Nana Mizuki’s LIVE ACADEMY – Yokohama Arena 03.13.2010

Header post image credit to danie since I had nothing else good to work with. I’ll also be referencing her various Nana’s posts to help explain or buff out mine, so thanks again ^^;;

I should probably start off by saying this post will more be about my mis-adventures related to the concert and not so much on the concert itself. Not so much that the concert was bad, no it was pretty awesome without a doubt, but more to the fact my memory is pretty bad when recalling songs other than “oh I know this one!” I’ll still talk about the concert itself, but if one wants real impressions of Nana Mizuki’s LIVE ACADEMY concerts, please do check out danie’s reports of Fukuoka and Niihama instead.

With that little disclaimer aside, I’ll start off the post with me checking in at Shin-Yokohama Prince Hotel the night before the concert. Literally like <10 minutes away from Yokohama Arena (you’ll see in a sec), I decided the last second to get a room versus totally camping out. In hindsight it was definitely good, especially since I got a nice room for 7000yen, but if I was really going to be all hardcore, I should have just camped out like the Japanese fans did.

And yes, I took a photo of the floor as I found it funny I got a room (actually room 703) on the 7th floor. FYI for those just reading this for kicks and have no idea what I’m talking about, 7 in Japanese is “nana”; get it? ^^;;

I cringed when I re-watched this video, mostly because I don’t like the sound of my voice and my camera work is shaky at best. Sorry for the lack of quality but I thought having some personal videos would add a nice twist to blog posts about concerts (at least Japanese related ones) that one normally reads. Hopefully as one can tell from the video, I’m pretty close to the venue able to see it clearly from my window without problems!

I’m definitely no Danny Choo when it comes to doing these self videos but hope everyone who watched enjoyed it. If anything, now everyone can put my rather sarcastic (and still randomly cracked voice at the old age of 27) tone of voice together with my writing style, which for better or worse, is pretty much the same.

As mentioned in the video, but for those that didn’t bother watching, my game plan for the night ended up being crashing for a bit and then get out by 3AM to camp with my fellow Nana followers. I do have to mention thank god I brought something to kill time since the internet in my room didn’t work at all; AKB48′s “Infinity” stage theater easily kept me entertained for the night.

Second embarrassing video for the event, recorded my short journey from the hotel to Yokohama Arena as well as giving a glance of the queue that already formed. Just to point myself out wrong in the video, what I thought was initially the front (where you see them at the staircase) is actually the back, which stopped and went to the OTHER side of the Arena. Took me awhile to figure out as after my failed attempt to ask someone in English, I had to watch how other newcomers were lining up.

While waiting in line with other folk, ended up walking around a bit even taking a quick photo of the upcoming artists’ concerts at Yokohama Arena. And yes, I already knew about AKB48 for those that may point that out ^^;;

Between 3AM and 5-6AM (whenever the sky actually started to turn blue) really didn’t do much. Just listen to my mp3 player the whole time while keeping warm, although it wasn’t that cold during this time surprisingly enough. Really, I think the only “incident” was that at one point, we needed to move our line closer to the initial queue. Basically where it stopped at the staircase, people started to line up even though we who were on the other side had continued the queue prior. Thankfully, it wasn’t an issue and no one complained about the 10-20 people that got in front of us after everything was said and done. That’s one thing you got to love about the Japanese; they don’t complain verbally much publicly and are pretty good about being mindful of others (for example, being able to leave one’s bag safely in place while getting food or walking around, waking up other folks in line when moving, etc).

Boredom really started to settle in around the 6AM-ish mark so to kill time took a look at the queue and was (pleasantly) surprised just how much longer it was getting. I don’t know if one can see it in the above photo, but far back is where I was initially queued (when the line was broken so not to get in the way of the Arena entrance) and it was already going way pass that point going around the venue!

Where I was in line after the move (basically at the staff entrance), silently thanking myself that I was towards the beginning even though I thought otherwise initially. Of course during this time, with the trains now running, more and more Nana fans were arriving at the venue joining the line; some surprised how long it already was considering the merchandise booth doesn’t open until 9AM!

More and more people coming and further up the beginning part of the line. During this time while not freezing my arse (mostly because of the wind) I kept thinking back to Utada’s NYC concert and how it would never be this self organized, clean, and relatively low-key!

I believe around 7AM-ish staff came out to check on us and start getting the line a bit more compacted and organized. But even doing so, the line still wrapped like crazy as the above shows; just to help with the point of reference, this is the end of the line which is at the bottom of the staircase in the photo prior to this one. Yep, it already started to wrap twice around the Arena!

I believe around 8AM-ish staff started to push us forward as I think they decided to try to open the merchandise booths a little early, to help get through the queue. Even after moving up a bit, one can still see just how crazy the line was continuing to get. Orderly as hell, yes but still very very very long!

I guess at this point I’ll quickly talk about the Japanese Nana fans, at least from what I gathered. Obviously, still majority guys but I would overall say maybe 10-20% of the crowd were females. A lot of them not even bad looking to boot! Although it could be due to some of them wearing school uniforms due to Nana’s concert theme. Yes, I just felt a bit dirty typing that as I think most of the girls were younger than me so… (and I pretty sure I saw an elementary/middle-school combo later on)

… definitely rioting in hell for this ^^:;

Social morals aside, most of the fans seem pretty “hardcore” in the sense that they must have gone to a few of Nana Mizuki’s concerts. Saw a lot of various concert goods being used/wore by her various fans, which did bring a tear to my eye since you’ll never see this in the US. Also just seeing the amount of people (young-ish as well) there really goes to show how far Nana has come as an artist. Good feeling all around which helped me make it through this crazy line wait since my feet were killing at this point ^^:;

Thankfully around 8:30AM they started to move my part of the line forward enough that we were only a few minutes away from the merchandise booth arena entrance. Quick shot above to see how long it stretches.

Photo of the line wrapping around from the back, only getting longer as the minutes went by. Honestly I was as surprised as some of my fellow line mates at just how long the queue was getting. I know I heard stories and all but seeing it in person just makes a world of difference in putting it in perspective.

I must thank the gods, or at the least the Nana fan who made this and handed it out to folks, for the above piece of paper. Thanks to this, I could figure out what I wanted and simply hand the list to the folks selling the goods. A little more on this in a bit but it was a lifesaver as I did not need to point and work through either bad Japanese or English what I wanted to buy!

I really only have danie and j1m0ne to work off of, but I think the video I took of the actual merchandise booth is one of the first for an english blog. If so, go me as sometimes when reading others’ experiences of various events like concerts, I wish I could see and get an actual feel for it. Although the video is short, hopefully for those that have never went to a Nana concert can get a slight idea of how some things go down.

Anyway, my part of the line was finally let in the venue around 9:30AM… only to find out we had to line up again to actually buy the goods! I don’t know how it was and is in general (guess it depends on the venue), but I know I and a few others were like “WTF O_o;;” Deal-able, obviously but still a slight letdown that we had to wait again!

At least, however, they had some nice eyecandy and music to keep us going. Better shots of this awesome image for its size alone a bit later. Speaking of the music, I had to LOL when DISCOTHEQUE and that came up; everyone pretty much sung to that ^^:;

While waiting in line, they had some other staffers announcing the whole “buy 2000yen or more of CDs/DVDs/Bluray, get a free clear file” danie mentioned in one of her post. Other than that and finally seeing what some of the goods physically look like, I kept changing my order not sure about some stuff; more so since the polo shirts were already sold out as soon as my part of the line were let in.

Making changes to my order and the like, I was happy they had four booths with at least 2-3 staffer per booth helping fans buy the concert merchandise. Sure it still took awhile, which I’ll get to in a bit, but at least given the amount of people and goods available, was going at a decent pace.

Forgot to mention but the venue limited goods were on the gray scale of the color spectrum. I’ll say it now but I thought they all looked kind of fugly. I will admit though after getting them, I can say at least the pin/badge is pretty cool (purple and black for those wondering).

Finally done figuring out what I wanted but still waiting for my turn, kept myself busy taking various photos of the huge Nana poster/whatever. I mentioned this on twitter but seriously, where can I get one of these to setup at home!?

Actually proud of the above closer shot as it was a nice clear view with my camera doing well even after zooming in to get just the image itself. But seriously (again), where can I get one of these babies for home!?!

Continuing on with the “I want the huge Nana poster for myself” rant, I was kind of surprised that only after looking at my photos, I realized there were stuff behind the walls as well. I guess flags or something as I don’t remember there being a good angle to double check this.

I’ll talk about the total amount and actual goods in a moment but much to say, thanks to the order form I had I was able to get what I wanted without too much hassle. Lady that helped with my purchases was nice enough and had me (well everyone really) double check that x shirt was the right size and style, wanted x-item, total amount owed, and amount of NANACA cards one is suppose to get. Obviously I was pretty happy it went smoothly enough although my wallet being lighter had me tearing a bit ^^;;

And before I forget, yes I also ended up with a clear file as I re-bought “Innocent Starter” and “Silent Bible” to get it. Ended getting the school Nana as I didn’t care much for the other image (used with Silent Bible I believe?) although it was a closer shot of the lovely lady. If one is wondering why those two singles, well “Innocent Starter” pretty much started me on the Nana fandom (at least her singing part) while “Silent Bible” was simply a rock solid release that I didn’t mind having a double of.

On the way out of the merchandise booth area, they had another area setup for those interested in signing up for Nana’s offical fanclub as well as advisements for Windows 7 with Nanami. For those that do not know, short story is a limited edition of Japanese Windows 7 came with a character theme pack (sounds and wallpapers) voiced by Nana Mizuki. It was only later on after I got back and checked my usual sources that I realized they were pimping out the new special edition that comes with Nanami’s “debut cd single” with Nana Mizuki obviously lending her vocals for it ^^;;

Blast the Japanese for trying to make even more money via Nana Mizuki and cute booth girls!

Oh, I should also mention as one actually left the arena, they were displaying some of Nana’s stage costumes which I thought were pretty cool. No photos allowed but nice to see some of them in person… now only if I could remember for which songs they were for…

I’ll cut out the story of getting back but much to say, I was able to head back to my hostel in Minami-senju without problems. Actually, to step back real quick, for the Shin-Yokohama Prince Hotel I ended up checking out at 4AM as I was afraid I would not make it back in time due to the line waits. Ironically enough, even though there were a good 50-100 people in front of me I was done a little after 10AM. I was pretty surprised it went through that fast considering how everything seemed so long.

On the merchandise themselves, I ended up spending a grand total of 52600 yen. A bit over my initial budget but not by too much. Also to bite my own words, ended getting pretty much everything that wasn’t sold out minus the backpack (was never ever getting that). For those actually interested with what I bought:

- Sweater Vest (new item)
- Keychain/cell-strap B (new item)
- Keychain – Black (new item)
- T-shirt D (new item)
- Photo(?) album x2
- Postcard Sets A-B-C x2 (each – total 6)
- Calendar
- Wristbands – Red & Blue
- Towel
- T-shirt A-B
- Tie
- Cap
- Lightpen
- Keychain/cell-strap – Black
- Curry crackers
- Venue T-shirt
- Venue ruler/pen/notepad set
- Venue badge/pin
- “Innocent Starter” CD Single
- “Silent Bible” CD Single
- NANACA card x26

Before anyone ask, no I have not eaten the curry crackers as I’m still not sure I want to ^^;;

Last video for the concert event I took, which has me quickly going over the merchandise bought as well as opening up the NANACA cards. Once again, I apologize for the shoddy camera work, my voice, inability to open up a wrapper, and my general commentary! I will admit, it was a bit fun doing it “live” as one gets to hear my reactions as I open up each card to see what I got. I will also say man, I sure got A LOT of doubles which at this point, I’m still not sure what I want to do. Giveaways in the future?

Also to correct myself again, after looking at danie’s reports, seems I’m missing one from the regular set. Kind of annoying considering how many cards I got but at least I have the rare “shiny Nana-sensei” to make up for that ^_~

Finally with the most stressful part of the concert done, ended up chilling at the hostel for a bit as I had a few hours to kill before going back (a nice 1.5 hour ride) for the concert itself. Arrived back at the venue around 3PM (they open at 5PM) to find the merchandise line still long as hell as well as 10x more Nana fans around the area than when I left!

I thought this morning was already crazy but it just got more crowded as time passed, with people either lining up on the merchandise queue, meeting up with other Nana fans, etc. Also surprisingly how even with the increase of people, everything was still pretty organized in general. I guess I’m just too simply wow’ed with how the Japanese keep everything going right?

Scoping out the area a bit more, they seem to have moved the Windows 7 booth outside. Demoing and telling of the ventures of Windows 7, the booth got a few people looking to kill time if anything else. Then again, having the cutout of Nanami and cute-ish booth girls probably didn’t hurt either.

I think I’ll have to dead air myself as I’m starting to run out of things to say at this point for this time frame. Really the following several photos are just nice to show how crowded the area was and how popular Nana Mizuki has become.

People, a lot of people. Plain and simple.

As an FYI, I was coming back from a cheap 100yen vending machine that is just around the corner of the venue. Nice to save a few yen, especially if you don’t care for the need of a particular drink at the time.

Still crowded but at least the merchandise line was starting to thin out a little.

Booth girls trying to do their job. After stalking observing the booth, realized there were four and not two booth girls! I think only two out of the four were cute at best but honestly at this point of time, I was just bored out of my mind waiting for 5PM to roll around.

Finally around 4:30PM-ish they started to setup the lines to let us in the venue! It would still be around 30-45 minutes before we were actually let in but at least one can see the craziness of it all with everyone waiting to get inside.

They finally started to let people in around 5:15PM, with it luckily being a quick affair with security. Basically they mentioned no cameras, etc and simply had us open the main compartment of our bags to see if we had anything we shouldn’t. I know it definitely would not be like that in the US but I wasn’t about to complain as my feet were starting to die out again from all the standing!

Obviously with Nana’s concert being my first time at and in Yokohama Arena, didn’t know what to expect with seating and all. After waiting a bit more until they let us into the actual stage, I was pleasantly surprised my seat wasn’t as horrible as I thought. Without an doubt, I had one of the further seats in the arena but I could see everything pretty clearly. Sure Nana would be like a speck but monitors would help with that and it was more about hearing her live than anything else.

On the actual concert itself, I’ve seen epic used in a few places. It was, to put it simply, an insane difference experiencing the concert first hand versus watching it on DVD/Bluray. When seeing all the various lightpens/lightsticks/whatever turn on together when the lights were dimmed was simply amazing. Omo was right when he said I had to see it myself in person after he experienced Live Diamond last summer.

The fans, OMG they are uber hardcore! Maybe because I can’t keep a beat and/or rhythm for the life of me, it was just something altogether other worldly seeing all the lights (and fans) in sync otagei-ing like it was second nature to them. I mean, you see it on the various releases but it’s something I can’t explain unless you’ve done it (even horribly as I did) live with others!

Nana herself was in fine form that night belting out god knows how many songs I know but don’t remember the names of. Obviously for a setlist, don’t even ask me ^^;; I will mention however, the two “surprises”/specials for the venue which were her singing Touma’s (from Minami-ke) character song “Mirai Travel” and having the old SisPri (Sister Princess) unit PRITS sing “Sakura Revolution”. For the character song, I was actually glad although I believe some in the audience may not have known about it (surprisingly right?). Nana I think messed up with some of the initial tones(?) of the song as it has been a long time ago since she initially sung it. Nana being Nana however, she easily got through the song eventually hitting the right notes and whatnot even though she needed to look at the lyrics a lot (definitely a lot more than the other time I saw her sing a character song). For “Sakura Revolution”, that threw me off bat since I didn’t realize who she brought on stage until they introduced what they were doing. And while it was cool to see some other seiyuus, it was totally unexpected… on the song itself, well let’s just say Nana was the only good one ^^;; (edit: I can’t spell, thanks for pointing that out danie)

Nana’s MC was great as usual and it was nice just seeing her go at it with ease. Sadly I can’t really remember what she talked about even though it was only 24 hours ago, so my bad.

Lastly as far as Nana commenting goes, much props to her for using a lacrosse stick to give out the signed balls at the end of the show. She actually got some good distance considering her usual attempts to throw signed objects at her fans. Obviously no luck for use in the standing seat area ;_;

Okay, this is my last Nana comment which has to do with the fact she really does have a great set of assets vocals. I say this even though it’s obvious because actually seeing and hearing her give her thanks sans mic (like she always does) proved without a doubt she has it. I mean, if I could hear her clearly with a loud audience as well as being in the nosebleed section, you know she has something right going on!

There is probably a bit more I can talk about the concert itself but as now, nothing is coming to mind. If I do remember, I’ll make another post and edit this one so for those interested, check back in the coming days okay?

Otherwise, Nana performed one solid concert that lasted about 2-2.5 hours that left this Nana fan more than satisfied that he went. The walk back to the JR station and general ride home however, is a completely different story -_-

One quick thing I would like to mention on the trip back, they had various people selling Nana photo cards at different prices. I don’t think it’s anything official as the images I saw seem to be ones you can find on the net; just that they were of nice quality on photo quality paper? I did have to LOL when I overheard and eventual saw one stand selling Nana photo cards but had Yukari Tamura in the set as well for some reason. Wasn’t sure if the seller thought that Yukari was Nana as well (the images he had kind of sort of do if you looked real quick) or was just selling other seiyuu related photos too.

And with talks of stands selling non-official goods, it thus ends my long report on Nana Mizuki’s LIVE ACADEMY Yokohama Arena March 13th 2010 concert. I hope everyone enjoyed at least parts of this post as it was a labor of love I don’t normally do. If someone is expecting me to do something similar (i.e. videos) for any future events I’ll go to, all I can say is time will tell ^_^