Tripping with Buck-Tick

This post mostly goes to BTZone from Livejournal, re Buck-Tick live tours and Okinawa. (BTZone, I hope your site gets well soon!)

1) Buck-Tick no longer travel with a convoy of three trucks.  Now there's only one truck (albeit, it's a giant one.)  And, to all you confused fangirls, the band members do not travel in the tour truck.  The tour truck carries the sets.  The band members travel separately.  Do not try to stalk them on their travels or they will hate you forever.

2) The monorail in Naha is useful, but only if you're in central Naha.  When I was in Naha it was mostly locals riding it, not tourists.

3) With regard to the Tottori thing, Buck-Tick claimed they made special arrangements with their staff to hit all the Japanese prefectures on the Yumemiru Uchuu/Cosmic Dreamer tours.  It was part of the 25th anniversary deal, they discussed it in the fanclub newsletter.  However I notice that they skipped out on Fukushima prefecture and a number of others including Shimane, Akita, Yamagata, Iwate, Kagoshima, Toyama, Fukui, Yamaguchi, Yamanashi, Wakayama, Mie, Aomori, and in fact, Kyoto...possibly because Imai and Toll have both demonstrated they can't label most of these prefectures on a map, but also probably because almost no fans live in any of them...these being the most sparsely populated regions of Japan to begin with (Kyoto being the exception but they played two days in Osaka and Kyoto's only half an hour from Osaka by express train.  BTZone I know you know this stuff, this is for the general audiences.)  So I guess what they meant is, they made special arrangements to hit all the main islands and regions of Japan, thinking that surely the three members of the Shimane fanclub could make it to Tottori for the weekend.  According to the fans I spoke to who followed the entire tour, the halls in small cities were not sold out and many of the local fans came over quite silent, though it's impossible to tell whether their silence was the result of a lack of enthusiasm or too much enthusiasm.

4) For what it's worth, I checked, and Oita T.O.P.S. Bitts Hall, at which Buck-Tick are playing in two weeks, can also be rented for weddings, fashion shows, and AKB48 cosplay events.

5) To all of you who don't live in Japan and haven't been to Japan: domestic travel in Japan is one of the wonders of the modern world!  From Toyko, flying to Okinawa only takes about as much time as riding the bullet train to Osaka.  The cost is about the same too.  However, neither are cheap...that's really the only issue.  Even so, I would advise anyone who can manage to to take the bullet train or a plane rather than an overnight bus if you can possibly manage it.  Overnight buses take hours, they're the most uncomfortable vehicles known to man, and there have recently been a bunch of exposes about how sketchy the bus companies' management is, how the drivers are overworked and underpaid and in some cases drive sleeping or drunk.  You've been warned.

That was my five cents.