This summer I was lucky enough to go to Japan. With everything ready, when they released the dates for ベンタブラック tour, two dates were ok for me.
I chose 08/04/24 Nagoya, Club Quattro and seeing the sold out of the last tour, I decided to buy the tickets as soon as the general sales will be out.
The official page to buy the tickets is https://eplus.jp/ which has a twin page for foreign but this page doesn't offer コドモドラゴン's tickets. I wrote them and they told me that I had to contact with the promotor of the concert, so BP Records. I wrote then BP Records but their answer was that they couldn't help me with it. So without a japanese mobile number, japanese address nor japanese credit card I couldn't register in Eplus.
Many japanese companies offers the service of proxy to buy cds, dvds or the goods of the concerts also there are others that the proxy service is for buy tickets.
I contacted with a few companies and the fastest was Tickets Galore Japan saying yes to my inquiry. https://www.ticketsgalorejapan.com/
The bad side of this company is that they print the tickets instead of giving you the number of the ticket and print it yourself when you arrive to Japan in a conbini, but the rest of the companies told me no and even one asked if they could shorten my full name for the ticket, in this moment I wasn't sure if at the entry they could ask my passport or so and if the names weren't exactly the same, don't allow us to entry. (Now I know that for the general tickets they don't ask for ID, but it is possible for the fan club tickets).
I completed the form, everything in english (all the comunication was in english) and within 24 hours they reply you. You need to write the concert, date and send the URL of Eplus.
They will ask you for a fee depending of the tickets (5000 yenes in my case for 3 tickets), everything along Paypal. Once you paid the fee, you have to pay the tickets and they buy and print it at the conbini.
My tickets were waiting with the company because I arrived Japan the 27th of July, the tickets were bought the 06/10 (the general sales started the 06/08). The 31st of July, paying the fee of shipping, they sent me the 3 tickets to a hotel. This is what I've got:
Buying the goods: it is before the show, like an hour or two before they open the doors. The staff don't speak english or they didn't speak english with me but they are very polite and will try to help you and show you the price of the goods that you asked for. As a tip, go with list of what you want to buy, don't trust your memory. I was so happy and excited that I forgot to buy the chekis :D They don't sell there the CD of the tour nor the last DVD. If you want to buy it in Japan, I will tell you later the best shop for it.
You have to left of your belongs at the lockers, in Club Quattro, the lockers are at the floor 9, in other venues the lockers are directly close the entry or after the entry. These lockers in particular were very spacious (the poster fit perfectly and it isn't little).
Entry to the venue: the tickets have two sections: A and B and a correlative number. The section A is the corresponding to the fan club tickets, they get into the venue first for order of number on the ticket. Then the section B which is the section for general sales and also you acceded to the venue by the number of your ticket. In Club Quattro we were along the stairs and one person of the staff is yelling the numbers in japanese
In my case, they already yelled section B so I had to be waiting until I heard "goban". The counter -番 is a counter for numbers and it doesn't change the name of the numbers (like the counter of people) so 1 is ichiban, 2 is niban and go on.
After cut your ticket, you can buy the drink (600 yenes per person) if you want. We got into the venue and aprox I was at the position that I wanted, close to the bar, row 10 and centered. I have to say that meN-meN side was full but not Yume's side.
Inside the venue, I saw a big variety of people, the staff (Yusuke, the manager was there walking up and down) controling and when they were at our position, they stopped to look at us (3 foreigns maybe is weird). The fans were very nice and friendly, I went very happy for this.
Before the lights shut down punctually, people bow to the person who has beside, in front of and behind to say sorry if in the show they hit with the hair (they do...) step on you (it was my fault and even the girl was worry about me). The concert was amazing, I don't have enough words to describe it, Hayato is super nice, meN-meN is very cheerful, Yume is smiling all the time and Chamu was behind the drums and I just could see his eyes but when they were talking to the fans, he was very nice too. Also you don't stop to dance the choreographies (I tried my best). At the end when Codomo said goodbye, the fan club made a row to get into the backstage and took a photo with them, the rest of the people is invited to go out. I was happily surprised of the variety of people, like a mother with his son both very fans, an old lady (around 70 years old) behind me who had a lot of fun and several boys.
Where to buy cds and dvds: we know from instore events a lot of shops of music there such as Tower Records, Like an Edison, Five Stars, HMV & Books... but the most important and where you are going to find everything of visual kei is Little Hearts.
Shibuya Tower Records: search on j-pop section and there try to find the こ or co. I found one cd that I already had.
HMV & Books: I found two types of Dabi with a photo as present, but nothing else.
Shinjuku Little Hearts: you can try in Osaka too if it is on your way, there I found 1 cd for each single that Codomo Dragon released except of Right Evil and Nepenthes, also 1 dvd for each dvd that they released. It's the specialized store and you will only find Visual Kei.
In Little Hearts was very easy to find all the cds, in other stores after look and look around the shelves, I had to ask in japanese for the cds or dvds, except one girl who didn't understand me or didn't know the band, the rest took me directly to the cds and dvds.
Tower Records and HMV & Books have the tax free but Little Hearts didn't have this option. Cds or DVDs by second hand I only found one VIper and none DVDs.
I hope this guide help you in the case you go to any of visual kei concerts. Any question, my mail is open.
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