After standing around with Paul and crew in the crowd for a bit (yelling the members' names and so forth), Carlos showed up and was like "LET'S GO D:<". The next sign session was at the convention center, which was a good distance away...and we had to take a train there (we originally planned taxi, but figured during lunchtime in Paris the train would be quicker - pretty sure we were right :P). Started to head off and find the other guys with Carlos but got distracted when people began chanting Aichan's name lol (how could I not, I mean...come on...Aichan...)...then was half-dragged by Carlos to get moving. After finding everyone, we made our way out the door...only to find that Carlos and I were the only ones who left lol. So we went back inside, dragged the other guys out and were on our way (Natsugaya chose to stay behind until the event ended). Honestly Carlos and I were a little short with the other guys, but we had to get moving...
There was an underground train station nearby, so we bolted over in that direction. Once inside, I ended up being the one at the machine buying tickets, since I had enough cash to cover everybody's...which ended up being a bad idea haha, bought the wrong tickets (it was in French! give me a break lol) and had to have this chick at a nearby counter help us, but she just explained how to buy the right tickets then disappeared...and I decided getting to the sign session was more important than getting my money back, so we just left and I never did get a refund for the ones I bought accidentally. Oh well...
On the train, Carlos and I (the other guys were in the next car over) ended up in the same car as a group of Japanese fans. One of them, an Aika fan whose name was Shiori (remember that name... :P), asked to see the photobook I got signed...I was more than happy to show it to her haha, and after she got a good look another group of Japanese fans nearby also asked to see. They said I chose good pages to get signed haha, then I told them that I planned to get lots of pages signed if I made it into multiple sessions (and explained that, if I made it into all the sessions - 5 sessions x 8 members - I could get 40 autographs in that one photobook lol), so I actually didn't really think too much about which pages...which they thought was kind of funny, but actually a good idea. We talked for a bit longer, but the details beyond that are a bit tough to recall.
Anyway...at the station we got off at we ran into Natsugaya, who somehow managed to get there before us despite leaving after us (we blamed the ticket mixup, as that did take a couple minutes...plus it was Natsugaya, the man can do anything I'm pretty sure :P). Turns out the tickets I bought accidentally were ones Natsu could use, so I went ahead and gave them to him - so not a total waste...then off we were. A decent walk and a ride down a large escalator later, we dashed through the gate to the station that connected with the convention center...only to find out that Manuel had managed to lose his wallet in the rush, which included all his money, cards, passport, everything >.< Sadly we all had a sign session to get to, so we went ahead while Manuel and Natsu (as translator~) stayed behind to figured out that situation...
Outside the station...despite already being on convention center grounds, the walk from the train station exit to the inside of the center itself was quite long, and Manuel and Natsu managed to catch up to us (I guess they got the wallet situation figured out?). Carlos had friends who pulled some strings to get him an exhibitor's ticket, so he went to a separate line...which, at least on this occasion, didn't make a huge difference, as the first day of the con was already well under way and we were literally able to walk straight through the doors, scan our passes and bolt to the hall where the signing was with almost no waiting time at all.
In the event hall, Natsugaya immediately went to an information booth and got us pointed in the right direction (seriously, he saved our butts so many times ;___;)...while following Natsu to the sign session ticket booth, a couple Japanese fans came up to me and one of them said "Morning Musume?" haha (it must have been the outfit that gave me away :P)...I told him the guy in front (Natsu) was French, and had been translating for us and so on, and to follow him...so those Japanese fans joined our group for the rest of the walk/run.
Once at the sign session ticket booth, we hopped in line and waited...again :P
This was one of the lottery sessions...so basically, you went through the line, got to the front, showed your con ticket, drew a piece of paper from the box and hoped for one with a smiley face that said "winner!" or something to that effect in French...then the person tending the booth marked your ticket so you couldn't go through the line for that session again, and circled the mark if you won so you couldn't reuse that ticket for later sessions. This was an attempt at regulating things so any one person could only make it into one session, but that later proved to be completely pointless, as people just borrowed other people's tickets or bought extras and went through the line again anyway. Desperate times call for desperate measures...
Anyway, the only one out of our group who won on this draw was Manuel...which was kinda funny, since while we were in line we were joking that he had better get into this session since he just lost his wallet. There was actually an hour or two left until the session, so all that rushing earlier ended up being a little unnecessary...but we weren't sure how long it would take to get to the con center, and better safe than sorry of course :P
At that point, Manuel left to find where the sign session would be held, while everyone else sat around at some tables near the sign session lottery line for a while and chatted/figured out plans. Natsugaya had some other things to take care of - damsels in distress to save, villains to defeat, cities to restore to prosperity, typical Natsu stuff - so he said he'd maybe call us later to chill and headed off. Ed and Jim decided to go ahead and leave the con, back to the hotel or something...and Carlos, Steve and I decided to check out the convention for a bit.
We wandered around the con center, checking out different booths and so forth. Went to the MM booth (where they had a concert playing, and each day they displayed a different outfit a MM member had worn) and I picked up the one thing that wouldn't be included with my concert ticket (I got ahold of a special ticket for the concert that got you early entrance to the venue and a goody bag with most of the Japan Expo exclusive Morning Musume merchandise)...a photoset. One of the guys running the booth asked to see the photobook I got signed, I showed him and he asked if he could get a quick picture of me with it. Of course I said yes, opened it to Aichan's page and he took the pic...then I asked if he wanted a picture of the back of my outfit as well, when he saw that he was quite surprised and took another pic lol
At this point the other guy (who was Japanese) had taken notice and they asked if I had been to a concert in Japan...I told them (in Japanese) that I hadn't, but if Aichan ended up participating in a bus tour I'd be attending that (actually I used the wrong phrase there, said "if Aichan enters into a bus tour" instead of "if Aichan participates in a bus tour"...Carlos corrected me on it afterwords >.<). The Japanese guy laughed, maybe at my odd Japanese or just at this American who came to France to see MM and would later be going to Japan for a MM fan club tour :P
After the MM booth we checked out some more of the con, mostly Carlos led the way as I had seen everything I wanted to at Morning Musume's booth lol. We eventually checked out where the concert would be...some band was playing there, it was a HUGE event hall with a little stage on one side lol, upon seeing that I knew right away that what I paid for the special concert ticket was worth it (don't ask...).
When we went outside Carlos asked a Japan Expo staff member where we should line up for the Momusu concert...she thought it was outside, but wasn't sure exactly where. Guess we'd figure it out tomorrow lol, at least we knew where the venue was now.
Aaaaand more wandering around behind Carlos. Eventually he stopped and asked if we had seen what we wanted, both Steve and I said yes so we decided to head out...except the convention center was so huge that we couldn't figure where we even needed to go to leave. Eventually I called Ed and asked how he and Jim left, they told us they got a taxi so we decided to do the same...but couldn't find where the taxis were lol, called Ed again and he said they were at some exit but he wasn't sure which (real helpful -___-). Eventually we just opted to take the train (could have done this in the first place, I guess, but for some reason we thought there might have been a better way...) since we needed to go to the airport for provisions for the next day anyway (we planned to be in line, again, for quite a while and would need supplies :P) and you could buy train tickets specifically to go from the con center to the airport.
At the airport, same provisions as before - water, croissants, Tam-Tams - and then we headed out to wait for our shuttle back to the hotel...then out walked Jim and Ed? lol, with McDonald's no less (and even more provisions haha, we were well stocked for the next day it seemed :P), at which point we realized we were also hungry and got some Mickey D's of our own, then proceeded to wait for the hotel shuttle for much, much too long and eventually just get a taxi.
Back at the hotel, maybe 8PM or 9PM, everybody headed straight to their rooms to rest for the next day. Carlos and I spent an hour or two on our laptops, I believe, checking the member blogs and so forth...eventually I think everyone in our room was actually asleep, for once. This marked the first decent sleep of the entire trip for me, maybe 5-6 hours or so? Which was good, as we had another long day ahead of us.
Friday, concert day, begins in the next post...
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