Days 3 and half of 4 - still in Tokyo

Ok. Time to fill in the missing days.

From day 2, after Odaiba wanted to go to Mutekiya ramen in Ikebukuro but there was a huge ass line. Still haven`t gone there yet.

Really awesome band at Akiba. Unfortunately, I was on my way to Hey game centre.

Nothing like waiting for laundry, having a smoke and playing my 3DS. :)

Larger crowd outside AKB48 cafe.

Bazaar outside UDX in Akiba.

Pikachu, baubasaur and dunno the green one.

So tempted by the Miku Koi wa sensou figure. (Bottom right) Bloody huge box though and I`ve already got 3 Miku figures...

Waiting for Iino outside Shinjuku Station south exit.

Went for Katsudon lunch. The only difference was grinding some seeds of sort to mix with the sauce. This was of course before I got destroyed by his Seth.

Yum. Very juicy katsu not like the usual stuff in Melbourne.

Somewhere in Shinjuku. Come on sakura season!!!!!

Went to this place in Shinjuku called Tokyo chikara meshi which means Tokyo Energy Food.

Mmmm, ebi fry. The more filling set has a huge piece of katsu instead of the ebi. Still not as good as the old 880\ karubi from Matsuya which seems to have disappeared from their menu.

More Scandal stuff

Closer look at Tour Calender.

Scandal carry bag. Cost 500\.

Scandal towel muffler.

Scandal copy band.

Wowow are going to show the concert. Does that mean no dvd?

Hhhmm, naughty schoolgirl Mami with twin tails...

Mmmmm.. Rina.

Black hair Mami is so much cooler.

Ugh.

From the Girls be Scandalous book. I think this is from Doll.

 

- Rina said she would be changing her hairstyle. She wanted to keep the same hair until they reached Budokan.

- The intro video to the concert was as if Scandal were going to for a real boxing match with footage of them training and being hounded by reporters.

- Thanks for the info about the prank theme camouflage. Should have been obvious with them coming out dressed like biker gangs. My main beef was them spending 30 minutes on skits and talking but it turned out ok cause it was a 2 1/2 hour concert.

- The concert I went to last year was 2 hours and that 30 minutes of talking and skits felt like padding and time wasting.

- Some of the earlier songs in the concert actually had their own music videos which I`m assuming were made for the concert..

-  You can get the Scandal goods here. Dunno if they ship overseas. Would`nt mind the black hoodie.

Japan day 6: Scandal vs Budokan

Yes!!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!!! They played Sakura Goodbye!!!!!

I will get back to days 3-5 after this. Just came back from Scandal vs Budokan and I want to write about it. I arrived around 2.30 (concert starts at 6.30) and there was already a huge queue for merchandise.

Just outside the park which Budokan is located. If only the Sakura trees were blooming...

 Kitonomaru National Garden.

Entrance to garden.

Yup, the queue for merchandise stretched to the 2nd floor.

Waiting in line for merchandise at 2nd floor.

Picture of people taking pictures of the Scandal sign. This is like 3pm, 1 1/2 hours before doors open.

It was a long wait. Should have gone to Yasukuni shrine which was just nearby.

Pic of the park. Need blooming sakuras.

More park pics.

This was a line for club members who got a special single (I think). Should have gotten Bframe`s membership card and put my photo on it.

Let us in!!!!!

The lines to get in got completely jumbled up like a maze. Luckily it was fixed seating or else it would have been mayhem.

View from my seat. Great view but obviously not as close as I was in Zepp Nagoya last year.

People starting to fill in.

They don`t allow photos during the concert so I didn`t want to get kicked out.

Scandal live event calender. Ikitai na......

Lots of photos, interviews from Scandal`s debut to now. By the kami-samas, I miss black hair Mami.

Back of book. I`ll do some pictures of the contents next time.

Front of t-shirt. They ran out of L sized black hoodie. Aaarrrgggghh. Should have went earlier.

2 person Zone concert in June??!!!!!! Aarrrrrrggghhhh. Zone has better collection of songs than Scandal IMHO. I would fucking die if I could hear Miyu sing Secret Base. Too bad no more Mizuho. She`s much cuter than Rina. (hears the sound of Scandal fanboys ready to kill me)

Random thoughts on concert

- They`ve got huge shooting flames on the set. Awesome.

- There are three big combined screens above the stage and two big screens on each side. Something that live houses don`t have. However, you can actually see the girl`s faces at live houses.

- Rina does a pretty awesome 10 minute drum solo. By the jpop gods, how can a drummer chick be so kawaii, kakoii and manic at the same time. She`s like the Michishige Sayumi of Scandal. She knows she`s the cutest now that Mami looks like a slut. (More Scandal fanboys and girls are going to after my head now.)

- Then the 3 other girls come out for Rina to change and they do some stupid dancing song from the 3rd album while miming their instruments. WTF??????!!!!! Its like before Zone could play their instruments well. Did I mention Scandal`s 3rd album is boring. They peaked with their 1st album IMO.

- A lot of boring songs from 3rd album but they`ve been remixed with more rock so they sound slightly better.

- Stupid 20 minute skit. Felt like 30 minutes. Stop wasting my time!

- Haruna says they are going to play the songs from the best album!!! Yes!!!!!

- They`ve saved all the best songs for the end! The 2nd half of the concert rocked!Sakura Goodbye! Taiyo to Kimi Egaku Story! And fittingly the last song was Doll, which is the ultimate twirl the muffler song. Three of the best Scandal songs. The new song Harukaze is pretty good as well so there`s still hope.

- Don`t think they played Namida no Regret.

- Huge thanks to Bframe for getting me the tickets. Too bad he couldn`t make it because of work.

- I think house show is still better. More personal. I don`t want to go to a 60k seat stadium and look at the huge screens.

- The Scandal crowd is pretty young. You even have milfs and their daughters attending. Ojisans really stand out.

- If I kidnapped Mami, the first thing I would do is undye her hair.

Day 2 part 3: Odaiba

First stop after the Anime Fair was Miraikan. Its a science museum about the future.

Nice big globe that reminds me of Dr. Evil's HQ. Its suppose to be something about geology or something like that. Zzzz.

Its time to retire Asimo and put in those chick robots.

One of the many science stuff. Seriously, I was very bored and regretting the 1000 yen entrance fee. Could have gotten me some nice ramen.

This one is probably the most interesting exhibit.

I thought it would be some sort of Child of Eden type thing.

But basically its you're walking circle beneath your feet and the circle and things on the wall gets personalised as you move from station to station.

The walk around the globe was cool though. Unless you have kids with you or love reading lots of random science facts, avoid Miraikan.

Ladies and gentlemen, Japan has succeeded in building the next weapon of mass desctruction.

Too bad it doesn't officially open until I'm gone from Japan. :(

So tempted to run up for closer look but there was some guy around working there.

Sega Joypolis building at the background. Couldn't be stuffed going.

Haven't I seen you in jdoramas before?

WTF did Takei Emi ever do to deserve drink sponsorship?

My first sakura tree! Unfortunately I got distracted and forgot to go down and take more pics.

I am standing at the same spot Fukuda Saki stood for her Goodbye My Love PV.

Tokyo Wankei. The skies cleared up later and it looked much better but I was too lazy to retake pictures. The view of the bridge from the train is awesome.

WTF this is in Odaiba I will never understand.

Wedding complete with white priest probably speaking with fake heavily accented Japanese.

Fuji terebi byuilding.

Guess what's at the shop? One million Akiyama dollars for 500 yen. Would have bought if they had Tabe Mikako money.

Nagakura cake from Saigo kara. Now I understand how that eatery survives without having any customers.

Suddenly evil monster attacked Odaiba!

But guys with fins on their heads showed up to save the day. The kids were going absolutely bonkers over this,

Apparently some AKB48 girls are in an Ultraman show.

On an unrelated note, just read that Ishiguro Noboru the director of Macross and Legend of Galactic Heroes has passed away. Macross is probably the most influential anime for me and LoGH is to me the greatest anime series ever.