Hypothetical probability of attending a live show?

[PhantomDiablerie]

I cannot share my ponderings without first lamenting: I am devastated to hear the 2004 show is not recorded.

*moment of silence*

Anyway, even BEFORE I found out about the second show--as soon as I discovered there WERE live shows being played--I started teaching myself Japanese and vowed to get over to Japan for the next concert (or the next concert that didn't happen a month or two after I promised myself this X.x).

Now the interesting part of this question (and I know location and many other factors are variable): what ARE the odds of someone--especially an American (sadly)--being able to purchase tickets and attend a show? I did see that this site posted a smidge of ticketmaster information for the 2004 show, but does anyone know if that's an international possibility? Can you just buy them... online? I was poking around this site and forum (I just found this tonight!^.^) and noticed that some people mentioned making an effort to go, whether seriously or not... but I would sell my soul to see Sakuraba live. Or, more practically, bicycle to work every day and sell my car (seeing as I should make this month's payment BEFORE buying the Tales of Symphonia soundtrack and waiting for payday on Friday... but no! XD)...

Thoughts? Ideas? Or perhaps even people who have been there? ^.^;; (I also apologize if this came up somewhere before, but I was sniffing around and couldn't find it.) Thanks!

[Carl]

Hi Phantom,

The main concern is merely how much money you have available.

Expect the cost to be between $2,000-$3,000 for such a trip.

It's possible (just expensive) even without knowing any Japanese language, as I made my first trip to Tokyo back in 2002, and stayed almost 2 weeks without knowing the language.

A flight from midwest USA to Tokyo is roughly $800 round trip.

Even for a 1-night show, you'd have at least 2 hotel stays / 3 days worth of time over there.

(arrive there the night before, find the location during the day so you know how to get to get to the building, then attend the show at night, and leave the next day sometime)

Costs can vary of course depending on which hotel you're staying at, and they can be very expensive if you don't poke around online beforehand and find the names/locations of cheapie low-scale rental rooms that are accustomed to budget travellers.

As for tickets, you wouldn't be able to purchase the tickets yourself online from overseas, but if you were to pre-pay a friend who lives here for the amount and have them make the purchase for you, then that's no problem to set up such an agreement.

Even though people sometimes complain of a live concert dvd being "too expensive" at 50~80 dollars or whatever the price, it sure is a great bargain opposed to paying $3,000 to be there in person.

If you haven't already picked up the first Motoi Sakuraba Live DVD, I suggest you do so because it's very enjoyable!

Of course we've gotten very few Live dvds for game music so far, and even for the performances themselves, they have only re-appeared and made a resurgance within the short past 2-3 years.

Making a trip to any foreign country in person is VERY WORTHWHILE not just to see a show, but for a total experience, and with the proper planning and research done ahead of time, it's worth it so stay a week or so instead of trying to do it all in a few days if this is your first stay there.

I planned for at least 6 months to a year before making my first trip to Tokyo, but that allowed me to be comfortable once I was there and really just explore on my own and not worry. (well you always have to worry about spending too much, it's easy to buy lots of cool stuff!!)

Feel free to email me if you have other thoughts about making a trip over there from the USA, I'm near Chicago myself.

Thanks for supporting game music,
-Carl

[Anonymous]

Heheh... I didn't think to consider plane tickets yet, as I was more concerned with whether or not it was even possible for someone in the US to get show tickets... and I'm all the way out near Philadelphia, PA, so plane tickets might be worse. X.X I am starting a "needs DESPERATELY to go to Japan" fund, and I would plan on staying more than just one day for the show--even with the language, if one has never been to another country in which another language is spoken, staying only a day or two and attempting to navigate would be suicide! @.@ I've also only taught myself about 250 kanji thus far (in two months, not too bad), which means there are about 1600-1700 to go... but it will be a while before Sakuraba's next show. XD

I was, until a couple of days ago, unaware that a DVD of his show existed (my computer blew up and I was out of touch with the internet for a while), and that is definitely one of the first things I'm buying with Friday's paycheck. ^.^ (This website saved my life.) Normally a live DVD is a steal compared to the real show... but it has become one of my life's missions to see one of his shows LIVE. A person can have the most obnoxious home theater with twenty speakers and a 245830458'' TV... and that will not replicate the holy sacrament of BEING there. I need to SEE Sakuraba, LIVE, in PERSON. He is the most incredible modern artist in my opinion PERIOD and I might literally explode if I don't get to see him in concert within a year or two (that's why the squeegie is by the computer ^.^).

So, I'm also inferring then, that there might perhaps be people here willing to go to the blessed trouble of getting tickets to a show for someone else, should the occasion arise? I would pay for both the tickets and the trouble... I would do anything (including probably cry when I actually got them)!

Thank you much for the input. =)

[PhantomDiablerie]

Um... and that was me above, I forgot completely to log in (or to set myself as always logged in). Sorry. ^.^;;