December 29th and 30th

Hmm. Not sure if I can even remember what in the world I did yesterday! We did so much stuff so I’ll try to recap…

On the 29th, we woke up somewhat late – I think it was 8-something or 9-something and Lisa’s aunt served breakfast – I had the pig pastry that we bought yesterday and also some sausages and a little thing that was like meat and cheese and stuff compressed into a spam-like block.

Around 10 or something like that we walked around to the front of the train station and then to the bus stop. The snow was pretty slippery but thank goodness I didn’t fall or anything. We took the bus for about an hour and a half over to Sendai. I slept. It’s interesting though, because Sendai is slightly colder but there wasn’t any snow anywhere. It’s pretty city-like, kind of like Kyoto or something.

When the bus dropped us off we got dropped off near the Disney store so we stopped there. I bought myself a Nintendo DS case that has little cupcakes all over it with Mickey Mouse ears. I also bought a pen. We walked upstairs to the second floor but they didn’t have anything that interested me. There’s a lot of stuff that I don’t see in the U.S. Disney stores but I might not be looking hard enough, or something.

After we shopped we walked two doors down to this crab place, and it’s got a huge mechanical crab on the front of the restaurant. Lisa said that no trip to Japan is complete without eating crab. When we walked inside we took our shoes off and then took an elevator to the 5th floor and we got a little low table but there was a hole in the ground so that we could sit normally even though we’re sitting on the floor…does that make sense?

And then came the food. There was so much food! Everything from crab plain to crab deep fried to crab sushi to crab sukiyaki to crab tenpura (is that the same thing as deep fried?) There was a ton of crab and I even took a picture of the picture on the menu to show just how much food there was. We spent like an hour or so there. It was finished off with a scoop of ice cream and I think some raspberry. During the time we spent eating the sun went down – that just shows how long it took to eat all that food!! In the little lobby/whatever area of the restaurant there’s a stone thing with a hole and you can look down into the “basement” and there’s all these crab down there swimming (or sitting in water) and they’re really cute but the food was incredibly delicious!!

So after that we wandered around the city – we walked down this shopping street where there was a ton of arcades. So we walked into each arcade and wasted a bunch of money winning nothing. It was really depressing but we tried all the ones that were along the way and they were all different arcade companies too – Taito, Namco, etc. Ah well. We did do purikura (print club…like a photobooth) as consolation though since you’re guaranteed to get stuff from that.

Then we went to the Uni Qlo store which has a bunch of basics and stuff and Lisa bought some clothes; I bought an eco bag that folds up so that I have another easy-access-fold-up totebag to clip onto my purse. Then downstairs there was a bookstore so I bought the February (what!? February already?) edition of Myojo. It had a lot of stuff with Hey! Say! JUMP in it. And thennn…we wandered through the area near the station and we went to Kiddy Land so Lisa could pick up some little parts to make a keychain. It’s a lot like the Kiddy Land in Harajuku. Then we wandered and we stopped at Starbucks so I could get Grandpa Shozi a Sendai mug. We got a sample of black coffee while we were waiting so I just dumped a packet of sugar in it.

After Starbucks there was another arcade where we tried our luck but we didn’t win anything so we did purikura again. Then Lisa realized that she couldn’t find her Uni Qlo bag so we retraced our steps back to Kiddy Land and asked an information desk but they didn’t know anything :[ We took the bus back to Yamagata, because that's as far as it would go. Then in Yamagata we just sat in a little waiting room for an hour until like 6:40 when the train for Kaminoyama-Onsen would arrive. Then we took the train back and I slept some more :] hmm. After arrival we went and reserved shinkansen tickets for the next morning for 6:35 in the morning so we’d arrive in Tokyo at 9:24

Anyway, when we got back to the house I was pretty tired and incredibly full so I didn’t want anything to eat. Lisa went to her other aunt’s house (neighbor?) and I stayed in the room and tackled the stupid rhythem DS game. Koizora was on TV! That movie makes me sad. After about 30 minutes Miku came into the room and said that they had treats in the other room so I went and sat with the family and chatted (or attempted to) for a bit and had some treats like Kaminoyama manju and stuff. It was really good. Lisa eventually returned then we went back to the room to pack (I kind of half packed)

And then…today, the 30th!!
We woke up around 5-ish? I finished packing and found that I had trouble packing stuff because I didn’t fold my dirty laundry. It all fit somewhat, though. Lisa’s cousin and wife and Miku walked with us and our luggage to the train station (haha it’s only like, what, one block?) and then we waited for the 6:35 AM Shinkansen to arrive and we said our goodbyes and headed on our way to Tokyo.

By the way, it’s like 1:40 in the morning ._. but I MUST do my concert update or else I’ll forget stuff :[

Along the way to Tokyo I just played my DS game for like an hour and a half and then I fell asleep and before I knew it we arrived in Tokyo! Tokyo station was incredibly crowded and so we transferred to the Yamanote Line to ride about 15 minutes to Shinagawa. When we got to Shinagawa we wandered across the street to the hotel (Shinagawa Prince) and tried to check in but they said that check-in time isn't until 1PM so we dropped off our luggage and headed back out.

We took the Yamanote Line to Harajuku, and it was already somewhat crowded. We stopped to see if they had tickets to get into the Johnnys shop but the guy was like "Oh, are you going to the NEWS concert? You won't have time" because the tickets were for 2 and the NEWS concert was at 5:30 in another city. Eh. So we decided we're going to go tomorrow (or today?) morning around 5-6 to try to get in.

So...after that we wandered down Takeshita Dori, which is the main street for Harajuku with all the weird shops (heh.) We stopped at Mighty Soxer and I spent a heck of a lot of money on socks and leggings and I bought some leg warmers and they're really cute. Mighty Soxer has the best socks, by the way. I love their leggings that look like denim but aren't denim.

And then we wandered down and stopped at some unofficial Johnnys goods stores where they have photos and stuff. Some of the people were pushy in the small tiny shop. I'm surprised that people resell/buy so many photos of stuff! There was a store where they sell tickets to Johnnys concerts and the tickets for Countdown for stand seats were going for like 250000 yen! That's practically $3000. And we have arena seats, so our tickets could sell for $3000+! Hahah, but I'd much rather go to Countdown.

We went to a store called Indio and it had a lot of Russ-K stuff. NEWS does advertising for Russ-K so of course they have posters of NEWS and they're selling basically the same clothes NEWS is wearing. I bought a really cute red plaid button-down shirt with a hood which is actually a guys shirt bu you can't tell. I also bought a blue plaid muffler which is also very cute. They had stuff on sale, too!

We did some more wandering in and out of stores but I didn't buy anything else. Eventually we ended up at the end of Takeshita Dori, where we turned right at the Claires (what!? Claires!?) and found ourself at the building with Sweets Paradise, that wonderful little place where you can pay a fixed amount for a dessert buffet. Lisa and I waited in line upstairs (it was on the third floor) and while we waited I called home. Lisa was waiting for a friend, so when we got to the front of the line we let people pass until her friend came.

Oh, and the guy working at Sweets Paradise looked a lot like Koyama, almost like a brother or something. It was amusing.

So for lunch I had curry and lots of sweets - but I was pretty controlled, I only had two plates. Their raspberry square-things are really good and they had really yummy apple square-things and I like their melon soda. We spent about 30-ish minutes there - didn't use up all the time and then we wandered back onto Takeshita Dori, which had by then become incredibly crowded!!

We went back into one of the unofficial Johnnys shops so that Lisa's friend could sell some of the photos she bought. Then we met up with another friend but Lisa and I had to return to the hotel so that we could make our way back out to Tokyo Dome. Lisa and I took the Yamanote Line back to Shinagawa and checked into our room. We're on the 29th floor!!

We headed back out, this time taking the Yamanote Line to Akihabara, then the Sobu Line to the station near Tokyo Dome. There were a lot of girls on the train and then when we got out there were even more girls EVERYWHERE! Of course, when the dome is sold out, there will be a ton of girls everywhere. It was overwhelming.

The goods line was super long, and some of the photo sets were already sold out. We decided to wander through the department stores to kill time. We went to the Uni Qlo so Lisa could buy the stuff that she lost when she misplaced her bag. Then we went window shopping and there was a really cute store with adorable stuff like strawberry-type things and stuff. I also found a panda kleenex box case that I'm debating whether or not I should get.

So after a lot of meandering and taking pictures of the dome we went and met with another one of Lisa's friends and chatted until we decided to head inside the dome. We went into gate 21 and the seats are pretty good - they're stand seats and about 20 rows back and they're on the first base side (see diagram in previous post).

The concert was pretty much awesome. It was party themed and stuff and the opening is a VTR of the members of NEWS running to a party, then they show up in this big diamond thing and start singing Happy Birthday (NEWS song, not the American thing) and then they sang weeeek which was pretty cool because the energy level was so high! I was happy that they threw in Hadashi no Cinderella Boy because I read in the previous concerts that that was for encore. Same with Taiyou no Namida and Murarisuto and Mola (Yamapi's solo); I didn't know those would be part of the concert but they were.

At the start of the concert all the members of News were wearing different color outfits but they had on these bright red shoes which I didn't quite get. It was odd. The outfits during the whole concert were pretty conservative which was nice :]

We were sitting in like, signboard zone. One of Yamapi’s autographed balls landed right near us and I saw the person who caught it, a row a head of us one section over. Then like, there were four signboards that landed near us. Massu threw a signboard and it landed in an aread without an audience -_-

This is totally out of order. During the MC segment they had a lot of advertising – like showing Russ-K shirts that they designed and other miscellaneous products like vegetable juice (Yamapi drinking it). Then guess who showed up!? Matsumoto Jun and Ikuta Toma! That was exciting. Then Matsumoto was like “weeeek is an awesome song. I want to sing it!” and stuff but then they went off stage. Then they had like another MC bit and then they introduced Hey! Say! JUMP who did their countdown recording since because HSJ is underage they can’t perform at the New Years Countdown. HSJ sang Mayonaka no Shadow Boy and Dreams Come True which was nice :]

There was this guy across the aisle from us who spent the entire concert with his arms folded and a stern look on his face. He was probably a husband/dad/boyfriend or something. Sucks for him!!

Overall the concert was absolutely amazing :] Shige had a solo with a tambourine which was amusing. Massu had a new solo, called MaSuperman and his opening was like a comic and it had English on the comic and I started bursting out laughing because it was like “What’s happen!?” and then this girl’s like “Help!” and then some other stuff and I was laughing because the English was so funny and people were like “._.” Massu sang about nasu and tomatoes and odd stuff like that (he was eating during the opening VTR and he was eating candy during the MC segment!)

So there was one encore at the end, and Ikuta Toma came out and rode on the carts with them and they sang and it was amusing then Matsumoto Jun came back up and he was like, reading from the litle CD pamphlet that has lyrics in it and he was trying to sing weeeek but he failed. It was funny though. After the encore people tried to get another one but it was too weak (haha. weeeek. weak…) and then so that was the end.

Lisa and I figured out where we’re sitting for Countdown tomorrow. We’re going to be right next to center stage. So you might see me on the tape (it’ll be on the internet immediately)

When we were leaving the dome since the dome is air pressured to keep the ceiling up there’s a crazy gust of wind/air that pushes you out of the dome and it’s kind of amusing.

We went straight to the line to buy goods, which wasn’t too long. The goods were separated by booth so we just had to wait in line for each section to buy goods. I bought the pamphlet, tote bag, pen light, cellphone charm, Tegoshi uchiwa, group poster, official photo sets, and the live photo sets (second edition, though the group, yamapi, and ryo were sold out so we’ll have to get that tomorrow).

I was trying to get the group poster, so then I said group in Japanese, I was like “guruupu posutaa” but I didn’t know there was a special term for group so I wa like “group!?” and she was like “huh?” so I said “eigo (English?)” and she’s like “Tegoshi!?” and I’m like “…minna? (everyone)” and she FINALLY got it. People say the weirdest things when I say “eigo?” -_____-

So we took the train back to Shinagawa, where we met back up with Lisa’s friends at T.G.I Fridays and I had chicken strips and a little shot-glass size cup of snickers dessert thing. We spent time talking there, and then at about 11 or so we wandered back to the hotel and I assessed the damage I did with money. Ahh!

Anyway, it is now 2:10AM and I am tired because the alarm’s set for 5. Hahaha! ‘ll update pictures later – I need sleep, especially since Countdown’s from 11-12:30 or something like that -___-