#toranoana

I first chose Kaoru's original 'Lemon Sour I kinda wanna try', which was Kaoru's first drink choice too.... because he kinda wanted to try it 😄. It was shochu and lemonade, very nice!

As for the talk events' content, 8 hours worth of talk is beyond my capacity to report, haha, so this only some of it. On day 1 he started by raisIng a toast to Kyo on his birthday. Then a lot of time was spent recapping the events of 2024, the EU tour, the domestic tours, and Androgynos.

Kaoru talked about a specific type of whisky that he had wanted to buy in europe, but the store staff recommend against carrying it on an airplane since this particular bottle type was prone to leaking in transit. He was disappointed he couldnt get it, but after the tour, their translator Masa managed to bring one to Japan for him, by cushioning it and wrapping it in towels on the plane. So he got one after all.

Joe had to go for a toilet break (he was drinking a lot), and when he got back, he was like 'Ahhhh, my bladder was so full!....Does that ever happen to you on stage Kaoru??? Do you ever feel super desperate on stage?Try to remember when it happened! It must have happened to you, right??' etc etc. And Kaoru was like, 'uhhh, not really' 😂 He said he forgets about the urge to go to the toilet while he is concentrating on playing guitar. Joe then asked him about any embarrassing events on stage, and Kaoru told him about when his platform boots buckled inwards, and another time back in the day when his pvc pants split, but they had a secure inner lining, so he was safe.

There was also quite a bit of time spent trying to get hints from Kaoru about the new album...the most he would give was that it maybe has a mysterious quality about it... so basically no hints. Skipping forward a bit, the last question of the audience q and a asked Kaoru to express the album feeling in a facial expression of his own. The audience counted down 3, 2, 1....and Kaoru did a big cute smile and a love heart sign with his hands! The audience screamed with joy.

Anyway, getting back on track, about Kaoru's early life, he talked about the time he disappeared from in front of his house once when he was about 3, and was found in a park some distance away. He parents had to start a neighborhood search for him. He remembers being taken home in the bicycle child seat of the woman who lived next door, perhaps it was her who took him in the first place. But he was unharmed.

He also remembered the penguin tv commercial he loved when he was little.

Another new anecdote was about the time he played a taiban in Himeji at Live House Beta (I think it was this venue which he named), and he fell asleep in the dressing room backstage. While he was asleep, he had a terrible dream about being strangled violently by someone, and he woke up suddenly all shaked and creeped out. The staff told him later that that lIve house/dressing room, is know to be 'dangerous'(haunted). When Joe asked him why he was at this venue in Himeji, he got all embarrassed and told Joe to shut up multiple times. Joe kept trying to get him to talk, but he was like No, next subject, Joe shut up, no, nothing to see here. And he was actually going red. I have NO idea why he was embarrassed about the reason he went to Himeji.

Joe and Kaoru were engrossed in talking about baseball players from (im assuming) the 80s, when Fujieda suddenly realised it was only a few seconds away from middnight, and so we had a sudden 5 second countdown, then all the lights went down, a cake was brought out, and everyone sang happy birthday to Kaoru.

The cake was choc strawberry and had candles which were the member colours of Dir, with purple in the middle.

Fujieda took the cake and ran around the audience with it to show everyone. A fan requested Kaoru to pose for a picture holding the cake, which he did (Fujieda took the photos, not the fan). Kaoru also said he wanted the cake to be sliced because he wanted to eat some!🥹 And he did have quite a few big forkfulls.

It was almost time to finish, when they realised they hadnt done the q&a (we all submitted a question before the event started). I would say about 9 or 10 questions were asked out of about 100, and mine was the first one!! Joe read it out, and called out my name and asked me to raise my hand. While i was doIng this Kaoru answered the question briefly, but I was so shocked I didnt register his answer!! The question was askIng what books he has read lately. (In hindsight, prob none, since he has been busy 😅).

The talk finished at about 12:30, and a little screen was set up by the door. Kaoru was sat at a table behind it, and we all got to greet him individually on the way out, exchange a few words, give him presents, and he gave us each a signed photo and a used guitar pic.

I got to sleep past 3am, and had to be up at 6am to see to issues with my kids via phone, so I was running on adrenaline on day 2.

Kaoru did go to the buffet at breakfast, but I was down there early each day so missed him. This is fine with me though, because im the clumsy type, and id rather not he see me knocking a tray over or something (I didn't, but I prob would have if he was in front of me at breakfast).

After breakfast was done, we all got on the bus for about a 45min drive to Koshien stadium, and we were led straight into the Premium Lounge of the stadium for lunch.

Lunch was the famous Koshien curry, with fried chicken and salad. Seating was predecided, and lucky for me I got a seat directly facing Kaoru. Kaoru, Joe, and Fujieda had a table at the head of the room, and I was on a nearby table, with an unobstructed view to him. Felt slightly self conscious knowing he could easily see me with my mouth full of karaage, but I got over it, haha. During lunch, the staff came and presented Kaoru with a birthday present, which was a brand new dark blue Hanshin happi. He was so happy with it, he put it on straight away and wore it all day. During this time, Kaoru talked (amongst other things) about how he used to have a part-time job at koshien selling beer in the stands. He was under 20 at the tIme, so he wasnt allowed to drink any of it himself.

After lunch we split Into two groups, and my group, Kaoru, and Joe were led off to start the stadium tour. We were first led into the bullpen room, and the Koshien staff gave a little talk about the room and its use. Photos were allowed in this room (as long as they didn't include Kaoru), so we stayed there for 15 mins or so while people took photos. Kaoru just standing among us, watching. Then we were led to a kind of locker room, which the players use for preparing themselves for games (post-changing into their uniforms). The staff asked us all to take a seat, and then explained which players usually sit in each area of the room. Kaoru sat opposite me. Kaoru then got up and went to the far end of the room while people took photos, but the exit was at the other end of the room, so when it was time to leave, he walked right by me and brushed my arm with his happi sleeve. Happy days!

Next we were led into the main grounds, and listened to the staff explain trivia etc while taking photos. A big billboard lit up across from us with the date and a big message saying 'Welcome to Koshien, Hyogo Tora no ana'. I thInk Kaoru really enjoyed that. Again, he was just standing amongst us enjoying the scene. No one tried to speak to him univited or crowd about him unnaturally, there was an unspoken rule to be respectful to him and allow him to feel comfortable.

After this Kaoru went off for a 15mIn break before joining the other group for their stadium tour. Our group had an hour to browse the Hanshin museum freely.

Back at the hotel, we had dinner and a bit of free tIme. I should mention here that dinner was a buffet, but there was also a main dish pre-selected by Kaoru for everyone on each day. Day 1 was steak, and day 2 was fish. We also got a Kaoru cookie with each dinner too, a 薫っ子 cookie and a 薫誕 cookie.

Then the day 2 talk event. This time I was assigned a seat on the front row, so couldn't quite believe my luck.

This tIme, Kaoru was wearing a fancy looking HanshIn jacket, with a tshirt underneath, and black trousers, black shoes, hair tied up.

This talk began with Kaoru wishing himself happy birthday for his opening toast. He got another cake today, this time it was brought out to the Hanshin Tigers theme song Rokko Oroshi, and we all clapped along.

Then a recap of 2025, the American tour, the domestic tours, and the two festivals. As for the American tour, their main original plan was just to attend that festival, but they figured they could do some solo dates in addition. Kaoru was a bit disappointed about the fes being cancelled.

He said that he first got the idea for a koshien stadium tour after he went on the Dodgers stadium tour with Ryota in LA.

Lots of talk about where he wants to do the next TNA trip...his initial idea was that somewhere around Shizuoka area would be good. Joe also suggested Kamakura, which Kaoru liked the sound of too.

As for album talk, he talked about when he records backing vocals with the other 3, the results always sounds nothing like what the lyrics actually are.

They moved onto the festivals, and Kaoru said the after party at Brahman fes was about a million tImes more crowded than at Lunafes. Playing at festivals with other bands backstage reminded hIm of lynch, because when Dir and lynch appear at any event togther, their dressing rooms are usually close, and he can alway hear their 'leader' (Reo?) talking loudly but no other sounds, even from Dir's own dressing room. Then he said, he will usually go along and see whats going on, and its always just 'leader' talking loudly and incessantly, and the other members nodding along silently.

He also told Joe some more info from his early life, how he was in the tech club at junior high school, how he wanted to be a manga artist as a teen, and how he once had a 15min per day part-time job clearing pet cages inside the petshop before closing time. Joe seemed to have no idea about these facts, and he asked the audience,'Did you guys know all this??'. Of course, I knew all this, so nodded confidently, and I notIced Kaoru looked over, who then said, 'Yeah, some people might know already'.

At one point he took off his jacket, and being so close, I could see all his tattoos clearly. It was such a good seat, because Kaoru would naturally look out to the front row when talkIng, so I got lots of glances in my direction from him.

Another q&a corner with lots of fun questions, and then another chance to talk to Kaoru individually on they way out. I felt much less nervous speakIng to him on this day than I did on day 1. He smiled and responded in such a friendly way. I was truly on cloud 9.

For the whole event, Kaoru also gave each person a hand-written name tag to wear. The name tags were purple, and the same type that kindergarteners wear. Kaoru made one for himself too, and for Joe and Fujieda. They all wore them, it was so cute.

I will treasure havIng my name written for me by him forever.

There was obviously much more to the talk events than I have ability to write, and lots of limited video contents available too.

Finally, when about to leave, Kaoru came onto our bus quickly to wish us a safe journey home, and stood and waved till our bus was out of sight. I was so emotional.