I attended the shows on both nights, but I’ll write a report based on the first night though my memories are a bit mixed up. The flow of events was almost the same between both shows.

The venue was a luxury hotel located near Tokyo Tower beautifully lit up in the center of Tokyo. Though the banquet halls were in the second basement floor, long lines of people waiting for the reception to be opened had extended to the ground floor. Everyone dressed up wearing a dress, kimono, suit or something formal.
After a long wait, the lines started to move bit by bit, and then I finally reached the reception. A set of CD and DVD was handed out free to each attendee there. (The CD contained “Crystal Piano no Kimi” and “Aisuru Hito yo”, and the DVD contained “Amaoto” performed at ToshI’s last concert. Now it’s on sale on ToshI’s website.)
The place for dinner was completely divided by the grade of seat - Platinum, SS, S and A -, so you cannot enter the other rooms. Because I had the SS seat, I’m not exactly sure what happened in the room for the Platinum seats, but it seemed that ToshI appeared and sang a song playing piano, and then shook hands with people who won the lottery. A bottle of Yoshiki wine was given to each of the people with the Platinum seat, and a T-shirt with XJAPAN’s logo was given to each of the people with the other grade of seat as a favor. The dinner began with an appetizer named “Hoshizora no Neptune” followed by a cup of soup capped with pie, then a thick slice of roast beef as the main dish came, and lastly a dessert named “Crystal Piano no Kimi” that was shaped like a piano made of chocolate was served.

After dinner, we had to wait long again at the lobby, and then moved to the place for the show. There was the stage on which two crystal pianos were placed in the center of the gorgeous banquet hall, and the audience seats were arranged around the stage.
The show finally started after nine. ToshI in a white swallow-tailed coat appeared and walked around on the stage greeting the audience with a smile. Everyone got excited and yelled his name over and over. ToshI was like “I wonder which direction I should face...”, because he was surrounded by the audience in every direction.
ToshI sat in front of the piano on the right and started to sing “Airport” playing piano with the orchestra. His singing voice was incredibly beautiful, pure, dynamic and emotional, so I felt like I was taken to another world like a dream...
The next song was “Haru no Ibuki” also from his album “Samurai Japan”.
Then he sang “Aisuru Hito yo” that YOSHIKI made for a TV drama in 2008 and was originally sung by a classical singer Masafumi Akikawa. This beautiful melody and lyrics perfectly suited ToshI’s singing voice as if it was made for him.
After singing “Amaoto”, ToshI walked out of the hall once. Then after a while, we heard the sound of playing conga and soon SHINYA came in. He prompted the audience to call his name to the beat of conga and whipped them up. He was a really good entertainer. Then HEATH appeared playing bass guitar and ToshI came back. They started to perform “Samurai Japan” and ToshI said “You can stand up only for this song!”, so everyone stood up and raised and waved their arms yelling “Hey! Hey! Hey!”. Everyone went wild, so it was like a XJAPAN’s concert rather than a dinner show.

After SHINYA and HEATH went back, ToshI said “I think I’ll call Mr. Y” and the audience got more excited. At first, a bunch of people rushed toward the pathway leading from the door that YOSHIKI was supposed to come in, so the door was once closed because it was really dangerous. ToshI calmed down those people, and then YOSHIKI in a dark suit finally showed up.
The first song by ToshI and YOSHIKI was “Crystal Piano no Kimi”. YOSHIKI played piano on the left and ToshI sang playing piano on the right. When I first listened to this song at the fan club meeting last July, I cried so much and couldn’t stop my tears, but this time, I was filled with warm feelings and happiness that might have been brought by the real “Crystal Piano no Kimi” (= YOSHIKI) being there and playing piano for ToshI.
Their talks between songs were really funny, so we laughed a lot. When they talked about the next song “Ima wo Dakishimete” that was originally a duet YOSHIKI made for NOA in 1993, YOSHIKI said “I got ToshI to sing its demo version. He is convenient because he can sing both female parts and male parts!”.
They performed “Forever Love” next. ToshI couldn’t hit the high notes well, but he sang with heart and soul, so the audience warmly applauded him with love.
After YOSHIKI left the stage, ToshI said “This is the `tentative’ last song”, and sang “Hoshizora no Neptune” with a piano accompaniment by another pianist. Once he started to sing, the atmosphere in the hall became like a starry sky, and we were embraced by the beautiful and mystical atmosphere created by his singing voice.

Soon after ToshI walked away, the audience started to clap their hands to call for an encore.
After a while, ToshI came back followed by SHINYA and HEATH. YOSHIKI also joined them though it didn’t seem that it had been planned. They held a drawing and some people got a CD containing “Ima wo Dakishimete” that had been recorded during the show. Some other people got a secret gift that they didn’t reveal what it was. (Rumor was that the winners could take a picture with ToshI and YOSHIKI after the show.)

After SHINYA and HEATH left the stage, ToshI and YOSHIKI performed four songs and talked a lot between songs as if it was their talk show. Because YOSHIKI tends to speak fast and sometimes people cannot understand what he wants to say, ToshI translated YOSHIKI’s words, and he gave a lot of funny responses, which made us laugh so much.
YOSHIKI played the piano on the right and that on the left alternately for each song to show himself to everyone, and he often turned around toward the audience and showed them his smile while talking with ToshI, so people were absolutely delighted.
The first song was “Seize the Light”. I couldn’t see well but it seemed YOSHIKI realized that he had left a piece of score on the floor while playing and tried to tell ToshI about that, and ToshI went to pick it up for YOSHIKI while singing. The audience laughed at him, so ToshI almost burst out laughing when he began to sing the next phrase.
The next song was “Without You”. ToshI said “I love this intro”. YOSHIKI’s piano playing was so sensitive and gentle, and he playing piano looked so beautiful and elegant.
After that, ToshI said to YOSHIKI “Why don’t you play a little more for everyone?”, and YOSHIKI started to play “Say Anything”. ToshI was drinking water at that time, so he hastily started to sing. They performed only one chorus for this song.
The last number was “Endless Rain”. As usual XJAPAN’s concert, the mirror ball was turning round and round, and the audience sang the hook-line repeatedly together. It was a really beautiful moment.

I cannot tell you enough of how amazing and fantastic the shows were. I was completely in a dream and it took long for me to awake from it. ToshI’s singing voice was magical, it made me so happy and greatly touched my heart, and gave me energy to live.
ToshI looked so happy that he could perform the shows with YOSHIKI, which also made me happy.
I really hope they will perform such shows again and I’m sure I’ll be there.

Written by: Max
Edited by: Jonny

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