wandering around kawasaki and kalafina mini-live

Not particularly busy day today. There was going to be kalafina mini live to promote their newest single which I wanted to go to see. I didn't want to travel around Tokyo so I had searched couple places near Kawasaki(where live would be held) figuring to spend time there.

First place was supposed to be park but though I'm 100% positive I was in right vicinity I could not find it. Only factories etc. Humhum. Maybe I misread map and there was no park despite huge green area on map? Huhum. Could also swear there read "park".

Tried circling the supposed location but still no luck. Complete, utter failure.

Second place was soji-ji shrine. Arriving to Tsurumi-station(well keikyuu tsurumi station to be exact) spotted ad for book off figuring I'll pay visit to it later time permitted. Thankfully this at least was bit easier to find though did run into one dead end and when I finally found route it was via graveyard. Was starting to worry that this was only graveyard after all!

 Close enough to Tokyo but looks more rural here.

 Temple is on the other side. Just need to figure pathway there.

These statues were besides stairway that led to the graveyard.

 Rear of the temple. I was approaching from the wrong direction!

 Some other building.

 Ditto.

 Fairly sure this was the Soji-ji. Though could be mistaken. Impressive building.

 Roof had these thorough it.

 Another building. There was monks playing instruments like drums and flutes inside. Looked bit like they were practicing rather than really doing performance.

 Interesting group of statues.

 No idea what these statues are for.

 For country as cramped as Japan they still build quite a big buildings.

 This was way above. I tried looking for pathway to there but failed alas.

After this I returned to the station I had left. I was bit unsure where I was but came across railway station. Going by mantra "where is railway is railway station and figuring out my path I figured I had gone first left and turning toward south and now had been heading toward east so turning left should get me to the station. And for once I actually managed to not get completely lost!

 The ad for book and that's GOT to be the most...non-useful map. Red building is the one I was at. It says "2 minutes walking from JR station west gate". That's the white box with JR. But 2 minutes...waking where? No idea. Found it after systematically scanning through streets but sheesh bit more useful maps TYVM. Had I not still had plenty of time would have skipped it alltogether. Not that I was even feeling like buying much as need to keep check on money and remaining bag sizes but do have bit room and since these stores sell 2nd handed stuff one store might have stuff others don't have. And price level varies by store. Case in point found out more of the japan history books in manga format. At 50% price level compared to store I found them in first place. Thick book for about 1.32 euro...Not bad price. From Finland could be looking for 15-20e price easily(smaller mangas cost about 10-13e).

From there I continued to final destination of Kawasaki. Found the place right off the bat...And realized I had made major goofball. I had assumed venue to be indoors. BZZZZZ WRONG! On outside surrounded by this huge(at least by this poor Finnish travellers scale) store collection. Went to get myself copy of the new single and got myself ticket which I translated to mean I would be getting poster during the mini live event. Groovy though no idea how to get the thing back to Finland in decent shape.

But then...I had about 2 hours to wait. I had arrived early up so was actually able to get myself very nice seat from fairly close to front line so wasn't feeling like giving up on that but gosh. 2 hours standing on one spot in the autumn chillyness after sun has gone down is COOOOLD! Oh and I had only my long sleeved shirt. Hadn't bothered with jacket since I hadn't counted for being in outside air 2 hours after sun has gone down...Bummer.

 Quick photo at the start of the waiting. I would be even closer during the live as people front of me were sitting but once event started they moved up forward. Got very good view of the singers at least.

As it was outside and sun had gone down books I had with me were useless as reading material. THANK GOD for e-books as it gave me something to do while trying to keep myself from freezing to death(well okay that's exaggeration).

 And it seems christmas decorations are already on. There was also new year cards on sale but didn't seem that interesting.

 Also familiar christmas tune(jingle bells) was sounding around.

 Come the concert the pathways over(2 floors) were filled with spectators.

Around 18:30 the singers came out. 30 minutes ahead time. To do sound checking and tuning up microphones and earsets. We got to hear "heavenly blue" and their newest single "believe"(which sounds more like biliibu when pronounced by the staff member). For the first song they still had this(quite warm looking) outer jacket but for 2nd song they also revealed outfits they would be having. Songs were pretty much full perfomance though as the devices were not 100% tuned up there were some places(especially at the start) where it sounded bit odd.

They tuned it up by girls pointing either microphone or ears and then up or down. Sometimes they pointed at other girl followed by up or down. This continued for a while. Sometimes one of them went to talk with the staff. Was interesting enough to see that in action.

Finally the mini-live began though. Unsurprisinly first song was the "believe". Next one was also from the newest single "lapulis"(I think that's the name). Surprisingly short song unless my sense of time got screwed listening to it. Reminded me a bit of "mune no yukue" with Keiko starting with long long solo(and being the main singer thorough) with rest joining in chorus later. Also slowish song which reinforces similarity.

Then they spoke a bit about newest single, second song, how it was cold and how they hope to warm everyone up by their performance. Well I'll take any warming up TYVM!

For third and last song they performed "heavenly blue", their previous single.

When I first heard of this song wasn't so sure about it but it has later become one of my favourites.

Costumes they wore during. Front of top part was this very sparkling green colour. Bottom of skirt was black with hints of blue here and there with interior layer of purple. But most striking part were arms which were black except when light falls at certain angles they change colour. Think every girl had his own colour but don't remember who had what but there were green, purple, blue and at sometimes even looked shade of gold. Very interesting effect.

So there. Got to at least hear them 2nd time live this trip(3rd time total). Not sure if I'll ever get yet another chance.

Tomorrow meeting arranged up so not sure how much photos or how much I have to write here.