Japanland Invasion

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. 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!
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.

-During grad, got nice view of Yossie when She was on catwalk
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. I 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.
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.
LOL at my comments here. "the moves for the chorus remind me of para para cuz they were moving their hands and arms around" 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.

-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...

-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.

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... 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.

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.

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.

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.

-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. It sure as hell looked like She was looking at me, so like a lovestruck doof, I waved back at Her.

-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.