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LiveJournal is 22 today!
Domain LiveJournal.com was registered on April 15, 1999. The same year, the cult movie "The Matrix" was released, the 6 billionth inhabitant of the Earth was born in the city of Sarajevo, and Britney Spears' debut single Baby One More Time topped the world charts.
On April 15, 2021 LiveJournal turns 22 years old! LiveJournal celebrates its birthday and gives you a card with a bright event that happened the year you started your blog!
What happened in your life the year you started your blog?
This wasn't the first LJ I had, but I can't for the life of me remember what the first one was, hahaha.
GACKT's 44th BIRTHDAY PARTY
I wanted to write this earlier, but I was waiting for some pro-shot photos from the event. It’s now three days later and we still don’t have any, so I’m not going to wait any longer. I didn’t make notes of the parties so I’m doing everything from memory. I’ve undoubtedly forgot things, and maybe misremembered some others, but I’ve done my best!
GACKT’s 44th BIRTHDAY PARTY was held on July 4th in the banquet hall at the Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa in Shinagawa, Tokyo. This was the same location as FNS Kayousai last December, where GACKT teamed up with TM Revolution to sing 12 Gatsu no Love Song.
Before entering the actual hall where the event was to take place, there were a few things to look at and do. There were two life sized cut outs of GACKT to take photos with - one with him wearing the white suit from the birthday goods, and the other with the black suit.
( Collapse )
The events were a lot of fun! Things overran slightly, but not massively so, so kudos to Shinnosu for being a great MC and keeping everything running well!
GACKT’s 44th BIRTHDAY PARTY was held on July 4th in the banquet hall at the Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa in Shinagawa, Tokyo. This was the same location as FNS Kayousai last December, where GACKT teamed up with TM Revolution to sing 12 Gatsu no Love Song.
Before entering the actual hall where the event was to take place, there were a few things to look at and do. There were two life sized cut outs of GACKT to take photos with - one with him wearing the white suit from the birthday goods, and the other with the black suit.
( Collapse )
The events were a lot of fun! Things overran slightly, but not massively so, so kudos to Shinnosu for being a great MC and keeping everything running well!
THE BA・LUE HEARTS - Fukuoka
Firstly, I must say how impressed I was with how THE BALUE HEARTS embraced being in a live house. It was exactly like seeing a small time band on a live house tour, and not at all like seeing GACKT play somewhere. The venue in Fukuoka was small, and I think some of his Europe were venues were bigger.
(That's basically the entire venue)
For the hour between the doors opening and the show starting, the same song is on repeat. It’s called “Roujin to kodomo no polka” and it’s really, really annoying. You can give it a listen here - https://youtu.be/LZZk0tP49H8
Both the matinee and evening shows, the first two shows of the tour, had doors open on time, and started within five minutes of when they should. Yet more proof it isn’t a normal GACKT show…
I’m going to use their BALUE HEARTS names for this, so to recap the band is…
Bass - Shin-chan (Shinnosu)
Drums - Same-chan (Takumi, it comes from his surname being Samejima)
Guitar - Gashi (GACKT)
Vocals - Valto (Val)
Just before the second show started, the other senpais from Camui Gakuen crashed the show. The dancers came out on the main floor to say hello, and Sato, YOU and Hayato waved from the second floor and took some photos. They all watched the show from the second floor.
[Spoilers!]
The shows started with Valto coming out on his own to sing a version of the Evangelion opening song “Zankoku na Tenshi no Teze,” only Valto said it was from Evalgelion. A pre-recorded backing track played, and he danced around a bit with maracas. He welcomed everyone to the show, and said that the other members hadn’t come and it was just him. After calling the crowd idiots for believing him, he introduced the other band members one by one.
The overarching storyline of THE BALUE HEARTS is that the other members of the band hate Valto and want nothing to do with him. He tries to talk to them, and they either ignore him or abuse him (that’s mainly Gashi.) It usually results in Valto getting crazier and more animated with what he’s saying, until the band member breaks character and starts laughing. Val improvises a lot of what he’s saying, so even if the MC has a theme, how he says it changes and he does all he can to get a reaction from his bandmates. Shinnosu laughs all of the time, and GACKT does occasionally, but before these shows I’d yet to see Takumi even crack a smile.
Valto introduced Shin-chan first, who wandered on with his hands in his pockets and was told off by Valto for being so nonchalant in front of the crowd. Next was Same-chan, who took his seat behind the drums and immediately started eating a banana. Valto told Same-chan off for doing this, too. Last to be introduced was Gashi, who obviously received the biggest reaction of anyone.
Valto wasn’t happy that Gashi is the most popular member, and kept standing in front of Gashi so the crowd couldn’t see him. Valto told everyone to look at their tickets and they’d see it was a show by THE BALUE HEARTS, and not a Gashi solo concert.
Because I can’t remember what order the MCs were in, and where they fit alongside the songs, I’m going to go through the songs first and then the MCs later. All of the songs were proper songs, that THE BALUE HEARTS had changed the lyrics to.
They were
1. Evangelion opening theme - Zankoku na Tenshi no Teze
2. The Blue Hearts - Hito ni Yasashiku
3. Porno Graffitti - Apollo
4. The Blue Hearts - Linda, Linda
5. Mongol 800 - Chiisana Koi no Uta
6. ??? (Sorry, I don’t know what this one was!)
7. The Blue Hearts - Owaranai no Uta
So yes, just seven songs including Valto’s solo opener. The first show in Fukuoka was about 75 minutes long, and the second one was 90 minutes. The rest of the time was taken up by Valto’s MCs. The other band members didn’t say anything, other than for one occasion which I’ll talk about a little later.
(This is from the song I didn't recognise)
The song lyrics were hard for me to catch, as although they were displayed on a screen at the back of the stage, it’s hard to watch a screen and the stage at the same time, and between the two, I’d rather watch the band than read some song lyrics. I even said to myself before the second show that I’d concentrate on the lyrics more, and then just ended up staring at Gashi instead as he was directly in front of me. So, although I know what the songs are about in general terms, I’m not going to talk about them in detail. They’re full of in jokes, and randomness and are less rude than I was expecting after seeing the performance of Chiisana Koi no Uta at Gakuensai (this and Linda, Linda are the same as Gakuensai).
Gashi had two guitars set up at the side of the stage, but only played the same silver guitar throughout. After every other song he handed his guitar off to his guitar tech to get it tuned, and then the tech helped him put the guitar back on (presumably so he didn’t knock his wig about). Gashi also had the guitar tabs for each song on stage, and his tech had to run out and change them before the next song. During the first show, the tech forgot to change the tabs once, and while Valto was still talking, Gashi rather firmly pointed at the tabs that needed changing. The tech ran out pretty sheepishly and changed them quickly.
Valto started each song by asking Gashi to play some music, even though most of the songs don’t actually start with the guitar. So, Gashi would play a riff and then Same-chan would actually count the song in properly, as most songs start with drums.
In-between the songs, while Valto was talking, Shin-chan and Gashi sat on the drum riser, and Same-chan would either stare into space or eat a banana. Valto told off Shin-chan and Gashi for sitting down all of the time, but they just ignored him.
Sometimes when Valto said something, the other band members (led by Gashi) would prompt the crowd to boo whatever Valto was saying. Valto would then turn around to try and catch the other members doing this, but they usually were too quick for Valto to catch them. During the second show, he caught Same-chan with his thumbs down several times, and Takumi couldn’t keep his character and started to laugh. He had to turn around away from the crowd. This was the first time I’ve seen Takumi laugh in a THE BALUE HEARTS set.
Valto talked about THE BALUE HEARTS writing original songs, and how the other members didn’t want to contribute. First he approached Shin-chan, and suggested that Shin-chan could write about Hawaii and sang some bad Hawaiian style songs while hulaing badly (Shinnosu had to laugh). Then Valto approached Same-chan, and asked him to write songs about bananas. Instead, Same-chan threw a banana in his face. Then, Valto approached Gashi and said that Gashi had actually agreed to write a song, but wanted a hundred million yen payment. Valto remarked about how strange it was for a band member to want payment to write a song for his own band, but the crowd yelled at Valto to pay Gashi what he wanted.
During the first show, Same-chan screwed up the opening to Owaranai no Uta, and Valto made him restart. During the second show, whenever Gashi was sat at the drum riser, he’d stare into space and start making kissy faces to get the crowd screaming.
When the other band members were particularly mean to Valto, he would pretend to start crying. Valto got into an argument with Same-chan at the end of a song, after the rest of the band didn’t time the ending with him right. This little shouting match with Same-chan was the only time anyone other than Valto spoke.
Another thing that Valto was angry about, was that whenever he asked the crowd to shout “kashikomari,” the band members didn’t react the way they should. Usually at Gakuensai, the band (whoever they are at that time) all play a riff as the crowd shout back. Whenever Valto tries to do this though, he’s just left with silence. So, he shouted at the other members to do it right. This made both Takumi and Shinnosu laugh, as he would mimic the sounds each instrument should make, and got more animated as he went until he was just screaming “SU! (cymbals) NU! (bass) JYAN! (guitar)” over and over, very rapidly. GACKT didn’t laugh at these solo shows at all, but kept laughing the next day at Gakuensai at this part.
Probably the funniest part, was during Linda, Linda at the second show. The song starts with Gashi playing a single riff before Valto sings a part of a line. While Valto is singing, he pulls a strange face, and holds it until Gashi plays the next riff. Gashi really made Valto hold the strange faces for a long, long time during this show. Gashi sat on the drum riser and stared into space, or yawned, leaving Valto to try and hold his pose. One of the poses had Valto pulling his eyes into a weird position, and his left coloured contact lens literally starting popping out of his eye. Gashi was behind Valto so he couldn’t see what was happening with the contact lens, and he made Valto continue to hold the pose as slowly the lens just came all of the way out. When Gashi finally played the next riff, Valto quickly grabbed the lens and took out his right lens too, before carrying on. He sang the rest of the song with the lenses in his hand, and then apologised at the end of the song.
After the last song, Valto tried to time a jump with the rest of the band, but it didn’t work, so they all walked off and left him on the floor. Valto thanked everyone for coming and started to pretend cry again.
After about 10 minutes, everything was set up for the high five event after the show. Valto, Same-chan and Shin-chan were stood by the exit and gave everyone a high five as they left.
(High fives for everyone)
After the show, there were polaroid photos of the band on sale for 1000 yen each, and they proved to be very popular!
(Much better than mass printed photocards)
They’re making a small fortune on those, as you can get a roll of 20 blanks for about 1200 yen… For the evening show, there were special polaroids taken on stage, and also some with the other senpais that had come to the show.
The show is just a lot of fun. They’re not the best band in the world (of course!) but Val has tons of charisma and is really charming and funny, and it’s amusing to see the other band members trying not to laugh.
(That's basically the entire venue)
For the hour between the doors opening and the show starting, the same song is on repeat. It’s called “Roujin to kodomo no polka” and it’s really, really annoying. You can give it a listen here - https://youtu.be/LZZk0tP49H8
Both the matinee and evening shows, the first two shows of the tour, had doors open on time, and started within five minutes of when they should. Yet more proof it isn’t a normal GACKT show…
I’m going to use their BALUE HEARTS names for this, so to recap the band is…
Bass - Shin-chan (Shinnosu)
Drums - Same-chan (Takumi, it comes from his surname being Samejima)
Guitar - Gashi (GACKT)
Vocals - Valto (Val)
Just before the second show started, the other senpais from Camui Gakuen crashed the show. The dancers came out on the main floor to say hello, and Sato, YOU and Hayato waved from the second floor and took some photos. They all watched the show from the second floor.
[Spoilers!]
The shows started with Valto coming out on his own to sing a version of the Evangelion opening song “Zankoku na Tenshi no Teze,” only Valto said it was from Evalgelion. A pre-recorded backing track played, and he danced around a bit with maracas. He welcomed everyone to the show, and said that the other members hadn’t come and it was just him. After calling the crowd idiots for believing him, he introduced the other band members one by one.
The overarching storyline of THE BALUE HEARTS is that the other members of the band hate Valto and want nothing to do with him. He tries to talk to them, and they either ignore him or abuse him (that’s mainly Gashi.) It usually results in Valto getting crazier and more animated with what he’s saying, until the band member breaks character and starts laughing. Val improvises a lot of what he’s saying, so even if the MC has a theme, how he says it changes and he does all he can to get a reaction from his bandmates. Shinnosu laughs all of the time, and GACKT does occasionally, but before these shows I’d yet to see Takumi even crack a smile.
Valto introduced Shin-chan first, who wandered on with his hands in his pockets and was told off by Valto for being so nonchalant in front of the crowd. Next was Same-chan, who took his seat behind the drums and immediately started eating a banana. Valto told Same-chan off for doing this, too. Last to be introduced was Gashi, who obviously received the biggest reaction of anyone.
Valto wasn’t happy that Gashi is the most popular member, and kept standing in front of Gashi so the crowd couldn’t see him. Valto told everyone to look at their tickets and they’d see it was a show by THE BALUE HEARTS, and not a Gashi solo concert.
Because I can’t remember what order the MCs were in, and where they fit alongside the songs, I’m going to go through the songs first and then the MCs later. All of the songs were proper songs, that THE BALUE HEARTS had changed the lyrics to.
They were
1. Evangelion opening theme - Zankoku na Tenshi no Teze
2. The Blue Hearts - Hito ni Yasashiku
3. Porno Graffitti - Apollo
4. The Blue Hearts - Linda, Linda
5. Mongol 800 - Chiisana Koi no Uta
6. ??? (Sorry, I don’t know what this one was!)
7. The Blue Hearts - Owaranai no Uta
So yes, just seven songs including Valto’s solo opener. The first show in Fukuoka was about 75 minutes long, and the second one was 90 minutes. The rest of the time was taken up by Valto’s MCs. The other band members didn’t say anything, other than for one occasion which I’ll talk about a little later.
(This is from the song I didn't recognise)
The song lyrics were hard for me to catch, as although they were displayed on a screen at the back of the stage, it’s hard to watch a screen and the stage at the same time, and between the two, I’d rather watch the band than read some song lyrics. I even said to myself before the second show that I’d concentrate on the lyrics more, and then just ended up staring at Gashi instead as he was directly in front of me. So, although I know what the songs are about in general terms, I’m not going to talk about them in detail. They’re full of in jokes, and randomness and are less rude than I was expecting after seeing the performance of Chiisana Koi no Uta at Gakuensai (this and Linda, Linda are the same as Gakuensai).
Gashi had two guitars set up at the side of the stage, but only played the same silver guitar throughout. After every other song he handed his guitar off to his guitar tech to get it tuned, and then the tech helped him put the guitar back on (presumably so he didn’t knock his wig about). Gashi also had the guitar tabs for each song on stage, and his tech had to run out and change them before the next song. During the first show, the tech forgot to change the tabs once, and while Valto was still talking, Gashi rather firmly pointed at the tabs that needed changing. The tech ran out pretty sheepishly and changed them quickly.
Valto started each song by asking Gashi to play some music, even though most of the songs don’t actually start with the guitar. So, Gashi would play a riff and then Same-chan would actually count the song in properly, as most songs start with drums.
In-between the songs, while Valto was talking, Shin-chan and Gashi sat on the drum riser, and Same-chan would either stare into space or eat a banana. Valto told off Shin-chan and Gashi for sitting down all of the time, but they just ignored him.
Sometimes when Valto said something, the other band members (led by Gashi) would prompt the crowd to boo whatever Valto was saying. Valto would then turn around to try and catch the other members doing this, but they usually were too quick for Valto to catch them. During the second show, he caught Same-chan with his thumbs down several times, and Takumi couldn’t keep his character and started to laugh. He had to turn around away from the crowd. This was the first time I’ve seen Takumi laugh in a THE BALUE HEARTS set.
Valto talked about THE BALUE HEARTS writing original songs, and how the other members didn’t want to contribute. First he approached Shin-chan, and suggested that Shin-chan could write about Hawaii and sang some bad Hawaiian style songs while hulaing badly (Shinnosu had to laugh). Then Valto approached Same-chan, and asked him to write songs about bananas. Instead, Same-chan threw a banana in his face. Then, Valto approached Gashi and said that Gashi had actually agreed to write a song, but wanted a hundred million yen payment. Valto remarked about how strange it was for a band member to want payment to write a song for his own band, but the crowd yelled at Valto to pay Gashi what he wanted.
During the first show, Same-chan screwed up the opening to Owaranai no Uta, and Valto made him restart. During the second show, whenever Gashi was sat at the drum riser, he’d stare into space and start making kissy faces to get the crowd screaming.
When the other band members were particularly mean to Valto, he would pretend to start crying. Valto got into an argument with Same-chan at the end of a song, after the rest of the band didn’t time the ending with him right. This little shouting match with Same-chan was the only time anyone other than Valto spoke.
Another thing that Valto was angry about, was that whenever he asked the crowd to shout “kashikomari,” the band members didn’t react the way they should. Usually at Gakuensai, the band (whoever they are at that time) all play a riff as the crowd shout back. Whenever Valto tries to do this though, he’s just left with silence. So, he shouted at the other members to do it right. This made both Takumi and Shinnosu laugh, as he would mimic the sounds each instrument should make, and got more animated as he went until he was just screaming “SU! (cymbals) NU! (bass) JYAN! (guitar)” over and over, very rapidly. GACKT didn’t laugh at these solo shows at all, but kept laughing the next day at Gakuensai at this part.
Probably the funniest part, was during Linda, Linda at the second show. The song starts with Gashi playing a single riff before Valto sings a part of a line. While Valto is singing, he pulls a strange face, and holds it until Gashi plays the next riff. Gashi really made Valto hold the strange faces for a long, long time during this show. Gashi sat on the drum riser and stared into space, or yawned, leaving Valto to try and hold his pose. One of the poses had Valto pulling his eyes into a weird position, and his left coloured contact lens literally starting popping out of his eye. Gashi was behind Valto so he couldn’t see what was happening with the contact lens, and he made Valto continue to hold the pose as slowly the lens just came all of the way out. When Gashi finally played the next riff, Valto quickly grabbed the lens and took out his right lens too, before carrying on. He sang the rest of the song with the lenses in his hand, and then apologised at the end of the song.
After the last song, Valto tried to time a jump with the rest of the band, but it didn’t work, so they all walked off and left him on the floor. Valto thanked everyone for coming and started to pretend cry again.
After about 10 minutes, everything was set up for the high five event after the show. Valto, Same-chan and Shin-chan were stood by the exit and gave everyone a high five as they left.
(High fives for everyone)
After the show, there were polaroid photos of the band on sale for 1000 yen each, and they proved to be very popular!
(Much better than mass printed photocards)
They’re making a small fortune on those, as you can get a roll of 20 blanks for about 1200 yen… For the evening show, there were special polaroids taken on stage, and also some with the other senpais that had come to the show.
The show is just a lot of fun. They’re not the best band in the world (of course!) but Val has tons of charisma and is really charming and funny, and it’s amusing to see the other band members trying not to laugh.
Gakuensai Days 1-3
Here’s a review of the first three Gakuensai shows - Day 1 and Day 2 were in Toyosu, Tokyo, and Day 3 in Fukuoka. If you read the Day 1 report I posted before, this fills in a few gaps, clears up a few things and adds in more days. There's a few photos, and they're all from GACKT's blog.
Day 1 was rather late, but Days 2 and 3 were only about ten minutes late.
[First half]
All of the show announcements were handled by Hagichan-senpai. He’s a comedian who’s worked with GACKT on some NicoNico broadcasts before. As always there was the school song, and then the opening address from Principal H.
Prinicpal H. is GACKT’s sound producer Hemmi. If you don’t remember, he’s the guy that “caused” all of the tabloid trouble earlier this year (quick recap – an alleged ex of GACKT’s allegedly attempted suicide after her engagement to Hemmi was called off). His speech was full of references and jokes about being in the tabloids, and on Day 2 they showed the article on the screen. When he couldn’t read his speech, he pulled out a pair of glasses with a black bar over them, to mimic how the tabloid had concealed his identity in the article by putting a black bar over his eyes. He also had a copy of the magazine. He read out some of the school rules that were all based around staying out of tabloids, and then it was time for Kaicho to arrive.
As always, Kaicho walked through the crowd and took to the stage. His opening speech was pretty standard too. The tour this year is called Hirakinasai, and as hiraku can mean “open,” he wants us all to open our hearts and bodies and be good Camui Gakuen students. He announced the winners of the Mr. and Ms. Camui Gakuen contests. On Day 1 he didn’t award a Mr. Gakuen as he didn’t think any of the photos sent in were smiley enough. The lady who won Ms. Gakuen on Day 1 cried, but managed to get a hug out of him. The Day 2 winners were both pretty normal. On Day 3, Mr. Gakuen was a high school aged boy that had sent in a photo of him pulling a very strange face. When he went on stage and just had a normal expression, Kaicho told him that his face was different.
Then, Kaicho introduced F9. Whenever he does their introduction, he asks F9 if they’re ready, and every time somebody from the crowd answers with a “kashikomari”, too. Then, Kaicho gets to yell at the crowd as they’re not in F9 and shouldn’t shout too. On Day 1, nobody in the crowd shouted. Kaicho seemed pretty unhappy that he couldn’t yell at the crowd, and all the senpais were staring at him and amused by his pouting. Eventually Kaicho congratulated everyone on being the first crowd ever in about 8 years of doing the shows that didn’t mess that part up. On Day 2, he didn’t do this part at all! On Day 3, he did do this part and as a few people in the crowd shouted “kashikomari,” he was able to tell everyone off. Val was announced as the winner of the sales contest on Day 1, and Sato won on both Day 2 and Day 3.
Kaicho left the stage and F9 danced to Paparapa. After the dance finished, they left the stage and Shinnosu came out wearing the new red training gear with the low crotch. Shinnosu always asks the crowds what they think of the new training gear for that year, and he usually gets an enthusiastic response. On Day 1 it was very muted, which at first he seemed surprised at, and then he started talking about how low the crotch was. He even remarked on Day 2 about the lukewarm reception the outfits received on Day 1.
Shinnosu read out some comments from the fans to stall for time. On Day 1 a fan asked if YOU preferred sailor style school uniforms or blazer style (he later answered sailor style), one fan told Takumi to go to AGA to get his baldness sorted out, and another fan addressed her letter to Val and it was literally just “I like you. Not really.” On Day 2, two different people put questions in the box and attached AGA flyers for Takumi. Takumi later said that he was getting them in his present box too. On Day 3, someone asked Takumi how his hair was doing.
F9 came out in the training gear, and Kaicho came back out in his uniform to sit and watch the oncoming madness. Hagi-chan acted as Kaicho’s mic stand, as he was kneeling next to Kaicho’s chair and holding his mic when Kaicho didn’t want to talk.
All of the games are based on Tsumi no Keisho and its video, with the worst performing senpai being nominated by Kaicho for another themed punishment game.
The first game was a real daruma game.
It involved some thick discs, each a couple of feet high and a few feet wide, being stacked on top of each other until they were about two metres tall. Then, a senpai would climb on top, while another hit the discs out with a hammer. To win the game, you have to stay on the discs. There were crash mats brought out all over the stage for this.
On Day 1, the first pair was Rassan on top, and Sato to hit. They failed in a spectacular fashion. Kaicho thought it was hilarious and immediately wanted to see the replay. The next pair was Madoka on top and YOU to hit. They nearly managed a disc, but then Madoka fell backwards and landed on his crotch.
On Day 2, the first pair was You-Suke and Val. They decided that Val would hit the discs when he said the “ro” in “hokuro” (“hokuro” means “mole” in Japanese, and of course Val has a noticeable mole on his face). They failed, and You-Suke landed on his butt on one of the discs as he fell. The second pair was Tennen and Takumi. Tennen said he was scared of heights, and didn’t look very happy up top! They failed too.
On Day 3, the first pair was You-Suke and Sato. Sato hit the disc out almost perfectly, but You-Suke couldn’t stick the landing. Rassan and Val didn’t have as much luck and failed too. After seeing both pairs fail, Kaicho started to explain how it should be done, so Shinnosu and the crowd asked Kaicho to try. He agreed to, and Madoka volunteered to be on top. Kaicho asked Madoka to demonstrate how he was going to jump, and then told Madoka how he should jump. Kaicho hit the discs left-handed, and for the first time on the tour, not only managed to hit a disc out, but hit several! Madoka fell on the very last disc! The second disc was a close call as Madoka landed on his back instead of his feet, but they managed it! Trust Kaicho to do something nobody else can...
On Day 1, the second game was a three senpai game. The first senpai was blindfolded, like the Tsumi no Keisho video, and had headphones so he could neither see nor hear. The second senpai was to act as his arms, and also couldn’t see. The third senpai was the navigator that had to direct the second senpai. A tray of spicy or gross sauces was brought out, and the idea was to dunk a chicken nugget in a sauce, and make the blindfolded senpai taste it and guess what it was.
For the first round, Val was blindfolded, a dancer (Tennen, I think) was the arms, and Takumi was the navigator. Val ended up with more sauce on his face than in his mouth, and seemed to be really suffering from how hot it was.
For the second round, Hayato was blindfolded, another dancer was the arms (You-suke, I think), and Kaicho volunteered himself as the navigator. Vegemite was one of the sauces, and Kaicho had no idea what it was (seriously, GACKT? You’ve been to Australia how many times now?) Kaicho was Kaicho, and had the chicken dipped in three sauces before he was happy to paint Hayato’s face with it.
On Day 2 and 3, the game involved a senpai lying on a trolley, and having his head shoved into a box, that would then be filled with something disgusting…. They then had to identify what it was. The first senpai to play the game was Hayato, and they filled his box with some small lizards. Only, the lizards didn’t play along much, and didn’t move too close to him.
For the second game, Kiryuuin Sho from Golden Bomber came out, and was forced into playing. He put his head in the box, and had to contend with Madagascan cockroaches. If you’ve never seen these, they’re huge. Kaicho was sat on his chair with his feet pulled up, and was hugging his knees to his chest. Sho could identify them as cockroaches, but not the breed so he lost.
(Hayato on Day 3)
On Day 3, it was Hayato again, but with bigger lizards. Again, they didn’t get that close to him. After Hayato finished, Kaicho grabbed Val’s hand and shoved it in the box so that Val had to touch them. Then Kaicho touched them, too. I think he was trying to pick one up, but it didn’t want to be picked up. The second senpai to play this game was Takumi, and his box was full of snakes. There were so many snakes! They were pretty small, but were pretty animated before they were released. Kaicho told Takumi to be careful as they were could be dangerous, and it sounded more like GACKT warning Takumi, than Kaicho warning Takumi-senpai. After the snakes were released, they became more docile and didn’t move much. YOU knocked the box to try to get them to move, and then Kaicho got up and violently shook the table to get them nearer Takumi. They still didn’t get that close though.
On Day 1, Kaicho chose Madoka for the batsu game, and it involved him being in the crotch splitter while singing Tsumi no Keisho. Some of the senpais attached clips to his ears and then yanked them off, while Val was vacuuming his crotch. On Day 2, it was Val’s turn. On Day 3, Kaicho picked YOU. YOU was not happy about this, and marched over from the left side of the stage to where Kaicho was sitting on the right to argue about it. YOU’s argument was that he hadn’t done a game, so why was he being picked for the batsu game? Kaicho explained it was because he didn’t shake the snake box enough.
[Second half & setlist]
For the live, the opening video showed Madoka coming to Camui Gakuen as a new student. He said he was a champion dancer, and had just come from America. Kaicho misheard “America” as “Africa”, and started a running gag of mishearing Madoka’s name and ignoring him.
Here’s the setlist!
Opener - [Just a little] SPARK – The Yellow Monkey
1. Wataridori – Alexandros
2. Ultra Soul Medley 3
(LOVE PHANTOM – B’z
Makenaide – ZARD
Donna toki mo – Noriyuki Makihara
La La La – Maki Ohguro
Bye For Now – T-BOLAN
Niji – L’arc~en~ciel
Zurui Onna – Sharam Q
Koi Gokoro – B’z)
3. Zen Zen Zense - RADWIMPS
4. Saraba, Itoshiki Kanashimitachi yo - Momoiro Clover Z
5. Whoo-ha BABY!! – GACKT
6. SEASONS – Ayumi Hamasaki
7. Tada Aitakute – EXILE
THE BA・LUE HEARTS
8. Linda Linda – The Blue Hearts
9. Chisana Koi no Uta – Mongol 800
S.E.X. Japan (not on Day 1)
10. Pegasus Fantasy - Saint Seiya
11. X - X Japan
12. SMAP Medley
(SHAKE
Yozora no Mukou
Aoi Inzauma
SHAKE)
There were quite a few differences between Day 1 and the other days. The main difference was in the use of the pen lights (or “harenchi” (shameless) lights as Kaicho kept calling them). On Day 2 and 3, most of the songs had a certain colour he wanted everyone to use, whereas on Day 1, only Whoo-ha Baby had a colour. Kaicho explained the yorotikubi move again this year - for “yoro” you make a heart shape, for “tiku,” you put out your hands in sidewards V shapes, and for “bi” you put the Vs on your nipples. Only this time, he asked that when you put your fingers on your nipples, it’s done with an erotic face. For Kaicho, this means kissy faces and pouts, and whenever he did that, love hearts would appear around him on the screen.
SPARK is just the intro and the first couple of words.
On Day 1 for the Alexandros song, the crowd were asked to take off ties/ribbons. On Day 2, Kaicho explained an easy dance and asked everyone to switch their penlights to a certain colour. Kaicho said that it didn’t matter if people didn’t know this song, as he doesn’t know it either.
The Ultra Soul Medley was lots of fun, although it was similar to the first two medleys done on previous tours. Niji was a good example of Kaicho trolling, as some props were brought on stage for that song… and he only sang two words before moving to the next song. The dancers kept on trying to anticipate when Kaicho would sing “ultra soul” and move to the next song, but each time he did it earlier than they expected. So, for one song they tried to anticipate it early, but he kept going and tricked them that way.
(This is all from Niji)
For the RADWIMPS song, the crowd were asked to shout out the name of the person they loved during the chorus line, so there were lots of “Kaicho” chanting. There was also a very funny dance movement at the end where Kaicho asked everyone to lean to their left, and rapidly tap their right leg on the floor, like a dog in heat or something...
On Day 1 Kaicho said that he had been told that he looked like Yumeouji from Akumu-chan, and on Day 2 and 3 he said that a female student had asked him to be her Yumeouji, so they did a “non-stop respect version” of the drama’s theme song by Momokuro. Kaicho said that he also had a lot of respect for Tomoyasu Hotei, so they would respect both artists in the same song. Kaicho and the dancers copied the dance routine pretty well. For the last part of the song, everyone but Kaicho wore these huge masks of Hotei’s face (even Val had one on while he was drumming), and Kaicho added in an “e” sound after every syllable he sang, to kinda mimic Hotei’s singing style. On Day 3, some of the security in the crowd wore them too. Also, on Day 3, he explained that he would add these “e” sounds, and fanboyed whenever he mentioned Hotei. Kaicho would close his eyes and makes this shuddering “Uwhaaaa” sound. It was both cute and creepy in equal measures.
Whoo-ha Baby was the same routine as at the LAST VISUALIVE, only it was chibi Kaichos on screen instead of the regular Gakucchis and used the penlights. All of the senpais wore the cat ears, and Kaicho would get his literally clipped into his wig so they wouldn’t fall off. During the middle part, all of the dancers and Kaicho put a penlight in the place of their dicks, and then used the second one to show it… extending…
For the ballad section, Kaicho and the band wore these lovely white Gakuen cardigans instead of the usual heavy black coats.
SEASONS had the same intro and outro as the Nestle PV version. Kaicho did his usual MC where he comes across a female student and has a conversation with her. He made fun of how often he’s done this same MC though, by saying things like “you again?” and “you split up with your boyfriend again?” When he asked the girl her name, as always the crowd responded by shouting “Ayumi” and “Hamasaki.” This time though, he reacted to all of the voices coming at him from different angles and made comments about the girl’s voice sounding strange and wondering if there were spirits around.
For Tada Aitakute, it was just Kaicho on stage and a piano backing track. For his MC, he started by saying it was a beautiful moon, and wondered if the girl he was speaking about could remember some past memories. He started out by singing the song acapella and was hitting falsettos everywhere.
As soon as Kaicho left the stage, Val, Shinnosu and Takumi came out for The Balue Hearts set, with Kaicho joining them once he’d changed. Val started his MC by completely mocking the MC Kaicho had just done before the last song. Only, Val’s MC ended with him finding some business cards of the number one host at the Da Vinci host club, a guy called Bunta Shiratori.
The two songs that they performed had changed lyrics, and the new lyrics showed on the screen. “Linda Linda” was changed into “Bunta, Bunta” and was about this host. At the end of the song, it’s revealed that Bunta is Shinnosu. At the beginning of the song, Kaicho (well, Gasshi) played a riff, and Val sang a few words, while pulling strange faces. Val then held the strange face until Kaicho played the next riff. On Day 3, Kaicho looked back at the screen to see Val’s faces, and made him hold some of them for a pretty long time.
On Day 1 before Chisana Koi no Uta, Val’s MC was about being a fan of an artist. He asked the crowd if they had a body pillow of their favourite artist, or posters on their walls, and he said that he a doll of his favourite artist. I don’t fully remember his MC on Day 2, but I think it was more of a generic love MC. He also interacted with the other members a lot more on Day 2 and 3, talking to each one in turn (although they never talk back to him or acknowledge him in anyway) and was punched in the face by Kaicho on Day 2. On Day 3, Kaicho threw the mic stand at him, and Takumi threw a banana in his face. Also on Day 3, both Takumi and Kaicho cracked up laughing. It was the first time I’d seen Takumi laugh at a Gakuensai show, and I think it was a holdover from the Balue Hearts solo show the day before (I’ll get to a report on that soon too). Kaicho cracked up three or four times at different things, and had to turn his back on the crowd to regain his composure. At the end of the set Val tries to time a jump, but the rest of the band don’t play ball, and Val ended up lying in a heap on the floor. The other 3 members all glared at him before leaving, and Kaicho literally stepped right on him on his way off the stage.
(Valto is scared to approach Gasshi, hahaha)
Chisana Koi no Uta was turned into a song about a blow up sex doll. There were close ups of this doll flying across the screen as Val sang about fixing punctures and G-spots.
On Day 1, it skipped straight to the ending video and SMAP encore. On Day 2 and 3, the S.E.X. Japan set was added in. A video showed of Madoka and Kaicho talking about the next set. Madoka struggled to read a letter saying that Chacha was back in France (because of course Madoka can’t read Japanese properly…), and Kaicho got him mixed up with Obama. Kaicho said not to worry, as he had someone to sing.
The band members were the same as always, with YOU and Takumi on guitar, Sato on bass and Kaicho on drums. The singer was (sa)Toshi. Before the Day 2 show, several of the senpais posted a video that they said was homework from Kaicho, and it was to listen to “Pegasus Fantasy,” the theme song from the anime “Saint Seiya,” and this was the first song they did. It’s really epic, even in the anime version, and sounded good with the S.E.X Japan treatment. It was good to see them do something new. The performance of X was the same as always.
Next, another video showed of the senpai dancers (and YOU) trying to sort out a big dance number for the encore. The senpais suggested a K-pop routine, and then AKB, but both of them had been done. Madoka suggested a more western, hip hop style dance, and then Kaicho yelled at them for disturbing his not-wine drinking.
After the video, Kaicho, the band and dancers came out in the sportswear and flashy orange/red Skechers, as Skechers are a tour sponsor. They danced and mimed their way through the SMAP medley, and it was a lot of fun. They all wore one of the LVL tanktops underneath, and Kaicho has his hoodie unzipped to perfection. It falls off his left shoulder, showing off his arm and a little side boob, without falling off completely and looks completely accidental and effortless. Although it obviously isn’t...
And that was it. Kaicho wished everyone a safe journey home and it was over.
Day 1 was rather late, but Days 2 and 3 were only about ten minutes late.
[First half]
All of the show announcements were handled by Hagichan-senpai. He’s a comedian who’s worked with GACKT on some NicoNico broadcasts before. As always there was the school song, and then the opening address from Principal H.
Prinicpal H. is GACKT’s sound producer Hemmi. If you don’t remember, he’s the guy that “caused” all of the tabloid trouble earlier this year (quick recap – an alleged ex of GACKT’s allegedly attempted suicide after her engagement to Hemmi was called off). His speech was full of references and jokes about being in the tabloids, and on Day 2 they showed the article on the screen. When he couldn’t read his speech, he pulled out a pair of glasses with a black bar over them, to mimic how the tabloid had concealed his identity in the article by putting a black bar over his eyes. He also had a copy of the magazine. He read out some of the school rules that were all based around staying out of tabloids, and then it was time for Kaicho to arrive.
As always, Kaicho walked through the crowd and took to the stage. His opening speech was pretty standard too. The tour this year is called Hirakinasai, and as hiraku can mean “open,” he wants us all to open our hearts and bodies and be good Camui Gakuen students. He announced the winners of the Mr. and Ms. Camui Gakuen contests. On Day 1 he didn’t award a Mr. Gakuen as he didn’t think any of the photos sent in were smiley enough. The lady who won Ms. Gakuen on Day 1 cried, but managed to get a hug out of him. The Day 2 winners were both pretty normal. On Day 3, Mr. Gakuen was a high school aged boy that had sent in a photo of him pulling a very strange face. When he went on stage and just had a normal expression, Kaicho told him that his face was different.
Then, Kaicho introduced F9. Whenever he does their introduction, he asks F9 if they’re ready, and every time somebody from the crowd answers with a “kashikomari”, too. Then, Kaicho gets to yell at the crowd as they’re not in F9 and shouldn’t shout too. On Day 1, nobody in the crowd shouted. Kaicho seemed pretty unhappy that he couldn’t yell at the crowd, and all the senpais were staring at him and amused by his pouting. Eventually Kaicho congratulated everyone on being the first crowd ever in about 8 years of doing the shows that didn’t mess that part up. On Day 2, he didn’t do this part at all! On Day 3, he did do this part and as a few people in the crowd shouted “kashikomari,” he was able to tell everyone off. Val was announced as the winner of the sales contest on Day 1, and Sato won on both Day 2 and Day 3.
Kaicho left the stage and F9 danced to Paparapa. After the dance finished, they left the stage and Shinnosu came out wearing the new red training gear with the low crotch. Shinnosu always asks the crowds what they think of the new training gear for that year, and he usually gets an enthusiastic response. On Day 1 it was very muted, which at first he seemed surprised at, and then he started talking about how low the crotch was. He even remarked on Day 2 about the lukewarm reception the outfits received on Day 1.
Shinnosu read out some comments from the fans to stall for time. On Day 1 a fan asked if YOU preferred sailor style school uniforms or blazer style (he later answered sailor style), one fan told Takumi to go to AGA to get his baldness sorted out, and another fan addressed her letter to Val and it was literally just “I like you. Not really.” On Day 2, two different people put questions in the box and attached AGA flyers for Takumi. Takumi later said that he was getting them in his present box too. On Day 3, someone asked Takumi how his hair was doing.
F9 came out in the training gear, and Kaicho came back out in his uniform to sit and watch the oncoming madness. Hagi-chan acted as Kaicho’s mic stand, as he was kneeling next to Kaicho’s chair and holding his mic when Kaicho didn’t want to talk.
All of the games are based on Tsumi no Keisho and its video, with the worst performing senpai being nominated by Kaicho for another themed punishment game.
The first game was a real daruma game.
It involved some thick discs, each a couple of feet high and a few feet wide, being stacked on top of each other until they were about two metres tall. Then, a senpai would climb on top, while another hit the discs out with a hammer. To win the game, you have to stay on the discs. There were crash mats brought out all over the stage for this.
On Day 1, the first pair was Rassan on top, and Sato to hit. They failed in a spectacular fashion. Kaicho thought it was hilarious and immediately wanted to see the replay. The next pair was Madoka on top and YOU to hit. They nearly managed a disc, but then Madoka fell backwards and landed on his crotch.
On Day 2, the first pair was You-Suke and Val. They decided that Val would hit the discs when he said the “ro” in “hokuro” (“hokuro” means “mole” in Japanese, and of course Val has a noticeable mole on his face). They failed, and You-Suke landed on his butt on one of the discs as he fell. The second pair was Tennen and Takumi. Tennen said he was scared of heights, and didn’t look very happy up top! They failed too.
On Day 3, the first pair was You-Suke and Sato. Sato hit the disc out almost perfectly, but You-Suke couldn’t stick the landing. Rassan and Val didn’t have as much luck and failed too. After seeing both pairs fail, Kaicho started to explain how it should be done, so Shinnosu and the crowd asked Kaicho to try. He agreed to, and Madoka volunteered to be on top. Kaicho asked Madoka to demonstrate how he was going to jump, and then told Madoka how he should jump. Kaicho hit the discs left-handed, and for the first time on the tour, not only managed to hit a disc out, but hit several! Madoka fell on the very last disc! The second disc was a close call as Madoka landed on his back instead of his feet, but they managed it! Trust Kaicho to do something nobody else can...
On Day 1, the second game was a three senpai game. The first senpai was blindfolded, like the Tsumi no Keisho video, and had headphones so he could neither see nor hear. The second senpai was to act as his arms, and also couldn’t see. The third senpai was the navigator that had to direct the second senpai. A tray of spicy or gross sauces was brought out, and the idea was to dunk a chicken nugget in a sauce, and make the blindfolded senpai taste it and guess what it was.
For the first round, Val was blindfolded, a dancer (Tennen, I think) was the arms, and Takumi was the navigator. Val ended up with more sauce on his face than in his mouth, and seemed to be really suffering from how hot it was.
For the second round, Hayato was blindfolded, another dancer was the arms (You-suke, I think), and Kaicho volunteered himself as the navigator. Vegemite was one of the sauces, and Kaicho had no idea what it was (seriously, GACKT? You’ve been to Australia how many times now?) Kaicho was Kaicho, and had the chicken dipped in three sauces before he was happy to paint Hayato’s face with it.
On Day 2 and 3, the game involved a senpai lying on a trolley, and having his head shoved into a box, that would then be filled with something disgusting…. They then had to identify what it was. The first senpai to play the game was Hayato, and they filled his box with some small lizards. Only, the lizards didn’t play along much, and didn’t move too close to him.
For the second game, Kiryuuin Sho from Golden Bomber came out, and was forced into playing. He put his head in the box, and had to contend with Madagascan cockroaches. If you’ve never seen these, they’re huge. Kaicho was sat on his chair with his feet pulled up, and was hugging his knees to his chest. Sho could identify them as cockroaches, but not the breed so he lost.
(Hayato on Day 3)
On Day 3, it was Hayato again, but with bigger lizards. Again, they didn’t get that close to him. After Hayato finished, Kaicho grabbed Val’s hand and shoved it in the box so that Val had to touch them. Then Kaicho touched them, too. I think he was trying to pick one up, but it didn’t want to be picked up. The second senpai to play this game was Takumi, and his box was full of snakes. There were so many snakes! They were pretty small, but were pretty animated before they were released. Kaicho told Takumi to be careful as they were could be dangerous, and it sounded more like GACKT warning Takumi, than Kaicho warning Takumi-senpai. After the snakes were released, they became more docile and didn’t move much. YOU knocked the box to try to get them to move, and then Kaicho got up and violently shook the table to get them nearer Takumi. They still didn’t get that close though.
On Day 1, Kaicho chose Madoka for the batsu game, and it involved him being in the crotch splitter while singing Tsumi no Keisho. Some of the senpais attached clips to his ears and then yanked them off, while Val was vacuuming his crotch. On Day 2, it was Val’s turn. On Day 3, Kaicho picked YOU. YOU was not happy about this, and marched over from the left side of the stage to where Kaicho was sitting on the right to argue about it. YOU’s argument was that he hadn’t done a game, so why was he being picked for the batsu game? Kaicho explained it was because he didn’t shake the snake box enough.
[Second half & setlist]
For the live, the opening video showed Madoka coming to Camui Gakuen as a new student. He said he was a champion dancer, and had just come from America. Kaicho misheard “America” as “Africa”, and started a running gag of mishearing Madoka’s name and ignoring him.
Here’s the setlist!
Opener - [Just a little] SPARK – The Yellow Monkey
1. Wataridori – Alexandros
2. Ultra Soul Medley 3
(LOVE PHANTOM – B’z
Makenaide – ZARD
Donna toki mo – Noriyuki Makihara
La La La – Maki Ohguro
Bye For Now – T-BOLAN
Niji – L’arc~en~ciel
Zurui Onna – Sharam Q
Koi Gokoro – B’z)
3. Zen Zen Zense - RADWIMPS
4. Saraba, Itoshiki Kanashimitachi yo - Momoiro Clover Z
5. Whoo-ha BABY!! – GACKT
6. SEASONS – Ayumi Hamasaki
7. Tada Aitakute – EXILE
THE BA・LUE HEARTS
8. Linda Linda – The Blue Hearts
9. Chisana Koi no Uta – Mongol 800
S.E.X. Japan (not on Day 1)
10. Pegasus Fantasy - Saint Seiya
11. X - X Japan
12. SMAP Medley
(SHAKE
Yozora no Mukou
Aoi Inzauma
SHAKE)
There were quite a few differences between Day 1 and the other days. The main difference was in the use of the pen lights (or “harenchi” (shameless) lights as Kaicho kept calling them). On Day 2 and 3, most of the songs had a certain colour he wanted everyone to use, whereas on Day 1, only Whoo-ha Baby had a colour. Kaicho explained the yorotikubi move again this year - for “yoro” you make a heart shape, for “tiku,” you put out your hands in sidewards V shapes, and for “bi” you put the Vs on your nipples. Only this time, he asked that when you put your fingers on your nipples, it’s done with an erotic face. For Kaicho, this means kissy faces and pouts, and whenever he did that, love hearts would appear around him on the screen.
SPARK is just the intro and the first couple of words.
On Day 1 for the Alexandros song, the crowd were asked to take off ties/ribbons. On Day 2, Kaicho explained an easy dance and asked everyone to switch their penlights to a certain colour. Kaicho said that it didn’t matter if people didn’t know this song, as he doesn’t know it either.
The Ultra Soul Medley was lots of fun, although it was similar to the first two medleys done on previous tours. Niji was a good example of Kaicho trolling, as some props were brought on stage for that song… and he only sang two words before moving to the next song. The dancers kept on trying to anticipate when Kaicho would sing “ultra soul” and move to the next song, but each time he did it earlier than they expected. So, for one song they tried to anticipate it early, but he kept going and tricked them that way.
(This is all from Niji)
For the RADWIMPS song, the crowd were asked to shout out the name of the person they loved during the chorus line, so there were lots of “Kaicho” chanting. There was also a very funny dance movement at the end where Kaicho asked everyone to lean to their left, and rapidly tap their right leg on the floor, like a dog in heat or something...
On Day 1 Kaicho said that he had been told that he looked like Yumeouji from Akumu-chan, and on Day 2 and 3 he said that a female student had asked him to be her Yumeouji, so they did a “non-stop respect version” of the drama’s theme song by Momokuro. Kaicho said that he also had a lot of respect for Tomoyasu Hotei, so they would respect both artists in the same song. Kaicho and the dancers copied the dance routine pretty well. For the last part of the song, everyone but Kaicho wore these huge masks of Hotei’s face (even Val had one on while he was drumming), and Kaicho added in an “e” sound after every syllable he sang, to kinda mimic Hotei’s singing style. On Day 3, some of the security in the crowd wore them too. Also, on Day 3, he explained that he would add these “e” sounds, and fanboyed whenever he mentioned Hotei. Kaicho would close his eyes and makes this shuddering “Uwhaaaa” sound. It was both cute and creepy in equal measures.
Whoo-ha Baby was the same routine as at the LAST VISUALIVE, only it was chibi Kaichos on screen instead of the regular Gakucchis and used the penlights. All of the senpais wore the cat ears, and Kaicho would get his literally clipped into his wig so they wouldn’t fall off. During the middle part, all of the dancers and Kaicho put a penlight in the place of their dicks, and then used the second one to show it… extending…
For the ballad section, Kaicho and the band wore these lovely white Gakuen cardigans instead of the usual heavy black coats.
SEASONS had the same intro and outro as the Nestle PV version. Kaicho did his usual MC where he comes across a female student and has a conversation with her. He made fun of how often he’s done this same MC though, by saying things like “you again?” and “you split up with your boyfriend again?” When he asked the girl her name, as always the crowd responded by shouting “Ayumi” and “Hamasaki.” This time though, he reacted to all of the voices coming at him from different angles and made comments about the girl’s voice sounding strange and wondering if there were spirits around.
For Tada Aitakute, it was just Kaicho on stage and a piano backing track. For his MC, he started by saying it was a beautiful moon, and wondered if the girl he was speaking about could remember some past memories. He started out by singing the song acapella and was hitting falsettos everywhere.
As soon as Kaicho left the stage, Val, Shinnosu and Takumi came out for The Balue Hearts set, with Kaicho joining them once he’d changed. Val started his MC by completely mocking the MC Kaicho had just done before the last song. Only, Val’s MC ended with him finding some business cards of the number one host at the Da Vinci host club, a guy called Bunta Shiratori.
The two songs that they performed had changed lyrics, and the new lyrics showed on the screen. “Linda Linda” was changed into “Bunta, Bunta” and was about this host. At the end of the song, it’s revealed that Bunta is Shinnosu. At the beginning of the song, Kaicho (well, Gasshi) played a riff, and Val sang a few words, while pulling strange faces. Val then held the strange face until Kaicho played the next riff. On Day 3, Kaicho looked back at the screen to see Val’s faces, and made him hold some of them for a pretty long time.
On Day 1 before Chisana Koi no Uta, Val’s MC was about being a fan of an artist. He asked the crowd if they had a body pillow of their favourite artist, or posters on their walls, and he said that he a doll of his favourite artist. I don’t fully remember his MC on Day 2, but I think it was more of a generic love MC. He also interacted with the other members a lot more on Day 2 and 3, talking to each one in turn (although they never talk back to him or acknowledge him in anyway) and was punched in the face by Kaicho on Day 2. On Day 3, Kaicho threw the mic stand at him, and Takumi threw a banana in his face. Also on Day 3, both Takumi and Kaicho cracked up laughing. It was the first time I’d seen Takumi laugh at a Gakuensai show, and I think it was a holdover from the Balue Hearts solo show the day before (I’ll get to a report on that soon too). Kaicho cracked up three or four times at different things, and had to turn his back on the crowd to regain his composure. At the end of the set Val tries to time a jump, but the rest of the band don’t play ball, and Val ended up lying in a heap on the floor. The other 3 members all glared at him before leaving, and Kaicho literally stepped right on him on his way off the stage.
(Valto is scared to approach Gasshi, hahaha)
Chisana Koi no Uta was turned into a song about a blow up sex doll. There were close ups of this doll flying across the screen as Val sang about fixing punctures and G-spots.
On Day 1, it skipped straight to the ending video and SMAP encore. On Day 2 and 3, the S.E.X. Japan set was added in. A video showed of Madoka and Kaicho talking about the next set. Madoka struggled to read a letter saying that Chacha was back in France (because of course Madoka can’t read Japanese properly…), and Kaicho got him mixed up with Obama. Kaicho said not to worry, as he had someone to sing.
The band members were the same as always, with YOU and Takumi on guitar, Sato on bass and Kaicho on drums. The singer was (sa)Toshi. Before the Day 2 show, several of the senpais posted a video that they said was homework from Kaicho, and it was to listen to “Pegasus Fantasy,” the theme song from the anime “Saint Seiya,” and this was the first song they did. It’s really epic, even in the anime version, and sounded good with the S.E.X Japan treatment. It was good to see them do something new. The performance of X was the same as always.
Next, another video showed of the senpai dancers (and YOU) trying to sort out a big dance number for the encore. The senpais suggested a K-pop routine, and then AKB, but both of them had been done. Madoka suggested a more western, hip hop style dance, and then Kaicho yelled at them for disturbing his not-wine drinking.
After the video, Kaicho, the band and dancers came out in the sportswear and flashy orange/red Skechers, as Skechers are a tour sponsor. They danced and mimed their way through the SMAP medley, and it was a lot of fun. They all wore one of the LVL tanktops underneath, and Kaicho has his hoodie unzipped to perfection. It falls off his left shoulder, showing off his arm and a little side boob, without falling off completely and looks completely accidental and effortless. Although it obviously isn’t...
And that was it. Kaicho wished everyone a safe journey home and it was over.
Camui♂Gakuen de Hirakinasai report - Tokyo Day 1
Just a quick, rough, ready and how did this get so long, Gakuensai report from the first night. Obviously, spoilers everywhere.
[Spoiler (click to open)]
Everything started, unsurprisingly, late. The doors were due to open at 5pm, with the show starting at 6pm, but at 6pm the doors were still shut and the band members were outside just beginning to sell photocards. It finally started at 6:50pm, and was finished around 10pm. There was a 20 minute interval.
GACKTs sound producer Hemmi did the opening speech. If you don’t remember, he ‘s the guy that “caused” all of the tabloid trouble earlier this year (quick recap – an alleged ex of GACKT’s allegedly attempted suicide after her engagement to Hemmi was called off). His speech was full of references and jokes about being in the tabloids, he had a pair of glasses with a black bar over them, to mimic how tabloids black out people’s faces with a bar, and also had a copy of the magazine. He also has a surprisingly nice speaking voice.
Kaicho did his usual opening speech. He didn’t award a Mr. Gakuen as he didn’t think any photos sent in were good enough. The lady who won Ms. Gakuen cried, but managed to get a hug out of him.
Kaicho introduced F9. Whenever he does their introduction, he asks F9 if they’re ready, and every time somebody from the crowd shouts too. Then, Kaicho gets to yell at the crowd for not being in F9. This time, nobody in the crowd shouted. Kaicho seemed pretty unhappy that he couldn’t yell at the crowd, but eventually congratulated everyone on being the first crowd ever to not mess that part up. Val was announced as the winner of the sales contest.
Kaicho left the stage and F9 danced to Paparapa. After the dance finished, they left the stage and Shinnosu came out wearing the new red training gear with the low crotch. Shinnosu always asks the crowds what they think of the new training gear for that year, and he usually gets an enthusiastic response. It was a bit muted this year, which at first he seemed surprised at, and then he started talking about how low the crotch was. In other words – NOBODY LIKES THE DROP CROTCH PANTS.
Shinnosu read out some comments from the fans to stall for time. A fan asked if YOU preferred sailor style school uniforms or blazer style (he later answered sailor style), one fan told Takumi to go to AGA to get his baldness sorted out, and another fan addressed her letter to Val and it was literally just “I like you. Not really.”
F9 came out in the training gear, and Kaicho came back out in his uniform to sit and watch the oncoming madness. Hagi-chan was doing the announcements this year, and he acted as Kaicho’s mic stand, as he was kneeling next to Kaicho’s chair and holding his mic when Kaicho didn’t want to talk.
All of the games are based on Tsumi no Keisho and its video. The first game was a real daruma game. It involved some thick discs, each a couple of feet high and a few feet wide, being stacked on top of each other until they were about two metres tall. Then, a senpai would climb on top, while another hit the discs out with a hammer. To win the game, you have to stay on the discs. There were crash mats brought out all over the stage for this.
The first pair was Rassan on top, and Sato to hit. They failed in a spectacular fashion. Kaicho thought it was hilarious and immediately wanted to see the replay. The next pair was Madoka on top and YOU to hit. They nearly managed a disc, but then Madoka fell backwards and landed on his crotch.
The second game was a three senpai game. The first senpai was blindfolded, like the Tsumi no Keisho video, and had headphones so he could neither see nor hear. The second senpai was to act as his arms, and also couldn’t see. The third senpai was the navigator that had to direct the second senpai. A tray of spicy or gross sauces was brought out, and the idea was to dunk a chicken nugget in a sauce, and make the blindfolded senpai taste it and guess what it was.
For the first round, Val was blindfolded, a dancer (Tennen, I think) was the arms, and Takumi was the navigator. Val ended up with more sauce on his face than in his mouth, and seemed to be really suffering from how hot it was.
For the second round, Hayato was blindfolded, another dancer was the arms (You-suke, I think), and Kaicho volunteered himself as the navigator. Vegemite was one of the sauces, and Kaicho had no idea what it was (seriously, GACKT? You’ve been to Australia how many times now?) Kaicho was Kaicho, and had the chicken dipped in three sauces before he was happy to paint Hayato’s face with it.
Kaicho chose Madoka for the batsu game, and it involved him being in the crotch splitter while singing Tsumi no Keisho. Some of the senpais attached clips to his ears and then yanked them off, while Val was vacuuming his crotch.
For the live, the opening video showed Madoka coming to Camui Gakuen as a new student. He was acting like he was an exchange student from America, there were jokes about him being from Africa, it was a mess, let’s move on…
Here’s the setlist!
Opener - [Just a little] SPARK – The Yellow Monkey
1. Wataridori – Alexandros
2. Ultra Soul Medley 3
LOVE PHANTOM – B’z
Makenaide – ZARD
Donna toki mo – Noriyuki Makihara
La La La – Maki Ohguro
Bye For Now – T-BOLAN
Niji – L’arc~en~ciel
Zurui Onna – Sharam Q
Koi Gokoro – B’z
3. Zen Zen Zense - RADWIMPS
4. Saraba, Itoshiki Kanashimitachi yo - Momoiro Clover Z
5. Whoo-ha BABY!! – GACKT
6. SEASONS – Ayumi Hamasaki
7. Tada Aitakute – EXILE
THE BA・LUE HEARTS
8. Linda Linda – The Blue Hearts
9. Chisana Koi no Uta – Mongol 800
10. SMAP Medley
SHAKE
Yozora no Mukou
Aoi Inzauma
SHAKE
(I think this is right and complete. I may have the RADWIMPS song in the wrong place. Apologies in advance for any mistakes!)
For the Alexandros song, the crowd were asked to take off ties/ribbons.
The Ultra Soul Medley was lots of fun, although it was similar to the first two. Niji was a good example of Kaicho trolling, as some props were brought on stage for that song… and he only sang two words before moving to the next song, hahahaha.
For the RADWIMPS song, the crowd were asked to shout out the name of the person they loved during the chorus line, and the screen just prompted everyone to shout ”Kaicho.”
Kaicho said that he had been told that he looked like Yumeouji from Akumu-chan, so they did a “full respect version” of the drama’s theme song. Kaicho and the dancers copied the dance routine pretty well. For the last part of the song, everyone but Kaicho wore these huge masks of the same guys face (even Val had one on while he was drumming), but the joke kinda flew over my head a little because I didn’t recognize the guy. Sorry!
Whoo-ha Baby was the same routine as at the LAST VISUALIVE, only it was chibi Kaichos on screen instead of the regular Gakucchis and used the penlights. During the middle part, all of the dancers and Kaicho put a penlight in the place of their dicks, and then used the second one to show it… extending…
For the ballad section, Kaicho and the band wore these lovely Gakuen cardigans that they need to sell because I’ll totally buy one.
SEASONS had the same intro and outro as the Nestle PV version.
For Tada Aitakute, it was just Kaicho on stage and a piano backing track. He started out by singing acapella and was hitting falsettos everywhere.
As soon as Kaicho left the stage, Val, Shinnosu and Takumi came out for The Balue Hearts set, with Kaicho joining them once he’d changed. I don’t know where to start with this one… The two songs that they performed had changed lyrics, and the new lyrics showed on the screen. From where I was sitting, I couldn’t always see the lyrics, because part of the drum kit was in the way. Shinnosu is apparently the most popular host at a host club…
Before Chisana Koi no Uta, Val’s MC was about being a fan of an artist. He asked the crowd if they had a body pillow of their favourite artist, or posters on their walls, and he said that he a doll of his favourite artist. So, Chisana Koi no Uta turned into a song about Val’s blow up sex doll. There were close ups of this doll flying across the screen as he’s singing about holes and G-spots.
Those Balue Heart shows are gonna be a trip.
Next, another video showed of the senpai dancers (and YOU) trying to sort out a big dance number.
After the video, Kaicho, the band and dancers came out in the sportswear and flashy orange/red Skechers, as Skechers are a tour sponsor. They danced and mimed their way through the SMAP medley, and someone should tell Kaicho that hip thrusting in those awful drop crotch pants is not sexy.
And that was it. Kaicho wished us all a safe journey home and it was over. No X set, no dressing as girls… It seemed a little short, to be honest, like there were a couple of songs missing. I think many fans in the audience felt the same way, as it took a few moments, and for the end of show announcements to start for people to realise it really was done.
[Spoiler (click to open)]
Everything started, unsurprisingly, late. The doors were due to open at 5pm, with the show starting at 6pm, but at 6pm the doors were still shut and the band members were outside just beginning to sell photocards. It finally started at 6:50pm, and was finished around 10pm. There was a 20 minute interval.
GACKTs sound producer Hemmi did the opening speech. If you don’t remember, he ‘s the guy that “caused” all of the tabloid trouble earlier this year (quick recap – an alleged ex of GACKT’s allegedly attempted suicide after her engagement to Hemmi was called off). His speech was full of references and jokes about being in the tabloids, he had a pair of glasses with a black bar over them, to mimic how tabloids black out people’s faces with a bar, and also had a copy of the magazine. He also has a surprisingly nice speaking voice.
Kaicho did his usual opening speech. He didn’t award a Mr. Gakuen as he didn’t think any photos sent in were good enough. The lady who won Ms. Gakuen cried, but managed to get a hug out of him.
Kaicho introduced F9. Whenever he does their introduction, he asks F9 if they’re ready, and every time somebody from the crowd shouts too. Then, Kaicho gets to yell at the crowd for not being in F9. This time, nobody in the crowd shouted. Kaicho seemed pretty unhappy that he couldn’t yell at the crowd, but eventually congratulated everyone on being the first crowd ever to not mess that part up. Val was announced as the winner of the sales contest.
Kaicho left the stage and F9 danced to Paparapa. After the dance finished, they left the stage and Shinnosu came out wearing the new red training gear with the low crotch. Shinnosu always asks the crowds what they think of the new training gear for that year, and he usually gets an enthusiastic response. It was a bit muted this year, which at first he seemed surprised at, and then he started talking about how low the crotch was. In other words – NOBODY LIKES THE DROP CROTCH PANTS.
Shinnosu read out some comments from the fans to stall for time. A fan asked if YOU preferred sailor style school uniforms or blazer style (he later answered sailor style), one fan told Takumi to go to AGA to get his baldness sorted out, and another fan addressed her letter to Val and it was literally just “I like you. Not really.”
F9 came out in the training gear, and Kaicho came back out in his uniform to sit and watch the oncoming madness. Hagi-chan was doing the announcements this year, and he acted as Kaicho’s mic stand, as he was kneeling next to Kaicho’s chair and holding his mic when Kaicho didn’t want to talk.
All of the games are based on Tsumi no Keisho and its video. The first game was a real daruma game. It involved some thick discs, each a couple of feet high and a few feet wide, being stacked on top of each other until they were about two metres tall. Then, a senpai would climb on top, while another hit the discs out with a hammer. To win the game, you have to stay on the discs. There were crash mats brought out all over the stage for this.
The first pair was Rassan on top, and Sato to hit. They failed in a spectacular fashion. Kaicho thought it was hilarious and immediately wanted to see the replay. The next pair was Madoka on top and YOU to hit. They nearly managed a disc, but then Madoka fell backwards and landed on his crotch.
The second game was a three senpai game. The first senpai was blindfolded, like the Tsumi no Keisho video, and had headphones so he could neither see nor hear. The second senpai was to act as his arms, and also couldn’t see. The third senpai was the navigator that had to direct the second senpai. A tray of spicy or gross sauces was brought out, and the idea was to dunk a chicken nugget in a sauce, and make the blindfolded senpai taste it and guess what it was.
For the first round, Val was blindfolded, a dancer (Tennen, I think) was the arms, and Takumi was the navigator. Val ended up with more sauce on his face than in his mouth, and seemed to be really suffering from how hot it was.
For the second round, Hayato was blindfolded, another dancer was the arms (You-suke, I think), and Kaicho volunteered himself as the navigator. Vegemite was one of the sauces, and Kaicho had no idea what it was (seriously, GACKT? You’ve been to Australia how many times now?) Kaicho was Kaicho, and had the chicken dipped in three sauces before he was happy to paint Hayato’s face with it.
Kaicho chose Madoka for the batsu game, and it involved him being in the crotch splitter while singing Tsumi no Keisho. Some of the senpais attached clips to his ears and then yanked them off, while Val was vacuuming his crotch.
For the live, the opening video showed Madoka coming to Camui Gakuen as a new student. He was acting like he was an exchange student from America, there were jokes about him being from Africa, it was a mess, let’s move on…
Here’s the setlist!
Opener - [Just a little] SPARK – The Yellow Monkey
1. Wataridori – Alexandros
2. Ultra Soul Medley 3
LOVE PHANTOM – B’z
Makenaide – ZARD
Donna toki mo – Noriyuki Makihara
La La La – Maki Ohguro
Bye For Now – T-BOLAN
Niji – L’arc~en~ciel
Zurui Onna – Sharam Q
Koi Gokoro – B’z
3. Zen Zen Zense - RADWIMPS
4. Saraba, Itoshiki Kanashimitachi yo - Momoiro Clover Z
5. Whoo-ha BABY!! – GACKT
6. SEASONS – Ayumi Hamasaki
7. Tada Aitakute – EXILE
THE BA・LUE HEARTS
8. Linda Linda – The Blue Hearts
9. Chisana Koi no Uta – Mongol 800
10. SMAP Medley
SHAKE
Yozora no Mukou
Aoi Inzauma
SHAKE
(I think this is right and complete. I may have the RADWIMPS song in the wrong place. Apologies in advance for any mistakes!)
For the Alexandros song, the crowd were asked to take off ties/ribbons.
The Ultra Soul Medley was lots of fun, although it was similar to the first two. Niji was a good example of Kaicho trolling, as some props were brought on stage for that song… and he only sang two words before moving to the next song, hahahaha.
For the RADWIMPS song, the crowd were asked to shout out the name of the person they loved during the chorus line, and the screen just prompted everyone to shout ”Kaicho.”
Kaicho said that he had been told that he looked like Yumeouji from Akumu-chan, so they did a “full respect version” of the drama’s theme song. Kaicho and the dancers copied the dance routine pretty well. For the last part of the song, everyone but Kaicho wore these huge masks of the same guys face (even Val had one on while he was drumming), but the joke kinda flew over my head a little because I didn’t recognize the guy. Sorry!
Whoo-ha Baby was the same routine as at the LAST VISUALIVE, only it was chibi Kaichos on screen instead of the regular Gakucchis and used the penlights. During the middle part, all of the dancers and Kaicho put a penlight in the place of their dicks, and then used the second one to show it… extending…
For the ballad section, Kaicho and the band wore these lovely Gakuen cardigans that they need to sell because I’ll totally buy one.
SEASONS had the same intro and outro as the Nestle PV version.
For Tada Aitakute, it was just Kaicho on stage and a piano backing track. He started out by singing acapella and was hitting falsettos everywhere.
As soon as Kaicho left the stage, Val, Shinnosu and Takumi came out for The Balue Hearts set, with Kaicho joining them once he’d changed. I don’t know where to start with this one… The two songs that they performed had changed lyrics, and the new lyrics showed on the screen. From where I was sitting, I couldn’t always see the lyrics, because part of the drum kit was in the way. Shinnosu is apparently the most popular host at a host club…
Before Chisana Koi no Uta, Val’s MC was about being a fan of an artist. He asked the crowd if they had a body pillow of their favourite artist, or posters on their walls, and he said that he a doll of his favourite artist. So, Chisana Koi no Uta turned into a song about Val’s blow up sex doll. There were close ups of this doll flying across the screen as he’s singing about holes and G-spots.
Those Balue Heart shows are gonna be a trip.
Next, another video showed of the senpai dancers (and YOU) trying to sort out a big dance number.
After the video, Kaicho, the band and dancers came out in the sportswear and flashy orange/red Skechers, as Skechers are a tour sponsor. They danced and mimed their way through the SMAP medley, and someone should tell Kaicho that hip thrusting in those awful drop crotch pants is not sexy.
And that was it. Kaicho wished us all a safe journey home and it was over. No X set, no dressing as girls… It seemed a little short, to be honest, like there were a couple of songs missing. I think many fans in the audience felt the same way, as it took a few moments, and for the end of show announcements to start for people to realise it really was done.
[report] GACKT's 43rd BIRTHDAY PARTY
July 4th was GACKT's 43rd birthday, and there were two fanclub events held on that day to celebrate. I only started writing this on July 7th and didn't take any notes, so I've forgotten quite a lot of what happened and what was said. Sorry!
The event was in the banquet hall at the ANA Intercontinental Hotel.
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Timing issues aside, it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the babanuki games the most. It got really tense when the players were trying to chose what card to take and were trying to read each other’s faces. Being able to see what cards they were picking on the screens helped ramp up the tension.
Each talk event ran about three hours, so I guess it was value for money...? Hahahaha.
The event was in the banquet hall at the ANA Intercontinental Hotel.
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Timing issues aside, it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the babanuki games the most. It got really tense when the players were trying to chose what card to take and were trying to read each other’s faces. Being able to see what cards they were picking on the screens helped ramp up the tension.
Each talk event ran about three hours, so I guess it was value for money...? Hahahaha.
LAST VISUALIVE report
I haven’t written anything about the LAST VISUALIVES, but I was trying to remember the details of GACKT’s MCs, and when I realised I couldn’t remember what he said at the first shows I went to, I figured I should write down what I could remember. Otherwise, I’d just forget what I could remember now later too. Then it turned into writing out the mid-show Gakuen movies… and became writing out most of it.
Spoilers abound. They keep slightly altering the movies, so no doubt some of the details have changed/will change. I'm also doing this from memory, having not taken any notes from any of the shows, but hopefully my memory isn't too faulty.
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Now, personal opinion time. I think it's a really good show. Part I is probably the weakest part, because of the lack of interaction or movement. Part III is ridiculously fun, and it's been made more so by how much GACKT seems to be genuinely enjoying himself on stage and enjoying performing the songs. The songs sound good live, I wasn't particularly impressed with WooHaa Baby or Koi no Friday when I first heard the recorded versions before the tour started, but the live versions won me over. Of course, as always, GACKT doesn't believe in sending the audience home smiling and it does get overly dramatic at times, but it wouldn't be a GACKT live if it wasn't overly dramatic. It does follow basically the exact same pattern and pacing as RRII, but I guess that's the VISUALIVE system.
The shows are clocking in at around 3 hours 30 minutes to 3 hours 45 minutes right now, and he's typically not starting that late anymore. If you're planning travel, to be on the safe side I'd give the show 4 hours, with the Super Arena shows possibly being longer/later.
And if you read through all of that (or even skimmed it all) have a cookie.
Spoilers abound. They keep slightly altering the movies, so no doubt some of the details have changed/will change. I'm also doing this from memory, having not taken any notes from any of the shows, but hopefully my memory isn't too faulty.
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Now, personal opinion time. I think it's a really good show. Part I is probably the weakest part, because of the lack of interaction or movement. Part III is ridiculously fun, and it's been made more so by how much GACKT seems to be genuinely enjoying himself on stage and enjoying performing the songs. The songs sound good live, I wasn't particularly impressed with WooHaa Baby or Koi no Friday when I first heard the recorded versions before the tour started, but the live versions won me over. Of course, as always, GACKT doesn't believe in sending the audience home smiling and it does get overly dramatic at times, but it wouldn't be a GACKT live if it wasn't overly dramatic. It does follow basically the exact same pattern and pacing as RRII, but I guess that's the VISUALIVE system.
The shows are clocking in at around 3 hours 30 minutes to 3 hours 45 minutes right now, and he's typically not starting that late anymore. If you're planning travel, to be on the safe side I'd give the show 4 hours, with the Super Arena shows possibly being longer/later.
And if you read through all of that (or even skimmed it all) have a cookie.
(no subject)
I really hope that Balor, the dirtsheets and the 'E themselves are all trolling because AJ (and the Bullet Club) in NXT or on RAW might make me start watching again.
Until it all falls apart and gets crappy again, at least.
Now I'm just imagining seeing AJ vs. Joe one more time, hahahahaha
Happy New Year!!
Long time, no update, hahahaha.
I hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year!
I had a little break before Christmas, but unfortunately had to work through Christmas and didn't finish until December 26th. My father is in Tokyo with me now for the New Year holidays XD
How was your 2014? Mine was pretty good!
1) New job!! I changed jobs early in the year to one that pays more and is just generally better all around. There are a couple of little frustrations (aren't there always?) but it's nothing that causes me any real problems.
2) I moved!! Alongside the job, came a house move! Before I was living in Chiba, but I moved into Tokyo. I'm on the west side, as that's most convenient for my job, but it's great to have one, convenient train ride into Shinjuku now.
3) I travelled (a little)!! Not as much as I wanted, but moving house is expensive and time consuming, so it distracted me for sometime. I didn't go to anywhere new in Japan, I just revisited Hikone, Nagoya, Osaka and Kyoto. Internationally I only managed Bali this year, but that was wonderful enough on its own ♥♥♥♥♥
4) I made some new friends!! And kept most of the old ones. Hopefully more new people can be found next year!
5) I got my ticket mojo back!! I've not had much luck with good tickets in recent years (most good seats were due to friend's tickets), but this year I managed to get front row for Yoshitsune Hiden and the orchestra, plus second row for Gakuen. More of that next year, please! So far for next year, I have a ticket to see Taylor Swift at the Tokyo Dome (don't judge me)
6) OGYD!! I'm proud of everything OGYD achieved this year. Getting the birthday messages book into GACKT's hands and getting a thank you message back, the beautiful Yoshitsune flowers, growing the Twitter account to over 9,000 followers, starting the Facebook, having GACKT's staff and some personal friends following/liking... It's a lot of hard work and very time consuming keeping it all going single handedly, especially around a full time job and trying to have a life, but it paid off this year. Bigger and better next year XD
All in all, 2014 was a good year! I hope 2015 can be even better!
I hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year!
I had a little break before Christmas, but unfortunately had to work through Christmas and didn't finish until December 26th. My father is in Tokyo with me now for the New Year holidays XD
How was your 2014? Mine was pretty good!
1) New job!! I changed jobs early in the year to one that pays more and is just generally better all around. There are a couple of little frustrations (aren't there always?) but it's nothing that causes me any real problems.
2) I moved!! Alongside the job, came a house move! Before I was living in Chiba, but I moved into Tokyo. I'm on the west side, as that's most convenient for my job, but it's great to have one, convenient train ride into Shinjuku now.
3) I travelled (a little)!! Not as much as I wanted, but moving house is expensive and time consuming, so it distracted me for sometime. I didn't go to anywhere new in Japan, I just revisited Hikone, Nagoya, Osaka and Kyoto. Internationally I only managed Bali this year, but that was wonderful enough on its own ♥♥♥♥♥
4) I made some new friends!! And kept most of the old ones. Hopefully more new people can be found next year!
5) I got my ticket mojo back!! I've not had much luck with good tickets in recent years (most good seats were due to friend's tickets), but this year I managed to get front row for Yoshitsune Hiden and the orchestra, plus second row for Gakuen. More of that next year, please! So far for next year, I have a ticket to see Taylor Swift at the Tokyo Dome (don't judge me)
6) OGYD!! I'm proud of everything OGYD achieved this year. Getting the birthday messages book into GACKT's hands and getting a thank you message back, the beautiful Yoshitsune flowers, growing the Twitter account to over 9,000 followers, starting the Facebook, having GACKT's staff and some personal friends following/liking... It's a lot of hard work and very time consuming keeping it all going single handedly, especially around a full time job and trying to have a life, but it paid off this year. Bigger and better next year XD
All in all, 2014 was a good year! I hope 2015 can be even better!