ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL 2019 - The GazettE Experience

Saturday, August 10, 2019

THE GAZETTE @ SOUND OF FOREST STAGE

For the summer of 2019, I was enrolled in my university’s study abroad program from August 4 to September 7^th 2019. The classes were for Religion and Spirituality in Japan, and the program took place in Kyoto. August in Japan had lots of music festivals and concerts happening, so I gladly took advantage of that during my stay in Japan!

Evening of August 9, I headed out to Tokyo after a day of hiking at Kiyomizu-dera and an exhausting walk around the Gion neighborhood. The August summer heat in Japan is brutal so for me, I just had to stand outside in the humid heat, and I’d be wet from sweat (so imagine hiking at noontime up to Kiyomizu-dera, jeeze…😰). There’s a reason why I’m mentioning this, I promise!

My hotel is super conveniently located right across the street from Kyoto station, and as a foreigner, I took advantage of the JR Pass available to purchase, so I was able to just walk on over and hop on the shinkansen without incident right after a full day excursion with my study abroad class.

I stayed at a hotel that was like a 15-minute walk to Tokyo station. On the next day, Saturday, festival day August 10, I checked out of my room. I only booked for one night, and I planned to leave the festival in the late afternoon to travel back to Tokyo, pick up my bag at the hotel, and ride the 9pm shinkansen back to Kyoto. I had it all planned out.

Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that the trains would be hella full of other Rock in Japan Fest goers, so I ended up having to stand up squished with other people for the entire 1-hour train ride from Tokyo to Ibaraki. There was a lady with large bags who got on like half way through the ride and bull-dozed right past me, knocking me over other standing passengers (I was already giving way for her and she still did that. Ugh so rude that lady!)

I arrived at the Ibaraki station, bought some bread since I had nothing to eat all morning, and lined up to the festival shuttle ticket booth with thousands of other people. It took probably 20 minutes to buy roundtrip shuttle tickets, and another 20 minutes to line up to get in the shuttle. There were so many people, but it was well-thought out and organized, using the city’s local busses as festival shuttles.

Soon enough, I arrived Hitachi Seaside Park. Entrance was smooth and took only a minute or two when they took my ticket and gave me a wristband. I got the Sound of Forest Stage, where the GazettE would be performing later that day. It was still early, around 10:30AM and staff were setting up for the band Lynch’s performance. I was able to get a spot near the front, surrounded by a bunch of Lynch fans in their merch outfits. My spot was pretty much in the middle of the stage, but a little to the left. I sat on the carpeted floor and just waited under the sun, hiding under my cap and sunglass. I had big-ass almost-a-gallon water bottle in my backpack, and the bread that I bought from the station, and so I just drank and ate a bit to help me survive the heat a little.

I knew about Lynch, but haven’t really heard of their songs before, but DAMN! The singer HAZUKI is FIREEEE🔥. In my section, people constantly would scream for Yusuke, whom I guessed was the guitarist that was right in front of my section. Damn, he was hella FIREEE too~🔥. I didn’t know any of their songs, but it was easy enough to know when to head bang. The sun was too hot and blinding for me, so I just kept my cap on, but with my sunglasses off, and just headbanged like that (LOLZ). If you see a pink cap vibrating among the flailing hair in the crowd of people headbanging in Lynch’s RIJF Instagram videos, that was me!^^

Time passed by and two other bands went on to play. They were okay but didn’t really interest me much. I just stayed there, at my spot under the sun, waiting for hours until the GazettE would go on. A funny detail with those smaller, less popular pop bands, is that the actual artists would go on stage during sound check and test out their instruments and microphones. After that, they would go back and hide backstage and then they’d have their formal introduction on the screens at the top corners next to stage, and just go back on stage and proceed for their performances. I’m not naming them, but they were kinda (really) awkward (ahahaa), but I’d hear these middle schoolers swoon, “Kakkoii…”

You go little kids~ GET ITTT, yeet.

By the time the staff of the GazettE were on stage doing their prep, I had already finished my gallon of water, and was already a little dehydrated. I couldn’t help it, I was sweating all the water I drank, I’m not even kidding. By that time, it was already 2:30PM and I was dying of heat, and I had no water anymore. A huge crowd formed, and people started to squish together. The GazettE fans previously hiding from the heat under the shade, finally came out to squeeze in to the crowd to get the best possible spot they can.

I would see these women surrounding me wiping themselves with some type of wet-wipe and spraying themselves with a spray from a bottle which reminded me of just an Evian water spray bottle. Little did I know that those were specialized popular “tools” sold in Japan to survive the hot humid Japanese summer heat. The wipes were cooling wipes that literally made you feel cold wherever you wiped them on your body. The spray was also a cooling spray with the same function as the cooling wipes, that can be used anywhere on the skin.

Had I only known! I would have had filled my own backpack with those summer survival supplies😭. It was only gonna be my first week in Japan and I had yet to learn about those things about 2 weeks after the festival took place…

Back to the GazettE! As soon as the staff rolled out Kai’s drum set, you could hear the crowd swoon at how massive the thing was! It was literally hella intimidating like a fortress compared to the drum sets of the 3 other bands that went before them. Like DAMN, THAT A HUGE BITCH😮👏🏼💖.

I took off my hat and sunglasses and redid my makeup (it melted off from the humidity sweat lolz). I also managed to get a railing, so I had the perfect view of the center of the stage, and ideally all the band members. I say ideally because of what happens next:::

The same introduction song played from the World Tour started playing (99.999) and everyone became all hyped up, including myself; I forgot all about my dehydration and ignored the fact I was being squished by the crowd. The GazettE men finally came out at the left of the stage one by one I the typical fashion: first Kai, then Uruha, Reita, Aoi, and eventually Ruki.

As soon as the members started walking in, OMG THE CROWD!!!! LIKE OMGGGG. I’ve been to rock concerts in America before. Several GazettE concerts, and DIR EN GREY ones, but this… this was the first time I experienced something that scared me.

First of all, let me say, OH. MY. GOD. KAI!!!😍🔥💖 He had the same hairstyle and clothes as the World Tour 2019, but his hair had grown out a lot longer, and IT LOOKED SO GORGEOUS WITH THAT SWIRLY SPIKY HAIR STYLE! He was wearing this extremely flowy chiffon(?) kimono cardigan/scarf, so it looked like he was gliding across the stage as he walked to his drum set. DEAD. I DIED at how handsome KAI was 😍🔥💖 His face and makeup was so on point, and his SMILE!🤩 Like seriously so handsome, and I’m not saying this because he’s my bias, but that’s just really how he looked! So, I am actually genuinely baffled on why in the hell does he look like such a tired old man in all the press videos and photos they took of him that day…🤔? Like seriously, the photos and videos did not do him any justice whatsoever.

URUHA… Hehehe… I just kinda giggled at the fact that he still wore his blonde weave to the concert, when his real hair is so obviously black. Like I get why they always have to put it on his head, to keep the concept constant… but it’s just so awkward that his hair line constantly changes hahaha, and we all obviously know that’s not his real hair. Weave or extensions or whatever, he didn’t need it… He brought back the feels though, from the recent World Tour 2019 😍💖 so jumpy and all hyped, it makes everyone else hella hyped!

REITA came out looking like his usual NINTH self, all covered in black leather mask and jacket… First of all, WHY ARE YOU WEARING THAT IN THE HOTT HOTT SUMMER?!?!? I’m already dying from the heat in my dress and leggings, but seriously a leather mask and long sleeves? I don’t know anymore. I’m part of #TeamNoseband so I miss his old look when you can actually see his face and not just his tongue peeking out of his face once in a while. Yeah, I never liked his masked look cuz his face is always covered, I can’t see his face at all unless I was right in front of the stage In World Tour 2019 and he would come over and bend forward to make weird faces at us.  And how come he doesn’t show off his arms in his iconic biker vests anymore now that he’s all buff and swol from the gym?

Needless to say, he created very large puddles of sweat on the floor that day, the staff had to come in once in a while to wipe it up.

AOI… This is when the chaos happens… AOI walks out in his fabulous and godly form… and hell breaks loose. So my section is pretty much in front of REITA and AOI, but since I managed to get the side railing that bisects the middle front of the crowd, I have an absolutely clear view of Ruki, Kai, and Uruha, if I turn my head a little to my right. Also, I only had like 2 other people in front of me before it got to the front railing. Very convenient, right?

However, as soon as AOI walks out, looking like he’s in the best mood ever with a bright and gleaming smile on his face… A stampede happened… We were already squished, but oh my god, I had to hang on to my side railing for my dear life because people started bulldozing their way to the front and pulling people to get out of their way. It was to the point that it looked like people were doggy piling themselves, one on top of the other in front of AOI… to the point I can no longer see him and REITA, whom were both just a few feet away from me on the stage… It crazy.

It was quite horrific, because it stayed that way the entire 20 minutes that the GazettE performed on stage, but I managed to lose myself in the music. It was horrific also because the heat became worse now that bodies were on top of each other, and so I had to constantly use my fan and face towel to keep me alive the entire time. My fan as in just a fan that I have to fan myself with, made out of cloth. If they post up a video of the performance and you see a purple fan being waved around near the front of the stage, that was me!

RUKI… As you can hear in my video vlog, he was loved by all, as usual~ The most surprising thing he did was wear a new velvet suit! His usual NINTH suits he wore previously were purple and dark blue. In the festival, he came out with RED VELVET💋 Chest exposed an all~ And I loved his hair! Like Kai, RUKI’s looked a bit longer and bigger than when I last saw him in the Dallas concert of WT19 earlier in May this year.

SETLIST:

In this part, I will use bullet points. This is only because I am writing this a little more than a month after the festival took place, and so much things have happened in my life between now and then, I don’t exactly remember every single thing I want to mention 😔

It ended waaaay too soon. I waited under the sun for like 4-5 hours for a 20-minute set! Actually, I heard a fan time it, it was only 16 minutes. Lolz.

After that set, the large crowd dispersed and I walked away feeling the adrenaline running through my body. At the same time, I was thinking, "WTF is wrong with me, coming all the way up to Ibaraki from Kyoto and spending all this money just to see my favorite band perform for 20 minutes..." To be honest, I'd feel less guilty being there if I didn't procrastinate on my homework and projects due the next day. My bad! Lolz. 

As I walked further on, the adrenaline went down, and I could feel the heat and pain from the squeezing in the crowd affect me (it also took a lot of energy to hold onto my spot and push back against the other people in the crowd). 

Long story short, I started shaking and felt like seriously fainting so I bought myself two bottles of Pocari Sweat and a smoothie to recover. Before leaving the festival, I stopped by the stage close to the exit to watch the rest of Sayaka Yamamoto's performance (former NMB48, yes I also was a fan), and then hopped on the next shuttle to the station.

I only left early because I wanted to make it on time to ride the 8pm Shinkansen back to Kyoto, because I still had the homework and projects to work on. I really wanted to stay and watch all the other amazing bands and make the most out of my day pass ticket! I promised myself that next time, I'm going to stay the entire day and maybe the whole weekend. However, life happened and I left my Shinkansen pass in the Ibaraki station.... So after arriving Tokyo Station, I was told to take another hour trip back to Ibraraki... then I was back after almost 3 hours. When I arrived, that was when festival goers were on their way back to Tokyo again because the festival had already ended for the day, and once again, I found myself standing on the train back to Tokyo for one hour. 

I spent about 4-5 hours in a train that day, and missed my Shinkansen ride back to Kyoto, so I had to stay overnight in Tokyo anyway! I COULD HAVE STAYED AT THE FESTIVAL THE WHOLE DAY😭 Well... lesson learned. NEXT TIMEEE!🔥

I hope you enjoyed reading about my experience! Let me know on here or on my youtube video if you guys are interested in reading more about detailed stuff like this, because I did A LOT happened over the Summer 2019^^