At the sign session, I got in my same spot as the day before on the side where Aichan sat. A lot of the same guys were there and we all asked each other "didn't get in?". Everyone's response was a disappointed "nope..." lol, of course... I think we all knew the answer but just felt the need to ask...
Also, it was pretty clear another event would be starting soon in the area we were standing...but we honestly didn't care haha, whatever it took to get close to Momusu :P
Photo 1
Soon enough the girls walked out and, same as yesterday, everybody cheered and made lots of noise, etc. My good friend Paul Thomas (guy I stayed with in London, as if I haven't said that enough already lol) got video of the beginning of this session when MM walked out, and you can actually see Aichan and I wave at each other :O
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmla-zVI8Og (might want to switch to HD if you can, probably won't be able to see it otherwise)
I'm actually over on the other side of the session from the camera, look for yellow on the left side of the video haha...I'm pretty much impossible to miss honestly. Aichan is the member farthest left on stage, last one that walks out. At around 30 seconds, after she sits down...you see her wave for a bit, wave some more...kind of perk up, lean in and wave faster...then if you immediately look over at me you can see that I quickly wave back. So in this video you can see that she made a clear point to wave RIGHT at me...she really made it feel like I was the only person there for that moment. Too amazing ;__________; (and it felt that way every time I caught her attention :'D)
Eventually some staff for the event in the next booth over came and gave us all the stink eye, told us to get back to our own event...so off we went. I bolted over to the crowd behind the sign session line (like at the beginning of Friday's session) and got as far left as I could while still staying in the MM event. I was actually right at the entrance to the line...and soon enough I had managed to work my way up as close as I could get (right at the front of the crowd watching the session).
And thus began the cheering, waving, etc again. Honestly I don't remember much of anything about this session with the exception of what happened next, and for good reason...
[[A quick aside...all the Japanese fans always waited until the entire line had gone through at each session before going in themselves. The sessions always ended before the allotted time, so the staff was generally more lenient with how much time you took to chat with the members if you were at the end of the line, seeing as there was still plenty of time before the girls had to leave. Very smart of them...]]
Anyway...I was standing watching the session, most of the line had gone through and the Japanese fans were making their way in. Then Shiori (I told you to remember that name... :P), the Japanese girl I talked to on the train on Thursday during the trip between FNAC and the con center, came up to me (she literally walked directly in front of me since I was leaning on the wall for the queue itself haha) and said to me, in Japanese, "I'm going to point you out to Aichan...STAY HERE. OK???" and I kind of surprisedly said "...ok!!!". Then as she started to walk away I caught her attention again and said (in Japanese) "I came from America. Please say that!" and she gave me a big thumbs up and said "OK!" with a smile.
So Shiori worked her way through the line...and when she got to Aichan, while handing over what she was getting signed, Shiori pointed over at me...and there I was waving and jumping up and down like an idiot hahaha, as if Aichan needed help noticing me (she already recognized me, obviously :P). Then Shiori said something ("he's a big fan of yours, he came all the way from America" or something like that, I'm sure) and Aichan looked over to listen to Shiori, then smiled and said something to her...then looked back over at me and blew me a kiss O.O
And I enthusiastically blew one back hahaha, of course, then we both waved. One of the greatest moments of the entire trip, without a doubt ;_______________;
Paul Elliott got pics of the entire process...EXCEPT the kiss itself hahaha. Still, better this than nothing. Thanks Paul~
Photo 2
Photo 3
Photo 4
Photo 5
Photo 6
Photo 7
Photo 8
It was pretty funny, there were several people nearby who were obviously watching Aichan as well, and when she blew me a kiss I heard a few of them go "whoaaaa...!" hahaha, and the guy next to me looked over at me with this really surprised face like "WTF, HOW DID HE..." lolol
I caught Aichan's attention a few more times after that...at one point when she was looking at me a did a couple big peace signs in her direction with one hand, and she did them back and laughed haha. I guess I'm a funny guy? :P (or just looked like an idiot, I'm sure I was grinning from ear to ear haha)
And then, eventually, the session ended, girls walked off stage and that was that. I'm sure I got another wave or two from Aichan as she walked off, but like I said I don't remember much about this session aside from the kiss :P
Shiori came up to me after the session and I grabbed her hand and said "THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!"...then I realized I was speaking English and corrected myself into Japanese hahaha. I guess the excitement of the moment got to me...the rest of the convention I was accidentally speaking Japanese to people who spoke English lol
I asked Shiori what Aichan said about me coming from America, she told me Aichan just went "sugoi..." (in this context, "wow...") and I thanked her again haha...I seriously thanked her an innumerable amount of times, such a kind act from someone I barely knew ;______;
Then I found the rest of the guys and we figured out what we were doing. We thought about going to downtown Paris for sightseeing (it was only maybe 2 or 3 in the afternoon, and the rest of the day was free)...but opted to save our money and energy and relax in the hotel for the night. Sounds disappointing, obviously, but we were all more than ready to relax for an evening.
But before that...we all realized what the events of the convention had come to. There was one sign session left, and all of us but Carlos had only made it into the FNAC session...so together we formulated a plan of attack for the final sign session tomorrow. We had seen what the Japanese fans did (everyone keeps going through the line until there are enough tickets for everyone in the group) and decided to follow suit. Steve went to buy more one-day con passes for Sunday so we'd have plenty of chances to go through the sign session drawing line...I think we ended up with 15 tickets or so including the 4-day passes we already had, plus a couple extra passes Carlos gave us.
Then we headed to the hotel...which ended up being quite the predicament. For some reason no one wanted to pay for a train, so we decided to wait for a bus? I think? I don't remember exactly, but we waited a REALLY long time and ended up running into some people we knew at the bus stop. Still, transportation ended up being free so I guess we couldn't complain.
After arriving at the hotel...I don't remember exactly what we did while there, but we ended up taking the shuttle to the airport.
At the airport, we got our provisions and all grabbed McDonald's. Somehow Ed got separated from us (went to bathroom or something, and we decided to just head to McD's...or maybe he went to get provisions while we were at McD's, can't remember x.x), and when Carlos and I called him in line at McDonald's to figure out where he was he said he was about to order his food...we were quite confused haha, obviously. Then it turned out there were two McDonald's in the airport...wtf...
Waited for the hotel shuttle for much, much too long...ended up just taking a taxi, which ended up being pricy but oh well.
Back at the hotel, Carlos pulled up a Morning Musume concert on his laptop (no, really...) and we all sat and watched that as we ate our dinner. I don't remember what all happened beyond that honestly, I was so insanely tired haha...I know I tried to sleep but had trouble for some reason. Eventually I gave up and decided to just stay awake (by the time that happened it was like 2AM or 3AM x.x)...and, of course, the second I decided that I fell asleep. Not too long until we had to leave again, but oh well.
Continued in the next entry~
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