So let's talk about Sunday, which was madness day! At least for me. Got to the con late (thanks flat tire!) and missed out on Kikka signing and two-shots
Stupid car.
Then we went upstairs to find out our 1000say interview had been pushed back to 4:45! 15 MINUTES BEFORE THE KIKKA CONCERT! Noooo! So we spoke to Sarah and she said she would try to gt it moved up for us. We sat around for a little bit, discussing whether we should try to get any other interviews. Then Kikka walked out to go downstairs while wearing a signboard. That was our cue to leave. When we went downstairs we saw her rush off towards the main stage area, and J*Dee'Z followed after shortly. I stopped them to show them my new nails (cause I did 'em the night before. Hey man, if nail art is what gets you in good with the talent, you do nail art
)
Then we went to lunch at a wraps place I used to go to when I worked in the area. Memories~
When we got back it was a bit of a whirlwind: Slack went upstairs to network while the rest of us saw the J*Dee'Z concert. It was SO good! They're a little rough, and don't how how to talk to the audience between songs, but the singing is good and the dancing is amazing. Also because they recognized me I got tons of smiles, pointing, waving, etc. And Ami, who seemed really nervous in the beginning, smiled and waved at me and seemed okay for the rest of the show. I felt like a proud big sister
After that I picked up some gifts for the idol talent from my friend Jenny's shop, Sugar Clay Cafe (
sugarclaycafe.com - she also did gifts for Berryz, so if you want to have something from the same place Berryz/Kikka/J*Dee'Z does...) and ran upstairs to give them to J*Dee'Z and Kikka before our interview. Kikka we only got to give it to her from afar (it seemed like she was coming over to thank us but her manager then called her away) but J*Dee'Z got them in person and seemed super grateful! They wore the rings in some photos with Kikka too, so yay advertising lol.
After that was our interview with 1000say! Interview footage to come, but I will say that API and NON were adorable (and API had awesome nails. I'm obsessed with nails, I know), MAN was very thoughtful with his answers, and MICHELLE was off in space somewhere.
After THAT...it was time for Kikka's concert! Others will have better write-ups than me, but I will say she was very cute, sang really well, and was very discrete with people needing to turn up the mic
She sang all of her hits and some album only/b-sides too. I admit I'm now TOTALLY enamored with Zutto Zutto Zutto Suki Da - it was my favorite by far. She also really went all out in Sweetie, which was pretty cool to see. She said a lot in english which was really cool, and whenever she had trouble she asked a member in the audience to translate for her (which was probably the highlight of the concert, for them AND us!) It was really cute. At the end we called for an encore and she came out and did a repeat performance of Kikkake wa YOU! for us.
Then, after many hugs and awesome things, I went home.
All in all I'd say it was a successful weekend, especially considering how last-minute the press passes were. The media staff were nothing short of amazing, the talent and their managers were really cool, and I got to go home with some awesome swag. I would absolutely recommend buying something from EACH of the artists that attended JX, because in meeting them and seeing them perform we were able to see how hard they work - they deserve the support!
Big thanks to J-Triumf, Rayle, and people whose forum names I don't know (you know who you are!) for hanging out this weekend, spazzing over idols, and making the whole experience at least 100x more fun than it would've been otherwise. Special thanks to Slack for making sure we got our press passes and being an awesome interview partner for not one, but two events so far! And to our photographer (whose forum name I don't know and I don't want to give his real one just in case...) for putting off other events to hang with us and make sure our pictures were awesome. You guys are the best.
Can't wait for our next event! Otakon vegas, anyone...?