[ACCOUNT] 120713 Budokan Concert (and a bit of 130713 too)

[Elienore]

Heyo, this is a fanaccount of the Budokan concert in Tokyo the 12th July.

Lemme start off with introducing myself, I'm a lil' lad from Greenland which is about as far away from kpop you can get, so this was a huge opportunity for me to see T-ara perform for real.

I normally frequent the SB very often, and if you've peeked there a few times over a 48hr interval, chances are you've seen me. I don't post often but here's a thread.

I arrived to Budokan at about 16:30, after the fellas in SB had nagged me about not getting any of the swag (pardon me, I'm a gamer and "swag" would be the stuff you can get in cons and stuff) or missing the train and such, so forward I went and braved the incredibly safe Tokyo Metro system.

Before I start though, I'm gonna say that they showed Areum's solo debut explanation video about 10 minutes before the main thing started, and the girls themselves talked about it at the end.

Sso was the one who started off and it sounded like she struggled to keep her composure, but since I understood nada of what was being said (they spoke Korean and there was a Japanese translator, of which I understood neither) I can't be too sure if she really was trying to not cry, but it did sound like it.

After that it was Hyomin and she did end up crying at least, she mentioned Areum as well and spent most of her time talking there on not crying, although she did crack at the end and had to turn around to get back in control.

Jiyeon, Boram, Eunjung and Qri all had a say about it as well, but theirs were significantly shorter than Sso and Hyomin, who both seemed to have the long and emotional parts. All in all, it sounded more supportive than anything else, so there's that for those who are interested.

Back to me arriving to Budokan, people had been gathering there for hours already although it wouldn't open until 18:00, which in my case meant I went there 1½ hour earlier than strictly necessary. As some would know, I am very bad with heat so I spent my first 10-15 minutes looking around the different stalls/shops with T-ara merchandise and music, while doing my best to not look like someone who was about to faint from dehydration.

I walked around a bit first and looked at people, it seemed that I was the only foreigner around, at least from what I could see. I initially went past the merchandise shops and saw the T-ara's Free Time in Europe Photobook & Music & Making in Sweet Treasure's shop, I promptly bought it and looked around some more.

I then went to check out the stuff in the Tower Records shop (it was separate from the merch / Sweet Treasure shops) and was pretty curious about the banner with Target and Treasure Box. It took me a while to realize that the Treasure Box part was about pre-ordering , rather than it being available early for the occasion (sadly), it did list three different versions but I couldn't read the poster so no idea what the differences are.

I looked a bit around the stuff they had and it was a collection of their Japanese albums, you could get the Budokan Blu-Ray/DVD, their Japanese singles, Target, QBS and so on, there was also T-ara Cry Cry and Lovey Dovey MV Collection which I got for Blu-Ray, from what I remember it cost a fortune online but was available in the shop for 5300 yen (like.. 40 bucks or something?), so I couldn't resist it. That marked my item number two and I proceeded with walking around a bit.

It was pretty funny, because there were all sorts of people and what struck me was, that occasionally you'd see a girl walked around in a T-ara outfit. I assume they had made the outfits themselves, but they were basically wearing stage outfits. At the end of the wait time I had before I could enter Budokan, I saw a girl wearing the see-through belly/shoulder outfit Jiyeon wore in the N4 CSD dance MV, one outfit Eunjung wore in one of their CSD performances (it was a guy who was wearing it though, and he could also dance parts of their choreographies! Was pretty fun to watch him do the chest rotation part of CSD). A girl was wearing the colourful dress from Sexy Love and another girl I walked past was wearing the black suit outfit from SL too.

The last outfit I saw was the one-piece body suit that Hyomin have worn several times, it was red with white dots on it, I think it was Roly Poly, or something? Anyone remember?

I did a final round at the stores and bought a Soyeon fan, a Soyeon keyring, the Target fan towel thing and the Target t-shirt as well (I sure hope I got it in the right size).

Anyways, after that I had finished all my shopping and went to a nearby café to eat a bit of food and drink some water. I hadn't really eaten because I only left my hotel room when I felt I couldn't idle no more (turns out I came way early ).

There isn't much to say about the café though, place was full of fans and all were pretty much speaking Japanese, so no interesting eavesdropping from me.

I saw down outside on the curb (road/pedestrian separation thing, what you call it?) after I had eaten and spent the remaining time sitting there, it's at that point I realized that alone there by yourself was a bit boring, especially for so long. So if any of you guys end up doing the same thing as me, either bring a smartphone so you can live tweet/chat with I-Queen's and keep you and them entertained that way, or end up doing a half-assed participant observation just like you learned it in the Ethnography Method course (which I did... it made time go and I made notes, yay!).

At this, I should note that the people I saw were kind of mixed. Among the males there was a wide age group from young male (say... +16? A bit hard to judge with the Japanese people sometimes) and middle aged people. The young males were more numerous than the middle-aged men, but there is definitely something about T-ara attracting ahjussi fans, because boy there was still many of them. A small handful were also elderly men, mostly with elderly women but I'm not sure if they were attending or just walking past, was a bit hard to see properly sometimes.

The women were a tad different, the vast majority were young females and although middle aged women were also present, they were far less frequent than their male counterparts. More often than not, you could also see the middle-aged women be there with either daughters or sons, although many were there as couples as well. Funny think was that small girls were also present (children, that is), while there were no small boys around at all.

A lot of different fan groups in Japan and from other Asian countries had helped send stuff to decorate the entrance with, each of the a tribute to either a certain member or T-ara as a whole, they were big and looked nice and well done. I sadly didn't find Diadem among them but that's no surprise, we do after all have just about zero presence in Japan

Budokan finally opened at 18:00 and after maybe 10 minutes of wait time, I went to the entrance I had to go through (2nd floor). I got to say, they employ many, many, many ticket controller people like seriously... they formed a human wall across the stairs with like, double layer of staff! It was pretty funny but there weren't any issues and I got in smoothly. I was really surprised at how big Budokan actually was, and you guys have to remember I lived most of my life in a frozen ice cube, there were rows upon rows of seats in an almost full circle around stage, I found it almost intimidating. I did have trouble finding my seat in there, but the staff helped me get there very fast and overall they'll basically help you with anything if you need anything.

I went in as soon as Budokan opened, so there was still about an hour of close to nothing happening, but it was nice to sit down in a proper chair after having sat on the curb for so long (it became rather unpleasant for my legs) and I basically looked at the seats slowly get filled up.

My seat was actually pretty decent, sure I didn't sit in the front row on the ground floor and all but I was facing the stage directly, and with my position on 3rd level, it meant I had a good overview over the girls and their dancing. I couldn't see facial expressions, winking or such thing, but I could see their choreography and body movements very well, it was a sort of trade off if you want, the big screen behind the girls would provide plenty of close ups and so it wasn't really that bad overall (sitting on the far edge gotta be the worst place).

Staff was walking around for an hour helping people with finding their places and carrying big signs with "cameras/smartphones are forbiden" icons on them, as you should have found out by now people weren't entirely following that rule. I was pretty lucky that I sat at the edge of the row, because that meant I had extra leg space since there was no chair in front of me, and the stairs next to me served excellently as a table for all my staff.

The lights were turned off and I got to say, at that point I was really, really, really excited. I had maybe expected a quiet entry with a "hello" and stuff like that (in Japanese of course), but the girls had chosen a different way to start off the concert. The first song was Bunny Style and they appeared from an platform on the stage, and just as the music started all the lights on stage switched on and it was so awesome.From one second to another it went from being all quiet and excited to all-out party over-the-top mood! I really can't explain it too well, it was an explosion of sound and colour at the same time and the girls themselves looked so great.

At this point my notes basically become all-caps ramblings filled with "OMG", pretty sure my brain shut off at that point. Seeing the Bunny Style song performed for real with all that lighting was really great, and it was a joy to see them all dance it.

I was incredibly surprised at just how pretty the girls are, you see them a lot on pictures and videos and all and think they're beautiful and all but then you see them for real and you just like... realize how much is lost in transition to media and stuff, they truly are incredibly beautiful and no cameras can portray their beauty for real.

Particularly I was fangirling (I'm a guy though, no mistake) so much over Sso and had to try real hard to not squeal on my seat, she was such a wonder to look at and I have never ever seen anyone as beautiful as her.

The next song was Target and I actually hadn't heard it before, I was in Nepal for 6 weeks when the song/teaser were released and the internet is atrocious there, and I never got around to do it in Japan so this was really my very first time hearing Target. And it was such a great song, the choreo was really awesome and felt like an up-tempo fast dance and song you couldn't help but enjoy, the music itself was pretty nice too. One part that really got me crazy was when Boram had her part, the way everyone lined up behind her and she stood there and sang was so cool, it's not often you get to see Boram be real cool and all so I loved every moment of it

I got to say that initially, I was incredibly impressed by how good Sso, Boram and Hyomin looked. They're the ones I paid the most attention to at first, and Boram looked great on stage. Nothing like the girl we saw months ago and stuff, she's still thin and all but it looks so much better now. She really looked great and I'm very happy she has improved ^^

The audience in the ground floor were all dancing and sometimes singing along some parts and the second level seemed to be pretty into it as well, sadly the third level was half empty so it was considerably more chill where I was. Me and the guy next to me (whoever that was) did scream a bit and stuff, but I didn't want to be too loud because so few were being active on our level.

Sso's solo performance was so amazing to watch, she was incredibly beautiful and the song was amazing. It soundsso good to hear her sing for real, and the audience was calmly listening to it, no screaming or such thing, just relaxed waving along the song.

Next song up was RiRam's duet, it was such a cute and adorable performance and it was a lot better than I had expected or thought it would be. They did the choreography so well and they really looked sweet, and they also sounded marvelous.

EunJiMin's Dangerous Love was mindblowing, absolutely incredibly badass and sexy. Their dance was so fierce and the way they went on with the backup dancers just made them appear so much more badass, Hyomin with Aviator glasses got to be one of the absolutely hands-down awesomest and coolest moments ever in T-ara. All the girls were really cool and the way they just walked into the stage before getting into their starting pose was so cool, they appeared from the back of the stage with slide-doors or something opening and then they just strode into the middle of the stage. The song itself was great, it actually wasn't one I liked particularly much when I heard it the first time, but now it's stuck in my head and it was such an awesome song live.

QBS also sang their single, I hadn't seen the MV before or anything to do with the choreo and I really liked it. The song is basically 80% Sso so it's very hard for me to not like it a lot. The choreo was nice because it was such a nice simple dance, nothing fancy but something that suited the slow and lovely pace of In The Wind, and each girl looked stunning too.

Of particular note, I'd say that I loved Qri's outfit because it was a short dress with a long see-through fabric that went all the way down to her feet, I think it gave it a really nice effect and to be frank, was also a bit of a teaser to her wonderful legs.

They sang an assorted number of songs, pretty much close to all their Japanese songs really. I can't remember the order it went in (I have bad memory), but they sang so many songs.

Of particular favourites got to be Sexy Love, Why Are You Being Like This, YaYaYa and Lovey Dovey.

Sexy Love was great because I downloaded almost every single performances of it back during their SL promo, and even did my best to watch them perform them via streams and such things. After having seen it so much, seeing the choreo for real was a great experience and it's really a nice dance too. Jiyeon had taken over Areum's part and it was pretty great to hear it, I think she did it very well ^^

One of the main reasons why YaYaYa was great is partly because I like the song in teh first place, and it's one of the few ones I didn't have problems with singing/mumbling along to, since half the song is nonsense anyway. It really was an issue throughout the concert, because I mainly listen to the Korean versions and not the Japanese versions. All the girls also tend to be incredibly cute with tons of cutesy expressions in that song, so it was so exciting to see them do that, it really is something else when it happens in front of ya for real.

Lovey Dovey was my very first T-ara song and it really was one that got the crowd going. I absolutely love the choreo of it and it was just so mind bogglingly good. Especially since it's such an easy song to listen to and Sso was sooooo incredibly cute there, when I watched the performance for the first time in late 2011 I immediately fell in love with Sso when I saw her there, so this was sort of a trip down memory lane and it didn't disappoint! Qri was also the one who did Hwa/Areum's part there, and it worked really well for some reason xD

Why Are You Being Like This is one of my absolute top favourite songs from T-ara, and with the easy-to-sing-along to it offers in its chorus, it really was great to (try to) sing it at the same time! I know I'm basically repeating myself because in the end, I'm just gonna say "omg dey r so beautifulz" but I can't help it. They were stunning in each performance and it really was great, this was one of the songs where the crowd was more active as well so it was double-bonus.

They sang songs like Cry Cry, Like The First Time, Apple is A (Jiyeon was retardedly cute there) and of course such hits like Bo Peep Bo Peep and Roly Poly. A special mention is deserved for the TTL remix they performed, the remix itself was really good and I hadn't heard it before, it actually took me a while to realize it was TTL (whatnot with remix AND it being in Japanese), but I got to hear Boram's TTL rap! BORAM'S TTL RAP PEOPLE, IT WAS AWESME. Eunjung's rap was also really good and really, everyone did that song so well and Sso had a godly voice as usual.

I would like to note that Sweaty Ram is sweaty and incredibly cute when sweaty, she's just so huggable when she's like that, it was sad to sit so far away when she looked that damn sweet but at least it means I didn't charge onto the stage and try to hug her before being kicked out xD

Hyomin's smile, which I personally consider to be one of the best in kpop overall, was also amazing to see for real. Normally in photos she's already smiling and stuff and videos don't have the same HD-ness as real life has, so seeing her go from not smiling to smiling was an amazing process, really. You can see how it slowly lights up her entire face and make her so innocently charming, that smile can lead to great things I tell you. Hyomin smile best kpop smile, definitely.

There were plenty of stage banter between songs and stuff, but since they did that in Japanese I don't remember them too well nor did I understand anything (DVD soon pl0x, I need subs so I can find out what I laughed at), so forgive me for not mentioning them very much. The girls were a bit stiff during those but hey, there were lots of people looking at them and all but they were still great and made people laugh, certainly made me laugh.

They also sang a birthday song , I don't know whose song it was or anything but it was a nice song and I haven't figured out whether or not it was about Jiyeon or 4th anniversary, because they mentioned Jiyeon and birthday and I have no clue when her birthday is so uh, you guys can figure that out. It was a great song though and it was basically a great fanservice song, because they walked around on stage and did cute stuff (hand signs and expressions) while generally just goofing around on stage. It was great to watch and was very entertaining.

The very last song of the day was Bye Bye, a fitting one and it was also pure fanservice like the birthday song. They walked around on stage, waved to everyone and even sat down at the edge of the stage to get a bit closer to fans and all. That was mostly to the benefit of the front row people of course, so if you can make a deal with the devil and get seats there, do it. Totally worth it man. It was a great exit song and they were all lovely and looked really happy. I can't imagine how hard it must be to perform for two hours with so many songs and things happening on stage, and in front of so many people too.

That ended it, the girls walked out of stage and people were all happy. The lights got turned out and we all left. I have to say though, I decided I would go for the next day as well. The experience had simply been too awesome and it was really great.

Second concert:

It's mostly pretty similar to the first day one, so I won't really write much in detail about it. However there were a lot more people there than the first concert, which was noticeable when I got there. The area in front of Budokan was absolutely crowded, and almost all available seats had been taken, hell even 3rd level was almost full!

The crowd in the second concert was also much more engaged and active, me and EJJ sat next to each other and we spent a lot of time screaming and singing along, it was really great and good to see that the crowd was so much more alive than the day before. All levels were really active and lots of people were standing up, it was a great show.

Another difference is that the girls had a lot more jokes in their stage banter this time, and the Areum stuff were not shown or mentioned either. Second concert was all fun and games and the girls came off more natural and joking this time. Sso's nasal voice imitation (I still have no idea who or what she's imitating) was so fun to hear for real, and it really cracked the crowd up.

Final note on this, I bought a pair of binoculars so I didn't rely on the screen for more detailed vision. If you guys go to a T-ara concert and you sit in the back and binoculars are available, use them. They are far better than using the large screen as you can see the girls and the colours so much more clearly.

Also I suffered from T-ara withdrawals when I got home, sad feels for like 2 days or something and didn't really do anything, that stuff is real apparently xD

Hope the read was enjoyable and that it wasn't too boring. I realize that the fancams have already been released by the time I post this, and that there won't be the same surprise factor about the concerts, but I really hope this will give a bigger image of what went down and how it felt to be there, more than fancams or pictures can say.

PS: If this looks like crap, tell me and I'll try to make it more readable and stuff like that ._.

EDIT: Herpa derp.

I forgot to mention that I hanged around Budokan for nearly two hours after the second concert to try and see T-ara when they left, basically I think all their dancers and staff were crammed into a bus which then very undramatically drove off.

According to the Budokan staff, T-ara was in it and that was it. It bummed out the Japanese fans but since I was only doing it out of curiosity rather than some sort of hope for final fanservice and all, I didn't really mind (benefit of being a tourist, everything is interesting).

I can't say anyone saw them enter though, but hey... either the girls ninja'd their way into the bus without anyone seeing them or they used the bus as a decoy and entered the suspiciously anonymous black van parked next to the bus that no one seemed to care about, who knows. Dem sneaky girls.

I should also add to this, that a bunch of fans spent something like an hour in there. I personally assume they were Sweet Treasure VIPs who had gotten some sort of speshul treatment or perks, gotta say... if that's true, it's some helluva perks they have in Sweet Treasure. I went home after that.

Sorry for forgetting this kind of important detail

EDIT 2: Another herpa derp.

After the second concert I wrote three notes to Sso, Boram and Hyomin. The ones to Sso and Boram are basically just fanboying and stuff like that, so they're not really important here.

My note to Hyomin however was about how happy people had been in Diadem, when we found out that the cap she wore in the first concert was one the Diadem guys in LA gave her in their N4 trip to the US. I really hope she read that note, because it'd be pretty great if she knew how happy we had been

There were gift boxes you could put gifts in and stuff, I had been busy with getting a ticket so I didn't get them anything but I quickly wrote those three notes and I really hope they read them ^^

It was tomomiazhari in SB who reminded me of it, thanks yo!

EDIT 3: Should probably include teh stuff I bought in the first concert.

http://i6.minus.com/ibhqifuc6LhX01.JPG

[ChoA]

My god, this is like "GOD TIER" fan account lol.

[Darkbend]

God this is long, thanks for the dash of detail btw. Hope you had tons of fun.

[ZZuRRa]

WHHHOOOAA....Now THAT is a long post,lol.

Anyway,thank you for spending your time to write a fanaccount.I hope you had a great day.But I'm still slightly disappointed that apart from Bye Bye,they haven't sing any of their non-title tracks live.Not even once.I'm dying to see them singing Ma Boo,Fallin U,etc live.

[Elienore]

They sang Geojitmal too, but that's kind of not not title track

[Guest Amal]

Thanks for taking the time to write for us such a detailed fan account! Your Sso fanboying is cute for sure!

I hope they'll release a DVD ver. of this! Cuz it looks way too awesome!

[Ouji_Tenshi13]

That was very interesting. Hope you had lots of fun. I definitely wanna go to one of their concerts soometime soon.

[krielle0709]

It was a long fan acct but I didn't get bored at all. I love how you wrote it and used some deep words that would make it more interesting to read hahaha Hopefully, someday I'll be able to go to Budokan or any T-ara concert. Good thing you had fun! I had withdrawal too when I saw N4 here in LA rofl Been thinking how was the experience the next days after I met them. Thanks for sharing!

[xbot]

Thank you so much for the awesome fan account, I really enjoyed reading it. Sounds like it was an amazing experience, can't wait for the DVD to come out!

PS: Not sure if I can mention this here but hyotheleader in tumblr has translations on the girls' messages to Ahreum that you talked about..

[PandaRK]

Reading this make me feel like going to the HongKong concert on Aug 10th.

Great fans account, I enjoy reading it.

[maskingmark]

thanks for the awesome report. When i first scrolled it looked huge. then i started reading and before i knew it it was over. Like panda said, now i need to go to thier concert.

ps: you should be a tara concert marketing person

[tomomiazhari]

I would like to note that Sweaty Ram is sweaty and incredibly cute when sweaty, she's just so huggable when she's like that, it was sad to sit so far away when she looked that damn sweet but at least it means I didn't charge onto the stage and try to hug her before being kicked out xD

this line particularly made me cracked...

can't imagine if u really jump on the stage (guess u'll be header for japanese news)...

BTW, this is a really gud fanaccount...

it seems that u really enjoy it alot and that make me jelly...

[tararules]

Yeah, thanks so much your fan account of the concert. Totally enjoyed reading all the little details of what the concert was like. These are the details one can never get from fan cam. After reading your account, i can't wait for my opportunity to attend a T-ara concert coz it sounds awesome. World Tour, please!!!

[Shukuchi02]

@Elienore

Shame, if I knew you attended, we probably could have met. I was assisting fans that do not originate from Japan due to the language barrier. Perhaps next time.

I forgot to mention that I hanged around Budokan for nearly two hours after the second concert to try and see T-ara when they left, basically I think all their dancers and staff were crammed into a bus which then very undramatically drove off.

If you were there, you probably saw me with the Boram Banner. So close yet so far. D:

[ZhiCheng]

LOL!! Eli you went to Budokan O.o so rich XDD

[Elienore]

@Elienore

Shame, if I knew you attended, we probably could have met. I was assisting fans that do not originate from Japan due to the language barrier. Perhaps next time.

If you were there, you probably saw me with the Boram Banner. So close yet so far. D:

It's ok man, I didn't really have language issues since pointing at stuff is an universal communication tool, and if they don't get it at first you point some more! I like it quite a lot, very fun xD

Also I as at the way front of the crowd in the fence, so I didn't see that many details... but true dat, so close

EDIT: ZhiCheng:

Yeah, I was there both days

[nagemay]

Great fan account indeed! Very very interesting read! I wasn't sure if it's worth to travel half the world to see T-ara from this far. Maybe to get into "high five" event would be better, but you have to meet certain conditions to get there if I'm correct... Anyway from your fan account looks like it was totally worth it to be there! So yeah now I really have to do something about those T-ara concerts in September...

[Elienore]

Great fan account indeed! Very very interesting read! I wasn't sure if it's worth to travel half the world to see T-ara from this far. Maybe to get into "high five" event would be better, but you have to meet certain conditions to get there if I'm correct... Anyway from your fan account looks like it was totally worth it to be there! So yeah now I really have to do something about those T-ara concerts in September...

Was the highfive event something that happened after the concert? Because the bunch of fans that went in could have been for that.

Also I had an university course in Nepal for 6 weeks before going to Japan, so Japan was really just an extended vacation since I was in Asia for the first time. So I had the perfect excuse to be in Japan during those times

I had to change my return date from Nepal though, originally I was supposed to return from Nepal to Denmark the 14th, so I had to do quite a bit of ticket change when I found out about Budokan, totally worth it though!

[roughivge]

Thank you for taking time to share your memories of that awesome concert with fans like us who couldn't go! It sounds so exciting that I wished I could have been there... >< Oh, how I wished I could have seen our gorgeous girls in person. Hoped you had great fun there! ^^

[Aly]

Ahaha. As expected, Elie wrote an essay. JK. I'm pretty sure you had fun. Thanks for sharing the experience dude!

[chloeownsyou]

nice fan account! and fellow sso bias here too. haha! so envious you get to see the girls performing at budokan. so awesome!

[munchausen]

awesome elie..really awesome. you pictured the concert really good. wish you could see more of t-ara show and write something like this ! great fan acc ^^

[eastheretic]

Wow from the fam cam (I only have time to watch TTL and Cry cry), its so awesome. Instead of the sad and beautiful tone, they make changes to it, and it sounds quite good. For cry cry, they revert back to the dance steps seen in their dance practice mv for the parts after they removed their jackets. Awesome is the only way to describe this!

Glad u have a happy time there, elienore

[Jap_zC]

DUDE THIS IS AWESOME!! it was so long and bt i tried my best to finish it and its a freaking awesome fan topic

[bbde]

That Elie ! You so lucky haha. I'm really happy for you ;p and awesome fanaccount.