(no subject)
Here's part 2 of my Japan report! ^_^ I'll try to have part 3 up either later today or tomorrow. ^^
March 29th
Miura Reien
I wanted to wake up early and go to Miura Reien some time early in the morning so I'd have lots of time to explore both Miura Reien and Yokosuka. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize how long it would take to eat breakfast, check out of the hotel, ask for directions, and take the train over there, so by the time I got to Miura Reien, it was about 1:00, and I’d wanted to get there at like 10 AM at the latest. @_@
But it was a really nice place. There was a staircase that led to the grave sites, but to the left of it was this gorgeous garden with a lake and trees that had lily-like flowers growing from them, so I decided to go there first. ^^” After a few minutes of admiring how pretty everything was, I headed up the stairs.
At first, I didn’t want to ask for directions since I thought it would be better if I could find the memorial site on my own. However, when someone offered to help out, I didn’t want to ignore him. o.o Good thing, too, because I was near the top of the hill, and the memorial was at the bottom. ^^”
So I got there, and it was beautiful. *_* It was easily about twice the size of the other grave markers there (which were already pretty big), and people had left lots of flowers there. They’d also left little gifts, like a Psycho Bear strap, hide dolls (not the plushies, though, more like mini action figures), Mild Seven cigarettes, beer cans, and even a Doraemon doll. I didn’t take any pictures of the memorial out of respect, by the way. ^^”
I had brought a photocopy of a watercolor painting of him that I had done recently to leave at the memorial, so I put it on the platform in front of the stone that said “hide”, and placed one of the beer cans over a corner so it would serve as a paperweight (oh, and I had the drawing in a plastic sleeve so it wouldn’t get damaged or anything ^^”).
I wanted to say a few things to him out loud while I was there, but since there were quite a few people there, I just quietly whispered, “I love you. Daisuki”, and left. Then I realized I forgot to say “Thank you”, and quite a few other things. @_@ But I’d already walked away from the memorial at that point. ^^” So I sat on a nearby bench away from the people who were still standing there, and still didn’t say anything out loud, but I was thinking the things I wanted to say at least (if that makes sense XD”). Basically I was thanking him for everything, telling him about the X Japan concerts, and asking him to watch over everyone in X Japan, especially Yoshiki because of what had happened on Friday.
Yokosuka
While trying to take the train to Yokosuka, the train we took went forward one stop, and then stopped there for a while, and then went BACK to Miura Kaigan (the train stop closest to Miura Reien)! O_O At first I was like “Aww, hide wants me to go back!”. XD” But then I found out the trains were supposed to go like that for some reason. O_o So since we’d gotten off of the first one, we had to wait for another one. X_x
Eventually, we made it to Yokosuka. At the station, I could have SWORN I saw some sort of hide poster, but I did a double take, and it turned out to be some random advertisement that had nothing to do with hide. XD”
Once I was outside the station, I went searching for a music store that was supposed to be near there called Yajima. As I was looking, I saw some boats sailing in the harbor, so I got some photos of them. Heck, for the first 5-10 minutes I was in Yokosuka, I took lots of photos. XD There were sakura trees, rose bushes (roses seem to be popular in Yokosuka XD), statues that looked like they were memorials for sailors, and lots of other pretty things. *_* But soon it became obvious that Yajima wasn’t near there, so mom and I went to a mall and asked for directions at the music store that was there. Turns out it was near the Yokosuka-chuo station, instead of the Yokosuka station. ^^”
So since I suddenly realized it was already almost 5:00 and the concert was set to start at 6 and technically we needed to leave immediately but I still at least wanted to see Yajima, we took a cab. XD” Cabs are expensive in Japan. Starting fee of about 700 yen ($7-ish). X_x Even New York is only a $2.50 starting fee! But that applies to all the cabs in Japan, not just Yokosuka. o.o
Anyway, we made it to the store, and right away it took my breath away. There were TONS of hide posters, and even a photograph near the entrance! So of course I went camera-happy. XD” Though looking back I should have asked permission first before taking any pictures in there, since I later found out that at least in Tokyo, they don’t allow you to take photos in stores for some reason. O_o But the storeowner didn’t seem to mind, and I did ask permission to take a photo of the pictures behind her desk at least. ^^
I also bought His Invincible Deluge Evidence and the Yoshiki Symphonic Collection DVD while I was there, and got a free Yoshiki poster with it. XD Which reminds me, as part of the Jrock Rev tour package, I got a goody bag, which included a SIGNED POSTER FROM YOSHIKI! *_* So I guess that makes up for me not being able to get his autograph when I actually met him last year at the Jrock Rev festival (since I lost the Blue Blood booklet I was going to have him sign). XD”
After buying those things, I had to rush to the station, though, even though I would have loved to stay in Yokosuka a bit longer, because I was sure the concert was going to start on time tonight to make up for being two hours late on Friday. ^^”
Night of Madness!
Sure enough, I was right. The concert did start on time tonight. And I was FORTY-FIVE MINUTES LATE. EPIC FAIL. X___x Not to mention I was trying to rush to get to my seat, but since I still had my camera in my bag, they made me sign a pink paper so I could come back and pick the camera up later, and I hastily scribbled my name because I was like “IDONTHAVETIMEFORTHISTHESHOWSTARTEDALREADYLETMEINTHERENOOOOOOW!!!1!!!111!!!!”. @_@ I did get my camera back after the show ended, though. XD"
Anyway, once I was seated, I asked the girl behind me which songs I’d missed. She only mentioned Forever Love, Rusty Nail, and Weekend, but I found out later I’d also missed a Pata Solo and DRAIN! O_O I could kick myself a zillion times over for that! X_x Not to mention when I arrived, they were in the middle of an acoustic guitar rendition of “Longing- Togireta Melody”, but by the time I was seated, they'd just finished, so I pretty much missed that, too. ;_;
But other than me being unforgivably late, the concert was amazing. Yoshiki played SWAN LAKE for his piano solo! O_O It was an absolutely gorgeous rendition of it, too. *_* And I caught more confetti during Kurenai. XD
And then, something unbelievable happened. Three words- Violet. UK. DEBUT. O_O And they played City of Devils, which I’d been DYING to hear the full version of! *_* Somehow, the audience didn’t seem to be reacting, though. Maybe because Yoshiki wasn’t on stage with them for some reason, even though Pata was. I kept expecting Yoshiki to be inside the FREAKING HUGE DISCO BALL that was hovering above the stage, though. XD"
Also, when VUK finished performing, the fashion models that had been walking along the ramps walked right past where I was sitting! O_O Of course, there was a barrier since I was on the level right above the floor seats, but it was still pretty neat to see them up close like that. XD
And then there was the Yoshiki drum solo. OMG. By far. The. Best. Drum. Solo. EVER. Though because of what had happened yesterday, I was torn between being completely and utterly amazed, and fearing for his life. ^^"
But he was completely fine and he didn’t even collapse afterwards! So after seeing him get through that without getting hurt, I knew he’d be fine for the rest of the two nights. ^^ Also, he had a keyboard up there with him on the floating drum platform (and I swear the platform really looked to me like it was FLOATING at first until I noticed the support thingy under it, thanks to some sort of trick of the light XD”), and he played it a bit during the drum solo, so that was neat. ^^
During Tears, as Yoshiki was walking towards Toshi from the drum platform, I was reminded of their hug before Forever Love during the Last Live. But this time, it was different. They were happy as they were hugging. And that made me happy. <3
In fact, there were lots of cute moments between Yoshiki and Toshi. ^_^ During the part of I.V. where Toshi was getting the audience to sing along at the beginning, Toshi was standing on one of the ramps that went out towards the audience, and Yoshiki was lying down under him and rolling around between his legs! XD Or at least it kind of looked that way from where I was sitting. If it turns out I was just imagining that, let me know. XD” Oh, and later on during Tears, Toshi put his arm around Yoshiki while they were both sitting at the piano bench! ^_^ I’m reeeeeeeally glad to see those two getting along so well again after all these years. <3
I’d been practicing my X jump for months, so I was psyched when they started playing X. XD And all three guest guitarists (Sugizo, Wes Borland, and Richard Fortis) were on the stage with X Japan, too! So that was pretty awesome. XD
Also, you know how usually Toshi’s the one who does the “WE ARE…” (X!) “YOU ARE…” (X!) thing, right? Well, this time, after a few times of Toshi doing that, Yoshiki took over! O_O And during the “On bass...”, “On guitar...”, etc. member intro part earlier in the song, they still included hide as one of the members (and Toshi still did that part by the way XD)! <3
Doing the X jump is uber fun by the way. ^_^ Especially since at one point I could feel the dome shake from everyone doing that. Yay for being part of an earthquake caused by 50,000 people! XD
And after the show, I tried to get some merch, but it was pretty much all sold out. ;_; Mom had managed to get a tour pamphlet for me, though. <3 And I bought some PHOTOS from the first night at a stand near the JR Line stations. XD They were very high-quality, too. ^_^ There were two kinds of sets: 3 large photos or 8 small photos, each for the same price. I wanted the small set that had this one photo of Yoshiki where he had the absolute biggest smile on his face and he looked the epitome of happiness! ^_^ But that set sold out. ;_; I did manage to buy it the next night, though. XD In fact, here's the picture (blown up to about a gazillion times its original size by my scanner XD):
ISN'T THAT THE BEST SMILE EVER? *_*
Night of Madness- The Set List
Missed songs 1-5 (;___;), but apparently they started with Forever Love, then Rusty Nail, then Weekend, then the Pata solo, then Drain.
6. Longing (Acoustic version with Toshi, Pata, and Heath)
7. Yoshiki Piano solo (SWAN LAKE FOR THE WIN! <3)
8. Without You
9. I.V.
10. Kurenai
11. Violet UK- City of Devils
12. Yoshiki Drum Solo (w/ keyboard)
13. Tears
14. Prologue -World Anthem-
15. X
March 29th
Miura Reien
I wanted to wake up early and go to Miura Reien some time early in the morning so I'd have lots of time to explore both Miura Reien and Yokosuka. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize how long it would take to eat breakfast, check out of the hotel, ask for directions, and take the train over there, so by the time I got to Miura Reien, it was about 1:00, and I’d wanted to get there at like 10 AM at the latest. @_@
But it was a really nice place. There was a staircase that led to the grave sites, but to the left of it was this gorgeous garden with a lake and trees that had lily-like flowers growing from them, so I decided to go there first. ^^” After a few minutes of admiring how pretty everything was, I headed up the stairs.
At first, I didn’t want to ask for directions since I thought it would be better if I could find the memorial site on my own. However, when someone offered to help out, I didn’t want to ignore him. o.o Good thing, too, because I was near the top of the hill, and the memorial was at the bottom. ^^”
So I got there, and it was beautiful. *_* It was easily about twice the size of the other grave markers there (which were already pretty big), and people had left lots of flowers there. They’d also left little gifts, like a Psycho Bear strap, hide dolls (not the plushies, though, more like mini action figures), Mild Seven cigarettes, beer cans, and even a Doraemon doll. I didn’t take any pictures of the memorial out of respect, by the way. ^^”
I had brought a photocopy of a watercolor painting of him that I had done recently to leave at the memorial, so I put it on the platform in front of the stone that said “hide”, and placed one of the beer cans over a corner so it would serve as a paperweight (oh, and I had the drawing in a plastic sleeve so it wouldn’t get damaged or anything ^^”).
I wanted to say a few things to him out loud while I was there, but since there were quite a few people there, I just quietly whispered, “I love you. Daisuki”, and left. Then I realized I forgot to say “Thank you”, and quite a few other things. @_@ But I’d already walked away from the memorial at that point. ^^” So I sat on a nearby bench away from the people who were still standing there, and still didn’t say anything out loud, but I was thinking the things I wanted to say at least (if that makes sense XD”). Basically I was thanking him for everything, telling him about the X Japan concerts, and asking him to watch over everyone in X Japan, especially Yoshiki because of what had happened on Friday.
Yokosuka
While trying to take the train to Yokosuka, the train we took went forward one stop, and then stopped there for a while, and then went BACK to Miura Kaigan (the train stop closest to Miura Reien)! O_O At first I was like “Aww, hide wants me to go back!”. XD” But then I found out the trains were supposed to go like that for some reason. O_o So since we’d gotten off of the first one, we had to wait for another one. X_x
Eventually, we made it to Yokosuka. At the station, I could have SWORN I saw some sort of hide poster, but I did a double take, and it turned out to be some random advertisement that had nothing to do with hide. XD”
Once I was outside the station, I went searching for a music store that was supposed to be near there called Yajima. As I was looking, I saw some boats sailing in the harbor, so I got some photos of them. Heck, for the first 5-10 minutes I was in Yokosuka, I took lots of photos. XD There were sakura trees, rose bushes (roses seem to be popular in Yokosuka XD), statues that looked like they were memorials for sailors, and lots of other pretty things. *_* But soon it became obvious that Yajima wasn’t near there, so mom and I went to a mall and asked for directions at the music store that was there. Turns out it was near the Yokosuka-chuo station, instead of the Yokosuka station. ^^”
So since I suddenly realized it was already almost 5:00 and the concert was set to start at 6 and technically we needed to leave immediately but I still at least wanted to see Yajima, we took a cab. XD” Cabs are expensive in Japan. Starting fee of about 700 yen ($7-ish). X_x Even New York is only a $2.50 starting fee! But that applies to all the cabs in Japan, not just Yokosuka. o.o
Anyway, we made it to the store, and right away it took my breath away. There were TONS of hide posters, and even a photograph near the entrance! So of course I went camera-happy. XD” Though looking back I should have asked permission first before taking any pictures in there, since I later found out that at least in Tokyo, they don’t allow you to take photos in stores for some reason. O_o But the storeowner didn’t seem to mind, and I did ask permission to take a photo of the pictures behind her desk at least. ^^
I also bought His Invincible Deluge Evidence and the Yoshiki Symphonic Collection DVD while I was there, and got a free Yoshiki poster with it. XD Which reminds me, as part of the Jrock Rev tour package, I got a goody bag, which included a SIGNED POSTER FROM YOSHIKI! *_* So I guess that makes up for me not being able to get his autograph when I actually met him last year at the Jrock Rev festival (since I lost the Blue Blood booklet I was going to have him sign). XD”
After buying those things, I had to rush to the station, though, even though I would have loved to stay in Yokosuka a bit longer, because I was sure the concert was going to start on time tonight to make up for being two hours late on Friday. ^^”
Night of Madness!
Sure enough, I was right. The concert did start on time tonight. And I was FORTY-FIVE MINUTES LATE. EPIC FAIL. X___x Not to mention I was trying to rush to get to my seat, but since I still had my camera in my bag, they made me sign a pink paper so I could come back and pick the camera up later, and I hastily scribbled my name because I was like “IDONTHAVETIMEFORTHISTHESHOWSTARTEDALREADYLETMEINTHERENOOOOOOW!!!1!!!111!!!!”. @_@ I did get my camera back after the show ended, though. XD"
Anyway, once I was seated, I asked the girl behind me which songs I’d missed. She only mentioned Forever Love, Rusty Nail, and Weekend, but I found out later I’d also missed a Pata Solo and DRAIN! O_O I could kick myself a zillion times over for that! X_x Not to mention when I arrived, they were in the middle of an acoustic guitar rendition of “Longing- Togireta Melody”, but by the time I was seated, they'd just finished, so I pretty much missed that, too. ;_;
But other than me being unforgivably late, the concert was amazing. Yoshiki played SWAN LAKE for his piano solo! O_O It was an absolutely gorgeous rendition of it, too. *_* And I caught more confetti during Kurenai. XD
And then, something unbelievable happened. Three words- Violet. UK. DEBUT. O_O And they played City of Devils, which I’d been DYING to hear the full version of! *_* Somehow, the audience didn’t seem to be reacting, though. Maybe because Yoshiki wasn’t on stage with them for some reason, even though Pata was. I kept expecting Yoshiki to be inside the FREAKING HUGE DISCO BALL that was hovering above the stage, though. XD"
Also, when VUK finished performing, the fashion models that had been walking along the ramps walked right past where I was sitting! O_O Of course, there was a barrier since I was on the level right above the floor seats, but it was still pretty neat to see them up close like that. XD
And then there was the Yoshiki drum solo. OMG. By far. The. Best. Drum. Solo. EVER. Though because of what had happened yesterday, I was torn between being completely and utterly amazed, and fearing for his life. ^^"
But he was completely fine and he didn’t even collapse afterwards! So after seeing him get through that without getting hurt, I knew he’d be fine for the rest of the two nights. ^^ Also, he had a keyboard up there with him on the floating drum platform (and I swear the platform really looked to me like it was FLOATING at first until I noticed the support thingy under it, thanks to some sort of trick of the light XD”), and he played it a bit during the drum solo, so that was neat. ^^
During Tears, as Yoshiki was walking towards Toshi from the drum platform, I was reminded of their hug before Forever Love during the Last Live. But this time, it was different. They were happy as they were hugging. And that made me happy. <3
In fact, there were lots of cute moments between Yoshiki and Toshi. ^_^ During the part of I.V. where Toshi was getting the audience to sing along at the beginning, Toshi was standing on one of the ramps that went out towards the audience, and Yoshiki was lying down under him and rolling around between his legs! XD Or at least it kind of looked that way from where I was sitting. If it turns out I was just imagining that, let me know. XD” Oh, and later on during Tears, Toshi put his arm around Yoshiki while they were both sitting at the piano bench! ^_^ I’m reeeeeeeally glad to see those two getting along so well again after all these years. <3
I’d been practicing my X jump for months, so I was psyched when they started playing X. XD And all three guest guitarists (Sugizo, Wes Borland, and Richard Fortis) were on the stage with X Japan, too! So that was pretty awesome. XD
Also, you know how usually Toshi’s the one who does the “WE ARE…” (X!) “YOU ARE…” (X!) thing, right? Well, this time, after a few times of Toshi doing that, Yoshiki took over! O_O And during the “On bass...”, “On guitar...”, etc. member intro part earlier in the song, they still included hide as one of the members (and Toshi still did that part by the way XD)! <3
Doing the X jump is uber fun by the way. ^_^ Especially since at one point I could feel the dome shake from everyone doing that. Yay for being part of an earthquake caused by 50,000 people! XD
And after the show, I tried to get some merch, but it was pretty much all sold out. ;_; Mom had managed to get a tour pamphlet for me, though. <3 And I bought some PHOTOS from the first night at a stand near the JR Line stations. XD They were very high-quality, too. ^_^ There were two kinds of sets: 3 large photos or 8 small photos, each for the same price. I wanted the small set that had this one photo of Yoshiki where he had the absolute biggest smile on his face and he looked the epitome of happiness! ^_^ But that set sold out. ;_; I did manage to buy it the next night, though. XD In fact, here's the picture (blown up to about a gazillion times its original size by my scanner XD):
ISN'T THAT THE BEST SMILE EVER? *_*
Night of Madness- The Set List
Missed songs 1-5 (;___;), but apparently they started with Forever Love, then Rusty Nail, then Weekend, then the Pata solo, then Drain.
6. Longing (Acoustic version with Toshi, Pata, and Heath)
7. Yoshiki Piano solo (SWAN LAKE FOR THE WIN! <3)
8. Without You
9. I.V.
10. Kurenai
11. Violet UK- City of Devils
12. Yoshiki Drum Solo (w/ keyboard)
13. Tears
14. Prologue -World Anthem-
15. X