i shout hello to you

a cd of this track was given during their 10th anniversary live and sharing is nice so i’m sharing it (also hiroto expressed that he wants everyone even those who didn’t get to come to the live to listen to it) really sad they didn’t get to play this during the live tho ;;;;

[Report] Alice Nine’s China Tour Success! The Report on their Concert Frenzy

Live tours are integral not only to Japan’s music industry, but to the Japanese entertainment industry as a whole, and summer of 2014 began with such a tour. Alice Nine is loved by people throughout Japan and quite possibly loved even more than that by more people around the world, and they recently completed the China-leg of their Asia Tour.

Beginning in Shenzhen on May 30th, they toured all the major centers around the country, including Guangzhou, Wuhan, Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, and Amoy. Without doubt, they’re the first major artists from Japan to play so many cities in China in the one tour.

I first got to know the members of Alice Nine after their leader and vocalist, Shou, sent me a message on Twitter in reply to one of my tweets I posted regarding their worldwide popularity. Since then, I’ve spoken with them about how people around the world are dying to see them perform, and I promised them that I would witness one of their overseas performances for myself. So I was thrilled to learn that the place where that promise would be fulfilled would be China.

I’ve explained this in detail in my book, “Nihon ga Suki Sugiru Chugokujin Joshi” (PHP Shincho), but there are hordes of young Chinese, especially girls, who absolutely love Japanese culture, and although it’s very rarely reported in Japanese media, I’ve met with countless such people in my work with cultural diplomacy. 

On a number of occasions, I’ve tried advocating a move to get more Japanese artists to China to meet their expectations. And also because it would form an important bridge for Japan-China relations. As it turned out, that’s the very place where they would be going. And not only to Shanghai or Beijing, where a lot of Japanese voice actors and anison singers regularly visit, but the other major centers that aren’t so familiar to Japanese, as well.

Apart from Wuhan, I’ve visited the other cities in my work with cultural diplomacy in the past, but the economic hub, Chongqing, I visited four times in the one year, from 2010-2011, and as such, it’s one metropolitan city that holds a lot of memories for me. The success of Alice Nine’s concert in Chongqing would almost serve as a test to gauge the outlook of all future Japanese artists in China. Nevertheless, their concert was a big hit. My schedule didn’t allow me to make it to the regional cities to see them perform, but a Chinese friend living in Chongqing emailed me immediately to tell me about the concert frenzy. 

The performances I got to see were the Beijing and Shanghai shows. 

I may have only see them perform for the two days in Beijing and Shanghai, but it was clear just how long all the Chinese fans had been waiting for them.

"Sakurai-san, today I want to see you all the way up the front."

I stood towards the back, somewhat reserved at their Beijing performance, but after being urged on by guitarist, Hiroto, I spent most of the first day of the Shanghai concert, two days later, taking photos from what was roughly a 50cm space between the stage and the audience. 

I got to experience the emotions of both the Chinese fans and Alice Nine with my entire body.

The interview below took place backstage in Shanghai.

Shou : “It feels a lot like when we tour in Japan. We didn’t want to treat this any differently; we wanted to take what we do in Japan and show it exactly as it is to the people in China. The Chinese fans are far more energetic than what we expected. But it’s more than just frenetic energy; we can actually feel an emotional connection.

I think that being one of the first Japanese groups to perform in cities like Wuhan, and our upcoming shows in Chongqing and Amoy, will be a big confidence boost for us. I hope that other bands and artists continue in the same vein.

I used to think that playing somewhere different meant that we had to be different. But I’ve learned that it doesn’t matter where you are from, what we think is good, or great, or beautiful - these are feelings that we all share.”

Tora : “To be honest, before the tour, I wasn’t all that interested in China. I guess it had a lot to do with the media and the way they only focus on the negative aspects of Japan-China relations. But seeing the place for myself, everyone we’ve met have all been really nice. It’s taught me not to have a prejudiced opinion about anything. 

The fans also all seemed to know our songs and study Japanese. I was impressed and we can feel that they’ve really been waiting a long time for this.”

Saga : “There’s not much of a rock scene in China, so the live house environment still seems to be developing. I hope that that environment expands further as the rock scene continues to grow. But what I discovered was that people and the things we’re all looking for really aren’t any different. There were fans that told us they’d been waiting 10 years for us to come and visit and those feelings came through to us during our concerts.”

Nao : “The people in China were far nicer than what we imagined – that left a big impression on me. They were really friendly when we asked for directions, and some even came up to us and asked if there wasn’t anything we were having troubles with. One of the most memorable episodes was in Guangzhou, though. In the middle of our performance, the airflow to the stage just stopped, so we weren’t getting any oxygen and I started to get this really intense headache. It came time for our encore, so I went outside and I was puffing and panting when someone from one of the nearby restaurants came over looking concerned and asked me in broken Japanese, “Nani ka irimasenka?” (“Can I get you something?”) So I asked for some ice and they brought it to me straight away. This really made me happy. 

The temperature on stage is high no matter we perform and as our bodies heat up, it’s like we’re all possessed by this thing that pushes us past our limits and that’s what I saw from my position at the back of the group. This tour has made me want to aim even higher, learn more about other countries, and perform more concerts all over the world where our fans are waiting for us.”

Hiroto : “Our Japan Tour ended and I began feeling anxious knowing that our next leg would be China. We had a lot of stuff to take with us and I was worried that we wouldn’t like the food – things like that. But with each day we spent in China, I learned that the people are nice, they’re polite, and my impression of China changed completely. For me personally, China was a very easy place to be in. What tastes good, tastes good. What’s cool is cool. I learned that there aren’t any national borders if you go through a particular door. You shouldn’t judge a country just based on the rumors you hear or what you see in the news.”

On the morning of the day they were to relocate from Beijing to Shanghai, Hiroto and I visited Beijing’s Tiantan Park. The scenery around us was 100% China, but the atmosphere was no different to than if we were walking together through Tokyo. 

We even spoke about how we would like to visit China together again, even on a non-concert related trip.

From morning to night, these were the few days I spent with the five Alice Nine members in Beijing and Shanghai.

I wanted to share this bridge between Japan and China laid down by Alice Nine and their fans with all of you readers, even if only slightly.

//SUPERNOVA SYMPHONIA TOUR GOODS GIVEAWAY//

Alice Nine in Singapore [Fan Meet & Press Conference on 27th June 2014]

Fan meeting

Alice Nine, five members of a Visual Kei genre band from Japan, held a fan meeting at J-Cube Mall in Jurong East then followed by a Press Conference in the same day last night. 

The fan meeting was attended by hundreds of fans that obviously will flock in Hard Rock Sentosa tonight at the Coliseum for their 2nd performance in Singapore. Previously, Alice Nine was invited to perform during Sundown Festival 2012 and now they’re back to Singapore for a one man show. 

Before Alice Nine reached the stage, some fans were asked to make a question by the host. Personally the funniest one is when a fan trolled about whether Alice Nine actually go to the toilet and the host replied it with a dead serious answer, “How is that thing concern you?” and everyone there was having good laugh with the host cracking up some jokes on stage. 

The event started pretty late, around 7.20 pm, but the fans kept patiently waiting. The tweet from Alice Nine’s member Hiroto (guitarist) that Singapore is hot in the morning before had come true. The fans screamed a warm welcome when Alice Nine finally reached the stage. They greeted and introduced themselves one by one, and blurted out some jokes when questions to them were being asked.

Lucky fans can also ask them question, and one of the fans asked what they think about Singaporean girls which was replied that Singaporean girls are cute and the guys are cool by Shou, the leader. 

The event ended pretty fast because after some short small talks, it was decided that they’ll have to give the lucky 50 first queuing fans a signed poster and a handshake with the band members on stage.

Press Conference

The press conference was participated by a lot of media people, local and international. Alice Nine sat on the sofa leisurely with the same outfit at the Fan Meeting. The members answered some questions from the media about the lives, the change in their music, and also what they expect to get in this Singapore concert.

Hiroto (guitarist) of Alice Nine stated that they don’t feel they have lots of changes before and after being a musician. Before he became a guitarist, he loved music and it’s still the same way like before. He mentioned that now he has fans, and that’s the difference. However, he said again that in the early days of Alice Nine, he respected and love the fans, and he still feels the same way now. 

Meanwhile, since Saga (bassist) had his birthday just four days ago on 24th June, we asked if there will be any special celebration of Saga’s birthday on Singapore’s stage. As the fans may notice that Alice Nine usually had their band members’ birthday celebrated on stage together, or they held a special live or event for their birthday.

Saga, being surprised because his birthday was mentioned, said that in the previous live in Singapore during Sundown Festival 2012, some fans threw bras on to the stage. He expected more incredible stuffs being thrown today. Well, I’m quite sure it was a joke since he was known as the King of Humor in the band. For fans, even if you want to throw anything on stage, do concern and be responsible with stuffs you throw later, ok!? 

Alice Nine as featured on the June issue of the Chinese magazine「Cool 当代歌坛」aka “Cool Music”, on sale as of today. (There will be a 15 page spread for them including photos and an interview.)

J-Melo [2014-06-23]

Shou’s priceless reactions to stinky foods

Asia Tour!!

In the middle of the Asia Tour!!

It’s Nao ☆

The first blog (post) since I changed to iPhone!! I finally can update(￣◇￣;)

I remember how to use the iPhone but it took me half a year lol