My favorite Japanese music group, Judy and Mary, put out their fifth album, Warp, on the first day of January of 2001. As I later told my father, there is no one in the group with either the name Judy or Mary. However, it was around that same time that month that they announced that the group would be permanently splitting up in February. It was kind of sad for me, having liked them since around 1998 or so, and spent a lot of time listening to them in my car.
I found out a bit later that Judy and Mary were coming on tour to Hiroshima on the 13th of February. What an opportunity! I mean, not only that they should tour to the place I was living, but also that it would be their last concert here- ever!! My host sisters at the time, Tomoko and Hiroko, are avid JAM fans, and wanted to go about as much as I did, the group split making it especially important. They said the doubted very seriously that we could get tickets. It was sad, but I took it in stride, as I had an exam and report due on the very next day. Well, time passed, I moved away to a new host family, and eventually February came around and I remembered the concert. Judy and Mary was always in my head, as one of the songs from their new album, Lucky Pool, is the theme song to my favorite show, and another called Motto (which means more) is the theme to a show my host father watches on Sundays. In an amazing stroke of luck, I got a phone call from Tomoko on the 10th saying that her friend had an extra ticket if I didn�ft mind sitting alone. I jumped up and down excitedly and told her I was there!
I gathered the 6000\ and extra for tour-goods, and got up bright and early the next day. Not out of excitement per say. I had a class actually. So I had to carry my books and stuff around all day while I took a walking tour of Hiroshima. I knew that February is when the plum blossoms start, so I took my camera and went to Shukkein Garden for the second time. I snapped some pics and then waited for fivethirty to roll around. I met the Furukuma sisters at a store nearby the Green Arena. We were laughing and all smiles. Tomoko brought two of her friends from work, who were men, and I got no end of enjoyment out of the fact that they wouldn�ft stand or walk near us. The only words they said to me, in fact, were hello. I told Hiroko I felt sorry for them, because they looked so shy! But that�fs men for you in this country.
The masses of people were amazing. Some people were in dressy clothes, some people looked like they�fd just stepped out of an early ninties music video. There were people with signs saying �gno cameras�h and I then realized it was a mistake to go to shukkein the day of the concert because, sure enough, I had my camera with me. We got in the door and my camera got confiscated at the bag check (I got it back afterward though). And so we stood in line for tourgoods. Egad. The line wrapped around the first floor and up the stairs and around part of the second floor. Amazingly enough we did get stuff. I bought a shirt and a tour pamphlet at a cost that wasn�ft too astounding, but nevertheless I will not share that information. We then ran into the arena to find our seats. Luckily they helped me, because I just did not catch on to the numbering system. I was in the aisle for both the row and aisle but still in the middle (yay!). And then they ran away to find their seats (which I think were considerably closer than mine, but that was fine because at least I got to go!). I had a bit of time to ponder the sign on the floor and then figured out the numbering system before the lights went out. The green arena was nothing spectacular, it actually reminded me of the Joe back home (Joe Louis Sports Arena) where I saw Live in concert (best concert ever).
There was no opening act, which I was a little disappointed over, but the lights went out and some teddy bears came onto the stage. It was not the last time we saw them. The beginning was simple, and not at all what I expected. I don�ft know what I expected actually. An extravaganza with those lights that give people epileptic seizures and flamboyant costumes and stuff. Well, I didn�ft get that. It was very much like the American concerts I went to except for the crowd. They did not scream wordlessly in praise of all the cool stuff (ex. Solo�fs, stage highjinks, etc), in fact they seemd to not even hear the well-played solos because they were never acknowledged. All they did was periodically scream the band people�fs names. Felt sorry for the basist and drummer though. No one ever screamed their names. Poor guys!! It got kind of irritating having people scream �gyuki-chaaaaan!!) all the time though. Also I got to view social peer pressure first hand. Everyone did EXACTLY the same thing as the people around them until all of the people in my line of vision looked like identical automatons (except for a couple men who were too hip to even sway). It was kind of amusing because instead of normal dancing or leaping about, they had their hands above their heads and then made as if they were signaling a landing plane moving their arms in time with the music. What made this even more amusing is that they did this exact same thing throughout the entire concert. I admit I did it too once, but only one song because it really wasn�ft all that fun. I remember at the Live concert, it was like love in purest form. Maybe we were just far gone, but we loved everybody, we screamed we laughed, we danced and flopped around. It was great. That�fs another thing. Americans do their own things, but they stick with their friends usually at concerts. Dance together, sway together, whatever. But the Japanese seemed to want to spread out (as evident especially by the girls next to me who were like friends but stood a foot apart. But the one girl was funny in and of herself because when she wasn�ft being one of the plane-signallers, she was doing the dance from, no joke, Michael Jackson�fs Thriller.
The crowd aside though, JAM gave a great performance. They said all the right things, riled the crowd to a frenzy by mentioning nearby places, put Hiroshima into one of their songs. Ocassionaly the bears came out and danced again. The epilepsy-lights started and by the end of the concert I felt like I had a brain tumor. The base rumbling the floorboards was, I admit it, nostalgic and I felt for a minute in the dark that I was home. Yuki, the high-voiced wonder of the group lost most of her metallic-colored skirt somewhere in the second half of the concert. She danced and joked and kept the crowd going. Takuya, seriously a man of talent, played some fabulous guitar. He even sang (and had a good voice, why he never had solo vocals is something I wonder about). But I enjoyed watching him run energetically all around the stage and leaping LA Lakers style. They played one of my favorites, and the first song I ever heard by them, Sobakasu (which means freckles), and I would have gone just to hear that song. They did play Lucky Pool and Motto of course. They also played the Dolphin Kick song, but that�fs not the real name of it. I didn�ft know most of the songs they played, but it was all well done in my opinion.
I feel I should take a moment out to say something about what I was wearing. When I bought my shiny red pants it was because I had always wanted a pair of shiny red pants. My father insisted that they were too tight (he said he wasn't just saying that in a dad way) so I got the next size up. Stupid friggin me. My pants are soo big that if I had not had my sweatshirt tied around my waist I would have been pretty darn embarrassed when the lights came back on. I didnt notice really, except an altogether saggy feeling, but by the time I got home I saw for myself. My pants were at about half-mast.
They encored twice, and then the lights came on again and the band came out to stand on the stage. The crowd was quiet for a second and so was the band. Then, people all around started shouting �gthank you�h and �gwe love you.�h Much to my surprise, my throat became tight and I suddenly felt like I was going to cry. Some people around me were. I had forgotten that I would never see them again, no one would, and there would never be a new Judy and Mary album. It doesn�ft get much more final than that. It was just kind of the feeling of the crowd, I guess. Or maybe I�fm a sap, either way makes sense. Anyway, after a minute Yuki shouted that Judy and Mary had done their best, they had had fun, thank you very much, and Sayonara. They then joined hands and bowed for the screaming crowd. She then threw her scarf into the audience. Takuya threw his towel. And then it was over. I found Tomoko and Hiroko afterwards, and we didn�ft have much to say except how great it had been. I remembered to get my camera on the way out. As we were walking away in the dark and the rain, when the crowd had mostly thinned, Tomoko put her hands to her ears and said �gI can hear the ocean.�h
END
Judy and Mary were 1994 to 2001. Yuki, Takuya, Onda and Igarashi.
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