The day after we went to Kobe, we spent the day in Osaka for the K8 concert. We walked around and shopped in the morning, then grabbed an early lunch. Later on we parted ways with my mom, who was going to head back to the hotel by herself, while my sister and I left for Kyocera Dome together.

We weren’t quite sure how much time we needed to buy con goods, but we were pretty surprised to see there were zero lineups when we arrived. (Remember, Arashi concerts usually take between 1-4 hours.) Anyway, that gave us more time to hang out at the mall across the street with the rest of the girls waiting to attend the con. =P

By the time we finally got to our seats, I was pretty excited for the concert to start. It was the last day of their concert tour so I knew they would put on a good show. I was most looking forward to their band performances so I could see Okura on the drums. However, this is where the biggest shocker happened –

Okura wasn’t there.

As everyone was waiting for the concert to start, the lights suddenly turned on and six members stood up on stage. At that point I couldn’t tell who was there because they didn’t even have the cameras pointed at them yet. Then they all started apologizing profusely that Okura won’t be able to make it to the concert because he was hospitalized for a stomach ailment. I think it took me a while to comprehend the information. I didn’t understand how he could not be there. Like, how does one miss their own concert?!?

The whole situation was pretty unbelievable and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one in the audience who was a little devastated by the news. However, the six remaining members asked the audience if they’d like them to continue the concert and of course everyone wanted them to go ahead with the show. So K8 became K6 for the night. (@_@)

To be honest, I wasn’t too upset with the turn of events. I’m pretty sure no one felt as bad as Okura who was probably beating himself up for letting his fans down. But overall the concert was really fun. The other members tried to make up for the lack of Okura by covering his lines and his mini group performance. They also took turns singing to his uchiwa and inserting his name in the lyrics. I thought it was really sweet even though I was really sad seeing the drums empty.

Since the concert started at 4pm, it ended early enough that we could grab dinner with my mom in the evening. Originally we wanted to go to Torikizoku in honour of Okura, but it seemed like everyone else had the same idea and there was a huge lineup outside. We ended up finding this amazing oyster restaurant called カキ小屋 in Shinsaibashi for dinner. Fresh oysters were a little pricey, but the oyster rice, appetizer sampler and cheese plate were reasonably priced and super yummy.