Igadevi's Japan Trip 2004~Suzuka Circuit Event

Prior to the main events at the track (which started at 11:30 am), around 10:15, there was an "opening ceremony" of sorts, the
"Kamen Rider Parade". Blade on Blue Spader, Faiz on Auto Vajin, Kaixa on Sidebasher, Ryuki Survive on Dragranzer and
Knight Survive on Dark Raider all made one lap around the course (it's HUGE) followed by 50 kids enrolled in the Suzuka Junior
Racing School (with cute little Blade-themed costumes) and who I guess were their accompanying instructors. Prior to this the
Blade theme song was blasted over the large sound system a couple times along with commentary and sound bytes from the
Blade commercials, as well as a preview for the then-upcoming Kamen Rider Blade: Missing Ace movie. As the Rider Machines
made their way around, Blade did a couple wheelies, which was very cool. I was also surprised at just how fast Dragranzer and
Dark Raider really are (and they were still going slow enough so people could get pictures.) Of course the Riders were all suited
up and waving to the crowd, which was pretty cool since it was ridiculously hot and I can imagine wearing one of those costumes
must have not been very pleasant, never mind having to perform for a crowd.

The "Kamen Rider Village" was a little tent-covered area set up in the center of all this where a couple of things were located.
These included:

-All the bikes previously mentioned were on display here, along with the Honda team's Blade-themed bike, and the actual Black
Fang featured on Kamen Rider Blade. It's worth noting that considerable parts of those two episodes (the second of which aired
just a week before the event) were filmed at Suzuka, and as I'll get to later the day's theme heavily revolved around them. It was
cool seeing the motorcycles up close; Blue Spader even had the really detailed controls (including Mobile Rouzer) and of course
Black Fang just looked awesome, with its Undead emblems. Gotta love how Wolf Undead saw fit to include those.

-The Merchandise Shop! Items special only to this event were here, and I snapped up a couple Honda/Blade T-Shirts and a
towel (hey, why not?) Also premiering here was the Bandai Rider Hero Series Kamen Rider Blade Jack Form figure, and I also
got some Popy Chalice toys and the new Popynica Die-cast Cyclone. What was especially cool was that you also got extra free
stuff with the purchase, I got some Blade fans, stickers, and a large bagged vinyl figure. Nice!

-This was also the center for the "Stamp Rally: Find the Undead!" an interesting (albeit near-impossible) scavenger hunt of sorts.
You get a stamp book, and go around to various parts of the park/circuit to the stamp centers to fill out the pages of the book.
After you get them all you can take it back here and exchange it for a prize. Unfortunately I just didn't have the time to do this
along with all the other things I wanted to do, but it's okay because the prize was just an exclusive Suzuka Circuit Rouze Card.
(and I already got the king of all exclusive Rouze Cards: the "Kamen Rider Blade Sausages" Chalice, baby!) There was one little
catch to all this that I wish I had known about earlier, but I'll get to that in a minute.

A little ways away from all this there was a special Blade stage show being held at 12:30 and 4:00 pm, I caught the first one (I
later read that on Saturday the show was Faiz-themed). This was a ton of fun, despite the fact that it was really just a bunch of
stunt guys in costumes running around on a near-barren stage, with no real special effects. But the costumes, for attraction
versions, were very cool-looking, and the authentic music and sound effects were used (the voices are little off, but hey, I could
buy it.) All the signature weapons and attacks of the Riders were featured. There was even a storyline, which involves this dude in
sunglasses (and wearing an upside-down Grongi Belt Buckle, which I found funny) showing up to harass the requisite cute
announcer (who started off the show by asking everyone to raise their hand when she named their favorite Blade-era Rider) and
of course Blade shows up to fight him. The evil dude said he was a High Level Undead and then proceeds to beat the stuffing out
of Blade, and steal the Blay Rouzer! Later some original Undead henchmen (!) appear to menace the audience (although they
were really being pretty comical) and sure enough Garren and Leangle come out of nowhere to fight them! Leangle of course gets
upset with Garren for not letting him go after the main bad guy. This was followed by a very funny halftime segment of sorts where
some kids were picked from the audience and interviewed by the Undead (!) about how they got to the event and who in their
family came with them, in exchange for special exclusive gifts of course. After this the Upper Undead returns to show his true
form. In a puff of smoke (this is a stage show, and probably less sophisticated than the Dekaranger one I saw before, but even
more fun) he turns into the Wolf Undead! Yes, Wolf himself is back, and he looked awesome. I'd be shocked if that wasn't the
original costume they were using, because it looked spot-on. Wolf announces that he's magically back (despite being sealed by
Blade on TV) and he's not a happy camper. Garren and Leangle show up, and it's two against one. But Wolf Undead has the
Blay Rouzer, and uses it against out heroes. Interestingly, he uses the Metal card, which I don't recall having seen get used on TV,
but only in the short Blade vs. Blade video special. He aslo uses Locust Kick, but Blade appears by this point (having already
have gotten smacked around enough during this show.) Wolf appears to KO him, but he gets right back up and takes back his
weapon, and starts kicking butt in true Rider style. Of course by now everyone has been wondering where a certain other Rider
is, and he makes his grand entrance by blasting everyone with the Hawk Tornado and walking in from the audience! Yes, it's
Chalice and he's not pleased that his signature guitar riff theme already got used in the beginning of the show (well that's not really
why he's upset, but I like to think that was the reason.) Blade manages to convince him to put the usual theatrics on hold for the
remainder of this show. So it's the four Riders vs. Wolf Undead and his goons. You can probably figure out what happens next. I
took a lot of pictures (and videos!) during this show since it was all outside, and like I said despite the simple stage and limited
space it was a lot of fun just to see the guys up-close and in person doing what up until then I'd only seen on TV.

Following this it was back to the Rider Village, where Kenzaki/Kamen Rider Blade himself, Tsubaki Takayuki appeared! He
handed out autographs to 50 lucky folks (who had gotten a special random ticket along with the exclusive Rouze Card from the
Stamp Rally) and before the crowd of onlookers asked everyone to please go see Missing Ace in September. Luckily I was at
the very front of the crowd so I got some of good pictures, and when I waved he even waved back! So now it's official, I've has
met a Kamen Rider, both in and out of costume. I think it will be hard to top that experience, unless I run into Fujioka Hiroshi
himself.

As if things couldn't get much better at that point, I turned around on up on the "Coca-Cola Multi Stage" they were interviewing
the Honda Blade Racing Team Girls. You know the ones...well, if you don't, there you go. ^_^ Sure enough, summer 2005 also
saw a FIRSTy & Kamen Rider Hibiki-themed event, which I unfortunately did not get to.

Too bad, cuz the Honda Hibiki Racing Team Girls? Well, I think even the Makamô would approve, let's leave it at that.