Watch me write a long-winded post when I should be doing something useful!
Gentle reminder: post-JLPT celebration starts at Berry Café in Ginza! Let's meet at Ginza Station exit C8 at 4:00 or so. Will later move on to a yet-to-be-determined drinking establishment. Who's coming? Comment or text me!
Last night, Eda and I indulged our sparkle fetish fine appreciation for things of a sparkly nature. :D
ON/OFF
Sparkle Twins! Woohoo!
After beating the train route site's predictions by one Yamanote, I met up with Eda at Stellar Ball in Shinagawa. Our tickets said 一階自由, so we were expecting standing room only, but it turned out there were actual seats. We finally figured out where the non-reserved seats were, and ended up behind four older ladies. Were they the twins' aunts, I wondered? Ladies from the neighbourhood come to cheer on the Sakamoto boys?
As we were settling in our seats, Eda looked wistfully around at the other fans. "I wish I had a glowstick..."
A man suddenly appeared beside me: "Would you like a glowstick? Take two each!" Us: "Don't mind if we do! :D" He was handing out little bracelet-style sticks to everyone, because I guess the twins aren't yet big enough to have their own proper glowsticks the way Masa does. XD
The first song included silly costumes, sword-fighting (Japanese style this time, not the same as we saw back at Zepp in March), and a costume change mid-song! What a great start! Other between-song acts included a guy in white doing a nice little contemporary dance number, 2 girls doing a ballet number (not that good, but not horrible), and a 5-girl group prancing around in the best and worst of the '80s revival. Eda: "I'm having flashbacks to junior high talent shows. DX" I didn't think they were that bad, except for the one with the side ponytail, whose clothes were hideous. At least they were cute, and only sang 2 songs. The four ladies turned out to be their mothers (the missing one was the Taiwanese girl's mother, I imagine). There was also a brief interlude during which two fellow actors from Kizuna, the twins' upcoming play -- one of them a guy in drag -- joined them on stage. They were pretty funny, and since it's the twins' birthday next week, they brought out a little cake and we sang them the requisite song.
"What's the next act going to be, a mime? A guy on a unicycle juggling flaming torches?" we wondered. Sadly, no circus acts followed. The four backup dancers from the Akasaka Blitz show popped up again, though, as did the same costumes. Apparently, someone on their team read my review of that show, because they added a truly sparkly scarf to the ensembles. Speaking of which, based on their second-to-last outfits, I'm going to assume that Naoya has an undone tie fetish and Kazuya is the one with a thing for scarves. Though I must admit that I thought they looked kind of hot (in spite of -- or perhaps because of?! -- the dork factor) with the striped blazers and yellow ties and tight black pants earlier in the show... @_@
The guys were, of course, delightfully dorky. "All right, I'm going to go eat a mikan now!" "Wait, I didn't say "sei~no!" D:" "So we rewrote the song -- hey, why are you all laughing?!" "Sorry, my nose started running." (this after Kazuya teared up while they were thanking their fans for supporting them, etc. etc.)
Somehow, I think we always end up next to the same girls at these shows -- the three girls who squeal and sigh and immediately start up the *clapclapclap* "Naoya!" *clapclapclap* "Kazuya!" encore chant.
When the concert let out, we saw a guy holding up a sign for people who had a "high touch" ticket. Sadly, we had no such ticket; how hilarious would it have been to give them a high five and very quickly explain that a bunch of foreigners refer to them as the Sparkle Twins? XD
All in all, a very fun show!
I just finished a last-minute practice test (the 2004 one, specifically) with a result of... 56%. And that was in sub-optimal conditions, with Tabitha alternating between running around and being evil and then being cute and demanding attention, so the result may be slightly skewed, though I guess my exhaustion balanced out my lucky wild guesses... That's honestly higher than I expected, so yay? On the other hand, it's good luck for the final rehearsal to be a disaster, so...
Either way, it'll be over tomorrow, so I'll finally be able to relax! Ahahahaha. Actually, no, I'm going to be busy for the rest of my life, it seems. I'm going to have to block out a couple of days in my two-week winter holiday for me-time, if I want to get any relaxing in! >_<
K and I laid waste to Nippori today, with my handy dandy 10% discount postcard from Tomato. K had brought her suitcase, I had two large bags, and we shopped for a solid 2 1/2 hours. I believe the technical term for the amount of fabric we bought is "good lord, ladies, learn to control yourselves!" (metric). I was unable to resist all the cute can-be-Christmassy-if-you-want-it-to-be prints, and then I saw a blueberry print. For realz. I believe I squealed. "What are you going to make with it?" K wanted to know. "I don't know! 8D If I can't think of anything, I'll just fondle it! 8D" She laughed at me. ;___;
After that, we had lunch at Bubba Gump's by the Tokyo Dome. We got there at around 2, and the line for the Arashi concert was already snaking all over the site. Pretty much all women, of course, though we did see one guy who looked to be in his late 40's, accompanying a teenager. "Aw, a dad taking his daughter to the concert, that's so cute!" Or at least, waiting in line with her to get goods. XD
I'd never had a meal at Bubba Gump's before, only drinks, but K had warned me about the size of the portions... Indeed, her order of fried chicken was 2 enormous pieces (she took a whole one home), and I had to eat half the fried shrimps on my po' boy before I could even contemplate eating it like a proper sandwich. I guess you get your money's worth, considering I'm not even remotely hungry yet, nearly seven hours later! Also, we split a (huge) dessert. "Since neither of us will want supper tonight anyway, we might as well! :D"
It was raining hard by the time we left. The umbrella vending machine at Suidobashi, which I'd noticed a guy restocking earlier in the afternoon, was empty.
Now I should start getting ready for bed, so I don't sleep through my alarm like I did this morning... And I'd wanted to be all productive this evening and tidy up and write cards and put up my Christmas tree! I guess I can do the tree and leave the tidying up for another day. XD
Last night, Eda and I indulged our sparkle fetish fine appreciation for things of a sparkly nature. :D
ON/OFF
Sparkle Twins! Woohoo!
After beating the train route site's predictions by one Yamanote, I met up with Eda at Stellar Ball in Shinagawa. Our tickets said 一階自由, so we were expecting standing room only, but it turned out there were actual seats. We finally figured out where the non-reserved seats were, and ended up behind four older ladies. Were they the twins' aunts, I wondered? Ladies from the neighbourhood come to cheer on the Sakamoto boys?
As we were settling in our seats, Eda looked wistfully around at the other fans. "I wish I had a glowstick..."
A man suddenly appeared beside me: "Would you like a glowstick? Take two each!" Us: "Don't mind if we do! :D" He was handing out little bracelet-style sticks to everyone, because I guess the twins aren't yet big enough to have their own proper glowsticks the way Masa does. XD
The first song included silly costumes, sword-fighting (Japanese style this time, not the same as we saw back at Zepp in March), and a costume change mid-song! What a great start! Other between-song acts included a guy in white doing a nice little contemporary dance number, 2 girls doing a ballet number (not that good, but not horrible), and a 5-girl group prancing around in the best and worst of the '80s revival. Eda: "I'm having flashbacks to junior high talent shows. DX" I didn't think they were that bad, except for the one with the side ponytail, whose clothes were hideous. At least they were cute, and only sang 2 songs. The four ladies turned out to be their mothers (the missing one was the Taiwanese girl's mother, I imagine). There was also a brief interlude during which two fellow actors from Kizuna, the twins' upcoming play -- one of them a guy in drag -- joined them on stage. They were pretty funny, and since it's the twins' birthday next week, they brought out a little cake and we sang them the requisite song.
"What's the next act going to be, a mime? A guy on a unicycle juggling flaming torches?" we wondered. Sadly, no circus acts followed. The four backup dancers from the Akasaka Blitz show popped up again, though, as did the same costumes. Apparently, someone on their team read my review of that show, because they added a truly sparkly scarf to the ensembles. Speaking of which, based on their second-to-last outfits, I'm going to assume that Naoya has an undone tie fetish and Kazuya is the one with a thing for scarves. Though I must admit that I thought they looked kind of hot (in spite of -- or perhaps because of?! -- the dork factor) with the striped blazers and yellow ties and tight black pants earlier in the show... @_@
The guys were, of course, delightfully dorky. "All right, I'm going to go eat a mikan now!" "Wait, I didn't say "sei~no!" D:" "So we rewrote the song -- hey, why are you all laughing?!" "Sorry, my nose started running." (this after Kazuya teared up while they were thanking their fans for supporting them, etc. etc.)
Somehow, I think we always end up next to the same girls at these shows -- the three girls who squeal and sigh and immediately start up the *clapclapclap* "Naoya!" *clapclapclap* "Kazuya!" encore chant.
When the concert let out, we saw a guy holding up a sign for people who had a "high touch" ticket. Sadly, we had no such ticket; how hilarious would it have been to give them a high five and very quickly explain that a bunch of foreigners refer to them as the Sparkle Twins? XD
All in all, a very fun show!
I just finished a last-minute practice test (the 2004 one, specifically) with a result of... 56%. And that was in sub-optimal conditions, with Tabitha alternating between running around and being evil and then being cute and demanding attention, so the result may be slightly skewed, though I guess my exhaustion balanced out my lucky wild guesses... That's honestly higher than I expected, so yay? On the other hand, it's good luck for the final rehearsal to be a disaster, so...
Either way, it'll be over tomorrow, so I'll finally be able to relax! Ahahahaha. Actually, no, I'm going to be busy for the rest of my life, it seems. I'm going to have to block out a couple of days in my two-week winter holiday for me-time, if I want to get any relaxing in! >_<
K and I laid waste to Nippori today, with my handy dandy 10% discount postcard from Tomato. K had brought her suitcase, I had two large bags, and we shopped for a solid 2 1/2 hours. I believe the technical term for the amount of fabric we bought is "good lord, ladies, learn to control yourselves!" (metric). I was unable to resist all the cute can-be-Christmassy-if-you-want-it-to-be prints, and then I saw a blueberry print. For realz. I believe I squealed. "What are you going to make with it?" K wanted to know. "I don't know! 8D If I can't think of anything, I'll just fondle it! 8D" She laughed at me. ;___;
After that, we had lunch at Bubba Gump's by the Tokyo Dome. We got there at around 2, and the line for the Arashi concert was already snaking all over the site. Pretty much all women, of course, though we did see one guy who looked to be in his late 40's, accompanying a teenager. "Aw, a dad taking his daughter to the concert, that's so cute!" Or at least, waiting in line with her to get goods. XD
I'd never had a meal at Bubba Gump's before, only drinks, but K had warned me about the size of the portions... Indeed, her order of fried chicken was 2 enormous pieces (she took a whole one home), and I had to eat half the fried shrimps on my po' boy before I could even contemplate eating it like a proper sandwich. I guess you get your money's worth, considering I'm not even remotely hungry yet, nearly seven hours later! Also, we split a (huge) dessert. "Since neither of us will want supper tonight anyway, we might as well! :D"
It was raining hard by the time we left. The umbrella vending machine at Suidobashi, which I'd noticed a guy restocking earlier in the afternoon, was empty.
Now I should start getting ready for bed, so I don't sleep through my alarm like I did this morning... And I'd wanted to be all productive this evening and tidy up and write cards and put up my Christmas tree! I guess I can do the tree and leave the tidying up for another day. XD