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~