whee!!! (on so many levels)

so totally enjoying the rocking-out of my life atmo. it's been a really great weekend (week?)
First off... this isn't at all set in stone yet so it's possible I'm jinxing the hell out of myself, but it's looking like I might get to do an interview with Narimiya Hiroki!!!!! read: very famous actor, one of the it-guys of the moment, generally considered to be pretty hot--don't judge him solely by the pic in the wiki entry, he usually doesn't look that creepy (altho he does do creepy really well).
I wrote up a kikakusho the other day, and the PR company passed it along to his management, so as long as they don't decide Metropolis is full of shit, I should be hearing some good news by mid-week. Next step--figure out how the hell I'm going to be able to suppress my inner fangirl enough to appear properly professional and journalisty. (>_<)

Then on Thursday, I went over to Roppongi Hills for a press conference for the release of Hip-Hop Abs (from the creators of Core Rhythms and Billy's Boot Camp!) lol. Anyway, it was quite amusing, not least because the promotional tie-up was with Go Hiromi's new single, which he performed at the press conference. (see an old Metropolis article about his career) The man may be a bit plastic surgery for my taste, but there's no denying he looks damn good for 53 years old.


Then yesterday, I grabbed Nermie and made the trek out to Saitama (my first trip to the 'burbs) to see Condors! You might remember them from the Condors/Jealkb "B.L." show that we went to a few weeks ago. Coincidentally, right after we went to see that, Dan decided he'd be doing an Agenda blurb about them. So, as is common, they offered to give us press tickets to go see the show--which Dan didn't want, probably mainly cause he didn't feel like going all the way out to Saitama. So they gave the invite to me, and I managed to get tix for both me and Nermie, cause we'd been wanting to see a Condors show ever since BL.
Anyway, it was fantastic! And only confirmed that Fujita Yoshihiro is officially my favorite member ^_^ You can't tell from the photo here, but his hair is currently blonde with hot-pink streaks. He is a rock star.
AND to top it all off, when we went out to the lobby after, several of the members were actually out there, selling the goods themselves! My boy Fujita was over at the t-shirt stand, cause he creates all of the designs for the group's shirts. So of course I bought one! (Nermie got a towel)

Only to find out--even better--that they were signing the t-shirts too! So of course I got Fujita's signature XD which is a really awesome sig, btw:

Isn't the lil ducky cute? Or...I guess he's meant to be a condor? lol. but now i'm not sure if I can ever wear the shirt. Cause, if I wear it then I'll have to wash it--and the signature might come off! Hmm... I will have to give this one some thought.
But I haven't even gotten to the BEST PART of the story.
I'm standing there waiting as Fujita signs my shirt, when all of a sudden he looks up and is like "You came before too, right?"
I swear to god, the inside of my head just went completely 真っ白. My reaction was so disbelieving he thought maybe he was mistaken and started to be all, "oh..is it your first time" and I'm like no! I just am in complete and total shock that you actually REMEMBERED us! I mean, I know as gaijin we tend to 目立つ rather more than your average japanese person, but they actually saw us in the audience and remembered!!
*floats away on waves of fangirl happy*

so yeah, that was a good day. Nermie and I celebrated by going to her Jiyugaoka darts bar and splitting a bottle of wine and a cheese plate... and then splitting another bottle of wine and staying and chatting with Ken, the bartender, until the trains started running again at 5am. Yeah. Tho I have to admit I started dozing off at the bar around 4:30 (for some reason wine makes me way sleepier than other kinds of alcohol)
With the result that it is now nearly 5pm on a Sunday and I am still in my pajamas, having accomplished nothing more impressive than this blog post and the making of a cup of coffee--in spite of the rather dire laundry situation in which I find myself.

Design Festa

Design Festa is a big art expo event that's held a couple of times a year out at Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba. (Like Raleigh's Artsplosure, only indoors, and bigger) I'd never been, but Andre was stopping by to talk to a friend of his who had a booth there, so I tagged along.
And it was totally awesome! Lots of clothes and jewelry and all sorts of neat stuff.
There was an outside stage, where a bunch of bands played.

This is a band called Gwarando, and they were actually kind of ridiculously awesome. Apologies for my lack of video-taking finesse (it's kind of shakey and the sound is hard to hear).
Here's a couple more closeups I took of the guys in the band, cause I mean seriously--they rock!

Here's an overview of *one* of the rooms, this was where the other, indoor stage was.

Some live painting, inside a glass box.

And I just thought these were really cool!

more fun stuff

Osaka was SUCH a blast, omg. and yes, i know I've been back for over a week now and am only just writing about it, but whatever. forgive me.

This is a picture of the shrine right by Laura's house, and I think it's just about the coolest thing in the history of ever. The whole area she lives in is awesome--Namba, for those of you who don't know, is code for downtown, where-it's-at Osaka. It really reminded me of Ishikwa/Isezaki area in Yokohama--really old, boro-boro kind of apartments with a fair amount of sketch, but right next to the major nightlife area. I felt right at home! XD And it's right by the Yoshimoto theater, so there's a bunch of お笑い芸人 who hang around there. as laura put it, it's "Yoshimoto by day, yakuza by night." (see what i mean about the ishikawacho similarity? as far as I saw, there was no 船の休憩室, but other than that the similarities were pretty striking. lol.

We also got to go to a concert! such fun. it was with 4 different bands, so they each played 3-4 songs--and Laura-tachi were originally going to get tix cause the main band playing was flumpool--who of course i know from them doing the Bloody Monday theme song, and also cause they're getting really popular (which ps the PV in the above link isn't necessarily their most famous one, but it's my favorite song).

BUT

the OTHER band that was playing at that concert was NICO!! i about freaked when i heard, soooooo cool! hehe. so i got to see them play for the second time. (and i may possibly have just bought tix to see their june show....)

anywho.

in other news... I went to go see the Cotton USA Awards yesterday. Japan loves to give out stupid awards to celebs, like "best jeanist" (person who looks good in jeans), etc and this one is the Mr/Ms Cotton Awards, to the person who is "natural and fresh like cotton." yeah.

anyway, they have a big press conf to announce the winners and this year it was Kuroki Meisa as Miss Cotton and Daigo as Mr Cotton. and as usual, Daigo was all kinds of lol. I mean, I honestly wonder whether he really is that stupid or not, cause some of the things he says... it's like 奇跡的なボケ level, I mean he's got to be doing it on purpose. ...Right?

we were told before going in to 注目 his 素敵な手袋--cause of course the gloves are his thing, but since he's a "rocker" he usually wears black leather ones. but in honor of winning the cotton award, he specially made cotton gloves for the very first time. and he kept going on about how awesome they were, and how he might wear cotton gloves more often after this (i doubt it).

he's a cutie. tho seriously...seriously...a dumb bunny.

Finally, PV! here's the latest Nico PV--they played this song at the concert last week, which made me incredibly happy. not the best quality video, but it's the only one posted so far. song is called Bigfoot. so of course...they have big feet. lol. and i swear they're channeling The Beatles or something at the beginning.

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EDIT: sadly the Nico PV has been removed already, so I've replaced it with flumpool's "Hana ni nare." note--not the same as the PV I link to in the text. "Labo" is my favorite song, but the "Hana ni nare" PV is prettier.