The Second Night - "A Gorgeous Midsummer Night Spending with ToshI and YOSHIKI"

Still having a feeling of happiness that had been lasting since the night before, I was at The Prince Park Tower Tokyo again for the second night of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with more excitement. When I arrived there around 15:00, there had already been about 20 people waiting in line in front of the reception in the second basement floor of this luxurious hotel.

Unusually for an X JAPAN-related concert, the doors opened around 17:00 an hour earlier than planned. Platinum ticket holders, including myself, were led to an exclusive dinner area, after waiting in the hallway for a while. The hall set for dinner was as grand and looked like it could contain several hundred people. A T-shirt, a CD containing "Haru no Negai" and "I'LL BE YOUR LOVE", a glowstick and a bottle of wine had been prepared for everyone as hospitality gifts at each seat.

The dinner produced by a French chef Kiyomi Mikuni began with a bowl of soup served cold, followed by a fish dish and a beef dish. A dessert named "Hoshizora no Neptune" was a blue sphere made of chocolate in which mousse and pieces of fruits were contained. All of the dishes were not only delicious but also very elaborate, so I enjoyed them with my eyes as well.

While having dinner, people heard a voice telling that ToshI would appear, and then he finally showed up. After greeting the audience, he called in Chef Mikuni, and then they talked about some episodes from ToshI's visit to Mikuni's house in Hokkaido, and others.

After Mikuni left there, ToshI sat at the white grand piano, and said "I haven't sang this song for a long time, but I coincidentally heard it in the car on the road, and decided to sing it. This is the first time I've played it on the piano, though..." The song he started sing with a soft voice was "CRUCIFY MY LOVE", which must've surprised everyone there. As soon as he started singing, I started trembling and tears welled up in my eyes. His singing voice was sorrowful but gentle and warm, and it touched me as deeply as I felt I was going to collapse.
The exclusive live show for the Platinum guests, in which ToshI sang only the first verse of the song, came to an end very quickly, but it was an undeniably precious and impressive moment.

After finishing dinner, people moved to the banquet hall where the concert would be performed. The stage on which two crystal pianos were placed was set in the center of the hall, and hundreds of audience seats surrounded it. The stage was not very big and the front row was just about 1 meter away from the stage, which made people even more excited.

Shortly after 20:00, the lights in the hall were finally dimmed. ToshI in a white suit walked into the hall under the spotlight, and the audience welcomed him with wild applause and cheers. He waved his hand to the audience in every direction with a smile on the stage, and then sat at the piano on the right.
Once he started singing the first song "Haru no Negai" playing the piano with the orchestra, his beautiful velvety voice captivated the audience.

The next song was the theme song of this dinner show "Hoshizora no Neptune". A million pieces of blue light were running around all over the hall, and hundreds of blue glowsticks were swaying in the darkness, which looked really fantastic. ToshI's purely sparkling singing voice pulled at my heartstrings in a moment, so I couldn't stop tears flowing down my face.

After "Nagoriyuki Itsumademo" and "Haruno Ibuki" were performed, 10 or more young guys wearing a SAMURAI JAPAN T-shirt came onto the stage. Some of them were playing the electric guitar, bass guitar, drums and keyboards, and the other ones were trying to whip up the audience with their shouts and handclaps. People stood up and raised their fists to the rhythm shouting "Hey! Hey! Hey!" following ToshI's lead. He sang "SAMURAI JAPAN" and "Otoko no Pride" in the atmosphere of excitement. He seemed to be having fun so much while performing with the guys, and he splashed water on them and also on the audience.

The guys except the ones who were playing instruments left the stage, and then ToshI sang "Airport". It was the first time he has sang this song with an arrangement like the original version contained in the album, because he always sang it at the piano with an orchestra or with acoustic guitars up till then.

Then finally, ToshI called in YOSHIKI as a special guest. He walked through the pathway surrounded by crowds of people screaming with excitement, and went up onto the stage giving a smile to the audience. Some people ran up to the stage to give him a present, when he found a cup noodle in one of them and broke out into laughter saying "Why is a cup noodle in it?"
Then he started to play the intro of "Crystal Piano no Kimi", but he made a mistake after playing a few bars. He stopped the orchestra playing, and said "Because a cup noodle was ....." with a laugh.

After performing "Crystal Piano no Kimi" with piano duet, they talked about YOSHIKI Radio. ToshI said "YOSHIKI didn't used to speak anything whenever he was on a radio show, but now, he hosts his own radio show". YOSHIKI said "Hey, let's do a recording for YOSHIKI Radio from now!!", and started speaking like "Hi, this is YOSHIKI...." and explained the situation in English. Then he started to play the hook-line of "JADE" on the piano and ToshI started to sing along to it, so people were pleased at the nice surprise.

Having conversations between songs, they performed "Tears" and "Forever Love". YOSHIKI played the piano gracefully like a rose swaying in the wind, and ToshI sang the elegantly flowing melodies that would never fade no matter how many years pass by, which completely fascinated the audience.
After that, YOSHIKI left the stage alone, and then ToshI sang "Amaoto" playing the piano accompanied by a violin at the end of the main act.

A little while after ToshI walked away from the stage and disappeared behind the doors, the audience started to clap their hands to call for an encore.
Minutes later, ToshI and YOSHIKI came back to the stage, and they held a lottery at first. Three winners from all of the audience got X JAPAN goods, and three other winners from purchasers of merchandise got a chance to shake hands with ToshI and YOSHIKI in their backstage room after the show.
They emceed the session and drew lots by themselves having funny conversations, which amused people so much. YOSHIKI said "We are a rock band, but if you saw only this moment, you wouldn't be able to guess what we actually do."

Following the lottery, they held a charity auction. The first item was YOSHIKI's drum sticks and something made of crystal that ToshI bought in Germany. YOSHIKI said "You like crystal, huh?", and ToshI responded "I like Crystal Piano no Kimi (YOSHIKI)", so people laughed and squealed with pleasure.
The second item was a shirt that YOSHIKI was wearing during the show. It seemed the shirt was soaked with sweat, so ToshI smelled it and curiously said "YOSHIKI's sweat smells so good!", which drew laughter from the audience.
The last one was an invitation to a concert in their Asian tour including flights, accommodations and a backstage meeting with X JAPAN members.
All the winning bidders shook hands with ToshI and YOSHIKI, and took photos with them on the stage.

And also, tickets for an event in which X JAPAN would secretly appear on Aug 27 were given to lottery winners. It seemed they had to keep the event's name a secret, but ToshI said like "Fay.... nay.... ction!!" as if sneezing, which implied that the event would be "a-nation".

The first song in an encore was "Scarlet Love Song". I guess it might have been their decision in consideration of ToshI's voice condition, they performed it in a pitch lowered some tones from the original. I felt it left a bit to be desired because I was familiar with the original pitch, but still, the dramatic ballad performed by ToshI's gentle and powerful voice absorbed the audience.

As the last song of the show, they performed "ENDLESS RAIN". ToshI's warm singing voice sank into my heart like a soft rain. And also,ToshI sang sitting just beside YOSHIKI playing the piano in the middle of the song as he usually does, so I was moved to tears at the miraculous scene in front of me happening as if it was fated.
In the last part, everyone sang the hook-line together over and over again, and then the show came to an end. ToshI and YOSHIKI walked away from the stage receiving great applause and cheers from the audience.


The tickets for the show were really expensive for ordinary people, but what we experienced was definitely priceless. The most soul-stirring singing voice in the world that sang the most soul-stirring melodies in the world, a lot of amusing conversations that made us laugh so much, and the warm atmosphere that embraced them talking cheerfully - Everything made me so happy. I'd like to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to ToshI and YOSHIKI for making me feel the joy of living.

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