A voyage to unite the european wota
Posted by sswishbone, Feb 28 2010, 11:00 PM
Ahoy all of you! It has been a long time since I blogged on here, but I wanted to use this blog more as a place on journeys involving being a fan, rather than blogging about absolutely every piece of news to do with the project and the genre in general. So anyway, now that I have shovelled my pathetic excuse upon you all, my newest entry. As some of you may know, in 2009 Buono! were scheduled to appear at a japanese covnention in Stockholm which sadly got taken out, so some of us who were gonna go for Buono! Actually went to Stockholm for a forum meeting...
Well a year on the second event took place, for this one we never really had a concrete plan in place for a while. At first, it was going to be a trip to spain for the hot weather (good job e didn't now having seen their troubles) but also a totally different place for quite a lot of us... This went quiet and then there was a possibility of us all being in Japan at the same time, so that was touted... Then the bottom fell out of this and it felt like this might not happen. Until IchigoProject stated she was going to be in london for a week at the end of February and suddenly the pieces seemed to fit together, at last, it was on.
Now my weekend began on the thursday night with myself coming off work at 8pm... Then preparing my apartment as Oroboras was charged with getting us to London, in exchange for some fuel money, some bottles of Asahi and a place to crash so we could set off friday morning... Not a problem, except this involved us watching two concert dvds and PV's until gone 2am, and then being awoken by dogs at 7:30 (note this is the first and only time this has happened!)
For the trip south Oroboras showed himself to be a bit of a genius, as neither of us really want to listen to western radio and that the journey was going to be long, we wanted some form of musical soundtrack. So in true British tradition of bodge, he rips out a stereo spot, jacks together some form of wiring into the cars speakers, and plugs it into his I-phone loaded with a tonne of H!P and j-pop, the result? A perfectly functioning soundsystem, with great music, that doesn't use electricity, result!
To be honest the journey down was a nice cruise, not really much to report there, so we reached the outskirts of London where a couple of orob's friends allowed us, very graciously, to leave the car parked for the weekend and stay the night so we could train to london. Well with a nice tv and soundsystem. we took full advantage and watched copious amounts of live clips and shows, before we retired at a more sensible 11pm. Hey! We had some zz's to catch up on and we intended to do it!
So onto saturday and it starts with a train ride into london Euston, we arrive around 12:30, when Paul from hello blog texts to say they will be late as, in true British tradition of idiocy, someone pulled on the passenger alert switch, paralysing the tube they were on! Same time, IchigoProject's flight into stansted is delayed, PukovniKrv is wating for her to arrive and an entire tubeline is shut off for maintenance... All in all things were going about as smoothly as a ride across a rocky plateau on a skateboard!
Fortunately for Orob and Myself, not long after this a fellow we've never met appears and goes, 'you two aren't by any chance from the forum?' I wonder what gave it away? Was it my Reina T-shirt and Orob's Chisato T-shirt? Nope, I am just that conspicuous! 
Turns out the new arrival was none other than Chronik. We were barely talking for five minutes when the legend himself, Maoh, stopped by... Since I was in Japan, my japanese has improved... errr... Slightly! Enough for me to introduce him and the others at least.
Luckily for all involved, Maoh knows how to break the ice even if we have a language barrier, he just opens up his bag and pulls out a MaiMai towel. Naturally this was followed by him revealing a staggering haul of stuff he'd brought to show off. I'll put it into context, if you've ever watched the film 'Hot fuzz', well, at the moment Danny pulls back his wardrobe and reveals about 9000 action dvd's and Nicholas announces 'by the power of greyskull...' Well, this was our equivalent!
I have no idea how many dvd's, photobooks, magazines, photos and lord knows what else he brought with him, but either way, it got us all a flutter, in the middle of a british train station, I bet everyone was thinking this was some form of wind up for reality tv! Not long after this orob gets a brainwave and walks around outside, less than a minute later, he returns dragging with him Himalia and Demanding more kaori.
More introductions and that followed, with topics mainly focusing around who fave members and everything was (even though pretty much everyone had merch of their fave on show or it was obvious from the names!) Before Paul and the guys from hello blog appeared, by this point Pukovnikrv and Ichigoproject informed us they'd be at least an hour, so we did the british thing, we hit the pub!
I think the pub were a little taken aback by us lot, but one smartass barman commented, with a stupid smirk, when I went to buy beer, "heh you going to the rugby?" Now don't get me wrong, I like a good joke, had he mentioned how awesome some random pop group from our country was, I'd have laughed and replied with something like, 'that's too mainstream'. But this joke, actually no, that's not fair on jokes, was beneath contempt. So I went for the 'don't judge a book by its cover approach' and answered, "not this weekend, usually I'll be at every sale sharks game, cheering on Andy Sheridan and the guys, but this is my weekend off." Needless to say, I think he was a bit startled and spluttered the price before proceeding to not look at me again all day 
The next hour blasted by with Maoh dragging his haul out in front of everyone who had not seen it, needless to say, it was an insanely popular move. Though I am left wondering if the staff were teetering on the edge of calling the cops! Well regardless of that, the pb's and mags were proceeded to be thumbed through, I tried to display my "improved" japanese by talking to Maoh about the Buono! Tour that he saw... (for his benefit, おれはじぇらしです。) He kept pointing at the tour book he had and was telling me where he was and what he was chanting, it sounded a ton of fun, and only increased my desire to see them live.
Before long, an hour had passed and we were joined at last by Pukovnikrv and ichigoproject, who helped us conquer more space at the bar. IchigoProject had two things on her mind... The lucky dip she ordered off Himalia and the Gaki merch off me, both sent her spiralling into a whirpool of joy. After grabbing some food the seven of us staying at the hostel had to go check in, so Paul and the guys told us to let them hit a pub and that we can catch them up.
Thus we go back into the underground, and onto the overground rail route, on the train orob had his i-phone playing while we waited for the train to leave. Surprisingly nothing was said, though we weren't anti-social enough to have it so loud you could hear it in China. The train ride was made a little interesting as Maoh had the MaiMai towel out taking a slot on the train, no one said anything, but I do wonder if there was a communal WTF? Infecting the brains of everyone outside the group at this point.
Now, we get to the hostel and I had sorted everything out so that we had seven of eight beds in a bedshare, it was a pain in the ass... And wholly pointless, as the hostel had screwed it up! Someone, irritatingly, had changed the arrangements after one member had gone to the trouble of arranging it, and confirming it to me by e-mail. With this out, the hostel staff told us to not check in now, but come back later... We informed them, casually, that this would be around 1 -2 am... Fine by them, ok, fine by us! So off we went (more to come on this later on)
So we head back to london and catch up with the others in a pub called 'the champion' and haul ass out of there to go visit the japan centre... Well, we got to the main one and it was shut! Our disappointment was curtailed by the fact there was another one in there numerous things were picked up, most popular being Asahi and other beers, but some sushi and pocky was also on the agenda. After this we crashed into a japanese food place, asking politely if they could accomodate twelve people, to which they reply 'we'll open upstairs.'
So we goes in and as soon as we sit down some music is put on their open stereo... Which wasn't popular, so we politely asked if it was a standalone stereo, when they said yes, I asked could it be switched off... When they countered with why, I did something which, with hindsight, I wish I had done better. But, being from Manchester, I often speak at least three minutes before I think, so I answered, 'we just don't like the music.' It got laughs but actually felt really bad, I despise being seen as someone who has to shut out someone elses cultural vices and on this occason, I did exactly that. Still, I cheered up when Orob plugged some portable speakers into his I-phone and we had our own soundtrack, which received no complaints from us or the staff, score!
After this paul and the guys had to leave as they needed to get back to their neck of the woods and as usual in britain, if it's going anywhere outside london, your curfew is something daft like 9pm, but understandably it was frustrating as most of us were just getting warmed up! Anyway, with us all itching to burn off some of the food we hit an arcade to shoot bad guys and thrash around racetracks. This was all very fun, but once the Lolli turned up to play DDR a lot of attention was focussed away from the gaming (note, Oroboras and myself remained on killing zombies on house of the dead 3)
Now at this point Chronik sort of vanished, so we spent a good thirty minutes trying to find him, but no sign of the guy, we then tried to recover his number from forums and other places but no such luck, with a heavy heart we had to bite the bullet and leave without him, hoping that nothing had happened (this morning it was clarified in a post on the thread from him, so no worries there)
The main event had arrived, it was time to go for the karaoke! So it was myself, Oroboras, Himalia, Demanding More Kaori, CDevil, Pukovnik_krv, Maoh and IchigoProject, all on the way to have a night of stardom! Now, on the way there we did biefly witness a potential incident, however, everything turned out ok so onward we went to the bar itself. Which was a rather strange experience as we had to go into some form of kebab shop, which had a set of stairs leading down, to where it was located.
When we got into the lower level some americans were in the room we booked finishing their session... If you ever wanted to know torture, then listening to people singing Queen songs woefully off key is close, but then I realised... We were next! So with this doing very little to settle our nerves we patiently endured before we got into the room and gave it a go. First up was Pukvnik_Krv who did a song by one the johnny's groups... Well even if the group choice was perplexing, he was actually entertaining to watch!
After this Oroboras had a go with Ooki na Ai de Motenashite, by C-ute and again was pretty solid, though we'd been cunning enough to cheat by loading a laptop with romaji lyrics to at least try and get it right! Then it was my turn, Go girl koi no victory by Momusu. Now for me, I wanted us to just let go and have fun, so I was there, encouraging the others to acrtually chant along! It worked, the tone evened out and I had a go at it (I now fear that Reina, Ai chan and the girls are going to after me and tickle me to death or something for butchering it!)
IchigoProject then had a go at doing 'How do you like this japan?' and again was quite decent... Until we put her off by doing the crowd style "WOO!" chants after each time she did that line. It was evil of us in one sense, but it added to the sense of silliness and enjoyment, after all, this wasn't an audition, if it were I dread to think what would happen to the viewing figures! Maoh then showed us how it was done, with some c-ute, the dude naturally had the advantage of being able to reach the script and not need to use an alternate source, but that's beside the point, he rocked it!
CDevil then had a go at 'rottara rottara', some Buono! Trouble being it was pulled out oft he book and no romajii lyrics, I might be speaking for myself, but I find it almost impossible to read Japanese script from right to left, it has to be top to bottom/right to left for me to be able to read it. I couldn't read it and CDevil gave his all, but it was too tough and often lines were missed, but hey, as I said, this ain't no audition!
Oroboras tried an Ayumi hamasaki song after this, the icon herself is very difficult an act to follow for most singers, but orob gave a commendable effort considering a) it is a very tough and 
his lyric sheet was out of kilter with the song! After this I attempted 'Koisuru angeru heart' by Vyuden... I now think I have Rika chasing me for tearing that song apart horribly! (Not that I'd object to Rika chasing me but that's a whole different story for another time and place!)
As the night carried on we continued to switch solos until we started doing the duets, chief amongst which was when Maoh and Myself duetted 'Romantic ukare mode'... Well this is where it finally happened, yes, Pukovnik_Krv and CDevil actually did the wotagei for this while we were singing! it was insane fun, and yes I am informed video footage exists (note: when this surfaces I am in no way accountable for any self-mutilation of the eye sockets made by yourselves!)
Not long after this the night closed with Orboras and myself doing "Robo kiss", no anyone who knows us will be aware that I adore Tusji-chan and that he loves Aibon, so naturally we wanted to do each of their lines... Well gave it a shot, and I'd like to think we did ok, but the others can be the judges of that! With the hour past midnight and no trains back to the hostel station, we instead sampled the night buses, Maoh showed off his c-ute towel on there, but I don't think any of the drunk passengers really understood what was going on!
So anyway, we return to the hostel, as planned. Well, they tell us they messed up and the only solution was to give us a four bed room... With three extra matresses on the floor, for this we got to stay a night in London for only £5, but oh my god... How in hell we made this work I have no clue, seriously, I think we did the most epic example of bodge you could ever hope to see! (pic in the thread if you are really curious) Being rough northerners, Orob and myself took a matress on the floor, Himalia also was man enough to volunteer and join us on the ground level, with the others enjoying the bunk beds...
Honestly guys, I really do not know how to word an apology for this, I know that I took care of the co-ordinating and I know that I am not one of their staff, but I feel responsibile all the same. You have absolutely no idea how angry I was, and how sorry I was to put you through that. Needless to say that place has burn notice served on it, it's blacklisted! So yeah, even if I am not directly responsible, I am really really sorry, please feel free to not let me suggest places to stay next time!
Due to the insanely late hour we had no energy or opportunity to actually concert watch, and again, to Maoh, sorry, you brought all that and we couldn't even watch one! Needless to say it was an epic collection and the smile that he gave when showing them off was still amazing, but if a haul like that is going to be brought in the future, a venue for concert watching must be sourced!
So the sunday started with us heading to camden, where it became apparent that Himalia and Demanding More kaori would have to leave due to the engineering of the lines screwing up their way home, as such, then there were five! So we had a nice brunch and shopped around, before at 2pm orob and myself had to leave...
We rush back to camden tube as a way of getting to waterloo for our train... Only on sundays Camden is an outbound passenger station only! Thus we had to dasshu to Mornington station instead, after narrowly missing onm etube due to us not knowing if it would take us on the wrong line, we got the next one thinking we'd be forced to spend an hour in waterloo for the train back to the car. Yet, against all odds of British public transport, we got the station and indeed the train with two minutes to spare!
To kill time we watched some pv's on the train, and said goodbye to both IchigoProject and Pukovnik_krv over the phone as we had to leave without doing a real goodbye due to the ground getting split up in Camden market. After this, Orob and myself hit the motorway and had a smooth ride home without incident.
Now, was this a great event? Yes, oh god yes! Sure there was drama, and there was frustration, but one thing we had was a total blast. Whether it was our discussions about all aspects of the project and the genre, our various different live show experiences, or just the fact that a group of strangers could hook up with a common aim and overcome a problem, we did it! We also had some success in getting a new member, as it turns out the karaoke bar owner is actually a H!P fan himself and was surprised at what we were singing, Oroboras told him about him and the guy has promised to join us. So, we must all be ultra-welcoming once they appear.
Some of us already want to hook up again, I can only speak for myself when I say a definite yes, but I am certain many of the group share the sentiment. Eurowota more commonly? Yes, bring it on! Until the next voyage people!
An anxious shift at the docks
Posted by sswishbone, Nov 12 2009, 08:52 AM
When you get off a plane and find that due to a fail connection your baggage is still on the terminal at the other end, it makes you somewhat anxious. For me, this time was especially so. First up, I had couriered for fellow users of this site. For Gina I was bringing back both the JunJun shirts, Ichigoproject was getting the Gaki t-shirt, photo set and uchiwawa, while Oroboras was not only getting a Koharu smilie shirt, but I was also couriering a Chinami PB he'd bought seperately off Gordokaba. Add to that my merchandise and you can see why I was anxious to get the bag back.
To make the situation more difficult, when I boarded my flight in Japan and was given my boarding pass, as well as the sticker receipt on my ticket receipt... The tag for my bag was missing, I was told this would have been to a hiccup and not to worry. I told the baggage clerk to get on her computer and make damned sure that no bags were left in Narita airport! Surprisingly rather than tell me to stop being such a grouchy northern git, she actually did a damned good job of triple checking and ensured me that the bag had made the initial flight and the whole problem was the delayed arrival into Helsinki.
With my nerves settled I started to see an advantage to this whole setup, my bag weighed 18.7 KG's when checked in. And I don't use suitcases, I use a holdall/sports bag. Well on the way from the train station at Narita to the check-in desk, my shoulder strap broke, this means I would have had to carry it with the small handles. Now, it was getting delivered to my house! Yatta!
But of course I couldn't remain so genkii for long, I was still nervous of something going wrong. So next day I held on the phoneline to speak to an advisor and was told it might come that night (this was tuesday). I went to my Japanese class horrendously jetlagged, I didn't think I was, but as soon as I sat down and stared at my kana... It was like a movie where someone looks at a book or something and the words dance around randomly. How I got through my class without either falling asleep or making a complete and utter clot of myself I have absolutely no idea!
Walked home at 9pm and as expected, no bag. I shrugged it off thinking it unlikely a bag would be collected and then immediately delivered after 8pm in the evening. Crashed out due to the severe tiredness and then woke up, called the baggage company again and got a much more helpful person who not only located my actual bag number, so I could track it online, but was also much more helpful with regards to how I'd know it was coming. 30 minutes later I get an SMS that says it'll be delivered at 11:30 or so. 11am I get a call from the driver asking me to direct him to my apartment!
Well I was cruising, now I was totally nervous all over again! Fortunately 20 minutes later a van from a shirt design and press company turns up, guy gets out and phones me saying he has my bag! Not exactly the courier service I was expecting! Some random local driver, but either way, I dashed downstairs. He pulls my holdall out and now, finally, I have everything!
Pics of my haul are in the hello project collection thread, finally I can put the whole trip to bed. That return flight combo is the only thing I do not approve of, everything else was absolutely top drawer. Would I reccomend going Nippon? Does a bear do its business in the woods? Does a Maclaren F1 supercar go over 200 mph? Of course I reccomend going, Nippon ni ikimasu! Bye everyone, bit of an anti-climax this one, but I am English, and we crave disappointment! See you all in the future.
A voyage home
Posted by sswishbone, Nov 9 2009, 07:55 PM
Well they say all good things come to an end... Good!? What the hell am I thinking? This trip has been way out beyond awesome, an incredible experience that has really made me feel better. Early rise at 6am in order to give myself a lot of time to reach the airport. on the way I took in the varying sights of the locations and was really sad that I had to call time on the trip. Especially when 'ship to the future' came on my MP3, I almost teared up as hearing that almost felt like a personal goodbye.
While riding towards narita I saw an old lady possibly in her 70's struggling to stand, so I chivalrously offered my seat, at first she refused for some odd reason but I instisted and she accepted... Seriously what the hell happened to the agressive and cold hearted Pete I knew so well? Easy answer there, he realised what a bad person he was! It made me feel good to do something positive for the people who had been so welcoming on my way out of the country.
When I got to the airport I immediately made a dash for an empty American airlines desk and cheekily put my hold luggage on the scales... 18.7 KG I think! IN other words, not overweight, yatta! check in went fine and not much really happened after that. Well that is until departure from japan, delayed by 30 mins or so.
Which resulted in me landing in Helsinki literally seven minutes before my flight to Manchester! I made it, I left a huge trail of fire behind me where the rubber of my trainers put down so much friction, but I made it! Unfortunately, this meant that my hold luggage DIDN'T make it, that's now, with any luck, coming on the flight tomorrow and being delivered by courier to my apartment block, so hopefully this won't cause issues getting everyone's merch to them/up on my wall.
I am actually really raging about this, Finnair and JAL run the flight together as part of the 'one world' thing that they american airlines, british airways, etc all form. Helsinki airport is designed for immediate changeovers in flights, with 40 minutes being their good target, and one I should have had. But basic maths tells you that if a plane leaves Japan 30 minutes late, you're not going to have 40 minutes to bleeding transfer! And I find it absolutely unfathomable that they didn't have a contingency plan for when things like delays occur. It is totally unforgiveable in my eyes.
So a word of warning, if your flight is one designed with a 40 minute change, get another route, it is simply not worth the risk in my opinion. I am nervously awaiting the arrival of my own and other people's stuff, a thing I should not be having to do! Finnair, I am serving burn notice on you, you're blacklisted for that! 40 minute changeover = no business from me! I'd rather spend three hours in a departure lounge and definitely get things thank you very much!
In my hand luggage I did have about six PB's, a few dvds and my own H!P photo sets, so I still have some merch but there is a hell of a lot more and I want it now goddamit! I am also missing being out in Japan because of how cold it is in the northern hemisphere at the moment, down there it was around 18 degrees... Finland and manchester are hovering around - 2!
I did get cheered up when I got home as my copy of Sadistic dance turned up! So I can at least enjoy that while I have my anxious wait. But the voyage comes to an end, hope you've all enjoyed the blogs, until next time!
A voyage to paradise and friends
Posted by sswishbone, Nov 8 2009, 05:46 PM
Oh my god what a day, what a day! As I am English I shall keep the main event until later and start by announcing that the day began with me leaping up and going online, at this point I was advised it is best to get to the show early so the merch you want is there. Sounds good by me so off I went, left myself an absolute tonne of time because, as we all know, my sense of direction is rather poor...
Turns out not so for Nakano sun plaza. But then a large building with a sloping covered entry to the lobby, that has a huge clock in front of it with tonnes of balls and golden faces is not the easiest thing in the world to miss! At this point I noticed they had a stall at the front where you could buy a copy of Kimagure princess and have the chance to win a signed poster... Well in the words of Dirty Harry "do you feel lucky? Punk!"
Well I did feel lucky, but I wasn't, however I did get given a regular poster, so yatta for that! After this I joined the merchandise queue and was moving forward slowly. Behind me was an Asian looking girl who kept glancing occasionally but I shrugged this off... Until a friend of hers turned up and suddenly they were speaking english! I turned around and asked them if they were a fellow gaijin and to my delight they were.
The girl was Jean and the guy was Stephen, both of whom were there to see the girls and users of the site JPhip. (Chances are I've somehow spelt that wrong!) So we hung around and discussed a little bit, turns out Jean had been staffing at AX so I got some cool stories on that, but then the convo started to dry up a bit. So I brought out the story of the 3 year old Sayu wota that Ginarawr told me and instantly the ice was broken amidst visions of this sickeningly cute but ultimately awesome sight!
When we got to the merch stand I had everything that I wanted and stuff I was couriering for others. I got the two junjun shirts that Gina wanted, but the Koharu graduation shirt had gone. I have the regular koharu shirt that oroboras wanted, but somehow forgot to pick up Ichigoproject's (I am really sorry, it was not intended). But I can make ammends by saying I got the photo set, gaki face shirt and uchiwawa that you wanted.
As for me, well the Reina and Ai Chan face shirts were instantly snapped up, as were the Reina and Ai Chan full body shot microfibre towels, plus one of the official bags to carry out (and wotafy my laundry storage!). But, annoyingly, the Reina birthday shirt had gone, and just as frustrating the awesome toy truck had sold out! In case you haven't seen this, the girls have this truck where on the side is images of all of them in their nanchatte renai outfits. Well Up-Front made a toy replica and I really wanted to put it at the side of the resonant blue framed photo on the table at home... But alas it was not to be, I did a get a full photo set of the girls though, so not all lost!
The outlay for this was a little excessive, but I did say this was a blowout trip and I don't care about the cost! In case you're curious, don't bother asking, I ain't telling! Straight after this the doors opened so in I went, for the first show I was on the upper tier but in row 8. This was a good thing as that far back you can stand up, and thus, go absolutely nuts. Thing is, before the show started, for whatever reason the theatre was playing 'kings of leon' and 'oasis'. This is the sort of audio I'd expect on an NME channel, not before Momusu, bloody knock it off!!!
Though I think the idea behind this was to make everyone started to frustrated and bored, so that when the japanese announcement of the show commencing occurred, boof! Place is electric. So up went the yellow and blue glowsticks (three of which I had given to Jean and Stephen as they were without glowsticks due to having no time to shop for them) and the vtr counting the girls entry down comes on, instantly crowd is off the charts.
I have witnessed at least 200 concerts and I have never in life seen a crowd that just flick into gear as if someone has just slapped in a new set of duracells, but it happened here! Behind me at the show were two girls who were giggling and laughing as I got into full swing. I can't say I really blame them really, main reason is that in order for the glowsticks in my hands to stick out a bit I decided to throw up the horns, two sticks in each hand, one between my index finger and second, other between the wee pinky and that finger (I don't mention it by name as it's use will more than likely never happen with me!)
As a result when I am not thrusting/waving them in the air, they hang at my side like claws, and I often sway a bit when stood up for long periods of time (note: - no alcohol drank today at all before anyone gets any ideas!) So in the end I think when I was dancing I sort of resembled the Soul calibur character 'Voldo', just that he's not as ugly.
Right beside me for this show was a massive sayu wota who really got into the wotagei swing, which was awesome when off-set against my much more ridiculous style. While to my right was a fellow Ai Chan wota who was always screaming whenever she solo'd, the rest of our block were a little quiet unless giggling, I think it was to do with the sight of three totally incongruous fans just going at it and not giving a damn!
The show was a total blur, before I knew it, two hours had passed and I perspired a lot (a trait I am saying I picked up from Ai Chan, she's a big sweater too!) Just before I could escape, the two wota both firmly shook my hand and thanked me for coming and showing such devotion to the girls... Well not exactly that, I only picked up half of their japanese sentences, but it didn't mention genkii, sugoi and thanks, so that's enough for me to fill in the blanks!
After this I went out into some cool air to wait by the clock for when Gordokaba showed up, which wasn't long. Steve and Jean appeared at a similar time but Steve had to dash to Haneda airport for his flight. Now for me that underlines what we are about, here's a dude who knows he has a flight to catch and may miss it, but the girls come first, major respect!
We had time for a photo of the three of us, I glanced at it and it looked cool but as it wasn't on my camera I won't know for certain when I'll get a copy, I've been told I will so look forward to it! As we hung about Sevvie showed up out of nowhere, being someone so recent to this place I did not fully appreciate who I was talking to, until she mentioned all the translating and stuff, I am hoping the unexpected H!O reunion will see a return!
But then the big reunion occurred, on a whim I had messaged Maoh on here saying I was at the 8th shows and if he was coming we should meet up (again not exactly that mostly bad japanese from me!) He said he'd meet in the lobby but I hadn't been able to find him, however, he found me! A brief bow and greeting ensued before he drew a bag with tower records on, all H!P singles, now I was like, "awesome, new haul?" (Forgetting of course, he speaks no english!) I put the CD back in and only then do I clock on that he was actually giving them me as a gift!
This caused Jean to crack up and to be fair so did Maoh once I started bowing and saying thanks a lot, such a wonderful surprise (and also means I have to somehow return the favour next time we meet!) . After this I desperately tried to think of basic Japanese phrases to ask him, as we hadn't spoken at all since the meeting in Stockholm. I managed to get out the Japanese for 'are you coming to Eurowota?' He immediately said he was, but I had no way of following the question up...
This is where Jean proved an absolute lifeline, as she knows quite good level Japanese, yatta! Translation service, one of the things I had wanted to ask about was his trip to Hawaii, evidently he'd expected this as out came a pair of photos of him with the girls from C-ute. One of which had them posing behind him and a few other wota, with their hands clasped together as if they'd been busted... Really not sure I want to know why!
Gordo and Sevvie had, in all this excitement, disappeared for the longest smoke ever, it must have been at least thirty minutes, when they came back I introduced Maoh and we hung about briefly, before I was suddenly accosted by an American called Chris who often blogs and does some radio stuff came over saying that he'd seen me in a few photos about some event in Sweden. I was a bit surprised by this but accepted his introduction and also introduced Maoh as he was also an original at Eurowota.
Chris was a dude who freely admitted that he is more into AKB48, and that he knows we like to go mad about them. I explained I think the exact opposite and that any opinion I have on the group is irrelevant so long as he appreciates them, I don't like two sides arguing over music, end of the day the subject is so personal that any opinion given by an outsider is meaningless!
I got abandoned by Jean, Sevvie and Gordokaba as they had KP posters they wanted to encase before their respective trips back, in between this a german friend of Sevvie and Gordo arrived but I didn't catch the fellow's name, so sorry man, but you were awesome and please feel free to introduce yourself if you read this!
Maoh briefly talked about how exciting the show was before he announced he had to leave as he wasn't attending todays shows, he did say that he will at eurowota london and will be bringing lots of H!P dvd's.... So it's up to us to sort out the venue, somehow, come hell, come high water!
I wasn't alone long before the group came back together and we headed in for the evening show, this time row 8 on the first level. I found myself at the end of a row of seats right by the aisle and had a fantastic diagonal view of the stage, none of it was obscured in any way whatsoever. And because I was so close I was able to truly appreciate the majesty of Reina and Ai Chan up close. (As well as the others I like, but I have my priorities!)
Both shows opened with 3,2,1 breaking out and then into how do you like japan? They might be totally opposite on pace but it really worked, got the crowd fired right up! After the couplet of K!P and nanchatte renai, we got a bit of stuff of Sexy 8 beat, namely genkii+, 'haro beautiful day' and sukiyaki, sandwiched by the beautiful and very interesting chinese version of 'Ame no furanai...' Before my particular highlight of the entire shows, the awesome High King duet by Reina and Ai Chan.
Now yes, I am a self-confessed obsessive of this pair, so my opinion is only slightly twinged by bias, but it was the fact that the song in question, 'Koikou no miero', is so awesome. Blinding pace, awesome rhythms and simply mind blowing vocals, plus Reina and Ai Chan did some up close dancing which was... Err.... Ahhhh... Balls to it, it was hot, beyond all!
Sayu's solo version of 'Aruiteru' was surprisingly quite well done, the evening show was funny in that after the others had joined to sing and they all stood in a close line on the stage, Sayu tried to kiss Ai Chan. Now as anyone who has seen the 'love and peace' kissu from the platinum 9 disco dvd knows, Ai Chan's reaction was a priceless aghast expression. Well, here she simply pushed the persistent Sayu away! Set all of us off laughing, it was awesome! Rewinding slightly, I couldn't help but think of my mum when this was played, mainly as when she visits my place I have my laptop playing randomly and without fail it comes on, and she's always going "oh I love this song!" So I dedicate the singing and arm waving for this track to you mother.
After a quick run through of the excellent 'shouganai yume obito' and nanchatte C/W 'Aki urara' I finally got to see the modern take on sakura and otome gumi. The Sakura gumi was sublime, Ai chan, Risa and Eri all maintained their brilliance from the original version, while Linlin really slotted in magnificently on her lines, Aika also surprised me as she is usually falling flat on slower tracks but she did well here.
But, it was the ripping 'Yuujou' that got me going, everyone who knows me will be aware how much I adore this song, to the point otome gumi are still hovering high on my last fm despite only having around 7 songs on computer! Anyway this song is as punk as hell, more so than the Ramones... Well I was throwing up the horns, so I head-banged to it! Yup, I brought teh metulz! To a Morning Musume show, is it a world first? I have no idea, but it felt awesome, music breaks boundaries, or in my case necks! Did this for both the evening and afternoon show.
It felt weird watching Sayu picking up both Nono's and Kaori's lines in this song, but in a way it improved the song, since it is meant to be punk as all hell, and Sayu is hardly the strongest vocalist, it fit for her to take the lead! I really enjoyed it that's for sure.
After this 'Dekkai Uchuu ni Ai ga Aru' one of my faves from 4th ikimasshoi was brought out and done very well. Then headfirst into an awesome medley of 'bonkyuu bomb girl', 'odore morning curry', 'handmade city' and back into bonkyuu bomb girl. I was bouncing like a nutter through this, mainly as it starts really genkii, then goes into half-stadium rock (for which the air guitar came out, I do things my way, sod the rules!) and then back to the genkii ending, delightful.
The 4th version of 'joshi kashimashi monogatari' followed, surprisingly my favourite bit was linlin's, purely because of the way she winds Gaki up by thanking everyone for shin mini-moni and that now she is aiming for sub-leader, with Gaki playfully getting into it with a brilliant 'ehh? Whaaat!?' face
Double bill from platinum 9 disco closed out the main set 'naichau kamo' and 'resonant blue' The latter being one of me favourite tracks for very obvious reasons! And it was even better live... For obvious reasons! Then for the encore break at both shows, the crowd instead of chanting 'encoru' chanted 'Reina!' I wasn't complaining! The evening show was best of this lot as from down below I could appreciate how many blue glowsticks went up in the air, it was an unbelievable sight, far better than the cigarette lighters you get for ballads in stadiums, oddly the burning lighters just don't appear as ballsy to me!
After the girls re-appeared and did an excellent version of 'Songs' we all got to sing Happy birthday to Reina, who was extremely appreciative of the support, MC where they all individually thanked the audience occurred next, as I don't speak very good Japanese I can't really comment on what was said, being a gaijin wota does have its disadvantages it has to be said!
The set was closed out in awesome fashion with the epic 'Love machine', now a lot of people have been complaining it is overplayed, there's a reason, it sold 1.6 million copies, it is absolutely awesome and also features some brilliant and quirky dancing. Plus I had never had the chance to see it live, and I am sure another who has never seen the girls wants their chance too!
The day show just ended after this, but in the evening Reina came back for a second MC before disappearing into the night, again not entirely sure what she said but it did end with the entire theatre yelling 'OtsukaReina!', I can't think of a more fitting way to end a show than by worshipping my number one idol, it was amazing!
Now what I can say is that I have attended music festivals and gigs with some of the harshest, fastest and most brutal music ever recorded... But never have I been as tired as I have now! I had a shirt that I could literally ring out from the sweat, not even when I saw cannibal corpse in a 400 capacity sweatbox venue (jilly's rockworld in manchester if you're curious) did I suffer that!
In short I was absolutely exasperated, I met Gordo in the hallway and immediately I went to a vending machine and got a 500ml bottle of water which I necked in about four swallows! Then after this met Jean, Sevvie and the other fella and we all went for food together, well after Sevvie tried to win a signed poster of KP, despite having won six earlier and giving them all away... No, I have no idea why either!
We ended up in this cool sort of buffet place where we had skewered chicken and other assorted delights, while drinking and chatting about everything H!P and generally how we are outside of wotadom. Sevvie explained how she is gutted Koharu is graduating and will be doing all she can to make the show at the end, rest of us either can't make it or in some cases not bothered!
We went through a good two hours before having to call it a night, which is exactly what I have to do, I have a flight at noon tomorrow and Narita is not exactly close by, so I'll be training it early doors after I had a delightful shower and am now off to bed. If you get the chance, you must see the girls live, it really has made everything worth it, I cannot imagine a greater way to end my exploits in the east than a show by Momusu! I will be back, definitely, I have never had so much fun, energy and delight from a live show. And since I have been guilty of being an insane iron Maiden fanboy, that really says a lot! Oyasuminasai!
A voyage in search of photobooks
Posted by sswishbone, Nov 7 2009, 11:24 AM
Ahoy all of you once again, day five of my residency in Tokyo and after the epic win of last night`s handshake attendance, I decided to do what Buono! advised on their last single, and simply take it easy! Around 9 in the morning had the usual staple breakfast of a Nikuman but then found a vending machine that stocked the drink `mountain dew`. Now I know this is a huge drink in most countries, but in the UK it is officially banned.
I won`t bore you with all the stuff that caused that, but suffice to say that due to the banning I haven`t drank this stuff in about 18,19 perhaps even 20 years! Naturally that means I had absolutely no memory of the taste or exactly what it was, but this whole trip has been about trying everything and living large, so I plunged headfirst into the can... I don`t think the time off has improved the taste, it tasted like some fizzy cough mixture and failed in all ways to make me feel better. So for the rest of the trip it will be `boss coffee` and `Pocari sweat` (damn you Mark for once again being right!)
Around about 10:30 I was due to go to Shibuya with one of the hostel inhabitants, but he was not feeling very good, so I advised I`d go alone some point later in the day. This left me free to take some advice from Gordo about PB buying. Everyone knows that `book off` is insanely cheap, but it is also a lottery. One thing, however, is that for recent material it isn`t that much cheaper and it is probably best to guaruntee a new copy instead of risking a damaged one for the sake of 500 or so yen.
As such I checked out an eight storey book store in the centre of Shinjuku. Spent the entire morning scrambling up and down aisles, determined to find something myself and not fall foul of epic fail. Eventually, up on the sixth floor, I found photobooks from a rival group and using logic (i.e it was bloody obvious!), I deduced the girls ones would be sold here... Ta-da! I`d found something alone YATTA! (Cue fanfare)
To my immense delight they had a lot of Reina and Ai Chan PB`s, I picked up the later ones (the one which I really was determined to get being `Very Reina`) but decided to take a punt and left behind the older editions of PB`s... More on that later.
I came back to the hostel and then decided I should actually try and see if I can calculate my luggage so I don`t have issues with overweight charges or anything like that. Unfortunately the scales that the hostel have seem to have vanished so I am kind of flying into the unknown. Being a man of science I see that the main weight is coming from the hardbacked PB`s due to the presence of wooden planks. So as many of those I can legally take will be in my carry on luggage, gives me something to oggle during the flight as well!
After a refreshing shower and some more chatting to friends and family while drying off, I decided the time had come to hit Shibuya properly. I landed at the station and took the hachinko exit, first port of call was to visit the official H!P store located in the 109 building. I had been told by Gordo it was on level B3. In order to get to the 109, it involved crossing the infamous pedestrian route. (Site where one the H!P girls was blown up in the remake of the film Tsukeban, aka Yoyo girl cop)
Before I embarked on this bearing, I heard someone shouting in Japanese. I turned my head and it appeared that possibly a Japanese politician was speaking to the public. I caught the odd word but really don`t have a clue what was being discussed and suggested. Ahead a girl was being interviewed by some TV company, I am glad they didn`t ask me for an opinion, that would have been epic fail on national TV!
The crossing was absolutely thronged with people, it reminded me of whenever you see those DVD`s by metal and hardcore bands where a huge circle pit forms. Where they have a huge gap in the middle and they all start spinning and bouncing off each other... Actually, maybe I now understand why western wota tend to be metalheads! But anyway, it was just the sight of so many people all stood in a squared line and then as the lights go, bang! Everyone dashed off in eight different directions!
I survived the jaunt through the urban jungle and made it into 109, immediately descended the escalators, dead set on B3... One major problem... There is no B3! I checked all sides of the floor and aside a way down to an underpass leading back to Shibuya station, there was no floor. Not to be deterred, I scanned everyone floor of that building, top to bottom... Not a sign of the place anywhere 
With crushing disappointment I hauled out of there as quick as possible and consulted some directions I'd received from my back up Markrawr to the Book off in Shibuya. This one spans four floors and has all sorts of stuff. Now the ground floor has a massive j-pop section and I wanted to see if they had anything I wanted... Unbelievably I found absolutely nothing! Well I say that, I did find sexy 8 beat by momusu and singles I already owned, but that was of little use to me! Now in the book off at Shinjuku (well technically, it is more near Akebonobashi). The PB's were very close to the J-pop section due to the relation between them...
Not this time, I had to go up to the top floor (such an effort... Honest!) I walked through rack after rack of Manga and the numerous fans in the area. Before I lucked out upon a section of PB's, amongst which were those I decided bravely not pick up in Shinjuku! This decision alone saved me a staggering 4000 yen! I don't know how you'd be cruel enough to let Reina and Ai chan retail at just 650 and 700 yen respectively, it's great for the girls that someone who cares has rescued them!
I also picked up a Miki Fujimoto PB for a similar price, only after paying did I kind of realise I am taking about twelve PB's home with me! To put this in perspective, before I came out japan way... I had five! And now I am seriously worried about weight issues, not helped by the fact I am also couriering for Oroboras, plus that on top of that dude I am buying Nine Smile merch for ginarawr and ichigoproject, plus my own Nine Smile merch, plus all the cd's and dvd's I now own... Oops!
I am sure a military re-packing can get rid of the worst excess weight. Failing that, I'll just have to hope I am not hammered with too heavy a charge by the airline! I put this thought aside as I came back to Shinjuku, by now it must have been about 5pm. As such, surprise surprise, extremely busy station and trains. I still managed to get a ticket and board without queuing at any moment.
Once the train reached Harajuku though, on came the surge. It just avoided the point where pushers would have been required from the platform's edge, but I have to say, it was an extremely good job I hadn't long showered and de-odourised, my armpits were perilously close to the noses of three women passengers next to me!
Now the thing is, we pulled into Shinjuku and a tonne of people got off, literally hundreds at once. Aside from a minute long wait to funnel into a stairway that led down into the main area of the station, I once again strode straight to gates, slid my ticket through, and was out of the station. It does make one question how in England this is not possible. I'll give you an example, Manchester, where I am from, has a station called 'Oxford road', which is the last station before the main station 'Piccadilly'.
Now, these two stations on a weekday morning and evening are meant to funnel through all the passengers that are making their way into the office by 9am and heading out from 5pm. Now without fail, every morning at Manchester Oxford road, people are queuing ages in order to shove their tickets through the barriers. Oh, no one likes a fare dodger, but these barricades take ages to open. And you can always see the fury rising from those in the queue.
Before you say my comparison is unfair, you're right, it is, it is unfair on Shinjuku! Manchester Oxford Road will probably deal with around 20% of the rush hour, Manchester is not a million city, and even if half the people worked in the offices, it wouldn't be 500,000 that come in at said time every morning due to the varying shifts. Shinjuku, on the other hand, gets passed through by at least 2,000,000 people! So all you train companies and government lot, for once use the expenses by investigating how the Japanese rail system works so well and bring some of them back to England!
That aside with the sun down I found myself walking through back to Akebonobashi, and all the way many of the food joints had people on the street calling out for everyone to enter and buy buy buy! yet, I was totally ignored. Far from be offended by this, I was actually delighted, I could probably count on all ten fingers the amount of times I have been stopped and asked if I want to eat here or buy something there, while in Japan. In Manchester, I can't count on all ten fingers and toes, the amount of times in a single morning I am asked to stop here, buy this or contribute to this cause!
So now I have retired for the evening to my hostel for some books and beers, as I said, today and tonight I am taking it easy. A lot of you probably wonder why I have not been screaming about going Tokyo tower or all that lot, but the truth of the matter is that I truly am a terrible tourist. If I go to France I would be the last person to rave about the Eiffel tower, Arc de triumph or the Chanselise. (As I don't speak French, this is probably the totally incorrect spelling!)
I am much more about generally experiencing the life of a country I am in and doing my own thing, my idea of hell is booking a holiday and being told on day one we visit here... On day two we eat this... On day three... *needle slips off record* This is my holiday I do whatever I want to!
But speaking of days that are structured, tomorrow I make an exception, and it is the biggest one, the high-point of my year, for tomorrow is the day I finally catch Morning Musume live for real. In May at Stockholm's Eurowota event we watched a few shows projected on a wall through a powerful sound system, and it ruled, absolutely fantastic. But to be going absolutely insanely and chanting for the girls with them actually on the stage will be something else. I have my glowsticks and I have a wad of cash reserved purely for goods at the show. Will I sleep tonight? I better, because it will beyond epic fail if I am knackered at the shows! Hence my desire to take it easy, Reina and Ai chan deserve all the energy I can spare! Until tomorrow people!
A voyage of mutliple delights
Posted by sswishbone, Nov 6 2009, 03:56 PM
Well back on course today and a voyage of many things. Day started bright and early as I decided that I had cut off my trip shopping long enough! So around 9:30 I went off to Harajuku. This fabulous little place reminded me a lot of going shopping in York or Bath back in England. Mainly that it has the shopping areas as streets and backstreets, plus, like those places, a multitude of different cultural sales were on the go.
Main reason I went here though was to visit the Hello Project official store, I had a map, it was close to the station, how hard could it be? ... Not at all, it was dead easy! Now I walked in and it was both amazing and a disappointment. I`ll start with the disappointment, biggest of which was that there was no Reina or Ai Chan PB`s, for some reason not on sale, so I am determined to hit Shibuya and find a copy. Now the second disappointment is that the way you purchase is very much like Argos.
Now if you`re not familiar with Argos (if you`re not then I salute you, they`re hateful!) Basically it is a form of store in the UK where you browse a catalogue and note a number of the item you want to buy. Then some uninterested and underpaid worker takes your order with a hateful growl, you pay, and then collect the item from another uninterested and underpaid worker elsewhere.
The Hello Project store works on exactly the same principle, only the workers are not uninterested (as I don't work at the store I cannot talk about the pay!) and the produce is not from the laminated book of dreams, instead it is dripping from the walls and you simply let your hand go wild! I certainly did, ended up with at least three photo sets of Reina, got a couple of Buono!, the Kimagure Princess Momusu set, the Tanaka Reina storage tin, the Reina birthday card, Hello Champoloo 2009 dvd and some photos of Risako... For a total of little over 11,000 yen!
I think the store girl was a tad shocked though with me, a 6'3 ginger gaijin, wearing a bright yellow Ai Chan shirt, who introduced himself and ordered in Japanese. Well she certainly appeared shocked, barely looked me in the eye and had cheeks that appeared burnt! I don't the know the reason for this, probably because I am guilty of a horrific butchering of their language to an extent that makes Engrish seem fluent!
After this I hopped on the train to Shibuya and I actually had no destination in mind here, I just wanted to see the place, get some photos and generally wander until the buildings thin a bit, turn around and go towards another built up area. This was a fine plan that was going great, and the buildings began to thin out, so I am about to turn around when I see the sign "harajuku street", yup, completely unconsciously I'd walked to Harajuku! So at that point I decided I am not going to return to Shibuya until I have mapped a route out and given myself a goal, as that was a bit of a waste of time!
After this was going home and felt hungry, so I hit a local kombini, picked up a pack of sushi and went to pay. At this moment I gave the new starter the ultimate test, every bosses dream for a case of 'are you good enough?' Yup, he had to serve me, I can think of little more daunting when starting a new job, I wouldn't want to serve me, so pity this poor sod! Fortunately I was able to use Japanese so he didn't have to focus so much on me, I did note, however, his boss glare unhappily when the unfortunate soul missed an 'Irrashimase!' to another entering customer. Who'd be a shop assistant?
Hit the hostel and ate my lunch while watching some TV show that had Yaguchi Mari on it. It was some form of panel quiz show and my lasting memory is some appliance plug catching fire, setting a fish tank aflame and Mari covering her mouth in horror, whether it was a fish she knew or just a general soft reaction I have absolutely no idea! After this I then had a nice relaxing shower, following this Sferris told me get offline and out into Tokyo, despite the fact I had been out in the city tonnes of times and barely in made no difference! But I did go out because a big thing was going down.
As you are all aware yesterday was a case "EPIC FAIL!" with regards to me missing the Yurina handshake, I found out from Gordokaba that Miyabi was going to be doing a handshake, and since he had seen my pathetic sense of direction, offered to meet me at a subway station near where I am staying and have me tag along with someone who a) knew where they were going and b ) could actually have some tips on getting through the thing without a hitch.
Naturally I accepted and before we set off I paid Gordo 15,000 yen for some very important merchandise... Namely my tickets for Momusu, also a tour t-shirt and some cd's he had to get rid of before he returned to Sweden. After I deposited this stuff to my room we set off for the event.
Train was of little drama aside from having to get a conductor to issue us fresh tickets as the machine swallowed them when we needed them for a connection, that went surprisingly without a hitch. Handshake events are certainly very interesting, all the wota that are usually associated with happi coats, tonnes of photos, dancing and everything else... Were all there in suits and street clothes, indeed I think I was the only one with any noticeable merchandise on! I know for a fact that will go totally out the window when it comes to the gigs.
But anyway the Yurina handshake had a rule where you had to buy the non-Berryz band's single to get the ticket, so naturally I went to buy it, only to be told that you need to buy 'seishun bus guide' to get the handshake, something I didn't pick up due to both the language and my complete confusion, luckily Gordo made the save and I got the right one.
I only wanted to handshake once, but Gordo had his eye on five turns, so the idea was we'd to buy the single twice again and I'd give him the tickets, cut the wait in half so to speak. So I get to the counter, ask for said single, bang! Sold out! Something again I didn't pick up straight away, but fortunately I noticed and just took a copy of the other one.
It seems that I can't avoid somehow being guilty of total and utter fail on a day in Tokyo, I'd stay in to avoid it but know full well I'd do something stupid in the hostel! Anyway, we queued up again and then went to a coffee shop. As the whole handshake event would take place after a mini-live appearance by the other group. After the coffees Gordo went to the john and I was left alone watching this band.
I honestly don't know their name and don't want to, they were somehow guilty of having too much going and nothing at all going on. They are some five-piece, first of which is a dude in a magician's cloak that has random countries flags on the back, generally all he's doing is moving about randomly and adding nothing to the performance. The second dude is some attempt at rap, now I am not the best person to comment on rap, aside from that I never understand why the 'c' is silent. But that aside, I know as a linguist to an extent, that getting rhtyhms and words together can be extremely difficult dependant on the pace, quite simply this bloke was nowhere near the ballpark required.
Another dude, who I think is main vocals, was literally just shouting into the microphone, he might as well have been in a hatebreed cover band, as he hit precisely zero notes, just like Jamey Jasta does. Lastly there were two girls, both very petite, similar looking and wore silvered outfits. Oh hang on, I saw this once before, could it possibly be that you're trying to resurrect the ghost of the great and sadly departed W? If so, please don't, as they were awesome, you're not!
By the time I had made this damning and critical judgement, Gordo returned explaining that he nearly stole the title of epic fail from me. He informed me that he was looking for the toilet and kind of had his eyes all over the place, as he finally looks straight, literally a yard away is Miyabi! She apparently giggled and he waved before vanishing, another yard and he'd have gone by her without making any form of contact, ultimately though epic fail turned into epic win!
The pair of us watched this performance, both wondering how or why they're under Up-front, before Miyabi joined them for a swift dance, then the handshake. We watched from afar as at first the queue was quite large and slow moving, soon though in step the suited overseers and instantly it was a case of five seconds and get out! Or at least it would have been if Miyabi co-operated and stopped talking to handshakers after they left stage! It led to the comical sight of a staff member pulling your hand off, but Miyabi wanting to gas on, don't think any of the wotas complained! After about 20 minutes of watching this we decided to go and take our turn.
For the members of the other group I was simply shaking and saying thanks, never hurt to be polite! (Me polite? Whatever next!). Now for Miyabi, I decided it would be best to keep it short and simple, a) because of the five second rule and b ) because my japanese is probably as useful as Morris Marina at the Le Mans 24 Hours!
So I walked up and simply said: - "Ingurando kara kimashita, thank you!" To which Miyabi was a little shocked, leant back a bit and went 'ohhh! Domo arigato gozaimasu!" (In case you're wondering, my sentence was 'I've come from England, thank you!') Before I got the grip of the arm to say 'get lost!' It was only after I had walked further away that I realised she might have inadvertently taken that as me saying I'd come all the way to Japan just to meet her... Ah well, I've left a lasting impression if that's the case!
Meanwhile Gordo went for his next three shakes (he was directly behind me) and I went into a supermarket just to grab some snacks. Got some japanese crisps in the style of pringles and a finger muffin. I decided to have the bread first and bit into what I thought was dry bread, only to taste some form of butter... I cocked the hammer and watched the chamber turn, the game of Russian roulette was on! Well to my delight it turned to be a jam butty! (Yes Gina and Mark, butty, Mancunians are always right on this!)
At this point Gordo returned and announced he had to nothing left to say and one more trip... A brief brainstorm had him announce he'd play 'Janken' with her. So he goes up and she announces she'll start, first round was a tie, each of them going scissor to scissor. But then Miyabi made the critical error of switching to paper, Gordo stayed on scissors, score one for the wota!
The other wotas though this was funny and great, one of the security not so, he followed Gordo off the stage and announced while laughing that Janken at handshakes is not a good idea. Anyway the handshake was over so we decided to be uber fanboys and wave as the entourage vacated the area. Now, I was hardly inconspicuous, giant, ginger, bright yellow Ai chan shirt... Didn't help Gordo is a fellow ginger giant (note: our plan was to originally say we were the Weasley brothers but this somehow got forgotten!) So security had them back the MPV into the building's under car park and drove them straight out... DENIED!
After this we headed back to Shinjuku and was planning to go drinking, but Gordo began to feel really dead on his feet, so we decided instead we'd do a meet up after momusu on sunday. With Gordo connecting to another train I had about another 10000 yen in my pocket, so I visited HMV japan and a local bookstore, which reduced this to a paltry 740 yen! But my haul? Momusu 2006 Autumn live DVD, Hello project 2008 winter (elder club graduation), Koda Kumi 'trick' tour photobook and interview and lastly a cookery book written by the lovely Nono!
After this frightfully expensive but awesome day I returned here for a quiet night. Tomorrow mission Shibuya, also a budget cap as I need to ensure I can clean up on tour merch... Yup I am going back to the UK insanely heavy on baggage! Until tomorrow people!
A voyage through the big city
Posted by sswishbone, Nov 5 2009, 10:08 AM
Well hello again, middle of day three and have decided to blog my events now. Well before I crack on ever since I announced to Markrawr that I was coming to Japan he was pestering me about a drink called `Pocari Sweat` telling me it is unlike anything I`d ever get in England, this then became "if it isn`t too much trouble bring me a 2 litre bottle back."
I`m a good mate as far as I know so agreed to get him some, I land in Narita and check the vending machines... Nothing, I check the stores... Nothing! So I come back demanding he show what the thing looks like, my sense of direction is bad, I don`t want to suddenly find my ability to search for things has gone too!
Well nope on this occasion I had not made an idiots error. So then onto today, Mark tells me just up from the place I am staying in Akebonbashi is a route that Momusu themselves walked and also a Family mart where they got food. Being such a giddy fan-boy I just had to go. Well the girls bring good fortune again, they had some, so Mark, you have a bottle coming!
Same time I tried a small bottle of this stuff myself, it was extremely refreshing and I think the closest thing to this in England is those Lucozade Hydro-active drinks, but that devalues the title Mark gave it, as to be honest it is gorgeous! Also sampled one of the steamed buns and my word, they rock. It`s kind of like a cornish pasty but shaped like a flower and the outer bit is somehow really soft and yet really stodgy. It is brilliant breakfast food! My choice for the rest of this week!
Right next to this is the infamous `book off` shop (heh could be a nice clean way of saying a common Northern colloquialism there 
). I had heard it had good selection of dvd`s, cd`s and most importantly photobooks. So I goes in and pulls in a very good haul: - A mint conditon Kamei Eri PB, Ayaya`s Alo Hello PB, Two Asami Konno PB`s, Nakazawa Yuko PB, Abe Natsumi 2004 live PB, Buono! - MY boy single, Momusu: - Naichau kamo and renai revolution 21 singles, Momusu Bokyuu live 2007 DVD, Kotoko - Uzu Maki album and Koda Kumi - Best first things triple disc album... (Photos of this and the whole trip coming when I get back from Nippon)
Two names are missing off the list and I can already feel your shock, but, unbelievably, disastrously, soul-shatteringly... They had no Reina or Ai Chan stuff When I go the H!P store that WILL change!
Well I could have quite happily gawped at that allllllllllll day, but I was planning to go shopping in Harajuku. This got knocked out of the water when Gordokaba told me Yurina was doing a handshake event in Kameido. Well first I couldn:t resist going to a place named after one of the girls and secondly, I really like Yurina, granted she`s not (in my opinion before I get shot with flames) on the same level as Risako, Momoko and Miyabi, she is still awesome and therefore I wanted to attend.
I had some tips from Gordo about the JR and a map that said the thing would take place pretty much in the train station... How hard can it be? Oh, very hard! I got to this place mapped and found a six storey shopping thing. Now I went through the entire buidling and saw no sign of this event. There was a music store where I could have got koda kumi, Berryz or c-ute, but preposterously, there was no Momusu, nothing at all.
Now I remembered my disaster of coming into Tokyo by train so I checked all sides of the station and side-roads, still no sign of anything. So I gave up and went back to Shinjuku, DENIED! I am thinking one of three things happened: - a) We were sold a lemon by the company and the event never happened, b ) Markrawr sold me a bum map that was nowhere the intended location or c) I am a complete and utter clot who can`t be trusted to move or breathe unassisted... I suspect the answer is C!
Any road on the way back to Shinjuku a group of nine girls got on the train, immediately, in my head, I just saw them leaping from their seats and re-enacting `Joshi kashimashi monogatari`... Hey a guy can dream ok? Especially on board the ship of wishes!
So to end I visited a convience store to try a rival to Pocky called `Toppo`, to be honest we`ve had something similar in Europe for years with the same concept that`s nicer. Not sure what the hell it`s called but that stuff you put in ice-cream where it has a coiled wafer and chocolate filling it. Toppo is like that but thinner and the chocolate is really mediocre, I`ll stick with strawberry Pocky I think!
As for tonight, I am planning to get a few beers and then simply stare at my new PB`s all evening, it`s either that or go to Shibuya, which, to be very honest, I am really really tempted to do. See where the ship`s bearing takes me... Until tomorrow people!
The epic arrival in the east
Posted by sswishbone, Nov 4 2009, 07:09 AM
Yup I am here, currently in Shinjuku at a really cool place, they are unfortunate to have to suffer me like This journey is full of firsts for me, the first thing (no pun intended, I'm honest!) is flying with the airline Finnair. Now I think I understand why they are expensive for internal european flights over their rivals, because you aren't just a slab of meat in a seat to them.
Case in point first part of the journey involved a three hour flight from Manchester to Helsinki, normally you get on the plane and then someone walks with a cart asking if you want to buy a twix for one pound fifty pence (no sterling sign on a Japanese keyboard!), Finnair though, out of nowhere free pasta salad with some lovely goats cheese, free tea and coffee and a freebie from the actual drinks cart too.
So my next first was Helsinki airport, this place has the effrontery to state that it is number one in the world for transferring flights... Effrontery or not, it is true! I got off my plane and there was this free shuttle bus. So I gets on it, three minute ride to the other side of the terminal, next thing up a flight of stairs and I am at my gate, literally, transferred in about four minutes. Baggage electronically scanned onto the connecting flight, no passport check, no anal probe, nothing. Champion, if only every airport was accurate and fast as that, no one would ever seek to complain.
Well anyway I gets onto the main flight and I was curious what the direct path meant... My newest first, I have gone across the entirety of Russia! I was expecting to be waving at Thailand, China, South Korea... Nope, we flew all the way across Russia and then (Dons science lab coat) with the power of science and geographic genius, the plane exploited the curvature of the earth and dropped down to Japan. I unfortunately could not take pictures of the Russian continent as the sun rose due to icing on the window,which I forgave when the in-flight telemetery told me the outside air temperature was a wonderfully tropical -62 degrees!
In-flight entertainment was good, film selection was terrible, but there was a TV shows tab and I thought to myself, 'this will suck' what did I find? Top gear, Inside F1 and Burn Notice... Win!
Aside from a Beef Yakinku for the evening meal not much else to report on that side, so into Narita I landed, and this was where my nerves really sky-rocketed. I kept having this vision of myself being told to get the hell out and packed back to england. Happily though the visa check and customs check went smooth... Well not entirely, on the form for this, the customs one I managed to omit the name of my hotel, on the one for the visa I nailed it... Guess which one asked me what building I was staying at? Yup, the visa desk! No idea why when it came to customs guy asked why I was there, I said five day sight-seeing trip and some concerts, he creased his eyebrow so I told him straight 'Morning Musume' he replied 'whoa, ok go through' So next time you visit Japan and don't want a cavity search, the girls does the trick!
Now, here's why I did some ultimate fail. I had been tipped off by Pukovnik_krv that often cops are waiting at the airport terminal 2 train station in order to check your papers, so I cunningly leapt onto a shuttle bus for another station... I get there, see this line saying for ueno, narita, etc... I jump on, get to one station and the train waits an absolute age, I'm thinking 'no problem, I have all the time in the world'... Except the train suddenly goes back the exact way I came!
So I dart off at the station I started at, baffled to all hell, until I read the actual schedule sign a little more closely, turns out that aside from dead early in the morning or very late, the only station the trains go to is that first one. I kicked myself in the nuts for that, waited 20 minutes for another train, then wisely got a connection and leapt off at the place I needed to connect.
So I have a map kindly shown to me by Markrawr which has this nice simple curving path, what can possibly go wrong? err... Well... My James May-esque sense of direction it seems! I came out of the main exit which was signposted on the map and a sub-road did curve in the same way... Except it was entrance this path was leading from, the other side of the tracks.
THis is where the James May bit comes in, while any sane person would re-trace their steps and go the opposite way, after all if you've deduced you're on the wrong side of the tracks, change sides! Me? I decided to have another wander only this time following a second map where the road paths were dead rigid... I must have wasted at least 45 minutes of my time, to pour salt in the wounds, my search on the other side yielded the result in exactly 6 minutes... Yes point and laugh, I deserve to not live that one down!
Fortunately I remembered the good advice about locating the place I was staying and now, here I am, back on H!O, like I was never away! Tonight I am going to go around Shinjuku for a while and check out a few places, tomorrow I am off shopping in harajuku... I just hope I don't go overweight, I have about 14 kilos to spare... That's so not enough! Until tomorrow people!
The epic voyage east begins!
Posted by sswishbone, Nov 3 2009, 05:43 AM
Ahoy there all fellow users of H!O, for the last six months I have been going on about nothing else except my trip to Nippon to catch the 'Nine Smile' tour by Morning Musume. I remember getting out my bank card to slap down £550 for my flights waaaaay back in the early summer and since I had booked my accomodation I had nothing else left to prepare.
Or so I thought, turns out that my passport was due for expiry around two months after the trip to Japan. Now Japan is a very kind country to this in that it wouldn't have made any difference, but some countries have a six month renewal rule, where if your passport is due to expire less than six months before the trip... You won't be alloed entry. So, with my passport valid I still decided to renew it anyway, main reason that my current passport in comparison to the one it replaced has the same resemblance as a Maclaren F1 to a Morris Marina. Needless to say, not at all alike.
With that out of the way in early October I sat around working and everything, not realising how close it all actually was. It wasn't until I had a few days off on the 21st October that I suddenly went 'Whoa! Just two weeks!' Even then I contained my excitement well (aside from the constant comments in the Reina thread, but that's another issue entirely!). Since halloween I have attuned my body so that I am running on Tokyo time, it meant I actually was asleep when all the halloween madness went on in my country, trick or treaters must have wondered if Dracula or Dr Frankenstein had kidnapped me for some foul evil scheme involving the undead!
This was all arbitary and I was still relaxed, calm and in control... Yesterday though, I was nervous as all hell, never in my life have I felt more nervous. I think it was because I realised that my dream to see the girls was finally in reach, it took a lot to get me over the nerves. And no, I don't mean alcohol either, it was tiredness in the end that won out.
So now I sit here at 13:45 Tokyo time waiting for a ride from my stepdad, I am due to head out in just about 90 minutes. Then I face a flight to Finland for my connection, then once in Helsinki I have two hours to rest and then off I go again, leaving Europe at approximately Midnight Tokyo time, landing in Narita at 10am Tokyo time. I'll try and provide an update from finland if I can, but otherwise I am sure I can keep you all abreast on my adventures from Tokyo itself.
Last minute check, I have my momusu t-shirts, my ai chan wristband, my glowsticks... What? You think I am worried about my passport and boarding passes? Don't be silly!
on A voyage to unite the european wota