Japan Expo report day 1 (Wednesday):
I arrived a bit late at Gare du Nord and took the RER B train to Parc des Expositions. It was probably an extra train for the event, since it didn't stop at any of the stations in between. My Hotel is okay, but about 2km away from the festival location. I had looked at hotels closer to the Parc des Expositions, but those were all way beyond by budget for this trip.
My first impressions of the festival:
- It's huge. Be prepared to do long walks from one event to the next when you want to see different activites. I'm really tired now from walking around all day, the exhibition halls are huge and there are few places to sit down for a while. Even the dedicated resting areas that I looked at either didn't exits at all or didn't have any seats. Well, maybe bad luck (or karma).
- It's loud - nearly everywhere and all the time. Funniest thing I saw today: At soome both there was an introduction to Zen, while the taiko drums from a nearby stage made even communication difficult, let alone meditation.
- It's hectic. Actually, it looks more like a large, busy marketplace. Probably very nice if you come here primarily to buy stuff, but it kind of makes me feel uneasy.
- Eating and drinking inside the hall is expensive, comparable to prices at the hotel, but that's kind of expected, I guess. You may bring your own food if you want to carry it.
What I did today:
In total, not that much actually: Mostly one event at the live house (the Shoko Nakagawa concert) and much looking around everywhere to get familiar with the surroudings. It is easy to get lost between all the small booths, not knowing where you are or in which direction you are going - the floor map is a real lifesaver here. Don't forget to pick that up when you enter the festival. There is also a programme (A2 poster, folded) for the current day. I also watched two matches of League of Legends that were projected (including live commentary) on a big screen on one booth. Actually pretty cool if you are into this sort of thing. But again, no seats :-(
As mentioned, I was at the Shoko Nakagawa concert in the afternoon. Both because I wanted to see her perform live for a long time and to take a first look at the "Live House", where Kalafina is going to perform on Sunday. Sadly, I was a bit disappointed - not about the performance itself (which was fantastic), but about the organisation.
When I arrived at the entrace to hall 5B1, the doors were still closed, despite being listed on the schedule as opening 30 minutes before the start of the concert. The problem was: The queue formed at the exit doors from hall 5A, not at the entry to hall 5B1 where the two separate entry points for normal vs. premium/press ticket holders was set up, so everyone just queued up in the hall. Upon entering the Live House it turned out that the premium/press ticket holders were significantly delayed since their badges were scanned individually, whereas normal visitors just passed through.
I was really surprised how small the part of the hall reserved for the audience was - about the size of the AnimagiC stage (to give those a comparison who were there). Most of the hall was not accessible (walled off by fences) and I was worried at first whether it would be large enough for the queue outside, but it turned out to be all right. Inside the Live House there were no seats at all, only standing (though some people sat on the barrier on the back side). Where I ended up (quite close to the stage), the floor was dirty - so don't try to sit there. I put my bag on the ground for the duration of the concert (ca. 40 minutes) and was not amused finding it full of dirt when I picked it up again.
Technically, the concert was a mixed bag: The front row of the audience is quite close to the stage - which is really cool. The performance was filmed and projected onto two big screens to the left and right of the stage, as is often done on big concerts. This is nice for people who end up far on either side of the stage. Alas, no special effects at all.
The low point: The sound was not good, especially the bass levels - a lot of clipping and distortion. The voice and the higher levels of the music track (no live band, of course) were not affected as far as I can tell, and sometimes I got the impression that they used different speakers for the voice, but that effect was probably just due to the sound mixing. Still, either a bad setup or a mistake of the sound engineer. Room acoustics are not solid either, which is kind of expected, since this is just part of a larger exhibition hall - not a concert hall (those typically have fixed speaker systems adapted to the room architecture). The speakers here looked like the models used for open air concerts. But I believe this was not much of an issue due to the constrained space, basically everyone was within a distance of 20m from the stage.
The small MC "sessions" in between songs were translated into French by a translator (nice, but not really helpful for me), although I got the impression that he skipped half of the text, at least when comparing the length of the spoken text. The concert was filmed by Japanese staff, I think (Sony Music?), which indicates that they will likely do the same for Kalafina and release some kind of festival report on one of the next DVDs as usual. Filming by the audience was allowed, although I really don't like it when a dozen people in front of me hold up their cameras/phones/tablets. Rules on this may be different for the Kalafina concert, though.
There was no encore - either that was not planned or canceled due to the inital delay. But given the tight schedule (45 minutes), I can understand that. All in all, not as bad as at AnimagiC, where the sound was completely distorted for about a third of the audience (front and middle rows) due to insane volume levels.
I also looked around some of the exhibition booths today:
Apart from the many vendors selling all kinds of stuff and the sports areas (Kyudo, martial arts etc.), there are some event stages scattered around the halls hosting various activities, similar to the Saiko Stage. Speaking of which: This one looks really small. I don't know how they can fit Orange Port on that stage... The Tottiri booth looks more like a tourism booth, and "Cooby the Run" looks totally strange from the outside (I wasn't inside). I really don't know why a Kalafina signing would be hosted there, or where.
The Wakanim Music booth looked more interesting. There was a large Kalafina poster (Kalafina Best - red album), which I don't think they sell (a pity). They offer a limited set of Kalafina merchandise from what I could see. I'm not sure I've got all the prices right, but here is the list I made:
- Consolation Live Photo Book (the blue one) - 20€
- Consolation Special Live T-Shirt (black, size unknown) - 30€
- Christmas Premium Live 2013 Pamphlet - 20€
- Consolation CD (normal edition) - 20€
- Consolation CD (limited edition, CD + DVD + mini photo book) - 25€
- Kalafina Special European Edition (3CDs) - 30€
- After Eden Photo Book - 30€
Regarding the Consolation CDs, I'm not sure whether this is an import or some brand new European release - maybe I can take a closer look tomorrow (should be easy to check).
The prices are okay, pretty much what you would pay in Japan (adding French VAT and ignoring shipping costs), except for the Consolation Live Photo Book - that one is even cheaper than in Japan, if I recall correctly. Sadly, the only item that I do not already have is the Consolation T-Shirt - so I'll probably get that one. But I really wonder how the signing session at the stand will be organized. Maybe only items bought within the time of the session are signed - but I don't want a signed shirt...
They also offer some other stuff, like CDs (mostly Shoko Nakagawa) and different DVD sets (don't remember these any more, seemed to be in French).
Just for fun, I tried a signature draw today - but no luck (as expected). From my total unscientific study, chances seem to be 50/50 (taken from a sample of six people waiting in the line at the time). I still dont't get how they can control now many signings they hand out this way - unless they adjust the chances throughout the day, which would be unfair. On the other hand, you don't need to wait in a long queue (or miss out entirely if you arrive later in the day). So, it's both fair and unfair at the same time - if you travel 800km just to get one of your items signed, you should have gone for the premium ticket with the extra draws.
Puh... that's a lot of text and I really need to go to bed now.
.
. It's pretty much right next to Tottori and Coooby. As for the one with the albums, I forget. Shall try to grab a name tomorrow.
. I didn't buy anything yesterday since I didn't know that. I also wrote a (rather long) report about my impressions of the first day, so I'm posting that separately.
. It's one of the best things I've done (Kalafina live may top it 
) and should help in the long run. Just a pity all my university friends couldn't afford to be here.