*sigh* it’s just so depressing, lol. I swear the next time i go i’ll just get a job in a kebab van in Akihabara and stay there. That’s a 1000x improvement on this dump of a country.

Hotel in Japan didn’t have internet (well it did, but appeared to be some sort of strange fibre optic connection, thus the ethernet cable didn’t fit), so i shall have to type up my entire report into one long post… enjoy!

Friday 31st October

Well, seeing as we didn’t win AKB48 tickets (the email lottery thing sucks, it’s totally rigged towards people whose names the staff know) all we could do was locate our hotel between Akihabara and Ochanomizu, easy! Then went and purchased initial supplies… glowsticks for the concerts tomorrow, and binoculars just in-case our seats were really terrible.

Not sure what day this was taken, but i’ll stick the photo in here for decoration…

Having completed everything we had nothing left to do but return to that great maid based drinking hole. ^_^ Sadly there was only one familiar face there from last time, but hey, new faces are good too!

Saturday 1st November – 2 Berryz Kobo concerts

Early start, needed to get the Shinkansen to Fuji City. For an industrial town i was pleasently surprised by how nice the place looked, lol…

Long walk up a straight road to get to the place, but we soon knew we were there. Many people trading photos outside a large building, obviously the right place. Queued for merchandise, acquired towels and photos. As for the two concerts themselves… despite our tickets saying we were fairly far back, the seats actually felt pretty close. The entire crowd was wearing the assigned colours of the girl they like best (as indicated by the colour of their t-shirt and glowsticks used), makes for an exciting display of colours, lol. It seems both Berryz and Morning Musume have the crowds following the dance moves on stage, along with shouting, luckily nothing was too complex (though it did take a couple of times to hear what was being said during the long shout… “L-O-V-E  LOVE-LY <insert name of girl>”). All in all a great start to the week, can’t beat an entire crowd of like 2000 people simultaneously throwing their towels into the air!

2nd & 3rd November – 4 Morning Musume concerts

Ahh yes, after how many years of watching Morning Musume concerts on DVD, (and instantly deciding that Kusumi Koharu was by far the best member when seeing Rainbow Pink, only to then be reinforced by all of her glorious Kirarin Revolution songs) i would finally get to see them live… 4 times in the next 2 days no less! This time to Shinjuku for a somewhat more dingy location, lol, wearing my trusty Koharu t-shirt and armband bought earlier in the year, and pockets stuffed with red glowsticks.

Once inside it was fairly easy to see that Koharu certainly wasn’t the most popular member in Japan, lol, at a guess that would go to Ai, with Reina/Eri/Gaki 2nd. Luckily however that is one *huge* advantage being a Koharu fan has… compared to the other members she really likes waving at her fans in the crowd *a lot* lol, and thus with there not being as many Koharu fans as some of the other girls your chance of getting waved at increases greatly!

As for the concerts themselves, well they were pretty epic, i think the setlist for the resonant live tour is one of the best i’d say… though i’m still not a fan of Ai or Gaki’s solo songs… nor their MC’s for that matter. Mitsui’s solo song however improved my opinion of her greatly, such a good song.

Ah, ah, ah… can’t forget the opening act… Mano Erina was there with her piano for the 2nd November concerts performing her Lucky Aura single… that’s a great song too, and she’s so damn cute, lol. “Lucky lucky lucky aura~”

But yes, it’s a great set if you like Koharu, lol, the Kirarin Revolution Tan Tan Taan song, another fun group song, and the MC’s with Jun Jun were hilarious (though sadly i think the funniest two weren’t recorded… Koharu looking *super* embarrassed trying to out-do Jun Jun’s sexy pose, lol…….. ‘Koha-ru~~~~’… it’s ok Koharu, you beat her in my eyes, lol).

Hmm, what else about the concerts, well other than the 2nd one is always louder than the first in the day, and that most people go to both (well most people seemed to be going to all of them, lol). Ah yes and the song that starts out with “リンリンリンリンリンリンリンリンリン” that has Lin Lin singing the line while pointing to herself… such a perfect line in a song if ever there was one, lol.

Oh and not forgetting getting waved at by Koharu at least twice… being in front of the balcony above one of the entrances meant there were no people in front of us for like 10 rows… easy to be spotted by people on stage (especially if you’ve just broken 4 ultra red glowsticks and are jumping up and down like a madman), lol.

Tuesday 4th November – Nothing

Again we didn’t win AKB48 tickets (surprise surprise), so a day off as it were. We managed to get to an internet cafe at this point. Briefly checked the internet and realised that the idol concert ticket reseller shop in Harajuku had far better tickets for the Kirarin Revolution concert than i currently had, and for cheap too, lol, so it was off to Harajuku as quickly as possible.

Got to the shop, and YAY the ticket was still there……… 6th row!!! Kirarin Revolution… 6TH ROW!!! ^____^

So the tickets i posted earlier, plus these…

…and now plus upgrade GET…

And the rest of the day was spent around Akihabara… turns out they reset the scores on the Otomedius arcade game… i want my homing missiles and level 3 lasers back damn you!!! lol.

Also that night while drinking in the maid bar it turned out one of the maids there had drawn the CD cover art for some of DJ Sharpnel’s releases, lol. And we ended up getting a drawing done on the back of a beer mat, lol.

Wednesday 5th November – Macross Frontier Concert

Can’t exactly remember what we done during the day but it probably involved miscellaneously walking around Akihabara killing time until the afternoon. Off to my first trip to the legendary Budokan place, this was sure to be epic. I had a funny feeling there were going to be a lot of girls there (even though it’s a mech anime), but even i was surprised… the number of girls may almost have outnumbered the guys. The place itself is pretty huge (didn’t take any photo’s, sorry), and the sheer numbers of people milling around outside was unlike any other concert. Again even though it was pretty huge, our seats on the 2nd floor had a pretty good view and felt much closer than i was expecting.

As people started to filter in i was beginning to wonder what the concert would be like with all these girls everywhere… i didn’t see that many people carrying glowsticks. But sure enough as soon as the lights went out the place lit up with green, blue, and pink like the craziest night time sky you’ve ever seen. The concert itself was honestly truely epic, and the screams from the girls next to me when Alto’s voice actor came on stage was almost deafening, lol. Highlight of the concert apart from the epic songs was the whole crowd doing the nyan nyan dance (oh, and me managing to accidentally throw a glowstick miles away during the concert… uhh… didn’t go get it back, lol). And as an added bonus Yoko Kanno was also there playing the keyboard for the duration of the concert. I think it went on for over 3 hours… no doubt there’ll be a DVD released of it at some point.

Thursday 6th November – Perfume Concert

Perfume at Budokan, i had high hopes for this after the last one i was at. However from the start i could tell this was going to be a very different affair… gone were the young guys waiting with caps and headphones on their heads, they’d all seemingly been replaced by middle aged businessmen and women in suits.

The main arena at budokan had assigned seats still setup so there was no chance of the rough surging that happened at Shibuya AX. Oh well i thought, it’s Budokan, it’s got to be something special. Sadly however it just wasn’t the case… the crowd were only intent on politely clapping and mild cheering at inexplicable moments. No jumping, no shouting, no glowsticks (in a roughly 15,000 capacity arena i counted literally less than 10). I found myself looking at the crowd in the dark and thinking “Had Perfume really become this mainstream? How many people here even know they sung Akihabalove?”

Perfume themselves weren’t doing a great job on stage either in my opinion, i know they’ve got the whole “robot” look going, but you’re at Budokan, you could at least try and show *some* emotion or acknowledge the crowd during the songs. The MC’s made up for it in some respect as they were still pretty funny, but the complete lack of atmosphere apart from miscellaneous clapping really wasn’t doing it for me. There were even people there that just turned up and stood there, no clapping at all, i mean really, why even bother, you might aswell just wait for a DVD and sit and watch it on your TV.

Suffice to say i was very disappointed with that concert.

Friday 7th November – Perfume Concert

Uhh yeah… we sold our tickets to some guys outside the place, no sense going to something we’re not going to enjoy. I’d love to see them at a small place with no assigned seats again, but maybe that won’t happen for a while.

On the plus side, we ended up drinking in the maid bar again (after filling up another point card), and purely by coincidence ended up speaking to someone that graduated from the same school Kusumi Koharu went to, lol. I think he overheard us talking to the maids about Morning Musume concerts/Kirarin Revolution.

Saturday 8th November – Morning Musume Concerts

Last two morning musume concerts of the trip and we were planning on going all out…

(blue for the Reina fan… the rest for me, lol… gamers ran out of ultra blue a couple of days after we arrived and never restocked, lol… sorry to anyone that wanted some)

Train to Hachioji on a damp cold day… and i had the bright idea to say “Hmm, i won’t take my coat today it just gets in the way for concerts”, well that was a mistake, sitting outside for 2+ hours in a t-shirt in the rain is somewhat cold, lol.

Ah well… all out indeed. Lucky i brought a change of clothes with me, lol. I ended up getting the V sign off of Koharu twice, lol. ^_^ (i do have to say though that Tan Tan Taan really doesn’t work without the other members of MilkyWay there).

Sunday 9th November – KIRARIN REVOLUTION SPECIAL LIVE

Ahhh yes, this is what i had been waiting for all week, the whole reason i like Koharu so much, the reason she is 4th in my most played artists (above Morning Musume themselves)….. Kirarin Revolution!!

There were 3 concerts that day, but the first two were for under 16′s only (well… the 5 year old girls to be precise… the fans the show is aimed at, lol). Funnily enough the two under 16′s concerts both sold out pretty quick, whereas the 3rd concert for over 16′s didn’t sell out at all. They were still trying to get rid of tickets at the morning musume concerts the previous days. Is it wrong for a bunch of guys (and girls too, there were quite a few in cosplay aswell) to enjoy a show aimed at 5 year olds………. clearly not as they were holding a concert just for the likes of us!

First stop was the merchandise stand, and any Koharu fan should know exactly what i went straight for…

The light up tamborine and headset!!! Huzzah, now i had something appropriate to wave around at the concert (it comes with a poster to teach you the dance moves for both singles)…

If i wasn’t a Kirarin Revolution/Koharu fan i’d be asking myself why i just spent £45 on a plastic star shaped light up childrens toy, but that’s all irrelevant… KIRARI-CHAN~~~~!!!! It lights up in the three MilkyWay colours, and at the push of a button can go multi-coloured. I still haven’t figured out what the speaker button in the middle does yet as that part didn’t have batteries… hopefully it’s Kirari speaking, lol.

And now i, along with everyone else was prepared…

Sadly the Kirarin Revolution towels had sold out.

Right then, the concert was about to begin, if you are the sort of person that…

- Would throw your hands in the air shouting “Nooooo, Naa-san!!” if Naa-san gets kidnapped

- Would cheer as loud as you can for Seiji and Hiroto from SHIPS even though you’re there for Kirari

- Would boo the bad guys on stage

- Thinks the best thing about Koharu is that she isn’t a perfect singer and acts an idiot sometimes

…then you would describe this concert as the best concert EVER!! As i fall into the above categories, i am describing this concert as THE BEST CONCERT EVER!!! …it almost felt like a once in a lifetime experience (unless of course you’re going to be in Japan in December, which i’m not).

I’ll try and remember as best as i can, but don’t blame me if i get some details wrong (the order of the songs is likely to be completly wrong, lol)…

Started out with Anataboshi i believe… all of MilkyWay on stage, then some talking (which was very scripted… no Koharu randomly waving at the crowd here), Kirari announcing that she had to leave briefly, before returning saying she got it wrong (all in character), another song (SanSanGOGO i think). Note: Koharu went the wrong way at one point during the dancing, the two other MilkyWay girls were giving her this great “What are you doing Koharu??” look just before she realised and quickly went back the other way trying to hide her laughing lol. Ahh… that’s what makes her great, lol.

Kirari then left again saying she really had to go this time.

And at this point things got exciting, some bad guys game onto the stage after running through the crowd and after a struggle and much shouting from the crowd of the Japanese equilivent of “It’s behind you” (yes much like panto), they tied up Noel (Kitahara Sayaka‘s character), oh no what were they going to do, but then, SHIPS to the rescue, Seiji and Hiroto burst onto the stage and kick ass, rescuing Noel. Were they singing at the same time, or did they do their song after they’d finished ah, i forget, either way Seiji and Hiroto were getting some huge cheers, though in kind of a comedy ironic way, lol. Everyone in the crowd was kinda laughing while cheering for SHIPS and they looked like they were trying to stop themselves from laughing too, lol.

Once Noel was safe, Kirari came back on stage wondering what was going on, lol… ahh… yes… it was like having the real Kirari right in front of me (well technically she was, lol, 6 rows was damn close).

Kirari then done a few songs on her own… Koi Kana, Balalaika (cue ultra orange glowsticks from me), Himawari.

Kirari went off, and SHIPS and the rest of MilkyWay came back on, and the bad guys appeared on the TV screen saying they’d kidnapped Naa-san (cue arms thrown in the air and shouts of “Noooooo, Naaaaa-saaaaan!!!!!!” from the crowd). And what followed was a series of questions with A or B answers, get them all right and Naa-san gets saved. They’d obviously changed the questions from the previous two shows that day because the first question was just a silhouet of two Naa-san’s asking which one was right, but the ones after that were all Morning Musume questions about Koharu that none of the 5 year old fans would have been able to appreciate.

Kirari again came on towards the end (this time acting more like Koharu in a Morning Musume MC, denying the answers to some of the questions, lol). And Naa-san was eventually saved.

I think SHIPS might have done another couple of songs at this point… again many *loud* shouts for Seiji and Hiroto from all the guys, lol.

Then i think Tan Tan Tan was sung, this one was sung live… how could i tell this was and the others weren’t, well their microphones didn’t work for half the lines and the song wasn’t sung particularly well (but i wouldn’t want it any other way, lol).

Then Kirari went off and the other two MilkyWay girls sung Futari wa NS… that Kira Pika song….. unexpected. ^_^

Kirari came back on in her moo moo outfit and sung Happy, and Chance… YES!!! I got to see the wonderful dress changing right in front of my eyes… like magic!

Concert over… encore… the bad guys came back on to apologise and advertise the Kirarin Revolution DS game that’s coming out. Last songs Gamusharara, and Tan Tan Taan again.

…and that was it, all over, she sung every single song i wanted to hear apart from Lammtarra, but oh well, i got to sing along to that on my own while queuing for merchandise, lol. Oh, and one final thing, there was no box for presents or fan letters like at the Morning Musume concerts, now obviously i wasn’t indending on going home without giving my present, so i wandered around after it had all ended, saw an official looking guy and a guy with a camcorder recording the huge lines queuing for merchandise, they both were wearing backstage passes. Ended up briefly speaking to them and gave my present to them and they said they’d take it to her, lol. (wasn’t much of a present… only the union jack flag i’d been wearing on my back like an idiot with a thankyou message scrawled across it and Kirarin Revolution stickers all over it, lol).

Oh well, it’s all over now, the Kirarin Revolution concert truly was the greatest, still need to see a Momoi concert in Japan >_<… maybe i just won’t come back to England next time.

…and now back to perfecting the Tan Tan Taan dance.