My super-quick visit to Kobe for Daesung's concert [23rd/24th Mar]

Why was I in Kobe for a weekend you might ask? All because of this guy;

Daesung~ (credit; High Lite, one of his fansites whose photo's I just adore).

In case you've not heard, I'm a big fan of Big Bang (vast majority of people reading this are well aware of that, but you never know). Daesung is my favouite member of the group and he recently released a solo album in Japan under his stage name there of D-Lite. He covered Japanese songs and they included Japanese versions of the songs he had on previous Big Bang albums in Korean; here's the trailer!

The concert hall and view from the lift at Portopia Hotel.

I know I'm so lucky really, to be able to fly to Japan and back in a weekend but I wish I'd had more time to actually even see Kobe because I essentially spent most of my time travelling. I flew into Osaka Kansai, then took the high-speed ferry to Kobe. My hotel and the concert venue were less than 5 minutes away from each other on Port Island, which was really handy.

Fans outside the venue in awesome custom-made overalls.

Everyone going in the venue.

I went on my own, so... it was rather strange. It felt like hardly any non-Korean or non-Japanese fans went to this concert, so I felt pretty self-concious around the venue itself. However, my seat was only row 17 on the arena floor and I felt lucky to get so (relatively) close! The hall went back quite a way, so I was glad I wasn't any farther from the stage although of course, I would have loved to be closer, haha~

View from my seat.

I was pretty scared about getting chucked out if I tried to take a photo before it started but managed a quick snap on my phone to show how far I was from the stage afterwards. Security were red-hot on looking for people with camera's, I really don't know how fansites manage it! I also bought the Japanese BB lightstick - which you can only get at concerts in Japan. I hadn't bought my crown lightstick with me because I had slogans to wave but glad I bought this after all. The ticker tape also came down and the girl in front of me had two, so passed one back to me as I was the only one near who didn't manage to catch any, which was so nice of her. ^__^ I didn't realise until I got back to the hotel that it had D-Lite/DLive on it too.

Ticker tape! Yay, I got a purple one!

As for the concert itself? Well. Wow. I made it through Wings but then cried at Baby Don't Cry instead. He's known for having an amazing voice and yes, I heard (and cried through) Wings at Big Bang's Alive concert in Seoul but it was different being able to hear him again as a solo artist. Most of the songs were slower ballads and I'll admit to not knowing any of the words to them. I quietly sang along to Baby Don't Cry in Korean - to be honest, if he had sang that and Wings in Korean, I would have gone to pieces a lot more. Him singing them in Japanese helped me because I know the Korean versions a lot better, so I didn't quite end up as a complete crying mess. Oh, and I also still couldn't actually sing to anything because my voice was still gone so I couldn't even properly cheer for him and only wave my lightstick as much as I could instead ;____;

Japan version Big Bang lightstick.

However, having said that I hadn't heard all of the songs that much, now when I listen to Utautai no Ballad (Singer's Ballad) in particular, I can remember hearing him singing it live. I watched that music video again with Liz and Kirsti this weekend and it made me pretty emotional. Also, Joyful and Hello really made a great contrast of up-beat songs to dance about to and shout out the random English in the middle of them. Oh, and having the live band was awesome too!

I struggled during the talk segments because I hardly know any Japanese and so have absolutely no idea what he was saying. However, the short video before the encore with him showing you the different merchandise was utterly hilarious and didn't need translation. It also reminded me of more reasons why I love him - he's funny even in languages I don't understand and adorably cute at the same time.

For the encore, he did songs that previously I'd only seen from Big Show concert solo stages, 대박이야  and 날봐,귀순 (Big Hit and Look At Me, Gwisoon respectively). I never thought I'd see them live! Both are pretty cheesy to say the least, especially if you don't know what trot is.

Gummy popping up half-way through was also a great surprise. She was cute too and her songs gave Dae a chance to rest for a bit. I hadn't heard her new Japanese single either, so that was fun to hear for the first time at a concert.

For now, I can't think of anything else I wanted to mention so I'll end it here~