Karaoke and bread

If you're in Tokyo (maybe other cities too, I haven't really noticed) you probably have seen the square sized bread cafés and other places offer?
I had, and it amazed me! Why would anyone want a square of bread? I'm sorry but it doesn't look very appetizing, especially if you have tasted regular Japanese toast bread (spoiler: It's pretty dry!).

But the fact that you can order a loaf of bread was way too funny to resist. So I finally found one friend who also was kind of interested in trying it. On our last playdate, before she left Japan, we decided to go to karaoke and in Shinjuku, in Kabukicho close to Don Quijote there's a Pasela. Outside of Pasela they have huge ads for the toast, so when we reserved a room we also ordered a bread to share.

Pasela is supposedly expensive, but over all it didn't cost much more than any other karaoke place, so the extra money was worth it.

So, how was the bread? (also called honey toast) It was pretty good! It's huge though, so even when splitting it between two it was pretty much. The things with the bread is that it is dripping in some honey glazing, saving it from being dry. The topping is made of cream and ice cream, and on the side some syrup (to make it even sweeter, diabetes here I come!).
At Pasela they also had some interesting drinks, mine was the green one (highly not recomended, it tasted like tooth paste). The karaoke room itself was also really nice, it was pretty big and felt very clean and cozy. They had a rather big menu too!

Pasela doesn't only have karaoke, but also theme restaurants in Tokyo. I will cover that later, but I highly recommend this karaoke place if you're passing by Shinjuku!

They seemed to be selling these cute toasts in the entrance!

Check out Pasela's webpage:
https://www.pasela.co.jp/shop/shinjuku_yasukuni/#pasela

Dalle TOKYO DEATH DISCO #8

On the 7th of May Dalle held a twoman live at Shibuya Vuenos with the band vez. It seems like the coupling band don't really have that much incommon with Dalle, this was like a "normal" rockband, but they had quite the crowd.
Just like before the previous twoman, Atsushi was DJ:ing prior to the gig, playing some of the songs we got to hear earlier. I kind of like it, and I think he has a very interesting taste in music!
The floor on Vuenos is kind of small, so when it's packed, it's packed. I was standing close to the toilet this time, right behind Atsushi's table.
I didn't really enjoy the first band, so I acctually sat down studying on the floor, hehe. When it was finally time for Dalle I tried my best to get as close to the stage as possible infront of Közi, but as I've previously said, Közi's fans are brutal... I ended up closer than last time so I was pleased. While waiting for the gig to start, some guys passed me by to go the mens toilet, I turned around and notice one of them was Ryux from Moi Dix Mois! He seems to be good buddies with Közi.

The gig started and this time I was surprised to see how little make up Ryo was wearing! He's one of those people who I think looks kind of western when wearing make up, so it was nice seeing more of his Japanese features. Since it was such a long time ago, I can't really remember what Közi was wearing, but I have a feeling he had about the same clothes as he did at the previous live, and his hairstyle and make up was the same.
They usually play the same set list, but the last time I realised they played songs which aren't theirs, so I was eager to find out which songs it was, and to my surprise one of those was Crystal Castles Not in Love. I never was a fan of the original song but Dalle's version was awesome! I which they'd release that somehow.

At these twoman they never play an encore unfortunately. Before leaving stage Közi throw out picks, one ended up behind Atsushi's DJ table and I have to admit I first thought of heading there, but then it felt weird going behind that... I bet some other fan rushed there though, there's no rules in fandom it seems.

As always the live was really good, ICU is probably my favorite song with Dalle and it's amazing live! If you like Közi, or just wants to experience something new while in Tokyo, I highly recomend you to check them out!

Keep track of their schedule from their webpage: http://dalle.tokyo/index.html

Visual kei bar Diabolo

I hunted down yet another theme bar! This time I felt like, if there's BL, video games, Alice in Wonderland and what not, there has to be something visual kei themed in it's homecountry. Of course there was!

I googled and stumbled across their webpage and then I convinced my friend to go with me, hohoho.
It's called Diablo and is located in Shinjuku, in the hostclub area no less, hehe. It wasn't hard to find, so if you check google maps there shouldn't be any problem!
So, what to expect?
First off, it's very small. The evening we were going they also had an takoyaki event so on their webpage they encouraged people to make a reservation. I don't remember exactly how many seats they had but I would guess between 12-20. They also have a schedule so you can see whom of the staff will be working the evening you want to go. I personally didn't care, but it might be nice to go when the staff likes the same bands as you, because we were stuck in L'arc en ciel hell. I normally don't have anything against L'arc en ciel, their old stuff is pretty nice, but not for 2 hours, and almost only new songs.

The system is basically, you pay 1500yen for 1 hour and during that hour you can drink as much as you like! That sounds all good, but they were so slow making the cocktails! I'm not kidding, my friend ordered a milk based one, and I couldn't help but to wonder if they had a cow in the kitchen. It wasn't busy or anything, besides us, there was two other women there, and the staff was two guys. To be honest I assume they're slow so that you won't order like 5 drinks during that hour, because let's face it, they wouldn't get that much money out of that.
This isn't really a hostbar, but just a bit similar, probably like the BL café I've been to, so the staff will come up and talk to you. Since I was with a friend they didn't as much though. One of them introduced himself, but besides that we didn't talk (except for when he asked how I wanted my eggs XD). Maybe if you go alone they'll be more active.

Besides drinks they had a food menu! That was one of the reasons I wanted to go acctually. The food is named after different songs by VK bands and they ahd this omuraisu (omelette with rice dish which is very popular in Japan) called Ma Chérie ~Itoshi kimi e! Yeah, as a big Malice Mizer fan I had to eat that. It was worth it. I got a bit tipsy and I couldn't stop laughing at it, because they even made a star on it, maybe we could've summoned Mana or something with the omuraisu!

We ended up staying for 2 hours, and during that time I had 3 cocktails and the omuraisu. They were very slow with making the drinks as well as the food. I normally take a bit of time ordering, especially since they had so many drinks! But if I would've known I would have to wait for 15 minutes to get my drink I would've placed an order immedietly.

It was a fun experience but not sure it's worth the money in the end since it's not really all you can drink if you only can order 2 or 3 drinks in 1 hour...
Before leaving one of the staff gave us a takoyaki each, he had an uneven number, very sweet.

Please visit their webpage for more information: http://diablo.bz/

Kamijo - Epic Rock Orchestra

When I'm in Japan I tend to go to a lot of gigs, sometimes even those I probably shouldn't attend concidering I'm not rich nor a huge fan. But I really like Kamijo live. I probably prefer listening to his music live over listening to his cd's (also to be honest Kamijo is one of those which has become a collecting substitute since I'm basically done with all the bands I really love). I've heard about the Epic rock orchestra and thought it sounded pretty cool so I thought, why not?

This gig took place at Akasaka Blitz, a place I haven't been at since Deep Sanctuary in 2014. This livehouse looked pretty big then, but Kamijo had made this a seated live, so with chairs it didn't really have a high capacity. When I found my seat I was pleased to see that the stage didn't seem that far away, even though I was on Q-row.That was until the two people infront of me came to their seats... it was two western guys....meaning they were pretty tall (and one of them I guess had not been at a live in Japan before because he had problems realising where his own seat was :P). Next to me was two Japanese women, a bit shorter than me, and all of us was stunned by the fact that we couldn't see shit! Especially since that one guy kept coming closer to the other one despite the fact that the seat inbetween was free, and that seat sort of worked as an opening so we could see glimps of the scene! One of the Japanese women asked him to move a bit to the left side so we could see, and he did....until he kept coming closer again. She didn't show it but I'm guessing it pissed her off (me too, big time) so she acctually called for the staff, and a guy came asking the guy to stand infront of his own seat. Again, he moved....and then moved back -.- I don't get how some people work.

So basically, I barely saw anything the whole evening (not kidding). The sound however was really good just as I expected. Normally Kamijo only has his band playing, but for the Epic Rock Orchestra he also have a violinist, cello and a pianist on stage and it really gives that something extra.
Since Castrato had been released by the time he obviously played that, and I have to say it's one of his stronger songs ever. I really like it! At the live they also sold a special edition of the single. It says on it that it's the trailer version. I can't really hear a difference, and like I've said before, I can't listen to the cd's I buy for the moment so I haven't heard this either. If you bought this version you also got a poster, it's very boring though, just the cd cover. I also picked up a t-shirt and the clearfile.

Kamijo always feels very energetic live, and happy, so it's usually really nice attending his gigs. He's a very good talker, making interesting MC's (for this one I don't really remember much since it's been a long time, and I didn't see shit!).
He had another Epic rock orchestra recently, which I attended for other reasons (so there won't be a livereport here), and since I acctually could see I can assure it was great and totally worth going to!

D - 「Memory of the Wind」～Produced by HIDE-ZOU〜

To be honest I had no plan to attend this gig. I just didn't have anything to do during golden week and I felt kind of lonely, the best way to cure that is going to see a band. D is great live so why not. Like always during golden week D has 5 live gig, each produced by each member. I chose HIDE-ZOU's live because he's my favorite member, but also because of his title, "Memory of the Wind", it made hope they would play some "nature" songs (like Namonaki mori no yumegatari). When they entered stage, I knew I had picked the right day to attend. They all wore traditional clothing, (hakama etc) so I knew they'd play some of the asian inspired songs! The song which made me a fan of D was Ouka saki some ni keri and I also really like Huang di~Yami no umareta mukui and I've neverheard these songs live so I was overthrilled!
The set list started of pretty strong with Toki no koe, Meteo ~Mubi no toki, then I have to admit it slowly became a bit dull for me. But that was fixed during the encore when they did Huang di!

HIDE-ZOU also had a solo song, and that was very interesting. I haven't attended these gigs before but I assume all of them have. It's a bit disapointing the songs aren't released though, I'd love to hear a recording of that song! Beside the songs, each member also designs an original merch, HIDE-ZOU had a japanese teacup, witha  drawing of him, and it said "You know me?". Now that might seem random BUT, in Japanese that kind of teacup is called "yuunomi", pronounced very similar to "you know me" in english. It was very cute but I ended up not buying it because I have no idea how I should carry it home in my already overfilled bag.

This gig took place at Takadanobaba Area, a club I feel a bit emotionally attached to, hehe. Although I do hate the fact that their bar close so unless you buy a drink before the gig you've wasted the 500yen drink fee you have to pay by the entrance. Takadanobaba is also a nice area, I will write a bit about it later in another entry.

ーSEー

1.風がめくる頁

2.メテオ〜夢寐の刻〜

3.鬨の声

〜MC〜

4.桜花咲きそめにけり

5.NEO JAPANESQUE

6.我が敵は我にあり

〜MC〜

7.翠緑の翼

8.NOCTURNAL

～HIDE-ZOU solo コーナー～

9.Memento〜風のレイピア〜

10.Solitude〜最後の手紙〜

〜MC〜

11.空中庭園

12.悪夢喰らい

13.Humanoid

〜MC〜

14.鳥籠御殿〜L'Oiseau bleu〜

〜Encore〜

Night-ship"D"

DEAD ROCK

皇帝〜闇に生まれた報い〜

黒竜

風がめくる頁

〜End SE〜

ZIZ Salon De'tester

This is so bad, I'm so behind I'm writing a report of a gig which took place 2 months ago! Very sorry about that but I've been busy.

This was my first time attending a ZIZ oneman, and the first time I saw them live this time around in Tokyo! This live was a bit special since it was their 5th anniversary! And they also released a new mini album; Detsuromotsuro No. 5.

The gig took place at Zirco Tokyo, in Shinjuku, a kind of hidden club. It's on the basement floor of a building with sportsbars etc. My ticket number wasn't the best, so when I got into the club I just wanted to get a good spot on the floor. So unfortunately I missed my chance of getting one of their new t-shirts since they were sold out after the gig. ZIZ seems to have a lot of random items for sale, for example I saw this one girl who bought a clock! An acctual clock to put on your wall. The background was the cover of their new cd. It looked really cool, but obviosly that was gone too once I got to their sales stand.

To be honest I'm not sure I have that much to say about the gig itself. Nothing special happened, we got to hear all of their new songs from the album. Like always I really enjoy watching Közi live, he's really good despite what people might think. He doesn't "connect" that much with the audience, but it doesn't really bother me because seeing him you can tell he enjoys what he's doing and that's the most important thing to me.

 I got to hear all my favorite songs, Kosmostill, Sanityman, JEEZ, CHAOSMOS, ECHOFALLS and L'AMIE L'AMIE. I haven't seen ZIZ since 2015 so I had not heard any of the songs from JEEZSO8DOVEDOPE yet, obviously I was very excited to hear JEEZ because it's one of their best songs. I really love it. I noticed Közi had some difficulties taking the high notes during the chorus, and once he didn't even sing that. I can see that it's difficult though, for a recording you can paus and cut, but at a live gig he's been singing for like an hour and I bet his vocal chords was a bit tired.
 

For the encore the band came out with the new t-shirts on. Közi had his long, lumberjack shirt which he's worn at Deep Sanctuary. When he entered stage he had it tightly closed and then suddenly he'd open it to flash the t-shirt, like a flasher. During on of the MC's Közi also mentioned how tired he was, and how he felt old. During this MC he also happened to mention how many songs there was left on the setlist, to the fans disapointment but he defended it with that it was a pretty long setlist, and it truly was. The gig in total was very long, I didn't time it but it felt like close to 3 hours.
As the last song they played Super naked disco. I think I mentioned that before but hearing that on the cd for the first time I just felt like "WTF was that I just listened to". I really hated it, and I still don't like the cd version, but live it's pretty nice acctually.

 

When the gig was over, I picked up my bag as fast as I could and headed to the merch. But like I already said, all of the new stuff was sold out, but to excitment I found that they still sold the DVD which was released at the same time as JEEZSO8DOVEDOPE! So I picked up a copy with a very strange item they sold. A Közi tattoo seal. Yes, you can now either use it on your hand for an evening or use it and get a tattoo artist to fill it in for you! It's one of the most random items I've seen being sold at a live, and obviously I had to have it.
As can be seen above, they had a very special flower bouquet, this is something you only see in relation to something with Közi I'm sure. Amazingly creative...

So, the special thing about this live was that we'd receive a demo cd as a gift. Unfortunately I haven't been able to listen to it yet since my computer doesn't have a cdrom. I'll update once I've heard it!

Like always, if you get the chance to see Közi in any of his bands live, do it!

EDIT: When I was about to exit the club I saw Ryux from Moi Dix Mois, AGAIN (he was at the twoman Dalle live in May too). He keeps popping up at Közi's gigs...