Concerts, Concerts, Concerts!!

Golden Week in Japan is a time in May where there are several consecutive national holidays. If they line up well with the weekends, you can have over a week’s worth of vacation. This year they didn’t line up so nicely, but it still resulted in having two 4 day weekends in a row which is pretty nice. Many people travel with their families at this time. It’s the most expensive time of year to travel in Japan, I believe, and hotels fill up far in advance. Last year during Golden Week, my previous boyfriend was here, and we used the time to do many day trips and fun activities. I think we went to Nara, Universal Studios, Kobe, and a baseball game. This year, money was a bit tight for me because of the trip I just took to Hong Kong. Instead, I decided to spend my Golden Week going to concerts (and partying with friends and relaxing). I went to three different shows: Asking Alexandria, Skrillex, and Steve Aoki. Actually it ended up being kind of expensive too, but not as much as it would have been if I traveled.

First I will tell you about the Asking Alexandria concert. I went with my friend Shinya on a Thursday night after work. I was happy I didn’t have to go alone. I still had work Friday, but that was the last day before Golden Week started. A little background first…Asking Alexandria is my favorite band of all time! I’ve seen them live three times in America already. I had been patiently waiting for almost two years in hopes they would come to Japan. When they finally announced they were coming to Osaka, I was ecstatic!

So the night of the concert, Shinya and I got their early and waited out front. It was so cool to see all the cool hardcore Japanese kids come out of the woodwork. I really wish I could’ve become friends with all of the people at the concert lol! I never seen many heavy metal people (except for Akira) out and about on the street, so I’m always wondering where they’ve been hiding when I see them at concerts. One excited thing that happened while we were waiting was that Danny Worsnop (the lead singer) came outside for a minute (I don’t know why). We all ran up to him, and many people were taking his picture and asking for his autograph. I just wanted to talk to him, but I didn’t get a chance because he only stayed outside for a moment. Shinya got an awesome picture of him, though!

Shinya's picture.

When we got in the venue, Club Quattro by the way, we both got t-shirts. I love my t-shirt so much because it has their Asian tour dates on it! It was surprisingly not even that expensive. We were required to buy a drink, and all they were selling was jack, so I had my first Jack and coke. I’m not a fan of whiskey, but I’ll admit that I felt like a badass drinking it.

There were two opening bands, both Japanese. I always find it kind of fun to learn about legit Japanese metal bands. The two bands were “Her Name in Blood” and “Crystal Lake.” I didn’t care much about them, but there was a really cute member in Crystal Lake who had bright red hair. I don’t know why, but I love when Japanese people dye their hair an extreme color like red, blue, or platinum blonde. Anyway, when Asking Alexandria came on, I was so pumped! Literally they played every single one of my favorite songs! It was my first time to see them since their new album came out, so I was really looking forward to hearing their new songs live for the first time. There were two kind of bad things though. First, the crowd was so quiet. It was my first time to go to a concert that wasn’t an all day festival in Japan. Japanese people are overall just quieter I guess. It was kind of embarrassing. The second thing that sucked though was that the band kept giving us crap for being quiet. I was trying my hardest to be loud, but it wasn’t enough. I felt like we let Asking Alexandria down and I was being obnoxious because I was trying to be loud.

Her Name in Blood.

Crystal Lake.

Anyway, some other points of interest were that Danny was swigging whiskey on stage the whole time and got drunk (guess he’s not over his alcohol abuse issues yet), there were like 3 other foreigners besides me at the concert, and at one point beer was sprayed all over me. Lol, I felt so metal!  We did moshing and a wall of death, and I was front row and right in the action the whole time! I seriously was wild at this concert! One of the other foreigners got invited on stage cuz he was making the most noise. I was jealous. Overall, it was still an awesome concert! I was so happy I got to see them, and they played every song I wanted to hear. J

Asking Alexandria rocking out!

Swigging Jack on stage.

So despite Asking Alexandria being my favorite band, I was more excited to go to the next concert. SKRILLEX!! Let me tell you why. First, I have liked Skrillex for around 5 years but had never been to one of his shows yet. Second, it would be my first time to go to this kind of show. Sure, I’ve been to countless clubs with live DJ’s but none of this caliber where there are tickets, and they sell out in minutes. I was excited to go to a concert where I could dance instead of mosh and where I could see an awesome light show. Third, it was in Kyoto and went on until 1:00 am which meant I could stay out all night in Kyoto for the first time. Fourth, I was hoping to hear Skrillex play the song called “Kyoto” because we were actually in Kyoto! How cool!? Plus, what?! My first time to see Skrillex is in Japan?! Lastly, Skrillex is super famous. Most bands I like, not many people know of. Sure, I’ve seen some famous bands like Metallica, Marilyn Manson, Slayer, etc., but Skrillex is the main pioneer of dubstep music. People try to imitate the sound he’s created. To me, Skrillex is legendary. The thought of being in the same room as him was unimaginable to me.

So let me tell you how this concert/evening went because boy it was eventful. First I met up with my friend Kyle who was also going at Osaka station. Since it was a dance music concert, we agreed that we needed to drink for it. So we bought a couple drinks to drink on the 45 minute train ride from Osaka to Kyoto. We were both carded at the 7-11 for the first time since we moved to Japan. :O When we got to Kyoto, we found the venue, World Kyoto, pretty easily. There was a Family Mart right across the street which was nice. It was only about 8:00 pm and Skrillex didn’t go on until 11:00 or so. Many people were just hanging out on the street drinking outside the venue. We decided to do the same, so we went into Family Mart for more drinks and to use their restroom. Fun fact: If you want to read the most ridiculous Engrish ever, go in this Family Mart’s restroom and read the signs on the door. They are so incomprehensible! We interacted with some interesting, drunk characters while we were outside. Once we were feeling a buzz, we decided to go in and check it out. I’m pretty sure we missed the first DJ out of the 3 opening ones, but we didn’t care. We chilled and danced a bit to the other two DJs.

On the way to the venue...ready to PARTY!

Hello out of a toilet...haha!!

These guys were so crunk! :P

When Skrillex went on, things got insane. I have been to many heavy metal concerts on hot summer days where you feel like you are gona die from the heat and being smooshed by people around you, but I never expected it to be like that in Japan because the people are so polite. I was in for quite the surprise. First of all, the venue was really cool, but it was surprisingly small which is good and bad. Good because you are a lot closer to the performer and bad because there were too many people in a small space.

This is a good picture Kyle got of him.

So let me just give you a quick back story to give you an idea how packed this place was. The tickets for the show went on sale at 10:00 am on April 12^th. I’ve heard that super popular events sell out right away like sumo matches, Lady Gaga, Kyari Pamyu Pamyu, etc. I know Skrillex is popular, but I didn’t think he was as popular in Japan as he is in America…idk maybe that is true, but he’s still popular enough. I went to the convenience store to buy my ticket on the same day they went on sale thinking that as long as I got them on the same day, I’d be fine. Well, I was wrong. I went at about 5:00 pm (so about 7 hours after they went on sale), and they were already sold out. That was a sad sad time. Since the place is small, and Skrillex is popular in Japan, I heard the tickets sold out in literally a minute or so after they went on sale…unbelievable! I wasn’t going to give up that easily though. I asked my Japanese friends what to do, and they told me to try buying it on Yahoo Auction which is basically like the Ebay of Japan. I was desperate, so I gave it a try. What makes me really angry is that you know how many people went right at 10 am for those tickets not because they care about Skrillex or want to go to the show, but they want to sell the tickets to people like me who couldn’t get one for an outrageous price. I was able to get a ticket for 20,000 yen (or about $200)…they were normally 7,000 yen (about $70). >:-( One good thing I want to point out that came from this experience though was that I was able to navigate a Japanese website, bid on a ticket and win, and negotiate terms with a Japanese person afterwards on my own. I only had a friend help me once by making sure I translated the sender’s message right. So I felt proud about that.

Anyway, sorry for that long interjection. So what I’m getting at is that the place was overbooked and small. When Skrillex started playing, it became like a riot. Kyle and I got split up, and I was doing everything I could to get up front. I got pretty far. I think there were only like two rows of people in front of me. When I saw Skrillex between peoples’ heads, a huge smile came across my face. I was so close to him! He was everything I imagined! For real, he is like the epitome of cool. There was one problem though. I felt like I was dying. Like even worse than if I was at a metal concert. I don’t really know why. I’ve been crushed by the people around me like many times before at other concerts, but this time (maybe because the concert was indoors in a small space with so many people) the air I was breathing in didn’t feel like air. It felt like I was breathing in pure heat. It didn’t help that I was shorter than all the people around me. There was already one girl who passed out and had to be dragged over the front rail. Skrillex actually stopped the show when that happened and told the guys to take care of the girls up front. Since Japanese people don’t speak English, most of them probably didn’t understand. So when I started to pass out as well, no one cared or noticed until my knees gave out. Before I passed out, I kept thinking to myself that if I really wanted or needed to get out of the crowd, I could. 

However, I kept getting weaker and resting my head on the people in front and behind me. The whole time I was pretty aware of what was going on. I didn’t want to lose my spot. Every now and then they would spray dry ice on the crowd to cool us down. It kind of burned lol. They handed out water too. However, it only temporarily helped. I could feel my shorts slipping down from all the sweat and people rubbing against me, but I couldn’t put my arms down to pull them up cuz there were too many people. So about the time I realized that I needed to get out of the front even if that meant not being close to Skrillex was about the time that I realized that I was losing control of my body. My mind was aware, but I couldn’t keep my head up or my eyes open. I felt my knees start to buckle, and that’s when someone finally asked if I was ok. I could hear alright, but I just couldn’t move. It’s kind of hard to imagine. The next thing I know I am being pulled up out of the crowd by a worker (or some workers idk). My eyes were closed the whole time. As they pulled me up, my shorts slid down around my ankles. How embarrassing?! I was wearing black nylons and underwear though, so it’s not like anyone saw too much…but still. When they got me over the barricade, they set me down, gave me water and my things like my phone and wallet (idk if I dropped them or what), and let me sit there until I could breathe normal again. I should’ve taken that opportunity to look closely at Skrillex, but I could hardly open my eyes.

After that incident, I went to the back to watch. Although I was far away, at least I could move, breathe, and even dance a little once I started feeling better. By the way, I was drenched in sweat, mine and everyone else’s. I think everyone was. It was kind of funny because any sort of buzz I had from drinking was gone in like 5 minutes once Skrillex started playing because I sweated all the alcohol out of my system! Skrillex played so many of the songs I wanted to hear! He played Kyoto like I thought he would. I didn’t know this before going, but it was his first time to play in Kyoto ever! I was so happy when he told us that. I forgot to mention that in the beginning of the set, he had actual geisha/maiko on stage with him! Some of my favorite songs he played included “Dirty Vibe (I was really hoping G-Dragon would come over from Korea to make a guest appearance in this song lol),” “Ragga Bomb,” “Kyoto,” Francis Dillon’s “Get Low,” A$AP Rocky’s “Wild for the Night,” “Ease My Mind,” and “All is Fair in Love and Brostep.”

Skrillex with geisha/maiko at the show (taken from his Instagram).

More pictures on his Instagram from the show.

Pure awesomeness!

I ran in to Kyle towards the end of the show luckily. We left after it ended. Unfortunately they weren’t selling any merchandise. We grabbed some food at McDonalds to get our energy back up and then headed to a dance club. Kyle had partied in Kyoto before, and he knew of two clubs, Butterfly and Boys & Girls. Butterfly was closed so we tried Boys &Girls as a backup. It was our backup because the time he went before was really strange. He said it was dead, but the workers kept giving him tequila and messing around with him lol. He was worried about there not being any people there again, so when we got there, we asked the person taking money out front if there were a lot of people in there. She just said, “Ya, there’s some people in there, mostly foreigners.” When we entered, there were LITERALLY FIVE other people in there…and I think they were all foreigners. We just laughed at the hilarity of the situation, used our drink tickets and then danced like idiots by ourselves. It was so funny because the DJ was going all out and using the fog machine just for us! The other people left, and at one point it was just Kyle and I haha! One guy came in, and there were three of us. We tried to joke around and dance with him, but he didn’t want to dance with us hahaha! So ya, we left there after like 30 minutes or so and went to a bar that we passed earlier that looked lively.

5 Five people in da club. xP

It was still pretty lively which was good. We sat down at the same table as this other foreign woman. She started talking to us right away. She was wearing like Terminator glasses which was intimidating, but when she took them off, we could see how beautiful she was. She was Russian, of course. Russian women always seem to be beautiful! We chatted with her until the bar closed. It was really random. She happened to be the #1 kick boxer in Kansai. She told us all sorts of strange and interesting stories.

Kyle and I with the #1 kick boxer in Kansai.

After that, we took one of the first trains back to Osaka. I thought the 45 minute train ride home in the morning from downtown Osaka was bad…this was like an hour and a half. It was even longer for Kyle. I set my phone alarm to wake us up at Osaka station. We conked out hardcore on that first train ride. One of the most awkward things about taking first train home is that there are all these people on the train who have just woken up, and they are all fresh and about to go to work or start their day. You can see them glancing at you every now and then, and they are probably thinking “WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO THAT PERSON!? THEY LOOK LIKE SH******!” Good thing I had a hat this time. I just put it over my face and pretended not to exist. So ya, we made it back in one piece, just extremely exhausted. I got in bed around 8:00 am. The funny thing is that I had my best friend’s all night birthday party that day, so I only slept for like 5 or 6 hours before I got up and got ready to go to that all night. Thank goodness for Red Bull.

The last concert I went to was on Cinco de Mayo. It was actually an all day dance music festival called Music Circus in Kobe. However, we (Kyle and I again) went around 4 pm because we didn’t know or really care about any of the opening DJs. We both went because we wanted to see Showtek and Steve Aoki. Like before, we pregamed a bunch on the way there and put on a bunch of glow stick bracelets. When we got there, it was ridiculous though. We thought a riot was going to break out because they weren’t letting people into the hall where Steve Aoki was performing because it was “too crowded.” Everyone was shoving and screaming to try to get on the one escalator that went to the hall. The guards were only letting a few people in at a time. Luckily, Kyle and I were able to get in about 5 minutes after Steve Aoki went on. I would have been so angry if I paid to see him and missed him. Lesson learned…get there early.

Just got into Steve Aoki, had a couple shots,
and am ready to rage!

When we got in, we got drinks. The bars were really confusing because you could only get certain drinks at certain stands, and they were running out of almost everything. So I took tequila shots with no chaser. Harsh! At one point I drank honey whiskey because that’s all they had. I was pretty drunk and kept thinking that the honey whiskey tasted like “Christmas.” Bahaha! I’m somewhat ashamed to admit this…but at the same time it’s funny, so I want to tell you and remember it later, but on two occasions, I used the men’s restroom. There was no wait, and if you saw the girl’s line, you’d understand. I would say that there was a least a 30 minute wait…I’m not sure why girls take so long in the restroom (I’m always in and out in like a minute or less). Keep in mind that the show is going on, and if you wait in line for 30 minutes, you miss the show! So I had Kyle go in first to see if any stalls were open. Then he’d tell me to come in haha! None of the guys in there were upset, just surprised, confused, and laughing haha! One guy asked Kyle if I had a penis. xP I suppose this is an appropriate example of gaijin smashing (foreigners living in Japan who do things that are wrong but can get away with it because they are foreign).

ANYWAY! About the show lol…it was awesome! Steve Aoki is really fun! Unlike Skrillex, he actually doesn’t do that much DJ-ing at his shows. He mostly just plays his track with some occasional DJ-ing, but in the mean time, he’s basically just playing with the crowd and getting us pumped up. I guess he usually rides a blow up raft on top of the crowd, but when he tried to do that in Kobe, the security told him no. Bummer. He still sprayed us with champagne  and a fog gun though. Also, he threw cake into the crowd which is another one of his staples. He literally like demolished one person with a whole cake haha!

Steve Aoki about to cake us!

...and spray us with champagne.

This venue was huge! It was at the Kobe Convention Center
(again, I got this picture from Steve's Instagram).

He played a lot of good songs, and Kyle and I danced a lot! When the act between Steve Aoki and Showtek came on (Cedric Gervais) Kyle and I chilled a bit, talked with random people, and drank. He wasn’t bad though, so we did a bit of dancing too. When Showtek came on though, we were pumped! I think this is when we got split up for a bit, but in the end we found each other again. Showtek was really cool, and I danced my face off! Afterwards, we headed back to Osaka and grabbed some food before parting ways.

Cedric Gervais.

Showtek.

Everything seemed to go by so fast! The concert felt fast and the ride home felt fast. Proly cuz I was quite drunk…and when I got to my train station, a friend invited me to come to White & Cigar (my local/favorite bar), so I went. I was entirely too energetic for that environment when I first arrived, but I slowly calmed down and had a really nice time chatting with the cute, young guy that I had really been wanting to talk with from a few weeks before but was too shy. It was a great day! 

Maid Cafe

Maid cafes are a staple of Japanese otaku (anime/game/computer nerd) culture. They are also something I thought I would never experience because it would be embarrassing as a girl to go to one (in my opinion). Of course I’ve always been curious to see what they are like though. Well it worked out that I was in Denden Town (the Akihabara of Osaka) with one of my male friends getting new internet for my apartment when he recommended going to one. Since I was with a male friend, I figured it would be less awkward. He took me to one he had been to before called “e-maid” that he considers to be a “tame” version of a maid cafe. By tame he meant that their outfits were more conservative and they didn’t act ridiculous and make you wear stuff or anything weird like that. Basically it was just like going to a simple cafe except that the waitress had maid outfits on and acted really polite.

This is outside of the cafe. I had to get pictures from the
internet because you aren't allowed to take pictures there.

 Of course since it was a maid cafe, however, there were some weird things. Before I tell you about them, I want to explain the maids first. There were about five or so maids. The place wasn’t too big. The cafe itself had a very mom and pop family restaurant feel to it. The maids had on cute maid outfits, but unlike their kinky counterparts, their skirts went down past their knees. They were very well covered. When we were seated at our table, the maid handed us menus and called us “princess” and “master.” LOLOL! The way she moved and hand us things was very slow, dainty, and polite. For example, instead of just setting down chopsticks on the table, she slowly took the cover off of them, gently set it down on our table and then very cutely placed the chopstick on top of the cover. Every time she would leave our table after taking our order, etc., she would slowly do a deep bow. It was really entertaining to me haha! Also, when you need to call a maid to your table, instead of pressing a button or calling her over, you ring this tiny little bell with flowers on it. There are point cards for this cafe, and if you fill it up, you get a member card. If you have member card, you get certain perks. For example, the maids will chat with you more or you can take a picture with them. Stuff like that. By the way, pictures are strictly prohibited inside the cafe. So unfortunately I don’t have any of my own pictures to show you.

So here's a picture of some random guy with the maids that
I found on the internet haha!

So now for the weird stuff. Basically the place was full of single men. There were was maybe one or two couples and two tables with two girls at them. There were no girls eating alone. You could tell that most of these men were otaku, as to be expected. Some people were reading comics, playing gameboys, or using the cafe’s laptops. Others were just eating and watching the maids. It was so funny to see these men interact with the maids. You could tell most of the men had member cards or were regulars because they were getting special attention. When the maids would talk with the guys, many of them would get all nervous and awkward haha! There was one grown man who would just start giggling every time a maid spoke to him. There was one mentally challenged guy in there who kept trying to speak with the maids, but he couldn't really speak comprehensibly. I wondered how even though he couldn't form coherent sentences, he was intelligent enough to know about this cafe and go to it. Perhaps one of the funniest parts was when they started playing the birthday song in the cafe (most of the time they were playing really fancy sounding music). My friend and I laughed out loud when the song got to the part where it says, “Happy birthday dear (name)," because for the name, the person singing in the song just made like a mumbling noise that sounded kind of like “mwah-mwah.” They played the song because it actually was someone’s birthday. The maids surrounded this man and started singing and clapping. He looked so overwhelmed. When they were finished, he got to take a picture with them, and they put a huge hat on his head in the shape of a birthday cake lol.

As for the food, it was simple and good. The great part was that it was super cheap! I got a whole chicken nanban set for 800 yen. It came with soup and bread too.  The bathrooms were really nice. I am kind of interested in going back again someday, although I don’t know if I actually ever will. I’m also kind of afraid but curious to see what a more normal maid cafe would be like where they are more energetic and wearing more revealing clothes. It’s just a really interesting cultural aspect from a foreigner’s standpoint. I don’t exactly agree with it, but I don’t care that much either. Lastly, I am ashamed to say that even living in Osaka for two years, it was actually my first time to ever go to Denden Town. I was shocked to find how similar it was to Tokyo’s Akihabara. There were many game centers, anime stores, and of course porn shops. It was really interesting, and I want to go back soon and explore more and get my nerd on in a game center!

Osaka's Denden Town in Nipponbashi.