Japan 2009 – Day 01

[21.08.2009]

Today was the day that Buono! held their second Rock ‘n Buono! FC concert. As you had to show FC membership to enter the event we couldn’t attend it, so we ended up holding a ‘Hello! Project shop sightseeing day’. YAY! First shop on the list was Harajuku, due to the fact that it’s the nearest one to Ikebukuro.

harajuku’s takeshita dori

Unfortunately I forgot that the shops in Japan have completely random opening hours, and although we got there at 10:30am the Hello! Project shop didn’t open until 11:00am. FAIL! We walked down the length of Takeshita Dori which is the famous street in Harajuku, then stopped for breakfast in a sweet little diner type place. After satisfying our stomachs we walked back to the Hello! Project shop and had a look inside. I only really wanted the Nanchatte Renai photo sets, but they happened to be sold out so I bought Reina’s ‘Very Reina’ PB (PlusQ’s prize for the Hello! Online AX t-shirt comp), and Morning Musume’s Single M Clips DVD. As I had spent over a certain amount of money I had the chance to win photos by playing one of three games. The problem was I couldn’t understand the girl so in the end she forcefully slammed a child’s roulette style toy in front of me, and gestured for me to push the handle down lol. I came away with Risa, Miyabi and Airi photos. GETS!

‘rival’ outfits in harajuku

After leaving Harajuku we went to Shibuya to hit up another Hello! Project shop. My luck was in when I got there as they had the two Nanchatte Renai sets I was after, one of which was the last in stock. 2nd YAY! I also bought a Risa Happy Birthday standee, and won another photo (Risako). Zorrander also won Eri, Captain and Yurina photos which he gave to me, and that was the end of that. We left the shop and went to Tower Records to purchase 3 copies each of Nanchatte Renai, purely for the Event slips.

Final shopping stop of the day was Nakano Broadway where after wandering round the really random shops, I bought the most recent Kindai magazine with the ‘Memories and Memorial’ Morning Musume article, and an old Ribbon no Kishi visual book from Trio 2. Awesomeness!

Later on in the day we were invited to a H!P Kids Wota party that took place after the Rock ‘n Buono! concert. This was held on Odaiba so we got to cross the Rainbow Bridge on the driver less monorail type thing (not a monorail but meh), which was pretty cool. Miyabi’s birthday is on the 26th August so the Wota decided to celebrate it at this get together. A large banner was put up, birthday cakes were bought out, and we all sang ‘Happy Birthday’ ^^

miyabi banner

miyabi birthday cake

One of the Wota spoke English so we had a good chat to him about the extent of our fandom, and what we would be doing whilst in Japan etc. He told the other people in the room that Risa was our favourite member and I received a Risa Happy Summer Champloo~ photo, Risa Ribbon no Kishi t-shirt and a Risa Rainbow 7 t-shirt as gifts. Needless to say, I was very surprised but incredibly happy ^^

After drinking about 5 pints (every time I emptied my glass it was immediately refilled) I was feeling slightly intoxicated which meant I had fun on the train back to the hotel. Because we left as late as we could we had to take the last trains of the night and they were INCREDIBLY busy! This meant I had to stand on the first train. Not a problem normally as I stand up on probably 95% of train journeys, but because I was intoxicated I was leant against the door and had to try and hold myself up so I didn’t fall out everytime they opened >_< Would’ve been very comedic if it had happened though *ouch* The second train back to Ikebukuro was slightly better as I got to sit down, but I kept jolting awake whenever I started falling asleep which earned me some funny looks from the woman sat opposite. I got back to the hotel in one piece though, so all was good.

End of day 01