More shopping and more great lives :D

My Last week here... it seems like the time has gone by so fast. But... gods, what a time it's been! And saturday... saturday was so, so great....

Just checking in to Nagoya. Tomorrow I'm going to do something cultural with myself and head out to Kyoto, until then I'm taking things easy. On Wednesday I see D at Electric Lady Land, and Thursday is Phantasmagoria at the same venue (I love ELL. So easy to get to. XD ). Then it's back to Tokyo on friday the 23rd for Mago's last live before their break ;__; and Iori and Matoi leaving... which will likely be my last live of the trip. Saturday afternoon I see Cirque du Soleil - Dralion :D , and Sunday I'm either hanging out and karaokeing with Clees and Line (I hope you both don't mind Raphael... HAHAHA) or if plans fall through with them, going to The PIASS live and an all night after party Oo;; for my last day here.
Monday... back to Canada, and back to my darling love. <3 <3 <3

Last night Barabara and I had the most AMAZING sushi, it was sooo good. We couldn't find a kaiten sushi (conveyer belt sushi) place in Himeji, so we just went to a sushi restaurant for a light sushi dinner as it was annoyingly expensive. ^^;; Buut, they had very very good unagi, and the most delicious salmon I've EVER had. I've had some really good, really tender salmon before, but what set this apart was that it was garnished with some small onion shavings and a dollop of Japanese Mayo! And it was SO DAMN GOOD like that. So much that we ordered more. #^_^# Then we went for dessert crepes. I love crepes. ^_^

Yesterday we chilled in Osaka for a bit. I bought a bunch more CD's #^_^# including Lareine's 'Bara wa' (gorgeous!), a Raphael tour brochure, and a little Due le Quartz calander. I also bought Celestial Gate's album, which is called "Sanctuary of jesus". XD
Now, I adore Celestial Gate. They were one of the first tiny little bands I saw in Saitama at my first live in 2005. Now, they're not particularly musically fabulous, but they're so very... very Visual Kei. Pretentious names, crazy stage antics, random punctuation and everything. The band members have the most amazingly mismatched style between them all - one Ego in a Suit, one misplaced 80's star, one grungy plaid boy, and one Shinjuku casual styled. The 80's guitarist, Jean Tohru Mannaly, consistantly has his deliciously pretentious name spelled wrong by magazines, and when I saw them, used a fabulous guitar made of skulls that sprayed dry ice fog out of the head. XDD The vocalist, Kin, is like... the love child of Yura and Sugizo, and swaggers like no ones business. Anyway, they amused the hell out of me, so I figured this time around I'd toss them some support and buy an album. ^__^

Sadly, I don't think my quest for a Kagrra phone strap is going to be successful, so I think I'll go back to the Shinjuku closet child and see if their Phantasmagoria one is still there. (or was it at Like an Edison? In any case...)

I've already way surpassed my CD/DVD total of 41 last time... mostly because I keep finding really cheap singles that I feel the need to liberate, like my 100 yen ($1) Buck Tick and New Sodamy CDs. I also bought another copy of Raphael's Sweet Romance, because it has the stickers with it and was again only 100 yen.

I'm hoping I can find a couple of Hora's releases, if not the Another Cell album (that would be VERY cool), as I want to pimp them out to people. *crosses fingers*

Oh! Saturday! Saturday was a REALLY great day, and I've totally neglected to write about anything other than... well, my saturday night *lol* But here's saturday in a nutshell.

I had to check out of my hotel in Tokyo at 10am, so I threw most of my luggage in a coin locker in Tokyo and went out in search of portable ashtrays and sexy clothes. In Harajuku, I revisited that one little clothing store right before Closet child that has used CDs at the back. It usually just caries rare-er stuff, and it's a bit more pricy than closet child, BUT I managed to get two Unzu CD's there earlier this week(!!) and this time, I found the Rice 2005 calander - the only release other than Angerudai that I didn't have - AND a signed copy of Haruka for 800 yen that I bought immediately ^_______^

Then I hit up the Closet Child, and found another secondhand H.Naoto top <3 for myself. I also picked up this really cute olive green H.Naoto top for $5 in the hopes that my girl might wear it... I try to avoid buying second hand for other people, but at the holyshit cheap price of $5 I figured that if she didn't want it I could just sell it on ebay. XD

I spent some time in Shinjuku and picked up a couple of cheap portable ashtrays for Paris and Jon, and a black metal cigarette case for myself which I've packed my Rice lighters in, in the hopes that it'll squirell them past any possible airport confiscation in my checked luggage. *crosses fingers* I also had Takoyaki with Egg Salad on it, which sounds kind of strange but was actually pretty good.

After lunch, I set off to find the Takarazuka theather - more specifically, the Quatre Reves store, to find the Black Lizard program for Tristen Citrine (found and bought!). I went the entirely wrong direction (stupid of me because the map was quite good), but it ended up being a good thing, as when I got there I ran into Chibi! and her friend.

This was, however, very bad for my wallet, as Chibi's friend helped me find Yoka Wao stuff. *blushes* I picked up the Tokyo program for Cosmos Troup's 'Phantom', as well as the Moon Troup 'Phantom'... a couple postcards, the cosmos troup hello kitty cell phone charm... a Phantom... pencil board? And... um... I splurged and bought Cosmos Troup's 'Phantom' on DVD.
Now, this might not sound like a big splurge... but Takarazuka DVDs run about $100 a show. *cries* But, but... Yoka Wao as Erik! I couldn't resist. :(

In the evening was the Hizaki Grace Project live. Sadly, their last live... it was only meant to be a small project, as the members have their own work - Juka announced a solo release, which I'm very excited about. But it was a really, really great live.

The stage was decorated with even more flowers than normal - I found out they were all of Lareine's flowers, all the flowers that the Fleur had given them over the years. The first time I saw Hizaki Grace Project peform, they really made me think of Lareine in style... I figured it was probably due to Kamijo's influence. So... I'm very happy that I was able to see a little part of the World of Romance reborn in Hizaki Grace Project, even if it was just for a short time. The songs were fabulous - I got to hear 'Winter Farewell' twice, which is my favorite... Juka and Yuu flirting like mad, and the others were just too cute. Hizaki did a costume change halfway through into the most fucking gorgeous red/gold/green gown.... if I thought I had a chance in hell of matching the pattern, I would totally cosplay that, blonde hair and all. (dammit, what's with all these blondes with irresistably beautiful costumes... -_-; )

I wanted to stick around afterwards to see how the costume auction went, but decided to go drinking in Kabukicho with Pauliina instead ^_~ We... had a really great time.