daisukikka!" which was awesome!  She then went to say how Ben & Jerry's had only just come to Japan and she ate a lot of their stuff, her fave flavour being chocolate but she also liked their mint flavour. 

Towards the end she was also asked for some beauty tips, Kikka explained she really isn't that pretty as she has lots of pimples on her face...  I disagree, she's gorgeous!  A male fan also asked what haircare she used and Kikka answered with Downy which is a form of detergent lol  Even though the translator kept on correcting her, Kikka insisted people try it to make their hair as soft as clothes XD  I am not doing it before you all ask!!

The final question was asking what Kikka's strongest quality as an idol was and what made her stand out.  She said her smile and also that as a soloist she can talk to each fan individually easily and communicate with us to make her fanbase that much closer and stronger.  After this with regret they announced that she would be leaving, but Kikka announced that she had had a lot of fun.  At the end she asked if there were new fans and some of the con attendees outside my core group did say yes!  So I hope this is the beginning.  The Q&A ended with a final kikkake wa...  And the crowd chanting You! back at us, before she walked down the centre of the hall and out.

I have seen online a lot of people being quite jealous of not being with us, she has been absolutely amazing and everyone should take the opportunity to go out to see and meet her where possible!

After this fourteen of us paid homage to Kikka by going to the cheesecake factory, all week I hadn't really gone big with my meals, so I chowed down on a huge steak burger with fries, then followed with a cheesecake called the oreo extreme dream cheesecake.  I was expecting a simple chocolate thing with an oreo crushed in...  What I got was this!

I took it on, this was my man vs food...  food won, just!  There was literally the back chocolate wall left only, I would have eaten it, but then been sick and that would not have been cool.  Stuffed up, overjoyed at Kikka-sama and sad it was all ending the group bade each other farewell for one last time.

But man, what an amazing weekend!  Kikka was everything I expected and more besides, she truly is the best in the world in my opinion.  She has the look, the sound, the character, the humour...  She can simply do it all and I want all of you to support her!  Until next time, sets sail.