July Explorations

Ok... so I still haven't had a chance to really summarise the experience that I had visiting Japan for the first time in July and I know it's getting along... so much so that I'll be back out there again in less than a month!

In the mean time though - I have put together a video which I hope might do a better job summarising some of the experiences I had out in Japan. I am looking forward to taking lots more footage and hopefully will have more blog posts, videos and updates to come as I make plans all over again!

Thank you all for watching (^_^)

Japan Trip - Kamakura Summer Fireworks (23.07.14)

A clip of the summer fireworks display in Kamakura! This was especially amazing due to the exploding fireworks on the ocean surface. Something I've never seen before and truly worth seeing if you ever get the chance. Nothing like a summer's evening on the beach with Takoyaki, a few beers, some good friends and a display like this! Next year I hope to go again and join the crowds in a Yukata to get into the experience even more!

Girugamesh, World Cup Nights and Lancheeky Vol. 3!!!

June has been a bit of a whirlwind and I can't believe it's getting so close to my trip already! I still have things to sort so will be getting on to those next but first, here's a little bit about what's been keeping me so occupied.

Girugamesh - Islington O2 Academy

I really need to invest in an O2 phone for all these gigs at the academy, huh? Girugamesh was actually one of the first J Rock  bands I came across last summer and art of the reason I decided to investigate more. I was really excited to hear they were coming to the UK when I bought the tickets... 6 months ago! Again, astonished at the speed with which the time has flown!


The gig was great fun and the band was more impressive than I expected. Girugamesh, although a constant feature on my playlist, has never gotten me particularly excited before but seeing them live changed that. The whole band was full of energy, Satoshii (vocals) was far more theatrical in his delivery than I thought he would be and Nii (guitar) was brilliantly comical in his interactions with the crowd... what is with the socks though?


My favourite songs of the night were definitely "Drain" and "Incomplete" but this may be a sign of me just being more familiar with these more recent tracks and also just the dubstep influences which I loved. I also really enjoyed Zecchou BANG! which got everyone really going. However being fairly small it was one of those where it was jump or be squished songs :p The only thing that would have made the night complete would have been to hear "Takt" which has become one of my favourites from their newest album "Monster".

The night overall was awesome fun and ended on a high wandering off into the evening for a nightcap with JPU records...

World Cup

Okay, so I'm not really a follower of the World Cup or any form of sports but one thing about getting involved in a community is that everything is just that little more enjoyable so despite my general disinterest in the game, it was actually a really fun experience to go and watch it at the pub with everyone. Clearly, they weren't best pleased with the result (this was the second game Japan played and they drew - which I personally don't see as a bad thing - but obviously is) but aside from the discovery of several Japanese swear words over the course of the night, the precursor and interludes of DJ Sou spinning some Japanese and English favourites were a great warm up for...

Lancheeky DJ Party (Vol 3.)

Yes, it's the third one and I've barely mentioned them in the blog before but always an amazing night. This time made even more fantastic with the addition of  the Japan Underground stall and an after party that went on until early morning! DJ's Martin and Sou were playing awesome tunage through out the first part of the night. A highlight for me was rocking out to Ellegarden, System of a Down and Paramore followed by "Ringa Ringa" when everyone joined in and sang along.

I was actually helping out a little on the night which was fun so once everything had been packed up, we headed to the after party where Tom from JPU Records was spinning a mix including some awesome tunes from Pendulum and DJ Ozma's "Bounce with Me" which I only heard for the first time a few days before and was still stuck in my head!

Walking home in the full daylight (something I haven't done in a little while) after several hours dancing and a loooong night bus journey, I have to admit it was an awesome night and here's hoping there are still plenty more to come. I wonder if partying in Japan is anything like this...?

Coming Up...

So with just under three weeks until Japan, you'd think I'd start taking it easy, sorting out all the preparations, etc but with another World Cup game, DJ Kentaro, London Anime Con and BabyMetal, I have a feeling packing might be a little lastminute...

J Rock Playlist

Hiya! So as you may have been realising, I've been getting quite into various styles of Japanese music in the last few months and I've been collecting some of my favourite artists on my Spotify playlist which is surprisingly being followed by quite a few people now! Anyways so I thought I'd share it on here as well so you can get a peek into what I've been listening to. Supposedly this handy little feature will also stay updated as I grow the list so enjoy future listeners!!!

Yoshiki Classical

So in my last post, I mentioned that I had the chance to see Yoshiki talk at MCM. As awesome as this was, it didn't compare to watching him live at the Royal Festival Hall on Thursday night (29.05.14). It was my first time ever seeing Yoshiki play live and I think a little different for many of his fans as it was the Classical World Tour and not his notorious Visual Kei rock band X Japan. No one was disappointed though.

My favourite songs that played during the evening were the Anniversary composition that he wrote for the emperor of Japan and also the Golden Globe Theme tune which he famously composed over a year ago. I also was pleasantly surprised with his brief rendition of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.

Despite being a relatively new fan, I was aware X Japan's history and particularly the tragic passing of Hide. Yoshiki took time in the second part of the concert to talk more about both band members Hide and Taiji who are no longer with us. It was heart breaking to watch him show so much emotion during this speech and during the song that followed, I saw so many audience members around me crying.

He was joined on stage throughout the evening by his septet string section (which he mentioned more than once that he preferred to call his "sextet" because it sounded cooler!). Also Katie from Violet UK joined him during two songs as a guest vocalist.

After the show, he was even amazing enough to accept flowers and gifts from fans. I was right at the front so had the chance to touch his hand as he went along the stage too! (why not, eh?)

MCM London Comic Con

Last weekend, I went to MCM Comic Con in London which was so much fun! I was expecting a busy and exciting weekend and the convention did not disappoint.

Last time I went in October, it was my first MCM and I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. It was also my first time cosplaying and I was proud to make my first ever costume, Xerxes Break from Pandora Hearts:

This time, MCM was even bigger, bringing in over 100,000 people from all over the UK to share in their passion for all things, comic, manga, anime and video game related. I was excited to try out taking a few more photographs using my parents' DSLR (a new found hobby!). I also edited them using Photoshop Elements which took a lot longer than I expected but most likely as I'm still getting used to finding out what features do what!

The stalls were really popular with fewer people on the Friday as always but Saturday being incredibly busy again. To be honest, to give the organisers credit, once you were inside, you didn't feel it was too crowded. There are also people that complain but I arrived mid afternoon on the Friday and only had to queue for a short time to get my weekend wristband. The one thing that would have been better on the Saturday morning would have been sign posts just dividing up the queue but it seemed they learnt quickly and this was in place on Sunday. Also, the rain caused some problems for the cosplayers outside on the Saturday afternoon but no one can control the weather right? ;)

Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time this time to make a proper costume reflecting a character so I improvised with what I had and pulled together a few variations using a new corset I had bought. There were also so many other amazing cosplays that I was lucky enough to photograph over the weekend. Here are just a few of the ones I managed to take reasonable photos of...

I would have to say the highlight of the weekend was also the panel interview with Yoshiki from X Japan. I only recently discovered X Japan along with the other J Rock and Visual Kei bands in the last year but am aware that X Japan are the fathers of Visual Kei and very much led by Yoshiki so the chance to see him talk about this and his passion for Classical music ahead of seeing him perform was a golden opportunity! He came across as funny, charming and someone who had seen quite a bit of adversity which gave him great inspiration and emotion to drive through his music. I think some of the moments that stood out were him talking about his father's suicide, watching him honestly speak about what rock music did for him at that time and hearing his reactions to the announcements that kept coming over the tannoy!

March - Part 2

Since my last blog, things have been far from quiet so I will start with updating on the latter part of March first!

22nd March - Karaoke Party - Sushi Hiroba

As March is my birthday month, I wanted to arrange a really fun night out and couldn't think of anything better than a night of Sushi and Karaoke! I came across a place called Sushi Hiroba which is in Holborn and invited 30 of my friends to join me.

The private karaoke rooms were downstairs in the basement and the restaurant kindly let us order food to take downstairs for the party. I have to say, next time I book this place (because I definitely will!) I will take advantage of the option to pre-order platters as this works out much cheaper. It still wasn't too expensive though as 3 hours of karaoke and all the food we ordered still only came to about £30 each.

The song list was really extensive too, with almost every song we could think of being available between the English, Japanese and Korean song books. Although I am learning Japanese and love many Japanese songs, I have to admit I find it very difficult to follow the lyrics on the screen in Japanese but I planned a head and had downloaded some Romaji lyric sheets in advance. I was so happy to be able to sing my favourite Japanese songs in karaoke.

Everyone seemed to have something they wanted to sing and three hours seemed enough time for pretty much everyone to have a go on the microphone. Even if it ended up everyone just sharing in the end! The night was so much fun it was hard to calm down afterwards and the party ended up carrying on long in the the evening after we left!

28th March - VAMPS - Koko, Camden

This was the second time I saw VAMPS live in London, the first being only last October which was right at the beginning of my discovery of J Rock and part of the reason my passion was cemented.
HYDE and K.A.Z were on fire, so much more powerful than the performance in October. I didn't think they could top it but they were even more incredible!

My favourite bits were Midnight Celebration and Sex Blood and Rock and Roll... oh and Hunting... and Sweet Dreams... sorry I guess the whole performance was too good to pick out one best bit.

I was actually quite impressed with The Howling too. They were a good opening band. The only downside was that the VIP tickets were not quite what I hoped for as the meet and greet was very rushed as they were running late and there was no signed item, no photo so essentially no keepsake for the amount paid. It also looked like they signed some autographs on the way into the venue when passing through the crowds (at least that's what it looked like on twitter the next morning) which seems especially unfair. However, the opportunity to shake HYDE's hand, being such as inspiration to me, was incredible even if fleeting. He really does have the softest hands!!!

29th March - Anime Party - My House (^_^)

Lastly, I decided that as my parents were away for my actual birthday weekend, it was imperative to hold a house party! (I'm not a teenager, honest!)
Before I returned to living at home, I used to host regular anime nights at my house where everyone would gather to watch various anime shows that they would recommend to everyone else. It was a great way to find new shows to watch and just get to know more people who were into anime. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to get everyone together again and add some new faces to the evening.
Again, I was so honoured to have so many people come to the evening and it was great to enjoy an evening watching anime with everyone.
We watched a few different shows but the most popular by far was Witch Craft Works. Even though some less than smooth streaming from CrunchyRoll (due to the poor connection, not the site) ended up with an hysterical cliffhanger that clearly peaked everyone's interest so much, three more episodes were watched! Of course, with such a large group, we couldn't explicitly just watch anime and there was more of a party feel. Even some dancing!

So a jam packed March was had and more wonderful memories than I could have ever wished for... roll on April!

March - Part 1 (Live Music Update)

Sorry it's been a while since my last update. Why is it every time I start a blog/diary/journal or anything of the sort, I start with that sentence... Anyways, I have good reason for my absence. It's been really busy lately but in a really good way. Let's see...

An Cafe - 7th March - Islington O2 Academy

Well, my first thought when I got here was, 'where is everybody?'

For some unknown reason, it was light on attendance but the show was still awesome. I was really impressed that the band didn't seem that affected by the half full venue and really gave it their all.

I'm afraid I didn't do as with some others and note the whole set list. I'm a fairly new fan so there were a few tracks I wasn't familiar with. The thing was this didn't really matter. The show was really energetic and the crowd were all very excited. 

One thing that I noticed more than at previous gigs I'd been to was the amount of audience interaction. Miku, the vocalist, would make various hand, arm and head movements during each song and the audience would follow... a little like at aerobics class! Although this was a lot of fun, it really did feel like my arm would drop off after a while and I was impressed with people who kept it up all the way through. I think this would definitely be preferable to going to the gym!!!

Yuma's Leaving Party - 10th March - Alleycat Bar, Denmark Street

Goodbye Yuma!

So, I have been so extremely lucky to meet some wonderful new friends in the last few months but although I know all good things often come to an end, why does it always have to be so soon! かなしい (T_T)

Of Fire and Fate

Ramshackle

To say goodbye to a very special friend, this was the party of the year so far, with live bands playing (all pictured, check them out on Facebook!) and everyone gathered together, I don't think anyone could have wanted anything more.

Oh and I made cake (^_^)

Hopefully I will be lucky enough to hear his band, Qwerty play next when I visit Tokyo! I can't wait! たのしみに!

Qwerty

雅 Miyavi - 15th March - Shepherd's Bush Empire

Miyavi was amazing! 本当にすごい! I had managed to get VIP tickets for this which did mean I was separated from my friends but I managed to get right up close to the front, which was only slightly marred by the fact that I was stuck behind a much bigger person than me so despite this still had to crane my neck to see anything. Obviously this can't be helped at gigs sometimes but the person could at least not jump around making me feel like I'm about to get squished at any moment... /rant

What was truly extraordinary is the stage presence that just two men on stage had. I've normally only been to see full bands at concerts or if there has been a solo artist, they have had a full production and dancers and all sorts going on around them. 

Watching just these two people with their instruments was really inspiring. Yes there was lots of funky lighting and obviously plenty of pedals to add to Miyavi's guitar playing but despite this, it gave a much more intimate feel than with a full band.

Miyavi stopped between songs often to talk to the audience. His English is so good compared to most Japanese artists that visit the UK but I'm glad that he still keeps a lot of his songs in Japanese. I think the sound of the Japanese language is part of what I like so much about this music. It feels like it loses something when songs are redone in just English. Anyway, as well as the expected 'say my name' speeches, he thanked everyone for their support of Japan since the Earthquake three years ago just before his last visit to the UK (which I'm sad to say I was oblivious to as I didn't even know this amazing talent was out there back then!)

I think highlights of the show for me were definitely when Miyavi played 'Guard You'. This song has always been my favourite from his new album ever since I got it and hearing him play it live was a real treat. Luckily, I did not cry despite how beautiful it was.

The extra special part of this concert thought was the meet and greet at the end. Now I know it was all over in the blink of an eye but it was still a wonderful experience to meet him, shake his hand and personally thank him for making such awesome music (not that I think I was actually that eloquent about it!)

Planning... and lots of gigs!

So it's still over four months before I finally set off on my exciting journey but there's still so much to arrange!

The plan at present looks a bit like this:

Day 1: Arrive in Tokyo
Day 2: Visit Tsukiji, Sea Life Tokyo, Imperial Palace, Ghibli Museum and Tokyo Met Gov't Building
Day 3: Go to Nagoya (via Shizuoka)
Day 4: Visit Nagoya Castle & the Science Museum
Day 5: Visit Shirakawago (overnight stay?)

Day 6: Head to Kyoto

Day 7: Gion Matsuri & Visit Temples

Day 8: Fushimi Inari Shrine and head to Osaka

Day 9: Visit Osaka Castle (I also found out jealkb are playing live on this date so if I can get tickets...)

Day 10: Head to Yokohama, visit Nogeyama Zoo and Yokohama Landmark Tower Sky Garden

Day 11: Free Day in Tokyo

Day 12: Visit Mount Fuji & Fuji Five Lakes

Day 13: As above

Day 14: Visit Nikko - Kegon Falls and Yutaki Waterfall

Day 15: Free Day in Tokyo

Day 16: Sumida River Fireworks

Day 17: Free Day in Tokyo

Day 18: Fly back to London

I'm lucky enough to have discovered that my trip coincides with the Gion Matsuri in Kyoto so I've slightly altered my original plan to include visiting while that's on.

I'm so excited but it really will be first time travelling alone so I'm pretty nervous too!  Hope I can get all my accommodation sorted!

Obviously this schedule is still being added to, if anyone has any suggestions for my free days or any other locations, please let me know. I want to fit in as much as I can but I'm trying not to be too greedy!

In the meantime, I still have lots to look forward too. Next month I have tickets to see lots of awesome concerts:

An Cafe

Miyavi (VIP ticket)

VAMPS (VIP ticket!!!)

If I survive all that excitement, I'll make sure to write more about them!

Here Begins My Next Journey

I don't really know how to start this as I've never had a blog before but I guess it'd probably make sense to explain what I'm wanting to blog about, right?

I've always been quite interested in Japanese culture ever since I was a child and playing Final Fantasy 7 with my little brother. It was a natural progression to become interested in anime after that and although I had been a fan of Hikki for many years, last year in particular, I discovered J-Rock and more bands than I could have ever expected to fall in love with!

In the past year there have been several other firsts, first time I made a cosplay outfit and subsequently attended a convention in said cosplay, first time I attended a meet up event, first time attending a J-Rock concert (see video above), first time becoming slightly fan girl over said band (slightly may be an understatement) and all in the year I first had the chance to live entirely on my own. Perhaps all that space gave me the opportunity to realise what was really interesting to me?

It has always been a dream of mine to visit Japan and upon some rather big changes in my life over the past few years, I decided I was no longer "waiting" (who knows what for) to go out and do what I wanted to do. Fast forward 6 months and I've begun to attempt learning Japanese, moved back in with my parents to save up some funds and booked flights to finally make the trip!

I hope in this blog, to invite you to share these new experiences with me and maybe learn from others about their experiences and other things that I maybe don't know about now. So here's the warning - I'm not promising to enlighten anyone, I don't know that I'm going to discover anything that many of you probably don't already know but I hope that maybe you enjoy taking the journey with me (^_^)