frayed

This is so true. Like spot on true. Also as far as activities yeah, there's still the rest of the Hangman tour, the newly announced three stop mobile member tour, and one live event they are signed on for in October. I guess we will see at the end of Hangman whether the mobile member tour is their last one man tour before the hiatus.

I know a lot of people on this forum aren't really big fans of Mejibray. I can understand why someone wouldn't like them, especially since it took me seeing them live to fall for them and I just did that on a whim since they were playing locally. But I did fall. I fell hard, and I've been following them pretty closely since then. I've made a lot of amazing friends and wonderful memories from following Mejibray, and so close after MeteoroiD ended, I haven't really processed how this makes me feel. If it's about just needing a break then of course I'm happy they can take the test they need. I am sort of concerned after the tweet that Koichi deleted after the announcement though. Just more than anything I hope they're all okay and it really is just about needing a break. They deserve that much. I just hope it's what all of them want. I was really hoping the mobile member tour would be before I left Japan, but this really wasn't the way I wanted it to go down.

If you're going to Sapporo by shinkansen then definitely buy it, haha. I think that trip alone from Kyoto would probably make it worth it. Just try your best! I find too that if you are willing to try a little Japanese, even if it's broken, the less self-conscious some Japanese girls will be about trying what limited English they have with you. It's a give and take kind of thing. I'd second what jaymee said about tickets. Also if your written Japanese is stronger, if you feel at all comfortable trying it you might be able to arrange a ticket deal with some of the girls on Twitter to pick up tickets on the day of the live. Just another option. Literally I've given presents from wine to posters to figures and just whatever tickles my fancy to give them to be honest. Like jaymee said, it really doesn't need to be expensive. I've gone as ridiculous and cheap as drawing on mikans and the band guy apparently loved it, haha. Also I never knew putting purikura on the gifts was a thing! That's pretty adorable actually!

How exciting! I hope you have a blast when you go! I'd say compare prices between hostels and airbnbs and see which suits you more in terms of what you're looking for. Generally speaking, this could just be me, but I've had better experiences at hostels than same-priced airbnbs. But could just be my luck of the draw. As for if the Japan Rail Pass is worth it, it really depends on how much you're traveling and how convenient you want that travel to be. I have a friend who's going all over Japan on hers, so it's definitely worth the investment on her end. Like I said above, I'm also going to be going to Hokkaido to see a band plus take a look around, so I can't say from experience that it's worth it but I'm super excited to do it. Like I said, when it comes to gya even a little Japanese can go a long way, and while it depends on the person you're talking to, they generally seem to appreciate when you try, you know? I know nothing about good bars/pubs, anyone got good advice on that? (Also, please, don't be afraid to talk to other foreign fans. I've run into this weird vibe constantly where foreign fans just get really awkward about talking to each other, and it's just silly. If you want to talk to someone, just talk to them, worst thing that happens is you realize they're someone not worth talking to.)

North-wise of Kyoto if that helps at all with placing me, haha. It's a bit less than that, but 13,000 yen one way is still more than I can really stomach. I'd agree about Willer's comfort levels too, just if you're tall with long legs like me, try and get aisle seats when you can. Also seconding that about Japanese bangya. Like any fans of course there's some that aren't so pleasant, but I've found 90% of the time they're super sweet and eager to talk to you once they realize you know some Japanese. I've made some amazing friends that way. The scene's fun, but it's even more fun when you can make friends to enjoy it with imho. It's also a great way if you're learning Japanese to really test how far your language skills can carry you! Definitely do it! I really wanted to go to Fukuoka but my work schedule just wasn't having it, but I'm happier with the way things panned out with Sapporo anyway.

From where I'm at, going to Tokyo can be a 4 hour shinkansen ride or a much cheaper 10 hour bus ride. I actually used to think I couldn't do Sunday things either, but since I don't love myself, I figured out a way around it: I would take the bus to a certain point, and then take a much cheaper train from there to get to work on time on Monday. This is basically hell and I recommend it to no one, but not only is it inexpensive, but it's actually way more handy since the trains back to my area actually end pretty early. I go to Tokyo more than I'd really like since a lot of the bands I actively follow are based there, so I opt for cheap hostels and deal with the shared bathroom space. They at least have private shower rooms so I'm content with that. For Tokyo travel, considering even the buses can rack up the $$ pretty quick, I just invest in the Willer Bus Pass since you don't have to be a tourist to get it and it's saved me a good chunk of cash. I really prefer to go to Nagoya when I can though. The buses are plentiful, the ride's not nearly so long, and the price is super affordable. I love Osaka but for some reason there aren't really buses that go there even if it's about as far as Nagoya. Whatever. I do buy the cheki but not as many as I did in the beginning; I'm usually happy with one pic per member, and I do re-visit the cheki a lot so it's worth it to me. Plus I like having the excuse to talk to the other fans when we trade them. T-shirts and the like are definitely great though. (... minus a certain band that does bonus fun stuff when you buy a certain amount of cheki but we don't need to get too far into that.) I'm actually going to Sapporo for the first time for a band, but admittedly, I'm more just using the band as an excuse to go somewhere I've always wanted to visit anyway. That's kind of the way I usually plan my travel type stuff, "Eh I wanna go check this place out anyway, might as well go to this live".

Everyone's going to have their own opinion, and they're free to it, but jfc Mia really draws the nastiest comments out of people. (Never mind how offensive that comment actually was on several levels.) He really doesn't deserve half the shit he gets. He's a talented guitarist and he's good to his fans. On-topic, I love this song, I've loved it from the first time I heard it, and I'm super pleased with the PV. Can't wait to see what they do with Sliver.

Good news: Got the Dawn Deep Dope from Morrigan! The bad news: They warned me when I got it that it might not work; sure enough, it doesn't. Luckily they're going to replace it for me the next time I see them, so I've just got to be patient.

In b4 accountability debate No but seriously, so sorry for the fans, but the timing sure is weird. These things DO tend to happen in clusters though, don't they?

In b4 Mia is announced as a guitarist for this

Sadly, yes.

About damn time, people called that this would happen HOW long ago?

Nope! Sales start April 11th, and they start shipping May 2nd!

It's a lot like the whole thing with the guitarist from Underfall Justice too, isn't it?

Ah, see, knowing the history, I agree it'd be better to 'disband' and start a fresh project. I hope the other members stick together though!

I hope they don't disband. Honestly it's not like Rouis is a bad singer but the band could do better.

Well that doesn't bode well. :/

I've only had an account here for about a year. I'd been a vkei fan for a lot longer, but even if I never lost interest I'd say my peak interest lingered somewhere between 2007 - 2011. Then I started pushing hard to get myself through college and other things kind of took priority. LJ died, a lot of the new sites I followed either went away or went stagnant, and a lot of the bands I'd liked went under (bar Gazette and Dir en grey). When I finally moved to Japan, I thought 'hey, prime opportunity, let's check out some indies vkei acts while I'm in Tokyo and see what they're like'. I really wanted to check out their music before I went ahead and got any tickets though. One Google search later and I was here. At first I didn't even make an account, and even when I did, I mostly lurked. Granted, I've been creeping out little by little since this is one of the few places that still has the communication between fans that's kind of sorely lacking anywhere else. It's got the most up to date news, the most comprehensive uploads section, and it's a place worth coming back to. So congrats on 10 years, and kudos on being such a good resource.

These two radical degrees of n00blets: either they roast everything their "daddies" do in the nastiest possible way from music to wardrobe, or they're the hypersensitive "so-and-so is so vulnerable and perfect in every possible way no man can compare and they're definitely a virgin I WANNA HEAL THEM NO ONE GETS THEM LIKE I DO" trope.

See, this is why going on stage barefoot is a bad idea. I've always wondered why so many bandmen do it.

Don't know if this really counts, but some of the crap these kids spam the band guys' Instagram pages with, lol.

Live Digest:

For a little preview, he's been kind of teasing: I'm pretty sure from the way he's been talking that he kept the rights to MeteoroiD's songs, too, so there's a good chance he'll play those.

Genki's English game isn't that strong, pretty sure they've just kept in contact with the translators they met when they did Tokyo in Tulsa.

Vastly underwhelmed by the previews. Whatever I was hoping for, this isn't it. Holding out hope for Taion but damn.