I saw two Asian tour concerts in Japan: Studio Coast in Tokyo and Namba Hatch in Osaka. I felt overwhelmed by everything I saw and experienced during my amazing trip and loved visiting the country. Seeing concerts in Japan is very different than seeing concerts in Europe or US. It’s not possible to influence on your spot in the audience in any way as every ticket has a random number and people are let in in number order either in bigger groups (like happened in Tokyo) or checking their numbers one by one (like in Osaka). Also, the pressure coming from excitement in the crowd is strong and some people may find it uncomfortable. I’m used to many kind of audiences so I didn’t mind at all but was definitely bruised after the show.

I managed to locate myself in the second row in Tokyo. When Mika walked on stage the crowd immediately packed forward and threw me into the first row towards the barrier before I could realize what happened. I was happy to be there and grabbed the barrier and apologized the girl next to me who was luckily very kind and understanding and just smiled and told there’s nothing to do when the crowd moves with that strong power and that it’s similar at every concert. In Osaka I decided to go to the back of the venue and to a bit higher area with barriers to see the whole stage and had a great view but of course felt like watching the show as an outsider compared to Tokyo. I was still happy to see the both perspectives.

Mika opened both nights with Toy Boy and people were so excited they could hardly calm down to listen to it. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Japan gigs and was a bit worried that between massive, enthusiastic Korea and new, unknown China already familiar Japan could be almost like an anticlimax and not exciting enough for Mika. However, he obviously enjoyed the atmosphere and gave the audience his best energy and full attention and the gigs were fantastic measured by any standards.

The crowd in Tokyo was absolutely crazy and I had a great spot so I naturally enjoyed the gig fully and can put it very high on my personal top gig list. On the other hand in Osaka we heard three more songs (Good Wife, Any Other World, Drunk) and saw even chattier Mika so the both gigs ended up being amazing experiences. Mika took a lot of contact with the audience and gave his attention to people and it was lovely to see my Japanese friends getting happy Mika moments after waiting the gig for such a long time.

My favorite live songs include my permanent favorites Underwater and Origin, my new favorites Last Party and Good Wife and now surprisingly also Boum Boum Boum, which is always fantastic performed live and Japan was not an exception. I really enjoyed the new songs live and found, maybe surprisingly, Talk About You even better live song than Good Guys even though I expected the opposite way. Colorful confetti party is a highlight every time. We saw one in Tokyo and it looked fabulous. Osaka got long serpentines and it wasn’t as impressive as confetti but the colours looked beautiful with the cartoon setting.