Attending AKB48 handshakes: how-to (work in progress)

My regular email address is with the UK ISP btinternet.com and even though all is well with it receiving emails from Chara-Ani it refuses to receive any mails from Fortune Music (not even as spam) so I have to use Hotmail for that. When I then created an account with mu-mo I therefore specified my Hotmail address. Admittedly I've not yet used it to buy tickets, however mu-mo's regular mailshots do all seem to reach my Hotmail account OK. It's very strange!

 

So I will be going to my first handshake this Saturday - the national handshake in Chiba. So I have some questions, hopefully someone can help me This is the event I'm referring to: https://48g.jp/news_handshake/16074

1. A question about the live at 12:45. Do I need to use a ticket for this, or do I, well, just arrive and go in? In that case, would you recommend arriving a lot earlier to line up to make sure I get in and possibly get a decent seat/standing place? There also seems to be some priority area for females and children if I'm reading correctly but not sure how it works?

2. I want to attend the first part of the event (maybe the second part, if I have tickets left over). Is it realistically possible to use 10+ tickets? I have some of my own and my friend will be giving me some of hers too since she's not going to attend. Since I am a female, if I understand correctly, we (females, children and disabled) can start handshake 30 minutes before the general public, so I guess that gives me some extra time, but not sure if it helps much.

3. If I understand correctly, we can't stack up tickets in the first part but can in the second (the individual handshake part)?

4. Can somebody please guide me through the actual process of getting to the handshake. Like, do I just line up with my ticket to the preferred member's lane? Or do I have to exchange these tickets before and specify which lanes I'd like to go too?

I'm so sorry for these stupid questions It's just my first time going to a handshake event, and my Japanese isn't perfect either so I have some trouble understanding the website

 

@Cristafari thank you so much for your answers I guess I have to see how many tickets exactly I'll have and then make plans to what lanes I want to go to, depending on that I might stick around to the second part of the event

 

if anyone wants a friend to be confused abt the hs today together or wants to guide me around my first hs hit me up on twitter or pm

talking abt sunday hs btw

 

I have a question about the 2 shot event. Is it safe to buy tickets for the same slot for 1 very popular member (Jurina) and 1 medium to less popular member (Mogi Shinobu)? I already bought some for Jurina but would like to add Mogi, however the spot I'd like to go to is the same as the one that I have tickets for Jurina. I don't want to waste 2000 yen if there's a risk of not being able to do both of them since the line will be too long for Jurina

 

Yes, you just do the less popular member first then get in line for Jurina.

 

I had a 2-shot last year with Mogi about halfway through the slot and she had no queue, which was good for me but of course disappointing for her. She was very lovely and I had one of my best meetings of the day. I hope it’ll be the same for you!

 

I just met her 6 times yesterday at the national handshake event, so I also have good experience with her Yesterday, her lane (that she shared with Fujita Nana, Tano Yuka, Yumoto Ami and Kojima Natsuki) also had almost no line. From what I could see, their line and the one with Oya Shizuka, Shimoguchi Hinana, Nakanishi Chiyori and Miyazaki Miho were the shortest ones, or pretty much non-existent actually (when most other lanes had huge lines). I could usually just walk in with my ticket and immediately shake hands with them, and I even managed to be their first handshake of the day - or even the year maybe I went to that lane mostly for Mogi and Naana but all the girls in that lane were lovely, so I don't understand the lack of interest. I thought at least Mogi and Tano would pull in some fans. Felt sad for the girls but at least they were so much more happy to see me coming back again over and over

 

Hi, i am new and would like to find out more about the handshakes. From what i know, the highest chance of meeting senbatsu members is national handshake event but how about buying the new CD singles? what ticket will that give ?

 

If you buy first edition of CD, it will give you a ticket for national handshake event where you can use it on any member that is participating on that day. The other option is pre-ordering a theater edition of the single (or album for 2 shot event), where you need to enter a lottery to win tickets to see a member in case more people want to see that member than slots are available. For popular members (Sayanee, Jurina, Sakura, etc.) they usually sell out in the 2nd or 3rd round so the earlier you enter the lottery the better your chances are. I applied for many tickets for Jurina in 3rd round for 11 Gatsu no Anklet and won only 1. But I applied for 4 tickets for the upcoming AKB album and 8 for the new SKE single in the 1st round, and won all. So yeah, if you're aiming for popular members, try to apply in 1st or 2nd round and you will be likely to win.

Just wondering how many tickets did you have that made it difficult for you? I guess this could be useful info considering my question above (whether it's safe to buy tickets for 2 shot with Jurina + Mogi in the same slot or not) although David61 already gave me some answer, but I'm curious to hear more people's experiences just in case

 

Thanks so much, this has been really informative . Seeing how everyone really enjoys the handshake event, makes me excited . I hope i will get my chance soon

 

Thanks for giving me at least a general idea what to expect Obviously Jurina being one of the top selling members, her line is expected to be long, so I'm kind of scared of wasting 2000 yen (a lot of money for me) if Mogi's ends up being unexpectedly long for some reason

Another question to those who have experience with the big handshake events: I understand I can exchange my ticket I have for seeing a member for another member (as long as that member's slots are not sold out)? Can I only exchange it for the members who are in the same time slot (for example, slot 1)? And do I just line up with my ticket at the member's lane, or do I have to exchange it somewhere before? Kinda wanna change my Yuihan ticket for someone else now

 

sorry, i am very new and still don`t understand a fair bit? What are the steps in applying for the 2 shots for members like Kojima Mako if i buy the album( can i buy anything else?) Is it through the akb site? and are the chances very low to win? Also correct me if i am wrong but i stand a higher chance of meeing kojima mako if i buy the handshake tickets after a new single is released through the akb site by applying for the first or second round?

 

@Riina Just to add my experiences from last year's 2-shot which I attended, I had to exchange a few tickets because several members I had slots for were absent due to illness (e.g. Sakura and Haruppi). I had no problems in re-using those tickets in later slots and I found plenty of interesting members with almost zero queues - for me it was Kaotan, Oya Masana, Murashige Anna, Shibuya Nagisa - and Mogi!

It's often difficult to exactly predict what will happen on the day with members you have tickets for. For example, 2 years ago the line for Furuhata Nao at the event I attended was glacially slow and I was in it for about 40 minutes with no more than about about 50-60 people in front of me. In contrast, last year I joined the queue for Shiroma Miru at the start of one of her sold-out slots and there was only about a dozen people already waiting, so less than 5 minutes later I was in her booth. However based on my experiences I'd be pretty certain you'll have no problems seeing Jurina and Mogi in the same slot.

 

I believe you're mixing things up a bit.
To make it easier to understand I'm separating the 48G events in two categories:

1. Non lottery based:
This basically only contains National Handshake events. Tickets for these are sold with the limited edition singles. Each tickets allows you to have a HS with a member of your liking (that is of course attending the event). There are some exceptions to this but you get the basic idea.

2. Lottery based:
Here we have Individual Handshake events, 2-Shot Events and special events like Haru Matsuri. Tickets for this can ONLY be purchased via the respective lottery site. AKB uses chara-ani ( http://akb48.chara-ani.com/ ), NMB and NGT fortunemusic ( https://fortunemusic.jp/ )...
You apply for a certain member/timeslot combination. If you win you'll get your ticket(s) and also a 'free' theatre edition CD for each ticket you purchased. You only have to pay for the tickets you win.
Note: if you buy a album / single anywhere else you won't get any individual HS/2-shot/whatchamacallit ticket.

These guides should give you an idea on how the system works for 2-Shots and AKB individual HS.

As for your wish to have a 2-shot with Kojimako: You're a bit late to the party. We are already in the third resale round. Although there still are quite some slots available, your problem is that tickets you win during the resale rounds are cash-on-delivery (COD) only.
Forwarding services like tenso don't accept COD packages. So you either already know somebody in JP who will help you out or ask @Sakuraism if you can use his services. He wants to expand his business anyway so I'm sure he will be happy about each new addict... er I mean customer.

 

Thanks so much for clarifying my doubts. However, i think i will wait for the next single . But thanks so much for giving me Sakuraism contact so i will message him if i ever change my mind.