| Japan
Trip: The Morning Musume update |
[02 Jul 28|11:00pm] |
So, I guess all of you want to hear
about this. Well, some of you. Well, like, two of you. So, here
goes!
I woke up on Saturday and it was really really hot. So
I bummed around the hotel and was glad I didnt have to work hard in
the blistering heat. Yukis mom took me to Minobu Station and I got
on the train. Well I waited for like half an hour, then I got on the
train. It was 12.20p.
Its like an hour and a half to Kofu.
Then its like another hour or two to my next stop. Then some more
time on trains. I eventually met up with Yuki at like four or so,
but we still werent in Harajuku (where the concert was), so we had
to ride more trains! Whee!
So, when we got to Harajuku, we
ate at Yoshinoya and Yuki paid for me since I spent so much money on
those damned trains. That was nice of her. Then we set out to walk
around some. Then we got bored and decided to trek over to the
concert place. Across a few streets from the place is this big open
place in front of the road to go to this temple. If you have heard
about it, its the same place all the visual-kei kids go to hang out
on Sundays. But today it was packed full with Morning Musume
vendors! It was sweet! Yuki said all the stuff was illegal, which
was probably true. I bought some stuff and looked
around.
There were lots of wackos wearing happis (those coat
things... you know?) with tons of pictures and buttons of Morning
Musume members all over! They were covered. Literally. Hats,
backpacks, shirts with their favorite members names on them,
bandannas, fans, everything. These guys were crazy. I want to be
like them one day! Not really, but they were like the Eric of
Morning Musume fandom. If you know what I mean.
So, after
looking at all the illegal vendors we went over to the concert place
and there was the official goods. Too bad the line to buy the
official goods was the longest line I have ever seen in my life! It
took us at least 10 minutes to walk to the end of the line. We
actually walked over to Shibuya, which is next to Harajuku! Needless
to say, I didnt buy any official goods. I can get them at the Hello!
Project store or mailorder if I *really* want that Ishikawa fan. The
prices werent bad. At least, the fans were only 500 yen, which were
about the same as the illegal stuff.
Hmm... oh yeah, then
after deciding not to buy official goods, we went inside. They
half-assedly checked my backpack. Too bad they didnt know I had a
digital camera stashed in the bottom! But dont worry, I didnt take
any pictures during the concert. Im a good boy. I was too busy
watching it to take pictures.
We found our seat, which was on
the second floor. It was off to the side, but pretty close to the
front, so it wasnt that bad. We waited for a while, and the concert
started five minutes late.
The lights went down and a video
opening segment thing played introducing all the Hello! Project
people. See, it wasnt just Morning Musume, but all of Hello!
Project. So that means we got all of the shuffle groups, the solo
artists like Ayaya and Fujimoto Miki and the other HP groups like
Melon Kinenbi and Country Musume. Have I lost you yet?
The
show started with the shuffle groups. Happy 7, Sexy 8, and Odoru 11.
They rocked the house. At first I didnt really like any of the
shuffle groups this year, but I have grown to like all of them! They
dont come close to last years though...
Let me talk a little
about the concert etiquette at a HP or MM concert. First of all, you
HAVE to buy a glowstick raver light thing. Its a must. When all the
lights went out, I looked into the audience and there were so many
glowsticks. It was actually really really cool to see. Anyways, I
had a blue one. Some people had two, or three, or a handful, or ones
that spun. You HAVE to bring one. If I go to another MM concert, Ill
probably get two, so I can double-fist it!
Second, be sure
to know all of the backup parts to all the songs, as the audience is
expected to yell them and jump up. I didnt jump, but I
yelled.
Third, sometimes the audience likes to say the name
of whoever is singing. For instance, if Abe Natsumi is singing,
theyll chant "NACCHI NACCHI" or for Goto Maki its "GOCCHAN GOCCHAN".
I picked up on that pretty quick. Its pretty funny.
Fourth,
if your favorite member is singing, be sure to yell their name out.
Or just yell it out at random times. I sure did yell "Rika" some,
especially during the part in The Peace! where she talks. Yuki
thought I was stupid.
Fifth, have fun! There were so many
different people there. The hardcore MM otaku. The businessmen. The
little kids. The parents. And the casual fans. The place was packed.
Im not sure of how many people were there, but it was a freakin lot.
Ill try to find out.
Sixth, bring binoculars.
The
concert was pretty awesome. MM didnt sing for that long, but they
did all of their singles since Happy Summer Wedding and Furusato was
the last song. I kinda hoped that they would do a big I WISH with
all of HP singing, but they did that last year. So this year all of
HP sang Furusato, which was pretty cool.
Oh yeah, Ayaya was
probably just as popular as MM, she always got huge reactions from
the crowd. Surprisingly, Fujimoto Miki also got a pretty big
reaction. She is pretty new, and it seems like Yuki and all of her
friends hate her, but I like her.
There was this old guy,
probably in his 40s, dancing in the aisle next to me, with a bandana
that said one of the members names, and two glowsticks in each hand.
He was really cool, because he was having a lot of fun. He also
bought all of the individual MM members fans, which comes to about
$65 altogether. He probably bought other stuff too! What a crazy
guy.
Rika didnt seem to be that popular =( I saw a guy with a
ton of Rika pictures pinned on his coat, though, and I wanted to
talk to him but then I thought he might try to do me or something...
so I ran away.
What else what else... nothing much. After the
concert Yuki and I went to meet some of her friends. There was this
one crazy dude, probably the craziest guy I have met so far. He is
in a band, and his band toured in California! Thats pretty cool. He
played at Whiskey-a-Go-Go in Hollywood. He also said he saw Morning
Musume one time in real life! Like, when he was playing in a backup
band for some idol singer on TV, and he was backstage. He also did
his impression of a cat, and he said that Japanese cats say "oh
yeah... baby... come here" or something.
This other guy did
his impression of a unicorn. I kind of wanted to tell him that
unicorns dont exist, but then I didnt want to burst his
bubble.
It turns out that the youngest of the five people
that we were there with (oh... we were at a restraunt... I forgot to
say) was 27. The oldest was 31. Thats crazy. They were all acting
crazy and just having fun. Are there any 30-year-olds that I know
who act like that? No way. By the time you are 30 in America, you
are almost dead.
After that we went to Sumiyos house and then
slept and then woke up and Yuki and I went to Hachioji and bummed
around. I bought the new MM single almost a week late and its really
cool. Not really peppy or crazy. It sounds like the Sexy 8 song,
kind of r&bish. It has a "rap" part thats pretty cute and
cool.
Oh yeah, on Saturday I also bought some Smap! pop. This
is for Greg mostly. The new Smap album is called "Drink Smap!" and
its just a picture of the pop can, but you can also buy it. They had
a machine that was nothing but Smap pop in HMV in Harajuku, and I
even saw it tonight at the Daily Store. Crazy! Sumiyo says I
shouldnt drink it because it tastes like bad Dr.
Pepper.
Today I bought Cherry Coke, and Yuki said she didnt
like it. Crazy Japanese people! There was this store that had all
sorts of good old American pop, like A&W Root Beer and Cream
Soda, 7-Up, and Cherry Coke.
Jesus Christ, this entry is
long. I better stop now before I die. Hope that was enough for all
you crazy people.
Later!
| [ |
mood |
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 exhausted |
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| [ |
music |
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Nothing |
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nce upon a
time there has a young COCK named COCK. He was
COCK COCK in the COCK forest when he met
COCK COCK, a run-away COCK from the COCK
Queen COCK.
full
accomplished
content
hungry
contemplative
confused