w-inds. at the Nippon Budokan 08-30-2006

[kenaressa]

EDIT - I want to LJ cut the report, but it's not working for me right now and I'm tired of fighting with it...sorry.
EDIT 2 - Fixed!

 Just a brief con report, before I go to sleep and forget everything:

• Caught the 12:36 train from Shinkanuma to Asakusa and made my way to the Budokan...got there far too early, since I bought all the goods I wanted in Kobe, but it was interesting to see all the fans arriving.  Not too many crazy outfits, it was pretty restrained.
• ran into aurelminuial and pieces (never met them before, they came up to me because I am obviously not japanese, and it's always nice to talk with fellow english speakers while waiting)  I like meeting new people (who are fans) in the flesh!
• waited around with them, and got into the entrance line very near the front.  This means that the full press of all the people with second level seats were behind us.  We got in pretty quickly, once the doors were opened, even with the cursitory bag "search".
• While we all waited, and as we walked into the hall, there was a staff member filming...it'll be interesting to see if I make it into the DVD as part of the Tokyo extras (if you see someone with her hair up, wearing the tour tanktop and a blue venician glass necklace...that's me).
• Inside - My seat was on the East side of the arena, 'X' row, which meant that I was in the very last row of seats before the back wall (it could have been worse, there was a row of standing "seats" behind me, and I'm not short in Japan, so I could easily see over the people in lower rows)  I love my new binoculars, they worked so well!
• As for the concert itself: there was much squee! but I only have a few points to mention...
  • 1- Keita dropped his mic towards the beginning of midnight venus...it was quite amusing, I thought, he picked it back up and went on like nothing had happened (though I noticed he was holding it tighter for the rest of the song.
  • 2- during the first MC, Keita pinched Ryuichi's cheek (like the kind in anime, where they pinch and pull upwards)...I couldn't understand why (maybe to show how elastic his face is? it was highly elastic), but it was very cute.
  • 3- It was kinda funny, when they did the dance for Boogie Woogie 66, in the swirly jacket costume (which is hatless), they still did all the hand moves that the hats require ^__~
  • 4- for superlover (reggae version) they had the DJ out on stage with them, as well as a team of chibi dancers (the youngest looked around 7-8, the oldest preteen)  It was really sweet to see them dancing together (Keita really likes kids, doesn't he...).
• because of my binoculars, I got to see lots of details .... I don't have as much of a problem with the swirly jacket costumes anymore (you were right on all points, tabris, having a closeup view makes a BIG difference.

EDIT 3 - As I've been recently reminded, I forgot to mention that Ryohei now has a portion of his hair dyed light pink!  See!!

After leaving, I managed to make it back to Utsunomiya (through use of the Shinkansen, and almost running between stations) just in time to catch the last train back to Kanuma  ^____________________________^  hooray for not having to take a taxi (to the tune of ~6000 yen) home!!!!!!!!!

(someday I will manage to have seats that are actually close to the stage...where I might be seen...maybe)