Yo, Dai, great recap!
Guess that means I have to make public my version of events. As I mentioned elsewhere, this wasn't written as a traditional con recap. But you all have been
warned if you really want to go forward.
The full set of installments will be at my Livejournal page:
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http://pkristen.livejournal.com/tag/hangry+%26+angry>
I'll spare the intro pieces since that's really about introducing IY/H&A/H!P and my experiences with them, and pick up with part 5 which is
my version of the autograph session -- hopefully this will be a clean copy and paste from Livejournal:
When I left for my trip, I was aware of four events that would be H&A related: an autograph session at noon on Friday (opening day of the Con), the guest reception that night, and the concert on Saturday, and a Q&A panel on Sunday.
From over twenty years of attending various fan conventions, I learned the hard lesson that you must ALWAYS pick up your badges during pre-reg time if that is possible. For you uninitiated: “pre-reg” is usually that window of time the day before the official start dates of the event. It’s usually limited to people who register for the entire event rather just wanting to attend a single day or two. This way, you don’t end up in obnoxiously long lines where you’re not only waiting with other fully registered attendees but also single-day attendees.
A bad example of this was the year I went to Anime Expo for a single day registration. I spent 5 hours in that line just to pick up my badge. I spent more time in the line than in the con.
With the H&A autograph session being scheduled as one of the first Con events on opening day, the pre-reg pick up rule was a must. (A good thing too because I heard afterwards that there was a horribly long wait that day for badge pick-ups and why a lot of people missed out on the session.)
Now, I’m not into autographs in general. In fact, I don’t like them because the autographs are usually done over artwork or pictures that I would much prefer to look at instead. But, I do know the power of showing support by participating in an activity for people who hold such events. And for me, my primary goal was to give as much participatory support for H&A as possible.
That being said, I had read on the message boards that autographs for H&A was limited to “official” merchandise only. Well, of all of the authentic merchandise that I own of IshiYoshi, if I wanted them to sign something, it wouldn’t be H&A material. (Don’t get me wrong, I love the music but the goth fashion part is just not my thing. I think they should ditch the goth look and just perform in their personally preferred jeans, t-shirts and leather and just focus on the music and performing!)
I have a mini IshiYoshi/Morning Musume picture “shrine” in my work cubicle (a source of amusing co-worker anecdotes, I assure you.) One of my prize displays is a set of large solo pics of Rika and Yossie from their Ongaku Gatas tour last November, where they’re wearing the black and red plaid outfits. These are “official” items (i.e., not bootleg or homemade), but not Hangry & Angry related unfortunately. I decided to bring these pictures with me, just in case.
And I planned to bring my H&A U.S. version of the CD as a fallback option. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until I was in Eugene when I realized that I had forgotten it. Oops.
The Thursday night before, I hooked up with “Rev2HD” (poster from JPH!P, whom I’ll refer to as “Little D” going forward based on her real name), and “Daigong” (“Big D” I guess), one of the main dudes from that same message board. We picked up our badges in 45 minutes, went out to eat and had very interesting conversations. Since the priority for the three of us was H&A activities, the strategy for the autograph session was to meet as early as possible – which would be about 11 am to line up.
Big D realized that he forgot to bring his merchandise for signing as well. Unfortunately, the exhibitor’s hall, which would most likely have a booth for Japanfiles to sell H&A material would open at Noon… The autograph session begins at noon. (Major drama was felt about this.)
So while the three of us were trying to figure out the layout for lining up for autographs outside of the designated convention hall, and how to meet the “official” merchandise requirement, I had noticed that there was an official con sign board on display that listed out the rules for the autograph session. The biggest rule that caught our eye was that a “raffle” process would be used for signing.
This raffle process was described as tickets being given out to people who stood in line, with limited numbers to be called. So the very possible end result is that the process meant that even if you lined up first, you were NOT guaranteed to get an autograph. A late person could arrive, get a winning ticket, and get their autograph signed instead of you. Needless to say, we were not pleased about that – it’s one thing to be “fair”, it’s another thing to screw the people who made the extra effort to do things like show up early just to line up early.
When the three of us then ran into “Stark”, the Convention Chair, whom Big D had previous conversations with. In chatting with him (entertaining guy, btw), we found that Rika and Yossie had already arrived a couple of days earlier. Plus, both of them, especially Rika, were suffering from horrible jetlag and time-difference adjustments. As he described it, the two of them were doing autograph signings for convention staffers the night before and looked like they had been signing for four hours even though it had only been twenty minutes. It was interesting tidbit that turned out to be very important later on. And Stark mentioned the con program book qualified as “official” merchandise – if we were truly desperate.
The raffle discussion also didn’t make the three of us feel happy about the situation if we’re limited to one autograph a piece (meaning, we can’t give a person with a winning raffle ticket our items to sign instead.) He explained that the rule was established so keep guests from signing autographs forever. My personal thought about that is just announce ‘The line ends here!’ (It’s what they do at other, bigger conventions I’ve attended.) Ah well… But he did say that there's an unofficial policy that you can ask for autographs at the reception that night if things didn't work out during the official session.
So Stark left, and we were back to dealing with just getting into the line (we were like within the first 10 people) and figuring out the “official” merchandise issue. Big D went down to the Exhibit Hall line (because it hadn’t opened yet) while Little D and I held our places in line even if it turned out to be futile.
This was the point when it started to become clear that the hard-core Hello! Project message boards people were all at the beginning of the line (big surprise.) So introductions were made with putting faces to online names, and fan chat and picture-taking went on. And as word about the pending raffle went around, we decided to make the most of our waiting time even if it ultimately meant no autograph as a result.
Luckily, it seemed that the Exhibit Hall opened early that Big D was able to grab some CDs and posters for us to sign. And because he bought so much merchandise, he was also given “priority” tickets for autograph signing. How that was going to work with the raffle, we had no idea. (Another ticket process to keep track of.)
So now I owned a third H&A CD (including the U.S. and Japan release versions I had at home.) Still, it would be worth it if I could have them sign it, more to show that their CD/music was selling. But me being the kind of person who likes to do things a little ‘differently’, I decided I wanted them to sign the picture inside the insert of them pulling each other’s hair (wigs). A lot more fun and well… IshiYoshi.
Now, as the time for the autograph session grew nearer, it was clear that the line for them was NOT that long, which I thought was disappointing in terms of showing H&A support. That turned out to be fortunate because the raffle process was never used. YEA!!! One obstacle down!
So as we walked into the hall, we all noticed that an official merchandise table was setup to the side. My eyes immediately zoomed in on the official H&A photo sets that they offered, which Big D did not pick up. With the idea of adding to my IshiYoshi picture shrine at work, these were a must buy. It also meant that I got my priority ticket for signing.
The final autograph line up process was interesting in that the “priority” line was obviously shorter than the regular sign up line, but not really by that much. It quickly became clear that we could line up more than once if the attendance was this minimal, which meant at least two autographs a piece!
So I got in the priority line and had them sign my CD insert picture. Since I don’t speak Japanese whatsoever (I understand more than I can speak due to almost a decade of watching Japanese videos), all I did was smile and nodded at them. Yossie did hers first, gave eye contact and said a ‘thank you’ before focusing on the next person. Rika signed but I didn’t get eye contact with her but I kind of noticed that she didn’t seem like she was that energetic or in the rhythm of signing items. Maybe I just got her in a low moment.
Now, with all of my bravado about being so jaded and only attending to show fan support, I was emotionally disappointed at such a brief encounter. Of course, I got into line the second time since I wanted them to sign one of the H&A photos I had just bought. But my disappointment burned in the back of my mind if I was going to be set up for a second “processing yet another fan” moment.
That’s when I started to pay attention to what other people had brought to have signed. It was clear that not all of it were H&A material – especially for the others who had gone into the line more than once. And a couple were even homemade items.
So as I moved towards the front of the line for the second time, that’s when I decided to be ‘selfish’ in that if I spent the time, effort and money to come to this event, I was going to get the one thing that I wanted out of it: my Ongaku Gatas promo photos signed! I was literally the person behind Yossie’s current focus when I made my final decision and hastily switched out the H&A photos for the OG photos.
I don’t know if the two of them remembered me – not expecting them to after all, but the experience was MUCH better this time around. When Yossie saw the picture that I wanted her to sign, she gave a cry of pleased surprise (you Yossie wotas know what I’m talking about.) Rika looked at her OG picture and declared “Saikou!” We definitely had eye contact and exchanged a smile that time. J
I left the line thinking the weekend could not get any better!
Since I wasn’t primarily focused on attending Sakura Con outside of H&A events, it was a case of “Now what?” The reception was that evening, which was quite a few hours away.
That’s when I noticed that the fan clique had grown to about six or seven, who was hanging off to the side of the autograph area. So we all waited, chatted, and watching other people getting their signatures.
And then we noticed that even though the signing was supposed to last until 2 p.m., the H&A team actually packed up early, about 1:30 p.m. or so.
With them now gone, and us still hanging out in the autograph signing area, this led to the other fans participating in photo ops with THE chairs IY sat in – including a moment of comical confusion trying to figure out which chairs they were.
And no, I didn’t participate. There’s fan support and then there’s FAN support. It was also then I was started to make it public my ‘old fart’ nature as my excuse for not participating in certain things, or to leave early when my social energy level was gone.
Even though the H&A autograph session ended at a time that there didn’t seem to be any ‘unattended’ fans, unfortunately it did turn out to have some people arrive after that who had literally just got out of the registration line, including a hard-core Asian female fan who came to Sakura Con just for them. Her disappointment being obvious, it was suggested to her to try to attend the reception with all of us and see if she could get her own autographs, since that was an unwritten possibility for that event.
And so we all went out separate ways (Big D to his press conference – slight jealousy there), and agreed to meet outside the reception area before that event.
To be continued... maybe...