Monday- No School. To the Concert!

Currently Wednesday morning at about 8am.

Monday was a national holiday. Which one? Not a clue. I should really look it up. However, we had no school, so more adventures for us! Shortly after arriving in Japan, we discovered that Jil's favorite band was playing near us, and Jess, Barb, and I decided we would tag along. But what to do during the day before all that? Jil's friend, Alex (a girl), wanted to come too, so we decided to meet up with her at 2 to go shopping. The meeting place was the Alta building in Shinjuku, a popular spot for just that.

For Monday's excursion, we opted to wear our costumes that we'd bought the day before. Except Jess, who wore fairly normal clothes. I didn't have shoes to go with mine, though, and Jil lent me a pair. I had a feeling they'd start to hurt my feet quickly, but I wore them anyway.

We took the train to Shinjuku-sanchome and decided to walk from there. We had been given a tour of Shinjuku already and had some idea of where Alta was. Unfortunately, we walked in the wrong direction. The street didn't look familiar anymore, so I stepped forward to ask a construction worker which way to go. We tried to hurry, but we were definitely going to be late. We went a little too far and again had to ask for directions. The very nice gentleman walked us down the block and pointed directly at the Alta sign for us. We thanked him several times for his generosity.

It was almost 2:30 by the time we reached our destination, and we searched frantically for Alex. She was nowhere to be found. Not on the first floor inside the Alta building, not on the stairs to the train station beside the building. Train station? We looked at the stop number and cursed ourselves for not knowing to hop onto the Marunouchi line to the Shinjuku station. We were afraid Alex may have left angrily because we kept her waiting. Jil tried to call her using Barb's cell phone, but she didn't answer. Choosing to wait a little longer to see if she wandered off and may come back, we stood around impatiently.

Finally, Alex came running up to us. Turns out, her train was delayed due to someone jumping in front of it. Scary. She had to find another line to reach us. Good thing we got a little lost. Otherwise we'd have waited for 45minutes without knowing anything.

My feet were killing me then, and I asked if we could find a place that sold flip flops or something. Behind us was an ABC Mart, which sells shoes. Odd name for a shoe store. Peeking inside, I noticed how expensive everything was. I quickly found a 3pack of black socks and bought them instead. The cashier looked at our group and told us we looked good, to which I formally responded that we didn't. Oh, the overly polite things we must say. But it was amusing.

Five in our group, we walked around Shinjuku to find something to eat. We ended up at a ticket place, where you order your meal at a machine and take the ticket received to the counter for them to make it. It was pretty nifty. I went for curry rice, my new favorite food. X3

After our meal, we went to find a purikura (print club), which really means photo booth. Let me tell you, Japanese photo booths are way cooler than those in America. Also more confusing though. For 400yen, the camera snapped six photos that we barely had time to prepare for, and then we went to a separate section to add little designs and effects to the pictures. There were a zillion different menus, each with their own type of addition. You could add backgrounds, sparkles, shapes, words, etc. We frantically worked through the menus to find the most fun add-ons and printed the pictures. The best part? These photos are phenomenal. The brightness, the color, everything! They really bring out your eyes too. I can't wait to show everyone! ^-^

Photos in hand, we went back outside. Jess wanted to head back to the dorm to change out of her boots, so I accompanied her while the others continued to shop. It took awhile, and we both changed into jeans and sneakers because of our aching feet, but we arrived back at Alta about 20minutes later than planned. Bad planning, indeed. This time, Jess and I could not find the others. And I thought we had Barb's cell phone, so we could call them, but Jess had given it back. -_-;;; After checking all the floors of Alta, we waited a little bit longer before calling it a day. Just as we were about to had back home, Jill, Barb, and Alex found us. They had gone somewhere nearby to shop. Punks. XP

To the concert we went! We hopped a train on the JR line, and used the directions on Alex's phone to lead the way. We made it in time. The place was pretty tiny and packed with people. And there was American rock music playing overhead while the band set up behind the curtains. Interesting.

We stood close to the stage and waited for VII Sense to come out. VII Sense is made up of 6 members. The singer, the drummer, the bassist, and three guitar players. Jil's favorite is the guitar player Kazu. She adores his composing and guitar and piano playing skills. ^^

Before we knew it, the curtains were drawn, and each band member made their entrance. They were a lot of fun, and we had one hell of a good time. I really liked their music, and I shall have to bug Jil for it, teehee. In any case, Kazu was the one farthest to the left. He wears glasses, and he had the most refined look of the group. He was the smart, classy type. Good taste, Jil. There were only a few people between her and Kazu. I found her admiration for him rather cute.

My eyes kept bouncing from member to member, as I really enjoyed looking at the different outfits. The singer's pants amused me the most. They were cut to show almost all of his outer thighs, a look that would never fly on a man in the US. So funny. More on the singer. He had some wild hair. Also, his gaze into the crowd during a song was pretty amazing. Jess claims she couldn't look away, whereas I purposefully looked away. It was almost spooky to me. Muahaha.

On to the other members. The bassist had some long, pink hair going on, and the drummer's hair was more of a red than pink (although we could barely see him). The two guitarists on the right had brownish hair. The one to the far right apparently used to be the cross-dresser of the group, which made sense as he looked the most like a girl. The one second to the right, RayX, wore a top that showed his entire stomach. Again, a look that you don't see in the US. He looks kind of like a cute puppy, honestly.

The crowd did some bizarre moves during each song. Lots of head banging and hand gestures. And during one song, girls threw themselves against others who leaned over the rail in front of the stage. Seems odd for a bunch of Japanese girls. Also, they didn't cheer the way Americans do, so I made sure to throw out a "WOOO!" at the end while they simply cooed, "Kazu-sama!" Kazu has quite the fandom. Anyway, before leaving the stage, he through a guitar pick to Jil, and she gleefully grabbed it with both hands.

For the rest of the night, Jil was like a giddy schoolgirl. We were afraid she might faint. She left a present for Kazu with those selling merchandise for the band. And she bought a photo of a band member, which they made her pick at random without looking. She got Kazu. Again she about died of happiness. So cute. ^^

That, my friends, was our first Live in Japan. A good time it was, and we'll most likely be going again the next they come our way. ^^ Well, I need to get dressed and head off to class! Bye bye!