Tegomass concert report

Well… I finally saw Tegomass. Not that I am a fan or anything. Well I am. So I had tickets. Bad bad bad seats… actually we didn’t even had seats. My tickets were Tachimi. Which means I had to stand at the very back of the arena… and well see nothing. But gladly for me, this concert was not at all Johnny’s like… no costume, no dancing. All singing, amazing vocals. A full 12 pieces band. The concert opened with an Acapella version of Miso Soup. These guys can sing but I have to say I was highly impress. They sang none stop for 3 hours by themselves. No solos, so no time to rest. They really connected with the crowd and against all odd they did really well at MC.

Koyama and Shige were the guest for the MC. I have to say the crowed went absolutely crazy and so did I!!! At first I thought Nishikido would be the guest since the concert was in Osaka but it makes so much more sense to have Koyama and Shige there for the MC.

They sang many many songs. Some I knew… some I didn’t. They sang my favorite song. They also sang their new single Tanabata no Matsuri but without the yukatta ;-)

Funny coincidence, the girl I went to the show with is from Brampton and goes to Ryerson… small world!!

Note: They gave me trouble when it was time to get into the arena… because it wasn’t my name on the ticket!!! So heads up for those attending this tour!

Funky Town Osaka

Ohhhhhhhhhh! How much I love Osaka! The city looks, like crayons were given to a four years old and he had designed the whole city! Osaka is weird, beautiful, colorful and absolutly over the top. So what did I do in Osaka? 

Well what else… I walked down the streets over and over again trying to take in all the sights, I ate. I ate. I ate even more… okonomiyaki, takoyaki… I went to visit Billiken and I watched a johnny’s concert! I also shopped till I dropped. Oh my favorite place in the world for shopping is Osaka. I mean Paris is great but out of my league. Now Osaka has great “Bargain Sale”. The people are also really different there. Osaka is a world apart from Tokyo, Osaka is dirty, Tokyo is clean. Osaka people are a bit rude (well to Japanese standards anyway), Tokyo people are annoyingly polite (and fake). Osaka’s food is amazing. Tokyo’s food is… good. Osaka is a lot like Canada! So anyway, I spent all in day in random conversation with old people there… Let me tell you, the Obachan are nosy!!! But very nice and funny.

I also got caught in the middle of the variety show featuring a famous Kansai comedian. So I will probably be on TV looking like a lost gaijin with my map in my hands… and totally in the way of the comedian.

Miyajima rainy blues

Rainy blues would have been not so bad but instead I had to battle vs Arashi. (ok I am laughing at my own joke here) Ok in plain english… 70mm of rain in less than an hour. I got stuck inside a temple where a nice lady was offering towel and hot tea to everyone. It was scary at time. It didn’t look like rain anymore, it looked like a waterfall from the sky. When it finally calmed down to pouring rain, we were told we should hurry back to the boat and get back to the train station as soon as possible and leave the area. Which I did…

But let’s go back in time. I got to Miyajima early in the morning and was amazed at how beautiful the island was. I walked to the main temple and took may picture of the Tori (one of Japan’s 3 sight). Last year I saw Fuji so now I only have 1 sight left to see. The tide was high so we could not walk all the way to the Tori (same principle as Le Rocher Percé à Québec). So I decided to visit other sights while the tide would go down… that’s when the sky opened up and fell on our head!

I still had time to eat one Hiroshima-fu Okonomiyaki with Kaki!!! (Hiroshima style cabbage and soba pancake with oysters) It was delicious!!! The Oyster were huge!!!

Hiroshima-fu Okonomiyaki with Kaki

This is a place I really want to go back too… I want to eat more oyster and I would like a sunny day so I could take pictures of the beautiful scenery.

So I got back to Hiroshima and played text message tag with Ayumi (who is in Canada).We spent the whole afternoon texting each other back and forth. I was bored and the rain showed no intention to stop. I decided to check out a few famous Okonomiyaki restaurant. First I went to Mitsu (okonomiyaki restaurant from 47 live) but it was closed for mid-afternoon break. So then I made my way to the okonomiyaki street and found Hachimasa (okonomiyaki restaurant feature on Arashi’s TV show) but it was not opening till 5 pm. Out of luck I decided it was time for me to leave Hiroshima and to finally hit Osaka!!

I got to the train station only to find it under a state of pure chaos!!! Turned out all that rain had flooded a city further south and had damaged the shinkansen line. Thousand of people were laying on the floor of the station, waiting for the next available train. Luckily the only track still in function was the one for Shin-Osaka. But what a nightmare… everyone trying to get out of Hiroshima with no where to go… Even the Osaka bound trains were delayed for hours. I jumped in the next departing train (even thought my ticket was for another one) and played the foreigner card!! I had no intention of being stuck one more day in Hiroshima.

Hiroshima mon amour: NOT!

I guess Hiroshima is a nice city. Maybe there’s lots to do there. Let’s just say I was not really impress. I started my visit with the Atomic Bomb memorial. It was nice but so Disneyland like. I thought it missed a big of humility. But that’s just my opinion. 

Then I headed towards the castle (which had to be rebuilt after the atomic bomb). For once I have to say I enjoyed a Japanese Castle. The inside of it was a museum with very interesting exhibit. Then it was time to go find my hostel for the night. Well it turned out to be on the outskirt of the city after a 15 minutes walk in the wood. Not fun!! When I finally got there, my legs and arms were devastated with bug bits. At least the actual hostel was nice and clean… but the cafeteria was serving some awful meal (some sort of beef patty) so I walked all the way back to go get some onigiri at the combini. Oh and I should add… off course it was raining the whole time. Just my luck!

Kyoto ---- Hiroshima

As some of you might know, Kyoto is not my favorite place in Japan. I find that city highly overrated. Like a big Disneyland of history. This year, I decided to do a brief stop in the city to go back to Fushimi Inari. I had some business to attend at that temple. Last year, that temple had been recommended to me. As a matter of fact, I witness first hand how lucky that temple was. So this year I decided to go say thank you for the favors I obtain and to also ask for a new favor. (Which really was the exact same thing again this year).

After my brief stop, I took the Shinkansen to Hiroshima. I LOVE the shinkansen. Oh I love train too. But the Shinkansen is amazing. So fast, roomy, quiet, comfortable. So much better than a car, a bus or a plane. You have room to stretch your legs. On my way, an old man was sitting next to me and happy to practice his English he gave me an history lesson of every city on the way (including Himeji, where he was from) Since he seemed to know so much, I also asked him about the Kumamoto Family. I really wanted to go all the way to Kumamoto this year but in order to do that, it would take me another whole day of travel time.

When I got to Hiroshima, it was pouring rain. Like torrential rain. My umbrella was useless. Nonetheless, I headed straight for the Children Peace Memorial so I could hang the origami paper crane the students did at school. I got there easily and found the place. By the time I was done hanging the birds, I was soaked. At that moment I knew Hiroshima was not going to be my best friend!

EITO RANGER: Concert report

Hard to describe the concert this year! I guess the word would be EPIC!! 

First off, we got to the venue early and try to exchange our extra pair of tickets for another performance. We failed so we just decided to sell them. We sold the tickets to an american girl for face value. She was so happy. When it was finally time to go in, we got really excited to find out how amazing our seats were!!! The show opened with Ohkura and Yokoyama standing right in front of us for Musekinin Hero.

The set list was not as great as last year, but the overall performance was much better. Unlike last year, Subaru was amazing, I had never heard such great vocal from him. Yokoyama still on his high from Quiz Show was also amazing. 

Unlike last year, there weren’t many band song. The show was a lot more mixed up in style. Within 3 hours, they went from pop-ish boys band, to hard core rock, to 50s style and broadway. But the best was without any doubt the EITO Rangers’ skit!! Last year was such a disapointment for us. For the first time they had not done an eito ranger skit. But it was worth the wait!!! This was by far the best skit they’ve ever done. I almost died laughing when they performed the dance from the West Side story famous fight-scene. Or when they did a mock up of a japanese commercial I really like.

If the show and the skit were Epic, the MC was as well. I had never seen Ohkura and Subaru talk this much in an MC. It started with Hina saying that he was as talented as any other Johnny’s and that he could take on Arashi anytime. To prove his point, he sang One Love Acapella. Then him and Yokoyama had that never ending fight as to who is the best singer between the two of them (the joke being they both suck) That’s when they all cornered Yokoyama and forced him to also sing Acapella. It was so funny to finally see all the guys get back at Yoko. Usually he’s the one abusing them during the MC!!

Last little note: Towards the end of the show, the rolling cart went between the rows so we had Nishikido right by us. We waved our canadian flag and when he saw us, he said thank you and bowed down!!!

Kanazawa

Wow. What a beautiful city!! I probably would never had been there if it wasn’t for the concert. Since we watched only one concert and made money out of the extra ticket, we decided to live large and payed our self a nice weekend. First off, we tried finding an hotel, but as expected, the whole city was fully booked, because of the concert. We finally found a cancellation not to far from the train station; we really lucked in!

So we bought bento box and had dinner while watching Nagase’s new drama. The next day we went on a mega sight seing trip! We started off with the Garden (known as the nicest one in japan) and green tea ice cream. We did a bit of shopping and then went on to the castle.

As it started pouring rain, we hoped in the closest restaurant and had some delicious sushi. Then we headed out for the samurai street! We ended the day doing some PuriKura and eating a fancy crêpe!! Then Marie and I went our separate ways: I headed out for Kyoto and she headed out for Tokyo!

Tokyo Friends

Shibuya, Family Club, Harajuku or how I met Tsubasa!

My last day in Tokyo had to be a great one! I was not going to leave Tokyo without a bang!! So I headed off to Shibuya. I walked around for a bit and was please to see that Johnny’s owned Shibuya!! You could not walk five meters without seeing giant poster or Arashi, Hey Say Jump, Tegomass, Yuma and Big Shadow, News… or Nagase, Tackey, Ryo… Even the giant screen were showing videos of Tegomass and NYC boys. I went shopping at Mandarake and then went Karaoke by myself for 2 hours.

Ani and I at the family club rigth after meeting Tsubasa!

After lunch, I met with Ani and we shopped till we dropped in Shibuya!! I bought a nice pair of shoes and some clothing. Then we had dinner together and headed off for the Family Club. As we got there, we noticed a big crowed. That is pretty unusual for the place as people usually just come in, read the messages and then go. So we made our way to the front of the room and saw a camera so we decided we should wait with the rest of the crowed. About 30 minutes later, they had us sitting down on the floor in rows of 7 people. (the room is very long but narrow) I ended up in the forth row. That’s when Imai Tsubasa (from Tackey and Tsubasa) walked in!!!! I was so happy!!! He was doing a live recording of the messages for the Family Club. He talked for a bit and then answered questions from the fan. It was so cool!! I could not believe my luck!!!

This is a screencap from the video that played a few months later. The blond curly hair, that's me

Then we headed of to Harajuku and went around a few Idols shops. We bought Marie’s birthday gift and the headed out to meet her in Shinjuku. (We had decided to celebrate her birthday since neither of us would be there for her actual birthday) so we waited for us  at the bus terminal and when she arrived, we sang happy birthday, gave her her gift and split some fancy cupcakes we had bought!! Then we said goodbye to Ani and headed off for Kanazawa on the night bus!!

Zushi!!

Great day at the beach with Lindsay!! 

She called in sick so we could spend the day together. We headed out early in the morning and got some bento box on the way. It was great to be able to beat the heat!!! 

We stayed all day, on the way back, there was a little natsu matsuri so we stopped by to eat!

NTV my love

Today I over did it. Walk, walk, walk... Today the heat was unbearable. Even th0ught I drank over 20 liters of fluid, I only went to the washroom once in the whole day!!! That's how much I sweat! My eye lids were sweating! My legs were sweating! I could feel the moisture getting sucked out of my eyeballs. Not fun.

But in the end I had a great day! First off I went back to Tokyu Hands to fill in Tristan's prescription and met a lovely old couple. We had a nice little chat, in japanese. Then I went to Harajuku to meet up with my friend Alex. We went to Meiji shrine and then for lunch. We still had some times before he had to head back to work so I dragged him to the NHK park! I love that place. I have to admit though, I've been there too often...

Gokusen Shrine

After we parted, I headed out to NTV and visited the Gokusen shrine... again. I took some pictures and bought a Fight-Oh cell phone strap!

While most tourist visit Tokyo Tower, I tour TV studios. But to break that habit... or at least to try to break that habit, I decided I should go up Tokyo Tower. Well, I got there. Was not impress by the price list and decided to keep my money in my pocket and my feet on the ground. Instead I visited the shrine around *I forgot the name*. It was great.

After that I kept walking and ended up in Roppongi. Now from Shimbashi to Roppongi that's one hell of a walk. As a matter of fact, I ended up with a hudge cramp in my calve and now I can't walk. Way to go! Yeah, me!!! My calve feels like a brick and my foot won't flex. Oh why do I do this to myself. Half way through the day it was already hurting but I just kept walking, first to save money and second because I have so little time in Japan and I want to see it all.

So now I am back home and I have to limp around the house. Cartoon Kat-tun is on TV. They are doing the super ranger training from the drama rescue.