Saturday, September 29, 2012

Mitsubachi Fest 2012

Well its been some time since I last posted :/ Guess I should at least complete my long overdue Japan trip journal xD

22/6 Day 7 - Mitsubachi Fest

That evening, I met Jun to travel to Linus's home to get the tickets for the event. We then rushed down to a live house in Omotesando, Harajuku for Mistubachi Fest!

Short introduction to Honey Bee Management, the guys behind the Fest:
Honey Bee is a Japanese talent management company, under Sony Music Group Japan. They do a host of stuff, from music production, composition, to live production and providing backing musicians. And of course, they have a stable of really great musicians. For many of us (fans of YUI, that is), Honey Bee became "famous" due to e.u.band, which is YUI's live band consisting of bassist Backy, guitarist Kuro-chan, drummers Chris and Mai Mai, percussionist Sakura and keyboardist Arisa. YUI's producer Hisashi Kondo is also from Honey Bee. 
How did I get the opportunity to attend the Fest? Well to cut the long story short, Jun and Linus, the YUI-Lover "foot soldiers in Japan", attended several Mitsubachi Kaigi (meetings) in which Honey Bee met with fans and asked for their ideas and suggestions. This led to that, coincidences led to opportunities, and I ended up with a ticket! (Big shout out to Jun and Linus, thanks you guys!)

It was my first ever visit to a live house so I didn't know what to expect. I ordered a beer at entrance and promptly gulped it up on an empty stomach (didn't have time for dinner). No wonder I felt a little tipsy during the first few acts.

I was looking forward to catching Chelsy, but a few other groups and singers were pretty good too! I liked Moss Green in particular, she had really captivating vocals and sounded really good live. And of course, the highlight of the show was Chelsy!

Oh wait, before I continue, more on Chelsy:
Chelsy are a 4-girl band (3 now that their vocalist left, but I'll keep it at 4 for simplicity's sake) under Honey Bee Management, consisting of leader Arisa (keys), Mio (vocals/guitar), Shizuka (bass) and Ami (drums). 4 cute, bubbly girls in a band, playing YUI-influenced music? What else can you ask for? :DD
I was squashed in the front together with a bunch of YUI/Chelsy fans, and was quite amused by the crazy stuff they did while Chelsy were rocking on stage. As for the perfomance? I really enjoyed their songs; they played all originals which were friendly to the ear, including a couple of really rocking numbers. It was quite interesting to see the contrast in personalities - Arisa was cheerfully prancing about her keyboard, Ami was smiling all the way (but you could see the concentration in her expression), Shizuka was coolness personified (I love her backing vocals) and Mio sang with lots of emotion.

I confess that I wasn't too impressed by Chelsy the first time I heard their music (I thought they sounded too similar to YUI), but after that live my impression of them changed :D It also helped that Shizuka was starting to grow on me xD

First, some pics of Chelsy,  (I brought my camera, but I forgot to insert the SD card, so I was stuck with 5 internal memory photos -,-)

Chelsy's Ami, Arisa, Shizuka and Mio!
No points for guessing my favourite member!
The line-up for the night! Great talent on display :D 

After their set I hung around at the back to catch some of the other acts, which were equally impressive and polished too! To my surprise, staff and members of Honey Bee started streaming in, including Hisashi Kondo, Backy, and the Chelsy girls! We managed to steal a picture with Hisashi, while I got a pic taken with Shizuka and Mio thanks to Jun! (the following photos were taken with Linus' camera).

Linus, me, Hisashi Kondo and Jun! (lol @ HK's expression)
Shizuka and Mio!
The crazy YUI fans!

After the event ended, we took the chance to meet some of the performers for a chat and took lots of pictures! It felt really surreal to be face-to-face with people you've been seeing on stage during concerts, much less talk to them! They were all really nice and approachable, and I managed to exchange a few words with Backy :D

Big sister Mai Mai :D
Super nice guy Backy!
Chelsy/e.u. band keyboardist and MC for the night Arisa! 
After Mitsubachi Fest I realised that Honey Bee really tries to connect with the fans, which I think is awesome. There were no barriers between us and the artistes, and they were all very willing to interact with the fans. Of course, credit goes to the fans who were exceptionally nice and respected the artistes (can't say the same for fans of other, more popular groups)

It was late by the time the event ended and I hadn't had dinner so I was famished. Together with a bunch of Japanese fans we headed to a nearby Ippudo outlet for some ramen supper and beer :D Had a long, YUI-and-Chelsy-related chat before heading back to the hotel. On the way back I passed by the live house, and nearly bumped into Arisa and Shizuka rushing out with their bulky instruments (trying to catch the last train, probably?). Guess its tough being a musician eh?

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23/6 Day 8 - Tokyo University, Meiji-jingu 

The next day I met up with Kevin who gave me a short tour around his town and Toudai (Tokyo University), and got introduced to the delights of tsukemen, which came with an impossibly hearty seafood broth. Think of the thickest, tastiest prawn mee stock, and multiply the shiokness by 10.

Just noodles, an egg, and a bowl of wicked broth
Toudai's clock tower, made famous (to me) by Love Hina XD

I took a train down from Toudai to Harujuku and took a short hike to Meiji-jingu shrine, taking a break from all the heat. Bought a good-health charm for the girlfriend and just enjoyed the peace and cooling breeze blowing through the shrine grounds. I was feeling a little ambitious and walked all the way to Shibuya to pay a visit to the gigantic Tower Records store there. Bought Fukuhara Miho's latest album "Best of Soul Extreme" :D

Spent the night at Haneda Airport, where I discovered the awesome Itoen green tea. Yes, I discovered it only during the last few hours I had left in Japan. Sad that I didn't think of buying a whole crate to ship back home.

Well, that concludes my June 2012 Japan trip! Apologies for taking so long ><