[22.08.2009]
*post will more than likely be edited as I’ve no doubt made mistakes*
The event that took place today happened to be the main reason as to why I travelled all the way to Japan…
The Ai & Risa Premium Dinner Show!!! YAY YAY!
We attended the evening show and as the doors didn’t open until 7pm we used the morning to do some laundry and wander around Ikebukuro. Well…I say the morning but zorrander and I actually had a lie in as we knew we had nothing important to do until the evening ^_^ After washing some clothes, looking around some shops and getting sweaty in the process (Japan is soooo hot in August) it was soon time to get ready for our big outing, and the one thing we had been getting excited about since we learnt that we had won the chance to buy tickets for it. The tension was high ↑↑
We rocked up to Shinagawa at around 18:20, but gordokaba was running late and as he had our tickets we couldn’t go any further then the corridor outside of the elevators. A few Japanese guys tried to talk to us, but as our Japanese was crap and their English was even worse, that didn’t last long >_< Eventually gordokaba turned up around 18:50, and we made our way in to get our table number and buy some goods. As I had already seen the goods list for this event, I’d decided I was going to buy the ‘complete set’ which contained everything plus a special photo. Unfortunately though, one of the Risa photo sets was already sold out and after trying (and failing) to persuade the girl behind the table to give me two Ai photo sets instead, I gave in to defeat. Was kinda pissed off about this though as I really wanted the special photo that came with the set, and as I was annoyed I ended up not buying as much as I was going too. Probably a good thing though as it meant I didn’t buy too much crap.
board showing most of the goods for sell, plus messages from both of the girls
Our designated table for the show was H-12, which meant we were 8 tables away from the stage. Obviously if this was a concert that would’ve been pretty good, but because this was tables and not rows of seats, it wasn’t as good as it could’ve been. After sitting there for a few minutes wondering what the hell we were supposed to do, I took the initiative and ’summimasen’d’ a waitress to get us some drinks. Luckily I grabbed the cutest waitress in our area and she dealt with us for the rest of the night. Awesome! As most of you are probably aware, Ai and Risa came up with a special cocktail for the show called 愛LAND Risa (Ai LAND Risa), so a round of these were the first thing we ordered, plus the waitress gave us white wine to go with the starter which was a fish dish. If I had to explain what the 愛LAND Risa’s looked / tasted like, I would say that they were very similar to blueberry slush puppies, with some kind of alcohol mixed in. gordokaba believes that the alcohol they used was rum, but because Japanese cocktails don’t contain much when it comes to spirits, I couldn’t personally tell what it was. For anyone interested, the menu went something like this;
- Fish timbale
- Salmon and vegetables
- Beef fillet, gravy and vegetables
- Endive and tomato salad
- Chocolate Mousse and sorbet
Why they chose French food I have no idea, but then I think that was probably the hotels decision and not Ai and Risa’s. I didn’t eat the first dish due to disliking fish, although I did eat some of of the weird jelly stuff that was in it before giving up. I did though, eat the salmon! I’ve never had salmon before so decided I’d try it before rejecting it, and I have to say it was very nice. I’ll probably never touch the stuff again, but Ai and Risa popped my cherry in that department ^^ We were actually more interested in the waitress and drinking then we were with the meal (well…zorrander doesn’t drink alcohol so he wasn’t interested in that), and by the time the actual show started I had drank 5 愛LAND Risa’s, and had started on a Asahi. gordokaba totally owned me though by knocking back 4 愛LAND Risa’s, 3 glasses of white wine, 3 glasses of red wine and a umeshu sour. Dang!
♥♥♥
The lights dimmed which signalled that the main show was about to start. At this point in time I started to get really excited / anxious / nervous. Hells knows why I got nervous! When Ai and Risa came out on stage I realised that our table wasn’t as bad as I thought, and we could see them really well. I think it helped that everyone was sat down because it meant I didn’t have any tall people to contend with, plus it made them higher up for an unblocked view. The set list for the show went like this, and if you haven’t listened to one of the fan recordings I suggest that you do. It’s well worth it d(^_^)b
1. Manatsu no Kousen
2. Manatsu no Yo no Yume (Matsutoya Yumi)
3. Mikazuki – Niigaki Risa (Ayaka)
4. Koe – Niigaki Risa
5. Thank You – Niigaki Risa (Dreams Come True)
6. Ai to Taiyo ni Tsutsumarete
7. The Rose – Takahashi Ai (Bette Midler)
8. Stuck – Takahashi Ai (Stacie Orrico)
9. Tsumetai Umi – Takahashi Ai (Kuraki Mai)
10. Medley: Shouganai Yume-oibito, Shanimuni Paradise, Summer Night Town
11. Aruiteru
After Manatsu no Yo no Yume and an MC, Ai left the stage to let Risa perform her solo songs. When she started singing her first one – ‘Mikazuki’ – I was totally blown away. I hadn’t heard the original, but whilst she was singing it I was nearly in tears. Seriously!!! As soon as it had finished gordokaba explained that it was a pretty famous song and that she performed it amazingly well. Right there and then I felt really REALLY proud of Risa, and was glad to be her fan. As she followed it up with ‘Koe’ I thought the show couldn’t get any better, but I was wrong. When she started singing ‘Thank You’ she came down off the stage and started walking up the middle of the room. It was then that I remembered we had walked past a smaller mini stage (about 2 foot high) whilst finding our table, and when I followed Risa in my chair it turned out that the mini stage was about 10 foot away from us with no other tables in between. I seriously could’ve died there and then!!! Watching her perform from that close was like a dream come true and now all I wanted was for her to notice us, but this wasn’t going to happen during her last solo song T_T Ai came back out in a new outfit and joined her on the mini stage, and it was whilst Ai was talking that she turned around and looked straight in our direction. You could instantly tell by her face that she was slightly shocked (although it wasn’t one of the OTT reactions that she’s famous for) but she was pretty happy to see us there. During the next song that her and Ai performed together (Ai to Taiyo ni Tsutsumarete) she looked at us many times, probably just to check that her eyes weren’t deceiving her. I wonder if she remembered me from LA? Especially as I told her I’d be at the dinner show. Wishful thinking maybe, but you never know ^^
Risa left the stage after ‘Ai to Taiyo ni Tsutsumarete’ so Ai could perform solo, and this is where the most whack thing of the night happened. There was a slightly large Japanese woman sat over the other side of the stage from me, and she was quite clearly a huge Risa fan (in more than one sense of the word). Risa walked between the tables to leave the hall (if she had left the other side of the hall she would’ve walked directly past our table *sigh*) and all the while this woman was energetically waving at her. But she was so incredibly energetic that I got a disgusting up skirt from her o_O Not nice. Anyway…back to the show…
Ai was, as always, really professional and if she did notice our foreign wota table then she didn’t show it at all. She’s not blind though, so I’m pretty sure she knew we were there. During her solo MC I managed to pick up on the fact that she’d be singing in English, but once she started to sing it I had no clue as to what it was. I totally give her credit for trying to sing in a language other than her native one, but seriously she could’ve been singing in Russian for all I knew as her pronunciation is really bad. Sorry Ai *bows* It wasn’t until after we got back to the hotel that I found out it was a Bette Midler song. Not one I know sadly, but I do like Bette Midler so that was pretty cool. The second English song she performed was slightly better, but not praise worthy. The only real words she did well on were the ones that crop up quite often in H!P songs. You know the ones I mean… Pat on the back and 8 gold stars for effort though. As for her third and final solo song, I’m sad to say that I didn’t hear much of it *whistle* At this point in time the 5 愛LAND Risa’s and 1 Asahi had totally kicked in and I had this incredible need to pee. It had been building up through the previous two songs and I knew that if I didn’t go and relieve myself asap my bladder would probably explode lol. After fumbling my way through the hall and out the door, I got to the toilet and pee’d for England. Not really what my readers want or need to know, but if there was a definite time to use a Koharu quote and make it my own, that was the time - PEE COME ON! I ended up hearing the very beginning and very end of the song, but this wasn’t much of a concern to me as I wasn’t really enjoying it (could hear it from the toilet).
Risa came back on stage in a new outfit which was pretty much exactly the same as her first one, just a different colour. Another MC and then in to the medley. Shinimuni Paradise came up in the medley and that was really awesome. Risa always gets so engrossed in that song and even though she was wearing a ball gown she still did the complete dance with as much energy and flair as she always does <3 I also remember some of the fans doing the wota ‘ue ue’s’ during that song which was pretty cool as well, especially as it was so bizarre considering the environment we were in. Aruiteru was the final song, and was a really nice way to end the show. The girls left the stage and that was that. My reason for travelling more than 20 hours on uncomfortable transport was over, and it was well worth it. If I had the money and time to attend one of the Osaka dinner shows I would’ve bought a ticket quicker then you could’ve said Ai & Risa Premium Summer Dinner Show lol.
sign in the 5th floor corridor at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel
After leaving the venue we met up with one of gordokaba’s Japanese friends and went to one of the local Izakaya’s to eat snacks (gordokaba didn’t enjoy the meal) and talk about Hello! Project. I didn’t eat anything else, just drank some more beer, but it was there that I looked at my phone at one point and realised it was 00:02am…my birthday! Had a fun semi drunk train ride / walk back to my hotel and I passed out whilst singing Mikazuki in my head and remembering the glances that Risa kept giving us once she noticed our table <3 Great start to my birthday.
End of day 02
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These Japan trip posts have been EPIC. I am so happy for you <3
Nice that you got to go to a dinner show. Areyou in the fanclub though? Usually even if you have someone else get tickets you have to be a fanclub member to get into these shows so I’m kinda surprised they didn’t stop you or harass you if you aren’t a member.
It’s been the problem for me to sell tix to fanclub events I end up not being able to go to because either the person has to do work to basically cheat the system by recreating the same blue envelope but with their address and FC details.
Or are the dinner shows only fanclub priority? I’ve not had the opportunity to go.
There is a FC mini tour in Izu with Reina, Junjun and Aika that I want to go to but probably can’t get the saturday off work/shouldn’t spend 7man on.
I am in the fan club, but that’s only happened in the last day (just waiting for the card etc to be shipped to me). Luckily this event was only fan club priority, and it wasn’t necessary for us to show anything other than our ticket when we went in. Would’ve cocked us up big time if we had, and I would’ve not been a happy girl <_< I know what you mean about the fan club member only events though. If my membership had come earlier I would've been able to attend the Rock 'n Buono 2 concert, but alas it wasn't to be. Really sucked.
I was told about the bus tour this morning, so now I'm just waiting for the other two to be announced. If Risa gets paired up with Eri then I'll think about coming back to Japan for it. If she's put in a group with Eri and Koharu, I'll seriously consider coming back. I'm holding out for a Hawaii FC tour next year though. That's what I'd like to attend.
Few questions. Who's you favourite member? Are you on any English forums? (trying to figure out who you are lol)
I just discovered your site and at this moment I can’t remember how I came upon it but anyway I really enjoyed your personal account of an MM dinner show. Makes me think I should try to make it to Japan some day to see a show.
You really should try to get there one day, it’s the best thing ever.
Thanks for reading, and commenting, on my blog ^^
Hi~ I’m Gaki’s Fans in Hong Kong!
1st of all Nice to meet you.
Gaki’s ‘Mikazuki’ is really TOUCHING (I only got the Fans Record).
Too bad I dont have chance to a AR Dinner Show! T.T
Thanks for reading my blog ^^
Miyazuki was bloody good, Risa is really improving <3 Pity that you didn't get to go, but there will always be other events. I personally hope that she gets to do another dinner show, maybe with Ai again.
Is gordokaba the blame for you not being able to get all the goods? hehe
Ah! I was also staying at a hotel in Ikebukuro! Pretty funny how last year we both stayed at a hotel in Shinjuku, and now this year Ikebukuro. It’s a shame we couldn’t meet though. I would’ve gave you my Risa set that you weren’t able to get since it was sold out (although you might have not been able to get the bonus special photo). I also wanted to buy extra goods so I can give to some other fans back here, but unfortunately the people handling the goods said only one good per person.
I didn’t really enjoy 愛LAND Risa and didn’t manage to finish my glass. It did taste better when all the ice melted though. I was more interested in the food than drinking hehe. And yes, the waitresses were hot!
As much as I want to say that Ai’s “Stuck” cover performance was the best of the night (of course since I’m an Ai fan), the highlight for me was Risa’s “Miyazuki” cover performance. Her vocals really blew me away and I started choking up and almost in tears. She definitely amazed me with such a beautiful performance of that song.
You’re so lucky that you got to sit next to the mini stage. I was on the 13th row but far away from the mini stage. However, I did get to see Risa walk right pass me when she left for Ai to do her solo performance since the walk way was between the 12th and 13th row. She was waving ‘hi’ to the fans on the 13th row as she was walking, but by the time she got to me she was looking down and walking away. Bummer :(
Overall, I thought the event was well-worth the money and I would definitely attend another one only if Ai is in it. By the way, were there any cameras present there? I didn’t see any cameras during the noon show, and I recently heard that they might have recorded the event. So I’m assuming they must’ve recorded the evening show or one of the Osaka shows.
Yes, gordokaba is totally to blame for me not getting my special set photo!!! I have to blame someone and he was late lol (sorry gordo…)
Oh wow, which hotel were you staying in? I’ve been in 3 Ikebukuro hotels now and this one wasn’t bad but I still prefer the Crowne Metropolitan in Shinjuku. I loved the rooms there <3. I wasn't actually after the individual photo sets from the show, I just wanted the special photo you got for buying the complete sets of goods. A lot of people from H!O asked me to help them out with stuff but because this was only the 2nd day of my trip I had to decline. There was no way I could get extra money sent to me so I needed to make sure I kept enough to feed myself for the next 7 days but I felt really bad so picked up a few gifts for people from the Nanchatte Renai events. Sadly though no-one specifically asked me to help them with release event goods when I could've got stuff easily seeing as it was my last day. I think I ended up bringing £100 back home with me in the end *sigh*
The 愛LAND Risa's were ok but could've done with more alcohol in them. IMO the waitresses were probably the best part of the whole meal, but then that's because I'm not very keen on fish. Yeah I agree, Risa's Miyazuki was the best part of the whole thing and really made my night. It's probably the song that will stick out to me forever even though Ai sang two songs in English. Like I said in my post, when she sung that I was overcome with emotion and felt really proud of her. I knew she had it in her, so it was about time she showed it lol. I know you said you were in the 13th row but what was that in letters? I'm gonna assume that was 'M' so Risa walked out of the room a different way in the evening performance as we were in 'H' (H-12 to be exact) and Risa walked in front of the row of tables we were on, but on the opposite side of the room. That's a shame that she put her head down, I would've tried to shout out Gaki-san whilst she was walking by, although it would've probably come out all raspy as I get nervous as hell when I'm in the same vicinity as her / the group. I do manage to get out the ‘oi oi’s’ and ‘ue-ue’s’ though ^^
I would also attend an event like this again, but only if Risa is in it. This one was really special though as Ai and Risa are not only Leader and Sub-Leader of Morning Musume, but also Leader and Sub-Leader of Hello! Project. After the shock announcement of Koharu’s graduation there’s no knowing who will go next so you have to do these things when they become available. I think that Koharu leaving has also made me realise how lucky I was to see the Cinderella Musical whilst the group were how I’ve always known them as there’s no knowing if Risa will ever get to take part in a musical again. Wow…thinking like that has made me a little upset. I suppose that’s just life though. I didn’t see any cameras in the hall so if they have recorded it, it must be from one of the Osaka events. I will keep an eye out on the FC shop because if it does get released on DVD I’ll be all over it. I really hope it does, although I know it won’t be anywhere near as good as the real thing, unless you go to some posh restaurant and eat before you watch the DVD lol. Nah…nowhere close!
Lolli, sorry if I sound bitchy in my other post, don’t mean to. It’s just starting to irk me that foreign fans are getting more and more priority at idol events (and not just Musume lately as the AKB stuff shows). No I’m not really on any forums. Well I’m on mmbbs when I have time. The people over at H!O are too big of idiots for me to waste my time on, the only thing good there is the tracker.
I don’t see much use in being in the fanclub if you don’t live in Japan since the only real benefit is the ticket lotteries. And even then you’re not guarantee a good seat. It’s not really worth it to travel overseas several times in a year just to see idols. That’s why I live and work here, makes it much less painful. And allows me to keep up my Japanese level.
My fave current member is Junjun, though really I like almost everyone in some way. Even Koharu lately, though I wasn’t at at all shocked at her graduation. She’s the most natural one to go really with her career. Yossi is my all time fave, went to her mini dinnershow/special live a couple of weeks ago. I don’t have a wotablog yet (not time really) though I should start up a semi bilingual one eventually. I do post many accounts of concerts and the like (including my semi stalking of four AKB members I saw at the amusement park the other day) over on my livejournal though. http://angelachibayuy.livejournal.com/
I completely understand where you are coming from so there’s no need to apologise. Recently an online Hello! Project store has been opened in the US and that has made me mad. I, along with some other fans of H!P have over the years spent extortionate amounts of money getting merchandise from the tours etc, and now all the people who wouldn’t pay out have it nice and easy, yet some of them STILL moan about the prices!!! I haven’t bought anything from the HSU, and won’t until I can no longer buy it through other means.
I would love to live in Japan, but unfortunately I don’t have any skills to get me a job out there so instead I just have to make expensive trips to see my favourite idols. When I’m there I don’t expect any special treatment, in fact, I expect to be kinda shunned because I’m foreign. The main reason I wanted to be in the fan club was so I could buy a signed and personalised Risa photo next time they do them, although I tried to buy the Risa alarm clock recently but I had some issues with that. I expect my fan club membership is 100% useless when I think about it, but paying out the money hasn’t bothered me at all.
Jun Jun! Awesome *salutes you*. You’re an AKB fan as well? I used to be into them big time a few years ago and went to 3 of their shows in Akihabara (2 Himawari and 1 Team B – got front row for this one). This was back when you had to start queuing up at 5:30am for a ticket and yes, I did do all that. It was September as well so it the weather was a lot colder then what I’m used too *brrrr* I don’t pay much attention to them anymore but I still have a soft spot for Kojima Haruna and her protruding ears. If you could make a bilingual blog that’d be cool, but for now I’ll check out your LJ (if I can get on there without needing an account)
My livejournal is all public so you shouldn’t have a problem. I’m glad someone knows where I’m coming from.
Well if you ever need help with paying the money on time (remember that conbini pay dates are much earlier than the deadline on the form as that is the deadline for HP credit card. I made that mistake when I wanted last year’s valentine chocolates) I could do the conbini pay for you if you apply for it, though you probably already have it sent to a friend’s house.
I just paid for Junjun xmas shirt and Yossi personal goods (from M-line newsletter) that cost me about 2man X_x.
Well all you need to work here is a degree in… anything. It’s how most of us get our start though hopefully I can move into translation or something in the future.
My AIM is “angelachibayuy” if you ever feel like chatting.
I haven’t been to an AKB performance, though I wish I had before the group switch. I enjoy their music though and love Takamini and Sayaka.
Thanks for the offer of help. I actually use a third party site for my membership so anything I buy goes through them. Sadly I didn’t realise there was an ordering time limit for people with ‘general membership’ so I managed to miss out on then one thing I actually got membership for in the first place – Risa’s alarm clock…! If you ever know of anybody selling one, please let me know. I’m going to be all over Yahoo Auctions from December onwards just hoping that one turns up! I was looking at those Christmas t-shirts but didn’t like Risa’s design <_< I wish they would do some things like M-Line has done, like the jackets they had recently (or was it a tracksuit :S). I have just ordered Koharu's graduation photo / plate thing which cost me 20,000 yen. Well…it actually cost be a little bit more because I have to pay the third party commission etc for ordering it for me *sigh* It'll no doubt go to a lottery though, so I have to hope I win one *fingers crossed*
Getting a degree in something is the hard part for me as I don't like classrooms… I've been in my current job for just over 7 years and the thought of going back to study is down right scary. Plus I'm really bad at doing any type of paper work which requires large amounts of writing as it's just not something I'm good at. Sadly though, most degrees require this. Even something hands on like Engineering (I'm supposed to be doing written assessments for my Engineering 'course' at the moment…)
I don't have AIM so I can't add you, sorry. But again, thanks for the offer. AKB48 had a group switch? I stopped 'following' them sometime in 2008 so I don't know what's happened over there. I know that now you have to apply for tickets by e-mail, which is pretty crap. I suppose it stops the street outside the theatre being busy though.