Tag Archives: event

7th January 2017: Hiroshima and Oblivion Dust {Japan, winter 16/17}

Posted on by

I caught up the 8 am ferry and was downtown in Hiroshima [廣島] round 9.10. my first stop was the quite-impressive and down-brining A-dome. This is the building above which the atomic bomb went off, and it is very, very sobering. What impressed me the most was the bottles of water still being offered to those who had been killed by the bomb.

I strolled around the Peace Memorial park, Hiroshima Heiwa Kinen Kōen [廣島平和記念公園] for a while, but I could not stomach the museum, to be honest. So after a while I decided to be on my way. Just imagining the amount of destruction and victimisation was spine-chilling.

My next stop was the old Hiroshima castle grounds. The first thing I saw there was Hiroshima Gokoku Jinja [廣島護國神社], which was full of people doing Hatsumode (I think this was kind of a pattern all through this first week of the year. Oh, the surprise (*≧▽≦)).

After that, I continued towards the castle, Hiroshima-jo [広島城], which holds a little antique museum, and was doing a demonstration on katana-making. However, I did not get to see the blades, they were just working on the guards, which is… I mean, don’t get me wrong. Not as cool? The castle was destroyed when the bomb went off, so it has been reconstructed since then. Part of the museum was dedicated to the reconstruction of the area. On the top floor there are a resting room and an observatory.

After the castle, I decided to head off to have some food and afterwards I went to Club Quattro, which was hosting an Oblivion Dust concert. Not that I am a hardcore (or much of a) fan – as a matter of fact I had never listened to any of their songs – but the guitarist is one of the VAMPS members, K.A.Z, and I kind of wanted to check them out.

I stayed over with Ms-san (who had helped me get the ticket) and some other acquaintances to see the band come in – and we got a half-assed wave from K.A.Z – and then I stayed to buy some merchandise. Then I realised that I had a… tiny problem. I had no transport to get to my hotel after the concert ＼（〇_ｏ）／ because my last bus to the airport was at 7 pm, and I had a hotel very close to that!!! Well, I could have taken a taxi, but that was mover expensive than getting another hotel and losing the reservation for the previous one. It was a stressy hour until I could get there, check in, get some food and come back, but it all turned out nicely in the end.

The concert, part of Oblivion Dust’s 20 anniversary “I Hate Rock n’ Roll Tour 2016-17”, was really fun. Even if I had not heard any of the songs before, it felt familiar, as I could relate K.A.Z’s music style to what I knew from VAMPS and the long-gone Hide with Spread Beaver to some of thee songs I was listening to. The ‘average setlist’ for the tour was the following, so it is possible that this was what I listened to:

  1. In Motion
  2. Under My Skin
  3. Radio Song
  4. Red Light Green Light
  5. Come Alive
  6. Evidence
  7. Erase
  8. Easier Then
  9. Designer Fetus
  10. Elvis
  11. Sail Away
  12. Crawl
  13. Never Ending
  14. Lolita
  15. 24 Hour Buzz ’99
  16. Death Surf
  17. Nightcrawler
  18. Sink the God

K.A.Z was quite serious and concentrated most of the concert, and he only smiled a couple of times when he was exchanging glances with Arly, who is the support drummer for both Oblivion Dust and VAMPS. Most of the time I don’t even check on Arly that much, because I’m following Hyde around with my eyes, and that is a challenge, so I think this was the first time I was ever aware of how much fun Arly has at his job.

The bass player, Rikiji, was pretty fun. Ken, the singer, has a very different style from Hyde, but I could really see some parallelisms in the way he jerked around stage and jumped up and down. At one point, the guy climbed on the stage scaffolding-like thingy, hooked his knees, let himself and sang upside-down for a while. Now, that was quite impressive.

Surprising as it might, considering that in VAMPS he has to share the spotlight with something like Hyde, K.A.Z was quite… I’m not sure how to describe it… he did not have so much of that spotlight. No much guitar twirling, not that much jumping up and down either. At one point he went all zen in the back of stage where he could barely be seen. Seriously.

After the concert I went to eat with Ms-san and one of her friends and we had a few local specialities, such as Hiroshima okonomiyaki and roasted oysters. After that we all headed back to our respective hotels.

28th December 2016: Find all the things （　･`ω･´)! {Japan, winter 16/17}

Posted on by

One of the items in my calendar this time was visiting the three Dragon Gates of Tokyo. These are three torii gates that have been carved in stone and have an ascending and a descending dragon on each one of the pillars. The legend says that touching the dragons will bring you good luck.

Two torii are located in Suginami [杉並]. The first torii I went off to visit was in the grounds of Shukuhōzan Kōenji [宿鳳山高円寺]. The gate is a bit to the side, in a small adjoined shrine to the left of the main building.

The second gate I visited is in Mabashi Inari Jinja [馬橋稲荷神社], about 15 minutes walking from the previous one (which I chose to hit first because it is closer to the station). As this is indeed a shrine, the torii is pointedly displayed, as it is the second one on the main entrance.

Although I would have wanted to hit the three gates on one day, going back and forth between the first two and the third was not a good idea. Thus, I headed off to Shinjuku [新宿] to check out the Tōkyō Tochō [東京都庁], the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, as the day was very clear. And bingo, it worked, and I managed to see Mount Fuji Fuji-san [富士山] in the background. Being a little bit of a geek, and since both observatories were open, I decided to climb both this time (just in case the stamp was different, of course!). Then (also of course) I was doing some shopping around…

And since I was in the area, I decided to go back to Isetan, having devised a plan to get some images of the kimono. Which succeeded. Then I saw other people taking pictures, so I shielded myself with them and took some, too.

After that I met with D****e and we went off to find some of Gackt’s Gakucchi and Hyde’s Chupacabra crane games and UFO Catchers. For this we headed off to Odaiba [お台場], where we had a chance to look at the Winter Illumination, especially the Rainbow Bridge [レインボーブリッジ] looking… well, rainbow-coloured.

Then we went to say bye-bye to the Gundam in front the DiverCity and had some food inside. Somehow I feel like I’m talking about food all the time (*´∀｀*)ノ… This was very yummy and the writing on the algae cracked me up.

As we did not find the Gakucchi nor Chupacabra in Odaiba’s Venus Front, where we had read they would be, we backtracked to Shinjuku [新宿] to search for them. We did not manage to get the stuff out of the crane games but we got the bags that you got with putting 500 ¥ into the UFO Catchers…

27th December 2016: Yoshikimono in the Box {Japan, winter 16/17}

Posted on by

Battling over jet lag, the first thing I did in the morning was setting of the Isetan in Shinjuku [新宿], because they were showing (and selling) some of the Yoshikimono. As a matter of fact, I headed there over twice over the course of the few days it was open, because on the first try I could not take pictures, and then I devised a plan to record stuff – and the second time I was there were people taking pictures, so I did too. But at that point, this was the best I could manage, from the outside.

After that, I headed off to “MAVERICK DC GROUP 35th Anniversary JACK IN THE BOX 2016” (mouthful, huh?), because D****e had gotten her hands on tickets, as Hyde was going to show up there. The concert was held in the Nippon Budokan [日本武道館], which looks a bit on the smallish side from above, as we were very far away (last minute tickets were last minute indeed).

Artist Lineup: MUCC; SID; MUDD (half of MUCC and half of SID); SICC (the other half of MUCC and SID); AKi; UNiTE.; Kameleo; CLØWD; VALS; PARTY ZOO Ken with Naughty stars 20th&25th Celebration: Ken (L’Arc~en~Ciel’s Ken), YUKKE (MUCC), AKi, Show (A9), Hiroto (A9), Tora (A9), Ryo (BAROQUE), Kei (BAROQUE), kazuma (gibkiy gibkiy gibkiy) and KENZO; D’ERLANGER feat. HYDE; 35th MAGNUM: PAUL (44MAGNUM), JIMMY (44MAGNUM), D’ERLANGER feat. HYDE; M.A.D SUPER ALL STARS ＆ MDC SUPER ALL STARS. And seriously don’t expect me to do all the alignments and setlist because most of this was AKi around with other people. You can check everything out in the JITB website.

It was a long concert, from 2 to 9 pm and between the different acts there were short videos of past acts. One of the funniest moments in the whole concert was when the screen showed someone covering TOKIO’s “Love you only” and the whole Budokan sang along “only yo~u” without even realising it. Then there were many embarrassed chuckles after that.

Hyde, who was the reason we were there, showed up lateish. In total he may have sung like four songs, including the closing act with “Honey”. We also saw Ken, who can’t do anything without his guitar. The most curious (tending towards sad) was how Hyde and Ken proceeded to ignore each other for as long as both of them were on stage (╯︵╰,).

After the concert we met up wit N***chan, T***pi and M***chan to have dinner.

5th & 6th of November 2016: Barcelona (Spain) for We are X

Posted on by

I was supposed to have travelled to London in March 2016 to see X Japan’s concert, where they were also going to project the We Are X documentary premiere. Unfortunately, that was postponed to 2017 due to PATA’s health issues. I really hope it works out next year. However, the decision was made to start premiering the documentary in different music festivals, and the second I heard that it would be shown at the Beefeater In-Edit festival in Barcelona I got a ticket for it. Furthermore, I actually won two more tickets in a giveaway.

These two tickets I got I gave to a couple-friend of mine who had been so nice as to let me stay over at their place. I took a train around 8 am and was in Barcelona mid-morning. I went directly to their place and we just hung out until it was time to go to the Multicines Sala 5, where the documentary was going to be shown. We were actually the first and, press aside, we were the first ones in. We sat dead in the middle of the cinema and a group that walked in ten minutes later wanted us to move. And sorry, random person, but the answer is not. We were not really a “queue” but we were waiting for a couple of hours, so I was not going to give my chosen “best seat” out of the whole theatre for a group of ten people.

This was a Saturday evening, and there had already been a premier on the 1st of November so there might be more fans there, but in general I was a bit taken down by how few fans there were, most felt like people who had a whole-festival ticket.

The documentary tells the story of X JAPAN, one of my favourite Japanese bands, from the point of view of its founder, drummer and pianist Yoshiki. The band crumbled at the height of its popularity when guitarist Hide died by hanging, and the singer ended up brainwashed by a cult. Everything is told from Yoshiki’s own point of view, which makes the film biased, but still poignant.

After the film we went back to my friends’ place and had dinner. The next morning, they wanted to show me their little orchard in the outskirts, and I was treated to the best paella (Spanish rice) that I have ever had in my life – so awesome I even forgot about taking pictures! It was sad that I had to leave by 8pm, so I was only in Barcelona for about 32 hours, but it was so well worth it.

Collage showing the entrance to Multicines 5 and the Beefeater In-Edit screen before the film started

29th July 2016: Trying not to think {Japan, summer 2016}

Posted on by

So I got home late the previous day and I did not really feel like studying, so this morning I had to do my homework and study for the exam (￣◇￣;). However, at around midmorning, I decided that I really did not care for a perfect grade anymore, that I was not going to get anyway because the teacher was not happy with my なければなりません and wanted なけれべいけません because that was what the book had. The other day when I was in Harajuku I’d seen something I really wanted, so I decided that screw everything, I would go buy it.

First, I stopped by Shibuya [渋谷], just because. I did a quick tour over Tsutaya, Book Off and Mandarake. In Tsutaya, I bugged a lady as I was looking for a specific manga and she did not look too happy to help (~_~;). Then I went to Harajuku [原宿] to buy the item I had fallen in love with, a 40cm high photobook (limited edition).

After class (and last exam, and saying bye bye and getting our pic taken with the certificate…) I met M. in Ikebukuro [池袋] as we were going to do fanstuff together. Well, let me rephrase that. First I went home because the photobook(s) was (were) heavy as hell and it would have been more expensive to find a coin locker for them than getting home and dropping them off. After that, I waited for her in the Book Off (and was self-restrained and did not buy anything else). We checked out the Ikebukuro Closet Child and then we had dinner together.

The plan was try and hunt the Gakkuchi. That is, some of the adorable plushes that GACKT makes. He had decided to put some as prices for the UFO catchers. I do know that getting them is next to impossible, but for 500Y try, you got a clearfile, and that was awesome…

So awesome that the clearfiles were “sold out” in all Ikebukuro. We tried one station over, a smaller one. No luck. We tried my station. Still no luck. Damn, what a way to finish the day (♯｀∧´).

28th July 2016: Ueno + VAMPS Replay {Japan, summer 2016}

Posted on by

As the time to leave drew near, I felt a bit sad this morning (T^T). However, I did not let myself be dragged by it, so I forced myself out of the apartment to do things, and these things involved Ueno Kōen [野公園].

First I headed off to Ueno Tōshō-gū [上野東照宮], which I had not found open last year when I was there, because there was a matsuri, or something, I don’t really remember. Then I found out about the two dragons, the ascending dragon and the descending dragon, who come to drink at the pond at night. It is a very nice imaginary. Also, the shrine is really cool. It has a bit of a Chinese style, and is decorated with a gold layer. The inner fence shows animals of the sea and the wind, making it a unique shrine. I really liked it a lot.

The main building of a Shinto shrine, sparkling golden with a dark ceiling

Wooden painted carving of dragons, one going up, one going down

Then I found the Ueno Daibutsu [上野大仏], the Great Buddha Pagoda, which I had missed before – one of the things I love about Ueno is that whenever I go I find something new, yay. Most of the Ueno Daibutsu was melted for metal during WWII.

A giant Buddha face made of metal in a ceremonial pagoda

Gojoten Jinja [五條天神社] is really cool too, but I decided to leave getting its seal for another time. Next time.

A row of torii gates

I walked by Shinobazu no Ike [不忍池], the Pond in Ueno.

A pond covered in water lilly leaves, with some high rises in the background

Finally, I went to the museum of Shitamachi of Customs, Shitamachi Fūzoku Shiryōkan [下町風俗資料館], where they keep some old houses from the years after the great Kanto Earthquake. A bunch (hundreds) of houses were built there to make sure that the population was housed. The museum shows how life was those few first years, and how people lived and organised themselves. There are a few items, houses, photographies and so. The second floor is hands-on, with games and pastimes and so. There was a very nice guide there and she explained a lot of things to me.

Reproduction of pre-industrial wooden houses in Tokyo

Later I went to class (I found another Gyoza Franchise on my way back to the station) and then I skidded out because I had to get to Yoyogi National Stadium, Kokuritsu Yoyogi Kyogijo [国立 代々木 競技場], in Yoyogi [代々木]. I was attending the Sukkiri Superlive in order to see VAMPS one more time before heading off back home. All in all, a very complete day that ended up with a bang – when I should have been studying Japanese to be honest ^^;;

The Yoyogi national stadium, and a screen reading Sukkuri 10th Anniversary Super Live

27th July 2016: I could not miss an aquarium {Japan, summer 2016}

Posted on by

I mean, visiting aquariums is like a second nature to me when I’m in Japan. It seems that each has something that I really love but had not realised it before.

In this case I headed off to Tokyo Sea Life Park – Kasairinkai Suizokukan [葛西臨海水族館] in the namesake park, Kasairinkai Koen [葛西臨海公園], in Edogawa [江戸川], especially famous for keeping a tank of yellowfin tuna (all of which died unexpectedly last year and had been replaced though) <・ )))><<.

The aquarium is mostly an underground complex, accessible through the main dome in the middle of the park. During my visit it was full of parents with young children. For some reason, Japanese people believe that children must love fish? I don’t really understand… ~(・・？））

Before class I went to Tokyo Daijingu [東京大神宮] in Iidabashi [飯田橋], which is surprisingly quite small, and I think it has something to do with finding love?

At night I met with my new friend M. to try to find a cat café we were interested in and somehow did not manage to find, but we turned that into dinner and karaoke – Joysound, to watch the VAMPS special message ｖ（＾＿＾ｖ）♪.

24th July 2016: I can Osaka (ish), Haido can’t Japanese {Japan, summer 2016}

Posted on by

Before going to the concert I headed over to Shitennoji to pay a visit to the complex. Before that I had a great view of the Tsutenkaku Tower [通天閣].

A wide shot of Osaka, showing the Tsutenkaku TV tower on the right

Shitennoji [四天王寺] was as cool as I remembered it, but I did not find the place to get my seals, which I guess just means that I’ll have to come back. Damn it (^_~)

Collage. A torii gate. A temple building with a pagoda. A temple with a pond in front of it. An hexagonal pagoda

I headed off towards Namba Hatch again, as there was a second VAMPS concert happening, and I tried to find a coinlocker in the Namba station area, basically at the end of the world, and on my way back I got the wrong turn. That is why you get to see a whale sculpture.

Sculpture of a grey whale breaching the floor

I found myself a friendly katsu place and this time I really enjoyed my meal – I would have gotten takoyaki but I did not think it would have lasted enough.

Lunch. A tray of different deep-fried goodies

The concert had a similar set list to the one the day before, but it was different enough to make the experience different. Also, it was weird to have seats and not be in the arena – I had a seated ticket for the second floor –, though I can’t say it was a bad experience – I might have to consider it from now on. One of the funniest points of the concert though was that Hyde was having a bad Japanese day, and he kept tripping over his own words for some reason. After the concert was over I headed back to the hotel and there was gyoza from 7/11 for dinner because I was ravenous. And I slept like the dead.

Picture of the venue and the projected countdown on the stage curtains

23rd July 2016: My two fandoms {Japan, summer 2016}

Posted on by

While most people would not consider that a fandom, the truth is that my yokai research and related stuff is insanely fun, so I guess it is fair to call it that. Thus I headed out to visit Abeno Jinja [阿部野神社], which stands at the birthplace of Abe no Seimei. Luckily in the same metro line I had to take to go to the VAMPS‘ concert at Namba Hatch.

Torii with bright blue banners hanging from it, and main building of a Shinto shrine, in dark red and grey colours

I don’t remember if I mentioned this before, but Japan had unified IC cards, so now you can use any card in most major cities, which is bloody awesome. On my way back, I checked the Zepp Osaka, basically because I had a mental slip and was confused about the place for a second, and when I saw ‘Zepp this way’ I just felt like following directions.

Between goods and concert start, however, there was katsu, which was really yummy even if the waiter was rather unwelcoming. If not for the fact that she would have been happy I would have left the restaurant. Sometimes I just feel sad that Japan does not do tips, I would have made the leaving one-penny statement.

When it was finally time for the concert, all the woes went away though, and I had a lot of fun.

Tickets and Vamps tour truck with publicity for the tour and the Beast party

4th July 2016: Scary, scary… aaaaaah {Japan, summer 2016}

Posted on by

After hitting for Gackt’s concert, I figured out that I would ballot for the insanely impossible birthday party – GACKT’s 43rd Birthday Party in ANA InterContinental Tokyo, located in Akasaka [赤坂]. And somehow – somehow – I hit. I might have been a little in histerics about the whole thing for a while, especially with how strict the dress code seemed to be.

Before that I organised a swift visit to Harajuku [原宿] and Meiji Jingu [明治神宮]. For starters, I wanted to catch Godzilla in Shinjuku [新宿], which I did not do last year – I had stolen a glimpse of him when I had picked my keys up.

Godzilla, a giant mutant iguana, peers throughout the building roofs, roaring

Then I headed over to Harajuku [原宿] and I had a stroll down Takeshita-dōri [竹下通り] (天気がいいから、さんぽしましょう、and so XD) and into Yoyogi Kōen [代々木公園] to show Meiji Jingu [明治神宮] to T**y. Then I headed back home to get ready because PANIC！(◎_◎;) I was ridiculously nervous about the event. Fortunately, it worked out almost perfectly.

The event itself consisted on a formal dinner, and a later appearance of the birthday boy himself and the band to… basically have a drinking game, a card game, and a talk show on stage. It was a lot of money to be honest, and I don’t think I’ll ever feel the need to do something like it again, but I am glad that I was crazy to do it at least once. I unfortunately had to leave before it finished in order to make it to the last train, so I missed the songs *sigh*. Nothing is perfect I guess.

Pictures I snuck at the party - flowers, the screen with the logo, my invitation, then the food - sausage entree, soup, salmon, fillet, and chocolate cake, along witht the shot glass we got as souvenir

3rd July 2016: GACKT’s last Last Visual Live {Japan, summer 2016}

Posted on by

My coming to Japan this year was originally trigger for me hitting fanclub tickets for Gackt’s Last Visual Live in Saitama Super Arena [さいたまスーパーアリーナ], obviously in Saitama [さいたま]. I had never thought that I would be able to see one, much less this close, so for me it was quite intense. There was queuing, and goods, and ramen and fanclub tickets.

As far as concerts and GACKT’s lives go, this was a dream come true – to be able to attend one of his great productions live was one of my fan-dreams and it did not disappoint. It was not easy to receive the fanclub tickets because why would anything be well-organised? The overseas fanclub members did not have their tickets sent to them, we had to pick them up on site, and the staff had no idea of that. After a while though, someone from the fanclub staff figured things out and put up a sign, so I was able to get my admittance tickets.

The concert itself was… well, I’ve mentioned GACKT’s delirium of grandeur before, and this event qualified, with the additional emotional charge that it is supposed to be the last time he does anything like it. There was a nostalgic mix of older and newer songs, and all in all it was super-emotional.

Setlist:
 1. Arrow
 2. 花も散ゆ
 3. ＲＥＴＵＲＮＥＲ　〜闇の終焉〜
 4. ＲＩＤＥ　ＯＲ　ＤＩＥ
 5. 暁月夜　−ＤＡＹ　ＢＲＥＡＫＥＲＳ−
(short film, feat. Moon Saga, Gackt’s theatre project)
 6. 泡沫の夢
 7. 斬　〜ＺＡＮ〜
 8. 傀儡が如く
 9. 揺籃歌 – LULLING –
(short Moon Saga film)
 10. ONE MORE KISS
 11. MIRROR
(emcee)
 12. U+K
(break)
 13. 舞哈BABY!! -WooHa!
 14. 恋のＦＲＩＤＡＹ！！！
(short video featuring other characters Gackt has played aside from Moon Saga’s Yoshitsune)
 15. キミだけのボクでいるから
 16. Ｐ．Ｓ．　Ｉ　ＬＯＶＥ　Ｕ
 17. 登園の誓い
(Moon Saga’s short film)
 18. 雪月花　−Ｔｈｅ　ｅｎｄ　ｏｆ　ｓｉｌｅｎｃｅ-

Saitama Super Arena building and sneaky picture of the Last Visual Live logo projected on the stage

22nd May 2016: Kabuki at the CBA (Madrid, Spain)

Posted on by

I made a short escapade to the theatre Teatro Fernando de Rojas in the Círculo de Bellas Artes, in Madrid. It was my first time watching kabuki [歌舞伎], a type of Japanese theatre. The play was called Tsumoru koi yuki no seki no to [積戀雪関扉], something akin to “The Snowbound Barrier” and translated into Spanish as “En los límites de Osaka, bajo la nieve del amor” (In the Outskirts of Osaka, under the love snow). It is a dance-drama kabuki written in the 9th century, and deals with the spirit of a black cherry tree turning into a courtesan to extract revenge. Before the play, there was a small conference to explain some details about kabuki and that was really interesting.

Afterwards I just had to run for the trains so… no much time to hang around.

29th August 2015: a-nation day (Ajinomoto Stadium) {Japan, summer 2015}

Posted on by

I woke up early that morning to do laundry… No, wait, that was the plan XD In the end we were not able to wake up early as we arrived super late the night before as we were doing the VAMPS Karaoke Booth. A friend had gotten D****e and myself a-nation Fes. tickets and we were baffled to find out that they were nothing less than Arena Tickets. E-block, which was before mid-stadium, which in Japan is super lucky. She ended up in block A, which is epic, but hey, her tickets, she had the right to choose her best seats ^^

So off we went to Ajinomoto Stadium [味の素スタジアム] in Chōfu [調布]. This time, we were not going to a concert, but a real music festival. Our main interest was VAMPS, but there was another band, Golden Bomber (ゴールデンボンバー), that I also kind of like – I try not to like them too much though, because in general they are very expensive. It was really interesting to see the different fandoms and their reactions to the different bands. The weather was rainy on an off and umbrellas were not allowed, but raincoats helped us have a good time overall.

The artists were:

  1. 加治ひとみ
  2. Leola
  3. SOLIDEMO
  4. Do As Infinity
  5. つるの剛士
  6. Dream5
  7. Every Little Thing
  8. ゴールデンボンバー
  9. f(x)
  10. 倖田來未
  11. FAR EAST MENTION MANNEQUINS
  12. VAMPS
  13. SUPER JUNIOR

 

Screen banner reading a-nation

28th August 2015: Matsushima and Sendai {Japan, summer 2015}

Posted on by

The day started in Matsushima [松島], the Pine Islands, where there are… lots of pines. And temples. We paid the small fee to cross the bridge to the biggest island, Oshima [雄島] and headed off there, to just walk around it. There were pines and other trees, but I am no tree expert, so… I could identify the pines… However, there were nice views and it was a good way to start the morning, even if I was not feeling 100%, as I had a small accident coming out of the station that ended up with me sprawled on the floor. Not fun.

This bridge survived March 11, although a smaller similar one was destroyed. In general, the area was quite spared by the tsunami.

A walkable bridge with concrete ground and vermillion guards that crosses the bay towards a rocky island with small pines

View from Oshima into the bay:

A view of the bay. There are pine branches in the foreground, and two small rocky islands with more pines

After the main island, we visited a few of the temples around. First, Zuigan-ji [瑞巌寺], which has some really cool cave altars.

A standing Buddha in front of a cave sanctuary.

Entsuin [円通院] – Mausoleum of Date Mitsumune.

Main building of a temple. It's made of wood so old that it has turned white-grey

Back in Sendai, our first stop was the combini Ōsaki Hachimangū [大崎八幡宮], also known as the Black Shrine, as it was supposedly erected to enshrine the kami of war. It was ordered by Date Masamune, who was a very important figure in the history of feudal Sendai.

Shrine, built in black with golden decoration

Though we did not make it to Date’s mausoleum, we did see the sculpture erected in his honour up on the ruins of Aoba-jō [青葉城]. Here are the Date Masamune memorial on the ruins of Aoba Castle

Statue of a samurai, riding a horse. The samurai has a crescent decoration on his helmet. The horse is mid-step, with its front right leg bent

View of Sendai from Aoba Castle:

A view of the skyline of Sendai with a line of trees in front of it

Afterwards, we headed back to the station as we had to catch the 19.30 train, since we had an appointment in Ginza [銀座] at 22.00. We had a reservation for VAMPS Joysound special karaoke booth, which was normal karaoke, but in a room decorated with VAMPS stuff and a special video, along with some themed drinks. Just one of those cute fandom money-drainers activities.

The Vamps karaoke booth and theme drink

22nd & 23rd August 2015: VAMPS XV Beast Party {Japan, summer 2015}

Posted on by

Early on Saturday morning we headed off to Makuhari [幕張] in Chiba [千葉] for the VAMPS Beast Party, which took place that weekend. This is a festival-style concert and you are supposed to stay there the whole day having fun and doing stuff. There are games and food stalls, and maybe when it is near a beach it can be entertaining enough, but for me it did not feel like something I would like to repeat.

The concerts themselves were not bad, but the experience itself was rather lacking – maybe my expectations were too high, and I was very far away from the stage (my tickets were round de 8000 entry order). I also got stuck with people I did not know for for a good part of the time, and my Japanese skills did not allow for much communication, so it became a pretty uncomfortable couple of days, which did not help much.

The grounds of the Party: a flag, the entrance, the stage, final fireworks. The logo of the whole thing is a skull with a pirate hat and eyepatch

Saturday 22 August 2015 Setlist

  1. I GOTTA KICK STAR’T NOW
  2. AHEAD
  3. HUNTING
  4. ANGEL TRIP
  5. TROUBLE
  6. COSMOS
  7. LOVE ADDICT
  8. HELLO
  9. Arimatsu drum mix solo
  10. 夏祭り (a Capella)
  11. EVERGREEN (acoustic)
     
    – MC: summer memories-

  12. THE JOLLY ROGER (acoustic)
  13. MY FIRST LAST (acoustic)
  14. ZERO
  15. DEVIL SIDE
  16. EVIL
  17. THE PAST
  18. GET AWAY
  19. MEMORIES
  20. Live Wire (with special guest: Kiyoharu)
  21. SANDY (with special guest: Kiyoharu)
  22. SEX BLOOD ROCK N’ ROLL
 Sunday 23 August 2015 Setlist

  1. REVOLUTION II
  2. AHEAD
  3. HUNTING
  4. ANGEL TRIP
  5. TROUBLE
  6. SEASON’S CALL
  7. I GOTTA KICK START NOW
  8. HELLO
  9. Arimatsu drum mix solo
  10. 夏祭り (a Capella)
  11. EVERGREEN (acoustic)
     
    – MC: summer memories-

  12. THE JOLLY ROGER (acoustic)
  13. MY FIRST LAST (acoustic)
  14. ZERO
  15. DEVIL SIDE
  16. EVIL
  17. THE PAST
  18. GET AWAY
  19. MEMORIES
  20. LOVE ADDICT (with special guest: Ken)
  21. HONEY (with special guest: Ken)
  22. SEX BLOOD ROCK N’ ROLL

3rd – 5th July 2015: Japan Expo in Paris (France)

Posted on by

I went back to France rather unexpectedly because VAMPS announced an appearance at Japan Expo, a Japanese Culture convention held in Parc des Expositions de Paris-Nord Villepinte. I flew in on Friday and as I had time, I decided to go to the Louvre museum. I discovered the automatic ticket selling machine, so my queue was unexpectedly short once I was out of the security waiting area. I geeked out to my heart’s content and I reflected on how I had got used to geeking out alone and how comfortable I felt compared to my first time alone in a museum, back in the Dark Ages when I was 14.

Different exhibits of the Louvre: bronze sculptures, Egyptian sarcophagi, sitting scribe, Babylonian bulls, a marble, bathtub, Venus de Milo, Eros and Psyche, Victory of Samothrace

The following day I met up with some friends at the Japan Expo for the VAMPS concert act that had been organised. Japan Expo is one of the biggest European conventions about manga, anime, Japanese culture and everything in between, including concerts, food stalls, merchandising, and so on. The concert in itself was all right – one of the shortest ones I’ve attended, but in the end it was “just” an act in something bigger. I wish they had talked about the Sunday autograph possibilities earlier, though, because I could not attend due to my flight being in the morning.

Vamps promo claiming they were the guests of honour

8th March 2015: Saint Seiya Legend of Sanctuary in Guadalajara (Spain)

Posted on by

When I was young I used to love the anime Saint Seiya. Then, as I grew older, I read the manga, then I sort of drifted away from it, until somehow new fandoms and old fandoms collided – and it as announced that YOSHIKI was writing the theme song for the film Saint Seiya Legend of Sanctuary. That grabbed my attention, and eventually Selecta Visión announced that they would release them in cinemas in Spain.

When it was announced that it would be showing in the shopping centre cinemas in Guadalajara for a couple of sessions only, I decided to buy my ticket online. It was strange for me for several reasons – the main of them was that I rarely go to the cinema to watch something dubbed. Also, the online shopping was weird -instead of getting a ticket, you got a number and then you had to input that number on a machine to get your actual traditional ticket printed.

I drove to the shopping centre, which was rather dead as it was a Sunday at half past six, the shops were closed and the restaurants not open yet. The audience of the cinema was comprised by a class of special needs kids and a lot – and I mean a lot of super-excited fathers with their young sons, who had no idea what the whole fuss was about. I enjoyed the film – I had resisted watching it bootleg although it had leaked on the Internet. It was a different, lighter take on the Battle of Sanctuary. I did, however, miss the Virgo Shaka vs Phoenix Ikki battle – because after all they’re my favourite characters. When the film ended, I stayed behind for the whole credits and YOSHIKI’s song “Hero”, beautifully sang by Katie Fitzgerald. I was literally the only person left in the cinema through it, and I had to apologise to the cleaning crew, who told me no problem. And hey, I got to see the mid-credit scene on my own!

Saint Seiya Legend of Sanctuary

After the film, I walked to the car and drove home to watch it again in its original version, because I am that kind of geek, and I was not too impressed with the dubs – but hey, that’s me, I’ve always preferred the originals.

19th August 2014: Change of plans {Japan, summer 2014}

Posted on by

My day in Kansai was yet another carefully laid out plan, only darkened by a 90% chance of rain in Nara, where I was going to head out in the afternoon. Morning in Fushimi Inari Taisha, afternoon in Nara, maybe heading to Osaka in the evening to eat takoyaki in Namba. However, just before heading off I checked my emails only to find one by D****e telling me about an even which was going to happen in Tokyo that evening – a VAMPS’ secret live.

Hyde had been mentioning a ‘secret’ with a number code which turned out to be the event that was being organised, timing up with the release of VAMPS’ latest single. Having discarded trying for their interviews in Osaka on the 21st. It was a tough decision, because it meant losing one hotel night – coming back to Kyoto would be a rough 5 hours the day before, and that night would be impossible.

In the end, knowing that whatever I chose I would be missing out on something I really wanted to do, I decided to go with what could not be repeated – the VAMPS concert.

That still left me morning and eawrly afternoon in Kyoto [京都], so I dashed towards Fushimi Inari Taisha [伏見稲荷大社]. I was rather amused to find that some torii were under repair. I spent two hours in the Inari Forest and Mountain, but once again I did not make it to the top – it was just too hot. I did walk along some forgotten paths and was alone for a good 40 minutes or so, which was amazing. One day I have to try this either at dawn or in winter.

The Senbontorii - a row of hundreds of torii one after the other creating a sort of tunnel. Also, the main building of Fushimi Inari behind the giant vermillion torii

Before heading back to Tokyo I wanted to do something else, so I headed up to Kiyomizudera [清水寺], the Temple of Pure water, which was sadly being renovated. Never the less, I could come in and see most of the gardens and Pagoda and stand on the balcony. There were dozens of wind-bells and despite the rumble of people it was magical.

The main entrance to the temple, and a view of the main building from the side, where you can see that it hangs from the mountain.

After that I went back to the hotel, showered, changed and headed off to Odaiba [お台場] to the VAMPS Mezamashi Secret live, an event that the band had organised to introduce two new songs. It turned out to be a seven-song mini concert, and the first time I ever listened to what became one of my favourite VAMPS’ songs, The Jolly Roger.

The Mezamashi secret live stage. It shows the band's promo picture and the time, 19:40. The stage is lit in red, and there are flags with the band's logo, a Jolly Roger.

17th August 2014: Meiji, more Odaiba, Rainbow Bridge {Japan, summer 2014}

Posted on by

I started the day heading off towards Yoyogi Kōen [代々木公園], the park where Meiji Jingu [明治神宮] stands. I got my fortune in the shrine, and apparently, it shall be excellent from now on (and wouldn’t that be awesome). I got an English fortune and it came with a tiny Manekineko (lucky cat) and told me that my life was going to get better. I am going to cling to the thought. (Plus: I did not get dengue fever from my visit to Yoyogi Park).

After that I took a stroll down to Shiba Kōen [芝公園] and Zojo-ji [増上寺] in Minato [港], just because I could, but I had to move on before long. I did have the time to say hi to the mizuko, though, before I had to leave.

I met my friends for ComiKet [コミケット] in the convention centre Tokyo Big Sight, in Odaiba [お台場]. Comiket is reportedly the largest amateur comic convention in the world.

ComiKet was disappointing, mostly because it was insanely crowded, and we decided to make up for it walking back to the main Tokyo area crossing the Rainbow Bridge [レインボーブリッジ], which was an amazing experience. Not only the views, but the whole walking on it… well, within it might be more appropriate… was great, and I am very glad I got to do it.

The day ended in Ikebukuro [池袋] eating okonomiyaki and monjayaki (with some sides because huuuuungry), which was quite yummy, although I have decided that I prefer okonomiyaki.

16th August 2014: Pretty people everywhere {Japan, summer 2014}

Posted on by

When a single is released in Japan, shops make a bit of a stand where it is prominently displayed. In the case of Tower Records in Ikebukuro [池袋], a staff-san had gone a small step further, and built a small shrine to L’Arc~en~Ciel. She was very confused as whether we knew who they were, and surprised we knew. We also saw Acid Black Cherry single stand, and as we were leaving we kinda walked into the Eito Rangers.

Promotions for CDs at Tower Records: L'arc en ciel, Acid black cherry and Kanjani 8

After browsing Book Off and K-Books, we had an appointment at Swallowtail, which was great, as always. They have opened a souvenir shop, which was great because I finally managed to own one of their napkins, legally. Now I won’t feel like stealing one whenever I’m there.

Entrance to the Swallowtails cafe, with a fence that has butterfly decorations

After a short Mandarake visit, we headed off towards the Meijiza [明治座], the Meiji Theatre, in the Chūō [中央] area to watch GACKT’s second Moon Saga instalment.

This time round, GACKT had tried to be more discrete, in a way it gave me the impression that he wanted to leave the “idol” idea behind, and he wanted to be taken more as a serious actor. The play takes off a few years after the previous one, and tells the story of how (spoilers) Yoshitsune tried to gain, or re-gain, his brother’s favour and downfall again. Yoshitsune struggles with his inner “evil” self, some kind of mononoke. While he struggles with the idea of whether he should kill himself or not. In the end, Yoshitsune loses control and the play closes with a threat of “hell beginning at that point”. Very… dramatic. It’s a pity that we will never see how it ends though (you might remember there was supposed to be a manga…). I bought myself the novel and I hope that one day I know enough Japanese to read it

Flowers, Moon Saga logo, and lide-sized cut-out of Gackt dressed as Yoshitsune