Tag Archives: music

2nd October 2023: Miyavi’s “Return of the Samurai Guitarist: 20th & Beyond European Tour 2023” {Miyavi in London 2023}

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When planning this London trip, I booked two hotels – a bed and breakfast for a lower price for the first night, and a more expensive one next to the venue for the night after the concert – I like staying as close to venues as possible, and the second hotel was literally next building over. I woke up on Monday around 7:00, and it took me 20 to 30 minutes to pack all my things. Since breakfast was included, I accepted the challenge of a full English breakfast. I drew my line at tea though. I love tea but I’m a caffeine addict anyway. I need my boost in the morning.

Though London’s public transport was going through a strike period, I was very lucky with both trains and underground – actions and closures were planned for both the day before I arrived, and the day after I left. I took the Northern Line, and headed off to the O2 Academy Islington to wait for the start of the concert. The venue is part of a shopping arcade, so there were readily available toilets and even better, we could wait under cover. This was great as , as there was a forecast of thunderstorms – which ended up breaking around 17:00. The queue was nothing out of the ordinary, I was the fourth VIP to arrive, and the fifth person overall when I reached the area around 9:15.

Miyavi [雅] was born Ishihara Takamasa [石原 崇雅] is, above all, a guitarist. He was born in 1981 and debuted in 1999, going solo in 2002, aside from doing collaborations with some of the musicians I follow – Yoshiki and Hyde. Miyavi’s concerts are extremely fun, he is full of energy and he sometimes greets fans one by one when he arrives at venues. He is in general a good person, and a volunteer at UNHCR. He has had small roles in American blockbusters such as Kong: Skull Island and Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken. He is really kind during M&Gs too, and one of the few Japanese artists who actually means “world tour” when he announces a world tour. This time he toured Europe and China tour, a continuation of his 2022 North America tour – this leg was called Return of the Samurai Guitarist: 20th & Beyond European Tour 2023.

Miyavi Return of the Samurai Guitarist European Tour poster

After around 500 bus manoeuvres and 90 minutes of waiting, we saw him come into the venue around 13:30. The staff filmed, and he waved and said “thanks for coming.” Other times he has shaken hands and stayed for a chat, but I guess he was tired. He was coming directly from Paris after the concert there the evening before. I’m getting too old for queuing all day though, because even if it did not feel extremely long, I was a bit queasy and headachy all day – there would be a full-blown migraine coming at night but, oh well.

Miyavi Return of the Samurai Guitarist London arrival

Around 15:00, the venue’s crowd management staff decided to rearrange the queue. I had a VIP ticket with included a picture, a pass and a “special present” – which turned out to be a wristband. When buying the ticket, the 25 first purchases had an extra autographed picture, but my Ticketmaster decided to freak out and I did not get that one. Oh well. Anyway, security decided to break the queue into two – one for VIP and Early Entry, the other one for General Audience. This caused a bit of a problem when the VIP tickets had to be read, but at that point I was already safely checked in. The worst was the way the placed the barriers, so sitting down on their supporting structure was awkward. Better that than standing though, as that would have to happen later, once in the venue.

Once the queue was rearranged, around 16:00, I snuck out to go to the hotel and check in. They gave me a “superior” room which was nice and had pretty views, but the bathroom smelled of sewer – as bathrooms near tidal areas sometimes do. I ate a snack and went back to the queue.

VIPs were admitted a bit after 18:00, with disabled VIP ticket-holders coming in first. There was a lot of trouble with the merch shop as they would not take card and they had no change. I did not want to buy anything, so I went straight to the M&G. After the people around me realised that if they stayed back, they would lose their spot, they quickly rearranged themselves back in the queue. I was happy to let the people who had waited in front of me pass – all three of them.

When it was my turn to see Miyavi, I told him a secret – that he reminds me that good things exist in the world. He said thank you. I am horrible at selfies, so I handed my phone to the staff, and they were happy to take two of them. Afterwards, I went into the venue and found my spot at the barrier, centre but a bit to the right – which was apparently an amazing place for pictures, considering that I had the photographers in front of me through most of the concert. Early Entry came in after all the M&Gs were done, and GA were let in at 19:00. The concert started at 20:00 sharp.

Miyavi Return of the Samurai Guitarist London Rocking out

Setlist:

   1. Selfish Love
   2. WHAT’S MY NAME?
   3. SURVIVE
   4. Ahead of the Light
   5. So On It
   6. In Crowd
   7. Secret
   8. Cry Like This
   9. Tears on Fire
   10. Long Nights
   11. Under the Same Sky (Unplugged)
   12. 君に願いを [Kimi ni Negai wo] (Unplugged)
   13. Girls, be ambitious
   14. 陽の光さえ届かないこの場所で [Hi no Hikari Sae Todokanai Kono Basho de]
   15. 咲き誇る華のように -Neo Visualizm- [Sakihokoru Hana no You Ni -Neo Visualizm-]
   16. Fire Bird
   17. New Gravity
   18. Bang!
   19. No Sleep Till Tokyo
   20. Horizon
Encore:
   21. 愛しい人 [Itoshii Hito]
   22. Under the Same Sky
   23. The Others
   24. DAY 1

The concert was extremely fun, as it usually is with Miyavi. As the tour is a bit of an anniversary celebration, he sang a lot of his older songs, along with newer ones. He jumped and twirled and rolled on the floor. He also had moments to sit down and a give us acoustics. At some point, one of his guitars malfunctioned and he went “I guess we’re chilling now.” He spoke about his work with refugees and how he does not understand the British accent to save his life – despite having lived in the US for years. He said that he enjoys being in the country where rock was born. He also said that he had played the venue before – his phone remembered the Wi-Fi password.

Miyavi Return of the Samurai Guitarist London, sitting down and talking

We had an improvised song at the beginning of the encore, since the audience requested Itoshii Hito. He remembered it, unlike when he was forced to google Señor Señora Señorita in Barcelona (2019). Despite being visibly tired when he arrived – and according to the Instagram story getting lost in the venue – he gave his all in the concert, and I am grateful for that. He indeed reminds me that there are good things in the world. At the end of the concert, he was given a Union Jack that he wrapped around his shoulders.

20231002 Miyavi Return of the Samurai Guitarist London with the Union Jack bowing

Exit was chaotic due to the problems with merchandising continuing. I would have liked to stay to stay and say goodbye, but I crashed after the concert was over – my headache got worse, and I was really nauseous. I bought some food to take to the room and headed back to the hotel to eat it, take my medication, have a shower, and get rid of the contact lenses. I went to bed as soon as I had finished and, and slept from midnight to around 5:00, when I woke up, vomited dinner – I hope not too much of the medication – and tried to get some more rest. I think I did sleep a bit further, but I’m not sure.

11th & 12th September 2023: 23h 45min in London (England) for Yoshiki’s “Under the Sky”

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Considering that Japanese musician Yoshiki recently got his hand- and footprints enshrined at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, I guess he’s not one of my obscure artists any more. Yoshiki is a Japanese drummer and classically-trained pianist who, alongside vocalist ToshI, founded the band X Japan in 1982. They started as a heavy metal band, and eventually shifted over towards progressive rock. Their flashy looks probably gave way to what is now called Visual Kei (V-kei) [V系], though they had dropped them in the mid 1990s, before they disbanded when vocalist ToshI left the band basically to join a cult. In 2007, X Japan reunited.

Yoshiki, born Hayashi Yoshiki [林 佳樹], is considered one of the most influential Japanese artists of all times. Aside from a musician, he is also a songwriter, composer, producer, and fashion designer. He collaborated with Stan Lee for a special four-issue comic collection called Blood Red Dragon, and with international musicians and bands such as Bono (U2), Roger Taylor and Brian May (Queen), KISS, and Sarah Brightman. He composed the theme of the 2013 Golden Globe Awards, worked on the soundtrack of Saw IV, and has composed music for anime such as Saint Seiya and Attack on Titan. Within Japan, aside from tons of collaborations and solo works, he became “mainstream” when he played a concert to honour former Emperor Akihito upon the tenth anniversary of his enthronement in 1999. He also has a Hello Kitty line named and modelled after him, Yoshikitty. And I’ve been using one of his songs as my alarm clock since roughly 2010 (since 2015 it is Born to be free).

Back in 2017, Yoshiki hosted a Q&A in several cities throughout the world, including Vienna (Austria) for special showings of his documentary film on X Japan. The documentary should have premiered in the scheduled March 2016 concert, but when that was postponed, the film went on to be shown at different events festival. When I went to Vienna, I had already travelled to see it in X Japan concert in London and the Beefeater In-Edit festival in Barcelona (and owned the blu-ray).

In 2020, as the Covid-pandemic lockdowns eased up, Yoshiki organised an online concert on a bunch of rooftops, connecting with different artists and having others over, to celebrate his birthday on the 20th of November . Now, he has made a documentary out of the event, called Yoshiki: Under the Sky, which has “premiered” four times, the third of them in London on 11th September 2023. As the London announcement only came mid-August, it was a challenge to get everything running, but I managed to find doable flights and a hotel near the venue. I was able to buy a second-row seat for the cinema, which was pretty good too.

On the 11th of September, trying not to reflect too much on the date, I left the house around 5:00, and right as I merged into the motorway, it started pouring. There was more traffic than usual because the plane was an hour later, but I managed to make it to the airport a bit before the time I had booked to enter the parking lot – yay accuracy. I went through security and passport control without issues, and had to walk to the end of the terminal for my flight, which was also uneventful. Upon landing at London Stansted Airport, we had to wait for a bus because the escalators were broken or something, but I was outside around 9:30. I bought breakfast at Costa Coffee, and settled to wait for a friend I had met in Vienna, A****d. Her flight was due half an hour after mine, so we had decided to hang out for the day. She agreed to tag along to the Natural History Museum – I wanted to go back to the the Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary #NHMxJURASSIC store before it closes down at the end of the month. I really really wanted the rubber ducky cosplaying as a velociraptor, but I feared that if I got that one, I would end wanting to collect rubber duckies… I bought get a limited-edition “opening weekend ticket”, which had been out of my budget on my previous visit, and a titanosaur coin that I had not seen when I visited the exhibit.

A****d had never been to the museum, so we took a tour of the highlights – dinosaurs (of course) and other fossils, the “journey inside the earth” (escalator that goes into the inner core of the planet), the historical building, and Cadogan gallery… Unfortunately, the hall of mammals had recently closed for renovations, so we could not visit that one.

Natural History Museum London

Afterwards, we took the underground and got off at Leicester Square to have a late lunch in Chinatown. We found a little place for lunch. I ordered some rice and duck, which was nice but the duck had a lot of shattered bones. We looked for a place she had known that sold ice cream taiyaki, but sadly we did not find it.

London Chinatown

We located the cinema where the film was showing, Odeon London Covent Garden, but there was nothing going on yet, there was not even a poster announcing the film. After taking pictures, we continued down the block to snoop around the Forbidden Planet London Megastore, one of the biggest comic, manga and related merchandise shops in the world. Luckily, they had few things I wanted badly, and the ones they did were stupidly expensive, so I was able to get away with all my money, yay me!

A****d had decided that she would go back to the airport after the film, but I had taken a hotel a few minutes away from the cinema, right in front of the university and a few minutes away from the British Museum. I dropped by to check in, then we backtracked to Leicester Square as the museum was already closing for the day at 17:00. As we walked by the cinema, they were setting a poster for Under the Sky outside.

We decided to do something a bit silly and headed off to the The LEGO Store Leicester Square, two stories dedicated to selling LEGOs, either in sets, or just blocks. There are also different decorations – for photo-ops – made with oversized blocks, which include Shakespeare in the park, a Bobby, a Buckingham palace guard, a whole Aston-Martin with a Bond sculpture – you can actually go into the car – and lots and lots of Harry Potter. It was a bit disconcerting that they were already displaying Christmas sets!

Lego Shop London

Then, we crossed the street for the M&M’S Store London, which has four floors. The ground one has a recreation of the Beatles crossing Abbey Road, with M&M’S. There was a logo asking “which M&M’S colour are you?” which I thought was a little silly, until I found the orange M&M’S section, whose motto seems to be “I’m scared of what might happen if I relax”. I connected immediately. Next time over I should totally buy a mug or something. Also, there was no Christmas decoration yet, as they were preparing for Halloween. Oh, and they were looking for staff, offering “London liveable wages”.

M&Ms Shop London

We came out and it was 18:00, the Swiss glockenspiel at Leicester Square was chiming. The glockenspiel is a Swiss-themed clock which was built in the 1960s as part of the Swiss Centre, a ploy to drag rich British tourists to the country. The centre failed, and the clock was taken away, but it was eventually restored to the area in 2011. I could have sworn it was playing Poncelli’s Dance of the Hours?

Swiss Clock Leicester Square

Leicester Square is built around a sculpture of Willian Shakespeare, and the gardens around him hold a number of statues dedicated to cinema, Scenes in the Square. We spotted Mary Poppins, Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly’s character in Singin’ in the Rain), Charles Chaplin, Paddington Bear, Harry Potter, and an Indiana Jones which is supposed to be temporary. Apparently, there are a few more I should be checking out for, but that’s okay because I’ll be coming back to Chinatown eventually, and it’s just a few blocks away.

Statues of cinema figures in Leicester Square + Willian Shakespeare

We headed back towards the Odeon London Covent Garden cinema, and we reached there around 18:20. Another poster had been put up, and some fans were already waiting. We met another friend of hers, M**, who told us she had found a sitting area inside, so we sat and chatted away for about an hour. The staff was extremely friendly and did not peep a word of complain, even if we did not buy anything.

Yoshiki Under The Sky at Odeon Covent Garden London

Finally, we were allowed into Screen 2 and found our seats. I lost count of how many people tried to get away with ignoring the seating numbers. Nobody did. I had a second-row seat, pretty centred. The film was introduced by some film producer who explained what we were going to see as if we had just accidentally wandered into the cinema.

There was supposed to be a trailer for Yoshiki’s upcoming concert in October, which was not shown. We had a few in-house adverts before the documentary started. Through the film, Yoshiki talked a little about the power of music, and how he had come together with all these great musicians to create a world-class event, very Covid-compliant. All the songs featured were either composed by Yoshiki himself, or had been arranged by him in some way. Perched on an LA rooftop, he mostly played piano, but occasionally he donned the drums.

The narrating thread of the whole film is life. Yoshiki was a sickly child, and his father committed suicide when he was ten years old, so he grew up with the idea of death deeply ingrained in his brain. As the film goes on, he speaks about how music can bring people together, and how it is important to find the strength to go on. Halfway through the film, he talks about recently losing his mother and how he cried for days. At some point a voice is introduced. It is a regular John Doe who once reached out to Yoshiki on Twitter as his dying wife had just entered palliative care. The man asked for some encouragement for her, and he got it, from Yoshiki and a lot of the fans, until she passed away. There was a heart-wrenching Zoom call with the man, who spoke about how overwhelmed he was by all the support he received. Unfortunately, she passed away.

The documentary runs for an hour and a half, and it’s a mixture of the Yoshiki’s thoughts, the performances alongside different artists, each in their corner (or rooftop) of the world, and a bit of conversation with them, or a making-of. I was familiar with most of the featured musicians, but not all.

Sarah Brightman: Miracle. Sarah Brightman has had an extremely long career and is an excellent soprano – my first memory of her dates back to the 1992 Olympics. She collaborated with Yoshiki on Miracle in 2018. I was really sorry I was not able to go to any of her performances back then.

Jane Zhang: Hero. The original version of Hero was sung by Katie Fitzgerald for the soundtrack of Saint Seiya: Legend of Sanctuary. Though Saint Seiya was my favourite anime as a kid, I had wandered away from it. The song featured in the film actually made me want to go to see it, and eventually dragged me back into the world. Zhang did a good job, but I personally prefer Fitzgerald’s version.

SixTONES: Imitation Rain. As a music producer, Yoshiki must have realised a bit ago that the Japanese boy-band panorama was dire. For long years, the boy-idol company Johnny’s Entertaining (JE) had dominated the business, with bands as SMAP or Arashi. However, an extremely protectionist policy and the open secret that the director had sexually abused some of the boys, lead to the company losing power. I have no doubt that this is why Yoshiki decided to create and produce a boy-band, and thus looked for the six young men that comprise SixTONES. Having followed some of JE’s bands back in the day, I can see how they would tap into the niche (serious flashbacks to KAT-TUN circa 2005, to be honest).

Scorpions: Wind Of Change. Formed in 1965, Scorpions paved the way for a great deal of the big names in 1980s hard rock such as Guns N’Roses, Mötley Crüe, Helloween, Megadeth… And Yoshiki is a little fanboy of theirs, of course.

Sugizo: La Venus. Sugizo is one of X Japan’s members, who took over guitar duties after they reunited. While the band was separated, original guitarist Hide died in “mysterious circumstances” – either accidentally or by suicide. For a long time, Yoshiki claimed that Hide’s death was an accident, and on this film he for the first time acknowledges otherwise. Thus, Hide was the second person in Yoshiki’s circle to take his own life. Sugizo, who also plays violin and is a member of an insane number of bands, including LunaSea, is credited by Yoshiki as the reason X Japan could come back together, which made him very embarrassed. They played a rendition of La Venus without lyrics, with Sugizo on violin.

Hyde: Red Swan. Hyde is without a doubt one of the best rock vocalists in Japan. He was originally the voice of L’Arc~en~Ciel, when they were still a thing. He worked alone for a few years, then he and KAZ founded VAMPS, and finally he went solo again. Red Swan was a collaboration between Yoshiki and Hyde for the anime Attack on Titan!, released as “Yoshiki feat. Hyde”. Yoshiki explained how the red swan represents rising even covered in blood. After this collaboration, there was a second single, released as “Hyde feat. Yoshiki” with the song Zipang, in English and Japanese, which I personally find even more powerful. The significance of Red Swan in Under the Sky comes from how many versions there are on YouTube, especially as anime songs tend to be translated. Thus, it ties in with the concept of coming together through music.

St. Vincent: New York. St. Vincent is known for her clear voice and her complex arrangements, with lots of instruments playing a part. She is considered one of the best guitarist in the 21st century. Yoshiki arranged her song New York for piano and vocals, which made it extremely powerful. All LA artists were invited to sing on Yoshiki’s rooftop, as it would have reduced the logistics involved.

Nicole Scherzinger: I’ll be your love. Scherzinger was the lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls between 2003 and 2009, but before that she had already performed with Yoshiki with this very same song.

The Chainsmokers: Closer. They are an American electronic DJ pair: Alex Pall and Drew Taggart, whom I honestly know nothing about other than they do electronic remixes. They have some supporting musicians.

Lindsey Stirling: Forever Love. She is a violinist who performs and dances at the same time. I had never heard of her either, but she did feel the music. Regarding her, Yoshiki said that she made him realise that not all songs need lyrics and vocals. She did a great job.

Yoshiki and fans: Endless Rain. In a way, Endless Rain is the emotional ballad that keeps showing up in anything X Japan related – and breaking people’s hearts. A while back, there was a request on social media for fans to send recordings of themselves singing the song, which were used for the film. Hearing a Ukrainian girl singing “endless rain lets me forget all of the pain, all of the sadness” was soul-wrenching. Once more Yoshiki circled back to the idea of music bringing music together, along with living, just keep living.

Yoshiki Q&A in London, 11th September 2023

The Q&A afterwards was awkward. The guy who carried it out – Toby Amies – had done his homework but it was not a Q&A, it was an interview by someone who had just learnt about Yoshiki, and was curious, so he had a ton of questions, most of them absolutely unoriginal, such as hey, I’ve just discovered V-kei, explain that to me! Or “do you prefer piano or drums?” which we hear every time – I could swear that Yoshiki was a bit annoyed at that one. The only input that the audience had, before Yoshiki was even in, was “are the Last Rockstars coming to Europe?” (we know the answer to that: never) and “When is the next X Japan album coming out?” (we know the answer to that, too: also never), but when the interviewer got around to ask those, he messed them up! At some point Yoshiki explained the meaning of the title “Under the Sky” – basically, we’re not in Heaven yet, we are underneath. As he was leaving, he was kind enough to sign autographs and take pictures with fans.

After the film, we took a bunch of selfies with other fans in front of the poster(s), then moved on. I went back to my hotel for a shower and a few hours’ rest. The bathroom was tiny but hot water did its job, and I could not find the cereal bar I had packed for dinner. The bed was extremely soft, and the carpet smelt strongly as England is in the middle of yet another heatwave, and my nose clogged – I need to remember to start packing my allergy pills. I did not sleep much if at all, and I ended up leaving the hotel before 5:00. I had to decide between breakfast at London Liverpool station or catching the Stansted Express at 5:25. I decided to go for the train and have breakfast at the Stansted Costa, so I boarded, found a seat, and settled down for a travel nap.

Ten minutes away from the airport, as we left Harlow Town, the second-to-last stop, there was an announcement. We were informed that the train would terminate at Bishop’s Stortford, the last stop before Stansted Airport. There were technical issues at the terminus platform, and the train could not reach it. Passengers should vacate the train at at Bishop’s Stortford and ask the platform staff for instructions. The instructions were that we had to fend for ourselves to reach the airport as there was no alternative transportation provided. It was chaos for a second, with everybody scrambling for buses, taxies and so. I was near a young woman who was going to Uber and had some extra seats. She asked if anyone wanted to tag along and I said yes. She said it would be free because her company would reimburse her, so I was lucky on that account, and I arrived at the airport a bit after 6:30. I waved my Uber-companions good-bye and headed to Costa Coffee for breakfast, feeling relieved that I had decided against waiting for the 5:40 train in London Liverpool.

After a sandwich and a vanilla latte, I passed security, where I had to go through secondary screening because… no idea. There was like no metal on me whatsoever. Then the scanner complained about me having something in my pocket – my damn handkerchief! Seriously, now. This has happened a few times. Where do people keep their hankies / tissues if not a pocket??

A****d had not yet departed when I was through, so we could hang out for a little longer – it’s fun that we had only met in person for a few hours in 2017 and we hit off so well. We even had gates in the same area of the airport, so it was cool. This is the first time that I have done the “going to the airport early in the morning” in London, but to be honest there was a 100 € difference between that flight and the next up, since the whole thing was announced and happened so fast. I asked for a refund from the Stansted Express, and now I’m wondering whether to cancel the train for my next trip to London as they’re threatening with strikes on those days… (ETA: I received a full refund, and there was no major incident during the following trip).

The trip back was uneventful except the road was stupidly full when I drove off the parking lot. I napped most of the plane ride, and I had a Coke before 9:00. Talk about living wildly, especially considering how all this happened in 32 hours, and I was in London for less than 24! My only regret was not taking the camera, but I was trying to pack extra-light this time around.

31st May 2023: Birthday in Madrid (Spain)

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I was lucky enough to be able to combine my 2022 birthday with a holiday that happens around the end of May / beginning of June, so I took off to Tenerife. I could not do that this year, but the stars aligned for a half-day in Madrid – actually, what aligned was a lot of website-hopping, to be honest. It all started when we were booking tickets for the visit to the Royal Palace of La Granja. At that time, I discovered that the collection of Stradivarius instruments in the Madrid Royal Palace are brought out so they can be played every now and then. I had to work on the dates of all the upcoming 2023 concerts where they were used, but I managed to secure tickets for a side gig, which also gave access to a usually closed-off area of the Palace anyway.

Conversely, I have been obsessed with a London experience in which you get to have afternoon tea on a 60’s double-decker bus – but unfortunately, it does not take reservations for one. I was browsing the Internet , looking at similar experiences, and I stumbled upn the fact that the Mandarin Oriental Ritz runs afternoon tea in Madrid. They actually claim that their tea is the same as the London Hyde Park Ritz. I signed up for the Fan of M.O program – not that I’m ever going to be able to afford a stay there, but oh well – before making the reservation, and the system asked if there was a special occasion going on. I ticked “birthday”.

Plans thus built, we arrived in Madrid for the 16:00 booking of afternoon tea at the Palm Court restaurant in the Mandarin Oriental Ritz Madrid hotel.

The Mandarin Oriental Ritz Madrid opened in 1910, after King Alfonso XIII decided that Madrid needed a luxury hotel to host European nobility. The king himself became an investor, wanting the city to have lodgings comparable to Paris or London. The building was commissioned to French architect Charles Frédéric Mewes and the construction was directed by Luis de Landecho y Lorenzo Gallego. Surrounded by a metalwork wall, it has 153 rooms and suites, and a wide variety of dining options with different levels of formality.

Through the 20th century, the original Ritz became a piece of history. Its rooms and bars hosted a wide range of personalities – WWI spy Mata Hari, artist Salvador Dalí, writer Ernest Hemingway, scientist Alexander Fleming, and more recent celebrities such as Ava Gardner, Michelle Pfeiffer or Madonna. In 2015, the hotel was acquired by Mandarin Oriental, and in 2018 renovation was tackled. The Covid pandemic delayed its reopening until 2021. Part of the restoration focused on the inner court, with an iron-and-glass ceiling. This is the area where the restaurant Palm Court is located.

When we arrived, they confused my reservation with someone else’s with the same first name – I had to correct the lady, it was a reservation for three not for two. Then they asked if we were celebrating something, to which I replied that it was my birthday – again. As we sat down, the pianist was playing the OST of Aquaman. Cognitive dissonance? Check.

A nice gentleman brought out the tea menu – while the food is fixed, you can choose from a wide variety of tea. I had of course studied the options beforehand, and ordered sencha meicha, because it is one of my favourite teas, even if it is Japanese. I mean, I can get Earl Grey more easily – and affordably.

The booking confusion continued when we got our food – once more they brought out a three-tier tray for two, and when they brought out the third one, they had mistakenly brought out one of the dietary-restriction trays – easy to spot because the sandwiches had different colours. When the correct tray was brought out, the order of the different tiers was incorrect.

The tea itself was delicious. The food included has been designed to Quique Dacosta, mixing the “best afternoon tea tradition” with Spanish confectioneries. The classic mini sandwiches included a cucumber and cheese cream, Spanish ham, potato omelette, seafood and mayonnaise, and a salmon cracker, shaped as a rose. The sweets included chocolate mousses, lilac sponges and citrus pastries.

Afterwards came the scones, which were a bit too small and I was slightly disappointed that the promised clotted cream was merely butter. But the scones – two types of them – were warm and well done. Afterwards, as we were finished, the pianist played the notes to the traditional happy birthday song and I was brought a small mousse with “congrats” written on the plate – though they served it to someone else in the party!

Afternoon Tea: sandwiches, pastries, scones and the actual tea

Felicidades dessert

I loved the tea party. However, even if all the staff was extremely nice, it gave me the feeling that they were overwhelmed and nervous – almost improvising – as they made a few mistakes. Afterwards, we walked to the Royal Palace Palacio Real de Madrid. Even if it was an hour to the recital, we were allowed into the courtyard, and not much later into the royal chapel Real Capilla. The recital was called Afectos Amantes (Loving affections), and it mostly comprised music by José de Torres. Torres was the main composer of religious music for the Spanish 17th-century court, though the majority of his music was lost when the original Madrid alcazar burnt down – however, a few pieces were preserved in El Escorial, Salamanca, and Guatemala. There were also a couple of pieces by Händel.

Royal Palace and Chapel

The music was performed by Al Ayre Español, a classically-trained ensemble that focuses on Spanish Baroque Music. Its members are Eduardo López Banzo, (harpsichord, and director); Jacobo Díaz Giráldez (oboe); Alexis Aguado (violin); Kepa Arteche (violin); Aldo Mata (cello); Xisco Aguiló (double bass); Juan Carlos de Mulder (archilaúd and guitar); and finally Maite Beaumont (mezzo-soprano singer).

The program included:

  1. Pasacalles I & II (Passacaglia), Anonymous
  2. Divino Hijo de Adán (Divine Son of Adam), José de Torres
  3. Sonata Op.5 No.4 in G Major, Georg Friedrich Händel
  4. ¡Oh, quien pudiera alcanzar! (Whomever could reach), José de Torres
  5. Sonata Op.5 No.5 in G Minor, Georg Friedrich Händel
  6. Afectos amantes (Loving affections), José de Torres
  7. Grave (Low), José de Torres

Al Ayre Español bowing to the audience after the recital

The recital lasted a bit over an hour and a half. It was something really interesting to do once in your lifetime, and surprisingly not pricey at all. Even if Baroque music is not usually my thing, the event felt very appropriate in the chapel. We did not feel like any more food, so we just headed home, braving the thunderstom on the highway.

25th March 2023: Brussels, Antwerp, and Starset {Belgium, March 2023}

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As my companion D****e was caught in the French air controllers’ strike, she did not make it to our hotel until the wee hours of the morning. I let her sleep, and headed out to explore another area of Brussels. My first stop was again Mont des Arts, because it was on the way to Anneessenstoren, remains of the old city walls – which were being renovated, so I could not see a thing.

I had decided not to take the umbrella because the wind made it useless anyway, so I had to take cover a couple of times. I continued off to the Romanesque-evolved-into-Gothic Church of Our Lady of the Chapel Église Notre-Dame-de-la-Chapelle | Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Kapellekerk. It was closed, but I hung out around the area for a bit. There is a skate park, a Memorial to Pieter Bruegel the Elder (who is buried in the church) and an obelisk Obelisk Kapellekerk sculpture.

I decided to come back when the church was open, and continued walking towards another church in the area, the Church of Our Blessed Lady of the Sablon Église Notre-Dame du Sablon | Onze-Lieve-Vrouw ter Zavelkerk. It was built in the 15th century, in late Brabantine Gothic. It does not have towers, but a deep portal in the main façade. It is richly decorated inside and out, in light coloured stone from the nearby Gobertange quarry. In the beginning, the church was a parish for the noble and wealthy citizens of the city, but it slowly lost lustre over the centuries. In the late 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, it was “restored” according to the principle of unity of style. The whole building is laden with ogival windows, and the light inside is very beautiful. When I was there, the choir was rehearsing, and there was a “do not visit beyond this point” notice which I abided by.

Gothic church: exterior + nave, flanked with long windows

I went out again, and crossed the street to the garden Square du Petit Sablon | Kleine Zavelsquare , which features statues depicting some of the great humanists of the Belgian 16th centuries, and a fountain in the honour of two noblemen who were executed by the Spanish regime in the same century. The fences are decorated with sculptures that depict the different guilds of the city. It was designed by romantic architect Henri Beyaert in the Flemish no-renaissance style in the 19th century as a flower garden.

I saw the Palace of Justice of Brussels Palais de Justice de Bruxelles, a massive building built between 1866 and 1883 in an eclectic Greco-Roman-inspired style, designed by architect Joseph Poelaert. When it was erected, it was the largest building in the world, and it is currently… being renovated, as part of the ceiling collapsed in 2018.

I had to take cover again as another shower hit, but it went away eventually. I walked further until I reached a former medieval city gate Porte de Hal | Hallepoort, which looks like a tiny French château – it was transformed into a a Neogothic castle in the 19th century, by Henri Beyaert. Today it is a museum, but I decided not to go in and head back towards the city centre.

Decorated medieval-like tower

I backtracked towards the Church of Our Lady of the Chapel Église Notre-Dame-de-la-Chapelle | Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-Kapellekerk which had been closed in the morning, and it had fortunately opened. I walked in. The church has an early 13th century Romanesque base, and the building was erected or reconstructed later in Brabantine gothic in the late 13th century. The nave was reconstructed in the 16th century and is Flamboyant Gothic. It leads to a dark-wood painted altar which contrasts with the wide, light nave. All in all, I guess I can say I was a fan of the gothic style in Brussels.

A gothic church with a dark wood altar and altarpiece, with coloured windows behind

When I was in the church, I received a text from D****e, who had finally woken up. I walked back to meet her and we decided to take the train to Antwerp [Anvers | Antwerpen], where we had plans for the evening. We got off at the central station Antwerpen-Centraal railway station Gare d’Anvers-Central | Station Antwerpen-Centraal. Designed by architect Louis Delacenserie, it was built in eclectic style at the turn of the 20th century. It has two underground levels in modern tunnels, and the original station stands at level +1 (a total of four levels), with an extended train hall in iron and glass designed by the engineer Clément Van Bogaert. The station is sometimes called a “railroad cathedral” with domes, glass windows, an ornate clock, and marble floors.

Antwerp Centraal Station - a red iron tunnel-like structure with a decorated front with a clock at the end

The idea was to look for a place to have lunch near the main square, but the weather did not agree. We ate at a Wagamama chain restaurant instead, to wait out the storm, then headed to see the Bourse of Antwerp Handelsbeurs. It was the first building ever erected with the idea of being a commodity exchange place, but burnt down and was reconstructed in the 19th century by architect Joseph Schadde, who mixed Neogothic and iron architecture elements. The building was abandoned in 1997, but it was later recovered as a cultural and event centre. I absolutely loved it.

The Handelsbeurs inside - lots of gothic details supported by decorated iron beams

We had a look at the Cathedral of Our Lady Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal, but we were pressed for time and did not want to pay to have to rush through the building (a future visit, maybe), so we just peered inside. The cathedral is included in the Unesco World Heritage Site of “Belfries of Belgium and France”.

The cathedral of Antwerp

Outside the cathedral there’s a sculpture of a boy and his dog, from a sad novella about an orphan boy who wants to be a painter, and although written by an English author (Marie Louise de la Ramée) it sounds like the Belgian version of “The Little Match-Seller” tale. It’s called the Nello & Patrasche Statue Nello & Patrasche beeld and it was created by Batist Vermeulen.

A sculpture of a boy sleeping on his dog. The bricks on the road seem to tuck them.

Eyeing the weather, we decided to head out to our destination for the evening, the Trix concert hall – though this meant sacrificing seeing the main square, we were happy that we were under cover when it started hailing at around 16:15. On the way, we saw a mouse happily hopping the main streets, some sculptures, including the Monument to Rubens and the entrance to Chinatown. We had purchased VIP tickets to see the American band Starset, who toured with Japanese singer Hyde in 2018.

Starset is an American alternative rock band formed in 2013 by vocalist Dustin Bates. Aside from Bates (lead vocals, keyboards, soundboard, guitar), the core of the band is formed by Ron DeChant (bass, keyboards, backing vocals), Brock Richards (guitars, backing vocals) and Adam Gilbert (drums, percussion). Touring members currently are Siobhán Richards (violin, keyboards), Zuzana Engererova (cello) and Cory Juba (guitar, synth), and I guess they’ve got an honorary member in Ernie (Dustin’s French bulldog, who apparently attends pizza parties with VIPs when the band tours the US). One could say that Starset is a “concept band” revolving around sci-fi – the band’s fictional backstory refers to The Starset Society, who aims to alert the public about a “Message” they obtained from an outer-space signal. The fact that Bates holds a Master’s in electrical engineering and worked for the US Air Force and the International Space University might have something to do with the theme.

Starset released their fourth album, Horizons, in 2021. After Covid, cancellations and rescheduling, the Horizons Tour finally took place. Since we had a VIP ticket, we had early access and we had to be at the venue at 17:00. We got there a bit after 16:00 – and it was a good place with a hall, so we were under cover when it started hailing. In the end, we were not admitted till 17:20-ish, when a nice lady came and took our names to let us in. The first part of the experience was a short acoustic concert with some games and Q&A. For the games, you were given a raffle number, and if it was picked, you got to spin a wheel and maybe get a price – or a hug.

During the acoustic, we stood next to violinist Siobhán, who is not only beautiful, she is also super elegant. Dustin looked a bit like a hobo, to be honest, and he’s taller than I remembered him. We noticed that Ron’s arm was on a sling – apparently he had hurt himself and was unable to play during the tour, but he still tagged along. Afterwards, we had the chance to take a picture with the band, pick up the free goods that we had a right to – a CD and a signed poster. As we did, we moved into the actual concert hall, where we got the last available spot on the first row barrier.

Starset during the accoustic

The supporting artist was Smash into Pieces, a Swedish rock band composed by Chris Adam Hedman Sörbye (vocals), Benjmain Jennebo (guitar), The Apocalypse DJ (drums) and Per Bergquist (guitar). They were very good, and they fit really well with Starset, I thought. They started playing when the hall was full – it has a capacity of about 1100 people, and maybe they started around 19:30.

Setlist:

  1. Wake Up
  2. Glow in the Dark
  3. Big Bang
  4. Let Me Be Your Superhero
  5. Sleepwalking
  6. Running Away from Home
  7. Vanguard
  8. Boomerang

Smash into Pices front men.

This made the event run faster than expected. Starset were scheduled for 21:00 but came out at around 20:20, and the whole thing started with a bang – almost literally. A big curtain was pulled up and then let down when the band was on stage.

Setlist:

  1. Unveiling The Architecture (recording)
  2. Carnivore
  3. Manifest
  4. Echo
  5. Trials
  6. Icarus
  7. Unbecoming
  8. Monster
  9. It Has Begun
  10. Interlude. BMI ad (video recording)
  11. Satellite
  12. Ricochet
  13. Infected
  14. The Breach
  15. Die For You
  16. Devolution
  17. For Whom The Bell Tolls (Metallica Cover)
  18. Earthrise
  19. My Demons
  20. Boomerang

Dustin (vocals) and Brock (guitar; dressed as an astronaut) from Starset in the middle of the concert

My mind was blown because somewhat this setlist comprises all my favourite songs from the band: Carnivore, Monster, Ricochet and My Demons. The concert was full of little visuals and cool ambience tricks – I mean, Brock actually plays in astronaut suit. There was a lot of smoke and the lights were not good, but the concert itself was amazing. I was very grateful for the barrier, I would not have made it standing for the whole event – probably not even half of it. All in all, I had a lot of fun. I love that Dustin sings with his geek glasses, too.

After the concert, we managed to take the 23:09 train back to Brussels and even get a snack on the way – the one previous to the train I had wanted. That was lucky, because the last train was delayed over an hour and a half, and was a slow one.

12th & 13th February 2023. The Epic Apocalypse Tour in Madrid (Spain)

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The year 2020 was going to be so amazing that I actually would have had to choose the things I wanted to do and sacrifice others. It didn’t turn out that great in the end, with lots of rescheduling and cancellations. I was eventually able to budget time and money for one of those rescheduled events – the joint concert by the metal bands Epica and Apocalyptica in their Epic Apocalypse Tour. For a while, however, there was a bit of uncertainty with dates, as they bounced between Sunday 12th and Monday 13th of February, so I needed to juggle work dates in order to make sure I’d be free on Monday. In the end, I was all clear, all the concert-related activities were set for Sunday evening, and I decided to make a two-day trip out of it – I needed to take a hotel for Sunday anyway.

I arrived in Madrid around 9:30 in the morning. I had some time before my first appointment so I walked into one of the large parks of the city Parque del Buen Retiro, which is part of the Unesco World Heritage Site Paisaje de la Luz (Light Landscape), officially called Paseo del Prado y el Buen Retiro, paisaje de las artes y las ciencias, declared in 2021.

Parque del Buen Retiro was built in the 17th century for one of Felipe IV’s palaces, and it was opened in the late 18th century as public park. The park was almost destroyed during the war against Napoleon’s troops in the early 19th century, so most of it has been rebuilt. Aside from the obvious flora, it features sculptures, fountains, buildings… It is home to a lot of birds, and unfortunately a large number of invasive and fearless monk parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus), whose culling has been controversial in recent years. I got to see common blackbirds (Turdus merula), a European green woodpecker (Picus viridis) and a European robin (Erithacus rubecula).

One of the most important features of the park is the sculpture Monumento al Ángel Caído, which represents an angel falling from grace. It was originally designed by Ricardo Bellber, who made it in plaster in 1877. It was later cast in bronze and the original plaster destroyed, and eventually the sculpture was made into a part of a fountain in 1885. Around the area, there is also an ancient water mill, and to my surprise, the almond trees (Prunus amygdalus) had started blossoming.

Retiro Park collage: a pathway with trees and bushes on both sides, ducks, and a robin.

Retiro Park collage: a water mill, blossoming almond trees, and the fallen angel fountain

At 10:15 I had a guided visit to the Real Observatorio de Madrid (ROM), commissioned around 1785 by Carlos III, as an centre to develop and study astronomy, geodesy, geophysics and cartography. The main building is the astronomical observatory, built by Juan de Villanueva in what then was the outskirts of the city. Today, ROM belongs to the National Geographical Institute (IGN), and it is home to the National Astronomical Observatory, the Central Geophysics Observatory, and the data gathering division of the National Volcanic Service, though no measurements are taken there. The main astronomy measurements are carried out in the Centro Astronómico de Yebes, in a town around 80 km north-west of Madrid. The observatory is also part of the Unesco World Heritage Site.

The visit comprises three stops. The first one is the main building, called Edificio Villanueva, which has three rooms – the main rotunda with a Foucault pendulum, the library, with the spot where gravity was first measured in Spain, and the “Time room”, where the sun used to be traced to determine the hour.

ROM collage. A small Neoclassical building, an inner room with a pendulum and telescopes, a telescope and a 19th century library.

The second stop is the Great Telescope, a replica of one that William Herschel built in the 18th century – Hershchel was one of the greatest telescope makers of the time, and is credited with discovering the planet Uranus, two of its moons, and two moons of Saturn. The telescope was destroyed during the war against the French, but later rebuilt thanks to the number of laminates that had been preserved – the original had a focal distance of 7.6 m and a 61-cm diameter mirror (which is displayed in the main building), and Herschel himself considered it the best he ever built.

Herschel grand telescope: a wooden scaffolding structure keeping a huge black tube pointing at the stas

The final stop, the little museum of “Earth and Universe Sciences” has a small collection of ancient instruments used for astronomy, navigation, and geophysics. There are also a couple of seismographs – one of them new, which is up and running – and material retrieved from the volcanic eruptions of El Hierro in 2011 and La Palma in 2021.

Collage. Ancient telescope, old tide measuring device, an old globe, and lava bombs

I had planned for a typical sandwich at an iconic bar afterwards, but I ran into a political demonstration. Thus, I scratched that idea and took the underground westwards. When I was in Egypt, one of the places I visited was Lake Nasser, created by the Aswan High dam. The lake swallowed a lot of villages and monuments, but a few of them, such as Abu Simbel and the Temple of Philae were saved by Unesco. Between 1960 and 1980, a total of 24 monuments were saved, and five out of these were presented as “grants-in-return” to five countries which had offered exceptional technical and financial assistance to the campaign – Germany, Italy, Netherlands, the United States and Spain, the latter being impressive as Spain was in the middle of the dictatorship, and pretty shunned by the international community at the time.

The monument was a small and ruined temple in the now-flooded town of Debod, to which it owns its name Templo de Debod (Temple of Debod). Dedicated to the god Amun, it was built around the location of the First Cataract of the Nile, some 15 km south of Aswan, about 2200 years ago, though the core of the building may have been older. The monument was actually affected by the original dam at the beginning of the 20th century, and it was covered in water for most of the year, which destroyed its colours and damaged the reliefs.

During the Unesco salvage mission, it was dismantled, and eventually granted and taken to Spain, and “freely” reconstructed – a lot of information had been lost, and there were missing blocks. National stone was used to fill in the gaps, and the gates (remains of the pylons) were built in the wrong order, according to some old pictures. The restorers built an air-conditioning system, a wooden roof, and the main hall was closed off with a glass door and window panes. Today, the temple is open to the public at weekends, but unprotected from the Spanish weather – rather different from the Egyptian one – and pollution, it is rapidly deteriorating.

I went inside the temple once when I was a child, and I had a clear memory of it that kept surfacing when I was in Egypt – so I wanted to go back. The entry is free, but capacity is reduced, so I had to queue for almost an hour to enter. I finally matched my memory to reality. The interior of the sanctuary has a small chapel and some carved stones had been taken to a makeshift second floor to display them as a little museum.

A collage of a small Egyptian temple - it has two floating gates that lead up to the main building, which is small with four columns. One picture shows a tiny and dark inside room with an altar.

After the temple, I got lunch on the go, then walked towards the hotel to check in and change clothes. Around 16:15, I set off to La Riviera for the concert. I had a Meet and Greet ticket and had to be there before 17:00. Personnel from the venue were extremely nice, and there was no chaos at all, even if things had been a little disorganised and some fans were lacking M&G confirmation emails. Everything was well-handed and everyone who had paid for an upgrade got through. There were about 30 people to meet and greet Epica and we were ten for Apocalyptica.

Apocalyptica is a Finnish four-man band – Eicca Toppinen, Perttu Kivilaakso, Paavo Lötjönen and Mikko Sirén – founded in 1993. They are “semi-officially” a symphonic metal band, but they’ve ventured into everything from Metallica covers (which was their origin) to pure classical works. They have a very specific style heavily using classical cellos and combining them with modern drums. They currently collaborate with American – self-identified as Cuban in the concert – singer Franky Perez for vocals.

Meeting the four of them was really fun. I got autographs and took the most epic picture I’ve ever taken with a band or artist before. As we were only ten, after it was over, I had time to buy some merchandising and still be the second person to settle on first row – despite having decided that I was going to sit back and relax.

Apocalyptica white and black poster, signed by the four members

General admission started at 18:00, and the crowd was surprisingly tame throughout the whole thing. The venue filled up and the supporting band, Wheel, came up at 18:30. Wheel is a Finnish progressive metal band that consists of James Lascelles (Vocals/Guitar), Santeri Saksala (Drums), Aki ‘Conan’ Virta (Bass) and Jussi Turunen (Lead Guitar).

Wheel Setlist

  1. Hyperion
  2. Blood drinker
  3. Movement
  4. Vultures
  5. Wheel

Wheel playing, each member at his insturment: bass, guitar, singer and drummer

The second band was Epica, which I remember having listening to back when the world was young. They are a Dutch symphonic metal band currently composed by Simone Simons (lead vocals), Mark Jansen (rhythm guitar, vocals), Coen Janssen (keyboards, synthesizer), Ariën van Weesenbeek (drums), Isaac Delahaye (lead guitar) and Rob van der Loo (bass). Simone can go insanely high with her voice, and she has an amazing presence on stage, and the whole band has an immense amount of energy – she also reminded me of a comic character. The keyboardist had a lot of personality too, and he was extremely fun.

Epica Setlist

  1. Abyss of Time – Countdown to Singularity (recording)
  2. The essence of silence
  3. Victims of contingency
  4. Unleashed
  5. The final lullaby
  6. The obsessive devotion
  7. The skeleton key
  8. Rivers
  9. Code of life
  10. Cry for the moon
  11. Beyond the Matrix
  12. Consign to oblivion

Collage of Epica playing, showing different members at their choice of insturment - singer, bassist, guitarist, and keyboardist with a portable keyboard

Finally Apocalyptica came on stage, and it was extremely fun. The things those guys do to their classical cellos would make some classical musicians cry, but the sound is super-powerful. We had Franky Perez for vocals, and a very fun moment regarding “listen to our classical music album at home, because we still feel like death metal”. They interacted a lot with the public, and it felt somehow very friendly / warm – yes, I’m talking about metal here. It was really that fantastically weird.

Apocalyptica Setlist

  1. Ashes of the Modern World
  2. Grace
  3. I’m not Jesus
  4. Not strong enough
  5. Rise
  6. En route to mayhem
  7. Shadowmaker
  8. I don’t care
  9. Nothing else matters
  10. Inquisition Symphony
  11. Seek & Destroy
  12. Farewell
  13. In the Hall of the Mountain King

Apocalyptica playing with Franky Perez. Perez is in the foreground, dressed in black. The thee cello-playing members are in the frame, playing. The drums peek behind them, but you can't spot the drummer

Apocalyptica playing at La Riviera. They have classical cellos. Two of the members stand on the sides, playing their cellos. Another one is walking swinging his as if it weighed nothing, The final one is slamming drums in the background.

We finished off just short of 23:00, I bought off some fast food for dinner, and headed back to the hotel to have a shower and get some sleep. I was woken up early in the morning due to the cleaning crew and the garbage mini-vans noises, but I did not leave bed until 9:00, then set off at 9:30. I bought some cold coffee on the way and walked into the former royal palace gardens, now public park Jardines del Campo del Moro.

Though I’d seen the gardens a few times before, this was the first time I actually walked into them. Despite the frost covering everything, I got a nice view of the palace and different fountains and buildings sprinkled throughout the green – Chalet de Corcho, is a small hut with coloured windows; and Chalecito de la Reina a wooden house that is currently closed. I was insanely amused by a little grass-cutting robot.

Jardines del Campo del Moro. Collage. It's winter and most trees are grey and bare. At the end of the walkway stands the Neoclassical Royal Palace. Two smaller buildings - one of them is white with brown beams, reminscing of German architecture; another one is a small kiosk with colourful windows - red, green...

I wandered around for an hour or so, then headed off via underground to the National library of Spain Biblioteca Nacional de España for the absolutely worst guided visit of my life. Like… it’s true that it’s free, but tickets run out within hours of coming out – on the 20th of the month, for the following month. I’d actually been trying to do this since Covid lockdowns ended… It turns out, we did not see any real books, we could not even peer into the reading area, the book and reading museum is closed and the only information we got was… that the guide did not like the Library. We did not get to see anything interesting or that we could not see on our own, and we did not get to learn anything, so this was a huge blunder. Live and learn – but it was one of the few things that was open on a Monday. The library is a huge Neoclassical building with a fantastic marble staircase inside. The doors and gates are protected by intrincate ironwork fences.

Biblioteca Nacional de España. A Neoclassical building in white and grey tones. The exterior has columns and statues of writers. The interior showcases a pair of twin staircases with the statue of one of the most important library directors between both.

I met with family for a quick lunch and then we went for a walk. We had thought about going to one of the terraces to see the cityscape, but it was closed because it was a Monday. We ended up at the Parque del Retiro park again to make some time and walk. We sat in the sun for a while, then went to see the Palacio de Velázquez there. Currently, it’s part of the modern art museum Museo de Arte Reina Sofía, and I did not really care much about the exhibits, but I like the building. Architect Ricardo Velázquez Bosco built it in brick (with ceramic tiles by Daniel Zuloaga) for the Mining Exhibit in 1883, inspired by London’s Crystal Palace, now gone. The interior is pristine white with hints of iron architecture, but the building’s official style is “neorenaissance historicism” whatever that means.

Palacio de Velazquez: A brick building with large windows and tile decoration. The inside is all white with bits of iron architecture.

Velázquez Bosco and Zuloaga also came together when they designed another building I really like, the glass-and-iron greenhouse Palacio de Cristal, which was built to home tropical flora and fauna from the Philippines in an exhibit in 1887. In front of the palace, there’s a small pond home to some cheeky ducks and geese.

Palacio de cristal. A huge greenhouse with a dome, and two wings. A white duck wanders in the foreground. Between the greenhouse and the duck there's a small pond.

Then, we went to have a snack. Trying to find something on the map before the trip, I’d come across a place called La Mejor Tarta de Chocolate del Mundo, which translates to “The best chocolate cake in the world” and that had to be tried! It was really nice, even if the place was pretty small and felt a bit cramped.

A slice of chocolate cake in front of mugs and teapots

We finally took a stroll down towards the sunset, and I took the train back without much of a hitch, then drove home

3rd & 4th February 2023: Final Fantasy Distant Worlds 35th Anniversary – Coral – in Barcelona (Spain)

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3rd February 2023: Mummies, fish, and music

Though I would not have minded to become a gamer back in the day, my joint issues discouraged this. Thus, my relation with the Final Fantasy saga is tangential. However, my sibling is a big fan of one of the instalments, and last year I accompanied them to Final Fantasy VII Remake Orchestra World Tour in Barcelona in 2021. Having had more time to prepare for this one, we got VIP tickets, and I planned a two-day outing.

Our arrival in Barcelona happened right on schedule, and we walked from the station to Caixa Forum Barcelona to see the exhibit Momias de Egipto. Redescubriendo seis vidas – Egyptian mummies; Rediscovering six lives, in collaboration with the British Museum. I am not sure whether the items are part of the actual collection over there or are in the archives, because I don’t really remember seeing any of the mummies. The Barcelona exhibits focus around six mummies and how they lives could have been before their deaths. Aside from the actual mummies and their sarcophagi or coffins, there are objects that they may have used in life, and images of what the bodies look like inside the wrappings.

It was at the very same time interesting and creepy, everything we can get to know through technology about these poor souls who passed away millennia ago. There was information about their age, illnesses, and objects they had been buried with – god statuettes, jewellery, funerary miniatures… One of the mummies in display was that of a small child with his face painted on the wrapping, that was more than a bit creepy, to be honest.

A collage showing a a mummy and a turquoise wrapping; a sarcophagus; four canope jars; three statuettes: Horus, an ibis, Thoth; close-up of a sarcophagus, with bright colours; a mummy and a plain wooden casket.

We took the underground towards the waterfront to visit L’Aquàrium de Barcelona, located in the harbour. With more than 11,000 animals and 450 species, it is the largest aquarium dedicated to the Mediterranean Sea. It was inaugurated in 1995 and it holds 35 aquariums, including an oceanarium with capacity for almost four million litres of water (36 metres diameter, five metres high) with two tunnels at the bottom. Species-wise, the aquarium does not have anything out of the ordinary, but the size of the tiger sand sharks is impressive. There are a few sharks, some tropical fish, axolotls, frogs… and a very fun sperm-whale room to keep the jellyfish in darkness.

A collage of the aquarium. Seahorse; swimming sharks; anaemone; baby dogfish shark; tiny crustacean similar to a prawn; sand tiger shark; octopus trying to eat the viewers; penguin showing off; fabulous tiny jellyfish

We grabbed an expensive-but-convenient bite to eat at the aquarium itself during some of the feeding events to make sure the cafeteria was empty. AFter we had finished viewing all the exhibits, we went on towards the hotel, which was well-placed between the auditorium and the shopping centre. Since check in had been so bad when we went to the previous Final Fantasy concert, this time we had booked different accommodation, and it was a total 180 – everyone in the hotel was super friendly, and we had zero issues. We procured some sandwiches for dinner, then got ready for the concert.

The Final Fantasy Distant Worlds 35th Anniversary – Coral – directed by Arnie Roth is a compilation of the background pieces from all the Final Fantasy games, from the first (1987) to the latest to date not counting the remakes (Final Fantasy XV, 2016). The concert was held at the CCIB – Centre de Convencions Internacional de Barcelona. We had no idea what time doors would open, but I calculated that an hour should be good for queuing for merch and then get to our seats.

By the time we got to the queue, the concert booklet had already been sold out. When we reached the front, my favourite plush toys were also gone. I decided to get the previous year’s CD in order to get it signed later at the meet & greet event that was included in the ticket we had bought. Looking back, maybe I should have asked for the autographs on the tote bag we got for the spending.

The concert had two halves and an encore, and was… strangely not very coral, for something called so. The choir was placed over to one side, and only did three or four songs – they actually did not show up for the whole first half. The set list was accompanied by projected images on the screen and it was super-impessive to see the first 8-bit games at first compared to what the technology of the latest Advent Children (movie from Final Fantasy VII) managed to create.

    First half

  1. Final Fantasy I~III: Medley 2002
  2. Final Fantasy III: Eternal Wind
  3. Final Fantasy IV: The Red Wings ~ Kingdom of Baron
  4. Final Fantasy IV: Main Theme of Final Fantasy IV
  5. Final Fantasy V: Home, Sweet Home ~ Music Box
  6. Final Fantasy V: A New World
  7. Final Fantasy VI: Phantom Forest ~ Phantom Train ~ The Veldt
  8. Final Fantasy VI: Kids Run Through the City
  9. Final Fantasy I~VI: Battle Medley 2022

    Second half

  10. Final Fantasy VIII: Liberi Fatali
  11. Final Fantasy XI: Ragnarok
  12. Final Fantasy XII: Flash of Steel
  13. Final Fantasy VII: Aerith’s Theme
  14. Final Fantasy XIV: Torn from the Heavens
  15. Final Fantasy XV: Apocalypsis Noctis
  16. Final Fantasy IX: Not Alone
  17. Final Fantasy X: 素敵だね [Suteki da ne] (Isn’t it wonderful?)
  18. Final Fantasy Main Theme with Choir ~ The Definitive Orchestral Arrangement ~

    Encore

  19. Final Fantasy X: Zanarkand
  20. Final Fantasy VII: One-Winged Angel

The concert was all right. I did not feel the general chill I had through the previous one. I really liked Liberi Fatali and One-Winged Angel, but I guess I don’t have enough of an emotional connection with most of the games. Aside from the conductor Arnie Roth, we had composer Yoko Shimomura present, and vocalist RIKKI, who is the original singer of 素敵だね in Japanese, and did the live version.

Collage. Three pictures show a classical orchestra with different things projected on the screen behind them - the logo of Distant worlds, several 8-bit screenshots of games, a very realistic depiction of a blond man with a very unrealistic sword. The last picture shows singer RIKKI, composer Yoko Shimomura and conductor Arnie Roth

The M&G was fun, and I got to tell Roth that when I grow up I want to have as much fun as he does at work. They signed autographs and took pictures with people – it was much less stiff than the usual, too. We headed off afterwards for a sandwich, a shower and a good night’s sleep. In general though, not much value for money considering how much more expensive the VIP tickets were, even though the seats were good. Also, the fact that most merchandising sold out showed poor planning.

Collage. The ticket reading the name of the concert, the autographs of the three main artists, and a plush of a Final Fantasy imaginary being, it looks like a white teddy bear with a huge pink nose, a red ball on top of it and cute wings

4th February 2023: Ramen with Friends

We had bed and breakfast at the hotel, and the latter was fantastic. The buffet had both a juice bar and a milk bar – both of which I sampled, of course. I overdid it with the fried egg, I fear, but they were just cooked and it looked just too appetizing not to fall for one. After breakfast, we packed up, vacated the room, and asked the hotel to keep our bags for a couple of hours. We went to the science museum Museu de Ciències Naturals NAT, where we spent a couple of hours. This is the only place where they refused to speak Spanish to us.

The museum is divided in several areas. The first one is “history of the Earth”, where you can see a few interactive exhibits, fossils and reproductions. The second one is the collection of living animals, most of the stuffed, some of them just skeletons. There was another one about fungi – with the edible ones exhibited in tins. Then there was one on plants, and finally rocks and minerals. Not a bad place to spend a couple of hours, but it is just one of those places that takes itself much more seriously than it should, to the point that it felt pretentious. Some items were exhibited over and over again, as if they just wanted to use up the room – I counted at least eight elbaite specimens in different locations, and there were a bunch of reproductions taking up important spaces, you would believe they were originals if not paying lots of attention to the writing, and the blue light made for horrid photographs.

Collage. Four pictures show prehistoric animals in blue light, stuffed animals, a tin of mushrooms along real specimens, a red algae and some shiny rocks.

We transited to Sants train station to drop off my sibling’s bag at the cloakroom there and went on to meet my Barcelona friends E**** and P***o who had offered to take us to eat really-real Japanese ramen. Since I had a feeling that the restaurant would be on the small-ish side, and my sibling’s luggage was a bit oversized since they had cosplayed for the concert, I decided on the Sants detour for convenience.

The restaurant is called KOBUTA ramen i més (Kobuta Ramen and More) and I was amused when all of us made the same choice – tonkotsu miso ramen with an extra of half an egg, and water; then we shared some gyoza (dumplings) and karaage (fried chicken). The restaurant is not cheap, but the food makes up for that, it is very authentic Japanese food.

Collage. A dish of breaded fried chicken, some dumplings, and a bowl of ramen, with the ingredients floating - algae, half an egg, noodles, pork meat and spring onion

Though P***o had to leave early, the rest of us headed off towards the bullfighting-ring-turned shopping centre Arenas de Barcelona. There, we climbed up the terrace for views, then sat down for drinks and a long chat. We also popped into the local comic store, since it was convenient, and eventually we headed off to the station.

Collage. Shopping centre las Arenas, a round building that used to be a bullfighting ring, there are two pictures, one by daylight and another one at night, lit up. There's a picture of the views- two clock towers leading to a palace; finally three glasses together showing brightly coloured drinks - yellow, orange and dark pink

The train ride home was surreal. People playing music on their phones, yelling, talking loudly and making the footrests squeak – apparently there had been some kind of sporting event for kids and a lot of families were coming back home. All in all, not a bad couple of days, lots of laughs, I got to see dear friends and eat nice food, and listen to cool music – in the CCIB, not on the train.

13th October 2022: Serrat in Zaragoza {Aragón & Navarra Oct. 2022}

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Joan Manuel Serrat was born in Barcelona in 1943. He is a singer, songwriter, composer, actor, writer, poet and musician, whose long career started in 1965. Since then, he has sung first in Catalan, then in Spanish, and finally in both languages. In 1968, he was involved in a Eurovision controversy as there was a strife about singing in Catalan or Spanish, and in the end he was replaced by another artist – who ended up winning.

Throughout Franco’s Dictatorship, Serrat lived an unstable balance between the media veto caused by the Eurovision scandal, the censorship of some of his lyrics, and his growing popularity both in Spain and Latin America. During the 70s, he became a vocal protestor against the Dictatorship, with his songs, actions and words, which ended up with another veto and an exile to Mexico. In a way, he became the symbol of the discontent of the twenty- and thirty-somethings that had grown in the Spanish post–Civil War, who were then wading into adulthood. Serrat’s song Mediterráneo (Mediterranean Sea) has been repeatedly called the best song in the history of Spanish pop music. The album stayed as number 1 in Spain for weeks despite the censorship – since then, he has collected innumerable accolades and homages.

My parents… I don’t think I can call them fans, but they have listened to Joan Manuel Serrat for a long time – as a matter of fact, my father used to translate songs into Spanish for my mother back when they were young, as he spoke Catalan and she did not. But they are not concert people, so I was slightly surprised when back in April my mother commented in passing that, had tickets not been sold out, she would have liked to attend the Madrid concerts of Serrat’s goodbye tour El Vicio de Cantar. Serrat 1965 – 2022 (Singing is a vice. Serrat 1965 – 2022). I put the Internet machinery to work, and I found tickets for Zaragoza on the 13th of October. At that time, my parents asked if I would be interested, and I said yes, as he is indeed one of the most important singer–songwriter of the 20th century in Spain.

Ticket: Serrat, el vicio de cantar

The problems started when I could not get the day off, so that meant driving there as I left work. I could have got away with leaving half an hour earlier to get to the train as they drove off earlier, but they refused, so we ended up getting to Zaragoza around 17:00. Checking into the hotel took 40 minutes due to the slow check-in process, and luckily we were on the third floor. Funnily enough, it seemed that everyone in the hotel was there for the concert, so a lot of older people not used to travelling nor hotels.

The concert was due to start at 21:30 in the local sports centre Pabellón Príncipe Felipe, and there was a delay of about 15 minutes. To be honest, I did not expect it to be such a powerful experience – I mean, we’re talking about a 79-year-old man here, I did not think he would still have such a powerful voice nor presence on stage. There were a lot of songs I did not know, but the ones I had heard before still retained the vitality of records as old as the 80s! The set list was a remix of his most iconic songs in Spanish, with a couple of them in Catalan language:

  1. Dale que dale – “Go on and on”.
  2. Mi niñez – “My childhood”.
  3. El carrusel del Furo – “Furo’s carrousel”.
  4. Romance de Curro el Palmo – “The romance of Curro el Palmo”.
  5. Señora – “Lady”.
  6. Lucía
  7. No hago otra cosa que pensar en ti – “I keep thinking about you and nothing else”.
  8. Algo personal – “Something personal”.
  9. Nanas de la cebolla – “Onion lullaby”, with lyrics from a famous Spanish poet who wrote the poem in prison, when his wife wrote to him that there were only bread and onions at home, and she had to breastfeed their baby.
  10. Para la libertad – “For freedom”.
  11. Cançó de bressol / Canción de cuna – “Lullaby”.
  12. Hoy por ti, mañana por mí – “Today it’s you, tomorrow it’s me”.
  13. Tu nombre me sabe a yerba – “Your name tastes like herbs” – grass, actually, but it sounds horrid in English.
  14. Los recuerdos – “Memories”.
  15. Es caprichoso el azar – “Fate is whimsical”.
  16. Hoy puede ser un gran día – “Today can be a great day” – I keep telling myself this.
  17. Pare – “Father”.
  18. Mediterráneo – “Mediterranean Sea”, I can totally understand how this is considered one of the best songs ever in Spanish.
  19. Aquellas pequeñas cosas – “It’s the little things”, started the encore
  20. Cantares – “Songs or Poems”, with lyrics by Antonio Machado, one of the greatest Spanish poets in the Spanish 20th century.
  21. Paraules d’amor – “Words of Love”.
  22. Penélope – though I knew this song, the lyrics were different from the ones I was used to.
  23. Fiesta – “Festival”, a bit of a high-inducing song to finish the concert way past midnight!

Serat concert: Stage with signature decoration, and two shots of the concert

It was hilarious to see all these sixty- and seventy- year-olds get out from the pavilion and walk to the hotel, all pumped up and way beyond their bedtime. By the time we arrived at the hotel, there was a queue at the lifts! All these exhausted boomers, hyped up and at the same time with no more energy left. That is when we were so happy to be on the third floor and not something like the seventh or eight (≧▽≦). The bed was comfortable but I did not sleep much.

13th – 15th May 2022: Paris (France) & Saint Seiya Symphonic Adventure

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This has been a weird ride in more ways than one. Back when we did not know what kind of hell was breaking loose in Wuhan, I went to Paris for a couple of concerts with the idea of coming back in a few week’s time. Instead of that, Covid turned the world upside down. Four postponements later, and a stupid amount of money I am not even going to calculate, I finally set off to Paris, France, once more, to watch the Saint Seiya Symphonic Adventure. The concert that was supposed to happen on the 18th of April, 2020 finally took place on the 14th of May, 2022, and the promoter handled the postponements pretty badly, which led to a lot of people returning their tickets at some point.

Ticket. Frand Rex 75002 Paris, Overlook Events Presente: Saint Seiya Symphonic Adventure. Les Chevaliers du Zodiaque. Samedi 30 Octobre 2021, 19:30 h. Orchestre Chevaliers Dor. Eur 240,00. Accès VIP. The rest of the information is blurred.

Corny and problematic as it may be, Saint Seiya [聖闘士星矢] was my favourite anime as a child – it was exciting and my parents heavily disapproved of it, the perfect mixture for a pre-teen finding their place in the world. In December 2019, I do not even remember how, I came across the information about the event, described as a fully-immersive live-to-picture symphonic concert with the music from pop-culture […] synchronized to cutting edge video screen, lighting and special sound effects. Similarly to the recent Final Fantasy Remake concert, the idea is an orchestra concert with the original singers for some of the musical pieces, along with projections of the original cartoon. Overlook announced an afternoon and an evening concerts. However, by the time I found out that the event had been planned, tickets had been on sale for a while. I managed to get a fairly decent ticket for the afternoon concert, but and a very bad one for the evening concert as part of Christmas sales (which meant I got both tickets for the price of the normal “good” afternoon ticket). At the time, I was ecstatic, as you may guess, though a tiny bit bummed I had not learnt about the whole thing in time to get some VIP tickets.

Enter Covid-19. One postponement led to another, and then another. At some point in late summer 2021 I entered the ticket page for something, and I could not believe my eyes – someone had returned one of the second-tier VIP tickets, and… I got that one. I seriously could not believe it. One of twelve (with the name of one of twelve characters of the show), it came with goodies, access to the rehearsal, and the autograph session after the show. So I now had a good ticket and a fantastic ticket!

Then the event got postponed again, barely three weeks before. I was… miffed. Eventually though, the promoter got in touch with me and I was assigned a character, I bought plane tickets (again), booked a hotel (again – in this case I booked two, one at the airport and one near the theatre), and… held my breath.

When the Japanese singers arrived in Paris, I realised that it was finally happening. And thus, I booked my airport parking ticket and… held my breath again. Iberia’s check in gave me trouble, but I eventually managed to get my boarding pass (I could check in on the webpage, but only get my boarding pass from the app), and fill in the passenger form to get into France.

The plane left late on Friday evening, and it was a long weekend in Madrid, so I left with time – a lot of time. I learnt two things: one, my planning skills are awesome, and two, my car has run out of air-con gas, as I got caught in a bad traffic jam, and yet somehow I arrived within five minutes of my expected entrance time. The flight to Paris was stupidly uneventful and I was surprised at how nicely the security personnel actually behaved.

Upon arriving in Charles de Gaulle I walked out of the plane into the bus and then to the terminal. There was no kind of health check whatsoever, so I could just walk up to my hotel, which was strangely bustling for it being near midnight.

14th May 2022: Paris & Grand Rex

The organisers had sent me an email that I had to be at the Grand Rex theatre at 10 a.m. in order to pick up my goodie bag. It turned out that the email was wrong, and I was not to be there till 11 a.m. The Grand Rex is an art decó building which, like a bunch of things I saw, was under renovation.

Outside the Grand Rex. It is only a huge scaffolding as the façade is being renovated.

Throughout all the waiting for the different sessions I took a few strolls around the area of Grand Boulevards after dropping off my luggage at the hotel. I ambled round and saw two smallish triumph arcs – Porte Saint-Denis and Porte Saint-Martin.

Two monumental gates in the middle of crossroads. The traffic is horrible.

Also around the area are Mairie du 10e arrondissement, a Renaissance Revival public building, Église Saint-Laurent (Church of Saint Lawrence), a gothic chapel which was also under reconstruction, Église Saint-Vincent-de-Paul (Saint-Vincent de Paul Catholic Church). A bit further away stands Gare de l’Est, one of the six large stations in Paris.

Some buildings, including a gothic church, a neoclassical one, and a 19th century train station.

At 11:00, I finally got into the Grand Rex to watch the rehearsal, which lasted about an hour. I had been lucky to find a staff member who spoke English as I was apparently the only non-French-speaker in the VIP group, and he told me that the artists would come to say hello after the rehearsal. He added that as everything would be French and Japanese I’d be lost. I replied that I had better Japanese than French anyway. After the rehearsal we got to wave hello to the two Japanese special guests – popster NoB (Nobuo Yamada) and soprano Kazuko Ishikawa.

The staff member was very proud to point out the “Spanish person who had come from Spain” to the Japanese staff. Nob said “gracias” to which I replied in Japanese – the standard “we are looking forward to the act today”, which I guess threw everybody off a little, and got me an also standard “nihongo joozu” (you are good at Japanese” that the Japanese tell you when you’ve thrown the curveball of talking to them in their language. At this point, I became noticed.

I left the theatre for a while and came back for the first concert, which started late. The venue was rather empty, and during the break a bunch of people tried to parachute into better seats. I saw some other VIPs who had gotten a complimentary seat. As the lights went out the only thing that went through my head was “I can’t believe this is finally happening” again and again and again.

The inside of Grand Rex. The stage is a great arch with the words Saint Seiya Symphonic Adventure projected on a screen

But it was happening. The recital was divided in two acts – the first one aligned with the first arc of the anime, and the second with arcs two and three, what is call the “classical anime” as the final act was not animated up until a couple of decades later.

ACT 1
Opening
Pegasus Fantasy
The Galaxian Wars
Hyoga and Crystal Saint
Silver and Gold Saints
Zodiac Temples Part I
Ikki’s Wrath
Zodiac Temples Part II
Victory of the Heroes
Eien Blue

ACT 2
Saint Sinwa ~Soldier Dream
The Seven God Warriors
The Fury of Asgard
The Odin Sapphires
Yume Tabibito
Poseidon’s Lair

ENCORE: Pegasus Fantasy

Bluntly put, I loved it, but mostly because of nostalgia. The first one was better than the second, but there were issues with the sound, and the microphones, and at times the orchestra complete swallowed the vocals. The conductor was hilariously into it, bouncing in his platform. The harp was fantastic, and the soprano spectacular. NoB, the pop singer… is showing his age, but did a decent job of getting the audience hyped-up.

The orchestra on the stage. Images from the anime are projected on the screen.

Another of the guests was the voice actor who played the main character in the original French anime version, and boy did he bring down the walls. People absolutely loved him. To be honest, I was rather surprised at the audience’s attitude towards the whole thing, with clapping and yelling and – among everything – parachuting to better seats. I wonder whether this last thing is usual or just due to the stalls being rather empty (after all there was “free seating” in the first-floor paradise).

I went to the hotel between the first and second concert to retrieve my things and get some rest, but eventually I got back to the theatre. There were more people this time around, and my seat was undoubtedly better. It was there when I got “adopted” by the high-class VIPs, who had been very amused at my having been “lost” and then surprised at the fact that yes, I could speak some Japanese. Thanks to them I found my way to the signing session and got my programme signed by both NoB and Kazuko Kawashima. I did trip over my Japanese there, but I should have known I don’t do well trying to learn new words just before post-concert signing sessions.

Merchandise included in the VIP ticket: mug, t-shirt, posters and booklet, all with images from the Saint Seiya anime

A close up of the booklet - showing the signatures of the singer and the soprano, and the VIP badge.

15th May 2022: Angels, Unicorns and Organ Music

I checked in early in the morning and I fought the Paris Metro system to a) find an entrance where I could buy tickets and b) make the machine work so I could buy those tickets. My first destination was the largest cemetery in Paris – Cimetière du Père-Lachaise. This early 19th century cemetery holds the remains of personalities such as Oscar Wilde, whose grave is protected by a glass wall as it became a fad to put lipstick on and kiss it, which was damaging it; the grave looks like a Babylonian bull or angel. Another grave I wanted to visit was that for Jean-François Champollion – the man who discovered the Rosetta stone, whose tomb looks like an obelisk. And after some wrong turns I also found Frédéric Chopin (minus his preserved heart, which was taken to Poland); this tomb features Euterpe, the muse of music, crying over a broken lyre.

Graves at Père-Lachaise: a flying Babylonian angel (Wilde), an obelisk (Champollion), a muse weeping on her lyre (Chopin).

The cemetery was not as well laid-out as I had hoped so after a while wandering around I decided to move on. On Friday I had read that the museum of Medieval History and the old Therms of Paris had been reopened after a long closure. Thus, I decided to skip looking for more “celebrity graves” and headed towards central Paris. The Musée de Cluny – Musée national du Moyen Âge is built in a 1485 “town house” (more like a palace though, usually called a château) that was erected right on the the old Roman Baths that date the city of Paris back into the Roman period. Today it has been refurbished and holds artefacts and artworks from the Upper and Lower Middle Ages that have been brought from over different churches, including Notre Dame and the Sainte-Chapelle.

The most important piece in the museum is a collection of six tapestries, called “The Lady and the Unicorn”, dated from the late 15th / early 16th century. Five of them represent the sentences, and the sixth is a mystery (theories include “love” and “free will” – I’m a fan of the latter). They all feature the same medieval dame in a red background, accompanied by a golden lion and a white unicorn, and they are marvellous.

Collage: The foundations of the manor; an ornate church entryway, carved on the stone; a Virgin Mary statue; the tapestry of the lady petting the unicorn, with plants and a red background

A piece of art in its own right is the chapel of the town house. It was built around the same time of the house in the Flamboyant Gothic style. It contrast with the stark outside of the house, with its sever walls.

The ceiling of the chapel, which looks like a star fractal, and a view of the whole manor

I still had some time, so I decided to head over to the church Église de la Madeleine, a catholic church that looks like a classical temple (believe it or not to hail the Napoleonic army). It is built in the Neoclassical style, and it is enormous. However, it was also being renovated, so the outside was covered in hideous publicity panels.

Church of La Madeleine, it looks like a Greek temple, all columns with a triangular front, and the inside, showing Mary surrounded by the saints and the angels.

Finally, I went back to the hotel to pick up my things and walked back to the station – I did not want to carry my luggage around because I worried it would damage the posters I had got at the concert. I actually arrived and left from different airports, so I had to head to Orly this time. However, RER B joins both airports, so the closest station for arrival, Châtelet–Les Halles, was also the closest to leave. Upon coming out on Saturday I had caught eye of a small gothic church, and as I walked past this time I noticed that there was an open door and people went in and out. It was the church of St. Eustache, Église Saint-Eustache. The structure is Flamboyant Gothic, and the decorations are Renaissance and classical. It has one of the largest organs in France, and I was lucky enough that it was being played when I was there. It felt pretty magical, to be honest.

Top: A gothic church from the outside, with lots of windows. Bottom: the same church inside - high columns look like a forest, and the light filters through all the windows outsde, like water from a fall.

Afterwards, I hopped onto the train and headed for the airport. I got there earlier than expected, too, as I had planned according to some traffic restrictions that did not happen in the end. I debated some food, but everything was so expensive! The return flight was plagued with turbulence, and I got home exhausted and with a migraine, but it was well worth it! Also, travelling through Covid-19 was… weird. While I kept my facemask on most of the time, including the plane rides, the concerts, and whenever I was inside, most people would not – even the still-compulsory places. I was also happy to skip the “health checks” because I swear, the way I was feeling after landing, I don’t know if I had been running a temperature, and that would have been… awkward.

A view of Paris from the plane, also showing the wing

11th & 12th December 2021: Final Fantasy Remake Orchestra World Tour, Barcelona (Spain)

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11th December 2021: El Triángulo Friki

When the tickets for the FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE Orchestra World Tour first came out, 2020 promised to be an amazing year. True, we all know how that turned out, but the point was that I did not have enough fun funds at that moment. So I just looked at the Barcelona dates, sighed, and never bought tickets because I decided that it was a low-priority event for me. Then, what happened happened and the tour was pushed forward to 2021. By chance, back in summer this year, I saw that it would take place on a Saturday, the 11th of December 2021. My sibling overheard me mulling whether I wanted to try to go or not this time over, since I had not done much on the nerdsphere for a while, and the low priotity was conflagrating with higher priortity and the still lacking fun budget. They didn’t know about this, though, and they proposed we went together. I thought it was a good opportunity for a weekend out, so I did some checking. We found some tickets that had been turned back, in an amazing place, actually – row #5 on the stalls. We booked a hotel and trains, and just went on with our lives.

The train left around 8:00 and arrived in Barcelona short from 11:00 – both of us had been in town before and were looking for an “alternative” plan. I had been checking out different options, and by pure chance, on Thursday, I found out that there is an area in Barcelona called Triángulo Friki, something akin to “the nerd triangle”. It is an area near Arc de Triomph that holds a bunch stores which specialise in comics, manga, figures, merchandising and so on. I thought it could be a fun thing to see, as Japanese stuff a hobby I share to some extent with my sibling.

We took the commuter train to the area (commuter train tickets are complementary with long-distance ones, which helps, as the Barcelona public transport is very expensive) and wandered around a bunch of shops, under the agreement not to spend too much money nor to buy anything that did not fit in our backpacks. We… failed the mission successfully. On the sixth or so shop I got myself a Christmas present that sure as hell did not fit in the backpack.

A collage showing the entrance to a bunch of comic and gaming stores. Most of them have a window showing Funko pops

One of the shops we visited was Tsume Store, in association with Global Freaks. Tsume is a business that 3D-prints statuettes from anime designs, and Global Freaks is a merchandise shop. They have a partnership and Tsume is selling some of its statuettes through Global Freaks – we saw one of them, priced at 1400€. Most of the figures were just for show. On the other hand, Global Freaks had several things we bought (remember the “mission failed successfully” comment? We spent way too much money on stuff that did not fit in the backpacks). Furthermore, they had a reproduction of a motorbike from Akira (アキラ), a famous manga / anime – a cyberpunk action story whose main character, Shōtarō Kaneda, rides it through Neo-Tokyo.

Tsume / Global freaks store in Barcelona. There are different pictures of resine statues of different sizes (and prices), and a reproduction of an anime motorbike.

We walked towards the area where the basilica designed by Gaudí, and consecrated to the Holy Family, Basílica de la Sagrada Família, which had been decorated with a new twelve-point 7.5-metre 5.5-tonne star. As there was a Christmas market around the basilica, I thought that the start was just for Christmas, but it turns out that it is there for good.

A modernist cathedral. It looks a bit like it's melting. It has four towers, plus one with a star, and a triangular façade

We took an underground train to the area where the venue was, and we were there around half an hour before hotel was open to check ins so we decided to have lunch first in the adjoining shopping centre. We ended up at an Udon, a wannabe fancy noodle bar chain. This was our first time getting our Covid passport checked as it’s not necessary where we’re from. The whole process was fast – open the PDF, zoom in, get it read with a device, and a green light with our names on it lit up (eventually I just screenshot the zoomed-in QR). I still felt a little uncomfortable due to the amount of people in the restaurant, so we ate as quick as possible before heading off to the hotel.

A bowl of ramen and a peek of a tempura plate in the background

It was the worst check-in experience ever. First of all, I think it’s stupid to demand a payment deposit on an already-paid booking. Second, they tried to charge me for the room again, we were given one card key for two people which didn’t even work, and we were “upgraded” to a room with a city view (16 € more expensive than our booking), but that only had amenities for one guest. We needed to get off the lift to request another card in order to get to the 21st floor, and we finally got two working cards. Oh, and the hotel was hosting a bunch of teams for some kind of handball championship who thought masks were for lesser beings and got away with it, despite the super-strict Covid-policy the hotel claimed to have, and with the obvious blessings of the clerks, despite other guests’ complaints.

Two views of Barcelona from above, one with daylight, the other one at night. The buildings are apartment blocks, rather regular, and you can guess the long streets that separate the different areas

We stayed in the room, just chatting and taking in the astonishing views (nah, I’m not being sarcastic (≧▽≦).) The FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE Orchestra World Tour concert was to start at 20:00, but doors were at 18:30. It took place in the convention centre CCIB – Centre de Convencions Internacional de Barcelona, which… actually turned up to be the auditorium of the local Natural Science Museum. That was confusing for a minute.

We were quite literally across the square so we just had to go down. It took just a few minutes to enter, and then we went into the goods queue, because my sibling absolutely needed a chokobo plush. We were in line for about half an hour, as we debated how expensive everything was! They decided that I needed a chokobo too, so I’m the proud owner of a Chokobo Black Mage now.

An adorable chokobo plush with a mage cape sitting on the leaflets we got from the concert.

After we had all our goods, we headed off to our seats – which had been occupied by two different people who had bought row five on the dress floor – but had tried the main floor stands, never mind that a lady told you which door you had to use when you went in, in order to avoid these “mistakes” . I decided that I did not care about causing a scene, so I just grabbed an usher and had her clear our seats. The guy on mine took my flyer too, but I found some more when the concert was over. I’m amused though that someone would buy a ticket on the first floor and then happily stroll down to the fifth row on the stalls – more than double the price.

Let me start by saying that I’m not a video-game player, that’s why this event was originally a low-priority one. When my wrist problems started, I was recommended not to play them any more. But I love video-game graphs and Final Fantasy VII designs more than any. I mean, I own the Advent Children DVD just because it’s pretty. I have to admit though that the concert blew my mind. The stage was full with a complete orchestra indeed, and a choir – the Ensemble Symphony Orchestra & Chorus. At the back of stage there was a screen that projected scenes from the game, both animations and gameplay. In the little emcees by conductor – and producer – Arnie Roth we also got messages from composers and producers from Japan. Furthermore, the composer Hamauzu Masashi was in attendance. We did not get Yosh Morita, from The Prophets, as it was originally announced, but singer Ricardo Afonso did a very decent job out of the power ballad Hollow.

Empty stage with chairs for the orchestra. There is a screen in the background reading Final Fantasy VII Remake Orchestra World Tour in front of a futuristic cityscape

    Part 1

  1. Prelude – Reunion –
  2. Opening medley
  3. Mako Reactor 1
  4. Flowers Blooming in the Church
  5. The Turks’ Theme
  6. Tight rope
  7. Stand up
  8. Words left unheard
  9. Tifa’s Theme – Seventh Heaven –
  10. Those who fight – Battle Medley –

    Part 2

  11. Anxious Heart
  12. Hurry!
  13. Jessie’s Theme
  14. Shinra’s Theme
  15. The Arsenal
  16. Those chosen by the Planet – Fate’s Calling –
  17. Arbiters of Fate – Singularity –
  18. Hollow
  19. Final Fantasy VII Main Theme

    Encore

  20. Aerith’s Theme
  21. One Winged Angel

I loved the Those who fight – Battle Medley –, and I’d say that one of the highlights was the song Hurry Up. Apparently, during a specific part of the game you have to put the rather-uptight main character in a dress and teach him to dance in a night club. I also really liked the choir interventions. The concert ended on a hype – for a second I thought it would end in the slow song, but no, we got the fantastic theme for the bad guy Sephiroth, One-winged angel.

The stage again, this time it is full with the orchestra and the director. The screen shows the main character of the game, Cloud, with blond spiky hair and a ridiculously big sword, holding a bright ball in his hand.

The concert lasted for two hours and a half, including the intermission – in which I got to see (and hug!) friends. After the ending, we tried to go and grab some sushi at the shopping centre, but they were already closing down – so in the end we just got a salad and some chips at McDonald’s and took it to the hotel – then we showered, rearranged luggage and purchases, and went to bed.

12th December 2021: Walk by the ocean

Our original plan after breakfast was to take a walk by the beach, then check out and ride the underground, but we realised that we had a train station about 20 minutes away, and we could get a detour by the seaside and make it a bit longer – and if we took the train, we had a free ride.

When we checked out we got the same person who had checked us in. They still had to charge us for the tourist tax, and I had that ready in cash. They insisted that they had to deduct that from the deposit and give us the change, they could not give us a fifty-buck note. They had to give us the change. With lots of coins. They did not even check the room for damage, so what was even the point of the deposit?

We left the hotel, and walked towards the station. We spent a little time at the beach Platja del Fòrum and the mouth of the river Río Besòs before we reached the station – lots of people walking their dogs, and lots of happy dogs playing on the beach and with the waves. In the background, the former thermal station with three chimneys looming over the sand – Central Tèrmica de Sant Adrià de Besòs. Had we had more time, we would have taken the time to try and get to it, but due to external reasons we had tickets for the noon train and it was already 10:45 – and I am paranoid about schedules.

A sandy beach with a factory building in the background, it has three chimneys made of brick. The waves are coming in gently.

We took the commuter train, then the long distance train. When we arrived, before going home, we made a short stop to have some make-up sushi for the one we could not get the previous night. And some side Chinese dumplings.

Sushi and bao plate

Walking distance Saturday: 9.05 km
Walking distance Sunday: 5.54 km

7th – 10th February 2020: Paris (France) for DIR EN GREY & BABYMETAL

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I organised a weekend in Paris because two concerts conveniently aligned on Saturday and Sunday, and I had Friday free, as well as Monday morning. It was a great mental break that I needed badly. ETA: There were rumours about a flu from China, and some of the airport workers were wearing masks. We had no idea what was about to hit us…

7th February 2020: Through the Strikes

I had found quite a convenient flight that left at 9:00 on Friday for 35 €, which was a great deal. At first, I did not understand why it was so cheap. It turned out, the plane came from South America and it was on a Madrid stopover – so it was pretty much full already. It was a huge aircraft with on-board entertainment. That came in handy when the pilot informed us that we were going to have to wait something between one and two hours to be able to take off due to the air controllers’ strikes in France. But at least we were flying and I had films to watch.

We took off at about 10:00 and our big plane made the jump in just one hour, as opposed to the 2h10 minutes of estimated travel, which meant we were almost on time! Of course, this did not sit well with the strikers, who had us wait first for the parking spot, and then for the stairs to deplane. I finally managed to leave the airport and get onto the train so I reached downtown Paris around 13:00. I wanted to inspect the damage caused to the cathedral Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris by the 2019 fire. My first impression, looking at the main façade and towers, was optimistic, but as I walked round the building, I could see the real damage and reconstruction efforts. Furthermore, it still reeked of burnt wood, probably because they were still pulling out debris. My optimism did not linger long, I’m afraid.

Collage of Notre Dame showing the cranes and scaffoldings in the repairs

As it was sunny, I decided to walk to the Sainte-Chapelle (Holy Chapel) and see its windows in good weather. The Sainte-Chapelle is a small two-level chapel inside the Justice Palace Palais de Justice de Paris in the Île de la Cité, smack in the middle of Paris and not far from Notre Dame – actually, both of them belong to the same Unesco World Heritage Site, Paris, Banks of the Seine. The chapel has a lower early Gothic level, and an upper level with impressive stained-glass windows which I love. As the sun was shining outside, the views were stunning.

Collage. Sainte-Chapelle: outside showing the spire, inside with some colourful windows and pointed arches

Collage of the upper floor of the Sainte-Chapelle. It shows different angles of the long gothic windows, covered in colourful glass

The weather was great – especially considering February in Paris, which is always more to the north than I mentally place it. Unfortunately, the forecast for the following day was quite miserable, and thus I decided to just walk along from the Île de la Cité towards the Arc de Triomphe (some 5 km away). On my way, I walked by the Louvre, Les Tulleries, the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais, the Alexander III Bridge, and into the Avenue des Champs-Élysées – the Banks of the Seine that the Unesco declared World Heritage.

Collage with different landmarks of Paris - the river, neoclassic palaces, Luxor obelisk, Champs-Élysées.

Finally I reached the Arc de Triomphe, which honours the fallen in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. It was commissioned by Emperor Napoleon in 1806, and completed in 1836, and you can actually climb it, which I might do some day. From there, I took a train towards Montmartre, where I had booked my hotel. I dropped off my luggage and walked up Square Louise Michel, a sort of urban park which leads up to the church Basilique du Sacré-Cœur (222 steps). There was a pretty carousel Carrousel de Saint-Pierre, and from the square, I could watch the Eiffel Tower Tour Eiffel against the sunset from the lookout Vue de Paris.

A view of the Sacre Coeur with a classical carousel in front of it

A profile of the Eiffel Tower in a blurry sunset in orange tones

I went back to the hotel for a while during twilight. On the way, I bought a snack in a nearby supermarket for dinner as I waited for the evening to get dark and the lights to come up. When it did, I took my last adventure for the day, and walked off to see the Moulin Rouge while I listened to KAMIJO’s song of the same name. It was a few minutes’ walk away from my hotel, and Moulin Rouge [ムーランルージュ] is one of my favourite songs of his. Since the man is obsessed with France, he has a few songs that fit my weekend. Truth be told, I did consider dinner and a show there, it is after all the most famous cabaret in the world. However, it was a bit expensive and I had read quite a few reviews about bad seats if you are alone. I did not want to waste money, and I did not know how tired I would be that evening in the end – and to be brutally honest,I really had not felt like packing fancy clothes for the evening.

The Moulin Rouge cabaret, all lit up in bright red for the night

8th February 2020: Louvre and DIR EN GREY

The weather forecast was accurate, and despite the lovely weather on Friday, Saturday dawned stormy and dark. I decided to go to the Louvre Museum Musée du Louvre, even if I had been there before. It is after all one of the greatest museums in the world.

The Louvre holds so many pieces (over 600,000) that it would be impossible to describe them all, but for me, its core is the Winged Victory of Samothrace, a Greek sculpture from the Hellenistic period, around the 2nd century BCE, and my favourite piece of art. The Louvre is a national art museum, which opened in the post-revolutionary France in 1793. It exhibits around 35,000 items – Egyptian antiquities, Sumer and Assyrian pieces, Greek, Etruscan and Roman items, Islamic art, neoclassical and Baroque sculptures, a collection of objets d’art (Decorative arts), paintings, prints, drawings… It is located in the former French Royal Palace of the same name.

A collage with several Louvre pieces of art - Winged Victory, sitting scribe, the three graces, Diane washing her hair, Hermaphroditus sleeping, Psyche and Eros kissing, Liberty guiding the people, Venus de Milo

I wandered there for a few hours and I might have lost my way in the galleries a few times. In the end, I managed to (re)visit all the artefacts and artworks that I wanted. Because there are hundreds of thousands of items, but I must always see the Sitting Scribe, the Borghese Hermaphroditus, Canovas’ Eros and Psyche, and the remains of the Gates of Istar. I had a bit of a headache, so I eventually went back to the hotel to get some rest and prepare for the DIR EN GREY concert and VIP experience in the Élysée Montmartre live house. DIR EN GREY or “Diru” is a Japanese heavy metal band known for its dark themes and scenography that I thought I needed to check at least once (the final verdict was that I don’t need to repeat the experience, but it made for a nice mental break). The band has remained stable since its formation in 1997, and it is composed by Kyo [京] (lead vocals), Kaoru [薫] (rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Die (lead guitar, backing vocals), Shinya (drums) and Toshiya (bass, backing vocals).

A dark stage with a drum set. Letters projected on the screen behind the stage read Dir en Grey Tour 20 This Way to Self-Destruction

Setlist:

    1. 絶縁体 [Zetsuentai]
    2. 人間を被る [Ningen wo Kaburu]
    3. Rubbish Heap
    4. Devote My Life
    5. 軽蔑と始まり [Keibetsu to Hajimari]
    6. Celebrate Empty Howls
    7. 赫 [Aka]
    8. Merciless Cult
    9. Downfall
    10. Values of Madness
    11. 谿壑の欲 [Keigaku no Yoku]
    12. Ranunculus
    13. The World of Mercy
First encore:
    14. Followers
    15. THE DEEPER VILENESS
    16. 詩踏み [Utafumi]
Second encore:
    17. Sustain the untruth

Listing of all the concerts in the Dir en Grey 2020 tour

The concert was the final of DIRU’s 2020 European Tour TOUR20: This way to Self-Destruction. When I walked by the venue on Friday evening, around 18:00, there was a small number of people queueing already. I did not care enough to queue all day, and I had a VIP ticket with early entry, so I just headed to the line about 15:00. When the queues were separated and organised, around 16:30, I was VIP number 42. The weather was miserable, and I could have totally skipped the downpour while waiting, but I was lucky enough to be against the live house and not in the middle of the boulevard, where the General Admittance queue was. Doors opened at 19:30 for GA, and the VIP experience was held beforehand. The VIP queue started getting in around 17:30. As present we got a VIP pass and an “exclusive VIP only merchandise item” which turned out to be a scarf – very appropriate with the weather. The experience itself was a group photo with the band. There were five cushioned chairs for the fans, and the band stood behind. They did not say a word, nor interacted with fans in any way, not even acknowledging a hello or a thank you.

Afterwards, I headed for the hall, and I found an almost-barrier spot in the left area, on the second row. The people in front of me let me grab the barrier between them so I had something to hold on while I waited. The special guest was a DJ, who was more focused on getting recorded by his buddy on the phone than mixing music. The main show started a little after 20:30.

DIR EN GREY’s music is quite powerful, with a heavy focus on strings and drums. They also have a huge flare for theatricality and they enjoy the shock factor as part of the aesthetics. The singer, Kyo, donned a Joker-like make-up appearance, with a fake-suicidal attitude on stage, using the microphone to mimic stabbing his chest, or the wires to hang himself. It became a bit disturbing because it was repeated more than once. The act also felt rather distanced, there was very little interaction with the fans. At some point, a pick flew in my direction and the person behind me actually felt me up to try and find it in the folds of the coat I had tied around my waist. That was probably even creepier than the act.

The guitars and bass were tremendously powerful, and the drumming was amazing. The crowd was extremely loud, and the singer, Kyo, later confessed that he had been pretty exhausted and burnt out from the tour, which maybe explained why the concert felt so distanced. The encores were the probably best part of the concert, the part that felt more real and relaxed. After the concert was over, I headed off to the hotel to catch some sleep. Since I remembered that the area had felt a bit rough when I was there in 2014, this time over I wanted close accommodation so I could get back quickly without needing to use the underground.

9th February 2020: Destroy the Bastille!

Sunday morning was around 2 ºC, and it was windy. I lingered in bed for a while to recover from the previous evening, and then I headed out – I should have brought the merchandise-scarf with me! I saw the Place de la Bastille, where the revolutionary prison used to stand. In the middle of the square stands the “July column” Colonne de Juillet, which commemorates the Revolution of 1830 (which is not the “famous” French Revolution, which happened between 1789 and 1799). A few minutes away, in the Square Henri-Galli, I came across the base of the tower Tour de la Liberté (Freedom Tower), which was unearthed while building the first metro line. There are only a few stones remaining from the foundations, but I’ll take my fun wherever I can – so I stopped and used my music player to find another KAMIJO song, Bastille, just because I could.

Monument to the French Revolution

A few brick stones forming a circle, considered the last remains of the Bastille

It was too cold to wander, but I had a great plan. I headed off to the science museum Galerie de Paléontologie et d’Anatomie comparée (Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy Gallery), which was a short walk away. I had read about it and was curious. To be honest, I’m still trying to decide whether it was amazing, or the materials nightmares are made of.

The museum was founded in the 19th century, and it keeps the atmosphere – and the charm – of the old exhibitions. There are stands and wooden cases, and the smell of dust and old paper. The first floor holds a “Cavalcade of Skeletons” – the whole floor is occupied by preserved skeletons of mammals and birds. In the glass cases along the walls, there are taxidermy specimens, preserved animals and dissected specimens. In the far corner, there is “gallery of monsters” with natural oddities. It was enchanting, but at the same time deeply disturbing – especially the male human figure displaying muscles and blood vessels, with a vine leaf on his groin.

The second floor hosts the dinosaurs and other fossils, including a very cool toothed whale, giant crocodiles, a Bernissart iguanodon, a diplodocus, shark teeth… Most of the fossils are either casts or reconstructions – I swear I’ve seen that Irish elk at least three times before. Also, the T-Rex skull was adorably flawed, as it was imagined to be in the 19th century.

The third floor is… ammonite-land. There were cases upon cases of ammonites in different shapes, colours, rocks and materials.

Shots of the museum. Skeletons of animals - fish, oxen, crocodiles, elephants, whale. Fossils: Dinosaurs, fish, toothed whale, shark teeth, snails

After I was done with the museum, I decided it was too cold to wander the neighbouring Botanical Garden. Instead, I headed off to yet another one, the Musée national des arts asiatiques Guimet – the National Museum of Eastern Arts or Museum Guimet, which holds pieces of art from Cambodia, India, China, Japan, Korea and so on. There was a gorgeous dancing Shiva sculpture, collections of religious artefacts, calligraphy, samurai armours, even modern art and clothes inspired by the Far East. It was a really cool museum I had recently found about and was happy to visit.

Different pieces in the museum: Dancing Shiva, sitting Buddha, Calligraphy in the shape of a dragon, elaborate kimono, samurai armour, Indian goddess

After leaving the museum, I walked towards Trocadero to take the underground. I made a small detour to have a look at the Eiffel Tower Tour Eiffel, and saw a bunch of peddlers playing shell games with tourists. Someone lost about 400 €, I really hope they were in on the game.

The Eiffel Tower in front of a cloudy sky

Since it was too cold to continue walking around to find something to eat, I decided to get take-out, and I headed back to the hotel to get ready for the BABYMETAL concert. I had never listened to them before, but they are a sensation, the basic ticket was not expensive, and two concerts in as many days seemed convenient. They actually played in the same venue as DIR EN GREY on Saturday, so I found out by sheer coincidence on the live house’s website. At that time, I thought “why the hell not?”. Afterwards, they added Madrid to their Europe tour, so if I had known that beforehand, I might have acted differently. BABYMETAL is one of those insanely-profitable Japanese marketing stunts involving cute girls that had never really been in my radar more than in passing.

Notice with the date of Babymetal's concert

BABYMETAL is a product of the “Japanese idol factory”. It was created artificially to fill a market gap. Three girls were chosen to form an act that would mix the idealised cute idea of girl idols with the heavy metal genre. When they debuted in 2010, the term “Kawaii Metal” was coined. One of the girls left in 2018, so there are two main members and and support dancer on rotation. The members are Nakamoto Suzuka, “Su-metal”, the main vocalist, and Kikuchi Moa aka “Moametal” on back-up vocals and screams. The supporting musicians are called the “Kami Band”.

BABYMETAL’s long-awaited European tour is officially called Metal Galaxy World Tour. The VIP tickets sold for around 170€, and did not even entail a M&G, so even if I had had the chance, I would have not even considered them. Despite that, they sold out, along with the show itself.

When I left the hotel at 9:00, the queue had started organising, and the tour buses were already there. I had no intention to queue or try for a barrier. I had decided to sit back and relax, so I reached the venue around 18:45 for the 19:30 concert. There were tons of people waiting to buy merchandise, but I was good. Thus, I just headed to the floor, and found a spot in the back. Since the venue has sort a bit of an arena and some upper stands, there was a wall I could lean against and it was not the end of the room.

The crowd was quite different from DIRU’s, ranging from good ol’ metalheads to families with little girls between five and ten years old with a bizarre range of in-between: people with fox masks, goth and loli dresses, explicit heavy-metal t-shirts (a bunch of those T-shirts were much less kid-friendly than the show… everything you could imagine. I… don’t think most parents knew what they were getting into, and a few of the kids ended up crying.

At 19:30 sharp, the support act started – a German band called SKYND. Their sound was really good, but their lyrics are based on true crime, which makes them a bit on the disturbing side (and very much not kid-friendly). The name of the songs are all serial killers or similar criminals.

Setlist:

    1. Richard Ramirez
    2. Elisa Lam
    3. Katherine Knight
    4. Jim Jones
    5. Tyler Hadley
    6. Gary Heidnik

At 20:30, the BABYMETAL show kicked off with the projection of the Future Metal video as an introduction of sorts. The musical act relied heavily on the Kami Band, and Su-metal carried the weight of the vocals. She spent the whole one-hour concert jumping and dancing while singing, and her voice did not break even once. If she is not lip-synching, she has the most impressive lungs ever. Both she and Moametal encouraged the crowd, making a lot of eye-contact. Su-metal addressed the audience a lot, even – I think – trying French. The concert was non-stop, and it ended up feeling a bit short, but much better than I had expected. The one annoying thing were the daddies putting their babes up on their shoulders in the middle of the floor, when the kids gave clear signs of not caring or were distressed. But it was fun. Not sure I would repeat unless I made it a thing with friends or something, but I enjoyed the act, and had a good time.

Setlist:

    1. DA DA DANCE
    2. Gimme Chocolate!!
    3. Shanti Shanti Shanti
    4. BxMxC
    5. Kagerou
    6. Oh! MAJINAI
    7. メギツネ [Megitsune]
    8. PA PA YA!!
    9. Distortion
    10. KARATE
    11. Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!
    12. Road of Resistance

A group of girls dressed in black dancing in front of a logo that reads Babymetal

I was back at the hotel before 22:00. Thus, I got a good night’s sleep before I left, once again happy that I had taken nearby accommodation.

10th February 2020: No bells of Notre Dame

My plane boarded at 10:00 so I had to leave early for the airport. The weather was rainy again, so I took the underground to Gare du Nord, and then the train to Orly. As I was riding the train, I had a nice view of the Paris at dawn, but the bells of Notre Dame were not tolling, and my inner child was sad about that. Despite issues with the airport security staff, the stupidly-expensive food, and the general unpleasantness of early-morning public transportation, I made it to my plane without actual problems. As it was a big plane again, I settled down to watch Jurassic World during the flight, because I’m a nerd. Going straight into work from the airport was not fun, but it a small price to pay

I only had three days, but this trip was a very welcome getaway, and even if the weather did not help, I got to do a lot of stuff. I had to discard a few plans and improvise due to the weather. However, there is that film quote, “We’ll always have Paris”. After all, I’ll be coming back for the Saint Seiya Symphonic Adventure. ETA: Or so I thought, at the time of writing the article…

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.

18th August 2019: 500 points at Swallowtail {Japan, summer 2019}

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I asked D****e to come with me to Swallowtail at Ikebukuro [池袋] once more because I can’t do them alone (yet). Hopefully next time. We got a very nice butler who wanted me to choose my teacup as I had already visited five times (500pts), but I always have my tea iced, so I wouldn’t be using a cup. That was a bit of a communication problem (≧▽≦).

I had a great salmon and salad set (though I pushed the pepper away, because… no thank you), and analysed the butler types. There was one so tall that the poor thing had to get backpain all the time from pushing the carts. There were the kawaii bouncy ones, broad manly ones, and one wearing lipstick. I guess catering to every trope out there.

Afterwards we sang some karaoke and then went back home until it was time for dinner. It was a quiet, unwinding day.

Walked distance: 12979 steps / 9.28 km.

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

12th August 2019: The Surviving Fuji thing? Think twice {Japan, summer 2019}

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We didn’t sleep in, because why would we? We had only climbed a mountain – a volcano – the day before. We went to Shinjuku [新宿] for an avocado burger at Kua’aina, and then we did a sweep over Tower Records and Tokyu Hands.

Then we went to see the Amano’s Fantasy Art Collection [ファンタジーアート展] exhibition / sale at Shinjuku I-Land Tower [新宿アイランドタワー].

Later we sang some karaoke and then had a bit of a Hokkaido dinner – kanimiso yummy!

Walked distance: 16580 steps / 11.8 km. And every damn step – especially on stairs – hurt. Throughout the whole day, legs were on fire. But my back withstood, which was good. We whined a lot about being sore though, because we could (≧▽≦)

5th August 2019: Vampire Rockstar… I mean Vampire Café {Japan, summer 2019}

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After doing laundry (sweaty clothes and lingering smells of smoking rooms demanded those), I met up with B**** around Nakano [中野] station for lunch. Since I arrived earlier than her, I wandered around the shopping centre, and I saw yet another long jacket that I loved at a great price, so all in all, jacket success.

We did some karaoke and then she was kind enough to indulge me and accompany me to the Vampire Café in Ginza [銀座]. Themed cafés are rather popular in Japan. They are establishments that combine food, drinks, or both, with some kind of attraction or theme that makes them unique and / or special. A lot of them are are “animal cafés”, which have living animals as mascots. Back in 2013, B****, D****e and myself visited the Sakuragaoka Cafe, where you can feed the goats. Other cafés choose a topic or particular atmosphere, such as the butler café Swallowtails.

The problem with themes cafés is that one usually needs better Japanese than I have got in order to get by, so I have not visited as many of them as I would have liked. There quite a few reviews on the internet that complain about small portions and high prices for the cafés. It is true that they tend to be a bit more expensive than a regular shop, but you are paying for the experience on top of your food. I don’t think they are overpriced. Regarding the portions, I’ve always found them reasonable. So they are not like the hugely posh European restaurants that you get tiny amount of food at an exorbitant price.

We got off the train at Ginza station and found the La Paix Building or LapeBiru [ラペビル]. We spotted the café logo on the outside, and later in the directory next to the lifts. As it was a Monday, the place was not crazy full. I think they would have turned us down otherwise as we did not have a reservation. There was a direct lift to the entrance of the café, already decorated in style, with dim lights, cobwebs, lots of red velvet, even a skeleton.

We were given a note that informed us that each customer needed to order at least “a food and a drink” and that the time limit was two hours. While in general the experience was fun, I think that this café needs to be visited in groups so you’re in the main area and not the tiny booths to the sides. The main room had a coffin to the side, and there is a table for the groups. The walls were black, and the booths closed with heavy red drapes. There were candles (real candles, not lookalike lamps) for light, and a soft “music box” chamber music in the background in order not to disturb conversations.

Our waiter was clad in a long burgundy gown and she had bat wings on her hair. We’re not sure whether she was in character, or just unamused, but she looked very serious and a little unfriendly – she was probably just not in the mood to deal with the poor-Japanese-skills customers. Since we were only two, we were taken to one of the little booths with red sofas, a small black table, and black walls. As she drew the curtains closed – maybe for a casket-y feeling – we found ourselves giggling.

The food was not bad at all. We decided on a set for two, called Mankitsu Course [満喫ココース], literally “Enjoyment course”, and a couple of cocktails – a non-alcoholic ブルッドオレンジジュース “blood orange juice” for me, and a ブルッドオレンジサワー “blood orange sour” for B****. What was really on-spot was the presentation though – very in synch with the place, and rather cute, with roses made out of salmon, scythes and skulls sprinkled on the places and ice-cream spiders… and even those were cute.

Collage. The two-people booth is surrounded by red curtains, and the food is gothic-looking. The cold sausages have been stylised to look like roses, as has the salmon in the salad. The pasta has a black cross and a grim reaper drawing along the word Death. Ice cream scoops have little cookie legs so they look like spiders. A general shot of the room shows a coffin-looking table with a chandelier on top

Food consisted on:

  • Hamu moriawase [ハム　盛リ合わせ]: Ham assortment, more like sausage assortment with biscuits.
  • Shiisaa Sarada [シーザー サラダ]: Caesar Salad, really nice but not “Caesar”, it had a salmon rose.
  • Garikku Toosuto [ガリック トースト]: Garlic toast, in the shape of coffins, really adorable.
  • Ika sumi pasuta [イカスミ パスタ]: Squid pasta, surprisingly good and with an adorable Grim Reaper presentation.
  • Haabu & supiisu chikin [ハーブ & スパイス　- チキン]: Herb & Spice Chicken, flambéd at the table.
  • Nishiki Aisu [2色アイス]: Two-colour ice-cream, strawberry and vanilla in an edible cookie mini-bowl with little spider legs and glazed-cherry eyes.

Our waiter tried to make us chant once, but we did not manage to understand what she wanted us to do until we heard it echoed in a nearby booth. The truth is that we did not get to communicate with her too well. The booth was cute and all, but it was a bit disappointing to be “enclosed” behind the velvet all the time and miss on part of the experience – “Dracula” skipped our booth, apparently because we did not have enough Japanese for him?

The place felt rather quiet. As the velvet curtains muffled the sounds from other customers, only the creepy music-box ambience could be heard, albeit very faintly. When the two-hour limit was nearly over, we got our bill. The meal, including drinks, was actually cheaper than I expected. They did not add the cover charge despite saying they would, so the total came up to 7,776 ¥ (6,000 ¥ for the set menu, 550 ¥ for the non-alcoholic drink, 650 for the alcoholic cocktail plus taxes), so it did not even reach 4,000 ¥ per person.

Reading the bill slowly later, we thought that what the waiter wanted us to chant was a Dracula invocation: koyoi wa sonata [コヨイハソナタ] “tonight is a sonata”, and chi wo itadaku [血ヲイタダク] “(I) receive the blood”. I might want to come back to this place if my Japanese ever improves enough to enjoy the whole experience. But I got it out of the bucket list, and that was great. After all, I might have been on a bit of a vampire high due to both KAMIJO’s concert.

Walked distance: 15168 steps / 10.8 km, again somehow.

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.