Meeting info for fans going to Yokohama concert on 9/5 or 10/5
 

I wanted to make a topic for all the people who are going to the Yokohama concert on the 9th or the 10th of May. Me and maneayu will be going to both concerts. But we definitely want to meet up with the other AHS members who are going to these concerts.
So who are coming to the Yokohama concert for the 9th or the 10th of May. The ones that I know of from the other thread are:
eddi818, Blasterion and ayu1m. Anybody else? And to which one of the concerts are you going? and in which hotel are you staying?

Up until now:
Hatix: 9th & 10th (Oak Hotel, Ueno)
Maneayu: 9th & 10th (Ryokan Kangetsu, Chodoricho)
eddi818: 9th (K's House, Ueno)
ayu1m (+friends): 9th & 10th (maybe, still need tickets) (Shinjuku Washington Hotel & Andon Ryokan, Ueno)
kel64: 10th (Tokyo International Hostel)
Joeyoh: 10th (Keio Plaza, Shinjuku)
Blasterion (+sister): 9th (Andon Ryoan, Ueno)

So what am I suggesting that we do. I have this planned for the 9th (on the 10th I'm visiting the imperial palace at noon, so we are later in yokohama).
Anyway, what I suggest: go to Yokohama around noon or a bit before noon, and do some sightseeing, go eat in the Ramen Museum before the concert. Then go to the concert, and meet up again afterwards to go back to Tokyo together, and go karaoke with everyone (in Shibuya for example). We could do something similar on the 10th also, but I don't know what everyone is doing or going.

(I'll update the top post with new info)


Our schedule for May 9th (I take time very wide):
11h30-12h: Meet in front of Tokyo Station, watch for my AHS-sign
12h: Take the shinkansen to Yokohama (for those without japan rail pass: 1320yen)
12h30: Minato Mirai 21
13h30: Yokohama China Town
15h30: arrive at Ramen Museum
16h00: Eat at Ramen Museum
17h30: Concert (doors)
18h30: Concert start
21h: Concert end, take shinkansen back to Tokyo, and go to Shibuya
21h30: go to karaoke
23h30: get our last train back to our hotels ;p

Schedule for May 10th:
10h Imperial Palace (reserved in advance)
Budokan, Yasukuni Shrine
13h: free until the concert, go early for buying concert goods?
17h30: Concert (doors)
18h30: Concert start
21h: Concert end, take shinkansen back to Tokyo, and go to Shibuya
21h30: go to karaoke (again, or something else?)
23h30: get our last train back to our hotels ;p

so you can join in any time you like, but it would be fun if we could spend the whole day as a big/small group. suggestions are welcome of course (but the imperial palace visit can't be changed, that's already reserved, there are still available places, so you can still join: http://sankan.kunaicho.go.jp/english/index.html )
I will also be looking up all other trains/subways to take, so we know where to go and don't get lost :D

Some extra info:
- there are coin lockers in Yokohama arena on the 1st and 2nd floor

Well my flight is next thursday but it's open, if I'll attend the concerts (9 & 10/5) :( it depends, (I + my friend should get tickets), but at least I'll be in Tokyo.

Our first hotel is Shinjuku Washington Hotel where we're staying 2 nights and then we're moving to Andon Ryokan which is in Ueno if I remember correctly.

so lucky..dont forget to post some pics and review from that concert...

@ ayu1m: okay, that's fine, when you are there and you have your tickets, let us know here (if you can), so we can make arrangements.

@AyuGAME: of course, we will post some pictures and reviews :)
and of course pictures of the group of people that will be going (eat,concert,karaoke). we shall see :)

Well, as you know I'll be there on the 10th. I'll have two friends with me already. We are leaving on the 1st May, so pretty soon. This is where we are staying...

http://www.hostelworld.com/availabil...tel-Tokyo-6464

and helllooo my fellow ayu-fan-friends....

this is eddi reporting from Tokyo..hahaha. I found an unlocked internet connection and hogged on.. *SHHHH DONT TELL!!* Everythings good so far (well seeing how i just arrived 2 hours ago and one hour was on train from airport to tokyo).. I am acutally at Homeikan right now but will move to K's house at asakusa, so I def will have internet there.. as well as the budget Inn at kyoto. meeting up sounds good..for what its good for.. my phone number is

08034619415

hope to see you soon!

wowww u guys are really lucky..
seems so fun seeing ayu in japan..
niceee..
cant wait to see the pics and reviews..

Oh,i can only go on sat. and sun. because i have to go to school.So i have bought the ticket on 26/05 in Yokohama Arena.Who will go to that concert?

Hi, there! :D
As Hatix said, we're gonna go to 9th and 10th concert in Yokohama.

I'll arrive at Tokyo at 2th May ^_^, so will be a great idea if we could meet all of AHS and to have a Japan AHS meeting or something like that, as Hatix said, in Yokohama (and to eat ramen, all together! ^_^).

I'm going to buy a video cam in Akihabara (and a laptop ^_^**), so I hope to get good images of all I can capture there.
I expect to edit that video with music and such, for all AHS members around the globe. Of course, I will include our karaoke session ;)


So see you soon, Ayu1m, Eddi818, kel64 and Hatix.

(I'm so nervious! Is my first time in Japan! >_<)

:)

I'm jealous at you

Not the only one there :P

I just hope we can get buy fine, and that the language barrier doesn't prove to be a problem. I'm sure it will be fine though.

you'll be fine..just..use alot of body language and
nod and bow..

pretty much it =)

In japan, they know foreign people will have problems so they do things to make it easier for them. For example, in a macdonalds, there's a big paper on the counter with pictures of what they have. So if the one behind the counter sees any language difficulty they use simple english and point on the paper :)
Oh, and btw, they don't have mayonaise in macdonalds in Japan :p (I like mayo...)
Same goes for restaurants, with the plastic models (but you probably heard of those already).
And other shops, well, they always have a digital cash register or a calculator at hand with a digital display, so if you don't understand the amount they are saying, you can still read it (and they know that, so they are very helpful).
And be prepared to hear a LOT of "Irasshaimase!" when you enter a shop. (from everyone that works there, if you pass them).

So that's for the language barrier :) They do of course like it when you try to speak japanese :)
and like eddie said, bow or nod :) (as they will do it too)

It's my first time in Japan too, and hopefully not the last :)

The thing I'm wondering is, how easily can we (me and my buddy) get tickets and what about the train ride to Yokohama and back, would we be going as a small "group" or what :laugh?

tickets for..ayu? Well it depends on the reseller's stock I guess now. I'll be going to harajuku ...today so I can take a peek for you.
and where are you staying at? I'll be at kuramare/asakusa..
i found this website very useful
http://www.hyperdia.com/cgi-english/hyperWeb.cgi

first actual day of the trip
ok i think my neck hurts from excessively bowing.. hahaha...
and my feet is def not mine anyway...
spent way too much money
if you are planning to go to Ginza, go on weekend (sat)...they acutally closed that main street so the pedestrian can walk in the middle of the street...
weather ...is weird...

ok speaking of weather...
just want to tell you guys..the weather is really...weird.
When I go out in the morning...its chilly..gota put on a jacket
around noon time..im being roasted...take off jacket
in the afternnon (at least today)... POURING RAIN..STRONG WIND..
it was like typhoon coming and almost destory my umbrella
THEN its sunny again..-_-
and got cold..
enter subway too hot ..take off jacket..
its like jacket on jacket off ..over and over...again..

so yes. thats my report of the day.

Well, it depends a bit at which day everyone is going and what they have planned. I'm going to post my schedule, and compare it with the days you are going to the concert. So we might get together before noon, or when we go to eat. Depends on your schedules :).

Visiting the Imperial Palace was already on my list of things to do. So its likely I can make that for the 10th :)

Don't forget to apply for the application to visit. The number is limited, but yesterday there were still about 60 left. You can apply for it online (see url in top post). You can't just walk up to the place and be on the tour, it needs to be done in advance.
But it's good that we can do more together :)

Yes, after reading the link I gathered that. Good thing you said as I wouldn't have known otherwise :o

Anyway, I have sent the application in and got my permit no.

i like this trip. it includes sight seeing in such a short time. but going to the arena jus an hour before the concert starts is not very advisable unless u do not want to buy any tour goods..

anyway, have fun!! so happy that more and more pple in this forum finally realised their dreams to actually see ayu perform LIVE!! :P

Yes, I was going to mention that then forgot, heh. I will want to be arriving nice and early to the concert to be able to buy some goods.

Well, we have time left. It's not like we'll spend 2 hours in Yokohama china town, and eating at the Ramen Museum won't take 1.5 hours. It's all taken very widely, and sight seeing doesn't take hours; last time I had much time left.
So we will surely be able to be at the arena at least an hour before doors open, don't worry. I want to buy tour goods as well :P

It's even better if it's a big group of fans going together :P

so.. i went to harajuku today..
WHAT A NIGHTMARE...my god..it was PACKED with at least..1 millino people (or feels like it)... that whole area are just full of people..anyway..i really didnt see that many tickets reselller there? I went into all the idol shops..most of them just has photos and all... I did see one that are selling ayu tickets, but they are not for arena seats, they are for the stadium seats. I took a pic of it, ill post it later.. im dead tired.

1 hour is really not enough to buy anything. trust me. i waited for 5 hours and got stuff like towel, wristband and HP strap only. quite disappointed.

haha. go together and get high together!!! i nearly fell down the stairs while jumping!

Heh, sounds like fun :laugh

What do you mean by stadium seats? Up there high you mean, and arena is the "center" part there? Well, I just have to hope there are some stores that sells reasonable tickets :yes

Yokohama Arena is an exception :) 'Arena' tickets are on the side, while 'Center' tickets are in the center. (usually in other stadia, the 'arena' seats are the center seats). So if you go to the reseller shops, look on the tickets, and look for アリーナ (Arena) or センター (center). It's usually written above the block number. Remember, this is only for Yokohama arena. (but since we're only going to yokohama arena, it doesn't matter :))

About getting there 5 hours before, well, on Sunday, after the imperial palace visit, we have lots of time left, so if we were unable to buy anything on the 9th, we can try on the 10th, and go very early. But we'll see it on the day itself, how much time we spend on every activity (while doing sightseeing in yokohama). It usually goes quicker than planned.

I'm nervious :S (My flight starts in 9 hours).

Alright!

I will be attending the concert May 10th :)

I will totally meet up with you guys. It's my first time in Japan so I AM SOOO HAPPY other people will be there. W00t.

Soo..COUNT ME IN!!!

Oh yeah I am staying at Keio Plaza in Shinjuku :)

Wonderful! Yet another fan going!
Will you have internet access in your hotel? The 10th is the day of imperial palace visit, so we can meet with you after that. Or if you wish to visit that too, register yourself on their site (see link in top post).
And btw, from which country are you? :) (because our group is getting quite international :D)

It's international like the House of Pancakes (american joke :P)

I am from California United States! :) Although my nationality is Mexican-American :)

How awsome is this!?!

Imperial Palace eh?? Sounds QUITE interesting, where is your hotel located?

My hotels (Oak Hotel) is located in Ueno.

Okay, so that's the second one from the US, after eddi818 (who is from Texas I believe) :)

It's of course up to you if you want to go visit the imperial palace, you can always meet up afterwards. And you are of course free to join us on the 9th as well, even if you're not going to the concert on the 9th :). (depending on your schedule :))

I am up for a meet after the concert. We really don't have a set schedule. The only thing we really wanted to do was go to Club Code (eurobeat club) in Shinjuku. Aside from that I will be glad to join you guys the 10th.

Where will you guys be sitting in the concert?

You found a eurobeat club?? I wanted to go to Velfarre, but it closed down at new year, and I was looking for another one on the web, but I couldn't find any.

Well, me & Maneayu have tickets for the 9th in B3 block in the center. We still need tickets for the 10th, but for those we'll get some cheap ones on the side.


We are really going to need that sign that says: [AHS] :D

Yeah! You should join us!!!! :)

When I say US it means me and my boyfriend.


NO WAY!!!!!!!

Me too!!!!! Too bad it's not the same day ;( We have b3 center as well. Seat number 191 and 192 :)

That's settled then! ;)
I was practicing the parapara from Hinoi Team - Night on fire anyway :) (as well as the one form Suzumiya Haruhi's ED song)

I have B3, seat 259 & 260 :)

No way!! lol

I <3 Para!

Hi guys, sorry it took me so long to put something up in here,
but yeah, so I'll be there on the 9th, I've got a pair of C3 center seats for the 9th and I'll try to score some tickets for the 10th too, just a pair of arena seats will be fine.
I'll be staying at the Andon Ryokan too, during the entire trip, with my sister.
yep, less than 2 days to go! I'll be arriving on the 4th.

so who will be making the AHS sign? :D

Super, you will be staying in Andon too! Me and my buddy are staying there for 6.5 - 12.5 if I remember correctly..

And thx Hatix for clearing that out, we'd like to have some B-center seats, but I wonder if any shops have those kind of seats. How many blocks or something are there, like B1, B2 etc...

PS. Hatix we'll be staying in Shinjuku Washington Hotel too, so if you could edit the first post :b

Great! So Blasterion is now also confirmed!
I'll try to make that AHS sign, just need to find some kind of cardboard. :D
I'll put a big "AHS" on it with under it in smaller lettering: Ayumi Hamasaki Sekai (and maybe in kanji as well :)). (don't have a printer any more at home, otherwise I could have put a picture of ayu on it, but like this it looks more like something for at an airport). But everyone is free to make something too :)
(if i'm done with, I'll put a picture up, so you know what to look for :D)

@ayu1m
the layout for the center blocks are:
A1 & 3 (no A2 i guess because of the stage "catwalk")
B1-3
C1-3
D1-3


Edit:
Detta :D
http://www.hatix.org/ahs-sign.jpg

I'll be attending 5/10 (from US), but probably wont be joining your activities. But I will look for your sign. Thanks to Hatix for all the info that you've given :love

Have folks been practicing all the sign-alongs? I've been trying to find the lyrics to Boys & Girls. Need to do some last minute cramming.

Also, the Yokohama Arena is in Shin-Yokohama right? So it will take one more stop from Yokohama to get there?

lol thats awsome

that sure is sweet :laugh

It's not that big as it looks, it's like 28x15cm :P

Made from the lid of a shoe box :)

Yeey, only 2 nights sleep and I'm off ;p

Good news, I have arrived! We have had a quick look around, getting used to the underground. Not as hard as I thought. The bad news so far, the first reseller shop we visited only has arena tickets, not a single centre ticket. Going to have to look around tomorrow.

Oh, good to hear more people will be coming :cool

@tango
try Divine Ayu @ http://ayumi.primenova.com/lyrics.php
it's got all lyrics + translation

I've already printed out about 30 songs :D

Okay, the reseller shop mentioned in the guide sticky was the one I was talking about above. Just come back from having a look around the Ueno area and found the reseller shop there, a much bigger selection of tickets are there. Still, I'm going to check where else I can tomorrow before I make my purchase.

In other news, its possible I have had Y90000 stolen :(
I split my money between my wallet and my luggage. However, I haven't been able to find the money from my luggage. I did however grab a few things from my suitcase before we left at a friends house, I'm awaiting a reply to see if this is the case, I hope so :shakehead

Oh, abd finally worked out how to call back to the UK with a phonecard :P

Yeah, that reseller shop in Ueno is bigger than the one in Harajuku, so it's good to hear there's a much bigger selection there.

:( That's aweful, having lost so much money. I always keep my money in my wallet, which I guard with my life (so to say). If it was stolen, it would be very strange to have happened in Japan. So it could mean that it is still in the UK when you grabbed those things from your suitcase...
Anyway, good luck!

Enjoy the trip!

How hard is it to find those Post offices where you can draw out money with Visa Electron?

And kel64 what store in Ueno, I couldn't find any info... blind me :(

The store in Ueno is front of Keisei Ueno station, just on the other side of the street. Easy to find. It was talked about in immel's tutorial thread.

There should quite a lot of post offices in Tokyo, don't know if they all have the visa draw possibility. Just look for that red T with a line above it. I had a paper map I bought here in a big store, and it had them indicated. I can give some locations of them if you want.

(only 13 hours until my plane leaves :D)

omg... i think i go to JAPAN 3 months late...
I am going in august... hopefully i can see some of ayu's TV shows 4 her new single then...

Oh gosh!

I am so excited! I can't wait to see everyone :)

hi guys I'm leaving in a few hours, I'm so tired right now, I hope all goes well..
Well see you guys on the other side :D

Oh man I think ill be the last one to get there.

My flight is May 6th :(

My flight is less than 5 hours away :P

So if you see 2 white guys touring around Shinjuku looking amazed, that's us :laugh

My update for today. The reseller shop in Shinjuku had the best tickets I saw so far, so I picked up a B1 centre ticket for Y20000. Thats several thousand Y cheaper than they were selling for on Yahoo JP :)

As for my money, its definitely not anywhere around. I can only assume it was taken during our stopover in amsterdam, we were on our way before we would realise. I'm calling my travel insurance to see what I can do later.

As for post offices, we have seen surprisingly little so far, seen just the one so far in Shinjuku. They are easy to spot though, this one had a large sign in English, though I'm not sure if they all do.

Last thing, we visited Tokyo Tower today, going to the very top. If you plan to go, be prepared to queue for a very long time :eviltongu

My flight tickets were about +800e, hotels overall +450e and I have about 100,000yen in my pocket + my visa electron.

Where in Shinjuku is the shop (found it already, now I should discover the location : D). Our 10h flight went well and now we've travelled around Shinjuku for the past few hours. I have seen 2 post offices and they sure are easy to find. I also saw an PS3 20gb version for 29k yen which was hella cheap :laugh

Sry to hear about your money, hopefully the insurance covers it up at least a little.

Yeah, one of my friends is tempted by the PS3 too :)
Tempted by the 60" Sony LCD myself ;)

Anyway, bought tickets for to see the start of the Sumo tournament on the 13th, should be fun heh. Worth noting that there is fee free training session tomorrow which you can go and watch, plus entry to the museum. Also bought tickets for baseball, which we are going to see tomorrow. The tokyo dome area is quite impressive, we will be coming back one day to go on the rides all day :D

We were close to the Sony exhibition building so we had a look there. The Tv's and cameras are so impressive :shakehead

Thats my little update for today anyway. Hope you enjoy my little bit of blogging.

Okay... where should I start,

Seriously, where in the gods name is the reseller-store? We've walked probably over 20km's over Shinjuku and we haven't found it. Almost only positive thing is that we found Book-off where I bought 2 cds.

And, normal sushi and noodles, why can't we find those either D: Just regular sushi rolls and noodles... There aren't any in Shinjuku?! There are millions of those where you have all kinds of stuff with your noodles or sushi, but I want the damn regulars : D

And my feet hurt.

kel, how did you managed to get tickets to a sumo match..? Does your friend speak japanese or something?

Well, I've arrived and had a long day behind me. A 12-hour flight, of which I could only sleep half an hour because I just can't sleep on a plane. Then met with Maneayu at Ueno Station, went for a short visit in Akihabara with her, then went to check-in the hotel, and after that with maneayu to a Yuna Ito concert in Zepp Tokyo in Odaiba. It was very good!
This has been a very long and tiring day, and I'm still quite awake. My feet hurt but it is still reasonable.

@Blasterion: Don't tell me your flight number was BA5 seat 40A ? :P

@ayu1m: in Asakusa is a nice sushi restaurant, 3 blocks from the Thundergate

I'll post some more later :) But now I'm going to sleep...

Have to check that out.

The reseller-stores are the one pissing me off, I just can't find them... >_<

Seems like everyone is there and im the last one getting there!

My flight leaves on Sunday so i won't be there until Monday. :( Long trip, here I come

As mentioned in the sticky thread, I just exited the station, walked right and I found it there on the right. It was a couple of minutes walk. You should see the tickets in the window, its how I found it. Be prepared though, the staff member I talked didn't talk a word of English. Most know some :)

As for Sumo, we just went to the main arena in Ryogoku and talked to the lady in the ticket booth. She had limited English, but when she realised we spoke little Japanese, she brought out a card that has all the questions/answers you need all with Japanese/English on it. So it is easy to order some :yes We have tickets for the 13th, the beginning of the tournament.

Talking of Sumo, we went to the free training session today. It started at 7am, we arrived at 7:15am and left about 11:30am. Though just a training session, the place was very busy, even early on. It was exciting watching it, looking forward to the main matches in the tournament. All 220 of them in just a day :tired

Also went to see the Giants Vs Swallows tonight in the Tokyo Dome. First time I have seen Baseball live, it was a fun time. We choose seats that only cost Y1700, we found out later why they were so cheap :lol: They were in the home area opposite the batting area, so during the batting practice before the game started we have several near misses with a flying ball. One minute you see the ball flying through the air, then the lights mean you loose track of it, next you hear the whistles of the security guards then you hear the crashing of a ball against the seats. Take cover!!! :D

I think we were kinda out of place too. When the singing and chanting starts, we were kinda just sitting there at first. Picked it up by the end of the game though mostly. The Giants won 11-0, so the atmosphere was very exciting.

Lastly, I a visited Book-Off two days ago. There was kinda a problem though, too much choice, not something I would normally say. Makes finding what you /browsing a little difficult.

We plan a bit of a lazy day tomorrow in the Shibuya area so probably not much to say.

still in kyoto...you know.kyoto is really not as much fun as i thought itd be..
way too much walking..i seriously considered cutting off my feet today cuz i could barely walk. whoever named las vegas the sin city, they prob had never been to tokyo before... spent WAY TOO MUCH money there...
I'll be back to tokyo on monday night around 6..
Planning to go to Fuji-Q on tuesday..any taker?

and a recommandation for yal'l.. i dunno why. but i acutally found shiodome fun. It's not much there..but it is on the way to odaiba..so stop by and take a look around..espeically that clock build by hayao miyasaki..

heres my scheule of tokyo trip (for wutever its worth)

arrive 4/28 - tokyo dome (since my ryokan was right by it)

4/29 sat - Akiba, ginza (had to go on weekend..so many people and they close the down the street..theres a toy store at the end of the main st..its quiet fun), started pouring when I went to shiodome, so switched the Roppongi to Odaiba (since most of places are inside)...went to Angels & snow at Odaiba(its this exhibition of photos...really cool..) then went to 2nd floor of decks (which is a MUST GO..the whole recreation of old japan)

4/30 sun - Harajuku (way too many people since it was golden week, but that is when the cosplay people comes out...its on the bridge to the meiji shrine)..was there till pretty late and my friend arrived from nagoya.went to shinjuku with them..karaoke!

5/1 mon - Ikebukuro ..(must go to the 3rd floor on sunshine city 2..i think its N 60? the one with tall building....its call Namja Town)... don't buy the all access pass..cuz ..most likely.u wont be playing the game (...all in japanese) currently, they have hokaido festival there..where they have hokaido food..(cakes re good....MILK ARE GREAT!!!!!!) desert fest is always there, and dumplins....dumplins street..my god..so many different kind!)..its really fun place to go.. went back to harajuku afterward..had kaiten sushi (spelling?) well its the sushi on the train...theres one on omote sando..its REALLY good.

5/2 tue - Ueno park..they had leonardo exhibition...im pretty sure.most of you (as europeans) dont care..but...we really dont get to see da vinci work that often in america.. went to shinjuku to shop at comme ca' store (great great place to shop)..ropponggi/midtown afterward..pretty much by that time..my feets are dead...

5/3 wed - went to japanese congress hall in the morning...there's a tour that can take you in at 10.. there is NO Photography inside, and since we are americans (my friend and i), we followed the american rules (where rules are made to be broken)..when they show you the actual congress.. they will take you to the seperate side for english..and there will be no one there to watch you..so.. take all photos you want just NO FLASH!...shibuya.. just walked around..didnt do much. went to meiji park afterward.walked to aoyama to take pic of prada building. went back to shibuya so my friend can pick up his ibook.

5/4 thur..off to kyoto..

recommandation for food..
...convenece store..7-11, lawsons..and all... ok they have the best sandwiches and just ..anything. 7-11 has some great food too..yakisoba, odan..

kyushu jangara 九州
http://www.kyusyujangara.co.jp/
this has to be the best ramen i've ever had.... they have stores in different area of tokyo..this is a must go. they have 5 different kind of soup..at harajuku 1f..they have 7. i went to the one at akiba, and had just the regular (zenbu...which means all). my friend had the one on lower right corner ..its spicy one.

namja town..its just a fun place to eat..

kaitan sushi.....cheap way to have sushi... theres one at shibuya which is very famous..築地本店..they also have a rule that you have to have 7 dishes of it ..or u cant sit longer than 20 mins

---
shopping place..(clothes)
harajuku is just a great place to shop for me...the takeshita alley, the inside-harajuku.. oh be SURE you go to UT store..its Uniqlo Tshirt.. its pretty cheap and GREAT store design..the whole store is like a giant vending machine.. its on meiji dori. basically when you get out of takeshita alley..you will be on meiji dori... you turn right and cross omote sando and go across (so you end up in diagonal of where you came from)..walks down a bit..and thats where UT is.

comme ca' store..5 stories, 2 stories women, 1 story guys, 1 story mix, 1 story cafe... LOVE this store

odaiba..i found decks 1 and 2 very easy to shop and..easy to..get lost into shopping.. haha.

thats my experience so far..

Sounds good :)

As for my day, we didn't wake up till late after a long and busy day yesterday. When we did, it was overcast and raining, it stayed this way till the evening :grumpy

So, we made use of our time by going to see Spiderman 3 heh. We had previously seen the cinema and it was right by the exit of a subway so that meant not getting wet :P It was strange to actually hear so much English during the film after days of almost all Japanese :irked

The fish market is meant to be the place to visit early in the morning, so thats where we are heading tomorrow :)

gee..watching a movie in japan?!.....hahah thats exactly wut i did today too~!!..saw spidey and shopped... good relaxing day..my feet are 50% functional now..on the downside..

I AM SICK..
what the hell... woke up with sore throat now my nose wont stop running..

post some pics...
and it will be great...haha...
nice to read it...

Yeah, went to Harajuku to see the cosplayers on Sunday, but... it was indeed raining like hell, so there were like a few gothic lollitas and that's it. Whole Harajuku was swarming with umbrellas, it was like, all the usual people, but with umbrellas,so you can imagine what it was. After that, went to NHK TV building, and then to shibuya, got back early, because my feet needed some rest for tomorrow (then I'm going to Nikko, and maybe Nakano). Solved my hunger problem by following your advice: convenience stores! (and they are very conventient :P).
But by tomorrow the rain should be over, and the forecast is sunny for the following days.
And yeah, Tokyo is swarmed with advertising for Spider 3. (but I already saw it May 1st in Belgium). So they subtitle movies in Japan? Nice, that's how it should be.

Yesterday: Ueno Park & Akihabara, ate some ramen there. and went to shop a cd of gazette and dvd of A Museum in Shibuya. (I got many concert dvds, but just a few are missing, like this one).

About pictures, I was going to put some on my travel blog, so I can link them here as well.

haha no I went with Air France, so that couldn`t possibly be me.

hey Eddi are you still going to fujiQ? I`ll call you later about that.

sorry I couldn`t post sooner cause I didn`t have the time to go to a internet cafe yet, but I`m in one right now,　outlooking the shibuya crosswalk, awesome, so I hope I can get back to the hotel before the trains stop riding.

well it`s almost 11 pm and I`m pretty beat...

hope to see guys on wednesday...have fun ;)

Okay, so it wasn't you :) But I may have had another possible encounter today :D
I was sitting on the ginza line, and overheard an english conversation of 2 guys next to me. One was american, the other half-japanese/half-american, but as I was just getting out of the train, I heard the american guy say that he was going to Ayumi Hamasaki concert in Yokohama. I couldn't talk to them, because I had to get off at that stop...
So... is it anyone from AHS here? :D (if so, sorry I couldn't say hi :))

wasnt me..since im not white...or half asian.. haha
anyway...

im sick. ARGH
and i seroiusly dont suggest people riding shinkansen when you are sick.. the pressure gets to you really bad

Have plenty so far, about 750+, I'll wait till I home to organise/edit them though.

Up nice and early today to visit the fish market. Its recommended in quite a few places and its certainly a interesting place. Busy isn't the word to describe it, I not sure really what to use. A nice relaxing garden is present next door, so we went to have an easy stroll though there.

From the garden you can get on a boat for a short ride, so thats what we did, riding to Asakusa. While fairly close to where we are staying, it wasn't a place we had intended to visit. However, a grand temple and plenty of small, independent shops made this a worthy visit.

After an afternoon nap, as we had gotten up at 5:45am, we visited Tokyo Tower again. All I can say is that the view is much better at night than at day. So many lights, flickering away, such a peaceful view. I started to take some shots, then wished I had a tripod, then my batteries died, my spares were on charge :no

On the way back, just a short while ago, we stopped by a 7-11 for a snack. Having previously seen Pocky advertised, I picked up some. All I'll say is that I think I need a second suitcase just to take home Pocky :rofl

yeah!!! its going to be good weather tomarrow. you coming?
call me call me.. haha ill prob leave really early tomarrow to go to shinjuku to get on the bus.

here's how
http://www.fuji-q.com/fuji-q-en/main/traffic-01-3.htm

Hehe, got some Pocky as well :D But we actually have the same kind of snack in Belgium, only it's not called Pocky, but only here do you have so many different flavours. Got me some regular chocolate ones yesterday, today some coconut flavour :D


For arranging the hour and place to meet on the 9th. If you want to do the sight seeing of Yokohama, be in front of Tokyo station between 11h30 and 12h I will arrive there at around 11h40 with maneayu, and I'll stand there with my AHS-sign, we'll try to stand in a visible spot. I guess, if you want to meet at a later time, the easiest will be at Yokohama arena. But we will all probably stand in the line for the merchandise, but I'll still try to hold the AHS-sign :) So look for some non-japanese people, and there's a big possibility it's us :)

wait, what? you guys didnt know what pocky is?! wow..
haha i lost count of my pics..my last count was 1300 ...over the course of 10 days. still havn't organize and all..

Seems like I don't take enough pictures. I'm only at a 100 pictures... Guess I don't want to look like the tourist :P

Don't worry, I knew what pocky was (and pretz). It's also supposed to be the best snack to eat while watching anime :P And if you want more, watch Onegai Teacher and/or Onegai Twins.

And don't forget the melon pan from Shakugan no Shana :D (that's gonna be some nice breakfast for tomorrow :P)

Knew what it was, just hadn't had the chance to try it yet, the adverts reminded me :)

Spent the majority of today in Ueno Park and visiting the Zoo. Was a lovely day. The main attraction for us was the Panda, as have never seen one before. Friendly thing.

Actually did something I didn't think I could manage in a day, fill my 2GB SD card in my camera :D Nearly all pictures and two short videos. Going to offload them to this laptop in a minute.

Ohh, while at the zoo, bit of a strange occurrence. Us three was approached by 4 Japanese Schoolgirls, the age is hard to guess, but obviously fairly young. They asked for our picture with three of them while the fourth would take one. We agreed, didn't see why not. They laughed and giggled after the picture was taken and seemed happy. Wondering why afterwards though. Three tall Gajin's all over 6ft seem a good picture opportunity? Or the fact that one of my friends could easily be mistaken for a certain England footballer? If you are coming Thursday, you can guess who :P

As for tomorrow, we plan to go to the rides in the Tokyo Dome Area. Rollercoaster looks fun!

since the only soccer player i know ..is beckham...so im just going to say beckham.. and if it IS beckham..then id have to take a pic with him too~ =P
today was busy, yet not so bad. Went to Fuji-q with eli and his sis.. it was awesome! too long of lines, but the rides were AWESOME and..you are right by fuji mountain...its really cool.

so the game plan tomorrow?

went to Nikko today, it was very good, it's very beautiful, although there are a lot of steep stairs. But the area is also very peaceful.

Game plan, see first post :) (and some extra info a few posts back)

eddi818 will join the group at minato mirai 21 station around 12h30, because he doesn't want to take the shinkansen, so if others want to do the same and take the normal route without shinkansen, meet at minato mirai 21 around 12h30. we'll be standing there with the ahs-sign. So what's the rest going to do? (of those that are going tomorrow)

Hey Everyone!

Ahhh, Tokyo is awsome. Anywho, what time shall we meet tomorrow ? May 10th? I plan to be at Yokohama early tomorrow, I would say around 11 am.

I will be checking later so please let me know!

-Jo

Well, tonights the night of the first concert, I hope you all are having a great time :yes Getting nervous about tomorrow myself...

Keep guessing :P

Well, we said we were going to the rides at Tokyo Dome today. We went, but the main attraction, the big rollercoaster, was out of service :( So, that idea went out of the window. Shame, but we plan to go again Friday, hope its back in action then.

Our back up plan was to visit Sunshine City. It sounded better than it was though really. I wouldn't really recommended going out of your way to visit there. You can look out of the 60th floor for quite a nice view, the smog obscures the view in the distance though. Would be more impressive otherwise.

There was one good place we found at Sunshine City though. Just as we were looking to leave, we found a used CD 'stall'. Most of the stock was of no interest, but they had a small Y100 section. Picked up Gam's first two singles for Y200 total :)

So then, tomorrow is the day, the day that I have been building up to for so long. Can't wait. I'll be meeting Hatix, and anybody else at the palace, first thing. See you tomorrow!

750+ pics??!!! WOW thats a LOT!!!
hope i will see u guys in that pics..not just the scenery...
waiting for your complete report of you trip...take a lot of pics at yokohama arena and ayu fans...i want to see the crowd

I just came back from the concert! But I'll start with a quick overview of the whole day. So we went to Tokyo station at 12h, but didn't see anybody, we went first to yokohama arena to be very early to buy our merchandise, we arrived there at 13h. There we met with Blasterion and his sister. eddi was somewhere else in Yokohama. We were one of the first who got to buy merchandise when the shop opened at 14h30. After we got loaded with stuff, us four (me,maneayu,blast&sis) to minato mirai. Went up to the 69th floor with a very nice view. We decided to skip yokohama china town and the ramen museum to get into the arena at opening time at 17h30.
By now it was swarming with people. When we got inside the arena, we found to our big surprise, that the center B-blocks are actually next to the round thing of the catwalk-thing. So there is NO B2 block either. We were in the 7th & 8th seat from the middle, last row. So we had a very good view of the round-stage, we were like 10-15 meters away from it. By 18h35 the last call was made, and by 18h40 the concert started!

I'll say it up front, these are the changes made to the songs: JEWEL (not Secret) got replaced by momentum (!!!), and flower garden with Independent (using the original japanese song list) I think she also sang Secret, but I'm no sure about that, I'll check that tomorrow, it sounds so much alike another song...

So for my report of the concert (it's of course pretty similar to the other reports):
Concert started with a wonderful version of LABYRINTH followed by a long orchestral-like part of evolution. Ayu was sitting on a swing that came from the ceiling. After Evolution, UNITE! kicked in. Then we got a nice intermezzo with taskinst, which had live guitar from yocchan. Almost all songs had at least some live instrumentation, including the intermezzos. Then we got 1 LOVE and until that Day.
It was so lovely to hear M starting, as it's an old favorite. appears was also quite nice. Then came the part where Ayu wore the pink kimono during part of Me and momentum. Ayu was really stretching her voice at this time, so she almost broke her voice, which could be heard during some of the next songs. After this we got an awesome church organ by Yamazaki, which was the intro for kiss 'o kill, of course. After this we got an awesome laser show during Not yet. It's really much better than the one they did at the last CDL during the same song. We then got some very nice songs like SURREAL, AUDIENCE and Boys & Girls. We got a nice long ending to SURREAL like in AT03-04. This was the end of the first part. After about 5-10 minutes the ayu sign started turning and "Ayu Ready" kicked in. Good "unplugged" versions of JEWEL and SEASONS.
Then, like it was telepathy she made us all clap the Independent rhythm, and some nice jumping on Humming 7/4. We ended with a wonderful Who... and Ayu yelling "Arigatou Gozaimasu" marked the end of a wonderful concert.
I have to mention that the new video clips between some of the songs are very very nice and good, again to the standards from the MY STORY tour. She used some flames this time during of the first songs.
Also Yocchan, was absolutely perfect during every single song; his solos were just awesome. Yocchan just rocks BIGtime.

I have put some pictures on my blog, see url in my sig. I'll take some more pictures tomorrow. Then I'm also going to try to take pics during the concert, as we are more on the side.

no more talking of photos.....

2000+ photos..just thinking about sorting/photoshoping/fixing/deleting them is making me tired already...

hahaha
ill do it asap...but there arnt that many pic of me thou..seeing how i'm traveling alone most of time..

concert was AWESOME...just wish i could've use my camera..well aim when i use my camera..(i kinda took some blind shots...turn out..blind) but ayu is really cute..she talked about being in taipei, hk, and shanghai.. and thats all i could understand..not sure wut she was saying about them. Then she asked about any one from foreign country...i would've scream america..but yeah..im already losing my voice. ...anyway..more updates later.

ill be leaving tokyo tomarrow...so hope you guys will have fuN!!

SECRET replace by MOMENTUM?!
and there is JEWEL?!
wow..

no way..
Secret is one of the main song...
probably JEWEL!

Yeah, I checked it again today, and it was JEWEL that got replaced with momentum, not Secret. But it's very nice that momentum was in it, because it wasn't in any of the previous concerts.
maneayu took some more pictures today, and I took some after the concert, but not during the mc.
But again, awesome concert!!! Yocchan was a little bit less good, he was better yesterday, but still awesome. Ayu's voice was better than yesterday though!
We had seats on the side this time, A6, which means block A, row 6, which were still very good seats. And the 2 seats next to us were still free, so we had much room to stand/jump/wave. And me and mane think (we think!), that at one point, when Ayu was on the central round thing, she waved back at us, because I saw no one else waving but us, and she reacted by waving back in our direction, although we were 25 meters away. It was a wonderful moment.

We met with Kel64 and his friends at the imperial palace today, and went to the concert with them. We didn't find any one else, we waved the AHS-sign around a bit, but only to be approached by japanese that thought we either needed tickets or that we sold tickets :P I think the best thing to do next time is to find fixed and exact meeting points (not like "at Tokyo Station", because it has 6 exits, or "Outside at the arena" because there will be loads of people). Also, there is really no time afterwards to go karaoke, unless you're going to yoyogi and you're like 5 minutes from shibuya. But not if you're in yokohama. So we learned something for next time :)

I also bought some more stuff (the bag,the cookies,and again all the ayupans/phonestraps for some friends), I'm really wondering how I'm going to get it all home! (especially the box of cookies, I'd have to eat them,or put them separately and fold the box) :D

After seeing 2 concerts, I really must say: waw. If you are there, and you are watching the screens too much, you forget the feeling that Ayu is actually standing there singing & talking. If you really start thinking about that Ayu is really there, it gets a bit emotional. And Who... is really THE BEST ending song! But I think that many people think that ;p
So, I will definitely be back! Might be next year, we'll see :D

Omg, what a day. Just got back from the concert and dead tired. Want to write a bit tonight though while everything is still in my mind.

Firstly, the day certainly did not go to plan. Me and one friend met Hatix and Maneayu at the Imperial Palace in the morning. Took a couple of attempts of asking caucasian people where they where from before I found out who I was looking for. It went something like...

"Hi, where are you from?"
"Belgium"
"AHS wouldn't mean anything to you would it?"
"Yeah"
"Then you must be Hatix"
"Yeah, the Ayu shirt didn't give it away?" :D

Anyway, we finally found each other and said hi. Have some chat while walking around the palace, though I'm not the best conservationist when first meeting someone. After the tour, we needed to split up, to go back to our hostel to pick up my second friend who was coming along to the concert. He laid in after a late night.

Unfortunately we didn't find him, he was already looking for us at the palace. So, after waiting a while, we left for the main Tokyo Station, to get the Shinkansen to Yokohama. Have to say, it was an excellent ride. The whole train is essentially business class, plenty of legroom even for us tall people.

Upon arriving at Shin-Yokohama, I was under the distinct impression that we needed to get the normal line train to Yokohama, which we did. After arriving there we soon realised that we were not in the right area as we could not locate the arena on the street maps. We headed back to the station and asked an attendant, with generous use of flashing the tickets to him. He said we need to catch a train to Shin-Yokohama, via platform 4. We just come from there :no

So, we headed back on a slow journey. After arriving back, we suddenly saw all the signs for Yokohama Arena. Doh! We hurried to the arena, it was now getting late and we was worried we wouldn't be able to buy concert goods.

Luckily when we arrived, our friend, Matt, had found his own way to the station. Funnily enough, he also went to Yokohama first as well :P We found Hatix waiting patiently as well. I said we wouldn't be long but we had been much longer. Oops, sorry.

It was now roughly 4:45 - 5:00pm. We jumped in the queue for concert goods, and to our surprise, we got served within 15 mins and picked up all the goods we wanted. I picked up a towel, T-shirt, phone strap and night stick.

While waiting for the doors to open, we stood as a group of 4 waiting for Maneayu and others to appear. We held up our homemade AHS sign, shouted out AHS a few times as well :laugh This seemed to get the attention of two ticket touts who approached us asking us if we had tickets. I think thats what they were saying anyway :irked

The time come and we headed into the arena. Finding our seats was easy enough. I was surprised to see how close my B1 seat was to the front and the centre part. Even my friends C1 tickets were very close to the centre part. After seeing everyone else with a fan, I picked one up from the seller inside.

And so, the concert started. One word, WOW! If you are a fan of Ayu, you must try as hard as you can to get to see her live, there is nothing else like it. Glad I did pick up my fan, I was dancing/jumping/waving it around to the music. You can see Hatix's report for more details on the concert.

By the end, I was completely worn out, I had hardly eaten and my body was aching all over. Me, my two friends and Hatix meet up again and our first priority was food. Mcdonalds was the closest and fastest place to get food so thats where we headed. Felt better after that, even if it was a Mcdonalds,
never been so pleased to eat one.

We started to head back to where we where staying after, catching the Shinkansen back to main Tokyo station. Here we said our goodbyes and parted. Was nice to meet you :)

Written quite a bit here, not sure how, think I'm going to go and collapse on my bed now. Night!

The concert date may have passed, but I'll continue to update this thread on daily events, I'm sure at least one person is interested, at least I hope so :P

There was heavy winds when we woke up this morning. Not a good sign. Still, we headed to the Tokyo Dome intending to go on the rides. Our fears come true though. All the interesting rides were closed due to the weather :(

The last day we have free is Monday, hope the rides are working then.

So, we headed to Akihabara in search of cheap things. We spent at least five hours walking around and we probably missed a good deal of shops, its an expansive area. So many side streets, often with the best deals, twisting and turning around any area of space. I ended up buying a couple of cd's/dvd's. My friend bought a new digicam. The prices on them really make it worth buying one over here. I compared the price of my current camera, which I bought about a month ago. New, in the UK, the cheapest I could find new was £182. Thats an online price. Here, I can walk into a shop and pick it up for ~£125 :thud

nice report..waiting for another pics...keep it up

I just arrived in my hotel in Osaka. It's a small tatami room, but it looks quite clean.

@kel64
About the rides being closed, that's probably because there was an accident in another park with a rollercoaster, and now all the security has to be checked. It was on the news. Might be because of that, but it was very windy though :)

JEALOUSY!! I must make sure I go to an Ayumi concert in the future!! It sounds so exciting!!

Good to hear you arrived ok :)

I do understand about the safety aspect of the rides, but its annoying when you have been twice and both times the main ride has been closed :(

Today was all about shopping for us. We went to Harajuku first. Hardly any cosplayers etc on the saturday unfortunately. Anyway, had a proper look around the large Book-Off there. Over an hour later, I spent over Y10000, and I could have easily spent much more. I had to tell myself to leave before I did spend more :irked

Took a short walk to Shibuya and had lunch in Starbucks. Chose this spot as it directly overlooks the main crossing, so you get a great view of the sea of people crossing when the lights change. It really is a sight to watch and stare. Had a look around after, but generally less interested in the fashion shops that seem to be all around.

Sumo tomorrow, yay.

a little update of me..would be nice..eh? (for whoever that cares..haha)
i've arrived nice and sound in taiwan...sadly.. no internet at my grandparents..so i am at the cybercafe.. with bunch of teenager playing games around me...(i got carded...you have to be 18 and I got carded...so happy..hahahha)

anyway...japan pic is still sitting in my ext harddrive...cuz im lazy..
i really need to start on those..blah..

e

Going to take me all day to sort my pics :P

As I said before, it was Sumo day today. We arrived there at 8:15, matches started at 8:30. The last match was at 18:00, so we saw 10 hours worth of Sumo :shakehead

The day starts off slow, with little people there. From the beginning until around 14:00, only basically unknown trainees fight, so the matches aren't too popular for most. Interesting for us Gajin though. The 'middleweights' come out later and this is when it starts to get more busy. The arena is basically full by the time the 'heavyweights' come out. These matches are certainly exciting, you get more build up to each match and the crowd really gets behind them.

For Y3600, we had the cheapest seats, but you still get an great view of the matches. Not the best place for pictures though, even 6x zoom isn't much. So, when the arena isn't very full, you can wander down to the lower area, much nearer the ring for better pictures :)

Hi folks, it's me again.

Sry for not posting anything, the comp was like hell in Andon, eventhough the place itself was great. We decided to abandon to concert, because there was so much to see and it'd have cost a lot..

We just arrived to Helsinki, about an hour ago, and I have probably ~500yen with me, so it was about time to leave :b

Overall I probably spent 140k-170k yen + flights + hotels.. but it was worth it, oh yes :yes

Hopefully I'm able to visit Tokyo again and then we'll meet or something :laugh

Probably going to post something else later on, I'm out.

*watching domouto kyoudai*

Wow, a whole day of sumo, that's a lot...!

I think my feet died today, especially my heels, and the inside of my shoes are kind of broken... :s Well, I did a very far trip today to Lake Kizaki (takes about 5 hours), took a hike around the whole lake, and went back to Osaka. For those who don't know (most people), Lake Kizaki was the scene for the anime Onegai Teacher/Twins, and has some exact location. Call me crazy, but it was fun, and I still had a free day in my schedule :) But this hike around that lake really killed my feet. I did combine this with visiting Matsumoto Castle. Tomorrow off to Nara. Taking it a bit more easy.

Hmm, I still got 76k yen left, but I'm going back to Tokyo the last day, so I'll get spending then :D

Hmm, I think I've tasted like every mineral water there is to get in Japan, sometimes the same shop doesn't have the same water the next day. I've at least tasted every european mineral water, and some japanese too. And I'm really going to look for calpis in a chinese supermarket in Belgium... :P