DBSK's 3rd Tour T, Osaka

Words cannot describe just how amazing this concert was. I'd been trying to get tickets (over the phone) for about three months before and spazzing to my friend (whom I shall call L) about how impossible it was seeing as their concerts had sold out before in 3 minutes. -_-. Also, in the trains there were all these advertisements for the DBSK Mastercard (which I was really really tempted to try and buy).

We arrived at Osaka-jo Hall (Osaka Castle Hall) early around lunchtime on the 26th of March and my male friend (whom I shall call B) was shocked and very, very scared at the large amount of screaming females that crowded the immediate area (meaning, from the train station exit until the concert hall itself). There were also loads of (illegal) stalls selling DBSK merchandise-pictures, fans, posters etc. A few punters weaved through the crowd trying to sell tickets. There was hardly a male in sight and the few that were there (mostly foreigners) were leaving.

"See those gaijin?" asks B, using a word he'd picked up from hearing everywhere we went, "They're walking away. That's what I should be doing." (Note-gaijin is the Japanese term for foreigner) .

Despite this we made our way up the steps, past the large line of fans queuing to buy the official merchandise (including spoons for about 500 yen if I can remember correctly) towards the ticket desk. Which was blocked a many, many (neat and orderly) lines of Japanese waiting to go in. And this was only about 1pm now. The concert started at 6:30. Wow. Nobody seemed like they were going to move so B got fed up and used his "superior" height and pushed through the crowd, L (also very tall) following with me at the back bowing to the many women glaring at us. Upon reaching the line for the tickets (thankfully not long), B soon found the intense staring too much and wandered off to sit away from the crowd and left us girls to buy.

"I think I should go join him," said L as the crowd stared (politely though, they never look directly at you or very obviously, but you can feel it) at her. She didn't though as we moved to the front of the line. The lady was very nice and spoke english so we bought two (B refused to come) tickets at 7000 yen each.

When we came back later that evening the place was just as crowded and more food stalls had set up (takoyaki, hot dogs, yakisoba). We lined up in the queue and I bought 2 posters and the concert shirt and towel (which looked a lot bigger in the picture).

Ok, there were many differences between the concert in Bangkok and the concert in Osaka. Bangkok was AMAZING, the 30minute building of fans singing along to songs, the infinite sea of red, really got you pumped for it. When the advertisements came on the screen people screamed (I thought the concert was starting). In Osaka we were ushered in about 20 minutes before and everyone sat (or stood in our case) where they were supposed to. The concert starting exactly at 6:30 (I do love Japan's punctuality although just this once a build up would've been nice) with the intro vid playing onscreen. Bangkok fel much more alive. The costumes were shiny, tight black suits and coats (oooOOOooo Matrix), concept all spy thriller mystery. It's funny having seen the outtakes and seeing poor Junsu falling onto his butt (he looked very cool and swishy swishy in the vid).

Darkness Eyes was probably my favourite performance because of the awesome stage. The cage, the lasers, them on the walkway......Rising Sun blew my mind. Or maybe it was Changmin's pitch perfect scream. I swear that boy has the biggest lungs, how does he do it? The interlude's were good-more videos before songs, the boys came out and talked, Junsu cracked lame jokes (poor L couldn't understand), Jaejoong cracked a lame joke -" Ramen ga tsukemen, boku wa ikemen!", literally, "Eating ramen, I am a hottie!"-which had the audience laughing. Though during the concert it was slightly disappointing to see a lack of audience participation. Hardly anyone was singing along or waving their hands in time. The girls with the seats right at the front were sitting very quietly. Heck, in Bangkok when I was at the front everyone was bouncing on an infinite high, singing their lungs out. In a way it's good they didn't sing, so you can clearly hear the boys, but seriously, after performing live plus dancing like maniacs I think they deserve a bit more love. L later likened the clapping to "A performance at the Philharmonic".

Summer Dream was unbelievably cute, with Junsu making up dance moves once again (so adorable. Just wanted to squish him) and the DongBang boys following. The audience joined in a bit more towards the end (thank goodness, the lack of participation for "Rainbow" was quite painful since the lyrics were up on screen and the boys were trying to get the crowd hyped up to sing along). L was really into it by now, humming along the tune and cheering after songs had ended (the girls next to us gave us strange looks) and we were both pretty hyper. Especially after Rising Sun. Loving You was beautiful though, really really good. They really are amazing singers (wish they'd go on Music Station though, just once).

After several encores the concert was over and we trailed out (nice and neatly) before L and I immediately ran for the food stalls. But not before taking a few pictures of ourselves infront of their large Mastercard advertisments (I got given a flyer for one too lol).

After buying ourselves two hot dogs (I later regretted the overload of mustard I put on mine) we burst into a post-concert induced song medley of...ABBA. And the Spice Girls. People must've thought we were drunk or high (quite possibly both) but since L can't speak or sing Japanese we started with "So tell me what you want, what you really really want!?" except kind of out of tune. Haha, good times good times. It was during this crazed song medley (and taking pictures of their tour vans, again) that we met two fans from Taiwan who were wondering where we (strange people) had come from. When I said we'd come from England their faces were really shocked that we'd come over just for a concert (I explained we hadn't, we just happened to be here on the day *cough* and managed to get tickets) since the distance from Taiwan-Japan is far less than England-Japan. They were really nice but we moved into speaking mandarin (poor L was left wondering what we were saying) and discussed favourite members (one liked Junsu, one liked Micky which L understood and lit up upon hearing his name), songs and travel itinerary (they were going back in 2 days or so).

Speaking of taking pictures infront of the vans, the day we arrived in Osaka we went to see the castle (which is worth the visit) and as we walked around the grounds I happened to spy a rather large van with Changmin plastered onto it. So my natural reaction was to yell out "Oh my God!" and sprint towards it and lo and behold, there were all the other vans with their faces and a nice group shot on them. My energy levels at a high, I proceeded to take pictures of myself and the vans (poor B, he really didn't understand why I got so hyped up but he took some pictures for me anyway). Sadly though, because of the way they were parked, the vans with Jaejoong and Junsu were blocked and I couldn't get pictures. As we started to walk away, the van driver called out for me to wait and moved the vans for us! It was so sweet of him and I bowed like mad as he laughed and watched me resume spazzing.