[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