Since numerous people have asked, I'll post what information I know here about buying handshake tickets/theatre editions -
BIG DISCLAIMER please note I've not gone to one myself but have gone through most of the process, but that was a year ago, other people are more well-informed than me as have gone recently. I'm just writing this as as far as I know no-one else has and some good friends of mine on this forum have asked...
ALL AKB48
(not sister groups) Theatre Editions are sold via
http://akb48.chara-ani.com/You need to create an account to apply. To do this click the highlighted button:
If you don't know Japanese, use google translate - or, even easier, Chrome which has auto-translate as a built-in option so you can view the website with translated text - this should get you by 90% of the time. You'll probably need to know how to write your name in
katakana - and, depending on website, they may want it in full-width instead of normal half-width characters - again, google is your friend, but get someone who can read katakana to check how you write your name - this is important as each ticket is printed with your name (should include your English name) and they do ID checks on entry.
(Please check the end of this post about addresses as this is of utmost importance, unlike AKB48 Group Ticket Centre accounts)The Theatre Edition for this album will be sold in three ways:
1. With a 2-shot ticket for a particular member in a particular timeslot on a particular day. This also comes with a random collectable photo. This is sold in rounds 1-7.
2. With a 2-shot ticket for an unspecified member - basically on the day, for any member which
does not have sold out slots you can present this ticket and get a 2-shot. Please note, most popular members sell out all slots for handshake events - see for example this post which shows how many slots are sold out for each girl for sales rounds 1-4 for AKB's 34th single:
http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=36368.msg1234113#msg1234113. This option also comes with a random collectable photo. This option is only sold in round 8.
3. This comes with 3 random collectable photos but no handshake or 2-shot tickets.
As mentioned, there are 8 rounds of sales. Each round has a specific timescale and application rules - these get quite complicated. You can see these on the left hand column on the website.
For example, round 1 is open from 25th November 18:00 JST till 27th November 13:00 JST. In this round you can apply for tickets in 3 timeslots, one application per timeslot,
and each of the three timeslots has to be a different member.In future rounds you can apply for multiple tickets per timeslot and can apply for more members. And generally, in later rounds, you can apply for more tickets in general. They do this to try and let as many people as possible get tickets for the most popular members such as Oshima Yuko who tends to sell out all handshake tickets within the first two rounds.
Once you have an account and are logged in you apply for tickets buy clicking the big pink button on the main page:
Then scroll down, tick the tickbox and click the big pink button
On this page the drop-down menu will take you to the different groups of members and the different dates of events:
Note that for AKB48 releases, ALL members (and kenkyuusei) for AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, and HKT48 are available to buy a handshake (or, in this case, 2-shot) with.
The dates and venues of the events are given on the main chara-ani page, in this case:
Event Dates:
*2014年5月 3日(土) Intex Osaka
*2014年5月17日(土) Pacifico Yokohama
*2014年5月24日(土) Tokyo Big Sight
*2014年6月15日(日) Pacifico Yokohama
*2014年6月29日(日) Pacifico Yokohama
The timeslots are also given on the main page, in this case:
第1部9:00~10:30(10:00受付終了)
第2部10:30~12:00(11:30受付終了)
第3部12:00~13:30(13:00受付終了)
第4部13:30~15:00(14:30受付終了)
第5部15:00~16:30(16:00受付終了)
第6部16:30~18:00(17:30受付終了)
第7部18:30~20:00(19:30受付終了)
第8部20:00~21:30(21:00受付終了)
You then check the rules and apply for the timeslots you want. So, if I did the following:
Then, I would (according to round 1 rules) be applying for Takamina on the 3rd May in slot 2, Yui on the 3rd May in slot 2, and Mayuyu on the 3rd May in slot 6. You can have applications covering any dates and teams/members, as long as they are within the rules for that round.
You then hit the big pink button etc and it will ask you to confirm etc.
Now here's the
hard part for foreign fans:
If you win tickets, then basically you wait for all the rounds to end to pay your bill. There are multiple methods, including "cash on delivery", payment at a convenience store, and also, payment by credit card. Please note that they may not accept your credit card, this seems a bit hit and miss on Japanese website as far as I know. You can check the FAQ for more (the menu options including FAQ, appeared different for some reason when I was logged in or out, and I could only access the FAQ when I was logged out, so try that if you are stuck...)
Secondly, shipping of the CDs is not initially included in the price of the CD - the FAQ gives more details on that. But
each and every ticket has the member name, timeslot and
YOUR NAME. They do ID checks at the venue and at each handshake lane, so you cannot resell but need individual applications. The only delivery addresses they accept are within Japan. They deliver the tickets (with the CDs and collectable photos)
the day before the stated CD release date (sometimes there is a second shipment later in the week, hence a bump in sales charts if you follow those). If you do not collect or pay for your tickets, then they go into a resale round much later on. There
may be some danger if you don't pay/collect your tickets, you may enter a so-called "blacklist".
I can't help further as I've never won any tickets, last time I didn't have a contact in Japan to collect tickets for me and the time before, I missed round 1 and Mayuyu only had limited slots in round 2 and I didn't win those so didn't apply for any other girls.
As to the above poster, I've never known anyone to use FromJapan or Tenso, only people who have used actual contacts in Japan to collect the tickets for them, and then pass them on in person, either at the event or beforehand. I don't know whether it is possible, when I last applied, you couldn't use credit cards to pay so back then you also had to rely on a contact in Japan to do the payment for you.
Edit: I've heard Tenso works....