Ahoy all! Well back in England now but very little to really report after the craziness of AWA, except for this I HATE HEATHROW TERMINAL 5!!!!! *Meditates for five minutes* Ok, now you all must be like, 'shiiiit what did they do?' Well let me tell you, I land from Atlanta over an hour and a half late due to a plane problem.
That's not the issue, no, what they did, was force me to go through security for the second fucking time when on an international flight! I have done all this crap already in America. The same country where I had to use four different trays for my bags, laptop and my fucking shoes! The same country that takes all four fingers and thumb on EACH HAND to check your identity on databases.
So I expect, when I land in Heathrow, UK, to simply connect, after all, that's what I did on my way OUT of the country. But no, I had to go through full ID check again, full bag check, have my photo taken and cross checked TWO TIMES, all so that I could go from London to fucking Manchester, a journey of less than 200 MILES!!
So with that crap out of the way I got home without incident, slept for twelve hours and woke up at 8am this morning right as rain. After that shitstorm though comes the surprising news of a NEW KIKKA ALBUM! Well, maybe not new... What it is, is a release called ボカリスト? or "Vocalist" in English. Which is a collection of songs from 1970 until 2000, sung by Kikka but produced by vocaloid producers, tracklist as follows: -
01 私がオバさんになっても（Sound Produced by. 八王子P）
02 恋しさと 切なさと 心強さと（Sound Produced by. ダルビッシュP）
03 風は秋色（Sound Produced by. KEI）
04 Secret Base～君がくれたもの～（Sound Produced by. 西沢さんP）
05 MajiでKoiする5秒前（Sound Produced by. Junky）
06 淋しい熱帯魚（Sound Produced by. やいり）
07 17才（Sound Produced by. 八王子P）
08 抱いてHOLD ON ME!（Sound Produced by. MSR）
09 少女A(Sound Produced by. MSR)
10 夏色のナンシー（Sound Produced by. colete*）
11 卒業（Sound Produced by. かめりあ）
12 LOVE涙色（Sound Produced by. T-Pocket）
This sounds really really interesting, I am especially bemused by the inclusion of Daite hold on me! for this, a vocaloid of that song done solo? Sounds intriguing and very very different!
So yes! My Kikka binge is not at an end, but a beginning! And I am really looking forward to owning this, not yet available on CDJapan but it will be, everyone order it, or Kikka will smite Yuu! Until next time, sets sail.
Friday 5 October 2012
Monday 1 October 2012
Anime Weekend Atlanta day 7 - Kikka's last day amongst Yuu
Well blow me down has this been one hell of a week, but alas, the final day of the expo fun was upon us. After the energy draining concert and signing sessions I managed to sleep in until around 7 in the morning, after doing my previous blog post I set off for the convention. On the way I ran into Tomasz, catchfivebats and Manami kawai so we all walked on towards the convention together. Randomly in the car park of the cumberland mall we also ran into Shug and needmorebuono! None of these meetings were planned but they worked out very well in our favour!
Due to the final day happening on sunday, most of the places to eat were shut, so I ended up grabbing a subway in the cobb galleria itself. After hanging around for a little while longer, Kikka gave us her final autograph session at 11am. I got a second two shot photo that was taken by needmorebuono!
After all of these events from this week I have got a ridiculous amongst of signed merchandise, fourteen items in total, here's a shot of it all compiled together.
Kikka was her wonderfully elegant self and very energetic when we all came to speak with her and have things signed. She was also up for yet another group photo, only this time, while it was being shot I noticed a tonne of random anime fans started to take our photograph as well which had me going 'why?' Well when I saw the photo I found out why!
Yup randomly a Venom cosplayer joined in the fun! It's cute how Kikka has pulled his tongue here, though if that were the real Venom I don't think that would be such a good idea! After this was shot Kikka hung around for a little while longer before she disappeared. With only a short time between the end of the autographing session and the final panel she would be part of, we all headed over to the main auditorium to get a good spot. We ended up seeing half of a panel by Eyeshine and it was a poor knock off of Tenacious D, still we endured and as about 80% of the room left, we all went forward to get right up front for the Q&A.
This panel was interesting in that the Q&A was themed around Kikka's rise to becoming a soloist and questions about performing in general. To guide us in this, Kikka had actually drawn some really cute pictures about the experiences she had, all the way from failing the 8th generation Morning Musume audition up to debuting. During this we found out some really interesting things about the whole affair.
First of which was how she and other eggs would finish a school day and then travel to the training centre. Kikka did it every day from Ibaraki to Tokyo, so she would find herself on a two hour bus ride, studying all the way! Secondly, she talked about how leading up to the debut, both UFA and Universal were looking to make a solo artist and Kikka was the only one they saw who fit! This was a really nice feeling as the debut has always seemed a little different from most.
In between this, Kikka opened herself up for being quizzed by the crowd, which led to some cruel questions like who was the first president of the united states? Kikka tried, but like me, she had absolutely no idea! Although she did instantly answer one question about who the American commodore was who sailed there in 1852 or something! so don't underestimate her! As Kikka's presentation carried on, she explained how going solo was very difficult for her, as she had always featured as part of a group. Where as now, she was on her own, so she was faced with remembering a lot more things by herself, such as the MC's, the dances, lyrics, and that she could sometimes remember parts of one but not the other and it took a lot of time to get used to!
She also told us about the CM's she does for Kappa Zushi before she asked if everyone liked it, pretty much all of us said yes and she asked which sushi was our favourite. I told her Tamago (egg) and Kani (crab), but lots of others such as salmon and mackerel were announced, but Tuna was left off which surprised her. Kikka demanded that when we go to Japan, we all eat at Kappa Zushi! After this, she presented a picture of a mountain saying she is aiming to climb to the top and that she requires a lot of energy to make it there, so we will as well to follow her.
Following this was the open floor Q&A so I asked if she had any idea when on her way to the Universal building that she would be debuting. The answer was pretty much that the management and Universal were making a plan and that Kikka was the best fit which is how the solo debut occurred. Her translator asked us if Universal were a good company and I was like 'err... I guess so!' Later in the Q&A I also asked a second question of which outfit was her favourite from all of the ones she has used so far. Kikka chose the one from Konna watashi de yokattara, not only because it was quite girly with tassles and fluffy edges, but also that she has a black heart so needed a lot of white to hide it XD She is just too funny.
A lot of other really interesting things came about from the Q&A. One question asked what an average day in the eggs was like, Kikka explained that the eggs vary so much in age that all members must firstly finish their school day, then travel to the centre for training. Once there they would spend around three hours doing dancing training, singing and so forth. Kikka explained that this usually happened between 6pm and 9pm, then she would travel home for at least two hours by bus. Meaning she would sometimes not get home until around midnight or 1am, then be up at 7am to go to school and she did this pretty muc h everyday! That is astonishing effort and hard work, not just from Kikka, but everyone in the Eggs/Kenshusei.
Catchfivebats asked about the shift in music from her very idol-ish debut track kikkake wa you! up to and including darling to Madonna. The answer was really surprising in that there is a meeting of everyone from Kikka, Management, UFA and so forth and they all communally come to a decision of what sort of sound they all like to explore and everything, meaning that Kikka technically has creative control... That blew my mind!
A question arose about the vocaloid production with the vocals and how she felt with her voice transformation. The answer itself was a little bland in that it just simply she sang and then effects changed it. However, she asked us to watch the MMD version of Koko kara hajimarunda together, there was some chanting from both us and Kikka herself during the video which was cool. Afterwards was the interesting bit though, where she actually said she was jealous of the MMD version because she is very thin but has big breasts! She even had a worry that we liked the MMD version better XD
Her translator fell apart laughing and most of us were thinking 'there is no way she will translate that!' But credit to her she did, Kikka also said she hoped at one point to do a joint concert between herself and the MMD clone, with the idea being that when she gets tired the MMD version can take over! A girl after my own heart!
A question was also asked about the fact she covered tan tan taan, romantic ukare mode and daite hold on me, asking if there were any other songs she wanted to do that got left out and also why she did them over some of her other solo stuff. Kikka stated that she loved those songs to sing herself, but that the main reason for the inclusion was that some of the attendees may not be aware of her own songs but may recognise some of the big ones. She did say as well that she wants to have a big versatile set of songs and may soon surprise us before going an evil laugh, terribly cute XD
Kikka also demonstrated her leg stretch for us for the first time ever live at an event, she had only ever done it before on television! At first though it looked like it would not happen as she said her jeans were too tight XD But she just went for it and managed to avoid ripping her trousers, it really is quite a disturbing sight but stilll very cool. No one nearly vomitted like those on television here. She also joked that she had ate too much at cheesecake factory hence they were too tight lol
Kikka stated that she was close to Kitahara Sayaka when she was still part of the eggs, also explained that one of the moments she remembers from the days of Kirarin revolution her most memorable moment was quite a bad one where she went to Disneyland the day before recording it, and ruined her voice through screaming on the rollercoasters XD
A cosplayer asked in japanese if she liked ice-cream, Kikka immediately shouted out "daisukikka!" which was awesome! She then went to say how Ben & Jerry's had only just come to Japan and she ate a lot of their stuff, her fave flavour being chocolate but she also liked their mint flavour.
Towards the end she was also asked for some beauty tips, Kikka explained she really isn't that pretty as she has lots of pimples on her face... I disagree, she's gorgeous! A male fan also asked what haircare she used and Kikka answered with Downy which is a form of detergent lol Even though the translator kept on correcting her, Kikka insisted people try it to make their hair as soft as clothes XD I am not doing it before you all ask!!
The final question was asking what Kikka's strongest quality as an idol was and what made her stand out. She said her smile and also that as a soloist she can talk to each fan individually easily and communicate with us to make her fanbase that much closer and stronger. After this with regret they announced that she would be leaving, but Kikka announced that she had had a lot of fun. At the end she asked if there were new fans and some of the con attendees outside my core group did say yes! So I hope this is the beginning. The Q&A ended with a final kikkake wa... And the crowd chanting You! back at us, before she walked down the centre of the hall and out.
I have seen online a lot of people being quite jealous of not being with us, she has been absolutely amazing and everyone should take the opportunity to go out to see and meet her where possible!
After this fourteen of us paid homage to Kikka by going to the cheesecake factory, all week I hadn't really gone big with my meals, so I chowed down on a huge steak burger with fries, then followed with a cheesecake called the oreo extreme dream cheesecake. I was expecting a simple chocolate thing with an oreo crushed in... What I got was this!
I took it on, this was my man vs food... food won, just! There was literally the back chocolate wall left only, I would have eaten it, but then been sick and that would not have been cool. Stuffed up, overjoyed at Kikka-sama and sad it was all ending the group bade each other farewell for one last time.
But man, what an amazing weekend! Kikka was everything I expected and more besides, she truly is the best in the world in my opinion. She has the look, the sound, the character, the humour... She can simply do it all and I want all of you to support her! Until next time, sets sail.
Due to the final day happening on sunday, most of the places to eat were shut, so I ended up grabbing a subway in the cobb galleria itself. After hanging around for a little while longer, Kikka gave us her final autograph session at 11am. I got a second two shot photo that was taken by needmorebuono!
After all of these events from this week I have got a ridiculous amongst of signed merchandise, fourteen items in total, here's a shot of it all compiled together.
Kikka was her wonderfully elegant self and very energetic when we all came to speak with her and have things signed. She was also up for yet another group photo, only this time, while it was being shot I noticed a tonne of random anime fans started to take our photograph as well which had me going 'why?' Well when I saw the photo I found out why!
This panel was interesting in that the Q&A was themed around Kikka's rise to becoming a soloist and questions about performing in general. To guide us in this, Kikka had actually drawn some really cute pictures about the experiences she had, all the way from failing the 8th generation Morning Musume audition up to debuting. During this we found out some really interesting things about the whole affair.
First of which was how she and other eggs would finish a school day and then travel to the training centre. Kikka did it every day from Ibaraki to Tokyo, so she would find herself on a two hour bus ride, studying all the way! Secondly, she talked about how leading up to the debut, both UFA and Universal were looking to make a solo artist and Kikka was the only one they saw who fit! This was a really nice feeling as the debut has always seemed a little different from most.
In between this, Kikka opened herself up for being quizzed by the crowd, which led to some cruel questions like who was the first president of the united states? Kikka tried, but like me, she had absolutely no idea! Although she did instantly answer one question about who the American commodore was who sailed there in 1852 or something! so don't underestimate her! As Kikka's presentation carried on, she explained how going solo was very difficult for her, as she had always featured as part of a group. Where as now, she was on her own, so she was faced with remembering a lot more things by herself, such as the MC's, the dances, lyrics, and that she could sometimes remember parts of one but not the other and it took a lot of time to get used to!
She also told us about the CM's she does for Kappa Zushi before she asked if everyone liked it, pretty much all of us said yes and she asked which sushi was our favourite. I told her Tamago (egg) and Kani (crab), but lots of others such as salmon and mackerel were announced, but Tuna was left off which surprised her. Kikka demanded that when we go to Japan, we all eat at Kappa Zushi! After this, she presented a picture of a mountain saying she is aiming to climb to the top and that she requires a lot of energy to make it there, so we will as well to follow her.
Following this was the open floor Q&A so I asked if she had any idea when on her way to the Universal building that she would be debuting. The answer was pretty much that the management and Universal were making a plan and that Kikka was the best fit which is how the solo debut occurred. Her translator asked us if Universal were a good company and I was like 'err... I guess so!' Later in the Q&A I also asked a second question of which outfit was her favourite from all of the ones she has used so far. Kikka chose the one from Konna watashi de yokattara, not only because it was quite girly with tassles and fluffy edges, but also that she has a black heart so needed a lot of white to hide it XD She is just too funny.
A lot of other really interesting things came about from the Q&A. One question asked what an average day in the eggs was like, Kikka explained that the eggs vary so much in age that all members must firstly finish their school day, then travel to the centre for training. Once there they would spend around three hours doing dancing training, singing and so forth. Kikka explained that this usually happened between 6pm and 9pm, then she would travel home for at least two hours by bus. Meaning she would sometimes not get home until around midnight or 1am, then be up at 7am to go to school and she did this pretty muc h everyday! That is astonishing effort and hard work, not just from Kikka, but everyone in the Eggs/Kenshusei.
Catchfivebats asked about the shift in music from her very idol-ish debut track kikkake wa you! up to and including darling to Madonna. The answer was really surprising in that there is a meeting of everyone from Kikka, Management, UFA and so forth and they all communally come to a decision of what sort of sound they all like to explore and everything, meaning that Kikka technically has creative control... That blew my mind!
A question arose about the vocaloid production with the vocals and how she felt with her voice transformation. The answer itself was a little bland in that it just simply she sang and then effects changed it. However, she asked us to watch the MMD version of Koko kara hajimarunda together, there was some chanting from both us and Kikka herself during the video which was cool. Afterwards was the interesting bit though, where she actually said she was jealous of the MMD version because she is very thin but has big breasts! She even had a worry that we liked the MMD version better XD
Her translator fell apart laughing and most of us were thinking 'there is no way she will translate that!' But credit to her she did, Kikka also said she hoped at one point to do a joint concert between herself and the MMD clone, with the idea being that when she gets tired the MMD version can take over! A girl after my own heart!
A question was also asked about the fact she covered tan tan taan, romantic ukare mode and daite hold on me, asking if there were any other songs she wanted to do that got left out and also why she did them over some of her other solo stuff. Kikka stated that she loved those songs to sing herself, but that the main reason for the inclusion was that some of the attendees may not be aware of her own songs but may recognise some of the big ones. She did say as well that she wants to have a big versatile set of songs and may soon surprise us before going an evil laugh, terribly cute XD
Kikka also demonstrated her leg stretch for us for the first time ever live at an event, she had only ever done it before on television! At first though it looked like it would not happen as she said her jeans were too tight XD But she just went for it and managed to avoid ripping her trousers, it really is quite a disturbing sight but stilll very cool. No one nearly vomitted like those on television here. She also joked that she had ate too much at cheesecake factory hence they were too tight lol
Kikka stated that she was close to Kitahara Sayaka when she was still part of the eggs, also explained that one of the moments she remembers from the days of Kirarin revolution her most memorable moment was quite a bad one where she went to Disneyland the day before recording it, and ruined her voice through screaming on the rollercoasters XD
A cosplayer asked in japanese if she liked ice-cream, Kikka immediately shouted out "daisukikka!" which was awesome! She then went to say how Ben & Jerry's had only just come to Japan and she ate a lot of their stuff, her fave flavour being chocolate but she also liked their mint flavour.
Towards the end she was also asked for some beauty tips, Kikka explained she really isn't that pretty as she has lots of pimples on her face... I disagree, she's gorgeous! A male fan also asked what haircare she used and Kikka answered with Downy which is a form of detergent lol Even though the translator kept on correcting her, Kikka insisted people try it to make their hair as soft as clothes XD I am not doing it before you all ask!!
The final question was asking what Kikka's strongest quality as an idol was and what made her stand out. She said her smile and also that as a soloist she can talk to each fan individually easily and communicate with us to make her fanbase that much closer and stronger. After this with regret they announced that she would be leaving, but Kikka announced that she had had a lot of fun. At the end she asked if there were new fans and some of the con attendees outside my core group did say yes! So I hope this is the beginning. The Q&A ended with a final kikkake wa... And the crowd chanting You! back at us, before she walked down the centre of the hall and out.
I have seen online a lot of people being quite jealous of not being with us, she has been absolutely amazing and everyone should take the opportunity to go out to see and meet her where possible!
After this fourteen of us paid homage to Kikka by going to the cheesecake factory, all week I hadn't really gone big with my meals, so I chowed down on a huge steak burger with fries, then followed with a cheesecake called the oreo extreme dream cheesecake. I was expecting a simple chocolate thing with an oreo crushed in... What I got was this!
I took it on, this was my man vs food... food won, just! There was literally the back chocolate wall left only, I would have eaten it, but then been sick and that would not have been cool. Stuffed up, overjoyed at Kikka-sama and sad it was all ending the group bade each other farewell for one last time.
But man, what an amazing weekend! Kikka was everything I expected and more besides, she truly is the best in the world in my opinion. She has the look, the sound, the character, the humour... She can simply do it all and I want all of you to support her! Until next time, sets sail.
Sunday 30 September 2012
Anime weekend Atlanta - day 6, Kikka concert!
Well holy mother of god! Possibly the most important of all the days I am here for, the big day where I finally get to see her on stage! Day started with me breakfasting at a subway in the Cumberland Mall and on my way out spotting Dave as he was about to chow down on a pizza slice, as there was still two hours or so until Kikka's autograph session we hooked up and decided to invade the AWA arcade.
At first we had no idea where it was so were forced into a detour to Dave's truck so that we could get the map of the convention, with this in our heads we ventured back inside and eventually found it by ear as we could hear the DDR music lol What we found was an empty shop front that had been kitted out with about 25 cabinets but they were very very misleading!
One cabinet had the image of Marvel vs Street fighter but it turned out the game was a Megaman game. Another had Teenage mutant ninja turtles but the game was The Avengers. However, we didn't let this spoil our fun. One cabinet had Puzzle fighter which Dave well and truly kicked my arse at! As I slithered over to play the avengers, he was challenged by someone else, and was holding his own, before he got beat and retired lol At the same time I completed the avengers pretty much solo without losing a life, while Dave continously died. Have to say, that game is hilarious, a Sentinel attacked us a boss, but it was labelled Giant robot! Funnier still was when Juggernaut attacked us, we managed to somehow lock in an infinite combo and just totally wiped the floor with him.
After this was over, it was around noon so we ventured up to the dealers room. Kikka's stall was vacant so I decided to go and look around, while Dave wanted to wait at the stall. I walked about and managed to find a DVD box-set of 'Fist of the north star' now I bought this because it was initially released as a VHS thing with three parts in the UK but stopped for no reason after volume 7, so I never saw it through to the end, and nostalgia has bitten me quite badly since coming to this con!
Soon I ran into Shug and Needmorebuono! So we hung about and went into artists alley to see what was on offer, a lot of stuff was there for the crafts side of business, and also some good guides on drawing anime style. Needmorebuono! wanted to scout alone while Shug and I went into the food court and tried some smoothie with a flavour I forget the name of... What it was, in a nutshell, was a sort of creamy taste but it had these annoying gel things that got sucked up along with the fluid. The drink was nice, but they weren't, and no matter what we tried, we couldn't stop sucking them up. So we just finished what we could and dumped the rest, a shame.
After this it was just gone ten minutes to one, we got there and the line was long, much longer than the previous day, this was wonderful to see as I was concerned she would be seeing the same faces alot. She was dressed in her outfit from the PV from Darling to Madonna and looked absolutely gorgeous. I went around a few times again, getting reactions from her for multiple things. Best of which, was when I presented a photo from her first single Kikkake wa you! and she pointed at it and said "young", then to herself in the flesh and went "old!" I giggled before saying she was beautiful which got her putting her palms under her chin in a really aluring fashion, no photo sadly :( I also said a pun created by Tomasz in response to 'big Kikka' the day before when I told her 'oki-kka' (big kikka basically) and she giggled before doing a shape of her upper chest area getting bigger. This made me smile.
After the autographing was over we were all feeling the burn from hunger, so Shug, needmorebuono! and I visited the Cheesecake factory since Kikka raved so hard about it. I got myself one of their classic burgers and was a bit taken aback when asked how I wanted it. In my head I am like "err... it's a burger, on a bun!" but I realised that they meant like a steak, as it was gonna be on bread I just chose Medium. When it came I was amazed at how big it was, damn thing was colossal! Really really nice but on reflection, could have caused problems during the live!
Now it was time to venture over to the hall as the lives were about to be called forward. Now before Kikka there was a seiyuu that would be performing called Suzuko Mimori, I had never heard of her, but was told by staff that both concerts would be treated as one, meaning that the hall would not be cleared. Determined to get as best a slot as possible, we all decided to watch her too. All being Turbos86, Shug, Needmorebuono!, catchfivebats, manami kawai, nights4saturn, dave and a whole host of others.
Now this seiyuu was actually not what I expected, she was incredibly petite and reminded me alot of Ogura Yuko. She had a few songs but I recognised none of them, being mostly from games or animes I hadn't seen. This concert was quite jarring as she had a translator... Whose microphone did not work! So there was constant toing and froing all across the stage to provide the insight. In short though, she was good fun and not bad at all.
But now it was time for the main event, I was worried that with the previous performer being an anime seiyuu the hall would empty out, but most people hung about and even more came in. As the lights went down everyone started the Kikka! chants and all the glowstick shaking began, which got some confused looks from the anime fans that hung around!
She ripped onto the stage and went straight into koko kara hajimarunda and performed with aplomb, up close I could really appreciate how well practiced she is, she really nailed the notes and dances, even with the sound problems. Said sound problems got worse during next song hapi rapi sunrise where the PA decided it would take a nap, meaning we could only hear music through the monitors. Kikka herself kept signalling to her ears as if to say 'turn it up!'
The PA came back halfway through the song and the crowd continuously interacted with her alot, including shouting the line 'Aru kamo ne' on cue, which was a nice thing to experience. After this song she introduced herself speaking English, and she did it really well. Saying, in a nutshell, that she was called Kikka and was really pleased to meet us, before she started getting the crowd to chant you at her after she went 'Kikkake wa..." so I thought that was coming next, but no she suddenly reached behind a monitor and as a total surprise pulled out her Milkyway tambourine!
I was like 'whoa!" and before anyone could wonder what was gonna happen, she ripped into a solo version of 'tan tan taan' which was wonderfully nostalgic, and it was so interesting to hear how her voice has developed since she last did this song about three years ago! Although at one point she was so eager she started to sing before the music could catch up lol Also interesting was the absence of the harmonised vocals from the other two members, certainly a unique rendition.
Now, if doing that song felt like a shock, it was nothing on what happened next, out of absolutely nowhere she did Romantic ukare mode! This Mikitty classic naturally got a lot of chants and cheers due to the nature of it, I did not do the romansu dance as I was wearing my rucksack and did not think it a good idea to knock people out with it! However, Kikka's version of this was wonderful, her naturally powerful vocie coupled with her softer style was eerily reminsicent of Miki herself... Praise doesn't get much higher than that!
If hearing her do that song was not shocking enough, when she started the line for her next song there was a communal sense of holy shit! Mainly because, totally out of nowhere with no hints to it whatsoever, she did a rendition of Daite hold on me the ancient Morning Musume classic. This song is not only rare to hear, but a difficult song due to its semi-urban style, but Kikka really did well, she even did the rapping part by herself and that was awesome to watch as I haven't seen her do that before, but she did it first take with no trouble at all, truly awesome.
After this she spoke about them in japanese, saying how she did the old songs before once again getting the crowd to do the 'you' chant in response to the 'Kikkake wa...' setup. But once again she caught us out by starting Konna watashi de yokattara. I have always loved this song because it has mutliple styles and is so different. The vocals build up in different ways and live it had lost none of its power.
For her penultimate song she performed her most recent single Darling to Madonna, I hadn't heard much of this song as I haven't got a copy yet, but I remember it being a great semblance of rock guitars and electro music, she was extremely energetic during it and constantly waving for the crowd to go for it and chant, which we duly did.
Then it was time for the final setup of 'Kikkake wa' and the crowd reply of 'you' and then this track as the closer. Her dancing for this song is incredible energetic and powerful, plus lots of opportunities for the crowd to chant and flash the glowsticks at her. In all too short a time the concert ended. But my god! She was awesome, even when faced with tough sound problems she just overcame them with absolute ease. her constant smiling expression showed she really enjoyed being out here for all of us and that we were delighted to have seen her.
Though there was one last surprise, in that there was another autograph signing announced for immediately after the concert. I went through the line once telling her that her live performance was one of the best I have ever seen, before I was asked for an interview on camera. I gave a simple message of how I had come from England, that Kikka was really amazing and constantly looking to improve as she performed, not only this but how she treated us with such old songs and the modern stuff, concluding by saying that if anyone gets the chance to attend her shows in France and Belgium, they should go! (I can't sadly due to the cost of this event), I hung around after this and we were all given a treat of yet another group photo with her. She asked what pose we should do and I gestured for the one at the end of the PV for Kikkake wa You which she was instantly saying yes to.
This was truly the cherry on top of the cake! We all were very happy about this, afterwards, with no other events of interest, we all went to a Chinese place called Changs, waited a long time for a table due to the group being 13 in number (well 12 as one of us disappeared), I just drank a few beers as my stomach was still full due to that massive lunch, but everyone else indulged and seemed to love it. One group shot followed before we all called it a night, high on the fumes of Kikka's gig. Truly wonderful day, and now it transpires there's another signing event and a panel for the final day, so more Kikka goodness to get stuck into, I aim to do that shortly. Until next time, sets sail.
At first we had no idea where it was so were forced into a detour to Dave's truck so that we could get the map of the convention, with this in our heads we ventured back inside and eventually found it by ear as we could hear the DDR music lol What we found was an empty shop front that had been kitted out with about 25 cabinets but they were very very misleading!
One cabinet had the image of Marvel vs Street fighter but it turned out the game was a Megaman game. Another had Teenage mutant ninja turtles but the game was The Avengers. However, we didn't let this spoil our fun. One cabinet had Puzzle fighter which Dave well and truly kicked my arse at! As I slithered over to play the avengers, he was challenged by someone else, and was holding his own, before he got beat and retired lol At the same time I completed the avengers pretty much solo without losing a life, while Dave continously died. Have to say, that game is hilarious, a Sentinel attacked us a boss, but it was labelled Giant robot! Funnier still was when Juggernaut attacked us, we managed to somehow lock in an infinite combo and just totally wiped the floor with him.
After this was over, it was around noon so we ventured up to the dealers room. Kikka's stall was vacant so I decided to go and look around, while Dave wanted to wait at the stall. I walked about and managed to find a DVD box-set of 'Fist of the north star' now I bought this because it was initially released as a VHS thing with three parts in the UK but stopped for no reason after volume 7, so I never saw it through to the end, and nostalgia has bitten me quite badly since coming to this con!
Soon I ran into Shug and Needmorebuono! So we hung about and went into artists alley to see what was on offer, a lot of stuff was there for the crafts side of business, and also some good guides on drawing anime style. Needmorebuono! wanted to scout alone while Shug and I went into the food court and tried some smoothie with a flavour I forget the name of... What it was, in a nutshell, was a sort of creamy taste but it had these annoying gel things that got sucked up along with the fluid. The drink was nice, but they weren't, and no matter what we tried, we couldn't stop sucking them up. So we just finished what we could and dumped the rest, a shame.
After this it was just gone ten minutes to one, we got there and the line was long, much longer than the previous day, this was wonderful to see as I was concerned she would be seeing the same faces alot. She was dressed in her outfit from the PV from Darling to Madonna and looked absolutely gorgeous. I went around a few times again, getting reactions from her for multiple things. Best of which, was when I presented a photo from her first single Kikkake wa you! and she pointed at it and said "young", then to herself in the flesh and went "old!" I giggled before saying she was beautiful which got her putting her palms under her chin in a really aluring fashion, no photo sadly :( I also said a pun created by Tomasz in response to 'big Kikka' the day before when I told her 'oki-kka' (big kikka basically) and she giggled before doing a shape of her upper chest area getting bigger. This made me smile.
After the autographing was over we were all feeling the burn from hunger, so Shug, needmorebuono! and I visited the Cheesecake factory since Kikka raved so hard about it. I got myself one of their classic burgers and was a bit taken aback when asked how I wanted it. In my head I am like "err... it's a burger, on a bun!" but I realised that they meant like a steak, as it was gonna be on bread I just chose Medium. When it came I was amazed at how big it was, damn thing was colossal! Really really nice but on reflection, could have caused problems during the live!
Now it was time to venture over to the hall as the lives were about to be called forward. Now before Kikka there was a seiyuu that would be performing called Suzuko Mimori, I had never heard of her, but was told by staff that both concerts would be treated as one, meaning that the hall would not be cleared. Determined to get as best a slot as possible, we all decided to watch her too. All being Turbos86, Shug, Needmorebuono!, catchfivebats, manami kawai, nights4saturn, dave and a whole host of others.
Now this seiyuu was actually not what I expected, she was incredibly petite and reminded me alot of Ogura Yuko. She had a few songs but I recognised none of them, being mostly from games or animes I hadn't seen. This concert was quite jarring as she had a translator... Whose microphone did not work! So there was constant toing and froing all across the stage to provide the insight. In short though, she was good fun and not bad at all.
But now it was time for the main event, I was worried that with the previous performer being an anime seiyuu the hall would empty out, but most people hung about and even more came in. As the lights went down everyone started the Kikka! chants and all the glowstick shaking began, which got some confused looks from the anime fans that hung around!
She ripped onto the stage and went straight into koko kara hajimarunda and performed with aplomb, up close I could really appreciate how well practiced she is, she really nailed the notes and dances, even with the sound problems. Said sound problems got worse during next song hapi rapi sunrise where the PA decided it would take a nap, meaning we could only hear music through the monitors. Kikka herself kept signalling to her ears as if to say 'turn it up!'
The PA came back halfway through the song and the crowd continuously interacted with her alot, including shouting the line 'Aru kamo ne' on cue, which was a nice thing to experience. After this song she introduced herself speaking English, and she did it really well. Saying, in a nutshell, that she was called Kikka and was really pleased to meet us, before she started getting the crowd to chant you at her after she went 'Kikkake wa..." so I thought that was coming next, but no she suddenly reached behind a monitor and as a total surprise pulled out her Milkyway tambourine!
I was like 'whoa!" and before anyone could wonder what was gonna happen, she ripped into a solo version of 'tan tan taan' which was wonderfully nostalgic, and it was so interesting to hear how her voice has developed since she last did this song about three years ago! Although at one point she was so eager she started to sing before the music could catch up lol Also interesting was the absence of the harmonised vocals from the other two members, certainly a unique rendition.
Now, if doing that song felt like a shock, it was nothing on what happened next, out of absolutely nowhere she did Romantic ukare mode! This Mikitty classic naturally got a lot of chants and cheers due to the nature of it, I did not do the romansu dance as I was wearing my rucksack and did not think it a good idea to knock people out with it! However, Kikka's version of this was wonderful, her naturally powerful vocie coupled with her softer style was eerily reminsicent of Miki herself... Praise doesn't get much higher than that!
If hearing her do that song was not shocking enough, when she started the line for her next song there was a communal sense of holy shit! Mainly because, totally out of nowhere with no hints to it whatsoever, she did a rendition of Daite hold on me the ancient Morning Musume classic. This song is not only rare to hear, but a difficult song due to its semi-urban style, but Kikka really did well, she even did the rapping part by herself and that was awesome to watch as I haven't seen her do that before, but she did it first take with no trouble at all, truly awesome.
After this she spoke about them in japanese, saying how she did the old songs before once again getting the crowd to do the 'you' chant in response to the 'Kikkake wa...' setup. But once again she caught us out by starting Konna watashi de yokattara. I have always loved this song because it has mutliple styles and is so different. The vocals build up in different ways and live it had lost none of its power.
For her penultimate song she performed her most recent single Darling to Madonna, I hadn't heard much of this song as I haven't got a copy yet, but I remember it being a great semblance of rock guitars and electro music, she was extremely energetic during it and constantly waving for the crowd to go for it and chant, which we duly did.
Then it was time for the final setup of 'Kikkake wa' and the crowd reply of 'you' and then this track as the closer. Her dancing for this song is incredible energetic and powerful, plus lots of opportunities for the crowd to chant and flash the glowsticks at her. In all too short a time the concert ended. But my god! She was awesome, even when faced with tough sound problems she just overcame them with absolute ease. her constant smiling expression showed she really enjoyed being out here for all of us and that we were delighted to have seen her.
Though there was one last surprise, in that there was another autograph signing announced for immediately after the concert. I went through the line once telling her that her live performance was one of the best I have ever seen, before I was asked for an interview on camera. I gave a simple message of how I had come from England, that Kikka was really amazing and constantly looking to improve as she performed, not only this but how she treated us with such old songs and the modern stuff, concluding by saying that if anyone gets the chance to attend her shows in France and Belgium, they should go! (I can't sadly due to the cost of this event), I hung around after this and we were all given a treat of yet another group photo with her. She asked what pose we should do and I gestured for the one at the end of the PV for Kikkake wa You which she was instantly saying yes to.
This was truly the cherry on top of the cake! We all were very happy about this, afterwards, with no other events of interest, we all went to a Chinese place called Changs, waited a long time for a table due to the group being 13 in number (well 12 as one of us disappeared), I just drank a few beers as my stomach was still full due to that massive lunch, but everyone else indulged and seemed to love it. One group shot followed before we all called it a night, high on the fumes of Kikka's gig. Truly wonderful day, and now it transpires there's another signing event and a panel for the final day, so more Kikka goodness to get stuck into, I aim to do that shortly. Until next time, sets sail.
Saturday 29 September 2012
Anime weekend Atlanta days 4 and 5, Kikkawa comes for all of Yuu!
Ahoy everybody! Jesus, typing ain't easy right now, even after eight hours of kip, I am guess I am still on my rush about Kikka-sama. However, I am going to restore order as best I can in order to get things moving forward and steady for today.
Thursday was a generally nice day for me, I did want to go into Downtown Atlanta, but had no idea of the route I should take. I took a look online for some help about public transport down there and basically got told that that routes are crap for times, crap for reliability and generall crap. With this being the day before the Expo, I decided to not take any chances and simply stay close by.
So I instead walked out of the hotel area I am in and headed to the left, as I hadn't done that. Mostly I found myself walking along a highway and it was duuuull. Google maps suggested there were some nice parks in the area, but I didn't see any! That was until I found a nice little trail path that went directly off the highway. In said place I found myself in a lovely wooded area by a creek, With squirrels, birds and other stuff all going about their day. It only went off the highway for around one mile, but like the previous beauty spot, it felt like a hundred!
On the way back I passed a stores area and inside was a liquor store. So I decided to be bold and grab another two types of beer to enjoy and take my time with. The result of which can be seen below.
After a spot of lunch I received an update from Tomasz who had drove all the way from Florida for this event, saying he'd pick me up so we could go to the Expo and get our badges. Short car ride later and we got to the hotel at 18:05, literally five minutes after badges opened for collection... The queue was at least an hour along already! Totally miffed and not willing to suffer through that, we decided to go and grab lunch. We found a rather cheap chinese place back near both our hotels called 'panda' so we ate there and then decided to walk to the convention centre as finding a space had been a nightmare as well as the traffic!
This time when we got there the main crowd of hardcore badge collectors had filed away so we were able to get ours in around fifteen minutes, with this done, we were looking to just go and take it easy, but as we came across the sky bridge we ran into Shug and Greg who were about to get theirs, afterwards they wanted a beer so we decided to hang about.
After numbing our arses on the steps I happened to notice some proper chairs inside, so we dashed in and occupied them before anyone else could! For around twenty minutes we were thumbing through the programe schedule and so forth, when I noticed Tomasz having a rather foamy at the mouth and wide-eyed look. I spin around and am face to face with Kikka-sama!
She was wearing the dress from the PV for 'Koko kara hajimarunda' and I was like 'hey Kikka!' and she smiled and waved at us both! Well goddamn, event hasn't even started and already we are getting the good shit! After this I kind of thought 'how do I break this to shug and greg?' Fortunately as soon as they appeared they just wernt "guess who we saw?" So I was able to say the same thing. We all went for some very merry beers after this, high on adrenaline already! Afterwards it was around 11 so we decided to call it a night as we planned to start early for the Friday.
Friday begins then around 07:50 when Tomasz, Manami Kawai and Catchfivebats meet me right outside their hotel and we walk to the con, on the way I get a call from Shug asking where we are and if we'd meet. so the posse of five made our way inside. Main reason was that at 1pm Kikka was going to be doing a signing at her merchandise booth. We got there at about 08:30 just in case there were lots of nutters who would steal all the merch and leave a few of our group without the chance to get a signature. (As a hardcore fan, I know first-hand how hard it is to get hold of some of her merchandise in the first place!)
Once we found the dealers room which was the place this all happened at, we sat around, got joined by multiple others including nights4saturn, when Kikka started walking about with one of her minders. Thus we constantly interacted with her and she seemed realy happy to see us. After about 90 minutes, she walked around and suddenly went 'Kikka-camera!' And it turned out they were videoing.
She stopped with us all and did multiple poses from her videos along with chants of 'kikkake wa you!' which was awesome. Also as she dived inside, one of our posses decided to steal a handshake with her. (I have withheld the name in case of a witchhunt lol)
We stuck out the rest of the time and then eventually were let in. At her booth the merch on offer was a mixed bag. she had two t-shirts, one black (which I have multiple of) and one pink. Now only the black had sizes other than small, one of which was XL. I bought one and put it on... XL? Maybe if I was a child! This thing is easily the tightest shirt I own! Put it this way, I have a tattoo at the tp of my left-arm that I normally don't show off as sleeves cover it... The sleeves on this shirt stop at the edge of my shoulder!
I struggled on with it, after all, even with bright yellow trousers and this skin-tight thing, I was still one of the most normal looking people at the con! Seriously, until you actually attend one, you do not know how seriously popular coplaying is. Interestingly, someone was cosplaying as The Stig the costume was actually awesome and all the time I saw this dude (presumably, you never know with the stig!) he was just marching down the halls not interacting with anyone, so quite convincing I must say!
1pm came about and we all swarmed about the desk, which was,. sadly, not rammed with people like I expected. I was able to circulate five times for merchandise to be signed! Still, Kikka did look radiant and awesome as she went about her work.
I bought a photoset from the desk and had those signed, along with photos from the debut single, a T-shirt and also a very rare 'cheerfully' movie photo card.
The greatest thing though, is that on the second cycle or so of signing trips. A girl who was cosplaying asked for a photo and she obliged! Thinking that it was more likely to do with cosplaying, I expected it to be refused for everyone else... Not so! I went up and asked for one and she was only happy to say yes and pose with us all.
I feel incredibly privilleged to have had this happen, these forms of photos are very very rare to obtain indeed. In fact, tales of them are so full of ardour and grit that I don't know what you normally have to do in order to get one! But alas, I have and truly my life feels pretty much complete! Once the hour came to an end Shug came up with the idea of us asking if she would take a group photo, manami kawai bit the bullet (or at least I saw her go up so if I wrongly approtioned credit... sue me!) and it was arranged! Kikka was really awesome and we all did multiple shots with her, including, one on her own personal camera! Now as far as I know it was taken by a member of UpfrontLink, I really want that photo ASAP!
With this amazing hour completed, we decided to go and get food in the interim gap between signing and Q&A. All of us were just charged and shared our experiences of other events outside Japan such as Buono! in Paris and Berryz at New Jersey. This con has felt really smooth since we have been here, it has been easy to get access to the idol. But to get two-shots? Seriously, none of us expected that!
After sucking down a Taco Bell for the first time in my life... And not getting bowel trouble, we decided to go back to the expo, when the heavens opened and a biblical storm shower started. catchfivebats went 'don't worry it'll be short due to the intensity'... Five minutes of non-stop rain later I just go "let's go for a pint!"
We pent twenty minutes sucking down a beer, whilst the other half of our group who went to Cheesecake factory finished their lunch. Then we all headed back, found the Q&A room about 30 minutes early, and all sat down to await the event. When it was time we were asked to chant for her, so the room of about 30 or 40 people started chanting, really loudly but still she didn't come in lol
Eventually a member of staff dashed out to give soem guidance, personally, I think she met Axl Rose and he just said 'whatever you do, don't go on until you're three hours late!' She bounded in and then sat down, before staff anounced we could take some photos of her, I only had my camera phone and for whatever reason the light meant they didn't come out as well as I would have liked.
Still she was gorgeous, as they waited for some technical people who were handling a DVD for them, they asked us how we knew Kikka. I got to say that it was because I saw Momusu's DVD of their 2008 tour and she caught my attention when she was performing as a member of Milkyway! She looked really happy about that, another member of the audience talked about having seen the anime of Kirarin revolution and noticed her that way.
Before we started to ask questions the translator and Kikka's staff member basically wanted to show us the DVD, and the bods were still fiddling with the controls when Kikka just suddenly went "DVD watching now!" Cue me going 'you have been told!' Which caused laughter.
The DVD was essentially a fast summary of how she went from eggs to solo, and then showed the vocaloid version of the PV for 'koko kara hajimarunda'. Afterwards the questions started and I got to ask her what it was like to have been the lead character in the film 'Cheerfully' considering how many other idols were in the film. Her answer was really interesting, in that she enjoyed working with actresses that were of a similar age to her and how she saw the amount of effort they all put in, she then decided to use that as a means to push herself and improve to match their dedication.
I think this awesome of Kikka because that movie is almost in sense a 'the other idols' movie as you have Kikka, members of The Possible, Canary Club, UpUp Girls, passpo... None of the main project members so for Kikka to look upon as people not only her equal, but those to learn from, really shows how little it matters about the size and scope a group has to the idols personally.
Rest of the Q&A featured some interesting stuff, someone asked her about whether she had been surprised by anything about Atlanta, cue a story about how when she looked over the city on the plane she thought everything look delicious! XD Her manager then told us that in the car ride from the airport she kept pointing at buildings randomly an going 'delicious!' lol Someone she remake the attack of the fifty foot woman and cast Kikka in it now!
Kikka also said she loved going to Subway over here as you can get the footlongs, big deal you think, but apparently in Japan they only do the six inch ones, not the foot longs, so she was happy to eat one of them. She also adored Cheesecake factory and any mention of food just got her saying that for an hour lol. She also closed out her Q&A by saying she wanted to become Big Kikka over here to help become big in Japan. I just went "Biiiig" and she copied it which was awesome!
Catchfivebats also asked her to come up with a pun, as she is known for these. She thought for a while before talking the act of turning on a tap and the water pooling about. As in japanese that is something like jyo-jia, so Georgia! Gotta give her credit for coming up with that, but personally were I her I'd have just gone 'Kikk-awa'... No, forget that, she wins!
The only blemish was two rather dumb questions that got asked, one was 'have you ever been to Alabama?' Despite them clearly saying it's her first trip to America! The other 'have you got a boyfriend?' The wota amongst us all facepalmed at this, the guy was an anime fan so he wasn't to kmow any better, but I don't think it was well-received shall we say!
After the Q&A ended the group schismed and myself, shug, greg, nights4saturn and tomasz] all went for a massive and absolutely gorgeous steak dinner, before we crashed shug's hotel room and watched the concert of Buono! in paris again! Hey you can't have a good steak without a beer to wash it down!
So yes, truly one of the greatest days of my life, and today, it starts again! Signing at 1pm and a concert this evening, the hits just keep on coming! Until next time, sets sail.
Thursday was a generally nice day for me, I did want to go into Downtown Atlanta, but had no idea of the route I should take. I took a look online for some help about public transport down there and basically got told that that routes are crap for times, crap for reliability and generall crap. With this being the day before the Expo, I decided to not take any chances and simply stay close by.
So I instead walked out of the hotel area I am in and headed to the left, as I hadn't done that. Mostly I found myself walking along a highway and it was duuuull. Google maps suggested there were some nice parks in the area, but I didn't see any! That was until I found a nice little trail path that went directly off the highway. In said place I found myself in a lovely wooded area by a creek, With squirrels, birds and other stuff all going about their day. It only went off the highway for around one mile, but like the previous beauty spot, it felt like a hundred!
On the way back I passed a stores area and inside was a liquor store. So I decided to be bold and grab another two types of beer to enjoy and take my time with. The result of which can be seen below.
After a spot of lunch I received an update from Tomasz who had drove all the way from Florida for this event, saying he'd pick me up so we could go to the Expo and get our badges. Short car ride later and we got to the hotel at 18:05, literally five minutes after badges opened for collection... The queue was at least an hour along already! Totally miffed and not willing to suffer through that, we decided to go and grab lunch. We found a rather cheap chinese place back near both our hotels called 'panda' so we ate there and then decided to walk to the convention centre as finding a space had been a nightmare as well as the traffic!
This time when we got there the main crowd of hardcore badge collectors had filed away so we were able to get ours in around fifteen minutes, with this done, we were looking to just go and take it easy, but as we came across the sky bridge we ran into Shug and Greg who were about to get theirs, afterwards they wanted a beer so we decided to hang about.
After numbing our arses on the steps I happened to notice some proper chairs inside, so we dashed in and occupied them before anyone else could! For around twenty minutes we were thumbing through the programe schedule and so forth, when I noticed Tomasz having a rather foamy at the mouth and wide-eyed look. I spin around and am face to face with Kikka-sama!
She was wearing the dress from the PV for 'Koko kara hajimarunda' and I was like 'hey Kikka!' and she smiled and waved at us both! Well goddamn, event hasn't even started and already we are getting the good shit! After this I kind of thought 'how do I break this to shug and greg?' Fortunately as soon as they appeared they just wernt "guess who we saw?" So I was able to say the same thing. We all went for some very merry beers after this, high on adrenaline already! Afterwards it was around 11 so we decided to call it a night as we planned to start early for the Friday.
Friday begins then around 07:50 when Tomasz, Manami Kawai and Catchfivebats meet me right outside their hotel and we walk to the con, on the way I get a call from Shug asking where we are and if we'd meet. so the posse of five made our way inside. Main reason was that at 1pm Kikka was going to be doing a signing at her merchandise booth. We got there at about 08:30 just in case there were lots of nutters who would steal all the merch and leave a few of our group without the chance to get a signature. (As a hardcore fan, I know first-hand how hard it is to get hold of some of her merchandise in the first place!)
Once we found the dealers room which was the place this all happened at, we sat around, got joined by multiple others including nights4saturn, when Kikka started walking about with one of her minders. Thus we constantly interacted with her and she seemed realy happy to see us. After about 90 minutes, she walked around and suddenly went 'Kikka-camera!' And it turned out they were videoing.
She stopped with us all and did multiple poses from her videos along with chants of 'kikkake wa you!' which was awesome. Also as she dived inside, one of our posses decided to steal a handshake with her. (I have withheld the name in case of a witchhunt lol)
We stuck out the rest of the time and then eventually were let in. At her booth the merch on offer was a mixed bag. she had two t-shirts, one black (which I have multiple of) and one pink. Now only the black had sizes other than small, one of which was XL. I bought one and put it on... XL? Maybe if I was a child! This thing is easily the tightest shirt I own! Put it this way, I have a tattoo at the tp of my left-arm that I normally don't show off as sleeves cover it... The sleeves on this shirt stop at the edge of my shoulder!
I struggled on with it, after all, even with bright yellow trousers and this skin-tight thing, I was still one of the most normal looking people at the con! Seriously, until you actually attend one, you do not know how seriously popular coplaying is. Interestingly, someone was cosplaying as The Stig the costume was actually awesome and all the time I saw this dude (presumably, you never know with the stig!) he was just marching down the halls not interacting with anyone, so quite convincing I must say!
1pm came about and we all swarmed about the desk, which was,. sadly, not rammed with people like I expected. I was able to circulate five times for merchandise to be signed! Still, Kikka did look radiant and awesome as she went about her work.
I bought a photoset from the desk and had those signed, along with photos from the debut single, a T-shirt and also a very rare 'cheerfully' movie photo card.
The greatest thing though, is that on the second cycle or so of signing trips. A girl who was cosplaying asked for a photo and she obliged! Thinking that it was more likely to do with cosplaying, I expected it to be refused for everyone else... Not so! I went up and asked for one and she was only happy to say yes and pose with us all.
I feel incredibly privilleged to have had this happen, these forms of photos are very very rare to obtain indeed. In fact, tales of them are so full of ardour and grit that I don't know what you normally have to do in order to get one! But alas, I have and truly my life feels pretty much complete! Once the hour came to an end Shug came up with the idea of us asking if she would take a group photo, manami kawai bit the bullet (or at least I saw her go up so if I wrongly approtioned credit... sue me!) and it was arranged! Kikka was really awesome and we all did multiple shots with her, including, one on her own personal camera! Now as far as I know it was taken by a member of UpfrontLink, I really want that photo ASAP!
With this amazing hour completed, we decided to go and get food in the interim gap between signing and Q&A. All of us were just charged and shared our experiences of other events outside Japan such as Buono! in Paris and Berryz at New Jersey. This con has felt really smooth since we have been here, it has been easy to get access to the idol. But to get two-shots? Seriously, none of us expected that!
After sucking down a Taco Bell for the first time in my life... And not getting bowel trouble, we decided to go back to the expo, when the heavens opened and a biblical storm shower started. catchfivebats went 'don't worry it'll be short due to the intensity'... Five minutes of non-stop rain later I just go "let's go for a pint!"
We pent twenty minutes sucking down a beer, whilst the other half of our group who went to Cheesecake factory finished their lunch. Then we all headed back, found the Q&A room about 30 minutes early, and all sat down to await the event. When it was time we were asked to chant for her, so the room of about 30 or 40 people started chanting, really loudly but still she didn't come in lol
Eventually a member of staff dashed out to give soem guidance, personally, I think she met Axl Rose and he just said 'whatever you do, don't go on until you're three hours late!' She bounded in and then sat down, before staff anounced we could take some photos of her, I only had my camera phone and for whatever reason the light meant they didn't come out as well as I would have liked.
Still she was gorgeous, as they waited for some technical people who were handling a DVD for them, they asked us how we knew Kikka. I got to say that it was because I saw Momusu's DVD of their 2008 tour and she caught my attention when she was performing as a member of Milkyway! She looked really happy about that, another member of the audience talked about having seen the anime of Kirarin revolution and noticed her that way.
Before we started to ask questions the translator and Kikka's staff member basically wanted to show us the DVD, and the bods were still fiddling with the controls when Kikka just suddenly went "DVD watching now!" Cue me going 'you have been told!' Which caused laughter.
The DVD was essentially a fast summary of how she went from eggs to solo, and then showed the vocaloid version of the PV for 'koko kara hajimarunda'. Afterwards the questions started and I got to ask her what it was like to have been the lead character in the film 'Cheerfully' considering how many other idols were in the film. Her answer was really interesting, in that she enjoyed working with actresses that were of a similar age to her and how she saw the amount of effort they all put in, she then decided to use that as a means to push herself and improve to match their dedication.
I think this awesome of Kikka because that movie is almost in sense a 'the other idols' movie as you have Kikka, members of The Possible, Canary Club, UpUp Girls, passpo... None of the main project members so for Kikka to look upon as people not only her equal, but those to learn from, really shows how little it matters about the size and scope a group has to the idols personally.
Rest of the Q&A featured some interesting stuff, someone asked her about whether she had been surprised by anything about Atlanta, cue a story about how when she looked over the city on the plane she thought everything look delicious! XD Her manager then told us that in the car ride from the airport she kept pointing at buildings randomly an going 'delicious!' lol Someone she remake the attack of the fifty foot woman and cast Kikka in it now!
Kikka also said she loved going to Subway over here as you can get the footlongs, big deal you think, but apparently in Japan they only do the six inch ones, not the foot longs, so she was happy to eat one of them. She also adored Cheesecake factory and any mention of food just got her saying that for an hour lol. She also closed out her Q&A by saying she wanted to become Big Kikka over here to help become big in Japan. I just went "Biiiig" and she copied it which was awesome!
Catchfivebats also asked her to come up with a pun, as she is known for these. She thought for a while before talking the act of turning on a tap and the water pooling about. As in japanese that is something like jyo-jia, so Georgia! Gotta give her credit for coming up with that, but personally were I her I'd have just gone 'Kikk-awa'... No, forget that, she wins!
The only blemish was two rather dumb questions that got asked, one was 'have you ever been to Alabama?' Despite them clearly saying it's her first trip to America! The other 'have you got a boyfriend?' The wota amongst us all facepalmed at this, the guy was an anime fan so he wasn't to kmow any better, but I don't think it was well-received shall we say!
After the Q&A ended the group schismed and myself, shug, greg, nights4saturn and tomasz] all went for a massive and absolutely gorgeous steak dinner, before we crashed shug's hotel room and watched the concert of Buono! in paris again! Hey you can't have a good steak without a beer to wash it down!
So yes, truly one of the greatest days of my life, and today, it starts again! Signing at 1pm and a concert this evening, the hits just keep on coming! Until next time, sets sail.
Thursday 27 September 2012
Anime Weekend Atlanta Days 2 and 3 of the journey
Ahoy all! Finally able to check back in on the written form! I have uploaded quite a few vlogs on my youtube account, but I am going to embed them here for those who have not seen them. I haven't blogged as both days sort of merged together. So yeah, gonna start with Tuesday morning, got out of bed and recorded the vlog I posted in the previous blog post. Afterwards wanted to get some breakfast so left the motel.
Having crossed the street I immediately had the option to visit Burger King, but decided against it as I thought I would try them later. Now, across the main three lane road, was, of all things, an Aldi supermarket! This weirded me out big time, I know that they are a major German chain so I expected them to have a reach all over Europe, including my home country England. But USA? Totally and utterly unexpected!
Thing is, I wanted something cooked, so carried o wealking but only place I saw, besides Burger King, open that early, was a Mcdonalds. Normally I hate these places, preferring to call them cackdonalds. However, I thought to myself, that as I was stateside I should at least give it a try. Went inside and scanned the menu, only thing taking my fancy being a Southern style chicken biscuit... It was fine, not amazing, but the chicken tasted like chicken and it wasn't as greasy as I expected it to be. Score!
After this I just came back to the room and spoke to a few friends online for a short while, before I set off, around 10am to scout out the venues. Now, where I am, is a place off sports avenue over the other side of a motorway so I was wondering how I would reach the venue on foot. Consulted google maps and got given two routes. Now the first was the shorter one in terms of as the crow flies, so decided to give it a shot.
At first it was all fine, as it was just walking along the main road. However, I soon reached a problem when it turned out that to the get to the cobb galleria centre and the waverley hotel, I would need to cross eight lanes of traffic! This was terrifying, but only the beginning. I first of all stayed on my side of the main highway and walked down under a bridge beneath the motorway. To my horror ahead all the pavements were dug up and accompanied by signs stating that the paths were not in use. Seeing no other option, I ignored the signs and walked on. Eventually I see a footbridge over all eight lanes, but way above my head and no route up to it from the road I was at the side of! There was a road into a hotel, but no pathway and even at the top of that, no access to the bridge.
Reluctantly I returned to the main road I was following and carried on walking upwards, hopeful of finding a guided crossing over the eight lanes as I had seen at the end of Sports avenue... I eventually found one, way further past the galleria and hotel... But the pedestrian guide lights were not working! I just thought to myself at this point that it would be suicidal to even contemplate jaywalking it so I gave up and returned to the hotel.
Just to show what these main roads are like
Suicidal bridge
Having crossed the street I immediately had the option to visit Burger King, but decided against it as I thought I would try them later. Now, across the main three lane road, was, of all things, an Aldi supermarket! This weirded me out big time, I know that they are a major German chain so I expected them to have a reach all over Europe, including my home country England. But USA? Totally and utterly unexpected!
Thing is, I wanted something cooked, so carried o wealking but only place I saw, besides Burger King, open that early, was a Mcdonalds. Normally I hate these places, preferring to call them cackdonalds. However, I thought to myself, that as I was stateside I should at least give it a try. Went inside and scanned the menu, only thing taking my fancy being a Southern style chicken biscuit... It was fine, not amazing, but the chicken tasted like chicken and it wasn't as greasy as I expected it to be. Score!
After this I just came back to the room and spoke to a few friends online for a short while, before I set off, around 10am to scout out the venues. Now, where I am, is a place off sports avenue over the other side of a motorway so I was wondering how I would reach the venue on foot. Consulted google maps and got given two routes. Now the first was the shorter one in terms of as the crow flies, so decided to give it a shot.
At first it was all fine, as it was just walking along the main road. However, I soon reached a problem when it turned out that to the get to the cobb galleria centre and the waverley hotel, I would need to cross eight lanes of traffic! This was terrifying, but only the beginning. I first of all stayed on my side of the main highway and walked down under a bridge beneath the motorway. To my horror ahead all the pavements were dug up and accompanied by signs stating that the paths were not in use. Seeing no other option, I ignored the signs and walked on. Eventually I see a footbridge over all eight lanes, but way above my head and no route up to it from the road I was at the side of! There was a road into a hotel, but no pathway and even at the top of that, no access to the bridge.
Reluctantly I returned to the main road I was following and carried on walking upwards, hopeful of finding a guided crossing over the eight lanes as I had seen at the end of Sports avenue... I eventually found one, way further past the galleria and hotel... But the pedestrian guide lights were not working! I just thought to myself at this point that it would be suicidal to even contemplate jaywalking it so I gave up and returned to the hotel.
On my way back, I stopped in at a Wendy's burger joint to give them a try. I had heard all about Wendy's courtesy of Noah Antwiler's riff review of their training videos on www.spoonyexperiment.com so out of honour for the Spoony one I thought I would indulge. I looked at their menu and one thing caught my attention, a thing called the baconator. That name alone sounded epic so I decided to give that a shot.
One thing I had forgotten about the riff review of their training material, was that they call the customers guests, so I am there, waiting in line and it took about four attempts on the behalf of the assistance shouting "next guest please!" for me to realise it was my turn to order! Absolute and utter brainfart right there!
So I get this burger in my hands at last. Essentially, it is a half-pound beef burger with loads of bacon, and the meat was very tasty indeed. There was one fatal flaw, that I should have foreseen and asked to avoid... That was it being loaded with ketchup and mayo. YUCK! I do not like either of these things, so combining them is an even worse idea! I soldiered on, but I think if I go for that again I'll state no sauces of any kind please!
I also stopped at a petrol station nearby and picked up a six pack of extra pale by an Atlanta brewery called 'Sweet water brewing company" and I liked what I tasted, as shown by the following video.
So anyway, once back at the hotel, I began scouting again. On google maps there was a second walking route suggested and I gave it a shot. This one made a lot more sense, in that the road goes over the motorway and leads to the rear of a shopping mall. Then it is a matter of crossing through the mall parking lot and onto the footbridge that I had seen but been unable to reach. Thing is, there was a flaw in the plan that the road side I walked on ended, and the only way forward I saw immediately was this.
I bit the bullet and walked over this, terrified out of my skin as I was pretty much walking a tightrope next to three lanes of oncoming traffic! I have since discovered that over on the other side of the road, where this shot was taken from, there is a wide path, that leads onto a completely encased footbridge so I am now using that. This terror was born of my own creation, so yes, point and laugh, I deserve it! However, before the mall, there is a crossing meant to serve as a way to reach the mall and also some bus stops, which is not entirely safe.
Not the most enticing waiting point
This shot is of the corner of a four way junction and that pole has two buttons on it, one to cross the right, and one to cross straight ahead. There is no other waiting position aside from back on the carpark! This, needless to say, is also quite brown trousers in terms of moments due to the American driving laws that allow people to turn right on a red light! So extra caution is needed to show you are crossing, while on the clock to cross the road in entirety!
Anyway after this I make it where the venues are and now know my path, not entirely safe but it has allowed me the ability to get there! So as a final compendium to the day, I went back to the main area I am staying at for my dinner. I had heard that near to where I am staying is a bit of a hidden gem, a Japanese place called 'Minato' so I decided I had to check it out.
On the main road there is a Papa John's pizza joint, a petrol station and golf emporium. At this place was a sign pointing behind the building saying 'Minato at rear' Due to this, I expected one of those tiny little sushi belt places, as I didn't see what else would be there. But when I get down to the rear of these stores, there is a traditional Japanese roof design over a door, I walk in, and am greeted by an amazing looking place.
It had loads of room, a beautiful collage near the entrance of all things Japanese and a really quiet atmosphere. Having been sat down I consulted the menu and settled on that old favourite Sukiyaki. Now, in my hometown, there is an excellent Japanese place called Samsi that does this. It has really thick udon noodles, a really sweet sauce and damned good meat. This one out here had a much deeper bowl, different noodles, but the same level of excellent taste, it was delicious! But by god was it big, I barely finished it, got back to my hotel, collapsed on bed watching TV and passed out full of food and beer! Crazy.
So day three begins with me having the intention of going into downtown Atlanta, main reason, is that I am actually in Smyrna a bit north. Before I was in a position to set off though, I went to that Aldi to get some standard supplies like orange juice, chocolate and crisps to snack on whenever I wanted. Having shopped something else got my attention, a local comics store. I walked inside and was greeted with all sorts of interesting stuff. Wary about cost and weight, I settled on a companion guide to The Walking Dead about characters who are alive and dead, quite a nice read actually. And also a copy of my favourite X-men story arc The dark phoenix saga.
Before I knew what had happened, it was 1pm, so I decided that I wanted to set out through the area and make my way downtown. I walked out though and soon found this stunning little place.
Being here just felt lovely, so I sat myself on a park bench and just started to read, soaking up the sun, the nice breeze the quiet. Though I shattered said quiet with the following Vlog: -
Once I had finished my reading and the clock had got past 3pm, I decided that I was gonna head back to the hotel to dump my stuff and prepare to get my access badge, as the website still said it was available from wednesday night at this time. Before I went though, I decided to get a closer look at the lake for some shots and got some rather nice images.
The one that got away
Turtle gathering
"Which way is the bar?"
After enjoying this for some time, I got back to the apartment and dropped off everything but the ruckback I have since it had my documents. I took my overland route to the hotel and got there, only to be informed that the convention people weren't even there! I was like 'oh... Well better wait another day then!' I checked back online and it was still showing the wednesday availability, but this morning it had been updated to show thursday. A bit of a blooper there!
Since I was close to the Cumberland mall I actually thought I would go and check it out. Setup wise it isn't much different to those I have encountered in England, except that ours are slap bang in the middle of town, rather than ones you have to drive out to. I suppose this must be what it is like for those who go to places like The Trafford Centre back home? (Curiously, I have never been!)
Not a lot took my fancy though as it was mostly clothes stores, there was a Gamestop and I visited it just for looks. I doubt anything would play on my computer back home though so didn't buy anything, but I did overhear some dude buying a game and the woman serving asking if he had pre-ordered it. He was saying that he hadn't and she suddenly began orating. "Well if you had pre-ordered it, I have to inform you that you'd have got a, b, c..." I felt like going, "what is this? Here's what you could have won?" It felt total unnecessary in my view.
Final thing I did here today was get some food from the foodcourt of this mall, where I found a cajun chicken place. It was actually very nice indeed, had everything from sweet stuff like bourbon chicken to some really hot ones. I gave away my Englishness quite easily here as one of them was a basil chicken. I asked for that and the lady was 'basil? Oh you mean bayzil." I just nodded and then explained that I was from England and we say it differently. I got asked a few questions about the way I sounded since I wasn't as refined as she thought English people spoke. I explained that the common English accent heard is rarely, if ever, used in my country, and that most of us have very rough and ready style. I think she got the point, either that or she didn't understand me, answers on a postcard!
So that concludes days two and three. Now today, I have all day free. The convention badge collection is not until 6pm, so I am actually going to get to downtown Atlanta. Near that mall was a customer service building so going to visit there and get some information on the best way to get to Atlanta and pay it a visit. Hopefully lots of photos and videos to come soon. Until next time, sets sail.
Tuesday 25 September 2012
Anime Weekend Atlanta Trip - day 1
Ahoy all of you! Well I had threatened to do it and I have! Anime Weekend Atlanta is upon us, though I have set off earlier than most people! My trip started at 4am UK time on 24th September after getting up for my final day in the UK for a little bit. I was insanely nervous as I was coming to the USA and I have never visited here before, so had no idea if it would be an easy trip or not.
One thing that did make things insanely easy is the ESTA programme, as I am from the UK, I am one of many citizens who can take advantage of a visa waiver agreement. What that entails is filling out a form with some awesome questions. For example; are you a terrorist? Have you committed an act of genocide? Were you a member of the Nazi party between 1933 and 1945?
Fortunately this form you complete no later than 72 hours before you fly in the comfort of your own home. Had this been a one to one conversation with a border guard I imagine it would have ended up a bit like a Bill Bailey comedy gig! The downside to this is that it does cost you $14, however, it lasts for two years and gives you unlimited 90 day blocks that you can visit for. So the New Jersey formula 1 race is now very enticing in 2013...
So with this form being passed with ease, I was all set having converted sterling into dollars and all that jazz. Now the day started very annoyingly, my flight was due to depart for London at 10am, with my cab I ended up being at Manchester airport at 6:20am... They wouldn’t let me check in until 8am! An extra hour in bed missed, denied!
Swallowing this through a coffee shop and a book, all started to go smoothly again, until I get to the gate and board the plane. All seems perfectly normal, full of people in suits going for business meetings in the main. When the pilot comes on the radio, “well Ladies & Gentlemen, we know that you are all ready to depart, as are we, we’d like nothing more than to take off now. Unfortunately, there has been some very severe weather in London, and it has caused a backup of planes on the runways. As such we have not been given permission to take off due to the very short trip, we aim to be airborne in around 70 minutes!”
Being a naturally cautious guy, often to the point of paranoia, this really started to set me fraying. Originally I was to have a layover in London of just under four hours, which I booked in case anything should go wrong. Score one for planning ahead!
So with the 70 minutes up, we start to move, when we suddenly pull over at the side of the runway. Mass confusion arouses in the passengers when the pilot comes back on the radio, “well Ladies & Gentlemen, we now have permission from London. The problem though is that the aircraft has developed several glitches which stop us from taking off, we have tried the work arounds and unfortunately they have failed. So we now have to do a hard shutdown of the craft, like a computer, and hopefully it should all be ok. We’ll then need around ten minutes for the navigation systems to detect where we are and then we’ll be ready to go.” So half an hour later and finally we are in the air, three hours of lost time, what in the world was gonna happen next?
Well I arrive in London two hours late and get through connections to see a customer service desk with one agent and a huge queue... Fuck that! Next! So I walk up to the main concourse of terminal 5 and this place... I hate it!
Seriously, what is with this place? It’s not that it was packed, I expect that from a huge international airport. It was the food, all the places were brands like Harrods! The only place that looked promising was a sushi place called itsu, but it was absolutely jam packed with about forty people waiting to pay.
All I wanted was something like a burger, maybe pie and chips, something filling, simple and relatively inexpensive. Absolutely nothing on the main concourse, but then, my gate gets announced as B47, now this is where T5 is even more flashy and modern. If your gate is either B or C, then you have to go underground, jump on some form of train and be ferried over.
Fortunately, on the other side was a rather swanky styled sandwich store, but they did a delicious ham & cheese on thick crusty bread for just £3.80... At Heathrow I will take that! Rest of the wait went by without incident, just a case of a quick Vlog and rest.
The flight to Atlanta itself was scheduled for around 9 hours, but due to favourable conditions we were looking at 8 and a half... Until some Germans had been affected by the same problem we had towards Manchester, cue them arriving twenty minutes late, doh! Recovery wiped out.
Still, it was an ok experience, the flight was on a Boeing 777 which I had never flown on before. Some things about it freaked me a little, the overhead lockers for instance. Instead of simply being a case of open a hatch and throw in your stuff, instead you pull on this bar and the shelf kind of pulls down like a bunk bed, very very weird!
I was in the middle bank of seats but luckily had the aisle seat so at least had some room, next to me though was a Mother and child and I was just thinking ‘oh now you’re taking the piss!’ Anticipating wailing, crying, arguing... None of it whatsoever, easily the best behaved child I have ever seen on a flight. Little girl fills out the colouring book, sits watching some kids films and then sleeps. The only disturbance I got out of her was one tiny little elbow bump, and I barely even noticed that due to my reading!
One thing I wasn’t impressed about was the food, first meal was standard chicken and mash affair with bread, brew, beer and a chocolate mousse. This was ok actually. No, what happened was it got served less than two hours into the flight, there was then nothing else served until about an hour and a half before we landed...
And good god was it shit, if it wasn’t the biggest fucking insult I have experienced. It was, no joke, a sandwich and a cupcake. I am dead fucking serious! Oh it had fancy packaging and all that bullshit, but the fact was, it was a Gregg’s meal deal without the bag of crisps! I take it back, it’s not an insult... Insults have done nothing of worth to be associated with it! Debacle, farce, pathetic, useless... Take your pick, they all apply!
So anyway not long after this we land at Maynard jackson airport and begin to taxi along to the terminal... We taxied very very very very slowly! We hit the tarmac at around 19:20 local time, I didn’t get to disembark until 19:45! Fortunately the walk to customs was rather short and I joined the queue of internationals that need to be vetted about entry.
There was a fairly long line, but, it was processed quickly. I got to join a queue at a desk for a customs agent after less than ten minutes, and then another seven or so and I was up at the desk for my adjudication. I get there, present my passport, remove my glasses so the agent can compare the photo with my face.
I then get asked the question, ‘why are you here?’ So I just told the lady that I was here for Anime Weekend Atlanta. Suddenly, ‘how long have you been into anime?’ I wasn’t expecting that so just went, ‘oh lord, since about 1999, it used to air on television and I watched it when I was in college.’ She wasn’t done! ‘What do you collect in regards to this?’ I was a little caught out but did my best to avoid being flustered. ‘Dvd’s, photocards, books, soundtracks, albums, figurines, lots of things.’
By now I am thinking that we were almost done... We weren’t! ‘How did you hear about this event?’ Well for this I then explained who Kikkawa Yuu was, how I had found out about the event through her e-mail blog that is sent out by her management, and that I was one of her biggest fans. Agent was like, ‘So you had to get on this? She announces that she is coming to the USA and you can’t miss it?’ I just went ‘yes, it is a very special concert appearance.’
Agent finally started smiling so I am guessing that at this point she had reached the conclusion that I wasn’t lying and coming up with a very creative method of illegal entry. She then switches to the very standard questions about currency I have, any food and all that. Before finally she orders me to present all four fingers and thumb on both hands, and facial shot. This all checked out and I was through.
Phew! I wasn’t expecting it to be as easy as when I went to Japan, but I wasn’t expecting all of that! Fortunately this coincided perfectly with bags coming off the airline, so I was able to pick it up and head out into a taxi.
I enjoyed the cab ride a lot as it ventured from city street driving into motorway, and on the horizon I could just see all these skyscrapers and the drive in places. It was an awesome experience, felt very different to the UK. Cab cost me about $60 which is about what I expected and was no less expensive than any other method I got quoted, with the added advantage of not having to provide all my particulars to companies.
When I got to the hotel area, it turned out I had booked a motel. Trust an englishman to book here with no car! Had an amusing experience at first in that I was given a room and keys, get there and they don’t work. No matter, I’ll just inform the reception. Well, right after, the door opens and a guy goes ‘hello?’ I was like ‘err... I have the room... You’re not staff are you?” Dude is like ‘nope that’s sure wrong!’ I just went, ‘sorry mate I’ll speak with reception’
Needless to say the guy on the desk was rather red-faced about this! Fortunately he took me to another one, which is actually very nice. Big bed, large tv, fridge, freezer, cooker, bathing facilities... Almost like an apartment rather than a hotel. Yeah, it’s a bit odd being on foot compared with every other resident, but then, mostly likely I am the only one from the UK here so that figures!
Having slept until 4:15am local time I got up, wrote this and released the vlogs. My plan for today is to start with breakfast and a shower, then later find the venues so I can have a look at those and hopefully get the jump on what is happening. Gonna be a lot of fun. Until next time, sets sail.
One thing that did make things insanely easy is the ESTA programme, as I am from the UK, I am one of many citizens who can take advantage of a visa waiver agreement. What that entails is filling out a form with some awesome questions. For example; are you a terrorist? Have you committed an act of genocide? Were you a member of the Nazi party between 1933 and 1945?
Fortunately this form you complete no later than 72 hours before you fly in the comfort of your own home. Had this been a one to one conversation with a border guard I imagine it would have ended up a bit like a Bill Bailey comedy gig! The downside to this is that it does cost you $14, however, it lasts for two years and gives you unlimited 90 day blocks that you can visit for. So the New Jersey formula 1 race is now very enticing in 2013...
So with this form being passed with ease, I was all set having converted sterling into dollars and all that jazz. Now the day started very annoyingly, my flight was due to depart for London at 10am, with my cab I ended up being at Manchester airport at 6:20am... They wouldn’t let me check in until 8am! An extra hour in bed missed, denied!
Swallowing this through a coffee shop and a book, all started to go smoothly again, until I get to the gate and board the plane. All seems perfectly normal, full of people in suits going for business meetings in the main. When the pilot comes on the radio, “well Ladies & Gentlemen, we know that you are all ready to depart, as are we, we’d like nothing more than to take off now. Unfortunately, there has been some very severe weather in London, and it has caused a backup of planes on the runways. As such we have not been given permission to take off due to the very short trip, we aim to be airborne in around 70 minutes!”
Being a naturally cautious guy, often to the point of paranoia, this really started to set me fraying. Originally I was to have a layover in London of just under four hours, which I booked in case anything should go wrong. Score one for planning ahead!
So with the 70 minutes up, we start to move, when we suddenly pull over at the side of the runway. Mass confusion arouses in the passengers when the pilot comes back on the radio, “well Ladies & Gentlemen, we now have permission from London. The problem though is that the aircraft has developed several glitches which stop us from taking off, we have tried the work arounds and unfortunately they have failed. So we now have to do a hard shutdown of the craft, like a computer, and hopefully it should all be ok. We’ll then need around ten minutes for the navigation systems to detect where we are and then we’ll be ready to go.” So half an hour later and finally we are in the air, three hours of lost time, what in the world was gonna happen next?
Well I arrive in London two hours late and get through connections to see a customer service desk with one agent and a huge queue... Fuck that! Next! So I walk up to the main concourse of terminal 5 and this place... I hate it!
Seriously, what is with this place? It’s not that it was packed, I expect that from a huge international airport. It was the food, all the places were brands like Harrods! The only place that looked promising was a sushi place called itsu, but it was absolutely jam packed with about forty people waiting to pay.
All I wanted was something like a burger, maybe pie and chips, something filling, simple and relatively inexpensive. Absolutely nothing on the main concourse, but then, my gate gets announced as B47, now this is where T5 is even more flashy and modern. If your gate is either B or C, then you have to go underground, jump on some form of train and be ferried over.
Fortunately, on the other side was a rather swanky styled sandwich store, but they did a delicious ham & cheese on thick crusty bread for just £3.80... At Heathrow I will take that! Rest of the wait went by without incident, just a case of a quick Vlog and rest.
The flight to Atlanta itself was scheduled for around 9 hours, but due to favourable conditions we were looking at 8 and a half... Until some Germans had been affected by the same problem we had towards Manchester, cue them arriving twenty minutes late, doh! Recovery wiped out.
Still, it was an ok experience, the flight was on a Boeing 777 which I had never flown on before. Some things about it freaked me a little, the overhead lockers for instance. Instead of simply being a case of open a hatch and throw in your stuff, instead you pull on this bar and the shelf kind of pulls down like a bunk bed, very very weird!
I was in the middle bank of seats but luckily had the aisle seat so at least had some room, next to me though was a Mother and child and I was just thinking ‘oh now you’re taking the piss!’ Anticipating wailing, crying, arguing... None of it whatsoever, easily the best behaved child I have ever seen on a flight. Little girl fills out the colouring book, sits watching some kids films and then sleeps. The only disturbance I got out of her was one tiny little elbow bump, and I barely even noticed that due to my reading!
One thing I wasn’t impressed about was the food, first meal was standard chicken and mash affair with bread, brew, beer and a chocolate mousse. This was ok actually. No, what happened was it got served less than two hours into the flight, there was then nothing else served until about an hour and a half before we landed...
And good god was it shit, if it wasn’t the biggest fucking insult I have experienced. It was, no joke, a sandwich and a cupcake. I am dead fucking serious! Oh it had fancy packaging and all that bullshit, but the fact was, it was a Gregg’s meal deal without the bag of crisps! I take it back, it’s not an insult... Insults have done nothing of worth to be associated with it! Debacle, farce, pathetic, useless... Take your pick, they all apply!
So anyway not long after this we land at Maynard jackson airport and begin to taxi along to the terminal... We taxied very very very very slowly! We hit the tarmac at around 19:20 local time, I didn’t get to disembark until 19:45! Fortunately the walk to customs was rather short and I joined the queue of internationals that need to be vetted about entry.
There was a fairly long line, but, it was processed quickly. I got to join a queue at a desk for a customs agent after less than ten minutes, and then another seven or so and I was up at the desk for my adjudication. I get there, present my passport, remove my glasses so the agent can compare the photo with my face.
I then get asked the question, ‘why are you here?’ So I just told the lady that I was here for Anime Weekend Atlanta. Suddenly, ‘how long have you been into anime?’ I wasn’t expecting that so just went, ‘oh lord, since about 1999, it used to air on television and I watched it when I was in college.’ She wasn’t done! ‘What do you collect in regards to this?’ I was a little caught out but did my best to avoid being flustered. ‘Dvd’s, photocards, books, soundtracks, albums, figurines, lots of things.’
By now I am thinking that we were almost done... We weren’t! ‘How did you hear about this event?’ Well for this I then explained who Kikkawa Yuu was, how I had found out about the event through her e-mail blog that is sent out by her management, and that I was one of her biggest fans. Agent was like, ‘So you had to get on this? She announces that she is coming to the USA and you can’t miss it?’ I just went ‘yes, it is a very special concert appearance.’
Agent finally started smiling so I am guessing that at this point she had reached the conclusion that I wasn’t lying and coming up with a very creative method of illegal entry. She then switches to the very standard questions about currency I have, any food and all that. Before finally she orders me to present all four fingers and thumb on both hands, and facial shot. This all checked out and I was through.
Phew! I wasn’t expecting it to be as easy as when I went to Japan, but I wasn’t expecting all of that! Fortunately this coincided perfectly with bags coming off the airline, so I was able to pick it up and head out into a taxi.
I enjoyed the cab ride a lot as it ventured from city street driving into motorway, and on the horizon I could just see all these skyscrapers and the drive in places. It was an awesome experience, felt very different to the UK. Cab cost me about $60 which is about what I expected and was no less expensive than any other method I got quoted, with the added advantage of not having to provide all my particulars to companies.
When I got to the hotel area, it turned out I had booked a motel. Trust an englishman to book here with no car! Had an amusing experience at first in that I was given a room and keys, get there and they don’t work. No matter, I’ll just inform the reception. Well, right after, the door opens and a guy goes ‘hello?’ I was like ‘err... I have the room... You’re not staff are you?” Dude is like ‘nope that’s sure wrong!’ I just went, ‘sorry mate I’ll speak with reception’
Needless to say the guy on the desk was rather red-faced about this! Fortunately he took me to another one, which is actually very nice. Big bed, large tv, fridge, freezer, cooker, bathing facilities... Almost like an apartment rather than a hotel. Yeah, it’s a bit odd being on foot compared with every other resident, but then, mostly likely I am the only one from the UK here so that figures!
Having slept until 4:15am local time I got up, wrote this and released the vlogs. My plan for today is to start with breakfast and a shower, then later find the venues so I can have a look at those and hopefully get the jump on what is happening. Gonna be a lot of fun. Until next time, sets sail.
Sunday 17 June 2012
Destination Atlanta, Kikka-sama is coming for Yuu!
Well if the news of her fourth single Koka Kara Hajimarunda is not exciting enough, Kikka-sama is going outside Asia to perform for the first time ever! She will be a musical guest at Anime weekend Atlanta, which runs from 28th - 30th September, she will be performing live, autograph signing and featuring in panels.
For me this is shocking an unbelievable news, this makes her easily one of the fastest members of the Hello project family tree to get their chance to shine outside their native Japan. Now I know what you are all thinking, it is Atlanta, thousands of miles from home, surely you're not?
WRONG!! I most certainly am going! I have never visited the USA before and my number one favourite artist in the world is easily enough reason to do it! So yes, it does mean I am not returning to Japan this year, but I get to see Kikka-sama live, and for all of you who are interested in her, please join me! Now where can I get yellow glowsticks like those they use to steer aircraft? ...
Monday 30 April 2012
Happy Birthday Kikka-sama!
Yes! Today she turns 20 years of age, well I say today, it happened in Japan about 15 hours ago! But I digress, yes, Kikka-sama has hit a very significant age, in that 20, for those who don't know, is the age of majority and adulthood in Japan.
As such, she is now no longer a child (she never was in my eyes hehe) and can delight in such things as a beer after work and such like. But the most important thing for her, is how she has her anniversary concerts are pending. I personally am expecting, well make that hoping, that she'll be announcing a new single there. According to stuff I have read on forums (including one I have found a way back to *whistles*) suggest some new material may be getting performed for the first time! Couple this with her birthday blog photo of her with a guitar and colour me hopeful she might actually have a go at one of her tracks herself. Note to all readers, you'd probably hear about a 29 year old wota spontaneously combusting at the awesomeness should this happen!
As well as this, Kikka-sama had a photoshoot with UTB very recently, and bugger me when I say that some of it causes epic, and I mean, EPIC bloodloss. As a means to show you the height of this dilemma, take a gander at the following.
That first picture is now pride of my place on my desktop idol wall, and my housemate, who is about as wota as Varg Vikenes, was blown away by that first shot. She is that alluring there! I have to say who can blame him? But these shots coupled with my last blog make it clear, moar Kikka PB now!!!
But again, like in her PB, she also had some shots in the photoshoot that were just an elegant delight. I mean, take a look.
She really does have it all, and on this very important day for her, I bow down and worship. Kikka-sama, long may you reign over us all!
As such, she is now no longer a child (she never was in my eyes hehe) and can delight in such things as a beer after work and such like. But the most important thing for her, is how she has her anniversary concerts are pending. I personally am expecting, well make that hoping, that she'll be announcing a new single there. According to stuff I have read on forums (including one I have found a way back to *whistles*) suggest some new material may be getting performed for the first time! Couple this with her birthday blog photo of her with a guitar and colour me hopeful she might actually have a go at one of her tracks herself. Note to all readers, you'd probably hear about a 29 year old wota spontaneously combusting at the awesomeness should this happen!
As well as this, Kikka-sama had a photoshoot with UTB very recently, and bugger me when I say that some of it causes epic, and I mean, EPIC bloodloss. As a means to show you the height of this dilemma, take a gander at the following.
That first picture is now pride of my place on my desktop idol wall, and my housemate, who is about as wota as Varg Vikenes, was blown away by that first shot. She is that alluring there! I have to say who can blame him? But these shots coupled with my last blog make it clear, moar Kikka PB now!!!
But again, like in her PB, she also had some shots in the photoshoot that were just an elegant delight. I mean, take a look.
She really does have it all, and on this very important day for her, I bow down and worship. Kikka-sama, long may you reign over us all!
Thursday 5 April 2012
The great return of Kikka Bikini!
Ahoy all of you! Good lord it has been a while since I last blogged, main reason is that Kikka-sama has been focussed on stage performances, while awesome, very little news of it out my way so couldn't say anymore :( Fortunately, thanks to Oroboras, I have been cheered right the hell up by the following pictures!
Now allow me to go absolutely nuts, what glorious shots, she looks absolutely stunning! Not that I am biased, oh no no no! She really manages to flip between that sultry and sexy look, to a serene and elegant look, true perfection. I was shared these and the third instantly makes me go "PB? DVD? Both!?" quite possibly and I damned well hope so as her debut PB/DVD combo was nosebleed central and these potential teasers look like a brilliant folow up.
Important note, this blog post is in no way stating that either of these are confirmed, any use of this as a source of news that is later shown to be wrong is no consequence I accept responsibility for!
And with that I have very little else to say sadly, I am hopeul more releases are coming, but I am keeping up with her on Hirunandesu and her album is still on repeat when I have my long trek to work. So until next time *sets sail*
Now allow me to go absolutely nuts, what glorious shots, she looks absolutely stunning! Not that I am biased, oh no no no! She really manages to flip between that sultry and sexy look, to a serene and elegant look, true perfection. I was shared these and the third instantly makes me go "PB? DVD? Both!?" quite possibly and I damned well hope so as her debut PB/DVD combo was nosebleed central and these potential teasers look like a brilliant folow up.
Important note, this blog post is in no way stating that either of these are confirmed, any use of this as a source of news that is later shown to be wrong is no consequence I accept responsibility for!
And with that I have very little else to say sadly, I am hopeul more releases are coming, but I am keeping up with her on Hirunandesu and her album is still on repeat when I have my long trek to work. So until next time *sets sail*
Monday 13 February 2012
Buono! invade Paris
Ahoy all! Now I know this blog is all about Kikka, but as this is a concert I attended I feel it is ok to post here, plus it is my blog, so that's how it is! For those with a short attention span, I’ll give you the short version... Amazing weekend! Now that is out of the way I’ll give you a rundown of all encountered and how things went day by day, expect this to be a long one, but it will be interspersed with picture goodness and even a video clip that I am rather happy about getting ^_^
Day One
This day started a bit boring with me getting up, doing a last minute triple check of absolutely everything. On the train, I met up with pukovnik_krv as we were rooming together in Paris and have known each other now ever since the failed attempt to bring Buono! to our midst in 2009 (the less said of which the better!) So after a boring train ride we reach the airport, having checked in online we went straight for our first hurdle...
You see, at this point in time, there had been no indication that acquiring glowsticks over in France would be easy. So we decided to take advantage of a local Poundland and took of our respective favourite’s colour. All well and fine, except we realised they not only contain fluids, they also have glass and hooks on. So they could quite easily have been seen as an offensive weapon, and the last way I wanted to start the weekend was with a nightstick up the arse!
Fortunately it would seem Manchester Airport are relaxed at security, as nothing went wrong at all. Pukovnik_krv even managed to not set off the security detectors despite wearing steel toe-capped boots! Departure lounge was not brilliant, first of all the only affordable food option was a Burger King, which was shit, we both had this sweet chilli wrap, and quite frankly, I’ve seen better looking dogfood!
Though we did find an air hockey table and blew about £4 in that, killed a good forty or so minutes anyway. After that, just continued to kick our heels and wait for the time we took off. Our strategy to try and get seats at the front was scuppered instantly because Ryanair have now started allowing people to reserve a seat for £10 (gotta love the ability to find any way possible to extort more money from those stupid enough to pay!), so the front three seats on the aircraft were gone, we ended up in the middle, but no one sat in the third seat, which allowed us to go through everything without incident.
Flight itself was about as interesting as it ever gets on short-haul, namely looking at snow covered farms and the sea. So we bided our time and landed at Paris-Beauvais. many of you are probably researching where it is now, and let me tell you, it is a one hour coach ride out of anywhere that accesses Paris proper. (port mallion I believe) Now I bet you are all thinking, “why in the name of all that’s holy did you not go Charles De Gaulle?” Well there are two reasons.
The most important was money, to get to Manchester airport only cost me about £8 return on the train, pukovnik_krv probably only paid around £20 - £25. To reach Charles de Gaulle would have meant an easyjet flight from Liverpool and a much bigger cost not only to reach the airport, but to get to France. Our flight cost just £30, including the extortionate double booking fee even though I only made one payment. (UK Government, if you don’t start treating this as money-laundering and arrest their owner, I’ll personally come down there and shove your gold plated toilet brush so far up your sphincter that you’ll be gargling sixty-nine’s for the next year!)
Ok, rant over, back on track, the second reason was because it was far out. With the attendees being many from abroad, there was a possibility that security and so forth would be much slower. As tiny as Paris Beauvais is, we got through with very little trouble or delay whatsoever, despite a queue of twenty ahead of us at passport control.
Once in Port Mallion we ventured onto the Metro system, massive echoes of London Underground in the layout of the stations and also the map design. Though something I found bizarre was that some of the cars ran on train rails, while others have huge tyres and are literally guided buses. Still got us to our hotel without incident. Now what happened next was truly silly, when we booked the room back in November 2011, the room was booked with one double bed and one single bed.
So we go up to the room and sure enough, there’s a double bed, but no sign of a single. We check everything and all we see is this.
Now that looks tiny, it does no justice to the real thing, maybe if you curled up into the feotal position and dislocated about eighteen of the body’s joints you would fit in! Clearly not the single bed, so we phoned to reception and were told all of the rooms of the sort were booked, I rather bluntly replied, “yes, one by us in November!” Luckily when we walked to reception we got a guy this time and he simply sorted it out, changed the room. After barely two minutes inside, the concierge comes in, uses a key on the wall, and folds out a single bed, job done!
Well with that out of the way, we wanted to scout the venue out, the pair of us were in a hotel called ibis which is about two minutes around the corner from the event. We get there, and fine a venue that has a windmill over it, very peculiar, but never bothered to get a shot (Buono! Staff have a few so go look there!)
One shot I did grab, however, was this one.
So there you have it, in the middle of a smattering of electro/dub, j-pop invades France! And so it should be, was fantastic to see the gig openly advertised this way, not that anyone who saw it there would have had a chance to get it!
Though what happened next made me realise how close to the truth Chibilolli was being about the location. We decided to go further past the concert venue and less than one hundred yards later we were literally swarmed by sex shops, strip joints and other paraphenalia used in the slutty industry. A bit taken aback we went into a local supermarket, grabbed some toiletries and got the hell out of dodge! (note: this did not stop a creepy 50 year old woman constantly try and lure us into one of her joints, definitely not cool!)
After this we visited a local Mcdonald’s as both were hungry, and I’d been advised that the French have laws about meat purity or something, and that the Mc’d’s are miles better in France... BULLSHIT!!! Same tasteless, unhealthy, artery clogging, shitty smelling, unappetising and expensive bollocks I can get over here!
So on that crushing disappointment we decided to just hit the hotel for a bit and see if anyone had posted on various forums (free wi-fi ftw!) A certain forum I have long since been banned from gave me a few laughs when I was referred to as he who shall not be named and a banned member we cannot name. If any users of that site are reading this blog, shout my name all over the forum if you like, but a certain Admin might give you a lot of trouble.
Speaking of which, if said Admin is reading this post, I hope you are proud to know that you are possibly the least liked member of the forum in question. Personally you may not have liked my straight talking, bullshit cutting and sarcastic style, but it made me a damned mile more entertaining than you could ever hope to be!
Ah sorry about that, I get easily distracted from the point when I have been up for hours and on the road! Back on topic, through this site, pukovnik_krv advertised we would be in the area and if anyone else was, please joins us for a drink. We got a solitary reply from the user Kenshin who met us by standing opposite us for a minute while talked, with him smoking a cig, before he plucked up the courage to ask if we were those who advertised lol.
So we hit a couple of Irish bars and were aghast at being asked for six euros and upwards for a pint. Fuck alcohol aversion therapy, send recovering alcoholics to Paris, they will be so upset by the sight of the cost they’ll never took a drop again! Still, my friend advises me, that when he visited Paris, it was on average nine euros a pint! So I suppose we actually got pretty lucky!
After this we crashed around one o’clock and set an alarm for seven in the morning, as we wanted to try and get a signing ticket for Buono!
Day two
So woke up and hit the metro, aiming for the area in question, as pukovnik_krv knew someone personally who was hopefully going to help us with this. We got to the street around 8:30 am, unbeknown to us KerriChan21 and Meike1991 were just ahead of us. Once in the queue we started chatting with above mentioned members and then got a surprise appearance from Maoh who had come all the way from Japan once again.
Maoh then shocked both pukovnik_krv and myself by giving us each a copy of the C-ute PB Cutest for absolutely nothing! Considering how expensive PB’s are in general, this is a great and unexpected gift. Cue many utterances of thanks in Maoh’s direction ever since!
Now when we got to the queue, we had been advised that there was already one hundred people, and I pretty much wanted to bugger off, but we were told by a person sort of working with the organisers (note: - I don’t believe this was an official hiring so not blaming them at all here) advised us there was a chance we could get in.
As such we hung around, for three and a half hours, at about minus 5 degrees celsius, toes freezing to the point of snapping off, only to not be allowed a chance, despite person 101 being let in.
Needless to say I and the others around me were extremely unhapy about this. The person who sort of worked with the organisers, had got a list of names up to and exceeding one hundred when we arrived at 8:30; therefore the organisers knew much much earlier in the morning we had no chance and should have just told us then.
It was bad enough that soundlicous fucked up the first signing chance by having a website so shit that barely 20% of the total audience (total and utter guess here by the way) had any chance of filling in the form to get drawn, but to then compound this by not advising people who had started queuing from 8:30 am that they had zero chance was total and utter bollocks, and I would say they deserve to be shot, but that’s not fair on the bullet!
Dejected and more than a little angry, pukovnik_krv, Meike1991, kerrichan21, another friend (really sorry but did not get your name) and myself hit a McDonald’s, purely because it was close, it was warm and relatively balanced in price. While the lunch didn’t do anything to fill me with happiness, the casual conversation and inherent warmth did uplift my mood somewhat.
After this pukovnik_krv and I hit the hotel again, while the others went elsewhere, as I wanted a shower and we had nothing else to do. So took a long time showering, whilst pukovnik_krv continued to laugh at some of the updates on certain forums via his PSP (note: they are shite at wi-fi, constant failure to load anything beyond 300kb in size!)
Subsequently we decided that whilst we were not going to be able to go into the signing, due to the nature of the area it took place at, we would be able to at least see them. So once again hit the metro and went to the area. Whilst there we hooked up with La’kea and chibilolli who had been there earlier than us and actually got a ticket for the signing, during this we were met by chobineko who was so happy to meet pukovnik_krv and I, that she took a two-shot photo of us.
With Chobineko being somewhat tiny, she found herself in the situation of not being able to see her fave member Airi. So pukovnik_krv jokingly suggested that I should put her on my shoulders to let her see in. Being a 6‘2, 120 or so kilo mass of a northerner I thought “why not?” Thus I hoisted her up skyward and she could see over the mass of adverts and posters, it made her very happy, and is further evidence I am a nicer guy than I have a reputation for. How much I’ll leave to you lot to decide!
Anyway, for the loitering outside pukovnik_krv had brought his rather powerful camera, whilst I just used my phone. Even with five megapixels it is never a certainty it will come out, so I am rather proud of this shot.
This shot has both Momoko and Airi staring right at me! I doubt they saw me and went “wow he’s awesome!” but I don’t care, I have the evidence, and even though if I ever saw them again they’d be like WTF? I know they looked!
We hung around the street and had tonnes of local people just asking us why the street was so crowded, and we explained that it was because of Buono! They all seemed really miffed and I can kind of understand it, unlike most signing events that usually take place in record stores or major historical locations, this was just an annex street at a Japan themed cafe!
Now we hung about hoping to get something more and got lucky when we guessed that they would be walking off the street back to whatever transport they had. So I managed to capture this.
I have said it before, but Buono! are the closest thing the Hello Project has to punk. Three members, rocking songs, stripped down stages, live bands... Now this! Every other group would turn up in a coach with blacked out windows and a huge trailer of supplies? Buono! on the other hand turn up in the back of a bodged Mercedes Sprinter van, the spirit of punk definitely lives on there!
After this we arranged a meeting for the night but first thing we needed to do was go greet both Oroboras and Shirow who were both arriving at pretty much the same time, so the little rambling group of pukovnik_krv, chibilolli, La’kea and myself ventured to the station Gare du Nord, which had everyone pissing their trousers when I said it, as it was like Geoffrey Boycott doing a feature on a travel programme. (Note: - Not that such a feature would be very interesting, it’d be all about why Bradford is better than Huddersfield or something!)
Now both were coming in via the Eurostar, but to our knowledge they were different trains... Wrong! Both on the same train, but due to the massive size of them, Shirow must have been with us a good five minutes before oroboras joined the crew!
We all briefly hung together discussing multiple jokes before Shirow, Chibilolli and La’kea had to dash off to where they were staying, pukovnik_krv, Oroboras and myself helped get the hotel sorted there. Like us, there was an issue with Oroboras hotel room. Exactly the same as ours!
Now unlike ours, there was a bigger problem with this hotel, actually finding the room. You see, it was a hotel that had an address from something like 216 all the way to 224, after a long discussion at check-in, it turned out that oroboras and Tomacz (who was staying with him and really sorry for the shit spelling of your name!) were in 224 and we walked in to see a narrow area with seating and a kitchen, but no obvious directions to the specific room.
We saw what looked like a tiny elevator for supplies, but got in, and to our horror, it was the actual elevator! Its capacity was three persons or 300kg, I think we came dangerously close to topping that! After this the hallways were so narrow that if I put my hands on my hips I’d crash through the walls.
So we pretty much crabbed around the area and got oroboras inside, now again, unlike our hotel, for oroboras it was a bit less civilised. They simply dragged an ancient bedframe, with one missing wooden slat and the rest terribly curved, then threw what looked like a dirty futon on it and went “thank you for co-operation, better room tomorrow!” and just left. Needless to say not impressed with that! (I have no idea what the other room was like, hopefully a million dollar upgrade)
After this we decided to go the Moulin rouge area for a pre-arranged drinking meet up. oroboras came with us but had to immediately go back as Tomacz kept trying (and failing) to call. So Pukovnik_krv and I set off, found Maoh who’d walked into the wrong Irish bar! And then stood outside the venue as multiple others wanted to join us... After twenty minutes of waiting, we headed to a place called Corcoran’s which was less than one hundred metres from the venue.
After an hour of chatting and no one else turning up, pukovnik_krvwent back to the hotel to try and connect online with people. This generated Kenshin and Nimrawt, then later on oroboras and Tomacz also joined us. Missing though were chibilolli, shirow, La’kea, Meike1991, kerrichan21 and a few others. But still the union of seven hung out, drinking beer and discussing all the awesome stuff that was gonna happen the day after. At 10:30 we all called it a night.
Day Three
The most important day actually started rather late for us, pukovnik_krv and I had decided, after the fiasco of the day before, that it was worthless queuing ridiculously early. So we simply planned to go later and get wherever we could. Though we didn’t just hide in the hotel, we did go to check out the line.
As we did so we noticed Chobineko quite far up front, so no doubt she had a great position. Further along the line we found Chibilolli, La’kea, Shirow and Ptom98 all stood together (though I didn’t recognise Ptom98, shame on me!)
At that point we were told a spot would be held for us in the queue, and that also meant that Oroboras could also catch up with us and the band stick together so to speak. As such, pukovnik_krv and I basically meandered in and out of the queue, finding people we knew and chatting to them.
This led to us finding Meike1991, kerrichan21 and their friend, who gave us some lovely waffle type biscuits they had brought from Holland, hit the spot I have to say. We also spoke to a guy called Nino (at least that was the name I got, I’m probably wrong!) who wasn’t really into Buono! but was selling goods from a case at the front of the line. Annoyingly he had some quite rare Kikka picards but some cunt stole them, should I ever find out who that person was I shall ensure they get the harshest sswishbone special they can. (Many of you should know what that means!)
After this oroboras arrived, thus we swiftly adjourned for a coffee along with pukovnik_krv, kerrichan21, meike1991 and their friend, for a refreshing mug of caffeine on a cold day. By this point it had got to about 12:30 and we kjust went back to the queue, when out of nowhere Buono!’s van pulled up, instantly about half the queue dashed away from the doors. Being ultimate opportunists, we followed the dash, but then cut back to the queue gaining quite a few places!
Now before you all start flinging heat at me and those who were with me, I will make one thing very clear, both before and after this, if people knew those in line who had saved them a spot, I let them through, but there is a golden rule, if you and your spot saver leave the queue, you have left the queue and have to reset to the back. Might be harsh, but I’ve done gig promotion and had to tell many a fan they are no longer front of the queue because they decided them and their mate wanted a beer!
With this in mind, pukovnik_krv and I got the others to save our spot and we went back to the hotel to get our tickets, as we did not plan until getting there until around 4pm. When we got back the line had been sealed with a barrier, luckily for us, oroboras and La’Kea acknowledged our shout to them and thus the crowd let us through. So see? We had our spot saver and got back in, all was great!
At this point, we noticed a group of guys that had Tsunku masks on!
This was awesome and led to some Tsunku chants, about ten minutes some of the No Life crew were walking around with video cameras and getting interviews from fans, they asked me to take part. Now I composed myself explaining how I found Buono!, who I love best, and so forth. Then behind me Shirow and oroboras had borrowed a Tsunku mask and had it look as if the man himself had appeared behind me during the interview.
I personally found this hilarious and to me it would look awesome, but the No Life person disagreed and asked me to reshoot, which I did without issue but still, where’s the sense of humour? This was fans being fans and pissing about with each other, it’s what the whole weekend was, why cut it? Epic fail in my view!
We continued to wait with oroboras playing pv’s from his netbook as a way to entertain us all, much Buono!, Berryz Koubou, Kikkawa Yuu, Canary Club, Morning Musume, C-ute and so forth was played, with everyone in the area joining in singing and what not where necessary.
Just before the doors were to open, the organisers made a decision that was totally beyond comprehension. To split the crowd by surname into two lines, one from A to L and one from M to Z. As a former organiser of a music event I was baffled by this, it didn’t in any way allow them greater control, and it wuite possibly resulted in antipathy as people could have arrived after you, but got in ahead purely by luck, for me, if they needed two lines, all they need was to put a barrier down the middle near the door, that would filter the crowd naturally.
Once inside I dashed for the merchandise stall and got what I wanted, a Momochi name towel for swirling in the concert. I also got given a photocard by a Japanese wota.
This truly made me happy, but pukovnik_krv was not so fortunate, despite us being relatively far forward (easily first two hundred people) all of the Airi towels had gone, the one I got was down to the last five when I bought it!
But once done it was down to the floor and while it looked like we were gonna be about 2//3rd’s back, I saw a gap on the left and went for it, seconds later, fourth row! The stage really shocked me, it was absolutely massive, they could easily have had a live band on there as well if it were possible.
Before I talk further about the gig itself, I have heard people complaining because Dolce did not come over. Personally, as someone who has worked in music events, I totally understand why. By having Dolce they firstly would have needed much bigger transport. They’d have needed techs in order to set the equipment up, they’d have needed an extremely long soundcheck to get both the live band and Buono! themselves right, plus they’d have needed more complicated setup between stage and soundboard. Add to this the cost of bringing at least a further seven people in total over and you can see why Dolce did not perform here. had they done the 43 euro ticket everyone bitched about initially would be more like 63!
But anyway, the great thing about this was that in the intermediate time, they played lots of pv’s and the crowd were electric! When BK, C-ute came on there was constant chants for individual girls. Now I was personally expecting nothing but this, but they played Mano Erina, then, much to my amazement, Kikka-sama’s Konna watashi de yokattara! When this played I was going berserk chanting extremely loudly and singing along, a few local fans seemed a bit shocked, but some Japanese wota on an elevated level to my left were delighted to see such energy!
After Sayaka’s latest video and upupgirls giving a special message of support the crowd were truly alight, then played DMM ‘shining butterfly’ PV, when Ai Chan came into shot the roof was blown off, unbelievable reaction to here, takitty is still immensely popular! During this PV I freaked people by shouting ‘Johnson’ whenever Iida san came on screen, the Japanese wota were again clapping and giggling, but most around me were like ‘wtf is he on?’
They then showed the clip of Buono! finding out on tour in Japan that they were going to be in France. The sight of Momo going ‘is this real?’ and Airi literally lapping the stage was just epic, then bang, on comes the music for Hatsukoi cider and that was it, the roof went from up top into the stratosphere! The crowd simply went nuts.
What was brilliant is that everyone, French, Japanese and other countries all appeared to have done their homework and chanted in mostly perfect unison (well at least it felt that way on the floor) I do think though that I may have left some lasting damage in the venue. You see I got very eager to see Momochi and support her. So I shouted at the top of my voice, which unfortunately for those in the area is around 105 decibels (or to put it in layman’s terms, as loud as a jackhammer pounding the street!)
With We are Buono! and Nakimushi shonen Buono! simply had the crowd eating out of the palm of their hands with the energy and power they displayed, despite the stage having no banner, no smoke, nothing, just three girls, great music and great stage presence, punk as shit!
Only thing is, after this the first MC started and one of the women from Soundlicous started doing some translation shit, and she totally killed the energy, constantly signalling for the crowd to shut up and everything. The next part where she confused both Buono! and us as fans by trying to do interactive translation thing just did not work, twice the management for Buono! came on stage telling to hurry the fuck up, fortunately she saw sense and asked the crowd if Buono! could speak to us in Japanese and we speak to them in French? Crowd chanted yes and we fortunately saw the back of her for a long time, much needed energy came flooding back!
Buono!’s dance lesson for Rottara rottara was awesome, but being such a big guy I couldn’t take part, however, once they ripped into that song, the crowd just became a mass of chants and light sticks blazing, truly stunning to see. They then played my favourite song Honto no jibun so I was singing my lungs out and chanting like a wild animal, as they followed with kokoro no tamago I once again was over the moon.
After this concert became a blur for me, with tracks such as kiss!kiss!kiss and Bravo Bravo! I personally was beyond any form of fatigue and determined to get the most out of the event, by the time they’d blasted through Renai Rider I couldn’t have cared what they played, they could have done a Lady gaga track and I’d have been happy!
But the moment I was waiting for came as they ripped into Warp I got to do the towel spinning which looked incredible on the We are Buono! dvd. Unfortunately, shirow was right beside me and was whipping his Miyabi towel against my Momo one and we kept on getting tangled! In the end it was a case of me swinging with my left hand and him his right, the universal balance we needed was restored.
After this Momo stated it was their last song and I was thinking they’d end with Last forever or gachinkou de Ikou so imagine my shock when they belted out rock no kamisama! What’s brilliant about this track is that it translates as ‘God of rock’ done by three idols, you know when I was saying they were punk? Well the concept of such a thing is a huge middle finger to the rules!
Only disappointment was the lack of an encore, now Momo did say that was definitely the last song. However, the lights stayed down, the music stayed on, and the crowd chanted for a good solid ten minutes. A Japanese wota and myself calling the crowd with one shout, letting them answer with the other. Despite this, the lady from before came on announcing that the show was already over, needless to say she got a huge chorus of boos.
This for me really was ridiculous, as someone who has organised gigs it is piss easy to sort. If a band says there is to be no encore you do one of the two things. First of all, if nothing is on after them, you immediately turn on the house light, dim the stage lights, cut all the equipment and the crowd will naturally leave. Two, if you have something like a clubnight on, you get the |DJ to thank the band for playing via a mic, have the DJ get the crowd to cheer their appreciation, and then announce that the clubnight starts immediately and for them to not go anywhere.
Leaving the lights down like they did trolled the entire audience for an encoure that would never come, and to hear the boos really made me sad, as it seemed like we were really unappreciative for the epic concert. I truly hope UFA have the sense to know we all loved Buono! and want them back!
After the gig got some food with Pukovnik_krv, Maoh, Kenshin, Meikke1991, Kerrichan21 and Ptom98, we also briefly spoke to some other members of a certain forum though we missed their big meet. After this we visited an Australian bar and had a huge turnout of at least 20 people! All of those above, myself, plus Nimrawt, Oroboras, Shirow, Chibilolli, La’Kea, Tomacz, and a huge selection of Japanese wota. We must have spent something like 300 euros collectively and had one of the greatest times ever, discussing H!P fandom, oshimems, merchandise and so forth.
Also Pukovnik_krv tried a drink called a Cumshot, and no, this not made up, check out the pic below for proof.
That pic is the cocktails menu for this place! Truly insane, but we must have been there at least three hours and it was amazing, great end to a truly sublime day.
Day Four
Relaxing day, had breakfast, checked out, walked through the surrounding area, which included surveying a frozen river that had everything from bottles to a tent thrown on top! We also visited Stalingrad as seeing it on the metro line amused us, then went for some japanese food at an awesome place in Port Malliot, part of a very lush looking designer shopping arcade, the place itself was called Matsuri, had that for lunch, got coach and flew home, not much more to say.
So overall, firstly if you made it this far congratulations! Truly long post but lots of ground to cover, my concert report might be gushing, but I believe it was the best one I have attended! I am really fired up to see Buono! with Dolce now, at some point I will, but I shall sign off by saying thanks to everyone I met, if I missed you, it is not because there was a problem, I just forget names. I’d love to hear all your thoughts, but otherwise, hope those of you who left France got home ok, and those still there have an awesome time while you can.
Until next time *sets sail*
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