The Tokyo Dome essay.
I know this is eons late, and they've already been and gone to Beijing in the meantime, but eh.
It's long and wuffly and it's more for my own memory then anything else, but here's my Tokyo Dome experience, from Showcase to Concerts.
3/7th
We landed in Tokyo on the 3rd at about 8 and headed off to the hotel to get rid of our bags. We were staying in Ikebukuro. I quite liked our hotel - the ladies at the front desk were really sweet!
After that, straight off to Omotesando for the Showcase… or so we thought. Because the original announcement said that tickets were available at the door, we had thought they would actually be just selling the tickets there as you went in. Oh the naivity. We realised that we had to go early and get tickets and each ticket had an allotted time slot (well, at least at Showcase 1, you got your Showcase 2 tickets after going through Showcase 2). So we decided to come back on Sunday, and spent Friday shopping.
Saturday, we went to the Dome to buy goods. We really weren’t sure what time to go, so turned up when the store was meant to open - 10am. The line was already completely insane. @_@ In retrospect, we should have gone to one of the smaller goods stalls instead of the huge main one, but we joined the queue for the main merch store area. It was LONG. REALLY long.
^Here’s a pic from when we’d conquered the majority of the line. You started down the bottom of the area(1), and went down and back up once, then up the stairs and around to the right(2). At first, we thought it wasn’t too bad as the line was moving somewhat steadily. But, after coming up and around the stairs (3), we realised there was a huge marshalling area where the line just snaked up and down for 10 or so rows (4). ;_; it took a long time to get past that area. Then it went up further, and around onto a bridge(5), which is where I’m standing in the photo. After you got over the bridge, you go right and further up past all the trees and then findally left(6), which led you to the actual corralled line for the goods. That last part moved very very quickly. They had a display of the goods, both the special Dome and normal tour stuff on the way up to the stalls (there were about 12 stalls, none of which accepted credit card. ^^;)
I got my goods at three different registers, thinking the receipts would be different, like with other stops on the tour. I was really disappointed to find that there was only one message, from the whole of THSK.
^ The actual goods stalls, the 'final stage'.
We decided the CD shop line was just too much to handle after that, especially since we were able to buy Stand by U (Dome edition) at the goods counters. The goods queue alone took us 3½ hours to navigate. It was an experience, to be sure!
Next up was the Photo Select shop. Which thankfully had a smallish line that moved really quick. We decided in the queue which pictures we wanted, though the actual ones we picked up changed as we went through and actually saw the pics. :)
At the registers, they were also selling TSC photo albums… I had not actually thought to buy one, but it made sense and would be a nice place to put all my pics I collected from the Select Shop & from paparazzi photos. So I bought one of them too.
After that we had some time so we went to Akiba for a while and dumped our bags of goodies in a locker to be picked up on the way home.
When we were ready, we headed back to the Dome, where we sat around for a bit… until I realised that our light sticks were still among all our other goods, in the locker in Akiba. Luckily, we had time, and Akiba is close, so I went running back there to pick up our sticks, arriving in time to join the queue and get into the hall.
This is a quick (blurry) snap of people milling about and waiting, at about 5-ish. The goods line reduced dramatically at this time, as people were worried about missing the concert.
At about 5:30, we headed in. On the way in to our gate, we saw the Premium Seat entrance, so I knew where to go for the next day.
After some wandering around (amongst a giant crowd), we finally found our seats.
Tokyo Dome, the first day.
We were up on the 2nd level for this show… on the ‘YooSu’ side of the Dome, though honestly in this concert there wasn’t much of a bias - the boys moved around a hell of a lot and didn’t really stick to one ‘side’.
It was hard to see specifics for me on this day… So, some general notes -
Intro movie
The movie is of the five boys sneaking around a rather nice hotel. At first I thought they were security or something, but it then becomes obvioius that they’re actually thieves after this big chunky diamond necklace. There are individual shots of them all sneaking around (JS is on a computer instead) and then SuMin meet up in a hallway and kick some security guard ass. YunJae do the same (nice punching Jae!) and Yoochun ninjas around by himself. They nick off with the diamonds, and the concert starts up.
I’m a little confused at the start part, I can’t recall everything. ^^;
Secret Game
SIJFDoisd. The start! Really exciting stuff, lol.
Oh god, Jae’s rocker yell = ♥.
Doushite
Seemed kinda out of place for me… But still pretty, of course. They were sweating like crazy, poor things. I think their mics were a bit screwed too (all the way through the concert, actually) - YH’s seemed too soft, and CM’s was super loud. @_@
9095
Holy shit I love this song, and it was probably the one I was most looking forward to watching live.
I love the layered platforms they were on. The crowd went absolutely nanas everytime they played pole-dancer, and the close ups were largely of their crotches. XD JJ was acting so bloody sensual in this, I’m surpised girls down nearer the stage weren’t fainting. (I realised why, next day when I was down there, it’s because you can’t take your eyes off them long enough to get around to fainting!)
Force intro movie
The boys are standing in a desert looking place, and JS is first, standing there and bringing his fingers together in a triangle. The triangle flares pink and a ball of fire stuff errupts between his fingers. YC is next - he brings his hands together and red electric sparks gather between his hands. JJ is holding his right hand up and it errupts into green flame (a bit lame looking. ^^;) CM holds out his right hand to the side and purple electricity forms in it. YH is last and reaches behind his back for this blue light sword, which 'extends' like a rip off of a light saber. Then there's a quick flash of all of them throwing their energy ball thingies (with YH slashing his sword - lame, why doesn't he get a ball of fire?) and then there's a frontal shot of them as the balls hurtle towards the camera and Force begins.
Force - Infinitely better on stage then on CD. It had a great vibe and the choreography/set up for it was fantastic. YC’s spirit fingers = teh win.
Purple Line - The lights were cool, and the song had to have had one of the most awesome dance breaks out of the lot. JJ did a count-up as well, which was sexy as shit.
Mirotic - probably my total fav of the night. Even though Mirotic really kinda seems out of place on the album, it was beautifully done. There’s probably already fancams somewhere, but basically the boys were in all black outfits from the first set. On the main stage area, they all started dancing with ‘white’ versions of themselves, who were on the screens behind them, but life size. Then, they duck behind the screens and the screens show both the black and white versions dancing together, sometimes merging together into one or another colour. Then, the (real) boys jump out in black, and the white versions are on the screen! Really cool.
Heart, Mind & Soul - Yunho is left behind after Mirotic, and he starts HM&S off before disappearing when Jae comes on and starts to sing. From then on the boys come on stage as their parts come up. It was really pretty. Jae’s voice was divine during this song, just really really really gorgeous. Changmin was also in top form.
Ment - YC says something about the Dome/baseball field and pretends to hit a home run.
JJ was saying stuff about how they’ve achieved their dream, and what can they do next?
YH introduces JS saying how charismatic he was looking that night, and how he thought it was time for JS to do some oyaji gags. ^^; JS looked harassed and pulled out his recent favourites of Oyama & Harajuku. JJ said that he needs to do something different and more interesting, and JS looked even more harassed and spluttered about being put under pressure; so cute! Then he did the ‘Junju-pwah’ thing with the ‘powering up’ stance. XD
I can’t exactly remember what they were talking about, but JJ was rambling and then suddenly turned to Changmin and asked him something. CM got all surprised and went ‘Eh??’ really cutely. XD
JS talks about the album having stuff on it created by the members, and says “Kiss the Baby Skyyyyy” (With that weird emphasis/accent!) is ‘Yoochun-sama’s song. XD Yoochun rambles about the song for a bit and then seems to run out of steam and ends, awkwardly, with ‘Hai. Yoochun deshita.’ Everyone giggled a lot.
Wasurenaide
I think JS might have started getting misty eyed at this song. I wasn’t really close enough to tell properly, but his eyes looked suspiciously sparkly. XD
’Behind the scenes’ movie
The boys disappeared and a movie started, showing some scenes from behind the scene of the Tokyo Dome production. Practice, set up etc. And then…. Dun dun duuuuuun…. Sam is at a table with the boys and is holding a mic stand to one side. He turns to Yunho and says ‘And Yunho, you will be using this in your solo.’
Cue crowd going ballistic.
Then they run an intro for the solos, showing who will be performing and a small clip of them rehersing that does not give away what they’re performing. The line up is Junsu, Yoochun & Jaejoong (together!), Yunho & then Changmin.
Junsu - Xiatic
Frickin awesome. Junsu is an AMAZING dancer. It’s a great, funky song and I really enjoyed watching his performance. The whole song was in Japanese, not Korean, and I’m not that familiar with it so I can’t say if it was the same choreography or not, but it was fantastic either way. The only hiccup was that while he was trying to strip off his white jacket, it got stuck on his wristband or glove or something and he couldn’t get one of the sleeves off. In the end he had to put it on the ground, hold it with a foot and yank his hand out. ^^; But he did it pretty smoothly, even if it did take quite a long time to get free. XD
Yoochun & Jaejoong - Colours
I’m sure everyone’s heard the song already, but oaisjdfioasdfjasoid. I LOVE IT. It’s so gorgeous. JJ & YC’s voice go nicely together, and the song is pretty and sweet and not too sickly (surprisingly, being that it’s for Hello Kitty!). They looked like they enjoyed singing it so much, and at the end when they got onto the rotating circle thing, JJ got the crowd to join in and sing the ‘la la la la’ part, and then they sang it with everyone. :) The only thing kinda wtf was Yoochun’s ‘English’ rap. I could not understand ANYTHING except ‘Christmas tree’. That was IT. @_@
But oh god, it’s such their song and amazing and JJ was smiling so beautiful…
Yunho - Checkmate
I haven’t even seen many videos of this… so it was nice to see in person. He came down on the hanging rope thing, in his purple suit, very dramatic. It was very ‘him’, with all the cocky gay dancing, and the flirting with the girl. ... Incidentally, I think Junsu’s girl was prettier then Yunhos. ^^; The light sticks the dancers used (red & green) were pretty cool though.
Changmin - Wild Soul
They had to rush to bring the band out onto the stage, and when they first started to play I honestly could not figure out what song it was. ^^; But yeah, it was Wild Soul and I think I like it better live. Still not a massive fan of how high the chorus is, but it’s better when Changmin is really into it and rocking out. One cool part of the performance was that CM brought out a green laser light during one of the music bridges and was waving it around the crowd for a bit before pointing it at the ceiling. An explosion went off, at the top of the stage, like he’d just shot at it. It scared the shit out of me the first time… I don’t think I was the only one either. Then he did the same thing, with another explosion on the other side of the stage. His backdrop thing was all full of fire videos, and then full flame jets came out of the stage towards the end.
Movie - Back to the Start (AKA Angsty Love Except for Yunho)
This movie starts where the very first intro movie ends, and then ‘rewinds’ back through the events of the first movie, to find the boys all in different areas, and all with girls. I think CM is first, standing with his (tall) girlfriend by a window. She’s leaving him, and he looks marginally sad. ^^; Then it’s... Junsu, I think, sitting at a white table with a girl. It’s him leaving this time, he says something then stands up and sort of pats her on the shoulder as he leaves. Jae is next, sitting on a couch with this blond, curly-haired Caucasian girl. Close up of hand holding (awkwardly, as she’s pulling away) and then Jae gets up and leaves. Next is Yoochun, who’s in the drivers seat of a car looking really bloody morose. Next to him is another blonde Caucasian girl who LOOKS TWICE HIS AGE. D: She’s the one leaving in this one, and she gets out of the car and walks off while he stares pensively into the distance.
And then there’s Yunho, walking with his Japanese girlfriend along the river. The both of them look happy, and then Yunho stops and says something to the girl, before handing her a ticket. A close up shows that it’s an air ticket from Tokyo to New Caledonia. Shot of Yunho mouthing ‘Ai Shiteru’ (I love you). The girl smiles, he smiles, and walks off.
The five guys meet at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the hotel (which is the start of the intro movie).
… I don’t understand a) why Yunho is the only one to keep the girl, and b) wtf it has to do with the next song.
Begin
Yes, the next song was Begin (?!). They all came out of the ground around a piano that Yoochun was playing. YC does a pretty good job, though I think he was concentrating too much on the piano and his vocals weren’t great. JJ ended the song beautifully though.
Nobody Knows
They began to really move around to this song. The main stage runs out onto a wide walkway, which in turn splits into two smaller walkways sticking out in opposite directions (think the inner part of a peace symbol). The boys went down the right hand prong, and got thrown mic stands. Everyone caught them easily! They then used them to sing, before picking them up and carrying them over to the left hand prong. Standing there in their line, they danced a little and then got thrown pimp canes. XD They then danced with the canes and threw them back.
YH, for some reason, was singing with his hands in this song. Like Changmin usually does. It was weird.
JJ was REALLY into this song. He was dancing about energetically and exaggerating his movements, obviously enjoying it a lot. :)
Taxi
Can’t recall much from this, except YC sounded good. He was kind of dying in a few of the songs before, but he sounded nice in this one. CM looked a bit wobbly, like he might get a bit watery, but nothing came.
Forever Love
This was YH’s best song of the night. He sung it well… for some reason, JJ sounded kinda nasal to me. But the JaeSu end part was beautiful.
O J.B.H remix
Fun song. The crowd loved it and the boys know it back to front by now I guess. They had fun with it.
Dancers intro
YH was the pre-recorded MC of the dancer introduction. I had wondered at the number of dancers on the floor - there were a lot more then the normal crew of six. ‘Introduuuucinnnnnggg~ Knew Toho Dansaas~!’ YH proudly announced, and the new guys are Ryo F, Ywki, K-sk, Tomonori, plus the six girls… Anna, Rika, Kayo, Nazuki, Rina & Marin. There are the old Tohodancers too. Ko & Yuki got the biggest applause. XD
Choosy Lover (in the gay horrible clashing but very-very-expensive haute couture colour-vomit outfits)
The whole stage was technicolour for this - the screens were flashing these bright, colourful blocks all over the place and rainbows everywhere. Made the whole thing about 10x more gay. ^^; But lol! During the ‘Sexy baby, uh’, Jaejoong pulled down his jacket thingie and showed off his biceps/shoulder with a he-man pose! XD
JaeMin went off to the right side of the stage (towards where we were sitting) and YunChunSu went stage left while dancing around. Then they came back to the middle of the stage and were cheering on Yunho as he started to break-dance. He did a lot of scary looking flips. There are lot of really ridiculous photos of him from this particular moment. ^^;
Sky
They moved about a lot for this one, running from one corner of the stage to another (they each had a ‘corner’, then ran around and swapped so everyone could see them). YH was in the ‘middle’ part of the walkway in front of the mainstage for the beginning, and he sat down on the motorised walker/treadmill thing, so that he slid all the way back up. He had a lot of energy though, because then he bounced up and spend most of the song skipping/walking/running on the treadmill!
JS sat at the edge of the left stage, and when YH swapped to one of the peace-sign prongs, he sat down at the edge and started singing into the camera. He seems so very, very full of himself during this set because he’s constantly showing off.
Somebody to Love
This was like Sky, with everyone running around and being cute & silly. Changmin sat down on the right hand peace-prong and started singing into the camera, which made everyone spazz out - it was so cute! YH continued to show off like he knew everyone couldn’t get enough of him. They spent a lot of time bouncing to the music and using their towels as helicopters. XD
JJ was fully HYPER during this set, particularly this song. Even when the others weren’t moving much, he’d bounce on the spot and dance about like a crazy thing. He was having so much fun, it was adorable to watch. ♥
Summer Dream
Again with the cuteness, but there was more co-ordinated dancing. Junsu lead the dancing at the end, and he did the hip thrusts, the show the ass, and then the cute Angel pose. JJ didn’t do the last one though, he just knelt down by JS and put his hand on his back. ^^;
Band introduction
The members took turns to introduce the guys in the band, who all had a little solo moment.
Survivor
JJ was still really high in this song, quite energetic. YH gave the crowd a really cute smile (as distinct from the cocky/kinda arrogant smirks he'd been giving for the rest of the set). YC was really super sexy in this too... full of sexy grease!
'Back in time' movie
After they dissapeared from Survivor, the big screen lit up with a sort of montage of their Pvs, floating around in the air while the camera swooped around between them. Random clips would come up to fill the whole screen and play over the speakers, going chronologically back in time. I can't remember them all, but there was Miss U, Step by Step and Rising Sun amongst them. The clips were only short, a couple of lines each, but the crowd sang along with them all - and kept singing to Rising Sun even after the clip ended.
I had hypothosised that it would be Hug or Stay With Me Tonight that would come on next because of the chronological thing, but no...
Way U Are
This is the set with the shirts with glitter TSC logos on them. A number of fans had already decorated their TSC shirts from previous concerts similarly, putting diamonties over the design.
It was a fun song, because the crowd took up the chants that Koreans usually do during shows, going 'Tohoshinki' 'Kim Junsu' 'Shim Changmin' etc between their parts.
We Are
We Are was kinda bit of a weird choice I think, but whatever. They all jumped on the Tohomobiles - small individual platforms on wheels that went around the base of the stands. They all had their own, with name tags, and a little bucket of signed coloured balls. The balls matched the Force colours they had. JJ and YH went down the right hand side of the arena while YooSuMin went left. JJ dropped a few of his balls on the ground. ^^; But they were both distrubuting the balls quite well so people had a chance at grabbing them. There weren't that many balls though. >_< (hence the now insane prices of them on Y!J)
By the end of the song, they were at the back of the arena, and got off their floats to get on a small stage set up at the back there, right in front of the stands directly opposite the main stage.
Break Up the Shell
They performed on the small stage, and it maybe kinda ruined the choreography of the dance, since there was barely any room to move. The dance break was quite cute though.
Ment
JJ was really happy, but really quite sweaty by this point. His hair must have been annoying him a lot, it was flopping everywhere and constantly in his eyes. I think, during the solos and videos etc, he got it blow dried. But he kept having to try and sweep it back out of his face.
YH drenched himself with a bottle of water and the crowd spazzed. He was also acting cute with CM... CM was giving a long diatribe about something I completely missed (his Japanese is really elevated now - he uses really complicated/formal words sometimes. D:), and the camera was focused on him alone. YH ninjaed into the shot, cosying up to CM. CM turned to him and completely shoved him out of the shot, yelling that he was too close. XD YH then pouted and tried to come lay his head on CM's shoulder.
Stand By U
They introduced this as their new single, and began singing it. Actually, I don't know that they sang it that greatly that night. I like the song a lot, but it was a little off for some reason.
Kiss the Baby Skyyyyy
They jump back on the little platform things, and continue around back towards the main stage (so that they've done a complete circle). If they had extra balls, they threw them then.
Just as they're about to get back on the main stage, YC yells out all their names (strangely, instead of saying 'Jaejoong', he says 'Jaejae'!), and then out 'We’re one, eternally!'. I wanted to snuggle him so bad. :)
Once on stage, they get the whole crowd to sing along to the chorus lines, which repeat like 8 times.
They get a bit spazzy on stage after that and YC yells out 'SCREAM!' about 3 times, making the crowd scream. Then YH, for some completely unknown reason, yells out 'FREAK!' and makes that 'breaking someone's back' motion with his knee kicking up and his hands coming down really quickly. @_@ I don't know what planet he was on because it was so very very random!
Then they move out to the center circular part of the stage and stand in their line. JJ calls out 'We love~ Yoochun! We love~ Junsu! We love~ Changmin! We love~ Yunho!' and then the other four take up the cry - 'We love~ JAEJOONG!' XD And then they all say together 'We love~ BIGEAST!'. :D
Bolero
Back to the main stage, they spread out and Bolero begins. It's pretty, and while I like the song, I'm kinda glad it wasn't the 'last/encore' song for Dome, because I feel it really lacks the same emotional impact of Proud/Love in the Ice etc.
Afterwards, they thanked everyone (in Japanese, they didn't do their usual 'kamsamnida!' at all. D:) and left the stage.
Encore - Love in the Ice
While I'm glad Bolero wasn't the last song, I don't know why this was chosen instead. I really think they should have done Kiss Shita Mama... Love in the Ice is powerful, but kinda overdone. It was pretty, but it didn't wow me like it did at the end of T, or how Proud was at Budoukan.
... all in all, I kinda found the ending dissapointing. It seemed to end abruptly as well, after the encore. They said thankyou again and just kinda... left. It wasn't really what I was expecting, that's for sure.
A quick pic I took after coming out of the Dome. Most people hadn't left yet, but there was still a crowd. Some girls in the concert ran off before the encore to go join the goods queue. @_@
Tokyo Dome, the final.
Mirotic - I noticed this time that during the part where they’re dancing with themselves, the white screen versions take off their hats and ‘pass’ them to the black/real guys - the hats are handed to them from behind the screen so it actually really looks like the hat has been passed out of the screen into real life. :D
Ment
I can’t remember much, but I know they were teasing JS about how his gags weren’t funny (JJ threw down his towel in mock anger at the lameness) and how he kept doing the same ones. He then was like ‘well, someone else do them!’ and Jaejoong got pointed at. He got all embarrassed and said he couldn’t do gags. In the end, he went to the edge of the stage, knelt down and did his Shyouyokoto gag, pulling out a bottle of soya sauce from one of the staff members. ^^; Poor thing got ribbed by the others for it too. Then CM was victimised and YC & YH forced him to say something (didn’t catch what?) as a 1 year old. The covered his face first and then made him say it. He looked so put out! >_<
Colours
Seeing them both up close performing this was utter ♥. They both looked so happy and Jaejae was just beatific, his smile was so beautiful. Yoochun looked really pleased to be performing the song, and they were just… beautiful together. I got a few more words of Chunglish too… ‘turn off the lights and gather round the Christmas tree’. That was all. ^^;
Wild Soul
The first explosion was late (or CM was early?), so CM was waving his laser aimlessly at the roof for a little longer then was cool. It still scared me though, even though I knew it was coming! Heh.
Forever Love
Junsu started wrong. @_@ I couldn’t believe it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Junsu stuff up a song, but I’m pretty sure that he started on the wrong note and all of them were off for a little bit until it was corrected. For some reason JS just didn’t hack it in this song. His singing is usually so reliable and spot-on, but it really went off for this song.
Choosy Lover
This time Jae didn’t slide down his jacket on his ‘sexy baby uh’ (which was ok, being that his jacket is sleeveless. ^^;), he just did this super he-man pose and the camera zoomed in on his bulging muscles. He kinda ruined it though by giggling cutely. XD He was so proud of his guns. Heh.
Somebody to Love
During the part where CM took the ‘middle’ of the stage, he collapsed onto the floor and just sat there looking dazed and exhausted for a bit before he had to get up to sing his part. It was really cute!
YC came over right to my area, a few rows in front of me, and jumped onto the edging around the stage walkway. The fans on that side went crazy, and he was grinning cutely at them. Then he lent forward, and kind of made it look like he was going to jump off the stage entirely and come greet/play with the fans there. Fans=totally ballistic. He made this cute little gesturing thing, like ‘you want me to come down? Me?’ and then grinned like a greasy loon and skipped off back down one of the two walkways that go out into the crowd. Tease!! XD
Summer Dream
This time, neither Yoochun or Jaejoong did the Angel pose at the end, rather kneeling beside JS and tapping his back/ass/molesting him. JJ was grinning like a loon.
We Are
YC tried really hard to throw his balls far into the crowd and up into the stands. CM was lame - he barely tried at all most of the time. He grabbed a handfull of balls and kept sort of almost dropping them into the stands closest to him. I think he sent about 8 balls into exactly the same area. >_<
Ment
For some reason, while YC was blathering about KtBS, the camera zoomed right in on his face, and then his eyes. When he noticed, he made this really evil/greasy look at the camera. Kinda looked like he was really constipated. Of course the crowd went wild. XD
Kiss the Baby Sky
YC did their name call out again, and this time I think he said something like ‘We’ll always be here!’… though I can’t remember completely. He said ‘Jaejoong’ this time rather then ‘Jaejae’.
Back on the stage, and Yunho interrupted his own rap to say he was so happy for the day. Afterwards, as they were tanking everyone, they basically forced Sam to come up on stage, saying how awesome he was etc etc. So Sam did the group bows with everyone, which was sweet. :)
Bolero
Underwhelmed me again. :/ I think it did them a little too.
Love in the Ice
I think they were slightly shakier then on the previous night, and YC was about one song away from crying… but none of them did. It was beautiful, as always, and was not as an abrupt an end as last time, as they went around and said thank you at each end of the stage and waved liked mad things at the crowd. They did their traditional ‘kamsamnidas’ before leaving too. ^_^ But…
Ending credits
The whole crowd stayed all the way through the ending credit videos, chanting ‘To-ho-shin-ki, To-ho-shin-ki’ and waving their light sticks. I think nearly everyone expected them to do one extra song on that night.
But it didn’t happen. I really, really really think they should have done Kiss Shita right at the end there. (YC so totally would have bawled if they did. He was THIS CLOSE, damnit, one more song would have done it!)
So there weren’t any tears, and the ending was a bit lame in my opinion, but I had a frickin good experience with the whole thing and OMFG I was so happy to see them so closely. And I love how happy they are while performing. How carefree and just… adorable they get in the more free-style songs towards the end.
Love, just love.
Harajuku/Omotesando Showcases
So after our failed attempt to get in on the Friday, we went back to Harajuku on Sunday, trying our luck at like 9am. HAH. Yeah right. The tickets had all been given out before 6:40. >_< Great. Missed again. Luckily we had one more day to get there, and so returned really frickin early on Monday. Like 6am early.
We got tickets for the 12:30 entry slot, and happilly went back to our hotel for a few more hours sleep. We got back to Harajuku at about 12:15 to queue up to get it. And realised, to our horror, that the staff were holding signs of the merchandise that said everything except the figurines and the senbei were sold out. WTFFFFFFFF. Shoyokoto!!!
So we waited and waited to get in, instead banking on getting some mini-CDs. Only to realise, upon entry and asking which line was for the mini-CDs, that they too were sold out. Which was really stupid. I counted the gashpon machines and reallised there were only 11 there. No wonder they ran out so quickly. I really don't think they thought about how many people would be turnin gup for this thing... Stupid.
^ The sold out gashpon. D: This was at 12:30.
There wasn't much else to do there, so we decided to do the Premium Seals. The line was frickin massive, but that was basically the only things available, so it’s no wonder. It was kinda fun, but also rather stressful because it only gave you a couple of seconds to pose yourself before taking the pictures. @_@ It was really hard to get into position that quickly, and you only had two ‘chances’ to choose from.
I got a JJ one & a group one. I look like an idiot. XD
Anyway, it was papbinsu after that (mmm, green tea & mochi!) and then we went off to Showcase 2. Where I could actually take photos of more interesting things.
In fact, I have videos! Lol. Sorry about the mixed songs - they were playing a SC reel (Doushite, Share the World, Stand By U, Purple Line, Survivor) in the showcase, but then each tour display had a DVD of the tour playing as well, so the music was all mixed up.
The HMS display:
The FitB display:
The T display:
Okay, so, the 1:1 dolls were freaky as shit. They were just… weird. ^^;
Min’s looked very life like - the most alike out of all of them. Yunho’s, Jaejoongs & Junsu’s were really plasticy-looking and very fake, but Yoochun’s was okay and Min’s was creepy-alike.
We went to do the Jacket photo thing… It looks a bit weird, honestly, because I ended up doing TSC cover since it had the short line. You look really out of proportion though, because your legs are cut off and you’re not standing relative to them. ^^; The T one had more options, and there was an actual place for an extra person to fit into the shot. One girl had her photograph taken with her hand on JJ’s head. XD
After that, the last part was the little talk video the guys did, and then the wall of fan-messages. You got a clear sticker square, and wrote on it in white/silver/gold pen before sticking it on the black wall. I hope, at one point, they have a video showing the boys going to look/read the messages, because some of them had a lot of effort put into them. There were little drawings, co-ordinated messages across 3-4-more sticker squares, and mini-essays.
I left one… didn’t really know what to say, but oh well. XD
And that was it. End of my Secret Code experience! I hope I can come back and do it again. I’d love to go see a Korean concert too, just to see how they compare, and how the boys act there since I know they have different ‘personas’. But I'm so proud of the boys... have a look at how far they've come. We went to Venus Fort to go shopping, and were able to see just how small Tokyo Zepp is. Zepp is the place where their first Tokyo concert for Heart Mind & Soul was held.
They've gone from this:
to this:
We love you, boys. ♥
It's long and wuffly and it's more for my own memory then anything else, but here's my Tokyo Dome experience, from Showcase to Concerts.
3/7th
We landed in Tokyo on the 3rd at about 8 and headed off to the hotel to get rid of our bags. We were staying in Ikebukuro. I quite liked our hotel - the ladies at the front desk were really sweet!
After that, straight off to Omotesando for the Showcase… or so we thought. Because the original announcement said that tickets were available at the door, we had thought they would actually be just selling the tickets there as you went in. Oh the naivity. We realised that we had to go early and get tickets and each ticket had an allotted time slot (well, at least at Showcase 1, you got your Showcase 2 tickets after going through Showcase 2). So we decided to come back on Sunday, and spent Friday shopping.
Saturday, we went to the Dome to buy goods. We really weren’t sure what time to go, so turned up when the store was meant to open - 10am. The line was already completely insane. @_@ In retrospect, we should have gone to one of the smaller goods stalls instead of the huge main one, but we joined the queue for the main merch store area. It was LONG. REALLY long.
^Here’s a pic from when we’d conquered the majority of the line. You started down the bottom of the area(1), and went down and back up once, then up the stairs and around to the right(2). At first, we thought it wasn’t too bad as the line was moving somewhat steadily. But, after coming up and around the stairs (3), we realised there was a huge marshalling area where the line just snaked up and down for 10 or so rows (4). ;_; it took a long time to get past that area. Then it went up further, and around onto a bridge(5), which is where I’m standing in the photo. After you got over the bridge, you go right and further up past all the trees and then findally left(6), which led you to the actual corralled line for the goods. That last part moved very very quickly. They had a display of the goods, both the special Dome and normal tour stuff on the way up to the stalls (there were about 12 stalls, none of which accepted credit card. ^^;)
I got my goods at three different registers, thinking the receipts would be different, like with other stops on the tour. I was really disappointed to find that there was only one message, from the whole of THSK.
^ The actual goods stalls, the 'final stage'.
We decided the CD shop line was just too much to handle after that, especially since we were able to buy Stand by U (Dome edition) at the goods counters. The goods queue alone took us 3½ hours to navigate. It was an experience, to be sure!
Next up was the Photo Select shop. Which thankfully had a smallish line that moved really quick. We decided in the queue which pictures we wanted, though the actual ones we picked up changed as we went through and actually saw the pics. :)
At the registers, they were also selling TSC photo albums… I had not actually thought to buy one, but it made sense and would be a nice place to put all my pics I collected from the Select Shop & from paparazzi photos. So I bought one of them too.
After that we had some time so we went to Akiba for a while and dumped our bags of goodies in a locker to be picked up on the way home.
When we were ready, we headed back to the Dome, where we sat around for a bit… until I realised that our light sticks were still among all our other goods, in the locker in Akiba. Luckily, we had time, and Akiba is close, so I went running back there to pick up our sticks, arriving in time to join the queue and get into the hall.
This is a quick (blurry) snap of people milling about and waiting, at about 5-ish. The goods line reduced dramatically at this time, as people were worried about missing the concert.
At about 5:30, we headed in. On the way in to our gate, we saw the Premium Seat entrance, so I knew where to go for the next day.
After some wandering around (amongst a giant crowd), we finally found our seats.
Tokyo Dome, the first day.
We were up on the 2nd level for this show… on the ‘YooSu’ side of the Dome, though honestly in this concert there wasn’t much of a bias - the boys moved around a hell of a lot and didn’t really stick to one ‘side’.
It was hard to see specifics for me on this day… So, some general notes -
Intro movie
The movie is of the five boys sneaking around a rather nice hotel. At first I thought they were security or something, but it then becomes obvioius that they’re actually thieves after this big chunky diamond necklace. There are individual shots of them all sneaking around (JS is on a computer instead) and then SuMin meet up in a hallway and kick some security guard ass. YunJae do the same (nice punching Jae!) and Yoochun ninjas around by himself. They nick off with the diamonds, and the concert starts up.
I’m a little confused at the start part, I can’t recall everything. ^^;
Secret Game
SIJFDoisd. The start! Really exciting stuff, lol.
Oh god, Jae’s rocker yell = ♥.
Doushite
Seemed kinda out of place for me… But still pretty, of course. They were sweating like crazy, poor things. I think their mics were a bit screwed too (all the way through the concert, actually) - YH’s seemed too soft, and CM’s was super loud. @_@
9095
Holy shit I love this song, and it was probably the one I was most looking forward to watching live.
I love the layered platforms they were on. The crowd went absolutely nanas everytime they played pole-dancer, and the close ups were largely of their crotches. XD JJ was acting so bloody sensual in this, I’m surpised girls down nearer the stage weren’t fainting. (I realised why, next day when I was down there, it’s because you can’t take your eyes off them long enough to get around to fainting!)
Force intro movie
The boys are standing in a desert looking place, and JS is first, standing there and bringing his fingers together in a triangle. The triangle flares pink and a ball of fire stuff errupts between his fingers. YC is next - he brings his hands together and red electric sparks gather between his hands. JJ is holding his right hand up and it errupts into green flame (a bit lame looking. ^^;) CM holds out his right hand to the side and purple electricity forms in it. YH is last and reaches behind his back for this blue light sword, which 'extends' like a rip off of a light saber. Then there's a quick flash of all of them throwing their energy ball thingies (with YH slashing his sword - lame, why doesn't he get a ball of fire?) and then there's a frontal shot of them as the balls hurtle towards the camera and Force begins.
Force - Infinitely better on stage then on CD. It had a great vibe and the choreography/set up for it was fantastic. YC’s spirit fingers = teh win.
Purple Line - The lights were cool, and the song had to have had one of the most awesome dance breaks out of the lot. JJ did a count-up as well, which was sexy as shit.
Mirotic - probably my total fav of the night. Even though Mirotic really kinda seems out of place on the album, it was beautifully done. There’s probably already fancams somewhere, but basically the boys were in all black outfits from the first set. On the main stage area, they all started dancing with ‘white’ versions of themselves, who were on the screens behind them, but life size. Then, they duck behind the screens and the screens show both the black and white versions dancing together, sometimes merging together into one or another colour. Then, the (real) boys jump out in black, and the white versions are on the screen! Really cool.
Heart, Mind & Soul - Yunho is left behind after Mirotic, and he starts HM&S off before disappearing when Jae comes on and starts to sing. From then on the boys come on stage as their parts come up. It was really pretty. Jae’s voice was divine during this song, just really really really gorgeous. Changmin was also in top form.
Ment - YC says something about the Dome/baseball field and pretends to hit a home run.
JJ was saying stuff about how they’ve achieved their dream, and what can they do next?
YH introduces JS saying how charismatic he was looking that night, and how he thought it was time for JS to do some oyaji gags. ^^; JS looked harassed and pulled out his recent favourites of Oyama & Harajuku. JJ said that he needs to do something different and more interesting, and JS looked even more harassed and spluttered about being put under pressure; so cute! Then he did the ‘Junju-pwah’ thing with the ‘powering up’ stance. XD
I can’t exactly remember what they were talking about, but JJ was rambling and then suddenly turned to Changmin and asked him something. CM got all surprised and went ‘Eh??’ really cutely. XD
JS talks about the album having stuff on it created by the members, and says “Kiss the Baby Skyyyyy” (With that weird emphasis/accent!) is ‘Yoochun-sama’s song. XD Yoochun rambles about the song for a bit and then seems to run out of steam and ends, awkwardly, with ‘Hai. Yoochun deshita.’ Everyone giggled a lot.
Wasurenaide
I think JS might have started getting misty eyed at this song. I wasn’t really close enough to tell properly, but his eyes looked suspiciously sparkly. XD
’Behind the scenes’ movie
The boys disappeared and a movie started, showing some scenes from behind the scene of the Tokyo Dome production. Practice, set up etc. And then…. Dun dun duuuuuun…. Sam is at a table with the boys and is holding a mic stand to one side. He turns to Yunho and says ‘And Yunho, you will be using this in your solo.’
Cue crowd going ballistic.
Then they run an intro for the solos, showing who will be performing and a small clip of them rehersing that does not give away what they’re performing. The line up is Junsu, Yoochun & Jaejoong (together!), Yunho & then Changmin.
Junsu - Xiatic
Frickin awesome. Junsu is an AMAZING dancer. It’s a great, funky song and I really enjoyed watching his performance. The whole song was in Japanese, not Korean, and I’m not that familiar with it so I can’t say if it was the same choreography or not, but it was fantastic either way. The only hiccup was that while he was trying to strip off his white jacket, it got stuck on his wristband or glove or something and he couldn’t get one of the sleeves off. In the end he had to put it on the ground, hold it with a foot and yank his hand out. ^^; But he did it pretty smoothly, even if it did take quite a long time to get free. XD
Yoochun & Jaejoong - Colours
I’m sure everyone’s heard the song already, but oaisjdfioasdfjasoid. I LOVE IT. It’s so gorgeous. JJ & YC’s voice go nicely together, and the song is pretty and sweet and not too sickly (surprisingly, being that it’s for Hello Kitty!). They looked like they enjoyed singing it so much, and at the end when they got onto the rotating circle thing, JJ got the crowd to join in and sing the ‘la la la la’ part, and then they sang it with everyone. :) The only thing kinda wtf was Yoochun’s ‘English’ rap. I could not understand ANYTHING except ‘Christmas tree’. That was IT. @_@
But oh god, it’s such their song and amazing and JJ was smiling so beautiful…
Yunho - Checkmate
I haven’t even seen many videos of this… so it was nice to see in person. He came down on the hanging rope thing, in his purple suit, very dramatic. It was very ‘him’, with all the cocky gay dancing, and the flirting with the girl. ... Incidentally, I think Junsu’s girl was prettier then Yunhos. ^^; The light sticks the dancers used (red & green) were pretty cool though.
Changmin - Wild Soul
They had to rush to bring the band out onto the stage, and when they first started to play I honestly could not figure out what song it was. ^^; But yeah, it was Wild Soul and I think I like it better live. Still not a massive fan of how high the chorus is, but it’s better when Changmin is really into it and rocking out. One cool part of the performance was that CM brought out a green laser light during one of the music bridges and was waving it around the crowd for a bit before pointing it at the ceiling. An explosion went off, at the top of the stage, like he’d just shot at it. It scared the shit out of me the first time… I don’t think I was the only one either. Then he did the same thing, with another explosion on the other side of the stage. His backdrop thing was all full of fire videos, and then full flame jets came out of the stage towards the end.
Movie - Back to the Start (AKA Angsty Love Except for Yunho)
This movie starts where the very first intro movie ends, and then ‘rewinds’ back through the events of the first movie, to find the boys all in different areas, and all with girls. I think CM is first, standing with his (tall) girlfriend by a window. She’s leaving him, and he looks marginally sad. ^^; Then it’s... Junsu, I think, sitting at a white table with a girl. It’s him leaving this time, he says something then stands up and sort of pats her on the shoulder as he leaves. Jae is next, sitting on a couch with this blond, curly-haired Caucasian girl. Close up of hand holding (awkwardly, as she’s pulling away) and then Jae gets up and leaves. Next is Yoochun, who’s in the drivers seat of a car looking really bloody morose. Next to him is another blonde Caucasian girl who LOOKS TWICE HIS AGE. D: She’s the one leaving in this one, and she gets out of the car and walks off while he stares pensively into the distance.
And then there’s Yunho, walking with his Japanese girlfriend along the river. The both of them look happy, and then Yunho stops and says something to the girl, before handing her a ticket. A close up shows that it’s an air ticket from Tokyo to New Caledonia. Shot of Yunho mouthing ‘Ai Shiteru’ (I love you). The girl smiles, he smiles, and walks off.
The five guys meet at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the hotel (which is the start of the intro movie).
… I don’t understand a) why Yunho is the only one to keep the girl, and b) wtf it has to do with the next song.
Begin
Yes, the next song was Begin (?!). They all came out of the ground around a piano that Yoochun was playing. YC does a pretty good job, though I think he was concentrating too much on the piano and his vocals weren’t great. JJ ended the song beautifully though.
Nobody Knows
They began to really move around to this song. The main stage runs out onto a wide walkway, which in turn splits into two smaller walkways sticking out in opposite directions (think the inner part of a peace symbol). The boys went down the right hand prong, and got thrown mic stands. Everyone caught them easily! They then used them to sing, before picking them up and carrying them over to the left hand prong. Standing there in their line, they danced a little and then got thrown pimp canes. XD They then danced with the canes and threw them back.
YH, for some reason, was singing with his hands in this song. Like Changmin usually does. It was weird.
JJ was REALLY into this song. He was dancing about energetically and exaggerating his movements, obviously enjoying it a lot. :)
Taxi
Can’t recall much from this, except YC sounded good. He was kind of dying in a few of the songs before, but he sounded nice in this one. CM looked a bit wobbly, like he might get a bit watery, but nothing came.
Forever Love
This was YH’s best song of the night. He sung it well… for some reason, JJ sounded kinda nasal to me. But the JaeSu end part was beautiful.
O J.B.H remix
Fun song. The crowd loved it and the boys know it back to front by now I guess. They had fun with it.
Dancers intro
YH was the pre-recorded MC of the dancer introduction. I had wondered at the number of dancers on the floor - there were a lot more then the normal crew of six. ‘Introduuuucinnnnnggg~ Knew Toho Dansaas~!’ YH proudly announced, and the new guys are Ryo F, Ywki, K-sk, Tomonori, plus the six girls… Anna, Rika, Kayo, Nazuki, Rina & Marin. There are the old Tohodancers too. Ko & Yuki got the biggest applause. XD
Choosy Lover (in the gay horrible clashing but very-very-expensive haute couture colour-vomit outfits)
The whole stage was technicolour for this - the screens were flashing these bright, colourful blocks all over the place and rainbows everywhere. Made the whole thing about 10x more gay. ^^; But lol! During the ‘Sexy baby, uh’, Jaejoong pulled down his jacket thingie and showed off his biceps/shoulder with a he-man pose! XD
JaeMin went off to the right side of the stage (towards where we were sitting) and YunChunSu went stage left while dancing around. Then they came back to the middle of the stage and were cheering on Yunho as he started to break-dance. He did a lot of scary looking flips. There are lot of really ridiculous photos of him from this particular moment. ^^;
Sky
They moved about a lot for this one, running from one corner of the stage to another (they each had a ‘corner’, then ran around and swapped so everyone could see them). YH was in the ‘middle’ part of the walkway in front of the mainstage for the beginning, and he sat down on the motorised walker/treadmill thing, so that he slid all the way back up. He had a lot of energy though, because then he bounced up and spend most of the song skipping/walking/running on the treadmill!
JS sat at the edge of the left stage, and when YH swapped to one of the peace-sign prongs, he sat down at the edge and started singing into the camera. He seems so very, very full of himself during this set because he’s constantly showing off.
Somebody to Love
This was like Sky, with everyone running around and being cute & silly. Changmin sat down on the right hand peace-prong and started singing into the camera, which made everyone spazz out - it was so cute! YH continued to show off like he knew everyone couldn’t get enough of him. They spent a lot of time bouncing to the music and using their towels as helicopters. XD
JJ was fully HYPER during this set, particularly this song. Even when the others weren’t moving much, he’d bounce on the spot and dance about like a crazy thing. He was having so much fun, it was adorable to watch. ♥
Summer Dream
Again with the cuteness, but there was more co-ordinated dancing. Junsu lead the dancing at the end, and he did the hip thrusts, the show the ass, and then the cute Angel pose. JJ didn’t do the last one though, he just knelt down by JS and put his hand on his back. ^^;
Band introduction
The members took turns to introduce the guys in the band, who all had a little solo moment.
Survivor
JJ was still really high in this song, quite energetic. YH gave the crowd a really cute smile (as distinct from the cocky/kinda arrogant smirks he'd been giving for the rest of the set). YC was really super sexy in this too... full of sexy grease!
'Back in time' movie
After they dissapeared from Survivor, the big screen lit up with a sort of montage of their Pvs, floating around in the air while the camera swooped around between them. Random clips would come up to fill the whole screen and play over the speakers, going chronologically back in time. I can't remember them all, but there was Miss U, Step by Step and Rising Sun amongst them. The clips were only short, a couple of lines each, but the crowd sang along with them all - and kept singing to Rising Sun even after the clip ended.
I had hypothosised that it would be Hug or Stay With Me Tonight that would come on next because of the chronological thing, but no...
Way U Are
This is the set with the shirts with glitter TSC logos on them. A number of fans had already decorated their TSC shirts from previous concerts similarly, putting diamonties over the design.
It was a fun song, because the crowd took up the chants that Koreans usually do during shows, going 'Tohoshinki' 'Kim Junsu' 'Shim Changmin' etc between their parts.
We Are
We Are was kinda bit of a weird choice I think, but whatever. They all jumped on the Tohomobiles - small individual platforms on wheels that went around the base of the stands. They all had their own, with name tags, and a little bucket of signed coloured balls. The balls matched the Force colours they had. JJ and YH went down the right hand side of the arena while YooSuMin went left. JJ dropped a few of his balls on the ground. ^^; But they were both distrubuting the balls quite well so people had a chance at grabbing them. There weren't that many balls though. >_< (hence the now insane prices of them on Y!J)
By the end of the song, they were at the back of the arena, and got off their floats to get on a small stage set up at the back there, right in front of the stands directly opposite the main stage.
Break Up the Shell
They performed on the small stage, and it maybe kinda ruined the choreography of the dance, since there was barely any room to move. The dance break was quite cute though.
Ment
JJ was really happy, but really quite sweaty by this point. His hair must have been annoying him a lot, it was flopping everywhere and constantly in his eyes. I think, during the solos and videos etc, he got it blow dried. But he kept having to try and sweep it back out of his face.
YH drenched himself with a bottle of water and the crowd spazzed. He was also acting cute with CM... CM was giving a long diatribe about something I completely missed (his Japanese is really elevated now - he uses really complicated/formal words sometimes. D:), and the camera was focused on him alone. YH ninjaed into the shot, cosying up to CM. CM turned to him and completely shoved him out of the shot, yelling that he was too close. XD YH then pouted and tried to come lay his head on CM's shoulder.
Stand By U
They introduced this as their new single, and began singing it. Actually, I don't know that they sang it that greatly that night. I like the song a lot, but it was a little off for some reason.
Kiss the Baby Skyyyyy
They jump back on the little platform things, and continue around back towards the main stage (so that they've done a complete circle). If they had extra balls, they threw them then.
Just as they're about to get back on the main stage, YC yells out all their names (strangely, instead of saying 'Jaejoong', he says 'Jaejae'!), and then out 'We’re one, eternally!'. I wanted to snuggle him so bad. :)
Once on stage, they get the whole crowd to sing along to the chorus lines, which repeat like 8 times.
They get a bit spazzy on stage after that and YC yells out 'SCREAM!' about 3 times, making the crowd scream. Then YH, for some completely unknown reason, yells out 'FREAK!' and makes that 'breaking someone's back' motion with his knee kicking up and his hands coming down really quickly. @_@ I don't know what planet he was on because it was so very very random!
Then they move out to the center circular part of the stage and stand in their line. JJ calls out 'We love~ Yoochun! We love~ Junsu! We love~ Changmin! We love~ Yunho!' and then the other four take up the cry - 'We love~ JAEJOONG!' XD And then they all say together 'We love~ BIGEAST!'. :D
Bolero
Back to the main stage, they spread out and Bolero begins. It's pretty, and while I like the song, I'm kinda glad it wasn't the 'last/encore' song for Dome, because I feel it really lacks the same emotional impact of Proud/Love in the Ice etc.
Afterwards, they thanked everyone (in Japanese, they didn't do their usual 'kamsamnida!' at all. D:) and left the stage.
Encore - Love in the Ice
While I'm glad Bolero wasn't the last song, I don't know why this was chosen instead. I really think they should have done Kiss Shita Mama... Love in the Ice is powerful, but kinda overdone. It was pretty, but it didn't wow me like it did at the end of T, or how Proud was at Budoukan.
... all in all, I kinda found the ending dissapointing. It seemed to end abruptly as well, after the encore. They said thankyou again and just kinda... left. It wasn't really what I was expecting, that's for sure.
A quick pic I took after coming out of the Dome. Most people hadn't left yet, but there was still a crowd. Some girls in the concert ran off before the encore to go join the goods queue. @_@
Tokyo Dome, the final.
Mirotic - I noticed this time that during the part where they’re dancing with themselves, the white screen versions take off their hats and ‘pass’ them to the black/real guys - the hats are handed to them from behind the screen so it actually really looks like the hat has been passed out of the screen into real life. :D
Ment
I can’t remember much, but I know they were teasing JS about how his gags weren’t funny (JJ threw down his towel in mock anger at the lameness) and how he kept doing the same ones. He then was like ‘well, someone else do them!’ and Jaejoong got pointed at. He got all embarrassed and said he couldn’t do gags. In the end, he went to the edge of the stage, knelt down and did his Shyouyokoto gag, pulling out a bottle of soya sauce from one of the staff members. ^^; Poor thing got ribbed by the others for it too. Then CM was victimised and YC & YH forced him to say something (didn’t catch what?) as a 1 year old. The covered his face first and then made him say it. He looked so put out! >_<
Colours
Seeing them both up close performing this was utter ♥. They both looked so happy and Jaejae was just beatific, his smile was so beautiful. Yoochun looked really pleased to be performing the song, and they were just… beautiful together. I got a few more words of Chunglish too… ‘turn off the lights and gather round the Christmas tree’. That was all. ^^;
Wild Soul
The first explosion was late (or CM was early?), so CM was waving his laser aimlessly at the roof for a little longer then was cool. It still scared me though, even though I knew it was coming! Heh.
Forever Love
Junsu started wrong. @_@ I couldn’t believe it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Junsu stuff up a song, but I’m pretty sure that he started on the wrong note and all of them were off for a little bit until it was corrected. For some reason JS just didn’t hack it in this song. His singing is usually so reliable and spot-on, but it really went off for this song.
Choosy Lover
This time Jae didn’t slide down his jacket on his ‘sexy baby uh’ (which was ok, being that his jacket is sleeveless. ^^;), he just did this super he-man pose and the camera zoomed in on his bulging muscles. He kinda ruined it though by giggling cutely. XD He was so proud of his guns. Heh.
Somebody to Love
During the part where CM took the ‘middle’ of the stage, he collapsed onto the floor and just sat there looking dazed and exhausted for a bit before he had to get up to sing his part. It was really cute!
YC came over right to my area, a few rows in front of me, and jumped onto the edging around the stage walkway. The fans on that side went crazy, and he was grinning cutely at them. Then he lent forward, and kind of made it look like he was going to jump off the stage entirely and come greet/play with the fans there. Fans=totally ballistic. He made this cute little gesturing thing, like ‘you want me to come down? Me?’ and then grinned like a greasy loon and skipped off back down one of the two walkways that go out into the crowd. Tease!! XD
Summer Dream
This time, neither Yoochun or Jaejoong did the Angel pose at the end, rather kneeling beside JS and tapping his back/ass/molesting him. JJ was grinning like a loon.
We Are
YC tried really hard to throw his balls far into the crowd and up into the stands. CM was lame - he barely tried at all most of the time. He grabbed a handfull of balls and kept sort of almost dropping them into the stands closest to him. I think he sent about 8 balls into exactly the same area. >_<
Ment
For some reason, while YC was blathering about KtBS, the camera zoomed right in on his face, and then his eyes. When he noticed, he made this really evil/greasy look at the camera. Kinda looked like he was really constipated. Of course the crowd went wild. XD
Kiss the Baby Sky
YC did their name call out again, and this time I think he said something like ‘We’ll always be here!’… though I can’t remember completely. He said ‘Jaejoong’ this time rather then ‘Jaejae’.
Back on the stage, and Yunho interrupted his own rap to say he was so happy for the day. Afterwards, as they were tanking everyone, they basically forced Sam to come up on stage, saying how awesome he was etc etc. So Sam did the group bows with everyone, which was sweet. :)
Bolero
Underwhelmed me again. :/ I think it did them a little too.
Love in the Ice
I think they were slightly shakier then on the previous night, and YC was about one song away from crying… but none of them did. It was beautiful, as always, and was not as an abrupt an end as last time, as they went around and said thank you at each end of the stage and waved liked mad things at the crowd. They did their traditional ‘kamsamnidas’ before leaving too. ^_^ But…
Ending credits
The whole crowd stayed all the way through the ending credit videos, chanting ‘To-ho-shin-ki, To-ho-shin-ki’ and waving their light sticks. I think nearly everyone expected them to do one extra song on that night.
But it didn’t happen. I really, really really think they should have done Kiss Shita right at the end there. (YC so totally would have bawled if they did. He was THIS CLOSE, damnit, one more song would have done it!)
So there weren’t any tears, and the ending was a bit lame in my opinion, but I had a frickin good experience with the whole thing and OMFG I was so happy to see them so closely. And I love how happy they are while performing. How carefree and just… adorable they get in the more free-style songs towards the end.
Love, just love.
Harajuku/Omotesando Showcases
So after our failed attempt to get in on the Friday, we went back to Harajuku on Sunday, trying our luck at like 9am. HAH. Yeah right. The tickets had all been given out before 6:40. >_< Great. Missed again. Luckily we had one more day to get there, and so returned really frickin early on Monday. Like 6am early.
We got tickets for the 12:30 entry slot, and happilly went back to our hotel for a few more hours sleep. We got back to Harajuku at about 12:15 to queue up to get it. And realised, to our horror, that the staff were holding signs of the merchandise that said everything except the figurines and the senbei were sold out. WTFFFFFFFF. Shoyokoto!!!
So we waited and waited to get in, instead banking on getting some mini-CDs. Only to realise, upon entry and asking which line was for the mini-CDs, that they too were sold out. Which was really stupid. I counted the gashpon machines and reallised there were only 11 there. No wonder they ran out so quickly. I really don't think they thought about how many people would be turnin gup for this thing... Stupid.
^ The sold out gashpon. D: This was at 12:30.
There wasn't much else to do there, so we decided to do the Premium Seals. The line was frickin massive, but that was basically the only things available, so it’s no wonder. It was kinda fun, but also rather stressful because it only gave you a couple of seconds to pose yourself before taking the pictures. @_@ It was really hard to get into position that quickly, and you only had two ‘chances’ to choose from.
I got a JJ one & a group one. I look like an idiot. XD
Anyway, it was papbinsu after that (mmm, green tea & mochi!) and then we went off to Showcase 2. Where I could actually take photos of more interesting things.
In fact, I have videos! Lol. Sorry about the mixed songs - they were playing a SC reel (Doushite, Share the World, Stand By U, Purple Line, Survivor) in the showcase, but then each tour display had a DVD of the tour playing as well, so the music was all mixed up.
The HMS display:
Click to viewThe FitB display:
The T display:
Okay, so, the 1:1 dolls were freaky as shit. They were just… weird. ^^;
Min’s looked very life like - the most alike out of all of them. Yunho’s, Jaejoongs & Junsu’s were really plasticy-looking and very fake, but Yoochun’s was okay and Min’s was creepy-alike.
We went to do the Jacket photo thing… It looks a bit weird, honestly, because I ended up doing TSC cover since it had the short line. You look really out of proportion though, because your legs are cut off and you’re not standing relative to them. ^^; The T one had more options, and there was an actual place for an extra person to fit into the shot. One girl had her photograph taken with her hand on JJ’s head. XD
After that, the last part was the little talk video the guys did, and then the wall of fan-messages. You got a clear sticker square, and wrote on it in white/silver/gold pen before sticking it on the black wall. I hope, at one point, they have a video showing the boys going to look/read the messages, because some of them had a lot of effort put into them. There were little drawings, co-ordinated messages across 3-4-more sticker squares, and mini-essays.
I left one… didn’t really know what to say, but oh well. XD
And that was it. End of my Secret Code experience! I hope I can come back and do it again. I’d love to go see a Korean concert too, just to see how they compare, and how the boys act there since I know they have different ‘personas’. But I'm so proud of the boys... have a look at how far they've come. We went to Venus Fort to go shopping, and were able to see just how small Tokyo Zepp is. Zepp is the place where their first Tokyo concert for Heart Mind & Soul was held.
They've gone from this:
to this:
We love you, boys. ♥