The earthquake and tsunami that caused havoc in Japan in March led K-pop band 2NE1 to delay their debut concert there, but it was well worth the wait for local fans earlier this week as thousands gathered at Tokyo’s Yokohama Arena.

Waving red and blue glow sticks, some 12,000 fans went wild at the stadium on Monday as the four Korean girls strutted their stuff, whipped out their hip hop dance moves and belted out the tunes that have been reverberating over the East Sea for months.

The concert, which marked the start of the 2NE1’s “Nolza in Japan” tour, was such a success that organizers added a follow-up concert on Tuesday.

All 70,000 tickets for the band’s planned concerts in three Japanese cities, including Kobe and Chiba, are sold out, the organizers said. The tickets were priced at 75,000 yen each.

One 29-year-old woman from Chiba Prefecture said the band is unique and totally different from Japanese girl groups. “They are a perfect synthesis of music and fashion,” she said.

Testament to the Japanese love of dressing up in costumes, many fans appeared at the arena wearing clothes styled after the pop quartet, such as fluorescent hip hop clothes and funky, pineapple-shaped hairstyles.

After performing for two hours, and showing their flashy personalities to the fullest, the girls wrapped up their two concerts in the capital. They next head to Kobe, where they will sing on Saturday. They have a total of four more concerts planned, including a performance date in Chiba on Oct. 2.

Source: http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/09/21/2011092100779.html?Dep0=twitter