Tag Archives: concert

9th – 11th October 2019: Flash Barcelona (Spain) for Miyavi (and friends)

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This was another of those flash trips, and it worked miraculously somehow. Miyavi’s concert was on the 11th, which was a Thursday. It’s not normally something I can do, but I managed to get away from Wednesday at noon to Friday at noon. So I worked on Wednesday morning, and in the late evening I took a train to Barcelona, where I met my friend C***** and we headed out to the hotel, which… turned out to be pretty bad. It was the closest we found in the general area of the venue for a different price but I draw the line at cockroaches, no matter how small they are. The bed was too soft, it was too hot and in the end we were both up at 6:00 to the point that we decided that we could get to the queue already.

Our tickets were VIP so they included a Meet & greet and a picture before the concert, which is one of the most fun I’ve attended lately. However, the road leading to it, and the organisation, was a bit of a chaos – there was a late-announcement of an opening act, the M&G time was changed and nobody really know what time it really was… It added a lot of unnecessary stress, as bad planning usually does. But in the end, Miyavi is an amazing human being and made up for it all. He greeted us when he came in, and when he left, and he gave his best on stage.

Miyavi kneeling on the floor playing guitar. He is wearing white trousers and a sleeveless black t shirt that reads No sleep till Tokyo

The concert was held in Barcelona’s Sala Salamandra as part of Miyavi’s European Tour No Sleep Till Tokyo. Miyavi, whose real name is Ishihara Takamasa [石原 崇雅], was born in 1981, and has been active in the Japanese musical scene since 1999. He started off as the guitarist of the visual rock band Dué le quartz, and went on a solo career after its disbandment. His first album Gagaku was released in October 2002.

Miyavi is known to fans as “the Samurai guitarist”. He has a very particular guitar-playing style, and does not often use picks – he calls this style “finger slapping”. He used to have a very characteristic style, with crazy visuals, piercings, and wildly-coloured hair, but he it tuned after he and his wife Melody had their first child in 2009.

Miyavi can compose, write lyrics, arrange, sing, and rap. However, he considers himself a (samurai) guitarist, and he has collaborated with some top-notch artists and vocalists. Back in 2007 he was part of the “ghost” supergroup S.K.I.N., along with Yoshiki, Gackt and Sugizo. Although the band had an official “debut”, they never got any further than a presentation concert at an American convention. Miyavi has also collaborated with a wide range of artists such as Hyde, Seann Bowe or Samuel L. Jackson on his most recent albums. As of recent years, he has started acting, both in American films (Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken or Maleficent: Mistress of Evil) and Japanese productions (Bleach or Gangoose). He moved to the US with his family in 2014. Aside from his musical work, Miyavi is also known for being a Goodwill ambassador with the United Nations, working against the Refugee Crisis. He regularly participates in events and visits refugee camps to try and help in whatever way he can – usually with his guitar and some footballs.

After three collaboration albums, Miyavi switched from his own company to a larger distributor and announced the release of No Sleep Till Tokyo in July 2019. Soon after, dates were set for a Japan Tour, North-American Tour, Eastern Europe Tour and Europe Tour..

Tickets went on sale on the 28th of June through the venue’s website. There were two types – General admission and VIP, which included early entry, laminated lanyard, Meet & Greet and picture with Miyavi, using your own phone. Though C***** and I were considering either Barcelona or London, we ended up with VIP tickets for Barcelona.

The week before the concert, the Spanish promoter announced a change of schedule and a Spanish support band. In the days leading to the concert, the Meet & Greet also changed times, along with entry and concert start. VIP ticket holders were worried that GA would come in before the pictures were done and they would lose part of the advantage they had paid for, and thus the Meet & Greet was set to after the concert, only to be rescheduled to before the concert again barely 24 hours before.

The day of the concert, the black tour bus arrived around 12:30, and Miyavi came out a little over an hour later. He was nice enough to come greet the fans who were waiting, and asked how to say “hello” in Spanish. He talked to some people for a little longer and shook hands with everyone waiting before walking into the venue.

Doors opened at 18:40. The Meet & Greet consisted on basically that, you could exchange a few words with him and the manager would take the pictures. Afterwards, we got positioned at the barrier for the concert. The support act Suzy & Los Quattro did not fit much into the mood. The lead singer was all right but she screamed too much for my taste. I am sure that she has her audience, especially considering how much underwear she showed. Finally the main event started – Miyavi brought a DJ and a drummer along, but he took all the weight of the music himself. Clad in a two-piece white suit, flashing his tattoos and sweating like there was no tomorrow, he did not stop for a second – good thing he had plenty of ice water to cool down.

As much as his guitar-playing style, Miyavi has a very powerful stage presence, based on being everywhere at the same time – he jumps and stands and stares and plays the guitar, without a stop, without a breather except for his ice-water.

Throughout the concert, he showed off some Spanish – very well practised, to be honest, but mostly spoke English. Through different emcees he talked about coming back to Spain after eight years, and how he knew the word “eight” is “ococho” because it’s his favourite tequila. He mentioned Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, and brought up that he has been shooting films, and how he finally got to play a non villain character – although killing people in films is so much fun. He also talked about his work at the United Nations, and that there were UN representatives and refugees in the venue.

Setlist:

1. Stars
2. Flashback
3. In Crowd
4. Rain Dance
5. No Sleep Till Tokyo
6. Tears on Fire
7. Other side
8. Secrets
9. Guard you
10. Wonderful World
11. Under the same sky
12. Ha!
13. Fire Bird
14. Day 1
Encore:
15. Fragile
16. Señor, Señora, Señorita
17. Long Nights
18. The others
19. What’s my name?

The concert lasted about two hours, in one long act and a short encore. The setlist was a combination of songs from the new album No Sleep Till Tokyo and older albums and singles, . There were very high-energy moments and some heart-wrenching ones. Tears on Fire and Long Nights are excellent pieces of music, but they have a poignant underscore.

Some of the highlights of the night included the rendition of No Sleep Till Tokyo or Under the Same Sky. There was a hilarious moment when some of the crowd asked for Señor, Señora, Señorita and he claimed to have forgotten – then proceeded to google it in order to “sing it if we helped”. Furthermore, The Others was fantastic – but that is one of my favourite songs of his, so I don’t think I’m objective. The final What’s my name with the quip “me llamo Miyavi” in Spanish couldn’t have been more powerful.

After the concert was over, Miyavi came back to stage to high five fans to the very last minute before the venue emptied. Even after a couple of hours, he shook hands with every fan who was waiting on the way to the bus. We waved him goodbye and left, exhausted and happy. My general feeling after this event is that Miyavi is adorable (and huge, I had not realised how much when I saw him in London) and I would love a hug from him. The M&G was over super quickly but he had a smile for everyone and that’s a super nice detail.

We went back to the hotel to catch some sleep and the next morning we met our other friend E****, who had not attended the concert, for breakfast. I took the early afternoon train and I was home for the afternoon-evening shift, so it worked.

Cup of coffee with fern art.

17th August 2019: Oblivion Dust in Ebisu {Japan, summer 2019}

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I spent the day at Ebisu [恵比寿], where I got to say hi and meet a lot of known and new people . First, I had arranged a late lunch with my friend with E**chan. Unfortunately, her trains had problems and she was forced to drive to another line station to get from her village outside Tokyo to Ebisu – so in the end it was a very late lunch we had. I spent the time wandering the malls and the Ebisu Skywalk [恵比寿スカイウォーク], which is basically a long corridor without anything to see – the train service was disrupted and we did not know when she would arrive, I did not want to leave the area. She finally made it, and we managed to find some super-nice place in the Ebisu Atre building. By that time, we were starving, and when we caught sight of a traditional restaurant, we went for it. We ordered a katsudon [カツ丼] each, because it looked fantastic – and it was delicious..

Katsudon lunch set: miso soup, a bowl of rice with meat and egg on top, a cup of tea and grated cabbage to share between two people

A scoop of vanilla ice cream and a cup of green tea

Afterwards, we went to the Oblivion Dust’s Gods Of the Wasteland Tour 2019 Gods Of Reborn concert at Ebisu Liquidroom. Oblivion Dust, shortened as “Oburi”, is a three-man Japanese rock band. The current members (none of whom are founding members) are Kentaro “Ken” Lloyd (vocals), Iwaike Kazuhito “K.A.Z” (guitar) and Rikiji Masuda (bass). They usually work with two supporting musicians:Yuji (guitar) andArimatsu / Arly (drums). I’ve often seen both K.A.Z. and with VAMPS.At present, they are touring with guitarist Ryo, as K.A.Z. has broken his hand. Reportedly, he “remains behind the scenes, doing synthesiser work”.

Despite K.A.Z’s broken hand, Oblivion Dust has carried out a sixteen-concert tour during summer, Gods of the Wasteland. There are four different setlists, each played four times:Gods Of Elvis, Gods Of Misery, Gods Of Reborn and Gods Of Butterfly.

Gods of Reborn setlist:

    1. Goodbye
    2. Girlie Boy Imitation #6
    3. Ghost That Bleeds
    4. Sugar Free
    5. Under My Skin
    6. Death Surf
    7. Come Alive
    8. Plastic Wings
    9. Alien
    10. No Medication
    11. Nightcrawler
    12. Crazy
    13. In Motion
    14. Haze
    15. Lolita
    16. Sail Away
    17. Evidence
    18. You

After checking out the merchandise boot, E**chan and I had our numbers called and we went into the floor. We found good spot on the left,, just on the edge of the “mosh pit”, the central area where people jump and dance, and elbow you if you are not careful.

The concert lasted for about two hours, and it was full of energy. Vocalist Ken always amazes me because he does not drink anything, he just grabs bottles of water, dumps the liquid on his head, and then throws them at the crowd.Bassist Rikiji is probably a relative of the Duracell Bunny, and he does not stay still whatsoever. He mimics shooting at people with the neck of his bass, or is busy jumping around. Ryo was all right, but he was… not K.A.Z, which also showed as Ken and Rikiji did have their fun and trolling moments – Ken stole Rikij’s “bass microphone” and and Rikiji just offered him the bass to go with it. Ken also went to “visit” Arimatsu, who was having too much fun to be bothered, and just made some more noise. I mean, Ken seemed to be everywhere at once.

After the concert, everybody was happy-exhausted.I for sure was absolutely drained. E**chan invited me to tag along her and some of her friends for dinner, and we went to a typical izakaya. The food was great, but a bit (all right, a lot) on the expensive side.

The logo of Liquid Room, styled to look like an organic chemistry molecule, with hexagons for Q and Os

Walked distance: No idea, I forgot the watch. But most of what I walked was on the Ebisu Skywalkas I was bored waiting for E**chan since I was early but her train was super-delayed due to the accident (≧▽≦).

16th August 2019: SAITAMA Summer Rock Festival 2019 {Japan, summer 2019}

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After developing an unhealthy obsession for discovering fesFE[M] when they opened for JUPITER in Madrid in May 2019 I was very happy to be able to catch their act again in Saitama [さいたま市]. I also learnt a lot about the v-kei scene and how it works.

The event was the first day of SAITAMA Summer Rock Festival 2019 ~Shikokku no Symphony~ pump up!! [SAITAMA Summer Rock Festival 2019 ～漆黒のシンフォニー～ pump up!!] and it was held at Saitama Hall [埼玉会館ホール].

Schedule of the Event, in intervals of 25 - 35 minutes

Although fesFE[M] act was not scheduled until 19:15, I headed off to Saitama early because I needed a same-day ticket, so I was there around 12:15. I did not have any issues getting in, as it was a weekday in the morning. I had originally thought that I would just get the ticket and then snoop around Saitama city, but the event was held far away from most interesting stuff, so I decided to stay and see it all. It was, as I mentioned, an interesting experience.

Stuff I learnt:

  • I should have taken earplugs as seven hours in a small hall echoes hard
  • First rows are exchangeable according to which your favourite band is. Nobody bats an eye and people will make room for each other
  • The bands will sell their own merch to make new fans and even chat to you. They will be very surprised if they get two foreigners in their queue and they don’t know each other
  • Some of the bands are really good, some of them are really bad

After each show, the “leader” of the band would come out for a small interview. Some of them had to do stuff like playing with beach balls and stuff, but mostly it was promotion for upcoming band activities and stuff.

Ticket. It reads the names of the bands and the number F001

Here’s a curated version of notes I took after each act for the ones I attended:

{mid:night}: They are not bad but the vocalist (although tall) needs more stage presence.

ロクダマカルタ: Was not convinced, but the guitar is dressed as a schoolgirl and the furutsuke is fun.

[Ad]: Female vocalist. She’s good, but there’s something that does not completely click. They stayed the longest for selling their stuff and promoting.

マゼラン: They are really, really good, both music- and stage-presence- wise. I’m so glad I had not realised at this point that they would be outside selling stuff because I might’ve bought all the things.

機械人形歌劇団カラクリ: Didn’t like them

エンヴィル: They are the Kanjani 8 of v-kei. They troll each other really hard and they are fun, with passable music. They wear yukata and each has a different footwear. They also watched like half of the other bands from the back row and cheered like standard fangirls.

DARRELL: Not bad, but too yelly for my tastes

GLARD: They were fun. I got to talk to the vocalist and buy one of their CDs. As I was talking to him, another foreigner decided to talk through me, and translate the price for me? No idea, I think she was just trying to get his attention. The poor guy was very surprised when we did not know each other.

ºCellsius: I like them too, they are really fun (and they are wearing… tartans?).

Avilis: They are cute and bouncy

グレン: They look like a band put together for an anime that would later sing the OP

ROMIO: The male vocalist is very pretty, but I managed not to fall into the trap of his prettiness.

Finally it was fesFE[M]’s turn at 19:15. I moved to the second row (not the first because no idea what the furutsuke are) and I enjoyed the show. It was almost the same they did in Spain when supporting for JUPITER, including Doll in Blueberry Jam. I really loved the vocalist Lion (again) how the keyboardist Jun plays the dollmaster cutting all the ropes and bringing the dolls back together. Also, wow Rensa (drummer) for being able to twirl the baton in his hand for three minutes straight without moving any other muscle.

After the show, Lion came out for his interview and he explained that he would be there on Saturday with his “other” band. I felt tempted to come back, but I had plans for that day already.

Then I went outside to buy some merch, including some polaroids, but unfortunately the band did not come out (ó_ò). I would have loved to see them, but at least I got to tweet at them and some saw the tweet ヽ(^◇^*)/. I talked to some other fans who looked at trading the polaroids, but I did not have any Tohru (bass, aka “the blonde”) and he’s popular. I missed the last band while I was waiting, but it was all right. I decided to head back because I still had about an hour’s worth of train ride.

Walked distance (which no. This is 80% furutsuke): 15324 steps / 10.9 km

3rd August 2019: Higashiyama Sky Tower and ELL {Japan, summer 2019}

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In the morning I headed out of the Nagoya centre and to Higashiyama Sky Tower [東山スカイタワー]. This was a bit far out and I had slept in – did I mention tiredness catching up? I also considered the zoo/aquarium but in the end I decided against it.

A collage of the Higashiyama Sky tower, a rectangular building with a cylindrical core, mostly built in glass and metal. The smaller pictures show the view of the park, and the earthquake damper

I had an amazing lunch set in the shopping mall underneath / connected to Nagoya Station on my way back.

Lunch set: cold soba, white rice, breaded prawns, pickles, and green tea

Then I headed out for Electric Lady Land. To increase my chances of actually seeing KAMIJO this summer, I balloted for two concerts of the 2019 Japan Tour Persona Grata through the fanclub Rose-Croix international. I was lucky enough to hit for both. When I arrived at the venue, I queued to buy goods – I only wanted the collectible badge, but ended up getting way too many. I waited around, and this time, the Japanese members of the fanclub were let in before the international ones. We did not get a physical ticket, either, just the passport and the reference ticket were enough.

Notice reading ell. Fits all. Japan Tour 19 Persona Grata. Kamijo. Open 18:30, Start 19:00

ELL is a small venue and we were not many people there for the concert – it was strange that there were so much people in Tokyo to fill up the Blitz, but not enough in Nagoya to fill ELL. It was a more humble concert, with a smaller screen for the projections, but it was fun none the less. I was able to stand close to the stage, but I chose the wrong side – I stood left while KAMIJO donned right. I shall learn from that. The set list was the same as the opening concert, which gave me the chance to appreciate the new songs even better. Even if the hall was smaller (tiny, actually) and thus held fewer people, it felt more energetic as attendees were jumping and yelling further – it seemed like the Blitz opening had felt more formal. Glad I got to attend both concerts, never mind how different and similar at the same time they were.

Kamijo Persona Grata poster

Walked distance: 16231 steps / 11.6 km. We don’t trust this measure either as it counts the furutsuke as walking (≧▽≦).

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

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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}

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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}

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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.

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}

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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.

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

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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

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

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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.

16th February 2019: A day at Japan Weekend (Madrid, Spain)

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Having nothing better to do, my sibling and I headed over to IFEMA to spend a few hours in the Japan Weekend convention of “Japanese culture and other stuff”. It took place in Madrid over the weekend, and I had read that there were a couple of Japanese musical numbers that looked interesting.

Aside from the two mini-concerts, there was nothing fixed on our schedule. I saw the stand of a teashop called Punto de Té (Tea Point). It looked like a really nice place – judging by the prices. They offered small Japanese matcha “workshops”, and I signed us up for one of them. Matcha [抹茶] is my favourite type of tea, after all – especially freshly made. It comes from the plant Camellia sinensis, which is kept in the shade for the last four ways before harvest so it produces extra theanine and caffeine. The leaves are trimmed, dried and finely ground into a powder.

The workshop was not really a tea ceremony, more like a mock-up, but we were able to whisk our bowl (chawan [茶碗]) of matcha using a real chasen [茶筅], a sort of bamboo brush that is used to dissolve the tea powder in the boiling water until it makes foam – the best part. I am not an expert, but the tea was really good, and my sibling enjoyed the experience. We decided that we would come back to buy some stuff when we were about to leave as we did not want to be carrying around stuff all day. Fortunately for the shop, when we came back the had sold almost everything!

Collage showing how matcha dissolves into water, from powder to whisked to foamy green liquid.

Afterwards, we watched a kendo exhibit for a while. It was not a competition or anything, but those people were living the fights. That was cool. I don’t know one thing about kendo, but they did look like they were having fun, while at the same time taking everything very seriously.

A group of kendo practitioners, showing two of them engaged in a fight.

One of the mini-concerts I wanted to watch was that of Kuni-Ken. Older brother Kuniaki and younger brother Kenji play “shamisen rock”, mixing classical sounds with modern tunes. Their instrument of choice is the shamisen [三味線], a three-string guitar or lute played with a pick. It is not the first time I’ve seen shamisen applied to rock or other modern rhythms – Kennichi Yoshida does something similar.

The concert started a bit late and to our astonishment, people wanted to watch sitting down! My sibling and I were on the first row, and we got yelled and poked at until we crouched down. I am getting too old for these events, really. Kuni-Ken came on stage with masks from their Zero to One promotional video. They played a few cover songs, and some original ones. The last song was a cover of City Hunter’s theme Get Wild.

The concert lasted around 30 minutes, and afterwards we headed off to the meet and greet area. Kuni-Ken had a problem as they could not open the suitcase they had brought their merchandise in, and in the end they had to rip it open. We bought some CDs and they were kind enough to sign them – even doodle. They also gave us a sticker and took a photograph with us.

Kuni-Ken waving from stage

Kuni-Ken signed CD

Later, we stopped at Japanese drummer-turned-rapper AKKOGORILLA’s concert, a young woman who tries to defy a stereotypes of how “good girls” – and especially Japanese girls – are supposed to behave. She chose her name during her drumming times because she learnt that gorillas communicate using rhythm. Her songs invoke themes of feminism, LGBT+ and gender ideas.

She has a very particular style and moves as if she had batteries or something. She bounced and jumped on and off stage and never seemed to catch a break. She totally blind-sided the organisation by going into the crowd and pulling people up to dance with her. She was not close to us, but I got some cool pictures.

AKKOGORILLA calls her own style #GRRRLISM. She’s bouncy and vibrant on stage and she invites the listener to bounce along her catchy tunes. She sings a lot in English. The concert was again only 30 minutes though. Her songs included Yoyu and GRRRLISM, in which she clearly expresses “my body, my choice” – because she apparently commits the deadly sin of not shaving, and people seem to have opinions about that.

After the concert, I hoped to get a signed CD – I liked her more than I thought. Unfortunately, she had not brought any music, so we got her Zine signed instead. I also got a photograph.

Akkogorilla singing on stage

Akkogorilla autograph

Before leaving, we went to check the tea shop, but they had sold out everything we wanted. They offered to restock for the next day, but I was coming down with a migraine – the yellow lights at IFEMA are horrible. I also think I’m getting too old and cranky to hang out with the younger crowd though. In the end, I don’t care much about the shops – having credit cards, I don’t need a physical stand at a convention to buy stuff, and I avoid bootleg merchandise… Going to this kind of places for short live music displays… is starting not to cut it.

3rd November 2018: Samurai Spirit in Madrid (Spain)

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I booked tickets to see the show Kamui x Mika Kobayashi: Utakatana Sekai – Samurai Spirit in Madrid. In a last-minute change, my parents decided to tag along, so we just drove there in time for the show. It took place in the theatre Teatro Fernando de Rojas, one of the halls in the Círculo de Bellas Artes building.

Publicity poster with the show's date

Samurai Artist Kamui [剱伎衆かむゐ, Kengishuu Kamui] is a “samurai sword artist troupe” . They perform stories through “samurai communication” using music, sound and light to work on the atmosphere, along with of course, Japanese sword – katana – performances. The founder and leader of the troupe is Tetsuro Shimaguchi [島口哲朗], who played a part in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill vol.1, a film for which he also served as choreographer for the swordfighting.

Mika Kobayashi [小林未郁] is a singer, pianist, and songwriter from Hiroshima. She is known for her vocals on anime, such as Attack on Titan or Gundam UC, and video games like Final Fantasy XI. She established her own style and record label in 2016 and has been doing her own thing since then.

The collaboration Kamui x Mika Kobayashi: Utakatana Sekai – Samurai Spirit seems to be designed for touring overseas as there is no trace of that name in Japanese. Utakatana Sekai would roughly translate as “the world of singing swords”. It features Kobayashi as singer and pianist providing the background voice for the show.

Through artistic sword-fighting and music, the performance conveys a story about the old samurai ways giving way to a new world. Short self-contained scenes tell the story of a samurai warrior who gives way to the new generation – played by a lady. A bit subversive from the Japanese traditional way, I guess.

The show has three parts. The first act comprises fights and individual actors showing off their individual skills. Younger or less experienced fighters, who get “swordsman #4” roles end up being killed two or three times. I liked a short story about a blind samurai better than the romantic ones. Unfortunately, I was a bit to the side – I only bought the tickets with a week or so when I found out – and my angle was awkward at times. I could see the gaps between the swords when they did not clash for real.

During the interlude / break, they brought two volunteers from the public to learn some moves and get the mood lightened up. This showed off Shimaguchi’s language and teaching skills, along with a flair for the dramatic, and it was really funny.

Different scenes from the show

The last part was more spectacular, full of stunts and coordinated exhibition acts. That was the part I enjoyed the most. All in all, the whole ninety-minute show was very fun. Mika Kobayashi’s melodic voice and piano tunes fit really well with the whole theme, and everybody seemed to have fun, and at the same time take their jobs very seriously. However, I’d need a better seat next time, in order to keep the suspension of disbelief and not see all the stunts as… stunts.

Artists’ publicity banner

Afterwards, many artists came out to take pictures with the audience. We got to take pictures with Mika Kobayashi too, and I bought a signed CD of hers.

Mika Kobayashi's signed CD

29th & 30th September 2018: The Pikotaro Affair at Japan Weekend Madrid (Spain)

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The “Japanese culture convention” Japan Weekend was held in IFEMA, Madrid, over the weekend. The big problem with conventions tend to be the organisers. At some point they bestow upon themselves an importance they lack, and decide to either micromanage everything, or act as if they were the reason why people visit. It’s amusing looking back, but annoying when you have to deal with them –such as the mini riff-raff at the Salón del Manga de Alicante and INORAN’s autograph. Japan Weekend in Madrid is not an exception to this trend. The event spanned over the whole weekend. I attended both days, and on Saturday I brought my sibling over. The acts and activities we attended were:

Mitsuru Nagata’s sumi-e show

Mitsuru Nagata is a Japanese-born, Barcelona-living artist who creates pieces of art and calligraphy using traditional Japanese ink techniques of sumi-e [水墨画], “Ink wash painting”. He did a performance and demonstration on both Saturday and Sunday at 11:00. I really like his style, and own a couple of his works..

Ink wash painting of a samurai in attacking pose

Wa–suta: The World Standard Concerts

Wa–suta: The World Standard [わーすた: The World Standard] is girl band formed by five cute bouncy girls who aim to “spread kawaii culture around the world”. Kawaii [可愛い] stands for “cute” or “adorable” in Japanese, but aside from the adjective, the word is also used to define the Japanese “cuteness culture”, very prominent in certain circles – think Hello Kitty or basically anything else Sanryo puts out.

I am not sure that is the aim, but unfortunately kawaii acts tend to attract a not-so-kawaii spectators. Artists are supposed to carter to their fantasies, and be always perfect in appearance and behaviour – singing well is secondary. At the concert, Wa–suta put up a very good effort on being approachable and trying Spanish. They were also very cute, full of energy, and even in synch when they moved – which not all bands can do nor even bother to try. They did a cover of Evangelion’s song Zankoku na Tenshi no Tēze, which I would have preferred that they skipped, but in general they were all right – if girl bands are your thing.

Five girls in short white dresses and cat ears on stage

ITSUKA (Charisma.com) Concerts

ITSUKA (Charisma.com) is a lady-rapper and techno artist with a really powerful presence whom I really liked. Charisma.com was a two-woman “electro-rap” / hip-hop band which went into hiatus early in 2018. ITSUKA continued her career solo, and was invited to the Japan Weekend. She used a computer, a mixing table and her own voice to deliver two very impressive performances. She can rap crazy fast, too, and she has a very strong attitude.

Woman rapping behind a mixing table

Pikotaro Concerts and Meet & Greets

The reason why I wanted to attend this event was the presence of a Japanese comedian Kazuhito Kosaka characterised as his persona Pikotaro [ピコ太郎], a “singer” known for his histrionic personality and a flashy leopard-print clothing. He became famous around the world with Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen (PPAP), a silly song which parodies English teaching in Japan. I have heard so much about bad English teaching in the country from my friend B**** that I am actually… not so sure about how much parody and how much “fiction imitating reality” there is.

When I met with my friends E**** and K***** in Barcelona after the Kamijo concert at the beginning of the month, we talked about events and such. They basically dared me to “go to Japan Weekend and troll Pikotaro”. I already had tickets for Saturday, but after that, I decided to actually get myself the Meet & Greet “extra” – for both days.

The concerts were amusing to say the least, and not precisely due to the musical quality. The whole act was hilarious, done with the YouTube videos projected on the screen and the guy jumping and bouncing up and down the stage. At some point there was a blackout, so he started again, taking everything in stride.

There were paper masks handed out, that could (should? must?) be used during the M&G for autographs. There were four or five songs – among them Neo Sunglasses (which I personally found hysterical, as he sings “dark, dark, dark”, all the time until he takes off the sunglasses and grins “bright!”), and Can you see? I’m sushi. He of course sang Pen-pineapple-apple-pen to open and close the act. For the closing song he had prepared a line in Spanish and a “Japan Weekend” version that had people screaming.

There was a Q&A after the Saturday concert. They prepared a table and for him, all star-like, and in the end he just grabbed the chair to sit in front of the table, completely throwing the organisers off. He gave hugs and signed stuff, and he did really look like he was having a lot of fun.

The M&G tickets were 5 € each and I bought them for both days – they included a handshake, an autograph and a picture. Again, it was very fun. On Saturday, I put some sushi badges and pins on my neck scarf so I could quote “can you see? I’m sushi!” at him. He found it hysterical, and signed the cardboard mask for me before we took a photograph.

When I arrived home, I printed that so I could take it on Sunday. I signed one copy for him, and at the M&G, I asked him to dedicate the other one to me. Even if the Japan Weekend staff kept barking around the chaos they had turned the queue into that he would only sign the provided material, he signed whatever you asked of him, with the interpreter’s blessings (who by the way remembers me from other endeavours, so she basically left me to my own devices). Convention staff micromanaging everything again…

Japanese man in a Leopard print suit singing

Pikotaro autograph

Going to the Pikotaro M&Gs meant I missed Wa-suta and ITSUKA’s signatures, but oh, boy, was it worth it for the laughter.

21st & 22nd September 2018: The Vampire Rockstar in Barcelona (Spain)

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I first heard about KAMIJO when someone handed me a flyer for his Paris concert when I was there to see Yoshiki Classical, back in 2014. I did not give that much more thought as I obviously don’t live in Paris. However, tickets for KAMIJO’s Sang Project Act III Europe Tour came out around my birthday this year, and I decided to get them as a present for myself – there was a concert in Barcelona, on a Friday. I had a good connection there, it was the weekend, and the tickets were not expensive. Thus, I bought the ticket, the VIP upgrade (early entrance and Meet and Greet) and the memorial photo ticket (individual Polaroid with him), a grand total of 68 €.

KAMIJO is a Japanese “visual kei” singer, both solo and with the band Versailles. Visual kei (V-kei) is musically similar to rock, though sometimes it leans closer to heavy metal. Singers and bands often don a particular style, the “visuals”, usually associated with some kind of fictional backstory (however, most of them tone “the look” down as they become older). KAMIJO has adopted the persona of an 18th-century French vampire which fits both his solo activities and the ones with Versailles. However, the illusion shatters as his French is worse than his English, despite how hard he tries.

Kamijo Sang Europe tour dates and venues

Between getting the tickets in May and the concert in September, I ordered and listened to the album KAMIJO was promoting, Sang. I recognised influences from older V-kei  bands Malice Mizer and Moi dix Moix – both of which have the same vocalist, singer MANA. However, there was something more up-beaty to it that took a couple of listening sessions to fully embrace. In the end, I decided that I liked it pretty well.

Although the original reason why I decided to go to the concert was convenience, the whole thing was a pleasant surprise. I also took the chance to meet with my friends E**** and K*****, who live there. Thus, on the 21st, I took the first train to Barcelona, and I arrived a bit before 10:00. I went over to the queue at Sala Apolo, a venue in the centre of town and I was the sixth person there. I made some nice acquaintances at the queue who held my spot when I ran to the hotel to check in, around 15:00 (with 15 – 20 people at the queue).

Apolo venue façade

As I arrived at the hotel, a man walked in behind me. I did my check-in and the person behind the desk asked me for “the gentleman’s ID too”. I blinked – I had a single room, a reservation for one and he thought we were together? Weird. The guy was actually looking for a hotel for the night without a reservation, and I sure as hell was not going to share my nice, soft bed.

I went back to the queue to wait the evening away. We did not see the tour truck nor the band come in – nor out afterwards – but the venue has an underground car park, so they probably just drove in there VIP doors were scheduled for 18:00, but did not open until around half-past. I think this was one of the nicest queues I’ve ever been in. By the time the venue opened, we had already sorted ourselves into a VIP and a GA line, everything ran very smoothly. However, we were very few – probably not even 300, and most of the tickets had VIP upgrades.

After doors opened, we were shown into the actual hall, the smallest of the three the Apolo has. There was no separation between the actual floor and the low stage – there was no barrier, and we were going to be close. We had to wait in the queue for the Meet & Greet, and after we were done, we would be able to either go to the goods or take our places at the stage.

Once all the VIP ticket holders were inside the hall, KAMIJO appeared to say hi. One by one, we went to him, shook his hand and talked to him for a few seconds. He was very kind and smiled a lot, and he mostly answered “yes” to whatever he was told in any language.

I took on first row, a bit to the left. My spot was kept when I went to buy some merchandise, and we were so few that even when the concert started there was no push (unfortunately, that might mean he will not come back…). The stage was all set, including a perfect glass of water, formal tableware style, he’s above utilitarian water bottles, apparently.

Kamijo Barcelona stage

The fun part was that I was close enough that I had to be careful not to actually hit KAMIJO when he wanted us to reach out to him. The tour story revolves about the Émigré, an innovative energy system that transforms human blood into energy. This system was created by “Louis”, who is over 200 years old, and is exploited by the Count of Saint-Germain during the French Revolution. I am not completely sure how this makes sense, but I’m sure it does for people who have been following him for longer.

The live interweaves narration with recorded and actual songs, building on that outline. At times the instruments and reverberations were a bit too loud. However, most of the concert was okay. After all, this is KAMIJO’s solo project, designed so his voice is the most important thing. There were four of us in the middle of first row who had to wave and cheer with caution or we would literally smack the artist. When he twirled and turned, his velvet coat flew around and we had to be careful he did not hit us on the face with it. I had never been so near a performing artist in my whole life – I could also take a photograph of the setlist.

Setlist:
[Recording] SE あらすじ Scenario narration
  1. Theme of Sang
  2. Nosferatu
  3. Émigré
  [Recording] SE Blood Cast セリフshort narration
  4. Vampire Rock Star
  5. Bastille
  6. Symphony of The Vampire 第五楽章「Sonata」
  7. 闇夜のライオン instrumental
  [Recording] SE Delta with narration
  8. Castrato
  [Recording] SE Ambition
  9 Sang I
  10. Sang II
  [Recording] Intro as narration
  11. Sang III
  [Recording] SE mademoiselle
Encore 1
  12. 私たちは戦う、昨日までの自分と
  MC
  13. Mademoiselle
Encore 2
  [Recording] Emblem narration (guillotine)
  14. Moulin Rouge
  15. 第四楽章「Dying-Table」
  16. Vampire Rock Star

Kamijo Barcelona 2018 setlist

For the first, and I don’t think this will ever repeat, so quite probably the only time in my life, I got to experience a singer singing to me. He reached out during Mademoiselle. And next thing I know, he’s cupping my face, pulling my chin up and looking into my eyes to the verse do you want to be a princess reaching out to me into les affairs d’amour?. I also got a high-five later, and he was gentle when he noticed my wrist brace, while other people told me he was high-fiving hard at that point – or maybe he just brushed me because he miscalculated.

One of the funniest moments of the concert was the MC. Apparently, last time he was in Europe with Versailles, KAMIJO fell and twisted his ankle in the concert before Barcelona. Instead of cancelling, he continued the tour, and sang in Barcelona with crutches spray-painted in gold, or sitting down. This time he was very adamant to tell us “I can sing on my feet! No need for…” and he forgot the word “crutches” and proceeded to mimic those. Then, he hopped all around the stage like a very fabulous kangaroo.

After the show, we had some time at the hall, without being herded or anything, before we lined up for the photograph with the artist. As you reached the head of the queue, they checked your tickets – and kept them – and took your personal stuff. We could shake his hand again and get the Polaroid taken. I reached out for the handshake saying thank you, and he pulled on me so he could wrap his other arm around my waist for the picture. I think because I was just the right size for this, compared to him and his platforms.

A few of us stayed behind for a while after the pictures were done, but we did not see anyone leave. I walked back to the hotel before it got too late, and headed straight for the shower, then the bed. All in all, the concert was extremely – and unexpectedly – fun, even if (or because?) we were few. I really expected him to be much more stuck-up due to the “vampire persona” act. People at the queue were very nice, too.

The following morning, I went out to meet my friends E**** and K*****. We went to an Asian restaurant and ate some really great food, with very good conversation until I had to go back to the station to take a train home.

4th September 2018: また今度 with a red rose petal (HYDE LIVE 2018, Strike 3) {Japan, summer 2018}

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First thing in the morning, after D****e left for work, I got packed (hoping that my suitcase did not get lost again). Later, I went to Odaiba [お台場] on my own as she was working. It was my last HYDE live for the season, and my last day in Japan, too. It was windy and it rained on and off, but it was not bad especially considering that there was a super typhoon in Osaka that had slammed a ship against a bridge and cut down communications to the airport… I mean, compared to that I won’t even complain that my hairdo went to hell because woah there. I just had to not worry about my own flight a few hours later.

I checked out the Venus Fort to check if there were any new goods, but as there were not, I moved on. There are two exhibit rooms about cars in the area. One deals with newer and racing cars – MegaWeb Toyota City Showcase [メガウェブ トヨタ シティ ショウケース].

A collage with some cool and futuristic-looking car. The logo reads MegaWeb Toyota City Showcase

The other one is quite the opposite, and focuses on classic and historical cars – History Garage [ヒストリーガレージ].

History Garage classic cars.

It was at this time 12:55, so I hurried to the giant Gundam that stands in front of the Diver City. I wanted to check whether it moved at 13:00 and I was lucky. It changed its helmet and all (≧∇≦).

Gundam robot looking up to the sky. it is white and taller than the two-story shopping centre behind it.

After that, I went to eat get some food. The food court in the shopping centre was not too busy as it was a weekday, so I decided to sit down and have some ramen. I really love the way they prepare eggs for ramen, so I wanted ramen with egg. Unfortunately, could not read the super long name of the ramen to save my life, so I just asked for it using the number. The girl just turned to the kitchen and ordered ‘tamago’ (egg), which was pretty frustrating.

Ramen bowl with algae, chasuu (pork), spring onions and noodles

Once I had eaten, I went to see the waves, because even if the typhoon was making its effect known, and I am still fascinated by hot storms. Odaiba is, in the end, an artificial island in the middle of the bay, so it makes strange patterns sometimes.

A cargo harbour with unsettled sea

And I got a drink at Starbucks.

Starbucks plastic cup. It says thank you and it has a smiley face and a heart

I joined the people wait for HYDE to come in, waved hi at him, and thought that he did not look too awake. Afterwards, I decided that I had not spent enough in this trip (sarcasm). Thus, I went to buy something else: since I liked HYDE’s opening act STARSET, I wanted to get their CD and M&G experience, which included a handshake and an autograph. I felt that they had done an awesome job and deserved the credit and the cheering.

Once D****e made it, we went inside. By now, I had figured out what I had found amiss on Saturday and Sunday regarding HYDE’s live 2018 and made peace with it. Or maybe it was just my last day, and I really wanted to enjoy myself. I found a good spot in Zepp Tokyo – one thing I really like about going to converts there is that they keep the barriers up to separate the areas of the floor. That allows me to lean onto something and I don’t need to stay back to have something to hold on to, so I can get rather close even when I’m tired or sore. This time it was even better – since I was closer than usually, I managed to find a petal from one of the roses HYDE threw as goodbye at the end.

STARSET’s setlist:
1. Frequency
2. Carnivore
3. Gravity Of You
4. Telescope
5. Monster feat. HYDE
6. Ricochet
7. Bringing It Down
8. My Demons

HYDE’s setlist:
1. Fake Divine
2. After light
4. Out
5. Set in Stone
6. Don’t hold back
7. Zipang
8. Who’s gonna save us
9. 監獄ロック [Kangoku Rock]
10. Rise or Die
11. Lion
12. Two Face
13. Devil’s side
14. Midnight Celebration II
(pause)
15. Kiss of Death
16. Ahead
17. Rise up
18. Ordinary World (Duran Duran cover)

After HYDE’s concert was over, I put my rose petal away, and I found my way towards the STARSET M&G. They were were extremely nice. We were around ten people, and they paid attention to each of us and they shook our hands (whoops, I forgot to take my wristband off). They were pretty patient and nice to everybody. Even after they left the venue, they were willing to sign items for people who had not purchased their merchandise (even though 3,500 ¥ for CD and signature is almost a gift).

Zepp Tokyo Venue from above

Starset CD with the band's autographs

A red rose petal

Finally we got home and D****e helped me so I got my trains sorted out to go to the airport the following day.

Night view of Tokyo, with Tokyo Tower lit up

2nd September 2018: HYDE LIVE 2018 @ Odaiba, Strike 2, and Pretty Lights, Strike 3 {Japan, summer 2018}

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It was raining that morning when D****e and I walked out and headed towards Shin-Okubo [新大久]. The weather actually turned so bad for a while that around halfway, we just walked under a bridge to wait the worst of the downpour out. By the time we arrived at our destination, though, it had cleared out. We were walking to Kaichū Inari Jinja [皆中稲荷神社], also called Minna Ataru no Inari.

Entrance to a Shinto sanctuary through a back alley, and main altar

The shrine is dedicated to the kami [神] Inari [大稲荷], one of the most important deities of the Shinto mythology, the kami of fertility, rice, tea, sake, agriculture, and worldly success. Inari is said to use foxes as messengers. Shrines dedicated to Inari often have a lot of torii gates, usually offered by business in search of that success, and stone fox guardians. The most famous Inari Shrine is Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto.

The legend surrounding Kaichū Inari Jinja tells that after the introduction of firearms in Japan during the Edo Period, a battalion was stationed near the shrine. The captain could not shoot well, no matter how much he trained. The deity Inari appeared to him in a dream, and after he went to the shrine to say thank you, he became a great shooter. Not only him, all of the battalion went to the shrine and they became good shooters. Both “Minna Ataru” and “Kaichū” translate as “hit all the targets” and at the same time “everybody hits”. Kaichū Inari Jinja became “the Inari shrine of everybody hits the target”, Minna Ataru no Inari Jinja. The news spread, and eventually people from the whole country started visiting so their wishes came true. The shrine’s relation with firearms was constant until it was burnt down in WWII.

Nowadays, Japan does not have firearms, but people still want to hit… for concerts! And thus Kaichū Inari has become the fan-shrine, where people go to pray to hit for lotteries for concerts and events!

I’m not even kidding. Kaichū Inari Jinja is also known as “the fan shrine”. In Japan, you do not queue for concerts. Instead, your ticket has a number printed on it, and you enter when it is called. However, there are different series of numbers. The best tickets are offered within the artists’ fanclubs, and if there are more requests than tickets, these are assigned lottery-style. Fanclubs also have lotteries for other privileges such as attending trips and exclusive events, VIP meet&greets or special merchandise – when I belonged to Gackt’s fanclub I hit for fanclub tickets for the Last Visual Live and his birthday dinner. People want to “hit” for these tickets, and somehow Minna Ataru no Inari became the shrine to go to pray for that. Fans go to the shrine to offer a prayer, then they write what they want in volition tablets called ema [絵馬], which are then hung in the shrine premises. Much nicer “hits” that the ones which kill people.

An offering wall with tons of votive wooden tablets

Close up of the votive offerings with names of bands on then

After visiting the shrine, we headed off to Odaiba [お台場] again, to meet with N***chan for lunch. We made a short visit to the Unicorn Gundam beforehand, but it was not moving.

Gundam robot statue. It is white and taller than the two-story shopping centre behind it. People can walk under its legs

Then we went to have lunch at an “Osaka delicatessen” restaurant at the Venus Fort. I ordered Takoyaki (buried in katsuomi (≧∇≦)) and kani koroke (octopus dumplings with bonito flakes, and crab dumplings). Yummy! Apparently other people’s orders were not as great though…

Dish of octopus dumplings that cannot be seen because there are a lot of bonito flakes on top

Afterwards, we headed to Zepp Tokyo for the second concert of HYDE’s Live 2018 concert, again with STARSET. Impressions were similar to the previous day. I really enjoyed STARSET, who played the same songs, and I again had mixed feelings about HYDE’s – not bad but… could have been better. I had not figured out my problem with the disconnected act yet.

Setlist:
1. Fake Divine
2. After light
4. Out
5. Set in Stone
6. Don’t hold back
7. Zipang
8. Who’s gonna save us
9. 監獄ロック [Kangoku Rock]
10. Rise or Die
11. Another Moment
12. Two Face
13. Devil’s side
14. Midnight Celebration II
(pause)
15. Kiss of Death
16. Ahead
17. Rise up
18. Ordinary World (Duran Duran cover)

Hyde's tour truck reading his name

After the concert we had tickets to visit the MORI Building DIGITAL ART MUSEUM EPSON teamLab ★ Borderless. This is a pretty much interactive museum that relies on technology and light to create art – or at least pretty things for you to play with. D****e, N***chan and I were very lucky that it was open late, so we could go after the concert. There were few people there and we could be silly around it. Part of the museum was closed because some TV station was there doing interviews though, and even then it was worth the visit.

Most of what you see in the Digital Art Museum are light projections. You’re encouraged to interact with them, even create some of them that they will project for you. We saw a butterfly and flower area, pink elephants, kangaroo, waves…

I enjoyed a couple of the exhibits particularly – one of them was a light water fall, in a room that had kanji shadows on the walls. If you touched them, they turned into what they represented. I also liked the whales made of light and how peacefully they moved and floated. There were some other interactive exhibits that were very fun, like the… egg-balloons thingies which you could prance through or make float.

Collage of Mori interactive and light art – a walking elephant made of projected lights, it's pink with white flowers. Many rays of white light coming from everywhere in the dark. Waves. Giant purple-pink balloons. Flowers projected on the walls – sunflowers, daisies in different colours

Dancing whale with flowers, projected with light

Afterwards we had some dinner and left for home.

1st September 2018: HYDE LIVE 2018 @ Odaiba, Strike 1 {Japan, summer 2018}

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In the evening, the first concert of the HYDE LIVE 2018 tour took place in Odaiba [お台場]. Luckily, I was going to be able to attend three shows in a row. Since it was a Saturday, we decided to make “a day” out of the concert and headed towards the area. There was an offer going on, so buying ten Yurikamome tickets would be cheaper than going to the three concerts using the usual underground system, so we decided on those.

The concert was in Zepp Tokyo, next to Venus Fort. And what do you do before a concert? Queue. In Europe it is so you get in first, in Japan, since tickets are numbered, you do not do so. You queue to buy goods, because they sometimes run out – at least that’s how people justify it. Unfortunately, not all the announced goods were on sale yet, which was disappointing. At least we did not get a sunburn while waiting, as we were prepared for rain and thus carried an umbrella-turned-parasol against the merciless sun.

After we had bought our goods, D****e and I went to have lunch at the Venus Fort. We surveyed the places and ended up in a yakiniku place which was almost empty, and still had a long line of people waiting to get in. Things I’ll never understand. Food was good, though.

Yakiniku lunch – a dish of uncooked meat, the grill to cook it, rice, broth, and pickled vegetables

The concert was HYDE’s new solo project. After VAMPS disbanded a few months back, this was my first concert watching him. It was a strange situation, because the feelings were very bittersweet. It seems that HYDE has been trying hard to do damage control on the band break-up and has put a couple of singles out this summer, along a bit of a haphazardly-organised tour. He could probably not afford a show-less summer.

This time there was an opening act, progressive-rock band STARSET, who have a very distinctive style that I liked pretty much. The band itself is composed by four men: Dustin Bates (lead vocalist), Ron DeChant (bass), Brock Richards (lead guitar) and Adam Gilbert (drums). They were touring with two back-up members: Mariko M (cello) and Siobhán Cronin (violin). DeChant, Richards and Gilbert played their whole set wearing full-astronaut suits, and I have no idea how they did not die of heatstroke.

STARSET’s opening act took around 45 minutes. They were opening for HYDE as part of their promo in Japan – they actually collaborated with him for a re-recording of one of the band’s hits, Monster. At first, the audience had no clue about when and what to chorus, but it caught up quite quickly. When lead singer Bates managed to get the interaction he wanted, he visibly brightened up, which was cute.

Setlist:
1. Frequency
2. Carnivore
3. Gravity Of You
4. Telescope
5. Monster feat. HYDE
6. Ricochet
7. Bringing It Down
8. My Demons

After the STARSET show, there was a short intermission, and then not a countdown to zero but a “countup” to 666, which may have lasted about five minutes. In total, maybe about 20 minutes.

Setlist:
1. Fake Divine
2. After light
4. Out
5. Set in Stone
6. Don’t hold back
7. Zipang
8. Who’s gonna save us
9. 監獄ロック [Kangoku Rock]
10. Rise or Die
11. Lion
12. Two Face
13. Devil’s side
14. Midnight Celebration II
(pause)
15. Kiss of Death
16. Ahead
17. Rise up
18. Ordinary World (Duran Duran cover)

There was something weird in the show, something amiss that I was not able to put my finger on until later. It felt… incomplete. Disconnected. Zipang was like a power-ballad lacking power, there was something strange about Devil’s side, HYDE’s guitar was the most powerful one in Ahead. It took a while to put my thoughts in order to understand. On the one hand, it felt that HYDE had half an album ready, and filled the rest of the concert up with other songs that he owned the rights to. On the other hand, it felt that what was played was either not completely arranged or not rehearsed enough. It was not that the musicians were bad, they just felt… out of synch. Like… there was “noise” where there should be music, and each of them was playing a different tempo.

In contrast to the music, someone had put a lot of thought on the visuals. The stage was decorated with a cyberpunk background, with a lot of neon and LED lights. HYDE was also going with a mask theme. He used one when he came out to echo STARSET’s Monster, and he kept the mask on for the fist couple of his own songs, and all his supporting musicians wear them too, they don’t take them away. He also brought in a retractile throne that went to the centre of the stage and back, so he could appear from behind it, or sing sitting (or flopped) down. This show is about HYDE and HYDE alone – he wants to feel like “the only one” and have exchangeable musicians, it feels.

Among the new songs, my favourite was Out – the lyrics read something akin to “I’m not afraid of standing out. A hundred devils messing with my head again. I won’t pretend, I won’t back down, I’m not afraid of standing out”, and they resonated in a way usually only Yoshiki’s songs vibrate with me. I think I could have done without the VAMPS songs though, but I guess that without a whole ready album, HYDE sang whatever he owned rights to.

Also, I think I bought too many goods: a python necklace, gummies and gaccha.

Hyde's tour truck

After the concert, we just went home to get some rest.

25th August 2018: Niigata + Otohige {Japan, summer 2018}

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D****e and I went to Niigata [新潟] to attend Otohige, a summer music festival.

I took in a few things:

  • Golden Bomber are fun (well, this I knew already). Sho got hit for real a couple of times
  • Wagakki Band are fun too. I have given them money
  • I can’t go to arena moshpit without anything to hold on. Too painful.
  • Being on third row for HYDE should be amazing but it sucks if you can’t see HYDE and all your body hurts due to pushing and shoving.
  • I shall avoid macro festivals that do not have seats. If there are seats and arena, I will stay at the seats
  • Japan summer rain when everything hurts is not nice.
  • Painkillers and yummy yakiniku can make things better. Eventually.

This was not such a great experience for me as going into the pit turned out to be a good decision, causing a flare. I’ve decided to avoid festivals from now on.

11th August 2018: The Luna Sea Connection {Japan, summer 2018}

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Luggage arrived around 9 am, and let me tell you I have never been this happy to see my own underwear. I put together all the presents I had brought for people (feeling sorry that I had not been able to take M***chan’s for her the previous night) and headed out, first with D****e to Shinjuku and later to Akasaka, as I was meeting a friend over there for a concert.

Back in April 2018, when I went to the INORAN concert at the Salón del Manga de Alicante, one of the people I met was E**chan, who is coincidentally a Luna Sea fan and studying Spanish.

When she heard that I was going to Japan this summer she offered to help me find tickets for the solo concert of her favourite Luna Sea member, the bass J in the Mainabi Blitz Akasaka [マイナビBLITZ赤坂]. I met E**chan at Asakasa station [赤坂駅] for lunch and coffee / tea before the concert. We ended up in a place called Uchi no Tamago Chokubaijo [うちのたまご直売] and ate tamago kake gohan [卵かけごはん], which I had never eaten before and was absolutely yummy (I’ve looked up recipes by now (≧∇≦). I mean, it’s basically raw egg and rice so…).

Lunch. A bowl of miso soup and a bowl of rice with cooked egg on top

After lunch we were talking for a while, and then headed for the concert. I bought some goods (Tshirt) and she was nice enough to wait with me even if she had a much better number since she’s a fanclub member. The concert was super lively and rocky, with almost a mosh pit and all! It was fun, and J was very energetic – one day I will see the whole of Luna Sea together. I got pushed and shoved a little, so even if fun, it turned out a bit exhausting.

After the concert I headed back of to Shinjuku [新宿] to have a shabu-shabu dinner with D****e before we headed back home.

Dinner watching the shabushabu broth until it boils. There are mushrooms, tofu and spinach leaves ready to be cooked

21st & 22nd April 2018: MIYAVI & London (England, Great Britain)

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On Saturday the 21st I caught a red-eye flight and I landed in London Stansted around 7:00. After clearing security (aka a security guard very interested on WHY I was there and WHOSE was the concert again?) I got myself on the train and headed off directly towards ULU London to attend MIYAVI’s “DAY 2” World Tour in Europe 2018. I spent the whole day at the queue / venue, so I tell you much of what I did, except that I was an idiot and did not really eat much solid food, if at all. A cookie, I seem to remember, and a cereal bar, which in the end caused a bad stomachache. Lesson learnt. Also! Heatwave in London. How do I manage to always catch the heatwaves in London?

MIYAVI is a Japanese guitarists I’ve listened on and off for a while. I lost a bit of track of him when he got married and had a baby, but every excuse is good for a little getaway. And I have to say that he blew my mind.

I set off at around 4am on Saturday and arrived in the queue around 10 am. The line was incredibly well organised, and the venue staff was super-friendly and efficient (which is a welcome change from most). Often, when an artist comes in, you can hope for a wave, maybe an autograph or sneak up a picture – not with this man, who goes out of the way to shake your hand and thank you for coming.

Well, I did have a VIP ticket that included a handshake and a picture, so I got two handshakes out of him! The concert itself was fantastic, fast-paced and MIYAVI is a guitar master. He was supported by a number of musicians and singers and they all were bustling with energy.

MIYAVI's instagram story reading well done London you guys were hot tonight

Before heading to the airport, the following morning I headed off to the British Museum, which was halfway between the venue and the hotel. I spent a couple of hours there, mostly in the Korea and China areas. There I fell in love with the Bodhisattva Guanyin.

Collage. British museum façcade and some exhibit from the Asia ward - Shiva, Buddha, a green-faced priest, dragon, a Korean dress... The main piece is Guanyin, sitting with a knee up, their hand resting on the knee, the other leg hanging down

From the British Museum I directly went to the airport, and I grabbed some food at Itsu, which is not my favourite Japanese brand due to the price, but my stomach was acting up (my own fault though (≧▽≦)) and I needed something to appease it. So sushi, miso soup and Coke it was.

Sushi and miso soup