I haven't said anything in my blog previously but I can definitely say it now. I have attended my very first KinKi Kids' concert!!! YEAHHHHH!!! I still cannot believe it but I had finally stepped into Tokyo Dome and spent the last day of 2009 and the first day of 2010 with KinKi Kids at their J concert tour! I don't think any words can express that very moment where I finally saw Tsuyoshi and Koichi face to face. I am just so touched and blessed by the whole experience and can only thank God for it all.
Right from the start, everything was touch and go, and hence I dare not say anything for fear of jinxing my chances. My KinKi Kids' fanclub membership card only arrived 2 days before the deadline for submission of application form for the concert tickets. Whew! It wasn't until 9 Dec that I received news from my proxy that I have successfully been ballotted the concert tickets for 31 Dec and 1 Jan. I was elated but that was also the start of a 1-2 week period of suspense and worry about whether I will be able to get hold of my concert tickets, airplane tickets, hotel, etc. I finally received confirmation from my proxy just 2 days before my departure that the concert tickets had been mailed to my Tokyo hotel. Thankfully, all things went well and the concert tickets and fanclub membership card landed safely in our hands when we arrived at the hotel.
This is my KinKi Kids' fanclub membership card.
These are my concert tickets. When I saw the word "arena" on my 31 Dec ticket, I was so happy that I couldn't stop grinning. I couldn't help wishing that the arena seats were for the 1 Jan concert but I quickly told myself I shouldn't be greedy. I was already so blessed to get the concert tickets for these 2 nights.
So on 31 Dec, we went to Tokyo Dome in the morning to purchase the concert goods first. We nearly landed up in the wrong queue as there were 2 queues for concert goods, one for Johnny's Countdown and one for KinKi Kids' J Concert Tour. The signages simply said concert goods and the queue right before our exit from our Metropolitan subway station was actually for the Johnny's Countdown. Fortunately, the queue was long and by the time we managed to reach the end of the queue, we were halfway round the Tokyo Dome. Then, we saw the other queue and realised that that was the one for KinKi Kids' concert goods! Thankfully, we didn't queue wrongly.
We joined the KinKi Kids' concert goods queue at about 11.30 am. The queue was very long but as usual, the Japanese are very efficient and we reached the booths after about 45 minutes. As I was helping some friends back home buy the concert goods as well, it came to quite a lot and people around me must have thought I was one of those proxy merchants......Thankfully, my friend was there to help me but I felt paiseh that she had to wait for me as I had to join many separate queues to buy all the items and quantities. Without her, I couldn't have managed to carry so many things back to hotel.
If you are reading this blog, thank you for being so patient and kind throughout this trip.
Below are photos of the Tokyo Dome and J concert tour logo.
This is taken whilst in the queue.
That's us with our victory concert goods!
This is the J logo during the day.
This is the J concert banner(?)
We managed to also get the KinKi Kids' fan for Johnny's Countdown 2009-10 as the KinKi Kids' concert goods booths also sold that. I think KinKi Kids' fan looks the best but of course, I am biased! :P
After dropping off the concert goods at the hotel, we came back to Tokyo Dome. At about 5pm, we queued to go into the arena. When we stepped into the arena and saw where we were seated, my friend and I were so elated that we couldn't help doing little shrieks. We were seated right in the center column of the arena in the 3rd block from the front stage!!! Ahhhhhhhh! We were only about 50 metres from the front stage! If you look at the seating plan below, the pink spot is where our seats were on 31 Dec.
As for the 1 Jan seats, we thought we would be right at the top level, left hand corner of the dome since the seat description seems to mean 3rd level side. However, we guessed wrongly. We actually had very good seats at the first level stand slightly off to the left side. The red spot on the seat plan above would be where our seats were. We had a good view of the mini-stage in front of the stand as well as the whole front stage and arena area! My friend said on the 1 Jan night that we can now see the whole stage effect as well as the performances off the front stage which we couldn't see very well from the arena. She was right!
I don't know how people managed to take photos during the concert as there were so many "security personnel" around. There were also signs stating that we would be removed from the dome if we take photos. I managed to "smuggle" my camera in but I didn't dare to take it out at all. Sob sob!
The front stage is actually a moving stage and Tsuyoshi and Koichi actually passed about
2 metres above our arena seats on 31 Dec when the stage moved to the mini-stage at the back! When the stage was moving towards us, I was so worried that we will not get to see their faces as they were both at the left and right sides of the stage. When the edge of the stage moved to about 2-3 rows before me, Tsuyoshi suddenly walked over to our end, looked down, gave a gentle and sweet smile and wiggled his fingers in his customary downward wave! He looked just like he is on screen, innocent, sweet and gentle. That was the best moment for me! Tsuyoshi was probably 3-4 metres from me! It would have been even more wonderful if Koichi had also come over but I must not be greedy.
I took the screen caps below from Johnny's Countdown. The red dot would be where we were seated. That's probably the closest I will ever get to Tsuyoshi. I will always treasure this memory.
At the end of the 31 Dec concert, when all the golden ribbons fell down on the arena, it was really a marvelous sight standing right underneath the waterfall of golden ribbons. Below is picture of the golden ribbon that I got.
This is the photo of the J logo taken at about 3 pm before we entered the arena. You will notice that the plague on the right states "KinKi Kids concert tour".
This was taken after the 31 Dec concert. The plague had been removed and changed to "Countdown"! The "J" was really useful! Lol! But this meant I had to try and take the night photo of the J again tomorrow if I wanted the KinKi Kids' plague. Orz...