Today was the day we (but especially Michelle) was waiting for. A couple of months ago there was a lottery for the concerts of L'Arc~en~Ciel in Yokohama and Tokyo. Actually, there were several lotteries and even with the help of a Japanese colleague we had some difficulties figuring out how to participate. To be sure we would be going, we participated twice. We were lucky however and 'won' both times two tickets, which didn't meant you would receive free tickets, but that you were given the opportunity to buy the tickets. We picked one of our two winnings and went to get them at the SevenEleven. The seats were divided random between all lottery winners and on the ticket we could see at which section and row we would sit but because we had no idea where the stage would be build we really had no clue where we sat. All we had to do then was wait until the date arrived.

When the day arrived we thought it was a better idea not to go too early because of the thousands of people who were coming to Yokohama. But eventually it did not matter, our guess is it is always busy no matter how early you come. When we arrived at Kikuna, we saw a dozen men guiding everybody to the train that would bring us to Shin-Yokohama. It was very funny, some of these people were just holding a rope to guide all the people in the right direction. There were also a few guys continuously yelling something in their megaphone. It probably was to inform us not to run or push or something like that, but because more than one person was yelling it was a very chaotic display. Soon we arrived at the platform where we were crammed in with a LOT of other people who were waiting for the same train. Here some people were yelling as well and making sure there were neat lines before the trains arrived. The couldn't take the first train that arrived because nobody would fit in anymore. You must have heard of the packed trains in Tokyo, well this was a 1000 times worse. We were almost at the front of the waiting line when the next train came. We could get in very easy but than the pushing began. This was such craziness. We had to push back very hard to not get squashed in the crowd. It took almost all of our power to do so! Eventually the door closed and the human sardines were on their way to Shin-Yokohama, which was actually only one stop. During the trip one of the Japanese guys seemed to be a bit ashamed (but also a bit glad) to be squashed against Michelle. We were so relieved to get out of the cramped position!

We decided to walk to the Nissan Stadium were the concert was held. On our was we saw a lot of people with L'Arc~en~Ciel bags and special outfits who were going to the concert as well. Since that merchandise was of the current world tour, we guessed some of these people went both days that the concert was held. When we saw the stadium it was a very nice sight and while walking to the West gate we saw special L'Arc~en~Ciel flags on the flag poles as decoration. We were at a bit of a loss when we arrived, we did not see any souvenirs being sold while walking to the stadium. We did see a big section with tents but they were unreachable from were we walked. After some asking we discovered that those tents was where all the merchandise was sold. But from our position it was unreachable because of the thousands of people flowing to the stadium. We then decided to try and get there after the concert and entered the building to get to our seats. Finding our seats was harder than it seemed. Although we entered trough the West section as was stated on the tickets, we had to go up a few floors and even the special personnel who were there seemed to have a little trouble finding the right chairs, but eventually we got there and sat down to enjoy the grand view.

We were a lot further away than we ever expected but we were going to enjoy the concert just as much. When we took a picture a man came to tell us in perfect English that taking film or taking photos was forbidden. Then we wondered if this was the same guy who would not speak English to us when showing us our seats… Luckily, we had already took a picture before the warning to put on Facebook but the cell reception was BAD. Guess it had something to do with the thousands of people in the stadium who where all playing with their phone before the concert. It took a couple of tries but we eventually succeeded to get it online! We had nothing to do anyway before the concert. When the concert started we had to laugh about how tiny they were and realized we should have brought our binoculars we just brought with us from Holland. But the concert was great fun. It was really a different experience to see how a Japanese crowd reacts at a concert like this. A lot of people bought the light sticks at the souvenir stands and it was an amazing site. All the Japanese people generally moved identically, all moving as one on the beat of the music, that's it! Sometimes they jumped (when asked). But generally it was a bit tame. Strangely, even the people in the center had chairs and everybody just stood in front of them. We even noticed we did not see any lights of mobile phones or camera for a picture of the concert. Generally they keep to the rules. Later on we saw the concert in America on television and… well… you can guess, mobiles and cameras everywhere! The concert itself was spectacular with a real fire show and even fireworks. Although we could not really see the back of the stage very well at our angle we still enjoyed it very much. But we still consider to go to Paris again next time. In Paris it is a smaller concert, but you can always see the whole show and it is never too far away. But generally? We would not have missed this in the world. We left just before the ending of the last song, which we knew anyway, to be out before the crowd and we succeeded to get all souvenirs we wanted (poster, book, t-shirt, light stick and Pinky St. L'Arc~en~Ciel version). Afterwards we went to one of our favorite restaurants where we had to wait a record time (1 hour) to get some food. The thousands of concert visitors wanted something to eat as well of course. After our dinner most of the crowd was gone and it was a easy to get back home.