Odaiba, VenusFort & Alice Nine

On the show-ride that is the yurikamome-train to Odaiba
Yesterday, on the 15th, we had a concert to go to at Odaiba city in Tokyo. It's an amusement-area placed on man-made islands, initially build as a fort (daiba means fort) during the Edo-period in the 1600rds, as a defence against attacks from the sea, mainly British attacks.
Now though it houses various different kinds of amusement: museums, shopping-malls, a Ferris-wheel and venues.

One of the most fascinating things about going to Odaiba though, is the ride there on the yurikamome. It's an elevated train that takes you through Tokyo, across the rainbow-bridge and to the odaiba city island and the view is absolutely magnificent!
You feel like you're floating among the skyscrapers as you travel and the train makes a little detour as it crosses the bridge so those riding it get a full view of the harbour, the replica of the statue of liberty and the towering ferris-wheel onm the island.

Even better is when you take the ride back in the dark and the city becomes a thousand pinpricks of shimmering lights on pitch-black background. The bridge becomes a shimmering string floating in empty space and you glide on through the world of artificial stars as you pass through skyscrapers and towers.

Odaiba City at night. We couldn't take pictures through the windows on the yurikamome, so this is found on google.

On eating at the VenusFort
Once at Odaiba, we made our way through the artfully crafted streets to a building called VenusFort. VenusFort is a shopping-centre designed to simulate a medieval fort-town, which means that the floors were made to look like cobbled stone, that every shop was embedded in tall 'buildings' made to look like white-washed stone, with each of their little, useless wooden door. There were street-lamps too and more park-benches inside that building than I've seen on actual streets here in Japan this far.

The most fascinating feature of that building though, was by far the ceiling. It was made to look like the outside sky and it changes so it can simulate morning, midday, evening and night.
This means that while we were inside the fort it looked and felt like night-time at a south-european city, even though the sun was still shining bright outside.

I'm not sure my companions were half as fascinated as I was, but I love stuff like that so I most certainly was enjoying our track through the 'streets' in VenusFort.  I think I looked more at the architecture than the goods in the shopsXD.
Inthere we went to a food-court serving everything from indian curry to ramen, we ate and then hurried on to find our concert-venue.

On rushing for Alice Nine

We found a venue called Zepp Tokyo, but after half an hour suddenly realized that was the wrong Zepp - we needed to go to DiverCity, which was somewhere else, though still in Odaiba which was our luck.
After a mad dash around the place it turned out to be near the Gundam 00 statue and we did get there in plenty of time for the concert to start, though some of my friends were probably a bit annoyed with the spot they got.
I was just pleased to have a seat, since Alice Nine, while pretty, really aren't my kind of music, but it was certainly enjoyable none the less:D
~A~

Akihabara and Harajuku

On the heavenly place that is Akihabara
I honestly didn't expect to get to this part of Tokyo this time around since I am hopelessly outnumbered as an Otaku in my group of friends, who are all music and goth-centered. There's nothing wrong with that of course, but it just means they would be exceptionally bored at the central area for otaku-culture in Tokyo.
We did go there in the end though and it was everything I could have imagined. Incredibly easy to reach from our area compared to some of our other destinations and comparably easy to navigate once we got there as well.

It is first and foremost an area for electronic equipment and so, to find the buildings that are centered around manga and anime you have to do a bit of looking around.
Luckily we went there on a Sunday and on Sundays they close off the road so that people can walk everywhere they please, which was a blessing, because there was a lot of people there!
Most shops in shopping-areas here in Tokyo are all very narrow as well, I've noticed, so patience definitely becomes a virtue. Luckily everyone is very polite around here, so there is no passive aggression going aroundXD.
Well, we arrived safely at Akihabara and we quickly found a shop stuffed with figurines of all sizes and shapes, though I didn't find any big ones I wanted. I did find some miniature ones, one of Yuuko from xxxHolic and Zack, Reno and Rude from FFVII<3

The most amazing shop on the street though, was a tall building called Mandrake, containing all kinds of otaku-goods, from anime and manga to doujinshi and fake guns.
The doujinshi (fancomics) floor was by far the most fantastic for me though, since I had resigned myself to not getting any doujins at all, given that I had opted not to attempt to go to the famous convention Comiket in Odiba. Some of the guys from our hostel went there, but they reported that it was completely stuffed with people so I chose not to do it.

That is why it was such a blessing for me to get to Mandrake and discover an entire floor full of doujinshi of all the possible pairings and fandoms I could imagine!
On the same floor was an area with drama-cds as well and I got hold of all the loveless-cds as well as kizuna, two manga-series which happen to be my absolute favourites, both in terms of the art and the stories!<3

Kizuna-cast

Loveless-cast

It was amazing to find all of those things in one place and I'm definitely going back there the next time I have a chance to go to Japan and Tokyo!

On Harajuku, reminiscence on Camden Town and Modern Pirates
I have had the impression, for a long time, that the area of Tokyo known as harajuku was a japaneese version of Camden in London, what with shops of alternative goods and strange fashion and I must say my opinion wasn't changed once we actually went there.

It is a long street, full of colours and pretty people on which you can find whatever you might want with regards to clothes and accessories.
I'm not big on shopping, to be honest, so to me it doesn't have the appeal it might to my friends, but I love looking at people and at strange, Gothic jewelry, so that is what i was doing while the others looked over clothes and shoes like proper girly girlsXD.

At the end of the street we found a shop the others had been looking for, Modern Pirates, owned by a guy who knows various jrockers. That made them plenty happy, which was a fine conclusion to the day:)
~A~
 

Sephiroth, Indian curry and Baileys

On trailing Sephiroth
Fast forward a handful of days. My last post was written while we were still in Kyoto, though I posted it after we arrived here in Tokyo, at the Khaosan Kabuki hostel, near the temple kaminari-mae.
I went to another concert before leaving Kyoto, but nice as it was, the most note-worthy thing was the amounts of fanservice, which is always appreciated, and the fact that one of the bands played the opening-song to Ghost in the shell, which is a song I personally love, as their intro.

Now we are finally settled in Tokyo after having gone on the Shinkansen, the 'super-train' that reaches around 500km am hour.

The confines of our room seem small at times, and four girls can create inordinate amounts of drama between them, but we have been to see the Shinjuku-district, mainly Visual Kei shops, and explored our nearby area, including the temple and the tourist-streets around it. Everything is very urban here, which is to be expected I suppose, and a bonus in that context, is the fact that everybody speaks English, unlike in Kyoto.

The people are nice and we've met several other foreigners here already, including a bunch of British guys with nice humour and good spirits^_~

Something I consider a particular achievement though, is the fact that we went to the Square Enix showroom yesterday. It's a place I've wanted to see since I learned of its existence about a year ago. I am a final fantasy fan, particularly FFVII, and I learned that in this merchandise-shop could be found a life-size figurine of the ultimate FF villain, Sephiroth. That is why, when I am actually in Tokyo and have the opportunity to go see it, and the store, I really wanted to do so.

Makes you feel like it's a good thing he's behind glass, doesn't he?~_^

We got off to a slow start, but once we got on our way it turned out to be surprisingly easy to get to the store (once we had untangled ourselves from the maze that is the Tokyo metro/subway).
I had some landmarks that I was supposed to find to be sure we were on the right track and I felt like the AVALANCHE-crew trying to trail Seph in the game, noting the arches and glass-pyramids marking our track. It was awesome.

Once there I spent an hour admiring thingamagigs and whatsits and we all agreed that Sephiroth is quite beautiful and breathtaking in real life as well as in pixelsXD I wanted to take him home with me, but I'm not so certain the General (ex-General? hmm, I wonder if ShinRa revokes your rank when you commit genocide and go crazy?) would appreciate thatXD.
Fact is he was impressively made, with individual strands of hair and eyelashes, eyes closed as if in peaceful sleep, though you never know when he might awaken!

So beautiful and serene when he's not on a murdering spree

My loot from the venture consist of a moogle<3, a t-shirt and a bag, things I am all rather pleased with, though I would have liked more figurines.

On Indian curry in Tokyo
On our way back home we got hungry and, passing by an indian restaurant, we went inside. I was eager to see if they make as good indian food in Japan as they do in London, which is where I've gotten the best indian food this far. They certainly do! I tend to forget how much I love indian food when I haven't had it for a while, but once I get it again, I just fall right back in love with it!

On Acid Black Cherry and Baileys
ABC isn't a drink, as one might be led to believe from the title, but a singer and we decided to finish off the day by drinking and watching one of his lives. The combination of that man's voice and the taste of chilled Baileys is quite delicious.
The common-room was full last night too and we got to taste the most expensive kind of beef  in Japan, proper kobe-beef, which one of the owners had bought and was quite psyched about, enough so that she was dancing in circles, squealing and taking enthusiastic pictures of the unassuming meat  in it's package. I love Japanese people<3

Today we're all pretty busted and lazy and we have no plans at the moment, maybe beyond actually cleaning up our room a bit, before the owners come to clean tomorrow.

~A~

AYABIE among others

On the vision that is AYABIE

When we arrived at the live-venue this afternoon, where we were supposed to see 6 bands (AYABIE, Kra, Kamereo, Duel Jewel, OZ and GUILD) preform, after having gone down a small, rural street with the curving frame of a forest-covered mountain  in front of us, my first thought was; how can the bands even fit in there at the same time? It was so tiny!
When we came inside it turned out to be every bit as small as it had looked from the outside, but who complains about small venues when all it means is that you get to see the artists up close?XD

We certainly did! AYABIE was on first and, oh sweet mother of god they were awesome! The vocalist Yumehito (the sassy blond with his hand on his hip in the pictureXD) was a bouncing, happy ball of energy and the way he looked, jumping around on stage like a maniac and screaming into his mic, while making us copy his elegant hand-gestures, I just wanted to kidnap him and bring him back home with me in a suitcase! Yume's voice is as bright as his mannerisms and even though it seemed a little strained he was still a marvel<3

Another who captured my attention a lot was Intetsu, the bassist, (on Yume's right side, furthest away  from the front) He has a very infectious smile and he is so graceful and androgynic in general that he was lots of fun to look at. He is also a really talented bassist, though I don't know much about bass-playing as it isXD.

Both Takehito on guitar (far left) and Kenzo on drums (far right) were great as well, though Kenzo looked much more relaxed at the concert, wearing glasses and little make-up, unlike this picture where he is really dolled up and pretty.

As for the other bands, Kamereo were pretty, flashy and showed plenty of skin, which is never a bad thing. They kept a high tempo too and they were heaps of fun. Kra was pretty good and their vocalist, Karyuu, is legendary for being the smallest jrocker of them all. He is adorable and impressive.
Oz was cool, but a bit noisy for my taste and Duel Jewel was primarily pretty. Guild didn't really do much for me, but seeing new bands uis always interesting.

Kra

OZ

Kamereo

Duel Jewel

GUILD

The Golden Pavilion, hosts & Nightmare

On seeing NIGHTMARE!

I'm not going to start this blogpost from a chronological direction onwards, because I have just been to see the visual kei-band Nightmare and they were far, far more awesome than I had expected!

I know Nightmare primarily for one song, which is one of the songs from the opening of the anime Death Note, called 'the world'. That song is admittedly awesome, but I had kind of shied away from their music because the vocalist, Yomi, (the tiny guy there in the middle<3) has a voice slightly too bombastic for my tasts and they are a heavy rock-band, so you need to be in the mood to listen to them in the first place - or at least I do.

But being at the concert, actually seeing them, and hearing Yomi use his voice exactly as brilliantly as he does on the albums is amazing. Here you really get the ROCK feel, the feeling of being blown away by the sound, the crowd moving around you like a living sea, and by the blinding light-show making you feel like you have reached some higher state of existence for just a moment.
I hurt my knee recently, so I couldn't bounce as much as the rest, but discomfort is forgotten in the face of the chaos that is a Nightmare-concert.

Aki says it's not half as wild as when she saw them the first time, or as some of the other concerts she's been to, but the chaos was still undeniably there!

Also, I have long complained that one of the guitarists, Sakito (to the far left), was too plain-looking for my tastes when I've been discussing their visual expression with Aki especially,even if I agree that he is a talented musician, but after the concert I had to take back my words and concede to her the fact that with make-up he is gorgeous and there is a grace to his movements when he preforms that leaves an impression on you, which lasts as long as the sheer power of Yomi's voice.

As for the others, Ruka, the drummer (guy with the hat), was a bit of a spoilsport, not looking up at all while he played and leaving as fast as possible when they were done, but at least he's prettyXD
Ni~ya, the bassist (beside Sakito in the picture) is not as imposing as Saki, but very talented and obviously good looking too^_~. Hitsugi, the other guitarist, just frightens the daylights out of me with his looks, but he is really very sweet and seems nice, despite the permanent scowl. And I have always been distracted by colours and pretty makeup, which he does have, even when it makes him look like a demonXD.

I feel it's only fair to mention as well that Nightmare played alongside another band, called Baroque, who, despite the name, didn't look at all baroque or particularly visual. The vocal was good and his appearance reminded me pleasantly of Mao, vocalist of SID that I have mentioned before. My problem with them though, was that their sound lacked a pattern, much of it was just noise to me. Aki and Ida don't agree, but I reserve the right to disagree on that topic.

On the existence of Hosts
No, we did not actually visit a hostclub when we were out frolicking in Osaka yesterday, but we did see groups of attractive guys, done up in good-looking outfits, more or less pouncing on groups of girls as they passed, chatting and talking, obviously bend on getting them to visit their club.

The host/hostess-phenomenon is an interesting one, but also a precarious one, as it balances on the edge of prostitution. Ideally hosts and hostesses do not sleep with their customer, just make conversation and entertain in exchange for the customer buying drinks at the club, but sometimes it happens anyway.

It was fascinating to actually see the guys around the place though and it is always an adventure to shop in Japan!
 

On visiting the Golden Pavilion and getting wounded in action
Several days ago now we, that is, me, Ida and Aki, went to see the temple of the Golden Pavilion.

It's a highly impressive place and when you see the two-story building entirely covered in gold you are struck speechless by the sheer amount of light it reflects. I also noted just how still the lake around it was. The reflection in the water was completely clear!

Even though it was a Zen temple, we also found a small shrine hidden away nearby - it seems shinto is ever-present and undisturbed in the flux of other religious influences in Japan and it's very interesting in my opinion.

At the temple-park was a lot of over-priced souvenir-shops and among them an icecream-palor in which i unlocked another culinary achivement: shaved ice. It is basically just snow with a bit of fruit-flavour poured over it. It's incredibly cooling in summer-heat and it tastes lovely.

 And while I was unlocking achievements and gaining XP like a pro, Aki was feeding pigeons.

Michael: I want it (my money) to feed the birds.

Mr. Dawes Sr: Fiddlesticks, boy. Feed the birds and what have you got? Fat birds

(from Mary Poppins)

It is seriously the tamest pigeon I have ever met (except for a couple of hundreds at st. Marks in Venice when I was a hapless seven-year old) - seriously, she ignored a purring, puffed up male to nibble at the pieces of cake in Aki's hand instead. When he got too close she told him off. Girl power!XD

Another, slightly more sofisticated bird, crossed our path at the Golden Pavilion as well:

We thought it was artificial until it elegantly curved its long neck and turned its stately head towards a fat koi-fish in the water. Herons are such beautiful birds and the japanese variant certainly is so as well in my opinion.

Most of the day thus passed with shenanigans, but on our way back I fell and scraped my shin, which in itself is manageable, but combined with heat and thus sweat, plus continuous walking everyday makes for some very uncomfortable movementT.T Sometimes it's hard to be on vacation tooXD

Other than that we saw another temple this week, the one by Aki's place and it turned out to be a big teaching-center with huge buildings and loads of finery in the inner halls.

 I could easily hang around such a place during the day to just read or relax or write<3

--oh and on our way there we found a torii-arch in stone and went exploring, expecting a small shrine of little importance or impressiveness. This is what we found:

Isn't it beautiful<3 I love shrines so very much. Also, we met a man on his way to prayer. He asked us if we were American, but since we had to answer no, he lost interest and went on his way to the main-shrine, tolling the bell like you're supposed to and finishing his business while we quietly left.

Loads has happened and I probably left out a lot more, but we are busy with concerts this week and then on we go to Tokyo for the last two weeks of the trip here in Japan.

~A~