[07/02-07/05] Morning Musume @ Anime Expo (Schedule/Who's Down P.1)

[limitbreaker02]

I, like Dinny (and T-Back), am sick like no other. I have been diagnosed with the flu and have a week off from work thanks to the Doc. Been semi-bedridden for a few days now but totally forgot that I'm one of the few with a Day -1. Off to it!


World Day -1

Yea, I arrived in LA around 7am on the 30th of June after taking a direct flight from...well...let's not mention that. Still feeling kinda...something...after only getting 2-3 hours of sleep on that flight, I decided to head to the International Terminal (Terminal B) because it was just next door from my terminal (Terminal 3). Thinking that MM might arrive on the JAL flight that day, I looked at the flight status screens and I saw that their flight would arrive a little bit before noon. Great, my MM/AX adventure starts!

I headed upstairs to the departure area of Terminal B to get some overpriced breakfast (which ended up being my only meal for the day). Afterwards, to kill some time, I walked around the airport checking out the architecture of it all and also trying to find an open socket to plug my phone and laptop into. Ended up at some baggage claim area back at my terminal. Was chatting on IRC for a bit and was checking up on Twitter till I saw Dinny tweet about being at LAX . I think she and her group were looking for me after I sent her a tweet that I was in LAX also. Sorry Dinny, I stayed where I was at, hehe. After being persuaded by a certain someone over IRC to go and look for her, I packed up and headed back to the International Terminal.

Got to the arrivals area and immediately saw Dinny (too bad for her nearly everyone knows what she looks like) along with Aarita and that one girl whose name I forgot. I don't do too well socially when I lack sleep, and being the Quiet Lowkey Mofo that I am, I just sat down near the flight status monitors. When the JAL flight landed, I got up and stood a bit behind Dinny and the JPM guys that were also there but not letting her know who I was. It was after a bit where she turned to me and asked if I was limit? I waved at her. Hehe, damn I was just only delaying the inevitable. Then she took some footage of me.

About 1.5-2 hrs after that JAL flight landed, we figured that MM weren't on this flight and left the arrival area, exchanged digits with Dinny and then I headed towards the "Shared Ride Vans" Lower/Arrival Level islands to wait for my shuttle to my hotel. After waiting for about an hour both outside and inside the shuttle van (though at least it only costs me $30 round trip I didn't really mind) I finally arrived at the O Hotel. Small room, lackluster view out of my window but it was all good. Killed some time chatting on IRC then got a call from Dinny saying that she and Aarita were going to camp out near the entrance of the West Hall. After killing a bit more time I went out and visited the two.

Wow, I didn't know LA would get pretty chilly at night. It felt like...well...enough of that. Got to talk to Dinny for a bit...get to know each other and stuff. Walked with her to her car that was parked what seemed like a mile or so away from the West Hall, holy crap it was FAR. Walked back to the West Hall, talked a bit more, then with it being late and me being tired with the lack of sleep and all, decided to head back to the hotel but Dinny kept on talking and talking and wouldn't let me leave! (Kidding Dinny, I enjoyed the conversation we had) Knowing that she was going to call me when the line starts to form, I headed straight to bed once I got to my room. A little bit later she calls telling me that she and Aarita got kicked out and don't know where else to go. Being half-asleep I suggested that she sleep in her car. LOL. After being scolded by Tenkei and some others on IRC and then realizing what I have done I went and gave her a call to let her and Aarita stay over in my room. They came over, went over the plans for Day 0 then headed to sleep.



That's all I have recap-wise. For Day 0 onward, ya gonna have to wait for aewen to post our joint recap here soon...

[Jupibell140]

Woo!! First of all I'm really glad to have met some of you guys at the con, even though most of you didn't even know me because I'm mostly a lurker ^_^; Even so it was really great seeing you all! I'll try to keep this short since I know some might be tired of recaps, but I'd like to at least share my experiences at Opening Ceremony.

At opening ceremony my friend and I arrived pretty early, and we ended up sitting in a random spot around the 4th row away from the stage. But when we looked ahead of us, we realized that the rows in front of us were taped off and said "Reserved for GoH". So naturally we were like "Morning Musume?!" Sure enough, Morning Musume came out and sat THREE ROWS IN FRONT OF US. It was very very exciting indeed. Even more surprising is that when people (us included) would yell out "Koharu!" and "Junjun!" or something, they would look behind them and wave <3

My friend asked Koharu and Junjun (in japanese) "May I take your picture?" to which they responded "HAI! =D"

We'll post in a minute

Making the typical peace sign pose. =P

Also (possibly pointless) videos of them sitting down and of their backs while they're talking. At first I was wondering why those people in front of them were holding a camcorder right in their faces until I realized that they were using it as a mirror



These are from my friend's Photobucket, and I have no idea if she's set it on private yet, so if you can't see it then let me know and I'll stop being lazy and upload it on my own.

Also, it's official: Morning Musume fans are AWESOME. Every fan I've talked to while standing in line was so nice! Including the JPHiP members who I've met like Dai and ckd and others. One fan I met came all the way from Russia! Now that's dedication! I really wish everyone could have gotten an autograph . . everyone was so dedicated. I eventually got one from the guaranteed signing (was literally the VERY last person to get a guaranteed ticket. The Japanese wotas behind me were screaming "MURIIIIII!!!") and it was an awesome experience, despite me and Aika having a little awkward moment. Junjun and Linlin seemed to happy when I said "xie xie" and "nihao" to them *_*Overall it was incredible

[0508]

I'm sure not everyone cares that much about the stuff that went on before the actual con, but I'm gonna post it anyways, since it was memorable to me in my own way.

Day -1

Arita and his friend Yuri came to pick me up in the morning from my friend's place near UCLA. We planned to go wait around at the airport for Morning Musume to show since we weren't certain if they'd arrive on 6/30 or 7/1.

Got there a bit after 9AM, went to check on arrival times, then chilled in a cafe (played hold'em for sugar packets lol) near the terminal. We bumped into some guys from JPM, Paul from Hello!Blog, and a few others. Someone said they recognized me from JPHiP because they saw the pictures daigong posted up. At the time I was trying to convince limitbreaker02 to show himself via Twatter, but he was all lalalala stealth mode.

We moved out into the waiting area. Time passed as we watched all the passengers from the ANA and JAL flights walk by. Arita recognized a Japanese pro golfer (forgot his name) and shook his hand, then later Olympic gold medalist Takahashi Naoko and shook her hand, too. (Funny it says on Wikipedia that she's related to Yoshizawa Hitomi, srsly go look it up.) After waiting for hours, I kept looking over my shoulder at the gentleman standing quietly behind me and finally asked, "Are you limit?" And sure enough it was bwahaha. I made him introduce himself on my cam. It was almost 2PM and the girls didn't show up, so Arita, Yuri, me, and limit chatted for a bit and decided to take off and meet up later.

At around 6PM Arita and I started camping in front of the convention center's West Hall. We were determined to be first in line for badges and tickets for Day 0. A little later limit walked over and kept us company. We had a long nice chat before he decided to head back to his hotel and get some sleep before joining us again later.

We were laying down on the tarp watching concert DVDs when a security guard inside the building spotted us. We explained why we were there and he told us to leave. At the exact same time BrianR, AX staffer I've seen around on the AX forum, approaches us and we chat. He tells us the official line for badges won't start until 9AM over at the top of the stairs at West Hall B, and any lines that start forming before then will be disbanded. Since there was some confusion about the seating arrangment for the concert, I asked if there were assigned seats. He said there wasn't, and the reason why there were assigned seats last year was because of the seating configuration at the Nokia Theater. I told him that BryanY had mention there was in the FAQ, but he said he probably just copied and pasted it from the year before. He also mentioned that we could quote him on the info he gave us. We thanked him for the info and apologized to the security guard (who thanked us) and left.

We went to scout out the line area, called up limit and tenkei and filled them in on what happened. I was told limit got scolded by tenkei because he didn't offer us to crash in his room. I got a call back from limit offerring us to stay, so we did. Thanks man, much appreciated. =)

Our plan was to go to the airport to see the girls in the morning since the seating thing was confirmed by BrianR. Aewen texted me, so I called her and filled her in on the details. I fell asleep for about 3 hours only to wake up to a bit of chaos in the morning...DUN DUN DUN.

TBC...

I've already uploaded the footage I took of MM at the airport and Yossy at the con. I'm gonna re-export my videos and reupload them into HD later. I'll just post them here now because I know I'm lagging a bit with my report. I've spent most of my time in bed/isolated in my room this week due to whatever bug I caught. Sorry.

Morning Musume LAX 070109

Yossy/hANGRY AX 070209

[Fenrir]

Yay! Dinny is starting her con report too! And I think I know that chick with the purple highlights. I'm pretty sure she was in anime club at my university!! Maybe she works for Japanfiles...hmm....

Day 2
Concert day! Happily wore my JPHiP shirt to work. lol Got to LACC, parted with Com and ebc and headed up to my HQ. HQ also happens to the room where you can see the Main Events room and they were rehearsing the music and lights for the concert. MM hasn't arrived yet as they were at the GOH recepetion. That's where I heard Mikan and Love Revolution 21, so I figured those two songs would definitely be playing for the concert. Headed off to work, wishing that time would fly by faster. lol

Concert time rolled around and I rushed into Main events to see if I can score some seats and to find Com and ebc only to find out later they weren't even at LACC yet. -_-; Ran around chatted with people, sold some glow sticks and shirts, convinced T-back to join our group in our row, since he was by himself in his row by trading with another guy the seat and waited for the concert to start. The tall-tale signs of the lights dimming and the concert started with Mikan!! Yay!! There has been reviews about the concert already, but I just want to say it was really short and that the PV award ceremony took up way too much time for my taste. I also wish they sang something else for the "encore", but oh well. It was nice to see so much support for MM at this concert and I hope they come back again to do a proper concert!

After the concert, I still had some time before my shift started, so I followed the hipsters to the exhibit hall for Yossi's, I mean, Hangry's signing. Took the photo frame Dai was planning to give Yossi because he was getting fingerprints all over the glass! Dinny wiped it clean with her shirt (Yay Dinny!) and never gave it back to Dai. lol Yaz then came along to tell us to disperse and we just shifted a little over and continued to chat. lol Anyways, my shift time was about to start and I wanted to check out the Japanfile booth, so me, Mugen, and other hipsters who didn't have a ticket left, but unfortunately by then, most of the stuff have been sold out, so I said bai to the other guys and went back to work.

Because of my split work time, I didn't get a chance to go to the Hello Party and meet the other folks; instead I just picked up Com and ebc when I was done and left for home.

[Mugen]

AX Review FINAL PART!

Yea, I'm forgetting what was going on exactly anymore for the last few days in LA so I'm just going to write some details on the stuff I remember.

CONCERT
After JPHIPsters started handling out glowsticks to the peeps, we went into the concert hall which was pretty huge. Since my seat was different than everybody else. I split up with them and went to my seat beside Slack's which was the middle row 10. Saw A_P seating a row behind me. After about an hour of waiting and dozing off, the concert finally kicked off with the non-stop AX backstage bullcrap which probably pissed a lot of people off. The concert overall was good though I'm not a fan of Mikan. But the other songs really pumped the crowd up, Ai's environmental talk was hella random and unneccesary. But the song they sang after made up for it. The AX OPV thing takes up way too long though. I had fun at the concert but my experience was slightly ruined by the hardcore Japanese wotas who sat beside and behind me and slack. Though one of the wota pissed me off, kept on yelling "Ore no Mittsi!" for like 200 hundred times. I feel bad for Aika for hearing all that crap. The "SAYUUUUUUU" thing was hilarious though. Poor guy sat beside me had his glowstick exploded on him and he was freaking out and asked me if it's poisonous. Then the wota was like it's ok, you'll be fine. ROFL. Some of the wotas sat behind me also commented on our JPHIP shirt. Though was confused why Lin Lin and Jun Jun didn't get their own column lol. We shoulda sold them some of our shirts!

After the concert, met up with the other JPHIPstars and went to Yossi's signing. Daigong had trouble keeping his hands off the frame or something lol. Met Jade Starr. Hung out for a bit and then I don't remember what happened here until we went to ESPN zone to eat, signed MJ's board and went to Hello! Party. Tenkei sold more shirts and what not, met Sev's swedish buds. Didn't stay long at the Hello! Party though cuz some of us got bored. Some of us left early and went to grab booze on the way. WEnt back to the hotel and drank some, Tenkei then had his drunken JPHIP thing going on lol. Passed out cuz I was too tired and was teabagged apparently LOL.

Shit what happened next day? Tsunku Panel?? Didn't remember much, was dozing off. All I remembered was the last autograph session. Had some pretty memorable encounters with some of the MM members. But won't go into details since some people already heard it over 9000 times. We tried to go in last to give them the scrapbook and the gift basket but were not able to present it to them properly instead Daigong and Tenkei just put them on the table or whatever. I was shocked that the MM signing order were all messed up with Reina being the first instead of Ai. Since she was first anyway, I gave her the mountie beaver plush that was supposed to given to Meow who never showed up! or something. Signed some shit and what not, Ai did not look enthusiastic at all during the signing, or looked semi pissed. Koharu was the same but I think she was just tired as fuck. Got out, talked to Dai who did not manage to give his individual gifts to MM since we were rushed during the session. He pulled out all the presents and gave it a nice security lady who managed to pass it to MM I think. Damn, I wanted to see Risa's reaction of Dai's hockey gloves present to her LOL. Sev plans to give Eri his Swedish moose to Eri and propose to her in Swedish. Epic fail since I think he forgot to do so. Oh well, at least he didn't giggle like crazy again. 

Honda-ya/Izakaya/Whatever
Bumped a ride off Fenrir to Izakaya for our JPHIP dinner meetup thingy. Gamed with Limit for awhile. Whooped his ass in Tekken. Went back to the restaurant for dinner. Epic speech by Dai. Restaurant employees loved us. Played Morning Musume for us lol. Manager even wanted one of our T-shirts. Went back down to game some more. Got whooped by the drunk TBACK in MvC2. Went back up for some more drinks and karaoke after.

Day 5?
Went to LAX to catch MM leaving, Flyp almost got his camera confiscated but no dice. Back to AX for shits and giggles. Found out about the charity auction. Won the H&A poster, AWESOME! Tried to win the MM poster but no dice. Flyp left halfway through to catch his plane. Went to Rockin' Fish for our last JPHIP dinner. Jab couldn't show because of Pablo lol + he was hella sick. Gave Tenkei a surprise "birthday" cake lol. Said bye to ComFenDaveDin. Went to 7-11. Back to hotel.

Day 6
Jab woke up early but I think he was late for his flight, said my goodbyes to him while still half asleep. Went to LAX to catch our plane after. Said bye Dai, Arun, CKD and BigFreaky. Mine wasn't leaving till 1845 though I managed to change to an earlier flight, lost my suitcase over an hour cuz I fell asleep but found by TSA people. Lonely journey back to Vancouver. =(

[s4tsuk1]

Wow, after reading page after page of con stories, I'm SOO jealous!  I went to Paris for the AKB concerts instead, and this event sounded amazing!  Still, sounds like some of the security/expo workers could do with a slap or two!  Thank you all so much for posting your experiences, makes me feel like I was there too! 

[Kimuuu]

I feel so bad for everyone who caught a bug from AX!    Take care everyone and get well soon!

@Fen Woah!  I didn't know you worked the event and got to be with MM behind the scenes!    AWESOME.

@rev2hd Woah!  Takahashi Naoko was there too!  Yeah, she really is related to Yossy.  She referred to this on her show, when Yossy was a guest:

Subtitles: "Yoshizawa Hitomi's grandfather's younger brother's wife's younger brother's wife's cousin's daughter is Takahashi Naoko."
 

[Slack]

It seems that Ai-chan's environmental speech in the middle of the concert kind of put off a bunch of people, but it kind of made sense.  It was saying something about how more places get less and less rain, and the song immediately afterward was "Ame no Furanai Hoshi de wa Aisenai Darou?", or "If it Doesn't Rain, Will the Stars Not Love?".

I thought it made sense, but I can see why if you didn't know what the title of the next song meant, it might have just seemed random and confusing.  Still, it kind of gives people a slight glimpse into the more "eco" side of Morning Musume.

I actually hadn't made the connection to an environmental cause before the concert. I just thought the song was speaking figuratively about rain and unhappiness, and not literally about rain.  Kind of how like in "Roman ~MY DEAR BOY~" the lyrics go "Seems like the earth has a fever".  If not for the PV and the context of EcoMoni being active around that time, you'd never know the song says something about global warming.  That's Tsunku-lyrics for you.


As for the wotas sitting directly behind me and Mugen at the concert, I actually don't think I minded that much.  It was like I was feeding off of some of their energy or something.  Some parts where the crowd was seeming a little unsure, it was like they were the cheerleaders.  I guess it's that ouendan tradition of group cheering.


In the line for the Hangry signing, I see Dai and Ping interviewing Jade Starr with an unplugged microphone (lol) and soon after I'm told to hold a large picture frame for Fen cause Daigong was getting his prints all over the glass.  After getting my two(!) autographs from Yossy, I had to take my friend and my dad home, so that was the end of day 2 for me.

And if you want to talk about jealousy, A_P got into ALL THREE Morning Musume autograph sessions, the lucky bastard.  I know how lucky I am to have gotten into one, but damn.  Congratulations to him though.  He was a fun guy to hang around with.

I don't know if it's cause someone else was sick or because the LA air did something to me, but I had a frog in my throat after the con too.  It turned out to be a sinus infection, which I've now mostly gotten over, except for the cough.  My mom was afraid it was H1N1 though, haha.  Maybe it was that one MC who came out before the concert and joked about seeing the girls' costumes and getting "yellow fever".  pfft.

[reina's eyes]

It seems that Ai-chan's environmental speech in the middle of the concert kind of put off a bunch of people, but it kind of made sense.  It was saying something about how more places get less and less rain...

And I yelled, though no one heard, "Welcome to LA!". We have a very serious drought and water saving ordinances that everyone ignores.

Though equally well intended, just as clumsy was tsunku saying they didn't mind where the opv entries came from or some such. Trying a bit too hard not to be racist (an awkwardness we've seen a lot of in the US). My japanese friend who has lived in california for a decade turned to me immediately after he said it and commented "That wasn't very good".

When these things aren't particularly polished in the first place the translations come out even worse. Had they been better scripted they would be considered praiseworthy.

I wonder if ai was handed the environment thing or if she had some more part in it.

[Datalanche]

I don't get why that was even mentioned. They're an idol group at an anime con. It really was out of left field. Me and rena just turned to each other and went, "eh?"

As for Tsunku's 'clumsy' comment, I think he was just trying a little too hard to be polite since he knew one of the winners would much more than likely not be at Anime Expo. *shrug*

[Slack]

I think people are taking the whole environmental comments too seriously.  In the US, environmental issues and global warming/climate change in particular are highly politicized issues, but in Japan I don't think it's the same.  There, the phrase you hear a lot is "being kind to the planet" and no one is really opposed to it.  Since it doesn't seem to carry the same political baggage in Japan, global climate change may actually be a safe and non-offensive issue that is entirely suitable for idol groups and the like to talk about.

Taking that in mind, I don't really think anything was meant by it other than to introduce the next song in English.  It seemed like they were at the same time trying to give the song some outside context like caring for others or some such deeper meaning.  Unfortunately for them, their intentions were lost in translation and various political overtones were added.  The sentiment got turned from "Let's love and care about everyone and the earth! Here's our next song that is about that!" into something kind of preachy and awkwardly out of place.  They tried to be too clever and tie in "rain" via environmentalism.


To answer your question of why it was mentioned, I personally think it was just supposed to be a fluffy song intro, but it simultaneously lost and gained in translation.  Ironically, if the English translation was worse, maybe people would be less inclined to pick at it.

When these things aren't particularly polished in the first place the translations come out even worse. Had they been better scripted they would be considered praiseworthy.

I completely agree.  It's a case of something being translated just well enough to get someone in trouble, but not well enough to serve its intended purpose.  Still, at least they tried to speak some English.


Now that I have that out of the way, I'd prefer to just remember what went well.  It's like enjoying the most delicious crab ever after cutting your fingers trying to get it out of the spikiest shell ever.

...Fuck, now my sunburns are starting to peel.

[tenkei]

crab analogy win. gj slack.

i didnt mind the environmental shit, but i thought they were about to sing dangerous ass, and was even screaming dangerous ass when ai-chan was giving her speech lol

[reina's eyes]

aibutt.com = ass ass dangerous ass :-)

Wish they had sung it!

[daigong]

ANYONE GET SICK AT AX?? GIMME YOUR DOCTORS NUMBER NOW!!

Jab is in critical condition. I got a call from his brother and they need to figure out what's going on. Any communication is necessary!!! PLEASE HELP!!

[daigong]

Thanks everyone for the well wishes, coming through ASAP when I hollered. This is what JPH!P never fails to prove that we are the tightest, most welcoming group out there. Props to those (Gimme Dem Junks) on Facebook/Twitter too. JAB has some really really damn awesome friends <333

If I get any more news, I'll post it in the thread on the JPHiP.com Front Page:
http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=19712.0

It's crazy cuz he was right in front of me coughing and hacking and we're like OK, let's get u bundled or smth. Turn down this AC. Here's a Hot Dog and Slim Jim.

Prayers to JAB!! Everyone keep healthy, drink lots of Orange Juice. KEEP POSITIVE!

[StreakInTheSky]

Awesome pic. Is that from after the reception? @ kream's friend, she like, "I have no idea what this sign means, but I'll do it anyways."

[strawb3rrykream]

^
Yeah, it was. I was like to her "Just do it, ok?"

[limitbreaker02]

^ You happen to have a larger version of that picture?

[Flyp]

I second that request for a larger version of that picture, I love it~

[cool_kickin_dude]

rats..i'm not in the pic:( i so miss those days