Yayoi period houses, Saga castle museum, ancient music & cute girls dancing(and singing)

Departing from Nagasaki early up I went to the station and asked what would be best way to get Saga(since I was well ahead schedule my original timetable wasn't good). Was told limited express train and luckily it took me to Saga about 2 hours ahead of schedule. Yatta! as Japanese could say or YEAH! in English :D Sooner is always better than later.

BTW funny incident from Nagasaki trip I had forgotten to mention. When I checked in to hotel the receptionist actually said "kiitos" at one point. I stopped dead when suddenly thanked in Finnish :D He had prepared for the Finnish guest by learning one word of Finnish. Haha. Nice touch.

Got previous book read so here's the next one. Little bit of humor of girl who keeps getting distracted on school by next seat boy who keeps doing weirdest plays middle of school. Read the previous 4 ones last time I used Shinkansen in Japan. 2 more released after that.

Ah camera shook. Today's breakfast. Pretty good. Wish train vendor would have come earlier though. Near the end so was starving as hadn't eaten anything yet.

 Huge difference between areas near Tokyo and here. Much more like where I live in Finland! Japan ain't everything all skyscrypers :D

Today's goal #1 was Yaoi periods village that has been reconstructed to as close to what they were as current knowledge allows. Though park itself admits redoing things might be necessary in future if new information comes up. Dropping bag to the hotel I then headed back to the station(like 3 minutes walk) and off I was to about 3 stations further. 15 minutes train ride.

 From nearest station following signs like this...

 And these allowed to find it easily. Good! Not much people visible so finding locals to ask help might have been bit hard...

 Inside the park approaching first village.

 There. Fence marking outer edge.

 Some buildings were more like buried to the ground. Warehouses?

 This was "southern village". People who lived here were the ones responsible for taking care of fields. Farmers and their family.

 Inside one of those.

 I'm not 100% sure but I THINK this you could actually cook if you wish. Could have made translation error but on other houses different sign clearly stated "no".

Interesting though. And bit surprising Japan would allow live fire here.

 Those doors were LOW! I have trouble with modern doors sometimes and these are like 2000 year old design when people(everywhere) were shorter than now. I had positively hideous time going there(and couple where had stairways I didn't bother going further than edge of the stairway. Too hard. Especially with laptop case I was carrying).

 Behind "forbidden" sign. Curiously this one is in yellow while "dekimasu" or allowed sign was in red. I would put colours in reverse.

 Lots and lots of buildings here. And trust me I'm not even showing every photo :D

 What I find interesting is how many were in the air like above. I wonder what was the purpose for that? Keep bottom of home away from dampness in the ground?

 Stairways were bit modernized. Probably for sake of security.

 If that was rice that would be quite a lot of it. Though then again more than one family had to live on it for quite a time.

 Main building of southern central village where markets were held. Inside this building people signed up to sell on markets and above was drum which was sounded to announce market is open.

 Hopefully didn't break any rule by sounding it myself :D Then again trio of females had gone here before and sounded it as well so I suppose it's allright.

Represents what kind of food they had in stores. Fish, rice, fruits etc.

At the edge of gateway through fence there was observation area. Had to go there to see the views :D

More "rice" I think.

Obviously not real or even close to sharp.

Surprisingly window was covered with webbing so you could see the rice only barely.

Time for more climbing!

Quite nice view from there. Couple kids went there with me. Got spooked when I greeted them though at least nodded heads in response :D Kids! One clearly sees western tourists are still fairly rare sight here.

Home of the king of the village.

Shot didn't succeed that well.

Now for next trio of shots I don't mind if you burst out laughing :D Had some serious trouble holding my cool as well. Though at least on second photo was able to imagine myself to the action I was supposedly doing making face bit more serious.

Hahaha! Guy was there doing this for free. Too bad t-shirt and trousers ruin effect a bit but better than nothing. Not too sure about the wig either but what the heck.

Haha. Still have hard time keeping from bursting out in laughter.

Seems this was the important house of the village used for ceremons etc. Only leaders of villages etc were allowed here it seems.

 The Big Guy.

 Nice view from the above but again low architechture caused headache. Literally. Banged my head to block of wood when I turned and started moving simultaneously.

Note to self: First turn, then check if route is okay, then move. You are way too big to move and turn at the same time!

Head priests home.

 2000 old shrines weren't quite as interesting looking as later ones. But then again...At this point Finnish people were even less developed :D

 Burial mound for kings.

 Inside the mound.

 Model representing how they were buried.

 On my way was these wooden wild boars.

Toward the end of the tour had started to rain annoyingly so I opted to skip northern village(likely similar to southern village) and head back. At the gate I was given short interview specifically for foreigner visitors(curiously from the get-go he spoke Japanese. Albeit I had spoken to somebody in receptionist in Japanese so maybe he had heard and knew I can speak at least some Japanese but generally if you are doing interview of why person came here and how much has he/she spent to various things and this is aimed for FOREIGNER visitors starting it in Japanese is bit odd yes? Not that I mind it mind you!). As it was raining I wasn't feeling like walking streets so instead I pretty much ran the 30 minutes from station to the next station. Funnily enough I had started the trip about same time as 6 school kids on bikes and ended the trip on about same time. Obviously they could have overtaken me in a heartbeat ;)

Also curiously running was actually easier for my blister covered legs than walking. Go figure.

Anyway went to see Saga Castle museum. Curiously this was not at all like previos castles. I wonder if the museum is in the rebuilt castle(original one was destroyed by fire, rebuilt and in early 20th century dismantled due to wearing down. This is 2nd rebuilt) or did I miss the real castle?

Though site does say it is reconstruction of the main keep.

No photos allowed from all that many places alas.

 Part of quick lunch I took heading toward the museum. Chicken something.

 On my way to museum saw this.

 Now on museum there had been this haunting melody. Walking past couple corners found the source. 2 men and 1 women in maybe ancient Heian clothing(by the looks of it. Mostly because of the eboshi, black hat, that was popular there that I think these are Heian period clothing) doing live concert. Been doing that for hour or so. Got to listen only last 20 minutes or so. Flutes and some other instruments. First and last songs had very haunting melody. 2nd one involved singing as well. Last song was from Heian period so could be over 1000 year old song...

Clip that has music somewhat similar to the first song I heard of.

Not bad though not something I would like to listen for extended periods without stop.

After this returned to hotel(took more than 30 minutes as now I walked. Laptop case was getting too heavy).

 Nice little room. Won't have trouble staying here for the one night. Who needs 5 star hotels when you spend like one night there anyway.

 

Toilet also clean. Dad wanted to know what sort of toilets Japanese have and mentioning these weird modern ones with control pads he wanted photo of that too. That's actually quite simple control panel compared to some I have seen. Bottom shower in toilet? Nuts these Japanese! Bit more common oddity is that when you flush water to fill next go comes to top via open place allowing you to wash your hand with it. Guess that's meant to reduce waste of water? 2 uses for same water.

Japanese being Japanese tea boiler as well :D

Then to the second part. One reason why I had even heard of Saga in the first place was idol group performing there and since it happened to be near Nagasaki figured I might try to get to their concert as well. Hadn't managed to secure ticket in Tokyo but that was alright. Saga still had things I would like to see(never seen Yaoi building before so that was worth the trip on it's own! And getting to Kyoto tomorrow is faster from here than from Nagasaki which was nice bonus). However on the train on way here it occurred to me that in Finland you can sometimes buy tickets on the date. Why not here as well? So before heading to the castle museum tried my luck and wasn't a problem. Opted for the night performance since that would give me time to utilize sunlight(concert indoor so doesn't matter what time it is) and headed to the museum.

Close to 18.00 I entered concert venue hall and just in time as they started to sort me and the <200 other nerds(:D) into lines according to ticket number. First time been on this. Before tickets were on specfic seats so lines were made just to make entrance smoother. Now first come get first row. My number was 203 though gaps were in between. Surprisingly small amount but reason came clear when we got in. This was smallest concert venue yet. Smallish room with no seats. On the flip side did mean that despite being on last row I was closer to the girls than in any concerts before.

And when I say girls that's fairly good description. Quick check on hello project wiki says: 16, 16, 16 17, 19 and 20.

So let's see. For first set of clothing they had this fairly standard all long shirt + short skirts. Small other coloured details and band logo(which they seem to have fairly often). Fairly standard looking clothing. Was reminded instantly of difference between Kalafina and idol concerts. For start no live band. For second crowd is lot more noisy yelling chant and names. There was particularly loud one who has same favourite member as I do yelling "Meimei!"(her nickname) quite often and quite loud.

Favourite members are green(first) and red(second). Both are on the youngest side of the group(actually green is youngest and by wiki seems her birthday happened after I came here).

Wish I had found another video for this as I find those clothes bit tasteless with 15+ year old ones. At least concert ones were much less offensive

After this greetings etc chat and to my pleasant surprise I was actually able to understand pretty much all of it. Bit harder when crowd starts shouting as I had trouble even hearing the girls at those times never mind deciphering meaning.

One of the more recent songs from them and one of those songs that I could understand fairy well from the first listening. Yey! Always nice when that happens(and no first time I listen song I don't watch the video specifically because they have started putting translations there!).

After this another speech part. Favourite member did one-girl musical(singing and speaking). After this they mentioned next would be their "cute songs"(kawaii) so I knew pretty much that now would be part I'm likely not going to enjoy likely. Not fan of these hyper-super-cheery-cutie-songs.

Like this one.

Bit better. Fairly old video as it's before 2 of the original 4 left and 4 new members came up. Now it seems they have got 3 more new members though not performing yet.

Best of the "cute" songs. This was first song where new members were full members(previous song they had basically been backup dancers). Also where favourite caught my eyes. She gets first lines around 0:58(second favourite is btw right after that) and on around 1:30 is look that first really caught my attention to her. Funny thing how favourites come but after that I started to keep eye on her more(also helps she was particularly easy for me to recognize. At that time she still had that extremely long hair which helps + every time she smiles you can see the double tooth she has which helps. Second favourite is also fairly easy to recognize. Generally shortish, rather boyish hairstyle + something about the shape of her mouth I suspect that makes her face stand out quite easily making it easy to recognize. Usually these Japanese girls bit hard for me to recognize though not going as far as saying they look all same).

Funny lyrics. "Please wait a moment. Until the day we become Japans #1 please wait a bit".

Something about lyrics and how they sing keeps bugging me. Title of song is "choto mate kudasai". Note the one "t" in second word. I always keep hearing it "chotto maTTe kudasai" and that's actually correct form. I wonder if there slipped typo to lyrics(intentionally?) or girls are actually singing it bit incorrectly out of habit.

Why big deal? Well mate is imperative form. matte is -te form and with kudasai makes for polite request(compare to wait! and please wait). mate kudasai is actually non-sense japanese.

Small details that can bug you. Lol.

Next yet another talk session. This time "A or B" with rather tricky questions. This was the part I couldn't understand all that well at all. So as a result gaze started to wonder at what point I noticed what the rail I was standing on was actually. It was separating audio to "men side" and "women only" side. Bit like there's women only carriages in train(to which I have accidentally entered...). This gave me chance to make rough estimation to number of female fans vs male fans and came to rough estimation of 6 males for every female.

Next was pretty weird pair of songs. Two girls made solo songs covering non-hello project songs O_o. Never heard of that happening before. And "toilet's god" titled song out of all things. One of the newer members I know not so much except she likes(or has been decided. Likely being idols they have less to say on their public outfit than most so wouldn't surprise if even hairstyle is dictated by the company) twin ponytails like today. Quick check on wiki tells that song is about original singers grandmother.

Next came however my favourite member which is always nice. Better her solo song than some others.

Well fan bias included no surprise which of the two I liked more!

Anyway while first girl had performed rest changed to next set of clothing(which would be used until encore). Topmost part was similar to sailor type school uniform though overall clothes didn't look at all like school uniform. Top was shirt made of blue cloth with white shapes(flowers etc) with short enough sleeves that barely covered shoulders. Rather than skirts they had very short trouser like parts made of same material. Shirt was also short enough that if girl raises hands or jumps(so basically always) mid section including naval is revealed. Particularly noticable on 2nd favourite where gap was roughly hand width or so.

Again video from pre-new members. Above mentioned gap in clothes not visible as this was where they were standing without much movement.

Mentioned before song where new members were backup dancers. This was it. Not that they had much of time to practice if I remember timings correctly.

This song demonstrated again how fans here get to the performances. Large parts of crowd were imitating the background dancer movements(hands on each other shoulders etc) when those parts were done. Haha.

Start of this song they did what they do fairly often with this song. Before it they declare they want crowd to make some noise. So on count "1...2...1,2,3,4" crowd is then expected to shout what they tell them so this time it was "SAGA! SAGA! SAGA! SAGA!". First men, then women, then everybody(and more than 4 times this time).

Seen video of performance where girl declares performance wasn't good enough so "put some more voice into it!".

Not much to say about these two songs.

Or from this actually. Except I find it bit ironic they sing about being 18 when only 1/3 actually have reached that age.

This one goes to category of silly love songs. Couple lines makes me always chuckle. "Today at 10 we have a meeting. I changed my smell a bit, wonder if you'll notice it" and "We decided where to go to eat by rock-paper-scissor. Truth was I would have been fine with you deciding everything".

Again video pre-new members.

Then came encore. For clothes only difference was new t-shirt. Bit disapointed actually on cloth selection of this tour. Only 3 sets and encore is barely different to previous one. I wonder if the guy behind the hello project suffering throat cancer might be somewhat responsible? Hello project is basically one-man show(he does all the composing so let's see...5 albums=50+ songs, bunch of singles secondaries=another 20 songs easily plus small subgroup songs so easily approaching 100 song a year. Add to that him having by reports touch on practically everything and I can see how him dealing with sickness means effect on tours. Doesn't seem to know word "delegation").

Anyway song itself is I think their newest single and one I was able to understand almost spot on first hearing.

Then final speech part and last song.

Pre-new members(one of the groups first singles).

BTW guy in start is actually the guy I spoke about up.

So tomorrow trip to Kyoto. Last year I enjoyed Kyoto a lot(my favourite place in Kyoto). Will be meeting with Japanese first up and then have bunch of places I would like to see. Will be there also on 10th and leave on 11th,