September 19th, 2015
The start of Silver Week. I made my way to Tokyo Station in the late morning and it was wayyy more crowded than I expected it to be. There were long lines to get on the Shinkansen, the shops were packed, it was almost impossible to get anything but somehow I managed to squeeze through the crowd to get my lunch and got on the train before 1pm.
I arrived in Osaka at half past 3. I quickly made my way to the apartment to put down my stuff and rushed off to Pangea. I didn't take too long to get to Pangea since it was in Shinsaibashi, and it was easy to find. Once I got to the venue, Tiger (?) was playing on stage. I've never seen them before but I thought they were pretty good. The next band up was Does It Escape Again and the vocals were really weak so I left the venue for a little bit to walk around instead of staying in the venue and suffering.
I went to Starbucks to chill and spent a little over an hour there. I timed it nicely to get back in time for PALM. The timetable was pushed back a little bit, so they took the stage a little later than supposed to. They put on a good set, I haven't seen them properly since April. Next up was Crystal Lake, they opened to Twitsted Fate (YAY not Matrix!), and to my surprise, they played The Burden next. After that, it was their usual, Rollin' Beloved and The Fire Inside. After Crystal Lake's set was Hundredth. I was kind of excited to see Hunredth since I have been listening to their music lately but somehow, I didn't enjoy their set that much. They are pretty good live but I felt like there was something missing in their performance. They had a rather long set, and played songs mostly from their new album, Free. I was pretty bummed they didn't play Beggar because it's my favourite track on that album.
After their set, I decided to move somewhere "safer". The mosh pit in Osaka is way more brutal than the ones in Tokyo. I fell down a couple of times during these 3 bands' set, but people were really nice and helped me up each time. Since I moved to the other side of the venue, I bumped into more people. I was talking to Kenta while waiting for Loyal To The Grave's set but ended up talking to Goodsound (Crystal Lake's staff) as well. And in the end, I completely missed LTTG's set because I was outside talking to Akira and someone from Hundredth. Some random people also came up talking to me as well and told me to check out the next band.
Edge of Spirit took the stage about 9-ish, and their mosh pit was the most brutal for the night. They were exactly what some guys described earlier. Even though it was my first time seeing them, I really enjoyed their set. The final band for the night was First Blood. I'm not a big fan of their music but decided to stay to catch their set anyways since Kenta suggested it. I left to smoke before their set ended because I was getting a headache. (I was a little hungover from the night before because it was Remi's farewell party) I ended up talking to Ryo until the show was over. I hung around for a little while before deciding to head back to the apartment. It was a really fun night and Osaka's atmosphere is much better than Tokyo I would say. I'm glad I decided to go to shows in Osaka for a change.
The people are friendlier, the mosh pits are way more brutal and I feel more at ease talking to people comparing to Tokyo. There were way less girls at this show as well, which makes it a little intimidating but I still enjoyed it nonetheless.
September 20th, 2015
I woke up really late and took my time to get out of the house. I headed straight to Shinsaibashi to get some coffee and just explored the area. This time, I spent more than 4 hours exploring Amerikamura, I went to Village Vanguard, a couple of bookstores, vintage toy shops, a record store called King Kong Records which to my surprise sold a ton of Black metal CDs. I spent too much time there looking through some albums. I managed to squeeze in some time to do some souvenir shopping for my family as well.
Even though I have been to Osaka so many times, I have never taken any photos of the famous Glico Running Man in Dotonbori. I strolled through this street and realised it was getting close to 6pm so I made my way to Zepp Namba for Crossfaith's show.
Crossfaith took the stage at 6.20ish pm. I haven't been to their shows in almost a year, so it was nice to see them again. I'm still not a big fan of their music but they are really good live so I don't mind going even though I hardly knew any songs. They played mostly from their new album, Xeno. The lasers were stellar as usual and they welcomed Kazu (guitar) back to the band halfway through the set before playing Monolith. For the encore, Hiro and Tatsu took out some inflatable boats to crowdsurf but Hiro fell while trying to balance on the crowd. I couldn't stop laughing. I was happy they played Omen during encore since I also like Prodigy. The show ended at about 8pm and I hung around the venue since I was waiting for my friend to finish work.
I met my friend at about 11-ish in Shinsaibashi and we went for dinner. It was a nice night out, we walked around Dotoburi and just talked. He said he was glad to show me around his hometown since he is from Osaka. I finally got back to the apartment at 2-ish am but couldn't sleep till about 6am, blame it on too much Oolong tea. Shinsaibashi is so different at night with all the shops closed but I really enjoyed myself because of him.
September 21st, 2015
I got up at about 9am since I couldn't stop tossing and turning. I kept waking up in between 6 - 9am, so I just gave up on sleeping and decided to pack my luggage and explore Osaka before going to the airport.
I decided to head to Abeno Harukas since there was a Moomin exhibition going on. Abeno Harukas is at Tennoji Station, and it's somewhere I have never been to. It really reminded me of Tokyo Skytree. It is apparently the tallest skyscraper in Japan.
It was really difficult, actually I would say impossible to get a locker that day because it was Silver week. I had to drag my gigantic luggage everywhere which was a pain in the ass honestly. I finally was able to store it somewhere after purchasing my ticket to the exhibition. The staff at the exhibition hall said they could keep it for me (for free), until closing time. So in short, my love for The Moomins saved my life.
The exhibition was on the 16th floor of Abeno Harukas and had an open air garden. This part of the building reminded me of Mori Building and Mori Art Museum. I actually think this is better. I decided to go to the exhibition first and check out the view later. I got into the exhibition at close to 1pm.
As usual, you can't take photos again in the hall itself, so I could only take photos of these before entering the exhibition. The exhibition was a really good one because it was all original drawings by Tove Jasson, the creator of The Moomins. Aside from creating The Moomins, Tove Jasson was also a cartoonist and illustrator and to my surprise, a political one. There were several drawings of Adolf Hitler at this exhibition. She was also a classical impressionism painter, which was also surprising because of style of The Moomins is so different from her paintings.
There were also several sculptures, videos and even a reading corner at the exhibition. There was also a little house near the end of the exhibition, it is actually mock up of her studio. Next to the house a video of Tove Jasson was played and it showed her studio and the location for her studio really looked like something out of Moominvalley. In the video, her studio is located near the lake with nothing but greens and barren lands of nature. It looked really dreamy. I'm glad such a place exists or existed.
Just before the end of the exhibition, there were two little televisions playing the anime version and also a puppet (1959) video of The Moomins. I was really amazed at the puppet video beccause it looked really tedious to do. I'm a big fan of stop-motion films so I do appreciate the amount of work put into things like that.
At the end of the exhibition, you could dress up as a Moomin character and take photo with a cardboard cut of of The Moomins. I thought it was really cute because so many parents dressed their kids up and there were so many people exclaiming "可愛い" in the room. I did too, haha.
Of course, there was a shop at the end of the exhibition. There were a couple of rare finds like the dvd for the stop-motion animation, Moomins and the Comet Chase and I finally found the Moominvalley map I have been searching for months, so I'm really happy. I didn't buy much other than those stuff since I have too much Moomin stuff already.
After exiting the store, I went to the Observation Garden. It was crowded but tolerable. The view was okay, probably better at night. I personally don't really care about views of the city. Never understood why people would wait in line for such a long time just to get to the highest floor so they can look at the city view.
After I was done, I just spent some time going around Abeno Harukas. Window shopping and had lunch. Once I got bored, I went to get my luggage and made my way to KIX airport. There wasn't much to do at the airport so I was on the phone most of the time. Surprisingly there's a small Pokemon shop at the airport.
My flight was at 11.30pm, so I just did some souvenir shopping and chilled before getting onto the plane. I didn't get much sleep on the plane despite being so tired. In the end, I just watched a couple of movies till I arrived in Singapore.
I can't believe this happened a week ago. It feels like it just happened yesterday, and in two days I'll be heading back to Tokyo again.
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