What should I wear to a VK live?

 This has been a frequent topic lately, and for some reason there seems to be a misconception amongst newer fans that you need to wear "VK clothing" to be considered a fan, while many VK fans tend to be alternative it has never been required to dress a certain way. Years ago it was pretty common for bangya to wear gyaru or heavier styles, especially if you browsed Tokyo Fashion's blog, cosplaying bandmen was also pretty common at specific lives but not done as much lately, nowadays many fans wear a variety of styles, even kimono or yukata for winter/summer lives!

Besides the larger lives I went to such as DEZERT and Kizu, majority of the fans at smaller lives were all women who wore a mix of jirai/ryousangata, tour shirts of the band and any other items they sell, even some oldschool lolitas I follow dressed up casually but it's honestly up to you and how comfortable you feel standing out (and standing for 2+ hours) if you want to dress up, but you should also consider the feelings and safety of other people, you don't want to wear something that takes up a lot of space such as lolita like some girls do at some lives and you also don't want to wear platforms/heels that are too high with the risk of injuring yourself or someone else in case of an emergency, especially since more bands and venues have started posting a lot about livehouse manners and what kinda of clothing/items may be banned so be mindful of that!

Personally I'm a little extra and enjoy wearing alternative fashion so I tended to stand out a little bit more in comparison to other people at most of the lives I went to and was even complimented by some bandmen so if you really want to look nice, these are brands I wear often:

Sex Pot Revenge 
Travas Tokyo 
ACDC RAG
Listen Flavor 
NieR
KRY

Also consider reading my other post on what to bring to a VK live!

What should I bring to a Visual Kei live?

This was something that lowkey worried me when I went back to Japan in December, I often saw posts forbidding large bags in live houses and to use coin lockers that it made me wonder what was considered "large" and if I'd get told off for taking my usual tote bag, until I realised so many bands sell them as merch that it sounded kinda dumb if they didn't allow them and I ended up seeing many people with a tote (and bought another one at Codomo Dragon's live) so it made me want to put together a list of items for new fans to take to lives that I felt were really helpful!

- Hand bag, tote bag
I've seen many bangya with various types of bags ranging from:
- small handbags from jirai kei brands
- tote bags
- back packs
- ita bags w your fave bandman

- Portable charger/battery pack
I made the mistake of only taking one portable charger and thought it'd be fine since I could just charge it at the end of the day but I'd highly recommend having two so then at least you can rotate them, there's lives where the band doesn't do physical 2shot cheki so you'll need to make sure your phone is charged and not be like me hoping it doesn't die during the live 

-Wallet/coin purse obviously 
If you haven't been to a live before, live houses require a 500~700yen drink fee upon entry so you'll need cash. I learnt the hard way it's better to have too much cash than not enough as most lives don't accept card for goods, only one live I went to did (that I know of, I didn't go to the merch table for all bands), especially if you unexpectedly like a particular member and want cheki/2shot with them or other goods, I lowkey regret not carrying a lot as there were particular items I ended up really wanting a but I'm so used to mainly paying with my card so it's something I'll definitely remember for next time, you might also end up making friends and go out to dinner with them after the live so it helps having cash if a restuarant doesn't split bills 


-OPTIONAL ITEMS-

- cheki album
This isn't exactly necessary but if you end up buying a lot of cheki it's a much nicer way to organise them and keep safe rather than trying to stuff them all in your wallet or dump them in your bag haphazardly, especially after seeing several posts recently of people losing some they had just bought, you can buy these anywhere and Sanrio stock really cute albums, as well as cheki holders

- ticket file, and your ticket!
like a cheki book this is also good if you get printed photo tickets and don't want them to get wrinkled but most can just fit inside your wallet, I prefer just having one anyway since my Kizu ticket was a lot bigger than others, another good item is an A4 file if you also want to get free flyers provided at live houses.

- ear plugs 
There were several lives where I got a nasty headache from how loud the set was, many venues are quite small and you'll often be quite close to the stage so you should really protect your hearing

- Band goods
This is VERY optional but many bands sell live specific goods such as muffler towels, pen lights (or light rings if they don't allow penlights) and fans for furitsuke, I ended up enjoying a lot of lives more than I expected and wished I had gotten some so if you have the extra money to spare and the bands sell these goods I highly recommend getting them to join in with everyone else, they also make a nice memento to commemorate your time going to VK lives

- Cooling wipes or tissues
Live houses are small and cramped so you're bound to get hot and sweaty, especially if you participate in furitsuke. You can get these really cheap from any store throughout Japan and they're actually really helpful, I went in winter and sweated so much from walking around as well as doing furitsuke at lives that I was glad I had them

- Makeup/makeup pouch
If you wear makeup, feel free to bring anything to freshen up especially if you want to look nice in 2shots, I find it kind of funny/cute how after the live everyone will sit around fixing their hair and makeup while the band and staff set up 

- slippers
It may sound weird but I noticed at majority of lives I went to that a lot of bangya switched from their regular shoes to slippers or crocs and I thought that was so smart considering you're standing for several hours, I usually wear Yosuke platforms that are really comfy but I felt so much better wearing slippers (and they're Cinnamoroll!!) pic added because they're so cute

After this long winded post you could probably tell I carry a lot of random crap so it's up to you on what you'd like to take, I tend to be an over-packer and prefer to feel prepared when I go out especially since I'm usually outside all day and don't want to go back and forth to my apartment considering most live houses weren't really close to where I was staying, more products may be added in the future!

New Post! Japan 24-25

Long time no see!

It's been such a long time since I've posted anything, and what actually made me come back to such an old blog was that after 5 years I had finally was able to go back to Japan! The first time I went to Japan in 2019 I was so unprepared that I only went to one live so I definitely made it my mission to be more organised by getting a Japanese sim card so I could make an account and buy tickets through eplus, but for some reason I didn't activate the sim card properly and had no data for 3 days so I missed out on several lives lol.

As a foreign Visual Kei fan one thing I really liked was reading about live reports as it really visualised what kind of things happened during lives that aren't often recorded, and it wasn't until recently when a friend posted about a live we attended it made me realise that I've hardly seen people write about them anymore, so it's something I thought would be fun after attending many during my month long trip, since I had to nagivate the process by myself this time I thought it'd probably help others who had questions on things I haven't really seen answers to.