Ok, I got back too from the concert and I must say that the 2nd time is way better than the 1st. One may deem that I've become experimented
Even though this time my ticket was not as good as the first time (for the 21st October performance I got an arena A section ticket, for the 22nd October one an arena C section ticket) the atmosphere was more interesting. Indeed, ayu looked tiny this time and I could only see the details of her face only when she came to the peninsula stage (I don't know what it is called). Of course, we all had the possibility to watch the big screens on the back of the stage but to be sincere, if I wanted to see ayu on a LCD I could have stayed at home.
The crowd around me was more energetic than yesterday, as they screamed, yelled, danced and hummed all show long. I was flanked by a huge number of "screaming" fans, 99% of them being girls... the most popular screams were "Aaaaayuuuu saaaamaaaa" , "Suteki" (lovely, great) and "Dai suki" (love very much). Also Maro got a lot of attention from the girls next to me, one of them nearly bursting her lungs while shouting "Kawaii" in my ears as Maro was on the stage.
Most definitely the best part of today's performance was during rollin' when she forgot the lyrics, right at the beginning, when she does the electro voice. It was very funny as she kept talking at that moment saying something like "I don't know what comes here...". If the last performance in Yoyogi is the one that is on the DVD, I wonder how will they edit it out.
With respect to the setlist, I maintain my opinion that In the corner has nothing to do with the NEXT LEVEL Arena Tour. Other songs that in my opinion were out of the scenery are Sunset (yeah) and Hope or Pain (she could have chosen another sentimental song, like Powder Snow or Moments or etc etc, she has tons of them). Another thing I kind of disliked was the slow-semi-acoustic version of GREEN. I totally love the instrumentals and the rhythm of the original of this song but they decided to make it as an half-ballad half-something else as it was included in the section with HOPE or PAIN and Days. Also I realized why Days has so many lives and GREEN not even one - the Japanese people love very very very much Days.
The public's response was great at evolution (the "wooh -yeaah" part), rollin', UNITE! (the left hand - right hand part), Sparkle (the now classical "no, no, no" part), Boys&Girls (karaokeeeee) and Sunrise (towels in the air time).
The MC was different this time, as they played charades in teams, as MissEllin mentioned. At one moment, the word that had to be guessed by Shu Ya was "Tokyo Tower" and Ayu started to put her hands over her head and tried to look something like a tower. In reality she looked more like a pyramid. In the end Shu Ya didn't guess, and they opted to "pass" this definition. Later on, during the finals while competing against the Enrique&Yo Chan team, every time when Ayu was trying to act out the word, Shu Ya immediately said "Tokyo Tower", as an irony to what happened before.
There was nothing said about the new single during the MC.
Oh yeah, this time Ayu threw more balls (8) and the closest I got to one of them was like 12 meters as Ayu threw them mostly in the A and B sections of the arena.
For the ones who were at the concert today, please confirm that MY ALL was not sung as the ending song and replaced with something else, i don't recall too good.
One important detail that I didn't observe last night and I did now was the fact that at the exit there were many bouquets of flowers, huge ones, in baskets, of all kind of flowers: roses, daisies, tulips (?) etc etc (I don't recognize too many types of flowers....
). On the baskets with flowers were ribbons with dedications to Ayu from various persons/institutions : Hitomi, Misono, Fuji TV, Space Shower TV... The total number of baskets of flowers was somewhere near 20-25. As normal, no photo was allowed as I would have liked to take one.
Those being said my Ayu-determined-trip has almost ended and I am preparing now to go back home. I have two more days in Tokyo and for Saturday I don't know what to choose: Tokyo Disneyland (for the child within me) or Tokyo Motor Show, in Chiba (for the dreamy grown up). Either place I will go, I am still hoping on a random meeting with Ayu
