Woke up like at 6am, concert day today! Watched a bit of TV before heading out.
It's nice to watch Japanese TV. Their ADs are always so bright and cheery with nice jingles.
Heading west of Tokyo to Kanagawa, where the concert is being held.
Not quite sure of the place. Only had a rough memory of where it was on Google Earth. lol.
Outside of our hotel room, stairs to the 1st floor.
There was one night, one of the ang mo tourist was curled up at the corner of the staircase reading book. When i walked out i nearly had a heart attack. ._.|||
Taxi depot right beside our hotel.
Minowa station~!
Heading to Akihabara to switch trains.
Got a bit worried when i realized it was rush hour, but remembered it was a Sunday. :]
Wilson was complaining he's never woken up so early before since his army days. haha~
Akihabara~! We're just switching trains now. Will be back after the concert.
While on the train to Kanagawa we spotted the 'Thunder Dolphin' ride.
Took a photo of the closest station, Suidobashi. We'll be back for that too.
I don't remember which station we swapped trains at,
but we were buying tickets here and there.
Got a bit lost again. Conductor pointed us to the right track after flagging off the train.
Where's ma train?.
We were in the middle, theatre was somewhere in 'B1'. Long walk needed.
Stopped by this place to have breakfast.
Not bad. Warm bowl of noodles after a long train ride.
This place was really cold. First time i had to put on my jacket. The winds were like omg.
Was relying on my superior internal GPS to point us in the right direction
after leaving the train station. hahaha~
Train crossing~
Good that they have maps everywhere along any major crossings.
So it's quite hard to get lost.
Finally we're here! It's only 9am, and there's already there's a long queue!~
the show starts at 2.30pm.
We walked around for a while before deciding to join the queue.
Found out the later that the queue was not for the entrance, but to buy their merchandise.
Click here to see the full list of what was available.
While waiting you could check out the seating plan near the left wall.
Quite amused to see the kind of people turning up to watch their concert.
They had huge McDonald style menus where you can just point and say how many you want. The girl took a loooong time to say "is that all?" after she realized i replied in english. xD
This was the rest of the hall. Behind me was the merchandise corner.
See the entrance on the left? It leads to...
This room of people selling, *gasp*, Morning Musume stuff! Like, wah!
It's like some years ago along Bishan MRT, kids use to gather there to trade playing cards.
It's exactly like that here.
Except they sell photos, posters, fans and other random Hello Project related stuff.
They bring LUGGAGES filled with stacks and stacks of photos. It's amazing.
Limited concert edition ones, and the larger A4 sized ones are the most expensive.
See! Photos well kept in transparent sleeves. One of the sellers knew english and asked us about who our favourite members were and if we were looking for any photos in particular.
Man i tell you, it felt a bit strange.
It's starting!!!!!!!
This formation was the start of their 'Mikan' single. 2nd song in the line up.
If you missed the post on the concert experience, see here~!
Random moment during the first song. lol. Here's the official wiki page.
They were in these raincoat looking outfits for the first 2 songs, introduction,
and a brief talk before disappearing to change into...
THESE! Outfits from their newest Pepper Keibu single. Awesomeness.
But it was only for 1 song and a brief talk :(
For the next 3 songs, including Ambitious!, they were in these~
Because of the whole idol culture, such concerts are very different from say, a rock concert. They play up the 'personality' of the girls rather than their actual singing talents.
After a brief interlude, the 6th gen came out for a rather long talk session.
Next were the 7th and 8th gen members. The 2 on the left and right of the photo are from CHINA! You can somewhat tell they aren't Japanese.
The 'A' team was next. 5th and 6th gen members.
The 3 best singers in the group, in my opinion. This was a new song. :P
After the smaller group performances, there was yet another talk session,
then they all came out again in these silver/grey outfits for another 6 songs.
Resonant Blue was among the 6. Bestest song out of the entire concert :]
They went backstage after Resonant Blue, and after 5 minutes of the crowd yelling
'ENCORE-RU!!!', they came out again in these gospel looking outfits for their new slow
tempo song, which i though was excellent because of the solo lines in chinese.
After the slow song they went to their end-of-show thank you messages,
took off their gospel overalls and launched into their last song.
Entire concert lasted 1hr 45mins. Not long enough!! lol.
On our way back to the train station.
I wanted to go for the 6pm concert as well, but Wilson was giving me the look. lol.
Ears were still ringing with concert music. A bit deaf now.
These 3 were quite cute. xD
By the time we reached Akihabara it was dark already.
Famous electric city for all things anime, otaku and AV.
Wilson went straight for his figurines. Wanted to get them before the shops closed.
Entire buildings of comics and anime stuff.
First time i've ever seen a 8 storey arcade.
Soundtracks and singles from anime series.
Was quite amazed at the amount of anime stuff. Shelves upon shelves of just, anime stuff!.
There were hentai comics as well. The higher you go the more obscene the comics. xD
Stairwells filled with comic strips as well.
I was more interested in these figurines than comics.
Really detailed. Makes you want to collect them all.
They have these 'pre-order' walls, where you can write your contact details and
slot them in the correct sleeves. Once the product comes in they'll contact you.
But once again the shops close at 7pm, so we had an early dinner
before heading back to Minowa.
Overall concert loot. Wilson bought 2 T-shirts and a towel. I bought 3 towels and their latest single. Came with a free poster too.
At this point even if we were to fly home tomorrow,
the entire trip to Japan was worth it. hahaha~