Visual kei is the best.

Today's entry will be a bit more normal.  I know my grandmother wouldn't want me to sit around and be sad while I'm here, so for her sake I'm going to do as many fun things as I can.  To that end, I still went to a concert I had planned to attend in Ikebukuro today.

It was for Kousei, the singer from the visual kei band Ghost.  It was to be his first and last solo performance, so I was very excited.  Kousei is half the reason I love karaoke and visual kei in general (Asagi from D is the other reason), because they taught me that I can look like an anime villain in real life and get praise for it.  Also, they make songs and perform in ways that are thematically interesting to me. Back when I first became a fan of Ghost back in 2006, I never would've dreamed of how well today would go.

So I went with Wesley, but he wasn't going to the concert.  We just went to Ikebukuro early and did Tokyo stuff until it was time for me to line up.  It took a while to find the venue, because the sign is very unassuming, but eventually we got there.  Here's the sign for today.



And here's the hallway.  It was at Ikebukuro Black Hole, by the way.

This cat was in an alley next to the entrance.  By all means enlarge the picture and look at his eyes, because wow.

I still had quite a bit of time until I actually had to be at the live house, so Wesley and I went in search of Tower Records Ikebukuro.  I knew it was in the Parco building, but I didn't know that Parco was actually two separate buildings.  We ended up in the wrong one first, but it wasn't without its moments.  For example, this giant Samantha Thavasa handbag advertisement featuring both After School  (I thought I got everyone in the picture) and Tomomi Itano (very bottom, middle-right).

Here's a close-up of E-young from the ad.

While we were lost in the building, I decided it was finally time to have some Thai food.  Thanks to the innumerable fancy restaurants that account for the top floors of every other shopping building here, we were lucky enough to have one to go to.  Isn't it nice?

I finally got Thai tea.  Over here they make it a little differently, because if they gave Japanese people what we get in America, they'd get it right back.  Things that sweet don't go over very well here.  It was still exactly what I'd been hoping for.

I also had green curry, which was not nearly as thick as it would be in America.  That being said, it as still great.  The level of heat was also surprisingly perfect, probably because when Japanese people go for Thai food they know what they're getting into.

After that we headed to Tower Records.  This tower has nothing to do with it, thought I don't know its real purpose.  It's just intimidating.

After Welsey bought some things in Tower Records, we went to a tiny shrine nearby.  Not sure whose it was beyond some fox statues representing Inari, but it was kind of nice anyway.

Here's a typical shot of downtown Tokyo, just because.

Wesley left about an hour before I had to line up, so I made my way back to Black Hole and waited.  I made a bit of conversation with the people near me, but my non-special ticket meant I had to take  a particular place in line that wasn't as conducive to conversation.  One of these people let me see their autographed thing, so that was neat.

Here's everyone lined up soon before we got in.

Here's the hallway as we entered.

Here's the hallway to the room with the stage.  It had lots and lots of posters, most of which were signed.  Also there was a chandelier. 

I had a seat number, but the place was small enough that it didn't really matter.  The room was seriously about as big as my living room in America.  Everyone just picked a spot and sat down.

Here are the flower stands, as always.

And here's the drink counter.  I had melon soda but I still thought it was worth a picture.

The concert itself was great.  As with most events here, filming was not allowed, so I have no pictures from during it.

The concert started a bit late, but eventually all members of Ghost (except Hisui, who was replaced by a guy named Akito) came out.  Kousei appeared half-wearing a wooden stockade, which is very Kousei.  He's a better showman than anyone outside of visual kei could ever be.
The set list was great.  It was a combination of Kousei's solo songs and old Ghost songs, and I cannot tell yu how nostalgic it was to hear songs like "Shin Sekai" and "for dear" live.  Before disbanding in 2007, Ghost really managed to stand out from the rest of a style where bands starting to look very similar.  Instead of taking their cues primarily from host clubs or other bands, Ghost's look and sound came from horror media and pure imagination.  With Kousei's voice, no other style would've worked.  He's simultaneously hollow and ghostly, yet still manages to roar the beginnings of words in a way I've never heard anyone else do.  This is why Ghost was very special, and why seeing them was even more so.

I also want to let everyone know how much I love visual kei fans here.  Yes, they are almost all female, but that's not why.  They're very dedicated, and they know how to have fun at a concert without being hideously rude.  Visual kei concerts have all the energy of a frenzied mosh pit with virtually none of the stupidity or risk of injury.  It does, however, hurt when a Japanese girl's hair whips you across the arm at top speed.  I also want to mention that this was my first time experiencing sedai, which is this thing visual kei fans here do all the time at these smaller concerts.  I'd seen it before, but I couldn't really comprehend just how odd it is until I saw it in person. Essentially, the front  row very literally drapes themselves over the guard rail like towels, and everyone behind them takes turns jumping at the result back-first.  I don't know how it started, but it's one of those little things like synchronized hand gestures that make visual kei audiences a special group.

And because I know you're wondering:  yes, I did participate in sedai.  They made me.  However, when I say "they", I don't mean the audience.  Yes, the other fans did try and get me to jump around and stuff several times, but in this case "they" means the actual band.  Kousei pointed at me and called me up to hang myself over the rail, so that happened.  I have red marks from my belt getting jammed into my stomach, but I don't mind much.  That's just what you do at these things.

That brings me to another point.  There were probably two other guys in the audience that didn't know the band personally, but there were NO foreigners besides me.  The other guys were in the back, too, so my overall appearance got me noticed pretty quickly.  By that, I mean the band spent a lot of time talking to me specifically from the stage.  They'd do things like ask everyone if they were ready for another song, then they'd point at me and Kousei would say "Okay, just you, are you ready?".  Of course I said yes, but ha ha ha oh wow.  It happened constantly.  As usual, I was a big hit.

The concert was really disorganized in a fun way, meaning between songs everyone just kind of stood around and made jokes. There were two encores, the first of which was prompted by a full twenty minutes or so of "AN-KO-RU" from the crowd.  The last encore began with the throwing of specially-made Kousei candy and ended with "for dear", which is by far my favorite Ghost song.  If it weren't for it being the band's biggest song, it'd actually be a pretty bad choice for such a hopeful and optimistic encore. Despite the vaguely romantic title, "for dear" is a really grim song.  However, because it's Ghost's most popular one, it was a great way to end the concert.  It also means they did it twice, because it was the last song before the first encore, too.
Pretty much every girl in the audience was in tears when Kousei gave his goodbye speech.

Afterwards there was a lot of sitting around while the girls all fixed their makeup.  I had bought a poster before the show, but as cool as it was I don't have room for it in America, so I exchanged it for a CD instead.  I'm greedy for CDs.  Gree-D.  Or something.  Anyway, Kousei himself eventually popped out of the staff door.  Then this happened.

You actually have to pay for this sort of picture usually, and it's on a polaroid camera so you can't upload it online.  Being foreign, however, I spoke to him briefly before asking if a picture was okay.  He's a nice guy, so he said it was fine. After that, one of the girls I met was so excited for me.  I may have made some new friends.

Here's everyone standing around waiting for stuff.

Kousei was giving hugs to everyone who bought a picture with him, but since mine was free and I didn't need a hug anyway, I just sort of hung back and studied how he does it.  If I'm to be in the same position some day, it'd be nice to see what kind of face I have to put on for the fans.  Luckily Kousei's is genuine.

On the way out I saw this poster of hide.  It's signed and it's awesome.

Here's what the candy Kousei threw looks like.  It's shaped like a heart and was pink lemonade flavored (I think).  It was really good, so I'm not sure if I want to eat the last one.

I'm going to say once more that I love visual kei fans here, because as a whole they're pretty normal people. The "BL-crazed, arrogant weeaboo of cetacean proportions" type of fan that dominates most of the American subculture is the minority over here.  For that reason, I went out of my way to talk to people, and I left with the Twitter addresses of two spectacularly pretty girls (a rare site at visual kei in America).  it's not like we're going to go out or anything since I leave at the end of this month, but I'd love to make some visual kei friends that actually KNOW what they're talking about.  

Here's the stuff I got.  Those fliers just came with the drink ticket, but I like them because they're colorful.  On top of that is Kousei's solo CD, which I picked up for fear of never having another chance to do so, and below the CD is the special candy he threw.  The train back was crowded and very late (someone jumped onto the tracks again), but I saw Sophie as I was heading up the escalator.  She walked with me to my bike, because she's a super nice person and has been worried about me after yesterday's news.

A very successful day.  No matter how much makeup Kousei is wearing, I think my grandmother would be happy to know that I met one of my idols tonight instead of sleeping and being sad.  It's exactly what she'd have told me to do if she were able.  I love you, Muvie.  Thanks for giving the world 90 spectacular years of grace and kindness.