Are you having fun?!

So... first of several long overdue posts on my winter vacation.

As you know, I was scheduled to work on Christmas. This essentially entailed me going to work and playing Solitaire on my computer for 7 hours, since the students had already started their winter break. As it turns out, however, I woke up feeling really sick. So, instead of going to work, Hashiba-sensei picked me up and brought me to the clinic (I wanted to make sure I didn't have strep throat). We waited in the click for about 1 hour. After the doctor confirmed that it was just a bad cold, I was amused to find that he assigned me a prescription for every symptom I had. Talk about over-medicating! The saving grace was that it all turned out to be quite cheap. With my insurance, it was only $10 for the doctor visit and $8 for all the medication. Less than my American co-pay!

This, I might add, was Friday. I had a concert on Tuesday in Tokyo. I was determined to recover enough that I could go to this concert; it was Miyavi and I was NOT(!!) going to miss it. The drugs that the doctor had given me ended up making me feel worse, so I ditched them. I spend the next three days laying on my couch, drinking Vitamin Water and watching movies on my computer. I barely moved.

By Tuesday, I was thankfully a little better, so off to Tokyo I went, catching some extra sleep on the train. Let me just say, I am SO GLAD I WENT!! Holy **** am I glad. Let me tell you what happened.

The venue was the Shibuya DUO Music Exchange. I should mention that this was a fanclub only concert, and that even as a member of the fanclub, I had to win the chance to even buy a ticket. So, this was a rare opportunity. I was particularly lucky because I got a very low ticket number (#8!). Most of the concerts I go to are standing only, but they let people into the venue by ticket number to prevent mass chaos (something I wish they would do in the States). My low ticket number meant I got into the venue and got a spot on the fence, RIGHT in front of the microphone. I had silent little happy dance moment in my head. The best spot at a limited concert of my favorite artist? Already this was making out to be my best concert yet in Japan, and it hadn't even started!

LOL, I have to say, once Miyavi walked out onto that stage, every stereotype of the demure, polite Japanese fan went out the window. Well, not completely. As these girls were shoving their way forward, they would turn as say "Oh sorry! sorry!" and then continue to shove into a space that didn't exist! It was a little distracting, a little amusing, and a lot annoying. However, Miyavi more than made up for it.

After he had done a few songs, he took a break to talk to the crowd. He talked for quite a while, and I realized later that he had been talking about the release of his upcoming DVD. In the middle of this, he paused and looked RIGHT AT ME. Like, I'm the only white, blond haired girl in the whole front row, and I'm right in front of him, so I'm pretty hard to miss. The camera guy swirls around and point the camera right at me and Miyavi asks, "Where are you from?" in English.

Yeah. I about died.

I didn't believe he could actually be talking to me, so I kinda looked around and went, "Me?" and he nodded. OMG. I told him "Texas" (because "Gunma" is not exactly exciting) and the whole crowd went "Whaaaa!" in surprise. Miyavi picked two other (maybe the only other two xDD) foreigners out of the crowd and asked where they were from (one was from Canada, the other from Italy).

The music continued after a bit more talking. Maybe it was mostly my imagination, because as I was high as a kite at the moment, but I was pretty sure I made eye contact with him several times over the course of the concert. It seems possible, since like I said, smack dab in a crowd of Japanese people, I'm hard to miss. Thus, despite the fact that I had an elbow in my boob and the crowd was humping me into the fence, I was seriously flying. You could have shot me in the foot and it wouldn't have taken the smile off my face.

On top of that, he paused in the middle of another song, pointed at me and asked in English "Are you having fun?!!" and then again subsequently to the other two foreigners.

Overall, I would say the concert was actually below par as far as his concerts usually go. He seemed worn out to me, which I didn't blame him for since he was just finishing up the first half of his world tour. No guitar tricks, no going into the crowd, no dancing about, no encore....

Yet, with everything else that happened? Probably the best concert of my LIFE.

I'm actually kind of afraid to go to any more of his lives because I can't imagine they would ever measure up. lol.

So, all in all, it was kinda like my Christmas present from Miyavi. Love him.

Cheers,

382 Baer