Been meaning to finish this entry for a couple days now. Last Sunday I went to Black Gene for the Next Scene's signing at Brand X! I actually kind of unintentionally got the ticket because I picked up a copy of their new album a couple days after the release and was surprised to find that there were still event tickets left. Since there were tickets left, of course I took the opportunity to go.

( Glow Test Kraken )

It was a fun event and a good distraction from other things. I was glad that went! I do hope that I'll get the chance to see Black Gene again. I'd definitely like to go to one of their oneman shows on their next tour.

I've been way too busy with life to write recently. Now that my whirlwind three weeks are over, I finally have a little bit of time. First up is the half a week I spent in California with DJ!

Even though my flight was over an hour late, I met up with DJ with minimal fuss. He picked me up and we met up with Travis for dinner before heading back to Paul's place.

DJ and Travis are both living at Paul's house now. I like Travis and Paul, so I didn't mind having them around, I just wish I could've gotten a bit more one on one time with DJ (especially now when I really could've used it). Regardless, of that fact, it was still a nice trip though and Travis and Paul both tried to make sure that I had fun, too.

On our first full day, DJ, Paul, Travis, and I went to Monterey Bay. Monterey was quite nice. I liked the sort of quaint seaside feel it has. After lunch, we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. They had a pretty cool jellyfish exhibit there (which gave me Kuragehime feels). Then, after a stop for some Ghirardelli chocolate, we were on our way to Caramel. It's a really cute and pretty beachside town. Of course, we went down to the beach. The slope was pretty steep for my sprained ankle, so DJ ended up giving me a piggyback ride, while Paul snapped adorable pics of us. The beach was nice, but it made me a little lonely, since DJ and Travis were being cutesy and then I saw a lesbian couple being cute together. It was one of the many times I wished April could've been there.

That night, after we got back from the beach, DJ and I Skyped with his mom. She wanted to say 'hi' to me and see how I was doing, which was very sweet of her. She told me about her reaction when DJ first came out to her and how her opinions changed for the better over time. She told me that my mom will come around eventually and that if I wanted, she'd be willing to talk with my mom for me. I don't think I'll accept her offer right now (since my mom would just view it as butting in), but it meant a lot to me that she'd be willing to do it.

The next morning we got a bit of a late start, but the DJ, Travis, and I headed to San Francisco. We went on a boat tour under the Golden Gate Bridge, which was nice but pretty windy. Then, we went to the Exploratorium, which a this huge and really cool hands-on science museum. Then, we checked into our hotel room, which Travis had booked for the night.

After a sushi dinner, we decided to go out on the town. I'm afraid I kind of ruined the evening though. The boys tried to be nice and take me to check out a lesbian bar (not to look for anyone, just for fun). It just ended up making me sad though because I wanted April to be there with me. DJ saw that I wasn't feeling it, so we left to do to another bar just to sit and have drinks. I ended up crying before we even ordered drinks though. It was just a combination of everything (being tired, missing April, being upset about my family) and I couldn't do it. I felt even worse about it because we'd set up the evening specifically so that we could go out. The boys assured me that it was okay and took me back to the hotel room so that we could talk. Travis even ran out to get us ice cream and cookies. I talked with the boys about stuff for a while and cried some more as they tried to comfort me. They let me Skype with April too to help me feel better. DJ cuddled me for a bit and I fell asleep not too long after that.

The next day was better. We went to the California Academy of Sciences. My favorite part was the enclose rainforest sphere they had in the middle of the museum. It was filled with trees and free flying birds and butterflies. A beautiful little black, orange, and yellow butterfly landed on my hand and DJ got about a dozen shots of me with it. It made me smile because it reminded me of April.

After that, we called it a day so that Travis could get back for work at the bar. I spent the rest of the evening chilling with DJ and Paul, watching TV, drinking wine, and petting Elton (Travis's snuffly French bulldog). Didn't stay up too late though because DJ had to take me to the airport the next morning.

Despite everything, it was still a good trip. Much better than the week I spent with my family, that's for sure. It's always good to see DJ. It's comforting to know that as much as stuff changes, he'll always be one of my best friends.

One more entry to go to catch up with things this month. On July 15th, I went to Zepp Tokyo to see alice nine live for the first time. I had debated on it for a bit because I haven't been so into their latest stuff, but I decided to go for it. They used to be one of my favorite J-rock bands and I really wanted the chance to see them at some point.

( 空へ描いてゆく　キミへ届くように )

Even though I'm not as big a fan of alice nine's current music, I'm still glad that I got a chance to go to their live! It was definitely a lot of fun.

Yesterday was my two year Japanniversary (the anniversary of the day I moved to Japan). It's a little hard to believe that I've lived there for two years now. It feels both longer and shorter than that at the same time. I've got one more year to go, so here's to hoping for more good things.

Another late entry, so I can catch up with everything. On June 14th, exist+trace hosted another 'Crazy Fighters' live at Shinjuku Loft. Of course, April and I had to go check it out, and this time Aki joined us!

April and I weren't sure if we'd be arriving exactly when the live started (since there'd be three bands playing before exist+trace), but we ended up arriving about a minute before the first band took the stage. It was a good thing that we did because exist+trace surprised us by opening the show as their cover band, Muse! April and I totally weren't expecting it at all, so we were super excited. The girls were all dressed in simple black outfits and Naoto and Mally had their hair pulled back cutely. They then launched into Queen's "We Will Rock You"! After the initial surprise, I realized that Jyou's English was actually pretty decent, so I was proud of her. The girls then played a rock version of "Bad Romance" and I almost died of squee! It was so awesome. They kept the amazingness coming by playing "20th Century Boy" and finishing with hide's "Pink Spider! I was so pleased with all of their song choices. :3

Not going to recount the rest of the bands at the live because they weren't particularly special or notable. They weren't bad, but weren't great either.

At the end of the night, it was finally time for exist+trace to take the stage. They played a mix of slightly older and new songs this time around. The girls played "Resonance" for the first time in a long time and I almost lost it. I nearly knocked myself over headbanging in excitement. ^_^; Lol.

The band also announced something special that they were doing for this live, which was the MVP contest. It was our job as the audience to vote for the MVP after the live, to choose the member who had the most energy that night. Jyou announced it on stage and then tried to intimidate Omi, saying that she definitely wouldn't lose and staring her down. Omi tried, but she couldn't keep a straight face and ended up laughing. She tried to pull it together, but couldn't stay serious and ended up giving Jyou a chop to the head. I love it when Jyou pokes at Omi, haha!

"Signal" was a lot of fun too because the Signal whistles were finally back in stock at the goods table! I hadn't remembered to buy one the previous time they were on sale, so April and I both bought them. It was my first time actually having one of the whistles while the girls played "Signal", so that was fun. It was the last song of the night

After the live was over, we got MVP voting forms from Asako. I voted for Jyou because she had so much awesome energy on stage. When we turned in the voting forms, we got stickers that had been signed by the band members.

Aki had to leave early, but April and I then headed over to the goods table because Mally and Miko were helping sell goods! I probably wouldn't have bought anything else, but I really wanted to talk with the girls, so I ended up buying a postcard set (which I'm planning to use to send April postcards later). Mally and Miko were super nice, as always. They thanked us for coming to the live and  we told them how fun it was. They also liked April's whistle, which she had attached to the choker that she was wearing.

April and I then noticed that Jyou was out of the floor handing out flyers. We went up to her and had a really nice little conversation! She thanked us for coming to the live and then said (in Japanese, of course), "You live in Japan, right? I often see you at the lives." It made me really happy that she noticed (of course, it'd be kind of hard not to notice us almost always up near the front of the crowd, but still). I told her that I love the band, so I enjoy getting to go to their lives. At this point, one of the other bands came up to greet Jyou and tell her they were leaving, and she got this adorably conflicted look on her face. You could tell that she wanted to talk to them, but she didn't want to turn away from us, so she briefly talked with them and then continued her conversation with us. She's such a sweetie. We told her that were looking forward to "Diamond" and that we were definitely going to buy it. She also noticed April's whistle and mentioned that she liked it. After that, we didn't want to keep her for too long (because I swear Jyou would just keep talking), so we said our goodbyes. She told us to come again and to be careful going home. Aww.

It was a good end to a fun live! Going to these event lives definitely pays off. :)

Had another wonderful weekend with April. We went to another exist+trace live (which I'll write about later) and then we spent the next night out on the town in Ni-chome. We went to GF, one of the monthly lesbian events, and spent the night drinking and dancing. It was a great time, but we were so tired after being out all night. There was also a matsuri happening literally right outside April's apartment all weekend, so we would periodically pop down to get food from the booths, or check out the mikoshi. Definitely one of the cool parts about living in Japan (except for the fact that it was super noisy outside when we were trying to sleep in after our night out).

Tonight, I Skyped with my Aunt Judy. She wanted to make sure that I was okay after everything with my parents and she wanted me to know that she still loves and supports me. That was good to hear. She wants to meet April. Aunt Judy also told me that she's sure my grandma would have supported me, too. She said that even though Grandma didn't share her opinions too much, that she was actually surprisingly liberal. That really made me feel good, too. Even though things are still hard with my parents, talking to other supportive family members helps me feel better.

On 5/10, April and I went to see exist+trace at Shinjuku Loft. The band was holding a live event called 'Crazy Fighters'. Including exist+trace, four bands played.

April and I opted to get food before the live and arrive a bit after the start, since exist+trace would be the last act hitting the stage. It took us a little bit of wandering through Kabukicho (Shinjuku's red light district) to actually find the live house. It ended up being in the basement floor of a giant building of host clubs lol. April and I scurried past all the hosts waiting around the building to get inside.

When we arrived, the first band was already a good portion of the way through their set. I caught a glimpse of Mally enthusiastically watching them perform from behind the goods table. She's such a cutie. :3

The second band, Where's Andy?, was a group of three youngish girls, who performed what I'll call 'chipmunk rock" (hard rock songs with a really squeaky, cutesy vocalist). Not quite my thing. The third band, 快進のICHIGEKI, was a group of guys who performed more typical hard rock, with some traditional Japanese elements thrown in. They were good though because they got the audience really pumped up. The vocalist actually started singling people out in the crowd who weren't participating and got them to come closer to the stage. April and I weren't close enough to the crowd, so he decided to single us out until we participated to his liking lol. It did end up being a fun set though.

While we were waiting for exist+trace to take the stage, April and I ended up next to the vocalist for Where's Andy?. She noticed us from the crowd earlier (which I felt slightly bad about because we weren't that enthusiastic about their music) and struck up a conversation with us, asking if we spoke Japanese. We talked with her for a minute about learning English and Japanese and then about exist+trace. She was cute and it was clear that she admired the band.

Soon it was finally time for exist+trace to perform! April and I were close to the front, between Jyou and Omi, as usual. Jyou cut her hair and it's now a cute chin length bob. The girls played a great fast paced set that was a mix of songs from 'Virgin' and their brand new songs. The new songs are really growing on me the more I hear them! They started with "Diamond", their newest single, which is a lot of fun. The coolest part of the night was when they performed "RAZE". Shinjuku Loft has recording equipment, so they recorded the audio of the song and then burned it to CDs that they gave to everyone at the end of the live!

We had to wait around for a little bit after the live ended because not only did we get a CD with the recording of "RAZE", but the band personally gave the CD to everyone! The girls lined up behind a table near the door and shook everyone's hands on our way out. It was April's first time getting to meet the band! She was in front of me in line, so I got to watch her talk with Jyou. We were close to the front of the line and the pace for the handshaking hadn't really been set yet. Jyou commented on the necklace April was wearing, which was from the previous week's Sixh show. I could see Asako (the band's manager) behind April trying to coax Jyou to get the line moving along lol.

There wasn't much time to talk with the girls this time because they had to keep the line moving at a pretty quick pace. It was still great to meet them again though! I could tell that they recognize me from all the lives I've been to. First in line was Jyou, then Naoto, Omi, Mally and Miko. I didn't have much time to do anything other then thank them and tell them that the live was fun. I feel like the experience kind of went by in a blur, but I didn't lose my cool around Omi this time. I remember Mally enthusiastically taking my hand in both of hers as she shook it. Since Miko was at the end of the line, she was the one who gave everyone the CD. She told me to please come to another live as she gave me the CD. :)

It was definitely a good night! April and I left the live house giggling and breezed by all the hosts waiting around outside. One of them tried to hand April his card, but he fumbled and dropped it. Very smooth, sir. Another host tried to get our attention too, so he said "good morning" in English, before realizing his mistake and saying "good night" instead. It was an amusing end to the evening. XD

On Wednesday night, I went to the first live of Mejibray's new oneman tour, Blitz of Messiah! The live was at Star Lounge in Shibuya. It was a sold out show. I'm honestly not sure how they managed to fit all of us in the venue because it was pretty small. The crowd literally stretched back past the merch tables, to the back of the live house.

( メサイア )

I was so excited to see Mejibray again and they definitely didn't disappoint! The boys are doing a good job of cementing their spot as one of my favorite bands. More on Mejibray to come in another entry because this was not the only time I ended up seeing them during Golden Week.:3

On Saturday, Kaille and I went to G-Dragon's concert at the Seibu Dome! Despite the crummy weather, it was such a fun show to see!

( Get your crayon! )

I'm glad that I got to see GD's solo show. (These days, he gives T.O.P a run for his money as my favorite Big Bang member.) Even though it was cold, the concert was definitely worth it. And after all this time, I was finally able to get my cray~on!