Friends in concert!
FRESH DYED PINK HAIR! 😀
This is what my hair looks like about one week after dyeing it. The color lasts up to 2 – 3 weeks, after that it’s still very bright in the first third of my hair while my bangs are turning blonde XD Usually I’m making a bun for a week so my hair can relax a bit until I dye it again. I try to keep my 4 weeks rythm when it comes to dye my hair because it’s still pretty long. (Thinking about cutting.. maybe.. soon.)
So last week I attended two concerts in Yokohama and Tokyo! First was the final performance of my dear good friend Saori Tomita who studied Opera vocals at the same university at which I am still enrolled. She came to Berlin to study German two years ago and did a homestay at my home. This was super exciting since I just studied Japanese for 3 months back then and her German was even worse. But guess what? We had a pretty ass kicking time, words are so overrated! :3
So she graduated from university by hosting a sopran recital at Yokohama Music Hall. I am absolutely not an Opera fan but hey, when a friend of yours can actually sing Opera… wouldn’t you go? I was SO exciting to see her since I know she has a beautiful voice. She sang in German, French, Italian, Japanese and English. After the recital I visited her backstage and she told me when she sung the German songs she thought of me all the time and hoped that she won’t sing any bullshit 😀 I am pretty sure she’ll become somehow famous in the future. I don’t know anything about Opera but I found her stunning, hear and see for yourself if you’re interested!
I made thousands of sneaky records since it was forbidden to record the performance. One advantage of being a foreigner in Japan.. you can always claim to NOT understand what is said to the audience, lol. :3 Many Japanese think it’s not possible for foreigners to learn and understand Japanese. Sad, but true.
A few days later, Pachi and I went to Odaiba to see MERRY’s final 10th anniversary live show at Zepp Tokyo. Wikipedia claims that MERRY is a visual-key band which they may have been before… I personally think they are something between rock/punk/hardcore. I really like them; I listen to their songs since I arrived here so I have an emotional connection to them. The tickets were surprisingly cheap (4500 Yen) when you take into consideration that they played more than two and a half hours!! Last band I saw in Berlin played 70 minutes though the tickets cost $80 and above!!! So pissed back then…
It was my first real concert in Japan and it was AMAZING. The band was funny and played without stopping. They even played one of our favorite songs at the end (they have more than 100 songs so I doubted that they’ll play even one of our favorite ones..). Concerts in Japan are extremely different from how they are in Berlin. In Berlin, concerts are war. Well, at least when you listen to mostly rock and alternative like I do. Everybody’s screaming, fighting, dancing, it’s a huge party.
Vocalist Gara performing さよなら雨 Sayonara Rain in ballad version :3
In Japan… everybody’s nice. And gentle. As usual. xD“ We were kinda shocked since they were so reserved! I mean, it’s a rock band and they clapped afterwards as if we were in an Opera!! I couldn’t believe that! Furthermore, all Japanese knew certain „moves“ to every song which surprised me a lot. They waved their hands rythmically to the songs…. and I mean, all Japanese. Two thousand people at the same time. And when I say same time, I really mean same time. Japanese people sometimes are really fascinating, lol. I even asked people how the hell they know these moves and they said they didn’t learn them, it just comes to this in concerts in Japan. WTF! O_O“ They even let the guests inside by ticket number! That’s so not possible in other parts of the world, calling thousands of people out by their ticket number to go inside the concert hall. I felt pity for the poor guy with the megaphone, who had to name every guest’s ticket number xD“ (So I guess you can tell now how amazingly gentle and organized the concerts were which I visited back home..)
I really enjoyed both of these concerts, no matter how different they were! Pachi, my roommate, came along with both so I wouldn’t feel alone (especially at the sopran recital where we were the only foreigners and even the only people around twenty I guess..) 😀
Hope you enjoyed this post! Do you listen to any Japanese music? I personally am not really into Japanese music, I only know a handful of artists. I can say the concert was a little of a cultural shock since it was so different to what I experienced at home. We consider to see MERRY once again in August when they start their new tour, they’ll hold some concerts in Ebisu! ♥ Let’s see ☆
Wish you all a nice week and a lot of sun, summer’s just around the corner!
Until next time,
– Sam.
P.S. You might have noticed that I changed my blog layout.. AGAIN. The tiny little boxes are just nothing for me, I realize that everytime. I need huge pictures, HUGE! So that’s just why the sudden change.
