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 ><

Japan: The Northern Alps #6

21/6 Day 6: Karuizawa to Tokyo


The next morning was mostly wast... I mean spent at the Karuizawa Prince Shopping Arcade outlet mall. There wasn't many things that piqued my interest, other than a LEGO store and the adidas and Nike shops. I decided to chill out in a Starbucks while the parents did their shopping.

I was surprised when the Starbucks staff asked me after taking my order of macha latte:「どこからですか？日本人ですか？」(Where are you from? Are you Japanese?). Well of course I replied 「いいえ、シンガポール人です。」(No, I'm Singaporean).

The reply I got? "NOOOOO waaaaaaay!! Get out of here!"

She said it in jest of course. Turns out, the cashier was a Singaporean working in Japan! She said my pronunciation sounded Japanese, but I didn't look Japanese so she was curious. And another Japanese staff told me she lived in Singapore for a few years as well. Judging from their reactions, I guess Singaporeans don't really go to Karuizawa that often XD

We took a Shinkansen back to Tokyo and arrived shortly before dinner. After spending a week or so in the Japanese countryside, I was having trouble trying to navigate the hordes of people at the station and on the streets, especially during peak hour. It didn't help that our hotel was in Tokyo's notorious Kabuki-cho district in Shinjuku D:

Shinjuku by day...

Shinjuku by night

Kabuki-cho, bustling with people

 Dinner was a hearty seafood hotpot in a smoky restaurant filled with suited salarymen and their bosses, all chatting over beer and cigarettes. My mum was the only female in the restaurant, apart from the waitresses (who were all from China).

Seafood!

22/6 Day 7: Tsukiji, Ueno 


We headed to Tsukiji fish market for some early morning munchies and to search for fresh uni (sea urchin) to eat. Mainly my parents, because I don't eat uni (looks strange and creamy D:).

First stop was my favourite gyu-don stall that was facing the road. You order a bowl, sit down and just eat it in front of the stall :D And if there's no seats? Stand and eat of course! Much, much better than the crappy beef bowls you get in Singapore (especially the local Yoshinoya). Heck, the Yoshinoyas in Japan serve gyu-dons a billion times better than those you can find here.

Piping hot gyu-don!

The gyu-don stall

 Next stop - a simple bowl of shoyu ramen! Just a few stalls down the row you'll find a ramen stall that is perpetually flooded with customers and tourists - its that popular. Just a hearty, simple bowl of ramen that warms the stomach with its delicious soup stock.

Super thin pork slices!

In Tsukiji, you eat standing up 

 We walked around the market, looking for things to eat and buy. Plenty of fresh seafood stalls, sushi bars and dried goods stores. My dad finally managed to get his hands on a tray of fresh uni. Expensive stuff D: For a snack, I spotted a couple of tamagoyaki stalls selling freshly grilled tamago.

Tamagoyaki on a stick!

Many different favours of tamagoyaki

After breakfast, we headed down to Ueno to check out Ameyoko shopping street. Before that though, we wandered into Ueno park. Its amazing considering that I've never been to Ueno park before even though I've visited Tokyo a couple of times already.

A temple in the middle of a pond of water lilies

A duck and her ducklings :3

I really should come back during sakura season ><

We browsed around Ameyoko for awhile but couldn't find anything of interest to buy, other than a few packets of snacks to distribute to colleagues and friends, as well as a couple of bags of Japanese green tea. \

Ameyoko!

This reminds me of Times Square in NY somehow lol

That night, I met up with Jun and Linus to attend Mitsubachi Fest 2012, which I shall write about in a separate post :D

Japan: The Northern Alps #5

20/6 Day 5:  Karuizawa


If you've joined any guided tours overseas, you'll know that there will be one day dedicated to shopping, to appease the womenfolk in the tour, just like there will be one meal consisting of Chinese food to cater to the stubborn people who insist on eating Chinese food everywhere XD

So we arrived in Karuizawa slightly before lunch. My first impressions of Karuizawa? Totally different from the other towns and cities we visited so far - Nagano, Matsumoto and Toyama. For one, I couldn't see a single high-rise building when I stepped out of the station. From the sprawling mega-outlet-mall to the summer villas, chalets and shops, Karuizawa seemed like a place in suburban America.

Karuizawa, viewed from the station

We decided to check into the hotel first before checking out the sights - and was treated to a 15 minute walk with luggage in tow D:

Cozy little cafe in the middle of nowhere

The hotel was a really nice place though, the receptionist/staff was extremely nice and helpful (plus her English was not bad either!). It was a small cozy 2-storey building that reminded me of a backpacker's hostel, except it had fully equipped. big spacious rooms. Its cafeteria (named the Beatles cafe) even had a mini-stage for band performances!

Hey Jude~

First stop was lunch at the Karuizawa Prince Shopping Plaza, filled with overpriced eateries OTL. Still, the omurice (rice wrapped in omelette) I had tasted really good!

Endless rows of shops

Expensive but delicious omurice

Before starting on the shopping, we decided to visit a natural attraction - the Shiraito falls. The bus ride took about 30 minutes, taking us deep into the mountain forests surrounding Karuizawa. It wasn't that spectacular or anything since the falls were pretty low, but they were pretty unique looking! And the water actually flows out from the ground! Some kind of sub-soil flow, instead of an overland stream, feeds the falls.

A short walk to Shiraito falls

A wall of water! Pretty tiny though

If you look closely, the water is actually flowing out from the ground 

While waiting for the return bus, dad bought a fishy snack

With that out of the way, my mum could finally begin her retail therapy in earnest, starting with the locally coined "Ginza" area, also known as Kyu-Karuizawa (Old Karuizawa). In what was basically a shopping street filled with local specialties and random knick-knacks, I managed to find a Ghibli store! 

Ghibli store! <3

Cat bus and a huge Totoro plushie!

Costumed photography, anyone?

Kyu-Karuizawa shopping street

Since it was a weekday, the streets were pretty empty save for a handful of local tourists and residents milling about. I did notice a lot of Japanese taking their canine friends out for a walk though, and couldn't resist taking a few photos. They really do love their dogs :D

1 Shiba Inu not cute enough? Have 2 instead!

Corgi meets terrier!

The terrier on the right was actually at one of the shops we visited (where I bought a bottle of locally-produced. really fresh milk), lazing around at the entrance waiting to welcome customers. Guess its owner decided to take it for a walk :p

There wasn't much to see so we decided to take a slow walk back to the hotel, stopping by a small pond on the way for some peace and quiet. Along the way we noticed many summer cabins and cafes clearly devoid of any human presence - perhaps their owners only returned during the summer. Some looked as if they had been vacated for some time.

Tree-lined roads everywhere in Karuizawa

Quirky little French restaurant

A coffeehouse of some sort? Looked closed though

One interesting thing I noticed along the way was the numerous French bistros, Italian trattorias and restaurants randomly popping up along the road, and not a single Japanese eatery. The prices were not cheap either, clearly out of the reach of anyone looking for a simple meal. The Karuizawa equivalent to our Dempsey Hill and Bukit Timah enclaves, perhaps?

Kumoba-ike. Apparently it looks lovely in autumn, with the red maple leaves

Male duck :3

Since it was getting late, we decided to have dinner back at the outlet mall before heading back to the hotel early to rest tired legs. Dinner was wagyu beef sukiyaki!

*drool*

Japan: The Northern Alps #4

19/6 Day 4: Toyama City


It was a pretty dreary and wet day in Toyama, so there wasn't much to see. We took a short walk to Toyama castle, but the castle was undergoing renovations, plus the building wasn't much to look at :/ With only a few hours to burn before taking the local train back to Nagano, we decided to follow the walking route printed on the tourist pamphlet.


The only location of interest that was within Toyama City itself was a street of old, pre-war houses that were owned by influential merchant families back then. Being a weekday, plus the gloomy weather, the street was totally deserted, save for a few shops that gladly welcomed us.

Took shelter from the rain and bought dorayaki!

There was a particular house that belonged to a well-known merchant family (Mori, if I remember correctly) and we entered it, expecting to see a couple of exhibits here and there. Little did I know, the elderly couple tending to the house offered to give us a guided tour!

The oji-san spoke mostly in Japanese, but I could understand most of it, and he threw in some English as well for the benefit of my mum and dad. He was really enthusiastic about showing us around the house (perhaps we were the only visitors that day). When we told him we were from Singapore, he looked really surprised and told us, "Very far!"

Preserved and refurbished houses

I learnt a lot about Japanese-style architecture that day - he pointed out many details about the house that would have skipped my notice - the arrangement of the wooden floorboards, the intricate patterns of the pine wood ceiling, the design of the garden etc.

There was an elementary school nearby :D

We continued walking through the street until we reached the port, which was pretty deserted. It was about lunchtime, so we looked around for an eating place and found this expensive looking restaurant. Being the only eatery we could find, we decided to just eat there. It specialised in Shiro-ebi, which translates to "white shrimp", the local Toyama speciality seafood. I ordered a kakiage don, and it came with a huge deep fried patty of shrimp!

Awesome graffiti at the Toyama port

Shiro-ebi kakiage don

Modern electric tram

We took the tram back to the hotel, where we checked out and headed to Toyama station for our 4-hour long train ride back to Nagano. I took the opportunity to study for my JLPT N4 test, which I just took last week (and passed, hopefully! ><)

The landscape changed from cities, to farm fields, to mountains, to the Sea of Japan, to small little towns in the middle of nowhere. Students came and went as the train passed by their schools and hometowns, reminding me of my own journey home from school with my buddies.

We arrived in Nagano just in time for dinner, which was a hearty hot-pot of pork and chicken (and whatever innards the chef could throw into the pot). The waiter was a funny chap - he used his iPhone to translate whatever he wanted to tell us into English. The result? Well, I suppose you know how well Google translate works XD

The next day, we headed to Karuizawa on the way back to Tokyo.