And now exhaustion sets in...
Yesterday was the last of Three Days of Jill and Eda, which started on Thursday with Masa's show and culminated on Saturday with Sparkle Fest 2009!
Friday I got to spend some time with Erynn in Shibuya, and because she is my random-old-anime-song soulmate, we had to subject everyone else to songs from Marmalade Boy, KareKano and Gundam Wing at karaoke. *feels no shame*
Later on, after we'd seen Erynn off, we headed to Shimokitazawa for Y399 drinks and eats, ostensibly to celebrate my divorce. I thought there would be maybe four or five of us, but we ended up being a Large Party of Foreigners: 9 people! I was happy to see everyone, and the evening was a lot of fun, so thank you all for coming! ^_^ Not only did I win the Goya Battle (can I be Goya no ohimesama?), but there was lots of good food and lots of silly drinks (Rabburii! Honey umeshu! Mango beer! :D) and general silliness at the table, including but not limited to certain people declaring that a certain clearish white liquid resembled another clearish white liquid and then posing for pictures with it on her face. XDDD Then, to finish up the evening, a few of us went to Shinjuku with Leah and hung around in her hotel room until it was time to catch our trains home. Good times. I nearly cracked a rib laughing! ^__^
Yesterday I went to Odaiba for the first time*, to go to Zepp Tokyo. We ate, walked around a bit, I resisted temptation and bought no shoes or cute earrings! The only thing I bought, apart from food and drinks, was an ON/OFF washcloth.
Did you know that scalpers in Japan have uniforms? At least, if the signs are to be believed, they do.
After standing in line for ages out in the wind -- our ticket numbers were so high we were in the last group to be let in! -- we were finally let into the venue, at which point we had to wait around. But it was so, so worth it, because Sparkle Fest was amazing. Not only was Kimeru nearly out-gayed by Masa (only his rhinestone-studded pants saved him!), but the Sparkle Twins out-sparkled everyone. Because that's just what they do.
The first act was Some Dude who wore tight green jeans and jumped around on top of the speakers quite a bit. After a couple of songs, he was joined by Kato Kazuki, who wore purple jeans that weren't quite as tight as the green ones. Kazuki had a hell of a lot more stage presence, so it was more interesting to watch, and the songs he sang were also better.
Next up, Furukawa Yuuta! I just know him as tall!Fuji, and hadn't heard his other stuff, but I liked what he sang. He really should move around a bit, though; even when he wasn't playing the guitar, he just sort of stood there. And maybe it's because his body is just really long, but his arms seemed short in relation to his height.
The Sparkle Twins were the next act, and because they had no band, they probably figured they should liven things up. With a sword fight! So there they were, running and jumping around the stage with four or five other people. I was a bit confused, because everyone seemed to keep changing sides, but finally they all ran off the stage and then the twins came back wearing the awesomest thing ever, short of their gay sparkly doily outfits: semi-sheer sparkly silver blazers edged in sequins! *dies of kirakira* <3 Do I really need to say anything about their singing? With clothes like that, who the hell cares?! \^o^/
Oh, fine, their singing was good, too. And their three hardcore fangirls next to us were almost as awesome, what with their lightsticks and choreography. XD
When Nakagauchi Masataka's name was shown on the screen, he got a nice shriek from the audience. Then we saw his Rikkai-yellow pants and his hair (an inexplicable poofy not-quite-ponytail) and some of us perhaps shrieked again, perhaps in dismay. XD But still, he was loads of fun, bouncing around and being dorky. "Start" was even better with a bigger crowd, and we got to do the "Sun Will Shine" hand movements. And after seeing him Thursday, and again today, I've come to a realisation: you remember how totally, completely, 150% gay his Altar Boyz character was? He's only slightly less so when he performs as himself. Oh, Masa. <3
Kimeru is a tiny little elf, but was not to be upstaged, and he had RHINESTONES on his pants. And on his top. And probably all over his body, too. XD I must admit that while I'd seen him in tenimyu, and heard his songs, I didn't really get the appeal until I saw him perform; those songs are meant to be heard live, with a venue full of bouncing, flailing fans. It got me all hot and sweaty. XD
The last guy, the headliner, a.k.a. Bunta's voice, was even smaller than Kimeru, I think. He looked like he was barely fifteen, and he sounded like a girl. Neither of those is a bad thing, and I enjoyed his songs (especially the bouncy number with the bongos), but coming right after Masa and Kimeru's extremely high-energy sets, it was something of a let-down. And his talk bit, which went on for quite some time while his band played this super-soothing New Age-type background noise**, nearly put me to sleep. I will give him points for having female band members, though.
Final verdict: HELL YEAH!!!
Today I did Nothing with K, which translates as us both being late to meet for pancakes, then going over to her place to watch movies and tv and make fun of her dogs, who seemed to think that we should be sharing our popcorn and Oreos and pizza with them. @_@
How is it that after a three-day weekend, I'm more tired than I normally am after a five-day work week? Fushigi ne~~~
* Technically not really, but I'd only ever been to go specifically to Tokyo Big Sight or to the Oedo onsen before, so this was my first time looking around a bit at the shops and all that.
** The kind of music that, mukashi mukashi, M-P accurately dubbed "musique de coma". XD
Friday I got to spend some time with Erynn in Shibuya, and because she is my random-old-anime-song soulmate, we had to subject everyone else to songs from Marmalade Boy, KareKano and Gundam Wing at karaoke. *feels no shame*
Later on, after we'd seen Erynn off, we headed to Shimokitazawa for Y399 drinks and eats, ostensibly to celebrate my divorce. I thought there would be maybe four or five of us, but we ended up being a Large Party of Foreigners: 9 people! I was happy to see everyone, and the evening was a lot of fun, so thank you all for coming! ^_^ Not only did I win the Goya Battle (can I be Goya no ohimesama?), but there was lots of good food and lots of silly drinks (Rabburii! Honey umeshu! Mango beer! :D) and general silliness at the table, including but not limited to certain people declaring that a certain clearish white liquid resembled another clearish white liquid and then posing for pictures with it on her face. XDDD Then, to finish up the evening, a few of us went to Shinjuku with Leah and hung around in her hotel room until it was time to catch our trains home. Good times. I nearly cracked a rib laughing! ^__^
Yesterday I went to Odaiba for the first time*, to go to Zepp Tokyo. We ate, walked around a bit, I resisted temptation and bought no shoes or cute earrings! The only thing I bought, apart from food and drinks, was an ON/OFF washcloth.
Did you know that scalpers in Japan have uniforms? At least, if the signs are to be believed, they do.
After standing in line for ages out in the wind -- our ticket numbers were so high we were in the last group to be let in! -- we were finally let into the venue, at which point we had to wait around. But it was so, so worth it, because Sparkle Fest was amazing. Not only was Kimeru nearly out-gayed by Masa (only his rhinestone-studded pants saved him!), but the Sparkle Twins out-sparkled everyone. Because that's just what they do.
The first act was Some Dude who wore tight green jeans and jumped around on top of the speakers quite a bit. After a couple of songs, he was joined by Kato Kazuki, who wore purple jeans that weren't quite as tight as the green ones. Kazuki had a hell of a lot more stage presence, so it was more interesting to watch, and the songs he sang were also better.
Next up, Furukawa Yuuta! I just know him as tall!Fuji, and hadn't heard his other stuff, but I liked what he sang. He really should move around a bit, though; even when he wasn't playing the guitar, he just sort of stood there. And maybe it's because his body is just really long, but his arms seemed short in relation to his height.
The Sparkle Twins were the next act, and because they had no band, they probably figured they should liven things up. With a sword fight! So there they were, running and jumping around the stage with four or five other people. I was a bit confused, because everyone seemed to keep changing sides, but finally they all ran off the stage and then the twins came back wearing the awesomest thing ever, short of their gay sparkly doily outfits: semi-sheer sparkly silver blazers edged in sequins! *dies of kirakira* <3 Do I really need to say anything about their singing? With clothes like that, who the hell cares?! \^o^/
Oh, fine, their singing was good, too. And their three hardcore fangirls next to us were almost as awesome, what with their lightsticks and choreography. XD
When Nakagauchi Masataka's name was shown on the screen, he got a nice shriek from the audience. Then we saw his Rikkai-yellow pants and his hair (an inexplicable poofy not-quite-ponytail) and some of us perhaps shrieked again, perhaps in dismay. XD But still, he was loads of fun, bouncing around and being dorky. "Start" was even better with a bigger crowd, and we got to do the "Sun Will Shine" hand movements. And after seeing him Thursday, and again today, I've come to a realisation: you remember how totally, completely, 150% gay his Altar Boyz character was? He's only slightly less so when he performs as himself. Oh, Masa. <3
Kimeru is a tiny little elf, but was not to be upstaged, and he had RHINESTONES on his pants. And on his top. And probably all over his body, too. XD I must admit that while I'd seen him in tenimyu, and heard his songs, I didn't really get the appeal until I saw him perform; those songs are meant to be heard live, with a venue full of bouncing, flailing fans. It got me all hot and sweaty. XD
The last guy, the headliner, a.k.a. Bunta's voice, was even smaller than Kimeru, I think. He looked like he was barely fifteen, and he sounded like a girl. Neither of those is a bad thing, and I enjoyed his songs (especially the bouncy number with the bongos), but coming right after Masa and Kimeru's extremely high-energy sets, it was something of a let-down. And his talk bit, which went on for quite some time while his band played this super-soothing New Age-type background noise**, nearly put me to sleep. I will give him points for having female band members, though.
Final verdict: HELL YEAH!!!
Today I did Nothing with K, which translates as us both being late to meet for pancakes, then going over to her place to watch movies and tv and make fun of her dogs, who seemed to think that we should be sharing our popcorn and Oreos and pizza with them. @_@
How is it that after a three-day weekend, I'm more tired than I normally am after a five-day work week? Fushigi ne~~~
* Technically not really, but I'd only ever been to go specifically to Tokyo Big Sight or to the Oedo onsen before, so this was my first time looking around a bit at the shops and all that.
** The kind of music that, mukashi mukashi, M-P accurately dubbed "musique de coma". XD