J-Pop Icon Ayumi

By the way, did anybody ever hear of Ayumi Hamasaki? She's supposed to be one of the hottest pop superstars in Japan with a high-tech performance comparable to Madonna. One of my friends got tickets and we decided to tag along to experience what it would be like to observe 14.000 screaming fans at AsiaWorld Arena going crazy. Her show was exceptionally thrilling - magnificent mass dancing and very creative outfits (dominatrix, school girl, puppet, space girl) which she changed after every 2nd song - but way too loud and therefore the sound was very distorted - we couldn't even tell whether she was singing in Japanese or English. Her stage presence however was unbelievable - bombastic and perfect to say the least -but in my eyes a bit too perfect, it seemed to lack soul if you know what I mean - nevertheless her fans adored her. It's always stunning to me that the majority of these Asian super stars (with millions of followers) are never heard of in western countries although they seem to know all the American singers and their songs by heart. Never seen such heavy security during a concert in my entire life either - when I took a picture with my cellphone, 2 guards stormed towards me and made me delete them while monitoring me in the process, ridiculous! We were surrounded by bars because the stage ended in the middle of the arena where we were seated - it felt like the Pope would make an appearance, but then again - another interesting experience for us Gweilos.