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-   -   All the way to Japan for 2 concerts? Sure, why not! AC C/Y (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports/1676819-all-way-japan-2-concerts-sure-why-not-ac-c-y.html)

glennaa11 May 1, 2015 10:45 pm

All the way to Japan for 2 concerts? Sure, why not! AC C/Y
 
Intro/Planning

It seemed like a totally crazy idea at first: go to Japan from DC for 3 days to see a couple of concerts. It still was a crazy idea after it was all planned and completed. But somehow I survived.

[sorry it’s just a lot of words for a while, pictures below]

I have always subscribed to the notion that when you’re going halfway around the world you should spend as much time there as possible to make it worthwhile. In the last several years I have spent 3-4 weeks in Asia once a year. In fact,I have another one of those trips planned for December. So, wrapping my head around a trip all the way to Japan for just a couple of days was tough.

A little quick background on how this trip happened… Over the last several months I have become slightly obsessed with Korean rock/pop band CNBLUE. I am not exactly in their target demographic for some reason as I am probably about twice as old as most of their fans as well as the opposite gender. Although frankly I am baffled that they don’t have more male fans. Perhaps they just don’t go to the concerts. Anyway, I learned early in March that they would be releasing a new single in Japan on April 8 with a short tour to follow. Very short. As in, one show in Osaka and then two nights in Yokohama on Friday and Saturday, April 24 and 25. A quick check of my schedule and it just so happened that these concerts would fall on the weekend of my usual Friday off in my compressed work schedule. Immediately my mind started considering the possibilities. I could leave on Wednesday, arrive Thursday, see the shows on Friday and Saturday and come home Sunday.

There were a number of pieces that needed to fall into place to make it happen. Could I get tickets to the shows? Could I find reasonable flight options? Having never been to Japan, would I be able to get where I needed to be without too much trouble?

Thus began my research into the Byzantine world of Japanese concert tickets. In a case like this where the band has a big fan club, there are multiple rounds of fan club presales and then whatever tickets are left are sold to the general public. But in order to buy them you need to use a ticket machine at a convenience store. Internet sales via a service like Ticketmaster appear to also be possible but the site is only in Japanese and I believe you need to have Japanese address. I looked into joining the fan club, but again the website was only in Japanese and you need to have a Japanese address, but apparently it is possible to circumvent that. There are services that will help you join the fanclub and then forward any items that the club sends out to your home address. But they tend to be very expensive. The good news is that there are several astute small businesses which have sprung up to help foreigners buy concert and event tickets. For a fee they act as your agent to buy tickets for you and will send them to your hotel for you to pick up when you arrive. There are several of these companies which charge varying fees. (Some of them also will buy other items for you beside tickets). There is also a re-sale ticket market that some of the services will buy you tickets from but some will not as technically it violates the terms of the tickets. In my case, through the social network I was directed to a girl from Malaysia who had tickets for sale for Saturday’s how. I made contact with her and that was one ticket down. For the other I used a service called jegoods.com that charged a reasonable fee to buy me a ticket via the resale market www.ticket.co.jp. The other oddity is that all tickets cost the same price. And for the pre-sales you are basically entering a lottery and don’t find out where you are sitting until you get the tickets 10-14 days before the show. However in the resale market the seller sets the price so better seats cost more once the tickets are finally released. However some will also sell their tickets before they know where the location will be. Sorry that is all a bit long-winded but I found the whole process strange and worth mentioning.

For the flights I first started looking for frequent flier availability. Since it was only a month or so before the trip there wasn’t much out there in business class. Without any date flexibility it was doubly difficult to find any flights and I couldn’t afford to wait until the last minute. So I made the decision to bite the bullet and pay cash for a ticket. I considered flying in Y, but a 12 or 13 hour flight back there just wasn’t going to happen. I am too used to flying up front. And I have trouble sleeping on planes in any class, so I knew that it would be too much for me to do these flights with such a short turn-around in Y. In the end I found a special sale fare on Air Canada that was only available through certain travel agencies including Orbitz. The fare was over $1000 less than even AC’s own website. I paid $3400 for a C class ticket DCA-YYZ-HND-YYZ-IAD. The DC-YYZ legs were in Y. And the YYZ-IAD leg was to be on UX. Since the shows were in Yokohama it made more sense to fly into HND if I could since it’s only about a 40 minute bus ride from the airport to Yokohama.

The shows were at Yokohama Arena which is apparently the largest arena in Japan. The arena is located in the area called Shin-Yokohama about a third of a mile or so from the Shin-Yokohama rail station. In researching hotels I discovered a place called the Associa Hotel Shin-Yokohama which is located right on top of the station. It’s part of a shopping complex that is fairly new. The hotel occupies floors 10-19, the top of the building. Floors 3-9 are shopping and restaurants including an outlet of Bic Camera which is a large electronics retailer. The airport bus from HND stops right in front of the building. And the rate on Agoda was only $125/night.

Flights
AC 7353 DCA-YYZ E75
Weds., 4/22 dep 11:30, arr 12:57

This was a short AC Express flight that was uneventful and unremarkable. Arrived on time.

Once at YYZ it was a long walk to transfer. Since I was connecting to an international flight in the same terminal there was no real line at the transfer immigration. I still was required to fill out the Canada customs form.

The Maple Leaf Lounge at YYZ terminal 1 is pretty nice. I didn’t take any pictures but it seemed fairly new. There was a small buffet with hot food that was OK. I just had some of the pasta and cookies. They have an area with computers and internet access.There seemed to be plenty of seating the time I was there around lunchtime.

AC5 YYZ-HND B777-300ER
Weds. 4/22. dep 13:40, arr 15:35+1 (actual 15:05+1)

This was AC’s old style C class cabin with the herringbone “suites” in 1-2-1 layout. I was in 9K which is in the second business class section behind the galley. This flight was only about half full overall with only about 6 people in my C class section. The seats have almost no storage space. Amenity kits included the usual stuff (toothbrush, moisturizer, lip balm, earplugs, eye shades…) plus a pair of slippers.

Service was pretty good and the flight attendants were a mix of Japanese and Canadians who were a mix of ages. I decided that I would try to get myself onto Japan time as best I could so I skipped the meal service and tried to get some sleep for a while first. They have a “flex” meal option which I chose. I put in my request for the chicken dish before I laid down. I rested for a few hours and managed to doze off for a bit. The seats are very hard though. I tried putting a blanket down to soften things a little. I also grabbed an extra pillow from an empty seat.

The AVOD is OK but my touchscreen had some issues. Some content was not available for whatever reason.

We arrived a bit early at HND. It was my first time at the airport. Immigration was quick. I only had a carry on so I was on the 15:45 bus on my way to the hotel. The bus is only 840 yen (about $7) and it took around 45 minutes to get to the hotel as it stops at the domestic terminals first before heading to Yokohama.


Yokohama
I was pretty tired and battling a cold but I wanted to at least stay awake until 9 or so to get my clock reset. There are lots of places to eat around the station. I grabbed a quick bite and decided to go for a walk to see how far away the arena was. There are some walkways that are above street level so you can walk without having to cross a lot of streets.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-k...8" width="640"

The arena was only about 5-10 minutes or so away on foot.

Friday morning I decided to go into downtown Yokohama to do some sightseeing. So I bought a PASMO card at the Shin-Yokohama subway station and took the metro 7 stops to the Sakaguchiro station. It was about 9:30 when I set out so tail end of rush hour I guess. The train was full but not uncomfortably crowded. Yokohama’s subway has 2 lines. The blue line is quite long. I think the system is relatively new. The fare was reasonable at about US$2.

It took me a little time to get my bearings. The station is near Landmark Tower which has an observation deck on the 69th floor and it is reached by the fastest elevator in Japan. But first I walked around the waterfront for a while. The weather was beautiful. Warm, but not too warm and mostly sunny.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-r...0" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-l...0" width="423"
Landmark Tower

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-D...0" width="640"
another circular pedestrian overpass

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-5...0" width="532"
Historic red brick warehouses

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-b...0" width="634"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-y...0" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-n...0" width="640"
For some reason they were having a German-themed Spring festival

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-R...0" width="640"
I happened upon this little park with lots of pretty flowers

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-W...5" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--...0" width="564"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-h...0" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-U...1" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-R...1" width="640"
Yokohama Skyline

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1...9" width="640"
Old railroad bridge from the USA

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Q...0" width="480"

At this point I decided to visit the observation deck since it was a nice day and I am a sucker for those things. In this case it was only 1000 yen (US$8.50). For some reason the women working there seemed to just assume that I speak fluent Japanese.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-z...8" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-n...1" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-t...9" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3...4" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-r...1" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-N...9" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-a...3" width="640"

Having seen the view I headed back down. The down elevator drops you off in the shopping mall on the lower levels of the building. I was getting a bit tired from all the walking by now so I saw a couple of more things and then headed back to the subway.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-V...0" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-u...0" width="640"

I spent some time resting after a quick bite to eat for lunch.

Friday’s show started at 18:30. That was the other thing about Japanese concerts that was a little different for me. The shows start very early. Doors opened at 17:30. I arrived around 17:00 because I had to meet Nadiyah the Malaysian girl who had my ticket to Saturday’s show. Friday’s ticket was waiting for me at the hotel when I arrived. Apparently it is quite common for Japanese hotels to accept packages for guests. You just have to make sure your name and arrival date are noted on the package. By total happenstance I was in row 44 on the floor and Nadiyah and her friend were in row 45, right behind me. That was a strange coincidence.

Generally speaking I am not a huge fan of arena concerts. If you are on the floor you can’t see much and the sound is usually not great. In this case they had big video screens which helped a lot and the sound was actually surprisingly good.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7...0" width="640"
Pre-show queues. Out of about 12000 people at the show I’d guess fewer than 100 were not female.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-s...0" width="640"
The view from my seat.

The show was very good. Luckily my seat on Saturday was much closer to the stage and off the floor. They played a little over two hours so we were leaving a little after 20:30. By then I was pretty tired between the jetlag and the day spent on my feet.

glennaa11 May 1, 2015 10:45 pm

Saturday morning I was up around 8. I took my time getting the day started and had breakfast. From there I walked around the neighborhood a little bit. At the arena there was a large crowd of people in line to buy tour merchandise. The line went up around the building.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-b...5" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-6...4" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-R...1" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-q...0" width="479"

At this point I made the spur of the moment decision to take the Shinkansen into Tokyo. I had a few hours to kill so it seemed like a good thing to do. The train only took about 20 minutes to reach the Tokyo main station. The fare was about $11 each way.

Once I got to Tokyo I didn’t really have a plan. I thought I would just walk around a little bit and see where I ended up. Then I saw some signs for the Imperial Palace which is not far from the station so that seemed like something worth doing. It took me a little while to figure out how to get inside. You can walk around the grounds for free. So that’s what I did.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-z...9" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-i...6" width="640"
Tokyo rail station

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-I...8" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0...0" width="628"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-X...0" width="480"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-z...0" width="640"
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Z...0" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-I...4" width="640"
Old and new

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-X...3" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-a...0" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-t...0" width="638"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-u...4" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-u...0" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-z...0" width="599"

By this time my feet were killing me and it was getting pretty cloudy so I decided to head back to the station and catch a train back to Shin-Yokohama. It was a little bit more complicated since there are so many tracks and trains and everything is only in Japanese but I eventually found the right place to be.

Saturday’s show started at 17:00. I knew I didn’t need to be there too early so I headed over to the arena around 16:30.

There are some real differences between concerts in Japan versus the US. The arena staff didn’t check bags of people coming in. I was able to carry in a bottle of water and no one batted an eye. No way any arena in the USA would allow that. Drinks inside were also reasonably priced. The audience is a lot more respectful and into the show. No one talks unlike the constant chatter at shows here. You could have heard a pin drop during the quiet songs.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-H...0" width="640"
That’s much better!

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3...4" width="640"
Most people had these blue paddle light things that they waved throughout the show. It looked pretty cool.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-f...0" width="640"
I wish my phone had a better camera

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-q...9" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Z...6" width="640"
The band taking a bow.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-l...6" width="640"

Another great show, greatly enhanced by my much better seat and view.

Since it was over a little after 19:00 I had some evening to play with. In doing research I found out that the Cosmo clock down on the waterfront lights up and night. I love night time photography, so I grabbed my camera and tripod and jumped on the metro back to Yokohama.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-y...0" width="626"
Cosmo Clock

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-t...5" width="640"
Cosmo World has just a couple of rides but the spin around which makes them very photogenic.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-z...2" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0...2" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-I...6" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0...9" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-m...0" width="489"
Cosmo clock is also a big Ferris wheel

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-N...5" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-H...0" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-v...0" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-n...0" width="640"

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-v...0" width="562"
They light the boat up at night too

Then it was time to call it a night. My flight on Sunday wasn’t until 17:40. I had arranged a late check out at the cost of about $50 which seemed reasonable to me. I could have just stored my bag with them and gone out for the day, but I was still dealing with my cold and felt like it was worth spending the money to take it easy. I didn’t feel like doing much so after breakfast I just spent a couple of hours shopping in the mall. There is a Bic Camera in the building that goes from floors 3-9. Lots of fun electronics. There’s also a UNI QLO and a couple of other stores.

Around 14:00 I figured I better start packing. The 14:45 bus seemed to make the most sense. I checked out a little after 14:30.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-i...8" width="640"
view of Yokohama from my hotel room

I got to the airport around 15:30 which was plenty of time. I used one of the kiosks to check in and made my way through immigration.

ANA has two lounges. I figured it made sense to go to the one near my gate at the opposite end of the terminal. Once I arrived there I discovered it was closed! I was not a happy camper at that point and had to drag myself all the way back to the other end of the terminal where the other lounge was. It was a good sized lounge with a small buffet and lots of seating. I spent a little time sending some emails before it was time to head back to the gate.
AC 6 HND-YYZ B777-300ER
dep 17:40 arr 16:40 (actual 16:43)
10A

The Sunday return flight was full. It was a full load in C and I think Y was pretty full too.

This time my touchscreen was working so I was able to enjoy the entertainment system a bit more. The flight was operated by a SENIOR crew of Canadians. Service was fine but nothing special. By the time they got back to me the chicken entree was already sold out so I had to settle for the fish. It was OK.

The flight was generally uneventful other than a good of turbulence from time to time. I watched some content on the IFE then spent time after dinner editing photos before I started feeling really tired so I took a little nap for a while. The time seemed to go by quickly enough and we got to YYZ just a little behind schedule.

Since I was connecting to the US I had to follow the signs through the connection area. Since I have Global Entry I was able to skip ahead and use the kiosk. The instructions said to give the slip to the person at the exit. When I headed to do that though I got yelled at because the immigration person had to stamp it first for some reason.

From there it was a 100 mile hike to the UX basement. To say this area is a dump is an understatement. It might as well not even be in the same airport. I saw that the 17:00 flight to IAD had been delayed so I thought I would hustle down to the gate and see if I could get on. By the time I arrived though it was already gone. I had about an hour or so to kill at that point.

Eventually boarding was called for UX3803. From the terminal dump you walk another 50 miles outside and walk across the tarmac to get to the aircraft.

UX3803 YYZ-IAD CRJ700
dep 19:30 arr 20:57 CXLd

Once on board we were informed that the APU wasn’t working. The flight was full so it started get hot quickly. The captain also informed us that she was getting some sort of error message and had to call maintenance to check it out. So we sat baking on the plane for about 30 minutes before we were informed that the issue couldn’t be fixed and the flight was canceled.

So we were required to re-enter Canada and go through immigration before heading back to the departures level to be re-booked. I was not a happy camper. It took a while to get through the immigration queue but at least we were allowed to go through the connection line instead of having to wait in the main line.

After arriving at the United desks I had to wait about 10-15 minutes. Since I didn’t have any checked bags I was able to be among the first at the desk. The agent claimed to have rebooked me on the 7:30 AM flight on AC to DCA and gave me a voucher for the airport Sheraton gateway hotel and 3 food vouchers worth C$27.

From there it was a slog to the airport train to the other terminal and the hotel. I didn’t have to wait too long in line and get a room. The Sheraton was willing to trade me a hotel food voucher for the airport food vouchers. I used that at the hotel restaurant to grab some dinner.

I figured I needed to get up around 5 to check in for my 7:30 flight.

Monday morning I was up early and headed to the Air Canada check in area. The kiosk kept giving me an error message when I typed in my record locator so I had to go to one of the special handling desks. Once I got to an agent it was discovered that in fact the UA agent had basically canceled my ticket and had not re-booked by on the 7:30 flight at all! I was even less happy at that point. They tried to see if they could re-instate me but that told me there was nothing they could do and suggested that I would have to call Orbitz to fix things! I decided that since UA f-ed this up they would be the ones that would have to fix it.

So, it was back to the UA desk. I asked for a supervisor but was told there were none there at the time. Eventually the agent was able to book me on the 10:50AM AC flight to DCA. But she couldn’t give me a boarding pass. I wasn’t happy about having to go back to AC to check in but she suggested I try one of the kiosks first. That worked.

So it was back to Global Entry and back into the airside terminal with several hours to kill. I could have slept in! I managed to get another set of food vouchers out of them (C$27 more) so I could get some breakfast.

I did a little airplane watching

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-X...0" width="640"

At least the real airport is pretty nice and AC’s flights operate out of there. They have nice tables with iPads or you can use your own computer with the free wifi. I killed the rest of my time online and then it was time to board.

AC 7354 YYZ-DCA E75
dep 10:50 arr 11:57 (actual 12:00)

In the end traveling on AC was very much preferable to UX. The E75 is much more comfortable than the CRJ700. AC has personal entertainment at every seat and the cabin is more open and less cramped feeling. The flight was uneventful. I would choose AC over UA/UX 100 times out of 100.

It was certainly a whirlwind trip. For basically 72 hours on the ground it was insane. But the concerts were great and it was fun to experience them. I’m glad I did it, but I am not sure I need to do it again any time soon. Basically every tour they have ever done is available on DVD (and YouTube). But being in the building was worth doing once.

Kagehitokiri May 1, 2015 11:32 pm

korean band in japan - reminds me of when i added a city to a european trip to see a japanese band in germany.

good report! business class fare makes me want to cry considering what i paid for transcontinental F+Y recently.

OMGImInPattaya May 2, 2015 6:43 am

I've gone SFO-JFK, BKK-SIN, BKK-KUL, and BKK-MFM for concerts but I think you've got me beat by an ocean.

arlflyer May 2, 2015 9:07 am

Cool TR but for some reason I feel obligated to nitpick...whatever you're doing to a lot of your photos, the HDRing or hypersaturating or whatever the kids are doing with their photoshop these days, it's a little too turnt up for my liking. The loopy rollercoaster sculpture thingies look like renderings. I think you could turn down for what just a tiny bit and have them still look great. Just if you're looking for feedback. But great TR - great text, unique story, and good photos!

mapleg May 2, 2015 10:18 am

Thanks for the report. Since YYZ is my home airport, I can fly direct YYZ to HND or NRT, but for some reason was contemplating flying indirect via USA and United.

Your tale of woe on the YYZ-DCA flight has convinced me I must be crazy to even think about indirect routings like that.

Kagehitokiri May 2, 2015 10:37 am


Originally Posted by mapleg (Post 24754770)
Your tale of woe on the YYZ-DCA flight has convinced me I must be crazy to even think about indirect routings like that.

looking at flightstats departures out of YYZ >
2025 LGA
2045 JFK
2055 DCA
2055 BWI
2100 EWR
2120 PHL
0600 JFK
0600 IAD

glennaa11 May 2, 2015 12:24 pm


Originally Posted by arlflyer (Post 24754524)
Cool TR but for some reason I feel obligated to nitpick...whatever you're doing to a lot of your photos, the HDRing or hypersaturating or whatever the kids are doing with their photoshop these days, it's a little too turnt up for my liking. The loopy rollercoaster sculpture thingies look like renderings. I think you could turn down for what just a tiny bit and have them still look great. Just if you're looking for feedback. But great TR - great text, unique story, and good photos!

I did turn the vibrance up a bit in DxO Optics Pro for some shots.

The loopy art thing was tough lighting conditions with the bright and shadows so I did boost the shadows and turn the highlights down a bit along with a little extra vibrance for the sky. I do see what you're saying though. I guess it's just a personal preference thing.

glennaa11 May 2, 2015 12:30 pm


Originally Posted by mapleg (Post 24754770)
Thanks for the report. Since YYZ is my home airport, I can fly direct YYZ to HND or NRT, but for some reason was contemplating flying indirect via USA and United.

Your tale of woe on the YYZ-DCA flight has convinced me I must be crazy to even think about indirect routings like that.

In general I avoid UA at all costs. It will be a long time before I ever book on them on purpose. In this case I had a choice between UA and AC and picked the UA flight because it was supposed to get me home an hour and a half earlier.

I really wanted to fly the direct NH flight from IAD to NRT but it would have just cost way too much. This particular route on AC (YYZ-HND) worked better for where I needed to go and it was comfortable enough but those old coffin seats' biggest negative for me it the complete lack of storage space at the seat. I'd be interested in trying out their new 787 C class though. I guess they use that aircraft on AC 1/2 to NRT.

arlflyer May 2, 2015 7:11 pm


Originally Posted by glennaa11 (Post 24755199)
I did turn the vibrance up a bit in DxO Optics Pro for some shots.

The loopy art thing was tough lighting conditions with the bright and shadows so I did boost the shadows and turn the highlights down a bit along with a little extra vibrance for the sky. I do see what you're saying though. I guess it's just a personal preference thing.

Definitely was small in the grand scheme of things, just felt compelled (it's the Internet after all) to give my two cents. Overall, I certainly want it to be known that my position is: awesome TR and great drive for following your passion!

Aventine May 3, 2015 8:50 am

You had quite a journey and took some nice photos of Yokohama spring and Imperial Palace. Simply gorgeous. Nice to see someone following their passions and maybe next time come to Korea to see them in their home country?

glennaa11 May 3, 2015 9:36 am

I do want to visit Korea some time soon. I've recently started listening to a lot of Korean Indie bands too. Ultimately I think CNBLUE plays a lot more shows in Japan than they do in Korea. They seem to release more singles and albums there as well. And I like the Japanese tracks better...more rock, less pop.

traveling_newbie May 27, 2015 1:53 pm

Love your trip report! Can't believe you flew all the way to Japan to see their concerts.
I absolutely love CNBlue and I went to their show in when they came to Los Angeles with FT Island.

glennaa11 May 27, 2015 2:10 pm

Cool. I am thinking the small club/theater experience must be a very different thing to the arena experience. I usually prefer much smaller venues, but getting the full light show, "special stage" orchestra interlude, etc was neat. I can't quite believe I did it either! But YOLO, I suppose.

Aventine May 28, 2015 3:50 am


Originally Posted by glennaa11 (Post 24758274)
I do want to visit Korea some time soon. I've recently started listening to a lot of Korean Indie bands too. Ultimately I think CNBLUE plays a lot more shows in Japan than they do in Korea. They seem to release more singles and albums there as well. And I like the Japanese tracks better...more rock, less pop.

Maybe you're right. Korea is all about the pop and boy/girl bands.


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