L3SIU

A Foreigner’s Guide to Japanese Concert Tickets Yesterday’s Nano post caused a lot of discussion, and one of the biggest concerns people brought up - right after regional restrictions - was how difficult it is for foreigners to buy concert tickets in Japan. A lot of people mentioned the recent Arashi situation as one of the worst examples of how inaccessible the system can feel for overseas fans. Since I’ve gone through the process multiple times myself, here’s a short guide that may help other overseas fans. To buy tickets in Japan as a foreigner, you basically need 3 things: - A Japanese phone number - An account on Japanese ticketing services - A way to pay with a Japanese-compatible card The good news is: all of these problems can be solved either during a single trip to Japan, or with help from a friend/family member visiting Japan. First: the phone number. The easiest option is getting a SIM/eSIM from services like Hanacell, Sakura Mobile or Mobal. Important: it MUST include an actual Japanese phone number, not just mobile data. Some newer eSIM options can even be shipped internationally to selected countries (sadly not Poland yet). Providers using Docomo infrastructure — like Sakura Mobile and Mobal — also support roaming, meaning in theory you can still receive SMS verification codes and calls in your home country while keeping your Japanese number active. Once activated, just insert the SIM/eSIM into your phone and you’re ready for SMS verification. Next step (registration): registering on ticketing platforms. The most important ones are: Ticket Pia eplus Lawson Ticket (L-Tike) TIGET Most concerts in Japan use lotteries, while some are first-come-first-served sales. Payment compatibility is often the hardest part. eplus usually accepts Revolut cards, but the others can be inconsistent. That’s where ANA Pay becomes extremely useful. If you create an account with ANA, you can activate ANA Pay and generate a virtual Japanese card for ticket purchases. You can top it up like a prepaid card using foreign Mastercard cards. Once you have all of this set up, there’s nothing stopping overseas fans from entering lotteries and buying tickets legally under their own information - no scalpers, no shady middlemen. The Japanese ticketing system is absolutely frustrating at times, but it’s far less impossible than many people think. Hopefully this helps more overseas fans enjoy Japanese concerts properly and without unnecessary stress. Thank you @nanonano_me for opening this discussion. I genuinely hope more overseas fans will be able to support Japanese music and artists properly, and I’m happy to help however I can.

yo what the hell is happening why is ryo dropping another track don’t play with my heart like this pretending a comeback, this is too beautiful to be real

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 feels a lot less like anime and a lot more like the kind of adult animation you'd see at film festivals. Of course, it still has all the familiar Trigger DNA, incredible animation, the usual anime storytelling conventions, and some almost childish ways of approaching certain themes. But at the same time, it feels like the creators wanted to tell a much more complex story. And I think that's exactly where things started falling apart. Because I genuinely struggle to imagine this story resonating with people the way the first season did. David and Lucy's story was incredibly simple, grounded, and so easy to get emotionally invested in. You were just a guy who promised his mother he'd make it to the top of Arasaka Tower. You had a girl who loved you and genuinely cared about you. You had a crew you wanted to protect, and every time you lost someone, it hurt almost as much as it hurt David. You really didn't need much more than that. Season 2, on the other hand, gives us empty revenge, the loss of status, a rather surface-level exploration of transhumanism, and somewhere in between, a father-daughter relationship (?). And I'm not even saying these are bad ideas. The problem is that none of them gets enough room to actually breathe across ten episodes. Every single storyline seems to get cut short right when it starts becoming interesting. Nothing feels properly explored, nothing really reaches its full potential, and by the end I was left feeling like I'd watched several potentially fascinating stories that never quite became anything. Visually, Edgerunners 2 is absolutely a step forward. Sometimes it looks genuinely breathtaking. But it's hard to recreate that same emotional impact when your main female character spends half the series lying in bed, barely interacting with the rest of the cast. She's not Rebecca. She's not Lucy. And I really missed that chemistry between characters that made the original so special. The music is another interesting thing. Instead of the melancholy of the first season, we get something much heavier, dirtier, and occasionally almost absurd. The first season had Dawid Podsiadło singing English ballads and Polish reggae from Diego Cichy Don. This time we're getting borderline meme-tier underground Polish criminal rap from Liryka Składu Ostródzkiego and even more, let's say, experimental choices. And I actually respect how committed they are to that direction, even if it doesn't always work for me. Could "High Forever" have been this season's "I Really Want to Stay at Your House"? I honestly think so, if it had been given the right emotional weight, something closer to what we got during the drive-in theater scene. Episodes 7 and 8 are outstanding, though. Genuinely some of the best stuff Trigger has done. And that's probably what makes the rest of the experience so frustrating. Because then we get to the finale, and Trigger once again feels the irresistible need to throw in a kinda-mecha, or something vaguely resembling one. I love this studio, but it really wasn't necessary here. And the ending itself? It's rushed. Painfully rushed. D's entire journey is supposed to come together through the consequences of every decision he've made, but the story barely gives any of it time to sink in. What should feel like the culmination of everything we've been watching just happens, and then it's over. There's no real sense of closure, no moment to sit with what D's journey actually meant. Even worse, the series still can't seem to escape the shadow of its predecessor. We keep coming back to the legend of David Martinez, almost as if the show itself doesn't believe its new characters and their stories are strong enough to stand on their own. And I think that's ultimately my biggest problem with Edgerunners 2. Too little time, too many complicated ideas, and not nearly enough respect for how much space those ideas need to actually mean something. It's not bad. Far from it. At times, it's genuinely brilliant. But it's also nowhere near as emotionally effective as that simple, beautiful, unforgettable romance between Lucy and David Martinez, with the promise of becoming a legend hanging over everything. The first Edgerunners told a simple story that stayed with you long after the credits rolled. The second tries to say so much more, but somehow ends up leaving me with so much less.

Another symphonic concert attended! What I'll remember most from NieR:Orchestra Concert is J'Nique Nicole's incredible voice, the FFXIV collab meme, and the performance of "Normandy." The choirs were absolutely phenomenal! If NieR weren't such an old game, and I hadn't attended the Expedition 33 concert right after finishing the game, I think Keiichi Okabe's music would've easily won this comparison.

Today’s a big one. Ike - vocalist whose show I went to back in 2018, and who I’ve supported ever since, just blocked me on X. Turned out he was xenophobic, so my reply was as hard as his dislike of foreigners. New experience. Harder to swallow when someone from Japan looks down on the rest of the world, unless it’s about their money.

When supercell came back with Ann and Gaku for #Love, I practically cried tears of joy. Today, knowing ryo’s work culture, I’m not sure if I should be excited or project is just going back on hiatus again a year from now.

If everyone who jumped on Malfoid knew there’s a competent gooner game in the Harry Potter world where you can actually have the exact Slytherin tsundere girl they keep sighing on genderbent Malfoy…

One year with Silent Hill f. I still haven’t shaken this story, this atmosphere, or everything I lived through with this game - it all stayed with me. The peak this year was meeting Ryukishi07-san, getting to ask him a few questions, and walking away with his autograph on one of those steelbooks. It escalated further than I ever expected. Just like my love for this game. Thank you for this one.

Wisteria is such a cool band, made up of genuinely awesome people - and this is just another reason to support them! ❤️ If you ever find yourself in Japan, definitely check if they’re playing somewhere nearby and go see them live. You’ll have an amazing time, great fun, and a night to remember! 🔥

Still LiSA bumping in my head 😵‍💫

Arrived in Milan 🇮🇹 Tomorrow I’m living one of my biggest concert dreams - seeing LiSA live 🥰 I can’t wait!! Also the at European capital of Asahi and Kirin, so I’m already happy 🍻 #LiSA_EUROPEandUKTOUR

Bursting with pride seeing anisong stars like TRUE visit Hikari Festival and raise its reputation. Hope she and the other guests remember performing in Poland for a long time. Already saw her at Animagic - she’s a volcano of energy who always gives 100% to every crowd. Curious how many other countries, when she asks for an encore, DON’T shout Violet Evergarden or Hibike Euphonium… and instead scream Frozen from Wistoria XD Amazing concert. TRUE is simply a wonderful person. Hope this wasn’t the last time. #Hikari2026

Even though R!N played a lot of her original songs, the Re:Creators and Owari no Seraph tracks set the Polish crowd on fire. She made great impression on fans here and I think she gained a lot of new supporters here at Hikari for her solo career. Hope she comes back soon!

First day of Hikari Festival and Machico was so charming live - lots of covers, the crowd was eating it up. Biggest respect to the organizers though: first concert I’ve ever been to where the MC was live-translated into the local language. That’s actually huge. Hope this becomes the standard.