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.
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