「Part 1」
4/1 DiVA handshake - Pacifico Yokohama
Before I left today, I saw the pictures DiVA staff tweeted of everyone’s outfits today— imagine my freakout when Sayaka was wearing a mint green with white polkadots sweater remarkably similar to the mint green with white polkadots sweater than I own… so that decided my outfit for the day. X3
Like yesterday, I only had one ticket for today but it was still phenomenally worth it. Got there, met up with issabox, got in line. I went first.
Today I managed to get out everything that I wanted to and didn’t stutter at all which I’m so happy about. * A* I basically said: “lately, Sayaka seems really busy, so please don’t overdo it! Please eat well and get enough sleep, okay? I’m worried about you!” She seemed surprised and gave me a big “hontou??” again, so I said yes but I’m supporting her and gave her a “daisuki!!” as I left. She gave me a really big smile and emphatic wave and stuff. I got really teary as I was leaving the handshake area. ;; w;;
I waited for issabox afterwards~ Issa had met with Sayaka a few times that day already, and apparently that time Sayaka asked if we came together since she went right after me. So then Issa was able to tell her that we became friends thanks to her, which I am so ineffably happy about. ♥ According to Issa she seemed really happy about it, too. ;; u;;
Issa and I exchanged hugs and oshifeels afterwards and hung around for a while, writing on the big Lost The Way poster (photos later!) and getting some merch. That’s when we met Y-chan, a REALLY SWEET Sayaka oshi whose major in college is English!! But she didn’t have any foreign friends to practice with!! AND WE DIDN’T HAVE ANY JAPANESE SAYAKA OSHI FRIENDS TO BE EXCITED WITH, SO EVERYTHING WORKS OUT. Y-chan’s friend was one of the people collecting birthday messages for Sayaka so I wrote one for her! We sat around and talked for a while, and eventually got in place to watch the group goodbyes after the last block. Which was where we met a whole bunch of other seriously awesome Sayaka oshi with whom we got REALLY EXCITED ABOUT MEETING EACH OTHER. I just kept like, grinning and papping my cheeks out of happiness, since my goal for the day was meeting Japanese Sayaka oshi!! And they were really happy about meeting foreign fans!!!! AHHHH Sayaka fans are just ALWAYS THE BEST, OKAY.
Y-chan had a couple of tickets during the last block and she told us she was going to tell Sayaka about meeting us so we were like “sjkfdskdjsl!!” I’m not sure what she said to Sayaka about us exactly, but Y-chan said that she mentioned “Liz and Issa” by name and Sayaka responded with “ah, from America and Sweden!!” ;;;;;; W;;;;;; ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ AND THEN APPARENTLY said “kawaii yo ne~” */////w/////* screaming forever at indirectly being called cute by one of the cutest girls in the entire world, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahoooooooo. ANYWAY~
The last person in Sayaka’s lane was a girl who knelt down and talked with her for a good couple of minutes. By Issa’s estimations, it must’ve been something like 14 singles worth of tickets that she used all at once. I think it’s really wonderful. ;; w;; I wish I had the Japanese ability to be able to talk with her like that. I wonder what they talked about~?
Finally the girls came to the front, Sae with her arms completely wrapped around one of the new members in the lead. XD She went on to flirt with a couple more of the new members as they were getting stuff in order. Sae, you huge flirt, I swear. Yuka was tickling Sayaka on the way towards us but then they were being really adorably cuddly. ;; w;; Everyone was goofing around and seemed in good spirits, though definitely tired. After some screeching megaphone hijinks (thanks Sae) each member took turns thanking everyone for coming out today, etc.
During Sayaka’s turn… at one point when she was looking towards us (me and Issa and the clump of Sayaka oshi we were standing with) she said that a lot of people expressed that they were worried about her today. She apologized for causing people to worry, and assured us that it was okay. ;;___________;; Being one of those people… on one hand I feel really badly that enough of us expressed our concerns that she had to acknowledge it, but I also feel somewhat comforted that she seemed surprised that so many of us were worrying… maybe she’s more okay than we worry about her being? ;; w;; Haha. I’m still going to worry about her, because she’s my oshimen and I do that, but I was reminded to believe in her strength. ♥
And then goodbyes, wherein we all wave to them and they all wave back.
Sayaka looked towards us and stopped walking for a bit, Issa and I both waved extra hard and I sent her heart-hands (because I always send idols heart-hands it’s kind of a thing.) She held the megaphone up and sort of paused for a second.
Then Sayaka said “Thank you very much” in English, right to us. We both like, involuntarily shriek-whimpered and waved like crazy and I might’ve blown a kiss or two amidst my brain going into mild chaos about being personally thanked by the idol who means most to me in the world.
After they disappeared from sight, we pretty much both started sobbing. 8DDDD;;;;; We got pats and hugs from our new Sayaka oshi friends and Y-chan was like “that was definitely just to you two!” and then we cried more LMFAO. Even thinking about it now I get teary.
We bid “mata ashita!” to some of our new friends, and ended up going out for delicious Korean sundub with Y-chan and her birthday-message-collecting friend. Eating kimchi and drinking makkori (ala the Drunk DiVA clip on Type C of Lost the Way lmfao) was the perfect end to the day.
Basically she’s amazing. She is a wonderful, wonderful human being and I am so lucky to have fallen in love with her because she is so phenomenal to her fans and has consistently been far kinder to me than anywhere near necessary. I think Sayaka as an idol especially has a particular appreciation for foreign fans given her background, because she knows what it’s like to not really be part of the otherwise homogenous Japanese society, even if for us it’s just from a fan perspective, you know?
The rest of DiVA is phenomenal too, and I am so absurdly excited for the live tomorrow. Here’s hoping all goes well!
SORRY THIS WAS SO LONG god I miss livejournal.
3/31 DiVA handshake - Pacifico Yokohama
Trying to get better at documenting things properly!! Still working on that backlog. >__>
Hilariously awful weather yesterday. I bought an umbrella at the station when I arrived so my hair wouldn’t get demolished on the way to the venue, but it was so windy that 5 seconds after stepping outside the wind smacked me in the face with my umbrella, and about 30 seconds later the umbrella had turned completely inside-out reducing it to a heap of inoperable garbage:
(sorry for my knees and the off-topicness of this but I was barely containing my laughter at the situation in the back of the cab I was riding in and needed to document it, lmfao)
ANYWAY. I originally had something like 12 handshake tickets for Sayaka and Sae for this weekend. Unfortunately due to me being bad at Japanese (and really busy when I got the “please confirm your method of payment or we’ll cancel your order”) email, that order was canceled. T___________T Fortunately when they put them back up for sale, I managed to win one ticket for Sayaka for each of the two handshake days, which was certainly better than nothing!!
I got there for 2nd block and spotted issabox in line. I went to begin queueing for Sayaka and realized… I forgot my invoice. IF YOU EVER GO TO AN AKUSHUKAI, DO NOT FORGET YOUR CD ORDER INVOICE. This is how they check your ID to make sure you’re the one who bought the CDs. I panicked. By some divine intervention, at this event (unlike bigger AKB events) they had people at computers that could look your order up and handwrite the invoice, so my ass was saved. @____@ My gaijin luck, I swear to god… * A*
I got to watch issabox meet Sayaka for the first time after being her oshi for 4 years which was wonderful. ;; u;; Sayaka’s leopard hoodie was SO CUTE OH MY GOD. During my turn, I told her I saw Sunday’s Saitama concert and that she was amazing. * w* I wanted to say something about how her strength as a captain shone through but she was like “HONTOU?!” so instead I babbled about how great Kuroi Tenshi was. XD;; And she commented on my hair being purple, since last time we met it was dark blue. ;; w;;
Basically a good handshake! Aaand then I had to leave right after so this recap ends there, haha.
「Part 2」
So Sae, Akicha and Hillary went to an elementary school in Washington, D.C. and I think that is the most adorable thing ever and I got really excited and translated the article about it IDEK WHY sorry for any mistakes. = u=/ LOOK HOW HAPPY SAE IS. ♥♥♥
Also I’m really glad that since Sayaka couldn’t make it, Hillary’s standing in as International Ambassador, ahaha~ (which is honestly just fine seeing as Hillary’s English is actually fluent!)
AKB48 will be appearing in America at Washington D.C.’s famous event, Sakura Matsuri.Recently, events in foreign countries have been in great demand for the girls. It seems the Japanese government is also able to use this as a strategy to better their image.
Three members of AKB48 visited an elementary school in Washington, D.C.The sudden appearance of the Japanese idols perplexed the children at first, but…
“Next time, please come to Japan!” (Takajo Aki)
“I wanna live in Japan.” (a girl)
Every year from all across the US, 1,000,000 people visit D.C.’s Sakura Matsuri.100 years ago this year, Japan sent these cherry trees.Sakura Matsuri includes earthquake relief appreciation events and various other festivities.Among other things, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ special feature was sending in AKB48.
“I think every member wants to sing and dance with all of our power, to show the appeal of Japan’s genki.” (Takahashi Minami)
In fact on the same day, the just-announced-her-graduation Maeda Atsuko and other AKB members went to Hong Kong, to participate in a Chinese commemorative event. [I should know what that event is but I’m too tired to look it up ;__;]
[really loose translation I ran out of steam I’m so sorry XD;] …Basically Japanese government is putting a lot of hope in “Talent Diplomacy” events like these!
article source | photos found here | translation by pup48
Home from the SDN48 handshake.
Today, my beautiful big sister told me “aishiteiru yo” after I told her that I’ll support her from Team K until forever, and “daisuki.” I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to meet her again, but I’m so lucky to have been able to have this closure before SDN disbands.
I was also lucky enough to meet Nontii, my second favorite SDN member, who is absolutely gorgeous in person and has an incredibly radiant smile, as well as see Sayanee again (she interviewed us at the AKB concert in LA, ahaha) and meet Nachu, Serina, Chen Qu and other beautiful ladies. It went by really fast (as national handshakes seem to, since you get a couple of seconds with each girl at a time) but I feel so fortunate to have been able to do this. I am going to try to stop crying and take a nap now. ;;___;;
DiVA Tokyo+Osaka concerts announced!
＜開催日時・場所＞ 2012年4月2日（月）・3日（火）Zepp Tokyo 2012年4月6日（金）Zepp Osaka 17:15 開場 18:00 開演 19:00 終演予定 ※入場順序や入場方法の詳細に関しては、追ってOfficial Websiteにアップ致します。
4/2/2012 (Monday) and 4/3/2012 (Tuesday) - Zepp Tokyo
4/6/2012 (Friday) - Zepp Osaka
17:15 - doors, 18:00 - start, 19:00 over.
Admission procedure and method details to be posted on the official website soon.
my face is pretty much Ririna’s right now oh my god.
Q:Your lucky though! I'm still so young, Sae might already graduate AKB by the time I would be old enough to travel and meet her T w T;;
Awwww I hope that’s not the case! ; 3; You never know, she’s only 21, she could have a good few more years in AKB! I hope you’re able to meet her someday! :D ♥
Q:Wow... I think it's so amazing how you went to a handshake event, and Sayaka even remembered you! ;___; Be sure to tell me if you ever meet Sae!! ♥ ♥
It was really, really amazing. ;;____;; She’s such a fantastic human being. Admittedly my hair is pretty memorable, but still.
I promise I still have that writeup on the way. XD;; It’s almost done, I’m just. A procrastinator. :D;; And I’m hoping I’ll be able to meet Sae at a handshake event for DiVA’s next single!! ;; u;;/
Akimoto Sayaka - March 2010 Numéro Tokyo - PREVIEW
Finally found it today! Going to try to stealthily use my school’s scanners on Monday for hi-res (so you don’t have to squint too hard if you’re planning on translating! :D; ♥)
It’s finally official!
On April 29th, I will be meeting these ladies at the Give Me Five handshake event in Tokyo!! :3 I have six tickets for Nishi altogether; and then one for each of the other girls. I’m meeting Makiko, Mai and Madoka to pass messages on to them from pomokun, teensandvideogames and kata48, respectively! I can’t wait. ;A; <3
My baby is meeting so many good babies. ;; U;; (Meanwhile I’ve got Sayaka, Aamin, Ucchi, Shihorin and Chikarina~ = w=/)
Source: inyopozishon
Hepu.
So he’s gotten bigger.
He always looks me in the eye, naturally and straightforward.
I’ll look you in the eye like that, too.
I’ll get him a bigger tank.
Sayaka is the best axolotl mama. ♥♥♥
