31st July 2019: Journey to the East (2): To the bunnies! {Japan, summer 2019}

Posted on by

I caught the train early in the morning to get to Fukuyama [福山] (Hiroshima Prefecture), barely 15 minutes away from Okayama by train. I wanted to see the local castle, Fukuyama-jo [福山城], which I had not been able to see the last time I had been around because I was a bubblehead and missed the train that gave me leeway to stop (and it was a Monday and closed). Thus, this time I factored it in.

After visiting the castle I found the complex found by Abe Jinja [阿部神社] and Bingo Gokoku Jinja [備後護国神社].

And then Sanzoinari Jinja [三蔵稲荷神社].

These three shrines were located within the same park as the Castle, but my map also pointed out that Fukuyama Hachimangu [福山八幡宮] was not that far away, so I went to find it too.

On my way back I diverted because a building had drawn my attention and I wanted to find out what it was – it turned out to be, and I quote the “Holy Zion’s Park St. Valentine” [ホーリーザイオンズパークセントヴァレンタイン]. It was a wedding venue. Live and learn.

As I had some time before the train I wanted to take, I also checked the Fukujyukaikan [福寿会館], which turned out to be a ‘traditional house with a teahouse’, so I did not come in.

After that, I took another train to Mihara where I took the Kure line towards Takehara. However, I stopped halfway, in a small station called Tadanoumi [忠海]. What is there in Tadanoumi? The ferry to Okunoshima.

And what the hell is there in Okunoshima? Bunnies. Hundreds of tame rabbits which you can feed and which will climb on you to demand your food, or climb into your backpack of bag or whatever you’re carrying.

So yes, I went to Okunoshima [大久野島]. I could lie to you and tell you that I was there because of the island (horrific) history, and places like the Poison Gas Museum Ōkunoshima Dokugasu Shiryōkan [大久野島 毒ガス資料館].

Or the magically decaying Okunishima Jinja [大久野島神社].

Or the beautiful scenery.

But bluntly put I was there for the rabbits and bunnies and bunbuns and the fluff and the floppy ears and the straight ears too. Okunoshima is also known as Rabbit Island. After it was abandoned after WWII, apparently a bunch of students released some domestic rabbits and they have colonised the whole island. Now you can go and feed them, although you are encouraged not to grab them or ‘put your fingers near their mouths’. For three hours I pranced around finding bunnies and feeding bunnies.

Then I took the ferry back to Tadanaoumi as the sun started to set.

I continued on the Kure Line to Takehara [竹原市], the city / town Tadanoumi actually belongs to (and I was super lucky because there were disturbances and delays for hours starting the following train). Honestly it was just the nearest hotel I had found – I mean, when I went out the only thing I found to grab a bite to eat was a McDonald’s… and they made my fries to order. I also found out about the town’s unofficial mascot, a character called Momonekosama [ももねこ様], from an anime that is set in Takehara

I had saved up the following day as “buffer day”. I did not know whether to try and get to Kure, or directly back to Nagoya, I thought it would just depend on how tired I was… But the hotel had a little map about how Takehara’s historical district was “Little Kyoto”… I thought maybe that was worth checking out.

Walked distance: 19058 steps, 13.6 km

30th July 2019: Journey to the East (1): Sakaiminato → Okayama {Japan, summer 2019}

Posted on by

For the second part of my Sakaiminato adventure, I got breakfast on the go, and around 9:00, I set off to the Yumeminato Tower in the park of the same name. I had a plan of things to watch and walk around that unfortunately fell through due to, again, a perceived temperature of over 42 ºC and bright sun. But the Yumeminato Tower [夢みなとタワー] could not be skipped as it is part of my still ongoing All Japan Tower Stamp Rally. Aside from the customary observatory, the Tower featured an anthropology exhibition about the cultures of “countries historically related to Sakaiminato in matters of trading” such as Korea or China.

Yumeminato Tower and views from it. There is also a betobetosan (a… white ball with teeth).

At the feet of the tower is the Sakaiminato Fish Center [境港さかなセンター], a fresh fish market – remember that Sakaiminato is “The City of Kitarō and Fish”. Here is where the homage to fish starts. Sakaiminato is both a trading and fishing key point in western Japan, so this spot is quite important for local business. They have even built a small shrine to give thanks to the ocean for providing the catch.

Sakaiminato fish market, outside and inside, including a small shrine.

Both the tower and the market buildings are encased in Yumeminato Koen [夢みなと公園], a huge – and shadowless – park. It was quite hot, to be honest, and looking back I should have probably just taken the tourist shuttle, but the schedule was inconvenient.

Park with sculptures that depict silhouettes of fish.

When I arrived at the Takematsucho station, my train had just left, so I snooped around Takematsu Jinja [高松神社], a small shrine next to it.

The torii of a small shrine, next to a sacred tree

Having to wait forty minutes further, as there is only a train per hour, I decided to walk over to the following station, where I visited Amariko Jinja [餘子神社].

A shrine. The entrance torii frames the main building.

Then, I just sat down to wait and have a drink till the train came. Once back in the centre of Sakaiminato, I realised that even if it was a Tuesday, the Museum of Sea and Life was closed. That did not stop me from hanging around Osakana Road [おさかなロード], the Fish Road, which follows the same ideas as Mizuki Shigeru Road – it has little sculptures here and there. Only these are not yōkai, but fish.

Life-like fish, squids, crabs and sharks from Osakana Road, along a cartoonish mix of them all.

Oh, and I found a… photo-op / trash can shark on the way ʅ(・ω・。)ʃ？？ I have no idea, but I could have fit inside. Unfortunately, I would not have been able to climb out.

Head of a white shark

And speaking of fish, I had a great fish-fry snack in Mizuki Shigeru Road as I did an extra sweep to make sure I was not missing any yōkai. I chose this place because the owners seemed nice, and they were. They tried to make some conversation and they were very friendly.

Fish fry with a slice of lemon.

After that, I claimed my certificate at the Tourist Information Centre next to the station Sakaiminato-eki [境港駅]. Although I had done it the previous day, by the time I finished, the office was closed. Of course, nobody had any issue with that – they happily gave me my certificate, dated July 30th and not July 29th (≧▽≦).

Certificate of having finished the Yokai Stamp Rally, dated 30 July 2019.

I finally said goodbye to Sakaiminato, and I took the train back to Yonago, and from there to Okayama, the capital of the Prefecture of the same name. This took around three hours, and I was in Okayama [岡山] around 18:00 or 19:00. I dropped my things off at the hotel and headed off for dinner. I ended up ordering a salmon set in a semi-traditional restaurant in a Takashiyama shopping centre, and although the staff was not the nicest, the food was delicious!

Japanese dinner with fried fish, salad, miso soup and a bowl of raw fish on rice.

Right after dinner, I walked to the castle, Okayama-jo [岡山城], hoping it would be lit, and it was. They were also rehearsing some summer light show, with music and stuff.

Okayama Castle at night

Afterwards, I went back to the hotel – unfortunately I had a smoking room (yuck), so I had to spray everything with freshener so I could breathe. But I left the window open as I showered, and I slept rather well afterwards. I had started to feel the tiredness.

Walked distance: 22899 steps / 16.3 km. Most under the sun (soooo sunburnt!)

29th July 2019: Journey to the West: Osaka → Sakaiminato {Japan, summer 2019}

Posted on by

I was determined to cross as many things on my bucket list as I could in this trip as I could, and that involved some crazy travelling – in this case, two hundred eighty-something kilometres, four trains, and a bit over five hours. In order to make it work, I needed to leave Osaka around 7:00. From the hotel I took the Midosuji underground line from Doubutsuen-Mae Station to Shin-Osaka station, where I took the Tokaido-Sanyo Shinkansen to Okayama – the first 2.5 hours. There, I took the Yakumo Limited express to Yonago [米子市] (a bit over an hour). There, I had to change to, the JR Sakai Line which would finally take me to Sakaiminato [境港市] in Tottori prefecture – it took 45 minutes to travel the last 18 km.

Sakaiminato is “The City of Kitarō and Fish” – Fish is quite self-explanatory. Kitarō is the main character in the manga Ge Ge Ge no Kitarō [ゲゲゲの鬼太郎], often quoted as the reason why yōkai and other elements of Japanese folklore and mythology became popular in the 20th century. Yōkai [妖怪], literally “strange apparition”, are mythological creatures unique to the Japanese islands. They tend to represent nature or societal phenomena, some of them have animal features or are part-human part-animal, or anthropomorphised animals. Many others are rooted on the Japanese idea that inanimate objects have or can develop a spirit. Some yōkai are benevolent, others are evil.

The creator of the manga was Mizuki Shigeru [水木 しげる] (1922 – 2015). He was born in Osaka, but his family moved to Sakaiminato when he was young, and he grew up there. After being drafted to fight in World War II, he became interested in travelling and mythology. Back in Japan, he started the manga in the 1960s. Aside from writing and drawing Ge Ge Ge no Kitarō [ゲゲゲの鬼太郎] (Ge Ge Ge being an onomatopoeia of creepy grave yard noises), he was also a great connoisseur of Japanese folklore, especially monsters, ghosts, and yōkai.

Ge Ge Ge no Kitarō went through a few names and formats to its final form – and there have been anime adaptations as recent as 2018. Kitarō, the main character, is a young yōkai boy who lives between the worlds of humans and yōkai. His usual adventures involve protecting people from both evil yōkai and monsters of western origin. Other characters appear through the story, such as Medama-Oyaji, the “ghost” of Kitarō’s father, incarnated in his eyeball, the Rat-Man (Nezumi Otoko) or the Cat Girl (Neko-Musume).

Most of Kitarō’s adventures happen in or around Sakaiminato, and the town has decided to honour Mizuki’s yōkai legacy – or turn it into a tourist attraction. The inhabitants embraced its yōkai fictional legacy with glee… and stamps. Sakaiminato is all and everything about yōkai.

The magic started when I reached Yonago [米子市] Station: there, the platform is decorated with sculptures and statues, a prelude of what one finds when arriving in Sakaiminato. The train in the JR Sakai line [境港線] was also decorated with some of the characters of the manga. Furthermore, a lot of stops of the Sakai Line, aside from their actual name, are nicknamed after a yōkai.

Sign of Yonago station, featuring the character Nezumi Otoko from Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro.

Train to Sakaiminato, featuring the character Medama-Oyaji from Ge Ge Ge no Kitarō, taking a bath.

I finally reached the Sakaiminato station, Sakaiminato-eki [境港駅]. Upon exiting the train, the first thing I saw was a mural with all the recurrent characters in the manga. The second, that the street lights were shaped like Medama-Oyaji, Kitarō’s eyeball-shaped father.

Mural of Ge Ge Ge no Kitarō characters. The street lights in front of it are shaped like eyeballs, and the irises have different colours.

As I came out of the station, I was greeted by a bronze statue of Mizuki Shigeru writing among his characters, and a themed postbox. At the end of the block there was a mall-like building (actually, a cultural centre) which holds the Tourist Information Office. There, I got a copy of the yōkai booklet to carry out the Yōkai Stamp Rally [妖怪スタンプラリー]. The booklet was 120 ¥, of course I could not let it go – there are 35 stamps to collect, and if you get all the stamps of the main rally, you get a small certificate. There are extra stamps for day trips, too. I wish I had known beforehand, I would have planned two days out there to try and complete it.

In order to complete the stamp rally, you have to go down the main street and stop at the many shops which have a small stand out front with a stamp and an ink pad. It was stupidly fun to do, even if there were a few parents who thought nobody but their kids should get stamps and a certificate. Some of the stamps were “hidden” away from the main street and the documentation is in Japanese, so some effort is required – or just use the convenient interactive map.

Stamp Rally booklet

Booklet acquired, I could go forth and explore (and stamp). I backtracked towards the bronze statue of Mizuki Shigeru writing among his characters Mizuki Shigeru-sensei Shippitsu-chū no Zō [水木しげる先生執筆中の像], and the Kitaro postbox [鬼太郎ポスト].

Statue of a character writing with his mouth open. Two manga characters are looking at him, hearing his stories.

Kitaro sitting on top of a post box

And as you follow the road and turn the corner you directly go into Mizuki Shigeru Road. However, when have you read me going into something directly without getting distracted? First I had to see the Yōkai World Summit, Sekai Yōkai Kaigi [世界妖怪会議].

The bronze statues that comprise the Yokai World Summit.

Finally I got down to Mizuki Shigeru Road [水木しげるロード], which features dozens of small and not-so-small bronze statues representing yōkai as they appear in the manga, alongside the characters designed for the story itself. The Tourist Information claims that there are 177 statues in total. I honestly did not count. Shops line to the sides, and a bunch of them have the stamps that you ink on your booklet – and it was hard to get to them, it was so crowded!

I walked the right side to the end, then I decided to come back to check into the hotel, which was close to the station, and drop the luggage. Why didn’t I do that from the beginning? Either it was too early for check-in, or I was eager to get started with the stamps, or maybe both. I reached my hotel and it was gorgeous! It was actually the most expensive hotel in the whole trip, but it was amazing! Outside, it was just a brick building. Inside, it was full of wood and tatami, and so was the room. There was an onsen (artificial hot spring) on the uppermost floor, which I decided I would visit later.

I actually felt a bit bummed that I only had a night there, because I would have really stayed in that room for hours just lounging around – and there were more stamps to collect… But as soon as I thought about the stamps I realised I just had to go out again to continue my adventure. There were lots of things to see and do! Thus, I headed out again, and realised I needed to find myself some food as it was close to 15:00 and I had only had a coffee and a cracker at around 8:00. Then, I set off to walk the left side of the Mizuki Shigeru Road. Of course, every time I went up and down the street I took photographs…

Collage showing Japanese mythological characters as depicted in the Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro manga. They include a Medama-Oyaji, Betobetosan, a dragon, a nurikabe, a giant skeleton…

Of course, I also had to visit Yōkai Jinja [妖怪神社] on the way (the amount of time and times I had to wait till I was able to take a picture of this without anybody in it was ridiculous (≧▽≦)).

Japanese shrine entrance, depicting the torii as something ghostly. There is a sacred tree just behind the torii.

At the end of the road, I had seen the Mizuki Shigeru Museum, Mizuki Shigeru Kinen-kan [水木しげる記念館] and I knew that it was open (on a Monday!) until late (in Japan!). I actually had put Sakaiminato on the schedule like this so I could make the most out of the Monday. I decided to enter before I had finished the stamp rally, because I keep getting distracted by shiny new things. The Museum features some of the original manga strips, a replica of Mizuki’s office, some items of his mythology-artefact collection and personal library. You can peek at haunted house and see a lot of “domestic” yōkai that that may lurk in a traditional home. There are also replicas of different yōkai – big, moving, and trying to be creepy but only managing to be awfully cute: Nurikabe, Shirouneri, Otoroshi, Azukihakari, Betobetosan, Suiko, Akaname, Miagenyudou. There are also photo spots to compensate that more than a few items cannot be photographed. The museum also had a nice garden for the “wild” yōkai.

The Shigeru Mizuki Museum and garden

I still had a few stamps to go, so after I left the museum, I diverted towards the harbour to find them. That is how I ended up at Ominato Jinja [大港神社], a much more traditional shrine, not for tourist but actual practising.

Japanese Shrine. Pretty standard in comparison to Yokai Jinja.

It was time to look for the “hidden” stamp spots. The very last one I found was at the Sakaiminato Ekimae Police Box, Sakaiminato Ekimae Kōban [境港駅前交番]. I had completed the booklet in one afternoon! However, it was just around 18:00, so the tourist office was already closed. I saw something called “Kitarō Haunted House”, but I did not enter – it seemed to be for kids, and I did not want to brave too many hyper-protective fathers.

Open Yokai stamp booklet showing the stamped characters.

Instead, I went to the harbour to have a look at the setting sun. This was my first time in the west of Japan, so I thought I could see the sun going under the maritime horizon. I had not counted on the bay, but it was overall pretty.

Sunset at the harbour. It looks pastel.

As it was “after hours”, I went to look at the fountain Kappa no Izumi [河童の泉]. That day, the city employees had been cleaning it, and I did not want to take pictures with the workers in them, or disturb their work and power-washing. The fountain was still not running, but the city officials had left.

Dry fountain with Ge Ge Ge no Kitarō characters.

Afterwards, I tried to grab a bite to eat, but most places had either shut down or were not taking customers any more by 18:00. Thus, I found myself some conbini food, and headed back to the hotel. I had a nice traditional bedroom and a fantastic shower, but honestly, I ignored it in favour of the onsen. I went there to enjoy a long soak. As night falls and the shops close down, it looks like this small Japanese town would go quiet. Nothing further from reality! The Mizuki Shigeru Road displays a creepy illumination complete with sound effects. This is probably an incentive for people to stay overnight. I had read about it on the brochure, so of course I walked out again to see the town at night.

The whole Mizuki Shigeru Road had been completely overtaken by the wannabe creepy atmosphere – at least. There was music, and some of the shop windows had shadows. The Medama-Oyaji street lights flickered. Suddenly, as I was walking down the road, there was a thunderclap sound and all the lights went out at the same time. I jumped! They got me good! Well, me and everyone who was just experiencing it for the first time. Part of the fun became identifying when the lights would go out and watching out for people getting as startled as you had been. I plead guilty of doing it.

Mizuki Shigeru Road, with creepy lighting.

I went back to the hotel around 21:00. However, as part of the stay-in-town incentive, my hotel also offered a free bowl of ramen between 22:00 and 23:00. I wondered if it would be greedy to go and have it, but I decided to take full advantage of the offer. Thus, to finish the day, I got free ramen at the hotel for dinner! Indeed, I could have stayed in that hotel for days on end!

Bowl of free ramen with algae and bamboo sprouts.

I went to bed soon after. But remember, Sakaiminato is “The City of Kitarō and Fish”. I had done the Kitarō part. The following day, I needed to focus on the fish.

Walked distance: 13641 steps, 9.76 km in one afternoon/evening. It was bloody amazing and I had a blast!

28th July 2019: Wakayama {Japan, summer 2019}

Posted on by

Going to Wakayama [和歌山] was a spur-of-the-moment decision, so I did not prepare for it in advance – I should have. On the one hand, it was super hot, on the other hand, most of the stuff was not covered by my JR Pass and I had not budgeted 3,000 ¥ extra on trains for it. But when I came out of the train on the 27th saw that my platform was the Wakayama platform and thought “why not?” After all, they made HYDE their Tourist Ambassador this year…

First I found my way to the castle, Wakayama-jo [和歌山城] and the adjacent park.

On one of the corners of the park I found Wakayama-ken Gogoku Jinja [和歌山県護国神社].

And then I visited the Wakayama Rekishi-kan [わかやま歴史館], Wakayma History Museum, since the ticket was included in the Castle visit.

Then I missed the train to Kimiidera [紀三井寺], so I had to wait an extra half-hour… that I would later be thankful for because… stairs. Lots of them.

There were a couple of other shrines that I wanted to visit, but it felt like 45ºC and it was just too hot to walk to them – besides the stairs left me exhausted. So I headed back to the station. I did not manage to make a seat reservation, so I had to stand the 90 minutes back to Osaka [大阪]. That was not fun. Once I was in Osaka I took a stroll in Tennoji shopping centre because I wanted a long summer-jacket, preferably in black lace. I was not lucky.

I had dinner and a shower at the hotel, and then I walked past Shinsekai [新世界] and Tsūtenkaku [通天閣] to see Shitennoji [四天王寺] at night. I was closely observed by some cats which roamed the altars and were very offended I was not bringing them any food.

Walked distance: 22995 steps, 16.4 km

27th July 2019: Osaka by drizzle and twilight {Japan, summer 2019}

Posted on by

After the KAMIJO concert, I set off again, this time over to Osaka (where I was a train-challenged idiot and this time I can’t even blame it on the chaotic Osaka transport) and my first stop was Namba Yasaka Jinja [難波八阪神社], one of whose buildings is shaped as a lion-dog head. It was a very nice and fun shrine.

On the way to the station I walked through Namba Koen [浪速公園].

Then I rode to the hotel to drop off my things – and of course gotout the wrong station at Shin-Imamiya station (I also held a little prayer so I did not end up at a love hotel again – I had chosen wisely!). I had a bit of a rest and then I headed back towards Dōtonbori [道頓堀] and after once again checking the map before getting my butt there, I was able to find all the spots I wanted too – count me out of the Donki ferris wheel though.

The plan was waiting until sunset to see all the lights, but I miscalculated again and I did see the lights, but only against the twilight. Oh. But I made some time eating takoyaki [たこ焼き].

I got some rest on the way, so I was rested enough to have a stroll down Shinsekai [新世界] at night – including Tsūtenkaku [通天閣] and Billy Ken.

Afterwards, before going to sleep, I watched a NHK TV special on one of the bands I like – but have never seen live – LunaSea. I was in my hotel in Osaka, but I watched “with” my friend E**chan, as we both kept messaging each other about what we were listening to at the moment.

Walked distance: 19319 steps / 13.8 km.

26th July 2019: KAMIJO’s Persona Grata {Japan, summer 2019}

Posted on by

I woke up, and had some coffee from the convenience shop on my way to the station. I took a train to Tokyo [東京] – the great thing about the JR Pass is that you can ride back and forth as much as you want. The itinerary I have for this time over might not the most efficient in terms of optimising time, but it does maximise the number of concerts I can attend. This was the day of KAMIJO’s the opening concert of his 2019 Japan Tour Persona Grata.

When I arrived in Tokyo, I headed off towards Roppongi Hills. There, I met up with D****e and we had some some delicious yakiniku together for lunch.

Lunch set. Salad, white rice and some raw meat for the grill, along with the sauces to dip

I first saw KAMIJO in Barcelona in 2018. He is a visual-kei rocker from the old school – with the costumes, the backstory and lots of theatricality. He is basically pretending to be Lestat de Lioncourt during the stint he becomes a rock star. I mean, we are the same age. We must have read the book around the same time, so I know where he is coming from.

Since, aside from vampires, KAMIJO is also obsessed with France, a while back he opened a European fanclub. Unlike most Japanese artists’ international fanclubs, Rose-Croix international allows for very real benefits. Since the European chapter is actually located in France, everything was much easier in terms of payments and so on. I was able to ballot for tickets for the Japan tour, and I actually hit for Premium tickets for Persona Grata’s opening night at Mainabi Blitz Akasaka. The tickets included “seating in front of the stage” and special presents. To prevent tickets getting lost in the post, you have a reference number and need to drop by the ticket booth to receive your physical ticket on the day of the concerts you hit for. I was lucky enough to buy the tickets for the two concerts I wanted.

Kamijo Persona Grata poster

After lunch, I went to D****e’s to drop off my backpack and changed, then I set back out. I arrived at the venue around 16:30, and the shop to buy merchandise was already open, but the ticket booth was still closed. I could not claim my Premium goods without the physical tickets, but I looked at the merchandise. I decided that I needed the small lamb plush with vampire fangs Hitsuji Vampire [羊ヴァンパイア], along with some other items, the more important being the booklet.

Around 17:30 I was able to retrieve my ticket – I only had to show my passport to get it. The premium seat guaranteed a “front seat”, which was second row – better than expected. Afterwards, I went to collect my premium “goodies” – a jewellery pouch (I really thought it was a wallet at first), an autographed board, and a mug, all inside a limited-print plastic bag that was given out for purchases over 3,000¥. I think that between second row and the presents, the ticket price was fair in comparison to the regular one.

Kamijo Persona Grata Premium gifts
The tour doubled as an introduction to the new songs for the upcoming singles. Aside from the new compositions, I discovered a few songs I really liked (a lot of my Book Off shopping this year had to do with trying to build KAMIJO’s entire discography)., The concert felt quite special. I enjoyed every second, and having a chair really helped to get some rest when he was off stage and we had the “film” instalments. Unfortunately, the fandom is not too open so I did not get to make any new friends.

There was a large screen on stage where the conducting story was projected. This is another thing that some v-kei artists do, have “plots” for their concerts, and big stories for tours / releases. This is usually done in the form of short films shown throughout concerts, and snippets written on the CDs or DVDs (it’s the original transmedia strategy, I guess – and reading the booklet helped figure things out). It also works to give the musicians a break during high-energy concerts. The story of Persona Grata takes the viewer back to the times of Louis XVII of France. The Count of Saint Germain – whom is never seen, but is voiced by famous voice-actor Tomokazu Seki [関 智一] – is a vampire masquerading as alchemist. He created the Émigré, a system to obtain energy from the blood of resurrected corpses. These corpses are a sort of sentient human “battery” who are allowed to meet their beloved ones once more before their final, eternal death. Émigré created an “ideal world” with infinite energy. Time passes and in the present day, the Émigré is working in Japan and being exported to America. The film opens with the Secretary of Energy in the USA killed, delves into the investigation, and culminates with a meeting between the President and the Count, after which the Count’s car is blown up.

After the first instalment of the film, KAMIJO came on stage along with the musicians – Meku (guitar), Yuki (drums) and Masashi (bass).

Setlist:

Intro: Sang-epilogue- (recorded)
    1. [New song]
    2. [New song]
    3. Nosferatu
    4. Emblem (recorded)
    5. Émigré
    6. Vampire Rock Star
    7. Ecstasy
    8. 闇夜のライオン [Yamiyo no lion]
    9. Delta -Interlude-
    10. Castrato
    11. [New song]
    12.The Star-Spangled banner (recorded)
    13. [New song]
    14. Eye of Providence
Encore
    15. BASTILLE
    16. 第四楽章 – Dying Table – [Dai shi gakushou – Dying Table –]
    17. Moulin Rouge
    18. 追憶のモナムール [Itsuoku no mon amour]
    19. Louis ~艶血のラヴィアンローズ~ [Louis, Enketsu no La Vie en Rose]
Ending + Eye of Providence (recorded)

I like KAMIJO because he is fun. He tries really hard to stay in character all the time, but he does not manage, and keeps slipping into being a goof ball. However, he is a great singer. Furthermore, I also like vampires, I’m not going to lie, and he makes for a very pretty one. One of the things I find hysterical is that he uses a goblet to drink at concerts, a member of the staff keeps it full of water all the time.

The Blitz show was pretty powerful and really good. There was something special about it, something magical. Artistically, KAMIJO showed everything he can do. He did not miss any cue, his voice never wavered, he never hesitated. Every line and twirl and drop were timed perfectly. He hit all his crazy highs and the husky lows, and did not have any issues with songs with completely different tempos back to back. He jumped, made the audience jump, made the musicians jump and fake-bit all the guitarists’ necks. During the emcee, he announced the final October tour, a “trilogy of singles” that would complete the Émigré story arc.

The audience struck me as pretty rather quiet, in comparison with the HYDE concerts I had just attended, where the crowd is a bit… overenthusiastic. In this case, everybody just clapped, but did not scream or speak.

Out of the new songs, I really liked Ecstasy, for which KAMIJO had practised his English a lot. Lyric-wise, I think Eye of Providence hit hard. Of the not-so-new songs, I absolutely adored Bastille. He sadly did not sing Mystery, but it probably did not fit the ongoing theme. Neither did Moulin Rouge, I think, but it is a staple of his. At the end of the nine-minute concert, he said that we all were a family, and coached us to hold hands and jump together with him and the musicians.

Night view of the venue, reading Mainabi Blitz Kamijo

After the concert finished, I headed back towards D****e’s place, and I had some dinner on the way. I must have. I don’t really remember…

Walked distance: 13515 steps / 9.66 km. I don’t believe this for a second, the watch is totally messing up between moving arms doing furutsuke, and walking.

25th July 2019: Sekigahara {Japan, summer 2019}

Posted on by

I was staying in Nagoya for another of the HYDE concerts, but I had a free morning, so I decided to take a train to Sekigahara [関ヶ原], which is a nearby little town, which is really only in the books because in October of 1600 a huge battle in the mountains over there decided the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, which shaped the history of Japan for centuries. It is known as the Battle of Sekigahara, Sekigahara no Tatakai [関ヶ原の戦い]. Basically there were a bunch of samurai clans warring with each other and Tokugawa managed to convince, bribe and slaughter every one in his way until he was the de facto ruler of Japan.

A vermillion gate with trees in the background

I found a map with a route to follow and thus my first stop was the Higashikubidzuka [東首塚] Mound, where a bunch of samurai were beheaded – this was off to a bloody start. Within the same area there were several monuments signalling different events and encampments – which was to mark how most of Sekigahara is laid out.

Collage of the park, showing a marker, some flags and a torii

Then I continued on to Jinbano Koen [陣場野公園], where I could see the Site of the Battle Camp of Tanaka Yoshimasa [田中吉政陣跡], the Site of Tokugawa Ieasu’s Final Encampment [徳川家康最後陣跡], Kibune Jinja [貴船神社], Mitama Jinja [御霊神社].

Collage of the park, showing a marker, some flags, fences with spikes, and a torii. There are trees and overgrown bushes in the background.

It was hot as could be, so I was not going to do the 17-km route, but I did go to the main area, the Site of Sekigahara Battleground – Sekigahara Kosenjō [関ケ原古戦場], along with the Site of the Battle Camp of Shima Sakon (Sasaoyama) – Shimasako-jin ato [島左近陣跡].

The logo of the city of Sekigahara. It can look like the moon coming up from behind a mountain, or a samurai helmet

After that, I backtracked to the Sekigahara Town History and Folklore Museum Sekigahara-chō Rekishi Minzoku Shiryōkan [関ケ原町歴史民俗資料館], which I had missed at first because there was construction in the area. There I could see some weapons and armours and get the whole collection of samurai clan stamps and enjoy the air conditioning.

Samurai armours and pennants

I would have liked to go to the Site of Tokugawa Ieyasu’s First Encampment [徳川家康最初陣跡], but it was too far away to walk, so I had to take picture from the train.

A clear in the forest with some white flags

As an interesting anecdote, I found a Thai coin in the battle site, something I would have never expected.

A Thai coin

Once in Nagoya [名古屋], it was time for HYDE concert’s HYDE Live 2019 at the Zepp Nagoya again. As the previous day, it was a fun concert – I stayed at the end of the venue because my entry numbers were so high I had zero chance to find anything mid-venue, but it was all right, it’s not like I’m ever going to do first row in a HYDE concert in Japan. I have accepted that. I had fun anyway, and that is the most important thing.

My impressions were similar to the previous day. The concert made the 2018 tour feel like a rehearsal for this one, or maybe just a way not to “give up” summer touring on HYDE’s part since he has a pretty devout following.

Setlist:
    1. Who’s gonna save us
    2. After light
    3. Inside of me
    4. Underworld
    5. Fake Divine
    6. Two face
    7. Set in Stone
    8. Zipang (Japanese version)
    9. Out
    10. Mad Qualia
    11. Sick
    12. Don’t hold back
    13. Lion
    14. Another moment
    15. Midnight Celebration II
– break –
    16. Duality (Slipknot cover)
    17. Countdown
    18. Ahead
    19. Ordinary World (Duran Duran cover)

After the concert, Sr-san had skipped back to Tokyo, so I just headed off to my hotel to have a shower and relax. I had another concert coming the next day, making it three concerts in a row, so I needed to rest up a little.

Walked distance: 14683 steps / 10.5 km.

24th July 2019: Morning in Kyoto, afternoon in Nagoya {Japan, summer 2019}

Posted on by

After waking up early again (what can be done? Early night → early morning) I walked out the hotel and took another stroll in Maruyama Kouen. Only this time, instead of heading towards Yasaka Jinja and Gion, I continued straight and I found Daiunin [大雲院].

The roof of a pagoda, in oxidized green colour

I continued on to Nene no Michi [ねねの道], which has temples left and right. These temples have little statues that you have to touch for luck, wealth and so on. As I have been feeling so lousy this last year, I decided to find the health one.

Statuettes of the Buddha and local gods

On my way I climbed up the Daidokoro-zaka [台所坂], a bunch of gentle stairs that lead up to Kōdaiji [高台寺], a fun temple with a lot of yokai folklore. It also held some healing sutras, so I took the liberty to make them spin.

Temple with funny-looking lanterns decorated with yokai and ghost faces

From there, I went to Kongoji (Yasaka Kōshindō) [金剛寺(八坂庚申堂)], which is a temple with… colourful balls where people write their wishes. They are supposed to entertain the ‘good faith monkeys’ (Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil) that guard the temple, I guess.

Buddhist temple with a decoration of thousands of brightly coloured pompoms

After that, I walked towards the Hōkanji (Yasaka no Tou) [法観寺 (八坂の塔)], a five-story pagoda.

Five story pagoda

A bit farther, I also found Rokuharamitsuji [六波羅蜜寺].

Buddhist temple exterior

I went down towards the river Kamogawa [鴨川], where I saw some more wildlife – ducks, cormorants, herons (cranes? Have I told you I can’t tell cranes and herons apart?).

Black cormorant standing in the river

Finally – for my Kyoto trip – I walked down the Pontocho [先斗町] Alley before I headed for the station. It is renown for its restaurants, but everything was too expensive for my budget.

Narrow alley with restaurant lanterns and signs

Then I took a Shinkansen to Nagoya [名古屋] as I was going to attend HYDE’s 2019 tour that afternoon. As I arrived too early for 15:00 check in, I headed off to Zepp Nagoya to see whether the goods were out. They were. A girl passed out at the queue a bit behind me due to heatstroke, and that was a bit creepy, but the staff took good cafe of her.

After buying goods, I went to leave my stuff and have a shower at the hotel, then I met up with several friends and even new friends. I enjoyed HYDE Live 2019 much better than the 2018 shows, which felt… somewhat disappointing at the time, almost clumsy and disarranged. Since then, HYDE put out the album Anti in May 2019, so he has found his grounds again. Last year he seemed to be rehearsing / perfecting a few of the songs, and combining them with the echoes of L’Arc~en~Ciel and VAMPS, which only emphasised what we did not have any more – I am still not too happy with the covers of VAMPS songs, especially Ahead, where I miss KAZ’s guitar. And honestly? Not a fan of Duran Duran’s Ordinary World.

Setlist:
    1. Who’s gonna save us
    2. After light
    3. Inside of me
    4. Underworld
    5. Fake Divine
    6. Two face
    7. Set in Stone
    8. Zipang (Japanese version)
    9. Out
    10. Mad Qualia
    11. Sick
    12. Don’t hold back
    13. Lion
    14. Another moment
    15. Midnight Celebration II
– break –
    16. Duality (Slipknot cover)
    17. Devil Side
    18. Ahead
    19. Ordinary World (Duran Duran cover)

As his solo goals, HYDE has set his heart in in the US. Thus, his new music is heavily influenced by American producers and musicians, and completely in English. Though he is mainly a vocalist, HYDE started off as a guitarist, so there is a heavy reliance on powerful strings. To emphasise the fact that he is solo now, he has given his support musicians masks to cover their faces. Or maybe he’s just decided he likes masks as he himself wears a half-mask for the first few songs. He was very active and engaging with the audience, which always makes lives more fun. In general, I enjoyed the act, it was powerful and engaging.

Zepp Nagoya logo

When the concert was over I met up with Sr-san for dinner. We had misokatsu [味噌カツ] in a famous shop, and had a long conversation about the concert and HYDE’s new songs.

Dinner: breaded pork on rice and shredded cabbage

Walked distance: 23305 steps / 16.6 km.

23rd July 2019: Arashiyama honours its name {Japan, summer 2019}

Posted on by

I started off the day at Yasui-Konpira-gu [安井金比羅宮], a shrine with a huge ema-like “mound” called Kushi-zuka [久志塚] with a hole in the middle. It is thought that if you write your wish on a paper, glue it on the mound and then crawl through the hole and back, your wish comes true. In case you’re wondering, no, I didn’t go through.

Then I walked all past Gion again to return to Gion Shirakawa [祇園白川] and Tatsumi Bashi [祇園 巽橋] to see the area by light. I saw Tatsumidaimyojin [辰巳大明神], the Kanikakuni monument, Kanikakuni Ishibumi (Koma-satsu) [かにかくに碑(駒札)], and a very cool heron (or crane?) who totally owned the place.

After this little stroll, it was still early so I headed off to the reconstructed castle Fushimi-Momoyama-jo [伏見桃山城]. It was a very cool castle, but it was not open to the public (this trip was not castle-lucky, now that I think about it).

Underneath the castle, I found the Mausoleum of Emperor Kanmu Kanmu Ten’nō Kashiharanomisasagi [桓武天皇 柏原陵].

And then I walked off to the opposite part of the hill. On my way I found some of the original rocks that had conformed the Ninomaru [二ノ丸跡] of Momoyama-Jo.

I kept ascending until I reached Meiji Ten’nō Fushimi Momoyama no Misasagi [明治天皇 伏見桃山陵], Emperor Meiji’s Tomb at Fushimi Momoyama, which was… somehow very sober and somewhat humble for such an important figure in Japanese history (then again I’ve recently visited the Spanish Royal Family Pantheon so… hm… yeah. Anything is more sober than that.)

After that I was tired and hot, so I needed a break – and the best way to have a break is a train ride. I rode back to Kyoto Station and from there I headed off towards the Arashiyama area. I wandered around the Bamboo Grove Arashiyama Chikurin no Shōkei [嵐山 竹林の小径] for a while. It was packed so I kept diverting towards other areas.

I walked into Rakushisha [落柿舎], a poet’s house, where I got a shuuin.

Then I went up the road to Nison-in [二尊院].

On my way back I stopped to admire the lotus flowers, which were in full bloom.

I considered going into the Museum of Korean arts, but as it was closed, my decision was irrelevant, so I decided to head back towards the Arashiyama Koen Nakanoshima Chiku [嵐山公園 中之島地区], the Nakanoshima area of Arashiyama Park. I saw the Kadono Ooi [葛野大堰], the small damn in the river, and crossed the Togetsu-kyō Bashi [渡月橋] bridge.

There I climbed up to Ichitani-Munakata-Jinja [櫟谷宗像神社].

I decided against climbing to the Monkey Park, and I was halfway back through the bridge, when the skies opened and a huge thunderstorm hit – so indeed, Arashiyama became the mountain of storms! I waited half of it under the canopy of a shop, and after twenty minutes I braved running across the street to the Lawson to get myself a sandwich and ate it as the rain dwindled enough for the streets to be walkable again.

Once that happened, I walked to the station and took a train back to Kyoto and then to Fushimi Inari Taisha [伏見稲荷大社]. I did two sweeps – one with light and once when the sun was setting. Of course I did not climb the whole mountain, I just stayed to see the main buildings and the Senbontorii [千本鳥居] (the loooong torii line) lit.

And finally I headed off back to have some food and rest.

Walked distance: 27897 steps, 19.9 km (so glad I took my cane today!)

22nd July 2019: Tokyo Shinagawa → Higashimaya Kyoto {Japan, summer 2019}

Posted on by

My Shinawaga hotel was very close to Sengakuji [泉岳寺], the temple that honours the forty-seven ronin so I paid them a visit before I moved on.

The reason why I was in Shinagawa was being close to the station as I was heading off to Kyoto. I took a shinkansen around 9 am and was in Kyoto just before 11, maybe. From Kyoto station I walked to Nishi-Hongwan-ji [西本願寺], which was about 10 /15 minutes away. It had been on my list since I went to Higashi-Hongwan-ji last year, but I had to go get some rest afterwards because I had a migraine.

As I was heading back towards the station I came across a building that really grabbed my attention. A little research yielded to finding out that it is a temple: Dendou-In [伝道院], which apparently belongs to Nishi-Hongwan-ji and is a research building. It was designed by a famous architect called Itō Chūta in 1912 in a style called “Evangelical”, and built shortly after. It’s not open to the public though, but it sure as hell is interesting.

After that I took the underground to my hotel. It was raining like crazy when I got there, and to make things more difficult, my bloody credit card decided to stop working. This made me slightly late to my 13:00 appointment at Studio Esperanto Oiran Taiken [studio-esperanto 花魁體驗]. Things were a little different this time. First of all, because I was just in time for appointment, I was directly ushered to the make-up room. Fortunately I had quite a clear idea of what I wanted, so it sort of worked in the end. The make-up artist was nice but she was a bit intimidated, and the photographer was difficult to communicate with, which hampered the experience a little. In the end, however, I got really cool pictures out of the experience, so I am not going to complain.

By the time I got out, there was a deluge outside. I was in the hotel, which was close to the photography studio, for a little, and after checking the maps that they had given me at reception, I realised that I was much closer to the Gion area than I – and Google Maps – had actually thought. There was one big park / shrine complex I could walk. At least part of it is called Maruyama Koen [円山公園] and it has a cool pond. I walked from the north entrance to the western exit, which belongs to Yasaka Jinja [八坂神社], the Yasaka Jinja Minami-romon [八坂神社 南楼門], the Tower Gate. I passed Gyokkō Inari Yashiro [玉光稲荷社] on the way.

I walked off to Gion, [祇園] which was almost empty due to the storm. Whenever I get to Gion in the evening, I always check whether there is a long queue at Gion Corner, which is a theatre that performs “traditional arts”:

  • Tea Ceremony [茶道]
  • Flower Arrangement / Ikebana [華道]
  • Koto [箏]
  • Gagaku [雅楽] Court Music and dance
  • Kyogen Theatre [狂言] (comic play)
  • Kyo-mai [京舞] (maiko dance)
  • Bunraku [文楽] Puppet Theatre

I was lucky this time, as the rain had scared most tourists away, so I could come in. It was a fun thing to do once, especially with “foreigner discount” it becoming half-price, but the audience kept talking and moving around the floor to take pictures and videos. Thai and Chinese people are loud (and a few of them rather disrespectful)! But all in all, I’m happy I got it out of my system, particularly the Kyo-mai dance.

After that, as it was not raining any more, I strolled down an almost-empty Gion.

Then I walked off towards an area that I had never been able to find before – Gion Shirakawa [祇園白川] and Tatsumi Bashi [祇園 巽橋]. Fortunately this time I had checked for the Tatsumi Bridge location fist, so it was not even that hard! I just had to know where to look for it! (≧▽≦).

I decided to take the way back through the park, so I could see all of Yasaka Jinja [八坂神社] lit up, which was very pretty.

As the hotel was also next to Heian Jingu [平安神宮], but as it was not lit up, I did not walk in.

Then I bought some conbini food and I went to the hotel to have dinner and a bath – the hotel had a hot spring public bath (and it was empty! Just for me!). I was lucky enough to get one of the traditional rooms, and the sand-puffs-like thingies were super-comfortable… until I had to stand up. It was so comfy I could barely stand up! And then I went off to sleep like at 10pm cause I was beat (∪｡∪)｡｡｡zzz.

Walked distance: 18517 steps / 13.2 km

21st July 2019: More Kawagoe. 戦国時代－The age of civil wars－: アコースティックライブ＆CDサイン会 {Japan, summer 2019}

Posted on by

Sengoku Jidai －The age of civil wars－ [戦国時代－The age of civil wars－] is a visual kei [ヴィジュアル系] bandthat has been active since 2017. It is formed by four members – Kz, the leader on guitar and back-up vocals, Nao-A on main vocals, S.N.D on drums and Date on bass. “Sengoku Jidai” refers to a time between the 15th and 16th century, when samurai clans fought almost continuously for dominance. In a wink to that, the members don samurai-like clothings and sometimes masks. Thing is, we’ve come across two of these people before – S.N.D is Junji, and Date is Ju-ken, both of whom we’ve seen with GACKT and VAMPS. I’d been trying to avoid the band quite actively because I know that I would like them a lot and I have to start controlling the number of artists I support.

I’d been following bassist Ju-ken on social media since I got one of his picks at the Barcelona VAMPS concert, and that was how I found out about this whole thing. Not long before my trip, Sengoku Jidai released a new song, Yotogi no Hana [夜伽の華]. It sounded nice, so I went down the YouTube rabbit hole first, and then ended up on the webpage. Over there, I found out that there was a free event in Kawagoe [川越] as part of the new single promotion. And that is why I decided to head over there and try to attend. The event consisted of a “midsummer summer acoustic live”, called Sengoku Jidai – The age of civil wars –: Manatsu no Accoustic LIVE [戦国時代－The age of civil wars－: 真夏のアコースティックLIVE] and a CD sain kai [CDサイン会], which is basically a “meet and get an autograph”. From 11:00, fans had access to a booth to buy a number of CDs of the last two singles: Yotogi no Hana [夜伽の華] and Sengoku Enka [戦国演歌], my favourite. You could get as many signatures as CDs you bought. The band would hold a small concert at 14:00, after which you could shake their hands and get your CDs signed, one single at a time. When you bought the CDs, you also got one number to access the “restricted” area for the concert, though anyone around could watch, even from the upper floors of the mall, and you were guaranteed a seat.

The event took place on the lower floor at the Kawagoe Pepe shopping centre. The mall opened at 10:00, and I got there around 10:15. To be honest, I was a bit uncomfortable queueing alone in a completely unknown fandom, having to deal with everything in Japanese. But I told myself it was a rare chance to get to do something like this, for free on top. So after hiding in the bathroom for a few minutes to gather my courage, I went to the queue, where a few people were already waiting. I got a couple of weird looks but mostly I kept to myself and no one bothered me.

The staff arrived not much later. They they built the booth and put up the notices of what was going on. They also brought the CDs and the flyers in. After they opened at 11:00, I got a CD of each of the singles, and I was out of the queue by 11:15, with the CDs and my numbered ticket, sporting #18. The staff must have given around 200 numbers or so before the live started.

Admittance to the concert (one, printed in yellow with number 18 on it) and the Meet and Greet (two, printed in black)

In between the two parts of the event, I made a little escapade to Kawagoe [川越大師]’s Seiya-san Muryōshuji Kita-in [星野山無量寿寺喜多院], which is a Buddhist temple dating back from the 830 AD. It is noted for its hall and its pagoda. It also has a small graveyard with “the five hundred disciples of Buddha”. I was not sure whether last time I had actually been there or not, because I arrived by my almost-trademarked method of getting lost, so I wanted to make sure, and I had a bit over an hour to kill – it was the same place indeed.

After walking around the temple for a while I went back to Pepe for the second part of the Sengoku Jidai event, the live / sain kai. The area of the shopping centre got closed off with tape and “doors” opened at 13:30. The staff had even prepared three lines of chairs, and at the appointed time they started calling the numbers out. Since the instruments were already on the small stage, we knew who would be sitting where. I choose a seat on Ju-ken’s side – the instruments were already on the stage, so it was easy to decide where to sit. As we came in, we were given a little sheet of paper to write what we wanted the band to talk about. The restricted area filled up quickly with all the fans who had bought CDs,and so the live started early, around 13:45. The acoustic was very interesting – I had never been to one, except for a couple of songs at the VAMPS’s Beast Party. This one was also an unplugged.

The live had two songs, a talk session, and two other songs. It lasted for about an hour. The band picked up topics from what the fans had written to talk about and answer question, and there was a lot of teasing among them. They talked about the summer, what they liked doing, what they have been up to, including solo activities and summer festival. They were quite chatty, except for Ju-ken, who plays a persona called “Date” and never speaks – he is very strict and serious – so he just explained, via gestures, that he went fishing. The whole persona thing will be important later. There were quite a few people watching “from the sidelines”, – looking over the balconies from the upper floors, and they received a lot of attention, as prospective fans. The actual live was free, you only had to pay if you wanted an autograph, and the price of the CDs was the standard 1500 ¥, so it was a good promotion strategy. The selling booth remained open for the whole live, and even the later signing session, and it actually worked because some curious did decide to get an autograph.

The songs played were Yotogi no Hana [夜伽の華], Sengoku Enka [戦国演歌], Sengoku Ondo [戦国音頭], which is their “introductory song”, I think Tennyo monogatari [天女物語]. During Sengoku Ondo, Nao-A asked us to stand up and dance / do the furutsuke with him – and then he messed up! I was so confused!

There was a bit of chaos when it was the turn for autographs. I almost lost my nerve again, but I had made it this far. I let the most dedicated fans go into the queue first, and I made my way slowly, rehearsing what I wanted to say – in Japanese. The first one to see me was drummer S.N.D / Junji, whose eyes went wide – he has no poker face at all and completely went (O_O)!, wondering what a white person was even doing at their event, I guess. He asked if I was okay with Japanese and I answered that I was okay with simple language. Then, I informed him that I was the foreign factor representation. Then I got Ju-ken / Date – I told him about having his pick from Barcelona. His eyes went even wider than Junji’s. He broke character completely, grabbed my hand and shook it vigorously, as he repeated “sank you, sank you, sank you” (some Japanese people just can’t do the TH sound and substitute it with an S). Kz was equally surprised to see me around and he asked where I was from. Finally, Nao-A hid his surprise better, and he acted quite cute and friendly. I actually… chatted a bit with all four of them. I felt proud of a) my Japanese and b) not freezing out.

I walked out the area and climbed upstairs to snap a couple of pictures. Then, I went back to the queue. I had bought two CDs so I could go through the process twice, and the band remembered me. Kz asked if I was studying or working in Japan, and I said I had travelled there for my summer holidays. Probably, if there had been more CDs, I would have bought all to get them signed.

After all the fans had got their signature, the artists waved at everybody and disappeared into… the adjacent supermarket. All in all, it was a very fun event – it went unexpectedly well, with no problems nor awkward moments. I did not get to make any new friends, but I think the band’s reaction was something priceless that I’ll treasure for a long time.

The band shaking hands and signing autographs

Signed CDs

After the event was finished, I went back to Tokyo [東京]. I kinda got lost so I wasted about an extra hour and a half, and thus I was not at the next hotel, in Shinagawa, until late. Though it was a business hotel – or maybe because of that – it had a huge TV, almost as wide as the 135cm-wide bed I had!

The TV at the foot of the bed is almost as wide as the bed itself, and the bed would fit two people

I bought dinner on the way and enjoyed it in the room. And after a long day, I decided that I was okay with some extra protein – so I tried the conbini boiled eggs. It was an excuse just like any other…

Soft-boiled egg box

Walked distance: 19468 steps / 13.9 km. However this includes the little furutsuke that Nao-A made us do, and that was recorded as pacing, and getting lost and walking for an hour coming out of the wrong exit of a station.

20th July 2019: Kawagoe revisited {Japan, summer 2019}

Posted on by

I went to Ikebukuro to exchange my JR Pass, and from there I went to Kawagoe [川越], a small town near Tokyo. The historical centre of Kawagoe is called Koedo [小江戸], Little Edo or Little Tokyo. I have actuallly visited Kawagoe before and I had not thought that much of it, but I wanted to give it another chance as I was going to a fan-event over there the following day, so I got myself a hotel over there and spent the afternoon / evening wandering the town.

I arrived by train at the Kawagoe Station and I headed to the touristic area. My first stop was Kawagoe Kumano Jinja [川越 熊野神社]. I thought about getting a shuuin but there were too many people and I backed off. I thought there would be fewer people the following day but I was wrong. Oh, well. Live and learn.

After that I found my way to the Black Warehouse District Kurazukuri no Machinami [蔵造りの町並], which is an area with houses that date from the Edo period. Today they are shops, mostly tourist traps, though. I am not a big fan.

On one of the side ways you can find the Clock Tower, Toki no Kane [時の鐘], which is one of the few historical clock towers in Japan (although it was rebuilt after it burnt down in the 19th century).

And I moved on to the Kawagoe Hikawa Jinja [川越氷川神社], which has a very cool wind chime tunnel, but it was packed at the time.

Later I visited the Kawagoe Castle / Honmaru Residence [川越城 本丸御殿]. The castle is long gone, but the palace was built in the 19th century.

I walked past the Reconstructed Moat of the Castle (I have no idea why there are no pictures of it?) and Yukizukainari Jinja, which was closed off. Then I headed off to the hotel to check in, and after that, I did some walking over the less touristic / known area of town. Right behind the hotel I came across Sugahara Jinja [菅原神社].

My next stop was snooping around Myōzenji [妙善寺] and its adjacent graveyard.

Then over to Fujisengen Jinja [富士浅間神社], a nice little shrine with a historical stelae next to it, the Shishimizuka of Uranaikata [占肩の鹿見塚].

From the grounds I could see Jitsuzaiji [実在寺], which is a very modern temple.

After that I walked towards Senbahikawa Jinja [仙波氷川神社], which I’m sure is haunted by a nekomata which appeared out of nowhere.

Senbagashishiseki Kouen [仙波河岸史跡公園], an awesome and large park with a lake and a ghost-proof bridge.

The park has a small temple altar, Enmeijizoson [延命地蔵尊] to one side.

On the other side stands Senbaatago Jinja [仙波愛宕神社] and I bought some takoyaki for dinner.

Walked distance: 22797 steps / 16.3 km

18th/19th July 2019: Made it! {Japan, summer 2019}

Posted on by

After the Iberia machine check in in Barajas worked for an intercontinental flight for the first time ever, I started my holidays with a splurge, in money and calories: meet the Unicorn Shake, by Burger King. It is a vanilla ice-cream and blueberries shake, with whipped cream and sparkles. Worth it, but I don’t think I’d ever survive the sugar rush again (≧▽≦).

I had a rather uneventful flight. Unfortunately I could not sleep further than 20 minutes so I arrived rather dead. After lunch, I had a short nap and then I went out for dinner with D****e. Then I must have fallen asleep cause I honestly don’t remember much of the day. Well, we must have had nachos for dinner because here’s a picture of them?

15th – 17th June 2019: Cologne (Germany) for the Gazette

Posted on by

Getting from Madrid to Cologne [Köln] was stupidly difficult and expensive so in the end I took an early Saturday-morning flight to Frankfurt and then I booked train tickets (an ICE and a suburban train) to the hotel area in Cologne. My plane took off at dawn (literally) and landed at 9:40, so I thought about booking the train at 10:30.

Sunrise from the still-grounded plane

On a whim of distrustfulness, I decided to book the train for 11:00, which was lucky. While we did land on time, it tookan eternity to reach the terminal, and in the end I arrived in the station just past 10:30. Since I had a bit of time, I grabbed a coffee and a bagel for some ridiculous price, but that kept me going until the evening.

Bagel and coffee

The European plain from the train window

I reached Cologne and went on to the commuter to the venue area, where my hotel was, a short walk away from the station. After checking in, I dropped my things off in an amazing room, and had to do a double take – for a second I was not sure they had given me the right room, because it was way too nice for the price I was paying.

Huge bedroom at the hotel

After changing clothes, I grabbed my bottle of water and off I took a train towards the city centre to visit the Cologne Cathedral Kölner Dom –it took a bit to figure out how to validate the train tickets, but I think I did everything legally. The cathedral has been a World Heritage site since 1996. Its construction started in 1248, but was halted in 1473. The building remained unfinished until the 1840s, when work was picked up again, following the original Medieval plans, and the church was finally completed in 1880. While it was badly damaged in WWII, it withstood the bombings and ever since then, it has been in a constant state of small and not-so-small restorations and repairs.

Cologne Dome

From the Cathedral I walked towards Cologne Zoo or Kölner Zoo. Although it had been drizzling before, at that point it was sunny again, and the walk was nice.

A typical Cologne Street

I decided to go to the zoo because it was the only thing that seemed to be open for long enough to mean value for money. The weather had warmed up and the bunnies were roasted coughs. I got to see some animals I had never seen before, such as Przewalski’s horses, snipes, or a grizzly bear. The zoo has a huge enclosure area, a petting zoo with domestic animals (and cheeky cows), an aquarium and a terrarium with both reptiles and creepy-crawlers shudders.

Some of the animals in the zoo

Then, I walked back to the hotel, stopping by the supermarket on my way – and here I discovered my undoing. The triple chocolate cookies which wrecked my trying to eat healthy stroll. I shall try to find them again in my next Germany trip though. However, I have to say that I had learnt from my being stupid for MIYAVI in London and not eating well through the weekend, so I bought snacks to have the following day.

Cookies

I was exhausted, so I think I was out at 22:00, which helped being awake at 7:00 the next morning. Thus, I just headed off for the venue E-Werk, and settled to queue for the concert. Japanese Visual kei (V系) rock band the GazettE [ガゼット (Gazetto)] was formed in 2002 and achieved its current configuration in 2003. It is formed by members: Ruki (ルキ) on lead vocals; Uruha (麗) on lead guitar; Aoi (葵) on an insane amount of support guitars (two on the same song, almost at the same time); Reita (れいた) on bass, keyboards / piano; and Kai (戒) on drums. Though they are signed with Sony Records, they claim to be completely self-produced.

In December 2018, the Gazette announced that they would continue their Japanese Tour abroad as Live Tour 19 THE NINTH: PHASE #04 -99.999-. It originally spanned North and South America, and Europe, and later in April some Asian dates were added. I originally planned to go to Munich (travelling was easier and cheaper), but I could not get VIP tickets, so switched to Cologne instead. General Admission was reasonably priced (45€) with crazy shipping costs (+4.50€, since they were all printed out and pretty). VIP Tickets (300 per concert), included early entry (one hour before GA and two hours before the show), a VIP present, and a handshake with the band for 170€ (+4.50€ in shipping costs), exclusively distributed through ME-shop, which was a pain and not easy at all.

The Gazette World Tour dates

The Cologne concert at E-Werk would be held at 20:00, which placed entry at 19:00 and VIP entry at 18:00. I reached the queue around 8:00. The venue is a repurposed industrial building with a capacity for 2,000 people in a lower-floor arena and a sort of balcony around it which also allows for visibility. There were already staff walking around, and the venue even had portable toilets outside for queuing fans. At that time, there were maybe 60-70 people waiting in three queues – VIP, GA, and something called “regulars” who went in last.

Everything ran smoothly, with the three lines in front of the doors, up until 16:00 when security arrived. They decided to rearrange the queues, and created chaos. Fortunately, since most of the fans were German, and they enjoy order, at least the VIP queue was reorganised neatly and quickly – respecting the arrival numbers. Around 16:30, the VIP tickets were checked and switched for bracelets, and the holders ushered to a secondary waiting area where we were not even allowed to sit down until doors opened around 18:15. Due to this, I had to stand for two hours straight without leaning on anything, my back was killing me. I decided that I either made it to the barrier, or I would head upstairs for a good view. When I came in, I received the VIP present – a banner with the band logo on it– and I was find a first-row spot to the left of the stage, in front of Aoi (guitar). The concert ran about 15 minutes late due to a technical problem with a wire / monitor. Good thing I found a barrier spot indeed.

The concert was very high energy. The music was so loud my ears were still ringing three days later. Most of the setlist was from The Ninth album, which makes sense. My personal favourite live song was The Suicide Circus .

Setlist:

  1. 99.999
  2. Falling
  3. Ninth Odd Smell
  4. Gush
  5. Agony
  6. The Suicide Circus
  7. 虚 蜩 [Utsu Semi]
  8. その声は脆く [Sono Koe wa Moroku]
  9. Babylon’s Taboo
  10. Dogma
  11. Incubus
  12. Ugly
  13. Abhor God
  14. Filth in the Beauty
  15. Inside Beast
  16. Cockroach
  17. Tomorrow Never Dies

I was very impressed by Reita’s stage persona / antics, how he stood on stage and moved. I almost caught a pick that he threw, but by that time my right arm was completely useless as the person behind me kept trying to push me away from the barrier to take my spot. My wrist brace is actually broken due to having to hang on from her shoving. But she was not successful

Aoi was muchbetter than I expected, and at some point he was playing two guitars for the same song, the acoustic and the electric, without any apparent effort – he hung both from his neck and played whichever one he needed. I could not see much of Kai, and Uruha was most of the time too far away. And unfortunately Ruki favoured going to the right, but he has a very powerful body language.

After the concert, the VIPs were pushed– literally – to an area in the back of the venue to wait for the meet and greet in a different room. I got handshake with both hands from all of them, if memory serves me correctly the order was Kai, Uruha, Ruki, Reita and finally Aoi. I told them that it had been very fun, that they had done a good job and none of them batted an eye at my Japanese. They were really nice though, in a high contrast from stage personas.

Afterwards, I just headed off back to the hotel, and directly into the shower, because I was sore all over. Good thing I still had snacks from my supermarket run. I think this was the first time I have actually though “I’m getting too old for this”.

On Monday morning, my paranoia had me early at the station, and that was good because apparently my suburban had been cancelled. Being early, I was lucky enough to be able to catch a completely different one – not sure if legally. I did not get caught if it wasn’t, but I made it to Cologne central station and caught my ICE without any further stress. As the station is located next to the Dome, I was able to say good-bye.

Cologne Dome from the train

As I had a window seat again, I also had quite a few nice views from the plane, and made it home without any issue.

An aerial view of a reservoir with turquoise water

9th June 2019: Gold fields and bull billboard (Guadalajara, Spain)

Posted on by

A friend was over and she was curious about the huge black bull billboard that stands next to the entrance to Guadalajara, so we headed there. We had a big Chinese late lunch, and afterwards we decided to walk to the bull.

The so-called Toro de Osborne (Osborne bull, and… hm… you can tell… he’s a male, right?) was conceived as a publicity billboard for the Osborne winery. The bulls were originally designed in 1956 as by-road advertisement for one of the winery’s drinks. The first set of bulls was installed in 1958, and the current ones date back to 1962, made with metal, and around 14 metres high. In 1988 the lettering was removed. Although in compliance to the 1994, laws the bulls should have been removed, but a motion was filed to keep them as ‘cultural items’ as people had grown fond of them. In 1997 a law was passed ordaining that the bulls were to remain due to “cultural and visual interest”. There used to be about 500 bulls throughout all of Spain, but today only 91 remain, although there are others around the world. For example, there is one in Japan, because… Japan, I guess. The area with most of them is the one where the winery headquarters stand.

The Guadalajara bull stands next to the N-320 exit number 53. you can reach it by car or on foot. We took a walk around the area and we got to see the wheat and barley fields that give the area its typical brown / gold colours in summer. These are called the Calstillian fields, Campos de Castilla.

When we finally got to the bull, we were expecting nobody around, but there were a bunch of people, mostly drinking and smoking weed. Apparently it had also been vandalised and used for target practice, because people are civilised and all that. If you squint, you can actually see the word “Osborne” on the billboard.

26th May 2019: “Komeko Sin Gluten” event in Madrid (Spain)

Posted on by

After almost literally everybody and their dogs ditched me for a cooking workshop in Madrid, literally the day before I decided to bite the bullet and go by myself, so I bought my ticket on Saturday night, barely 12 hours before the event, a promotion of a Japanese-Spanish shop and its products based on rice flour. The shop is called “Komeko Sin Gluten”, which translates as “Gluten-Free Rice Flour”.

Evenbrite ticket for the event: Taller de Cocina de Komeko: crepe, helado y tarta 10 euro

The event happened in a venue-for-hire in Madrid, and consisted in three distinct parts: a small market in which I would have spent a lot if I had not got a few samples with my ticket, a cooking workshop and a taiko concert. I arrived early due to Sunday having awful public-transport connections, and I arrived in Madrid an hour before the event even opened, and then we got a delay with the start of the workshop because someone was missing. During that time I got to sit around among aaaall the Japanese people around, including the head drummer of the taiko group, , whom I admired a lot since I watched him in HA·YA·TO: Drum Masters.

The small market was comprised, of course, of gluten-free products, especially Japanese ones, most of them can be found online, yay. I decided not to buy things upfront as the workshop included a sample of products, and I wanted to buy what I did not get. In the end, I did not have to buy anything because I got next to everything!

Pictures of the rice flour items - flour, noodles, snacks...

Anyway, the cooking workshop:

  1. Komeko crêpes: We made the crêpes on portable pans. There was a mini drama as the cook refused to start until we had chopsticks to flip the crêpes, and I was amused at first until I realised how convenient they actually were. While he was worried that I ahd any problems with the chopsticks, I’m happy to report that I was not the clumsiest in the class! After they were cool, we filled one up with ‘pastry cream’, banana and whipped cream for presentation – but we got to take the rest home and I tried them with chocolate. Serious improvement!
  2. Steamed banana sponge cake: this was really interesting to make, and also really easy – it involved mixing all the ingredients in a plastic bag, and then cutting a corner off the bag to pour that into little trays so we could steam it. That was… neat, and a team effort.
  3. Japanese green tea (matcha) ice-cream: Double team effort! (≧▽≦). As the paste needed time to freeze, we actually observed the chef prepare the ingredients and ate the one that had been prepared in the previous workshop.

Collage. Chef preparing crepes, and a picture of the materials, the matcha ice cream and my own creppes and banana spongecake

We had a snack with our crêpes and the matcha ice-cream. Then we got the haul of goodies: ramen and spaghetti noodles, komeko, komeko with glutinous rice, and komeko with cocoa, well worth the price (10€) I had paid for the whole workshop… Talk about promotion ☆⌒(ゝ。∂).

Different flours and noodles I got as present

Afterwards, I headed downstairs for the taiko concert. Enishi Taiko is a Spanish group, and Keita Kanazashi usually collaborates with them rather often. The concert was, of course, more humble than the one with HA·YA·TO, but it was still a lot of fun.

Taiko group playing and having a lot of fun

Afterwards, I got Kanazashi to sign the HA·YA·TO DVD and the picture I had with him from that time, which was really cool. Furthermore, the main drummer in Enishi Taiko remembered me from the X Gran Exposición de Ikebana y Semana Cultural Japonesa session, and another session I took at their headquarters.

I had thought that I would be eating in Madrid but as I had snacked on the komeko products I was not hungry at all, so I decided to head home. On the way towards the station I found this really cool fountain.

Urban waterfall. The fountain looks like a massive bench, with a thin layer of water dripping from the top

18th & 19th May 2019: Madrid (Spain) for Jupiter (and fesFE[M]!)

Posted on by

The weekend started extremely early on Saturday, when I took the first bus out to Madrid, and I think I was there around 7:30 to meet my friend C*****. She had been having a rough time and she had asked me to “keep her head off things”. Up until a couple of days before, we did not even know whether she would be able to come to the concert, so I had a whole plan up my sleeve. Unfortunately, a couple of steps backfired slightly. The main event – which we had been planned since the previous December – was Jupiter’s concert for the ZEUS Europe Tour on Sunday the 19th, but we made a whole weekend out of it. I was not actively following Jupiter at the time of the announcement, but C***** and I decided to attend because Madrid is easy and convenient, well-communicated and an opportunity to spend a weekend decompressing somewhere. As the time drew near and we could access more material, the excitement built up – I also managed to find the album they were promoting and it sounded really well, actually.

Her bus arrived earlier on Saturday than mine, and when we met, we decided to have breakfast at the coach station, to catch up and to give shops and so on the time to open up. When it was a reasonable time, we took the underground to drop our luggage at the hotel – the lovely EXE Moncloa. I had selected it because it was near the concert venue, and I hoped that we could hang out the terrace and the swimming pool, which unfortunately did not open until June. After getting rid of the luggage, we rode the underground towards the neighbourhood of Chueca, where I had looked up a bunch of Goth apparel shop which were right up her alley and… did not open at 10:00 as the internet said, but at 12:00.

Fortunately, other shops were already open and we were able to pass the time amicably. We were actually close to the Telefonica building, so I suggested we headed up there for the TeamLab exhibit, which I had already seen, and I thought she might like the digital art.

Teamlab logo and digital art: Waves, butterflies in red and green, and a dripping circle as if it were painted with a brush. All of them are light or bright colours on black.

Afterwards, we moved onto Callao Gourmet Experience for a snack. I wanted to introduce C***** to the Niji Mochi shop, and we also shared a chocolate ice-cream shake.

Mochi and coffee with whipped cream

Afterwards, we were shopping for a little longer before we moved on to have lunch. I had a surprise for her. While I care little to nothing about Korean food, she is a fan of everything Korean. Thus, we hit one of the best Korean restaurants in Madrid, called Seoul. I gave her free reign to order for both of us and we shared, though being honest, the only thing I enjoyed was the green tea at the end.

Lunch: fried dumplings, roasted meat, rice with vegetables, and green tea.

After lunch, we went on and found an underground station. We rode towards the Museo Arqueológico Nacional, National Archaeological Museum, although we had not realised that it was museum day so instead of a quiet exhibition I was used to, we had to deal with a ton of families! On the bright side, it was free, though. The museum, which shares a building with the national library Biblioteca Nacional, was founded in 1867, at a time when creating national museums had become popular among European governments. It was the start of the development of archaeology in Spain. I remembered it from the time I was a kid, dark and with wooden floors, but it was recently renovated with wide spaces and modern interiors.

Exhibits at the archaeological museum: bones from a mastodon, boar statue, lady statue, Neanderthal skull, Roman mosaic of an octopus, Horus statue, Iberian stelae, primitive animal that looks like a boar or a bull carved out of stone, Grecian vase

C***** was tired from spending all night in the bus, so we left the museum and headed back to the hotel to finish our check in process and then catch a break. On the way, we stopped and bought a few snacks for the following day because you always have to be ready for a post-concert low.

We had to look for a place to have dinner, and I found a few interesting places. There were not one, but three Japanese restaurants in the area where we were staying. One of them required queueing and sounded quite self-important, so we were left with two options. We decided to try one in the evening and the next for lunch the following day. Thus, I booked a table at the nearby Naniwa. We had some decent sushi, chicken, and takoyaki… then ordered takoyaki seconds because we had a discount (and I was hungry because I barely picked on lunch).

Dinner: sushi, fried chicken, octopus balls, chicken skewers

The next morning, we headed to the venue Sala Copérnico door around 9:00 and upon seeing nobody queueing yet, we went to have breakfast at a nearby café. Then, we walked around the Moncloa park area, mostly chatting, until we went back to the venue – no queue. And later went back to the venue – no queue. And afterwards, we went back to the venue again, just to find there were still no people in the queue.

Coffee and bread breakfast

In the end we ran into the supporting bands went to have lunch to the second Japanese restaurant in the block, Morikaen. It was around 13:30 as we were heading there, and I said something along the lines of “I feel sorry that they’ll arrive and there’s nobody here to greet them”, and as we turned the corner we almost literally ran into the whole crew coming out of the bus. Talk about timing. They looked tired so we just walked by, but we were rather sure that we had been noticed. On our way to the restaurant, we walked past a family all clad in “Sunday church clothes”, and their small girl wearing aaaall white just stared at us – in rock-goth black clothing – with pure envy in her eyes. Here’s to you, little one. You’ll get there too.

Lunch was all right – tuna tataki, tonkatsu, takoyaki. A bit more expensive than the previous day’s dinner, but we also ordered higher-class ingredients and more complicated dishes.

Lunch. Tuna tataki, rice and chicken, breaded pork, octopus dumplings

Jupiter is a Japanese band who define themselves as “melodic metal band”. It could be said that it is a visual kei symphonic power metal, which means they combine a very particular image (or a bunch of images, the most iconic being Hizaki’s Baroque-inspired dresses) with a subgenre of metal that combines hard drumming, metal guitars, and elements of classical music. On the 22th November 2018, Jupiter announced their new album, a Japanese Tour, and a European Tour, ZEUS Europe Tour. Bassist Rucy left between the announcement and the album release due to creative differences, and I really thought they would cancel the tours, but luckily everything went ahead. The remaining members – guitars Hizaki and Teru, current vocal Kuze, and drummer Daisuke were joined by support bassist Shoyo.

Schedule for the tour

There were two promoters involved for this concert. The local promoter, which in Spain was Madness Live, sold general admission tickets – they have a clean and neat webpage and buying from them is easy; I got ours on the 12th of December. The other, Editions Hikari, was in charge of coordination of the European tour, general information, and ticket upgrades. I think they are one of the worst organisers I have ever come across.

Hikari announced those upgrades in January. There would be VIP experiences, on sale on the 14th of February. Besides that there would be two kinds of upgrades, there was no real information about them until a few days before the sale. The best tickets were called “Venus Premium” (40€ face value + 5€ reservation costs) included autographs + handshake + backstage access before or after the show or soundcheck access (if possible) + photo with 1 member taken by a professional photographer (sent by e-mail later after the tour) + priority access to the merchandise, and there were five per show. The “Venus” upgrade (25€ VIP + 3€ reservation costs) comprised autographs + handshake + priority to the merchandise, there were 20 available per show. Getting the tickets was chaotic, but in the end, C***** managed to buy the two Venus Premium tickets we wanted – luckily. A lot of people did not even find out about the option to upgrade. In the end, the backstage pass / soundcheck was not available for any concert in the tour, and the priority access to the merchandise was impossible in Madrid due to the two independent promoters. Either of the VIP upgrades granted the option to buy an “Instax” (Polarid) photograph with the whole band at extra cost.

Hikari’s Facebook instructions were that Venus and Venus Premium ticket holders had to go to the merch booth – to which they supposedly had priority access – at the beginning of the concert. However, as the access to the actual venue was controlled by the local promoter ticket, there was no way they would access the merch booth with any kind of priority unless the managed to somehow skip the queue. Any kind of communication with Hikari was impossible as “they could not check emails, Facebook messaging, nor reply to comments.” However, they still made posts, and that is how we found that the CDs which Jupiter brought to sell at the merchandise booth were confiscated by customs’ officers before the first concert!

On the 10th of May, we received an email form the local promoter, Madness Live, informing us that the door timing had been changed and they were nice enough to send us the following schedule: Doors at 19:00, VII ARC (German support band) at 19:15; fesFE[M] (Japanese support group) at 20:20; Jupiter at 21:30. There was no information on the upgrades, because they had no clue about those, as Hikari was in charge. The day of the concert thus arrived and we had no actual about that, except for rumours and comments of what had happened in previous concerts. That was why, even if there was no queue, we had decided to stick around Sala Copérnico instead of heading into the city centre.

Eventually, after lunch, I decided that I was too tired to keep going up and down the streets, so around 16:00 we settled at the venue doors until they opened so we could get into the chaos that was the concert. At 16:30, other people arrived, so we got talking – that was how we found out that many people had never even heard about the upgrades. Doors opened around 19:00 – without any kind of priority access to the merchandise, nor separating VIPs and GA. C***** and I decided to divide and conquer – she went to secure a spot on the first row, while myself checked in at the merch booth to get the Instax tickets with the whole band.

That is when I saw the lousy, half sheet of paper taped there saying “Venus and Venus Premium ticket holders, gather at the merchandise booth at 20:00”. That placed the “Venus experience” in the middle of the support act, which meant either having very good friends who saved you the first row spot, or sacrificing it. We decided to give the place up and find somewhere more convenient so we could move about. Without holding spots for the VIPs, this was totally unacceptable in my opinion, especially since there had been no early entry, or priority merchandise. A bunch of people who did not want to buy anything missed out on what they had paid for.

The first support band was VII ARC. They were okay, a bit of stereotypical German heavy metal. I can see how they might appeal to the general metalhead crowd, but it feels that they were chosen because “they dress up sometimes”, and Hikari thought they would fit. It is formed by Kay (vocals), Fū (lead guitar), Bena (guitar, screaming), Grazel (Bass) and Z’ev (drums), and they could probably fit a bit on the “visual” style, but they did not bring any distinctive gear.

VII Arc playing in Madrid

At 20:00, as fesFE[M] prepared to take the stage, the Venus Premium and Venus ticket holders gathered around the merch booth and we were ushered past a barrier, towards the bar. There, we had to wait for about 10 minutes while the second support act started. A Japanese staff lady with little to no English came to “check” the Premium tickets and “sort of explain” to us the whole thing. First the Venus Premium would be shown backstage one by one for the one-on-one photograph – there were four of us, we never knew if the fifth was never sold, they did not come, or they missed the whole experience. Afterwards, we would come out again and joined the regular Venus for the autographs and handshake, then the Polaroid would be taken for the ones who had bought it. We were ushered past a curtain and the backstage door towards the mess room where the remains of the lunch buffet were.

As I entered, I caught sight of Shoyo, the support bassist, who was sitting down on a low mattress in a room to the left, looking bored. I greeted him in Japanese, and he greeted back. C***** turned to see whom I was talking to and her eyes were wide. I asked Shoyo if he felt lonely, he said a little. Another attendee who also spoke Japanese asked for a picture (beating me to it, actually) but he said he was not allowed.

The conversation died out when it was time to go into the private band area for my picture with one of the members. As I walked in, there was Kuze to my left, Daisuke to my right and Teru and Hizaki in front of me, Teru dead centre and Hizaki a little to the right. I was asked whom I wanted my picture with and chose Teru, as I had long ago decided that I would if I could. He smiled and posed with me, then he shook my hand. I have got to learn to look into Japanese musician’s eyes when I talk to them.

We said good-bye to Shoyo on the way out, and almost left, but it was now time for autographs, handshakes and Instax. I pulled out the CDs I had brought for C***** and myself, and I got to shake hands with all four of them and receive the band’s autographs. Since the CDs the band brought had been seized, we might have very well been the only ones in the whole country that produced some official material for signing. Then, we took the Instax and the staff would ask with a thumbs up sign “okay?” to check the picture was good, before we left.

CDs signed by Jupiter members

All in all, the band was very friendly and amazing, but the timing and organisation was horrid. We lost out first row – despite having “priority access”, and we missed half of the fesFE[M] concert. As Copérnico has two levels though, we found a nice spot at the stairs that connect both, and I could lean against the handrail to watch the rest of the act.

fesFE[M] is a relatively new visual kei band where all the members take up “doll” personas. Their career in 2017 and released their first mini-album in May 2019, just in time to come over to Europe for Jupiter’s tour. For each album / season, the band dons a doll theme, and they were currently on the “horror genre” dolls. The members and their doll types are: Lion [リオン], vocal, Distress Coppelia doll (from the namesake ballet, dressed as a bloody bride); Aito [アイト], guitar, Apathetic Prince doll; Zeno P [ゼノP], guitar, Bloodthirsty Child Killer doll; Toru [徹], bass, Emotional Princess doll; Rensa [蓮沙], drums, Psycho Butler doll; and Jun, keyboards, Scalded Dollmaster doll (dressed as a nun because… reasons?).

The first time I heard a song by fesFE[M], I was not extremely impressed – the PV was a bit too creepy. However, they are really good in person, even with the bad sound quality and reverberation in the venue – and the fact that we missed about half of their act. They were really engaging. The whole visual part was amazing, and the coordination was great! Their music was much more powerful live. The band played some songs from their mini-album enseMble autoMata: Doll in blueberry jam [Doll in ブルーベリィジャム], Arachne ni haitoku wo [アラクネに背徳を], Psychological stolen heart, and Freiya [フレイヤ].

Fesfem live in Madrid

The Jupiter concert was as expected, very energetic and fun – it actually went beyond expectations. Our spot was really good in he end, a bit raised, without getting pushed, and we actually watched the concert next to fesFe[M]’s bass Toru. Sometimes he smiled and waved at us, and we waved back without fail.

Kuze, Jupiter’s vocalist held his ground better than I thought he would be able to. I was kind of impressed when I listened to the Jupiter single Theory of Evolution and later to the album Zeus: Legends never die. While we were expecting the guitar and metal power, Kuze’s voice range in the recording was rather wild, and I did not think that he would be able to keep it up live, especially on a final concert after touring both Japan and Europe. He proved me wring, and he held all his notes and his vocal range, just like the recording. He had practised his English a lot and learnt the MCs, but he switched to Japanese quite often, and he spoke too fast for me to get! He did a great job even with songs that had been released in the previous vocalist’s time.

Daisuke was pretty much hidden by his own drums from where we were, but we did see him bounce a couple of times. Hizaki was on the other side of the stage from us, and he looked divine in his Baroque dress. I don’t understand how he can even move in those clothes, much less play guitar or crouch, which he did so a few times in order to interact to first-row fans. A couple of times I did fear for his safety as someone grabbed either him or the guitar. Most of the songs that were played were his. It’s fun to imagine what he would be thinking when writing “die, die, die, go fuck yourself”, when he presents as such a beautiful and innocent lady, but it surely was fun to yell.

And finally, Teru had a blast. He kept twirling around as he played, his stud-leather coat swirling around him. He played with a huge smile on his face all the time and he gave off the vibes that he was having a lot of fun. He also interacted with fans a lot.

Jupiter Live in Madrid

Setlist:

  1. Arcadia
  2. Last Moment
  3. Angel’s wings
  4. Drastic Night
  5. Bring me out
  6. Show Must Go On
  7. No cry no more
  8. The spirit within me
  9. Tears Of The Sun
  10. Memories of you
  11. B.L.A.S.T
  12. Blessing of the Future
  13. Zeus: I. Legends Never Die / II. Conversations with God
  14. Symmetry Breaking [Encore 1]
  15. Theory of Evolution [Encore 2]

While the concerts were a lot of fun, the whole event was stressful due to the abysmal organisation. I actually feel a bit ripped off, because they did not deliver a lot of what they had sold in the upgrades. At least C***** and I are lucky enough that we managed to get our pictures, autographs, and saw the concert from a relatively good place. All in all, Jupiter are amazing, they were super nice, and so were the guys from fesFE[M]. The concert was great, and we don’t regret going for a second.

After the event, waved at Toru for what we thought was the last time. When lights went on, we also saw Rensa, who stopped for us when we told him he had done a good job. C***** and I decided to pool our money together to buy the CDs fesFe[M] had brought – and not got seized. Apparently, it is typical that the entry-level bands hang around merchandise booths after concerts, and we were lucky enough that they agreed to sign the CDs and take a photo with us. Lion was extremely surprised and nice – or acted so. He complimented me on my poor attempt of Japanese and complied with what we requested.

CD signed by Fesfem members

Finally, C***** and I headed back to the hotel, and we went home the next day – fortunately we left from the same bus station so we could maximise our time together.

Hikari took a few days to send out the VIP pictures, but they eventually arrived on the 1st of June. Getting them was also hard, and amateurish – they wanted to put them in a Google Drive link and post that on Facebook. At least we got them to send them via email, citing European Data protection laws at them… I really, really hope to avoid this promoter in the future, but if I do, I’ll be on the lookout in order not to miss anything.

4th May 2019: Museo Naval & TeamLab in Madrid (Spain)

Posted on by

There were a couple of exhibitions in Madrid that I wanted to see, and my mother decided to tag along. We took a train and walked to the Museo Naval, the Navy museum, which was being renovated – so the permanent connection was not being shown. In the end, that turned out to be awesomely lucky because it allowed us to see the marble staircase and stained glass of the classical building, which is very rarely shown.

The exhibition that I wanted to see was related to the trips to Asia, mostly China, Japan and Philippines, and it was interesting for 3€. one of these days I would like to come back to see the whole museum when the renovations are over. It’s on the bucket list, I swear. One of these… I’m not sure, months, because I’d been saying I want to go to the Museo Naval for years.

After seeing the “Asia in the Naval Museum” exhibit and the ceiling, we walked towards the Telefónica Building. There, there was an Exhibition by TeamLab, the museum of virtual art from Tokyo! I really want to see it.

There were three exhibits:

  • Flutter of Butterflies, Born from Hands (2019), a magical wall where you can rest your hands for butterflies to come up.

  • Black Waves: Lost, Immersed and Reborn (2016), an amazing scenery of breaking waves.

  • Enso – Cold Light (2017), a self-tracing enso (perfect circle traced with one stroke in calligraphy).

I was very happy to see this, and then we walked around the “Evolution of phones” exhibition- however, I apparently have not taken pictures of that one. I think it was too nostalgic, because god did it make me feel old (≧▽≦).

Before we returned home, we had lunch at a De María restaurant – an Argentinean meat-grill where we got a glass of rose champagne to go. Another place I want to return! However, this time I did not take pictures because the atmosphere did not feel adequate to do so.

23rd & 24th April 2019: El Escorial, Vizmalo & Lerma (Spain)

Posted on by

23 April 2019: El Escorial

The Royal Site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial aka Monasterio y Sitio de El Escorial is located a shy hour away from Madrid. It is most known for the Monastery that used to be an official residence of the King of Spain. The Monastery was built between 1563 and 1584. It is the masterpiece of the Spanish architect Juan de Herrera, after whom the Herrerian style, a sub-style in the Spanish Renaissance, was named. The building is a sober building made of a granite, and it is the burial place of most of the Spanish kings and queens. Some urban legends say that it was based off the descriptions of the Temple of Solomon.

We drove in around 9:00, dropped off the luggage, and went out, as we had tickets for 10:00 – although the hotel did not want to let us in. Contrary to the nice weather that we had been enjoying, it was cold as hell. The whole town felt grey and sober, and the cloudiness helped the mood – we had breakfast at a nearby bar (the only one open) and headed off to the monastery. The building hosts many artworks, along with a chapel, the royal pantheon and the most amazing library ever. Pictures in the inner areas are forbidden, unfortunately. The Monastery is a Unesco World Heritage site.

At lunchtime we walked out of the Monastery and headed off to the Royal Carriage House / Cocheras del Rey, a museum / restaurant. We had lunch, then visited the museum as the entry was free with lunch. It was raining like mad by then so we headed to the hotel to finalise the check in.

After an hour or so the rain had stopped so we decided to walk to the Prince’s House and Parks / Parque y jardines de la Casita del Príncipe. By the time we arrived it had started raining again – pictures were not allowed inside of the house either, but OMG was the inside Baroque, with flashy wallpapers.

On the way back, we could catch a glimpse of the monastery through the park. By now it was raining like crazy, so we spent the rest of the evening indoors.

24 April 2019: Vizmalo & Lerma

We left El Escorial early in the morning and we headed north for lunch. Yeah, well, let me explain. We had a reservation for lunch some two-and-a-half hours away, in Vizmalo (Burgos). This was a bit of a silly whim, but we were going to visit an estate / farm and have lunch there – the St. Rosalia Estate / Finca Santa Rosalía breeds wagyu for meat, and holy are they yummy. We had a booking to see the estate first.

While it was still cold, the weather was slowly improving, and in evening we had some sun. We saw the orchards, the grapevines, the cattle, the trees and so on. Then we moved into the wine cellars and saw the barrels, before we tried the wine and some of the meat-dishes that they prepare and sell. The selling point of Finca Santa Rosalía are the wagyu, cattle of Japanese origin. Wagyu meat is completely different from any other beef because it is soft and tender, and in general delicious.

Lunch was brilliant, based, of course on the wagyu meat. The T-bone was scrumptious and even if it was on the “a lot of money” side, it did not feel too expensive for a once-in-a-lifetime experience considering the amazing quality.

After lunch we drove off towards Lerma, a city which was revamped by the Duke of Lerma back in the 17th century. After finding our hotel and dropping our stuff off, we walked to the Duke’s Palace turned luxury hotel: Palacio Ducal & Parador de Lerma.

We walked around and came across the Mirador de los Arcos / Archway Viewpoint.

Then we saw Colegiata de San Pedro / St. Peter’s Collegiate church, where there was a religious exhibition being held (“Las Edades del Hombre”), with the topic of angels. Pictures were not allowed, or we would have shown you a few… interesting representation.

Sunset crawled upon us and it was nice view. We had dinner somewhere around the town centre, and called it a night before we drove home the following day.