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At 5:45PM, we booted it over to the Red Lion. A lot of fans already showed up and got good seats, but we were actually just glad to see food for the first time in the day. Reneé, the lady in charge of the Guest Reception, and her daughter checked everyone in. Big shout out to Reneé for being super awesome to everyone, and to allow us to have such a good atmosphere to get close to the Guests of Honor. We were all given a red wrist band for the meet the bands back stage drawing, and some guest reception mint. Back to the food, since we had not eaten since we woke up, after grabbing a table beside the bar in the back, a couple of us went right for the food. Shortly after that, everyone was told serving of food would be stopped until after all the guests have arrived and introduced themselves.
A couple of guests then showed up and introduced themselves, this went on for 10 minutes of so. I was quite far away, but I heard from some people, during this time, Berryz came up in the service elevator once, opened the door, then closed it. It wasn't until a short while after, that Berryz really showed up for real. Obviously, they got the loudest cheers, since 90% of attendees there were for them. I didn't know pictures and videos were allowed for a minute, just like at the Q&A (I previously asked Sakura-Con and HSU about this, they both said no pictures/video at the Guest reception), so I left my cameras in my hotel room. My phone was also out of juice, haha, what luck. sanrio, sferris, kyyuna and myself were stuck in the back of the crowd trying to see Berryz during the 1 minute photo op. We couldn't really see what was going on, but it wasn't going to kill us. Misa and her friends somehow got pushed, or pushed all the way to the front. Misa stood right beside Risako and Yurina. Yurina noticed Misa was similar height with herself, and they pointed at each other's shoes, comparing heels. Yurina won (By just a little)
When the photo op was over, each Berryz member introduced themselves in English, or tried to anyways. Dragon Lady then told us Berryz had to leave and get some rest to prepare for Day 2's concert. She said if we want to see a good show, we should let them go. So we did. Knowing they would head back into the elevator, the four of us shuffled over in that direction. Berryz walked back to the elevator in reverse age order. I called out to Miya just as she was about to step through the elevator doors. She actually turned around and waved to me! I AM WINNER!!!!!!!!! Quickly, I turned around and did the YES, SCORE!!!!!! gesture to sanrio, he was so jealous, hahaha.
You can see Miya turning around for me at 7second in this video:
With Berryz gone, the crowd dispersed away from the makeshift stage area. Soon after, they let us get to the food, and everyone went for it. For finger food/snacks, it was pretty good and filling, provided that you had plates and plates of it As we all indulged in our first and only meal of the day, a lady took the mic and began saying something, we sat too far away to hear anything, with a small group of people gathered around her. I was on my way to get another plate of food, so took this chance to see what she was announcing. Getting closer, it seems like she was drawing numbers out of a box.......oh snap!!! She's drawing for Exist trace and Berryz Koubou meet the artist back stage thingy (whatever it's called). I frantically waved at my friends to come over, instead of going back to the table, and telling them. Lady just started drawing for Exist trace, but I was like, "OMG OMG, GUYS, IT'S STARTINGGGG!!!" After confusing my friends, making them think I was trying to say there are new kabobs being served, they all came over to watch the number drawing. Don't know who decided to draw for Exist trace winners first, but it went on forever, when everyone who's number was drawn, said no thanks and asked for their numbers be placed back into the box. This dragged on for ages, and lady was getting impatient herself. (IMO, Exist trace had no takers, because at the same time the reception was happening, they were in the convention doing their concert. Anyone who cares for the band should be watching the concert, not be at the guest reception.) A few numbers drawn did not get a reply from anyone, those numbers were throw out, instead of being put back into the box. (I honestly think that it wasn't some people ignoring raffle lady on purpose, but they were like my group, sitting too far away, and didn't know it was happening. I know they did announced a draw would take place, but the PA system sucked there.) Finally, a few people agreed to take the meet Exist trace back stage prize, and lady moved on to picking Berryz prizes. The crowd gave off a loud cheer =P
The crowd then turned silent, as drawing lady reached for the first number.....she pulled one out and read it. An excited tall girl at a table near the stage jumped up and claimed her prize. Lady reached in the box again to draw the second winner. Someone on the side raised his hand and walked to the stage with a grin on his face. It was H!O member BerryzGenius! Tension continued to raise, as there were only three prizes left. Another winner is drawn, but no response. Everyone looked around, and suddenly, a Japanese girl sitting near the entrance bounced up and rushed to the stage. She was one of the Japanese fans helping out with the exhibit hall line up earlier in the day, one of Kosuke's friends. Everyone was really happy for her, remembering how helpful she and her friends were the whole day. Two left. Once the clapping stopped, drawing lady went for another number. "Zero, Six, Zero, Five, One." I looked down at the number on my wrist band - 06051.....NO WAY.....You got to be kidding me. I WON
My friends all looked at me, since we all entered the reception together, and had similar wrist band numbers. My jaws dropped, and I raised my hand, then walked to the stage. I showed my wrist band to the lady, and she wrote my name down on a book. I turned around, and people were congratulating me. I couldn't believe it \o/ There was one more prize slot, it went to this grandpa who accompanied his daughter and granddaughter to the reception.
My friends were glad one of us won, but I could see in their faces, they were super jealous. I somehow ended up at Kosuke's table and chatted with him and his friends. We talked more about the Berryz members we like and I promised them a report of the back stage experience. One of Kosuke's friend noticed the funny t-shirt I was wearing (http://i55.tinypic.com/9hnrx4.jpg). He pointed and laughed. There's a story to my home made t-shirt: Back in march, after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami disaster, all the TV and Radio stations in Japan pulled their commercials off air, but all shows were edited in length with 1 or 2 commercial time during the mist of the show. AC Japan (Japan Advertising Council) launched a CM campaign to fill the empty commercial slots, and took this chance to remind everyone in Japan to be nice to each other. (Read more about AC Japan from their English website: http://www.ad-c.or.jp/eng/).
One of the commercials AC aired after the natural disaster was this animated clip called "Aisatsu no Mahou (The magic of greetings)"
What it is, it's that they take normal greeting words like, "Konnichiwa (hello)" and turn it into a pun, "Konnichiwa" + "Wan (Bark)" = "Konnichiwan". This CM played repeatedly during every TV show, and brainwashed the entire Japanese population. Many hated this, while others took it to a whole new level:
I know that from Berryz Koubou's current concert tour, Shuukan Berryz Times, during their April 9th day and evening shows, Chinami did jokes about the AC commercials during the "Bring in your news material to show Maasa magazine editor" MC corner. Captain also did a joke of the AC ad during the April 16th night show in the same corner.
I thought it'd be hilarious to make a t-shirt of the POPOPOPO~N part of the ad. The Japanese fans got a real kick out of my t-shirt. It surprised them that the CM is so famous even outside of Japan. One of them got so excited, he asked for a picture with me. They asked me if I'm a Chinami fan, so I showed them my Miyabi badge holder:
I told them Miyabi is my favorite Berryz member, but I don't dislike Chinami, just that I don't want to be overly DD. They respected this.
Afterward, most Berryz fans left for the Hello! Party 2. Misa and her friends went as well, but the 4 of us guys were too tired and still hungry. We stuck around to eat and drink more, then booted it back to the hotel to unwrap the 100+ glow sticks we were planning to hand out before Berryz Koubou's concert on Day 2.
A couple of guests then showed up and introduced themselves, this went on for 10 minutes of so. I was quite far away, but I heard from some people, during this time, Berryz came up in the service elevator once, opened the door, then closed it. It wasn't until a short while after, that Berryz really showed up for real. Obviously, they got the loudest cheers, since 90% of attendees there were for them. I didn't know pictures and videos were allowed for a minute, just like at the Q&A (I previously asked Sakura-Con and HSU about this, they both said no pictures/video at the Guest reception), so I left my cameras in my hotel room. My phone was also out of juice, haha, what luck. sanrio, sferris, kyyuna and myself were stuck in the back of the crowd trying to see Berryz during the 1 minute photo op. We couldn't really see what was going on, but it wasn't going to kill us. Misa and her friends somehow got pushed, or pushed all the way to the front. Misa stood right beside Risako and Yurina. Yurina noticed Misa was similar height with herself, and they pointed at each other's shoes, comparing heels. Yurina won (By just a little)
When the photo op was over, each Berryz member introduced themselves in English, or tried to anyways. Dragon Lady then told us Berryz had to leave and get some rest to prepare for Day 2's concert. She said if we want to see a good show, we should let them go. So we did. Knowing they would head back into the elevator, the four of us shuffled over in that direction. Berryz walked back to the elevator in reverse age order. I called out to Miya just as she was about to step through the elevator doors. She actually turned around and waved to me! I AM WINNER!!!!!!!!! Quickly, I turned around and did the YES, SCORE!!!!!! gesture to sanrio, he was so jealous, hahaha.You can see Miya turning around for me at 7second in this video:
With Berryz gone, the crowd dispersed away from the makeshift stage area. Soon after, they let us get to the food, and everyone went for it. For finger food/snacks, it was pretty good and filling, provided that you had plates and plates of it
As we all indulged in our first and only meal of the day, a lady took the mic and began saying something, we sat too far away to hear anything, with a small group of people gathered around her. I was on my way to get another plate of food, so took this chance to see what she was announcing. Getting closer, it seems like she was drawing numbers out of a box.......oh snap!!! She's drawing for Exist trace and Berryz Koubou meet the artist back stage thingy (whatever it's called). I frantically waved at my friends to come over, instead of going back to the table, and telling them. Lady just started drawing for Exist trace, but I was like, "OMG OMG, GUYS, IT'S STARTINGGGG!!!" After confusing my friends, making them think I was trying to say there are new kabobs being served, they all came over to watch the number drawing. Don't know who decided to draw for Exist trace winners first, but it went on forever, when everyone who's number was drawn, said no thanks and asked for their numbers be placed back into the box. This dragged on for ages, and lady was getting impatient herself. (IMO, Exist trace had no takers, because at the same time the reception was happening, they were in the convention doing their concert. Anyone who cares for the band should be watching the concert, not be at the guest reception.) A few numbers drawn did not get a reply from anyone, those numbers were throw out, instead of being put back into the box. (I honestly think that it wasn't some people ignoring raffle lady on purpose, but they were like my group, sitting too far away, and didn't know it was happening. I know they did announced a draw would take place, but the PA system sucked there.) Finally, a few people agreed to take the meet Exist trace back stage prize, and lady moved on to picking Berryz prizes. The crowd gave off a loud cheer =PThe crowd then turned silent, as drawing lady reached for the first number.....she pulled one out and read it. An excited tall girl at a table near the stage jumped up and claimed her prize. Lady reached in the box again to draw the second winner. Someone on the side raised his hand and walked to the stage with a grin on his face. It was H!O member BerryzGenius! Tension continued to raise, as there were only three prizes left. Another winner is drawn, but no response. Everyone looked around, and suddenly, a Japanese girl sitting near the entrance bounced up and rushed to the stage. She was one of the Japanese fans helping out with the exhibit hall line up earlier in the day, one of Kosuke's friends. Everyone was really happy for her, remembering how helpful she and her friends were the whole day. Two left. Once the clapping stopped, drawing lady went for another number. "Zero, Six, Zero, Five, One." I looked down at the number on my wrist band - 06051.....NO WAY.....You got to be kidding me. I WON
My friends all looked at me, since we all entered the reception together, and had similar wrist band numbers. My jaws dropped, and I raised my hand, then walked to the stage. I showed my wrist band to the lady, and she wrote my name down on a book. I turned around, and people were congratulating me. I couldn't believe it \o/ There was one more prize slot, it went to this grandpa who accompanied his daughter and granddaughter to the reception.My friends were glad one of us won, but I could see in their faces, they were super jealous. I somehow ended up at Kosuke's table and chatted with him and his friends. We talked more about the Berryz members we like and I promised them a report of the back stage experience. One of Kosuke's friend noticed the funny t-shirt I was wearing (http://i55.tinypic.com/9hnrx4.jpg). He pointed and laughed. There's a story to my home made t-shirt: Back in march, after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami disaster, all the TV and Radio stations in Japan pulled their commercials off air, but all shows were edited in length with 1 or 2 commercial time during the mist of the show. AC Japan (Japan Advertising Council) launched a CM campaign to fill the empty commercial slots, and took this chance to remind everyone in Japan to be nice to each other. (Read more about AC Japan from their English website: http://www.ad-c.or.jp/eng/).
One of the commercials AC aired after the natural disaster was this animated clip called "Aisatsu no Mahou (The magic of greetings)"
What it is, it's that they take normal greeting words like, "Konnichiwa (hello)" and turn it into a pun, "Konnichiwa" + "Wan (Bark)" = "Konnichiwan". This CM played repeatedly during every TV show, and brainwashed the entire Japanese population. Many hated this, while others took it to a whole new level:
I know that from Berryz Koubou's current concert tour, Shuukan Berryz Times, during their April 9th day and evening shows, Chinami did jokes about the AC commercials during the "Bring in your news material to show Maasa magazine editor" MC corner. Captain also did a joke of the AC ad during the April 16th night show in the same corner.
I thought it'd be hilarious to make a t-shirt of the POPOPOPO~N part of the ad. The Japanese fans got a real kick out of my t-shirt. It surprised them that the CM is so famous even outside of Japan. One of them got so excited, he asked for a picture with me. They asked me if I'm a Chinami fan, so I showed them my Miyabi badge holder:
I told them Miyabi is my favorite Berryz member, but I don't dislike Chinami, just that I don't want to be overly DD. They respected this.
Afterward, most Berryz fans left for the Hello! Party 2. Misa and her friends went as well, but the 4 of us guys were too tired and still hungry. We stuck around to eat and drink more, then booted it back to the hotel to unwrap the 100+ glow sticks we were planning to hand out before Berryz Koubou's concert on Day 2.
I can't say enough about how thoughtful Miyabi was toward all her fans!