Your SKE48 Experiences

Well, it seems that my policy of always attacking, no matter what the odds pays off.

2019年07月29日(月) 18:30～ 「重ねた足跡」公演　大谷悠妃生誕祭

This was a low probability event in my eyes since it was Yuuyu’s seitansai and my canmachi had number 70. However, as my policy is to always go for canmachis and it has worked so far, of course I set course towards Sakae.

Once I got to the site, it started looking worse, as there was a lot more people present than what was at last canmachi. Anyway after a while there was a cheer as the staff annouced EVERYONE IN. I was at the end of the line, not the last but not far from it, so I knew my view would be ”Can’t see shit, Captain”-level but I like Yuuyu for her smug face so just being there was worth it.

The stage is well known so I’ll go for my notes:
- Damn that Kano’s smile lights up the theater all the way to the furthest end.
- Suzuran is adorable and funny and I hope her time as an idol reaches Yukirin-obasan levels
- The little I was able to see Aiai, she was solid as always
- Miyomaru is more preferable center for Natasha, than Chikako
- Also, FRUSTRATION Chikako-center < Kano-center
- Hajimete no Jelly Beans and Houkago Race never fail to make me feel good

After the stage, I had to get to Nagoya Station ASAP to make it to last Hikaris and tomorrow it is morning flight to Fukuoka!

 

Once again, cancel machi shenanigans!

2019年08月01日(木) 18:00～ 「青春ガールズ」公演

This one I went in rather confident. I had canmachi 45 which while not optimal, for Seishun Girls is good enough. And I was not wrong. There was in total about 20 people waiting for canmachis of which 3 after me which leads me to think that ippans don’t really bother with Seishun Girls canmachis. Which is a shame, since it is a very good stage and 9th gen girls are cute. Anyway, 10 people got to join the lottery, not including yours truly, and then the rest of us moseyed in. I had a good spot next to the camera, which meant I had a completely unrestricted view of the right side of the stage, and the left was mostly blocked by taller people. However I was satisfied and then it was time to wait for the stage to start. BTW the standing area was so lightly crowded some people could chill by the door where was room to actually dance, which they did.

Notes:
- Hinano pumped out another solid performance
- Yuzupo I have started to like but this time she was unfortunately rather invisible
- Older Kotono got loud calls from the people standing, not as loud as Hinano
- More 9th gens are growing on me, for example Kimie but Kaenyan a lot more


Next up: TIF tyme!

 

Well well, once again we learn how circumstances change with the times.

2019年08月05日(月) 18:00～ ＳＫＥ４８研究生「青春ガールズ」公演

This one I went confidently, after all it was Seishun Girls, my canmachi number was as low as 18 and previous week had shown that not many people show up for Seishun Girls canmachis. Well, this time it was rather different, as there was 36 people who showed up as opposed to 20 last week and only 3 got into lottery instead of 10. Anyway, everybody who showed up got in, as the rear area holds quite a few people it seems, but even with my low canmachi number I had rather bad visibility. Also, the concert did not start well for me as I dropped a lightstick on the ground (from a massive height of about one metre) with catastrophic outcome and now I ”need” a new SKE-branded one.

This time I went with slight curiousity, as Hinano wasn’t around, so I could focus on other members. It was rewarding experience, only issue being a LOUD fan right by my right ear. First time I’ve actually resorted to covering my ear in such situations, even if the dude was calling same names as I, such as Kaenyan and Narupii.

Notes:
- Have I mentioned before Kaenyan is adorable?
- Narupii has clearly potential even if KII has other bigger hitters I’d prefer to see
- Kimie center for FRUSTRATION was not bad at all but of course cannot yet compete with centers like Naochan or Kanochan
- Cinderella wa damasarenai is a brilliant way to end a stage on a high note

 

I attended my 2nd national handshake event earlier today at Port Messe Nagoya.

I made it to the mini live. SKE does not disappoint!

I only had two tickets so I lined up for Jurina's lane and the lane Ryoha shared with Ego Yuna and Mizuki Tanabe.

Aside from being popular, I now realize why Jurina does well in handshake: she makes everyone feel that she really is happy to see you. Her "happy face" does not go away in between each fan's turn.

And in my short time with her, including the moment after she already let go of my hand since the staff already tapped my shoulder, I was able to tell her I'm from Manila (she said, "hontou?") and quickly said it's my birthday tomorrow. She was able to say omedetou and see you again as I was leaving. Now that was worth the ticket.

As for the set of 3, I was able to tell Mizuki I'm from Manila, and she said "sugoi". I'm not really familiar with her but I did find her pretty. She has the "celebrity glowing skin", lol.

Ego Yuna was okay I guess. Admittedly, it wasn't really memorable. She is also pretty but she doesn't have the "glowing skin" celebrities have, lol.

As for Ryoha, my impression before that she's beautiful stays. She really is pretty. I congratulated her and she said thank you.
Here's the thing though, the moment she let go of my hand, she immediately went back to her blank, serious face. Like sure, I know it's likely that for most of these ladies, this is just a job and possibly not as excited as they are showing to meet the fans, but seeing Ryoha's blank face that quickly made me feel bad a little.

Anyway, I was able to get a Jurina photo in the trading area.

I also wrote messages for Ryoha, Lala, and Nojima Kano.

Over-all, it was a fun experience. It was also nice to stroll a bit near Legoland, lol.

 

More on this later but I am now a member of the elite club of people slapped by their oshimen. (Very lightly of course and on the back of my hand but still.)

 

This nails it. The way certain girls make it feel like ”I think it is awesome that YOU of all people came to see me today!” Naochan, Naachan and Dasu rule at it. Then there are some girls I’ve shook hands once and would think twice before spending another ticket on since they did not care at all.

edit: gotta add Hinano to the list.

 

Well well, I am back where I belong which today meant Sakae:

12/5(月) SKE48 チームS「愛を君に、愛を僕に」公演 石塚美月生誕祭

This win was not a surprise, as I had a 98/100 lying around from before Covid, somehow it had not been timebombed in any way. Having lost both shows from the previous weekend I was not unhappy having spent the 98/100 on this stage, because a) There was Hinano and b) seitansais are fun, even if I did not really know the member whose seitansai it was.

Anyway, I slept like shit thanks to jet lag etc, got into shinkansen, tried to sleep more, loaded up with coffee, went to theater.

For the reference, I know of no other way for people not living in Japan getting to see SKE except a) a Mobal SIM or b) borrowing some local person’s number for SMS activation. I do recommend Mobal since it is a one-time investment and the e-ticket app activation (formerly known as EMTG) has now survived 2 phone changes and me not having had that number in years and it works flawlessly.

Anyway, good side in it is that you see your seat few days ahead of time. I had C-row so I was expecting good visibility from 3rd row but not perfect… until I entered the theater and it turned out that A-row is kept empty so I actually had bangin’ visibility and the girls noticed a well dressed gaijin too.

First thing out of the way:「愛を君に、愛を僕に」is a very nice stage. I daresay the title song is the weakest in the set, or close to it at least.

The to specifics:
- Hot damn Hinano is awesome. She has masses of stage charisma, she has the looks and I haven’t found any faults within her. Will buy tickets for her, not the least because she is on my shortlist for new oshi. (Other top contender is Miyomaru, so a Team S stage had a lot of potential but I haven’t yet seen them next to each other.)
- My opinion of Chikako was not low, but she wasn’t on my radar that much but that changed today
- Ru-chan was all in all great, as were Yoshino and Marin
- Wait wut Momona is growing up?
- Nanami was entertaining but she did not do herself favors with her current ’do
- Kimie and Ayukapyon were there, they did well but (for me) they didn’t stand out much, unlike
- Yuzupo goddamn - I need to buy her tickets because if her HS is as awesome as she is on stage I might end up on her line a lot.
- Birthday girl I did not know that well but she did her part quite well

Afterwards all was said and done, it was time for omiokuri and even when wearing mask that covers half of face gaijins do get extra attention. Compared to my previous stage at Namba, SKE girls gave a lot more though.

Afterwards got out, bought my memorial photo, got to Nagoya station and jumped to shinkansen to tell my story.

Next up: Kyushu!

 

Well well, since nobody else bothers to I need to keep up the Stage48 SKE48 fort:

3/18(土) SKE48 チームS「愛を君に、愛を僕に」公演 都築里佳劇場最終公演

This one started off rather challenging as I was still jetlagged to hell after consecutive business trip and flight to Japan. Obviously I did not let it stop me as this was a) last time Piyosu will be there and more importantly b) had both Hinano and Miyomaru there and since they are my top 2 for new oshimen I wanted a chance to advance in the selection process. Or so I thought.

I turned out to have crap seats on the J row which is the last seating row (except now standing area has chairs and social distancing). I didn’t have super visibility, but it was quite enjoyable as usual.

- Piyosu was solid of course, since it was her last time
- Marin good as usual, as was Ru-chan and Yuzupo
- Miyomaru vs. Hinano is slightly veering towards Hinano in my book, she seems to shine more energy or something
- Yuuyu and Himetan showed up to see Piyosu off

Good stage, nice farewell for Piyosu and off to miokuri. Here I was enjoying the usual gaijin boost as everyone noticed that whitey was coming before I reached them… and suddenly my top2 become top3 as Himetan pulled MEGA POWER FISHING move with a perfectly timed skillful wink and I was caught. So seems my qualifying rounds in future handshakes will become even more difficult.

Afterwards you know the drill: buy photo->GTFO-> write my story for Internet to enjoy.

I do love these times when non-AKB stages are actually easy to win, if one is able and willing to manage the convoluted messes of the various ticketing systems. Good ol’ Ticket Center was happiness.

 

I'll be in Nagoya for 72 hours towards the end of next month and all being well I'll be able to contribute to this thread as I've tickets for a Coming Flavor 'handover' event at HMV Sakae where I'll get to meet Hinano and Miyomaru among others.

However that was easy for me to win and the tickets are paper ones which I've already received from my forwarder. I'll explain my problem with 'the convoluted messes of the various ticketing systems' in this spoiler:

Spoiler: Theater ticket applications

The problem for me is that SKE concerts and theater shows all seem to require e-tickets. Concerts are done through Ticket Pia which needs a JP phone number for registration let alone receiving tickets. I've been thwarted up to now in buying tickets for the Spring Concerts in Tokyo because of this (even though tickets are now available FCFS for 2 of the 3 shows here). It looks like it's similar for theater tickets except that they're done through Tixplus which I think at least allows applications from abroad but delivery of e-tickets can only be done via JP phone numbers.

@Tuhis Is there any way round this or is there no solution without buying a sim card in Japan? I really don't want to swap out my UK sim card (except perhaps for very brief periods) as potentially I'll need to be contactable pretty much 24/7 on my usual number. (I'm planning to use an eSIM for data in Japan.)

 

So what you want to do is either 1) find a Japanese person with a phone number you can use for this or 2) Throw your wallet at the problem. What I’d do is get a 30-day Mobal SIM that has talk and SMS, and use it to sign up to a lot of services. I used that to sign up to EMTG(now Tixplus) and that activation has now followed me to third phone via backups. If you don’t want to change the sim on your existing phone, you can get a cheap burner phone for 50€, you won’t need smartphone features for activation, only SMS.

It will not be cost-effective but if you wish to see SKE stages, then that’s your lot.

Also there are convenient things on e-tickets, like knowing your seat in advance and if seat is crap, you can put the ticket up for trade.

Good luck for applying!

EDIT: I am hearing now that signing up on tixplus works just fine on foreign numbers. I have no personal experience so YMMV.

 

Aaaaand once again I’m here:

3月20日(月) SKE48 チームE「SKEフェスティバル」公演 林美澪生誕祭

I don’t recall seeing Team E or SKEフェスティバル before, so I was quite happy that I prioritized SKE. I had actually won a HKT ticket for the same evening but that might happen when there is not a central site such as good ol’ Ticket Center.

SKEフェスティバル is a very good stage IMHO, with plenty of songs I like, especially the title song, and now that we can finally do fan chants again, most of the pre-Covid charm is back. I had a good ticket with an E row seat without any basketball players in the rows before me so visibility was great too.

Few notes:
- Birthday girl made it obvious why she’s also Center Girl, as she is damn good in all aspects.
- Kaenyan awwwwwwwww she is so adorable and unbearably cute. But she did make even a sexy unit work so there are plenty of sides to her. Will buy tickets in the future to get to know her better.
- Kumachan sure knows how to recover from a fumble. She also ticks a lot of boxes for me.
- Tani does her best to be lulzy, sometimes it works
- most other girls were solid performers too

Afterwards the usual drill with the photos and here I am. Next up: 3 days of Namba!

 

Aaaand now it is time to wrap up a pretty damn awesome week with a total of 7 stages in 9 days. (I won 8 but unfortunately I did not clone myself on time.)

3/25(土) SKE48 「手をつなぎながら」公演

It is obviously better to know the members in advance before you go to a stage. Just because you have less new information to process while trying to enjoy, and for me SKE is by far the easiest. There wasn’t too many new members for me, and I was able to focus on having a good time. Te wo tsunaginagara also being high on my list on enjoyable stages also didn’t hurt.

Also, I noticed that before Covid there was always someone striking a conversation when they noticed a gaijin fan, but during my last trip nobody did and that was a bit of a bummer. This trip was looking like same but fortunately yesterday at HKT and today at SKE so that was nice.

Anyhow, the stage itself is a classic by now so I can focus on the members. And I sure enjoyed myself. Funnily my seat was exactly the same seat as the last time on E row, with no huge guys blocking my view… or girls’ view of me and it turns out there is a change of being noticed from E row too. Also, it did seem to me that the audience was loudest this week.

Obvious things out of the way first: Yuzupo and Yokonyan are mega-solid. They always manage to radiate happiness like nobody else.
- Himetan obviously remembered me from last time at miokuri and there was bidirectional winking going
- Ito Miki goddamn. She’s so good so quickly. Blew me away being so natural. (Also she and Himetan look damn good in the Ame no Pianist outfits.)
- Naayan I actually kinda fell for, she was quite charming but she did not get the loud calls I thought she should have
- Ayukapyon being most senior was lulzy but she has been there for quite a while.
- Kimie rock solid and clearly has confidence as a performer
- Fuyuppi struck me as the one who takes herself least seriously. She has constantly great facial expressions and just seems like having fun constantly.
- Nakasaka Miyu I haven’t come across that much but she clearly has a good eye that reaches at least E row.
- Out of the new faces Anzu was the brightest for me. Will keep an eye out in the future.

Afterwards bought photo, got back to hotel and now time to share my tale. This was a lovely ending to a busy week, hopefully I can manage to continue this winning streak next time I’ll be in Japan. Looks like I’ll focus on Nagoya-Osaka-Fukuoka axis in the future, since there seems to be plenty of happiness to be had.

 

My first event report here for 4 years and I had two in one day!

Shachifure 1st single 'handover' event - HMV Sakae

I saw this event advertised a couple of months ago and as I knew I'd be in Japan this time I applied for 2 slots. Basically one ticket was issued per CD bought and each one allowed meeting 3 members as well as receiving something although it wasn't clear what it was. However I wanted to meet Hinano and Miyo, and this would enable that to happen for me. As expected screens were in place but members weren't wearing masks.

Slot 4: HARUKA, YU-KI & HINANO

I've been something of a fan of Team Shachi for a number of years and Haruka has been my oshimen so it was great to meet her and to tell her that. I was quickly moved on to Yuki who I don't really know so I just said she was 'kawaii' before again being quickly moved on to Hinano. As I said in her thread earlier she really is as stunningly beautiful as I'd expected but I just didn't have enough time to say much, she didn't understand what I was saying in Japanese (the mask didn't help) so I just finished by saying 'Nice to meet you' and 'Thank you' in English.

Of course I then remembered that in person meetings are a little different to online ones in that you have less time! I also remembered that standing your ground against the 'pusher' for a couple of extra seconds is usually good policy so I did that for the second slot.

Slot 5: ENA, MIYO & NAO

I actually mentioned Ena in my report upthread from SKEBINGO in 2019 in that she stood out for me among the KKS as being very pretty and indeed she sure is! Again I just said she was 'kawaii' before moving on to Miyo and bloody hell she's tall! She had to bend down under the top of the screen to speak to me, and as far as beauty is concerned IMO she's very close to Hinano. I told her I was from London and I'd be going to the Team S concert in Tokyo on 5/5. Finally it was Nao who for me is Team Shachi's top beauty and again I told her I'd been a fan since 2015.

And that should have been that - but for some reason there was nobody behind me, and if that happens at 'in person' events you can often 'steal' a few extra seconds, and that happened today as Miyo called after me to ask me if I'd really come from London so I said 'yes' and all 3 members looked very surprised! But then finally I had to go.

BTW these are the 'business cards' I received from each member:



And now to today's main event:

SKE48 Theater - Team E Stage - Fukushi Nao Seitansai

My first ever SKE Theater win - and it was at a weekend - and it was a seitansai! (On Donchan's actual birthday too!) Also luckily it was the only show scheduled while I'm in Nagoya so I was very grateful to win even though I was in the last row.

Outside the Theater there was a display for Donchan's birthday and photos of today's cast:



I'd hoped that Mirei would be there but no matter, at least Oochan was who IMO is SKE's best stage performer and my opinion hasn't changed today. However Makiko's solo performance of 'Oteage Lullaby' was excellent as was Maayan centering '1994-nen no Raimei'. One performer who really stood out for me was Honono who I've never really noticed before, she was also good at MCs.

There was a nice moment during a break between songs when KKS member Morimoto Kurumi came on stage alone and introduced herself to the audience. She was rather shy but she was also included at the very end when all the members took a bow.

But before that there was a birthday presentation for Donchan with Oochan and Hatagon giving her a bouquet and a cake and then Kaho read out a letter to her. Finally a character called Sanomaru who represents her home city of Sano in Tochigi came on stage and later tweeted some photos on her official account:
https://twitter.com/sanomaru225/status/1650108604870184960



And very finally it was time for the goodbye wave while the members sat at the front of the stage. As @Tuhis said in his reports, 'gaijin' always seems to attract attention lol. As I was seated at the far end of the last row I was the fourth-last person to walk past the members and I decided to slow things down a little. I made sure I namechecked and thanked all of my favourite members including Oochan, Kumachan, Saho, Mayaan and Hatagon, but following those was 10th Gen member Sawada Kanon whose name I'd completely forgotten and she looked rather crestfallen when 'gaijin' didn't call out to her. I'm truly sorry!

But finally I came to Donchan and there was nobody behind me so WTH, I spent about 8-10 seconds wishing her a Happy Birthday and thanking her and congratulating her in Japanese and English, and I received back a very nice big smile from her. It was almost like a free HS with her!

And that was it! A very wonderful and magical couple of hours I'll never forget. Now on to Namba for tomorrow night's fun...

 

Team S Spring Concert 2023 - Line Cube Shibuya 5/5

Originally I'd hoped to attend all 3 SKE48 Spring Concerts this week but I was thwarted by it being impossible to apply from abroad without a JP phone number. By the time I arrived in Japan and got a simcard the Team KII and E concerts had sold out but I was still able to grab a ticket for tonight's show.

Before entering I took a photo of the flower displays at the venue:



Not surprisingly as it was a late purchase my seat was at the back of the very top level but I still had a reasonably good view. After a pre-show with 3 songs from KKS members the main concert included SKE singles such as Aozora Kataomoi, Zettai Inspiration, Stand By You, Oki Doki and Sansei Kawaii as well as AKB48's 10nen Zakura.

In the encore, Makiko came on stage to announce the 12th Gen auditions and Request Hour and 15th Anniversary concerts at the end of September. Anan and Momotan said their goodbyes as it was their last concert before graduating. The encore finished with Ai wo Kimi ni, Ai wo Boku ni from the new Team S stage.
It was my final live event of my current trip to Japan and it made a nice finale.

 

Well well, finally I am back with my core business, SKE!

7月24日（月）「手をつなぎながら」公演

Well well, it’s been a few months that I was able to go to SKE theater and as it happened, it was for one of my favourite stages. Adding on this, few days ago I looked in the e-tickets app and BAM! Row A.

Now a lot of people are aware of this but here is the list of things that changes when you get a front row seat:
- Everything

Even if this stage is a great stage and very well documented by now, I would be completely unable to do so because I was busy gawking at the girls with a stupid grin on my face from start to finish. I would estimate that my EuroGaijin(tm) card maxed out completely as from the start it took less than 3 seconds for Fuyuppi to spot a handsome European fellow on the front row and just about everyone came to get their share.

I had chosen Himetan’s colors for this stage which would not have been the best choice as she was on the opposite end of the stage most of the time, but it turned out to matter little as I ended with a lot of fishing hooks on my face. The most obvious ones were Kyoppi by far and Anzu, and also Naayan who reached out while in 3rd row. All in all a brilliant experience. Afterwards was miokuri time where more fun times were had, linked up with a fellow foreign fan and had a nice burger and chat.

Tomorrow something different: Finalist live!

 

Once again back where I belong - Sakae.

7月27日(木）チームKⅡ「時間がない」公演＜18:30開演＞
メンバー：青木詩織・青木莉樺・伊藤実希・入内嶋涼・江籠裕奈・太田彩夏・岡本彩夏・川嶋美晴・北野瑠華・鈴木愛菜・中野愛理・西井美桜・日高優月・藤本冬香・水野愛理・篠原京香

I had made the conscious decision not to spoil any of the new stages before seeing them live, and I was very happy to have done so. However, this heat and running around is taking its toll on me, so my physical shape wasn’t the best for this stage. This of course did not deter me from enjoying myself to the max. My seat wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t crap at all, D row but right next to a walkway so I had completely clear visibility to the stage, with only straight in front of me blocked by a taller fellow. Also, @DJ joined this stage too, so it was fun to reflect after the stage and see if I wasn’t completely confused.

The stage is fresh and I highly recommend it as it is very refreshing as a change after same stages being performed for years. There is a downside though, that for this stage there is more performance-oriented parts and less songs which have space for the girls to interact with fans. Also, the fan calls were quite off at some times. It needs to be said that Jikan ga Nai has some really high highs, but also very low points. As example, there were unit songs for which I was wondering why on Earth they were included in this otherwise great stage. And this is by no means meant against the girls who performed flawlessly, but the songs were just, IMHO, in the wrong place.

Also, it was made quite clear who is who in KII (as if there was any doubt before) as Ego Yuna’s calls were A LOT louder than anyone else’s. By quite a margin. Also, Fuyuppi was great as always but she is one of those members who are hurt with the performance focus, as it doesn’t, again IMHO, let her shine with just being her free self. I did also enjoy Raburin a lot, Kitano Ruka as well, and Aoki Rika.

Even if I am bringing up some low points, I do recommend the stage to everyone if you can win it, even though in the end I did not feel the same emotional connection as I do when enjoying Te wo Tsunaginagara or SKE Festival. This might of course change with time and I will of course always apply when possible.

Next up: lolis in Namba!

 

SKE48 SUMMER Tour 2023 8月2日（水）/愛知：Zepp Nagoya, Both concerts

I am going to lump these concerts together, as the content was mostly the same except for different songs for the encore and MC parts. I’ll go into a bit more detail as I didn’t see any cameras so I’m not sure if spoilers matter.

Once again I went with @DJ and as we had sorted out the tickets using his pia account and access to Japanese phone number (Brotip: if you have fellow fans going to same concert, you can just have one account buy several tickets and avoid the hassle of finding a phone number. Also you’ll not have seating envy as you will be sitting together.)

Now, as we had had an early wake-up to make it from Hakata in time, there was a distinct lack of sleep and feeling of some sort of condition coming on, so I did the best thing there is: fight with chemistry. I headed to pharmacy and got the strongest flu meds they had, and then got on with my day. Note: this almost bit me in the ass later as you will find.

Now we got to the venue for the daytime concert with high spirits as we had very promising C row seats. We got to the venue and quickly realized that actually C isn’t that much inferior to A because the stage at Zepp Nagoya is raised quite a bit, so it is very easy to look over row A.

The concert itself was VERY rewarding, starting with a good selection of SKE summer songs, followed by unit songs replaced by a 18-member solo medley blast, having some very notable ones such as Ouchan doing Tenshi no Shippo or Kokona doing CANDY. Even Seifuku wo Kita Meitantei by Mizuno Airi(I admit I am not her biggest fan) was very well done. All in all great fun. Now, as I mentioned the flu meds almost bit me in the ass, as I had during a MC part completely checked out mentally, having certain things on my mind, but fortunately DJ did not as he says something along the lines of ”Get ready” and my ears perk up and hear the girls going about fans coming locally and far away. And you know what’s coming next: ”Who is from farthest away?” BAM! 2 hands on row C with smiling very clearly non-Japanese faces pop up with me holding Hinano’s and DJ holding Kimie’s colors pop up and the matter was settled. So I am still trying to get my brain up to speed and the girls ask _something_ which I later heare was a comment around the lines of ”you guys came by airplane?” ”Well yes.” Any way, this naturally brought quite a bit of attention from the girls to our part of the audience even later in the show. (There was a Japanese-looking guy who said he came from Abu Dhabi but that was that.)

However, we had still more fun to come as there would be coming up very innovative WC-paper launching technology, a cool songs segment (I especially enjoyed Kataomoi Finally) and one segment where the girls stopped for a water break and I happened to drink together with Honono. After some more fun with great SKE summer songs, of which there is plenty, especially Pareo wa Emerald, it was time to end the concert. Unfortunately there wasn’t an omiokuri, but in exchange the members did acknowledge all parts of the arena and went around the stage. This was the time I finally caught Hinano’s attention shooting hearts her way and she rewarded me with the usual full power one she always gives me.

Except for us and a lot of other people it was to lounge around Zepp Nagoya for a Round 2!

This time our seats were considerably more shit, as we were seated in row N. This meant naturally that all interaction was purely a matter of luck, so I decided to concentrate on getting as much ”HINANOOOOOOO!” out as possible. The concert itself was another dose of good fun, and I am extremely hyped for rounds 3 and 4 tomorrow, even if I have even worse seats! (I did buy binoculars just in case but they won’t really work when standing and having fun.)

Next up: More of the same but different members!

 

SKE48 SUMMER Tour 2023 8月3日（木）/愛知：Zepp Nagoya, Both concerts

Awright! No need to rush an early morning shinkansen ride but nevertheless I was still feeling suboptimal and my Oura results reflected that. But I wasn’t going to let it slow me down at all, since I had Japanese pharmaceutical magic on my side. So once the cleaning staff at my hotel kindly asked me to fuck off while they clean the room, I started my way towards Zepp Nagoya via a warm beverage and lunch.

Today my seat was actually better than row N from previous day even if it was farther back, on row P. But row P is the first one which is slightly raised, so I had full view of the entire stage with nobody blocking my view. I had also picked up 12x magnifying binoculars but I resorted to using them only a couple times.
A roster change had been announced, as Satokaho wasn’t in perfect shape, Kyoppi and Hinano were coming in to assist. I would not like to benefit from someone’s bad shape but for me more Hinano = better.

Then it was time to kick off! I quickly noticed that the setlist was exactly same as the previous day’s evening concert, including the songs on the 18-member medley.

Some notable points: Hatagon’s rendition of GLORY DAYS got quite a bit of calls, Kyoppi did a very nice Cross, I preferred Kitano Ruka’s rendition of DIRTY, but the highest points for me were:
2) Miyomaru doing Tenshi no Shippo, as her light hair and the outfit worked very well together, and if I did not full well know that Miyomaru has quite a bit of Devil in her, I would have been convinced there was an angel on stage.
1) Ito Miki doing CANDY was an OH SHIT moment for me. The outfit works very well on her and her rendition was spot on. I would have liked to compare with original Kasai Tomomi version but that is ancient history.

Hinano jumped in only at the cool songs segment and damn she is good. Even with her glass knee taped up she went all out.

Then it was all the necessary stuff and ending the concert and buy photo and wait for the next one.

The next one was more challenging for enjoyment. My seat was in very much of a coffin corner, all the way to the back of 1st level on row S and all the way to the right, having only one guy sitting between me and the exit. Also on top there was some taller chaps 2 rows in front of me, so I was basically reduced to having 2 small slivers of stage where I could see anything. This is as bad as tickets can get, but I was still going to enjoy as much as possible. The quality of the seats was noted by other folks around me, who were notably quiet with some exceptions. (Kind of hard to call out members when you can’t see who is singing.) Anyway, everyone was still active with their lightsticks and it wasn’t completely quiet anyway, and I did my best to make noise whenever possible too.

It was not all bad, as I had already noticed that the slivers of stage where i could see clearly happened to be those where I could enjoy 1) and 2) from above, and I was glad I did not skimp on the magnification on them binoculars! (Bic Camera has good instructions on concert binoculars selection and they recommend 12x only for Dome concerts.)

Once the set was finished, I took advantage of the best side of my seat which was quick exit, so I could avoid standing 20-30 minutes in the photo buying queue and got out within seconds of last song ending. Got my photos and then it was off to Yabaton for some lovely misokatsu!

Next up: Yet more Sakae!

 

8月4日(金）手をつなぎながら公演

Once again in Sakae! My physical condition was still not the best, but I wasn’t going to let it deter me from enjoying myself because I had my new drug: ROW A.

This member list wasn’t optimal for me due to no Hinano, but it still had a lot of extremely cute members and I decided to go with Yuuyu’s colors. I was on the fence with her and Kimie, but I made my mind and won’t switch mid-stage.

Row A was qutie nice and I do enjoy seeing members up close, having attention from some new members such as Kurashima Ami, and of course after Yuuyu noticed me showing her colors her too (and Kimie). It was almost if fishers left their hooks at home, but fortunately Azuazu was present and did leave a hook in my face! So another evening of having a stupid grin on my face for 2 hours and then some delicious Nagoyameshi and sharing my story!

Next up: Takoyaki!