F4 Japan Tour 2008 in Tokyo...One More Time

One more time, I went to watch F4's concert this time in Tokyo last October 7. I was still alone in my stand seat but not exactly because May and Rachel were just a binocular away.

Nippon Budokan was a bigger venue than Yokohama arena and that night, it was packed to the rafters. Congratulations to the boys! My only complaint is that stand-o audiences did not see one part of the stage because of the venue design.

So I was there on my East-Row F-Seat 14 chair and was pleasantly surprised that one more time it was Zaizai's side during the opening number. I don't know exactly how to describe it but the boys seem "genkier" that night. Maybe because the opening show blues are gone? Or they had the chance to get drunk and do some bonding in between concert dates...whatever...they look more harmonious.

Everyone was gorgeous that evening but I'd like to especially note that Vanness dropped the eyeliner and was therefore drop dead gorgeous. LOL!

So one more time, I want to complain that we can't see the stage below us but one number we were all surprised when Jerry went on the crane and was like soooo near us. From then on I stopped silently complaining and said to myself that the production folks already thought of it and compensated.

One new thing in the show was Vanness singing a Japanese r&b song acapella which I find really sweet and cool. Then before Ken sang Lalala, he said he hurt his arm and couldn't wave it too much. Awww... poor baby! He was the one who always told his fans "safety first" and he wasn't careful. Despite this he proceeded to push the sleeves of his t-shirt and showed his *chokes* arms. It don't look hurt to me...

When Zaizai's broadway number came on, something was obviously wrong with the center revolving stage. After Zai's number, the show stopped for about 10 minutes due to technical difficulties. What is admirable about the japanese fans, actually everyone there including all gaijins like me was that no one complained and patiently waited. I took that opportunity to chat with my seatmate.

The show was announced to be resuming shortly and all I could think about was what will the boys do to compensate. I know the Japanese for their pride in the quality of their work. They must do something..and voila! Zaizai came out again with his fingers doing the number 1 sign and everyone went wild. He did his number all over again! Wow!

The show is pretty much the same as in Yokohama except that this time, I appreciated the dance sequence of Vanness with girls. They were very sexy and Vann baby, you were meant to dance with women..

During the Memory Pieces number of Jerry, everyone was so amused when the tiger mascot carried Jerry piggy back style! Jerry himself was laughing and couldn't sing properly for a few seconds. That was fun!

Zai-Ken fans would also be happy to hear that during Qing Fei De Yi, Zai and Ken air kissed! Then Zai did the rabu rabu wave with Jerry. That was fun too! The conversation between them (though I have no idea what they were talking about) seemed to be candid and not scripted. When Zai asked Jerry to introduce the next number, Jerry said in English "ladies and gentlemen", then he wanted to speak in Japanese but was still thinking in english because what he said was "next wa" - Japenglish! He then said the right words "tsugi wa Vanness!"

Again, for some reason I find the numbers of Vanness sexier this time around. I had goosebumps when he took off his hat and shook his hair (maybe he would cut it shorter again..) during Listen to Your Heart. One more time, I will say that I love the boy to bits but the hair and goatee does make him look older than his 30 (already?!) years.

We, stand -o people were again blessed when the next guy on the crane was Zaizai for his japanese songs. He was in front of us sooo long that I had the chance to scream "Zai, mahal kita!". Who cares if he heard me and knew that was I love You in Tagalog. Hahaha! I just wanted to shout my love..

Jerry sang, in my honest opinion, One Meter better this time around. No twinkle, twinkle little stars on the piano this time. And were those real tears because my heart felt like it was being squeezed with how the number seemed to be so sad.

One more time, I enjoyed Zaizai's Mama Shuo (thanks to May). But then something caught my eye that made me amused though no one seemed to care - the spelling of the word boarding was wrong! It was spelled "boading". Hahahaha!!! Again, who cares? The cute bazooka distracted me from proof reading the whole thing on the projector screen. =)

More show of genki-ness when Jerry gave Zai a kiss and a rose (isn't that a Seal song?) during their duet. Jerry yasashii ne...

One more time, Show Me Your Love was a great number. Zaizai was shaking his butt nicely, Vanness and Ken worked the crowd singing closely to the crown and throwing kisses!

As they sung Goodbye, I was again in tears because this trip is coming to a close and I am not only saying goodbye to Japan but to F4 and the many friends who spent time with me - Mayo, Minori, Minori no onechan (gomen ne I forgot her name), Chicharu-chan, Satoko, Sakura, Kana, Yuichi-san, Eve, Yoke-chan, Winnie, Pyo, Michi, Sylvia, Naomi and Jasmine.

The show was made more special because I was already going home and not seeing the Oct 8 show and as I told my seatmate who is now a new friend, Manami, she gave me the pen light as a souvenir to take home. How could I stop crying?

The boys came out one more time after the encore because no one simply moved from their seat. They said their goodbyes and thank you's one more time with Zaizai bowing for so long at each part of the stage. That was really kakkoi. Again, how could I stop crying?

It was only when I was hustling out of the venue and I felt someone pat my back and said daijoubu (it's ok) that I stopped crying. Kyoko, from Kobe who I bump into everywhere from Taipei to Yokohama and now Tokyo was behind me and saying kiotskette kudasai (be careful). I laughed and told her that she should be the one to take care because she got hurt during the stampede in Taipei last January.

So one more time, goodbye F4... so long my boys. Until the day that I would say "hao jiu bu jian".

Note: Thanks to May for the correction of my chinese pinyins. =)