Wow. (素晴らしい。)

Wow indeed.

That was the single most intense, involved, incredible live I have ever been privileged enough to take part in.

... someday, I'm sure, my unusual penchant for alliteration will catch up with me. Luckily though, that day does not appear to be today.

Though I must break the flow by adding that it was also the most fun. Goddamn.

(Probably also the hottest and sweatiest... but talk about breaking the flow. Being a fan isn't easy, you know.)

Oh yea. You know who I'm talking about. 


I thought, before going, that it would be your run of the mill live--maybe I would have to learn a few new hand motions, maybe there would be a bit more light show, that's all.


I could not have been more wrong.


This was, as mentioned above, by and far the most involved live I have ever been to, both on the part of the audience and on the part of the band. 


Which of course leads to that third one: intense. Oh, yea. 


Remember those lift-offs I was talking about earlier? Yea, those. 


That's how they come out on stage. Each one of them. 


You know it can't be anything but awesome from that point on.


And the audience? Oh, the audience. For one, they dance along during the lift-offs, having memorized the moves.


And that's just the beginning.


Every single song had a specific set of dances to be done at specific times. The coordination and involvement required was absolutely incredible. Not to mention that during the first MC session, the band gave us a new one to perform, the "N-Formation," which we practiced to their satisfaction before attempting to implement it in the next song. I was pretty impressed with how well we did. 


(The second MC had them debating about how to signal that we begin the N-Formation though, as we sort of gave up after that first song... which led to an amusing series of moves that Angel Taka could do to tell us when to go. Eventually we decided on a move, and tried again... but apparently the N-Formation just doesn't fit the beat of more than a few songs. We did it while waiting for the encore, though, which was amusing as hell.) 


The most impressive dance move, I thought, was the one where everyone started spinning uncontrollably as they bounced around the pit, waving their arms and towels above their heads. This lead to a great number of collisions (especially for one girl who I really think was getting a bit too into it for the good of those around her, as we're not all made of th same titanium-rubber blend she must be) which I think may have been the point, so after my first attempt (with stomped toe) I stood back and settled for waving my arms in the air only, watching the chaos and grinning like a maniac. 


Oh, I forgot the impressive part.


The spinning was controlled to a a certain bar of music, every time, and afterwards? Everyone ran back to the exact spot they had been in before. Which was important, if only for N-Formation time. 


Luckily, I was not the only newbie there, and thus did not feel horrible about my slow uptake on everything. Thank goodness, however, for years of dance and rhythm training--otherwise, I might have been a bit lost. And thank goodness also for the nice girl beside me, who readily involved me in team motions (mainly hand-holding moves, which were fun and surprisingly full of camaraderie) and didn't mind grabbing onto my shoulders for N-Formation. I did get left out of the robot dance, though, simply because there was an odd number of people in my row. Oh well, it was fun to watch. 


Needless to say, I now understand why everyone in the audience began the concert with a round of 「お願いします」(onegaishimasu, roughly translated to mean that you're counting on everyone) and ended with 「ありがとうございます」 (arigatou gozaimasu, thank you). 


Oh, also, the YAMATO Music Challenge. And YAMATO dance. I'm not sure how to describe that segment of the show, other than the fact that it was amazing and awesome and one of the most amusing things I have ever seen. 


(... got you again, alliteration.) 


If only it was on youtube. I could show you. For now, however, you're just going to have to take my garbled word for it. YAMATO is awesome.


And of course, no live is complete without goods.

Let's see, a wristband, two postcards for 500 each that were really for earthquake relief (all proceeds donated), and... what, what's this?

That's right my friends. I caught a pick and a drumstick. Oh yea.


The pick (MASATO's) was completely a surprise--he threw it out when he first picked up his guitar during the second song, and I couldn't even see where it went. Then, however, I felt something land in my outstretched hand...


I think I might start carrying it around as a good-luck charm, that's how strangely amazing it was. 


The drumstick was more intentional. At the very end, all members began chucking things--water bottles, picks, drumsticks. I didn't catch another pick, despite the number being thrown out, but when YAMATO came to my side of the stage and began peering out to see who to throw to, I jumped up and down like the maniac I am. He then pointed at me (or the girl in front of me, but let's go with that first assumption),  and lobbed it out with astonishingly good aim. I say it was iffy who he aimed to, because it bounced off that hands of the girl directly in front of me, and into my waiting grasp. She did not, however, fight me for the stick (merely said うらやましい [urayamashii, I'm jealous] once things settled down), and I wasn't about to give it up. I'm sure there was some concert etiquette keeping her nice about it, but really, that's pretty cool. 


So, yes, this was not only the most amazing concert, it was also the luckiest. How cool is that?


Oh, and one more thing.


叫 (Kyou), the bassist, came out afterwards to hand out the earthquake relief postcards, and shake hands with whoever bought one. Though it took me a while to determine exactly what was going on at the head of the long line, I jumped in and pulled out my thousand yen bill. (I rethought and pulled out more when I saw the wristbands.)


As expected, I wound up being a little bit in awe when I finally reached him, and told him that I was nervous. He asked why, and I told him that the whole experience had been way more amazing than I had expected. He thanked me, and asked me what I wanted. I got my wristband and two cards, and wonder of wonders, he unwrapped the wristband and put it on for me. 


... that was unexpected.


It's likely I started glowing red. 


I shook his hand, grinning like a dork, and he told me to come again. 


Oh, and the best part?


He did not bat an eyelash at the fact that I was (a) a foreigner and (b) likely the only one there. Not a pause, not a "where are you from" not a "oh you're so good at Japanese." Nothing. Just treated me like a regular fan.


And that, my friends, is worth a lot. 


This is Edo, signing off with a sore neck and more great memories than she knows what to do with. 

Oh, poo. (これいや。)

I am sick.

And generally feeling... shall we say, less than witty.

Certainly not up to my usual standards of non-stop hilarity.

Please stay tuned for your regularly scheduled Edo... sometime later.

Possibly next week.

Because blargh.

This is Edo, signing off with the understanding that children are, in general, walking, talking petri dishes. With hands they don't wash.

A letter to the Earth. (地球への手紙。)

Dear Eurasian, Pacific, Philippines, and maybe even North American Plates:

Please stop it.

You've had your fun, you've proven your point, and now it's just getting a little ridiculous. We all know that Japan rests upon a precarious little spat of a land stretched over the miles and miles of your many converging intersections, but really. Must you prove it to us again and again that we are at your mercy?

After all, look at all Japan has done for you. If there has ever been a country more appreciative of its unstable tectonic position, I've yet to see it.

温泉 (onsen; hot springs)? We got 'em. We love 'em. We travel miles and miles to visit them when we aren't lucky enough to live close enough to walk to 'em. And when we don't have them? We make fake ones in order to simulate the effect your soothing, magma-heated waters have on our bodies. We build hotels around them. It is quite possible that people are more excited about an 温泉 trip than just about anything else, domestically that is. And that's thanks to you.

Not feeling appreciated yet?

Ok, how about the hot sand baths of Ibusuki in Kyuushuu? People are so enamored of this earth-born heat that we bury ourselves neck-deep in sand to benefit from it. That, my friends, is devotion. You won't find that just anywhere, you know.

And while we're talking about Kyuushuu, why not stick 桜島 (Sakurajima) in there as well? We all think it's pretty cool, for an active volcano, and the SEX MACHINEGUNS even wrote a song about it for goodness sakes. How many geological phenomena do you know with a theme song?



Still nothing?

Well, how about the fact that despite everything you throw at this country (The Kanto Earthquake, the Hanshin Earthquake, just to name a few) we still want to be here and make the effort to build our structures to sway, send people to emergency training facilities, and generally keep everything running in an orderly fashion?

We love it here, and we really don't appreciate you fucking with us when we've done so much to show our appreciation to this precarious situation we've been placed in.

So please.

Quit trying to impress your tectonic buddies by being the biggest and the baddest on the block.

And knock it off.

Sincerely,
Edo

A moment of seriousness. (真面目な一瞬。)

A quick break from my usual tomfoolery for a bit of seriousness now.

頑張れ, 東北、関東。頑張れ。

Here's to the safety of everyone up north. Please pull through, guys.

For everyone who has lost someone in this tragedy, you have my deepest sympathies. I know that you can get through this.

As Ai of DEATHGAZE said earlier tonight, it's difficult to carry on as we always have now, but it some ways, that's what's important. We can't let it beat us. 

Here's to strength and safety.

This is Edo, signing off still unable to truly wrap her mind around this whole thing.

A bit of headbanging, anyone? (ちょっとヘッドバンギングしよか？)

That's right, kiddies, your beloved author here is off to another rock concert this weekend--all on her lonesome this time, which wasn't really all that worrisome until some of her coworkers suggested that it should be.

... Oh, the power of suggestion.

I must admit that I have never been to a live all on my lonesome.... I was supposed to go to a Dir live alone during my senior year, but a nasty bout of the flu kept me from making the hour long trek into Los Angeles proper and head banging my heart out.

Because, you know, doing that sort of thing with a fever, some congestion and even a bit of nausea probably isn't wise. Especially for all my poor fellow headbangers. And, well, every single diver on the 10 that particular evening.

... nevertheless, I curse my body's bad timing to this day.

Sigh.

However, I will not be cowed, and I continue on with the same degree of excitement and enthusiasm I have always had!

And really, it's only worth going together with someone when their love for the band matches yours. Thus, BUCK-TICK with Melon? Excellent. Dragging Melon to DEATHGAZE when they may or may not make her ears bleed?

Well that's just not something friends do.

And thus I head to Nagoya on Sunday all on my lonesome, dressed to the nines (is that the phrase?) and quite willing to have a sore neck for the following week.

Because it just wasn't a live if you don't feel it for days afterwards.

... well, ok, you don't really headbang to BUCK-TICK, but the arm-waving and the jumping does get you a bit sore, so it still works.

Anyway.

DEATHGAZE.

They're pretty awesome.

And this time, they get their own tour!

Very likely, this is due to the December release of their new album, because as far as I know they are still technically an indies band (which, as we all know, just means that they're not quite getting paid what they want need deserve are owed based on record sales yet.)

BLISS OUT. Quite enjoyable, says I, though I admit to liking pretty much everything I've heard by these guys.

Currently, I am trying to ascertain whether or not I will be able to wear my jacket and then store it in a coin locker so that I can rock myself silly without being encumbered and overheated. Provided that everyone else in attendance does not have the same idea and jam all the coin lockers in the station, I think I should be all right.

... hopefully.

Regardless, I will have a good time.

Also: who knew that getting into Nagoya on the cheap would be easier than getting there quickly and expensively?  Take that, 特急 (tokkyu, limited express train.)

This is Edo, signing off realizing just how much effort travel planning entails. Yeesh.

Cookings and wanderings. (料理や放浪。)

Well, maybe more the former than the latter, but "cookings with maybe just a touch of wandering" really just doesn't have the same ring to it, you know?

Oh, also, I have learned to change my computer from English to Japanese with the mere pressing of two keys. Had I been a bit more forward thinking, I probably could have done this ages ago, but I suppose that until I was working with a Japanese computer everyday, the thought didn't really occur to me.

Needless to say it is a lot more convenient this way.

Though still not as convenient as a Japanese computer itself.

....and yet I will give my own American machine a pass here, because as much as I have gotten used to the Japanese keyboard, I am still more proficient with the American one I learned to type on.

Japanese just doesn't use as much punctuation as English does, don't ya know.

Anyway, enough chit-chat; let's get straight down to business.

...whatever it is that passes for business on this scatter-brained blog, anyway.

Yes, it's omuraisu again, but this time... I had a revelation.

Instead of attempt to put the rice inside the omelet while it's still cooking in the pan (an effort in futility, at least if you consider cleanliness and not spilling your hard-earned food everywhere as you go to be a measure of success), I decided to just cook th omelet, leave it flat,put the rice on the plate and then cover it all with the omelet that way. Voila, ease and a fairly equal distribution of egg in every bite! Certainly a win-win, in my book.

...mmm, omuraisu.

Though I admit that the lighting in this shot isn't good enough to give you that YELLOW of beautiful, fresh egg. Aaah, eggs. And to think I used to be, at best, ambivalent towards them! Such a beautiful little multi-tasking packet of goodness...

And goodness knows we love multitasking.

Moving on.

Yes, it's my pasta dish.

... but. Uh.

Oh. I already wrote about not putting in anchovies, huh?

Um. Well. I'll probably do that again tonight, and then not overpower it all with lemon so as to get a better reading on the actual success of the dish.

So there. That's an update for you.

Ah, this.

This is the beautiful salad that I have become addicted to from the Max Value across the street. It is heavenly.

Basically, you have a bunch of rare, rare roast beef (if you find the right salad; sometimes I have to search, but damnit it's worth it) on top of a bed of lettuce, some carrots, red onion and daikon. I take out the red onion. Because bleh.

But also, you get ponzu for dressing.

Oh, ponzu.

Look, I even found an English-language bottle for all you non-Japanese speakers.

Because if you have never had the beauty that is ponzu....

Oh, my goodness.

I usually use it as a salad dressing, but it works great on, I imagine, just about anything. Tataki (tuna sounds particularly tasty), food in any sort of nabe (ok, maybe not curry), yakiniku, ice cream...

...I admit I have not tried that last one.

... I feel the English description sells it a bit short though. This stuff is flavorful. There's nothing "flavored" about it.

But you'll just have to take my word for it. And then buy some.

Aaand finally, that gosh-darn 洋服の青山 (Aoyama's Western Clothing). I was unsure how long that red light would last, so I took a picture with my cell phone first, just to make sure the thing was recorded properly.

Ah, nostalgia.

And with that, dear friends, I leave you for a day off of shopping, cooking, and possibly translating... if the curse of the internet does not capture me first.

This is Edo, signing off and wishing that she had organized her closets better a few months ago. Ahem.

A tiny little earthquake. (ちっちゃい地震や。)

http://tenki.jp/earthquake/

I'm surprised it got all the way over here, really.

Not a whole lot of shaking, but enough to make me get up and run to the window to see if a car had hit the house or something similar.

... so earthquake still isn't the first thing that jumps to mind. Ahem.

This is Edo, signing off marveling at the weird things our planet does.

A winter wonderland? (不思議の国の冬？)

Not for this desert-dweller.

Something about waking up to this scene on a Friday morning just didn't sit right in my brain.

Suffice it to say that I am completely taken aback by the presence of snow (in the air or on the ground) if I am not currently vacationing in some sort of ski-resort type locale.

I don't think we're in Arizona anymore, dear readers.

I suppose it did give me something to post about, though. Silver lining and all that.

Apparently, Japan in general has been blanketed in abnormal amounts of snow this weekend. In fact, yesterday saw most of the Kii peninsula jammed, delayed, and otherwise inconvenienced by the unexpected dump from the heavens.

It actually made those pictures up there look silly in comparison.

Unfortunately, I came home past dark, and thus was unable to take any photographs for your viewing pleasure.

And they say spring begins after setsubun (the third of February.) Ha.

This is Edo, signing off wondering why all this snow stuff has been romanticized to death when really, all it is is wet socks waiting to happen.

Racking my brains... (頭をひねってる。。。)

Trying to think of a suitable topic for this week's post.

So far, I'm drawing something of a blank, in case you were wondering.

... yup, yup, total blank. I don't even have any exciting pictures to share in yet another round of "hide the lack of content with shiny things."

... wait just a minute. Not having the original source material by no means renders the principal unsound! I can put it into practice with whatever is readily available!

Genius! It's genius I say!

... now, what do I have readily available...

...

...

Ah ha.

Pictures from 伊勢神宮 (Ise jingu; Ise Shrine.) The jackpot.

I had forgotten all about my little jaunt over that-a-way in the end of December... Silly me.

Ahem.

Above, we have the main 鳥居 (torii), or Shinto gateway to the shrine. I was going for artistic... But I'll let you be the judge of that.

I like clouds.

And why wouldn't you, really?

... although these shots may very well be irrefutable evidence in the case against my bid for a stint in professional photography.

Oh well, I think they're pretty.

The bridge over the river into the shrine. Not very crowded at the end of December... that doesn't happen until January. Then, hold onto your socks. (Or tabi, as the case may be.)

An old, Miyazaki-esque (in my mind) torii further in. I had to stop and hold my camera at a bit of a weird angle to keep people out of this shot, but I think it's worth it. They'd totally spoil the feel of things.

... and just now I notice those obaa-san in the corner. Curses. This picture has just been downgraded from mystical shot of wonder to bland tourist photo #3452. Poop.

You can't take pictures of the actual shrine (apparently Amaterasu doesn't really go for that sort of thing), but this is pretty cool. No clue what it is, but hey. Pretty is as pretty does.

And last but not least...

The 洋服の青山 which I distinctly remember from our trip to Ise during AKP. It stood out to me from my seat on the bus and said "Behold: this is the inaka. Think of me as you return to your urban wonderland, and remember my people."

... who knew I'd be living less than an hour away in the years to come.

That's not really irony. But it's interesting anyway.

This is Edo, signing off with a whole folder of Ise pictures that she can pull out at a moment's notice. Moo ha ha.

If pictures are worth a thousand words... (写真って一千の言葉の価格なら。。。)

Then really, these picture dumps are actually quite lengthy works of prose.

I guess it all depends on how you look at it.

I look at it as... easier than thinking of something to write. Ah ha ha.

And now that I'm actually putting some effort into maintaining my other blog... well. You can guess what happens when attentions get divided.

Suffice it to say that you are lucky to be getting pictures.

Let's see... I'll try to go in chronological order.

This is a cool traditional dance thing (yes, the name currently escapes me, don't rub it in) that Melon and I walked in on accidentally while wandering through the Aeon Mall by Kyoto station.

The best part, in my opinion, was the fact that half of the musicians were women, and I'm pretty sure the dancer was as well.

The point here is that traditionally, like Kabuki, this art form had a big ol' "NO WOMEN" sign strapped across it. However, unlike kabuki, it would (as evidenced above) likely not survive were it to maintain such strict regulations.

So hey, kudos for letting outdated traditions die, I say.

This was the creme brule desert that came wrapped up our set meals from an Italian restaurant restaurant in  新風館 (しんぷうかん, shinpuhkan) the following weekend. Unfortunately, this was by far the best part of the meal. Regardless, I can always appreciate good desert.

... unfortunately, however, my camera hand was not quite quick enough.

What can I say, it was tasty and I had just choked my way through half of a thoroughly disappointing pizza, flavorless soup, and a mediocre salad. I was desperate for some deliciousness. Not to mention we had to deal with a thoroughly unhelpful waitress on top of it all.

And look. It had kiwi. De-licious.

I keep promising that I'll write about Takarazuka... but I just never get around to it. Ugh.

Well, until the day comes that I actually get the inspiration to sit down and write the proper lengthy post that the performance truly deserves, suffice it to say that it was amazing and I am truly happy that Melon suggested we go.

(Also, that banner thing hung there for a good five minutes before the show started, and we suspect it was so that everyone could get their pictures to prove that they'd been there. Good idea, really, and pretty much everyone with the ability to do so took full advantage of the situation.)

And, last but not least...

Yes, yes, it is my pasta dish again, but this time I left out the anchovies... simply because I was feeling a bit cheap and lazy. Not to mention the fact that my anchovies are getting pretty old and grody... 

Regardless, I could not really gauge how well the dish fared sans-fish, because I misgauged the amount of juice in my small lemon and added way too much. The dish was overpowered, and I thus have no idea if I can continue to leave out the anchovies or not. Further experimentation is warranted. 

And that, as they say, is that.

Oh, I also bought myself a ticket for a DEATHGAZE live in Nagoya next month. I told you I liked them, didn't I? 

This is Edo, signing off with a live in her sights and a dinner to plan.

PS- I also got my first ever influenza shot today... let's see how that works out, shall we? I've only ever caught influenza while living in Japan, and my health insurance got me my vaccine for only 500 yen, so I figured what the hey. 

We shall see.