On Friday April 1^st, “TOKYO POP” was held at the KAWAII MONSTER CAFE in Harajuku. The event was held at SOUND MUSEUM VISION last year in June and was a massive success. The event is now planned to be held on the first Friday of every month. Frequenters to appear at the event include AMIAYA, Una and FEMM, all of whom aim to deliver today’s “Tokyo” to those overseas through the event “TOKYO POP”. Other artists who attended the event and received a big response were the beautiful DJ Maria FUJUOKA and fashionista BabyMary (FALINE), who also DJ’d.

Text = Sahori Momo

Friday April 1^st, 8:00PM

We heard “TOKYO POP” was being held, so hastily made our way to Harajuku where it was already nighttime. The night saw artists at the forefront of delivering “Tokyo” to the world including AMIAYA, Una and FEMM. “TOKYO POP”. From now on, “TOKYO POP” is scheduled to be held on the first Friday of every month. The next event will no doubt already be delivering a new kind of “Tokyo” to the world.

Upon arriving at the KAWAII MONSTER CAFÉ, Sebastian Masuda was standing at the DJ booth. Having a hand himself in the art direction of the café, he was wearing his signature black silk hat while DJ’ing. What an incredible meeting!

At the bar counter, glasses were being filled with PASSOA and the sweet scent of fruits wafted through the air. We could see a video of AMIAYA, Una and Seto Ayumi partying with PASSOA in one hand so we stopped and watched for a brief while. The flavours they were drinking looked like soda, lime soda and cranberry soda.

Shots with “MONSTER” peddled by monster girls was also popular. This is a beautiful alcohol vivid with colour that you just have to drink. Just what kind of flavour does it have…? I am very curious, but this time we aren’t drinking and will look forward to it next time.

9.30 p.m.

Planted as the centre focus of the venue was a large merry-go-round, which took the appearance of a cake smothered generously with toppings, which were spilling over the edge of the cake. As the stage rotated, the two figures of HINA and YURIA from Faint★Star were revealed, performing in front of a large crowd which formed a circle around the merry-go-round stage. The crowed buzzed intensely, waving their phones wildly in the air to catch the incredibly unique dance in such intense synchronisation.

After the performance was over, YURIA and HINA started a chat and it was possible to join in to listen.

−−−“How was today’s performance?”

YURIA：That was my first ever experience of singing on a merry-go round and I enjoyed it as a new experience of a new spinning sensation!

HINA：It was as if I had turned into a plate of sushi sitting on the moving belt of a conveyor belt sushi restaurant! Lol!

Their new single “Never Ever” (ネヴァエバ) released on 9^th April included 5 songs which upon listening created the feeling and atmosphere of a live performance, for example, by incorporating sounds of joyous clapping and other sounds to create an imaginary scene of a large crowd of fans dancing in unison, bursting with excitement with energy fuelled by the music.

9:40p.m.

DJ MARIA FUJIOKA, who is said to enjoy wearing simple clothing, made her appearance on stage in an orange tank top and a pair of simple jeans. As a girl who sticks by her words when she says that she would rather make music than eat, her efforts have made her versatile around a variety of music genres such as techno and house and more! With just one year of experience being a DJ behind her, her growing popularity is clear, as many fans have approached her asking for photos with her and many foreigners have given her music a thumbs-up!

Whilst casually scanning the venue, we suddenly noticed that the venue was full of not only Japanese people, but also many foreign tourists! I then proceeded with my clumsy English to ask people attending the event; “What did you come to see and enjoy at this event?” The responses were as follows:

“CRAZY DANCE!” (Russian, male 29)

“FEMM” (English, Male, 23)

“The dancing cat” …(The Pink Fat Cat) (French, female, 28)

“FUN!” (Latvian, male, 34)

I heard a variety of reasons why people came to Harajuku. To see the artists, to meet the pink fat cat mascot character, to enjoy the night life of Harajuku ー to name a few.  At this one event I came across people from many different countries. The atmosphere of the event was incredible!

11:00p.m.

As the evening was drawing into the night, the venue started to become really hot, and with that the crowds surrendered themselves to be captured by the sound of BabyMary. BabyMary is the owner of a select shop located on Takeshita street in Harajuku called “Faline”. Smoking with charisma for fashion, BabyMary reached out her hand from the booth to greet the surrounding people.

Sparkling under the red and blue cocktail light, the main acts AMIAYA, Una and FEMM made their appearance, presenting themselves on stage in a cute style of clothing which hints at hidden sexiness. Suddenly, the whole atmosphere of the venue completely changed.

Their stage was the merry-go-round, which made centrepiece of the hall. AMIAYA called out to the crowd “Is everyone having fun?” and with that, the live performances kicked off.

Singing from the back of the unicorn on the merry-go-round until the end, the performance spotlight was passed around quickly between the performers like a baton relay race in a surge of epic passion, and as a follow up, a Pink Lady medley was performed, including famous songs such as UFO and Pepper Keibu. The medley was well received, with members of the audience shouting “SEXY!” at the performers.

Continuing on into the performance, Una performed a hot original cover of Shima Uta by THE BOOM, taking the audience by surprise by using voice effects during the song.

Merging seamlessly into the next song, the hall bounced to the strong rhythm of Party All Night performed by FEMM. It was at this stage that AMIAYA and Una unleashed their sweet voices, and all the girls danced and harmonised to climax the event, transforming it into TOKYO POP.

The performance was bursting with enthusiasm as the full audience took part in call and response singing with the singers. Through this event, the lights and music of Harajuku touched on people from many countries of the world, and the messages from the songs stretched beyond the extreme limits of the stars in the sky.

With a big, friendly smile on her face, AMIAYA ended the live performance by talking about her desire to spread the crazy mix of fashion and music called TOKYO POP even further. From Una’s experience of being in a 3-group collaboration, she had a unique comment for the audience. Panting with excitement, she explained how she thought of fitting into the same musical theme as AMIAYA and FEMM, but has taken a liking to do something more daring. She enjoys taking to the stage to show her true self to the audience through her rock-taste inspired clothing.

11:30p.m.

Later into the night, LISACHRIS cooled down the hot venue with some chill down music. The gathered foreigners were hitting up every spot in the venue for their last chance to take photos and videos to remember this glorious event. The atmosphere of the venue became more chilled and relaxed as STRAMACCIONI took to the stage. In this new atmosphere, people became more open to conversation, as the music took a turn into slow hip-hop, bringing Tokyo into the deep night.

Being born in the heart of Harajuku and becoming a new event for the weekend, TOKYO POP will be held every month to share the fun and excitement from Tokyo with the whole world, allowing people the opportunity to meet fashionistas, icons and artists whilst experiencing edgy Japanese culture. I wonder…will the popularity of Japanese edgy culture increase in the future?

【Event summary】

TOKYO POP × KAWAII MONSTER CAFE HARAJUKU LAUNCH PARTY Supported by PASSOA

Event date: Friday 1^st April 2016

Performers：AMIAYA、Una、FEMM[RESIDENT -TOKYO POP LIVE-]

Faint★Star[LIVE]、Sebastian Masuda、Hatch、MARIA FUJIOKA、BabyMary(FALINE)、LISACHRIS、STRAMACCIONI(CANNABIS / YAMADA)

Venue: KAWAII MONSTER CAFÉ

Tokyo-to, Shibuya-ku Jingumae, 4−31−10, YM square 4F

DOOR ¥2,500+1D   ADV(iFLYER) ¥2,000+1D

SNS discount (Facebook / Twitter / instagram) 2,000yen + 1D

Under 18-year olds cannot enter. Photo ID is required and will be checked upon entry.

※ This event will occur on the first Friday of every month. For further details, please check out ASOBIPRESS:

http://asobipress.jp/