By: Sweiled

I left for Joetsu city early in the morning at 6 am and headed off for a series of trains and shinkansens!

You can feel the moment when you have entered the "fandom world". XD I really feel as if I am leaving behind reality and entering a dream world whenever I go to any fanclub events. I guess somewhere in my mind I still find it hard to believe that I am going to these places and seeing him!

Once I have reached Nagano, I can tell easily which ones are the fans. These Japanese fans are really quite obvious in the way they dress. XD It was pretty funny because Joetsu is in the countryside and they don’t get many people visiting the place, but suddenly throngs of people (Gackt fans) are turning up from all over the country just for that day! I could tell that the people over there were rather overwhelmed by it all~

The first thing I saw when I reached Kasugayama station were banners lined everywhere along the streets. *-* It had his silhouette as Uesugi Kenshin and it was really quite nice! I wish they had given those away as gifts!

There were a few staff waiting near the station to guide us around the place~ They had shuttle buses running the whole day between the different Kenshin-related locations in Kasugayama, but the buses were so crowded that a lot of Dears decided to just walk instead. I chose to walk too. The whole area wasn’t that big and everything was within walking distance anyway. ^-^

I went to the place where the parade was supposed to be, and it was already very crowded even though it was only 11 am! x__X I was rather surprised that so many people turned up for it. It is not close to Tokyo (took me four hours and 13,000 yen to get there) and I doubt that the people who went were from the area nearby. Yet hundreds turned up just to see him for a few short minutes!

The street where the parade was held. 6 more hours before the parade starts but it’s already crowded with people!

I went to the book store while waiting for my friend to contact me, and got the "Fuurin Kazan yukari no chi" book. (It lists all the places related to Takeda Shingen, Yamamoto Kansuke, and Uesugi Kenshin. Basically all the main characters in the drama~) Then my friend finally called me and told me that she was in the park where they were holding some activities. I took quite a bit of time to walk there, by which time she was about to leave with her other friends. I could only talk to her for a few minutes before she had to run off elsewhere. So I looked around at the booths myself, and bought some souvenirs. They had games and lots of cakes and local foods in the park. They were also giving away uchiwa (used to fan yourself in summer). It is different from the normal uchiwa, because it was round with a hole in the bottom for you to hook your thumb and fan yourself. They had the same silhouette they used on the banners as the print~ It was really cool. *-* They had plenty of leaflets and a cut-out of the NHK sutera, which covered mainly Gackt, Kenshin and Kasugayama area.

The park

A booth selling balloons. The girl had made a hat + flag with Kenshin’s motto on it!

After that, I went to the Joetsu art center, where they had the Fuurin Kazan exhibition (and signatures of all the cast, including Gackt!). They also showed clips and interviews of the cast~ I looked around for a bit before heading off to 林泉寺 (Rin Sen Ji). That's where they were supposed to hold the starting ceremony of the procession. The temple is the place where Kenshin grew up and also the place where he is buried.

The ceremony was... simple. >.> And it was very short! ^^; I didn't go to the front, but stood a little above the grounds, so I couldn't hear what they were saying. But basically, a lot of people dressed up as Kenshin, his general, and army marched into the temple and stood in the empty grounds in front of the temple. They didn’t move for quite a long time, except for the main generals, and suddenly it was over. ^^;; Aha, I didn't really know what was going on at the festival most of the time. >.>;

Rin sen ji, the temple where Kenshin was raised

There were many people dressed in armors!

Along the street leading to the temple too~

Kenshin and his army marches in

The troop stops in front of the main building

So that was one of the last few major events before the parade began. I knew that the street where the parade was scheduled to be would have gotten crowded by then and decided to give up on the other events and head back to the main street. True enough, the end of the road was already full of people! Luckily I managed to find a place to sit down somewhere in the middle.

As expected, the parade started late. *rolls eyes* XD It wasn't that bad actually, only 45 minutes or so by the time we could see him. It was worse when you were actually there because of the heat and the noise. x__X But then he really did walk very slowly, so it took a while before he finally reached the place where I was standing.

First it was the students from Kasuga Elementary School

Then came Kenshin’s troops

I don’t have pictures of him when he stopped in front of me, because I took a video. But here are some pictures of his very sexy back. XD

He stops and turns a circle again

Earlier, the staff had instructed us not to stand up when he walks by, and to remain seated and/or squat so that the people behind can see the march. Of course, everybody starts squealing and went a little further in front than they were supposed to when he appeared. There was a bit of jostling to my left and a lot of shouts from behind to the people in front to sit down.

We were all rather pleasantly surprised to see him on top of a horse. He looked really gorgeous. *O* But... that also made taking videos very difficult because of the angle. ;;____;; We could only take it from where we were seated and he was high up on his horse, so I didn’t manage to get a good video of it. >.< All I managed to take was his darn white shining horse! XD But I was really lucky because he stopped right in front of me and turned one round before stopping again in front of me. I think there was at least one minute of Gackt there. I only saw him through my camera though. ^^; That's the problem with public events! You want to take videos and pictures, but you want to see him in the flesh at the same time! XD

I did see him for a few seconds though, and boy, he had on really heavy make-up. o.O It was so thick that I couldn’t believe it at first. It seemed more so than usual... Probably didn’t show that much on camera, but yeap, even my friend agreed that the makeup was really thick, so it wasn't just me.

It is weird how the few real moments that I can remember him are very short, lasting only a few seconds each. But they are so real that I can still see them if I close my eyes... I can still remember the way he looked on top of his horse when I looked at him for that few seconds. They are very brief moments (and rather random, if you ask me XD), but it felt real and they are like memories engraved in my brain. It seems very silly to say this, but everything seems so magical, all these rather plain and normal encounters with him.

Must be the Prince Charming effect after all. XD

He rode off on his horse again, but stopped about 100 m from where I was sitting. He said a few lines which I couldn’t catch, before suddenly galloping fast and away from the parade grounds to the applause and many oooohs of the people around. XD I couldn't see very well from where I was standing, but I know he raised his sword and galloped away real quick. (Someone was holding on to the reins before that) And that was the end of the parade. ^-^

The next event was supposed to start soon and everybody started making their way there. It was supposed to be a reenactment of the battle scene. It was really crowded. x___X I couldn't get a good place to stand at all and I was so far back from the place he appeared later on. :< All I could see was just tiny Kenshin riding around on his horse. I didn't understand the lines he was saying either, because he used the old Japanese language (him being Kenshin and all). And of course, the place was simply noisy with gasps and cheers of "Gackt!" and shouts of "Sit Down!" XD He rode around for about five minutes before galloping away again, and that was the end of it.

It was getting really dark by then

My clearest, least blurry picture of him, lol

Most of the people were rushing to take their trains back home and left immediately as soon as Gackt galloped away on his horse. I decided to go back to the hotel too, and rest for the next day.

The festival lasted for two days and of course, the second day was not as interesting without Gackt there. XD But I did learn a lot about Uesugi Kenshin and all in all, it was an interesting trip. I stayed for a week, visiting other places related to Uesugi Kenshin, before heading back to Tokyo. Gackt only appeared for a few minutes, but I do hope that he will take part in next year’s Kenshin Festival again!

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