Blackbird, Fly Memory #2: Going To An Oversea Concert In Japan, ALONE?! Road To OKUCHI POKAAAARN LAST TOUR -2019- ~Netemo Sametemo Negoto Ja Night Tour FINAL~

Dear blog,

You might noticed that the blog contents are mostly filled with Negoto stuff. Yeah, I considered myself a fanboy of Negoto. I'll be talking about Negoto in another post, since I love them so much and want to talk more about them.

Unfortunately for me, after 7 years of listening to Negoto, they had announced that they are disbanding on 21st of July 2019. So I'm like, "I realllllyyyy need to go see them, this is my last chance!".

When there's a will, there's a way. I don't mind travelling around a foreign land, and travelling alone. And so I made up my mind. It was an exhausting 2-days trip, plus it's summer, so I've kept in mind that this won't be a comfortable trip 😣

Photos of the travelogue are mixed from my 'Blackbird, fly' and phone camera roll, so good luck guessing which is which LOL

Two things on this trip that gave me anxiety throughout the whole period from securing a ticket to actually entering the concert hall; got detained by Japan's immigration and not allowed to enter the concert due to the fact that the ticket wasn't registered by my name.

For the concert ticket, I contacted the website https://www.japanconcerttickets.com/ for ticket (unfortunately, they stopped doing proxy ticket purchase due to unknown reason, I suspected that the service provider had returned to his/her own country). Anyway, the service provider, Jean (as shown in the e-mail I received) had communicate with me well through e-mail about the ticket. Jean helped me to enter the lottery and lucky for me, Jean had won the lottery with a single entry. Other than giving quotation of the ticket, Jean also had guide me roughly about how to get through from collecting the ticket to entering the concert. I requested for the ticket to be sent via airmail but since Jean had to return to his/her homeland, I had to pick it up from 7-Eleven myself. Luckily a friend of mine went to Japan 2 weeks after the ticket was ready to be collected. Shout out to Jean for the service, it's sad that you had shut down the service...

Anyway, I only bought my plane ticket after my concert ticket was confirmed. Good thing that even it's just another 3 months before departure, the ticket weren't that expensive. It costed me RM1160 or around USD$250 (including check-in luggage, I took some orders from others). For place to sleep, I chose a night at a capsule hotel called Tokyo Ginza Bay Hotel and costed me RM150, or around USD$36. And for transport, a friend of mine suggested me the unlimited 2-Days Tokyo Subway Pass, which costed me RM50 (around USD$12).

So, the day of arrival had arrived. My departure was on 6 a.m., 19 of July. I departed for klia2 Airport first and later transit to Haneda Airport, Japan at 2.30 p.m.. Good thing that one of my anxiety was taken care of, I passed the immigration without any hassle at all. Arriving there at night gave me another anxiety though, duhh.... It's a tiring, sleepless night since airport is not a comfortable place to sleep and I had to keep my eye on my stuff (though I only carry 1 backpack and a sling bag). So, as planned, I stay the night there.

Photo credit to Azusa Takada

I departed to the city centre as soon as 5 a.m., on the very first train. Since I don't have any plans, I decided to go to the 'Kimi No Na Wa' staircase (the staircase was a real-life location of the said movie title). The gloominess of the weather kinda ruined my mood, it wasn't as vibrant as depicted in the movie 😞

The said staircase, the area is especially quiet (maybe because it was still early).

Then I went to Roppongi Hills in hopes that I'd be able to go on the observation tower there, only to be disappointed at the fact that the tower will only be opened at 10 a.m.. So I took a rest since I'm still dizzy from lack of sleep and conntinue to wander around for an hour before I decided that I realllllllyyyyy need a sleep and checked-in at an internet cafe to sleep, which costed a hefty 1000 yen for an hour....

Later at 10, it was time for most shop to open so since I took orders from my friends to shop, I rushed to a Bic Camera mall near Ginza, and later around Shibuya and Shinjuku (most of the stuff ordered were Beyblade tho). It's hard to get my hands on every order since most shops only allowed 1-3 identical item per person, so I had to go to several shops 😕

So here's Shibuya. I got quite excited as soon as I arrived here, the place looked EXACTLY as depicted in the game The World Ends With You. As I head out of the station, I was greeted by the Moai head statue outside, where in the game, you are given a mission to 'cleanse' the Moai head (or Moyai, as mentioned in the game) for the Noise creature (the villain's underlings). So, based on the good amount of knowledge I had from the game, I managed to wonder the streets of Shibuya without referring to maps! I head to the good boi Hachiko statue first, for a compulsory photo and later to the world's famous Shibuya Crossing. It was quite a crowded road. Then I navigate through the streets to visit the front of record store (it's not Tower Record, I didn't went there since there's not much time), the Cat Street, Spain Hill and pass through Tsutaya O-East. Those were some location in the game too!

The Moai/Moyai statue.

Spain Hill.

Cat Street.

Shop signs around this area are unique and fashionable LOL

The Shibuya crossing.

Good boi still here waiting....

I tried the Lobster Roll sandwich on Cat Street, it was my first time eating lobster and MY GOD IT WAS TASTY! Other than the lobster is still quite cool (they didn't heat it up after taking it out of the fridge), the bread taste is incredible as well!

The shop name is Luke's Lobster if you're wondering.

I try to buy some more for the orders as I can, and head to the hotel at Ginza to place my stuff and prepare for the concert. Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to use the bathroom but the receptionist advised me to take a bath at an internet cafe not far from there. The bath costed me almost 500 yen (including a towel so... Nah at least I was clean).

I got myself at the concert venue, finally. The place was a bit crowded at first and keeps getting more crowded. For the concert, they split up people to wait at 4 to 5 corners in front of the venue entrance. The spots are marked with the attendees line number, such as A1-A100, A101-A200, 1-200, 201-600 and 601 to 1000 and so on.

It gets more crowded later on...

At this point I got tooooo anxious about whether I could enter or not, and I hesitantly asked two beautiful girls standing beside me about how to get through, and thank God they're friendly enough to tell me how and that eased my mind.

So after the gate was open and my number was called, I proceed inside, pass the ticket counter (they just checked my number), the bag inspection (just a glance into the bag) and token exchange (compulsory 500 yen for a drink). It was my fault that I head straight to the drink bar for a bottle of Aquarius isotonic drink that comes together with a bottle holder, rather than lining up for merch or head straight to locker and secure my seat somewhere on the front row, but I did so. After getting my drink, I got to the merch line, but my luck ran out as one of 2 t-shirts I'm getting had ran out of L & XL size so I had to get a baggy XXL size, never mind, it's not like I'm gonna wear it often 😙 After placing my bag in the locker, I head straight to the concert hall. Again, my bad for not heading inside the minute I enter the venue so I got myself a place in like, almost the center of the hall, well at least my view was straight directly to the drummer Sayako's direction.

 The drink bar.

Flower bouquets from fans and fellow artists.

The concert started off with a single spotlight heading toward the vocalist/keyboardist Sachiko direction, and her delicate yet frail voice echoed through the hall with the first and only lyrical part of the song 'Instrumental'. I cried a little, thinking how grateful I am to be able to be here, on their last concert, seeing them all together for the first and last time with my very own eyes.

Photo credit to Azusa Takada.

Then they proceed to the second song, 'Sukitooru Shoudou' with a lively and energetic performance. They continue with their setlist that night which consisted of (not in order):

DESTINY

sharp #

Loop

greatwall

Toumei Na Sakana

Mayonaka No Anthem

Fuwari No Koto

Sirius

Synchromanica

Fall Down

Saturday Night

Suichuu Toshi

Merci Lou

Signal

nameless

Dokei

ETERNALBEAT -Mizuki Masuda Remix-

endless

LAST SCENE

Asymmetry

Between few songs, the talk about how the band had impacted them and call back to their first debut performance at the first 'Senko Riot', a music festival which displays teenage rock band. I couldn't get much clue as my Japanese is soo bad 😔

The fans later called them out again for encore, by hand-clapping together simultaneously before it got out of tempo and reformed again for a few rounds. They showed up later with a final speech from each band members. I was touched to when Sayako said "even if I will be reborn, I will keep choosing drum as my instrument", she really love drumming 😭 (I hope you could find another project again soon).

And then they were called for an encore, they asked the audience what song should they play, and the audience responded with 'Ame'. That is the only live performance of that song and again, it brought tears to my eyes (that song is very good I'm not surprised that it was requested by the audience). Then, they proceed with 'Suisei Syrup' before ending the night with an energetic and cheerful performance of the fans-beloved song, 'Charon'. As the song entered the last chorus after the guitar solo, confetti burst up from above and silver strips of plastic (with the concert logo and title written) rained down on the crowd. I couldn't help it but cry, knowing that it's the last time I'm seeing them together. The concert ended with the fans cheering and they thanking the audiences toghether. I'm surprised they don't burst into tears, though it assured me that it's a good thing, they might be seeing each others again in the future... Thanks Negoto, I will always forever love you guys 💕💕

As I exited the concert venue, some flyers was passed to the audiences. I'm glad I picked it up, it was about both Sachiko and Mizuki's next project; Mizuki forming a mellow alternative hip-hop duo called 'Miida' and Sachiko seems to be going solo, with no hint of what kind of music she'll be bringing next. Both of the pamphlets are about their first live performance, good luck to you both, if there's an album, I'm sure are buying one!!

Before going back to the hotel, I headed to the HUGE RX-0 Unicorn Gundam statue located riggghtttt next to the concert venue. It was a short yet inspiring moment for me, since it reminded me of why I am here today 😌 Then I head inside the mall behind the statue for the Gundam Base store, it was a huge store perfect for any Gunpla fan, it's like you can get almost all of Gundam-series' Gunpla there (except for Gundam AGE, Japan hates it so much they didn't bother to sell the kit). I returned to my hotel later, and had a comfortable, but short sleep (only got 5 hours of sleep, I didn't think it's enough to get rid of my exhaustionnnn 😭)

The majestic RX-0 Unicorn Gundam....

The second day, I woke up as early as 5 a.m. and headed out to Chichibu town in Saitama, the real-life location of several anime series like Anohana and the anime movie Kokoro Ga Sakebitagatterunda (Anthem Of The Heart). Upon arrival, I went straight ahead to rent a bike as suggested by a lot of tourist sites, since most of the locations are better traveled there by bike. 

 I stopped for the Old Chichibu Bridge first, not trying to miss my chance of the photo of the location. Then I try to head to the hill site for a view of the whole town, but leaving cycling for more than 10 years exhausted me too much I abandoned my need to got there.

View of the Arakawa river on the Old Chichibu Bridge.

Chichibu Shrine.

Around Chichibu Town.

 Cute Dango Menma!

Another Menma spotted!

I went to this toy shop in hope of finding some rare toys and Beyblades for myself and some friends. The lady at the counter, who I think was in her 50's-60's greeted me and asked me why I chose to visit the town. She assumed that I went there to visit the location featured in 'AnoHana' anime series. I can't deny her assumption but I'm mostly interested in seeing the nature side and rural town of Japan while I'm around Tokyo.

This series is really this town's pride and joy, they celebrated it so much, it's like almost everywhere.

I stopped by a Book-Off for any good deals of toys first (managed to haul a Digimon Analyzer toy!) and then head to the Chichibu shrine before heading back to the tourist center to return the bike and head off to Ginza to take my luggage left in the coin locker and then to Akihabara.

The Seibu-Chichibu Station, main train station that connects you to Yokohama area and to Tokyo.

View from the waiting area.

I also noticed an old locomotive pass by the train tracks, didn't know it still operates today...

All I can say is, it's not a waste taking my time to visit Chichibu for me, I wish I can be there the whole day. I couldn't enjoy the town to the fullest, so I may return here again in the future :)

Then, it's time for Akihabara. It was crowded af. Managed to finish buying stuffs from the order list. I try to get the hell out of the sea of people as soon as possible 🥵

Around Akihabara.

It's actually crowded, trust me..

For the last part of the trip, I head back to the Haneda airport, checked-in and be ready for departure to Malaysia.

It was a nice but tiring trip. I'm glad I was given the opportunity to go on this trip. It felt very satisfying and heartwarming seeing your favorite rock band for the last time, and be on a concert where you know all the songs. I don't know for sure but for now I take this trip as a trip worth RM1600 (USD$400) lol

I would like to visit Tokyo with a full experience of the city again in the future as it wasn't my goal this time.

I'll be there again in the future, for sure! 😊

P/S: Updated from photos taken by  my 'Blackbird, fly'! I didn't have much opportunity to snap my travelogue with the camera and a lot of of the image captured turns out to be underexposed 😭😭😭

Photos of Negoto's performance are credited to Azusa Takada.