It’s been a while…

I’ve put off posting about my last trip for too long, in fact I’m going back to Japan next Thursday so I guess it’s about time to get it done – this won’t be a very informative write-up, it’s mainly notes for myself that I can look back on, so take it as such.

2015-11-25/26 Arriving

For this trip I decided to save some money on accommodation since hotels are pretty expensive in Tokyo. I did consider a hostel but I really like my privacy so I ended up renting an apartment through Airbnb – it’s more expensive than a hostel but cheaper than a hotel and you basically have a real apartment with a small kitchen which is nice.

Like last time I prepared a bit for the trip by changing my sleep pattern to be closer to Japanese time. It’s not really a big deal, over a week my end goal was to go to bed at around 18 and getting up at around 2,  I can already say I experienced no jetlag at all. I also decided to rent a portable Wi-Fi device this time since I wasn’t sure about the quality of the internet in the apartment (last time I just got a SIM-card). Finally I bought tickets for the most important events, I knew they most likely wouldn’t sell out but better safe than sorry. (I got tickets for PASSPO☆, Muto Ayami, You’ll Melt More).

My flight to Japan was on the 25th, the flight was pretty uneventful and boring, I did watch a really good sentimental Japanese movie called “The furthest end awaits”, I tried to get some sleep and I think I managed to get 3-4 hours or so.

Having safely arrived at Narita Airport at around 10:30 I headed straight for the Airport post office, having been there before meant I didn’t have any problem finding it, I got my portable Wi-Fi device and headed for the train station where tanked up my Suica with 10,000 ¥ and went to get the train to Tokyo. At around 13 I arrived at my apartment which was located in the eastern part of Shinjuku in a mostly residential area and nowhere close to any of the interesting stuff. I obviously already knew the apartment was small but damn… it was really small, like 2m in width and 6m in length but it had all I needed a fancy lavatory, a shower (no bathtub), a small kitchen, a washing machine (full size) an open closet, a table and a chair and a futon. I pretty much instantly took a shower (I had been traveling for 24 hours) and then I went shopping for groceries at the 7-11 and went back home, I kinda wanted to go to a show but I was really tired so I just spent the day unpacking and went to sleep pretty early.

 

2015-11-27 SUPER REACH FES vol.2

After a good night’s sleep I woke up early and started thinking about what to do – yes I didn’t plan anything aside from idol shows for my trip, so I decided to go to Tower Records and looked a bit around the Shibuya area. An online acquaintance and fellow PASSPO☆ fan called Clem was also in Japan at the same time and he had just been sightseeing the whole time, so I had asked him a while ago if he didn’t want to go see some random idol show to experience the idol show atmosphere so we agreed to meet for a show that evening.

This show was at ReNY which an be hard to find the first time, it’s located in what seems to be a business area of Tokyo and the sign at the door is quite small. I remember last time I was there I went out for some air and happened to run into a bunch of Indonesian guys that had been running around in circles not being able to find it, I was kinda proud to be able to show them where it was.

Anyway, I went there from the start but Clem didn’t arrive until much later and by that time my right knee had started to hurt really bad, this was a thing that would bother me the entire trip (turns out I have osteoarthritis of the knee) so I left soon after he arrived, this meant that we didn’t get to talk much that day. As for the show it was the usual kind of “many idols” show, 2-4 songs with a little MC and then on to the next act, I actually quite fancy those kinds of shows since if there is a group you don’t care for you can take a break. Anyway the most noticeable new act for me was “Nama hamu to yaki udon” translated to English it means “Raw ham and baked noodles” one girl is ham one is noodles, they are a sketch based idol duo and even if I can’t understand a word they say I find them very entertaining, some other groups from the lineup this night that I liked was Baseball Girls, Ready to Kiss and Candy Go!Go!