Right on, so continuing with my riveting story.
Was around 1600hrs. We still had plenty of time, so we decided to take a bus down instead of the train. After all, most of us had been standing since the queue started, and that was a pain in the ass. At least the bus would let us get some shuteye along with some needed rest. Meanwhile, we were still checking schedules to see which terminal they'd be at, etc. I think we narrowed it down to 2 flights, both in different terminals. The good news was both were in the old terminals, which meant that any celebrities coming in would be surrounded by barricades; ie it was easy to spot which terminal it was.
Had people calling me to ask, good thing we spotted it as soon as we arrived at the terminal; bunches of people were already there.
So we stood there for a bit, chatting and explaining to some curious onlookers about what AKB was. Obviously I tried to make myself as invisible as possible. Prepped up the camera (had to borrow!) and waited for the girls to come in. Now it was a waiting game, and playing 'spot the staff member'. We were mostly looking our for the people in masks, the girls, and the pink luggage (seriously,
all their shit is pink). So we were mostly looking around. Some of us had boards, others had photobooks (lol chiichan oshi), and some (like me) had gifts. I had a board too, but it was either the board, of the gift + camera. I chose the latter.
Now if you've ever seen my gift (which I have shown a few times), it's actually a tube, and is
perfect for passing to an unsuspecting idol. Of course, I didn't think of the implications of such a tube (graduation ;__;) when I bought it, so I didn't quite think my cunning plan through. I wrote up a nice letter (after like 123986 revisions, thanks to SUB48 and jafeijai), and also a hairtie! My plan was foolproof; take pics from the viewing area, then as she's walking through, hand the gift to her, and then run out for any remainder shots as they got into the bus.
That's what I thought would happen, till it actually did.
The staff came out. You could tell they were staff, they all had equipment, and were beginning to separate the camera equipment from the baggage belt (they're in metal boxes). They also started picking out some of the girls' luggage and arranged them nicely. This was a little weird, because they never did that before. The first time (in AFA) they actually hung around and waited for the baggage to come out, and the girls interacted with the fans.
This time, it was a little different. The girls came out (Nacchan was wearing the shortest shorts ever, and Mariyannu was beautiful as usual), lined up, basically ignored the cheering crowd (aside from a few waves) and walked out. This was the most well-oiled machine ever. Their bags were already lined up, they had about 0 delay as they picked their own bag, and started pulling it along. No more hanging around taking cellphone photos (some did, of course); most of the photography was done by the official photogs. As they were walking out, I was moving towards the other side, at the barricades to hand my gift over. Of course, my buddies over form Hello!Online had my back, they made sure I had a clear shot, by giving me some space.
There she was, right in front of me! 'Mariyannu!', I shouted. And she turned. I handed out my gift (it's a little long, so pretty easy for her to grab, less than a few inches away). She looked at me, a little confused, but she was slowing down, and was reaching to grab it..then she stopped. She didn't say a word, and walked away. I was like 'uhh, wtf' for a second. Then the guys next to me were like 'dude, try again'. So I did. Made a short sprint infront of her (had to push some nerds out of the way) and picked a decent spot again. This time I was really desperate, if I didn't give it to her now I wouldn't be able to anymore, personally. I did it again, this time with an 'onegaishimasu!' added in for extra weeaboo flavour.
She looked at me again, and then asked the manager if she could take it. I don't know why she did this. And then she didn't take it. Again.
I was crushed beyond belief. Like you wouldn't imagine. So basically the second day (the real highlight of the weekend for me, to be honest) ended in the worst possible way. Didn't feel anything for the handshake, and got rejected twice for my letter. Some people didn't manage to give their letters, but they didn't get
rejected either. It felt absolutely shitty. On the bright side though, Nonaka Misato did receive the tiara we gave to her (some of us shared for it). That's why it puzzled me a little bit; if it was a managerial order none of them would have taken anything. It was a pretty crappy day all around, and I went home feeling more than a bit depressed about it.
But it did end up on Mariyannu's head anyway.
Topic: [Concert] AKB48/SKE48/NMB48/SDN48 concerts in Singapore (Read 51507 times)