Right! Report time!My one's not as centred around Yossy as much as lilcazza's, but to be fair, I didn't get to see as much of her as Caz did. Still, I almost got out 3000 words on this baby. Enjoy!
I got up at 5AM (the time that lilcazza got to Milsons Point to stalk Yossy at the starting point of the marathon) and then left home with my school friend, Chris, at 6AM to walk to the train station. On our way to Milsons Point, I was just texting back and forth with Caz, Pops and Zay. When I found out that Cazza had shaken hands with Yossy, excitement started kicking in with the realisation that, yes, Hitomi Yoshizawa was in Sydney. As soon as my friend and I got off at the Milsons Point train station, Caz texts me to say that Yossy just left in a car and that we’d meet at the Opera House... Nice. So we hopped on another train and were anticipating the events that awaited us.
We got to the Opera House, met up with Caz, were in awe of her awesome Chinese-style hoodie. I think she liked my friend because he basically did whatever she said and he liked her because of her amazing hair and very cool hoodie. We walked through the park and all around the finishing zone in front of the Opera House to try finding Yossy, not knowing whether she was even there or not. We eventually stopped at the bottom of the stairs, behind the fences with all the spectators lined up along them. In front of us were three Japanese girls and Cazza said that Daigong had told her that there was a group of Yossy followers who he’d met at a Hangry & Angry concert before. She also noticed that the middle girl was wearing a Yossy shirt and said that they must be the girls who Dai was talking about. I kind of dismissed it, saying that Yossy probably had more than a few fans there today, but then the Japanese girls turned around, looked at us and were all, “JPHiP?”
Egad. I’m just glad that I didn’t make a bet. We met them, shook hands and names. From what I gathered (I’m a little hard for hearing, so had to ask each of them to tell me their names twice) they were Miki, Aya and Mo (maybe Tomo?). They made a pretty solid effort to speak in English and then Cazza told them that she spoke Japanese, so then they went into some other world that I just kind of observed from a few centimetres away. Just as they were going, I asked them something, can’t remember what and Caz was nice enough to translate for me. So good having a translator there with us
Those girls also had some swanky gear signed by Yossy. I could hear the envy in Cazza’s voice, haha
Chris was a little too energetic for most of the day, running ahead of us whenever we were walking somewhere. I was a little jealous. At around 9:30AM, Chris decided that he was starving and Yossy still wasn’t there, so we decided to go and get some food before the marathon runners started arriving at the finish line. The food court near us was closed and the McDonald’s was closed due to technical difficulties of some sort. Chris almost resolved to catch a train by himself to another station just to get something to eat, but then we remembered that there was a Subway somewhere close-ish (about 20 minutes walk away, sorry Caz
). On the way there, one of Cazza’s Hitomi Heaven (I’m pretty sure) friends, Freya, called her and asked if they could meet up, so we all headed back to the Opera House after my friend got his sub and Caz got her six cookies.
A couple of hundred metres or so away from the Opera House, Cazza was talking on the phone to Freya and then she [caz] got a little bit edgy and had her voice raised, almost shouting “What do you mean, ‘you think’ you saw her!?” So, we hurried along, met Freya and sooner or later, she exclaimed, “YOSSY! SHE’S HERE!!!”
I seem to recall alarm bells going off somewhere, but that could’ve just been in my head. We ran over and surely enough, there was Hitomi Yoshizawa, in the flesh. I must say, her beauty took my breath away. It’s a cliche thing to say, but I was taken aback by how stunning she was. I only had a video camera with me, but all my footage of her is basically just crappy filming, zooming in and out on her, but mostly in on her face. Earlier in the morning, Caz told Chris just to yell out “YOSSY!” and that it might help us find her, as a joke I believe. Well, he actually did it as soon as she said that and then he did it and waved at her when we were standing a few meters away from her. She was standing in the middle of the running track, after the finish line at that moment. She turned around to face us, then smiled and waved. It looks really great on film, from what I recall because it looks like she’s waving right at the camera. Seeing her smile – she’s so gorgeous!
Yossy was always with her manager (not the bald one who has some sort of vendetta against tru
) and some assistant-looking guy. We tried approaching her when she went in the shade of an ice cream vendor to try getting photos and autographs, but he shot us an icy daggers look, which made us back off a little. We kind of stood there for a little, complaining that we wouldn’t be able to get close to Yossy at this rate and also fanning over how fantastic she is, although Freya and Cazza more than Chris and myself. She randomly started doing warm-up stretches (which I’m told is something that she tends to do), to which Caz and Freya squealed in response. Haaaaa, fangirls
Yossy then went back onto the track, so we walked back up next to the track and did a little more stationary stalking until she went over to rest in the shade of the refreshment station. We waltzed on over there, cameras and all, trying to get photos of her in her cute, light blue cap that she’d just recently put on and me attempting to film her. My footage of that part isn’t too good, because I tried not being suss about it, which failed because I walked in front, filming the Opera House and the crowd, then just panned around to look at Yossy quickly before going past her to maintain the natural look. Note to self:- that sort of things does not come across as natural. Her manager then came over and asked us if we could stop taking photos and the like because Yossy was trying to rest. Freya said that she must have asked him to tell us that, because she saw her say something to him just before he came over. Naturally, we felt bad about it and kind of sulked a little on the stairs nearby. That didn’t last long, with Freya and Cazza just spazzing over Yossy-related things. My friend told me that they were serious fangirls, knowing what her favourite colour was and then what she changed it to. Now that’s dedication.
At that point, I got a text from Pops, saying that Captain Lubey and herself were at the Opera House. Surely enough, we saw them on the stairs in front of the Opera House, opposite to us. We stood on our side for a little longer, hoping Yossy would come back out, but she didn’t while we were there. Pops texted me, telling me to point to where Yossy was, so I did and then I just saw Pops started taking stalker photos from across the way of Yossy, whose face was mostly covered by her cap. We then went to meet Pops and CL on the side of the Opera House, which was something of a surreal experience for me, having heard both of them on the Poppin’ with Pops radio show before, but never actually having met them in person until today.
At this point, (it must’ve been around 11:30AM) runners from the marathon were coming in through the finishing line and Chris was getting rather bored. I can’t blame him, seeing as he has zero interest in Asian music and came along with me simply because he’s a good friend. I was with Cazza, Pops and CL, along the fence, watching people cross the finish line, when I turned around to see the Chris lying across several steps asleep. Pops pointed out that he looked quite drunk. She got me to film him for a bit as well, which was fun for a few seconds until I decided to go and wake him up because police and medics were starting to gather near him
Sadly, I got a text from Zay, saying that she wouldn’t be able to make it because she was spending the day with her family, which she had suspected about as much as we had. Next time, sis!!!
Much to our surprise, Zetacron found us (Pops pimping the JPHiP shirt draws attention
) and he was wearing a faded Mario cap as well as a Marvel Civil War t-shirt, which was really quite cool. I talked to him a few times throughout the day and he’s really nice. He’s studying Japanese and hopes to go there someday. He told me later, while we were walking to find a place to eat lunch, that he came to stalk Yossy earlier in the morning, couldn’t find her, so he went back home, made a sad post in this thread (which I read when I got home) and then decided to give seeing Yossy one last shot. I’m glad that it paid off for him
Around 2 or so hours later, Yossy’s olympic gold medalist relative came through the finishing line, helping another Japanese runner. There were a lot of cheers when she came through. She was really energetic, with a huge smile on her face, wearing hot pink. She then ran back onto the course and continued to help her fellow Japanese participants to the end, which was a very sweet thing of her to do, especially after a scene that I’d scene earlier in the day. Several hours before, I watched to Japanese runners coming in over the finish line, a man and a woman. As soon as they got over, the woman’s legs just gave way beneath her and she collapsed on the ground. She had to be carried off to a side to recover. The man was holding her hand the whole time. Very touching.
I’m losing my sense of time here, but around half an hour after seeing Yossy’s relative the first time, we moved further up the track, before the finish lines, because Yossy and her cuz were waiting together there. We chatted, took photos and filmed, waiting for the race to officially be over. Once again, Chris shouted, “YOSSY!!!!” and waved. Once again, she turned around, gave us a brilliant smile and waved back. Finally, her relative and her started running together, to finish off the marathon. I happened to be the only one with a camera out, but 1) my camera was off, and 2) even after I’d turned my camera on, it took me a few seconds to realise that the lens cover was still on. Oh, the fail
Cazza, Pops and Zetacron went back to the finishing zone to see if they’d be able to get any interaction with Yossy before she left, while CL, Chris and myself stayed back because we were lazy and our legs didn’t feel like it. After about 10 or 15 minutes, we decided to walk over there because we were afraid that something had happened to them and Pops wasn’t picking up her phone. When we got there, we found out that she’d left and that her Japanese followers managed to get a photo with her. I feel sorry for Caz, but to be fair, they must spend a lot of money to follow her all around the world, so they definitely deserved that much at least.
Some time around 2PM, all six of us (Pops, Caz, CL, Zetacron, Chris and me) went to go get lunch. We caught a train to Town Hall, figured that we should’ve gone to Central, couldn’t be bothered getting on another train, and decided to just walk the extra distance to wherever it is we were going to eat. We stopped off at Starbuck’s so CL could try some green tea frappacino or something along those lines. I’m told that it was noms. We ended up going to a decently priced Korean cafe/restaurant sort of place opposite Capitol Theatre, called (if memory serves correctly) MillioRe. Pops and I had jajang myung, while everyone else had bibimbap (it reminded me of kuro). I’m bloody terrible with chopsticks, no joke. The black bean sauce kept flying off my chopsticks and onto the table between Pops and myself. I’m still not quite sure, but I might have dirtied her JPHiP shirt with black bean sauce. It got there somehow, although I’d like to think that it wasn’t my fault. Then again, it probably was. Pops treated me to a beer that we’d previously decided she owed me. We went for the Hite beer, thinking that it was the one that Lee Hyori promoted, but then we saw Big Bang on posters for it afterwards and I was all D: Don’t worry, Pops, even though CL didn’t like the beer, I did! That said though, I’ve had light beer that has tastes stronger than that did
After lunch, we went upstairs to play those claw games where you try to pick up plush toys, while Pops and CL went back to their hotel to get some more layers/tell reception that they’d be checking out later than they’d expected. I’m glad that I didn’t try playing the game, because I generally suck at these kinds of things, as did pretty much everyone, until Caz had a go, that is. One go. One go and she won the Hangry doll. She was so happy
I have to give props to Zetacron though, as he is the one who set up the doll in a good position.
I’d promised Chris at the beginning of the day that I’d take him for karaoke, regardless of the plans of the hipstaz plans for later in the day, but when I told everyone that, they were all, “Yeah! Let’s go karaoke!!” We went and were there for 2 hours. We sang J-pop, K-pop and English songs, although the first two genres were rather difficult. Luckily we decided upon the karaoke place that had MVs for a lot of the songs, so even when we were sitting there, without a clue as to what the lyrics were, we had something nice to look at. I mostly remember going in there and then Caz, Pops and CL sounding concerned and shouting, “There’s no Morning Musume!!?” I think that rubbed off on me as well, because then I was incredulous as well. It’s fine though, it ended up that they did have MoMusu
Chris got really into a lot of the English songs. Ask anyone who was there, he was quite energetic and dramatic about his singing. I think my personal favourite part was getting up with CL and doing the legs/hips dance to Abracadabra. It’s probably really bad because that’s the first time that I’ve attempted it. Oh well, I’m pretty sure that Pops filmed it. I also filmed everyone singing a few times until my video camera’s battery died. It was fun listening to/watching Caz, Pops, CL and Zetacron sing Mr. Moonlight
When we were all leaving, we got a photo with just Pops, Caz and me in our JPHiP shirts. After that we had a big group hug with the 5 of us (Zetacron had already left in the opposite direction to us) and then individual hugs as well. It was all very family-like, just... a lot more comfortable than with my biological family.
Well, I’m really tired now (probably not as much as Cazza) and can’t think of much more to say. My friend Chris really took a shine to Captain Lubey and he called her a ‘lovable lesbian’ when we were on a bus going home
I told him that he should join JPHiP and that it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t like Asian music and that he’d grow to get used to it over time. I think he said yes, but my head is... somewhere else right now, so I could be wrong.
I’ll try sorting out my videos on Wednesday after my graduation day because they’re on discs, which is a pain.
I’d just like to say that meeting just these few hipstaz tod... yesterday was definitely one of my best experiences ever. All such great people, right there to whittle away the hours stalking with, I couldn’t ask for more, but they all and you all, as a whole, always give more.
So, all in all, I love JPH!P
PS. Apparently I’m creepy now. Thanks Pops, CL, everyone.
Topic: [09/19] Hitomi Yoshizawa at Sydney Marathon (Aussie HiPstaz REPLY! who's down P.1) (Read 20726 times)