London/Paris Part 16

Anyway, after like 12 hours of sleep lol...I woke up the next morning and Jim and Ed were already in the room after gathering their stuff up to say goodbye before heading home. Carlos and I had booked our bus back to London for that night just in case Momusu flew out the day after the convention ended, but everyone else booked their buses for Monday morning...so Ed and Jim had to leave within an hour or so (I don't think Jim was taking a bus, but regardless he had to leave at about the same time as Ed). Steve was flying out to Germany later on that morning (and was in Bali before coming to Paris lol, guy's all over the place :P), so this was the last time Ed and Jim would see him until whenever Momusu made another appearance outside of Asia...goodbyes are always a little sad ;___;

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Natsugaya had also shown up to see the guys off...weren't sure if we'd ever see him in person again or not, so we all thanked him several times for everything he had done for us. So many things on this trip were easier because of his help, and there really was nothing we could have done to pay him back...

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With that, Jim and Ed headed out and Carlos, Steve and I packed up our stuff and headed to the airport. We found Steve's departure terminal (with some assistance from Natsugaya, speaking French to help desk folks for us and so forth) and hung around for a bit before his flight left. More semi-emotional goodbyes, then off Steve went ;__;

Carlos, Natsu and I had discussed maybe doing some sight-seeing in downtown Paris since Carlos and I didn't have to leave until like 10:30 that night...but there were some Japanese fans whose flight left that afternoon and Carlos wanted to go see them off, so we opted against it. Money factored in as well, of course...

So we just kind of wasted time in the airport until the Japanese fans showed up for their flight...they were also with JAL, like MM, so when Carlos got word that they were on their way we went and waited for them in basically the same place we waited for MM haha

Soon enough they arrived...Shiori was among the fans leaving that day so I got to chat with her for a bit and say goodbye.

Then, on the way to the JAL departures line, all of a sudden airport staff stopped everybody from entering that area and we waited for a good 5 or 10 minutes...turned out someone had just left a bag in the line and airport staff were making sure it wasn't a bomb or something lol (it wasn't, of course :P)

Then off the Japanese fans went...we stood and waved at them, etc until they got through the line and walked through the gate, much like with MM. Right before they left, Carlos, Natsu and I did this really goofy Sayumi call/chant thing (I won't describe it in detail, but it's really really annoying hahaha...the Japanese Sayu fan who put together all the birthday stuff for her said that she apparently hates it lol, so nobody does it around her XD) as LOUD as we possibly could in unison hahaha...the entire line turned around and glared right at us lol, and all the Japanese MM fans up at the front of the line laughed and waved, and we waved back as we walked off. Kind of a fun goodbye :P

And then even more time spent just kind of hanging around in the airport. Eventually we got hungry, of course, and went to Pizza Hut (not McD's :OOO), which was decent...not great, but okay haha, and just a wee bit different from pizza here.

And then Natsugaya also had to head back home...Carlos and I walked over to the train station in the airport with Natsu to see him off. This was one of the more emotional goodbyes of the trip, and it didn't help that Carlos randomly started singing a Berryz Koubou song (Natsu is actually a fan of Berryz Koubou, another group from the same music company as Morning Musume...he just came to Japan Expo for Momusu because it was so close to him) that Natsu had mentioned he really liked earlier that weekend. The lyrics go "I want to meet again", etc etc etc...cheesy, but it still didn't make leaving any easier hahaha

We thanked Natsu again for helping us, and then eventually he reluctantly left and it was back to more wasting time...Carlos and I just went ahead and found where our bus back to London would be leaving from (same place we arrived at, actually haha) and waited for it to show up. Soon enough it did, and we hopped on and off we went. I almost immediately fell asleep lol

We went through the chunnel again (and it was uncomfortably hot and quiet, again lol), then eventually we stopped and everyone was told to get off the bus and grab our baggage...UK customs :P

Pretty simple, just walk in with your luggage, dude checks your passport, baggage goes through the x-ray dealie and you get back on the bus haha

Fell asleep right away again, I planned to just rest until we got to London...then, again, we stopped and everyone was told to get off the bus O.o

Turned out UK customs has two parts - one for luggage and one to figure who the heck you are :P

Had to sleepily fill out the same customs form I filled out when I arrived at Heathrow...but, again, I didn't have Paul's address, and I couldn't very well call him at like 4AM lol...so I just got Ed's address from Carlos since he was staying with him and hoped for the best (customs people didn't even blink an eye at that, actually).

They had two customs people working, so everybody made two lines...Carlos and I ended up at the booths at the same time. When the customs worker asked if I was traveling alone, I said we were traveling together...and that raised some eyebrows hahaha (obviously an American and a Mexican traveling from France to the United Kingdom isn't exactly an everyday thing) and they asked us some questions about what we were doing, how we knew each other, etc. They were actually really nice, and it went over pretty smooth...soon enough our passports were stamped and we were off ^^

More sleeping, and eventually we arrived at the bus station we left from in London and got off the bus. Once outside, Carlos and I had no idea where to go hahaha...so I called Paul (at like 6:30AM :P) and he sleepily helped us figure out where we needed to be (the train station we arrived at when we left London, actually...what a shock lol). Paul had texted me directions and what to do at the station - what kind of ticket I needed, which changes to make at which stations, etc - so Carlos and I figured out exactly what we needed to do, using those directions to help, before heading off.

Carlos and I rode together for part of the trip, but eventually we had to separate and I was on my own in the London public transit system hahaha...actually, it wasn't too bad. Just followed Paul's directions (I believe I got a little confused at one point, but got myself pointed in the right direction pretty quick) and that was that. Once close to the station I was supposed to get off at, I called Paul and he started heading to pick me up...then I managed to miss the station and had to turn around -___- Nothing awful, just took a bit of time...then, soon enough, I arrived at the station Paul would pick me up and walked out to wait for him.

Soon enough Paul arrived and drove me back to his place...he made me a quick egg sandwich (which tasted great since I hadn't eaten anything decent in like 12 hours haha - thanks Paul~) while I took a shower, and then we figured out what we'd do that day as I ate. My flight didn't leave until the following morning and it was still like 8Am or 9AM, so we had an entire day ahead of us to do whatever.

Hexi was staying with Paul, so after she woke up we all decided to head into downtown London to check out some fun places, including Little Tokyo :D

It was about a 45-minute train ride into London? And soon enough we arrived and just spent the day wandering around downtown London checking out the sights, eating, shopping...

I can't remember the exact order of things, so forgive me if this all seems a bit jumbled haha

The VERY FIRST thing we did upon arriving was go to a pub hahaha

It was a place Paul's apparently a regular at, very cheap and the bartender was a super nice guy. Paul covered my drink for me, what a pal~

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Went to a place that sold over-priced American candy, cereal, etc (Paul actually had me bring him a box of Reese's Puffs and a box of Lucky Charms since they don't cost an arm and a leg in the US :P), then another place that just sold random trinkety stuff.

Paul and Hexi started talking about the "Dry Cleaners" and discussing whether we should go there haha...I gave them a bit of an odd look, but knew just from how they were talking about it that we had to go. Upon arriving, it did indeed have a big sign out front that said "DRY CLEANERS"...but the inside was a Japanese bookstore! :O

They had some things other than books, actually, including some Japanese video games...saw a copy of the first King's Field on Playstation (I've been wanting that for a while since it was never actually released in the US, the first King's Field game here was actually King's Field II in Japan :P). I'll admit I was still a bit tipsy from the beer and so, without little to no inhibition, I asked the lady behind the counter in Japanese how much it cost since there was no price...then she just told how much it was in English -___-

I paid for it and we headed off haha

Sometime after that we decided to get some food. Now...a long time ago, I was talking to Paul online and he mentioned he ordered a pizza. I asked him what it was, and he said he ordered tuna and anchovies hahaha...I told him that I'd like to try that, and he kind of flipped cause everyone else he knows apparently refuses to. But it turns out you can't get tuna on pizza in the US, so I later told him that if I were ever in London with him we'd go get tuna and anchovy pizza :P

And...lo and behold...here we were, together, in London...so we went to Pizza Hut and ordered ourselves a tuna and anchovy pizza :D

It wasn't bad at all, actually...very fishy, as expected, but still quite good. Hexi had some too, actually haha

I also had some cider? Which is a type of alcoholic drink I'd never heard of...extremely light taste, almost no flavor at all, kinda sweet and very good~

Then we went to this huuuuge arcade, which was actually a little disappointing as they didn't have many games I liked...in the same building as that arcade there was also an HMV store, so we went there and I picked up The Mighty Boosh (that show Paul made me watch when I arrived in London hahaha) on DVD.

After that, we went to Little Tokyo...started off with Japanese-style crepes :D

I got the strawberry one (Aichan loves strawberries~), really good...I'd never had a crepe before, so that was cool ^^

Then we went to this huge Japanese department store thing. Down in the basement there was a place with some magazines, etc...was hoping for some MM stuff, but no luck lol

I think we may have gone to another place or two in Little Tokyo, I can't remember...

Following Little Tokyo, we went to a couple video game stores. One was only okay, didn't really have much (more DVDs and newer games than stuff I'd care about)...but the other place was AWESOME, everything you could think of including imports, etc. They had a copy of Radiant Silvergun for Saturn, even...people with import game knowledge should know that's a big deal :P

I picked up a Japanese import shoot-em-up on PS2 called 'XII Stag'...wish I had more money, there were SO many good import shoot-em-ups available but I was limited to around $30 or $40 D:

Still, it was cool to get something~

After that we went to a huge stationery store that Hexi wanted to shop at, she picked up a couple things...took a LONG time lol, didn't help that I was starting to get really really tired. Kind of a fun store though :P

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Now, in the last couple places we went to, Paul kept saying we should go to "the Casino" hahaha...I'm not a gambler at all, so of course I wasn't really interested, especially now that I was SO tired. But after we left the stationery place, Paul insisted that we go...we almost didn't, but in the end I caved and we went ahead...

We walked for a while, and then sure enough there was a big light-up sign on one of the buildings, really old-looking actually, that said "CASINO" in huge letters. After we walked in...BOY was I glad I gave in hahaha

Turns out this "casino" wasn't a casino at all, but a huge two-floor arcade with nothing but old 2D fighting games and shoot-em-ups! :OOOOOOO (quite a few imports, even x.x)

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At first I just kind of wandered around taking in what sat in front of me hahaha, as a shmup fan/collector this was the kind of thing I had always dreamed of :P

Eventually I pulled out some of the change I had with me, popped it in a DoDonpachi machine, and sat down...it was sweet, obviously not too often do you get to play a shoot-em-up in this kind of setting :D

But, sadly, even as I sat playing the game I found myself dozing off >.<

I was just too tired to play, within a minute or two I had used up all the lives I was given from what I pumped into the machine and soon enough we left to go back to Paul's place.

At Paul's, we got ahold of Ed and Carlos to see about maybe going out for dinner...we all agreed to go to a Vietnamese (I'm pretty sure) restaurant, headed over to Ed's so we could all leave from the same place and piled into Paul's car. After a few minutes we arrived...the food wasn't cheap, but it wasn't too terribly expensive either. Still VERY good, and a nice last 'real' meal in Europe with everybody ^^

After dinner, we decided to head to Tesco hahaha...which is apparently the UK equivalent of Wal-Mart or something, I guess? Was more of a grocery though. We all wandered around for a bit, I had the British folks I was with help me pick out some uniquely British candy bars lol, then off we went.

Back at Ed's house, everyone said their last goodbyes to whoever they likely wouldn't see for a while haha...for me, Ed and Carlos. Normal "good chilling with you, hope to see you again", etc with Ed...and Carlos gave everybody else pretty normal goodbyes...but when he got to me, we just shook hands, very business-like, and he started spouting random things in Spanish hahaha

I just said "taco, burrito, salsa", etc...pretty silly haha, not sure entirely what that was about...then Hexi, Paul and I headed back to Paul's place.

At Paul's, I decided I wanted one more drink of some kind before calling it a night. Of what he listed off that he had, I opted for ginger beer and vodka haha...I'd never had ginger beer before, it was REALLY good actually.

Paul had never had that combination before, so he tried it too...said he may have found a new favorite drink lol, not sure how long that lasted though :P

And, then, I hit the sack. Had to get up early for my flight the next day...

Woke up early the next morning, gathered up my stuff, and Paul drove me to the airport. Once we arrived, I thanked him for letting me stay and showing me around London a bit...and we both agreed that we'd see each other another time, whenever Momusu appeared outside Asia again ^^

Then a quick goodbye, and I was off.

Inside the airport, no real hiccups...within an hour or so I was waiting in the terminal for my flight back to the US. I don't remember much of the flight from London to NYC...just slept the whole time, I was still SO tired haha

After landing at JFK intl, I headed to the terminal for my flight back to Indy...had quite a bit of time left, so I went ahead and grabbed a smoothie, then waited until time to board.

Once I was on the plane...THAT'S when things got weird. The wait was quite long, longer than it should have been...then the pilot came on and told everyone that there was some test the plane hadn't passed and we'd need to wait for that before we could take off, and if you got off the plane you were on your own.

Long story short, the wait took FOREVER (an hour or two, I think), and eventually they told us our plane wasn't fit to take off so we'd be switching flights -___-

This was followed by even more waiting in a new terminal, lots of aggravated people...I grabbed some pretzels and a candy bar to get me by since I hadn't eaten in like half a day. Eventually airport staff told us our flight was ready and loaded us all on an airport shuttle...then they drove us out around the various runways for a few minutes, seemed a bit odd but whatever.

Then...all of a sudden, we pulled back up to where we had gotten onto the shuttle. No replacement plane, the flight was canceled and we'd all have to rebook -_____________-

Everyone was unhappy about it, of course...I just took it in stride, this flight didn't determine my ability to see Momusu haha, and I had just had an amazing week...so I just relaxed and went with the flow :P

The airline got me another flight the next morning out of a different airport, LaGuardia (or however it's spelled), and a hotel for the night, plus vouchers for food etc. At least when airlines screw stuff up they take care of you haha

Turned out a nice group of three older people ended up with the same hotel, same flight, everything as me...and one lady in the group had traveled a lot, so I ended up running around with them for the rest of trip. They were all family from Evansville, a lady and her parents, who had just gone to Ireland for a wedding or something, I think. The lady (whose name was Dee) pretty much took care of everything, I just followed her lead.

These people were a huge, HUGE help...I would have surely screwed something up somehow had I been by myself >.<

Ended up at a pretty nice hotel, ate dinner with my new friends in the hotel restaurant and discussed our trips, etc...after that, we went back to our rooms. I spent some time on the laptop I brought before heading to bed.

Next morning, everything went SO smoothly...woke up and was down in the lobby just a few minutes before the other folks with me arrived, our taxi got to LaGuardia in record time (Dee had apparently done this same thing, at these same airports, a couple times before haha, and she had never seen that trip take so little time), I had DUNKIN' DONUTS FOR BREAKFAST - had to call mom about that one hahaha - and soon enough we were waiting at our terminal for the flight, then in the plane and on our way back to Indy :D

In Indianapolis, got off the plane no problem and called mom to let her know I'd landed, then headed down to baggage claim...my luggage was in the Delta booth since my flight got canceled and it had arrived quite a bit before me. Dee's dad's luggage (I believe?) managed to end up in Atlanta, Georgia lol...so they had to figure that out. I exchanged Facebook info with Dee (still haven't contacted her, actually >.<), got my leftover foreign currency exchanged, and went out to meet mom so she could take me home.

At the house, showed the fam all my stuff, told about the whole trip (for like 2 hours, apparently, although it felt like less to me :P) and with that, the trip was over o.o

And...now that I'm done writing about this trip, I leave in less than a month for Tokyo to go see Morning Musume again :D

Carlos will be attending the same event as me, and Natsugaya will actually be in Tokyo for all of November, so I'm planning to meet both of them there~

May or may not write about that trip, but I can guarantee it won't be nearly as detailed as this one hahaha...so, so draining to write this much >.<

Anyway, thanks to everybody who actually read through all of these entries, and even to everyone who only read a few :P

It's been fun sharing my experience with you all :D

Until next time~

- cfb

London/Paris Part 15

Once we found out that MM was getting ready to leave, everyone started preparing to head to the airport. Ed and I immediately bolted there, took the train and arrived before pretty much everyone else. It took us a bit to figure out where MM would be leaving from (they always fly with JAL, so we just had to find the JAL departures terminal...but CDG is a pretty big airport so we wandered for quite a bit before finding it)...and then, once we figured that out, we took a seat at a little eating area nearby and...waited haha

This was actually a pretty funny moment, cause I was there, a very very white dude, with my Momusu shirt and yellow pants, yellow shoes, holding a yellow shirt and headband...every Japanese person anywhere nearby was staring at me (and we were in the Japanese airlines terminal, so there were a LOT of Japanese people lol). Ed tweeted about it, something like "Sitting at CDG with cfb in his yellow pajama pants. Every Japanese person in the JAL line is staring at us -___-" :P

Anyway, soon other people started showing up, including Carlos along with all the Japanese fans. I was pretty proud of Ed and I for getting there before them (they're the first ones to EVERYTHING, seriously o.o)...but Carlos was just like "you didn't need to rush THAT much"...lol

And everyone just kind of stood around and waited, not much else we could do obviously haha

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At some point here I went to buy kleenexes...by now I had a cold (getting next to no sleep, spending nights outside, sprinting full-speed between events when you normally get no exercise at all, etc will do that to you :P) and needed them pretty bad haha

In a nearby convenience store (the window to which you can see over on the right in the picture above), I grabbed like 3 little portable kleenex packs...and at the counter the guy motioned me over to another area of the store and showed me that a big pack of 6 of those was only a bit more than the three I had...so picked up those. As far as I'm aware, he didn't speak any English...more randomly nice people ;_____;

Back out with everyone else, more waiting...and soon, one of the Japanese fans who had been watching his phone the entire time suddenly jumped up and announced that MM had arrived, eyes still glued to his phone (I guess he must have had someone posted to let him know when they entered the airport? Or something? Who knows haha). Everyone quickly walked over to the line we knew the girls would be going through and spread out, then more waiting...quite a bit of waiting, actually, since they had to get their boarding passes and check luggage, etc.

Then, eventually, the girls walked up!

Video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUljhE3scQo (credit to Paul Thomas for the video)

I was a little behind and to the left of the cameraman, I think.

In that video, from maybe...1:30 or so? Is basically how it went the entire time MM was in line. Everyone stood there quietly, hanging around as the girls slowly worked their way through the line...every now and then one of the members would wave at us, and we'd all wave back. This went on for maybe 30-45 minutes? The line was long and moved pretty slow haha

This whole thing was actually very sweet, everyone saying their goodbyes and giving the members a nice calm send-off. It was a good contrast to the frenetic pace of the rest of the group's time in Paris. Bittersweet to see them leave, but still a great way to end our time with the group ^^

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Aichan looked SUPER cute here...little hat, striped dress and all black chucks (CHUCKS! She's amazing ;____;). Eventually she pulled out a pair of glasses she bought while in Paris and put them on - pink frames, with 'PARIS' printed in pink across one lense...dorky, but adorable~

Saw Aichan and Risa take a quick picture here, after Aichan put on the Paris glasses, for Risa's blog I would assume (although I kept an eye out for a pic like this on her blog but never saw it O.o Risa must have never posted it...). Risa handed her phone to one of the managers and she made a kissy face right by Aichan's cheek as Aichan struck a pose lol...cute~

Got several more waves from Aichan during this time, at this point she obviously knew who I was and any interaction between us felt quite a bit more personal than earlier on in the convention. So amazing to think that I actually made a real connection with her ;________;

Right near the end, as Aichan was rounding the last corner of the line before walking through the gate, she kind of peeked out and waved at everybody, then leaned back in line...then she hopped out again and waved (I'm 90% sure) straight at me o.o

So, of course, I waved back, and as she hopped back in line I yelled out in Japanese, "Have a safe trip back!" ("ki wo tsukete kaette ne~!") and I heard a faint "haiiiiiii~!" (basically, "okayy~!" or "I will~!") from up where she was, then she walked through the gate...and she was the final member to leave, so that was the last we saw of Momusu ;____________________________________________________;

After that, everyone regrouped...we thought about going out somewhere in Paris for dinner (Natsugaya offered to figure out a place for us, and I'm pretty sure he had one in mind already actually), discussed it for quite a bit actually but decided against it because everyone was just way too tired. Personally I could have gone, and wanted to, but majority rules :P

Instead...we went to McDonald's in the airport. Again. -___- lol (I didn't really care that much, but it's hilarious that we were in one of the food capitals of the world and ate almost nothing but Mickey D's...then again, we were all on skeleton budgets, so... :P)

I don't even remember what I got...a couple burgers or something...but the second I finished my food, as everyone sat and talked, I literally collapsed, asleep, on the table. Anyone who knows me is aware that I don't "do" naps, but now that MM was gone my drive to continue pushing (beyond what I really should have been capable of, honestly) was also gone, and my body just shut off...

Eventually the guys shook me awake so we could all leave, and we began the (always unnecessarily long :/ ) process of heading back to the hotel from the airport.

After too much wandering around, we ended up back at the taxi/bus/etc roundabout for people with hotels and took a seat on the curb to wait for our bus to show up. After a while...all of sudden, up walked Gamushara Ouendan! :O (guess they were on their way back too ^^)

When I realized who it was, at first I gave them a quick nod, and they nodded back...then I said a quick friendly "OSU!" haha...and they all lit up lol, Carlos and Steve joined in as everyone exchanged "OSU!"s back and forth~

Carlos, Steve and I (Ed and Jim had to have been there too...I think...but I don't remember them being there...I dunno, I was so tired I'm amazed I even remember what happened at all :P) spoke with them for a good few minutes (in Japanese again ^^)...Carlos honestly did most of the talking though. They saw our Momusu shirts and we talked about MM for a bit, guess they're fans as well (not surprising, since they were doing MM ouendan chants, etc on stage before MM's Q&A event :P).

Talked about how we came specifically to support MM (support - in Japanese, 'ouen' - 'ouendan'...an appropriate topic, to say the least :P) from different places in the world, and they reacted pretty enthusiastically. Carlos showed them his Aichan gear, which REALLY impressed them as it resembled the kind of thing an ouendan member would wear. Carlos' outfit had a pretty lengthy passage - possibly a quote, although I'm not sure from where - also printed on the back of his outfit, further declaring his support for Aichan (that kind of thing is also common on ouendan gear, from what I understand)...they asked him if he chose that himself, and I guess some Japanese friends helped him out with that.

I showed them my Aichan gear as well, and one of the Gamushara Ouendan guys went "looks like she's pretty popular" haha (which she is, actually...one of the most popular members of Momusu, if not THE most popular :P)

Soon enough our hotel bus showed up, and we gave them a quick farewell "OSU!" as we parted ways lol

Once on the bus, Carlos, Steve and I gave them a quick "OSU!" motion from our seats, and they gave a quick ouendan salute as we drove off hahaha...quite a nice way to end our time at the airport that day :D

Back at the hotel, we went up to our room and took it easy for the night. After an hour or two, Steve and Carlos decided to go down and grab some food from the vending machine in the lobby...they asked if I wanted anything, and I told them to just grab me something without tomatoes.

However, by the time they came back upstairs I had apparently already fallen asleep. And I mean, OUT. COLD. Carlos and Steve told me the next morning that they came back up and offered me the food they'd grabbed (had already heated it up for me even, apparently ;___;) and I just sleepily mumbled "mmhghhh...puddid overthheurr...ahll eeddid laydur..." ("put it over there, I'll eat it later") and continued to lay there. I think I ended up sleeping for like 12 hours? And I was DEAD asleep the whole time. Again, my body literally just shut off once I no longer had a reason to continue pushing myself...

Continued in the next post...

London/Paris Part 14

After confirming the ticket situation with Natsugaya, I grabbed a couple con passes from him and hopped back in the line, which when I was talking to Natsu was actually pretty short...but by the time I walked all the way to the entrance for the back of the line, then up through the barricades to the back of the line itself, it had grown a bit. Not terribly, but enough to put me decently far behind him. The line slowly chugged forward, and I prepped myself to try my luck again.

However...shortly after that, the girl at the booth pulled out a ladder, climbed up and flipped over the sign above her terminal to change it from "Morning Musume Sign Session, 2:30PM - Lottery" to "Morning Musume Sign Session, 2:30PM - Sold Out".

All the tickets were gone.

You could feel the hearts of the entire line sink, as I walked out I saw unhappy faces all around and even a couple girls crying...after all, this was the last Morning Musume sign session of the convention and everyone's last chance to meet the members. I wasn't totally let down yet, though...there were still a few options left.

Steve got the one ticket from Natsugaya, which shot that chance for me...but it ended up being a REALLY good thing that he got it because it was announced a month or so ago that JunJun, Steve's favorite member, would leave the group (along with LinLin and Kamei Eri)...so this actually was the last chance he'd have to meet her face-to-face (as far as I'm aware he's still trying to work out attending a show or two on MM's fall tour, hopefully JunJun's graduation concert but we'll see...haven't talked to him in a while though...). Even without that knowledge, Steve was nearly in tears knowing he'd get the chance to talk to her again.

Carlos was over with the Japanese fans, they had done the same thing we tried to do only they fared MUCH better. Almost all of them had exhibitor's passes, like Carlos, so they had been going through the line for probably an hour before we even got into the con center...and there were like 30 of them, obviously with that many people constantly going through the line they had much better luck getting tickets than the 4 people that were in my group. Carlos got a ticket from one of the Japanese fans, but he actually wanted to give it to one of us since he'd been to every sign session so far but one anyway.

However, that wasn't so easy. Anybody with a good understanding of Japanese culture should know...that ticket didn't belong to him, it belonged to that group of Japanese fans who had worked together to ensure everyone got a ticket. He tried everything he could to get it to one of us...but he was told that, if he didn't want it, he should give it back to the person who gave it to him so it could go to someone else in the group.

Ed was NOT happy about the situation, for good reason...most of the Japanese fans had been to almost every sign session so far, and a good portion of them actually HAD made it into every session. Why should they get to go again when there are other fans who've only been to one session, or even to none at all? But...again, it was the group's ticket and so it would go to someone within the group, who had put in the effort to go through the line all those times (Carlos told me some Japanese fans went through 7 or 8 times, even x.x). Carlos did his best to explain that, but to this day Ed is still unhappy about it. I can't blame him...but still, I understood right away that we more than likely wouldn't get the ticket. So be it...

Anyway, in our time discussing the ticket situation with Carlos, some people standing by the ticket booth noticed another MM sign session ticket sitting under the counter, and all hell broke loose. People swarmed the booth, offering the girl at the booth money and yelling about how that ticket should have gone to someone etc etc...it was nasty, to say the least. I wasn't about to get anywhere near that...

I realized at this point that just standing around near the ticket booth wasn't doing me any good...pulled most of the money I had on me out of my wallet and started offering it to people in exchange for tickets. I ran over to where the sign session would be held and just yelled in the general direction of everyone standing around, stating that I had money for a ticket...tried to walk into the line to see if anyone waiting for the session would be willing to sell, but security stopped me at the entrance and asked if I had a ticket. I just yelled at the people in line, "150 euros for a ticket! Anybody!?"...of course, no sellers.

Walked over to where the guys were standing, away from the session...Carlos mentioned that he had asked the unofficial "leader" of the Japanese fans about giving one of us his ticket, but all that got him was a very, very nasty look. Carlos took a big risk doing that, actually...have to say I really appreciate his effort in trying to work something out for us.

And then, suddenly, it hit me...there was no way I'd be able to get into this sign session. And at the FNAC sign session, I had saved the REALLY important things I wanted to say to Aichan for later in the convention because I figured I would be able to get into at least one more...and here, disappearing before my eyes, was my chance to tell Aichan how much she means to me.

To say I was upset would be a MASSIVE understatement. I'll admit, I stomped my foot, shouted something I won't repeat here haha...I was nearly in tears. Excuse my language, I honestly felt like a little bitch standing there in that state...but the situation at that moment just SUCKED. I was crushed...

Then I remembered that Steve didn't really care too much about Aichan's autograph...so I ran over to him and handed him the fan I had been using over the course of the convention, asking if he would get it signed for me. He gladly obliged (thanks again Steve ;______;)...not the same as talking to her, but at least it was something.

So I headed over to find a spot to watch the sign session from...then I ran into Shiori.

(going to go ahead and just quote my recollection of this from a conversation I had with a friend on IRC, apologies for the weird format and switching of tenses, etc...but I'm going with this because it best captures the emotions of the moment - also, unless otherwise noted, everything said here was in Japanese)

[01:22am] CatchFiveBats: So Shiori comes up and is like "hey" and I say hi back

[01:22am] CatchFiveBats: She's like "I got in"

[01:22am] CatchFiveBats: And I just kind of go "congrats..."

[01:22am] CatchFiveBats: And there's some silence, then I say "there was some really important stuff I wanted to say..."

[01:23am] CatchFiveBats: Or, actually..."There was some really important stuff..." And Shiori went "...that you wanted to say?", finishing my sentence for me lol

[01:23am] CatchFiveBats: And I just nodded

[01:23am] CatchFiveBats: Then she said it would be hard since she's a Japanese fan (I guess the staff is more forgiving with foreign fans...since the staff are so familiar with Japanese fans - I mean, they're at every event - it's hard for them to "break the rules", so to speak), but if I wanted I could write a note and she'd hand it to to Aichan and point me out again

[01:23am] CatchFiveBats: And I agreed, of course

[01:24am] CatchFiveBats: Then her friend came up and Shiori explained the situation

[01:24am] CatchFiveBats: And her friend was like "ahhhh, that'd be hard..." but we just went for it anyway

[01:24am] CatchFiveBats: So I got a piece of paper and a marker from various people, and Shiori and her friend and I are like...leaned down on the floor at the convention center, in this massive crowd of people waiting for the session to start, as I rush to put together this note

[01:24am] CatchFiveBats: I tell Shiori and her friend what I want to say and they collectively help me make it sound pretty lol, get the right words in there and all that

[01:25am] CatchFiveBats: While we're writing the note the session starts and the girls all make their way on stage, so people are cheering and moving around, it was pretty hectic

Photo 1

[01:25am] CatchFiveBats: Once the note is finished I give it to Shiori and kind of do a "good luck" look/hand motion, and she does it back haha

[01:25am] CatchFiveBats: And I get to a spot where Aichan can see me

[01:26am] CatchFiveBats: Then right at the last second, as she's going through the line, Shiori comes up and is like "I'm really sorry, but that's just too hard for a Japanese fan. If you want though, I can point you out and you can yell it?"

[01:26am] CatchFiveBats: And I'm thinking "oh god, this is crazy, but what else can I do"

[01:26am] CatchFiveBats: So I just agree haha

[01:27am] CatchFiveBats: She hands me back the note, and I start memorizing what I wrote so I'm not just reading it off...

[01:27am] CatchFiveBats: During this time, obviously the sign session is going on, people all around me cheering and shouting the members' names etc...it was a little weird just standing there and I felt bad not being in my usual "HEY AICHAN, AICHAN" state haha, but I had to concentrate

[01:27am] CatchFiveBats: At some point during all this, Hexi (who got into the session) tried to point me out to Aichan, but she basically doesn't speak any Japanese so Aichan had no idea what was going on

Photo 2

[01:27am] CatchFiveBats: And then, at a later point...Carlos also tries to point me out to Aichan...but there's staff in the way so she doesn't see me (NOTE: this was a huge, HUGE act of kindness on his part...he's an Aichan fan as well, obviously, and he took precious time that he could have used to talk to her to try and help me out... ;_____________;)

[01:28am] CatchFiveBats: Neither of them told me about this beforehand, they must have just randomly decided to do it while in line I guess lol

[01:27am] CatchFiveBats: Also, while Shiori was in line this huge ouendan demonstration (NOTE: it was actually Gamushara Ouendan, btw...wasn't loving them so much at that moment, honestly >.<) started in the next booth over, and it was LOUD

[01:28am] CatchFiveBats: I'm flipping lol, there's no way I can yell over that. At one point I catch Shiori's attention when she's in line and mouth "URUSAI" ("IT'S SO LOUD", basically) and point around me

[01:28am] CatchFiveBats: And she just kind of gives me a look like "no choice!"

[01:28am] CatchFiveBats: So I just suck it up hahaha

[01:28am] CatchFiveBats: Then Shiori gets up to the front of the line and staff starts talking to her, they pull her aside as she digs through her bookbag a lot. I'm not sure what happened, but there was a long delay...then eventually they let her go ahead

[01:29am] CatchFiveBats: When she gets up to Aichan, she points me out

[01:29am] CatchFiveBats: And I just belt this stuff hahaha

[01:29am] CatchFiveBats: I was so focused on projecting that I don't know how long Aichan looked at me or anything, I just remember finishing up and Shiori's friend (who was after her in line) had already made her way past Aichan and Aichan seemed to be focusing on what was up there >.<

[01:30am] CatchFiveBats: Then this random older Japanese lady who happened to be in line is looking at me with this shocked look hahaha, but when we make eye contact she smiles and gives me a big thumbs up

[01:30am] CatchFiveBats: Like "good job!"

[01:30am] CatchFiveBats: lol

[01:31am] CatchFiveBats: Then that Japanese lady, once she gets to Aichan, ALSO points me out

[01:31am] CatchFiveBats: And there's staff in the way again, but he sees me so I kind of signal for him to move, and he does

[01:31am] CatchFiveBats: And I wave at Aichan for like the 100th time, and she waves back...at this point she had to have been like "jesus what the hell"

[01:32am] CatchFiveBats: Then, later in the session, I catch Aichan's attention again, cup my hands to my mouth and yell "I'll always support you!"...but she doesn't hear it clearly, cups her hand to ear and leans in like "...hm??", then I yell it again...and she cups her hands to her mouth and yells back "arigatou!" and smiles, and we wave ;_______________________________;

[01:32am] CatchFiveBats: Then, after the session

[01:32am] CatchFiveBats: Shiori comes up and gives me a like...thumbs up/thumbs down look

[01:33am] CatchFiveBats: I give her a so-so hand signal

[01:33am] CatchFiveBats: And she tells me Aichan said she heard

[01:33am] CatchFiveBats: And I'm like "OH THANK GOD ;_____;", thank her for the billionth time (and a couple more times) lol

[01:33am] CatchFiveBats: After that, Shiori asks to take a picture together :D

Photo 4

[01:33am] CatchFiveBats: Then the Japanese lady comes up

[01:33am] CatchFiveBats: And says (in English) "I told her you love her and are working hard studying Japanese for her!" and I thank her haha...so random, but so nice of her...

...and thus ended the sign session. In the end, I feel it actually was better that I didn't get a ticket for this session, as what ended up happening likely made a bigger impact on Aichan than if I had just normally gone through the session. If it hadn't been for Shiori, though... >.<

Even as many times as I thanked her at the convention, I still can't thank her enough for everything she did ;______________;

Anyway, one thing that wasn't mentioned up above...they had boxes at the sign sessions that you could put presents for the members in. I had brought a present for Aichan and, right after the session ended, I got the attention of one of the convention staff and had them put it in the box for me.

Photo 3

After the session was completely over, I regrouped with the guys, got my fan back from Steve (with a beautiful new autograph on it~) and we all just kind of hung around.

Photo 5

Soon, though, somebody came over and told us that he saw MM exit the convention center and get on airport buses.

They were leaving.

Continued in the next post~ lolol

London/Paris Part 13

So...when I said in the previous post that we had to leave in a bit, I wasn't kidding. 30 minutes or so after falling asleep, the other guys shook me awake and I literally could not keep my eyes open. I stayed in that state until we arrived at the con center and got in line...sometimes no sleep is better than next to none >.<

We were getting up to go line up for the sign session drawing the next day (same day, really, but it was still like 3AM so it wasn't quite "day" yet :P)...during our planning the day before we decided to line up early to get in line for the drawing session as early as possible. The earlier you line up, the less people that have gone before you, and the less winning tickets that are gone...therefore increased chances of drawing a winning ticket lol. And more time before the session, therefore more chances to go through the line.

Plus we'd slept on the sidewalk every other night, why not do it again~

Anyway...everybody took their showers, gathered stuff up, and off we went. There was no desk attendant in the hotel on Saturday nights, apparently (I vaguely remember someone going down earlier to reserve a taxi but not being able to find a clerk then either...), so there was seemingly no way to get a taxi. Soon we decided to try the next hotel over since ours was pretty cheap and we figured that perhaps a nicer hotel might be more likely to have someone around? lol

Which actually worked out, as there was a person running the front desk at the next hotel over who we could see from outside...after some debate and "no you do it!", etc, Carlos ended up being the one to go in and ask the guy about reserving a taxi. I went in with him, but didn't actually do anything other than just look at some drinks, etc they had for sale in the lobby haha

The desk guy was nice enough to call and reserve a taxi for us, so we went outside to sit down and wait...and wait...and wait...

It seriously reached the point where Carlos was about to go back in and ask the guy what happened...but around that time the other American we met the night before showed up out of nowhere. We were all pretty confused haha, turns out he got bored in line and walked from the convention center (we knew you could, but didn't know the way...nobody had told us yet...), so he let us follow him back.

It was quite a trek, most of the walk was along this long sidewalk with trees and grass lining each side...this area was OVERLOADED with bunnies, it was insane. We tried to get pictures of them but the lighting wasn't nearly good enough :P

So many 'usa-chan peace' references here lolol

At the con center, we went ahead and opened the gate ourselves this time haha (it was actually quite heavy o.o) and walked in, found a spot in line and laid down for the night around maybe 5AM, and it was COLD. Like, really cold. But I basically passed out the second I hit the sidewalk haha, so I suppose it didn't matter.

Got a couple hours of sleep...then woke up to see that the guys were gone O.o Turns out security let people from the unofficial "Momusu line" into the entryways for the convention center to get out of the cold, so I made my way in there. Slept for most of this time, woke up a few times for a couple seconds only to fall back asleep. Also woke up quite hungry at one point during all this...luckily Manuel had brought some delicious German cookies for everyone to munch on :P

After another hour or two we were told we had to return to the line, so back we went.

At this point the convention lines had started filling up, and within an hour or so the sun had fully risen and we were surrounded by people...it got warm QUICK haha, to say the least. As people worked their way up through the barricades, Jim walked by...although he was quite a bit behind us (opted not to line up overnight with us lol, showed up that morning and got in line with all the other con attendees).

During this time, a Japanese ouendan group (for anyone who doesn't know what that is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%8Cendan - also, an interesting fact...the chants Morning Musume fans do at their concerts are loosely derived from the chants ouendan groups do :O) showed up to entertain the lines and get the con attenders all riled up.

Photo 1

And seriously, these guys were AWESOME. Like something straight out of an anime lol (or Elite Beat Agents, since that game is all about ouendan :P), I couldn't do anything but just stand there with this dumbfounded half-grin on my face clapping along. Their 'catchphrase' - at least, guessing from what I saw at the convention - was "OSU!" (pronounced "OHSS!!!", basically? lol)...a way shortened form of 'ohayou gozaimasu', the greeting for "good morning"...although I'm pretty sure you can just use it as a standard greeting anytime (just be warned, it's very informal Japanese hahaha, so be careful using it if you encounter any Japanese people :P).

Anyway, they were definitely my favorite part of the expo outside of MM.

(VIDEOS FOR THE CURIOUS - or for those who love true Japanese badasses~

Video of them at the expo here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxKkz7wT4S4 - this is one of the things they did for everybody in line

Video that shows, a little more clearly, some of their performance, although it's not from the convention: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwK3KklVPYk - not exactly the same as what I saw at the con, but close enough...up until the 1:25 mark you can hear them say "OSU!!!" like 20 times haha

This one is especially awesome: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8wTAlo1iPc -they're all saying stuff like "we know you're doing your best and we support you, we believe that you can surpass the borders within yourself etc etc", typical ouendan encouragement stuff

Another good one, advertising a DVD they released: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jhEWKsS-vo - as you can see it's all kinda silly, but that's a big part of why they're so unbelievably badass haha

Aaaaaaaaand one more, their own video they put together about their time at Japan Expo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83IVowfdU5E)

For some reason I get the feeling only a few of the people reading this will understand why they're so awesome...oh well lol

Anyway, after a bit everyone was allowed into the con center...wasn't nearly as hectic as the day before, at least until after con staff checked our passes. Then it was the same run all over again, bolting through the con center into the vendor's hall, dodging around people etc until we got to the sign session drawing line. Upon arriving, I was really close to the front of the line and, within a few minutes, did my first draw...but no luck :/

I quickly walked to get in the back of the line so I could go through again, pulling out one of the one-day con passes Steve bought the day before (which were distributed evenly amongst my friends and I earlier that morning). At this point the line was as long as it was when I went through on the day of the concert, maybe longer. After quite a while, I got close to the front again...and Carlos was going through the line with some pens and a bunch of sticky notes asking people to write birthday messages to Sayumi (turns out this was put together by the same Sayu fan who came up with the plan to sing happy birthday to her at the concert, I'm assuming later he put all the notes together in a book and got it to her somehow...truly a great fan...). Wrote my note ("Sayumi, happy birthday! Please continue to cutely do your best~ - Zac"...doesn't translate into English well but I believe that's what I wrote. A big gimmick of hers is always claiming to be the cutest member lol, which is why I wrote that ^^) and continued working my way forward. At the front, the girl running the booth asked me how long it took to get all the way through the line...I told her maybe an hour or so? She just nodded like "okay", guess she was just curious and recognized me from when I did my first draw :P

As for the second draw...STILL no luck ;___;

At this point it was close to time for MM's Q&A/talk show event, which I definitely wanted to go to (and so did Ed, Steve, etc)...but the sign session drawing would continue during the whole event, so attending the Q&A would cut into valuable chances for getting sign session tickets >.<

But luckily we had thought of that yesterday as well lol, and our plan was...Natsugaya to the rescue AGAIN. We all gave him the remaining con passes we had and he would continue to go through the line for us while we went to the Q&A. We figured the line would be shorter during a MM event so he'd have plenty of chances to go through and hopefully get us tickets. Nobody in our group had gotten one yet, so we were relying on him to hopefully have better luck...

I want to say that I actually walked to the Q&A by myself? Maybe not, it's hard to remember. Either way, got there, found people I knew and had a seat. I ended up sitting next to Jim at the front of the second section back in the audience, way over to the left...a decent haul from the stage, but we still had a good view. Gamushara Ouendan was there on stage doing MM chants/cheers, which was pretty cool haha

Photo 2

Soon this random French guy came along and asked if the seat to my left was taken...it wasn't, and I told him he could have it if he wanted. He sat down and we started talking, his English was poor to say the least (he listed off numbers, when we were discussing the prices of things, as "one zero zero zero dollars", counting on his fingers, instead of "one thousand dollars" haha)...but it was a fun conversation. Clearly he just came to this event because he could, I told him how I came from America and showed him my Aichan fan, the back of my outfit...his reaction was basically the same as Pascal's in the line for Friday's sign session - wide-eyed disbelief as he just shook his head haha

Also talked about how much it cost me to fly to France, how I went to Anime Expo etc etc...he was completely baffled, to say the least :P

After we stopped talking there was still a bit left before the event itself...you could hear the occasional person in the audience yell one of the members' names off in the distance, and usually the rest of the audience would cheer in response haha, I did it with Aichan's name a couple times. Again, the French guy was just kinda baffled at me.

A bit later the event itself started with a small intro video, just like at the concert everyone cheered for their favorite member when they came up on the screen, I screamed my head off when Aichan came along :P

After that, the girls came on stage and everybody stood up and cheered...I waved my fan and jumped up and down, etc. Then the girls sat down in these chairs that were placed on stage for them (which you can see in the picture above) and the Q&A started.

The format was pretty simple...this Japanese girl who was also on stage would ask the girls a question in Japanese, then state it to the audience in French...then whichever member the question was directed to would answer and the host girl would translate to French...then the same process again, for the most part at least. Of course, this presented a problem as no one I ran around with spoke French, including myself obviously...so I did the best I could to interpret for Jim while the host/interpreter girl was speaking French. Missed a lot, honestly, I was SO tired and forcing my brain to process Japanese, translate to English and then relay to Jim was honestly a bit much haha (plus I likely would have missed quite a bit even if I weren't tired >.<)...basically I just summarized what I could catch for him. Better than nothing, I suppose :P

Photo 3

Nothing terribly exciting in the questions, although there was one Aichan answered where, as the interpreter struggled to interpret her answer (which, by the way, seemed to happen with everything...lots of "uhhhhhhh" and awkward pauses, for some reason...you'd think they could find somebody who knows what they're doing for an event like this), the camera switched to Aichan...and she was making this adorable concerned face and watching the intepreter nervously haha, obviously worried because the girl was struggling so much. Once Aichan noticed the camera she kind of jumped and covered her face lol, obviously totally oblivious that it was on her until that point...everybody cheered and had a good laugh about that. Too cute ;______;

Anyway, once the session ended the girls got up and walked down this huge catwalk that ran in the middle of the audience, stopped at the end for a bit to wave and do cute poses lol, then walked back to go offstage...when they started that everyone swarmed the barricades surrounding the catwalk and waved, etc. I managed to get right up front and did my best to catch Aichan's attention, but no luck D:

Photo 4

Then began the rush back to the sign session drawing line. I was the first out of my friends to arrive and, once there, I saw Natsugaya was still making the rounds for us (such a great guy, seriously ;_____;) so I stopped to ask how many tickets he got...just one, apparently. Still better than nothing, obviously...hopefully there'd be time to go through the line and get more tickets so we could all get into the session...

Continued in the next post~

London/Paris Part 12

At the sign session, I got in my same spot as the day before on the side where Aichan sat. A lot of the same guys were there and we all asked each other "didn't get in?". Everyone's response was a disappointed "nope..." lol, of course... I think we all knew the answer but just felt the need to ask...

Also, it was pretty clear another event would be starting soon in the area we were standing...but we honestly didn't care haha, whatever it took to get close to Momusu :P

Photo 1

Soon enough the girls walked out and, same as yesterday, everybody cheered and made lots of noise, etc. My good friend Paul Thomas (guy I stayed with in London, as if I haven't said that enough already lol) got video of the beginning of this session when MM walked out, and you can actually see Aichan and I wave at each other :O

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmla-zVI8Og (might want to switch to HD if you can, probably won't be able to see it otherwise)

I'm actually over on the other side of the session from the camera, look for yellow on the left side of the video haha...I'm pretty much impossible to miss honestly. Aichan is the member farthest left on stage, last one that walks out. At around 30 seconds, after she sits down...you see her wave for a bit, wave some more...kind of perk up, lean in and wave faster...then if you immediately look over at me you can see that I quickly wave back. So in this video you can see that she made a clear point to wave RIGHT at me...she really made it feel like I was the only person there for that moment. Too amazing ;__________; (and it felt that way every time I caught her attention :'D)

Eventually some staff for the event in the next booth over came and gave us all the stink eye, told us to get back to our own event...so off we went. I bolted over to the crowd behind the sign session line (like at the beginning of Friday's session) and got as far left as I could while still staying in the MM event. I was actually right at the entrance to the line...and soon enough I had managed to work my way up as close as I could get (right at the front of the crowd watching the session).

And thus began the cheering, waving, etc again. Honestly I don't remember much of anything about this session with the exception of what happened next, and for good reason...

[[A quick aside...all the Japanese fans always waited until the entire line had gone through at each session before going in themselves. The sessions always ended before the allotted time, so the staff was generally more lenient with how much time you took to chat with the members if you were at the end of the line, seeing as there was still plenty of time before the girls had to leave. Very smart of them...]]

Anyway...I was standing watching the session, most of the line had gone through and the Japanese fans were making their way in. Then Shiori (I told you to remember that name... :P), the Japanese girl I talked to on the train on Thursday during the trip between FNAC and the con center, came up to me (she literally walked directly in front of me since I was leaning on the wall for the queue itself haha) and said to me, in Japanese, "I'm going to point you out to Aichan...STAY HERE. OK???" and I kind of surprisedly said "...ok!!!". Then as she started to walk away I caught her attention again and said (in Japanese) "I came from America. Please say that!" and she gave me a big thumbs up and said "OK!" with a smile.

So Shiori worked her way through the line...and when she got to Aichan, while handing over what she was getting signed, Shiori pointed over at me...and there I was waving and jumping up and down like an idiot hahaha, as if Aichan needed help noticing me (she already recognized me, obviously :P). Then Shiori said something ("he's a big fan of yours, he came all the way from America" or something like that, I'm sure) and Aichan looked over to listen to Shiori, then smiled and said something to her...then looked back over at me and blew me a kiss O.O

And I enthusiastically blew one back hahaha, of course, then we both waved. One of the greatest moments of the entire trip, without a doubt ;_______________;

Paul Elliott got pics of the entire process...EXCEPT the kiss itself hahaha. Still, better this than nothing. Thanks Paul~

Photo 2

Photo 3

Photo 4

Photo 5

Photo 6

Photo 7

Photo 8

It was pretty funny, there were several people nearby who were obviously watching Aichan as well, and when she blew me a kiss I heard a few of them go "whoaaaa...!" hahaha, and the guy next to me looked over at me with this really surprised face like "WTF, HOW DID HE..." lolol

I caught Aichan's attention a few more times after that...at one point when she was looking at me a did a couple big peace signs in her direction with one hand, and she did them back and laughed haha. I guess I'm a funny guy? :P (or just looked like an idiot, I'm sure I was grinning from ear to ear haha)

And then, eventually, the session ended, girls walked off stage and that was that. I'm sure I got another wave or two from Aichan as she walked off, but like I said I don't remember much about this session aside from the kiss :P

Shiori came up to me after the session and I grabbed her hand and said "THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!"...then I realized I was speaking English and corrected myself into Japanese hahaha. I guess the excitement of the moment got to me...the rest of the convention I was accidentally speaking Japanese to people who spoke English lol

I asked Shiori what Aichan said about me coming from America, she told me Aichan just went "sugoi..." (in this context, "wow...") and I thanked her again haha...I seriously thanked her an innumerable amount of times, such a kind act from someone I barely knew ;______;

Then I found the rest of the guys and we figured out what we were doing. We thought about going to downtown Paris for sightseeing (it was only maybe 2 or 3 in the afternoon, and the rest of the day was free)...but opted to save our money and energy and relax in the hotel for the night. Sounds disappointing, obviously, but we were all more than ready to relax for an evening.

But before that...we all realized what the events of the convention had come to. There was one sign session left, and all of us but Carlos had only made it into the FNAC session...so together we formulated a plan of attack for the final sign session tomorrow. We had seen what the Japanese fans did (everyone keeps going through the line until there are enough tickets for everyone in the group) and decided to follow suit. Steve went to buy more one-day con passes for Sunday so we'd have plenty of chances to go through the sign session drawing line...I think we ended up with 15 tickets or so including the 4-day passes we already had, plus a couple extra passes Carlos gave us.

Then we headed to the hotel...which ended up being quite the predicament. For some reason no one wanted to pay for a train, so we decided to wait for a bus? I think? I don't remember exactly, but we waited a REALLY long time and ended up running into some people we knew at the bus stop. Still, transportation ended up being free so I guess we couldn't complain.

After arriving at the hotel...I don't remember exactly what we did while there, but we ended up taking the shuttle to the airport.

At the airport, we got our provisions and all grabbed McDonald's. Somehow Ed got separated from us (went to bathroom or something, and we decided to just head to McD's...or maybe he went to get provisions while we were at McD's, can't remember x.x), and when Carlos and I called him in line at McDonald's to figure out where he was he said he was about to order his food...we were quite confused haha, obviously. Then it turned out there were two McDonald's in the airport...wtf...

Waited for the hotel shuttle for much, much too long...ended up just taking a taxi, which ended up being pricy but oh well.

Back at the hotel, Carlos pulled up a Morning Musume concert on his laptop (no, really...) and we all sat and watched that as we ate our dinner. I don't remember what all happened beyond that honestly, I was so insanely tired haha...I know I tried to sleep but had trouble for some reason. Eventually I gave up and decided to just stay awake (by the time that happened it was like 2AM or 3AM x.x)...and, of course, the second I decided that I fell asleep. Not too long until we had to leave again, but oh well.

Continued in the next entry~

London/Paris Part 11

Sorry for the lack of pictures from here on. Jim pretty much did his own thing for the rest of our time in Paris, so there's not many more pictures of us. Paul Elliott took lots of pictures at MM events, though, so I'll at least have something to work with for those...

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After arriving at the con center, we paid the taxi driver (way too much actually, but what can you do...) and made our way into the convention grounds...but there was a problem. That big tunnel that led to the con center, which I talked about in my post for the day of the concert? Yeah, turned out that tunnel was gated off in the middle of the night...and thus began the process of figuring out a different way in >.>

Other fans had been tweeting about lining up inside the convention grounds, so we knew they had to be getting in somehow.

We looked around for a bit to see if there was another entrance, but it looked as if the entire train station was blocked off from any kind of entry. Ended up running into a few people who had the same idea...this included another guy from the US (who I, for some reason, thought was from Bolivia until recently? I don't even know...), two people who spoke Spanish and a little English (and therefore talked mostly to Carlos - maybe they were from Bolivia and I got confused :P), and one other guy who seemed to end up near us all the time but I never really figured out who he was lol

There was a tall concrete fence that ran off in either direction on each side of the train station...we weren't sure what was on the other side, but it seemed getting over that was the only option we had at the moment. To the left of the entrances for the train station, the roof of the train station was really low to the ground and led up to the top of the fence...so somebody (I want to say Ed?) went and scoped that out...but the drop from the wall was much too far for Carlos to make with his knee like it was, so we began the search again.

Eventually we found an open gate on the other side of the train station entrance that led to the other side of the fence...which brought us to the train platform where people got on/off for this station. On the other side of the tracks there was a set of stairs down into the train station itself (and therefore to the con center), but there were cameras EVERYWHERE, and we definitely didn't want to be recorded crossing railroad tracks in the middle of the night haha

And thus, we dug around some more and decided after a while that we might as well just camp out by the entrance to the long tunnel and wait until the gate was opened in the morning (the guy from the US and two Spanish-speaking folks ended up going off somewhere else, we found out later they just crossed the railroad tracks lol...the random guy stayed with us for a bit but eventually left to do the same thing).

The tunnel itself was actually underground, so there were two sets of stairs leading down to a little sunken area with an overhang next to the tunnel entrance that, as I said, had a gate over it at that time. So...we got out our towel, laid down and used our bookbags as pillows to sleep under the overhang for the night.

BUT...within a few minutes we heard footsteps from within the tunnel and a completely random Japanese dude walked up to the gate. We all looked at him, then he said to us..."Morning Musume?". We all went "Yeah..." and he said "OK!" with a big thumbs up and a smile. Then he YANKED the gate up hahaha, and motioned us through. We all kind of looked at each other surprisedly, shrugged and waltzed on in. The Japanese guy (who was actually kind of a cool-looking guy, definitely not nerdy enough to be a MM fan) walked over to the other side of the gate, closed it for us and gave us another 'good luck' thumbs up before walking away from the train station. We all thanked him and went on our way.

I asked Carlos if he knew the guy (since he's friends with so many Japanese fans), but he said he had no idea who that was hahaha...definitely one of the strangest things that happened the entire trip O.o

Inside the con center grounds, it was pitch black EVERYWHERE haha...the place is seriously abandoned at night. Finding the line of MM fans took a little bit, as they were up near the entrances to the con center itself, past where all the con-goers would line up in the morning (lining up at this time, obviously they were at the front of the line :P). Eventually we found them haha, maybe 30 or 40 fans lined up in a row of barricades set up to guide lines right next to an entrance to the con center...one group at the front had actually grabbed a big Japan Expo sign, laid it across the barricades and camped out under that (it was supposed to rain the next day...). They removed it in the morning before Expo staff showed up (or at least it was gone when I woke up the next morning).

We hopped in, got our place in line and set up for the night :P

I think it was maybe 2:30AM at this point...I went ahead and tried to get some sleep, basically just rested my eyes until maybe 5AM or 6AM. When I "woke up" the line had easily doubled, and a member of con staff was talking to some of the French fans near the front of the line. Seemed liked there could possibly be problem (100+ people breaking into the con center in the middle of the night and making their own line? Sounds like potential trouble to me...)...but eventually he walked away and it seemed like he wouldn't do anything. We asked one of the French fans, who told us that the guy said we definitely weren't supposed to do this...but since some of us had lined up since like 1AM he'd let it slide. Again, people being way way nicer than they needed to be ;_______;

And, as always, thus began more waiting. Pretty much smooth sailing, other lines started filling up and vendors, etc started making their way into the con center. Then, suddenly, at 9AM it started POURING rain. Everyone in our line ran over and got under the tiny overhang over the con center entrance nearest us...security opened up the doors and let us crowd into the entryways but not the actual con center itself. To say it was cramped would be an understatement haha, and everyone was a little a little wet (some soaked)...so it got VERY hot very fast, and smelled pretty much like a big wet dog -___-

Security eventually created a barrier inside the con center on the other side of the doors and let us inside so we didn't have to just roast in the entryway. Luckily we ended up pretty close to the front, but it was still pretty worrying to see piles and piles of people, all of whom could easily line up for the MM sign session tickets, walk right past...

Soon more people started piling in the entryway...I don't think they realized this was technically the "Morning Musume line", but at this point I suppose it didn't matter. These people were VERY loud, yelling and cheering and whatnot...obviously they were excited to be at Japan Expo but we were all on edge about being let in to line up for sign session tickets >.<

After a good while, con staff showed up with their ticket scanners and started prepping to let us all in. Once security gave us the go ahead, everybody flew past the barricades, got their tickets scanned and RAN. Anybody who knows me is aware that I'm not a very athletic person...definitely not built for running to say the least, but for a good two or three minutes here I ran with every last bit of energy I had within me. I remember, at one point, seeing Steve and another guy I kind of knew up ahead and just pushing forward...my body said no, but I had my eyes set on that ticket, and eventually I passed them. Steve pretty well kept up, actually...and about 2/3 of the way to the ticket booth I could feel my pace slacking off and just forced myself to run even faster...I had no option but to keep going. Finally we reached the ticket booth and hopped in line, maybe 20-30 people from the front...not bad, considering there were a good hundred others trying for the same thing. Steve and I ended up standing together, actually...I felt fairly safe believing we were likely to get tickets.

Of course, my body immediately started paying me back for what just happened, I kind of half-coughed for a couple minutes trying to recover. I hadn't pushed myself so hard (or gotten any exercise at all, really >.>) in a decade or more, at least...

After no more than a minute or two in line, the bad news hit...all the tickets were gone. After exhibitors, vendors, people with early entrance tickets etc who had lined up before us, there were only 3 tickets left. Lots of people who had lined up were REALLY upset, for good reason I suppose...but I knew this was a possibility, shrugged it off and made my way over to get a good spot watching the sign session...

Continued in the next post~

London/Paris Part 10

After the concert was over everyone started making their way out (which took a surprisingly short amount of time considering there were 4000 people there...I'm sure it helped that the inside of the venue was SWELTERING and everyone wanted to get outside where it was cooler ASAP lol). First thing I did was check the knees of my pants...I had been leaning against the barrier the whole time, and it was made of metal grating, basically, so I was pretty worried...but turned out they were fine, thank goodness. And there was actually grating on the floor right by the barricade...so my Aichan muffler towel got mashed into metal grating for 2 hours under my feet >.> (turned out fine after getting home and washing it though :P)

After I gathered up all my stuff, the girl to my right (not the small annoying one, but the one who was to my right when the concert started) said, in a French accent, "it was really fun doing this with you! You're really good at the *grumbling/grunting noises as she kind of pumped her fist in the air*" and her friend (who stood to my left) agreed hahaha...it was pretty clear they meant the chants etc, and I just gave a quick "arigatou!" and smiled before turning around. Then the girl behind me, who I know fairly well, apologized for constantly bumping into me during the concert lol. Honestly I didn't even notice, and just told her "s'all good"...then I found my friends and we made our way out.

Carlos had managed to mess up his knee pretty bad during the concert (he had already injured it once a while ago), so Steve helped him as we walked out. My voice was, of course, GONE haha, and I was obviously dying of thirst. Asked all the guys I was with if any of them had any drinks but no luck...somebody told me they had bottled water at the merch booth in the back of the venue, so I decided to go for that after grabbing my merch. They had a couple guys at a table to the right of the booth handling merch for people with vouchers from the MM Pack Tickets...handed the guy your voucher, told him what size t-shirt you wanted and he handed you a sack of MM goodies~

Photo 4

After getting my stuff I walked over to the booth itself to get a water or two. Of course, there was a MASSIVE crowd of people, so I accepted the fact that it would be a while, and a fight lol, to get some water...then Natsugaya walked out from the booth with water for everybody o.o There was nothing I could have done at that moment to thank him enough ;______________;

Then we made our way out...I ended up with Jim and Ed, guess Carlos and Steve got separated from us at the merch booth (likely went to find a place for Carlos to sit down and rest his knee). There was a decent-sized crowd of people relaxing after the concert outside.

Photo 1

I asked Jim to take a quick picture of me after the concert lol, commemorative photo or something...

Photo 2

Soon enough we found Carlos and Steve over on the other side of the building from where we walked out, seated near the door we entered the venue through. They were talking to a Japanese girl with a pen and notepad...more interviews! And this time I wasn't the only one lol

We took a seat next to them. Turned out she was from UFA (Up-Front Agency, the talent agency that Hello!Project is a part of - you can actually see her in the second picture of this post, to the right of Ed's yellow bunny ears...blue/gray shirt and khakis with the notepad :P). She interviewed each of us (those who could answer questions in Japanese, she interviewed in Japanese)...asked where we came from, our favorite member, what we think is special about/what drew us to MM. When she got to me I told her basically the same thing I told everyone in interviews..."I think the members' dedication and hard work is amazing...and so, I want to do my best as well", after which she nodded and wrote some things down, then I said "Especially Takahashi Ai". The other guys explained that they met at Anime Expo in LA last year and I was a new addition to the group as of Japan Expo, although I did go to AX as well haha

At the end she looked at her notepad and then at us and said "...so you're all from different countries?" and we all nodded/agreed. She looked simply amazed haha, for someone who works closely with Morning Musume I'm sure it was moving to know that the group brings people together like that...

She smiled and thanked us, then said that she'd relay what we said to the members for us (!!!). We all thanked her and she walked off.

Photo 3

After the interview, we sat and chatted for a while...eventually Natsugaya met back up with us (he disappeared after the water incident, I think). Ed recommended I change my shirt lol, since the one I wore during the concert was soaked in sweat and I could get a cold if I kept wearing it (what a good friend~)...I had a change of shirt in my backpack, but for the time being I just took my shirt off and left it at that lol

Eventually we decided to go to the airport for food/provisions/etc (even more time in line that night :P)...some people we knew told us about a bus to the airport nearby, so we went for that. I put my other shirt on shortly after we got on the bus...probably wasn't a good idea to be exposed on public transportation :P

At the airport, the place we normally went for provisions was closed...and after a bit we ran into some more people we knew lol

One girl asked everybody who they were. When she got to me I told her my online moniker (CatchFiveBats :P) but it didn't seem to ring a bell, then I mentioned my blog...and she got this "ohhhh it's you..." look on her face hahaha, and said "ah, I know you. You're very...opinionated...". Anybody who reads my blog will know why she said that lol

We probably spent a good 45 minutes or an hour just wandering around the airport trying to find any place that was open lol...this was especially annoying because everyone was really tired and hungry and Carlos couldn't walk very well -___-

Eventually we gave up on eating at the airport and decided to head back to the hotel. At this point we had a lot of people in our group, all of which were at hotels within walking distance of each other, so we decided to see if we could all take a taxi together and spread out the cost. Although this actually turned out to be quite the incident lol...

They had a big roundabout at the airport with lots of taxis, buses, etc (as they do at every airport), and we talked to a guy who helped us find a taxi...but for some reason at first we said we had 6 people? Then when we got to our taxi it turned out there were actually 8...and we were trying to figure out how we'd pay for it and just being generally confused lol...eventually the driver just said "...get in!" and we hopped in lol

This was the taxi ride that my mom posted on here about...8 people in this taxi and not a single one of them was from the same country. Scotland, Norway, Canada, Mexico, China, England, France and America...all gathered in the same place as fans and as friends...it really was incredible ;____;

At the hotel, the taxi driver stopped on the street our hotels were at...but didn't even bother to drop us off at our hotels. They all shared the same parking lot, actually, and there was a gate to get in the parking lot...so the driver just stopped in front of that gate and said "okay, you're here". Then he charged us WAY too much for the fare and kicked us out. Worst taxi driver I've ever had, ever haha...although I must admit that we weren't the easiest customers ^^'

Inside the hotel, we got a taxi reservation made (for 1AM or so? I think?), then everybody went to the rooms and took showers, gathered up the stuff we'd need, etc. I changed into normal clothes since we'd likely be sleeping outside and I didn't want to further dirty my yellow pants.

Photo 5

Jim decided not to go with us for this one, since he wanted to do some sight-seeing and the chances of making it into the next morning's sign session were basically null. The tickets this time were first-come-first-serve, and people with exhibitors/vendors/etc tickets could get into the con (and therefore line up for tickets) a good hour before people with normal tickets (i.e. us, not including Carlos lol...lucky bastard -___-). Natsugaya told us earlier that there were about 1100 early-entrance tickets in distribution for the convention, and only about 150 tickets for tomorrow morning's MM sign session...so yeah, we were pretty much going to line up for a 0.0000001% chance of getting to talk to the members...but if there was a chance, we were going...

Once prepared, we went down to the hotel lobby and grabbed a quick bite to eat. They had a vending machine down there with meals and a microwave you could heat them up in, which were surprisingly good...I probably ate 3 or 4 of them during my time in France lol

Then we went outside to wait for the taxi...but Steve managed to forget the towel Natsugaya brought us hahaha, so he and Ed ran back upstairs to get that. Carlos and I took a seat on a table outside the hotel to relax for a bit. Eventually Paul Elliott and Lampshade walked by (there was a bar at one of the other hotels and I guess they were on their way back to our hotel, where they were also staying, from that bar). We talked to them for a bit, or tried to lol...I literally just kept falling asleep where I sat (I mean, I hadn't gotten a decent night of sleep since I left the US and had been running non-stop >.<). I don't remember any of this conversation, other than Paul mentioning Peroni and me perking up a bit before drowsing back off again hahaha

Shortly after Paul and Lampshade walked off, Ed and Steve came back down...then a taxi showed up. We weren't sure if it was ours lol, cause two taxis showed up at once, but we just got in the one that signaled to us to get in. Turned out it was the same driver as the FNAC session, which was nice cause he was pretty cool. After a pretty short drive, we arrived at the con center...

Continued in the next post~