Sorry this is a bit long…

I’m going to put the remaining concert reviews on hold temporarily, but I promise to post them soon!
I departed in Sept. 22, 6:40 pm from Florida, and arrived in LA around 8:30 local time (so 11:30pm in Florida). I then had the most boring layover in LA since most everything was closed down, and I didn’t depart until 1:40am local time. The flight to Beijing, China was really long, but I kept falling asleep for good chunks of time, which helped break the flight up but left me with no sense of time.
When I arrived in Beijing, I was so confused. The airport was huge, but dark and empty, since it was about 5:00 am local time (5 pm Sept 23 in Florida). Also, the entry procedures were confusing. I was given an arrival card on the plane, but it asked questions about entering China; as in I was going to exit the airport and enter the country (which I wasn’t). The flight attendant told me it was the wrong form after I filled it out…but she did not say I needed anything else. Finally I arrived at the customs counters and went to the domestic transfer entry, where I actually had to present the form I had filled out earlier. Good thing I held onto it! I got a huge stamp in my passport too, giving me permission to be in China for a day. Luckily, my bags had been checked all the way to Hiroshima, so I did not have to claim them at the baggage check and recheck them. I finally found my gate after going through security and getting wanded and patted down (seemed to be a common practice). Let me tell you, Chinese is so difficult to understand. I mean, of course I don’t understand since I haven’t ever studied it, but you usually can figure out what a person is saying by their body language and gestures. I didn’t have any sort of understanding in China, which was really difficult, since my gate changed 2 times before departure, but it was not announced and getting directions from the airport staff didn’t go over so well. Surprisingly, for being in the international sector of the Beijing airport, I didn’t come across any staff who could say more than a few words in English.
At the gate, we didn’t board the airplane, but rather a bus! The bus then took us out to the taxing area, quite far from the terminal, and we got off and boarded the plane via a set of portable stairs. The only other time that has ever happened was when I arrived in Germany and we got off the plane away from the terminal and rode a bus to the terminal. It was kind of interesting! Now I can say I’ve touched Chinese soil so to speak! I felt a little better on this flight since there were a lot of Japanese and I could understand a great deal more what was going on around me, that and the flight was only 1 hour! When we arrived in Dalian, China, everyone had to leave the plane even though everyone going to Japan had to reboard the same plane in less than an hour. We were directed to customs if we were going to Hiroshima, so that we could fill out departure forms and get permission to leave China. I think I had to go through all these formalities because Beijing to Dalian was a domestic flight. IT wasn’t a painful procedure, but it wasn’t like I knew what to expect either, so there were some bumps throughout the whole thing, but hey I’m in Japan, so I obviously got permission to leave China. The last flight was 2 hours, and we arrived at Hiroshima Airport around 1:30 pm local time Sept 24 (so 12:30am Sept 24 in Florida). The airport was so tiny, so quite easy to get around, and there were HUSA staff waiting in the lobby for us, and a girl was holding a cute sign with Florida drawn on it and my name.
It was really nice meeting my tutor so quickly! Her name is Yoko Nomura, she’s an education major, and the same age as me. Her English is quite good despite what she thinks! Probably better than my Japanese! She’s very nice too! I’m very glad that she is my tutor!
After everyone arrived, we rode a bus to the dormitories. There are only 30 students in the program this year, so all the guys are in building 10, and all the girls are in building 5, which are next to each other. I am in room 410 and had to lug my luggage up to the 4th floor, but thankfully that was just one occasion! My room is actually quite spacious, at least bigger than hotels I’ve stayed at before, but obviously the accommodations aren’t going to be as nice. I’ll take pictures as soon as I clean my room up a bit and decorate!
Yoko took me shopping later that night and I was able to buy a futon for my room, and supplies that I would need, such as toilet paper, wash basin, slippers, etc… for living in the dorm. I also bought a bicycle! It was very cheap for a bike (7900 yen) with an automatic light. Most of the bikes only have 1 gear, so I see a lot of people give up on a hill and just walk with their bike. I’ve come to appreciate this tactic too. Yoko’s friend gave us a ride in his car so that we could carry my futon to my dorm. He was so nice too, though I feel horrible for not being able to remember his name right now. I really need to write those kind of things down! After shopping, Yoko and I met up with her friend who was also a tutor, Hiro, and his student, Omar, and their friend, whose name I also can’t remember. Together we went to an okonomiyaki shop called Q. it was delicious! Hiroshima is famous for their style of okonomiyaki where they use soba or udon noodles. After, we went to the 100 yen shop in YouMe Town (shopping center) and bought random things…I bought a mug. Then we went to Cafe Ecran which is a nice cafe with internet! I got a matcha latte. It was a very nice first night here!

Friday was orientation from 9-5, but it ended around 4. We got tons of forms which need to be filled out and submitted by the 2nd. We have an additional orientation on Monday, which will mostly go over course registration, so probably we’ll get a lot more forms then too. But for the first orientation, we introduced ourselves, met some of the staff (all who are extremely nice, and quite funny!), and filled out forms for our alien registration, health insurance, and a lot more. We received out Student ID cards too, and I was shocked when I say my black hair. I had forgotten that my hair was still black from Halloween when I took the photo for my school ID. Oh well… we set up student email accounts as well.
We had a long lunch break and the students split up between the 2 cafeterias near the conference rooms, the Mermaid cafe, and the cafeteria a little farther away. I went to the one farther away with Eka from Indonesia, Andrew from Minnesota, Andrew from Australia, and Sabrina from Austria. It was very interesting, and the cafeteria was great too! Everyone met up again near the library, looking for computers and I was able to talk to more students, Pui Yin from New Zealand, Anastasia and Jenifer from Germany, Jeff from Reno, Becky from England, and Hwisang from Korea. There are still a bunch of students to meet, but so far, everyone had been really nice and friendly. I think it’s going to be a really nice year!
After the orientation was done, I took a 4 hour nap. I guess I was still jet lagged! But I went to the Ecran cafe around 8:30 with Omar and we met with his tutor, and hung out for a while. Today, we are going shopping at 1, and at 6:30, I am meeting Yoko for dinner and to fill out some of my paper work.

So I was about to update when I started feeling sick...apparently it's flu season here @_@ The hotel I'm in even put up a table with a sign and hand sanitizer by the elevators @_@

I've just been trying to take it easy....mainly it's my head that's got me down; pretty much you take out my head, you take out all of me TT_TT.

I didn't have a live today thankfully...but I was planning to go to one tomorrow to see this line up: gaudie. / アニマ / Like absolute myself / ReivieЯ / ギャロ / the Vambie. / etc...

I like them all except anima because I've never heard of them, and gyaro because the vocalist pisses me off LOL Actually, I really, really wanted to see Like absolute myself because they seem really promising!! But...

....Plastic Tree just sent out a mail magazine announcing that they'll have a live broadcast at a radio station in Chiba tomorrow at 7!!! @___@ I hands down want to go!! lol

So I think I'm going to swing by Like An Edison at 11 to pick up 1 album, and then go to Closet Child to get the other one (to get store specific extras XD) and then head off to Akihabara where I'll catch the Tsukuba Express to take me to Nagareyama-Ootakanomori where the FM station is located inside a shopping mall XDDDDD

From there, maybe I'll shop, maybe see a movie at Toho Cinema, and keep my eyes peeled for pura! LOL

I saw D'ray today, but I just realized I need to review like...10 shows ><;;;

I guess I'll get started............

I bought my ticket from Lawson the night before and got ticket #152. the Vambie./ギズモ/R指定/ドウナー/xTRiPx/『東京指定』/.EXE played and in that order surprisingly.
At the venue, I met with Reggi, and her friend and also saw the french girls there.

When I entered, I gave my stub to Gizmo. The venue was fairly small. The area in front the the stage was about 3 steps lower than the floor behind it, so there were kind of 2 levels. behind the 2nd level, there were tables set up where the bands would be selling their merch after their performances.

The Vambie. was really good and had lots of energy. Gizmo was really good as well, although there was less crowd participation. Their playing was excellent though and the guitarist was crazy good. R shitei was also good, but I don't remember them that much. Downer was great! I had a lot of fun jumping around to their songs lol

xTRiPx was amazing. I really didn't know what to expect from them since Reggi was telling me that they were a mix of jrock and hip hop. The vocalist was really cute, not in a good looking sort of way, just really cute lol. Their songs were a lot of fun, and when they came on stage, every one was like "Hi Honey!!" It was hilarious.

I don't really remember Tokyo Shitei either, but I did like them.
.EXE was alright, but my least favorite out of all the bands.

During the sets, the bands were at their tables selling merch, but I could hardly tell who was who since they were in normal clothes lol I didn't go and say hello because I know I'd end up buying stuff haha.

So I originally wanted to see the Match Up with D'espairsRay, Mucc, and others, but I was unable to get a ticket. Luckily, the Like An Edison down the street from my hotel still had some tickets for Vidoll. I think I literally bought one of the last 2 tickets ^^;

Anyway, the show was a the Heaven's Rock VJ-3 in Saitama. I had only been there once before to see 12012, but it was at night, so I got a little lost while trying to get there. But I ended up walking through some kind of summer festival being held outside the Super Arena. There were a lot of food stalls and games, and lots and lots of people! It was really interesting.

When I got to the venue, there were four foreign girls sitting on the entrance steps, and a handful of Japanese girls who were obviously eying them like they weren't supposed to be there...kind of awkward...
After a little while, even more foreigners showed up. I think I counted like 10 others besides myself, and they all seemed to be french. Apparently Vidoll is super popular in Europe. It was kind of strange though, because one of the groups seemed to be 2 kids around my age, and their parents...the father looked normal enough, but the mom looked like a super fan. awkward...

One of the foreigners stared talking to me and it turns out she was from Philadelphia. She was really nice and down to earth. so it was nice having someone to chat with.

About 20 minutes before the doors opened, it began to pour. I had brought my umbrella, but that made hardly any difference and I still got soaked T_T

I was ticket B8 and Reggi, the girl I met, was B6 so we were able to go in together too. But we were quite surprised that like 10 people or so were going in for each B number called. Apparently there had been multiple distributors for the B numbered tickets.

Anyway, we made it up to the front right side and had a great view! The only thing that annoyed me during the show was that there were a bunch of guys standing around me, but they weren't getting into the show at all. It's kind of awkward when the crowd is jumping but you're next to someone who isn't ~_~

During the MC, Jui was talking about the rain, and how he was glad he was inside, and that everyone should go by the Vidoll towel to dry off. Some people shouted that umbrellas were better though, so he said that maybe they'd produce an umbrella for a tour lol

The show was a lot of fun though, even though I don't have specific details.
After the live, Reggi convinced me to go to the live at the Takadanobaba Area the next day...

I saw 12012 at the Kashiwa ThumbUP in Chiba, ticket #123. The venue was super small and overly packed since tickets were pair tickets, meaning two people could go in with one ticket. That, and there were doubles of some numbers because multiple distributors were selling tickets. For example, I had ticket #123 from the 12012 site, and the 2 guys behind me had ticket #123 from Family Mart. So in some cases, up to four people were going in one one number.

I got my Drink "Chicket" at the door and didn't use it after the show since I though the spelling was so funny.

I started at the back next to the merch table and bought the shirt and phone strap for Polly and the Towel for myself. I also bought a couple of pins from their gumball-like machine. When the lights dimmed, I was able to move more center, but still stayed fairly far back since it was so packed.

12012 played newer songs, skipping the songs from Diamond completely, which had me kind of bummed. For the old songs, they mainly stuck with Venom and Newspaper. I had a great view, but I don't think Yusuke noticed me, but Wataru sure did. He has this really freaky stare, and he kept directing it at me. Some of the songs where he'd cackle like crazy, he'd be staring at me. It was kind of creepy!!

I thought Tooru really looked like a butler, especially after seeing Mei-Chan no Shitsuji haha.
I'm still not used to him with black hair...it was tied up in a bun-of-sorts and he had slacks, a button shirt and a vest. When he gave the crowd a dramatic bow, I immediately thought of Rihito-sama haha

The show was a lot of fun, although, now I can't remember any specific details ~_~ but it was good ^__^d

yea so I haven't been updating AT ALL.

I don't remember many details from a lot of the shows I wanted to write about now ~_~

I'm going to try to squeeze some details out though...

So I'm seeing 12012 today, but I was supposed to go to an event tomorrow but I ended up not getting tickets for it, so I was trying to see Vidoll again, or even 12012, but it's hard to get tickets the day before, but!! Like An Edison still has Vidoll tickets for tomorrow!! I'm going there right now to get one!

Today I went to the Sunphonix Hall at the Yokohama Arena to see Vidoll. Getting there was initially confusing, but I still arrived in the area with hours to spare. Unfortunately, there isn't much in the way of entertainment, distraction, or even shopping in the general vicinity of the Shin-Yokohama Station. I'm sure there were places out more that a 10 minute walk or so, but it was so hot and humid I didn't want to venture too far (I've never heard such a loud cicada chorus before). There was a small mall, I guess you could call it, and I perused the floors numerous times in hopes of killing time. Instead, I bought some things...a super cute umbrella, fashion socks, and some stationary, as well as a gift or two.

At the venue, I picked up the black version of their tour T-shirt before doors and found a nice coin locker in the plaza by the station to stuff all my stuff in. I was ticket # B1, so about 280 people entered before me, but it didn't matter too much since the standing area was relatively large, and once the lights go down, that's when people rush forward, but surprisingly not too much this show.

Anyway, I can't remember set lists for the life of me, but the first song was pretty upbeat and the crowd was going crazy with their hand dances. I was hesitant to join in at first, but by the 3rd song I was sucked into participating all the way to the end! It was really fun.

I ended up being basically dead center in front of Jui with a great view of everyone, including the drummer, as I was about 5~6 rows back and there was a barricade behind me so the people in front of me moved up and I stayed put for the most part and a big space opened up in front of me. After the second song and the lights went down, something hit my left arm, and fell just behind the barricade and I saw some girl snatch up Rame's pick. As soon as I turned around, I got hit on my right arm by Giru's pick. It ended up between the feet of the girl next to me, so I got her attention and pointed it out to her, since I'm so nice. I kind of felt targeted since Jui and those two seemed to be staring a lot, I suppose just absorbing the fact that I'm foreign. Later, Jui's water bottle bounced neatly out of my hand, soaking me, and getting picked up by the girl next to me. Then, a pick hit my neck, but I grabbed my necklace instead and it fell to the floor as well as the two girls in front of me to go after it. I was kind of bummed I didn't manage to hold onto anything since I had a lot of opportunities.

They played all of the songs from focus, of course, and had an interesting MC. I didn't catch all of it, but it seemed like Jui was trying to retell something that had happened to him, and he was imitating this rough sounding person, and then Rame called him out on something. It was quite funny, just because of how they are.

Oh, as for appearance, they were literally wearing what they've got displayed on their OHP http://www.vidoll.jp/index2.html

It seemed like Jui was attempting a strip tease during most of the show, and during a heavy head banging part (which I didn't participate in, since my hair can't handle that kind of whiplash), he blatantly flashed his chest. Another time, he practically fell into the front rows and everyone swarmed at him. I was worried a few times that he'd jump in, but he never did (thank goodness).

They gave 2 encores, coming back out in their tour T-shits. Jui was saying that he was really happy because this show was the first in the tour line-up because everyone had so much energy, etc. So the tour had a really great start. He talked directly with the audience a lot too and it was really funny when he couldn't understand what people were telling him. I think he might have even stumbled on some things he wanted to say, and a girl in the crowd corrected him and Giru gave him a strike and called him "OUT." It was hilarious.

For their last encore, the first song they played was 殺女成リ, and during the chorus, Jui came in late, but I think it was because his voice broke and he had to cough. He got through the next line and had to stop again and apologized. The audience picked up the chorus without any prompting and he held the mic out to us. Then he asked for everyone to sing it again, so we sang the whole thing over, and then he took over. It was completely unplanned, but it came out quite nice ^_^



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I literally fell asleep writing this, so I'm just going to post the 2CH set lists that Polly sent me, but I'm not too sure they're accurate...they're vastly different from each other for one thing, but I just don't have time to go through the songs right now.
Set list 1
オカプロ
サンコロ
マユピサ
とりかぶと
逆ギレ
ペコ
カラクリ
殺女
人魚
サヨナラ
ロープ
リマインド
チョコ
黒猫
深愛
ネクター
ラストラバーズ
イノティン
Red cube
ロストヴォイス
Tree
ブルースター
パズルリング
尖る愛

Setlist 2

人魚
キラキラ星
Focus
尖る愛
２DK
パズルリング
９１１
NAUSEA
at age 13
GAGA SYRUP
Delivery to Hills
Love affair
Ciub.B
ゴシカロイド
ラストラバーズ
Cryptic Tokyo

アンコール１
ブルースター
ロストヴォイス

アンコール２
殺女
サンコロ

I'm leaving for Oregon in 8 hours!! I'm going to visit my grandparents, who I haven't seen in 7 years! I'll be sure to take lots of pictures too, because Oregon is so beautiful!

But I might not have internet while I'm there, so I might be delayed in finishing up some things... m(_ _ ;)m

Anyway, I'll be in Japan on the 6th!! I am so looking forward to my very delayed vacation!
o(゜∇゜*o)(o*゜∇゜)o～♪

My journal is now semi-public so that I can share my experiences while studying at Hiroshima University. Feel free to add me if you have and LJ account, but I probably won't have too many friends-locked entries from here on out so you don't need to.