Not wanting to be brave or get anything heavy, I started my day off with a standard beef bowl. I headed to Radio Kaikan in Akihabara in order to try and hunt something down for a friend of mine, but wasn’t able to find it. He warned me that it was nearly impossible to get but I figured a couple minutes of trying wouldn’t hurt. From there I headed straight to Shibuya in order to get KOTO’s new single. While I was browsing I found a mini-soundtrack of Morning Musume’s newest stage play at that time. It was cheap, so I figured I might as well. I also saw callme’s newest single up on display so I snagged that as well.
I had to put my limited Japanese to the test though. The KOTO display was up, but no CDs were there. I knew there was no way all her singles could have sold out in one day, so I went to the counter to try and figure out if they had any in the back. It turned out that besides fulfilling pre-orders, they had actually not put the CD out yet. This struck me as odd, and I don’t know if that’s just normal in Japan. Especially since back home putting things out the moment the store opens in regards to new releases is actually very important. Anyway, she asked me what edition I wanted. Since I didn’t have time to research it I told her to pick the one with the prettiest cover and that I didn’t care. With all my goods in hand, I headed to checkout and while waiting in line I snagged something unfamiliar that looked cute from clearance bin.
Being hungry, I decided to have my customary McDonald’s for this trip. They had something called an ‘Olympic Victory Chicken Sandwich’ or something, so I got that. It tasted like a standard McDonald’s chicken sandwich but with In-N-Out’s animal sauce, which was actually quite good. With time left to kill, I decided to head to a cute little cafe next door to get some ‘Macha Tea Cafe Latte Iced’, which was damn good. I hung out there for a while, playing around on my phone and enjoying some down time since I didn’t really have enough time to properly pursue any real exploration and I was still exhausted from the weekend. Afterwards, I headed out a little early to try and figure out where Tsutaya O-East was, since I had never been there.
Luckily, I had no issues finding the place, even though it was sort of tucked away in an alley. Thank goodness for GPS. As with most live houses, it required a drink purchase, which I didn’t want to redeem at the start for fear of having to go to the restroom during the concert. They were also handing out another ticket, which I didn’t understand so didn’t get. You’ll find out shortly what it was and why I hated myself.
The actual FM-Fuji Girls Girls Grils Live concert was fun. Being a concert with different groups there was only a couple songs per group, but I really enjoyed all of them (except Backstage, who was mediocre at best). I didn’t know most of the groups but still enjoyed them. Up Up Girls performed Party People Alien which made that song an instant favorite of mine. The amount of hype behind that song makes it so fun I went wild! Tsubaki Factory was the special one for me though. I legit forgot what they performed (there was a customary Berryz song though, as usual), but they were really phenomenal. Considering how little I liked them when they were first announced, I was thoroughly impressed with how much I enjoyed them at this point. I also discovered my favorite girl during this performance: Yumeno. Another yellow added to my collection. It was her smile and her energy. Plus she has such a cute voice! They’re still a very green group, but they’ve improved a lot and are actually acceptable now. After each performance some members of some of the groups would go up into the rafter seating to watch, so I got to wave to some of them between performances which was cool. It was really nice to see them supporting each other like that even though they’re all technically rivals.
There was a raffle at the end, where I didn’t win anything as is usual in my life. On my way out I picked up a drink that looked like a lemon soda. Before leaving I noticed lines and realized that half of the groups (including UUG) were set up for handshakes. It was then that I realized how stupid I was for not picking up the ticket earlier. It was a handshake ticket for the group of your choice! This was especially upsetting because I’ve been to a few live house performances and I KNEW handshakes after were standard. And logically it made sense that we couldn’t do a handshake with everyone so we’d have to choose. I left really bummed because of this, but overall I still had a fantastic time and it was a really cool concert.
Standing outside for a quick breather, I decided to open my ‘soda’ to only discover that it was beer! With an extremely low alcohol count but still beer! I was kind of flabbergasted since usually concerts with H!P groups in attendance don’t serve alcohol but there was nothing I could do about it. I ended up being stuck with a 500 yen piece of trash, since I don’t drink alcohol. That was lame, but otherwise the day was a good one. Not being too hungry I decided to head back since it was relatively late anyway. Another fun day gone, with another to come!