Looking back: Experiences #5

I really like shopping in Japan, especially clothes. There is so much different style of clothes where you can choose your own. It's sad that people assume Japanese people to be really thin (size 0) when it isn't true.  I admit the fact; Japan is one of the thinnest countries but there are fat people just like in any other country. 

There are lots of clothing labeled as 'one size' which is often smallest size. XS, S and at times M in Finnish sizes.  Also, in Japan you can't really try clothes on without asking from sellers if it's ok first.  It does suck tell the truth because there are times you aren't sure if something fits for you. 

Here are some what I have bought over the years.

Two loose boleros.

Well, this has funnier story behind it. It was just meant to keep me warm in Japan because we didn't had working air-condition in every room in winter time.  Still use it at some rare times when I take garbage out or just want to warm up.

One of these was gift from friend and there is missing fully black top. It's great detail when top shows partly under top shirt.

Also bought plain grey shirt and this. I found it fitting as the person I'm and what I love. Well, screamo isn't my type of music...

"Live your dream, don't dream your life. Act according to your belief.  I fighting in order to live freely."

These two are my loves. Both thicker, other is knit garment. For long time I avoided striped clothing because it wasn't fitting for me but I found this one fitting which opened whole new side of clothing for me.

About this, I'm planning to sell it away. I had plans where I was going to use it but never actually have... but got great under shirt with it which I love to use. 

Loose bat sleeved shirt. It's amazing hot summer days or when I feel lazy enough to figure out something more proper to wear. 

Yet another two knits. Left one does have loose neckline which means I can easily place it over shoulder or both or keep as regular way.

This was one my random things I bought.  I don't remember exact price but it was cheap enough to buy as a  impulse buy. 

Other side of the shirt says "Seek after the truth, try again, true and life, ready or not." Gotta love engrish at times (laughs)

As you may notice these two came from same shop. Don't use them that much but still like them. 

Newest jacket I bought. It was around 8000~9000yen. I love this because there is many ways you can wear it; with or without fur or/and belt. It reaches half thigh. 

Cardigan which also does have removable fur. 

And last but not least shoes. I haven't bought much shoes yet from Japan because females in Japan have smaller feet. But yeah, if you know how to look and where you will find pair of fitting shoes.

Oh, right, forgot totally, there were one pair of beige uggs I bought couple years back but threw them away in 2012 in Japan.

I don't have any certain part of the city where I buy clothes but yeah, whenever I manage to find something nice to wear. Above clothing I have bought from Shinjuku, Harajuku, Shibuya, and Nakano. There might be one from Ikebukuro.

For some reason most of clothing here are darker colours but yeah I do wear other colours as well. (such a random notice...) Lately my obsession is white and black together.

Looking back: Experiences #4

This will be clothing edition; band clothing. I will do after this another clothing  edition which doesn't include band clothing.  Added here only stuff I have bought on my trips and not from inside of Finland...well, expect one thing. Will tell you what it is later. 

It's not as popular as it is in western culture for bands to sell shirts but lots of other kind of things there sure is. Sometimes you can find shirts from bands but more often it's bigger bands what sell them. 

 Kaishin no Ichigeki and Defspiral tour shirts. Defspiral shirt what was bought from their 1st oneman back in 2010.  

 Limited edition Granrodeo shirt bought from Parco before going their live.  And latest D tour shirt Dark Wings. 

the GazettE 2012 and 2013 tour goods. Shirts and hoodies.  Magnificent malformed box tour shirts are made out of really nice fabric. It's cool to wear and it doesn't get as warm in lives as it does get in usual type of shirt. And most of the GazettE fans knows this, that shirt with cover from their album shirt is HERESY limited. Which means you had to be member of HERESY to be able to buy it. If you can't prove you are a member, there will be no sell for you.

And then we have towels.....this all seems so much but then again when I remember the fact I have been there 5 times, starting since 2010 it doesn't feel that much. 

Towels are really in common, you can find towels pretty much from every band you go to see. Specially in summer time. It's bit less in winter time but yeah, they are still there. 

 Granrodeo, Carat, Kaishin no Ichigeki

 Lynch., Dir en Grey, AND

 the GazettE 

Jackman and SCREW. 

SCREW towel wasn't from Japan, bought it when they were in Finland.

D and OZ 

  D and the GazettE. 

These two aren't towels... Scarfs. And no, above scarf isn't made of real fur. I wouldn't have bought it if it were. 

Actually the GazettE scarf isn't bought from live show but instead of shop that resells used band stuff.

Personally, if I really like the band I most likely will buy something from them. If not more expensive things then something little. But yeah there are bands I haven't bought anything from.  

Last few years I have been liking of the idea buying towels rather than band shirts because shirts end up being in closet till I see the band again most of times and someday I might use it even if I'm not going their live which is quite rare. 

EAT YOU ALIVE HELSINKI 15.12.2013

EAT YOU ALIVE at Gloria, Helsinki, Finland

15.12.2013

Went to Helsinki once again to meet friends and see one band live. It was good day since it was sunday and free day for me and what's better way to spend it than that.  Arrived around 2pm to Helsinki and we went to eat and do some shopping, even though I didn't bought anything in the end. 

As for the live itself it was great and got better by every passing minute. Before we could even get in, I didn't really felt going to the live but now I'm happy I still went there. It was worth it. Their music was much rougher than I thought it would be. And guys seemed to enjoy of the live as well. 

Vocalist took couple short videos of the live, funny. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANiQWY_JuLM

&

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r5FMJOhIdg

Only one of the guys knew how to speak English but others had studied English a little. I don't really remember well what they said but Kenji wanted people call him Kenzo for some reason, if I remember right. Shoya just introduced himself and gave mic to drummer, Makoto who said it was cold in Finland....at least two or three of them said something like this "It's cold outside but very very very very hot people here." etc. It rather amused me. Vocalist, Hiro just asked where is the Helsinki train station....it was very weird response because everyone went pretty much silent for a moment (laughs) Stupid things they say (laughs)

We also had middle of the live this thing where they asked us to form one big circle and then everyone had to run in certain direction. Got to hand it to Finnish audience for doing this and losing their original places in the live. Sure there are complains about it but I felt it was fun and how the band tried few times to teach us furi moves. At least end part of the live.

Setlist:

Never stay put

Trip to Japan went well and I had lots of fun. There were few down sides on the trip but nothing were too big to ruin it. First one was on very first day when our plane had to change engine...and second engine had some mysterious problem which they tried to fix for hours. Of course we got free food tickets we could use in a airport and after fully canceling flight we got free hotel and in morning there were food and they arranged new flight(s) for us. There were around 200 people in the cancelled flight and maybe around 10 of the original flight flew same route as me. Funny thing happened when we flew back to Finland....One of the persons from that flight was same person as the one who flew in a same route as me to Japan.

In the live side we went to 6 the GazettE lives, 2 D lives and 1 event where Carat was performing. Originally we didn't had tickets for Carat's Nagoya live event, but two Japanese girls sold tickets for us which ended up being way better places than we would have gotten from the door, A50.  I'm sure I would have gotten nice place even without getting better ticket but I ain't complaining.

I actually destroyed my left leg so much that I used on the nights support bandage for two or three nights. I was limping back to train station in Nagoya because it hurt to put normal weight on it.  Either way leg is almost fine now.

With following the Gazette's tour there were new places I had never been before, Nagano and Kanazawa. I would like to visit Nagano again and explore it more but Kanazawa was not really for tourists...but either way it was nice looking place but I might not go there again.

Here is scenery from Nagano.

Also met many nice people around Japan. Got even free ride from Ryokan's keeperes husband back to train station and home made breakfast before leaving back to train which took us back to Tokyo. There was one male who wished he was Finnish too..haha. I'm not sure if our taxi driver in Nagano was high on something or was just really cheerful person. He tried to tell us how hard studying English is and that he had to check words from dictionary often when studying..etc. He also said he wanted to live in Tokyo...but this taxi driver was laughing all the way to the train station, even when we were silent he continued laughing and making book with his hands and saying hard..etc.

In Tokyo's hotel for once the other customers of the hotel were nice and they came to talk with us. I'm rather used to other hotel customers to maybe say one or couple words if they need to say something or ask but this time it was different. We never stayed too long at the hotel because we pretty much only slept and took showers in there. 

the GazettE at The Circus, Helsinki, Finland

the GazettE in Helsinki 29.9.2013

~World Tour 13 Final~

Went to see the GazettE in their World Tour 13 final live at The Circus in Helsinki. Arrived to Helsinki around 2pm and instantly met with couple of friends and later more.  We went to eat and arrived around hour or so before doors were supposed to open for VIP and GFC people.

Live itself was awesome and had lots of fun with friends. Even when most of us were spread all around queue, some in regular queue, some in VIP queue and some in GFC queue, we all get together inside of the live house. We all were front of mixing table where we saw really nicely to the stage.

(not my photo; taken by friend) 

Ruki. vocal, always makes crowd shout and what I'm used to seeing and hearing is after crowd has shouted, Ruki will sort of scold people and tell that they could do better but this time it amused me seeing surprised expression on his face far before he said "Wow!" meaning we were even louder than he thought we would be. Go Finland!!

Ruki spoke also few words in Finnish; "Onko kivaa?" (Are you having fun?) and "Kiitos"(Thank you) Those words were very well said in Finnish, almost like he was Finnish himself (laughs)

Uruha and Aoi played their back to back as usual  and Reita did his spin and Ruki his seducing and hump moves. 

The whole live got the feeling like it was actually final live we have seen the GazettE make in Japan but the sad thing in this whole live was the fact that there was no Ride with the Rockers part and live didn't lasted as long as not so good live from them in Japan.

Overall the day was full of fun and great experiences. Thank you all! I wonder when I can meet you next time. In December for some of you but yeah... 

SETLIST:
1. [XI]
2. Vortex
3.  Leech
4.  Before I Decay
5. Gabriel on the Gallows
6. Venomous Spider's Web
7.  The Suicide Circus
8.  Dripping Insanity
9. Untitled
10.  Derangement
11. Headache Man
12. Sludgy Cult
13. Cockroach
14. Filth in the Beauty

 Encore:
15. Shiver
16. Ruder
17. LINDA~candydive pinky heaven~

Short clip of the GazettE in Finland
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=466369253479136

"Thank you! In Finland! The Best!"

Looking back: Experiences #3

Concerts are partly different of what I'm used to in Finland and what I have heard also in rest of Europe and maybe in America as well. People don't push or hit you and you have actually space to breath and enjoy of the live without getting hurt. It  is not as loud as people get in western cultures but it also does have it's positive side. People can actually hear what band member is saying. I just hate when people start screaming/shouting something and won't let band member have his/her turn to speak.

Cosplay is big part in some concerts but often fully made band member cosplays can be seen in bigger bands live. Seen some sort of cosplaying people in smaller bands live, meaning that there is certain stuff band like to use and you do that sort of costume. Let's say white clothes and blood spilled all over clothes. I like more of Asians who do cosplay not because they cosplay someone from their country, because they make more detailed work on their outfits. I have seen few good western cosplays as well but there aren't many. It seems more like let's do it mainly and do some details so it looks like we did effort. Yes, I know doing costume takes time and money. I have friends who does this but for me I rather spend money on something else. Once if I didn't knew this person was a girl (her height was too short anyways) I would have mistaken her to be Reita for sure.... (laughs like he would ride in a public train right after live) 

I'm not saying people should do perfect cosplays, just wanted to point this out. 

There are lots of different type of flower arrangements but only in special situation. Such as birthdays, tour final live, the final live, first live, anniversary ...and so on. Every time I see these I really enjoy them because you don't get to see these in here.

 About the memorial live Nega wasn't supposed to be in there but they had decided day before the live to come. And they performed in their regular clothes without make up. It was really surprising. And also everyone was surprised when noticed Nega in the bands list. It was first time for me to experience such a thing. Usually you get to see bands what are shown but not this time.
Also for some odd reason I always end up seeing D live in Saitama Heaven's Rock VJ-3 and once again I'm trying to get to see them in very same place. Funny in it's own way and very memorable. There is only once when I have seen D somewhere else. I'm not counting times when they were in Europe and Helsinki, Gloria. It was their tour final live in Shibuya-AX.
Indigo O2 in London was confusing because it was first time in there and didn't really know where we should go as there were quite a few entrance doors. Luckily staff came to check everyone tickets before and guided us to right place.

Funny thing happened in one long live which was around 9 hours. I'm serious! Longest live I have ever been in. VII-Sense performed in that live and I accidentally happened to be in their guitarist Erina's side. When they were ending their live, Erina threw his plectrum randomly and it ended up hitting my knee. Yeah, I got it.
Oh! One thing I find really nice and interesting in Japan. In events when some band member throws something and someone catches it and happens to be the person is not a fan of the band. She/he will actually give it to someone who looks like enjoying of the band. These days if it happened to be me who got something I don't like, I would give it someone behind me or throw it even further back for someone else to catch it.
Telling something off topic quickly because it's bit of funny. After being in Japan as much as I have been, I have found myself to actually say "sorry" "thank you" in more places where western people usually doesn't say a thing. People respond often this way; smiling because I actually said sorry for bumping into them or say "Don't mind", "It's okay." or just walk by like nothing happened.
I kind of get annoyed when people don't watch out where they are walking and such. It's nice when everyone looks out for others and makes it that much easier. Seriously while walking in a crowded shop, it's pain in the ass.

Depending of the live area/arena how many tickets there but most on for me goes around 3000 people standing and with seats it goes around 4000 people. About the smallest live area I'm not sure which place I should say, maybe Ruido K3. Only 300 people fit in there.
Some of bigger live houses (arenas) with seats has bit of different kind of numbering, they pretty much have balcony number, left or right or center side and row in same (R4) and your actual seat on that row.

Liquid room is one of my favorite places of these smallest places and I kind of like how Takadanobaba area is made but hate the fact that every time after being in live there my ears are ringing. Other than that I don't really get it in Japan live houses. which is big plus. In Finland almost every live places makes my ears ring.

Often when I have been alone in some live, someone has came up to me for a talk or asked something example for me to watch their place, so no one takes their places while they go toilet or something. 

It's nice to have a talk with stranger from the same live you went to. Of course, I don't recommend everyone to go every stranger in the streets, need to have your common sense with you. 

Last year November when friend and I went to the GazettE lives we ended up talking with this Germany girl in every live we saw each other which was pretty much all 4 lives. And yes there were couple foreign jerks as well ruining experience for others. I never sat close to those couple foreigners but I heard things about them.... So, yeah don't be stupid people!! And mind other ones around you.

I went to one event where Satsuki (ex Rentrer en Soi) performed as last one. His new single had just been released and when he started to sing one of the songs from the new release he messed up. He smiled and asked us if we wanted to sing or more like if someone wanted to sing his new song because he messed up his own lyrics. Everyone went silent and stood in a place not doing much till Satsuki said something like this 'Let's start from the beginning.' This time he got it right.

Once I went to his oneman live (happened earlier than above) and after the live he was close to the door which led outside. People paid to one staff memeber and then could write something down in a book and then Satsuki would give poster to them. Not sure what this was all about but friend and I got to chance talk with Satsuki shortly and got his autograph. He even talked Finnish .. yes he actually does have short part in his lyrics in Finnish.

"Unessani minulla on siivet

 Todellisuudessa olen siivetön."

English: "In my dreams I have wings, 

In reality I am wingless"

There are lots of more experiences about lives, such as band members asking what did we like their live, filling these forms where is questions about the band and their live, finding accidentally someone you wanted to find, to have weird things band people saying middle of their lives.... and so on.