Hamasaki Ayumiの香港站

As you probably know by now,  last night we went to Hamasaki Ayumi's concert at the Asia World Expo Center near the Hong Kong Airport.  

Of course it was totally fun.  It was nice to go with a big group of friends this time,  including  my friend Asami, who is a long time Ayu fan, was there,  so our group was more animated than previous Ayu concerts. ;-)

The concert program was largely the same as the Japan portion of the 2008 tour ( like the one we saw at Yoyogi in June), with a few exceptions -  it seemed to me like they did more old school hits than the Japan leg...  since she hasn't tour in other parts of Asia every year after year like in Japan,  i think they put more old stuff in for the overseas fans' sake. 

Also unlike the Japan shows, in HK Ayumi made the effort, of course, to speak English (and cantonese) as much as possible during the encore.  I have to say her English has improved a LOT since the April 07 HK show!   They also cut down significantly on the Q & A between Ayumi and Yo-chan (野村義男),  but they still did the ' Acapella Challenge' bit... (where they randomly name one of her old songs and force her to sing it acapella on the spot).  From what I could follow of the Japanese that Yo-chan was saying,  they picked 'Who...' (off of 99 album Loveppears - youku clip) because it was the only song she completely screwed up during the Japan tour.  (she didn't screw it up this time).

It is funny to contrast the 'super-fans' you see at the concert here in HK vs. the kind you see in Japan.  One thing that Asami thought was particularly funny was the gender breakdown.  In Japan its mostly girls, some of whom drag their boyfriends or husbands reluctantly...   but in HK it seemed like there were a lot more guys, some of whom brought their reluctant girlfriends.   One couple sitting near Stephen was hilarious,  the girl ended up sitting down looking bored most of the time, while her boyfriend was jumping up and down screaming most of the show. :-P

OF COURSE i didn't take any pictures inside the show (although this being Hong Kong, there were quite a lot of people trying to... ).  But I did take a few outside before and after the show:

This was in the main lobby... a super huge concert poster.   ;-)

For those who saw my June concert blog, you'll remember all the 'Ayu-swag'  we got...   they were selling it here too,  but by the time we got there, almost all of it was sold out!

Doh, all thats left is the cell phone sticker!?!?  (which i already have!).   

But don't worry, Etchy is always prepared.  I brought my ' Ayu Muffler Towel' and blue light-up fan from the Tokyo concert... ( Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!)  -- i actually wanted to get the t-shirt this time though.  doh.  I does that mean i'll have to fly to Taipei in November...?   ;-)

btw - no ayu-chips this time...