Day 2 – 10 February 2019, Sunday
I woke up after 9am this morning and lazed in bed for a while before making my way down to take a hot bath. By the time I was done, I had missed the free breakfast bread rolls, which are served until 10am daily.
After the cold and wet day yesterday, the weather today was much more favourable. The sun was out and the temperature was a nice 5 to 7 degrees Celsius, which was still cold, but mitigated by the warmth from the sun’s rays.
I first went to the huge Tokyu Hands store located in the same building as the Takashimaya department store, less than five minutes’ walk away from my hotel. My mission was to find an absorbing umbrella case for storing a wet umbrella. I know most people don’t carry umbrellas nowadays but I usually keep a foldable one in my bag just in case. When I do use it, it always annoys me that I have to scramble around for a plastic bag to store my wet umbrella. I managed to find the case at Tokyu Hands and I was very happy.
Umbrellas are big business in Japan and there is a wide selection at Tokyu Hands. There is a brand called Waterfront (click here) that makes very slim and compact foldable umbrellas that are very light and handy for carrying around. I bought one during my last trip to Hokkaido in 2016 and it’s really good. They are relatively cheap too, only 1,500 JPY (S$18.75) before tax.
By the way, there is tax exemption for tourists at major department stores and shops like Tokyu Hands. You’ll need to spend a minimum of 5,000 JPY (S$62.50) before tax, or 5,400 JPY after tax, to be eligible. You can combine receipts from the same store within the same day.
The process is very simple. Just bring your receipt(s) and item(s) to the tax exemption counter within the store and present your passport to the staff. They will process the tax refund on the spot and return you the amount in cash. The staff will also use scotch tape to paste the tax refund receipt in your passport. At the airport, you can check in your purchased items in your luggage and depart Japan as per normal. There is no need to go to any tax refund counter at the airport or keep your purchased items in your hand carry bag. It’s very convenient.
Of course, there is a small processing fee involved and you will not get back the full 8% consumption tax amount, but it’s close enough. For what I spent at Tokyu Hands (5,874 JPY), I received a refund of 434 JPY, which works out to a tax rebate of 7.4%. Therefore, the processing fee is 0.6%, which is very reasonable. So, remember to bring your passport along if you plan to do some major shopping in Tokyo!
At 12:45pm, I had lunch at Yoshinoya. We have Yoshinoya in Singapore too but the one in Japan is so much better. There is a wider selection of dishes and the quality is really good, and at an affordable price too. I initially wanted to have the unagi rice bowl but I ended up with the beef set instead (500 JPY/S$6.25). It was quite special because it came with a raw egg. According to the picture, you’re supposed to dip the cooked beef slices in the raw egg before eating them. This was my first time trying it and I liked it.
I then took the subway from Shinjuku-sanchome station to Shibuya. Japan has the busiest commuter rail stations in the world, with Shinjuku taking the crown, followed by Ikebukuro and Umeda in Osaka. Shibuya comes in fourth. As you can expect, there are a lot of people and many different exits at Shibuya station. The safest option is to head for Hachiko-mae Square, which is Exit 8. From there, you can orientate yourself and figure out where you want to go.
For those who are not familiar, Hachiko is a dog who is known for his loyalty to his owner, a professor at the Tokyo Imperial University. Every day, Hachiko would follow the professor to Shibuya station to send him off for work, and go back again in the afternoon to wait for his return. Unfortunately, the professor passed away at work in 1925 and never returned. Hachiko was so loyal that he continued to go back to Shibuya station at the same time each day to wait for his owner.
Years later, one of the professor’s former students found out about Hachiko’s routine and went to Shibuya station to see if it was true. Hachiko was there of course. The student then published a newspaper article and Hachiko became a national icon, held up as a symbol of unwavering loyalty.
Hachiko continued going back to Shibuya station day after day. In 1934, a statue of Hachiko was unveiled in front of Shibuya train station, with Hachiko present as the guest of honour. Hachiko eventually passed away in 1935, and was buried next to the professor, finally reunited with his owner in death.
The statue of Hachiko is a popular meeting place for locals. Hordes of tourists gather around every day to take pictures with it. I didn’t take a picture with Hachiko this time as there was a long queue. Anyway, I had done it previously so I’m good.
Besides the Hachiko statue, Shibuya is also famous for the huge crossing at the intersection of several streets in front of the station. Every few minutes, all the traffic lights will turn red and vehicles will stop, and thousands of pedestrians will swarm across the road in all directions. It never fails to blow my mind how there can be so many people using the crossing at all times of the day.
One of the best places to view the Shibuya Crossing is at the Starbucks Coffee outlet on level 2 of the Tsutaya store, directly facing Hachiko-mae Square. The seats by the window are always occupied but there is a spot on the left side with no table/seat, and you can take a photo from there. I was lucky it was vacant when I visited and I managed to take a nice time-lapse video of the crossing on my phone.
As it was a Sunday with very fine weather, the whole of Tokyo was out at Shibuya in full force. There was a buzz in the whole area and the atmosphere was fantastic. The Shibuya area has many shops and restaurants, and it feels trendier and more geared towards youth culture than Shinjuku.
My main objective for coming to Shibuya today was to visit one of my favourite record stores, RECOfan (click here). RECOfan is located on 4th floor of Shibuya Beam and it is a huge shop selling tons of CDs, DVDs and vinyls. It also has a large selection of secondhand items at low prices and it is simply a music lover’s wet dream. During my previous visits, I easily spent hours here trawling through the vast collection, acquiring several rare items for my collection. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much luck this time and I left empty handed (My wallet says “phew!”).
I then paid a short visit to HMV Record Shop, which is much smaller than RECOfan, and it specialises in vinyls only. Likewise, I didn’t manage to unearth any rare items so I didn’t buy anything. At about 3pm, I left Shibuya and made my way back to my hotel to change and get ready for my Janet Jackson concert.
The Nippon Budokan is located at Chiyoda and the nearest subway station is Kudanshita, just three stops away from Shinjuku-sanchome station on the Shinjuku line. I arrived at Kudanshita at 4:15pm and walked towards Kitanomaru National Garden, where the Budokan is at. The sprawling gardens are also home to the Science Museum, National Archives of Japan and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo/Crafts Gallery.
Budokan is an indoor arena and it was originally built for judo during the 1964 Olympics. Its name means Martial Arts Hall in English and its primary purpose was to host martial arts competitions. It has also been used as a concert venue, with The Beatles being the first rock group to play here in 1966. Many other famous acts such as Queen, Led Zeppelin and Janet herself have also performed at the Budokan, so it is quite a legendary venue.
My friend JK was not here yet so I joined the queue to buy merchandise first. There was an array of merch available but I only had my eyes on the Rhythm Nation/Janet SOTW Tour 2019 hoodie. It was quite expensive (7,000 JPY), so I only bought that one item.
JK arrived at 4:40pm and he was decked out in his Rhythm Nation 1814 bomber jacket, all ready to rock out. There was a nice, big Janet SOTW Tour billboard in front of the stadium so we took photos with it before joining the queue to enter the venue.
Doors opened at 5pm and we went in excitedly. The Budokan is an iconic venue but it is also very old. As we walked through the corridors of the stadium, I was reminded of our old Kallang Theatre. Very old school décor and facilities.
After entering the hall, we made our way to our seats and we were absolutely delighted to find that we had 5th row seats that were almost in the middle of the stage! We were very close to the stage and the view was great. Woohoo!
This was my second time watching Janet Jackson in concert. The first was during her Number Ones: Up Close And Personal Tour on 7 February 2011 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. For that show, JK and I (and our friend SN) managed to get first row seats so we got really up close with Janet. However, I felt that we were a little too close, and I couldn’t appreciate the choreography fully as we were too close to see the whole stage effect and the different dance formations. Click here for my very detailed review of the Singapore concert 8 years ago.
As a bonus, we also got to meet Janet backstage after the show! However, it was a large group of 12 and I did not get to greet her as the other fans entered the room first and hogged her. And then it was time for the photo and we were unceremoniously ushered out of the room in less than three minutes. So sad…but it was still a dream come true to take a photo with Janet.
For this concert, I have actually watched it many, many times on YouTube, from its previous iteration as the Unbreakable Tour in 2015 to the subsequent versions as the State Of The World Tour in 2017 and 2018. I have scrutinised every song, every outfit and every look, so there are really no surprises anymore. However, nothing beats watching the concert live with my own eyes.
At 6:20pm, the lights dimmed and video images were projected onto the three big screens on stage, depicting current news events that represent the state of the world today – white supremacy, domestic terrorism and police brutality. Of course, State Of The World is a song on Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814 album, which was released in September 1989.
20 years later, the subject matter of the song remains more relevant than ever today, which is sad because it shows that the world has not progressed and has not learned from past events. On a related note, it’s clever play of words to name the current tour State Of The World Tour – as in, State Of The World + World Tour. Two in one.
After the video montage, Janet’s silhouette was projected on the left-most screen, just a few metres away from where we stood. She kicked off the concert with Skin Game (Part 1), a little-known B-side from her 1989 single Come Back To Me. During the Unbreakable Tour, she opened the show with BURNITUP!, the first song from the Unbreakable album. However, when the concert was re-jigged as the State Of The World Tour in 2017, she opened with The Knowledge, another cut from the Rhythm Nation album. In July 2018, during the second leg of the State Of The World Tour, the opening song was changed yet again to Skin Game (Part 1), and it has remained ever since.
I shall not do a full review of the concert but here are some pics and videos I took. I tried not to take too many because I wanted to enjoy the concert as much as I could, yet I couldn’t resist because I was so near the stage and I had a great view. Enjoy!
Janet Jackson’s setlist at Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan on 10 February 2019:
- The Skin Game (Part 1)
- The Knowledge
- BURNITUP!
- Nasty / Feedback / Miss You Much / Alright / You Want This
- Control / What Have You Done For Me Lately / The Pleasure Principle
- Love Will Never Do (Without You)
- When I Think Of You / All For You
- All Nite (Don’t Stop)
- When We Oooo
- Doesn’t Really Matter
- I Get Lonely
- Any Time, Any Place (interpolate with Kendrick Lamar’s Poetic Justice)
- What’s It Gonne Be?!
- No Sleeep
- Got ‘Til It’s Gone
- That’s The Way Love Goes
- So Much Betta
- Throb
- Together Again
- What About
- You Ain’t Right
- If
- Scream
- Rhythm Nation
- Made For Now
The concert ended at 7:50pm, exactly 90 minutes after it started. As we made our way out of the stadium and back to Shinjuku, JK and I discussed about the show and what we enjoyed most about it. We continued our discussion during dinner over sashimi, sushi and yakitori. So nice to have a fellow Janet fan to share my enthusiasm with!
As a closing for this post, here are my thoughts on what I liked and what I liked a little less about the concert.
What I liked:
Overall, it was a very good show. At 52 years of age, Janet shows no sign of slowing down and she can still rock the moves. Of course, you cannot compare it to her prime during her 30’s, when she was extra zippy and danced a lot more throughout the concert. But she is still very sharp in her movements and often, even more precise than her dancers when hitting the beats.
Janet is without a doubt, the most talented and natural female dancer-singer ever. Just imagine having to remember all the choreography and lyrics for a 90-minute show! And it’s more than just simply executing the moves – any dancer can do that – it’s about the intensity, the sensuality and the performance as well. She makes it look easy but it’s not.
The choreography for this tour is much better than the Number Ones and Rock Witchu Tour. I think Janet’s main creative director, Gil Duldulao, really stepped it up in the past few years and this tour is a return to form for Janet.
There have been criticisms about many of the songs being compressed into medleys and not given enough time to shine. Given Janet’s deep repertoire and three decades of hits, it’s hard to perform every single song. I think the medleys work just fine as they are.
I’m happy that Janet performed When We Oooo as it is one of the under-rated songs from the All For You album. Glad that Janet dusted it out of the archive. The choreography is subtle but elegant. It reminds me of Michael Jackson’s performance for Will You Be There. It is not a dance song per se, but the dance moves suit the song perfectly.
I like that Janet did a lot of dancing on Got ‘Til It’s Gone. The choreography in that song is quite technical and it reminded me of how she used to perform it on the TV shows back in 1997.
What I liked a little less:
I’m not really digging the short frizzy hair look. I prefer the high ponytail look that she sported during the State Of The World Tour in 2017 and 2018. Janet looks fiercest when she can flick her long hair around!
How can she not perform Escapade?! That was such a big hit for her and one of the most joyful songs ever. It’s a crime not to sing it. Other notable songs that were not performed on this leg of the tour: Black Cat, Again, Where Are You Now, Twenty Foreplay.
No costume changes. And her current outfit doesn’t look very flattering. I prefer the all-white ensemble during the first Unbreakable Tour shows, and the skin-tight leotard during the first leg of the State Of The World Tour in 2017.
No light box during The Pleasure Principle, which is JK’s favourite Janet song. During the previous iterations of the show, one of our favourite moments was when Janet did her bam-bam moves inside the light box, which often ended with her sprawled on the ground during the last line. Sadly, they didn’t bring the light box along for the Tokyo shows.
Ending the concert with Made For Now. While previous iterations of the show have ended with Well Travelled and Rhythm Nation, the current show ends with Made For Now, her latest single that was released in August 2018. While I like the song, it’s not a huge hit and it doesn’t provide a high point like Together Again or Rhythm Nation does.
In conclusion, I enjoyed the concert a lot and I’m just so thankful that we had such great seats. I hope I can watch Janet live in concert again in future. Hope she will release some new music soon and put on a brand-new stage show. By the way, her first name ain’t ‘Baby’. It’s Janet, Miss Jackson, if you’re nasty!
To end it off, here are my video highlights from the concert, enjoy!