A Concert in Namba Hatch

We made our way to Namba City Parks so Mom and Dad could meet up with her friend. Then my sister and I had some sandwiches on the go as we battled through the after work pedestrian traffic to get to Namba Hatch, the venue or our concert. Note: the concert from which this whole trip was conceived.

When we arrived, there was an enormous crowd milling on an open-air balcony. We were overwhelmed and confused and hot from our rushed commute. We only had minutes to spare, we did not know why they were outside, and we had to get through them to find the ticket booth. I felt panicked that we were in the wrong place as I had purchased seated tickets and I assumed these crowd were for the free standing area. The few signs were small and written in Japanese, and the staff were only prompting people in Japanese as well. It was truly stressful and I felt my heart pounding, but God had mercy. We spotted the small booth where we could redeem our tickets that I've purchased online months ago.

We got the tickets! A quick queue to get our souvenir packs and glow stick pens and we were on our way to the auditorium. Everything was going to be ok. Then a lady halted our progression and asked us to pay ¥600 for some drink vouchers. We said we didn't need any and I had some water with me. She said "yoi have to" and she had an uncompromising look. My sister and I felt both annoyed that it was compulsory, and rushed by the mounting queue behind us.

Next there was the cloakroom but we bypassed this, opting to keep our bags with us. We scaled the escalator, and passed by the drinks bar where we begrudgingly redeemed our vouchers (¥600 x 2!!!). We followed the flow of the crowd next to the drinks bar before realising they were at the door for the free standing section. Where were we supposed to go for our seats? We tried a set of stairs and were greatly relieved when an usher appeared and took us to our seats.

Finally, it was time to settle down and take in our surroundings. We realised that the bottom section was full of standing people. You couldn't drop a needle amongst that packed crowd.

The screen above the stage began to show a point of view of a camera underwater facing the glare of the sun, muddled by ripples and waves. This was accompanied by the sounds of undersea creatures and gurgling bubbles. We recognised these as part of the opening sequence of the Chrono Cross video game. We felt our tensions easing. The ordeal was behind us. We noticed musical instruments laid out on the stage, both the traditional and exotic ones like accordion, Japanese flute and drums, and also a marimba to name a few.

It did not take long for the concert to start. Yasunori Mitsuda... in person... on stage! There was a huge applause and gleeful cheers. He was on the keyboard and together with the band they started to play the intro music of the game. He then addressed the crowd and riled everyone's spirits, thanking the enormous turn up especially the crowd in the standing section just below him. Then he and the Millenial Fair Band continued on with playing the tracks.

It was fun watching the crowd downstairs fist pumping and jumping in place, they had high, party energy, and the band was fuelling them - they enjoyed doing solo performances as they cheered on each other, the rock guitarists and the flutist also jumping up and down the stage at times.

The performance culminates when the band plays the final boss battle theme. In the game, to defeat the Time Devourer, the player has to correctly cast spells in a specific order. Each spell has a corresponding colour and musical note. They then asked the audience to lift up their glowstick if it was the colour required. I got a red one, my sister had a blue. Everyone was delighted and making oohs and ahhs sounds as Yasunori explained the mechanics.

However they made it seem like they played the wrong note and music order and so the guitarists had to play the 'game over' tune which made the crowd laugh. They did this about two more times until they finally played the right tunes.

With all the glowsticks finally alight, the scene where Princess Schala is freed from the clutches of Lavos played on screen and suddenly there was tinsel confetti falling everywhere, catching the light and sparkling. It was a magical moment.

The band then played Radical Dreamers, an endearing song about lost love and a dream of reunion. The crowd gave them such resounding applause that they had to perform an encore.

And then it was over.

On the way out we received a plastic bag containing some photos of the Chrono Cross characters wearing concert clothes and having a musical instrument. Before leaving the venue, my sister and I took a selfie with the event's standee.

We walked back to Namba Parks and briefly met mom's friends. They said they had a wonderful time catching up. Instead of walking back all the way to our accommodation, we took the train to Sakuragawa station. We stopped by a nearby convenience store and got some microwave dinner.

Over our supper we talked about the concert and the catch up that happened simultaneously. We also opened the Frozen Flame souvenir that my sister got from the event.

We found out that we clocked about 22000 steps that day. Our feet were sore but we surely had a memorable time.Read more