My first concert ever was the amazing Japanese guitarist Miyavi at the Anaheim Disney House of Blues when my high school friend Alexa and I dressed in matching puffy layered skirts and tights. Fast forward 15 years and my rediscovery of Miyavi and how his music had evolved into funky Japanese pop that I could not stop listening to especially when I was alone in Baltimore for my AI rotation at Johns Hopkins. I coordinated my Harvard second-look with his show in Boston the very next day after my virtual interview with them (coincidence?) I met a group of amazing gals (shout out to my Miyavi crew!!) and we promised each other that we would go to every Miyavi concert together from then on. I never expected that he would come back on tour to the states so soon (LITERALLY NOW!!) and the girls had unfortunately to go without me to the Boston show. I can only hope he comes back again soon or I got to Japan when he’s performing.
Miyavi is how I discovered my even bigger obsession BABYMETAL, after answering “JRock” when asked what type of music I listen to by a random guy at a Halloween-themed bar in Budapest (the most me thing ever), just a week after the Miyavi concert. When divulging my latest BABYMETAL rage, Kevin mentioned Aggretsuko, a Japanese show about a red panda who practices death-metal screamo to release her rage from her abusive 9-5. The domino effect of how these important Japanese pop culture (rock culture? heavy metal culture?) phenomena came into my life is crazy!
