From: Brian Schroeder
First of all, this is the first trip I have ever taken overseas and that if it was not for KISS I never would have done anything like this. My brother and I and a friend of ours had booked a room on the 38th floor of the Tokyo Dome hotel overlooking the stadium and the view was incredible. Unfortunately, our friend was not feeling too good that morning and she was afraid that she was not going to be able to make the show. But as we were getting into our costumes and make-up, we could hear the soundcheck and see all the other fans lining up for tee shirts. Fortunately, the magic was in the air and she began to feel alot better as we got ready to leave for the show. As we walked to the elevator, alot of people in the hotel were either shocked or got into the spirit and took pictures and really liked what they saw. When the elevator stopped at the level we wanted some poor lady almost had a heart attack when the door opened and she saw us. We walked over to the stadium and immediately people bagan to crowd around us taking pictures and posing with us. This went on for at least a half an hour and as we stood in line for the shirts, more pictures. We finally got to the stand to find out that the shirts we really wanted were sold out but we still got shirts that made reference to being at the Tokyo show. When we tried to get in line at the entrance we were again swarmed with people who wanted to get pictures with us. We really got off on all of the attention and as Paul Stanley said, "We were not just hams, but the WHOLE pig". By the time we got to our seats which were in the way back (11 rows from the floor) we had about 2 minutes to spare before the show began. I could not believe the amount of people in the stadium; I think this concert blew away the New Years show in Vancouver as far as attendance. When the first notes of Detroit Rock City began this audience and especially everyone around us went BESERK. The song list was pretty much the same as many other shows that I have seen but with "Talk to Me" added which I never heard live, THANKS ACE. Unfortunately, I felt that the accustics were real bad and many of the songs were very distorted. The pyrotechnics were rather limited but I realized in a place that size with that many people, everyone's safety was a big issue. Eric Singer played great did an excellent solo during "God of Thunder". As the show ended someone threw 3 huge bouquets of flowers to the band and I could see that the band was exceptionally touched at the gesture. It took about 10 minutes to be excused from our section since security was very well structured and regulated but when we got outside, once again, we were mobbed by people for more pictures. Though there were many other people dressed up with excellent costumes, people seemed to be more interested in us since we really hammed it up. We also had a banner that said "THANK YOU KISS FOR GIVING US THE BEST" with pictures of ALL the KISS members on it which seemed to get alot of attention. We went back to the tee shirt stand and managed to talk the vendor into letting us each buy one of the display shirts that we really wanted. We met 2 girls who took pictures and went back to the hotel to party at one of the 3 bars there. But the first one was closing when we got there, the second one would not allow us in because of the costumes so we had to settle for the restaurant lounge. We talked and had a great time and exchanged info. to keep in touch. The next morning these 2 girls came down to our room and gave each of us a box of wafer cookies to thank us for the fun time and we gave them each a tee shirt that I specially made for our trip as our thanks for the great time. All in all, I will say THANK YOU KISS FOR BRINGING US TOGETHER WITH OTHER FANS AND FOR THE GREAT MEMORIES WE WILL ALWAYS CHERISH. Also. THANK YOU TO ALL THE PEOPLE OF TOKYO FOR BEING SO KIND TO US AND MAKING OUR VISIT A GREAT ONE!

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