Tuesday, May 22, 2007

10:50 AM Saturday May 5, 2007 - Tokyo Green Hotel


I'm having so much fun! OK, recap of all that's happened so far:

1. Check-in. This hotel is too cute. The rooms are tiny, but since I'm tiny, too, it's perfect. LOL! Surprisingly, they had yukatas ready on my bed! I'm wearing one now. ^_^ Not only, but also, the bathroom has a bidet! So fresh and so clean (clean)!









2. Went to Tachikawa to meet with Tiffany. We walked around 'til we found a cool little shabu-shabu restaurant. OMG soooooooooo gooooooooooood! I was so glad Tiffany was with me cuz I had NO idea what the hostess was saying. Tiff basically did all the ordering. Man, the shabu-shabu was delish. We had pork and beef to dip in our pot. We also got a whole bunch of veggies. I tried a bunch and they were all good, too. Too bad I don't know what they were called. Before Tiff and I parted ways at Tachikawa station, we got these two girls to take our pictures. LOL. Too bad there wasn't a purikura machine around.

3. SUBWAY. I love it! It's pretty easy. You would only mess up if you weren't paying attention to your surroundings, which happened this morning. Whoops. It's all good, tho.

4. Akihabara. I got off there when I came from the airport. As soon as I stepped out into Electric Town, I was greeted by the bright lights and cosplaying maids of Akihabara. LOLOL! There were other misc characters about, too.


5. This morning I went to Tsukiji, but... I guess since today is a holiday, it was DEAD. I did get my sushi breakfast, tho. SO GOOD, SO FRESH.

6. Kappabashi. OK, that sucked cuz again, I gues since it was holiday, everyone stayed closed. Oh, but I was there at like, 7:45 AM and most stores didn't open 'til 9. D'oh! I walked around the area like three times. I found an am-pm and noticed they had the BLT mag with Morning Musume in it! I bought it, of course. Finally some stores opened. The one I was looking for, Maizuru, that sold food samples was open. I WAS gonna buy stuff from there but GODDAMN they're expensive!!! Magnets were like 1000¥... I was like "Screw this, I'll just take a picture." Maybe I can find stuff at Nakamise when I meet with Hide-chan.
7. OMG Yay! I finally get to meet TWIN!

8. Why am I numbering everything? Anyway, it's fecking hot. Well, I've experienced hotter, but it's hotter here than how it's been at home. Kinda nice. Oh, but it was SO nice last night. Warm enough to just wear shorts and a t-shirt, and there was the occasional breeze. SO damn nice.

OK, time to get ready to INVADE with TWIN! Ja ne...

11:28 PST Thursday May 3, 2007 - Sea-Tac Airport

Ahhh... so close yet, so far. An hour before I can board my flight to Tokyo. Finally! There's a bunch of Japanese people here at the gate, naturally, and hearing them speak is making me even more excited about the trip. Hehehe... cute Japanese girls are around.

Huh, I just realized I'm still flying United. I was hoping to at least fly JAL on this last leg of the trip. Why? Two words: Japanese stewardresses. LOL.

I wonder who will be my seatmate. I hope it's a girl and I hope she's cute... and Japanese. If not, I may have lucked out again; my seat letter is A and I'm correct, that's an aisle seat.

40 minutes to go... I hope there are good movies on, or that I fall asleep again. How long is this flight again? TEN HOURS. Yay. I can't wait. Sucks that it's still another hour train ride from Narita to Tokyo, but it doesn't matter, I'll be in JAPAN!

Ahhh kawaiii! A gaggle of girls walked by. They caught my attention when one of them exclaimed, "Uso!" then the rest of them made really cute, girly noises. Haha...

Guh, I'm feeling sleepy again. Maybe that's a good thing.

Heh, or I can just listen to other people's conversations and see how much/little I can understand. (Got two girls sitting next to me... so yeah.)

Monday, May 21, 2007

8:40 CST Thursday May 3, 2007 - Somewhere Over the Midwest

On the flight from Chicago to Seattle now... I lucked out; the flight isn't full and there are plenty of empty seats. The woman who was assigned to sit next to me moved elsewhere. Yay! Oooh, Edward Norton is on the screen. I think they said the in-flight movie was "The Painted Veil."

Looks like I'm skipping breakfast. Didn't eat anything before I left the house, and I haven't eaten anything since. Earlier, the flight attendants came around with "snack boxes" for sale. Perhaps it's because I'm used to flying Northwest, but I still am a bit taken aback by them charging for the airplane food. Never had to pay for food on Northwest. Oh well. At least I think I'll have time to grab a quick bite to eat in Seattle before the flight to Tokyo leaves. Hopefully I can find something healthier than fast-food. I've not had fast-food in such a long time it seems. Go me. ^_^

This movie is starting to look interesting. Maybe I'll watch a bit.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

1st Travel Journal Entry

3:10 AM Thursday May 3, 2007 - BWI Airport

I'm hella early. There's no one at the check-in counters. Still, all the benches in this area are taken up by other waiting travelers. Most of them are sprawled out, napping. I'm actually sitting on a long bench, in between two sleeping people. LOL The guy on my left snores...and for some reason, the elevator on my left keeps opening randomly and no one ever comes out.

Holy shit!!! The cops in the airport ride around on SEGWAYS!!! Those things are SO fun to ride! *sigh* I think that will be the highlight of this morning, unfortunately. I didn't bring my iPod since I wanted to devote all my senses to Japan once I got there. The only major piece of electronics I'm bringing is my camera. I already took a pre-flight pic at home. Unless something extraordinary happens between now and my arrival in Japan, I'm not taking any more pictures.

Oh... shoot me. It's only 3:24 AM.

Um... OK. There's one counter for e-tickets with bags to check and another for international destinations. My first guess is the latter, but... I'm not sure any more.

You know, I think this is the cleanest US airport I've ever seen. Then again, it's 3:30 AM and the cleaning staff is still going over the place. Narita, however, is ALWAYS nice and clean. Mom still talks about the cleanliness of that airport.

For some reason, there's a small crowd lined up at the US Airways counters. I mean seriously? There is NOBODY at ANY of the ticket counters! I wonder where they're going.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Slackin'

Yeah... I should get around to writing about the rest of the trip. XD I think I've only actually written about the first two days in my travel journal. Those I can post whenever I feel like transcribing them. Hehehe.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Purikuraaaaaaaaa

Edit:
I re-scanned and cleaned up the purikura. Yay!





H!P Rip Off trip

I'm too lazy to make a display for my stuff, since they are all still in the luggage :miki:

I made a collage for the bears at the Island so I'd better post them here too. I took pics of stuff I bought everyday, so it's easy XD

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

Most of them are from used stores and record stores. Book Off store is a must if you are going to Japan. It's a real rip off place. Can you believe I can get some CDs for only 50 Yens!!!!!!!!!!!! Not only but also a used CDs/DVDs section at Tsutaya. These shops will be your next best friends :miki:

But Yossie old school Mr. Moonlight pics in the 2nd row are for free. I told the lady at the old school pic shop in Asakusa that I went to Japan for a Yossie grad concert and she was very amazed with it. So she gave me all Yossie pics she had to me. OMFG!

And the last but not least, Yossie concert goodies. I practically bought everything with her name and face on it XD

Sunday, May 13, 2007

My Concert/Miscellaneous H!P Loot

I took this in my hotel room right after the concert. Concert t-shirt sets, UFA pics, unofficial pics, DVD Mag Vol. 12, Yossie's graduation memorial DVD, Hello! Yossie PB, the Yossie cellphone strap, the Sexy 8 Beat sports towel, the Yossie towel, Yossie fans, white glow sticks, the bracelet and pendant set and finally, one of the streamers that was shot over the crowd during the graduation concert.

Same stuff, better view. Taken at home.
Then here's ALL the H!P crap I acquired in Japan... one way or another. LOL.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Insane Super Long Concert Report!

Cross-posted everywhere! LOL

My quick and dirty concert report, as copied from my travel journal with new comments/explanations in italics:

8:09 AM Monday May 7, 2007 - Tokyo Green Hotel

OMFGAH

CONCERT ENTRY ONLY!!!

- Yossie Paint! stuff on display: mural, shirt, shoes, towel. Towel not in PB, Says: "arigato"
(Arigato was in hiragana; got no Japanese text installed on this PC, sorry) The stuff Yossie painted in Her photo essay PB was on display inside the lobby just after you pass the turnstiles. I just remembered that on the opposite side, there were dozens of bouquets of flowers on display, each with congratulatory messages. The ones I remember seeing were from Haromoni@, Utaban, and HEYX3. It was very sweet.

-B1 seat actually pretty good. Nice view of stage.
This was in the arena... in the PIT with all the WOTA. I was fortunate to NOT have crazy tall, jumping WOTA directly in front of me, so I was able to have a great view of Yossie 90% of the time. The only time it was difficult to see Yossie (or anyone, for that matter) was when they were all on the very end of the center catwalk.

-Started w/ Genki+!!! Dance is cool. Reminds me of The Peace and Egao Yes Nude.
Sadly, I can't recall how exactly the Genki+ choreography went that reminded me of The Peace (I just know it looked damn cool). I can tell you that they do this move very similar to THIS.

-Egao Yes Nude- Enjoyed seeing Yossie do Her pumps. drool.gif Not only, but also, Miki looked fiiine doing her swivels/rolls at the end.

-Jun-Jun + Lin-Lin intro!!! Wearing school girl outfits a la ONE FOR ALL, etc. They are SO SO SO CUTE!!!!!!!!!!! + Lin-Lin is TINY! happy.gif
Yossie brought the new girls out just like before with Micchi. She had us all call out, "JUN JUUUUUUUN!!! LIN LIIIIIIIIIIN!!!" Too cute.

-Yossie spoke in Chinese to them. HOT. + when Jun Jun spoke Japanese to them in her intro, she was having a bit of a hard time + looked like she was forgetting her speech. By the grad show, she got it perfectly. But her noobishness in the 1st show was ADORABLE.
I don't know Chinese, but Yossie sure could've fooled me. She sounded hot speaking in Chinese. There was one thing that bothered me... after Yossie spoke in Chinese, some other words were said and eventually it all resulted in a big ol' EHHHHH!? from the audience. And Yossie just looked at us like, "What?" LOL

-Popcorn Love! Love that song! "Enjoy I'll be there!"
If you didn't know already, I kept myself away from the setlist before my trip. I wanted to be surprised at the concert. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised. happy.gif

-During grad, got nice view of Yossie when She was on catwalk drool.gif
This was because for the grad concert, I was in the back of the arena on the second floor. I used my handy-dandy binoculars to keep a CLOSE eye on Yossie the whole time. ding.gifI couldn't have done so from the pit, so I'm glad I was able to see the show from different angles.

-Played some nice/sexy songs I don't know the titles to. One was sung by just Yossie, Micchi, Eri and Sayu, I think. It was droolicious. Sexy moves like woah. The way Yossie slowly eased Herself down to sit/recline on the steps...the way She put Her hand on Eri's/Micchi's (?) shoulder. Then when She got up and walked across the stage and up the steps, She stopped @ last step and sexily threw Her body backwards. drool.gif
This perf was of Dekiru Onna. Another hot moment was when Yossie grabbed Micchi's mic and pulled it down. There was a pic of this part that's been posted here before.

-Shanimuni Paradise - dance is cool. Except for stupid Uwaki No Honey pie move. BOOOO. But the moves for the chorus remind me of para para cuz they were moving their hands and arms around. Miki looked like she was having fun. happy.gif
LOL at my comments here. "the moves for the chorus remind me of para para cuz they were moving their hands and arms around" icon_lmfao.gif I'm an idiot. Seriously, the choreography definitely has got some para-para influences and looked pretty neat.

-OH! I just realized! Although Aichan sung a solo in the grad show, it was REINA who sang in the 1st show with her Kira Kira Fuyu, etc.
DAMN YOU TSUNKU and your crazy long song titles! LOL I think it was during Reina's solo perf that I realized that she looks x9000 cuter in person... forreals. Actually, all of Momusu look better in person. It was quite a treat. ding.gif

-MC GAKI VTR = 1st show w/ Aichan + Eri. Grad show w/ Yossie. They tease by only showing body parts(!!!) HOT. Yossie's back, Her shoulder (from front), butt(?), arms. *DROOOOOOOOL* BTW she wore what looked like a WH outfit. Her hair was straight + simple + HOTTT.
Woah, this definitely needs translating. Um, at one point, a VTR was shown and it had MC GAKI in a radio booth. She was talking, doing her MC thang just like in the intro to Aichan's song from the MM mini-album. In the afternoon show, MC GAKI's guests were Aichan and Eri. They were wearing Egao Yes Nude and Aruiteru outfits, respectively. At first, when MC GAKI intro'd her guests, you couldn't tell who they were, as the camera only focused on body parts. LOL Boobs, legs, hands... it was pretty funny. The WOTAS around me were probably creaming their pants. ROFL. Anyway. For the grad show, MC GAKI's guest was none other than Yossie, who was wearing an old outfit from the Wonderful Hearts H!P concert. As soon as we saw those "body part" shots, ppl started shouting "YOSSSIIEEE!!! YOSSIEEEE!!!!" God, I need the DVD of this concert now... I want all this crap translated!!!

-Didn't care much for Shigepink + Koha pink, but their sexy 8 Beat perf of their song isn't so bad now that I think of it.
I was talking about Takara no Hako. This perf should look nice on the DVD. The production folks superimposed Shige and Koha on a single screen so that they looked like they were singing to each to each other. It had a nice effect.

-> May 10, 2007 Continuation of concert report:

-1st show: Yossie's appearance w/ the feathered outfit really elicited a collective Ehhhh?!?! from the arena. Grad concert... not as much. 1st time was pretty funny. She kinda had this funny expression on Her face like, "Yeah. I'm really wearing this." She also looked like She was about to cry. She pursed Her lips very tightly while we chanted Her name. She looked like She was gonna cry at both concerts at this point, but I think She looked more emotional @ the 1st show.

-Grad messages:
*Reina was TOO cute. She really was BAWLING and could barely speak. Yossie said some funny stuff (Yossie cracked jokes for pretty much everyone to keep the atmosphere light). When she was done, Reina kept her back to the crowd cuz she still couldn't stop crying.

*Sayu... forgot who brought it up first, probably Yossie..., but the whole Yossie being Sayu's "prince" came up. I heard "oojisama" being mentioned. Finally, Yossie said "oojisama" real cool-like with outstreched arms like, "Come here." and Sayu hugged Her. Kakkoiiiiii!

*Aichan - So emotional as usual. So cute. Had to stop for a bit...couldn't talk. When she hugged Yossie, she wouldn't let go. SO FUNNY! After a while, Yossie was like, "Um... you can let go of me now." Awwww...

*MIKI: no crying. WTF! Again, dun remember who brought it up, but the whole "okaasan + otoosan" thing came up. Probably Yossie. Then Yossie was like, "Okaaaasaannnnn" and invited her for a hug. Too cute. Mom and Dad.

-Golden Era songs medley: OMFG. Love Machine, The Peace, RR21. Freaking AWESOME!
Okai, so Love Machine isn't technically from the "Golden Era" but whatev... it still was a kick-ass medley!!!

-Yossie looked/moved sexy as hell doing the breakdown in RR21.

-During The Peace, it was too droolicious when She did the pumps for "Ah-ha-ha-ha!" She looked really into it.

-Be Positive! The trumpet moves are so cute/cool! Yossie looked really cool doing it.
Since there are a lot of horns in this song, the choreography has at least Yossie and Miki mimicking playing trumpets during the performance. It's so cute!

-Mirai blablabla... train dance. Can we say audience participation? Cute + fun. I didn't expect it at all.
Referring to Aozora ga Itsumademo Tsuzuku You na Mirai de Are! The train dance, which EVERYONE in the arena did, is when you turn to the right, put your right hand on your neighbor's shoulder and bounce around, then turn around and do the same for the person on your left. You're basically imitating what the MM girls are doing on stage. I was surprised, when we started it, but when I realized EVERYONE was to do it, I just followed everyone else. When in Rome, eh?

-Yossie's move... DOSUN? Cute... + cool. So very Yossie. Everyone did it.

-Miki's mic messed up in 1st show. She kept singing, then when she got a new mic, she kept going, but kinda laughed too. Pretty funny.

MISC CONCERT STUFF
- Saw WOTA live for first time. They chanted Yossie's name instead of Miki-sama's. That was nice. L-O-V-E, raburii Hitomi!
I have video of this... stay tuned!

-Line for concert goods was insanely long, but I waited with Commie, Fen, and erilaz. When we got inside, they were playing the Sexy 8 Beat album.
The line started outside of the arena, and when we got inside, they had the album playing. It was also realllllllly warm in there. Yuck. Oh yeah, there wasn't a separate line for women and children.

-Ppl were watching H!M@ in line on their cellphones(!)
I wish I could watch Haromoni@ on my cellphone... crying.gif

-Ppl trade the random pics + clearfiles after buying their stuff. It was like I was at a flea market or something. Ppl had stacks of stuff laid out on tarp...
At the goods table, you could buy pics and clearfiles of random MM members. You could then trade your pics with others if you wanted.

-Oh yeah... they sold out of concert wristbands by the time I got inside. T_T
That black Sexy 8 Beat concert wristband was supposed to be one of the prize items in my contest, I'm gonna have to edit my prize. I'm still a bit miffed I didn't get that black wristband... it was one of the coolest looking ones!

-After the first show, I was completely... stunned and just in a complete state of euphoria.
I have a pic of this. I made Commie take my picture and said that this smile would be plastered on my face for the entire week. LOL

-Grad Ticket Fiasco! ... When I went to give my ticket for the grad concert, I was stopped. Apparently, the tickets erilaz got for the grad concert were actually for the afternoon show. WTF. I was shocked... too stunned to do anything. Fortunately, we found a scalper at the train station. erilaz bought me my new ticket since it was ultimately his fault.
Yea... that sucked for a minute. Even when we got our grad tickets, I was worried that Hide or Commie would do something drastic, cuz Hide was there when it happened. It was was good in the end. No one sacrificed any seats and we all saw Yossie graduate. ...er... BTW, Hide and I never saw Aqua. I hope she's OK.

-Yossie sounded great... I personally didn't notice anthing out of the ordinary.

-Screamed my lungs out for Yossie. Heheheh...

ANNNNNNNNNNNNNND, that about wraps it up. My memory is sh*tty, so this is all you get, unless I remember something else. Then I'll add more. Gonna go to sleep now. When I wake, I'll start on those pics and videos. icon_hugegrin.gif

Edit:
Jebus, how could I forget? At one point during some performance, Miki and Yossie faced each other, got real close and they hugged. The thing was, Miki's HANDS went right for Yossie's ass. LOVE IT! DOUBLE HANDED GROPING! I know there was at least one other Yomiki moment during the performances of the day, but I can't remember... bang.gif Hopefully the DVD will pick 'em up.

Addendum

Ok, the day of Yossie's graduation was kinda shitty on so many levels... one of the main factors was that it was RAINING that day. During my week in Japan, Sunday was the only day it rained.

Anyway, shortly after Hide and I found Commie and Fenrir, I noticed a group of WOTA doing their typical WOTA dance. Like I mentioned before, they were chanting Yossie's name instead of Miki's. Upon reviewing the video I took, I didn't capture them saying Yossie's name, but at least you'll see the WOTA dance and hear my reaction to them. LOL

DANCE WOTA DANCE!

Nearby, I saw these guys practicing the Egao YES Nude choreography.
Egao YES NUUUUUDO!

Finally, after waiting around for erilaz to arrive, we all went to wait in line for the concert merchandise. Here's a video so you can sort of get a feel of the atmosphere.


Yeah, and that line started outside and then continued inside. I really couldn't tell you how long we waited... I fortunately had people there to chat with in line. Oh, I know that when we were INSIDE, we were there so long that we heard the Sexy 8 Beat album twice. LOL

Once inside, they had these boards posted up with all the merch you could buy. It was also a way to know which items had been sold out already. This was when I found out the black wristbands were sold out. crying.gif



After I bought all my stuff, the doors had opened for the afternoon show. I watched the whole pic trading process a bit then I went off to take my seat in the pit. francis.gif francis.gif francis.gif

It was SOOOOOOO crowded in there. When I took the stairs down to the floor level, I saw various WOTA going through their "preparations" for the concert. They were changing their t-shirts, practicing their dances, and stretching. miki-headsmall.gif

When I reached the entrance to the floor level, there was a floor map that showed each section, to help you find your seat. But before that, once I stepped into the arena and saw the stage aglow in a mystical purple, my jaw dropped. "Holy shit" was all I could muster, and it was then that I was reaffirmed that I was about to see Morning Musume live... I was gonna see YOSSIE in the flesh!

After the first show, I was on SUCH a high that my face hurt from smiling so much! I asked Commie to take a picture to capture the moment:

When it was time for the graduation concert, we all went and stood in line. Hide and some others were in front of me. When I gave my ticket and was stopped, Hide was already in and she was like, "Twin!! What's wrong?!" It was so dramatic... LOL We were then separated by the massive throng of concert goers. Erilaz and I were eventually asked to step outside to speak with an arena representative. She spoke excellent English. She just re-iterated that the tickets we had were for the afternoon show. She also asked where we bought the tickets. Erilaz explained that he bought them from an online auction. All the rep could say was that they don't recommend using such methods to buy tickets and that she was very sorry.

So, erilaz and I walked around the arena to find scalpers. We eventually found this group of guys in the tree square who looked like scalpers. Erilaz asked them if they had any, they didn't, but said that we might be able to find someone at the train station. So we walked a bit more to the Saitama Shintoshin station and sure enough, we found our man. He was wearing all white, and a white hat. He had a bunch of tickets in his hand. Once I saw this I was SO incredibly relieved. We got our tickets and went back to the arena. Once I had my graduation ticket, I literally kept it pressed to my chest. I was not letting go of it. I felt my heart beating... it was as though I had just gone bungee jumping; the experience was like a thrill ride.

Anyway, here are some post-graduation pics and a video:



SOTSUGYOU OMEDETOU YOSSIE!!!


I forgot three things in my addendum:

-Mr. Moonlight DID make a brief appearance during the graduation concert! LOL During one of the MCs, Yossie said one of the lines from Mr. Moonlight, complete with the accompanying move. Since my memory sucks, I really couldn't tell you which line, so just wait for it in the concert DVD.icon_hugegrin.gif

-I loved it when I was in the pit and whenever Yossie went to the side stage where She was directly in front of our section. She would look out into the crowd, and in doing so, it really looked like She was looking directly at us. I'm sure She didn't see me, but I would like to believe that She was looking right at me. wub.gifIt sure as hell looked like She was looking at me, so like a lovestruck doof, I waved back at Her. icon_lovie.gif

-After the graduation concert, there were vendors set up at the train station. They were selling unofficial concert pics. You know THESE PICS? Those are taken by crazy ninja photographers and then sold after concerts.

The unofficial pics from the grad concert should be up by now, but in case they aren't, Hide and I will post some Yossie sets. We each bought two, so we covered all four of Yossie's pic sets. ph34r.gif

Thursday, May 10, 2007

First and LAST Post from JAPANLAND!

LOL Yeah, so I never got around to accessing a PC during the trip. But now I'm at Narita Airport. My flight doesn't leave til 5 PM and it's 1:10 PM now, SO I have time to kill. Heheheh. I figure I should have at least one post here from Japan.

So the trip in a nutshell:

JAPAN! PEOPLE PEOPLE PEOPLE! PARTY PARTY PARTY!

Teh concert! Yossie is BEAUTIFULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL! I can't stress that enough. It sucks that the first time I get to see Her perform with Morning Musume will be the LAST time. :*( It was great though. You'll have to wait til I get back home for a DETAILED concert report. Gahhh. I just must say, it was neat seeing both the afternoon show and the graduation concert. Little differences here and there. Both shows had some nice Yomiki moments. Bwahahahaha! Lemme just say that Miki totally groped Yossie's ass with BOTH hands... at BOTH shows. XD Loved it!

Okai... gtg check some other crap before my time runs out.

Oh yeah.... I was watching the news here and what's this crazy shit about Nono??? Wedding? Pregancy?! WTF?! I sure do have a lot of catching up to do when I get back home.

See yuu stateside!