More Diru stuff

Win tickets to see Dir en grey live in America!

Go to http://jrockrevolution.com/index.php/webzine/feature-articles/1579-dir-en-grey-the-unwavering-fact-of-tomorrow-2010.html for more info!

Memories

So, to summarize my past few days for my family's sake: Yes I am still alive. It's fucking hot and humid here. Apartment hunting is stressful as fuck.

The point of this post is actually about last night. I went to the Miyavi show here in Roppongi with Maura (who I swear to God is Miyavi's biggest/non-creepiest fan).

In all honesty, out of respect for the kids who are actually in it for him, I will not claim I am a Miyavi fan. I like the music of his that I've heard, but I don't know his discography or even most of his songs.

We got to Morph (the venue) and waited. I didn't have a ticket because it was a semi-spontaneous decision on my part to attend. A girl Maura knew ended up selling me her ticket, which was pretty sweet. I saw Dankichi and Mikan again (not sure if they remembered me) as well as a crapload of kids I didn't know. There were a few foreign kids, some cosplaying kids, and one foreign cosplaying kid. Maura and I hung out with this Australian chick named Alex, who is a total Gackt fan, but she wants to branch out in her musical interests.

So we get into the venue (me a bit after Maura because tickets apparently have NUMBERS here). I find her and Alex a little closer to the front, while Dankichi, Sugumi (who was cosplaying as Miyavi from Sakihokoru Hana no You ni -Neo Vizualizm-), Mikan, and a bunch of the other CoMiyavi (his fanclub) kids towards the back. We waited while listening to random music over the speakers. I wasn't sure what to expect, despite Maura's many descriptions of the numerous shows she's attended.

The opening guitar to Survive started, and we were very confused because we could hear him singing, but couldn't see him. Then he came out and everyone cheered. (We yelled his name many times that night.) I cannot name all of the songs he played, but it was fucking great, he seemed to be having fun and us in the audience were as well.

My calves hate me right now from jumping up and down so much. Also, his tattoos are even more beautiful in real life.

After I don't know how many songs, he & his people went backstage and us audience members chilled until the encore.

He came out in one of his latest tour t-shirts, which was extremely tight on him. He looks around and in Japanese says "I don't have a towel!" He's a funny guy, especially after the ustream ended (Miyavi's been using ustream so all the kids who can't attend the shows can watch. You can find the shows on youtube).

He started to play Due le Quartz (his old band from before he was solo)'s Dear From XXX. He kinda fudged some of the lyrics, which we all found amusing. He got Spike to bring out a booklet with the music/lyrics, after Azume told him to continue to play it, to which he replied "Kimi no tame ni" (I will for you). While the music stand was being set up for Miyavi, he got distracted by one of the cosplaying kids who was dressed up as one of the Kabuki Danshi/Kavki Boiz. It was cute.

He finally started to play Dear From XXX properly (at this point Maura and I had moved to the back with the other CoMiyavi) and I look in front of my to see Sugumi sniffling and holding her hands over her mouth. I was never into Due le Quartz, but it was sorta a heavy song. I heard sniffling coming from random people in the crowd. Then he started to play Mata Yume De Aimashou, and both the other Sakihokoru Hana no You ni -Neo Vizualizm- cosplay girl next to me and Maura started crying. Mikan and Maura were holding each other crying, so I just tried to comfort the cosplaying girl and hold her up (she almost buckled). After that, we all rocked out to Sakihokoru Hana no You ni -Neo Vizualizm-, and then he says "Next song, Girls, be ambitious" and my breath caught in my throat.

Girls, be ambitious is literally the third visual kei song I ever heard and possibly the first VK PV (PV = music video) I ever watched.

I turned to Mikan and said "This is my favorite Miyavi song" and she nodded, saying "Mine too." He started playing, and I felt myself choking up. Mikan took my hand and we rocked out and cried together.

The emotions hit me like a truck. The nostaligia of being some twelve year old kid on her parent's computer crawling the net for any tidbit of info on the VK scene, of being angry and blasting VK from my stereo, of feeling happy when I met other kids with the same musical interests, the happiness that I felt from my first Diru show, the fact that I was hearing Miyavi play my favorite song of his, and so much more, all at once. I was sad and happy and overwhelmed and godfuckingDAMN I would not trade that moment for anything, crying and rocking out with CoMiyavi who treated me like one of them even though it was my first show of his.

After that song was the "Otsukaresama!"s chorusing from and to everyone. (I'm not really sure how to translate it. It's pretty much "you must be tired!" or "you worked so hard!" You say it pretty much every day at least once or twice in Japan.)

Demachi (waiting for the artist to exit) was long and amusing. Sugumi apparently had never seen a cockroach in her life before, and was chasing it down the sidewalk. There were many more "Otsukaresama!" and "Kondo ne" (next time) and "ki wo tsukete ne" (take care) form everyone. A bunch of us signed a card for Miyavi (which apparently is a new tradition, started on this, his Screaming Out From Tokyo, tour). When I signed it, I wrote in Japanese: "This was my first Miyavi show. Thank you. -Tonacey."

He finally came out of Morph and was greeted by us like twenty feet away all yelling "OTSUKARESAMA!" He smiled and waved at us.

It was a great fucking night. I'm glad I got to go.

You can view part one of the ustream from that night here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssk5cd9ztVg

My reasons

So, I'm currently waiting in SeaTac. I hate layovers almost as much as actually flying.

This post'll be a bit long a prolly a tad rambly. I've got time.

I'm listening to Dir en grey's Uroboros album, which I like a lot better than The Marrow of a Bone. Uroboros has a few tracks that remind me of Withering to death. Honestly, though, I can't take the English lyric versions of Dozing Green and Glass Skin seriously. Kyo-san, A for effort, but maybe you should do what Miyavi did and take a hardcore English class.

One of the first things I did when I got to Japan was join "a knot," aka the official Dir en grey fan club. For reasons unknown to me they have no international fan club.

Dir en grey, in a way, is pretty much the reason I started learning Japanese.

I mean, yeah, sure, I watched a few anime as a kid, and I always loved my Grandpa's stories about being stationed in Japan after he fought in the Korean Conflict. But the real, huge reason is music.

What had happened was, at some point in the sixth grade, I was on AIM talking to a girl whose name I can't recall, but I remember her awesome screen name: MajinSquee. She asked me if I listened to Dir en grey. Of course, being twelve and knowing next to nothing about Japan in general, I didn't. She file transferred me a picture (similar to this one, not that exact one, but the costumes/makeup were the same http://amis_lee.tripod.com/jrock/dir.jpg). I said "Oh! Pretty girls!" which probably made her laugh. Then she transferred me the song. The first Japanese rock song I'd ever heard: Cage. At the time, I had no idea what the hell Kyo was singing about at the time, but the music-box intro and bass solo, in addition to Kyo's weird and wonderful voice, had me hooked. It was then that I decided that someday, I would be able to know WTF that crazy bastard was singing about without having to lookup a translation/translate it myself (I still have yet to be able to do this, in between his wordplay, screaming, and general use of words they don't teach you in class).

I sought out more Dir en grey songs. During this search I found other Japanese rock bands: X Japan, Malice Mizer, Due le Quartz, Pierrot, Plastic Tree, Luna Sea, L'arc~en~ciel, Kuroyume, Janne da Arc, etc. I was upset occasionally, finding awesome music from an indies VK band that were no longer active (I have some songs on my iPod that I think never even made it to a full album *coughcough*DAS:VASSER*coughcough*), or when I found out that Malice's Kami and hide while solo had both passed away at the end of the '90s, years before I'd heard Cage.

Growing up, I'd heard oldschool rock, like The Beatles, Bob Dylan, '80s glam and metal, some country rock ish type stuff (Johnny Cash and whatnot) and of course whatever poprock the local radio station played.

I had never heard music like Japanese visual kei. I loved it. I longed to be pretty like them, to have the ridiculous hair and makeup and costumes. I had seen glam like Bowie, but these guys took it and ran with it. Amazing androgyny. The first time I ever watched Miyavi's Girls, be ambitious PV, I couldn't breathe. I wanted to be him because he was just so goddamn beautiful in that video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQH9vfDFjGk). Yes, I have gender identity issues, in case that wasn't obvious.

Of course, my horizons weren't only expanded with Japanese VK. This of course led me to other American and British rocks bands, because of comparisons (e.g. oh, this band was influenced by The Sex Pistols), and Korean music, because hey, Korea's right next to Japan (I like Jaurim =D Kim Yuna is awesome.)

For a long time, I was the only person I knew in Anchorage who liked Japanese visual kei (I'm sure the general Japanese populace here preferred their enka and pop music). Eventually though, as I entered high school, more and more anime otaku tards were making their presence known, and they knew of the more famous acts (like Gackt). At the time (actually I still do), I found most of this type of people extremely fucking annoying, and if this makes me sound like an asshole, oh well. You cannot truly learn about Japanese language/culture/etc by watching anime, cosplaying, and never bathing (yes, I am working off the stereotype, but I'm thinking of very specific names and faces as I type this). You can't learn it by listening to Japanese boys scream into microphones, either.

I started taking Japanese at my high school. Then it was actually okay for me to talk about my favorite music in class.

It was actually in high school, the first time I saw Dir en grey live. For either my birthday or Christmas (I can't remember), my dad had gotten me tickets to the concert in Tempe, Arizona at The Marquee in '07 (I'm actually wearing the shirt I bought from that show XD). My grandparents live in Tempe, so I stayed with them.

This concert showed me the reason I will never attend their concerts in the states ever again: American audiences at rock concerts are douchebags. (Also, fuck thrashers. Seriously. Die in a fire.)

Ignoring the audience, the band was amazing. Kyo fishhooked himself and at some point ripped off his shirt. Withering to death. had been released before this concert, but they started the opening to OBSCURE (off of Vulgar) and this screen dropped down behind the band, and the PV started playing! It was amazing.

They have a couple shows in and around Tokyo in October, I wanna go to at least one of them. Hopefully the Japanese audience is better (they tend to be, from the few other band shows I've been to).

Pretty much, if I'd never talked to MajinSquee, I might not be going to school in Tokyo. I might not even be here on this earth. Listening to music saved me from doing some really stupid shit, like drugs, drinking, and straight up suicide. Looking back, my life really wasn't that terrible at the time, but while I was living through all that bullshit, it seemed like my world was ending.

Anyways.

To sum up my long ramblyness: Dir en grey is my favorite band. Ever. Even though I hate Marrow of a Bone and wish they were still VK, and I do like other bands/musicians as well (Miyavi, VAMPS, Tripolysm, and LM.C all have shows after I get back to Tokyo!). Even though now they almost sound like a normal American metal band, I still <3 them lots.

Dear Tokyo

I miss your awesome public transportation system.

I miss the fact that you have a fuckload of convenience stores within walking distance of almost everything.

I miss being able to drink legally.

I miss being able to text my friends in Japan.

I miss seeing people randomly dressed in traditional clothing.

I miss the random (to me) festivals.

I miss my friends in Japan.

I miss being able to go to (relatively cheap) clubs or shows.

I miss seeing the mix of traditional and modern architecture.

I miss people-watching in Shibuya and Shinjuku.

I miss spending hours with friends in an izakaya.

I miss real karaoke places.

I miss being able to see stars at night, and night actually being dark in the summer.

Even though I hate it there sometimes, the fact that I'm going to school there is awesome.

I can't wait to go back.

We are the Tri-P!

MYUJI'S BIRTHDAY LIVE/PARTY WAS AWESOME.

Since I didn't post about it, I'll explain who Myuji is. Myuji is a singer. His voice is amazing. He did the opening theme for the anime version of X by CLAMP (you can hear the song at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO2ALzHVYgE). He's the son of Kuwana Masahiro (famous Japanese singer) and Ann Lewis (famous half-Japanese singer). By famous, I mean famous in Japan. His siblings are all also musicians or singers. He's got an awesome voice, he's hot, and he's somehow not a douche.

His current band is Tripolysm, he's the vocalist and guitarist, with Daigoro on drums and Chaka on bass. Apparently, those two used to be in his backing band when he was solo, now they're just a regular band together. There's also a fourth guy who plays with them sometimes, I think his name is Hiro, he plays guitar. They've preformed in America at SakuraCon (the big anime convention in Seattle).

I saw Tripolysm for the first time on April 1st. It was at a place in Roppongi called Club Edge. I met my friend Maria there while I was waiting for the doors to open. She introduced me to Myuji before the show. I got nervous, so I probably sounded like an idiot when I talked to him. The first opening band was cool, and I got to meet and talk with them afterwards (this is the band where Homare is a guitarist and Kisha is the vocalist). The second band was pretty good too, they were a bit more jazz and less rock.

Finally, Tripolysm was starting. I was right in front of the stage. When the curtain went up, I was standing in front of Chaka. About halfway through their first song, I felt hands on my back. Homare moved me to right in front of Myuji! I was surprised, but happy. I didn't know any of the words to any of the songs, but dammit, it was awesome. When Myuji threw guitar picks to the audience, he handed me one. Like, walked up to me and put it in my hand.

Since it was April Fool's Day and Myuji knows what that is, he decided to tell us that the band had a new fourth member, then proceeded to pull out a small rubber chicken, hold it up to the mic, and squeeze it repeatedly. That sound was awful.

Afterward I got to meet Chaka and Daigoro. Chaka's effing adorable! Maria was babbling to him about me and my tattoos, and he said "Misete" which kinda shocked me (it's a blunt, almost rude way of saying "Show me"). The reaction from Japanese people to my kanji tattoo has never been negative. Daigoro's favorite band is Tool! And he also likes Otep and A Perfect Circle and other bands I like. He's also really tall for a Japanese guy. They all signed my CD, even though Myuji spelled my name wrong in katakana (the alphabet they use for foreign names and words), but I didn't care. I made the guitar pick into a pendant and put it on the ball chain with my Dir en grey fanclub coin. =D Myuji saw my Punisher shirt, got all excited, and showed me a picture of him with a Punisher hoodie on. XD

It was an awesome time. Pictures are on my facebook page.

Myuji's birthday was on the 8th. I met up with Maria at Harajuku Station, then we walked to the venue (Crocodile). Again, pics are on my facebook.

It was super crowded. Apparently the place is famous, I guess a lot of famous (both Japanese and foreign) people go and or preform there. They actually had crocodile meat on the menu, it was expensive.) A bunch of opening acts were there, including some chick from Myuji's futsal (indoor soccer) team (Tokyo Cherries), a comedian-type dude who apparently is famous on Japanese TV, a girl from Kagoshima (where my friend Aimi is from), Myuji's sister, and his father, Kuwana Masahiro. Kuwana-san's voice is still amazing. Myuji's sister and father did a duet, Kuwana-san sang solo, and he also did a duet with Myuji. It was great. Then Tripolysm preformed. Encores were called for both Kuwana-san and Tripolysm.

Next was the birthday/afterparty. This consisted of singing Happy Birthday (in English), eating, drinking, chilling, and guests getting hit with cake and/or champagne poured on them. I narrowly avoided it. Myuji wanted to as a "send-off present" to me (he knows I'm headed back home), and I dared him to do it, but he didn't. He promised he would next year.

While I was talking to Daigoro during some down time, Chaka came over to us and told me in English to take Daigoro home with me. I think Chaka likes to say things that make people blush. Maria totally has a crush on Chaka, but the hot bassist got married a few months ago, so the poor woman doesn't stand a chance. (His wedding photos are sweet, he had his multi-colored braids in during the ceremony.) Chaka had to leave early because apparently his great-grandfather died, so he had to make it to the service.

I showed my guitar pick pendant to Myuji. I think he liked it. =D

There was this very *ahem* provocatively dressed woman there (think white dress with black bra and panties). She kept hitting on Myuji, acting drunk off one drink, you know, typical slut status (before you criticize me for slut-shaming, she kept acting provocatively as well, flashing her panties, pretending to blow things, rubbing Myuji's crotch, etc. Kisha kept asking her to stop, because he's cool like that ^_^). He went all frat boy on her, pouring beer all over her. It was hilarious. Of course, this only made her dress see through. The boy's a bit of a perv, not enough to be creepy, just enough to be amusing.

Everything died down and we cleaned up. The floor was absolutely disgusting, so everyone busted out mops and rags. We all cleaned up (not just the venue staff).

I said bye to Daigoro, then to Myuji. I said I'd see him in the fall, he said he'd be waiting for me and he gave me a Tripolysm sticker. I put it on my phone, which also has a pic of them preforming from that night as the screen background.

It was a great night/morning.

I can't wait to see them again. They have a show in Daikanyama the day after I leave (*cries*). I hope their next CD is done by the time I get back.

They're all really cool. I don't know how they're not famous, but maybe it's because there's fuckloads of bands all trying to make it big in Tokyo.




Myuji's homepage (outdated): http://www.myuji.jp/

Tripolysm's webpage: http://web.me.com/myuji/tripolysm/TRI-P_top.html

Augh

I'm so sorry I suck at updating.

Missed the LM.C shows cuz I need to save money. Sad panda. Did, however, go with Erin to this crazy indie VK live thingie in Kabukicho (that place is weird during the day). It was fun. Hooray hot bands and good music. As a side note, VK-obsessed Japanese middle school girls scare me.

The Japanese friends I've made here are very supportive, especially Aimi and Tomoaki.

I've gotten to hang out with Homare, the adorable guitarist of my friend Kisha's band. Gonna see him again on Friday. I got to hang out with their band in a recording studio a couple weeks ago.

Back in April, I saw Myuji and his band Tripolysm live. It was great. This Saturday is his birthday concert; I can't wait.

Been staying with Masaki, but now I'm at Michael and Jamie's. It's nice to experience parts of Tokyo that aren't Shibuya, Shinjuku, or Harajuku.

I wanna go to the zoo in Ueno~!

I'm both happy and sad about going home. There's so much shit I need to do when I get back.

Been to Atom a few times. First time sucked, second time was awesome, third time was acceptably fun. The second time I went, apparently it was their anniversary, so this dude dressed traditionally got up on stage and started playing the motherfucking shamisen while electronic music played in the background. Later, I got to witness a club full of Japanese people do the YMCA. I was cracking up.

A lot of old friends/acquaintances back home are getting married, are pregnant, and/or have children. Seeing as how most of them aren't terribly older than I am, I'm not quite sure how I feel about this. When I'm talking with my female Japanese friends, I feel like I'm not a real woman. They're all girly, and they all can't wait to marry and have kids. I'm not very girly, and I never want marriage or children.

ARGH BOY ISSUES. I'm not going to go into that further. I'm still single; that should give you, dear reader, some indication as to the status of my love life.

It's been so hot lately. I'm afraid I'm gonna melt. The Japanese all stare at my because I keep rolling up my pants and wearing tank tops. Maybe I'm more pale than I thought?

I've been slowly overcoming my irrational fear of subways.

Living out of suitcases sucks. Especially when you're lugging three of them around on the trains here.

Being over here, I've gained an even greater appreciation for my iPod. I get very cranky when it dies, especially on long train rides.

My feet are all icky. I suppose that's what happens when you walk/stand on trains everywhere. Pedicures here are like $90 though. Eff that. I'll wait till I get home where they're around $30, thank you very much.

Being in Japan has made me realize a few things about myself. Whether that's good or bad, I'm not sure yet. Maybe next time I post, I'll share some of these realizations.

I had pancakes the night before last =D And HOLY CRAP I miss macaroni & cheese.

I need to find new earrings, 8 gauge, that look somewhat professional. Somehow I don't think that's gonna happen. Every time I go to BME, it makes me long for new piercings and tattoos. =/ The career I want the the body mods I want don't go together very well. How I can rectify this, I've no idea.

Later!