Whatever they say...

Yesterday, the Camui Gakuen phone game went live in Japan. Seito Kaicho finally updated his blog in order to publicise it (poor thing, his foreign studies must be keeping him very busy) and invited everyone to enrol in the “sexy” campus of Camui Gakuen.



Is it sexy?

Let’s see...

(Lots of photos ahead - click them for the large versions!)

( Camui Gakuen, yokoso! )

I might do a proper earthquake post later as I have a couple of photos of things that will show how it was in Tokyo, but I thought I'd do a nice, light hearted post first.

Yesterday, I went to the Square Enix store in Shinjuku (ish)

TIME TO FANGIRL.


(Click all photos for full size)

( There's something under here for GACKT fans too ^_^ )

So, I spent the weekend in Osaka.

It didn’t start off in the most successful of ways as I managed to turn off my alarm clock without waking (a neat trick of mine and the reason why I usually set 3 alarms. When I’m asleep, I’m asleep) and overslept by an hour. After a short delay, me aprilisloca and a friend were on the 8:30am bus to Osaka.

aprilisloca was going to a concert in Kobe, so it was just me and the friend who stayed in Osaka. We dumped our bags in Osaka station and headed for the theatre for the matinee showing of Mozart! The Musical. After laughing at the theatre’s upcoming attractions (a musical version of Wuthering Heights in Japanese? I WANT TO GO) we went into the venue and found that our cheap seats had us practically sitting in the roof. Never mind.

( Chibi!Mozart - cute but deadly )

My friend and I went our separate ways for a few hours after eating as she went to see the Prince of Tennis musical and I went shopping. I did go to h.NAOTO but I didn’t buy anything. I’m on a budget so I’d told myself that unless I saw something that I absolutely fell in crazy love with and OMG HAD TO HAVE, that I wouldn’t buy anything and although I saw a couple of skirts I really liked and could see myself in, there wasn’t that mad love.

After more food, my friend and I went to our super cheap, 1,500yen a night hostel.

NEVER AGAIN. NEVER, EVER, EVER AGAIN.

( Welcome to the Bates Motel )

Shitennoniji was lovely. Unlike a lot of shrine and temple areas in Japan, it actually looked and smelt like one that was in use and not just one for the tourists to take pretty pictures of.

( Photos under the cut )

We caught the train back to Osaka station and then caught the train to Hikone, in Shiga Prefecture (that’s another prefecture ticked off the list. I want to try and get the full set before I leave). The train was one of those wonderful Japanese routes that branches off and decides to go in two different directions just after Kyoto station (we should have just gone to Kyoto!). Of course, we caught the train that branched off into the direction that we DIDN’T want. We backtracked and caught the correct train and finally made it to Hikone.

( More photos! )

I made it back safely though – not as poor as I had dreaded and in one piece.

My legs are killing me today though. Whenever I sit down for more than 5 minutes the muscles in my thighs seize up. Next time I do a full day of walking, I’m demanding regular Starbucks’ breaks!

Late report is majorly late, but hopefully there’s still some interest!

I attended the Chiba campus of the Camui Gakuen tour on Saturday and Sunday so here’s a brief (by my standards anyway!) review, with a bit of the Gazette at the front.

( The Gazette - briefly )

( Saturday - night buses, DisneyLand and seedy internet cafes )

( Sunday - seat upgrades, fun with cut outs and stress )

After the Kobe shows and the amazing experience of being first row and centre, I kinda didn’t want to go to Chiba. I knew that the shows wouldn’t be as good for me and it was really only the opportunity to meet up with people there that was making me excited about it. I’m really glad I did go though – the shows were still sooo much fun and I met more people than I thought I would.

I think that the enjoyment you get out of seeing GACKT in Japan is 50% due to GACKT, and 50% due to the other fans there, be they his foreign fans or his Japanese ones.

I was lucky enough to get tickets (along with lefcadio ) to both of the Camui Gakuen Kobe shows on Saturday and Sunday.

This is mainly a report of Sunday night as being FRONT FREAKING ROW means I have a lot more to say about that one. If there are differences between the two nights though, I’ll make sure to mention them!



This is long so you may want to get a drink and make sure you're seated comfortably!

( Before the show - molesting cardboard cut outs, ID checks and goods )

( The first half - speeches, a play and some dancing )

( Interval - speaking with staff members and being served pudding by a familiar face )

( Finally! The live )

I can’t even begin to explain how much I enjoyed the Sunday night show. To be front row for a show that is just so much fun and madness was an amazing experience. I really hope that GACKT is able to work some copyright magic and releases a DVD of this tour because everyone should see it. Or at least, the dance battle should surface somewhere. I’ve come out of these two shows absolutely in love with Junji (and not just because we caught his tie!). He was so much fun throughout.

I’ll be going to the shows in Chiba next Saturday and Sunday and although the tickets aren’t as good, although that would be pretty impossible, it’s still going to be amazing.

And after DEARS gave me those tickets, I don’t think I’m ever going to complain about them ever again. Or at least not for a couple of weeks XD

Note - I seem to have been drilled with a stupid number of PMs while I was away at the weekend. I haven't had time to really tackle them yet so if you haven't heard back it's just because I've been busy.

I took these photos tonight for a real life friend of mine who wanted to see them but as I have nothing else to post about at the moment (back to work Thursday - expect normal service to resume) I'm going to share them here.

This is The Collection&trade - otherwise known as my retirement fund, shit I've spent far too much money on or my Iron Maiden vinyl collection.

I started collecting this when I was at university. I have no idea how I managed to buy anything when I was working just 16 hours a week on minimum wage, going out every Saturday and buying all of my Uni essentials but somehow, I found the money!

Forgive the crappiness of the photos as the battery on my camera was dying. Also this is just the vinyl part - any box sets, Fan Club stuff, CDs or other memorabilia hasn't been included (mainly because they are all neatly boxed away in my storage cupboard and I couldn't be arsed to drag them out. Emptying two vinyl boxes is far easier). I also haven't included any vinyl I have of any solo/side projects of any band members XD

( Cut to spare the F-list how obsessed I am )

I have no idea how much I've actually spent on accumulating all of that and frankly, I'm far too scared to work it out! Unless something horrendous happens (*touch wood*) I can't see me ever parting with any of it as it's taken too many trips to record fairs and too long to collect it all to just let go of it that easily. Plus I've been a Maiden fan for longer than I care to remember and they've been the soundtrack to so much of my life that I'd feel like I was betraying them or something... Stupid huh?

Looking at The Collection&trade all spread out like that in its obsessive glory has made me feel so much better about how much crap I own of certain other musical artists *coughGacktcough*