I had a few more entries I had wanted to post but I got so lazy writing them that I’m just going to compile them here and hope that I still remember the details. =P

One of the best parts about living in Japan were all the concerts I was able to attend. Before if I wanted to see a con, I would always have to line up my vacation dates to correspond with concert dates. The sucky part was that I wouldn’t always manage to hit for tickets, which meant I would usually have to pay a small fortune to buy them off ticket reselling sites. This is why concert experiences are way better when you’re already living in Japan!

The first con I went to when I moved to Nagoya was Arashi’s Japonism Tour. I was super lucky that I actually managed to hit for tickets through the FC. The con also happened just after my midterm exam so the timing worked out perfectly. I even spent the better part of the previous night practising the moves to Funky. Hehe.

The next con I went to was to see Ayaka perform in Osaka. Since I was flying to HK via Osaka for Christmas, I asked my friend Rin to see if I could crash at her place. It just so happened that Rin had bought her ticket to see the concert, so I scrambled to put my name into one of the advance ballots via Lawson’s and managed to hit for a tix! Everything worked out perfectly the evening of the con. Rin and I parted ways at the entrance since we would be sitting in separate sections, then just met up after the con ended to grab dinner together.

I should mention that Ayaka sounded amaaaaaazing live. She sang a lot of songs off her new album which I didn’t recognize, but regardless of that I got chills listening to her voice. I think the ticket was worth every penny I paid!

During the New Year I went to my first K8 con. That was the concert in the history of concerts where one of the members did not show up. I think I wrote a separate entry on that one already. Hehe.

Later on I also attended my first flumpool concert! Again, I knew none of the songs off their latest album, and I was one of the ones Kazuki berated for attending a concert tour without listening to any of their newest singles. Ooooops.

Another concert I spontaneously bought tickets to see was Misia. I can probably count the number of Misia songs I know in one hand, so it was kind of a random decision attending her con, but I wasn’t disappointed at all because she sounded stellar! Misia is one of those artistes who has an extremely loyal fan base, so I was probably one of the few in the audience who had no idea what to expect during the show. There was a moment where she held onto the last note of her song and removed her mic and you could still hear her voice ringing throughout the concert hall. I totally got goosebumps from that. It was also kind of neat because I found out one of my colleagues was a reallllly big Misia fan back in the day and even belonged to her FC! So cute!

The last two shows I went to in the summer was again to see K8’s summer recital tour. I had a hard time balloting for tickets and I didn’t manage to hit initially when I applied for their Chiba and Nagoya shows. My sister graciously forked out the money for their Chiba show and we had a good time chilling in Chiba for most of the day. (Mainly because there were zero lineups for their tour goods and we had allocated four extra hours just for that purpose lol.)

I was really lucky I managed to hit for a ticket to the first night of their Nagoya con after they had released a new batch of seats. The only problem was that I had shipped out my FC card, so I didn’t have it with me when I went to the box office to grab my ticket. I guess I must of looked pitiful enough going with all my IDs including my passport because they let me in. Lol

Anyway, altogether that was 7 concerts by five artistes in the span of a year. I didn’t pay anything extra if you don’t count the auction ticket my sister paid for. Think of all the money I saved! One thing to keep in mind is to make sure you’re well aware of when artistes announce their concert tours. A lot of the times the balloting window is months in advance. If you don’t belong to the FC then it’s even more important to find out when the balloting period opens up to the general public. Lawson’s was a surprisingly good experience and I managed to hit for all the tickets I balloted for so I have zero complaints. If I have the chance I would definitely pay to see any five of these artistes perform again!