Jellyfish
On Tuesday morning I woke up to rain on the hotel window, since it was above my head, as I happened to be sleeping under the desk in the room for this particular trip. It was still fairly early, so I made no rush to get ready. I had two outfits packed for the two lives, but didn’t decide on which one would go with each live until that morning. I went with the "nicer" outfit consisting of a denim romper with my TRTA shirt underneath, along with lace leggings, grey and black socks, and my Dir en grey concert staple: combat boots.
On the way to the station, around 9AM,
kameikosui and I stopped at a 7-11 to pick up a conbini breakfast, then bought a ticket to Oosaki to transfer to the line for Shinkiba. Once we got to Shinkiba Eki, we snagged coin lockers there for later, and headed down the street to get in the merch line.
Our spot in line was almost dead center on the bridge, with several fans in line ahead of us. I had finally relaxed enough to eat, and if you know me, I have to take pictures of my food.
9:37AM Toast sandwich with ham and egg.
Lemon tea.
While we waited in line we went through the albums in order, joking about what older songs we might hear. The weather wasn’t bad since it was cloudy, but I still hid under my umbrella to keep out of the sun as much as possible. Luckily it never tried to rain. While we talked, the line grew long, so I took pictures.
10:35AM The view down the river, facing toward the ferris wheel.
10:35AM Close-up picture of the ferris wheel.
10:36AM The back corner of STUDIO COAST.
10:36AM The line to my left, facing toward STUDIO COAST.
10:36AM The line to kameikosui’s right, facing toward Shinkiba Eki.
10:37AM I tried my best to get a decent picture of the many jellyfish in the river.
Staff paced up and down the line, and made us stand twice in preparation to move down to the front of the venue. We didn’t actually move until a quarter to 2PM. Once we were situated, I took a picture of the sign. I was hungry at this point and starting to feel nauseous, which was a new feeling for me. Normally I am too nervous to eat before lives, but the adrenaline keeps me going.
1:54PM I couldn’t help but stare, thinking I was dreaming.
Merch sales started promptly at 4PM, and despite being close to the beginning of the line, it took a long time to buy my shirt and towel because several people were buying several hundred dollars worth of goods for themselves and friends. Once both
kameikosui and I had our merchandise, we hurried to the 7-11 across the street to use the restroom. I bought the highest calorie snack I could find -- a cold noodle bowl with karaage and salad -- along with a bottle of water for the pit. We went across the street and I downed the noodles and chicken, shoving it in the wrong gomi when finished, something I always feel bad about. Then we went upstairs to our coin locker and put everything we didn’t need inside. I put 1000en along with my ticket and coin locker receipt in my boot for safekeeping while we trekked back to the venue.
Once back at the venue, we walked over to the doors to wait for them to call out numbers. During the pre-number calling announcement, something was said that made the entire crowd shout, "Eeeeeeeeeeeeehhh?!" but I still don’t know what it was. At that point I was barely paying attention, waiting for numbers to start being announced.
kameikosui had number 488, and I had to listen hard to know when to tell her to go inside, and I was thankful the numbers were being called out in two ways, spelled out (yon-hachi-zero) and spoken (yonhyaku-hachijuu). Once she was inside it seemed like an eternity before my set was called inside. I was number 1,583.
( Down the rabbit hole:Collapse )* Day one was much like the jellyfish I saw in the river. I was tangled up in the crowd, drowning in the heat, my feet aching from standing and my head dizzy from headbanging. My head hurt from dehydration. The day was mild and cloudy, raining after dark. The night would stick to me and itch, much like a jellyfish sting.
