I thought thats when she had her Premium countdown? Or was that at the end of the year?

20,000 yen. So I must have scored a good deal, the only downside being they are on the side of the front rows rather than the centre.

Is there a ramp/catwalk this year?

I'm just underwhelmed by the set list ... I hope CDL is better!

May I ask where you bought it?
I payed 16 500 yen for row 33 for Fukuoka show and still don't know the seat number :-)

Yahoo Auctions. Anything that was guaranteed middle seating (for example description would say seats 15-40) of the first 10-15 rows was selling for closer to 30,000 yen. This auction just said arena floor "rows 5 to 8" without any seat numbers. I took a gamble buying them, not knowing where along the row I'd be. Should have seen that no seat numbers in auction description meant they weren't the best but oh well. It's my first Ayumi concert and they are still great seats. I will love it anyway.

I see. I bought mine at Yahoo as well. Maybe it's because Fukuoka's considered to be last place for the show (which I'm sure it won't be) the prices for fronts sits are around 60-100 000 yen!
Good for you, I'm glad Osaka tickets are much cheaper.

So I am back...without my luggage for now...still back nevertheless. Japan was awesome! So about the concert:

L'arc en Ciel had their 20th Anni. concert at Nissen Stadium which is pretty close to Yokohama arena so there were many people trying to get to Yokohama at the same time. Now the trains were packed with fans wearing all sorts of tour goods. While I was trying to get to the arena I've noticed there were many people who just bought a couple of items and then headed back (they are most likely attending another tour date?). When we finally reached the arena grounds we've noticed the line for the goods was terribly long, but still decided to wait cuz we had another hour before the doors open.

There were so many people cosplaying Ayu and some of the dancers, most notably SHU-YA and there was a guy with exactly the same hairstyle and everyone was like OMG SHU-YA! xD People actually took more than 2hrs to get to their seats so the concert was around 20 mins late (it actually started the moment they closed the gates).

I didn't mind the videos, I don't think they were actually that long and some were fun...while some were a snooze fest, but there was almost always something going on on the stage as well, so I wasn't bored for a moment + those are a great chance to sit down and rest up a bit!

Happening here was a great opener, I was really hyped and the people around me were singing Every morning, every night so I sang along as well. Ayu's vocals pleasantly surprised me. She was consistent during the whole night and I was surprised she could actually hit some notes the way we haven't heard her do in a long time. Even my friend's boyfriend who is Japanese but doesn't listen to/like Ayu said he sounds way better than the last time he's heard her.

Now the ballads were nice to hear and even though I prefer listening to them, the upbeat songs like Shake it! and Sparkle were so much fun live. Everyone seems to have digged Ayu's koneko-chan costume for Shake it/STEP you xD I was kinda disappointed she didn't sing the whole STEP you, but the short version without the second verse :(

NaNaNa was also pretty fun and I liked her vocals with less vocoders, Timmy sounded a bit dead though. Now the next LOVE performance was somewhat boring, but her vocals were really solid and when Eyes, Smoke, Magic started everyone was clapping during the whole song and Ayu has really done a great job with this one vocally.

Return Road had one of the more interesting performances for me as you could actually follow what's going on xD but she kinda messed up the choruses a bit.

Party queen - definitely one of the best performances of the night. The lasers and all the lights looked awesome and the part where she started singing "I am a lonely queen" was just epic. After that the whole arena started screaming "Ayuuu!".

Ladies night was actually not so much fun live >_> but SURREAL~evolution definitely made up for that. Love song was just too amazing <3 and her vocals during Last angel were probably the best so far!

I was kinda glad the MC wasn't long because my Japanese knowledge is limited, so this way I got most of what she was saying. During the encore she also asked everyone if they think the concert was ok.

I had so much fun during those 2 hrs. I barely noticed Timmy, Shu-ya and the back vocals. In other words all the things that tend to annoy me on DVDs just don't seem to be that important when you're actually there.

^thats sounds so awesome!!!!!! This tour sounds really magnificent in its own way haha!! Im so glad for all of u who went and for Ayu as well. Cant wait to see the bluray (which is probably out in a years time lol)

Yes there is a catwalk with small center stage^^
I was row 40 seat 63/64. (out of 72 i guess) but i was still close to the stage. My row was ap. the heigh of the center stage, so Ayu was ao. 15m away from me when walking over the catwalk^^

PCDL was 08-09. The CDL I went to (07-08) was kicking off her 10th anniversary year. The CDL was even named "ayumi hamasaki CDL 07-08 Anniversary" but there didn't happen much anniversary stuff at all.

MOAHAHA!

I might actually get to go to an ayu concert!

I arrive in time for the Osaka/Shizuoka/Fukuoka ones. It'll probably be Shizuoka that's likely, as I'll be arriving in Tokyo July 20th. Is it hard to get these tickets, and how much should I expect to pay for it? Thanks for answers! ^^

I don't know what the Osaka arena's layout looks like, but when I went to Yoyogi for AT2009, I was on the arena floor off to the side and still could see the cat walk and stage really well, so maybe you'll be lucky!

Have you been before?
I was planning on going again this year because CDL is really amazing (just the whole concept behind it, and the amount of older songs you get to see live). But then I'm like, to hell with it, after going to the last two CDLs I may as well go to an arena tour just once (even though it's disappointing the arena tour I go to is the one that's most similar to a CDL, which I also went to...).

Problem with CDL though is tickets are hell expensive. All four I've bought were on yahoo auctions or at the ticket reseller in Tokyo, and I paid so much for them. With the arena tour however I managed to buy my ticket first hand!


--- Also, does anyone know why the last two Fukuoka dates are not up on any of the online ticket websites (like eplus)? It's super strange...

AWW reading more and more reviews i want to go! LOL....
but I still might wanna wait for the CDL....

If I'm not wrong, the official ticket sales has not yet started?

Yes, the official site states that the sales start on 06.30, but I wonder where tickets being sold now on Yahoo came from...

I know they haven't started yet - but the websites still don't listen the concerts, and the Shizuoka shows which are only two weeks before, have already had TWO pre-order lotteries... (that's how I got my ticket), so I'm wondering why they aren't going to do that for the Fukuoka shows... (or if they will but not for another few weeks)?

I just thought they'd list everything at the same time.



@Roanmy, depends on how you're going to get your tickets. You basically have three options - get first hand from official sales (which is hard unless you enter in the lottery), buy online, or wait until you're in Japan and go to a ticket reseller. Actually there's also a fourth option but I wouldn't ever consider it - buying from the scalpers outside the concerts. (They're old and creepy and most likely linked to yakuza).

Depending when and where you buy your ticket, and where the seat is, you can expect to pay aroudn 10,000 to 20,000 yen for it. You should also look up the seating charts for the respective arenas before you make a decision on a second hand ticket so you know what you're paying for.

It's not that difficult to buy from resellers in Japan, the only thing is if you're most likely going to Shizuoka or Fukuoka, I have no idea if or where they have resellers there, and they mightn't even have resellers in those cities, especially Shizuoka - which is more confusing seeing as the concert isn't even in Shizuoka (the city), but closer to Hamamatsu (if you're taking the shinkansen from Tokyo)...

That's good, you lucked out with the row there.

I guess with mine I'll be kind-of close regardless of whether she's on the stage or on the catwalk. Only time she might be 15m away from me is if she walks over to the right side of the stage. Can't remember if she moves much from the centre of the stage to the sides during concerts? I think she does it more often during the encore?

Should I go to the 2nd Osaka concert as well? Worth seeing the exact same show twice? If so I'll probably get a cheaper arena seated ticket.

I definatly whould if you have the chance to get some cheap tickets.
Whould try reseller on the day of the show, or maybe scalpers, you might get a good deal^^

ahhhhh I want the blu-ray now, I want to see the concert again ._.

@Tony G: If you can go to 2 shows, go! That's what I did and I've never regretted it!! If you can, try to get tickets that are in different areas for both shows.

1st show I was on the arena floor. And 2nd show I was up on the 2nd level. It was great, I had 2 different views/perspectives of the show.

This is how I felt after I saw AT09... Lol "I wanna see it again and again and again!" lol