Follow the Night Light

D was brilliant as usual.

It was motherfucking cold. Weather and elements are not really things that get considered when choosing an outfit for a live, so me and all the other girls waiting in line outside were freezing and shaking. I totally saw a girl with a Manic Street Preachers sweatshirt. It had crucifix kiss on it. I wonder if she  was actually a manics fan or if some japanese company just slapped some random english lyrics on a shirt. I almost asked, but then i got scared.

Anyway. My ticket number was B 15 which actually sucked cuz there were 200 people with A tickets. Nevertheless, after I finally got in after waiting 45 minutes in the cold, I got to about the 5th row in front of Hide-zou. Once they started and played a few songs I got moved up to the 3rd row in front of Tsunehito, who is not my favorite, but is the critical place between Hide-zou and Asagi.

I can’t remember the setlist, but I know they started with night-ship D. (My flags weren’t at the ready.) It was really good. Asagi’s voice is so, so good live.  Ruiza was having a great time, as usual and Tsunehito keot doing his little poses with his bass. I must say that Hide-zou wasn’t quite as smiley as I had gotten used to him being. He actually spent a lot of time playing at the pack by Hiroki. I was a little disappointed because he is usually the highlight of the show for me.

I got to touch Ruiza and Asagi a couple of times. And Tsunehito, but it wasn’t quite as big of a deal since I had just shook hands with all of them the night before. No, that’s a lie, it was a big deal. And I was super sad that I didn’t get to touch Hide-zou this time.

They played 2 encores. The first one, they came out in their Kuon outfits. They second one, they did their talk and then ended with Eden as usual.

Their talk:

Asagi started off with saying that he made little sandwiches! He made mentaiko sandwiches. He explained how he made them, then asked who wanted to try them. He told the audience no, but then gave them to the band (wha had all raised their hands.) Hide-zou was first. He ate his sandwich and said “.  . .There’s nori in it.”  Then was Tsunehito. He said “It tastes like Asagi.” Hiroki talked a lot, which I didn’t catch (his voice is so low! ) but I think he concluded that it was delicious. Ruiza took a huge piece and stuffed the whole thing in his mouth. His response was a muffled oishii. Then Asagi tried one. He ate it and than sang a really high note and said “Wow, it made my voice amazing!” (or something like that). ha ha ha.

Then was time for their individual talks. Asagi said, “First, Nori-Zou! Oh, oops.” I love their lame jokes. Anyway, I forget what Hide-zou said, but he concluded with “Nori-zou deshita!” Then was Hiroki. I think he stood up and pulled back his flimsy excuse for a shirt to show off his chest. As usual. Still, it never gets old. He may have shimmied a bit even. Then was Ruiza who plugged their tour goods. (as usual.) I think he also sang a couple notes, playing off of what Asagi had done earlier with the sandwiches. Then was Tsunehito. He did the singing thing too, but he was making fun of Hide-zou. He got the audience to sing “No-ri, no-ri. . . ” (I love that both times I’ve seen Tsunehito with D, his entire speech has basically been about Hide-zou.) He said something asking Hide-zou to say a couple more words and when Hide-zou got to the mic and was about to speak, he cut him off. Then he did the exact same thing again later, but Hide-zou was more cautious so he inched his way to the mic, looking back at Tsunehito. He finally decided it was safe to try and speak, when Tsune cut him off again, so he did a fake falling down move. It was funny. They were really silly.

Then they played Eden, which means it’s over! I hate when it’s over.
But they all come out and jump and then linger touching hands or throwing things like picks and water bottles. Some of them threw roses and I caught one from Tsunehito! (Though it very nearly died in the battle.) Now if I get something from Ruiza, I’ll have a complete set. I already have a rose from Asagi (my icon), a drumstick form Hiroki, a waterbottle with a pick in it from Hide-zou and now a rose from Tsunehito.

Hide-zou was touching hands near me, but not quite to me yet when Hiroki came over. This meant I didn’t get to touch either of them, but instead they just stood up and hugged. It was cute.

Ruiza was last to leave the stage. He growled something into the mic that I didn’t catch and then he was gone like the rest of them.

Nov. 17th@ Skull Rose, Fukuoka

I had been really proud of myself for understanding most of the Talk at the Kaya and Juka instore. But alas, I still fail because I hardly understood anything D said tonight T_T. Deep voices are really really hard for me to understand and most of D have really deep voices. Plus it’s harder to follow when the conversation is going 5 ways instead of just 2, and when they are trying to be funny.

But, it was fun anyway.

My ticket # was 103, but I still got into hear the talk. I was towards the back though, so I couldn’t see Asagi and Hiroki very well, and I couldn’t see Ruiza at all. The girls behind me were clearly Ruiza fans as they kept lamenting to each other “見えない！” and chanting to themselves for Ruiza to stand on the table. (He is quite short. even when he stood up I could barely see him.

This is my second D instore so I wasn’t quite as nervous as last time. Last time was when D was without a bassist, and they were all dressed in costumes. But this time they were all just really cool! (Well, Hide-zou and Ruiza were significantly less cool I think. In a very endearing sort of way.)

As I said, I didn’t understand much. Ruiza was pretty quiet. Hiroki was the funny one, as usual. Hide-zou kept trying to make jokes and failing. It was really cute. He was pretty much the butt of everyone’s jokes tonight. He even apologized once after making some lame joke. The MC even asked him if he thought before speaking. Hiroki replied for him saying that No, Hide-zou just waits for an idea to pop into his head and says it without thinking. Anyway, Tsunehito kept surprising Asagi which was funny because it happened so often and Asagi never failed to be surprised. Ruiza tried to surprise Hiroki once and it totally didn’t work.

There were way less questions this time (cuz there are more members).

Q: What would you do if you had one day off to spend with all of D together
Hiroki: Camping (maybe fishing also?)
Ruiza: (can’t remember! ><)
Asagi: Zoo
Tsunehito: Skiing
Hide-zou: Basketball. Then onsen. (They had talked earlier about how they all played basketball together recently, and everyone was pretty good. Except once Hide-zou was getting a rebound and it totally hit him right in the face.)

Q: If you gave a D member a rose, who would it be and what color?
Hide-zou: A red rose to everyone.
Tsunehito: A blue rose to Asagi. (He might have said something about searching heard for a natural blue rose and then giving it to him.)
Asagi: To hiroki a Yellow rose because he is so genki. To Ruiza a blue rose. To Tsunehito a white rose. And to Hide-zou a rainbow rose. Or a pink rose because Hide-zou is like a girl sometimes. (He did an impression of Hide-zou talking like a girl.)
Ruiza: A red rose to everyone.
Hiroki: (I can’t remember!)

Q:What present would you give to the person sitting next to you as a X-mas present.
Hiroki to Ruiza: (Maybe a really rare guitar?)
Ruiza to Asagi: (Maybe a hug. I couldn’t see!!!!!!!!!!! T_T )
Asagi to Tsunehito: A house near the studio. (I didn’t catch why exactly)
Tsunehito to Hide-zou: A cool jacket. The MC asked if it is because the Jacket he’s wearing wasn’t oshare. T said that wasn’t the reason, it’s just that Hide-zou had put tape on it when it had broke or something.
Hide-zou to Hiroki: (A castle maybe? I didn’t catch the details.)

Q:What did you buy recently?
Hide-zou: *takes out lip cream* lip cream. 200 yen! *put on lip cream* really, it’s very good lip cream. . .
Asagi: PSP
Ruiza: These boot’s I’m wearing.

(some question that involved them doing ridiculous poses. Hide-zou of course did some strange pose. Tsunehito did some sexy pose. Asagi blew a kiss. Ruiza did something similar to blowing a kiss. Hiroki did a high kick martial art type thing, but his pants were too tight, so his kick didn’t go very high.)

Then was the handshaking. It actually went pretty fast. I had written a letter to Hide-zou and then had one with messages from foreign fans that I gave to Asagi. Hide-zou was first in the line. I told him that it was probably full of mistakes, but I wrote him this letter. It was kind of awkward. He just kind of said “Welcome!” in english and then I moved on. I explained to Asagi about the letter ad i guess he seemed flattered or surprised or something. I also told everyone else to read the letter.

And then it was all over too quickly.

Nov. 16th

I’m happy to say that today was the first time I ever went to a live with a friend! I talk about Kaya a lot so B came along for the ride. I think she enjoyed it.

I actually had a really high ticket number (8), but we were late getting there. It didn’t really matter though, because DrumSON is TINY!
We ended up in about the 5th row for most of the show, I did move up to the 4th towards the end though.

One of the first things I noticed was that there were a lot of men for a VK live. maybe 1/4th of the crowd? A lot of them were middle-aged men too. weird! Maybe the have respect for Hizaki’s mad guitar skillz.

First was Dali (Dari? Dolly?) . I really didn’t care, but they did make me feel a little bad for not caring. I think they said we were boring. Basically no one was there to see them, but what do you expect when you’re playing with Versailles?

Kaya was next. He played about 6 songs with a couple breif MCs. I love Kaya’s voice. He brought back up dancers! it was pretty awesome. There really aren’t enough backup dancers in my life. He played Carmilla, (something, I forget, maybe 般若?.), Walkure (!!!), Silvery Dark, Glitter Arch (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and Rose Jail. I kind of can’t believe he played Glitter Arch. It was amazing. And Rose Jail is always brilliant live. I got to touch him, but he totally put someones finger’s in his mouth. I’m strangely jealous.

Then was Juka. He wasn’t really wearing a shirt, which was kind of distracting. He was pretty unceremonious and didn’t say much of anything. But, his voice is good, so it was good. I quite like Saint Croix. I’d see him again even if it was just him.

Then was Versailles who most people had clearly been waiting for. They were pretty brilliant. My first live in Japan was actually a Lareine seated live. Anyway, I was right in the middle so it was mostly Kamijo who had my attention. I love Hizaki but he was off to the side and oddly not as charismatic as I expected. Or something. But they were great. I really hope they come to Fukuoka again.

The best part (besides Kaya), was probably the encore. Kaya, Kamijo and Juka all sang together. It was pretty amazing because they are all great vocalists. I kind of couldn’t believe that it was actually happening. Then they pretty much just left. (But not before Juka picked Tera up and frog-marched him a bit.)

Nov. 15th @ Skull Rose, Fukuoka

Tonight I went to Tenjin for a Kaya and Juka instore event! (their concert is tomorrow with Versailles).

Instores make me nervous, but this one was pretty chill. There were less than 40 people I think.

We waited a while before Kaya and Juka came out. I highly approve of Kaya’s Carmilla outfit. But is it just me or does Juka’s hair look horrible. It’s gray. Badly, half gray. I don’t know anything about Juka so I didn’t know what to expect, but they were both good.

First was the “Talk”, a Q&A session. The event space is actually right next to an arcade, so the first thing they commented on was the noise. I think Juka said something like “Afterwards, lets go (play arcade games)” to Kaya and Kaya said he wouldn’t lose.

I only understood about half of what was said, but it was funny. Sometimes Kaya and Juka would just kind of go off into their own conversation before remembering that everyone else was there. It was good. They had good chemistry.

Some of the Q&A I remember

When asked what he would do if he had a day off, Kaya said something like traveling to onsen. (He then asked if there were any close by. Juka said Beppu in Oita and Kaya didn’t know where that was. Oh, failing at geography.) Juka then said he liked onsen too and asked Kaya to go together sometime. Kaya replied “No way.”

Someone asked about what they liked in Fukuoka. Kaya had just been here in August so he said the food (vague). Juka was taking a long time to think so Kaya asked if he had never been before, not even for a live. Juka replied “I came with you!” And Kaya remembered a live from 5 years ago. (Must have been Schwarz Stein and Moi dix Mois.) Juka finally replied (he had a habit of not paying attention/forgetting the question/not being able to think of an answer) something about the Softbank Hawks. Kaya had no idea what that was. (It’s Fukuoka’s baseball team.)

Someone asked “What cosplay would you want your girlfriend or boyfriend to wear for you?” Kaya’s first response was “Anything but Juka cosplay.” but then he said uniforms, specifically school uniforms. He explained that “Younger is better. . .I don’t mean that in a bad way.” Juka I don’t think ever came up with an answer. He was just kind of “Eh! cosplay!?”

I completely didn’t understand the question, but someone may have asked Juka if he was S or M. Kaya took a poll.

I think someone asked Kaya to talk like a man maybe. Do something like a man? I think he tried talking like a man for a second but stopped in the middle saying he couldn’t do it. I think he said he’d try at the live tomorrow.

Someone asked Juka “Where is a good date spot in Yamaguchi?” (his hometown) He said something like “The truth is. . .I’ve never been on a date in Yamaguchi. I played sports in school so I didn’t have time for that kind of thing.” (he seemed a little embarrassed about this.) He also might have said that he went to a boys school to which Kaya replied “REALLY?” Juka asked why he was so excited.

I’m sure they said a lot of other great things, but I can’t remember them. T_T I’m sure the live tomorrow will be fun

Todays I was at elementary school, but I ended early so I was at my Jr. High for about 45 minutes. During this time I manged to see my TBWNIKs. Actually they saw me in the bathroom and called my name. The one I would dub their leader if I had to choose one asked me “How are you?” (asked is putting it lightly. More like he shouted it.) I said “I’m good.” He gave me a look and then said “No, no, no. Ask me ‘And you?’” “And you?” “I’M VERY FINE THANK YOU!”  We had this exact conversation 3 times in the span of as many minutes. I’ve noticed that he likes repeating the same conversation. I think he thinks he’s whitty. This boy is 15.

Of course, they did a round of “Do you know my name?” And I knew all 7 of them so they were all cheering and giving me high fives and we got yelled at because we were right by the teacher’s office. Oops.

I was talking to one of them about what he was going to do after school (go to the arcade) when one of them came up to me and said “I was born to love you.” It was pretty hilarious. He was clearly looking for some kind of reaction but I just said “Queen?” (The 2nensei had just been singing that song.) He looked a little disappointed. Next time maybe I’ll pretend to be flattered or something.

The moral of the story is, this is what happens when Japanese kids learn english songs.

After school I went to the equivalent of the dollar store to pick up some things.  I’m walking down the isle and I see this tiny person, maybe 4 years old in a pre-school uniform, with a windmill. He is blowing on it, but it’s not really working. He says something to 2 women passing which is clearly the equivalant of “How the hell do you get this thing to work?” I take it from him as I walk by and blow on it, but he’s right, it is hard. He’s lost interest by that point. It turns out he has friends! 3 other pre-school possibly kindergarten kids whom seem to be completely unsupervised, are just playing in the toy section. Soon they discover the masks and put them on. The windmill boy finds a demon mask and puts it on his tiny tiny head and walk around the isle saying “Scary! scary!” It might have been the cutest thing I have ever seen. I nearly died. I mean, how did they get there?

Last week I got to do Halloween lessons at my Jr. High. I had had a variety of ideas, but I decided to just go with Halloween pictionary because it is doable for all levels. I had a small collection of prizes for the winning groups including erasers, Halloween stickers and purikura of my self (in costume before I ran out of those). Its amazing how crazy kids will go for some of this stuff. Some of the 3nensei boys would get really excited while some of the 1nensei didn’t care at all. Ooh, constant surprises.On Halloween day I wore a costume to school. I was a pirate. I think I make a fairly dashing pirate. My kids just all yelled “Johnny Depp” at me all day. Many times they wouldn’t say anything, they would just hmm the Pirates of the Caribbean theme as I passed in the hallway. It was pretty creepy.Halloween night we decided to go reverse Trick-or-Treating, because they don’t really do anything for Halloween in Japan. We wore our costumes and walked around the town giving out candy to people we saw. (Sometimes we would make them say trick-or-treat first.) It was a lot of fun. We visited all of our usual haunts and gave the staff candy. I hope it made them not hate us. The folks at the Mexican restaurant gave us peppers in return. At one point me and B had a lot of candy so we decided to go stand in front of the Juku, right as the elementary kids were getting out. We felt a bit like pedophiles, but it was okay cuz we’re not. At first the kids were really shy and wouldn’t come near us, but once one kid dove in it was a small person swarm and the candy had disappeared before our eyes. I’m just glad that we could give some kids a sugar rush after many hours of studying. I mean really, that’s what Halloween is all about.

I am so behind in blogging.

A few weeks ago I went to a Rave in Kurume. Went to is more like “was dragged to” and Rave is being overly generous. It was really only a tiny club with 19 people. It was pretty awkward. Imagine about 5 girls doing synchronized dancing and everyone else in the club trying to look cool while watching them and being too embarrassed/stoic/cool to dance themselves. Yeah, I don’t know either.

The next day I went to Karaoke with B and some Japanese women who come to the informal eikaiwa class. They picked us up and we bought snacks and proceeded to sing karaoke for 5 HOURS. O_O It was mostly, fun though, before it got way too exhausting. They’re a fun group though, I want to hang out with them again.

Friday night a few ALTs got together in Chikugo for a Halloween Party. The highlight was probably getting there in costume with 3 other gaijin. I was dressed as a pirate and I was accompanied by Hello Kitty, Santa Claus and a Raver. We were a motley crew. Needless to say there was a lot of staring.

The Party itself was a pretty small affair. A half dozen ALTs, some Japanese friends and 4 random Jr. High girls. That was strange. It didn’t go very late and I left early because I had to be awake for my Jr. High Chorus contest the next day.

It’s a little sad to see how much effort and energy go into rehearsing something that is over so quickly. The chorus festival was held at the Cultural center, because my school has so many students. Even so, I don’t think there was enough room for all of the parents who came to watch, so they shuffled them in and out by which grade was performing.

I arrived, just before the start of the program so everyone else was already there, a sea of uniforms. I hadn’t been at my Jr. High all week, so many students were surprised to see me. Most of them were too nervous that they didn’t care though. They hadn’t really prepared any where for me to sit, so I ended up sitting between 2-2 and 2-1. I’m just glad I wasn’t with　the constant shuffle of parents.

The performances themselves were fine. Each class (there are 21 in the entire school) sang 1 song. Later 1st, 2nd, and 3rd paces was awarded per grade. It was pretty standard chorus performance, but it was funny to see some of the “bad kids” singing with their classes or which students played the piano accompaniment.

At lunch they all brought their food outside and ate on the grounds of the cultural center, which are really beautiful. A bunch of them started playing tag, which is amusing because they are all the time trying to act so mature.

After lunch the 2nensei played the koto. It was actually pretty awesome. I like the koto, which surprises me for some reason. It was especially amusing to see some of my boys play it, because I couldn’t stop picturing them in their baggy jeans and oversized shirts.

Everyone was really anxious for the awards. My favorite 3nensei class had assured me that they were going to win, but they came in 2nd. I think they were disappointed, but as they are so cool, they did a little synchronized clapping anyway because they are all a bunch of show-offs. I am really gonna miss them when they go off to high school in March.