The Bonkurasu Brigade

So I’m already back from my Japan Trip for more than half a week now. Rushed through several areas with work, taking a breather here and there. Pictures up! Well, some.

In any case, this blog post is about my Perfume Journey. You might say it’s akin to ‘Senti’s Journey to the North’ (reference from Journey to the West folklore) , from Tokyo all the way to Sapporo.

(For those who have went for the tour too, do correct me on some of the details I speak of, since my brain floated off elsewhere as I watched; the euphoria was too much XD)

25th August

Waiting for the shinkansen

I napped for a bit the night before (after watching Music Japan Anison SP and chatting up with several hostel dudes and dudettes), waking up at 6am to catch the 8.55am Shinkansen (bullet train) to Hachinohe, then Hakodate, and finally, Sapporo.

CLOUDS. COVERING MOUNTAINS. I FEEL SO MOUNTAIN TURTLE NOW.

Many mountains. No such thing in Singapore, though.

I sat butthurt for 11 hours, with ~3 hours per train ride due to transfer. Since it was day, I didn’t really napped much.
Arrived 7.30pm @ sapporo JR station. Pitch dark, yet kinda cold. I can’t handle cold well, since I’m skinny and all. It’s outdoor aircon!

Sapporo Tower. And beside it is….

Sapporo Citizen’s hall. The concert venue.

And so I searched for a hotel with some empty rooms, and found Hotel Chisun. 4400 yen room rates! Uber. It’s a 10min walk from JR station and concert hall itself.

No pictures of the hotel room though. Washed up, left the room for dinner @ 9pm.

Treat myself to ramen and skewered pig’s liver. The liver was charred on the edges, melt-in-your-mouth de~lish as you bite it. The wasabi was mud yellow, mild yet refreshing. Tingles on your tongue and brings out the flavour and freshness of the liver. mmmm. Ramen didn’t have much taste after that, but the noodles itself was okay.

I love my innards :’D
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26th August

Woke up for a buffet breakfast at 8.30am, had eggs and bacon. Nothing spectacular, and didn’t fancy having a Japanese breakfast set meal. Went back to my hotel room to catch up some needed sleep. 11am was wakey-time, so I washed and packed up, lugging luggage all over the Sapporo city area.

Lunch was rather good; had smoked ham sandwich. The bread was toasted outside, yet very soft and fluffy inside. The ham was nicely toasted then chilled as well; its salty edges blend with the fragrant bread dough well.

A particular CD shop within the complex caught my eye, and I bought 3 singles (Electro World, Computer City, Linear Motor Girl) and 1 album (GAME normal edition). I walked about a bit more, gauging the speed and timing from the concert venue to Sapporo JR station. I had to catch the 10pm train back to Tokyo after all.

Headed back outside to concert hall at 3pm, and surprise! 6-7 fanclub members are already there. Pity most of them are guys. The merchandise gate opened at 3.45pm, and my first round of goods shopping I bought shirts, pamphlet and towel. Round 2 was wristband and bag. But the wristband no longer exists with me. sobsob

Braved the cold wind at 4pm till 5.15pm, staring at curious pigeons and crows the size of chickens. From then on, the staff had us form a queue, and we waited till about 5.55pm before the doors open. The moment I entered the concert hall, it felt more like an auditorium instead of an actual concert hall; it’s pretty small. I could probably run to one end in under 10 seconds.

My seat was rather near the stage, about 50m away. The ticket had me fooled; there wasn’t really a ‘2nd floor’ per se, since the steps were gentle, similar to those at smaller cinemas. 2 cute girls sit in front of me, and didn’t seem much. As people start to get seated, I spot my eye on some Perfume cosplayers, namely:
- 2 ‘Love the world’ (ksyk and a-chan)
- 2 ‘Dream Fighter’ (ksyk and a-chan)
- 1 ‘Yoyogi mix’ a-chan crossdresser
- 2 ‘Yoyogi mix’ (ksyk and nocchi)
- 3-4 Yasutaka Nakata cosplayers
- 2 pino airlines (ksyk + nocchi)

And so, the concert started punctually at 6.30pm.

SE:Take off
- Crowd starts to clap in unison until the music starts to play. Then the ensuing beat links to this starting song, and they appeared in pure white + glittering outfits, ripping the curtain into designated shapes; after which they did a short dance before leading on to….

01.NIGHT FLIGHT
- The dance hit me full impact, and I immediately went into raving mode; not the kind of otagei like in Animelo. The atmosphere was totally different. The feeling of the dance was totally different from shows, DVDs, etc. The entire thing was so surreal.

Back to the dance – the girls were great as always, and the lighting, with the lasers beaming from the top and from my seating area, was spectacular.

02.エレクトロ・ワールド Electro World
- the crowd went to raving mode again at the start; it was fun doing the raving along with them. =D

03.Dream Fighter
- one of my favourite songs, because the lyrics were so meaningful, and suits their current position totally. I took out my white lightstick and started raving.

04.love the world
- My lightstick raving continued. There were 2 other lightstick ravers too, one with blue and another with green.

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MC#1
A-chan greeted the crowd, and chatted up with their experience in Sapporo thus far (since yesterday), and talked about the following:
- Noticed the crossdresser of herself. And gave a thumbs up.
- A-chan became a pedophile. ‘Babyyy~~~; all those below age 10 are babyyyy~~~’
- Past trips/tours; main 3 are Hiroshima, Sendai and Sapporo
- introducing themselves in the cutest way possible (kudos to Nana Mizuki teaching them how to ‘act cute’ in Music Japan) by saying ‘Perfume in Sapporo~~~!!’
- A-chan lamenting about not bring able to bring back a Pikachu cup. The story goes like this –

A: You see, we took a flight to Sapporo, and just so happens that our flight is ANA’s pikachu plane! The MALE flight attendant said ‘pikachu’ before his starting sentence, and the stewardess gave me a cup of pineapple juice for me to drink. I love the cup that was served with it, but the drink…. you know, I had to ‘nyam nyam’ for 5 minutes to finish the drink! But after that, I had to go to the loo. When I came back, my cup was gone!!! It took me 5 excruciating minutes! To finish that juice! Just for the cup!
N+K: You can buy the item(s) on the flight, you know.
A: Oh, is that so??? Gosh!

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05.Zero Gravity
- The dance reminded me of Puppy Love. Using dice for chairs. Quite nice, though.

06.マカロニ Macaroni
- My favourite mellow song. Seeing them danced this song live made me raved using my lightstick again.

07.SEVENTH HEAVEN
- My lightstick raving continued. I love the effects that go along with their dance and the song.

08.Kiss and Music
- Gives me the Take Me Take Me vibes; the girls look kind of sexy too. But I prefer TMTM XD

転換SE:Speed of Sound (costume change to a black color version of the previous costume)

09.edge（?-mix)
- This is the best edge mix I’ve watched in my entire life. For now, that is. I can’t express it in words, but this is what choco said over on the forums:
I especially was jawdropped by the full edge (⊿-mix) with their use of 3 separate screens, of course with the corresponding recorded choreography. In the middle of the song they suddenly gathered to the back and raise their hands to reach the laser lights as if they were launching the beams; that was the most interesting prop part I had seen in the gig. As for the choreography, there were only a few minor tweaks – steps and formation, nothing so pumped up. But usage of impressive props were what made me love it; even though they skipped the 2nd repeat of the final chorus, I still had to thank them for perform such a long piece of electropop as this remix.

10.シークレットシークレット Secret Secret
- Sexy leg ksyk is back again! Well, almost. At least she shook her hips more than Budoukan’s or Yoyogi’s.

11.baby cruising love
- OTAGEI ALL THE WAYYYY I LOVE THIS SONG TO BITS XDXD

12.I still love U
- continued because I was still in groove. 8D the song’s full steps were nice, with some adjustments here and there. I need to re-watch it to remember it. @_@

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MC#2
Nocchi appeared first, teasing the crowd when she came out and drink water at the same time. ksyk came out after that, and they both did wordplay to leak out each others’ ’secrets’. ksyk managed to pass unscathed, while nocchi literally orz-ed and went to A-chan, who came out just as she orz-ed.

N:’a-chan, minna ijiwaruuuuu~~~’ (a-chan, everyone’s bullying meeee)
A: *stare* look at yourself, go tidy up your hair!
N: =(……..
A: Go! >=|

After which, a-chan pimped the tour merchandise, especially those which didn’t manage to sell much. They read out their ‘interviews’ in the booklet as well, with ksyk acting out their words, with hilarious results XDXD

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13.ワンルーム・ディスコ one Room Disco
- Doing the initial start like the girls did with so many people doing the same thing made me feel less stressed on doing that in public. DEE DEE DEEE.

14.ジェニーはご機嫌ななめ Jenny ha Gokigen Naname
- A-CHAN~~~ NOCCHI~~~ YUKA-CHAN~~~~ FINALLY I GET TO SAY THIS LIVE. @_@~~~~

15.チョコレイト・ディスコ Chocolate Disco
- cho-ko-re-i-to~ DI-SU-KO!

16.ポリリズム Polyrhythm
- everyone’s fav Perfume song. I have to do the raving too.

17.Puppy love
- UP DOWN UP UP DOWN UP DOWN DOWN. now say that in Japanese.

EN. (the girls changed to glittering dark purple outfits)
01.パーフェクトスター・パーフェクトスタイル Perfect Star Perfect Style
- \m/!!!

02.Perfume
- Almost like Jenny, but with more gusto.

03.願い（Album-mix） Negai
- I HAD TO LEAVE FOR THE JR LINE TRAIN ARGHHHHHHHH

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So there you have it. My eventful trip to Sapporo, for Perfume. You can be sure that I’ll be going back to Japan next year just for their Tour, so if anyone wants to meet up, feel free to contact me via bonkurasu e-mail or whichever. Heck, even commenting here will do. =D