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