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!
