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.
lol at Antan remark. You definitely must pay her a visit next time, remind her of the guy who brought Milky PB to the theater. And Konomin, her point goes up in my score. If only I could help her somehow... Looking forward to your final post on Milky. No regret till the end!
I dont think that your chances were just because of luck. I believe on destined things. You and Milky will still have entangled lives after she graduates. You'll still be part of each other's lives.
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.
This Natsu Matsuri was "bad" because they took all the fan stuff of the last one and monetised them all. So instead of enjoying the day by using a bunch of Zenaku tickets, every single thing you did, you needed to pay for. Aki Matsuri will probably be better if only for the fact that they will probably fix the business card section so it wasn't a cluster*ck. I was looking at Shu's lane the whole day and it did look fun. A lot of people in my lane were looking at it longingly and wishing they could do that too lol
8/4 ,2016 NMB48 Boku wa Inai Nambashiki 3shot event @ Pacifico Yokohama If you’ve read one of my earlier reports this is the event that Milky suddenly announced she would partake in which will also be her last with NMB. Long long long ago before I’ve even started attending NMB events they always used to do 3shots until more recent years where they made it into 2shot. Well, they’re bringing it back again possibly also as part of the strategy for switching to fortunemusic for CD distribution. Anyway, unlike before where they split the girls into their teams this time in groups. You can say they are just balancing each group so you won’t see a significant drop in sales for a certain team like before for M. There are 4 groups and each group consist of just enough pairs to have 4 lanes. In short, if you have a ticket for a group you have pretty much 25% chance of winning the member you wanted to win. I came packing with as many Group 1 (Sayaka’s) and Group 2 (Milky’s) as I could possibly win for obvious reasons. These shamekai events (especially this one because you needed to handshake with 2 girls after) are always so rushed so you really don’t have much to say at all. SY: Ah!! An… *get’s interrupted by me* A: Uuka!!!! UK: ??? lollll (She was so confused like, who??) SY: …heh…heh.. *awkwardly laughs to herself* *takes photo* *handshakes with Uuka* UK: Thank you for coming~ A: Thank youuuuuu *handshakes with Sayaka* SY: Ureshii? Lol… ( Are you happy? Lol..) A: Nope, not really lol. SY: !? loll, what do u mean not relli! I was like damn I think she actually was slightly ticked off loll. A: Happy Birthday to Neon! Happy Birthday to Neon! *claps and sings* SY: Ah! Happy Birthday Neon! *sings along* A: Let’s all imitate Neon! SY: Okay! Wan! Wan Wan! Wan! (omggggg so cute-) *takes photo* *handshakes with isokana* IK: We’ve met before right? J (I was thinking like, mannnn bad timing! Loll) A: Er…Well lol… *handshakes with Sayaka* SY: Andy~~ *says it quietly and gives me a “I forgive u” look* SY: Andyyyyy! A: Let’s do a haato that can’t be reached lol. *takes a photo* *handshakes with konomin* KM: Oh, that was a unique pose! A: Was it? Lol *handshakes with Sayaka* SY: I miss you! (English) I decided to do a series where whenever I get Reinyan I will have the other girl bully her lol. Moka punch Reinyan-senpai Aapon showing who’s the real senpai in NMB Tsk, Reinyan Reinyan finally wen’t “ Now it’s my turn! Reverse punch!” as I walked in lol. Today was my first time ever talking to Momoka? To be quite frank I always avoided her cuz I felt she was intimidating for some reason. Well, she was surprisingly nice and polite to first time fans and it was quite pleasant! Naru, stop pretending you can actually think! Lol A: I’m from Canada, like Martin! (English) (referring to the Canadian guy in Tanieda English) AR: Oh! Thank! I love you! (Eng) A: Yeah? You love Martin too? (Eng) AR: Yeah! (Eng) Tanieda English is paying off, she’s speaking English so comfortably even though it’s crap English loll Finally the curse have been broken. My first EVER Milky 2shot. She been rejecting pretty much everyone if they ask for a haato pose but since it’s my first I WANTED TO TRY. A: Milkyyyyyy MK: Ahhh!! *waves* A: It’s my first Milkyyyyyyy. (She prolli thought I meant today, she didn’t even believe I never took one with her before) Can I get a haatooooo? MK: Hrm… No! (Eng) *turns away and face towards the camera and does haato by herself* A: >_> *takes a photo* *handshakes with Milky* MK: Wo Ai Ni! A: !? Nandeya! Lollll. Use English! Loll ( She’d never spoken Chinese to me ever) MK: *evil smirk* At the end of the day we sent her off again, this time singing yakusoku yo. Honestly it was getting kinda awkward because Milky was running outta things to say since this was like her 4th send off after an event loll.
8/5, 2016 NMB48 Boku wa Inai Release Event @ Tower Record Shibuya This event was basically to promote the release of the single. On the 2nd you had to queue up early in the morning and for every reg edition single you buy you will get this special event ticket. Each person can buy up to 3 since there are 3 sessions to this event. On the day you then use the National HS ticket inside the CD along with the special event ticket they issued to attend the event. Each session was only 30min long and consisted of the same basic 3 components; Free Talk, Mini Game, and Special Prize giveaway. As you can see from the line up they’re really pushing these 6 as the upcoming members to battle for NMB future center spot. if the video does not show watch the video here Session 1: This session was easily the most crowded one since there was a decent amount of media press and no one really knew what was going on so a lot of the fans attended. MC was some Yoshimoto talent. First they all did a self-introduction and interesting enough it was the perfect timing for Nagisa to announce that Shibuya is finally at Shibuya lol. For the Free Talk they slightly talked about the shooting in Thai and Fuuchan was like “ As you all noticed through the dance MV, I was not there (boku wa inai, playing with the single title).” She explained that the heat in Thai got to her. Shu commented that Fuuchan’s little portrait on the cover is like a kid who missed out on the field trip and they just added on in the year book loll. Shu was saying how like during the morning of the shooting everyone showed up except Fuuchan and no one (members) knew why and just started without her. They then showed a short making of Team N song that apparently wasn’t included on the DVD?? For the celebration of upcoming Rio Ceremony Opening (which was the next day ) all the Mini Games will have something to do with the Olympic. For this session the game was synchronized swimming. They were talking about how before the athletes jump into the pool they all have to do some kind of pose. The topic of the pose was “sexy”. First up was Riripon giving us a wide M spread leg according to her a tribute to YinLing-senpai loll. (a Taiwanese celeb that was famous for doing that in Japan) 2nd up was Yuuri, who I thought had the least variety effect but it’s okay she’s still young and learning. She just kinda sat down in a moe moe anime way lol. 3rd was Fuuchan and she gave us a leg split and then stood up gave us some Beyonce pose and ended with Fuuyonce taking over loll. Next batter up was Shu, this one took awhile to get started since she kept failing to put on the nose clip. The MC just brushed off saying cause Shu had a flat nose LOL. She just did an air pitching because her recent opening pitch. Everyone was all like “Hey, but today’s pose theme is sexy” and of course the KSGK just brushed it off being like, “hey I didn’t hear anything about that!” Nagisa went after Shu and I thought it was the funniest one of them all lol. She literally just walked up and did a quick hip movement with a “Whoosh!” sound affect. The MC was all like saying “oi oi, why is there a sound effect! Try again without it!” She did it again and the sound effect came out again loll. It was so dumb but it was brilliant loll. This left with Miru left and all the members were saying they’re expecting a lot from Miru since she’s like the sexy tantou and gravure queen lol. Miru walked up and kinda just moved her body around with bunch of AV noises loll. It was just dirty lollll. Anyway the MC just decided by himself that the winner will be decided between FuuMiru. Nagisa was all like “ erm, excuse me? What about us?” loll. The rest of the girls started to do their own pose on the side. The winner was Fuuchan and was awarded a golden chocolate medal. When she said she’s going to give it to her younger brother I thought to myself that it would never make it back to Osaka if she held on to it lol. The last corner was prize giveaway. The MC mentioned that there’s about 400 people here today but they didn’t actually prepare 400 number cards for the girls to pull out so each of the member will decide a number from 1-400 and the ticket holder with those numbers will get a poster signed by all of these 6 members. Fuuchan called 224 since her birthday is on 2/24, man this was my closest win of the day. I had 225 so the ossan in front of me got it lol. When they got to Nagisa she picked some retarded number at like 700s loll. The MC was like “there’s only up to 400, and all of you that went HAI HAI, was lying! Loll” Session 2 It’s funny this session has significantly less people compare to the first lol. Probably some people decided to not show up after knowing what the format was? I mean if you’re a girl or in general someone not tall it’s very hard to see the members on the stage lol. Same start but this time Nagisa didn’t mentioned the Shibuya is finally at Shibuya part. The MC was like, “you aren’t gonna do that thing?? Lol” so Nagisa did it again and was like, “but now it’s exactly the same as previous session” loll. This time they talked a little more about the Thai shooting. Miru was talking about how she accidentally stepped on dog poop in Thailand and like a kid she was like trying to scrap it off and random thai peep laughed at her loll. The Nagishu pair started making fun of Miru like, “now recalling..i was wondering why your shoes was kinda like brown..” LOL. This time they showed some bonus Making footage of Team M’s MV. There was one scene where Miru was beside the dude in the mv and the audience were getting all rowdy lollll. For the Mini Game this time it’s was Mini Golf. The brought out the little strip of golf carpet. MC was asking if any of the members played golf before and Shu proudly said that her grandma has one in her yard and she often plays on it. Nagisa butts in saying that she has a carpet similar to this at home and Shu tsukkomi-ed her saying that’s a pretty bad taste in carpet selection loll. They had like 1 chance to get the ball into the hole. Shu volunteers to go first with such confidence and she overshoots and the ball went all the way across the stage lol. Only Nagisa and Miru got in the hole but funny enough everyone all got REALLY close to the hole which kinda left Shu being like wtf??? Loll. In the end Miru won (ojou-sama prolli was the only one there who played legit golf rofl) ,winning the same gold medal that Fuuchan had previously. Shu made a remark saying that this is pretty much like the Olympic game here and the MC told her to not take the real Olympic games so lightly loll. The Prize Giveaway was the same and Nagisa made the same over the 400 numbering mistake lol. This time it was funny because some of the members were like “hrmm, wut number should I pick?” and the crowd would just shout out their own numbers LOL. Session 3 By this session I’m already tired as hell and there was a sofa at the very back of the room so I just decided to chill there and watch on the TV screen lol. This talk they mentioned a bit about Milky. Nagisa told this one time she was complimenting on how cute Milky is and asked Milky if there’s a part of her that’s not good. Milky replied, “ nope, there isn’t” loll. That unbeatable confidence They then started talking about filling her spot and taking up the next center position talk. The MC asked who’s ready and up to the task and all 6 members raised their arms. Miru then said, “I think everyone here today have that thought in mind”. I don’t know, but hearing something like this makes me feel a little assured that in the near future perhaps Sayaka can really leave the group up to them. The last mini game of the day is about 100m dash. They were talking about world record is close to 10 secs so the girls had to hold a timer without looking, pretend to dash and stop the timer when they think they’re close to the 10sec mark. The member with the closest time will be the winner lol. At this point they noticed that so far the only team we have won medals are team M so no matter what N and BII needed to hustle lol. Everyone was pretty off mark until they got to Nagisa and Nagisa got to something like 9. something secs, which was really close lol. At this point Nagisa thought she’d finally won a medal for BII, until Miru anyway lol. Miru was only like .2 secs or something closer which let team M dominated all 3 Olympic games today lol. Shu brushes off their losing by saying “it’s okay to lose at such a small venue” LOL. To be honest the event itself was pretty dull and boring when you think about it but the interactions of these 6 members made it really entertaining. I must also say Nagisa is getting really good at using her dumb chara quality and make her MC that much more entertaining. I might be biased since Yuuriripon are my least favorite members here but I felt like they were the least outperforming members at this event. Riripon’s Yinling was hilarious but I felt like she fell outta the radar after that session. Yuuri is still young and definitely has the least experience of the 6 here so it’s also some what expected. I wonder how @zeroshiki felt about Yuuri’s performance that day? Either way I’m glad I went to this event with these 6 members there. I really could feel a strong sense of competition fighting for the next “spot”. Photos belong to Model Press.
I thought Nagishuu sucked all the air out of the room and other than the Fuuyonce bit, Fuu didn't do anything. Miru only got to talk because she was technically the representative of the group that day. Yuuri is normally bad at talking but this day was especially bad lol but I was surprised Riripon and Fuu couldn't get a word in either.
Wow, finally Fuuchan answered her reason of disappearance. I got it. Gomen ne Fuu. I guess Riripon MC skill was not accustomed to this kind of show yet?
@Doodleboy First sentence was regarding how Fuuchan disappear in BwI dance MV. Second one was how Riripon doesn't get shining at above event(should have said that instead of show), despite how she has good MC skills. Hope it clears the confusion.
8/13: 2016 AKB48 Handshake Event @ Makuhari Messe I figured that with the event happening during summer vacation, I'd be able to meet up with friends in Tokyo and do the handshake so that leaving my island would be somewhat worth it. I kept telling myself I'd get back into NMB, but I still didn't really pay attention, and so this date came up really quick. In fact, I didn't even know how many tickets I had and for who. I arrived in Tokyo on 8/12 and had dinner with some friends, and when I got back to my airbnb I don't remember getting to bed, I just remember passing out. I woke up really groggy, had no idea when I was supposed to go and where it was. Then I looked at my first few tickets and realized that they were both half slots in slot 1, and I might miss them because of how long it would take to get there. Damn. I got ready super fast and just barely made it for that slot. They closed the half slots at 10:30 and I think I was handing over my tickets at like 10:28. --- Slot 1: Jo Eriko Since Aika's graduation, I haven't really followed much NMB at all, but Jo was my second favorite, so I bought a bunch of tickets. One of the reasons I like her a lot is because she's so opposite my personality, it's a nice fresh perspective on life. Whereas I'm aloof, grumpy, always tired, and more cerebral, Jo is always cheery and has a great smile and tends to run more on emotion. Still, I didn't really know what to say and I was slightly confused. Since this was my first handshake in a really long time, I didn't really have a good concept of how much time I had, nor did I really have a topic on hand. Also, despite living here for a year and conversing in Japanese daily, I'm still super nervous whenever I actually have to speak in Japanese. While that end part about me crying might seem hilarious in written form, it was more like me being nervous and trying to come up with stuff to say and being super deadpan about it so it was actually awkward. --- Koga Narumi I'm pretty sure I got tickets just to troll her, so I just decided to speak English. Not the best handshake by me. I question my decision to use English. Since I'm Asian, some people think I'm Japanese, so if I speak English they might think I'm some Japanese guy randomly speaking English. Oh well. --- Slot 2: Akashi Natsuko I bought a few tickets for her because when I went to Aika's graduation stage she seemed to make a lot of eye contact and I thought she was a nice girl so I gave it a shot. I forgot to mention that this day I also wore a Cookie Monster T-Shirt I bought at USJ during spring vacation. I was caught off guard by her thanking me for buying a shirt at USJ. Had I been less panicked, I probably should've said something about the Harry Potter outfit... which, as I walking back out, I saw a guy coming in in full Gryffindor gear to match. Damn, son. --- Nakano Reina Rachel's always been one of those girls that I think is really cool and talented but doesn't seem to be anyone's top pick, so I gave her a shot. For some reason I thought she was Eiken 3kyuu so I spoke a little English. I'm not a particular fan of the crappy English "I love you" from idols, but I probably flustered her by speaking English in the first place and only having two tickets. She seemed cool though, like if I got a bunch more tickets we could have a decent conversation. --- Slot 3: Ishizuka Akari @Sakuraism told me to get some tickets so we could renban her. I've never done renban before, aside from that incidental time I went with another friend for Renapyon and she kept asking if me and that girl were a couple, and that was only with 1 ticket each. I had a handshake with her before also, but I don't remember it other than her being really loud. This was actually my favorite handshake of the weekend. Before we got to her booth (she was all the way in the corner) she was sitting down and seemed really bored. Since no one else was in line, Andi and I looped nonstop. I actually did not see the breakdown she had when she wanted cookies or something, so I missed some awkwardness, lol. Some time in between, Andi used a bunch of tickets and would also talk about how we're both English teachers (Anchu was like, "Oh, that's why his English is so good!") and he would teach her some different phrases in English and French. Maybe that's the difference between 40 tickets and 5, lol. I glanced at the small line that was starting to form and you could see her other fans straight up laughing at it. Finally, I lined up for the last time. Amusingly, I remember her apologizing to other fans that her handshake accidentally became English hour, lol. Yeh, that last one was kind of a waste. But I felt good about the handshake, because it really did feel like we made her day and got her all excited about things. Probably moreso Andi than me, since my conversation game seems comparatively weaker. But yeah, it's definitely these kinds of things where you feel like you made an impact on their day that just makes you feel good as a person. --- Uemura Azusa Having not paid attention for a while, I didn't realize how popular she was. Of the aforementioned members, she was probably the one with the longest line. It wasn't *that* long (maybe 5 minutes at the most), but longer than any of the other lines I had been in. I was also a little taken aback with how adorable she was in real life, since except for Rachel I had seen all the other members up close before. I think I was actually visibly upset that she didn't even attempt to beatbox for me, and I think she also felt really bad when she saw how upset I was. Wow, I really sucked at this one and I kinda regretted how I handled it. That was my last handshake for the day, so I saw myself out. Towards the end of the day and thanks to that Anchu handshake, I actually got a much clearer idea over how I wanted my handshakes to go, a better concept of how much time I actually had, and how to have a better conversation, and hopefully I would take that and have a much better time for the following day.
8/14: 2016 AKB48 Handshake Event @ Makuhari Messe I spent the last night reliving my college days by playing a bunch of Tekken, Beatmania IIDX, and DDR MAX 2 at Akiba with one of my best friends, and barely made it for the last train home. Like the previous day, I messed myself up when it came to sleeping, but at least I looked at my tickets for the next day and knew that I had only 1 person in Slot 1, and it was a full slot. I also knew where to go and which line to take. That said, it was another photo finish. --- Slot 1: Kato Yuuka I used my time on the train trip to try and figure out what to say, but I couldn't come up with anything. The election results were really awful for her so I didn't want to bring that up. Yeah, that didn't quite go so well. At the ended I wanted to ask what her expectations were for the upcoming concert series that won't have Sayaka (or Milky) but I just ran out of time. Also, according to @zeroshiki she hasn't been too great ever since the election. --- Slot 2: Jo Eriko (Her resemblance to Sayaka is becoming more and more uncanny) I had some topics in mind in case I was trapped, but since I noticed she was next to Kinoshita Momoka's lane and she's really good friends with her, I decided to try and get something out of it. I enjoy these reactions, they feel more natural and spontaneous and less... idol-y? I guess. I felt pretty good about this one and I was smiling about it for most of the day. I looped her again. It only occurred to me after this that I remembered that I bought that one DVD where she did a skit with the ugly guy from Nonstyle. I suppose I could've asked her about that later. Either way, this was a chill conversation, but I would've preferred something more spontaneous like the last one. It seems really weird to be asking about their dreams when I've known about them for years. --- Kamieda Emika I had planned on renban with @Sakuraism for this one, but he got stuck in another girl's line because that girl had to make up the prior handshakes that she missed because she was sick. I was planning on hedging Andi's many tickets to explain my ridiculousness, but that didn't happen. So first I decided to troll her. I'm not sure how I felt about this. I probably did make her laugh or at least completely puzzled, but it didn't seem as good natured as it did in my head. I then planned on coming back and speaking poor Japanese-styled English, but for the first time in the handshake events the person checking my ID said I needed to stamp my tickets, so I had to run to information to do it and then I had no more time to loop, so I had to use the remaining 4 tickets at once. I do feel a little bit bad about this question, because it was kind of difficult and not really a question you're prepared to answer on the spot with the handshake time limit. Maybe if I had more, I would've been able to get a better response. Ideally, I wanted to ask if there's anything I can do to make English better for my students, but I didn't get the time to. I also personally found it humorous that an idol was telling me how bad English teaching is in Japan, because of some personal experiences with other teachers here, but that's a private story. --- Slot 3: Shibuya Nagisa I flip-flop a lot on Nagisa, second to former member Milky. At times she's brilliant and hilarious and even talented (I like her singing in Niji no Tsurikata). Maybe the handshake would give me a better idea of how it's supposed to be? In some ways this is totally expected, yet a bit disappointing. I wanted more dumb reactions and silly stuff, not flirty stuff. I guess it can't be helped, I only had one ticket. --- Murase Sae Again, the plan was to renban with @Sakuraism but the difference in tickets was worse than Anchu. I had 2 and Andi had 50-something. Unlike Anchu, I don't really know much about Sae and was not really much of her fan, and I think Andi was in the same boat but said Sae's reaction was pretty cool. Yeah, that didn't really go well. Andi used a bunch of tickets and basically talked about me for some reason, or at least that's what he said, telling her that I'm an English teacher from Tsushima in Nagasaki and stuff. Loop 2: The staff member here was more aggressive than the others. The other girls they'd just tap my shoulders or guide me with my lower back, but this guy grabbed both my shoulders and gave me a push that I could feel. That made me more nervous so I didn't want to turn around. Andi then spent like 10 minutes or so talking to her, and from what I could tell Sae seemed really cool. Like you could tell she actually listened, and when she laughed it seemed more natural... like the way she reacted was the way normal Japanese people laugh and not idols. (He later told me it was because he told her he hated Justin Bieber, lol.) Anyway, that was cool. After the handshake I actually had a somewhat long conversation with Andi about handshakes and renban and how it's nice to have more people in the conversation, it makes the girl happier and it gives a unique spin on the handshake. And Sae has this kind of aura where she seems more genuine as opposed to the more idol-like reactions, so being able to do that with just 2 tickets was a pleasant surprise. I kept wishing I had more, though. I had actually planned on lining up for my slot 4 as soon as possible and then leaving, but I ended up talking with Andi for a good half hour or so about the events. I have to hand it to him, every time I go to a live event with him I feel like I always discover stuff that I'm missing that I can't get through typical foreigner fans, and it makes whatever event that much more fun. --- Slot 4: Yabushita Shu With my last ticket, and understanding what I was able to do with the last 3 single tickets, I kinda knew what I was in for and knew I wasn't going to get much out of this, so I just said really simple things. Yeah, that wasn't much but at least I was able to say what I wanted, so I felt pretty good about that. And that was the end of this handshake. --- Reflections: When I finally got the hang of things, it was already over. What to say, how to say it, how much time you have, how much latitude with the rules you have (I was too nervous to talk to them on the way out), how many tickets is a good amount... unfortunately, it was over before I knew it. I felt like I got a good reaction out of Jo because I saw her both days. Since this is a foreigner board, I guess we're kinda resigned to the fact that we usually get like one shot and then don't see them for years, but having that kind of pull where you're a "regular" actually seems to make it much more smooth for both of you. It does make me want to go to more events... the problem being, I want to go with friends, and all my friends in Tokyo, and it's about 2x-3x the cost to get to Tokyo for me than to Osaka. Being able to renban with Andi was pretty nice. It feels more like a group thing, and especially because we can play off the whole angle of being foreigner fans, it's nice for the girls too to know that foreigners are teaming up to meet with them and get to know them better. Especially for someone like Anchu, it seemed that we really made her day, and her fans also got to experience "Everyday Anchu". I'd like to come back sooner than later though... maybe I can fit something in the fall.
@joooooooooe There's a Boku wa Inai resale today(tomorrow?) I have tickets for Osaka on the 23rd. There are also a bunch of Love Trip/Boku wa Inai events in October in Tokyo that me and Andi will be going to. Aki Matsuri is on November 3rd but not sure if there are tickets left (there probably are). If you tell me which girl, I could renban with you on the re-sale.
The 23rd? Why not the 22nd? I might be able to do it, but I know 6th anniversary is going to be somewhere around there... Man, tough decisions to be made
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 Ishizuka Akari renban-ed w/ @joooooooooe Spoiler: Everyday Anchu Conclusion: Man, I wish there was a way for me to show how crazy and insane her handshake is lol. It may not seem like it in my report but she actually talk like a machine gun. In order to talk you actually have to talk on top of her loll. She was just as great as she was a year ago~ Fujie Reina Spoiler: Reina Usse Conclusion: Reina is such a vet at handshake like I've mentioned a yr ago. Talking to her feels really calm your nerves because it feels like she's always in control and won't make your convo feel awkward.
8/13-14 2016 AKB48 Tsubasa Iranai Kobetsu HS @ Makuhari Messe (Part 2.) WIP. Murase Sae Spoiler: Murasense Conclusion: After this handshake I feel that there's something about Saeppi's handshake that makes it feel really genuine like Sayaka's.
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.
