Back in Japan Again - this time as a COSMIC DREAMER

So, I promised a few people I would try and post something while I'm in Tokyo again for Buck-Tick's COSMIC DREAMER TOUR 2013, and while I'm utterly rubbish at reviews (I'm no NOT Greatest Site!) I thought I'd just check in with a few impressions.

It's Friday 1st March here today so I have the two shows at Akasaka Blitz under my belt, and four more (Tokyo Dome City Hall and Shibuya AX) to go.

Akasaka Blitz is a nice, smallish venue (around 1200 capacity, I think) and it's dead easy to get to which makes all the difference in enjoying concerts - nothing worse than stressing out about finding the place. Akasaka itself is kind of upscale, so rocking up to the venue early on Tuesday and watching from Starbucks (I know, but give me a break - there's not a lot of choice in that area) as the plaza outside filled up with a sea of black was kind of amusing - especially since the fan-influx coincided with sunset, which is kind of JUST HOW IT SHOULD BE, if you're a goth of any stripe.

The merch stall and box office opened at around the same time on Tuesday, so I only had time for a cursory look at the former since I had tickets to collect and people to meet who I had not seen since I was here last, and well.. priorities :) But, it looks like a nice spread of stuff this time - the shirts have some great designs, and Hide's sticker set seemed to be selling well - I saw a few people walking around holding them just before the show. There were B-T Movie posters pasted up inside the venue as well as some nice flower arrangements from well-wishers to the band on display.

On Wednesday, the merch stall only opened at the end of the gig, which was okay as I had my yen stuffed down my socks, so I picked up a tour shirt and a tote bag. Sadly, I'm not sold on the quality of the Imai "galaxy" top. I got to cop a feel of one inside the gig while squished up waiting for the show to start and failed to be impressed. On the other hand, the bag in the same design looks better than I expected and I might treat myself later, if budget allows. Admittedly I'm not a huge merch buyer at the best of times though as I prefer to spend my cash on beer afterwards /laughs Hopefully someone else here who has attended the tour can be more detailed about that stuff.

My ticket numbers for the dates I am seeing on this tour are a bit of a mix, but the best two on paper were definitely for the Blitz and I made good use of them. The first night me and a friend managed to be only four or so rows back just over to Mr Imai's side (my favoured side, I admit it). Being relatively tall, this is quite nice for any looming by Mr Sakurai or solo-guitar spots by Messrs Imai and Hoshino, since you get the full benefit of it, especially if they're leaning into the crowd.

Mr Imai is currently sporting a bleached hair, minimal make-up look, which I think suits him just fine. Mr Sakurai seems to be alternating his look so far - Tuesday it was all sharp suit style, while Wednesday was skintight leggings, a mid-thigh-length sleeveless ruffled tunic top and long leather gloves. He's also rocking cuban heels and shorter hair this tour, both of which look great on him, of course. Messrs Hoshino, Toll and Higuchi have very dapper outfits as usual, though I only really got a good look at Mr Hoshino's - he's adding more silver to his black these days and it looks damn fine, let me tell you.

On the subject of Mr Hoshino - he really HAS taken a turn for the Rock Star of late. Last tour he seemed kind of quiet, but this time it seems like he's really going for it, playing up to the crowd like a pro and calling out the balcony and the front rows both. I like this new attitude and I think that I shall now refer to him as "Sex Bomb Hoshino", because the Tom Jones song is exactly what popped into my head during one of these solos where he was being a crowd tease. Good for him :) In appreciation, on the second night I stood on his side.

I can't remember the set list for the life of me, but I can tell you that both nights were a fabulous mix of old and new, and everyone did their best to dance, even though we were crammed in like sardines at the front. Choices of song included both Kimi No Vanilla and Physical Neurose on separate encores "and the crowd went wild", as they say :) Though on that note the moment that amused me most was on Tuesday when Mr Sakurai chose to stand with his back to the audience in the shadows near the drums and basically perform a full pants-adjustment without a care in the world. I wonder how many people thought (hoped) he was actually going to drop 'em, either deliberately or accidentally /laughs, though I'm sure the dudes in the audience were sympathetic - sometimes you just have to re-rack the balls, so to speak.

Oh yes, and in an interesting twist for a standing tour, Mr Sakurai has brought along his own personal goth raincloud to the show, in the form of a machine that rains a circle of water down around him during certain numbers (and no doubt make jokes about getting everyone wet, though since I don't speak Japanese those would be sadly lost on me). I did, however, catch him declaring "SEX!" just before Elise no Tame ni (I think). As you do. And he threw in a couple of "Five for EVERYBODY" during Iconoclasm, though whether or not that was because he had clocked some foreign faces in the front rows, I couldn't say.

After it was all said and done and we all streamed out drenched in sweat and with aches where you didn't know you had muscles from waving various limbs in the air (mostly one's own though you know - sometimes it gets rough down there), it was time for booze and the locker-scrum, one of which is considerably more enjoyable than the other. I freely admit that I enjoy the after-show glow and sharing it with other fans at any gig, and I am lucky enough to have met some very welcoming folks in Japan with whom I can do just that over drinks and food. So both my concert experiences thus far concluded with good company and plenty of alcohol, just as they should.

(Public Safety Note: you should always enjoy alcohol responsibly, kids, and never, never say "SEX!" in public or allow anyone to take your picture while you're posing as Mr Sakurai in a bar.)

Thursday 28th June - Oh deer

The first order of business when I woke up in Nara was to enquire about sending one of my bags ahead to Hiroshima, to save me having to take both up a mountain the next day. In Japan there are many luggage/parcel delivery services called "takyubin" that can get pretty much anything to anywhere within one or two days for minimal cost - this cost me just over a tenner and I was told to drop my bag at reception the following morning just before checking out. If you're in Japan and want to use a takyubin service, it's probably best to have the details of the hotel you want to forward luggage on to available in Japanese as well as English - it makes life a bit easier.

That sorted out with no issues at all, it was time to hit the sights of Nara. I didn't have a particular plan for today, but hoped to at least see Todaiji, Kofukuji and the Kasuga Taisha with its nearby primeval forest. I also wanted to try a local sushi delicacy - kaki-no-hazushi - which is sushi wrapped in persimmon leaves.

I set out via the nearest back-alley to the hotel, and zig-zagged in the direction of the main drag - it's nice to see the quieter side of towns and since I am not on a shopping trip I've taken this approach with most of the places I have been to, pretty much avoiding the main commercial districts entirely save for checking them out in passing. Luckily for me, my route brought me on to the main road just before the Tourist Information centre (quite by chance) so I called in to get a map, and had a brief chat with the very nice man there. I mentioned to him that I had seen a video of Tomayasu Hotei playing guitar in front of Todaiji and he told me that there were sometimes concerts there, and also did I know that Van Halen had announced a tour in Japan? I think he was a fan, and since I had mentioned music, clearly he could share this exciting tidbit without seeming odd, heh.

Map in hand, I carried on up the hill to the other Nara train station - the Kintetsu - which is closer to the sights than the JR station, but provides a nice staging point to get out of the heat on the way. It has a pleasant covered shopping alley in which I spotted one of the recommended take-out sushi places I had read about online and noted its location for later.

Then it was on to Kofokuji, a Buddhist Temple and the closest of the sights on my hit list. And I had barely set foot inside the main courtyard when I was pounced by a Goodwill Guide offering me a tour in English. Goodwill Guides are ubiquitous in Japan, either stationed in tourist information offices, at some attractions on a first-come, first-served policy, or contactable in advance before you travel. They are essentially locals with skills in a particular language (most commonly English) who offer free tours to foreign travellers of their local sights/towns. The only thing you pay for is any tickets they need to get into things and/or their lunch and transport costs if that is part of the tour (for example, some guides will take you to try local foods). Many, though not all, of the guides are pensioners, and uniformly they seem lovely folks from what I observed and experienced.  I had not used one yet, since Matsumoto and Kanazawa castles had plenty of info in English, but as this gentleman was clearly at a loose end and keen to be employed, I took him up on his offer.

It turned out he had been to London some years ago, and we had a chat about London and about Nara, as we walked around the various Kofokuji buildings. I actually found out a lot about the architecture that I did not know before, and he showed me the proper way to do the ritual washing at shrines. We also laughed a little about how many times most of these buildings had burned down and been rebuilt - the pains of using wooden construction. And lastly he told me a little about Buddhism and Shinto, remarking on how it is perfectly fine in Japan to follow both. All in all it was a pleasant forty minutes or so and I'd recommend their services to anyone waning to find out a bit more than you can in a printed guide - this chap came armed with various illustrative sheets showing how things were built, for example. He also told me that these days, Japan buys most of its wood for reconstruction of traditional buildings from Africa. I am not sure if this is due to lack of resources of the right kind or whether they just prefer to deforest someone else's country and I didn't like to ask.

After the tour, I headed onwards, but mindful of tourist mapfuckery, asked a couple of people to check my route on the way to Kasuga Shrine. Nara is a very historic city, which was once (and I think the first) capital of Japan. New York may have been named twice, but Nara is so good it even has its own period of history named after it. It also is home to a cluster of Buddhist temples and shrines, and to many deer, who roam freely in the main temple area - Nara Park - since they are regarded by locals as messengers from god. If this is so, he's the hungriest and most indiscriminate god I have ever heard of, since the deer will follow you forever for the sniff of food or the chance to eat your map out of your hands. But it's funny to observe Japanese schoolkids and foreign tourists doing exactly the wrong things when confronted with largish hungry wild animals who have no fear of humans and can jump/rear quite high. Dealing with herds of greedy lurchers and greyhounds at a few dog rescue events has primed me for this kind of thing so I actually didn't get bothered all day, despite having a pocket full of deer biscuits (you can buy them in the park for 150 yen a pack) with which to reward the ones I took pictures of or petted on my way through. But it was amusing to watch other people holding biscuits up in the air and wondering why the deer were chasing them. Well, duh.


I did, however, get pounced by a Japanese primary school teacher and his herd of pupils, who he encouraged to speak to me in English, after establishing that I didn't mind. They were mostly too shy, but did ask me where I had been and what food I liked to eat in Japan. The teacher also directed me towards Kasuga Shrine so that was my next stop, after which I hoped to check out the primeval forest behind and take the nature walk to Todaiji.

All was well until I actually attempted to find the nature walk. Primeval forest? Check. Signs for Todaiji? Check. But somewhere between the first and second 500 metres I started to realise this was less a nature walk and more a spiralling uphill walk up a mountain. A nice one, I'll give it that - but a hike beyond what I had intended and completely empty of people, which was starting to get a bit creepy until I ran into another class of primary school kids coming down, and this time - thankfully - followed up by a young British guy (turned out to be a history teacher) who walked me back to the last set of signs and explained where I was (yes indeed, halfway up a mountain with lovely views from the top). I decided to carry on since what the hell, I was halfway there, but some way further on I encountered signs warning about snakes (they have cobras in Japan) which pretty much destroyed any enjoyment I had in the walk because I was extremely aware that there were hardly any other walkers heading that way. If I'd not been alone I'd have gone for it, because the views did sound amazing, but as it was I just hiked up to the last rest stop and then turned back, passing only one more person on my way down - an older Japanese guy who gave me a cheery nod and wave.

It wasn't far to Todaiji from the bottom, as I had memorised the kanji for it and identified the appropriate sign right away, so I just took the more conventional route through Nara Park. I never did find that nature walk, but given the apparent snake problem, it's probably just as well.

Todaiji is a Buddhist temple that houses the largest buddha statue in Japan (the second largest is at Kamakura, at the top of the Miura peninsula near Tokyo). It's pretty breathtaking in its size, and the grounds and associated other statues are also equally impressive. Amazingly, as I walked into the temple I ran into the same American family I had run into at Takayama - the guy from San Francisco with his wife, sister-in-law and daughter. What are the chances? So we had a quick chat and I recommended Natadera to them when they come back next to Japan (they were planning a return trip) before heading off to see the buddha.

Also in Todaiji is a wooden pillar with a hole at the foot, and it is said that if you can pass through it, you will gain enlightenment. You have to be pretty slim however, or preferably a kid, in order to do so. But while I was there a couple came in - probably around age 20 or so - and the boyfriend squeezed himself through before trying to encourage his (smaller) girlfriend to follow suit. She seemed convinced she would get stuck and there was much giggling and laughter from him, her, and the few of us who were watching until she finally braved it and we applauded quietly.

After Todaiji I was knackered, so took a looping walk back through the shade of Nara Park. It was approaching 6pm at this point but the busloads of schoolkids were still arriving - the place was literally packed all day, and probably was the busiest place I visited outside of Tokyo. Just as I was leaving the Park to head off towards Kintetsu station, I was hailed by one of the dudes who gives tourists rides in rickshaws - there are quite a few of them in Nara, mostly guys who look to me like they're in bands or similar (long hair, earrings, etc.) and thus don't have the time or appearance to hold down office jobs. Anyway, this guy switched to English to talk to me, even though I laughingly turned down the rickshaw offer, and seemed to want to have some practice at the language so I paused for a while to chat with him.

He immediately demonstrated himself a pretty good Anglophile when my "I live near Manchester" was met with "Oh ho! Manchester United or Manchester City?" I was forced to admit that I followed neither, since I didn't much like football, but undeterred he instead started asking me about where I had been and where I was going. Another question of "why would you want to spend a week in Tokyo???" (Obviously Tokyo is akin to London in this respect ). So, I told him that I was going to attend some rock concerts there, at which he was all ears and asked who I was going to see. "Baku-Chiku", I responded, and I honestly thought he was going to split his face grinning. "Baku-Chiku!! I am a fan too!! They are great!!!" We talked more about music  and it turned out he was also a fan of X-Japan, but I told him I preferred hide's solo work - this also seemed to surprise him (that I knew who hide was) and we talked about other music, like Hotei and SUGIZO before he remembered he was supposed to be trying to get me into his rickshaw. Steering the conversation back to that, he mimed pulling the rickshaw while singing a Buck-Tick song and I really did crack up laughing at that point, as did some of his watching rickshaw buddies. But I still turned him down - with apologies - and told him I needed to walk to lose weight, which made him laugh in turn. Before I walked away, he insisted we shake hands because we were "Baku-Chiku friends!". I have since been told that recognition of Buck-Tick in Japan is rare, since most people don't realise they're still in business after their brief flare of mainstream popularity in the '80s. So this was clearly some kind of Buck-Tick karma at work.

On the way back to the hotel I paused at Kintetsu station to buy some of the sushi I wanted to try (it was lovely, and beautifully wrapped) as well as a piece of heavenly green tea cake, both of which I ate for dinner in my hotel. I would have eaten out, but failed to find any recommendations other than takeaway for the speciality persimmon leaf sushi.

After that it was time to redistribute my packing so that I could send a bag on to Hiroshima and keep a bag with me for the next day's trip to Koyasan, then fall into bed ready for an early start in the morning.

• Pictures of Nara are in my Flickr stream here
• Music for the day was Hotei's version of The Model

From There to Here - a Story.

I never know how to start these things, so let's do it in the most basic way: Hello, my name is Mawb, and I started this blog so that I can record my upcoming trip to Japan. On June 20th 2012 I will be leaving my cosy little terraced house, waving a tearful goodbye to my other half and our two lurchers, then setting off for an insanely long plane journey and three weeks of travelling alone in Japan.

"You're off your head" is probably a fair response to that, and one I have heard a few times since I told everyone I intended to this. Probably, it's true, to an extent. But I've never let eccentricity get in the way of a good holiday, or a long-awaited ambition - mostly it's the eccentricity that gets the job done, in my experience.

So why am I making this trip? Well it's a mixture of things, really. First there's the fact that I have wanted to go to Japan since I was a teenager, thanks to a combination of the Yellow Magic Orchestra and the TV adaptation of James Clavell's Shogun. Don't ask me why I never made it there - I guess something always got in the way - money, other plans, other people... along with Scandinavia (my other "want to go" place), Japan always ended up on the "Tomorrow, maybe" list.

Second there was last year's earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku region of Japan. Among other things, it reminded me that we're none of us getting any younger, and that sometimes, tomorrows never come. And maybe too, that castle or that temple I've read of in books or seen on TV isn't forever after all. That realisation coincided, roughly, with my digging out a bunch of music CDs that had been buried for a long time during extensive house renovations and rekindling my love for a whole slew of bands I had not listened to in a while - BUCK-TICK included. And so the seed of an idea was sown, which started with my signing up to the band's fan club - FISH TANK - with a vague notion that I would obtain some tickets and go to see them live in Japan. (Why B-T? Well mainly because I don't forsee them ever touring outside of Japan, so if I want to see them, I have to go to them. This is less true of some of the other Japanese bands I like). The fact that this year is B-T's 25th Anniversary was added incentive.

Third, I haven't had a holiday in a while, due to various domestic and work demands - well, not a holiday in the sense of GOING SOMEWHERE, anyway. I have done a lot of "stay home" - just no "go places" - and I have not been on holiday alone for... well, a good few years. And I fear that one's sense of adventure starts to dull if one doesn't exercise it often enough, to be replaced by a vague fear of taking any kind of step alone into the unknown or unfamiliar. I don't want to be that person.

Fourth, I found a blog written by another single female traveller who had spent three weeks travelling Japan. Anna's tales of her travels bolstered my belief that when it comes to life, you get back what you put in, and taking a chance to achieve a dream is a good thing, not something to be feared.

Lastly, there was Neil Gaiman's New Year message on his blog. That kind of sealed the deal, while I was still toying with the idea, and ensured that every spare bit of money went to savings and buying stuff I would need for the (then) still vague trip.

And so here we are, less than 30 days away from the start of my long overdue trip to Japan. I won't bore you with the details of how I planned it all or got the tickets - the answer to these questions is 1) with the help of all the great websites and wonderful people linked under "Resources" right there beside this post and 2) via the fan club, which is pretty much the easiest way to get any tickets for any band in Japan if you yourself are outside of Japan.

Currently I am still planning, planning, planning (though now it's just down to the detail), with the help of some of those same wonderful people - Cayce, Steph and Anna all deserve a particular mention here for their assistance and patience, as do the folks at Japan Guide. I have an itinerary drawn up, flight and hotels booked, and now it's just a case of rationalising my packing list and trying to squeeze as much out of my savings as possible so that I can have fun and come home with more music and B-T merch than is good for me.

What else... oh yes. The title of this blog is a reference to a BUCK-TICK song, and yes, I chose it based on the lyrics and with a keen sense of self-mockery, in case you were wondering. I fully expect the phrase "I'm completely lost, shit" to be a repeated feature of this trip, so I may as well embrace it.

Originally, I had it in mind to call this blog Travels With BUCK-TICK, but that would give entirely the wrong impression and as it turns out, be a logistical lie. No,  I'm not and never was ACTUALLY travelling with BUCK-TICK (let's get that out there right now for anyone who takes these things on the literal side), but more to the point, because of the way the ticket lottery went, I'm actually only seeing them live in Tokyo (twice) and Yokohama (once), both at the end of my vacation, so it's stretching it to say that this holiday has any travelling with them involved. It's more accurately Travels to BUCK-TICK, but that doesn't have the same ring to it and even if it did, it implies that the two weeks beforehand is an afterthought, and that's definitely not true. I have spent more hours planning this trip than I spent entering the ticket lottery for their shows, that's for sure (sorry guys, but it's true).

But, it had to be related to B-T in some way, since they're part of the reason I'm going - if I had not managed to get tickets for the PARADE tour, I'd have put this whole trip off until the next one. So Somewhere Nowhere is what I settled on, for better or worse. The fact that it's the introductory track from one of my favourite B-T albums doesn't hurt.

And now I should get back to that itinerary, and the packing, and the emails I owe to people. And the million other things I need to take care of before I go.