Thursday, June 3, 2010

OH YOKO.

This past weekend, I attended an event that would make some green with envy, and others green with nauseousness.




That's right, I attended my third Johnny's concert: 横山裕がやっちゃいますIII (Yokoyama You ga Yacchaimasu III). Of course it was a blast. After all, Yokoyama You is the reason for my major obsession with Kanjani8. In fact, when I first started listening to Kanjani8 and watching their TV shows, I swore up and down that I would only focus my attention on Yokoyama.

Look how great that turned out.

Back to the task on hand, attending one of these concerts is a really interesting Japanese culture experience. The way Japanese girls celebrate their idols is fascinating from a sociological perspective and if being there scares you at first, you should stick it out and simply observe. Many fans dress to get the attention of their idols on stage, whether they be in homemade costumes worn by the idols during previous performances or the infamous Eito Ranger costume.

In fact, creativity and craftiness is a huge part of attending a Johnny's concert. Its not only the clothing fans wear to attend, but the accessories they don as well. Giant head bows are a good place to start, but teddy bears dressed in handmade Eito Ranger suits are also an attention grabbing craft. No joke. This girl had her bears dressed as Red Rangers, one was a boy with pants and the other a girl with a skirt.

Scary? Yes. Adorable? UM YEAH.

Venues have poster size restrictions which prohibits anything bigger than a jumbo uchiwa from being displayed. Of course, with these limitations, fans find ways to make their uchiwas stand out. You can buy uchiwa supplies at craft stores in Japan, such as Loft and Tokyu Hands, all in their glittering neon-colored glory.




With these cultural facts in mind, I ventured out to the concert, held in Nagoya on this particular weekend, dressed to grab attention with my neon uchiwa and eito penlight in hand.



Needless to say, I fit right in...aside from the whole ~180cm tall, blonde haired, foreigner thing.

I've been in Japan since September 2009, and since I've been here I've had the opportunity to attend not only Yokoyama's concert in Nagoya, but his concert in Osaka, as well as Kanjani8's countdown at Kyocera Dome. The fans, to me, were just as entertaining as the concert. With the efforts Japanese fans put into their crafts, I'm sure showing them off at the concert must make the experience more memorable.

2 comments:

Bubbles said...

That is so fascinating to read, I don't think I've seen such an event on TV either but I have seen photos of girls dressed up so maybe it was on these types of occasions.... still it makes it all that more exciting to be going to such an event. Your outfit looks great :)

Anonymous said...

such an informative post, how awesome. so when i've seen like harjuku girls for example,are they really dressing like their favorite characters? Carmen (thomascl28 swap bot)

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