Your AKB48 Experiences

I didnt spend that much since I did sell quite a bit of my votes altho in the end i did end up spending quite a bit regardless from covering the differences and spending money to get my own votes from cheaper options.

 

Wait, so about how many of them were on Shuu? I would think that it takes much more than <1000 for 45 minutes, but I guess I'm just not good at math lol.

 

It's literally in my write-up...

 

My bad. I was focused on reading the conversation and skipped over it I guess

 

6/12 2016 AKB48 Tsubasa Iranai Kobetsu HS @ Makuhari Messe


(Part 2)

I wasn't planning to write this for various reasons, mainly because I was too lazy but after watching her newly posted video about her thoughts on the election result I decided to write it after all. I guess part of me just wants more people to know her.


if the video does not show watch the video here

I know I usually only post AKB members or kennins in this thread but I decided to post NMB members too now here. If you want to enjoy my write ups, well you just havta deal with me promoting my group.


Yoshida Akari

This is another good 10min talk so I did my best to recall how it wen't down.

 

Handshake took a weird turn real quick

 

Handshake at Messe 6/26

This will be my last handshake report since I would have left Japan by the August dates.


Yuiri
Me: hi
Yuiri: oh hey
Me: the sun is so strong these days... what should I do?
Yuiri: sunscreen lotion! But I think it's fine to get tanned if you're a guy
Me: noooo

Me: Newton looked at the apple and he thought...
Yuiri: ...... yuiri
Me: I watched your seitansai!

Me: this is my last handshake.. I'm going back to Canada.
Yuiri: ahh
Me: but I'll continue following your yuiri+ayaka 755!
Yuiri: thanks
Me: ... and maybe eat a lot of apple pies
Yuiri: lol what


Saho
Me: hi, congrats on sousenkyo!
Saho: thanks
Me: I was watching the whole time and got quite worried.. but I saw Saho was super positive when called
Saho: I was like "Yatta!" (raises hand)

Saho: it's all thanks to everyone (except @GeoFreak )
Me: no problem

Me: do you know Hidemi Sugino in Ginza?
Saho: no what is it?
Me: it's one of asia's best patissarie! I lined up for 2 hours yesterday to get cake there
Saho: wow I did not know there's such a place
Me: it's lonely now that showroom had ended
Saho: yeah
Me: I like it best when Saho is poking like this (pokes air)
Saho: ah at the camera


Me: this is my last handshake, not as in last today but ever.. I'm going back to Canada. I've been follow you since New York so even oversea I'll continue my support!
Saho: thanks, hope there's a chance to go oversea to perform again!
Me: yeah
Saho: ganbarimasu


Sayaya
Me: hi, congrats on sousenkyo!
Saya: thanks
Me: I was watching the whole time at home and when they finish announcing 33, I knew you made undergirls!
Saya: you were watching for me? thank you

Me: it's sad that showroom is over
Saya: yeah
Me: you had the quiz of (tries to get sayaya to let go of my hand, then does move of Jellybeans)
Saya: oh jellybeans!
Me: yeah I totally got that on the stream!
Saya: sugoi you knew
Me: but can you play guitar for real though?
Saya: no I can only hold it... would be cool if I can play (does little air guitar tapping )

Me: this is my last handshake
Saya: thanks
Me: I mean, ever, not today. I'm going back to Canada..
Saya: ahh
Me: you were broadcasting live in Osaka right?
Saya: yeah
Me: what kushikatsu did you eat?
Saya: I liked the one with cheese
Me: a tomato one would probably taste good too
Saya: yeah! It would be cute!
Me: but you can't see it! It's covered in fried batter
Saya: oh no
Me: how do you usually eat tomato then?
Saya: just raw by itself, and maybe in salad
Me: I like it in Italian caprese
Saya: ahh I know it yeah that's good
Staff: jikan desu
Me: ok bye bye

 

@Nieru Hey man, you know my voting policy... and I've followed her since before New York

 

6/26 2016 AKB48 Tsubasa Iranai Kobetsu HS @ Makuhari Messe

Yamamoto Sayaka




Conclusion: Queue for her was insane. I mean especially these post election handshakes. On the last HS of the day I queued 55min just to see her. Also I just want to mention, Sayaka was the only oshi today that noticed I dyed my hair the night before. It's not that had any expectation of them noticing but Sayaka just went and set the bar that much higher.

Yagura Fuuko




Nakai Rika

Spoiler: Rika-Hime

Conclusion: I really didn't know much about her but wanted to check it out what the whole fuss was about. I also wanted to see why people thought she's similar to Milky personally. Although I can see from certain points that she is similar to Milky awhile back but honestly I didn't really feel anything about it. For a Tsurishi I felt like she's still needs to polish her talking skills like transitioning topics and leading a conversation. There were moments I purposefully paused to give her chance to lead the conversation but instead she would just stare at me. The same pause I give to other NMBs I see (excluding my oshis) the girls would easily have took it and ran with it. Although to be fair NMB members are known to be a lot more talkative.

Shiroma Miru







Conclusion: Miru was a bit weird today, not as usual self. It's hard to explain but she was either not in a good mood, tired or she's starting to be more true to herself at these HS events.

Kojina Yui

Spoiler: Jiina

Conclusion: I'm not going to lie, the conversation felt kind of weird. I'm not sure if it's because the chemistry between the 2 of us or simply I just didn't know her enough for this kind of amount of tickets. It felt too much like an Q&A session rather than 2 person having a chill time chatting as you would have with an affiliate. Regardless she's SO much prettier irl and honestly that's partially the only reason why I got her tickets.

Okada Nana






Conclusion: Although not much came out of this Handshake but I had a satisfying feeling after meeting her. Perhaps I was able to convey what I really wanted to tell her, and that was enough.

 

7/3-4, 2016 NMB48 Watanabe Miyuki Graduation Concert: Saigo Made Warukii de Gomennasai @ Kobe World Memorial Hall

As I’ve mentioned in my last Milky HS write up that there are still a few more upcoming things to come. Well this was “one”of them. At the time a few of us regular fans were already told about this graduation concert. I didn’t write about it my reports for obvious reasons. (Information leak like this can really get her in trouble) Originally we thought she prolli have made a mistake regarding the dates since it’s really rare for concerts to go through Sunday into Monday. However a few of us have confirmed with her separately and she seemed to be sure about the date she has given us. Knowing this a fan and I took our days off and booked hotel early. In May even she didn’t know where the venue was going to be other than it will be in Kansai so we booked our hotel in Osaka just to be on the safe side. As the date approaches with only 2 weeks left till the promised date, I got anxious that I may have taken a day off for nothing lol. In the end it was just a short notice announcement and I wasn’t let down.

As you all know the Kobe World Hall is the same venue as last year’s NMB RH, it’s small. Knowing this I knew getting a ticket would be tough so I teamed up with D-san to try to double up our chances. Well, knowing early didn’t help us out in this in anyway. We’ve failed everything, but luckily we have enough fan friends to help us out in time of need lol.

So that’s kind of the behind the scene. Let’s get to the concert.



Since the Sunday concert was on stream so everyone prolli have already watched it so I won’t spend much time on it. The one thing obviously everyone was talking about was the Boku wa Inai MV that was shown but wasn’t on stream. As I write this report the short version have just been released so this will save me a lot of time.


if the video does not show watch the video here

For fellow Sayamilky shipper who wants to know what happens in the other half:
( I say fellow but I don’t actually ship them at all)

Spoiler

There was this scene where Milky was looking through her camera and Sayaka suddenly appears within her capture frame. Sayaka then started running towards Milky, grabs her hand and takes her running. (Imagine Amagami but the guy being Sayaka). At the end the two arrive at a beach where the rest of the members await there with flying lanterns and the two joins them and let the giant lanterns into the air.

My thoughts: The first half of the MV was really sad, watching it there at the time felt like being hit by the feelz train. Plenty of emotions were splattered across the floor. Although I have to say the later half of the MV wraps it up nicely and leaves you kinda like, “Hey I guess it wasn’t such a sad story after all”.

Okay so Day 2 of the concert, this was truly the one packed with all sort of feels.



Upon entry Milky’s Grad Committee have prepared a Milky Uchiwa for everyone. We were supposed to use the Uchiwa when Milky sings Warukii but Warukii was literally the first song that came out so barley anyone was ready so that didn’t really work out too well lol.



Right away after the 2nd song, they had the Audition VTR along with all the typical Onion Cutting Throwback clips leading to her winning of Janken then transitioning to Yasashiku suru yori.

They really need to bring back Aka/Shirogumi, seriously. Random, yet not so random rant.

Something funny I noticed that has nothing to do with Milky. So Keicchi/Akarin/Milky performed their last Zipper together after there was a short MC from Keicchi and Akarin while Milky go get prepared for the next song. I noticed that the moment Akarin picked up the outfit that they stripped off she was constantly covering her belly with it loll. At first I thought it was just the way she was holding it but as time went by the more obvious it became she was purposefully doing it loll. It’s just funny because on twitter recently she was just talking about how she misses the body she had a couple yrs ago when she had thinner waist.



Sayamilky Haato no Dokusenken. NEED I SAY MORE. The hype at the venue was real, watching 8k people going UWAAAAAAA @&)#&@()@. The funny part was it ended with Milky asking the audience how it was and Sayaka said like enjoying it was the only thing people did while giving the face as if she’s been bullied into doing this lol.



They played JT’s Unmei no Hito Ver. Clip right after Encore. Oh mannnnnn.


if the video does not show watch the video here

Then they lead it to Ima Naraba as I AM SURE any proper NMB fan should already know about this by now. For the non NMB fans, this song was composed by Sayaka as kind of her last present for Milky. I’m not going to lie but at first listen I personally didn’t think the melody was that memorable. The thing with first listen at lives are that there are so many things to distract you. In this case, the feels, what’s happening on stage, what they’re wearing, what are the lyrics trying to say, is sayaka crying? How about Milky? Where is Sayaka putting them hands on Milky? The song is definitely growing on me now with given so many more chances to take a closer listen.



3rd Encore Sotsugyou Ryokou a song we all expected but didn’t think would come in such a huge punch. I mean seeing Riichan, Natsumin, Ripopo, Maachun, Kichi and Nana-chan show up was by no surprise but watching Sayaka immediately unable to sing her solo line was heart breaking. After the show a fan asked me how I felt about it, I didn’t know what to say. Even now I’m not sure I can find the right words to explain how I felt at that moment. All I can say is everyone there was able to feel and understand the reasons for Sayaka’s tear.




Milky comes out with her beautiful grad dress putting Riichan in tears because she was just too darn adorable. Listening to Milky sing her solo grad song Yume No Nagori, this was the lowest point on the emotional coaster. Eyes can no longer stay just being moist. The worst thing was right after this she was like genki asking the crowd if they’re ready to get lit with seilap. Oh man, that was the worst time for Seishun no Laptime lol. I don’t think I’ve ever been this sad during SeiLap ever.



After a few members had their last words to Milky. Miru announced her determination to take up the position and eventually center. I think @Timmeon on here did a translation of the full speech (or part of it) so I don’t want to spend much time here. Although I must say the way she said that speech, it was a huge declaration which for one I’m proud of. Shu later that night tweeted she’s frustrated that she wasn’t able to say anything during that time as she has just as much determination as Miru.

Sayaka concludes it by saying what she wanted to say about Milky. Sayaka always know exactly what to say and keeping her presence solid as the ace and leader of the group.

Milky says “I don’t want it to end yet” and everyone gets turnt for the last song NMB48.

For the 2nd day concert, me and D-san’s seat was far from being desirable but for Milky’s final parting speech we both ditched our seats and went all the way into the arena and right in front of the main stage to listen to her final words. Coincidentally we were right in front of the infamous crying staff that went around on twitter lol. Perhaps he was a Milky oshi so he understood how we felt hence didn’t say anything about it. ( I don’t want to encourage people of such actions. Japanese people care a lot about concert manners, well manners in general so actions like what we did was and can be very troublesome for everyone.)



That concludes my experience at the 2 day concerts but the Milky marathon doesn’t stop there.


https://twitter.com/andilee1989/status/749937943419101187


(Concert Photo Credit to Various sources on Twitter)

7/6 2016 NMB48 BII Theater Show (Saka Agari)

A couple of days prior to the concert I got email that I’ve won Milky’s upcoming BII theater show on the 6th. For those who don’t know, theater in general is hard to win. Shows with members like Milky and Sayaka also adds another 10 ft on top of that existing wall. Despite all that I won the same show TWICE. Don’t ask me how, I don’t want to explain how that happened lol. In short I felt like I was being told I had to go considering this may be Milky’s last couple theater shows before she leaves. There was a lot of complication regarding taking time off from work because it’s so sudden and I already took the 4th off. All odds felt like it was against me but I managed to go without losing my job. Yes, I went back to work for a day and then went back to Osaka. This was also no easy task considering I live 400km+ away lol.



My seat was pretty good, I was 4th row dead center. (“pretty good” is prolli an understatement)

First couple of songs I was thinking, “hrm, I don’t think she knows I’m here” . During Introduction MC Maichi was literally standing in my view of looking at Milky but Milky peeked her head over and finally saw me lol. I’m not sure why but these small funny actions from her are extremely cute lol. Now that she noticed me I finally felt like there was a point for me to bring out her Photobook. I figured her PB will be officially on sale 2 days after it would be a good way for her and the members to talk about it. Helping with the PR work! Lol. She noticed it pretty quick and gave me a quick acknowledgment that she saw it.

https://twitter.com/andilee1989/status/751083246138499072

Funny episode, so during Konomin’s Intro the fan literally behind me had a Konomin Uchiwa and taped a flu mask on loll. The members noticed it and had a good laugh over it. Milky finishes her introduction and leave the stage to get prepped for the next song. I figured I could put down the PB now since she’s not there. Just as I had it put down Antan suddenly went “Earlier just now I noticed something extrodinary, wasn’t there someone over here with Milky’s PB?” I panicked a bit a quickly held it back up lol. She asked me how was the PB and if Milky was cute, I gave the quiet whisper “yes it was cute…” It took me by a huge surprise and it felt more nerve wrecking than when I had to speak to Milky on a microphone in front of a couple hundred Milky fans lol. Anyway thanks Antan for bringing it up, I think I owe her a hs ticket some point now lol.

https://twitter.com/andilee1989/status/751070304118595584

https://twitter.com/andilee1989/status/751077640241451010

Anyway typical BII stage, after the encore Milky gave another acknowledgement that she’s happy I brought her PB, this time with clear view. They announce the upcoming single content information and played Ima Naraba full MV. The feel train drove by again and mercilessly ran everyone in its path.


if the video does not show watch the video here

Milky jokes that when she graduate she will debut as Sayamilky but then she quickly clears it up that was a complete joke lol. Then they mentioned about the upcoming 3shot event for this single and Milky asked everyone if we want her to participate. The audience obviously replied YESSSSS. She asked if everyone will actually take up the responsibility and come and of course everyone replied “ Will go!” including I. She then decided she will participate this as the last event. While I’m happy she offered her fans more chances to see her before she leaves but it left me in a struggle. I knew the 3shot dates were in major conflict with my work. I knew this was something if I forced myself through I may literally lose my job. Anyway I don’t know what kind of oshi goddess that’s been blessing me with all these chances, it did not let me down. I will be able to attend the 3shot after all as of now. Milky also announced her last theater show being on Aug 9th and that today is her 2nd last theater show. (Again was something leaked by Warukii ahead of time, tsktsk. ) Before she ran off the stage she reminded everyone her PB will be on sale in 2 days lol.

Now the trolliest part, usually at the end of each theater show the girls would greet you goodbye. Well, Milky had to rush to another job so she couldn’t participate. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed because after all I wanted to speak to her one last time if at all possible lol. Anyway Konomin came out with a flu mask saying she will try to take up the hole Milky left loll. As I headed out I told Konomin “ Nice PB “ and she responded on mic “ Ahhhh my PB! Thanks you so much for bringing it! Everyone please don’t forget to buy my PB~~”. The whole crowd laughed loll.

Spoiler: Personal Thoughts/Reflection

The past few days have been exhausting both mentality and physically for me. I’m experiencing a lot of these “feels” for the first time. I’ve seen many members come and go including my previous Kami-oshi but it’s just not quite the same. I think this is the thing with meeting your idols too often. The more you meet the closer your world feels aligned with there’s. I can say I can no longer see my oshis as simply “celebrities” that’s on screen. They are almost just like girls who are simply not in the same friend circle as you. If anything they’re probably more real to me than most people that I talk to on the forum or twitter. Don’t misunderstand me though when I say real I don’t meant like expecting anything to come out of this but merely stating that the relationship between an idol and a fan is not as delusional as it sounds.

Either way I don’t regret anything. If there’s one thing I regret is that I wasn’t there with these girls from the start but I will make sure to be there till the end.

I know this was a long write up and I thank those who took their time reading all of it. I know my reports aren’t very detailed nor consist of translations of dialogues but this report was never intended for that. There are plenty of people out there and on this forum that’s a lot better than me at doing all of those above. If anything my reports are more of a story that tells the journey of a foreign fan living in Japan and my gradual experience with my idols. If you like to read it as my bragging right then so be it, but then that’s all you will get out from my report.

I don’t know if I will have anything more to write about Milky after this since everything at this point is up to chance. Although I will probably still write a final post about Milky when she officially leaves NMB.

 

7/10 2016 AKB48 Group Natsu Matsuri @ Makuhari Messe


The last Natsu Matsuri was held about 2 years ago and was a huge success so here we are this year with another, let’s see if it lived up to its predecessor. The event comprised of 3 main events.



1. Stage Performances. There were 2 large stages that held capacity of approx. 1,000 people and 4 smaller stages that held approx. 200 people. Different members will come and go to these stages basing on the schedule they’re scheduled to show up. (You also buy tickets to see particular shows). The large stages ran for about 20min per segment while the small stages for 10min. These stages were the main focus for all the bigger named members, generally members who held 5 handshake slot per day. The big stages were usually consisted of live performances while small stages were often used for small karaoke or Q&A, fun games corner. All seats were standing just like a live house and you were to let in depending on the ticket number you got when you exchanged your tickets.


The first large stage I went to was Tentoumu Chu Vs DenDenmu Chu. I actually got a pretty decent 160 ticket numbering so I was 4-5th row from the center of the stage. I’m not going to talk too much about the live since it’s all on the Nico Live Stream. There was one segment near the end where the 2 teams went up against each other in a red/white beanie throw in. (Typical Japanese school Sport festival competition) After the competition they told the audiences that every one of those beanie actually had member’s autograph on it so they decided to throw it out to the audiences. Funny enough usually at big concerts, stuff like this is awesome for people who sat close to the stage. It was quite the opposite this time. The beanies were so light and the girls were not holding back at throwing so the closer you were the harder it was to even have one coming for you. Luckily near the end when almost all the beanies were thrown out, Nagisa noticed me and gave me a point. This wasn’t one of those random quicky but she actually gave a nice long point to tell me that was meant for me. Helping a NMB fan out lol. I responded by nodding and she gave a perfect throw where it just landed right in my hand. Awkwardly It was a Ryouha sign so….lol.



The other large stage was Yagura Fuuko & Shiroma Miru. FuuMiru went in a competition with each other, or rather a continuation of one which they started in one of the earlier smaller stages. The winner got to perform a song. They started to do a contest of members’ charactures which was obviously in Miru’s favor since she’s awesome at them. They first drew each other and then Maokyun and final show down being our NMB Captain Sayaka. The result obviously came into a draw and they both got to perform a song. Fuuchan did Haato Gata and Miru did Mushi no Ballad.


Now there were several small stages I attended some were pretty interesting while some I felt wasn’t executed very well at all.


An example of one that was good I went to was Miru’s solo stage. She basically just sang karaoke but it was actually really pleasant, especially when she sang “Part of your world”. I think it’s always a plus to hear our idols sing songs outside of the 48/46g family songs.



A bad one would be Sayaka’s Q&A Session. She basically drew from a box of numbers and if it matched your ticket number you get to ask her a question on mic. There’s nothing wrong with a Q&A Session but the fact that there were people who actually didn’t have a question getting picked. Sayaka was way too nice so even if you don’t have a question she was there trying to wait for you as you think of something. Unfortunately this is extremely crappy for others considering there was only 10mins. One guy literally couldn’t come up with something and wasted like 2-3 minute while Sayaka was telling him he could ask anything from “What do you like? What did you do today?” I felt like they should’ve only went ahead picking audiences who actually had questions.


Some other that I went to were like Okada Nana’s Bingo session where she brought 5 items from home and everyone had a bingo sheet. The first 5 winners got to pick what they wanted from the 5 items and Naachan would sign on it.



There was also Sayaka & Ogasawara Mayu ‘s Owarai Competition. The two girls went head to head in a gag contest of looking at photos and making a funny statement which then the final show down being monoboke. The funniest part of this session was not the joke itself but was watching the two wanting to jump off a bridge from the embarrassment of coming up with the lamest jokes on spot LOL. They finished the session with an Ikemen Janken. Sayaka won and overthrew all other Maachun’s winnings loll. Oh Maachun how much you’re missed in NMB.




2. The other main portion of the Matsuri was the Surprise Lane. These lanes were pretty much for members that’s stuck between the top members and the new/rather unpopular members. Originally when the tickets were bought no information was told what each girls would be doing hence the “surprise”. A few days before the event they released the list of things each members would be doing. Every member had their own thing so it’s hard to go through everything. It varied from playing games, winning autographs, photo taking and voice recording. Some members actually changed their topic on the day and even during the day.


Murase Sae


At first I thought this would be the worst because on the list she was supposed to be doing a read aloud. I thought that was really stupid but hey she changed it on the day lol. She had 3 cards you choose from. I’m not sure what’s in the 3rd card but 1 card will say Handshake the other a Characture Drawing. I flipped the Characture Drawing and this is what I got lol. OiOi! Dareyanen!




Yoshida Akari


She had a camera with microphone and lighting all set up at her booth. She did a Q&A thing and later she might use it for her Youtube Channel. I thought it was interesting but to be honest the time was too short for what she wanted to accomplish. It would be doable if you had multiple tickets but with just 1 ticket you practically couldn’t do anything. Most of the time was taken just by having her ask me if I want to be in the shot with her and her moving the camera.


Yabushita Shu


The Kami event of the day! Shu split her day in half, first half of the day she was doing Photo/Video Capture. You could pick either to take a photo of her or a video clip. You could literally film her doing anything which a lot of Japanese fans requested songs and performances for her to do which in later of the day you could tell really drained her dry lol. I took a different approach though, I just went ahead and recorded a normal HS I would do.


This is a fun experiment, so before you click on the video link read my write up of how I would’ve wrote this handshake report. Was the expectations you had different from the actual event? Lol


Me: Ah! Heyy Shuuuu!

SH: Heyyyyyyyy.

Me: I also bought 200 tickets for today!

SH: You saying for real? Loll

Me: nahhh I’m lying lol.

SH: See, you’re lying! Loll. I mean your face is all like herahera! (smiling)

Me: Eh!? Loll

SH: Look! *points to me* loll

https://twitter.com/andilee1989/status/751974704311734272

Later of the day she did selfie 2 shot with fans. Another Kami event especially since the introduction of stupid tables for 2shot because of the incident. Man, was she drained lol.





3. The last type of event was the Business Card Handing out event. This was also the event I have least amount to talk about since I didn’t get any ticket for but apparently it was a big hit. It was funny because this event actually had the worst sale out of the whole Matsuri. Basically all the new or low tier girls would show up and introduce themselves and they will hand out their business card and sign on it. From what I heard one of the reason why it felt like the queue was super long for this event was because first off the staff weren’t really strict at all when it comes to pushing fans out. People could talk a pretty decent amount of time with the girls. Also a lot of people in the queue were actually just there to watch the different members go on the podium to introduce themselves so it just made that whole area a huge cluttered f***. It was so out of the management’s expectation they actually had to ask people to go through outside to travel between the west hall into the east because the amount of people that was in between the 2 halls lining up for the business card handing out.




Over all the event was pretty fun because it was different from the usual format but did it live up to the previous one? I personally still liked the previous one more simply because it felt more like an actual summer festival. Watching members appear here n there at different booth to either buy food or simply just appear at different game booths. This time around everything felt too planned. You knew what you had to go and do at exactly at a specific time with no option to deviate which I felt was the best part about the previous Natsu Maturi. Anyway there were some bad planning this time around as well and they had to cancel certain things because of unexpected issues. I’m sure they will rework it again for the upcoming Aki Matsuri.

 

I really like the staff picture. I don't know why, but it capture an emotion from someone unexpected, hence the impact.

Really good write up. I love Natsu matsuri concept and loved the one two years ago. It makes you feel that you're here.

This is why we need a like button. To show appreciation to posts like those. I know it involves a lot of time editing and thinking about the right phrasing.

 

8/13-14 2016 AKB48 Tsubasa Iranai Kobetsu HS @ Makuhari Messe
(Part 1.)

Please know a lot of these I had ridiculous amount of tickets in one go so a lot of the dialogues are either forgotten by me or I simply decided to not write about because I felt it wasn't as important. That's the thing with a real conversation is that when you talk you actually tend to throw in a lot of little dialogues that just really doesn't really work well when you write it in text form lol.


Shiroma Miru

(Handshake with her was probably the most accurate one I could write from this weekend since it was all just small conversations through out the day)









Next Day








Conclusion: I think I found my Virtual GF

 

8/13-14 2016 AKB48 Tsubasa Iranai Kobetsu HS @ Makuhari Messe
(Part 3.)

Shibuya Nagisa

Spoiler: Brace Yourself for MiracleMiracle SuikaKan.

 

8/13-14 2016 AKB48 Tsubasa Iranai Kobetsu HS @ Makuhari Messe
(Part 4.)

Shibuya Nagisa

Next Day

Spoiler: HeraHera

Conclusion: In the end I still think Nagisa is still one of the harder girls to talk to in NMB at handshake. By no mean is she bad or anything. In fact if we compare her to other members from 48 family she's actually pretty normal. However NMB members are known to be notoriously good at chatting in general so...
There's nothing wrong with her interaction other than maybe her responses are too idol like. Although I personally do believe that privately she prolli relli isn't that all much different.

 

8/21, 2016 Watanabe Miyuki's MILKY StyleBook Release Event @ Fukuya Shinjuku. (Final Miyuki Write-Up)



I’ve been really hesitant to write this report. I’m not sure why, maybe it’s because not much happened. Regardless I’m writing this now since this will probably be the last time I write about Milky.

First we need to rewind a little back to the morning of August 6th. I woke up and suddenly I got a message from another fan asking me how successful was I getting Milky’s Stylebook event ticket. First thing that popped into my mind was like, “what..?” Then it suddenly hit me and I quickly checked Fukuya’s (a bookstore in Tokyo that often held book release event of idols) event schedule and BAM, there it was. They were ticketing out Milky’s StyleBook event literally at that exact same moment I was checking the information. I knew it was very likely for her to have some sort of event for one of her solo released books so I was actually prepared to attend it for a long time. This took me as a huge surprise and honestly I thought I was the only person who didn’t knew about it. Honestly, I felt horrible. Thinking that an event that was on a weekend that I could attend and the reason I might not be able to attend was because I didn’t know about it made me felt like I’ve failed horribly as a fan. I started messaging another huge Milky fan from Taiwan and found out even he didn’t knew about it. We started major scrambling each asking every connections we had in Tokyo and see if we could send people over to help us grab some tickets. Luckily it wasn’t just us and apparently it was announced so suddenly not many people knew about it at all. We eventually got like 4 people to go there and grabbed us a bunch of tickets.

So a little about the event. This was an owatashikai, a handing out event where the idol hands something to you (in this case her StyleBook). Since this was an owatashikai, handshakes were prohibited which I was totally fine with since I’ve never put too much emphasis on the handshaking part of a handshake event (ironically). As you’ve noticed this event was like 2-3 weeks after her graduation show at the theater, so I was actually quite nervous to meet her since I didn’t know what to expect. Is she going to be treating her fans totally different now that she’s no longer an idol? Will she even put any effort at the event since she’s backing out of the industry? All of these questions came across my mind at some point.

Arriving at the bookstore right away you knew there wasn’t going to be a lot of people. I wouldn’t be surprised if only about 200 people came for her event that day. On the bright side, there was a pretty good ratio of female fans attending this event which I felt really good about.



The time was quite short, each ticket was maybe slightly shorter than a usual kobetsu handshake ticket. It’s only long enough for you to say something and have her to give you a simple response. I looped her about 12 times. The queue was so fast it was super hard to come up with so many different topics to talk about that didn’t need any long explanations. Here are just some of the ones I think worth writing about.


- Hajimemashiteeeee >_< ( I was soooo happy to see her)
MK: lollll *nods her head* ( She knew why I said “Nice to meet you” lol )


-Milky how has it been? Genki? Loll
MK: mm, Genki!


My friend asked her how her non idol life have been. She replied she’s been pretty chill and living a jimi life. (dull life) loll.


-Oh by the way on Monday I climbed Mt Fuji!
MK: Eh!? Really!??? That’s amazing!! To the top???


A friend asked if Milky will be appearing at upcoming NMB RH. She said she won’t.

-Will you be coming to watch NMB RH then?
MK: I won’t be going~~

-Milky if I read this book will I become motemote too? Loll. (popular with the girls)
MK: Yeap! You will become motemote!


-A lot of these books I’m actually going to send them to the girls abroad~
MK: Really~? I’m so happy~


-How was that Six-Pad product you got? Loll.
MK: ehhhhhhh……bimyo lolllllllll. (Milky’s Six-Pad product review: It doesn’t work)


-This is the last of the last! I’m so happy today lol. (Eng)
MK: mm! I’m Happy! (eng) Too! (eng) loll.

-I was lying lol. It wasn’t my last last loll.
MK: Haaaaaaaaa!?


A couple friends of mine (which are all long time regular fans) asked her if they would be still doing larme or be able to see her again, Milky chose to not answer them. I guess not answering is also a form of an answer.

The event lasted about 2 hrs in total. The first hr Milky was pretty energized and by the 2nd hour you could tell she was tired and started to zone out and give really whatever answers lol. No one complained because I think we all knew this is as real as she gets. This IS the real Watanabe Miyuki. She was the exact same Milky we, or at least I, liked her for lol.

At the end of the day only about 50 people remained. You could say most of the people that was there were her T.O. (Top Wota). They were all faces you see in Milky’s lane all the time and the top members in her committee. I was telling my friends that today was very satisfying and I didn’t felt sad at all. I mean there’s the ridiculous amount of times we’ve sent her off thinking it was the “last” but more so it was because I felt that she was truly happy. She seemed genuinely happy from all this time off for herself, doing what she wanted to do. The thing with seeing your idols so often is that it’s almost like an appetite you can never fill. You’re constantly wanting to meet them more and regretting why you didn’t buy more tickets hence this feeling of satisfaction was something really unexpected. I actually dug deep and tried to figure out why. I guess the only conclusion I got was that what we as fans really want is to just see our Oshis happy. It really is that simple.


The aftermath of the books me and 2 foreign fans combined

After the event it was also farewell time to some of the foreign fans I’ve met because of Miyuki-chan. We all know that we will probably not be seeing each other much anymore with Miyuki out of the picture. As one fan putted it that his wota journey is coming to an end but for me it is prolli just the beginning.


Regardless I felt like I did everything I could to support Watanabe Miyuki and I don’t regret any of it. Was it tiring? Was it money consuming? Yes, and yes, but because of this I made a lot of good memories. Memories that I will keep for a long time and perhaps one day it will be something I will laugh about, but that’s okay. What’s most important is that I had a good run. I will never forget the first handshake I had with Milky when I was so flustered that I could only tell her I came from Canada even with a 25 second handshake lol. I will never forget during Milky-Land when she picked me not once but twice to speak to her in front of hundreds of her fans. It was also because of this I’ve met so many foreign Milky fans. I will never forget all the bickering we had and at some point made me wonder why I even go see her lol.

Anyway thanks to everyone for reading as usual and especially to her fans out there, OTSUKARE-SAMA DESU!

 

Probably will never be able meet an idol, or go to a concert but did the second closest thing to it. I went to the AKB Cafe and Shop in Akihabara. Staff was very kind and even though they couldnt speak much English, made a nice effort to help me understand that one of the items (a really cool tenugui(?) towel) I wanted was sold out.

I decided to eat in the Cafe part, which was empty, except for me, and I got to sit anywhere I wanted. There were screens everywhere playing clips from concerts and MVs, Yasai Sisters and Love Trip came on.

I ordered a Cherry Mocha and Yukirin's desert, so I had a sugar overload, but the waitress kindly brought over a glass of water.

I was allowed to take pictures as long as there were no workers or other customers in the pictures, which was kind of easy since no one was there haha.

Very very fun experience. It felt like a pretty normal cafe, except with all the AKB decorations and extra things, which was nice. The dessert was pretty filling and was only 1000 yen, drink was 300 yen if I remember correctly, pretty okay pricing.

They had SKE,HKT, and NMB exclusive smoothies/drinks for takeaway, and you would get one of the coasters from that group you ordered, but unfortunately I didnt get one.

It was slightly harder to find than I expected because I used the Metro rather than JR, which have different exits and stuff.

10/10 experience ))

 

9/24-25 2016 NMB48 Boku wa Inai Kobetsu HS @ Intex Osaka
(AKB Kennin + Ex Kennin?)


This was like my first time ever attending a kobetsu handshake event in the Kansai area. I always preferred to attend the Kanto venues since it’s a lot closer to home and the fan attendance is always lower for NMB handshakes. For this single all the Kanto event dates were just all impossible for me which forced me to come to Kansai. Besides the location change it’s actually quite an interesting experience for me coming to Osaka for a NMB handshake. As you all know a lot of NMB’s fanbase is based in Osaka and you could really see that at the handshake. There was also a significantly higher female to male fan ratio in Osaka which was a nice delight. There were also a bunch of small details that I noticed but I won’t go into that since pretty much everyone that reads my reports will probably never understand anyway.


Day 1


Shiroma Miru









Yamamoto Sayaka






Day 2

Shiroma Miru











Yamamoto Sayaka

 

10/1-2 2016 AKB48 Love Trip Kobetsu HS @ Makuhari Messe

For this single they literally brought everything they had into this single's handshake events. Basically everything they thought received well during the Natsu Matsuri Surprise lanes.

Quick Break-down of the event types:

A) Premium Autograph Event (For members who have 5 slots per day, basically all senbatsu members + well hs sellers)

B) Babanuki (Old Maid)

C) 1Shot Video Recording Session.

D) 2Shot Selfie.

E) Voice Message Session.

I will not be covering all of those in details right now as I will explain when I actually do them. So basically member's slots are assigned one of these topics and you would apply which type of events you'd want to participate in it and on the day in the queue a lottery system like previous sign event will be in place. If you win you get to do the special event, if not, it's just a normal handshake.

1Shot Video Recording Session. (Winning Chance: 100 per slot, approx 20%)



Originally this was the event I was most excited about since I'd such a great experience with the one I had with Shu during the Natsu Matsuri. However it was a kind of a let down since for this event they actually have a list of topic/phrases you need to pick from and the members only have to say what's written on that. The reason I thought this was kind of lame since it's literally just you recording the girls saying the same 12 different phrases but just replaced with your name in it. To me this loses the whole point of recording your oshimen since it pretty much kills the personalities of your idols. Of course there are some members who are quite loose about this and would stray off and allowing fans to capture interesting moments. That being said I wasn't so lucky since I had most of my Video Recording Sessions for the first day so most of the girls ( and staffs) were quite rule abiding.

Shibuya Nagisa

http://vid1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg588/Sakuraism/Mobile Uploads/5411A186-E2D2-45D5-9D25-BC59BB9D4751_zpsaa22qqsp.mp4

Yoshida Akari

http://vid1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg588/Sakuraism/Mobile Uploads/6CDD0A74-2243-46A8-B7AD-28D32A545441_zpseilk8l90.mp4





2Shot Selfie (Winning Chance: 100 per slot. Approx 20%)

This one is pretty self explanatory. You win you get to take a selfie with the member. Fans must take the photo themselves and within the given time. Any issue with the photo will unfortunately be in your loss since retakes are not allowed. As much I love this, It's prolli also my worst nightmare. Considering how I share my 2shots often but I always found that shamekai (2shots) are always the most stressful for me. it's not so much taking photo with pretty girls that's making me nervous but rather the act of being in front of a camera. It's funny how my first 2shot selfie that I won was with Kojina Yui from HKT, man was I nervous. I was so nervous I happened to screw up both of my selfies with her just because my hands wouldn't stop shaking and giving me the blurriest photos ever. Ironically before we took it together Jiina was actually complimenting me on how I look like I would really be good at this lol.

Yoshida Akari






Yabushita Shu





Premium Autograph Event (Winning Chance: 20 per slot, Approx 5%)

This is exactly the same as previous Autograph events.

Shiroma Miru











Yamamoto Sayaka





Okada Nana

 

10/9 2016 AKB48 Love Trip Kobetsu HS @ Pacifico Yokohama

1Shot Video Recording Session. (Winning Chance: 100 per slot, approx 20%)

This time around I kind of gotten a better grasp of the event and I knew if I wanted to make it interesting I had to be creativity, break a little rule not too much but just enough to get the result I need.

Ishizuka Akari

https://twitter.com/andilee1989/status/784938732918931456

This was the first event ticket I used that day and man it was a great way to start. As you could see I didn't even had to say or write anything, right away she remembered part of our handshake a couple months back and picked up from there. I was especially impressed how well she made an English version of her catchphrase on the spot with VERY limited vocabs she had. It was funny and it came through and the number of RTs/Likes just don't lie, especially for a member of this caliber. At the end of the video she actually apologized to me that she really ain't good with languages and I told her it was totally fine lol.

Jonishi Kei

https://twitter.com/andilee1989/status/785033448658309120

Keicchi has always been the awkward one for me. She's a sweet girl but for some reason I feel uncomfortable around her and often not know what to say/respond to her. This was the main reason I stopped seeing her in the first place. As you could see in the video right when I walked in I blundered by almost calling her Shu but then I noticed half way I turned it to some combination of Shu and Shiet lol. In case you're wondering why she was reading the paper for so long, it's because I wrote something on there. In case you didn't know, that day was the day of NMB48 6th year anniversary and what could be more perfect than to get that from a 1st gen? lol

Yabushita Shu

https://twitter.com/andilee1989/status/785038762224914432

Need I say more? lol. Her face said so much. In fact right after the video she told me something like "You got a clip of my frozen face! loll" Since I stalled this video session quite a bit it actually ran into a lot of my handshake time so I got only a very brief moment to talk to her after.

I know some of you who are reading this probably also have event tickets for this single or who are actually in the application of one for the next single. I just want to mention that while it's okay to be creative but definitely play within the boundaries. Don't do something stupid and put both you and member in an awkward position. Know who and what you're trying to pull. There are some things that will just not receive well with certain members while okay with others. If not received well, it will just make you look like a jackass trying to yank on these members and it will definitely show in your videos. In short, use your own judgement. Don't do something you aren't comfortable in doing, because chances are it's saying something lol.

Premium Autograph Event (Winning Chance: 20 per slot, Approx 5%)

Shiroma Miru




Yamamoto Sayaka






Okada Nana