Live House

Yesterday was probably one of the most fun days I've had recently, which is weird because it started off really poorly. On Friday my friend Azusa emailed my phone telling me that one of the Senpai (Japanese word you use when referring to a senior) from our school's band was performing at a live house the next day and if I'd like to come. Of course I really wanted to go, but had no idea how to get to the Live House itself... haha.

So we exchanged mail a bit and then the replies stopped coming. So I waited for mail that never came, and assumed I wouldn't be going. Then yesterday at about 3 o'clock she finally replies saying that they were meeting up at 4 o'clock nearby my house! So I quickly got ready and rode my bike to a the nearby Uniqlo to meet Azusa, and then we headed to McDonald's to meet another friend from school, Chihiro. After that we sat in McDonald's for a bit and Chihiro's boyfriend, Chuchuya, joined us. After we'd sat around and eaten a bit Azusa decided she wanted to go home to fix up her hair... so we waited for her to come back before we left to go to the live house, Jigen-Ya and met up with another of Azusa's friends, Sayuka.

By the time we'd arrived it had already well started, but I don't think we missed much. Essentially 6 bands played, and most of them seemed to be high school bands not much older than me. They all played mostly covers too, of bands like The Used, Rancid and some Japanese bands. They weren't too bad, and some of them really got the crowd moving. The mosh pit was crazy simply because there was no security and no barrier between the stage and the mosh, so people were falling onto amps and speakers and my legs got a real beating from being knocked against the stage. Anyone that tried to crowd surf promptly fell onto the hard ground haha.

The highlight band of the night were the last to play, and by looking at them they seemed like University students. They said they would be releasing their first mini album with 4 original songs on it, and they were the only band of the night not to play covers. The crowd reacted well to them, but I think by that point people were just too tired.

The live finished at about 9:00-9:30 and afterwards we went out and stood out the front talking and meeting up with more people. We met up with Yousuke, Yuusuke and Satoshi. We didn't end up leaving until around 10:00 when we all decided we were really hungry and needed something to eat quickly. Queue second visit to McDonald's in a day! We ate and lounged around, mostly exhausted, then we decided it'd be fun to do some English conversation which was amusing.

One weird thing about being here is that I find myself being closer to the people that can't speak English well. I guess it's because I can practice Japanese with them, they can practice English with me and we can make fools out of ourselves together and then feel a lot more comfortable. It's probably a good thing too, since it'll help me improve quicker than if I hung around with great English speakers.

After we'd eaten I exchanged numbers with the people I hadn't yet so we could keep in touch, and then headed home at around 11:00. It was raining lightly, but nothing too bad. I think I left at a good time though, since it started pouring down last night and has been raining constantly since.

All in all yesterday was fantastic. I made some new friends, got to visit my first Japanese live house and ate way too much McDonald's. What more could you ask for? :D Updated the album with a few McDonald's happy snaps. Excuse me looking awful, especially in the post-live ones haha.