OK, brief story.
I arrived shortly before doors opening time of 5pm thanks to someone in a Kalafina t-shirt directing me to Otodama Sea Studio. I had been almost at the same spot back on my December/January trip.
It turned out after I had obtained a 500 yen coin for the lockers that the staff were letting people in by ticket number order and my ticket was A37, an early ticket, so by the time I asked the person at the door they checked my ID (University of Tokyo Hospital card with katakana name and passport with real name and matching date of birth of hospital card) and let me in.
Most of the front row was taken but a couple of Japanese men invited me to join them and so I introduced myself as best I could, finding out that they were in FictionJunction club and that one of them was from Ooarai (Girls und Panzer town).
The opening act (name escapes me at the moment), Fukui Mai and Miu Sakamoto (daughter of Ryuichi Sakamoto and Akiko Yano) were all good, with Miu-san singing a couple of songs in very good English.
Kalafina's regular keyboard player and a slightly chubby looking guitarist with acoustic guitar took to the stage first followed by the Kalafina girls just before 7:25pm. No in-ear monitors or click track that I could tell, which made the performance more spontaneous.
From my left to right the personel were keyboardist, Hikaru in a loose sleeveless dress, Keiko in a strapless dress that hugged her rib-cage, Wakana (nearest to me) in a similar strapless dress, and the guitarist.
The sound was wonderfully NOT TOO LOUD, and the acoustic feel was brillilant, accompanied by the waves as Otodama Sea Studio is right on the beach at Zushi (not far from Zushi Post Office).
Setlist+
1. Storia
2. Natsu no Ringo
MC-1 (where they asked if anyone was from overseas and the person next to me realised just too late to let me know to respond, but wrote a message on the back of a flyer to show to the girls).
3. Mune no Yukue
4. Mirai
MC-2
5. Yume no Daichi
Encore:
Sprinter
After the encore the person sitting next to me called out to the girls to announce that I was from Australia (and I waved my passport), and Wakana and Hikaru responded to me and I bowed in return.
So a very short set, but beautiful voices, setting and arrangements, and it was great to be in the front row a few metres away from the Kalafina girls. The audience were very polite keeping silent to the end of each song.
