A fateful glance at a 7-11 the other day made me aware of an astounding truth – the G-Rosso theatre at the Tokyo Dome center was holding Super Sentai shows on weekends during June! Yesterday, one of my all-time Japanese dreams came true when we went and saw Samurai Sentai Shinkenger live on stage!
If you’re completely lost at this point, then think ‘Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers’. That was theAmerican localized version of just one season of the long running Japanese Super Sentai series. Shinkenger is season 33, and tells the story of the usual five protagonists battling monsters with a Japanese period theme.
The stage show was just amazing. It was about 35 minutes long, and featured amazing suits, lots of acrobatics (including some very impressive falls), great choreographed fights and some nifty special effects. Yes, yes it was cheesy. But it was also incredibly awesome. It was a show for men, and made me feel alive. Truly a highlight of this – or of any – Japanese trip.
Here’s my opinion of the show recorded right afterwards.
And then – AND THEN – I walked not fifty steps and rode the Thunder Dolphin, one of the best coasters (if not the best) I have ever ridden.
The Thunder Dolphin is the amazing coaster at the LaQua park at Tokyo Dome that is built on and around a building, and also passed directly through the Big-O spokeless ferris wheel. I rode it before in ’06 and loved it, and this time around it did not disappoint!
Here’s a video of the first drop.
Here’s a video of the entire run (recorded from on the Big-O)
And here’s my opinion of the coaster recorded immediately afterwards.
Obviously I rode Big-O as well, and while it was fun it was no Odaiba wheel… besides half-way through the ride something was starting to happen…
There is a performance stage inside the courtyard of LaQua, and they had been setting up for a show while I was on Thunder Dolphin. KLS had been waiting down there watching a crowd gather and occasionally formation-dance to a music video of a girl idol group they had been rotating on the screen. Here’s a shot of two fans she took:
< Cute fans
While I was on Big-O the show began, and what a show it was: a cute girl idol band! KLS saw the whole performance; I managed to see the second half after rushing over after riding Big-O.
The group of seven girls is called Fudan Juku (also, confusingly, Nakano Fujoshi Sisters) and their schtick is they cosplay as boys. The performance (four songs) was full of energy, great outfits, well-choreographed dances (that the girls performed very well) and very, very enthusiastic fans.
Here’s a video KLS managed to shoot on the sly.
It was a very entertaining performance, and it’s easy to see how these groups can garner such devotion in their fanbase. The music was catchy, but even more so was the energy of the girls themselves. The idol industry here in Japan truly has this stuff down to a fine art!
Now I mentioned earlier I always wanted to see a live action Sentai show? Well another dream of mine (and KLS’s, in fact a much bigger one for her) was to see an idol group perform live! Two dreams in one day! Hence the title of this entry 🙂
Of course nothing else that we did yesterday could hope to compete with such a morning, so it’s barely worth mentioning we rushed through the imperial gardens in record time due to the soul-destroying heat in Tokyo yesterday…
… or that we had truly fantastic Burgers for lunch, and KLS had a chocopan for breakfast…
…or that Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara is so mind-boggingly big and full of amazing stuff that it feels like The Pure Land. Take the toy section for instance, otherwise known as the 6th floor. It alone is bigger than most shops you’ve ever been in, and in addition to a truly mind-boggling array of Gundams, boxed toys, video games, trading cards and (every other type of toy ever made) still manages to easily accomodate over 700 gashapon machines…
AW if you entered this place your mind would stop.
At this point, with yesterday a still good memory, I’ll give a preview of today. And that would be the Magic Apple Pie I just ate. The cashier at McDonalds handed it to me using both hands, with such a genuine smile of appreciation. Japanese girls are underappreciated by the ‘herbivore men’ that don’t even look at them when they buy their fast food, so it’s no surprise I charm each and every one of them with each purchase I make. My reward, this one time, was a Magic Apple Pie. For a single, lousy, Y100 coin this blissful baked treat filled with me energy abundant and managed to help abate the cold-like symptoms I am fighting off.
The Magic Apple Pie. Yet another reason I love visiting this country 🙂
