not joking, really still alive ! ;3
It's been 5 months since I came back from my little trip to Japan...
And it's been 5 months since I am saying to myself : "go and try to post something on LJ !"
Well, just know it was an amazingly perfect trip, thanks to all the wonderful people I met there, from my sweetest friends to the very awesome grandpa' in front of Matsumoto's castle who explained to me how much he loved France and the Pyrénées, and the cute coffee-shop girl in Yokohama who managed to drive me to that damned hidden livehouse whithout a single word of English, and... hm. Let's stop there !
I must admit this was quite a fangirl trip too. You wouldn't believe how many Kagrra,-related things you can meet during an innocent 2-week stay ! ;3
Maebashi had the nostalgic bluesy feel of Anzen Chitai and Sada Masashi songs... which somewhat reminded me of Grandma Isshi's everyday enthralling life.
Seeing this you can't imagine how exciting was my stay in this Tokyo-satelite city, thanks to the very shocking princess of pink shiny furry things aka Niea999 ! <3
Then there was this ultimate Isshi fangirl stay in Matsumoto... I must admit I originally included this destination for the sole sake of me droling at Isshi's father barber-shop... ^^""""
... which I never found ! (well, Matsumoto is quite a big town after all)
Thankgod, I was not stupid enough not to enjoy the beauty of this city lost in the middle of majestic mountains, its astounding castle...
The "Tsukimi Yagura", or "moon-viewing wing"... reminds me of some Miyako songs ^^
Very interesting museum too, where you learn that fabric dolls, apples and these kind of balls are special crafts from Nagano prefecture !
Then, Kyoto, of course... would you find anything more japanesque ? ;3
walking in Gion, and reminding "Shimimeyukisae", staring at kami and oni figures, resting in a bamboo forest recalling Isshi'sexy figure in "Gekka souso", watching the moon behind the maple trees, singing "Utakata" to cheer you up when you're lost 5km far from your hotel, that it's night and that your bike is killing your poor little fat bottom.... aaaah ! precious memories ! ;>
oh, and I've seen a Sarasoujo somewhere else than on Googleimage ! ;3
(Emperor's palace in Kyoto)
Then, from Nagoya, I went with Japanese friends to another mountain place, much more famous than Matsumoto it seems (everyone kept asking me "why the HELL did get lost in Matsumoto ??!".. hm).
This little piece of history is called "Takayama", and it would be the perfect stage for songs like "Kokyo" or "Haha e.."
haaaa, Japanese nature in autumn... along with being the best period to get cheap plane tickets (and you know THAT really matters, because you get swiftly poor there ^^'), november is perfect I think to discover the charms of this part of the world !
Finally : Tokyo ! I was staying in Asakusa, but didn't have time to really explore it, except for the exceptional view I had on "Tokyo Banana", from my hotel.
4 days in Tokyo is like.. nothing ! And when one of these 4 days is spent in Yokohama, it's even a smallest nothing !
mmmwell, I don't regret going there, because even though I missed the Ramen Museum (lolz), I enjoyed the yummiest Chinese meal I've had for years (there's a huge Chinatown in Yokohama) and attended a kickass concert in a tiny livehouse with bouncy happy Japanese kids in the audience (nothing AT ALL in common with Shibuya girls audience... thankgod, they are not all like that ! ^^)
The bands playing were Tsushimamire (that you could call girly punky neojapanesque ! http://www.myspace.com/tsushimamirejp ), Tetsuo (wow, a nice discover for me, stylish pop and the cutest Mr Guitar n°2 ever ^^ still searching for them on the Net...), Peelander-Z (hum. funny, but not my cup of oolong-tea ;3) and MowmowLuluGyaban (nuts and happy ^^ http://www.myspace.com/mowmowlulugyaban).
Ueno, Shinjuku, Ginza, Kabukicho, Hibiya (Yagai !), Odaiba (Zepp Tokyo !), the Imperial Palace (and Nippon Budokan !).. so many mythic places to see ! It's a bit like visiting Paris, in each neighbourhood you just realise "woooah ! that's the place where this book took place, or this movie, or ..this Kagrra no su ! (rip xD)"
First day's enlightment was going to a kabuki show...one of the most exciting moment in my trip. Whatsmore it was totally isshiesque as you can see ! ;3
Then... THAT friday 4th of December ! ;D
yes, I managed to get tickets for Kagrra,'s show at Shibuya duo ! this, thanks to my friend Yuri who is not at all into visual kei and was a bit puzzled when I told her I wanted to attend a concert with guys sometimes wearing girl yukatas, named "kagura", and playing rock koto... well, you know, this actually IS shocking for normal people.
The day started for me at Ueno's archeological museum (even Isshi isn't worth wasting visiting time !)... with my "glamourous" Shibuya concert attendant panoply... ^^''' what can I do, I didn't want to waste time going back to the hotel and change clothes, but I still needed to taste the thrill of walking down Shibuya and Harajuku with fancy pink hat, turkish blue dress and yellow hand-bag...
(god, yes, it was something THAT awful ! x'D)
So, I visited that very interesting museum and the shrines and park surrounding Ueno station dressed like my Poupegirl, before heading to Shibuya and the Holy Isshi Graal.. ;D
After reassuring myself finding the venue some 4 hours before the opening hour, I walked towards Harajuku, getting a bit lost because I wanted to use Catstreet (I know, I'm hopeless.. x,D). Oooooh, LaForet ! Ooooh, Closet Child ! there, I stopped and bought every single Kagrra, photobook/cd I found. The girl didn't seem to be that surprised when taking my money, she must be used to pathetic foreigners like me feeling like they discovered an oil-pit in her shop ! ;3
I walked back to Shibuya since I also wanted to grab a whole lot of things from the goodies shop (the Tshirt design is really gorgeous... and I needed a sensu of course ! ^^). Then I was planning to drop all that stuff at Shibuya station coinlockers... BUT ! no way, they were ALL filled with loli's stuff (or other teen-tribes ^^) who were changing clothes in the station before going to some event.. GEEZ ! PANIC ! I finally had to go back to Shinjuku station to drop my stuff and go back to Shibuya... what Isshi can make you do... ;3
First stage (finding the venue) and second stage (getting rid of useless stuff) being passed, I prepared myself to the ultimate confrontation stage with the Big Boss : managing to explain I had a reservation and wanted to pay for my ticket.
For somebody attending for the first time an organised concert in Japan, that's quite a challenge... (the day before, I had no problem getting into the livehouse for Tsushimamire in Yokohama, but that was a non-Shibuya girls event..). I saw people queueing, so I did the same. It's only some 15 minutes later that I realized they were queuing to get goodies ! That's when I slightly panicked. ;3 I finally resigned myself to being very impolite and asked for help with a horrible French-English-Japanese mix of languages. An adorable gurako in front of me took pity on me and accepted to try to speak English ! wow.. be blessed, young girl ! ^^ I understood I had to ask for my ticket to the staff. I located Mr Manager-san, thankgod I had seen him in KnS and in Paris ;3, and he indicated me with simple English who was in charge of this.
Hallelujah !!!!
I got ticket n° B96, which is a very bad place, but who cares when you're 10 cm taller than the average ? haha ^^
Then, I had all the time to 1°put my Auga bracelet (I think it was the only place where an old woman like me can reasonably wear it..), 2°stare at the crowd of pretty cosplayers, kimono-wearing girls, and.. quite a lot of foreigners ! I had the astounding surprise to suddenly realize I was standing just next to miss "Miyako" (bonjour mamzelle si tu me lis ! ^^) who's a French girl taking care of a Kagrra, fansite. I had no idea she was in Japan ! serendipity...She had attended the first show, the day before, in Saitama. Lucky person ! ^^
Concentrating on my Japanese numbers-understanding skills, I finally entered The Holy Place.. :D The girls (well, there were almost no boys... that's when I understood why Kagrra, guys said they had a very mixed audience in Europe ! ;>) had put their bags and stuff to their feet, and seems they didn't intend to grab first raw when the lights would be down ; that' what you call a cultural gap, coming from France ! ^^" so I did the same, and tried to find the best place. Mmmwell, it was not the worst, since I was just in the middle, but I was almost in the last raws (no hope of getting Isshi's sensu!) and a fu...g column was just in front of Shin's koto... *sighs* damn, I love to stare at him when he scratches it with all his delicacy, it would be for the next time...
I'm never able to remember the whole playlist of a concert, but what I will perfectly remind is that this concert is one of the very few events that you recall saying with a stupid smile all over your face : "god, that was perfect !" ;3
First thing I remember is that I told to myself : fuck, Isshi is SO pretty ! 8) you can't say it from Music Japan report pictures, but I can certify he was, as an Isshi-bad-days-faces expert.. ^^ from my point he had the airy looks of his Sakura fresh innocent young girl era, with his fluffy side-pony-tail.. see what I mean ? and being just in the middle of my raw, I had the impression he was actually STARING at me right in the eyes during all the beginning of the show... please, believe that that was not disturbing at all, and my very imaginative brain happily accepted the illusion... ;3
Second thing was : fuck, they're playing all these absolutely awesome B-sides, like Hoozuki and Kagome Uta ! and old songs, and their loveliest lovesongs. Getting old, I discovered I'm also getting more and more sensitive to lovely marshmallow songs... and when that marshmallow is as sweet as Isshi's fainting voice in Ren or Kasunda fuyu no Mukou ni, I'm even almost letting escape some tears... and guess what, I'm not even slightly ashamed of it ! ;>
I was quite amazed too to understand some of the meaning of Isshi's MCs.. So, finally, spending hours watching dvds and internet videos was not that useless ? xD
Being quite frustrated not to see Shin's koto at all, I had much more time to stare at Akiya. He's definitely more and more into lead guitar solos, and that suits him oh!so well ! He was pretty, and classy. period. 83
Mmmh, what to say else ? Well, I hope I didn't disturb too much my neighbours... I tried very very hard to stick to the local way of enjoying music = perfectly regulated sensu and hand-choregraphy, not applauding after some sad songs, not yelling like a hysteric fan, nor cheering them like in a regular rock concert, not dancing... but I must admit that was too hard for me sometimes, and during Sai and Subarashi Kana ? I moved my fat ass like the ugly impolite European girl I am... and I loved that !!! and I sang everything I could, all the time, no matter how shocking my pseudo-Japanese mumbling could be ! ^-^V
Mmmmh, and yes : singing Urei and Sakura Maichiru in Shibuya is indeed a fulfilling thing.
xD
Then, the end, we all clapped for luck together, and everything was over. I still have the same stupid smile on my face when typing this... ^___^
I didn't use my drinking ticket, because after having passed the Last Stage Big Boss, I had no energy enough to face the Super Extra Boss and try to understand what I would be drinking, so I went out and hang around in the lights of Shibuya. Got a sample cd from this band :
www.terucohaimen.com
..nice sound, isn't it ?
Walked a bit more towards Omotesando and its dazzling frontages, got lost in Shinjuku station, finally found back my coinlocker (pfeeeew !), and got back to my hotel by train. After a last stop at a combini to get my daily onigiri, I got rid of my Pupe clothes (ridiculous.. but that was art of the fun ! ^^) and sank into perfectly happy dreams in my sweet dormitory bed next to Tokyo Banana ! ^3^
Next day was last day, in Odaiba with my friend Emiko, and on Sunday : back to France ! well, just the time to write all my postcard on the train to Narita and to find stamps in the airport (by the way, Lea, did you receive my postcard ? so sorry if it was lost ! ><'), and that was really ~over.
*happy end* ;D
And it's been 5 months since I am saying to myself : "go and try to post something on LJ !"
Well, just know it was an amazingly perfect trip, thanks to all the wonderful people I met there, from my sweetest friends to the very awesome grandpa' in front of Matsumoto's castle who explained to me how much he loved France and the Pyrénées, and the cute coffee-shop girl in Yokohama who managed to drive me to that damned hidden livehouse whithout a single word of English, and... hm. Let's stop there !
I must admit this was quite a fangirl trip too. You wouldn't believe how many Kagrra,-related things you can meet during an innocent 2-week stay ! ;3
Maebashi had the nostalgic bluesy feel of Anzen Chitai and Sada Masashi songs... which somewhat reminded me of Grandma Isshi's everyday enthralling life.
Seeing this you can't imagine how exciting was my stay in this Tokyo-satelite city, thanks to the very shocking princess of pink shiny furry things aka Niea999 ! <3
Then there was this ultimate Isshi fangirl stay in Matsumoto... I must admit I originally included this destination for the sole sake of me droling at Isshi's father barber-shop... ^^""""
... which I never found ! (well, Matsumoto is quite a big town after all)
Thankgod, I was not stupid enough not to enjoy the beauty of this city lost in the middle of majestic mountains, its astounding castle...
The "Tsukimi Yagura", or "moon-viewing wing"... reminds me of some Miyako songs ^^
Very interesting museum too, where you learn that fabric dolls, apples and these kind of balls are special crafts from Nagano prefecture !
Then, Kyoto, of course... would you find anything more japanesque ? ;3
walking in Gion, and reminding "Shimimeyukisae", staring at kami and oni figures, resting in a bamboo forest recalling Isshi'sexy figure in "Gekka souso", watching the moon behind the maple trees, singing "Utakata" to cheer you up when you're lost 5km far from your hotel, that it's night and that your bike is killing your poor little fat bottom.... aaaah ! precious memories ! ;>
oh, and I've seen a Sarasoujo somewhere else than on Googleimage ! ;3
(Emperor's palace in Kyoto)
Then, from Nagoya, I went with Japanese friends to another mountain place, much more famous than Matsumoto it seems (everyone kept asking me "why the HELL did get lost in Matsumoto ??!".. hm).
This little piece of history is called "Takayama", and it would be the perfect stage for songs like "Kokyo" or "Haha e.."
haaaa, Japanese nature in autumn... along with being the best period to get cheap plane tickets (and you know THAT really matters, because you get swiftly poor there ^^'), november is perfect I think to discover the charms of this part of the world !
Finally : Tokyo ! I was staying in Asakusa, but didn't have time to really explore it, except for the exceptional view I had on "Tokyo Banana", from my hotel.
4 days in Tokyo is like.. nothing ! And when one of these 4 days is spent in Yokohama, it's even a smallest nothing !
mmmwell, I don't regret going there, because even though I missed the Ramen Museum (lolz), I enjoyed the yummiest Chinese meal I've had for years (there's a huge Chinatown in Yokohama) and attended a kickass concert in a tiny livehouse with bouncy happy Japanese kids in the audience (nothing AT ALL in common with Shibuya girls audience... thankgod, they are not all like that ! ^^)
The bands playing were Tsushimamire (that you could call girly punky neojapanesque ! http://www.myspace.com/tsushimamirejp ), Tetsuo (wow, a nice discover for me, stylish pop and the cutest Mr Guitar n°2 ever ^^ still searching for them on the Net...), Peelander-Z (hum. funny, but not my cup of oolong-tea ;3) and MowmowLuluGyaban (nuts and happy ^^ http://www.myspace.com/mowmowlulugyaban).
Ueno, Shinjuku, Ginza, Kabukicho, Hibiya (Yagai !), Odaiba (Zepp Tokyo !), the Imperial Palace (and Nippon Budokan !).. so many mythic places to see ! It's a bit like visiting Paris, in each neighbourhood you just realise "woooah ! that's the place where this book took place, or this movie, or ..this Kagrra no su ! (rip xD)"
First day's enlightment was going to a kabuki show...one of the most exciting moment in my trip. Whatsmore it was totally isshiesque as you can see ! ;3
Then... THAT friday 4th of December ! ;D
yes, I managed to get tickets for Kagrra,'s show at Shibuya duo ! this, thanks to my friend Yuri who is not at all into visual kei and was a bit puzzled when I told her I wanted to attend a concert with guys sometimes wearing girl yukatas, named "kagura", and playing rock koto... well, you know, this actually IS shocking for normal people.
The day started for me at Ueno's archeological museum (even Isshi isn't worth wasting visiting time !)... with my "glamourous" Shibuya concert attendant panoply... ^^''' what can I do, I didn't want to waste time going back to the hotel and change clothes, but I still needed to taste the thrill of walking down Shibuya and Harajuku with fancy pink hat, turkish blue dress and yellow hand-bag...
(god, yes, it was something THAT awful ! x'D)
So, I visited that very interesting museum and the shrines and park surrounding Ueno station dressed like my Poupegirl, before heading to Shibuya and the Holy Isshi Graal.. ;D
After reassuring myself finding the venue some 4 hours before the opening hour, I walked towards Harajuku, getting a bit lost because I wanted to use Catstreet (I know, I'm hopeless.. x,D). Oooooh, LaForet ! Ooooh, Closet Child ! there, I stopped and bought every single Kagrra, photobook/cd I found. The girl didn't seem to be that surprised when taking my money, she must be used to pathetic foreigners like me feeling like they discovered an oil-pit in her shop ! ;3
I walked back to Shibuya since I also wanted to grab a whole lot of things from the goodies shop (the Tshirt design is really gorgeous... and I needed a sensu of course ! ^^). Then I was planning to drop all that stuff at Shibuya station coinlockers... BUT ! no way, they were ALL filled with loli's stuff (or other teen-tribes ^^) who were changing clothes in the station before going to some event.. GEEZ ! PANIC ! I finally had to go back to Shinjuku station to drop my stuff and go back to Shibuya... what Isshi can make you do... ;3
First stage (finding the venue) and second stage (getting rid of useless stuff) being passed, I prepared myself to the ultimate confrontation stage with the Big Boss : managing to explain I had a reservation and wanted to pay for my ticket.
For somebody attending for the first time an organised concert in Japan, that's quite a challenge... (the day before, I had no problem getting into the livehouse for Tsushimamire in Yokohama, but that was a non-Shibuya girls event..). I saw people queueing, so I did the same. It's only some 15 minutes later that I realized they were queuing to get goodies ! That's when I slightly panicked. ;3 I finally resigned myself to being very impolite and asked for help with a horrible French-English-Japanese mix of languages. An adorable gurako in front of me took pity on me and accepted to try to speak English ! wow.. be blessed, young girl ! ^^ I understood I had to ask for my ticket to the staff. I located Mr Manager-san, thankgod I had seen him in KnS and in Paris ;3, and he indicated me with simple English who was in charge of this.
Hallelujah !!!!
I got ticket n° B96, which is a very bad place, but who cares when you're 10 cm taller than the average ? haha ^^
Then, I had all the time to 1°put my Auga bracelet (I think it was the only place where an old woman like me can reasonably wear it..), 2°stare at the crowd of pretty cosplayers, kimono-wearing girls, and.. quite a lot of foreigners ! I had the astounding surprise to suddenly realize I was standing just next to miss "Miyako" (bonjour mamzelle si tu me lis ! ^^) who's a French girl taking care of a Kagrra, fansite. I had no idea she was in Japan ! serendipity...She had attended the first show, the day before, in Saitama. Lucky person ! ^^
Concentrating on my Japanese numbers-understanding skills, I finally entered The Holy Place.. :D The girls (well, there were almost no boys... that's when I understood why Kagrra, guys said they had a very mixed audience in Europe ! ;>) had put their bags and stuff to their feet, and seems they didn't intend to grab first raw when the lights would be down ; that' what you call a cultural gap, coming from France ! ^^" so I did the same, and tried to find the best place. Mmmwell, it was not the worst, since I was just in the middle, but I was almost in the last raws (no hope of getting Isshi's sensu!) and a fu...g column was just in front of Shin's koto... *sighs* damn, I love to stare at him when he scratches it with all his delicacy, it would be for the next time...
I'm never able to remember the whole playlist of a concert, but what I will perfectly remind is that this concert is one of the very few events that you recall saying with a stupid smile all over your face : "god, that was perfect !" ;3
First thing I remember is that I told to myself : fuck, Isshi is SO pretty ! 8) you can't say it from Music Japan report pictures, but I can certify he was, as an Isshi-bad-days-faces expert.. ^^ from my point he had the airy looks of his Sakura fresh innocent young girl era, with his fluffy side-pony-tail.. see what I mean ? and being just in the middle of my raw, I had the impression he was actually STARING at me right in the eyes during all the beginning of the show... please, believe that that was not disturbing at all, and my very imaginative brain happily accepted the illusion... ;3
Second thing was : fuck, they're playing all these absolutely awesome B-sides, like Hoozuki and Kagome Uta ! and old songs, and their loveliest lovesongs. Getting old, I discovered I'm also getting more and more sensitive to lovely marshmallow songs... and when that marshmallow is as sweet as Isshi's fainting voice in Ren or Kasunda fuyu no Mukou ni, I'm even almost letting escape some tears... and guess what, I'm not even slightly ashamed of it ! ;>
I was quite amazed too to understand some of the meaning of Isshi's MCs.. So, finally, spending hours watching dvds and internet videos was not that useless ? xD
Being quite frustrated not to see Shin's koto at all, I had much more time to stare at Akiya. He's definitely more and more into lead guitar solos, and that suits him oh!so well ! He was pretty, and classy. period. 83
Mmmh, what to say else ? Well, I hope I didn't disturb too much my neighbours... I tried very very hard to stick to the local way of enjoying music = perfectly regulated sensu and hand-choregraphy, not applauding after some sad songs, not yelling like a hysteric fan, nor cheering them like in a regular rock concert, not dancing... but I must admit that was too hard for me sometimes, and during Sai and Subarashi Kana ? I moved my fat ass like the ugly impolite European girl I am... and I loved that !!! and I sang everything I could, all the time, no matter how shocking my pseudo-Japanese mumbling could be ! ^-^V
Mmmmh, and yes : singing Urei and Sakura Maichiru in Shibuya is indeed a fulfilling thing.
xD
Then, the end, we all clapped for luck together, and everything was over. I still have the same stupid smile on my face when typing this... ^___^
I didn't use my drinking ticket, because after having passed the Last Stage Big Boss, I had no energy enough to face the Super Extra Boss and try to understand what I would be drinking, so I went out and hang around in the lights of Shibuya. Got a sample cd from this band :
www.terucohaimen.com
..nice sound, isn't it ?
Walked a bit more towards Omotesando and its dazzling frontages, got lost in Shinjuku station, finally found back my coinlocker (pfeeeew !), and got back to my hotel by train. After a last stop at a combini to get my daily onigiri, I got rid of my Pupe clothes (ridiculous.. but that was art of the fun ! ^^) and sank into perfectly happy dreams in my sweet dormitory bed next to Tokyo Banana ! ^3^
Next day was last day, in Odaiba with my friend Emiko, and on Sunday : back to France ! well, just the time to write all my postcard on the train to Narita and to find stamps in the airport (by the way, Lea, did you receive my postcard ? so sorry if it was lost ! ><'), and that was really ~over.
*happy end* ;D