23 replies to this topic

[pink-ku]

New York’s Japan Day Announces Its Performers for This Year’s Event


New York’s annual Japan Day will take place Sunday, May 10 in Central Park. Japan Day is a means to celebrate Japanese culture within the city, in the form of a spring festival. There are many things to enjoy at the event, such as food, crafts, and performances, both traditional and contemporary. NHK World and Hello Kitty will both have booths as the event.

Today, Japan Day’s performers were announced. This year’s headliner is AKB48. Six members of the popular idol group will close out this year’s festivities: Saho Iwatate, Rina Hirata, Haruna Kojima, Tomu Muto, Rena Nozawa, and Ryoka Oshima.

Another contemporary act will take the stage before them: EXPG Boyz. This group is composed of students from the New York branch of LDH’s training facility, EXILE Professional Gym. The group is composed of 9 boys between the ages of 13 and 16.

A full list of performers can be found on Japan Day’s website!

{from: http://aramajapan.co...rs-event/18058/ )

website (with video):
http://www.japandaynyc.org/

>
YAY...

[Krusha]

Pretty cool! Also, an interesting mix of the girls as well, with two who speaks English fluently, which could be nice for communication.

[TheAnna18]

I was already planning to go to Japan Day, so this is a nice surprise! Hehe I can't wait to see Saho
It looks like their performance will only be 30 minutes long though, so that's kind of lame. I get the feeling that Kojiharu just wanted to go to NY so she asked to be on the team lol

[Krusha]

With this not being an AKB48 concert proper, it is cool that there's an appearance altogether as a whole. Hope it'll be televised or filmed somehow.

Wonder if the audience will know how Sahhoo's introduction works...

[RenaiDestiny。]

Ryoka is going? Yes!! I'll try to come, but I'm currently in Bethlehem so... .

[Taegeuk]

I like 3 of the members going but not sure enough to head down there. We'll see.

[Krusha]

If you mean you don't know them enough, or the others enough to check out the event, then why not think that checking them out will make you know them even better after the event. At least you have a chance at some Japanese pop entertainment that is hard to come by for others (and the aforementioned girls are nice performers too)

[melonpan♪]

I wont be able to go to this

[Taegeuk]

The more I read about this, the more likely I'm not going. I hate free events, too many people go just because it's free. I rather pay and get a good seat. Will keep an eye out for it still but unlikely. Also they wouldn't fly down to perform for just 20 mins would they?

[LoveRice]

Ughhhhh why does America get everything !!! I wanna see Nyan...

[rattrap316]

Wow..... Only one member from the last time I saw them in NYC (of course, not sure if they've been back there ever since 2009).

[pink-ku]

May 10th is fast approaching. To whomever goes to the event, have fun. Please post your experience/story here. Thanks!!!!

[ShiningLight445]

A friend of mine who lives close to NYC plans on going. Perhaps I can ask her of a full account of things

[RoxasuEX]

I will most likely be going, I didn't know this was happening until a member of the company I work for told me as they had a big booth at the event

[Krusha]

Take pics if you can, and have fun

[pink-ku]

1st found... AKB at NY Central Park:

http://illuminousill...d-first-concert

https://instagram.com/p/2gqnopPLRx/

(update)
More photos from the performances:

http://bakadsan.tumb...-10-akb48-in-ny



Thanks for the report. I suppose.. interesting crowd too...
V

[Lurkette]

Oh god... good show, worst crowd I've ever been in. 

 

Setlist:

Heavy Rotation

Aitakatta

Oogoe Diamond

Sakura no Hanabiratachi

KFC

 

All were short versions except for KFC (it was only a 20 minute set, lest we forget). I came for KojiHaru, and she looks exactly like she does in pictures and I got to see her terrible lip-syncing in person, so that was fun. Hilary impressed me the most. I generally had a pretty negative opinion of her before this, but she was by far the most energetic and engaging and is waaaaay prettier than any picture. Others were not as pretty in person, admittedly, and there was one member in particular who looked kind of sour throughout the performances, but I'll spare her name so that her fans don't get the wrong impression of her. She might have had jet leg, been sick, whatever, she gets a bit of a pass, but it doesn't look as good when everyone else is on their game. But, they did sing live for most (not all, plus a loud backtrack) of the show, which pleased me. I would rather hear a girl be less than perfect but be live than be pre-recorded. It made me happy and made me enjoy the whole thing a lot more than I would have otherwise.

 

As for the crowd... Jesus. Mind you, I did not expect any better, considering that it's a free event in a large, public space and the whole event is basically a weeaboo breeding ground, but it was awful. I showed up about an hour and a half before the show and moved over to the right side of the stage because of the shade. I got stuck behind one of the press pens and therefore behind all the bulky cameras, but I would have been fine if that were the only issue (I didn't really expect to get far enough in front to get in front of them, anyway). People kept trying to push their way through the crowd to "find somebody," although there were so many that I doubt that that's what all of them were doing. Then, during the act before AKB, an old woman in a wheelchair decides that she needs to get through to the front, which just wasn't possible, but she still runs everyone over and pushes everyone into each other in the process of trying. There was some insane fan behind me, as well, who was doing the mix for every song and yelling, "Nyannyan" during every single pause and every single MC. This fan later has the gall to not only yell to the crowd how much they suck for not knowing what they're doing but also goes up to one of the press guys and tell him that he was in her way. Not the dozen or so people immediately surrounding us with phones, no, the guy who actually has reason to be up and filming. Like, granted, most people in the audience probably did not know what a mix is or what the lyrics are, but it's not that kind of show. It's a very rare opportunity to see the group in an open, public space and I really just wanted to watch and listen, which was difficult with electronic devices in my way and a crazed fan screaming so loud I couldn't hear the music. 

 

Some of that is just poor planning on the event, too. The press pens were impossible to get to without going directly through the crowd, there was no handicapped area, there was only space for performers to get on and off the stage, not for staff to get around in. That made for a lot of pushing and shoving from people who probably should have had an easier time getting through, especially the press since it was kind of unreasonable to expect them to wait around in the press pen for hours before AKB went on, which is what they would have had to do if they didn't want to go through the crowd.

 

The second AKB gets announced to come on, a few hundred phones and tablets and cameras go up in the air. Like, apparently no one noticed the 25 or so press cameras and needed their own crappy video footage. I had a really, really hard time seeing anything because they just would not put down their phones. I saw entire families holding up phones because clearly a family cannot share video footage that no one is ever going to watch again. Stop trying to film concerts, I mean it. It ruins it for the people around you and you're not watching the group live anymore, you're just watching your phone.

[Paramorning]

Stop trying to film concerts, I mean it. It ruins it for the people around you and you're not watching the group live anymore, you're just watching your phone.

More people need to know this.

[pollypan]

I arrived around 10:20 am and stayed at the front row for 5 hours..here are some of the photos I took.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TheAnna18]

@lurkette oh my god, we were pretty much in the same exact spot, behind the press pen.

I got to the concert about an hour early too, and i would have had a decent view, except there was some asshole infront of me with an alice in wonderland huge phone case that just perfectly blocked my view. About midway through the concert i was about to cry since i pretty much didn't see any of the concert. For kfc, my boyfriend picked me up and i stood tippytoe on his feet so i caught a few minutes of the performance and that was fun.

I hung out by the performer tents afterwards and called out to saho, she smiled at me and waved she seemed to be really interested in the fans so it made me happy. Saho