On the 12th we had a rather 'eventful' day. We managed to some how squeeze at least three things into 24 hours! First we went to Asakusa, since Imke has never been to Japan, and Asakusa is a beautiful place to see, and the weather was rather nice too. We did a bit of gift shopping, though Asakusa hosts a lot of confectionery and regardless of how much I tell my family to eat my gifts, they never do! So I decided not to purchase things. We looked in a few shops in hopes of finding a Kimono, but that quest at the time was a little bit of a failure. While walking around we soon stopped to watch a magician. He was rather amusing and his expression during some of the tricks was the best!
After a couple minutes of watching him we continued on our way, but noticed a group of small Children stopping people. After the second group I noticed that they were only targeting tourists - foreigners. They were asking where people were from! We finally got targeted, and four times! They were absolutely adorable. Their teacher explained to us they were learning English. They started with, 'Hello, how are you?' and asked our names, and where we were from. Then they asked 'Do you like Japanese food?' it was so cute, because the girls were really shy, and the boys - well, they were boys. Afterwards we had to sign the map, and were given a gift!
After we escaped the masses of Children, we had originally planned to walk to Akihabara. Since it was close - well, we thought it was close. Anyway cutting the story short, we caught a train in the end and headed to Akihabara. We wanted to go to a Maid Cafe, and after trying to get into one, we gave up so easily, which was a complete shame. I was looking forward to it! We ended up in a McDonald's, I love McD in Japan, their menu is so-so much better than here in Europe, uggh. Stress this so much haha. We walked around a few Arcades, and - to be honest, I didn't enjoy Akihabara so much this time, like there was something missing? But mainly I was progressively getting ill that day, so we took a stop by a shop so I could purchase throat sweets and facemasks, such a pro. I didn't even take any photos in Akihabara either. Eventually we headed back to the hostel after taking Purikura and losing a couple UFO catchers. Since we had a live, we wanted to get back and changed, I was super excited since Juu and myself were 'twinning' so ahh! It was cool!
I wasn't confident in locating 高田馬場AREA but - I had done it twice already in the past so a third time was lucky? We were running REALLY behind on time, and literally as our train arrived at the station, basically the bands were starting, so when we arrived there was a band playing, but we easily made our way to the front still. I actually was really pumped to see this live because it had ジグラット and コドモドラゴン but also Ｎ＠Ｈ-ノア- who I had seen a couple days ago. I had promised a member of コドモドラゴン I would be there! After finding out when he was playing I knew we wouldn't be late for him.
My Friend Mana told me her Japanese Friend was at the same live as me, but it's pretty hard locating a Japanese person in Japan. During a break, I was sitting and the girl I had been next to during the entire start of the live turned and asked me 'Are you Ali?' -- talk about a coincidence! Mana's Friend, Aya had found me! Again I had difficulty with Japanese vs English, but we managed fine, and she and I had a small conversation. She was also wearing a 10st Bracelet, but for LANDZ and she noticed mine.
When コドモドラゴン came to play, Aya kindly swapped places with me so I could see better, (although you can see from the photo, that towel was the barrier, and I had a good view) We laughed at the flyer the band had. Aya was really sweet, and gave me and Juu chocolate, I believe it was chocolate from Mana? I am not sure. I saved mine however, hoarder. I really enjoyed this live, since so many bands were playing I liked!
Aya is a LANDZ fan, but the majority of people there were also LANDZ fans, and I had moved to the back, but it gave you a direct eye level with the band on stage. Juu and I ended up making our own 'rapper black guy' furi, and for LANDZ we just went crazy with a few other girls at the back who slowly joined in with our dances. But LANDZ were very good! It reminded me of days with Zip.er hearing Towa's voice again. I did wish I went to see L&DS, they had a live while I was there, but I wasn't interested in the other bands. Oops.
I didn't get much merchandise from this live either. Though I do regret not buying the ジグラット singles, but I did buy 3 Mikito and 2 You チェキ, since they were only 500JPY each, but I had seen them online, and I really wanted some コドモドラゴン merchandise! I bought 4 チェキ, 2 singles and a towel. I got a free card and single by them too, which will soon be released on their mini album!
This is when things get creepy! From my previous blog I mentioned I had bought the 10st x コドモドラゴン bracelet. I mailed the Drummer of the band since we exchanged a few messages previously about my visit, and I told him I had purchased the bracelet. He later made a blog, thanking Fans that bought the bracelet, and included a cheki of him holding the bracelet. When I went to the merch table, I asked for チェキ of their drummer, after the Staff studied me, she picked up a couple flicked through them randomly and passed me my 4 チェキ (usually, you get to pick them yourself randomly, however she gave me them) when I went to sit back down with Juu, we both noticed one cheki was the exact same from his blog?! You can see it in my photo, top left, and the photo from his person blog below. It was really freaky! I later got a message from him, thanking me for the gifts. So, yes - I was rather amused.
After the live, Juu and myself went to Shinjuku - for one reason - but in the end we ended up in an arcade taking more purikura! It's a little blurry, but once all purikura has been scanned I will upload again. But you can see our twin outfits! It made me look even shorter!! Shinjuku at night, is a love hate relationship, especially with the Hosts, though they are amusing as hell!
3月12日2012 @ 高田馬場AREA
ジグラット / コドモドラゴン / Ｎ＠Ｈ-ノア- / LANDZ /
EAT YOU ALIVE / ヴェルテクス-Vertex- / BIOSPHIA
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