By the time we got back to the hotel it was almost 10PM, I believe, so everybody went to their rooms to relax for a little while. Ed went downstairs to see about getting two taxis because it turned out Manuel (our German friend) was staying in a nearby hotel so he'd be joining us...we weren't sure if 6 people would fit in a normal taxi. Turns out the "special-order" taxis are more like vans, so we were good.
Up in the room...Steve fell asleep immediately lol, and Carlos and I got on our laptops to check the Morning Musume member blogs and so forth (Jim and Ed were in the room across the hall). About an hour before we planned to get ready to leave for the first sign session, I attempted to get a little bit of sleep...laid there for maybe 2 minutes before I realized that would obviously be impossible, so I got back on my laptop for a while :P At this point Carlos had opened up his beer from the convenience store...something called Desperados, beer mixed with tequila, which he didn't like but I thought was good when I tried it. After a while he just gave it to me lol
Around 12:30 we all started getting ready...showers, packing up what we'd get signed and food, water, etc...then Ed popped in and told us another fan, who had arrived at midnight, had tweeted that there were already about 50 people lined up for the sign session (which wasn't until 11:30 the next morning)...there were only 100 tickets available, so there went half of those already. We all panicked, got ready super fast and attempted to get the taxi sent to the hotel earlier (which didn't work, of course, reservation and all)...Carlos checked a Japanese fan's blog whose estimate was more like 70-80 people already in line, and we were all honestly in a sour mood as the first chance we'd have to meet Momusu seemed likely to disappear right before our eyes. As we were waiting in the hotel lobby Manuel showed up, we all spilled the potentially bad news but he seemed unfazed..."what's the point in worrying, let's just go and see what happens" was basically what he said. A nice bit of easygoing logic to cool us all down...
When the taxi showed up (1:30AM) we all piled in and told the driver where we wanted to go...I think it was pretty clear we were in a hurry as he got us there pretty fast haha, when we got close to the store (FNAC in downtown Paris) everyone started looking around for it. Once we spotted the line of brightly-colored shirts (I believe Carlos saw it first) we all started semi-shouting "THERE IT IS, THERE IT IS, STOP HERE" and the taxi driver let us out. We all pooled our money together to pay him, gave him his tip and off we went...however, upon arriving at the line we realized we were pretty much fine. There were already a lot of people lined up, but it wasn't as bad as it sounded...and thus began the waiting.
Carlos almost immediately made his way over to spent some time with the Japanese fans he knew. Eventually I also made my way over and kind of awkwardly hovered around...my Japanese was good enough to understand them, but I'm generally a timid guy when it comes to "breaking the ice" and had a hard time joining in the conversation. Eventually I introduced myself to a few of them (as "cfb"), which was honestly also a bit awkward...but something is better than nothing. Eventually I made my way back to my spot in line and did a lot of waiting lol, as would be the case for much of the con.
Around 4AM Carlos, Manuel, Jim, Steve and I decided to go check out the Arc de Triomphe since you could literally see it from where we lined up (passed it on the way, actually...surprisingly impressive, everyone in the car kind of stopped and stared, mouths open, in the taxi lol). Ed held our spot in line, the little sweetheart...thanks bro~
Maybe a 5-10 minute walk to the Arc, I'd guess...couldn't actually go see the Arc up close cause it was so late/early and the path that went under the street to get there was closed (the Arc de Triomphe is in the middle of a very busy HUGE roundabout, there was no way we could have crossed the road). Everybody took lots of pictures, myself included, then we made our way back. Upon arriving at the line we realized no more than 10-15 people had lined up after us since we showed up...all that worrying for nothing haha (better safe than sorry though...)
Photo 5
Photo 6
When we got back to the line I decided to use the bathroom real quick, which turned out to be quite the ordeal...the line was right next to the entrance to a large underground parking garage (which actually looked more like a subway entrance), and the bathroom was down 3 levels and a decent walk through one of the garages :P
After getting back to the line I attempted to get some sleep...which went okay, considering I was sleeping on the sidewalk in downtown Paris with no pillow, blanket or anything lol (got a couple hours). By the time I woke up the sun had started rising, and Paris had actually started to "wake up" lol, cleaning crews making their rounds and crowds of people starting to walk the street instead of the occasional hobo or late-night partier. One of the Japanese fans I introduced myself to earlier actually gave me an Aichan pic while I was asleep (found it in the photobook I planned to get signed...Carlos told me where it came from, guess he or one of my other friends accepted it in my place :P). I thanked the guy who gave it to me later, of course. More waiting, unsurprisingly, and after a couple hours the ever-reliable Natsugaya arrived with a bag of goodies that we had requested the night before, which included more water and a towel for me to sit on so I didn't get dirt and so forth all over my nice yellow pants :P (which, honestly...too late, sleeping took care of that - nothing too awful though)
Eventually everybody had to stand up and the line was compressed down a couple times to make room at the back of the queue for more people (who were clearly not going to get into the session >.>) to make their way in. Camera crews showed up, local news stations and so forth...getting shots of the crowd cheering, etc. Had the first of many pictures of my outfit taken lol (I think it was some magazine?). After a while we found out FNAC would open at 10:30, and they'd start allowing people who'd lined up in 10 minutes early to attempt getting a ticket for the sign session...and we also found out there would be 150 tickets instead of 100, which (with some counting of heads) put us pretty much in the green. Quite relieving, to say the least...
Soon enough the line started moving...security/staff were letting people in the store in groups of 10 or 15-ish. There was about a 15-20 minute wait before I left the line and made it into the store, and there was quite the rush...to get a ticket for the sign session, you had to (a) grab a Morning Musume CD from a shelf in the store, (b) go to the counter and buy said CD, then (c) go to a SEPARATE counter, present your CD and receipt, and get your ticket to the sign session. Only problem was...when my friends and I got in the store, there were no CDs on the shelf! Great management on FNAC's part, obviously (or, you know...Momusu fans are insane and nobody is ever prepared for them lol). But within a few seconds a store staff member arrived with more CDs...which managed to disappear almost immediately. I started to see if maybe I could grab a release I didn't have, but at the rate they were going I just took a random one and made my way to the counter (it did end up being a CD I already had...not surprising, honestly :P). I bought the CD, went to the other counter and GOT MY TICKET :D, then went back outside to line up again. Actually, I just barely made it...as I walked away from the last counter I saw the person with the tickets count them and say to the girl checking receipts that there were only 15 or so left, and to stop people coming in the store for them x.x
And, once again, waiting...but this time was different, as we were in a line of people who were going to see Morning Musume in about an hour...! The sun had also managed to start shining RIGHT on the line, it was extremely hot...everybody doing their best not to sweat haha, don't want to be all gross talking to Momusu :P Texted a friend of mine lol, "MADE IT INTO THE FIRST SIGN SESSION, WAITING NOW, AICHAN IS ONLY AN HOUR AWAY ;_____________;", I think it was like 5 in the morning for him but I didn't care (sorry Souki orz). For those of you who have seen the French news bit on youtube with me in it (and for those who haven't: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEvDAzQizZo - look for the yellow outfit lol)...this was when that happened. A couple guys with a camera came up, asked if it was alright to record me...got a good shot of the outfit, asked for a quick message to the camera ("Hi, my name is Zac...I came all the way from America to support Takahashi Ai, 2 hour flight and a 6 hour flight, been lined up since 2 in the morning but it got me a ticket, so here I am!" or something dorky like that, I hate those kinds of things lol), thanked me then off they went. This was followed by even more waiting. Eventually we heard a loud roar of cheers from within the store...it seemed the girls had arrived :)
Shortly after that, they finally started letting people into the session.
Again, people entered the store in groups of 10 or 15...when we walked in there was a good-sized crowd of people, and they were making a lot of noise cheering and so on (honestly, I was pretty concerned...with that kind of ruckus, I wasn't sure if the members would be able to hear what I said clearly D:). I couldn't actually see the girls right after walking in, but it was easy to tell where they were based on where the crowd was looking. Staff/security guided us to the right, where the line was...I believe Ed was in front of me and Jim was behind (actually, I know Jim was behind me because he later said that I managed to get quite a lot of time with Aichan, and that's the only way he could have known :P). The line actually went through a separate area of the store, and as I made it through that part of the line they started playing some STRANGE music. Again, I got a little concerned...it was pretty loud, and not exactly good background music for speaking with MM hahaha...but everything ended up fine as they had MM's latest album playing in the section where the session was, and you couldn't hear the other music at all. Me getting worried over nothing, as always haha
Once I turned the corner, there sat MM...Aichan was first, and I'll admit my heart jumped a bit (she looked amazing, even better in real life somehow...I'm not kidding when I say she's near perfect ;__;). There were two guys at the front of the line telling people when they could walk up. The guy on the left asked where I was from, which was nice...one of the few people on this trip who didn't flinch at me coming from America. Pretty sure he was regular staff for MM intl events, so I guess he's used to that sort of thing. After a few seconds they told me I could go, and I made my way up to the table...
Continued in the next part, lol ;D
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