dmjewelle | [Day 03] But I Want Today, Not Tomorrow! (Reply)

In this LJ entry: The Japanese equivalent of Shah Alam, a Really Cute Dog, the horrors of East Ikebukuro, and Dir En Grey. Oh yes this is going to be a LONG ASSED POST.

Flying Vending Machine Count: Still 0.

When Nadia asked me what I wanted to do in Tokyo, the first thing that came to mind was,

"I want to go to a Butler Cafe"

So after sifting through butler cafe homepages, some nights of figuring out what day could all 3 of us go for the butler cafe, MSN chats with Deru figuring out how to reserve a spot at the cafe (and having to ask for Iluna's help at one point), and SEKRIT BARCODES TO LOCATE THE CAFE (really, wtf), we snagged ourselves a reservation at Royal Servant for the 21st with the only condition we had to FIND the cafe with only an address and a homepage for the building.

Good thing it's only in East Ikebukuro!

OWLS! X3

We stopped by a police box to ask for directions, which we learned that "massugu" = walk straight. Unfortunately due to limited Japanese, we misunderstood how far straight we needed to walk, and made a wrong turn...

A college!

A hole! (My colleagues are all, "OMG WHY DO YOU TAKE PICTURES OF THIS")

A park with a municipal building!

OMG IT'S A RAVEN DDDD8

(Fyi, ravens are HUGE. Like the length of your ARM huge. Don't even try shooting these mofos.)

So I finally had to admit we were lost, and went to a Family Mart to ask for directions. Now these people are smart - they admit they don't know how to get there, they direct us to the NEXT Family Mart instead! Maybe they'll have a bigger map and staff that can ACTUALLY speak English! Which btw, the next Family Mart actually had - this older lady pulled out the map, I went "that's a big map," and she said, "Hai! Biggu mappu!" Figuring out where to go was a LOT easier after that.

I figure these people make their location secret and so hard to find for a reason, so I'm not going to disclose the venue. However, I will point out that the building's homepage has a VERY ACCURATE webcam. If you want to go to the place, just look out for the landmarks and you shouldn't have any problems.

Heading back from the cafe, we saw an accident!

The whole thing was nondescript - the young man hit a taxi, he got out, apologized, checked damage, grabbed a huge book (insurance?) and made a phone call. The taxi driver didn't even get out of the car. So fuss-free!

Asking for directions, we discovered that when the policeman said "straight"...he really DID mean straight - heading down from the butler cafe brought us RIGHT BACK to the Ikebukuro station! All that scenic route for nothing!

Walked around East Ikebukuro because it would seem pretty silly if we didn't, staying in Ikebukuro and all.

According to Deru, the movie sucks. Unfortunately, she wasn't referring to the Hetalia movie.

I hope you're ready for FF14!

I didn't go in nor go to Otome Road for that matter. NOES!

Wah bagusnya ada pusat snuker!

Went to KFC to try out some habanero chicken bites. It was very disappointing.

Only in Japan can you smoke inside any restaurant. Second hand smoke? Pshaw.

Headed to Tamachi to go to Nick's office to pick up the spare Diru ticket we had. It was WAY too hot to find the Rainbow Bridge, and it's not...like...I...saw...it. Really. >_>

Apparently parts of Digimon 02 are based here! That's kinda awesome innit? 8D

Tamachi is pretty suburban - it has nice apartments for families, salarymen, buses, and schoolchildren running about: Pretty much where you'd expect virtual monsters popping from your computer to battle other digimon TO THE DEATH.

And this hugeass NTT communications building.

Shiba inu! X3

It says its name is Gran. I think it's the NTT building mascot.

Flowers!

With spare ticket in hand (fetch quest complete!), we were all ready to meet our prospective buyer, so we took the train to Yurakucho and switched lines to Shin-Kiba.

...Well it's rather quiet innit. How will we find our way to Studio Coast?

That's okay, we'll just follow these Diru-clad people to the venue!

The closest to a body of water I ever got in Tokyo.

This place really reminds me of Shah Alam for some reason.

Well, here we are at Studio Coa-it's 3PM, how long have these people been waiting for the tour goods to open??

Dear Maiki, Nomura looks out for you.

We met up with Elodie, a Belgian girl who got the ticket. There were quite a few foreigners around, and it's hard to say where they're from - all I can say is they're white. Nadia says she saw a girl or two who LOOKED Malaysian, but we never saw them once the tour goods line started moving, so I don't know.

Apparently I need to provide PROOF that I'm at the concert, so here I am!

So I got in line for the tour goods and thankfully due to efficiency I was only in line for 30 minutes. They limited Tshirt sales to one design per person (out of 3 designs) so you could have 3 tshirt designs of the same size but not 3 sizes of the same Tshirt design, and with good reason - one of the designs sold out within AN HOUR.

I got my phonestrap, so all is right with the world! Mmm leather.

There were at least 4 of these girls around the venue holding placards saying "Please sell me a ticket". The scary part is that some of them actually managed to GET tickets. Sure they were probably paying double the market price but who cares, they get to see Diru! It amazes me that they weren't caught for begging or anything.

And now let's take a break from all these pics to talk about Dir En Grey.

I first discovered Diru around 2001-2002, when Audiogalaxy was king and I got all my music from

asliceoflove and

kemuridono. All I had was Gauze and I was hooked. I loved their music, thought Toshiya was the prettiest man ever, and stuffed my ears with Diru every chance I got. I tried listening to a few other bands but none of their music really stayed with me as much as Dir En Grey did. Eventually I found a Macabre tour DVD in SPEEDY VIDEO of all places and it still had its shock value without subs. However the novelty of listening to FUCKER FUCKER RADICAL FUCKER wore off and only really listened to Diru when I got really depressed (which wasn't as often as these days anyway).

Then The Final came out, and I remembered why I liked their music so much.

Life went on, and Marrow of a Bone came out.

I cannot remember a single song from that album.

Gauze had Cage; Macabre had Kr[Cube]; Kisou had The Domestic Fucker Family; Vulgar had Drain Away; Withering to Death had The Final; all their albums had at least one song I could remember and loop. Marrow of a Bone had none of it. Nothing was memorable, nothing stuck in my head, I lost interest in the band because if you can't even make good noise what's the point of listening?

Nadia passed me Uroboros and I probably need to listen to it more because I only recall the first bar of Vinushka. It's not much, but it's a start. There's finally music I can remember.

So with all that in mind, when Nadia asked me if I wanted to watch Diru in May, I really didn't know how to react. On one hand this is the only Jrock band I've cared to listen to consistently but I barely remember Uroboros' tracklist and god DAMN if they play anything from Marrow of a Bone, so it'd be like going to an unknown concert with unknown setlist.

But it's DIR EN GREY. My first Jrock band and all!

So I'm in Shin Kiba waiting for them to perform, and you get more pictures.

That container has several hundred more coin lockers! Why can't we have those in Malaysian clubs??

Some of these girls not onlyl retouch their makeup, they also change clothes at the venue. By changing clothes I mean they put on new stockings. WOW!

There's about 3000 people here, and yet no stampeding! This obviously accounts for SOMETHING.

On my ticket you'll notice a number - this number determines when you get in. The venue is standing room only, so your number determines how far from the stage you're going to be. Starts with number 1-50, and then it's a matter of straining my ears for the guy to say "Sen ichi kyu jyu" so that we can go in.

The hall is separated has a drinking area which then leads to the stage area. It's like where the May'n concert was held, but imagine it double the size since it's holding 3000 people and all.

When the lights went off, the crowd surged forward and I nearly got thrown off! Then Kyo comes on and everyone calls for Kyo like he's PROPHET and the music starts and everyone starts HEADBANGING.

Japanese headbanging is SUICIDE. These people are banging at 90-degree angles against your spine and they'll hold on to YOUR SHOULDERS for support. It's perfectly fine to cling to someone's sweaty shirt for the whole concert! My hand got WHIPPED by someone else's hair! There was this REALLY tiny girl in front of me I have no idea how she got to see the concert but she did and she wept into her friend's arms (don't ask me why I was concentrating on trying to see the damn concert). There was a lot of smoke and a lot of people jumping so what I saw of Kyo and everyone was between two guys' shoulders.

But I saw Toshiya! He had short hair and played his bass upright like a double bass!! So hawt.

At one point Kyo did the "I SEE ALL OF YOU" hand gesture to the audience. Once he wrapped his mike around his arm. Another time he did this amazing impression of a crow getting shot and dying and writhing with death screams and everyone was just SILENT. Another time he beat his chest into the microphone. One time he turned his back to the audience, spread his arms, and the backlight intensity was so high you saw his cross-like sillhouette and everyone raised their hands and growled "KYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO". As Nadia puts it, Studio Coast is their church, Diru is the religion, and Kyo is PROPHET. Someone would be interested to know that Kyo also made a pyramid with his hands and my phone strap only has one eye, so MAYBE DIRU IS ILLUMINATI WE MAY NEVER KNOW I hope they don't hunt me down now.

The Japanese are really something - while they're headbanging and stuff someone occasionally faints and needs to be carried out and the guys nearby will stop and GIVE WAY and PART like the red sea to let the injured through...and then they push further forward and MOSH SOME MORE. It's like their stream of enjoyment never stopped. Try doing that anywhere in the world and chances are you'd have to push through a bit to get to an open space.

You know how during your May'n concert you all went "Mou Ippai!" for an encore? In Japan, they yell "En-Co-Re!" IRONY.

So they came back, Kyo puts his finger to his lips and shushes the crowd, and he starts with THE FINAL.

I HEARD THE FINAL LIVE.

EVEN IF I DON'T SEE DIRU AGAIN EVER THAT'S OKAY NOW. <3

Then Toshiya takes center stage for a while and WHOOOOOO TOSHIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA so hawt. It is only expected to scream like a fangirl, after all.

It was over by 930ish. I don't remember their entire setlist, but I heard THE FINAL, IIID Empire, that ONE song I can't bloody remember that has a very recognizable electronic opening GAH, Obscure, Nadia says she heard Saku....and one song that goes PSYCHO KILLER PSYCHO KILLER. Also, something from Gauze; I need to relisten to that one again.

Also, I couldn't move my neck from all the headbanging. The secret to Salonplas' success is immediately clear.

I topped it all off with a nice plate of CURRY!

Outside the venue we saw lots of guys handing out leaflets promoting other bands' albums and stuff. No idea if these guys are the actual band members, but it's always nice to see a healthy music scene...even if it's just indie Jrock.

And for Sapph (Max has seen this):