there is no such thing as too cute

A must-buy at any concert in Japan: マフラータオル (scarf towel)

Several weeks ago, I found out that Lady Gaga would begin The Born This Way Ball tour and that she would be touring in Asia and Australia first. There was only one date posted for Japan: a Thursday afternoon in Tokyo (at the Saitama Super Arena). I figured it would be impossible to go since it would be in the middle of the work week. As expected, the concert sold out instantly.

In line for official goods

Two more dates were announced: Saturday and Sunday, May 12-13, but the tickets would go on pre-sale first via lottery. So I entered the lottery, thinking I wouldn’t hit but it didn’t cost me anything to enter, so why not? I was allowed four types of ticket requests, so I worked my way up from the cheapest tickets (9,000 yen or roughly $100 US). Actually, I would’ve preferred the cheapest tickets because these were designated seats in the stadium area. She would be tiny, but visible at least from most angles. I ended up winning on my fourth choice: 14,000 yen tickets in the Arena Standing area. I was much closer than I expected to be, but still in the back. It was my first time to also attend a large-scale concert in the standing area. I didn’t realize my height would be such a disadvantage!! I couldn’t even see the TV screens for the most part, but luckily my husband is surprisingly strong and he was able to lift me up occasionally during my favorite songs so I could catch a glimpse of Lady Gaga, the stage, or the screens. I nearly cried the first time I finally got to see something.

Act I – Escaping

To put it simply, because words could never do it justice: The Born This Way Ball was AMAZING. And I definitely am going to try and go again when I’m back in the US, but I have to wait until the tour dates are announced. It probably won’t be until 2013 because she’s touring through Asia, Austria, and Europe first.

Pouring out of the arena at the end of the show

So today, I traveled to Fujieda City (藤枝市) in Shizuoka for the Fuji Matsuri (藤松い), or Wisteria Festival. I have a lot of photos to share, so forgive me for this post being photo-heavy! Fujieda City, which literally means “city of wisteria branches” has been holding this festival for 29 years at Rengeji Park Pond (蓮花寺池公園). Today was the first day of the festival, and it will run through Golden Week until May 5th. It’s very easy to access from Fujieda Station. Just hop onto bus #2, which runs very 20 minutes, and get off at Rengeji-ike-koen-iriguchi (蓮花寺池公園入口).

The pond is not that big, so it only takes about 30 minutes to walk around. It’s a very clean park, with some family-friendly activities such as swan boats and playgrounds for children. During the festival, there are a number of booths set up selling snacks and souvenirs. There is also a rest house on-site which serves cheap ramen, udon, and soba dishes. All the dishes were under 500-yen.

Tempura soba

Zaru soba

We spent about two hours at the festival, taking our time to eat lunch and walk leisurely around the lake twice to enjoy the food and flowers. As you can see, the wisteria flowers are coming into full bloom, and some other flowers are in full bloom as well. So, we were able to enjoy flowers in a range of color from purple to pink.

What I was most excited about was a special flavor of wisteria soft cream. I heard about it last year, and was also advised to come to the festival early because there is only a limited amount of ice cream available and it sells out quickly! There were two ways to enjoy the ice cream: in a cone, or in monaka. Monaka is basically an ice-cream wafer sandwich, which is very popular in Japan. Both sell for 150-yen. On our first walk around the pond, we each bought a cone to enjoy. Then on our second time around, we bought the monaka. ^-^ The ice cream tastes so good!! It was impossible to resist getting seconds. It’s hard to describe the flavor of wisteria. The flavor is strong, yet creamy. I think I may even like wisteria better than sakura flavor. It’s a shame that it’s only available for a limited time at these kind of festivals! Otherwise, I’d keep a stock in my freezer and eat it everyday… ^^;;;

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In addition to the soft cream, we also found some other unique festival foods. For example, an Austrian Bakery vendor which specializes in cakes and cookies. We picked up a small bag of these cookies for 280-yen. And also, cheese dogs for 300-yen! Basically, fried cheese on a stick, similar to a corn dog. I know it’s not really that healthy, but I couldn’t resist!

It’s been the spring of live concerts for me. I never really went to concerts in the US — mostly because concerts I wanted to go to were on weekdays when I had school or work, and also because I didn’t really have the money. Another thing that put me off though was that it always seemed really difficult to get tickets. In Japan, it’s a little bit easier because instead of having to go to the ticket office, you can just go to the convenience store, punch a code into a machine, and if you’re lucky the transaction will go through.

I went to two concerts during the spring break: SCANDAL vs. BUDOKAN on 3/28 in Tokyo, and TsuShiMaMiRe SHOCKING ONE MAN TOUR at on 3/31 in Osaka. I wasn’t too worried about getting tickets for TsuShiMaMiRe because they’re more like an indie band, but SCANDAL is really popular right now, and it was at the Nippon Budokan! The tickets went on sale on a Saturday at exactly 10:00 AM, so we went down to our local 7-11 and mingled for a few minutes until the time slot opened up. It was a little sluggish at first and I thought maybe we wouldn’t be able to get tickets, but we did, and in a good location too. We found out later on a fan-site blog that the tickets sold out within the hour.

With Mizue (Drums) of TsuMiMaMiRe at SHOCKING ONE MAN TOUR 2012 at Fandango, Osaka

Anyway, I’m on a bit of a LIVE-streak now and I really want to see a few more concerts before I leave Japan. Some artists are very high in-demand, so sometimes tickets don’t go on sale to the general public (or they do at an even later date, after tickets are already sold to die-hard fans). Lady Gaga is one of these artists. She has three shows for the BORN THIS WAY BALL 2012 at the Saitama Super Arena this May, so I entered the lottery-system for the Saturday evening show. I thought, What are my chances? It’s LADY GAGA, and it’s a LOTTERY system. I am probably not going to get a chance to buy tickets. But, lucky me, I did! And I got good seats too — standing area on the ground. I’m not quite up there being smashed against the catwalk, but I’m not up in the stands either where binoculars would be needed to make out the speck that is Gaga. I’m really excited!