London/Paris Part 9

Apologies for any references people don't get...will do my best to make it readable for everyone, but I know that won't be fully possible >.<

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Okay so, looking at video of the concert it seems the "real" intro video actually wasn't first? O.o

So I'll start from a bit before the concert started, since there was something real quick that I forgot to mention in the last post anyway...

And I'll be including video when possible ^^

As everyone waited for the concert to start, we were all in quite high spirits...cheered and chanted and yelled our favorite members' names and so forth pretty much non-stop. After a bit, I realized I could kind of lean over the barrier and see under, and even behind, the stage, and soon enough I saw little fuzzy leggings and pink shoes wandering around (same outfits as the autograph session that day)...there was Momusu! Yelled Aichan's name as loud as I could in their direction a few different times haha, no reaction (not that I exactly expected one...I was more just doing a cheer/chant thing than trying to get her attention) but it was still really cool to see them backstage~

Soon enough the lights dimmed and everybody went crazy...but they started the concert with this really lame video of intl fans speaking in embarassingly poor Japanese lol, some of the same footage Japan Expo used to promote MM's appearance at the con when it was announced a few months ago actually (hated it then, hated it even more the second time -___-). After that spectacle they started the concert in the same way the Japanese MM spring tour ones started...big ol' silhouette of a wolf in front of the moon on the screens (first song is called "MOONLIGHT NIGHT ~Tsukiyo no Ban da yo!~", hence the moon...thing...). In the Japanese concerts all the fans would howl when this came up haha, so I howled my lungs out..silly, but fun :P

Shortly after that the girls walked out on stage (in cute little pink outfits w/fluffy white stockings and bunny ears...adorable :3) and everybody went even more crazy. On top of that, you seriously could not have had a better concert starter song if you tried (plus such a cute dance~)...not even kidding, you could cut the energy in the air at that moment. Great performance, as expected, although there seemed to be some lighting issues at first? O.o Kinda weird...

(video of Moonlight Night here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arQGRXjjQuI)

A couple minutes into the concert, I managed to drop my Aichan muffler towel >.< Thought about trying to grab it, but I was so crammed in there was no way I could have leaned down to pick it up...and I was here to enjoy the concert, so I pretty quickly shrugged it off and accepted the fact that my precious Aichan towel would get trampled for the next 2 hours, then got back to having a good time :P

Anyway, after "Moonlight Night" came "Kimagure Princess". I love this song, one of the few MM songs I know a good portion of the dance for...although the dance is sort of...unfitting? for a guy to dance to, honestly haha...but I didn't care, danced my heart out~

(crap intro video and first two songs here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPV3Z-GaQH0)

(another video with some footage of the audience beforehand, closer to the stage and no crap intro video :P http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AwqxWiBcTs)

After that the girls walked off stage, then there was the REAL opening video...actually took me a minute or two to realize it had started because the screens were mounted directly to each side of the stage, and I was too close to see them all that well. Had to really strain my neck to get a good view, so...to be honest, I only really paid close attention to Aichan's bit lol (which, by the way, seemed much short than the other members'...what was up with that? :/ )

Still, concert opening videos are always awesome...feels great to cheer for each member individually, then really let loose when your favorite comes on screen haha

The volume of the crowd when each members pops up is a good gauge of popularity :P

(real intro video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cOHrtutAwU)

Immediately after the opening video finished, MM came back on stage in new outfits (the ones they wore at the FNAC session on Thursday) and they started up into the next song, "Renai Revolution 21". One of MM's older singles (released late 2000) from the peak of their popularity, ask any Japanese person to do a dance from a MM song and they'll probably do the one from RR21 :P

Not one of my favorites, but still a really fun song live.

After that came the member introduction MCs...each girl introduced herself in Japanese, with a little French thrown in. Pretty normal stuff, except...throughout all the events, one of the Japanese fans (and Carlos, they had signs in both Japanese and English...I was there when they made them, they thought about having a sign in French too, but asked a couple French fans and they said English would be ok) had been promoting a special plan to sing happy birthday to Sayumi after her introduction MC, since her birthday was July 13th. SO...after her MC finished, the whole audience broke into a very...interesting rendition of happy birthday hahaha (getting 4000 people, all from different countries with different native languages, to sing in unison isn't exactly easy), it took the members a little bit to figure out what was going on. Eventually Gaki and Aichan caught on and had the whole audience sing it again.

Sayumi's reaction was awesome, she looked she was about to cry and her voice was kind of shaking...said (rough translation) "why??? wait a minute, what should I do?? I'm shocked, [can't understand for a bit] Wait a minute, I'm so happy, what should I do...this is so unexpected, I'm trembling...normally I'm good with words, but I really can't say anything right now [bit more I can't understand] ...merci~!" or something to that effect. One of the best moments of the con for sure...you can really see the love the fans have for these girls with stuff like that ;_______________________________;

(RR21 and intro MCs here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsFCAjSxBNM)

(continuation of previous closer video, includes intro video...can hear the audience better if you want to see how loud the cheering is for each member :P http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MOVjKiypHA also includes RR21 and part of the MCs)

After that was "Seishun Collection", Morning Musume's latest single...came out on June 9th, not even a month before the concert. Most people seemed to think it was only okay, but I loved it...made a point to learn the hand motions for the chorus before going to France, since I knew they'd be performing it live. Way, way awesome~~

Then came "Nanchatte Renai", MM's 40th single that was released last August...pretty much everybody loves this song. Definitely a great song, but not one of my favorites live...

"Resonant Blue" after that...Morning Musume has seriously performed this single on every tour since it was released back in like...early 2008. It's a good song, but I don't want to see it in another concert setlist for a very, very long time...

(no video for these songs ;_____;)

At some point during the previous few songs, a very short (presumably young) girl all dolled up in cosplay stuff (little gothic-lolita dress, hair up in pigtails with big poofy scrunchies, etc) pushed her way up to the front and forced her way in right next to me. I looked over and the girl who was standing next to me before looked at me with an apologetic face and just said "she's short...". It sounds funny in retrospect, but at the time I wasn't exactly happy as there really wasn't room for another person there and I spent the rest of the concert struggling to keep from getting pushed back into the second row (although it didn't seem to affect the experience too much, as I definitely remember the concert itself more than fighting against this girl lol). On top of that, she spent the entire rest of the concert yelling "kawaii ne!" ("so cute!") every few seconds for no reason at all...people who are familiar with fans of Japanese stuff will know why that's pretty much the most obnoxious thing ever >.>

Anyway, after "Resonant Blue" MM walked off stage and some random chick came on...obviously this was where Yuko would do her bit, and sure enough after some "is everybody having a good time" and so on, out walked Yuko...accompanied by lots of cheers and chanting of her name from the audience ^^ (and constant yelling of "kawaii ne!" from my wonderful new concert partner -___- At one point the girl on stage with Yuko said, in the direction of this girl, "kawaii desu yo ne?" - "yes, she is cute isn't she?" - as if to give a subtle "YES PLEASE SHUT UP" lol...also of note, Yuko is almost 40 now...a bit odd to be calling her cute, and you could tell that from the girl on stage's tone of voice :P)

For Yuko's bit, she introduced three of her favorite Morning Musume songs (all very early ones, which makes sense since she was only with the group for its first 3 or so years), and they played a portion of the music video for each on the screens. This was actually really, really cool cause the entire audience sang along to every song. Yuko was clearly quite touched by that and actually started crying partway through...which just made everyone sing even louder ;_______; Again, the love the fans have for these girls is really out of this world...

After Yuko, MM came back on stage in new outfits (big blue Japanese traditional dress things) and performed a medley. Luckily it was the medley from their spring concert tour...so I knew all the sudden changes between songs and all the chants, etc to go along perfectly with it. So much more fun when you can dance/"sing" along with the members~

A really, really good medley too...started with "LOVE Machine", their best-selling single from 1999 and a great live song, then switched to "The Peace", released in 2001 (not one I'm terribly fond of just because my friend Cal went through a phase where every time he came over he wanted to watch the music video lol...a bit tired of it because of that). After that was "Kanashimi Twilight", a more recent (2007) high-energy song but still not a favorite of mine...then "Koi no Dance Site", another earlier song that came out right after "LOVE Machine", in 2000. So so SO much fun live...could possibly be my favorite song live actually, I just totally lose it when the chorus hits haha, absolute insane energy. After "Koi no Dance Site" came "Roman ~MY DEAR BOY~" (2004), a definite fan favorite, and for good reason (it's grown on me quite a bit recently, kicked myself for not learning the dance already...). Then, finally, "Koko ni Iruzee!" (a ska-influenced single from 2002) to finish it all off...and really, you couldn't have a better finisher for the medley. Really fun, high-energy song (SKA!!! omg lol), and a nice sing-along bit at the end...which, for this medley, they did something really special and had a bit where just the audience sang. Honestly I was concerned about the fans knowing what to do there (Japanese fans are good at that kind of thing, but from my experience Western fans aren't so much...), but for the most part I guess it ended up fine.

(already posted this awhile ago, but video of the medley here http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=105762044 I'm in there, right around 3:40 :P)

After the medley there was another MC...but sadly, I can't remember the exact details. Taking the language barrier into consideration, I'm assuming it was just some quick "is everybody having fun" in French with some Japaense bits thrown in or something (feel bad not being able to remember, I'm sure there's an audio recording of the concert somewhere...if I find it, I'll update here with what they said...). There was a costume change here, from the blue Japanese dresses into little sparkly light blue one-piece dress things. Pretty sure they just threw off the blue and the light blue was underneath :P

I do remember that I had to take a serious breather at this point, had been jumping around and screaming for a good hour so far, at least, and I could definitely feel it. Had to push on though, still lots of concert left~

After the MC came "Ame no Furanai Hoshi de wa Aisenai Darou?" Chinese language version, from their latest album "10 MY ME" that came out this year in March. This is another song like "Resonant Blue" for me, really good but so over-played...and having two different-language versions didn't help much lol

Still, as the first slower song of the concert it was a nice change of pace, and even my least favorite MM song is amazing live haha...and it's actually a very pretty song, so I still loved it.

Next was "Onna ga Medatte Naze Ikenai" (released February of this year), back to high-energy...I really love this song, but it's actually a little disappointing live because there's really no good opportunity for chants and the dance is a little complicated. Still nice to see it though ^^

Then came another of my favorite MM songs live, "Souda! We're Alive!"...a single from MM's days of massive popularity (2002), and one of their more musically interesting songs. Really funky and catchy, and the chorus hits you out of nowhere..almost brings me to tears every time, so uplifting ;_________;

After "Souda!"..."Mikan", from late 2007, the song I mentioned to Yuko when she interviewed me. As always, super super fun song live. Very simple and lots of energy, with good chants and a simple dance for the audience to do as well. Kind of a staple live song, I feel.

Next..."Genki Pika Pika", another song from this year's album "10 MY ME" and one of my favorite songs at the moment. Just kind of a simple feel-good song, nice little hand-wave move during the chorus for the audience to do along with the girls too.

Then came the "theme song" for the convention, "Tomo" (which means "friend" in Japanese), the b-side to their most recent single "Seishun Collection". Such a pretty song, and the lyrics are really touching...I'll admit, I teared up on this one. Really a great way to finish the concert...

(video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoWEHy9rJyU)

And, after "Tomo", MM said their goodbyes and walked off stage. Of course, everybody knows that when a group walks offstage it's never really "The End"...the audience almost immediately started cheering for an encore (which, at MM concerts, sounds like "ON-CORE-AY" lol...Japanese :P). This was huge for me (and a lot of other fans, I'm sure) because chanting for an encore is just as much a part of MM concerts as the songs themselves (everybody knows the group will come back out, but it's the spirit of the thing~), and last year at Anime Expo we didn't get an encore (all the fans up front stayed and chanted until security pretty much pushed us out the door...beyond disappointing...).

SO...we all chanted our lungs out for a few minutes, and the girls walked back out on stage, this time wearing the Japan Expo exclusive t-shirts they sold at the MM booth and little shorts...seriously adorable, I'm a sucker for girls in just normal old clothes :3

Everybody cheered, went crazy...and the girls started up on their last song, "HOW DO YOU LIKE JAPAN?" (from their album "Rainbow 7", released in 2006). Another high-energy number, lots of "ooh!"s and "hah!"s for the audience to join in on...definitely a good finisher.

I'm not sure what happened, but at one point Aichan ran into some kind of problem and had to slip backstage for a second...then RIGHT as a line of hers came up she flew back on without even flinching, if you weren't watching her I doubt you'd have even noticed. Handled like a pro, as expected of Aichan~~~

Soon enough the song was over. At the end of every MM concert, the members all line up and join hands...then bow and raise their hands up, bow and then raise them again. The audience cheers and raises their hands in unison with MM, kind of a tradition at their concerts...so they did that, waved one last time and walked off stage.

And, with that, the concert was over...continued in the next post~

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Aaaaaaand here's some more video lol...nice up-close footage, bits and pieces from all over the concert (including some songs that aren't in the videos I linked to above). There's a series of 5 videos from this recording but this is just one, if you look in the 'Suggestions' on the right you can find the others ^^

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjxYlAx9TB0

London/Paris Part 8

After the sign session I was pretty much on cloud nine...just interviewed by a former MM member, managed to get lots of good interaction with Aichan, found out that the sign sessions are still awesome even if you can't make it in...things were going fantastically, to say the least. The second I got outside the con center I called my friend Cal haha, left a message along the lines of "CAL, THIS IS COSTING A LOT OF MONEY BUT I HAD TO TELL SOMEBODY...I WAS JUST INTERVIEWED BY NAKAZAWA YUKO...NAKAZAWA FREAKING YUKO...THIS IS INSANE...ANYWAY, BYE" lol...I had hoped to tell him directly but oh well. And, once again, the long walk to the concert venue...

While I was walking, a group of Japanese guys dressed up in fancy clothes with their hair all done up (bunch of pretty boys, to be frank - visual-kei-esque, for those who know what that is, only not as extreme) were walking the opposite direction. They all kind of gave me a weird look, and one said "samuuuuuuii~" (which, in this context, meant "laaaaaaaaame~" haha), then they all laughed. I must admit...I was kind of speed-walking, quickly fanning myself, in full gear in the sweltering heat (it was HOT, like hellish outside, and I was sweating up a storm lol)...so to most people I probably would have looked pretty lame :P

But I just ignored them...at this point I was in full wota pride mode lol, just came out of one of my best experiences as a MM fan and nothing could get me down. It's not like they could have understood anyway~

Back at the venue (maybe 4:00 or so, 3 1/2 hours until the concert~), once within hearing distance of the MM Pack Ticket line I shouted "Guess who was just interviewed by Nakazawa Yuko!" (although I managed to stutter on her name, somehow...) and most everybody was pretty surprised lol...asked how it happened, what all she asked, etc.

Met a French-Canadian girl who had moved to France...she explained to us that you could borrow con tickets from other people and use them to go through the sign session drawing line again (apparently she had gotten several tickets for other people that way...wish we'd met her earlier >.<), which was good advice. Sneaky, but you do what you have to...

I had also heard from a friend earlier in the trip that Canadian French (the language) was pretty well indecipherable to people in France, so I asked...and she said when she moved here it wasn't too bad (or something along that line...can't remember her answer exactly). Interesting to hear that from somebody who experienced it first-hand.

At one point in line we mentioned that we'd be camping out overnight for the next day's sign session, and she let us borrow her umbrella in case it rained. Again, so many nice people on this trip...

At this point I opened up my backpack to pull out a change of shorts (apologized beforehand to the French-Canadian girl, and everyone else in line, for changing right in front of them lol)...then saw that I forgot to bring them -___-

So I laid out the towel Natsugaya brought us the day before, sat down and accepted the fact that I'd be wearing my nice yellow pants during the concert D:

Photo 1

And thus began even more waiting haha...eventually they started running the sound check and we all got our first taste of what the concert setlist would be like. Every new song was like "YES!!!" hahaha, honestly almost any Momusu songs would have gotten me excited but it turned out the France setlist was very similar to the setlist for MM's spring tour, which was great since that was an awesome setlist and I was familiar with it from listening to fan recordings of the Japan concerts (and was therefore fully prepared to do the chants MM fans do at concerts...this was EXACTLY what I had hoped for :'D). Soon we started to hear singing from inside, and everybody got excited...then realized they were just doing sound checks on the pre-recorded background vocals (some of which are sang by the members themselves, hence our excitement :P).

BUT...eventually, we heard what was clearly the members themselves. Everybody flipped, jumped over the barricades and crowded around at a spot by the door which had just barely enough open window to see inside...and there, on stage, were the girls!

Photo 2

Didn't get much of a chance to look though, as security didn't take kindly to several people outside the line all crowded against the window lol...one of them came over and said "no no no..." while motioning us back to the line...but honestly it didn't do much good, a few people still stayed and watched (it was Momusu, RIGHT THERE...the temptation was too much haha). Soon enough a security guy walked in this other door nearby and all of a sudden the curtain was closed lol...everybody moaned and shuffled back to the line :P

I think there were curtains open at the normal ticket line as well, cause there was a big commotion over there at the same time...but their curtain stayed open a bit longer, we were pretty sure. My friends and I called it compensation for them not getting the awesome tickets like we had~

But we could at least still hear the girls rehearsing inside, which was so, so cool. Every time Aichan sang I melted a little haha...so awesome to be able to hear her singing just right inside the building I was next to, and knowing I'd be able to see MM performing soon ;__________;

Eventually I decided to pull out my concert gear and start getting it ready. Pulled all the bigger glowsticks out of their wrappers (3 for each hand) and tied them together at one end so I could hold them between my fingers without dropping them, got the bracelet glowsticks out and in my pocket so I could easily put them on later (didn't want to put them on yet since they only last so long, and wrapping them around my wrists would break and "activate" them :P), pulled my Aichan muffler towel (to wipe my face during the concert...would be moving around a lot, didn't want sweat in my eyes~), normal shoes and socks out of my backpack and laid it all out for when we had to get up, which I knew would be soon.

Photo 3

Then, all of a sudden, it looked like rain. And I mean, HARDCORE rain haha, one side of the sky was pretty much clear and the other was a huge ominous mass of darkness lol...so I put all the stuff I didn't need to have for the concert in my backpack. Soon enough the line had gotten big enough that it had to be compressed down, so we all stood up and scrunched in together (still right in front~)...only an hour or so until the concert :O

By this point the crowd was really riled up...there were a couple security guys in suits who'd shown up and were standing near the other line making sure nobody did anything stupid. One of them was actually really cool, MM was still rehearsing at this point...and he'd open one of the doors to the venue a bit, all the fans would cheer and scream, then he'd close it and give them a big thumbs up lol...did that several times that I saw.

There were also some people there with cameras...turns out they were with NoLife (a French channel that broadcasts all Japanese stuff), got lots of shots of the crowd etc. Eventually an older Japanese reporter-looking lady with a cameraman came over to where we were and started talking to the fans in our line. Asked where everybody was from...I said America (she went o.o), Carlos said Mexico (she went O.O), Jim said Canada (she visibly gasped now lol, her mouth was just hanging open), and Steve said China. She was absolutely baffled..."you came here just for this!?", she asked. We all agreed, and I said "well, this and the autograph sessions...all the Morning Musume events, really...". She just shook her head, clearly she couldn't believe that we'd all come from so far just for MM, but...as I've said many times, we don't kid around~

At the end they asked us to all say "We love Morning Musume!" into the camera, we all did that and then they thanked us and off they went haha

(NoLife's report on Momusu at Japan Expo here, lots of good concert footage and a certain guy in yellow near the beginning ;D http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPAlXBArkx4 Carlos in there too...)

Somebody in the guys I ran with (can't remember who...) brought Red Bull for everybody. I started to drink mine right away, then Steve (I think? or Carlos...) said they'd save theirs until right when the concert started...which made more sense, and thus began the process of trying to save an open can of Red Bull for later haha

I knew I couldn't just put the can in my backpack cause we'd be rushing the stage for spots up in front soon and it would spill everywhere...first I borrowed some tape from Jim and covered the top of the can, but that didn't work at ALL haha. Then I took an empty bottle a friend had and poured the Red Bull in that...ended up spilling some, almost got it on the French-Canadian girl lol (I was like a bull in a China shop for a second there -___-)

But in the end it was all good, had my Red Bull (or what was left of it lol) ready for the concert ;D

Soon enough it started raining...so we pulled out the umbrella and crowded 3 or 4 of us under it as we continued to wait.

Photo 4

At this point, I pulled out my glowstick wristbands and had a friend help me put them on so I wouldn't have to worry about fumbling with them in the venue. Eventually the dudes who would let us in the venue showed up...first they scanned our tickets and gave us our merch vouchers (the MM goods that came as part of the ticket would be distributed after the concert) and the last little stretch of waiting began. Soon enough the doors to the venue opened...but everyone was RIGHT up against them, and they opened outwards, so we had to keep slowly scooting back and pushing together until the door opened, then it was an INSANE rush to the stage. They had security guys who were supposed to stop that, but everyone would get close to one, slow down until past him, then start right back up again. I ended up with a seat kind of middle-right side of the stage right in front...as in, leaning on the barricade lol

Photo 5

Everyone up front put their backpacks on the ground in front of the barricade so we wouldn't have to step on them the whole concert, but security quickly shot that down and we had to make them fit under our feet...AFTER we had piles of people behind us, of course -___-

Photo 6

And then, even MORE waiting haha, as they moved everybody into the concert venue. It got hot REAL fast, as I expected, but that was fine. Drank my Red Bull, Aichan muffler towel over my neck/shoulders, got my glowsticks ready...realized I had these long strings hanging from the bigger glowsticks where I tied them together, which definitely wouldn't work. Ended up tying the strings to my wristbands, which worked out awesome because if I somehow dropped them they were still hanging from my wrists and would be easy to grab again.

After a while, the lights went down and the opening video started...

Okay, ANOTHER post until the concert itself. My bad...again...

London/Paris Part 7

At the sign session...there was already a pretty large crowd gathered. I did my best to find a good spot, ended up maybe a couple people back from the front of one group of fans...which was actually a good distance from where the girls would be.

The line for people who had tickets to the session weaved back and forth directly in front of the stage the session would be held on, and the crowd I was in stood right against the fences/barricades for that line (in other words, in this order: girls, line for session, crowd I was in)...so there was a good 40-50 feet between the girls and myself, I'd say... (although I'm horrible at estimating that kind of thing lol, could have been way more...either way, it wasn't very close)

Eventually the girls walked out on stage and everybody cheered, etc...the girls waved, took their seats, and the session started. Anytime a member didn't have someone in front of them the crowd would go wild cheering and waving and screaming their name lol, and the girls would wave and do peace signs, etc back...I saved my energy for whenever Aichan freed up and did my best to get her attention. I can't remember if she waved at me during this time or not, honestly...she may not have, as I hadn't yet realized where the best spot to get her attention from was :P

After a bit, a Japanese lady came up and started speaking to me in French. After she finished what she was saying, I told her "I'm an American" in Japanese, and she asked if I spoke Japanese...to which I said yes, then she perked up and invited me over to the side really quick to a guy with a camera (another interview lol).

Like the sign session, everything here was in Japanese...

Once the camera started rolling...they asked me where I came from, how long I had been into Momusu, a few other questions that I can't remember at the moment (honestly I barely remember this interview, with the exception of a few small details...). At one point the camera guy stopped recording and said "excuse me...your Japanese is very very good, but...where did you learn to speak it?" lol...I just told him "at a private school" (should have pimped my Japanese program here, but didn't think to at the time >.<), and he started the camera rolling again. After a few more questions they asked me to give a message to Aichan into the camera O.O

I immediately said "ahhh...that's tough...", and they kind of laughed. I did the best I could...honestly it wasn't great, I was totally unprepared and just ended up saying that Aichan's really important to me like three times in a row lol...oh well...

Then they had me turn around and got a nice long shot, from bottom to top, of the back of my outfit...it seemed to take a VERY long time, and at one point I started to turn around but the lady yelled "stay! stay!" (in English lol), and I quickly turned back around...eventually the camera guy gave me an okay, they thanked me, I thanked them, and I rushed back to see more of the session haha

Got another spot in basically the same place as before, more waving cheering etc. Eventually a girl standing in front of me moved and I got a spot basically in the front...then ANOTHER Japanese lady came up and started speaking to me in French haha.

Like before, this was all in Japanese...

I told her, again, that I was an American, and she said "ah...we were looking for French people..." *thoughtful pause* "you can speak Japanese?" and I said "yes!" so she went ahead and took me along anyway lol

After a short trek...there stood Nakazawa Yuko, the original leader of Morning Musume O.O (she had come along for the trip) Even though I'm not a huge fan of hers, meeting her is a big, BIG deal...

I quickly gave a surprised "oh, hello!" to her and she said "hello!" back. The girl who brought me over told her "he's an American, but he can speak Japanese" and Yuko said to me, "ah, yoroshiku onegaishimasu!" (hard to translate, interpretively it means "please treat me well" and is said before doing basically anything moderately important with anybody in Japanese culture :P). I said "yoroshiku onegaishimasu" back and gave a quick nervous bow/nod. The girl told Yuko "now, don't ask him if he's an American...ask him where he's from". Shortly after that, the camera started rolling...

Yuko asked "Are you from France?", to which I said "no, I'm an American". Then she asked if I came specifically to see Morning Musume, to which I said yes...how long I had been into MM (for the curious, I got into another group under MM's umbrella company - Hello!Project - called Berryz Koubou in June of 2007, and ended up getting into MM around the end of that year...been pretty well consumed with the group, and various other Hello!Project groups, since then - told her that almost exactly)...Yuko asked who my favorite member was (LOL! clearly as a bit of a joke), and I said Aichan with a chuckle...she had me turn around and show the back of my outfit to the camera, made a few impressed remarks ("wow", "amazing")...

Then she asked what my favorite Morning Musume song was, and I locked up for a second because I don't have one! Just told her my favorite is a song called "Mikan" (I really loved that one in Anime Expo's concert last year and was really looking forward to it at that day's concert)...but honestly that was kind of a crappy choice cause that song isn't normally considered to be a Momusu song with much "depth" to it, if that makes sense...just a good concert song, a crowd-pleaser of sorts. Anyway, she kind of laughed at that like "oh, really?"...I said "cause it gets the crowd riled up, you know?" and she just kind of said "that it does" ("sou desu ne"...basically just an all-around neutral agreement statement in Japanese, a good response to almost anything, really...literally means "it is, isn't it" but tough to translate in this context >.<) and laughed. Not my best moment, but oh well...my answer to the next question made up for it...

Yuko asked me what I thought Morning Musume's charm point was...what makes the group special. I said "For me, I think the member's dedication and hard work is amazing" (that doesn't sound too impressive in English, but the words I used in Japanese definitely had some impact to them). She seemed kind of taken aback and stood there for a second, said "d-dedication and...ah, thank you so much" and bowed. I guess she didn't expect that kind of thing from a foreigner haha

I can't remember much of the interview beyond that, those may have been the only questions she asked...anyway, after it was over she thanked me and shook my hand (big deal with MM members or idols period, normally handshakes are limited to special events in Japan o.o), I thanked her and the staff and scurried off back to the sign session.

Photo 1

Now, a quick note...for the sign sessions at Japan Expo, they had a big long table up on stage with chairs for each member, and Aichan was all the way to the left side of that table, first one people walked up to. Moving on...

After the interview with Yuko, I got settled back into my same spot in the crowd...then noticed a small group of Morning Musume fans (including Carlos and some other fans I knew) standing in the area for the next event over on the side where Aichan sat, leaning against the fence/barricade between the two events. This put them almost directly to the side of the stage Momusu sat on, maybe 15-20 feet from Aichan, with no obstructions and few other fans nearby...so I jumped out of the crowd I was in, ran over into the next event and got a good place up in front leaning on the fence/barricade with them. Couldn't have had a better spot, clear view of Aichan (most of the time, anyway...one of the staff got in the way every now and then) and, even better, she had a clear view of me...and thus began the real fun~ (my apologies if I kind of ramble on a bit here, this was pretty exciting for me...)

Whenever she freed up, I'd yell her name and wave the same as before...within a couple minutes she waved right at me! I could have died... ;_____;

And it just got better from there, clearly my outfit helped a LOT here (and perhaps what I said to her at the FNAC sign session helped, or the fact that I said it in Japanese? or that I had been in EVERY place Momusu was so far and stood out like a sore thumb haha) because there was a marked difference whenever she waved at me compared to waving at other people (I'll upload a video from the Saturday sign session to prove it :P). After a bit, Paul Elliott came up and set his camera directly on my left shoulder...I looked back at him and he said "just keep going!", so I did haha...he took quite a few pictures (quietly saying "yeah, that's great!" and "shout her!", etc in his awesome British accent the whole time lol - a true cameraman, or something like that :P), and amongst them were these... (some of you may have already seen one or both of these...but they're worth looking at again~)

Photo 2

Photo 3

This was one of those moments that made the whole trip, and all the preparation I put into it, worth it for me...having your favorite member of Morning Musume (and one of the most popular ones, no less) pick you, out of a crowd of hundreds, to wave at - several times, even - is really something special >.<

Soon enough there were a decent number of people gathered over in this area, a good portion of which were Aichan fans haha. At one point Carlos (who was behind me to my right) pointed to me, himself, a female Japanese Aichan fan to his left and another Japanese Aichan fan over to his right (one of her most well-known ones, this guy has been following Morning Musume around the world for several years now...), then said to the girl "koko wa Aichan-gumi da" - "this is the Aichan team", basically. Kind of a cool moment haha

Eventually the session ended, more cheering as the girls walked off stage and that was that.

Photo 4

A random guy who had been near us taking pictures of Morning Musume caught my attention and showed me one particularly cute picture of Aichan that he got...I melted a bit, I'll admit (she's just too cute ;____;), kind of held my hand to my chest and made an "ah-! my heart~" face/motion lol. He just smiled haha, I thanked him and he said "you're welcome! see you back here at tomorrow's session?" or something like that in a French accent (turns out he was French :O) and I said "yes!". I know there was more to the conversation than that haha, but I can't remember anything else >.<

Regardless, we went our separate ways and I started to make my way back to the concert line by myself...

Okay, so one more post before the concert itself...my bad :P

London/Paris Part 6

Woke up at 3AM Friday morning to get ready to line up for the concert. Carlos had been on his computer for a while already when Steve and I woke up, and found out that the session the day before was actually open (so you could cheer for the members, wave, etc - which was unexpected, since the sign sessions at Anime Expo were closed events)...and he found out that Morning Musume took a picture with all the fans afterward. Upsetting that we missed it, to say the least, but we couldn't have known...

Photo 17

Anyway, everybody got showers, packed stuff we'd need in line and at the sign session for that day if we made it, and took a shuttle to the con center. Arrived about 5:30AM? To convention center grounds that were literally COMPLETELY empty. It was bizarre being somewhere so, so busy less than a day before and then walking back into an essential ghost town.

Photo 18

We spent a while trying to figure out how we'd get to the concert venue. Carlos and I had scoped out its location the day before, as I said, so we knew how to get there from inside the con center...but there were like a half-mile of barricades, placed to guide people into lines for getting their con passes checked once the con opened, between us and the convention center entrances. We spent a couple minutes wandering around before noticing signs directing people to the venue.

Photo 19

And thus began a long, LONG walk. Following the signs, we were led around the corner of the con center through some trees, down a long road, up some stairs, down some stairs, past rows and rows of (mostly empty, I think O.o) event halls, past storage for equipment to assist in setting up said event halls, down another road...we ran into a sign around there that said 'E3' on it, which was of significance to the guys I ran around with during the con, so I ended up taking a pic for them...

Photo 20

Then we continued on, rounded a corner and finally arrived at the concert venue. It was 6AM almost exactly (the concert was at 7:30PM - only 13 1/2 hours left ;D), and we were, literally, the FIRST people there...not a soul around (quite proud of that actually, first people to show up for Momusu's first European concert~). However, the area the lines would eventually be in was fenced off...so we just kind of made our own line at the entrance to that area haha

Photo 21

From there...lots, and lots, and LOTS of waiting. Listened to music, stood around and chatted to pass the time. Maybe an hour after we showed up, a French girl arrived...then maybe 30 minutes after that, some more French fans arrived. At this point the sun had come over the horizon...and was shining RIGHT on where we decided to place the temporary line lol, so we moved to the street while French fans opted to sit in various places near the building across the street.

Photo 22

And then even more waiting...Jim took quite a few photos of us during this if anyone is interested, not going to bother uploading all of them otherwise though. Carlos had an exhibitor's ticket that could get him into the convention an hour early (10AM instead of 11AM)...since the chances of getting a ticket in the drawings for sign sessions were better the earlier you arrived (winning tickets obviously disappeared over time, decreasing the chances that you'd get one...), he left around 9AM to line up for the convention and get there earlier for the draw.

Our plan was for Carlos to go, do his draws for the sign session, and come back. Since he had an exhibitor's ticket he could enter and leave the convention as much as he wanted (normal tickets only got you into the convention center once per day - if you entered the con with a normal ticket, then left, you couldn't reenter with that ticket until the next day), and we wanted him to go first so he could scope out the line and let us know how things looked...the sign session wasn't until 2PM, so we had plenty of time for him to go and come back. After Carlos returned, we planned to leave in groups of 2 or 3, putting one person with a cell phone in each group so we could contact the others in line if needed (surprisingly, people with working cell phones were rare...at least among who I knew). Whoever didn't get a ticket for the sign session, and didn't want to stick around for the sign session, in each group would return immediately after doing their draw so the next group could leave. This way, we had people there to hold everyone's spot in line, and not so many people gone at once that we'd attract attention to ourselves. Or, at least, that was the plan :P

Sometime after Carlos left, one of the French fans came up and told us that he heard they'd be opening the gate for the line at noon...so we decided that, if Carlos didn't show back up by the time they moved the line inside the fenced-off area, we'd go ahead and start sending people to the sign session drawing anyway. A while after that, another group of people I know (mostly, or possibly all, folks from England - this included Paul, Lampshade, and Hexi) arrived...they placed their stuff in the line of bags/etc holding people's spots lol, then came and stood/sat with us. The sun had risen enough by then that we had resorted to standing near the building across the street...eventually everyone was hunched up against it trying to stay in the shade haha

Photo 23

Soon, however, that didn't work to keep us out of the sun...and we moved down to the end of the building where there was a large covered open area, always shady. Honestly I got a little aggravated and said we should just deal with the sun to keep our spots in line (idols work hard for us, we should do the same for them, blah blah cfb blah blah blah - Musume friends will know what I'm talking about :P), but I seemed to be the only one who was overly concerned about that, so there we stayed. Some of the French fans ended up in that area as well, actually. Soon we decided to start sorting our glowsticks...which we had TONS of - not even kidding, between everybody there were well over 100 glowsticks for maybe 20 people, at the most? We were prepared for the concert, to say the least haha. Anyway, we started sorting glowsticks (some of the ones I bought came in packs of 5 different colors, and we wanted all the same colors together...so yeah lol, basically re-sorted the packs to be sets of 4 same-colored glowsticks)...

Photo 24

As we sorted, a couple French fans showed interest and asked if they could buy some glowsticks from us....we had more than enough and were more than happy to sell haha. I figured 0.50 euros (maybe 75 cents? I think the packs of 5 were $1 each) for a set of 4 glowstick bracelets was fine, and said "50 euros" as I held up a set of 4...then everyone burst out laughing, 50 euros for 4 glowsticks was obviously just a bit high :P So I corrected to 50 cents...the French fan who bought them from me handed over 2 euros, 0.50 per glowstick...which I knew at the time was too much, but we had a difficult enough time with our exchange already that I decided to deal with it later. After sorting glowsticks...more waiting...

Over the course of all this waiting, expo staff people kept popping out of the venue and setting up barricades inside the fenced off area, obviously getting ready for the MM concert line. I think some of the people in line may have talked to them at one point, but it was in French and I had no idea what they were saying haha

Anyway, eventually convention center staff arrived to open the gate (I think around 11:30?)...but he apparently had nothing to do with the expo itself, because as everyone ran over, gathered up their stuff and made their way into the fenced off area...he said he had no idea on how the line would be handled and drove off. So...everyone did their best to rebuild something resembling a line after the mad rush to get inside the fenced off area and got around to yet more waiting lol

At this point I tried to explain to the French fan who bought glowsticks from me that he gave me too much money. It took a bit, but he eventually understood...and said it didn't matter, just told me to keep it haha. For the bad rap France gets, there are actually some really nice people there ^^

Shortly after that, a couple expo staff guys arrived to get the line organized...one of them started to move everyone into the same queue, but those of us who had MM Pack Tickets (the special ticket I mentioned earlier that got you early entrance the venue and goodies~) spoke up and asked him where we should go. Clearly he didn't expect people with MM Pack Tickets to be already lining up haha (there were only 100 of them, if that gives you an idea...), so he got a bit confused and said something to effect of "well...yeah, I mean...come over here, I guess..." and lead us to our line. You'd think people would eventually learn that Momusu fans don't kid around ;D

After both lines were organized, Carlos still hadn't returned...so we started figuring out who would be in the first group. We asked one of the expo staff about leaving the line...he told us that if we left we wouldn't be allowed back to the front (no surprise), but at this point there were seriously only 8-10 people in the MM Pack Ticket line at most (half of which were people I knew lol), so my friends and I confirmed with everyone who was there that we had been there since 6AM and were in front, and that they would keep our spots. No opposition at all, everybody was cool with it...which was super nice of them, especially the French fans who we could barely talk to in the first place...

However, Ed was in the normal ticket line (he was the one I got my pack ticket from, I had a normal one first but he was willing to switch with some compensation...thanks again orz), which was already pretty large. We knew if he went to the sign session people wouldn't let him back to the front and he'd probably end up like halfway toward the back of the concert venue...so it was decided, through some yelling back and forth between the lines, that he would be staying. Sorry Ed >.<

After a bit more discussion, the first group would be Paul Thomas (who I'd be staying with in London), Paul Elliott (who took the pictures of Aichan I've posted, my profile pic included...and many other pictures at the convention), and myself. Paul Thomas actually just had to go the bathroom haha (which turned out to be quite the ordeal for people in line, no bathrooms ANYWHERE near...the staff even just kind of laughed and shrugged when we asked if there were any close by lol), so he tagged along with the intention of pretty much returning right away.

After a long walk back to the convention center grounds entrance, we made our way through the labyrinth of barricades I mentioned earlier and got into a decent-sized line. Since it was earlier in the day than when we arrived the day before, there were lots of people still making their way into the convention...but the line moved at a decent pace anyway, and we basically just walked straight through. When we got into the building itself where they were checking tickets, Carlos was waiting by the front of the line for us. When I saw him, I signaled to him thumbs up/down inquiring if he got tickets, to which he gave a thumbs up, then one or two fingers asking how many (since he had two tickets - one exhibitor's and one normal - he went through the sign session drawing line twice...if he got an extra it would go to one of the guys in our hotel rooms), to which he just held up one finger. Darn...I nodded in response.

After we had our tickets checked, Carlos frantically told us the line was HUGE (he had literally just gotten out of his second time through)...and we should hurry if we were going to make it through the line and into the sign session before it started at 2PM (I remember checking my watch at this point and it being 12:15 or so, if that says anything). So I called the other guys in the concert line (I think? I hope I did lol) and told them to just come get in line if they wanted to try for the sign session. Paul Thomas went ahead to the bathroom, and Paul Elliott followed me to the sign session drawing booth since I knew the way...it was pretty hectic, as we were in a hurry and quickly working your way through crowds of people at Japan Expo was NOT easy, to say the least...

Photo 25

Anyway, we bolted over to the back of the line, which took a good few minutes to get to...and waited again lol

We ended up with a big blond-haired German guy behind us named Pascal. Poor guy was the personification of deer in the headlights haha, totally didn't expect this kind of frenzy...and he was even more shocked when I showed him the back of my outfit, told him I came from America, also went to Anime Expo, bought 10 copies of Aichan's latest photobook to get a personalized signed one (>.> I'll sell the extras eventually...maybe...)...and so on lol. All he could do for most of the conversation was just laugh and shake his head haha. The girl closest to the camera in the picture below (you can only see the back of her head), from France, was also a bit shocked to hear about all that :P

Anyway, apparently Pascal was at Japan Expo last year for AKB48 (-___-) and he said it was NOTHING like this...pretty much just show up, wait a bit and you were in...not sure how accurate a report that was, but I thought it was kinda funny (Musume friends will know why ;D). I warned him to head STRAIGHT to the concert venue after the sign session and get in line if he wanted a decent spot.

Photo 26

After about an hour and half in line (maybe a bit more...can't recall exactly...), I got to the front and did my draw...no luck. Pascal and Paul, however, BOTH got winning tickets lol...I offered to buy Pascal's from him for 120 euros (desperate times, desperate measures...) but he laughed and shook his head, same as before, then told me "sorry, the chances were just too slim...". Worth a shot :P

At this point the session was about to start, so I made my way over to watch it...

*phew*

Second half of Friday, including the concert itself, in the next post.

London/Paris Part 5

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...

London/Paris Part 4

Continuing from last time, I made my way up to the table... (please note, everything said here was in Japanese)

As I stated in the last post, Aichan was first. I walked up and greeted her - "konnichiwa!" - as I put the photobook on the table in front of her, which she cheerily said back, then she looked down to get the photobook in a position where she could sign it. I had already planned what I'd say to her so I went "um..." and she looked up with this sweet interested smile (eye contact with Aichan could kill a man, seriously ;______;) and said "yes?". Morning Musume did a play in June called Fashionable, and they had a blog where the members could post updates about rehearsals, what they were up to, etc...Aichan doesn't have a blog of her own, so I really cherished the opportunity to read her posts there. So...I said "Your posts on the Fashionable blog really lifted my spirits. That was a really happy thing for me." and kind of put my right hand to my chest, half-patting it a couple times as I said 'me'. She responded with a big "thank you!" and started to sign the cover of the photobook, but I went "Ah-! Sorry, um..." and she got kind of flustered (sorry Aichan ;__;)...I pointed out that I had specific places in the photobook marked for each member to sign, then turned it to the place I had marked for her (with a yellow post-it, I bought sticky notes in the members' colors to mark their places with~). She asked which page I wanted signed and I said "right, please", then she went ahead and signed it. Before handing the photobook back to me, she looked up at me and said "Your Japanese is great!" with a big thumbs up and a smile (;__________;). I responded with a quick "ah, th-thank you!", followed by a short pause and "Please do your best! I'll always support you!", which she responded to with another "thank you!" and a smile, then I was on to the next member.

Photo 17

Next was Niigaki Risa, sub-leader of the group. I greeted her with a "konnichiwa" as well, turned the photobook to the place I'd marked for her and asked her to sign the right page. As she started to sign, I asked her which DS game she played on the plane (she wrote on her blog what she brought with her for the plane ride...a DS was amongst the list :P). She didn't hear me clearly, so I leaned in and said more slowly, "D S ?"...to which she just said "mario!", and I said "ah, that's good" lol (should have said I like mario too, or something, but I hadn't really thought beyond the question beforehand -___-). After she finished signing I thanked her, asked her to do her best and was on to the next member.

Photo 18

And then came Kamei Eri. Honestly, I'm not a particularly huge fan of hers, so I didn't have anything planned to say. I greeted her with a quick hello and laid down the photobook...actually, by the time I got to her the nervousness had started to set in, and it took me a little while to get it open to the place I had marked for her...one of the staff members ended up reaching in and helping me :P After that mildly embarrassing fiasco, she pointed back and forth between the pages asking which I wanted signed...I asked for the right page, as with every member, then she went ahead and signed it. I thanked her, asked her to do her best, and on I moved.

Photo 19

After Eri was Michishige Sayumi. Sayu is my second favorite member, actually (as those who read the comments in my last note may have deducted :P)...but for some reason I didn't have anything special planned to say to her (honestly, all the serious planning and thought went into what I was going to say to Aichan lol). Said hello, laid down the photobook, right please...as she was signing I told her I listen to her radio show every week. She asked me how, and I told her through recordings, which she seemed pretty surprised by. After she finished signing I thanked her, asked her to do her best and started to move to the next member...then she flashed me a quick usachan peace haha, and I did a quick one back.

NOTE: For those who aren't aware, usachan peace is this little hand sign thing Sayumi always does...make a peace sign with each hand and put them on your head like bunny ears lol ('usagi' means rabbit, 'chan' is kind of a cutesy honorific you might use with kids or cute girls, for example...hence "usachan" - "usachan peace" basically translates to "bunbun peace" or something silly like that :P), and the name of her radio show is "Konya mo Usachan Peace" - "Usachan Peace Tonight Too", basically - which is why she did it ^^ (pic here: http://i.imgur.com/Ncy2o.jpg)

Photo 20

Tanaka Reina followed Sayumi...and honestly, I don't remember a single thing about what happened with her. Pretty sure it was just "hello", "right page", "thank you", "do your best" and then next member. Some people said afterwards that she seemed to be in a sour mood...which wouldn't surprise me, as she had been complaining on her blog that it was too hot in Paris and the inside of FNAC wasn't an exception :P

Photo 21

Next was Mitsui Aika, the youngest member of the group (she's 17). Before I actually stepped up and started talking to her, she leaned back and said "it's so hot!", and a staff member wiped off her forehead real quick...then she leaned forward and it was the same protocol as usual. I said hello, she said hello, right page please...then I thanked her, asked her to take care of herself and to do her best. She may not have even gotten why I said " please take care of yourself" (heat :P), but it's the thought that counts~

Photo 22

After Aika was JunJun, one of the Chinese members. She's the only member aside from Aichan that I had planned something special to say to (which is funny, since she's one of my least favorite members). There was a show Morning Musume went on where the host started asking the two Chinese members (which JunJun is, of course, one of) how to say things in Chinese...one of those was 'horse', which is apparently pronounced by opening your mouth as wide as possible and going "maaaaaa!" lol (honestly I think it may have been the two of them exaggerating for laughs, possibly). The host thought that was hilarious, and continued to ask them how to pronounce 'horse' throughout the show...then when JunJun went on his radio show at a later date he asked her how to pronounce it probably another 15 or 20 times throughout the hour length of the show. It's become kind of a running joke ever since hahaha

SO...I got to JunJun, said hello, right please...then as she started to sign, I said "Sorry, um...horse is?" (in Japanese - "uma wa?")...but she misheard me, and said back "good evening!" (in Japanese, "konbanwa"). It was an understandable mistake, there was a lot of background noise and the two phrases sound similar. Anyway, I leaned in and said again, more slowly "...horse is?". She gave me kind of a weird look and said "good evening...?" again haha, then I said it one more time, very slowly...and LinLin, the other Chinese member, who was sitting next to her, suddenly got the joke. So she kind of jumped a bit, looked at me and then JunJun and said "Ah! Horse is!" and they both went "maaaaaaa!" hahaha, and I thanked both of them real quick...not perfect, but it was still really really funny.

To be honest, JunJun seemed a little annoyed by the time it was done, but no harm in messing with her a bit~

Photo 23

And, finally, LinLin, the last member in line. I had basically gotten my interaction with her during JunJun's autograph, so I just said hello, right please, then thanked her and asked her to do her best...and thus ended the FNAC session for me.

Photo 24

Right after getting out of the session I went to find my friends in the crowd, ran into Paul (the guy I'd be staying with when I arrived back in London), Hexi and Lampshade. I held up my hand and said "look!" to Paul...it was visibly shaking a good 1/4 inch in either direction. To say I was nervous/hyped/etc would have been a HUGE understatement...and actually, I think things went pretty well :D

Thursday's events after the session in my next post...

London/Paris Part 3

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