Seeing Momoiro Clover; or Blondie's First Time Alone in Japan (Gets Hopelessly Lost Repeatedly)

I've been a fan of the group Momoiro Clover for a while now. I think I saw their Momoiro Punch PV sometime late last year and thinking they were cute before being reminded of them with their Ikuze! Kaitou Shoujo single earlier this year and actually actively caring about them.

The PV that started it all:


Anyway, they're not exactly super popular in Japan and nonexistent anywhere else, so I was excited to buy their singles and possibly see them live. Lo and behold, they're having a tour for their new single that comes out in November! I should have known this would be a fiasco in the beginning when my idol-expert friend Sabrina told me that the ishimaru soft (sort of like Best Buy I think) the event was at was not the one I was thinking of, and it was not in Akihabara like I thought. Telling me it was in Ochanomizu, I find a convoluted route through Google Maps the day of and head out.

Ticketing for the concert would begin at 10am, so I planned to get there between 9-9:30am so I could mill around and hopefully be towards the front. I left around 8:30am (later than I'd hoped, but with a 45 minute travel time I'd still get there around 9:15am). I hop on the Mita Line not knowing how my transfer is read, only having the kanji I know typed in my phone as (god, idk, town) so I would remember what to look for. I find it on a map over the door I can see from my seat, it's a stop after the stop I use to transfer to Sophia University. Cool, this is going pretty well I think to myself.

HAHAHAHAHA. I step off the train, and walk to the next platform. It's for the Shinjuku line. I look for my next mysterious kanji stop (little, river, town) and OH, there it is! It's only one stop away! That's convenient. Oh, but this train is going the other direction. There's the train I want, on the other side. .....How do I get there? I backtrack and see a sign saying the train I want and an arrow. I follow, and end up on the same track. Whaaaaat. After walking the same 30ft three times, I decide I look like an idiot and if I keep walking I at least won't look stupid. About 3 minutes of walking later, THERE IT IS, with a dinky sign. I go down the stairs, cross, up the other stairs and get on the right platform.

A few minutes later, a train arrives. I hop on it. The train takes a while to get to the next stop... and it's not what I want. Huh, I could have sworn it was the next stop... Second stop, not it. Uh.... Third stop, not it. Okay, I'm looking at the map. OH GOD I'M ON THE EXPRESS LINE AND I AM LIKE 10 STOPS PASSED WHERE I WANTED TO BE WHYYYYY Five regular stations later, the express finally stops and I get off and make sure the next train I get on it LOCAL. That takes a while, but I finally get to the right station.

....What exit do I take? Google maps didn't tell me this! They're not even labeled helpfully, like "East" it's fucking B1-B7! I take B6 because there was nowhere else to go besides B6 or B7 at this point. I come up and it's raining. FFFFUUUU break out my dinky red umbrella. My directions tell me to cross the street and go left towards the train crossings. Train crossings are on right. WHERE GO? I go to the trains, and I'll cut this short and just say I got really lost before finding an "Information board" that had a map. I actually wasn't that far off, but I missed where I was supposed to go. Thank goodness crossing a river was involved in my directions, or else I would have been a lot more confused. Going "THERE IS A RIVER, I NEED TO CROSS THAT" is helpful.

So I cross the river, wander around more, and finally see an ishimaru soft. I go in, and it looks dinky. Like, not even big on the first floor, let alone seven floors. I ask a woman in terrible Japanese if this is where the Momoiro Clover event is. She says no and gives me directions to another one. Of course, I don't understand at all. I ask her to show me, and she takes me outside and says the same thing, but I catch "migi" meaning "right" this time and decide to go right. HURR DURR IT'S RIGHT AROUND THE FUCKING CORNER GOOD JOB. I go in, and by the number of young Japanese guys hanging around in groups it's clearly the right store. Oh, and I guess the table with tickets and stuff helps too. I reserve the normal copy of the single and draw my number ticket... 196. FUCK. It's 10:30am now, of course all the good tickets are gone.

So, I wander around the store. 5 levels of it before I get bored. I sit outside on a bench and eat some onigiri I purchased at a mini mart. I feel awkward because there's another guy on the bench and I'm the only girl let alone the only gaijin, so I pick a direction and start walking. After a few minutes, I think Huh, that ramen place looks like the one Sara and I wanted to go to when we went to Akiba for the first time but didn't know we bought tickets outside before going in and Hey, isn't that the maid cafe in Akiba that blasts moe maid chants for their cafe? before realizing I AM IN AKIHABARA. TAKING THAT LONG CONFUSING ROUTE WITH TRAINS AND STATIONS I DIDN'T KNOW WAS COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY FUCK MY LIFE!!!!!

Wandered around Akiba, spent some money at UFO machines with adorable Halloween-themed Nyanpire plushies. Got tired (and hungry, but mostly tired) and got a burger at a Beckers by the station and sat around for an hour before I felt bad and left. Wandered more, before deciding to head back to ishimaru. Sabrina recommended lining up around 1:30ish, and even though my ticket had a line-up time and a number I figured it was better to at least check rather than get there way late.

I show up at ishimaru and there are more wota hanging outside. Cool, I'm not the only one! Pretty soon, they're lining up and going up to the event floor. No one checks tickets, no one says anything. We end up there, I sit down and look around. Small stage, some chairs, standing room and CD sales in the back. I see some wota pointing at a poster of some girl idgaf about. I look back and see the same girl on CDs being sold. My first thought is A) Momoiro Clover's single isn't out yet! and my second though it B) Momoiro Clover is not one girl. I leave instantly and walk back to Akihabara in embarrassment for going to the wrong fucking event.

I wander around Akiba more, stopping to pick up some blue glowsticks for Akari (Sabrina's and my favorite member) before eventually wandering towards a Starbucks I saw in Ochanomizu during lost-time in the morning. I get a frappacino and chill for three hours, until around 4:30pm when I return to ishimaru.

I get there and there are a lot more people than before. I see some girls in high school uniforms, but there are probably 5 max out of over 200 people. We stand around for an hour or so before they start calling numbers. Right when they get to mine, I realize I have to pee. Badly. I figure I'll just pee when I get up there.

LOL NO, BATHROOM IS ON THE FOURTH FLOOR. After preordering a special version of the single and getting my handshake ticket I have to take the elevator, use the bathroom, and by the time I come back up the place is packed and the show is just starting. I'm stuck in the back with some drunk wota drinking beer and being boisterous. I stand on tip toe a lot, and see members sometimes. Luckily Akari was placed on my side so when they were standing around usually I could see her the best. I broke out my glowsticks and tried my best to work the idol chants and what have you. I could hear a few people talking about how there was a gaijin there, but nobody talked to me. One of the boisterous wota offered me his spot though, which I was really thankful for.

After the concert ended, it was handshake event time! I wasn't 100% sure that was what it was, so I asked the person next to me in very basic Japanese if it was. He said yes, and then pointed out that while I was number 68, he was number 67. Great! I could just keep an eye on him instead of trying to make out the numbers being said really fast over the microphone. WELL. I'm trying to listen and keeping an eye on him and then this other guy sees my number and gestures at me to go. THANKS, 67 :| I get in line, and use the mandatory hand sanitizer.

Now, up to this point I'd call this entire day a fiasco and slightly unenjoyable. The concert wasn't bad, but I couldn't really see anything and being on my feet practically the entire day didn't help. However, the handshake event made everything worth it. If you haven't been to one, they're very short. You have handlers telling you to keep moving, so you can only get maybe 30 seconds tops with one girl before you move onto the next. The first girl was Akari, so I was worried I wouldn't know what to say after that. That wasn't a problem. I told Akari she was my favorite, and Sabrina's favorite, and I'm studying here in Japan and want to see them again. She told me to do my best and then I was moving on to Shiori.

Probably one of the best things was that everything goes so fast that the girls can only focus on the person in front of them and can't look at who's next down the line. Every time I moved to another girl, their face turned to such a surprised and happy expression I'll probably never forget them. I told everyone I loved Momoiro Clover, Kanako pointed out that my shirt was red and her color was red, Momoka introduced herself in English and I told her it was really good. Reni (I'm pretty sure it was her) was last and was so excited to see me. She was jumping around and called me kawaii and said "I RABU YOU" and I told her I loved her too and then my time was up.

I was pretty much giddy the rest of the night, and it was by far my best experience in Japan so far. I think it really excited them that someone who wasn't Japanese knew who they were, and was taking the time to actually come to a concert and preordered a CD to get a handshake ticket. I'll probably keep this memory in my back pocket for whenever I feel like shit, however sappy that sounds.

Off-topic can we talk about how hilarious it is that iTunes chose for me to listen to Metallica as I'm writing an idol post? Dying right now.

As if that isn't enough, Erena Ono's last AKB48 concert is tomorrow night. Because, you know, I haven't been standing in line enough lately. I didn't win a ticket, so I'll probably be standing in the lobby watching on a monitor. Wish me luck someone takes pity on my gaijin soul and gives me a ticket (or I at least don't have some tall wota between me and the monitor).

お・や・す・み
Blondie

Apartment pictures, and Akiba treasures

I did some updating but was too lazy to post it here. I made a post about Ana and Michelle and Tim arriving, going to a festival, and Sophia Univeristy's orientation. I'll make an elaborate post about the festival when Ana Michelle and Sara post their pictures. There's also a post about my language test and the subsequent day and me dealing with food allergies in a foreign country. It's waayy too much to copypaste by now, so uh sorry I guess. LINK DESU YO.

Today it was raining a lot, and cold enough that it actually required a sweater. It was in the 60s I think? Our apartment is good at staying warm though, so I'm still in a tank top (but wearing pants instead of shorts tonight!). Sara and I had to go get food (I woke up this morning with a pack of pocky, some grapefruit-juice popsicles, and a carrot on my shelf of the fridge. Sara and I share the cereal/milk and switch off on buying it). We got wet while walking. When we came back Sara went back out to enjoy the not-smothering-heat and go to the other market to get stuff to put in omelets. I stayed home and did laundry. I planned to clean but that didn't happen until around midnight.

Tonight we actually cooked! Sara and I saw chicken on sale for 98円 and we had chicken with soy sauce, vegetables (for Sara, carrot for me) with soy sauce, and rice. It was pretty good actually! For some reason my brain short circuited and I thought we should have grapefruit (mostly to use a grapefruit). It didn't work but I ate it for dessert.



After I cleaned, I took pictures of my apaato!








What I cleverly covered up is the HUGE AKB48 LINGERIE BIKINI HYBRID POSTER on one of my walls (it's not that one specifically, that one is old, but it's the same color and same basic idea). I bought Erena's キラキラ photobook and the 2010 senbatsu magazine or whatever it's called. THE PICTURES ARE SO PRETTY AND WAY BETTER THAN SCANS. I'm already admitting that I have a problem. But I never noticed things like Erena is reading a Daria book or GET THE PIZZA ONES ERENA THE PIZZA LUNCHABLES ARE THE BEST. Wait what do you mean there are other girls in this group??

Also yesterday when we were in Akiba we went to an arcade (it was below the AKB48 theater but the theater was closed or something because they weren't letting people up), and I actually won something from a UFO catcher!!! I've never won anything from them before, but last week I saw these cute little cat plushies from something called Nyanpire (CAT VAMPIRES). I already had a few cell phone charms from gachapon, but this was bigger and adorable and I needed it. We won't talk about how much I spent then and failed, but when we came back with everyone I remembered I had a 500円 coin and 500円 gets six plays (versus five 100円 coins would only get five). So, EXTREMELY DETERMINED, I tried. A guy came up on the machine next to me my third try. In a very American way I mumbled "Yatta!" as it picked up the plushie, and made subdued disappointed noises as it dropped. And then the fourth time I got it! I definitely was grinning and jumping around a bit, and then some more when the others found me and I proudly held out my cat vampire plushie.

LOOK I EVEN TOOK A PICTURE JUST NOW.

It's really soft and has itty bitty fangs sewn in and bat wings and it's so happy and adorable I can't even. I CAN'T EVEN. Also that's my AKB48 poster in the background.

OH WOW IT IS 3AM I AM GOING TO BED NIGHT GUYS. Tomorrow will probably be boring (possibly going to the kuyakusho to get some paper Sophia needs) but Saturday Momoiro Clover is performing at an Ishimaru in Akiba (I'm pretty sure) and I'm going to try to go to that and get the new trading cards signed for Sabrina.

Ja~
Blondie

FRIST

Some background info: I'm a student at the University of San Francisco studying abroad in Tokyo, Japan for a year at Sophia University (aka 上智大学). I've been watching Japanese cartoons since I was a kid on Cartoon Network, but I didn't really get into Japanese culture until around 7th grade, where my friends were really into anime and I started getting CDs of anime soundtracks and merchandise. This carried through high school. Once I got into college, I started watching anime less but the interest in the culture is still there. It's less OH MY GOD ANIME IS AMAZING and more Japanese culture is so different from the West yet it's still a first world country WHAT AM I LOOKING AT THIS IS SO WEIRD OH MY GOD, if that makes sense. If I had to pick a poison though, it would definitely be Japanese female idol groups. Cute girls in cute outfits singing cute songs with cute dances nnngh.

I share an apartment in Itabashi with my friend Sara. It's been eight days since I stepped off the plane, and it's equal parts amazing yet the same as the US. Sure, the language is different and I sleep on tatami and have to air out my futon in the day, but it's not like I'm surrounded by gundam and magical girls or anything. Going to the store isn't very exciting unless you mistake the girl working in the bakery for a hot guy, or they play the Indiana Jones theme on repeat (which they do, all the time). The last few days have been pretty lay-low sort of days.

Technically I already have an in-Japan blog (here) so this seems vaguely superfluous. However, my aunts and uncles and grandparents read that, so I can't really tell stories like this:

Sara and I are in the bakery in the department store Daiei. There is a cute guy with dyed blond hair cut to around his ears working there. Sara gets him as a cashier. I'm admiring him as Sara's paying. I notice that underneath the baking outfit there are boobs. I am disappoint.

Hopefully you understand. Plus, a lot of my excitement is over Japanese idols, which would probably confuse and concern older generations. \o/ Look how cute Erena Ono from AKB48 is!!


This is getting a bit long so I'll make another post when I get back tonight (tomorrow morning for you guys in America). We've been hearing traditional music the past few days, and when Sara and I saw lanterns down a street when we were coming back to the apartment last night we had to check it out. Turns out there's some sort of festival going on tonight form 6-9pm, one of the staff members was really excited to tell us about it (translating through a shaky younger guy). At the end the man said 待っているよ which the younger guy embarrassingly translated as "waiting for you" so we'd disappoint him if we didn't go.

Ja,
Blondie