[review] ARENA TOUR 2006 A ~(miss)understood~ Shizuoka Ecopa Arena [26 March 2006] - Ayumi Hamasaki Sekai
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Old 30th March 2006, 04:39 AM
tethevo tethevo is offline
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[review] ARENA TOUR 2006 A ~(miss)understood~ Shizuoka Ecopa Arena [26 March 2006]

Sorry if I should've posted these in the other thread. If so, then I'll gladly move this there. In any case, I wrote this long report for JPM so I thought I could share it here too.

My 2006 Concert Tour Report

Finally. I made it to Japan, and back, in one piece. There's so much to tell so I will try not to leave out any important detail (though I may also include too much for your liking...so bear with me. But, you may want to skip this first part if you don't really want to hear about the WHOLE process.)

Pre-Trip

When I found out I was going to Japan for spring break, I immediately went to the Ayu's site to see whether she would singing in Tokyo when I would be there. As luck would have it, she would have her concert in Saitama two weeks before I arrive. Discouraged, I decided to go to Morning Musume.'s concert instead. That would be in Sendai...which is at least an hour and a half away by shikansen. I thought it would be worth it so I bought a rail pass (for 140USD) and prepared myself to go see them in a hall that seats two thousand or so. Then, my excitment level for that began to wane.

Out of curiosity, I went back to Ayu's site to check the concert site for the weekend I would be there. It was Shizuoka. I googled and realized that Shizuoka is even closer to Tokyo than Sendai is. It was right then and there that I decided I would change my plans for Ayu.

I then decided to find my ticket off of Yahoo Auction. I figured there would be plenty of time for the person to mail the ticket to my hotel. What was annoying about the process were that I had to get the ticket through a middleman and that tickets were not mailed to the fan club people till two weeks before the concert date. These people would have the seats on the arena floor...which would be the best seats. Thus, I decided to wait till these people knew for sure what seats they have to bid.

(Skipping all the details of the long and annoying process of getting the ticket)

Eventually, I decided on and got one ticket for a seat somewhere between seats 31-52 in row 13. Since there was no actual seating chart anywhere, I had to rely on details and descriptions from many sites and from people's accounts of last's year layout. I estimated that the seat should be next to the runway part of the thrust stage. After successfully bidding, all I could do was wait for the ticket to arrive at my hotel and that the seat would be at least descent.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

I had been in Tokyo for a few days already and still no sign of the ticket. I was getting worried...until an email from the middleman assured me that the ticket would arrive on Friday.

He's been kind of annoying with his lack of responsiveness during the whole process. I only hoped he was right.

Nonetheless, I went to the JR ticket office to get my shinkansen ticket to Shizuoka. To get to Ecopa Arena, I would have to transfer at Shizuoka to a local line to get to Aino Station. The ticket ended up costing 14,000 yen or so for the roundtrip.

Friday, March 24, 2006

After spending a day out in Yokohama, I came back to the hotel...happily to find my TICKET! All my negative feelings for the middleman were immediately replaced by strong feelings of gratitude.

I was ready to go.

----

Sunday, March 26, 2006

There were two concerts during this weekend. I decided to go to the Sunday one because it would start at 4:00, instead of 6:30 and I was afraid that there may not be a train back to Tokyo in time. In retrospect, I don't think it would matter since the concert is so short...but more on that later.

Goods for the concert were sold three hours before the doors were opened at 3:00. So, I decided to hop on a train at 10. It would arrive at Shizuoka at 11 or so and that I would have plenty of time to get to the arena for the concert goods.

Here's the train I took:


The platform

But, things usually happen unexpectedly. When I arrived in Shizuoka, it was then I realized that I could have gotten off one station later in Kakegawa, which would then be one local train station away from the concert arena. Instead, I would have to travel through 12 local stations to get to the site. Even worse, the train was somewhat old so it was insanely slow. I was 45 minutes behind my planned schedule.

Soon enough, I finally arrived in Aino Station. As you can see, there's basically nothing in the area. But, the Ecopa Stadium is in clear view.

Train station:




I immediately saw a sign that would cost me 610 yen to get me there. I probably could've walked, but since I was running behind schedule and since I didn't know how long the walk would actually be, I took the taxi.

As it arrived in the arena, I immediately noticed some people in long coats with Ayu's name printed on the back. They were standing right in front of a few very interesting looking cars. Here they are:





Inside one of the cars (with lots of TV screens airing Ayu):


Inside another car...with leopard panther leather seats with huge stereo speakers and TV:


I then quickly ran straight up to the arena where they sold the goods.


There weren't as many people that early in the day.

I had already planned ahead on what I was getting so I wrote everything down on a list. I walked up to one of the girls working there and just handed her the list. I don't think anyone around me actually bought this much stuff at once...when I was there anyway. By this point in my trip, I only had 31,000 yen or so left on me. The total price of all these things ended up costing 24,000 yen or so. So, I wanted to pay by credit card but was dismayed to find that they did not accept them. I ended up paying them in cash, hoping that I would have enough money for the remainder of my trip.

In any case, with all these stuff, I thought they would give me a bag...but they did not. So, reluctantly, I had to go back to buy the take-out bag they sold...feeling 1,200 yen less secure. Another one of their marketing ploys I suppose.

Here's me in front of Ecopa Stadium (Arena's the smaller one on the left...barely visible in one picture):


And then...all the stuff I got:



The cap, the white and black shirts, sports towel, pamphlet, the plastic ribbon they shoot out during the show



The wristband: (Wanted to get the red one too when I saw Ayu wearing a black on one arm and a red on the other...but too many people and no money so I gave up)



The jacket:


The magnificent glowing fan (which everyone in the audience uses...as you all know):


The wonderful posters:


By then, it was 1 or so. So, I decided to walk back toward the station to buy food in a local supermarket and also change my station to Kakegawa so I wouldn't have to travel all the way to Shizuoka for the shinkansen.

At around 2:30, I headed back up by foot.

On the way up to the Arena:

You can sorta see it in the background.


I arrived back in the arena area to find tons of people. I decided to get in line early. While we were waiting, they kept on stressing about how we couldn't take pictures inside and that they would have bag checks and that all phones must be turned off. I had a camera with me so I hid it all the way at the bottom of my bagpack, hoping that they would not find it among my stuff. It wasn't like I would take pictures inside, but it just seemed like an insane hassle to have to go back at the end to get my camera.

Here, you can see people lining up (and even more people waiting to buy the goods):



Fortunately, the bag check turned out to be a mere glance inside.

I walked in to see tons of people crowding an area where they sold all the CD/DVD releases of Ayu. Although I have almost all of these stuff already, it was still amazing to see all of them displayed like that. What was cool was that people can get a free poster (the smiling one on the Startin's single...without the words) by just purchasing over 2,000 yen. I really wanted to get it but I knew that I needed the money so I did not get it.

I then proceeded down the stairs to the arena area. Right at the entrance, there is a sign to tells us where our seats would be. I immediately noticed the shape of the thrust stage. Looking right next to it, I noticed that my number was only a seat away from it! Excitedly, I walked toward my row...half-tripping on things on the floor. I then moved to position myself next to about halfway down the thrust stage from the main stage. The main stage was a WHOLE LOT closer than I expected too. Happily, I positioned myself to be ready for the eventual start of the concert.

About twenty minutes before the concert, Ayupan popped up on the screen to tell us all about the fan club and various "exciting" products that we could get. It was funny because she pronounced the last part of (miss)understood as sutuDDU, with a heavy emphasis on the capitalized part.







------
[Edited by AHS Staff]
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Old 30th March 2006, 04:41 AM
tethevo tethevo is offline
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Although scheduled at 4p.m., the concert did not officially begin till 4:10 or so. I blamed it on the people that still haven't gotten to their seats yet, when everyone else was waiting.

Nonetheless, the lights went out and so it began.
(Picture credit goes to Kimmy, who posted these on JPM...and may have gotten them from here, and whomever these originated from.)

Are You Wake Up?

The video screen came on with various footage of Ayu getting ready before the concert (they're staged though...so not candid backstage shots). Ayu had a towel around her neck...and so did the dancers and such. They walked around in slow-mo. The music made it all semi-dramatic and exciting. It ended up with them standing in a circle to do a "ganbatte ikimashou" type of thing and then Ayu walked into the white light behind the door as the others clapped.

Born to Be...



All was silent and dark during the first quieter line. Then, as music kicked in, all the lights were turned on to see everyone there. The dancers. Yocchan. The bg singers. And most importantly, Ayu! I felt a tingling sensation when the lights turned on. Combined with the pulsing beat of the music and drums that literally shake the building, I couldn't help but smile just as excitedly as this short girl that was jumping up and down next to me.

Ayu looked like a queen in that flower-dress thing in the middle (the red part is not really attached to her...she's just surrounded by them). The dancers looked like they were natives...dancing and worshipping her. I'm really glad they chose this song at the last minute as the opening song. It really is insanely powerful. It's pretty obvious from her dress and the opening music that the opening song was probably originally fairyland. It's unfortunate that that song is not included here but Born To Be... works so well that I don't really miss it all that much.

AUDIENCE



Ayu is then lowered from a high platform. The dancers help her get out of her dress to reveal the more flowery dress.

I personally like this song only so-so. I don't really care about it when she performs it...but now I can fully understand why she does. The clapping and such really gets everyone in the audience excited.

I believe she ran to the middle circle stage in this song. When she ran past my row, I then realized how close she really was. She was at most 12 feet away from me. Just as everyone else, I wanted her to look my way but she didn't really look toward my area. I did wave a whole lot though.

evolution

What can I say? Another one that gets everyone jumping up and down and singing along (those two lines anyway).

STEP you



There's this video clip here where Ayu is chased by the dancers. Ayu is wearing the pink outfit you see below, and the dancers wear skintight shirts with numbers on them. In the video, Ayu jumps around these screens that move on stage. It's kinda cool they way they do it. In one, for example, three screens are connected. The dancers approach Ayu but she pushes them aside. The screens split and the dancers are trapped in their respective screens and can't get to Ayu, who's in the middle. Things like that. Eventually, Ayu escapes and the song begins.

The choreography is slightly different from the one we see on CDTV and in her CDL. The whole "catching-Ayu" thing is continued here. Some female dancers then come out with poles with chains, and they chain up the male dancers. When the song ends though, the lights go out during the last line "1, 2, 3, 4, you & me" and come back on with the girls being switched places with the guys.

Ladies Night



The song begins with one male dancer (that was on Ayu's side to help chain the others up in the previous song) trying to free Ayu. Eventually, he frees her and somewhere along the line, the girls free themselves (magically) too.

Throughout these two songs, Ayu acts like a Barbie-doll-type of character.

Halfway through, they run toward the center stage again. At the end, Ayu disappears within a puff of smoke (though many could probably see that she just dropped below the stage). She appears on the TV screen in a pink bathrobe by some pool. The other dancers see her on screen and run off-stage and then join her on the screen. As the song ends, Ayu dropps into the pool, with the other girls in shock. The hanging up tone at the end of the phone trails off and fails here.

alterna



We see Ayu asleep in water. It is displayed on the two side screens, but they are two different shots actually. Two dancers in strange Cirqus-Solei-type costume appears and does sort of weird semi-like-the-robot-dance type of dance. stiltsThe sleeping Ayu then begins singing the opening lines. Ayu then appears on stage in that strange red floating thing to sing "aru ga mama ni." Two other dancers that are standing on stilts and holding sticks point out one arm at the floating object. The previous two dancers also stand in front of them and the floating object. The extended arms of the dancers on stilts help to make them look like actually bigger people than the two smaller dancers. I suppose this is one of the "illusion" elements of this concert.

Two other dancers are also in the floating contraption with Ayu. Throughout the song, they float toward the center stage and then back to the main stage. At the end of the song, it looks as if they disappears into darkness in the background. The footage of the Ayu-in-water appears again...and the camera zooms out to reveal many different Ayus encased in different tubes.

is this LOVE? & (miss)understood



Yocchan has a guitar solo before this. He stands along on the stage and does his thing...before everyone else started slowing joinining in. The music then starts with Ayu coming on to the stage to stand between the background singers.

The main point of this portion is probably to show off Ayu's singing skills. She's vocalizing a lot more than we hear on the CDs. Whether they're good vocalizing....well....there were some strong parts and some weak parts. Good and bad.

tasking --> Pride



All dancers come on stage and walk around and dance with each other throughout the song. The guys and the girls pair off except for one guy. As the song ends, two spotlights are on Ayu and the guy. The guy remains behind as everyone leaves.

I don't remember too much about this so I don't have much to say.

rainy day



The key thing about this is probably how it actually rains on stage. Ayu looks at the rain as she sings this. The guy that is left behind dances around her and behind her. After the interlude, the guy finally sees her and dances toward her. When the song ends, Ayu begins to walk off. The dancer stops her and pulls her toward him, and they embrace.

The lights go out as a video of a window with a view of a sunny sky appears.

Startin'



Various dancers appear on stage with their own solo dances. Everyone dresses in red except for Ayu, who appears in that shinny thing. (Personally, I think it's ugly but that's just me.)

Nothing really exciting can be said here. It's pretty much like what you see on TV.

UNITE!

Time for everyone to get involved again. The usual "point left" "point right" stuff. She runs toward the center stage this time again. All the dancers also dance on the runway part of the stage. It's so cool to see the backup dancers so up close.

Bold & Delicious



Ayu stands on this circular platform thing that raises up on the main stage. It SORTA looks like parts of a chandelier. The female dancers dance on a lower platform of this thing. Halfway through, the platform is raised on the way up to reveal...umm...more chandelier parts. It sorta looks like an ugly and strangely-shaped birthday cake, IMO.

But, I do think better of this song after seeing it live. There's just so much energy when Ayu sings...and when we all do the "raise-your-fist-to-the-sky" thing during the "BOLD & DELICIOUS" part, it is sorta empowering and fun.

HEAVEN ~acoustic~ & teens ~acoustic~



Ayu comes back on stage with the band and the backup singers. She asks us all to sit back down to listen to her sing two quieter songs.

I was quite looking forward to this part of the concert as it's been somewhat hyped. Personally, although I liked her performance of "HEAVEN", I thought her vocals were quite bad this time. Perhaps it's because she's tired from the concert the day before. Nonetheless, I expected it and won't complain about it.

"teens" was okay. I was zoning out slightly during this part. LOL

MC

The return of the "I Want to Ask Hamasaki Ayumi" corner! The music is slightly different but generally the same as last time. There were three questions. People asked about seasonal allergies...and...umm...don't remember. LOL

Humming 7/4 & Boys & Girls



OK. These songs are really tiring when I watch them on DVDs. BUT, I can see why they're so essential. Like I said earlier, audience participation is so key. I find myself liking these parts a whole lot more than "is this LOVE?" and "(miss)understood" and such. It's just so much more fun to be dancing and singing along. And even more, Ayu looked at me at the end of "Boys & Girls"! (even if it was for a second)

Beautiful Day

Finally. The end of the concert. I think I like this song more now. That's all I can really. Lots of arm-waving. Oh and they shot out these plastic ribbon things into the audience...which I caught some of! (see above)



At the end, Ayu again does the "arigatou" without-the-mic thing. When I watched last year's concert on DVD, I thought it was extremely annoying when people would keep on screaming and not shut up. But, now I can see why. When she screams "arigtaou," it would be the end of the concert officially. As long as people kept on screaming, we would see Ayu...for a bit longer. The concert would not end. Eventually, when it did get quiet though, it was eerie...in the good way. Ayu screamed "arigatou!" and threw her wristbands into the audience and ran off stage.

Overall

I thought the concert was great. Ayu did a good job. BUT, I think it's not as good as her MY STORY tour. Last year's was just filled with all these different elements that made that insanely enjoyable. This year's costumes were not as great. The sets weren't as grand. I like songs from the MY STORY album a lot more than (miss)understood....even though the singles were stronger for the latter. Even the rain wasn't that impressive...though I suppose it's hard to top the waterworks of last year's.

Also, the concert was only 2 hours long. I think it's mainly due to the fact that there are less songs that are worth singing live from (miss)understood...as compared to MY STORY.

However, Ecopa Arena is a lot smaller than Yoyogi. So, maybe everything will look a lot better when they're moved to a even bigger area. Also, Ecopa's acoustics weren't that great. There was a lot of static in many of the songs.

In any case, I did enjoy this concert experience immensely.




------
[Edited by AHS Staff]
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  #3  
Old 30th March 2006, 04:42 AM
tethevo tethevo is offline
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After-Concert Report
(You think that's the end!? There's MORE to tell!)

Here are pictures of people leaving after the concert: (and more of the shop and the Ayupan TV)





The concert ended at 6:30 or so...and my train was not scheduled till 8 p.m. I wanted to change to an earlier one, but I already changed my reservation to leave from Kakegawa instead so I couldn't modify my reservations again.

I decided to wander in the area to find some place to eat till my train leaves. But, there was absolutely nothing. NOTHING. I ended up just buying two types of bread from a store in the train station to eat. I figured I could always wait till getting back to Tokyo to eat.

As I wandered around in the train station, I noticed this person that looked very familiar. It was then I realized it was the ugly backup dancer of Ayu that I always thought looked like a middle-aged man! (He may very well be for all I know.)

I looked around and then saw a crowd dressed more stylish than most of the other people in the station. It turns out that all the dancers were going to take the shinkansen back too!

The ugly dancer then proceeded to up to the platform with this other girl (probably a dancer too). Then, Shuya walked out of the store and stood in the same spot that the ugly dancer stood in. They actually both noticed me staring so I walked away as if I did not notice them. As I contemplated whether to ask them for a picture or not, he also proceeded up to the platform...along with the whole Ayu crew. And no, I did not see Ayu.

Although I was still half an hour away from my train, I decided to follow them up to the platform anyway. As I followed them, I started looking through my bag for my camera. After what seemed like minutes of looking, I then walked toward them...thinking how I could get them all in the same picture with me. They were standing in toward the end of one side of the station...with some benches. It was then I noticed a very distinct person sitting on a bench in front of them.

It was Yocchan. The keyboard player and the guy that does the percussions and stuff (I think) were there next to me! It was then I dropped all my hesitations to approach him. It was now or never.

Me (In English): Excuse me...sorry to bother you...but can I take a picture with all of you? (I figured speaking in English would increase the likelihood of him saying yes to a picture)
Yocchan: (stares for a second) Sure.
This woman that was with them: Shall I take the picture for you?
Me: Oh, do you mind? (tries to turn on the camera and set the camera in the right mode...as Yocchan and the others stare...hand is shaking very slightly Hands camera to woman)
Yocchan: (motions to the other two...who were trying to get in the picture anyway) Minna to...minna to...
Me: Yes yes...everyone everyone.
Woman: Oh everyone. (aims camera at everyone instead)
(picture is taken...and I look at picture)
Me: Thank you so much! (I think I repeated this a few times)

I then stepped aside to gather myself together again. I guess I could've said more...but I was in too much of a shock. I took a look at the dancers and I was about to go off to ask them too...but then the train arrived at that moment. My train was the one after this one so I could not get on with them. Soon enough, they all boarded, and their train left for Tokyo.


That's the bench they sat on...and the dancers stood a bit beyond that. Use your imagination.

I suppose the lesson I learned was not to hesitate ever again. I really wanted pictures with the dancers, but oh well.

Oh yes...and here's the picture:


When I got back to Tokyo, I went to karaoke and sang all the Ayu songs I cannot sing here in the US. I actually went to karaoke twice during my whole trip. Overall, I think I sang "Born To Be..." 4 times and "Startin'" 3 times. I also sang a bunch of songs like "Replace" and "Beautiful Day" that I probably won't get to sing in a while. They also had Ayu's version of "teens" and the acoustic version of "HEAVEN" too. I was having my own little Ayu concert.



In any case, overall, this concert trip met..no...exceeded all my expectations. I went to her Dome Tour in 2001 and that was nothing in terms of enjoyment, compared to this. Even more, it made me a bigger fan of Ayu...if that's even possible after all these years.

If you've read all the things I've posted, thank you very much. This took me more than three hours actually. LOL




------
[Edited by AHS Staff]
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