For our last day and a half in Tokyo, my sister and I once again started the morning in Harajuku. I had a few hours before I was to meet Yumi to see the butai, so I made a mad dash into the shops and tried to buy as much as I could. Once I was at my limit, I dragged all our purchases back to the hotel, then went out again to meet Yumi at Shinjuku Station.

Soon we were on our way towards Saitama. The ride would take around 30 minutes. Yumi pointed out to me the Arakawa River, which separates Tokyo from Saitama. Originally I was hoping we’d get off at Ohmiya Station, however we got off two stops earlier at Yono-Hommachi Station. Yumi first went inside a bakery to buy something to eat before the show, as we were going for a matinee performance of Aa, Koya. I already had scarfed down a hamburger prior to meeting her at the station. =P

It took about another 10 minutes on foot to get to the theatre. I wasn’t sure if there was a dress code for the butai, so I made the mistake of wearing a dress with heels. LOL. It was painful to say the least. Once we arrived, I took a couple photos of the theatre as well as the poster they had outside. Then we went inside with the rest of the crowd (which was like 95% women, hehe).

Yumi and I waited in line first to buy a pamphlet for the show. Then we had to wait in another line up to go use the washroom. Once we stepped inside the actual theatre space, I was surprised to see how small it was. Even though I was sitting towards the back, I still had a pretty good view of the stage. Prior to the start of the show Yumi handed me a pair of binoculars. At first I was wondering if I really needed them, but it did come in handy during several of the boxing scenes. Hehe.

I won’t get into too much details of the butai itself, but the show was absolutely amazing. However, with my limited knowledge of Japanese, it was too hard for me to follow the storyline. I would easily be distracted by the changing scenes that I would forgot to listen to the dialogue. When I tuned in again, I would be too lost to figure out where the story had left off. However, I was completely mezmorized by the play. The actors did a great job, especially at the last boxing scene where they played it out in slow motion. I was seriously on edge waiting to see who would win the fight. The actors also made good use of the theatre space; they would re-emerge from a scene from different corners of the room. At one point Matsujun and Koide Keisuke ran off the stage towards the back of the theatre to where I was sitting and stopped exactly a row in front of me. It was really awesome how they integrated so much into their performance.

俺はみんなが好きだ。
俺は、愛するために、愛されたい。
俺はまだ、ちゃんと立っている。
遠い……目の前が一望の………荒野だ!

After the show Yumi and I took the train back to Shinjuku. Once we got to there, we had some time to walk around Lumine before meeting Junko and Yuka for dinner. When we finally met up with both of them, it didn’t seem like any time had passed since we last met. It was really great seeing them again. We took a short walk outside before reaching the restaurant. The restaurant is actually on the 49th floor of a highrise building. Yuka had asked me prior to going whether or not I was afraid of heights. I didn’t even notice the view outside since we weren’t seated by the windows. I was able to enjoy our nice washoku dinner without any distractions. =)

After dinner we said goodbye to Yumi. Yuka and Junko then took us to Kabukicho for karaoke. I felt bad since my sister and I completely hogged the mic. Yuka and Junko didn’t sing at all! When we finally left, it was close to 1am. We walked back towards Shinjuku Station, then we said goodbye to them. Thank you so much for accompanying us!

The next morning we finished packing our luggage at the hotel. Since we still had two hours before leaving for the airport, we quickly took a trip to Takashimaya and browsed through the shops. We managed to grab a few bentos from the depachika before we left. It was my first taste of ootoro on the trip! Afterwards we took the airport limo to Narita. Once we checked in, we grabbed our last ramen before heading on the flight. Then it was another 12 hours before we landed in Toronto.

Overall it was a great trip and I’m glad I was able to pack in so much! It was great seeing everyone again and I hope there’ll be more adventures next year. =)