ANIME EXPO: MORNING MUSUME/ADVENTURES IN L.A.

ANIME EXPO: MORNING MUSUME/ADVENTURES IN L.A.

Whoa, last post was November 3rd? and that was for my 1 year anniversary as a fan. Awesome! Well, I'm back and I'm here to be among one of the many who attended Anime Expo AND got to meet with Morning Musume! Let's go!

I think I'll start with a cliche credit card ad:
- Plane ticket = $480
- Rooming with someone in the hotel = $440
- Buying loads of Momusu merchandise = ~$120~
- Attending AX and MM concert ticket = $85
- Seeing Morning Musume (esp Aichan!) and meeting lots of new friends? = PRICELESS

It was truly an amazing and unforgettable experience. I'll be going into detail about each day in one blog entry, and use the best of my English 101 I learned in college to keep this interesting. So sit back, relax, grab a good snack, open your music player and play some Momusu songs, and enjoy.

The layout of this blog entry is
1) Blog first, pictures or so in between that whatever I feel like should be there.
2) Videos I took for each day will be provided at the bottom of their appropriate day. I.E Day 0 will have a video at the end of their part of the blog, and so on.
3) At the very end, I'll add a comment of how the blog went and then I'll provide the picture links for the days I blogged about. Courtesy of my account at PHOTOBUCKET. Which I used for my Japan 2008 adventures.

ANIME EXPO: DAY 0

I left my east coast residence at about 9:20 AM, arriving in LA at the IAX airport at roughly 11:30 AM. When I arrived, I called Aewen to find out she was at the airport too along with JPH!P and other forum goers, waiting for Morning Musume's flight to have landed and for them to come out. Their JAL flight was supposed to have landed at 11:20 AM, but they haven't came out yet. I was lucky to have arrived then and waited 10 minutes before I heard cheering for Momusu! It was more spectacular than seeing them LIVE at their WH concert. Blog post here. They were all either wearing face masks or sunglasses, but Momusu had a shine to them I had never seen so close. Especially when waving at Aichan.



^ Epically AWESOME ^

After Momusu took their leave on their own charter bus, I guess, we also left. I traveled with Aewen and others to downtown LA to get in line for our badges at the LACC. We didn't really wait in line much because we gave our IDs and papers to their friend Alex who was already close in line. Our party then progressed towards the line for Event ticketing, aka where our Morning Musume Concert Ticket lie. We waited in line at 3PM until 5PM and scored our seats with the assistance of Alex. We had SECTION D, ROW 4. For seating alignments, that's right smack dab in the center, in front of the stage. After attaining our badges and tickets, Aewen, others, and myself made our way out of the LACC and went to go get YOGURT. TART YOGURT. Basically grabbing a snack back to the car. I walked with Limit (a JPH!Per) back to my hotel, because I didn't know really where it was. When arrived at an intersection, the hotel was huge!! Even with just looking at it from across the street! I stayed at the Westin Bonaventure (which supposedly I found out later on that Morning Musume also stayed there )

I arrived in the hotel at around 6PM. I found out that the person who I'm staying with isn't here yet...BLOWN!! So I waited around the lobby until around 8 when through various text messages from Eojjeorago (he's the one helping out with the hotel rooms for AX in the forums) I got a call from HPMusume!! (About time ToT) I go up to the room and was shocked at how tall he was. haha Canadians LOL But he was a cool and nice guy, get him ladies! It was a good way to end Day 0. The next day: Day 1, Momusu's panel!!!



This is my video of when Morning Musume lands in LA. Enjoy

Morning Musume lands in LA

ANIME EXPO: DAY 1

Ahh, Day 1! Woke up early...surprisingly. HPMusume woke up minutes after and we got changed and ready. He wore his Sayumi outfit along with a very noticeable Sayu Cape and bunny ears!! Unfortunately he didn't have his badge or tickets, so I helped him out. Just about all morning long, we waited in line to get it. Worst of it all was that I didn't get to go to the Opening Ceremony where Momusu was. And that I didn't make it to the JapanFiles booth to get an autograph ticket for Saturday because I was waiting in the Panel room for Morning Musume to arrive. Yet I realized this too late that when Yun Kouga's panel was over and the transition to Toshiyuki Morikawa's panel was starting, that I could have gotten one of the JapanFiles booth tickets DURING Morikawa's panel. This is because I found a Morikawa fan sitting in front of me, who would save her seat for me for the Momusu panel. (Yes there are some more nice people in this world!) And so I decided to lurk around the convention a bit to get to know the place better. I actually almost stopped by the Exhibition hall, but I was going to be late to get back in time. Damn LACC, so big. hmph!

Anyway, I got back just in time when Morikawa's panel was just ending. It was a laugh because as soon as the panel ended, a whole bunch of people (assuming MM fans) got up and kind of frantically rushed to the front. >_< I scored my saved seat in the 3rd row at the aisle. I still looked around if I can get a seat closer, but no dice. When it was time, I heard cheering from the side to let us know that Momusu was coming!! They walked in and behind the panel table straight behind the big screen wall that was up. They took a seat behind it and the staff played a good 10 minute clip of Morning Musume's history timeline.


Yeah, that's freakin' awesome!

Once the video was over, Morning Musume appeared again at their seats and the crowd....goes....wild! Momusu was glistening, Aichan looked great in black hair, Risa looked thinner, Eri's hair was way bright, Sayu was cuter in person, Reina's hair also went black (cute point there), Koharu was hyper than normal, Aika was apparently catching my eye more than often, JunJun...*drools*, and LinLin...get's a plus later on. So the Q&A panel goes well, everyone is happily respecting the No Photography or Film of any kind. (But I do see the Audio for it on the tracker, sneaky bastards. ) Some questions were cool, others were strange, and few were admirable.

Main points (from what I can remember):
- Koharu freaked and waved to the girl who cosplayed in Milkyway's Tan Tan Tan outfit when she went up to the mic.
- Aichan looked amazing.
- Guy in a neko hat and tail lost to Reina in a Jankenpyon and then "Nyan~" like a cat as a batsu game. That made the girls and everyone laughed a good one.
- Aichan's hair looked amazing.
- LINLIN'S ENGLISH IS MAD GOOD!! and her love of anime is excellent. One Piece, Naruto, Inuyasha, even Tom & Jerry!
- Aichan is amazing.
- Reina's reactions to some questions were too funny.
- Eri kept waving her arm doing the "Cheering Arm" move to make us all cheer and scream like crazy. Especially after a serious question. haha!
- Did I mention Aichan?

Haha, okay I'll stop. After the Q&A, the staff passed out 500 tickets(?) which is about the first couple rows for the autograph signing. This basically caused a mass eruption of H!P fans bursting out the door running to wherever the autograph signing was, making a lot of security guards angry making sure everyone was "walking". Boy that was a doozy. Also, the AX staff's sense of direction was lacking by a remark about it being upstairs above the South Hall. I found my way there after Aewen called me giving me directions. Parts of the line slowly moved in to where we waited outside to another room. I didn't really have anything with me to get signed except for the photo cards I got from the booth that Kim bought for me and the group I was with earlier. In the room, we all got these number tickets which I thought was useless because I know no one wanted to leave their spot in line AND that we had to give it back to them. O well, I didn't care because we slowly moved out the room, turned 2 corners and I saw Momusu...

!!!BREAK TIME!!!

This is the part where you stop reading a bit, rest your eyes, maybe go to the bathroom. I apologize for writing this much, but I mean who wouldn't?! But hey, please take a break for 5 min, so then you can get your interest up a bit to continue reading. haha.
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Done resting? okay! Please read on!!

ANIME EXPO: DAY 1 Cont. Autograph Signing

Oh wow, Momusu's just a couple turns away! It was great! Aewen goes in, then Limit, then me! Once Limit left, I stood for about 20 seconds next to one of their staff members. I say to him, "What's up?", thinking he's Japanese-English. He twitches a bit, and repeats what I said in a confusing state. Thanks to that, I realized that he's fully Japanese. So I say next to him, "doshita no?" which I'm thinking is "What's wrong?" in Japanese. After failing twice, I give up and give him a "Genki?" and an "Ossu". He Happily replies and then gives me the OK in moving towards them.

Aichan: Wahh! I'm walking towards Aichan! I get to the table and all of a sudden I freeze! I didn't know what to say while she's signing her picture. The only thing that came out was a "genki?!" She replies "hai~!" Now I know some Japanese but the next part was utterly bad for me. I told her, "I'm your loving fan" in some akward japanese...Aichan had a confusing look until I said "fan" and she had a smile on her face again. That's when I asked if it was okay for a handshake and gave my hand out. *fanboy mode* WOW, her hands was so soft, warm, small, it was like a delicate moment in my life. I wanted to keep shaking, but Limit moved to Eri which made me had to move to Risa.

Risa: Moving to Risa, I gave her a "genki?!" (which apparently I ended up saying to all the girls...) Not much a Risa fan, but I still got her signature and handshake. Are all their hands this soft and warm?

Eri: Onto Eri, I gave her the GENKI call and got her signature and handshake. I was just loving how we can shake their hands! YES! But Eri's story was like Risa. >_<

Sayumi: Here, I gave Sayu the GENKI, Handshake, thank you. Now this part is nice, because Terry, the guy 2 person in front of us is getting his calendar signed, so that took a while and I noticed the papers Momusu was using to practice their sigs. I turn back to Sayu and said..
Me:"Renshu?" (PRACTICE?)
Sayu (energetically):"Yes! renshu renshu. mite...usagi (pointing to her usagi drawing) kawaii desu ne?"
Me: HAI! eto....usagi ii desu ka? (handing her picture back to her)
Sayu: hai~! (draws her bunny)
Me: eh, Majide?! Yatta!!
Sayu: eh hee! okay!
Me: *dies* domo arigatou!! *inside: holy-sh*t-fu*k-son-of-a-bit*h! I RULE!* haha....

Reina: With the energy and happiness I got from Sayu, my GENKI for Reina was a little loud. But like her personality, she replied as loud as me. I gave her the pic, signed, handshake, and moved. What? thought there was more? sorry

Koharu: Nothing going on with Koharu, her reply GENKI reflected her personality, loud as ever. HEHE. SIGNED AND HANDSHAKED!

Aika: Oh wow, being this close to Aika really put her up on my favorite list. She's just so stunning and beautiful at her age that I just was in awe through her whole signing! I sooo should have said something but it was just the GENKI, sign, handshake. >_<

JunJun: For her turn...Dialogue arimasu!
Me: Hello!
JunJun: Hello!
Me: Genki?
JunJun: hai! genki da yo (signs picture)
Me: ano...ato de banana wo....tabe....tai? err tabemasu!
JunJun: eh, honto ni? wahhh *pouts*
Me: haha, ganbare!
JunJun: *shakes it off* hai!
Me: jya mata ashita?
JunJun: mata ashita!
Me: *smiles very heavenly inside!*

LinLin: Now this was a weird one, as soon as I approached LinLin and handed her the picture with my GENKI?! This old guy next to me kinda just leans on the table and looks right at me. I thought this was weird and kinda glances at him for a quick second. I just ignored it but yet I still gave him a nod after looking at him...wow. Anyway, Linlin gave her loud english THANK YOU, and I gave a Your welcome right back!

Walking away from Momusu's table and out the room, I almost collapse from seeing them. Legs were shaking but I had to keep moving, otherwise the staff would had a fit. And that's something no one wanted. =.=

ANIME EXPO: DAY 1 After Morning Musume Autographs

Yeah, I had to make a separate space for them. It was just too good to not do it. Anyway, I caught up with Aewen and Limit after exiting the door and we went downstairs to meet up with a group of JPH!P members. Also SacredCultivator stopped by and I took a picture with him. Everyone from there pretty much disbanded and before I know it, Aewen and myself are following Alex and company when she notices we weren't really supposed to follow them. Yipes. Moments later, Eojjeorago calls me to get into the Exhibition hall to meet him and others there because he has the rest of the stuff that Kim bought us all earlier. Aewen and I split ways and I find Eojjeorago and company waiting at the booth. I knew I shouldn't have gone there. Bought the Platinum 9 CD at one booth, and then went to other booth buying a whole bunch of stuff! Poster, P9 sweatband, P9 photobook, P9 bag, the HAPPY SET aka Resonant LIVE bag that holds in it 5 different photobooks: Hello Project DVD Magazine Vol. 4 & 11 Making of PB, First Concert Hello PB, H!P 2006 Wonderful Hearts Concert Visual Book, H!P 10th Anniversary PB, along with 2 more photo sets. Eojjeorago said that I supposedly bought the last HAPPY SET. LUCKY!!! Yet, my wallet somehow felt a little light afterwards... *sweatdrop*

The exhibition hall pretty much closed after I bought said merchandise. We went back to the hotel, cleaned up and headed out. HPMusume and I met up with Eojjeorago and his friends, eating at the IHOP for dinner. Yes, a pancake house...for dinner. Please, hold your applause. After that, we split ways and I headed back to the Convention center. Left as it closed down at 12AM, SLEEP TIME! Because the next day...MORNING MUSUME CONCERT!!!



This is a video of Day 0's AX Registration Line and of a Parapara game.

AX Registration Line & Parapara game

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Okay, so I said I would write about all of the days in ONE blog post. I realized this was a mistake. haha. I previewed the post and was SHOCKED at how much I wrote. Thinking about it, I decided to keep this post day 0 and 1. Because there is waaay more to talk about in the next 3 days! I'm sorry if I bored anyone but I hope you have a good read, please do stop by again for the other days I'll put up! THANK YOU!

As promised, here are Day 0 and Day 1 pictures!!!

Day 0 pictures
Day 1 pictures