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tky
i went to... tokyo... with meaka
a few months ago, REOL announced they were breaking up and doing a final tour - two concerts, one in osaka and one in tokyo. i got tickets to the tokyo one through chi, and then set up my trip because, i mean, yolo, right...? right. meaka got to come, too!
it's been such a blur of a trip (six days!) so most of this will be in bullet points
wednesday 10/18 - thursday 10/19
-went to LAX and boarded plane to tokyo... it was a dizzying and long flight for me but i managed to sleep and played a lot of stardew valley
-we landed in narita to... rain! a typhoon was coming. we got on the narita express to tokyo station and arrived around 5pm, at rush hour... it was really difficult to figure out how to get to ikebukuro, but eventually we got suica cards and found our way with help from the station staff. it was a pain to travel on the trains with our huge luggage, but we managed in the end
-then we made our way to KIMI ryokan, which was recommended to me by ridi. it was still raining, so we stopped in a family mart and grabbed umbrellas. little did we know we shouldn't get too attached to them.
-we arrived at the ryokan and got our letter from chi with tickets and an ID card! i was so relieved. we immediately collapsed into our futons and slept
friday 10/20
-we explored ikebukuro! our goal was to find sunshine city, but we got lost a lot, which was okay. i found a huge poster for the hibike! euphonium movie and realized i was really in japan.
-we found animate, which was amazing... i bought all three volumes of yatamomo, some CDs, and both volumes of nagata kabi's diaries. meaka bought a ton of kirbies and gifts for people.
-we found sunshine city and climbed to the top (but not before stopping in a daiso and getting REAL JAPANESE EARPICKS). it was super cool! the sky was cloudy and foggy but you could still see so far. we saw the sky tree!
-we met up with jay at sunshine city! she took us to an arcade and showed us how to play maimai, a rhythm game. it was a ton of fun and they had a bunch of vocaloid songs so of course i loved it, lol. we also went to pokemon center where i bought over 10,000 yen worth of popplios, including the LIFE SIZED POPPLIO at long last. i'd wanted it ever since it came out but the shipping fee always scared me away. after that we stopped at a curry place to grab dinner and since we werent sure if we'd see each other again, said our good byes.
saturday 10/21
-we met up with my friend from college, harris! i hadn't seen him since we graduated 3 years ago and he moved to japan, so i was really excited to get to see him. his boyfriend drove us to an aquarium, aqua park in shinagawa, and we had a ton of fun exploring. it was in a really fancy hotel.
-we grabbed lunch together and meaka had real takoyaki... then shingo suggested we could go between two places - a historical museum or a more modern one about current japanese technology. we decided on the latter and i'm really glad LOL. it was really cool. they had a smile test and meaka scored third place. they also had a DDR like rhythm game and meaka and i put our deresute skills to use and got perfect score. we beat some children. then harris made a CG rabbit twerk.
-after that, meaka and i went to tokyo disneyland! i haven't been to any sort of disney place since... probably 13 or so, so a lot of it felt new to me. it was rainy and damp so the park wasn't too busy, and we rode pirates of the caribbean and haunted mansion, both of which i've never been on. haunted mansion was stylized with nightmare before christmas for halloween and it was oddly hilarious. we did a bit of shopping for souvenirs and gifts, then stumbled our way home. we walked over 21,000 steps that day. my feet burned.
sunday 10/22
-we had planned to meet my friend ridi as well as itoki hana, but on the way to the station i realized... tonight was reol's concert. i panicked, but thankfully was able to re-schedule meeting ridi which was relieving... we went to harajuku and the rain was so harsh and my feet were soaked, so we stopped in a store and i bought some REAL harajuku boots. it was a really cool area, even if it was so crowded that i started freaking out a little.
-we found itoki hana and she wanted to go to a cafe 20 minutes away, but i was so panicked about time that i suggested going somewhere closer. we found a small but extremely fancy cafe and it ended up being perfect... but my panic overwhelmed me and i had to hide in the bathroom for a bit. thankfully it passed, which i was really thankful for;; she was super friendly and fun to chat with, and told us about the cafe she had wanted to go to - it was a stationary cafe where you could write cards while enjoying cafe stuff which sounded SO COOL... so next time we go to japan we definitely have to go. we congratulated her on her ED for magus bride and also talked about her recent video she'd uploaded just a night or two before. it was a really fun afternoon.
-after that, we went back to ikebukuro and grabbed our tickets, dropped stuff off, then grabbed a cab to go to the concert location since i was too scared to figure out the trains. it ended up getting us there at the perfect time - I got to buy an official reol SWEAT TOWEL. we waited a little while to get in, where we saw flower stands set up as well as some outfits from various videos on mannequins. i started to freak out.
-we found pretty good spots in the concert hall itself which was relieving - we were one step up from the closest area, if that makes sense. they were playing some jingly music that looped perfectly, and at one point right around :57 the music dropped off quietly and the hall went quiet... then picked right back up and everyone groaned.
-then... the concert started. they opened with ooedo ranbu (tenka toritai ver) and i started bawling LOL. it was so amazing. they carried into yoiyoi kokon and screaming "それそれそれそれ!" with 2,000 people was just... such an experience. they also did a somewhat old-fashioned version of chiruchiru and i cried SOOOOOOOOOO HARD it was so beautiful and powerful i could not believe what i was hearing... during the intermission they did little anyosu animatics of their characters meeting and hanging out, it was so cute. the effects during the show were out of this world - they had a see-thru screen much like they use in miku concerts i believe and it reflected various effects onto the stage - it was so cool. when hibikase came on, they mixed reol's vocals with miku and some new art key had done of miku was displayed over the stage and in the back. you can see it here a little. they also played a lot of songs from their new album and i... really need the new album... ah... the last song they played was no title which was the one song i REALLY wanted to see them perform - i completely broke down sobbing LOL i was so, so happy, just thinking about it is making me tear up. after that we all screamed for an encore and i kept screaming even as my throat ached, but of course they came back out =3=... after the encore they said their good byes and reol started to cry... so of course i did, too. she told us that she knows that human beings are creatures which are bound to forget, but she hopes that we'll remember this night forever in our hearts. i know i will...
-we followed the herd to the station, where i managed to get help from a kind stranger in which train to take to tokyo station. i felt really thankful at that point and so emotionally filled with happiness and joy... even if it was their last concert, it was so bittersweet, but it felt more sweet than bitter. i could really feel the love in the concert hall so it was hard to be truly upset.
-meaka wanted to get sushi, so we stopped in some places to find a place that would let us do take out and found one. the guys behind the counter were really friendly. one of them talked to me the whole while and commented that we (me?) had huge eyes, and the older sushi maker muttered "they really do." he told us to review their place on twitter and then gave us free egg because we were both bijin. too bad neither of us much like eggy - but i was happy either way.
-the typhoon happened overnight and was gone by morning... amazing.
monday 10/23
-since the typhoon was over, we went to akihabara! we were waiting to meet ridi but got there an hour or so early just to enjoy the nice weather (the sky??????????) and even tho we nearly got blown over, we still got to find some sick animes. i bought 5 k-on figures for 5,000 yen.
-then we met up with RIDI!!!!!!!! i've known ridi since... deviantart. probably age 15??? i have no idea. A LONG TIME. she showed us some doll stores and it was so much fun to windowshow even if i didn't buy anything. i had wanted to get a middie but the only one i found wasn't really my style so that was a bust :( maybe another time...
-we met up with jay again after that and got KOBE BEEF. i was... ecstatic. it was so good. i wanted to cry all over it. even if it was street food, it was so amazing. i could have eaten five of them. we went to a few different stores and ended up in mandarake where i found a doll that really spoke to me... and azone pure neemo called alisa - days of may. we also went to tora no ana and got some books... and also i found a bunch of k project gakuen au manga and freaked out?!??! it was awesome... then we had to say good bye to jay so we could make sure we could get REAL japanese ramen before the shops closed
-so... because of my shit brain, i can't eat in restaurants without having a panic attack. so we had to find a ramen place that would let us do take out, which thankfully wasn't too hard! but i wanted to get udon, which was much harder to find. eventually i decided i wanted to get gyudon instead and found a take out place for that, but because we were walking around and the shit bowl the ramen was in was styrofoam, it heated up from the soup and spilled the ramen soup into the bag and became... bag ramen. we did surgery once we got back to the ryokan and saved it, but bag ramen will live with us always
tuesday 10/24
-i remember like nothing of this day. we went home somehow. it was very bittersweet... a child coughed the entire plane trip. coming back to america really sucked, with people yelling at us so much and such.
we got home and passed out for six hours. it was a really good trip.
a few months ago, REOL announced they were breaking up and doing a final tour - two concerts, one in osaka and one in tokyo. i got tickets to the tokyo one through chi, and then set up my trip because, i mean, yolo, right...? right. meaka got to come, too!
it's been such a blur of a trip (six days!) so most of this will be in bullet points
wednesday 10/18 - thursday 10/19
-went to LAX and boarded plane to tokyo... it was a dizzying and long flight for me but i managed to sleep and played a lot of stardew valley
-we landed in narita to... rain! a typhoon was coming. we got on the narita express to tokyo station and arrived around 5pm, at rush hour... it was really difficult to figure out how to get to ikebukuro, but eventually we got suica cards and found our way with help from the station staff. it was a pain to travel on the trains with our huge luggage, but we managed in the end
-then we made our way to KIMI ryokan, which was recommended to me by ridi. it was still raining, so we stopped in a family mart and grabbed umbrellas. little did we know we shouldn't get too attached to them.
-we arrived at the ryokan and got our letter from chi with tickets and an ID card! i was so relieved. we immediately collapsed into our futons and slept
friday 10/20
-we explored ikebukuro! our goal was to find sunshine city, but we got lost a lot, which was okay. i found a huge poster for the hibike! euphonium movie and realized i was really in japan.
-we found animate, which was amazing... i bought all three volumes of yatamomo, some CDs, and both volumes of nagata kabi's diaries. meaka bought a ton of kirbies and gifts for people.
-we found sunshine city and climbed to the top (but not before stopping in a daiso and getting REAL JAPANESE EARPICKS). it was super cool! the sky was cloudy and foggy but you could still see so far. we saw the sky tree!
-we met up with jay at sunshine city! she took us to an arcade and showed us how to play maimai, a rhythm game. it was a ton of fun and they had a bunch of vocaloid songs so of course i loved it, lol. we also went to pokemon center where i bought over 10,000 yen worth of popplios, including the LIFE SIZED POPPLIO at long last. i'd wanted it ever since it came out but the shipping fee always scared me away. after that we stopped at a curry place to grab dinner and since we werent sure if we'd see each other again, said our good byes.
saturday 10/21
-we met up with my friend from college, harris! i hadn't seen him since we graduated 3 years ago and he moved to japan, so i was really excited to get to see him. his boyfriend drove us to an aquarium, aqua park in shinagawa, and we had a ton of fun exploring. it was in a really fancy hotel.
-we grabbed lunch together and meaka had real takoyaki... then shingo suggested we could go between two places - a historical museum or a more modern one about current japanese technology. we decided on the latter and i'm really glad LOL. it was really cool. they had a smile test and meaka scored third place. they also had a DDR like rhythm game and meaka and i put our deresute skills to use and got perfect score. we beat some children. then harris made a CG rabbit twerk.
-after that, meaka and i went to tokyo disneyland! i haven't been to any sort of disney place since... probably 13 or so, so a lot of it felt new to me. it was rainy and damp so the park wasn't too busy, and we rode pirates of the caribbean and haunted mansion, both of which i've never been on. haunted mansion was stylized with nightmare before christmas for halloween and it was oddly hilarious. we did a bit of shopping for souvenirs and gifts, then stumbled our way home. we walked over 21,000 steps that day. my feet burned.
sunday 10/22
-we had planned to meet my friend ridi as well as itoki hana, but on the way to the station i realized... tonight was reol's concert. i panicked, but thankfully was able to re-schedule meeting ridi which was relieving... we went to harajuku and the rain was so harsh and my feet were soaked, so we stopped in a store and i bought some REAL harajuku boots. it was a really cool area, even if it was so crowded that i started freaking out a little.
-we found itoki hana and she wanted to go to a cafe 20 minutes away, but i was so panicked about time that i suggested going somewhere closer. we found a small but extremely fancy cafe and it ended up being perfect... but my panic overwhelmed me and i had to hide in the bathroom for a bit. thankfully it passed, which i was really thankful for;; she was super friendly and fun to chat with, and told us about the cafe she had wanted to go to - it was a stationary cafe where you could write cards while enjoying cafe stuff which sounded SO COOL... so next time we go to japan we definitely have to go. we congratulated her on her ED for magus bride and also talked about her recent video she'd uploaded just a night or two before. it was a really fun afternoon.
-after that, we went back to ikebukuro and grabbed our tickets, dropped stuff off, then grabbed a cab to go to the concert location since i was too scared to figure out the trains. it ended up getting us there at the perfect time - I got to buy an official reol SWEAT TOWEL. we waited a little while to get in, where we saw flower stands set up as well as some outfits from various videos on mannequins. i started to freak out.
-we found pretty good spots in the concert hall itself which was relieving - we were one step up from the closest area, if that makes sense. they were playing some jingly music that looped perfectly, and at one point right around :57 the music dropped off quietly and the hall went quiet... then picked right back up and everyone groaned.
-then... the concert started. they opened with ooedo ranbu (tenka toritai ver) and i started bawling LOL. it was so amazing. they carried into yoiyoi kokon and screaming "それそれそれそれ!" with 2,000 people was just... such an experience. they also did a somewhat old-fashioned version of chiruchiru and i cried SOOOOOOOOOO HARD it was so beautiful and powerful i could not believe what i was hearing... during the intermission they did little anyosu animatics of their characters meeting and hanging out, it was so cute. the effects during the show were out of this world - they had a see-thru screen much like they use in miku concerts i believe and it reflected various effects onto the stage - it was so cool. when hibikase came on, they mixed reol's vocals with miku and some new art key had done of miku was displayed over the stage and in the back. you can see it here a little. they also played a lot of songs from their new album and i... really need the new album... ah... the last song they played was no title which was the one song i REALLY wanted to see them perform - i completely broke down sobbing LOL i was so, so happy, just thinking about it is making me tear up. after that we all screamed for an encore and i kept screaming even as my throat ached, but of course they came back out =3=... after the encore they said their good byes and reol started to cry... so of course i did, too. she told us that she knows that human beings are creatures which are bound to forget, but she hopes that we'll remember this night forever in our hearts. i know i will...
-we followed the herd to the station, where i managed to get help from a kind stranger in which train to take to tokyo station. i felt really thankful at that point and so emotionally filled with happiness and joy... even if it was their last concert, it was so bittersweet, but it felt more sweet than bitter. i could really feel the love in the concert hall so it was hard to be truly upset.
-meaka wanted to get sushi, so we stopped in some places to find a place that would let us do take out and found one. the guys behind the counter were really friendly. one of them talked to me the whole while and commented that we (me?) had huge eyes, and the older sushi maker muttered "they really do." he told us to review their place on twitter and then gave us free egg because we were both bijin. too bad neither of us much like eggy - but i was happy either way.
-the typhoon happened overnight and was gone by morning... amazing.
monday 10/23
-since the typhoon was over, we went to akihabara! we were waiting to meet ridi but got there an hour or so early just to enjoy the nice weather (the sky??????????) and even tho we nearly got blown over, we still got to find some sick animes. i bought 5 k-on figures for 5,000 yen.
-then we met up with RIDI!!!!!!!! i've known ridi since... deviantart. probably age 15??? i have no idea. A LONG TIME. she showed us some doll stores and it was so much fun to windowshow even if i didn't buy anything. i had wanted to get a middie but the only one i found wasn't really my style so that was a bust :( maybe another time...
-we met up with jay again after that and got KOBE BEEF. i was... ecstatic. it was so good. i wanted to cry all over it. even if it was street food, it was so amazing. i could have eaten five of them. we went to a few different stores and ended up in mandarake where i found a doll that really spoke to me... and azone pure neemo called alisa - days of may. we also went to tora no ana and got some books... and also i found a bunch of k project gakuen au manga and freaked out?!??! it was awesome... then we had to say good bye to jay so we could make sure we could get REAL japanese ramen before the shops closed
-so... because of my shit brain, i can't eat in restaurants without having a panic attack. so we had to find a ramen place that would let us do take out, which thankfully wasn't too hard! but i wanted to get udon, which was much harder to find. eventually i decided i wanted to get gyudon instead and found a take out place for that, but because we were walking around and the shit bowl the ramen was in was styrofoam, it heated up from the soup and spilled the ramen soup into the bag and became... bag ramen. we did surgery once we got back to the ryokan and saved it, but bag ramen will live with us always
tuesday 10/24
-i remember like nothing of this day. we went home somehow. it was very bittersweet... a child coughed the entire plane trip. coming back to america really sucked, with people yelling at us so much and such.
we got home and passed out for six hours. it was a really good trip.