Tokyo - flying visit and Madonna
17:05Last sunday I had a whirlwind trip to Tokyo, less than 24 hours, just to see the Madonna Rebel Heart Tour with a friend of mine. It was awesome. When I heard that Madonna was coming to Tokyo with her tour I really wanted to go but never thought it would happen, however, when my friend Yuko mentioned that she wanted to go as well we decided to just do it! The last and only time I saw Madonna was when I was 13, with the Girlie Show tour in 1993 and I have always wanted to see her again (however she never came back to Australia). So here we are 23 years later (how old am i!!??) and I got to see her again.
I flew up to Tokyo from Okinawa on Sunday afternoon, arrived at Narita at around 3, raced to my hotel in Ueno (Dormy Inn Hotel Ueno Okachimachi) on the Keisei Skyliner Train (only 40 minutes to Ueno with only 1 stop - great way to get into Tokyo), raced to my hotel to drop off my bag, then was back on a train by 5 to get to Saitama Super Arena and meet my friend by 5:30. There was barely a moment to stop and take a breath, let alone any photos - which I kind of hated. I LOVE to look around Tokyo.
When we finally got to the concert venue it was a chance to sit down and catch up while waiting for things to kick off. One of the things I love about going to see concerts in Japan is that they always start early, so you can get the last train home. In Australia, if you are going to see a band, it's likely they won't start playing until close to midnight, but in Japan, some things will start around 6pm! I had heard that the night before Madonna hadn't started until 9pm, 2 hours late, so I was hoping that wouldn't be the case this time. Luckily it only started an hour late! Haha!
I was actually really impressed with the whole show. I was expecting Madonna's voice to sound average, but it sounded great, and she played plenty of old songs, which is good because I don't think i've listened to anything past the Music album! She did an awesome guitar heavy rocking version of Burning Up! All in all, i'm really glad I went, even if, for the price I couldn't really see much!
When I got back to Ueno, everything was closing up because it was close to 11, but there were still a few people out and about and some restaurants open. I was exhausted by this stage to headed straight back to the hotel, where they have free ramen between 9:30-11pm. Such a good idea and it was really tasty. The hotel also has a roof top onsen, which I really wanted to try but I was too tired by that stage and my flight was at 9am the next morning back at Narita, which meant getting up very early.
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| Tokyo Skytree in the distance |
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| Ueno |
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| Ameyokocho |
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| Free hotel noodles |
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| Ueno station - full of these short tunnels |
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| Waiting for the concert to start |
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| Burning Up |
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| These days people use the torch on their phones, not lighters |
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| Everybody |
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| Late night walk back to the hotel through Ueno |
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| Free ramen at the hotel |
2 comments
How awesome!! She was just in Puerto Rico like less than 2 weeks ago! :)
ReplyDeleteWhew! What a whirl wind! Still it's very awesome you got to go and I'm quite jealous. I love the cell phones as lighters, I guess in a world where smoking is becoming less popular and phones are taking over it makes sense lol. Also I can't believe Madonna hasnt been to Australia for that long!?! Crazy
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