Kajiura Yuki Live Vol.9 - concert goods part 1

link FictionJunction Club website 

This will be part 1 of what is likely to be a 3 to 4 part series dedicated to the concert goods that I purchased at the Kajiura Yuki Live Vol.9 Live on the 31st Aug 2012.  While I could have also purchased the Day t-shirts for Day 2, Day 3 and the 9/9 Special, I did not as I felt that I have spent enough on this trip and now it is time to save and only purchase stuff that I really, really, really want.  If I do it this way, I would hopefully be able to make my big trip to Japan next year and hopefully, if I am able to time it correctly, I would also be able to include either a Kajiura Yuki Live or a Kalafina Live. :)

Anyway... first up, the t-shirts.  I really, really, really like the design of the t-shirts for this series of concerts and if they had been cheaper or if I am a richer person, I would have bought ALL of them.  But since I'm not, I was just happy to get just two and luckily for me, they happen to be my favourite of the 5 designs.

The quality of this series of t-shirts is quite nice.  It's not too thick, thankfully, which makes wearing it in normally hot and humid Singapore an easy choice.  The printing is also nice and bright.  The wood block styled line art may have seemed too intricate for a t-shirt, if one had seen it on a piece of paper before viewing it on the t-shirt, but it actually turned out quite nicely on the shirt itself and was much clearer that I thought it would be. I really like it very much.

Black is generally my preferred t-shirt colour but I'm also partial to many other colours, green being one of them and maroon being the other. The black all-stage t-shirt's design is printed in green and it really does work very well on this t-shirt.  It's very eye catching and the design seems to pop out.



The Day 1 t-shirt is also really nice.  They matched the colours very nicely for these t-shirts.  I have only seen the other 3 t-shirts on the internet so I'm not sure how nice they really look but these two t-shirts are a big win for me. :)

You can't really tell from the photos, but the printing on the Day 1 t-shirt isn't white.  It's cream coloured and it's a much nicer colour to use on maroon than plain old white.  Like the green on black, the choice of cream seems to help the printing stand out more than usual.



Below are the images of what the Day 2 and Day 3 t-shirts look like.  The images are from the FictionJunction Club's webstore.  A limited number of the Day 1, 2 and 3 t-shirts were available for sale at the webstore but only for for FJC members.  All those t-shirts are sold out.  The all stage t-shirt as well as the Shibuya Special t-shirts are not yet on sale at the webstore.  I think they may go on sale at the webstore with the Special t-shirt only for sale to FJC members if there are excess t-shirts while the All Stage shirt should be available to non-FJC members, if there are excess t-shirts.



Also, on the 7th Sept, Space Craft also announced that there will be two FJC members only Lives.  Kajiura Yuki, Nanri Yuuka, Kaori, Wakana, Keiko, Yuriko Kaida, Hikaru and the Front Band Members will perform at these Lives.  The announce says the the 5th and 6th of January which would mean 2013.  Sadly, I will not be able to attend these.  I'm not a FJC member and I certainly can't afford to be in Japan again in January of 2013.

It's okay... I will work hard and save hard. :D



Okay... that's if for tonight... it's late and the haze in Singapore is making my eyes very uncomfortable and not helping my allergies either.  I will do the concert pamphlet tomorrow. :)

Here's a preview. :)



Alrighty... over and out for now... oyasumi :)

FictionJunction - Distance / Eternal Blue Single - unboxing

FictionJunction's latest single was released on 28th Aug 2012 and I was fortunate to be in Japan when this single was released because it meant that I saved on shipping and that I also managed to pick up the freebie that was offered to those who bought the single at the Kajiura Yuki Live vol.9 concerts. :)

Also, thanks to Silentwolf87, I found out that a Japanese online shop was offering this single with a different freebie and I asked Manami if she would help me buy a copy from JBook so that I could get this freebie too. :)  Manami refused to collect payment for this and gave it to me as a gift.  Thank you so much dear friend. :)

Yes, there are three copies of the same CD single in the photo above but I'm not nuts enough to buy all three for me. :)  One is mine of course :) , the other two I got as gifts for two different friends... although now I kind of regret not getting only one of the CDs for them and then getting Kalafina's Moonfesta instead as the other gift.  They're good friends and house mates and they share their CDs... so.... hmmmmm.... hindsight is always better unfortunately.

This will have to be a quick and picture heavy post because I'll need to take a shower soon and scoot out of the house as I have tickets to watch the Japanese anime film "Wolf Children". :)  Really looking forward to that. :)

Okay... let's cut to the chase... here are the photos of the unboxing. :)



Here are the photo of the freebie you'll get if you purchase it from the Kajiura Yuki Vol.9 concerts.



And finally, here is the photo of the freebie you'll get if you purchase it from Jbook.



If you live outside of Japan and wish to purchase this single because A) you like the new Gundam Seed HD Remaster ending theme / Senritsu no Stratus theme song, or B) you wish to support Kajiura Yuki, you can purchase them from several online stores and if you wish, you may also use this link to my happy hunting ground. :)

Finally, last photo for this post... I originally intended to post it from Japan in one of the mobile blog post but I never got around to finishing Day 9 and Day 10 (I will get to them.)... but here is the photo of my purchases at the Kajiura Yuki Vol.9 3 Day Special Lives - Day 1.  I never managed to get tickets for Day 2 and Day 3  :( ... but in the end, it all worked out well and I had a really great time regardless... there will be other concerts and I will go back to Japan again someday for either a Kalafina concert or a Kajiura Yuki concert.

Meanwhile... there are several Japanese acts coming to Singapore and there is AFA in November which I've not decided if I want to go yet since at this point in time both Kalafina and FictionJunction won't be attending.  I will go for J-Live 2 (Weaver and Flumpool) and will probably get tickets to Perfume in Nov and Luna Sea next year.... lots of good stuff coming my way... and as always... thank you for the music Kajiura Yuki... your music lead me to enjoy Lives... to other Japanese music and to Japan again... and for all that... I will always be grateful. :)



I will hopefully get down to writing my "unboxing" post of the concert merchandise tomorrow night and also post up the other unboxing posts that I have always wanted to write (in particular the Mahou Shoujo Madoka Animation Note artbooks and other Kajiura Yuki, Kalafina related things)... may also write more about the Kajiura Yuki concert... but all that will depend on how much time I have.

For now... cheers and I'm off to shower and to the movie. :)

Kalafina - new single / 2013 calendar

While I was in Japan, a couple of new Kalafina related releases were announced. The most exciting has to be the announce of the release of Kalafina's latest new single.  Earlier on it has already been announced that Kalafina will sing the theme song for part 2 of the Mahou Shoujo Madoka film adaptions.  There will be three Mahou Shoujo Madoka films.  The first two are a re-telling of the events that took place in the anime series.  The final film will be a competely new story.

The first two films will be titled "Mahou Shoujo Madoka - Eien no Monogatari".  The films are titled the same and will only be differentiated by "前" and  "後".  Claris, the group that sang the opening theme for the anime will sing the theme song for Part 1 and Kalafina will sing the theme song for Part 2. :)

The single will be released on the 24th October after the film screens on the 13th October.  Pre-sales have already started and of course they come with feebies but I won't be in Japan in October so I didn't really pay attention.

I got lucky though. :)  Itsuko gave me the poster for Part 2 of the Mahou Shoujo Madoka film.  So cool!!!!  So that's the photo I decided to use to start this post. :)

There will be 4 versions of this release, click on the titles to bring you to the product page on CDJapan, my usual happy hunting ground. :)  The song list information is from HMV Japan though.

Hikari Furu [w/ Blu-ray, Limited Edition / Type-B]

T1: Hikari Furu (ひかりふる)
T2: coupling song (untitled at this point in time)

T3: Magia (remix)

T4: Hikari Furu (instrumental)

Blu-ray: Hikari Furu video clip (which is usually the PV with Kalafina)

Hikari Furu [w/ DVD, Limited Pressing (Anime Edition)]

As this is the Anime Edition, the cover will be an illustrated cover.

T1: Hikari Furu (ひかりふる)
T2: coupling song (untitled at this point in time)

T3: Magia (remix)

T4: Hikari Furu (instrumental)

T5: coupling song (untitled at this point in time) Instrumental

DVD: Anime clip

Interesting.... the Anime Edition actually includes the instrumental for the coupling song.  How odd... I would have thought that this would also be included in at the very least the Blu-ray LE.

Hikari Furu [Regular Edition] 

T1: Hikari Furu (ひかりふる)
T2: coupling song (untitled at this point in time)

T3: Magia (remix)

T4: Hikari Furu (instrumental)

Hikari Furu [w/ DVD, Limited Edition / Type-A]

T1: Hikari Furu (ひかりふる)
T2: coupling song (untitled at this point in time)

T3: Magia (remix)

T4: Hikari Furu (instrumental)

DVD: Hikari Furu video clip (which is usually the PV with Kalafina)

As is my usual practice, I will order the Blu-ray LE and the Anime Edition.  Also, here is the link to the official Mahou Shoujo Madoka website for those who are interested.


(image from CDJapan)

The other release for Kalafina is the 2013 calendar.  Here is the CDJapan product page link.  I may purchase this.  I haven't decided yet.  If I do, I'll probably bundle it with the Hikari Furu CDs.  The 2012 calendar was nice and I actually do use it so I may get next year's calendar.

Alrighty, sadly, I won't be able to get to the "un-boxing" photos for FictionJunction's latest CD single and other Kajiura Yuki related purchases I made in Japan on the recently concluded trip.  I worked late today and only had dinner about an hour ago... feeling really sleepy.  Hopefully all goes well tomorrow and I will be able to be back early enough to do that.  If I can't, I'll probably do those on Friday. :)

That's if for now... oyasumi. :)

Japan trip 6 - tadaima

Am back in Singapore and posting my customary "tadaima" post from the cab. :)

It has been a great trip. I attended a great concert, ate lots of good food, met up with friends I love and travelled with one of my closest friends.

Need to finish up my day 9 and day 10 posts and some unboxings after this. :)

For now.... time to relax in the cab. :)

Japan trip 6 - day 8

We spent most of the day in Yokohama today. Since I didn't have tickets to Day 2 of the Kajiura Yuki Vol. 9 Live, I changed the schedule so that we don't have to rush on Monday.

We went to Yokohama to wish Yoko who is both SY's and my friend. SY and I went to the Cup Noodle Museum to buy tickets for both of us, Yoko and Manami who would join us later.

After we had a leisurely breakfast, we made our way from Sakuragicho station to the Takashimaya and Yokohama station where we met up with Yoko and had okonomiyaki for lunch.









It was really delicious. I have eaten okonomiyaki in Osaka before but this is the first time I have eaten it at an establishment which cooks it in front of you.

We ordered the set which comes with two okonomiyaki, one plate of salad, one egg omelette thing and yakisoba.



The food was really very good and we had fun catching up with Yoko.

After that we met up with Manami at Minatomirai station and made our way to the Cup Noodle Museum. Manami and Yoko know each other too which made it feel like a reunion meeting of sorts since all of us know each other and are friends.

The Cup Noodle Museum was loads of fun. You buy an empty cup and then draw pretty much all over it and then you can go over to another station where they put in your cup noodles. At this point you can also choose the flavour of the soup you want as well as 4 different freeze dry ingredients. They will then seal you cup noodles for you and you're done. It is pretty simple but really fun to do together. :)















After we made our cup noodles we walked around the museum for a while. Yoko had to leave us and we made our way to Harajuku to meet up with Camille who is a Singaporean who works in Japan.

We were in the Harajuku/Omotesando area to try the Singapore Hokkien Mee and the Singapore Carrot Cake. I was curious to see if it tasted authentic and I thought it would be fun to bring Manami to eat Singapore food in Tokyo. :)

The two dishes were quite authentic but slightly tailored to Japanese tastes I think. The Hokkien Mee probably needed more prawns in the stock. A more in your face flavour then the sublter favours normally found in Japanese cuisine. The Carrot Cake was also too soft, a little too steamed for us Singaporeans. Manami has been to Singapore before and has had the Carrot Cake in Singapore and she preferred the version we introduced her to in Singapore. That said, she seemed to like them both.







The four of us shared a plate of Hokkien Mee and Carrot Cake because we were scheduled to meet Itsuko at Shinjuku to eat more. :p

Itsuko managed to get a ticket to Day 2 of Kajiura Yuki's Live. Lucky her. :) :) I am happy she got the chance to go for at least one of those days. She said the live was very good. I am hoping that there were cameras and hoping for a blu-ray release. I didn't ask Itsuko if there were cameras though so I don't know ir I am hoping for nothing. Hahaha.... :p

We went to a yakitori place nearby and ate really good yakitori and other things. We also drank some and I had my favourite Umeshu soda. :) The food was really good, the company even better. It was really a lot of fun and we talked a lot. :)











It was a really really good day. I really enjoyed myself and am so happy and grateful that I have been blessed with such good friends. :)

K..... my thumbs hurt again from tying too much. :p Bye for now. :)