Peter's Japan blog

Well well, finally got this internet connection working.
A little roundup of the first day. Arrived well on time at Narita airport and I was again not able to sleep on the plane. I felt a little bit less tired than last year though as I had slept a bit more the days before.
As there was hardly any line at the immigration I could quickly get my bag and go through customs. Exchanged my Japan Rail Pass (which I will starting from tomorrow, not today) and got on the 9h59 Skyliner train to Ueno. That's one hour ahead of schedule ;p. That forecast about clouds and rain wasn't true, it was sunny and a clear sky!

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Seems like there is still hope for tickets for one of the 2 Perfume concerts in Yoyogi. The ticket sales had supposedly started on April 11th, according to a post in February on the official website. Yesterday however a new post was added, which stated that ticket sales will start on April 26th. So I'm guessing, the April 11th ticket sales was for fan club members. This could explain why there weren't any Perfume available yet on the reseller shops website. And thus is very good news for me! :D
I could almost buy tickets from official ticket sources as I'm arriving in Tokyo on April 27th, but I don't know if you can choose which block, as I think seats are chosen at random (anybody to confirm that?), therefore I will try to get them at the reseller shop anyway, to be sure of a good seat. (arena block B ^^)

On another note, my cold still haven't fully broken out nor has gone down. It's still lingering, I hope it will have gone down by Sunday...

There are a few changes that I've made to my schedule for the Japan 2009 trip, some are sure, some are not.

One definite change is on May 4th, I originally planned to go to Nachi Taisha in Kumano after staying at a Buddhist temple at Koyasan the night before. But since I'm not sure when I will be able to get down from Koyasan, and it takes quite some to get to Kumano, I'll just be heading back to Kyoto and try to be there before noon. I will then visit some more places in Kyoto, where there is still lots to see. Will try to go see: Nijo castle, Nishiki market and the Heian Shrine. And some other stuff closer to the hotel (which I might do on another day when there's some time left as it's not far): Honganji and Toji.

For April 29th there is a possible change of timing as I just found out that there will be a Suzumiya Haruhi concert with full orchestra in Tokyo that evening starting at 18h. Not sure if I'll have tickets yet (at the moment there are 2 left at the reseller shops, but I can't get them until April 27th when I arrive in Tokyo, so they might be gone). But IF I get them, my day trip to Nagano and Kawagoe will be a little bit more rushed ;p.

There is another fear that I have, I've been checking the reseller shop site for some days now and there are still no tickets for Perfume... Tickets have been sold since April 11th and still only to be found on Yahoo Auctions (which is too late now), so I'm hoping there will be some available by the time I get to Tokyo or a few days before the concert. Will be going to the venue anyway to get some merchandise of course! But the rest of the day might get some small changes.
Tickets for Ayumi don't seem to be a problem, there are some good seats for Yokohama Arena at good prices. I'll probably be able to get similar tickets as the first time I went to Yokohama Arena for less money (15k in stead of 22.5k, but back then it was through bidding on yahoo auctions)

Some new stuff has arrived, finally! Someone else who lives like 60km from here, had already received it 1.5 weeks ago, but it finally arrived. My first press copy of Ayumi Hamasaki's latest album Next Level, the 2CD+DVD version and a first press copy of Perfume's latest single One Room Disco, the CD+DVD version!
As usually there was a small competition for Ayumi's album release where 200 lucky ones were picked from all who had ordered the first press edition. The big lot of the prizes were posters and I got one!!
But that poster is freaking HUGE!!! It's 102cm by 72cm, which is the Japanese B1 size! All previous posters have been B2 size (or even B3 size). So I'm quite happy ^^

The booklet of One Room Disco has been printed on some special reflecting paper, which makes it quite nice. Probably an extra for the first press limited edition.

Now I'm still waiting for the wonderful USB version of Next Level and the ViVi Deji Deji diary book, which have both been delayed until April 16th. So hopefully I'll get them before I leave for Japan on April 26th!

Seems like they have some weird marketing strategies up their sleeve. One of the rumours seems to be true and comfirmed by tv station, that the second season episodes of Suzumiya Haruhi will be broadcoast inbetween episodes of the first season. After all this hope and fall, it's finally coming (I hope...), cause methinks many haruhi-fans are at the end of their patience, so it better be good and true.

But this is really the first time I've heard of a second season episodes being broadcast inbetween old episodes... Will there be special meaning to the order in which they will be broadcast? It is true that the broadcasting order of the first season was not chronological as well, so you never know.
Anyway, I didn't mean to rant, as I'm very much excited that the second season will finally be realized and I can't wait to see it!

On another note, I'm really enjoying the Suzumiya Haruhi-chan no Yuuutsu anime shorts very much. They are just hilarious and I hope there will be more to come. Same goes for the Nyoron Churuya-san anime shorts as well.