Tokyo pt. 9 - Hamasaki's Concert 浜崎のコンサート

After the butler cafe we took a taxi over to Yoyogi National Gymnasium for the big show! 

先土曜日は浜崎あゆみの代々木ラスト週末コンサートへ行った！

Those of you who have seen my ' My Hamasaki Ayumi Concerts' photo album will know that even in provincial Fukuoka the turn out at a Hamasaki show includes an interesting array of super hardcore fans and in some cases, their customized vans, cars, etc.  

This case was no different!  I've taken my pics and inserted them into the photo album too,  here's a few of them. コンサートのお外の写真は僕の フォトアルバームに入った：

These things are NOT cheap... ( view the rest at the end of this photo album!)

The show was pretty awesome (of course).  You may recall that I went to the 2005 and 2006 tours in Japan and was impressed w/ the fancy theatrics, special effects, etc.   2007's show in HK was good too, but they didn't bring down all the fancy stuff from the Japan tour, so i felt like i missed out a bit.    This year's show had its share of fancy stuff, but maybe not quite as much. (2005 had fountains AND snow, 2006 had rain falling from the ceiling AND giant moving video curtains AND Hamasaki in a hanging sphere that flew down the length of the hall.  

How could they top that?  Well I'm not sure if they did, but they certainly tried:

Don't ask... :-P

Of course I didn't take photos inside the show, but there are a bunch of officially released press photos available in Chinese media news articles:　このコンサート写真は中国語のニュースからです：

Apple daily taiwan sina.com 163.com - 1 163.com - 2

Seemed like she did more costume changes this time (like one every two-three songs).  Being a music purist, of course these extra bells and whistles are not necessary. :-P

服は９回変りました：

According to those Chinese articles, there were 9 costumes...  but i couldn't find a photo of my favorite, the metallic golden space-cadet with mini-skirt...

During the encore usually the guitarist Nomura Yoshio (野村義男 aka Yo-chan) does some witty banter, reads fan questions and gives Hamasaki different quizzes, etc (for the comedic enjoyment of all).  This time they did an 'A Capella Challenge'.  where they played a 2 second clip from one of her old songs and challenge her to sing the entire verse a capella.  They let the back-up singers help her out though.  They played a clip from her song 'Game' and it took them a few minutes of whispering to each other to figure it out before they tried... after a comedic mistake, she eventually got it.  Perhaps it was all staged, but entertaining none-the-less. (I'm sure it will be in next year's concert tour DVD).

Normally the lines at the merchandise counter are super long, so in previous years I've never had a chance to get any of the super-expensive stuff (i just bought some stickers from a bootleg place a few years back).

But this year we were able to score some sweet stuff.  For the sake of Hamasaki Fans out there (like people who may find this page through google,  or people like Elena), here's some of what we got - あゆの品が一杯をもらった：

L: Light up fan (looks really cool when like 10k people in the audience all have them...)

R: 2007 'Tour of Secret' Asian Tour Photobook...  high quality printing, really nice photography, (except you can't see me in any of the HK show crowd shots...)

  L: Ayu 10th Anniversary Asian Tour 'Muffler Towel'

R: Stick on bejeweled Ayu logo sticker for your mobile phone... should i use it? maybe i'll wait til i upgrade...

Apparently Hamasaki has generated enough revenue for the Japanese government that they are willing to honor her in stamp form!  Each cover of her 9 original albums get a stamp...

And completely out of left field:

For those who can't read Japanese, that says 'Ayu Chips'. They're also Mentaikoflavored ( Mentaikois the local specialty of Fukuoka, Hamasaki's hometown, its spicy cod row).  On the package it says " Just the right amount of spicy - its habit forming!".  明太子味のあゆチップス！すごい！

They were selling them outside when we exited the stadium:

"Get your Ayu Chips!"

Thanks again to Hi-chan for helping us! (she enjoyed the concert as much, if not more than me, so I'm glad we went together).　　ひ-ちゃんが有難う！一緒行ったがとても楽しかった！

Here's Pat, Hi-chan and me and my light-up fan...

I waved it around all the way home that night... and then fell asleep with it in my hands, when I woke up the batteries were dead. :-(