They'll call it chance, or luck, or call it Fate

I went to Signal's final live on Saturday. I hadn't gotten to see them that many times, so I was sad that my second time seeing them would be my last.

( Crossing fate )

I guess that bands breaking up is a fact of being an indies v-kei fan, but that doesn't make it any less sad when it happens to a good band. Signal was the first indies band that I started getting into (even though they were soon eclipsed by my love of Mejibray), and I'm sad to see them go. The poor things deserved much better than their stupid fans. I hope that they'll stay in the scene and that the members will at least try to make a comeback with new bands. I hope this won't be the last we'll see of them.

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!

Time to play a bit more LJ catch-up again. I'll start with my mini spring vacation.

During the last week of March I took three days off of work to go to Kyoto with Greta and Leslie. We took the shinkansen to Kyoto on Monday night and spent next three days staying with Lilith at her dorm. Lilith was nice enough to let us invade her small living space for a few days, which made our trip cheaper than it would've otherwise been.

Day 1 - None of us had been to Fushimi Inari before and we all really wanted to go, so that was the first stop of our trip. The four of us met up with Kiri and her parents because they happened to be in Kyoto at the same time as us. We all of hiked up Fushimi Inari together. It took up a good part of the afternoon, but it was completely worth it. Climbing up the mountain under all those red torii was beautiful.


Fushimi Inari's famous torii.

There were also so many shrines, big and small, scattered over the whole mountain. Certain places on the mountain felt like they had some serious spiritual energy, too. We made it all the way to the top of the mountain. Then, when we got back down to the bottom, we had delicious taiyaki parfaits as a reward for all that climbing. We then parted ways with Kiri and her parents to go to Sanjusangendo. It was so cool! Inside the building are hundreds of amazingly carved wooden statues of Kannon and other Buddhist gods. I only wish that they allowed you to take pictures inside. It was definitely worth seeing.

Day 2 - We started off by going to Heian Shrine, which was pretty big. It seemed like it had a Four Gods motif going, which was neat. The shrine itself wasn't too exciting though. After Heian Shrine we met up with Kate. She came up from Osaka for the afternoon to visit with us. We then went to Yasaka Jinja, which is quite nice. I'd actually been there before with my parents on my last trip to Kyoto. While we were at Yasaka it started raining, so we decided to go in search of food instead for more shrines. After we had dinner, a few of us had ninja crepes. They were black crepes and mine had black sesame and custard in it. It was quite good.

Day 3 - By the last day of the trip, we were so tired from walking but we still had more to do. We walked a lot to get to a bunch of different smaller shrines. (Greta and I may have complained a lot about being tired.) This first shrine was Seimei Shrine, dedicated to Abe no Seimei. I thought it was a cool little shrine. The thing that made my day was finding an ema signed by D'espairs Ray among all the celebrity signed ema the shrine had on display. (I miss you D'espa. Come back!) Then, we walked to Kenkun Shrine, which is dedicated to the warlord himself, Oda Nobunaga. We had to do a little bit of climbing to get to this shrine. It was actually a pretty little shrine. The last shrine of the trip was Hirano, which was quite lovely. There were many cherry blossoms there too, which made it extra pretty. After Hirano, we went back to Lilith's dorm to pick up our bags and then to the station to catch our shinkansen back to Tokyo.

All in all, the trip was quite nice, but very tiring. The trains aren't as convenient in Kyoto so it requires a lot of riding the bus (which kind of sucks) or walking. I was actually pretty happy to go home because by the end of the trip I felt like I needed a vacation from my vacation. Kyoto is beautiful, but I prefer Tokyo. Coming back to Tokyo is a bit like coming home.

Just got home from te first show of Miyavi's Ahead of the Light tour! I'll write a short entry about it now because I have a GazettE live tomorrow.

( Pass the supersonic, everything's gone behind me )

It felt like the live ended to soon, even though it went on for almost two hours. I wished that there would've been enough time for Miyavi to come back for a second encore. Despite that, it was still a great evening! Myv lives are always fantastic.

Now to get some rest before tomorrow's GazettE live! I'm almost at the end of my two week concert extravaganza.