Hello!
Almost a month later than Mr. BarrieV I received my copy as well. Actually, I ordered 2 copies. One for me and another for a penpal of mine. I could order it much earlier but I was waiting for my preordered CDs to arrive at Tenso.com warehouse. On the whole I got around 5 kilos worth of merchandise, both AKB and Haropro as well as 2 textbooks and 2 guidebooks on Tokyo.
Here, the stuff inside the box and piled up on the table.
And this is the photobook.
With now famous memorable photo.
My favorite photo. Rei-nyan is especially cute here.
But! This is not the end of the story.
Actually, let me tell you what I’ve been up to for the last 2 weeks.
It all started with a call from a Japanese lady who presented herself as a manager from Tokyo TV. Last year we ardently supported AKB here in Moscow and I’m now considered a representative of the Russian AKB fanclub. I was asked to come for an interview and bring a few friends along to form a crowd. As it turned out, TV Tokyo is filming a program about Russian culture and its relation to the Japanese.
So I had in mind to bring some AKB stuff and make a speech and I had only 2 weeks for preparations. I instantly placed an order and I was very lucky to get in on Friday last week because the filming was scheduled on Sunday, and the delivery service doesn’t operate on weekends.
The meeting was set at a local Japanese-style cafe. The Japanese TV producer also invited some local cosplay fans. There were around 20 girls in awesome costumes.
We were informed that there’d be Japanese TV stars but we didn’t know who they were.
It turned out that the stars are
- Hatto Ayako-san and
Izumono Okuni-san.
They are the emcees of this program.
To my shame, I didn’t know them, I had to ask the interpreter to learn their names.
But anyways, the girls were interviewing the cosplayers first and then turned to us.
We prepared wota-cosplay as well, we brought our hachimaki from last year. And beside this I made a pile with merchandise I brought from home. Among which are:
- AKB album “Koko ni ita koto” with a fantastic hardcover photobook inside.
- Tomochin’s single “Fui ni”
- Yukirin’s (French kiss) single “Kakko warui I love you”
- And the photobook that I started my talk with.
The interview was very short, around 7 minutes but I didn’t miss a chance to speak some Japanese. It eased the interpreter’s work a lot.
It was like this:
- Who’s your oshimen?
- It’s Tomochin!
(waving Tomo’s CD at the camera)
- How did you learn about AKB?
- I saw them completely by chance. I watched some anime broadcast and then a program called AKBINGO started. I was absolutely charmed by the girls’ beauty. It happened around 2 (actually 3, as I figured later) years ago.
- (to themselves) *OMG! This guy went as far as learning Japanese!*
How long do you learn Japanese?
- Around 5 years ago. Actually I’m self-taught. What I’ve learned so far is all thanks to AKB programs and DVDs.
- And do you know who’s no.1 in AKB?
- It’s Acchan.
- And do you get the results of sembatsu soon?
- Yep, we monitor it.
By the way, one of my friends learned about AKB from me and went right to Tokyo to watch their concert at Akihabara.
- Would you like to visit Tokyo, too?
- Oh, yes!
- And what would you like to see there?
- Well, must-see places (midokoro).
I haven’t been to Japan but I’m saving money for the trip.
To end the interview we shouted the first lines of “Aitakatta”.
After the interview the emcees went outside the cafe to finish filming the report.
Obviously there were a lot of those who wanted to be shot together with Ayako-san and Okuni-san.
And I took my chance to take Hatta-san’s autograph.
“Sumimasen. Ano…Hatta-san… sain shite itadakemasenka?”
The message was understood. Also, note the roadworks at the back.
Ayako-san gets a bar of chocolate for her hard work.
My photobook at home.
Obviously I was very happy with the event. But I have a question to you guys. Do you know anyone who can record the program from TV? I don’t know when it goes on air, probably in a month or so, but I’d be extremely grateful if you could help me with it.