AX '09 reports

[Madara]

It won't work that way.



So I'll try Hana's way and see what happens:



http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2546/372451...1bd5eb9.jpg?v=0



I can see it when I click on it, but can everyone else? (These are a certain member's autographed items.)



Again, this begs the question, how do I make the photo appear in this box and not just the URL?

[neshcom]

[quote name='Madara' post='66458' date='Jul 15 2009, 05:44 PM']It won't work that way.



So I'll try Hana's way and see what happens:



http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2546/372451...1bd5eb9.jpg?v=0



I can see it when I click on it, but can everyone else? (These are a certain member's autographed items.)



Again, this begs the question, how do I make the photo appear in this box and not just the URL?[/quote]

The link works for me. Look at all their signatures sans Reina's doodleture!

[AEUGNewtype]

[quote name='Madara' post='66458' date='Jul 15 2009, 04:44 PM']It won't work that way.



So I'll try Hana's way and see what happens:



http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2546/372451...1bd5eb9.jpg?v=0



I can see it when I click on it, but can everyone else? (These are a certain member's autographed items.)



Again, this begs the question, how do I make the photo appear in this box and not just the URL?[/quote]

The link works, but the picture was resized to be really small. I'm sure they should be resized to a certain extent since most digital camera pictures are huge to begin with, but that's a little too small.



And those are my autographed items, haha. Madara wasn't interested in all the other non-H!P items.

[sadude]

Hey Madara, remember when you asked me to give a one-word reaction to the concert? I think I came up with a fitting one: "closure."



Writing my account of the trip, I suppose, in chronological order. Warning: brain dump follows. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... popper.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':popper:' />

(Wow, a week and a half has passed already? I wonder if any of this has been distorted in my mind. Feel free to correct me if I've embellished too much.)



Wednesday, July 1st



My flight was at 7 am NY time from JFK, so my day started off on Wednesday at 3 in the morning, or midnight LA time. So I was already tired when I landed at around 10 am LA time on the first day.



I made my way to the FlyAway bus and waited almost half an hour for it. I took that to Union Station, which took about 30 minutes, and then took the red line on the metro to the hotel. The 7th street station ended up being right across the street from the Sheraton, which was nice.



I checked in and made arrangements to get an extra bed added to the room. We got a nice corner room on the 8th floor with a lot of space and windows which wrapped the corner. (Were they full windows that reached down to the floor? I don't remember.)



I called PQ after checking in at the hotel and went to head to the convention center for registration stuff. On my way down to the lobby, I step into the elevator where two guys were standing on the back wall. I walk in with a nod and turn to face the door, which has closed. A moment later: "...You wouldn't happen to be sadude, would you?" <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... hatthe.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':danceman:' />



It was Sugoi and Snowman, both from NY. Sugoi said that he had apparently recognized me from a picture that was posted a year or two ago. Apparently they had been on my flight from JFK, also, but didn't see me there because they were sitting in the back and I was sitting near the front and I didn't board right away. But we ended up with excellent timing by meeting each other in the elevator, since we would end up hanging out throughout a lot of the weekend.



They had rented a car and were going to meet a friend (I think?), so I walked over to the convention center to meet PQ for registration stuff. I got there to be greeted with this huge line outside:







Apparently this was the continuation of the line inside, where PQ was:







They ran out of room in there, so the line continued outside. I tried to make my way inside to meet up with PQ and her friend, but they were restricting access to the inside to people they had marked on their hand that had already been inside. I BSed my way and told the guy that I had been in there and had left to go check in at the hotel, but he still wouldn't let me in because I didn't have the hand mark. I finally convinced him to let me in briefly so I could give PQ the hotel keycard, which I did along with my ID and registration email so she could get my badge. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... ohyeah.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D/' />



It was around 2pm by now, and registration opened at 3. (PQ had been waiting on line since 10 am.) AEUG and kitaoji had arrived at the airport, so I arranged for them to meet each other so they could head to the hotel, since they were both staying in our room. Ukyo was with them, as well. So I headed to the hotel to meet up with them so they could drop off their stuff and head to registration as well. The line had grown a lot longer by the time I got back to the convention center with them, though it was moving fairly quickly. PQ and her friend had already gotten their and my badges and were waiting in the concert ticket line, where concert seating was being assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. I went to wait the rest of the line with them, though it was nothing compared to the waiting they did since 10 am. (Thank you for getting me my badge and concert ticket! <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... #>/wub.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':wub:' />)



We coordinated a group dinner that night with (most of) the people who were there: everyone mentioned so far (PQ and her friend, Sugoi, Snowman, kitaoji, AEUG, and Ukyo) as well as Madara, EmEl, Pucchi-mo, Ruby, and someone that Sugoi and Snowman knew from H!O.





Thursday, July 2nd



Day 2 (well, Day 1 of the expo itself) found us getting to the convention center at 8-ish to wait in line for the merchandise hall to open. The H!P merch booths had guaranteed autograph tickets to the first 300 people, so we wanted to get those. A line formed and wrapped around the H!P booths (which were clustered together), but there was some confusion and people thought there was one line when there were really two. We thought we were getting in line for CDs, but we were actually on the other merchandise (t-shirts, posters, etc.) line. We stayed on that because it was shorter to guarantee that we got the autograph tickets.



We bought some merchandise and got the tickets, and then it was off to the MM Q&A panel which started at 2. We ended up sitting 15 rows back, since there were some people there that had been there since the very first panels of the day to make sure they had good seats for the MM ones. The panel wasn't that great; people mostly asked dumb questions and drooled all over themselves when they had the chance to talk to MM and ask them questions.



After the Q&A panel was the autograph session for people who had received the yellow tickets at the Q&A panel, which was about the first 10 rows or so. First, no one really knew where it was, so there was a mad dash to the exhibit hall to try and find the place. But it turns out that it was in one of the rooms upstairs, so people got wind of this and made their way up to that.



Sugoi, Snowman, and I got on line even though we didn't have any of the yellow tickets since there was supposed to be a standby line as well. Pumo was with us, though he had a yellow ticket. We made our way a little bit forward on the line where some people Sugoi knew from H!O were standing, and stood with them. It was here that we met SacredCultivator







who I think noticed my name on my badge and introduced himself.



The line started moving forward to where they would separate the people with tickets from those who would go on the standby line. It was here that one of the guys we were with had the bright idea to use the red Hangry autograph tickets and pretend that they were for this which somehow... worked. They let me and the girl and the guy that Sugoi knew (and Pumo, but he had a legit ticket) through to to the room where people with the yellow tickets were, while Sugoi, Snowman, AEUG, and kitaoji were relegated to the standby room.

Back in the yellow ticket room, an AX staff member started handing out numbered tickets for the autograph session, and we ended up with numbers 172-175. The girl gave me a little hassle because my ticket wasn't yellow (how she skipped the guy and the girl in front of me that I was with, I don't know), but I played dumb and she gave me the numbered ticket anyway.



While we were waiting in there the guy in front of us had to leave (he wouldn't say why, but we figured afterwards that someone had clued him in that Yossi was walking around the exhibit hall downstairs at the time and he opted to go for that instead), and the guy we were with talked him into giving him his yellow ticket so he could have a legit one just in case. Yellow ticket +1.



As we were about to exit the room to line up in the hallway, the staff members came in and told us that it was ending. We loitered a little bit, and ended up sneaking the girl who was with us out into the hall line, where we fooled the staff members into thinking that she had been there all along and someone collected her yellow ticket. They shut down the hall line a few people in front of her, and when they did that she fake-freaked out about not having a yellow ticket and a staff member gave one to her. Yellow ticket +2.



We met kitaoji out on the hallway here, and loitered around the door where they were kicking us out through semi-pretending to wait for the girl, and I used the same story on another staff member that someone had taken my ticket and I was left without one. The main lady staff member told me to wait so she could get me a ticket, and while I did that a few MM members (Koharu, Aika, and JunJun?) walked right by the door where we were. Though I somehow didn't notice until they were almost out of sight, since I was too concerned with trying to look like I belonged there and faking concern about my yellow ticket.



We were sent down a few of the steps to one of the landings, where the guy, the girl, and kitaoji decided to run off to try and cut off MM to wherever they were exiting. I stood my ground since I was promised a yellow ticket (which would be good for Saturday's first autograph session), and was rewarded for that in the form of the three girls walking back by the doors to the room they were in. Koharu stared down the staircase the whole time with a huge Koharu-ish grin, so I and some random guy that was there waved at her and she waved back enthusiastically. A few seconds later all of the girls walked by going the other way, and I fumbled for my camera and failed to take anything even resembling a picture. But they all walked by and most of them waved down at us. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /weeeh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':weeeh:' />



We had another semi-group dinner at Qdoba that evening, and the girl, the guy, kitaoji, and I headed to the Westin to stalk MM. I didn't expect to run into MM while we were there, and we certainly didn't, but it was fun wandering around the floors and exploring the hotel. But boy, does the layout of that hotel blow.





Friday, July 3rd



Semi-group breakfast at IHOP, and then off to wait in line for the concert. The concert was at 2:30, and they were scheduled to let people in at 12:30, but we were there around 9. There was nothing else going on at the convention that day (that we were interested in, anyway), and we didn't mind getting there early to wait it out. The rows and sections were assigned, but the seats weren't so we wanted to get the best seats there were in each row. We were all seated in the E section (with a few rows' difference of each other), which was just left of the middle but still with the stage in front of us. We did end up scoring the right-most seats in each row we were in next to the aisle which made the wait well worth it. We got a nice tan while we were waiting in line, too.







As an aside, while we were waiting in line, the guy that Sugoi knew and I managed to talk to one of the assistant managers (...I think that was his title...) of AX. We talked to him about the guest of honors and specifically about MM themselves, of course. He gave us a lot of good inside information as to the process of getting certain guest of honors, what it was like working for the con, and so on. He said some interesting stuff about the process of getting MM to come to AX... or should I say, the process of MM coming to do a concert at AX. Things that make you go hmm...



Anyway, the time on line passed quickly. As another aside, the girl who was MCing the Hello! Party later was going around with a megaphone asking trivia. She asked someone to list the MM singles in order when she was near me, and after a few groans she modified it to naming 2 out of 3 of the 10th, 20th, and 30th singles. No one around me seemed to know, so I volunteered myself. I got "I WISH" right, blanked on Go Girl, and said "...the yellow one" for Ambitious, which she accepted and gave me a prize. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' />



And finally, yes, there was the concert itself. Where do I begin with this? I was exhausted, falling asleep and hungry in between 12:30 and 2. (It didn't help that it was dark in there.) But then the time came, and the girls finally came out.



No, I didn't jump around like pretty much everyone else around me, since that's not my thing. I had no glowsticks, either. I don't see the point. But I enjoyed myself way more than I can say, just taking it all in. After following the stupid group for what, 7 years now? To finally see them live was pretty overwhelming. There were a bunch of bad points that people have mentioned already (too short, the MySpace MC was too long, 3.2.1 being repeated with no encore was stupid), but it didn't really matter.



After that I went to wander the dealer hall still in shock while everyone else got their Hangry autograph. (I gave my Hangry ticket to PQ, since I bought a shirt for her and didn't get any Hangry merch for myself.) We (I don't even remember who at this point) headed back to the Sheraton, where we were staying and where the Hello! Party was supposed to be.



We checked out the H!Party briefly a couple of times, and it wasn't our thing. First time we went there, they were playing the blindfolded dangling game from H!M with a couple of people. The guy from the Japanfiles booth was there (they contributed some prizes), as well as a bunch of Japanese fans looking generally amused. The girl who was MCing did a pretty good job. It was a good idea and effort considering the amount of planning and organization that went into this, as well as no one having any clue what Hello! Ranking was.

The second time I went down there they were doing wota dances to H!P songs. I took some video of it, but there's some already up by other people. You can find pictures and videos at flickr and youtube.





Saturday, July 4th



Saturday morning brought us the Tsunku Q&A panel. Some people opted to go line up at the ass-crack of dawn on the AX-MM autograph line, which was open to anyone simply by lining up (though the yellow tickets were given priority), but AEUG and I figured that the Tsunku panel was worth more than that. And to me, it was. (I gave my yellow ticket to PQ, since she didn't have any other autograph opportunities, and I had a guaranteed ticket for later and wanted to go to the Tsunku panel.) The questions that were asked of Tsunku were a ton better than the ones asked of MM and actually mostly pretty good, the answers that he gave were mostly long and thought out, and the translator seemed to get most of it. AEUG and Madara got up to ask questions, but we didn't get to ask them before the panel was ended, unfortunately.

By the way, does anyone have an audio file or a transcript of this? I'd love to hear/see it again.



At the end of it the host lady informed us that the MM autographs at 2pm were guaranteed if you had a merch ticket, and that we weren't going to be allowed to line up. This was the next thing on our agenda, but since we couldn't line up we did a little wandering first.



First AEUG and I hit the video game hall where we played Pop'n music and AEUG played Guitar Freaks. They had a few other Bemani, but unfortunately no IIDX. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... #>/sad.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':(' /> After that it was off to the exhibit/merchandise hall, where the autograph session was being held. We loitered around where the line was supposed to be, but security and staff were clearing it periodically. We ate inconspicuously just off to the side, and made a dash for it when they allowed people to start lining up.



The line formed out of nowhere, and they cut it off pretty short after a certain point, just in front of us. AEUG went off to go watch a concert, and I stayed behind asking the staff member vague questions about when they would let us line up again. As I was there, they let a few more people squeeze in on line, and I got in among them.



MM came in through the back where I could see them and where they waved at us, and then the line started moving pretty quickly so my wait once there was pretty short. I didn't bring them any gifts. I couldn't think of anything to give them, especially not anything that would stand out among all the other stuff that other people were giving them. Besides, I've already given them enough of my money throughout these past 7 years. I figured that was good enough.



I walked in with my Platinum 9 CD in hand so they could sign the cover. I talked to some of them briefly, not saying much of substance aside from some generic thanks here and there. I had thought about it since a few days prior (when people reported talking to them at the first autograph session, and talking to Yossi the next day), but I couldn't think of anything to tell them aside from generic thanks. That, and I was awestruck and dumbfounded. The girls look pretty much exactly the same (and slightly better) in real life as they do on video and pictures, which is to say really cute/pretty/and beautiful (hi JunJun). It's weird to see them up close after having "known" them for years through all the media that they produce as idols. So as a result of this, as well as seeing all the fandom displayed in various forms around me throughout the weekend and the tight security around them, I couldn't help feeling bad for them. I don't know how else to explain this, and I haven't been able to make much sense of it in the past week and a half, but it was very sobering, bittersweet, and surreal at the same time. While the fans are there at the expo just *having fun* meeting people and doing everything they did (MM-related and otherwise), they're sitting there forced to smile and meet hundreds of strangers, shuttled back and forth from one place to the other, sheltered and constricted from doing what they want. Sure, they get paid a lot for their work, but at what cost? Meeting them was tinged with sadness for me. (Hi sadude, welcome to the world of idols.)



The only thing of note that happened when I went in there was that I started to tell Aika that she was my favorite member. And while I was doing that, I started taking out a piece of paper that had "Aika #1" written on it from the Hello! Party the night before (they ran out of Aika stickers, so the girl that was at the table who was also an Aika fan hand-drew one for me). While I was showing her that, my camera memory card that was also in there fell out and onto the table (I had put it in there when I went to take pictures of them when they came in, in case my camera got confiscated). Aika and I instinctively went to grab it from the table, and but for a fleeting moment...... the security guy looked like he wanted to rip my throat out. Also, see topic subtitle.



I recorded audio of me walking in there and talking to them. It's pretty clear, and served as a good reminder for writing the above. There's not much benefit to posting it, though, since it's just me babbling through it and them giving the same response they gave everyone else.



I wandered the exhibit hall dumbfounded for a bit here while everyone else got their autographs. We headed back to the hotel at some point, and then I tried to organize a birthday dinner for AEUG, but it ended up being just our room + Ukyo. We went to California Pizza Kitchen and had a lot of fun anyway, and we got AEUG a free Sunday since it was his birthday. The staff didn't sing to him, though. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... >/hmph.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':hmph:' />





Sunday, July 5th



Expo festivities were over, at least H!P-wise. I was going to head to the exhibit hall to check out the rest of the con one last time, but we were going to meet Cyrene for lunch and she got there early when I was on my way to the con so I never made it there. PQ, her friend, and I drove with Cyrene to Little Tokyo, where we met Sugoi, Snowman, and a friend of theirs for lunch. On the way there, Cyrene's car recognized me and tried to eat my Platinum 9 CD as payback for anything I may have said to Cyrene throughout the years. It failed in its mission, though.



After lunch it was time for PQ and her friend to pack up. kitaoji and AEUG had left already and everyone else that was still around was busy doing something else, so Cyrene and I drove to Long Beach to meet up with Martini. We went to the beach for a few hours (we saw a dolphin!), and then headed back to pick up Madara and have dinner with him in Chinatown. All in all that was the most relaxing part of the trip, since the expo was over and there was no stress from running around waiting on line for one ridiculous thing or another.









Monday, July 6th



My flight was at 2:45pm, so I didn't have time to do much that morning. Sugoi and Snowman were still around, so we went up to the pool at The Standard, which was 2 blocks north and we had access to as guests of the Sheraton. It was a beautiful day out, and I wanted to relax by the pool and catch a little bit more sun before I left.



That's it, the end. As AEUG summed up in his writeup, seeing MM was just a small part of it. Had I just driven in for the concert and not met everyone else, taken in the rest of the expo, and endured and experienced everything we did, it wouldn't have been nearly as memorable. Meeting all these people I've known throughout the years (AEUG, Peach, PQ, Cyrene, Shin Ukyo), seeing some others from the overall English-speaking H!P community, seeing how ecstatic people were, how much fun everyone was having, and how everyone's eyes lit up from pretty much everything they did... it was all really, really fulfilling, especially after having put in so much time and effort and dedication to being a part of it for the past 7 years. Thank you to everyone along the way.

[JFC]

Sorry to bring this back up, but I've got news that I wish I didn't have.



[quote name='JFC' post='66386' date='Jul 13 2009, 12:22 AM']JPH!P member Jabronisaur has gotten sick, and I mean REALLY sick after he arrived back home after AX. Early speculation was that he contracted pneumonia, but for some reason the doctors haven't actually been able to diagnose him with anything specific.[/quote]

[quote name='daigong @ JPH!P']Jabronisaur aka Tim Marks passed away about an hour ago. The time is now 6:30 PM EST. July 16, 2009.



I just got a call from his brother Chuck. He told him there was 5 pages of well wishes...and that he had the best time in the world with guys like us at JPHIP who share a similiar passion. He mother and father by his side.. He could not respond but he heard.



Forever Remembered Jab, you did all you could possibly could at Anime Expo. We love you.[/quote]

To say I'm shocked is a gross understatement. To say this is insanely unfair is BEYOND understatement. To say I'm sad/pissed off/emotional right now...yeah, you can't really expect one not to be. This makes the second time JPH!P had one of it's own taken too early. Condolences to Jab's family.







I deeply apologize if this derails the thread, as it was never my intent to do so. Thanks to everyone who expressed their concern and sent well wishes for Jab's recovery.

[sadude]

Wow, condolences to his family and to everyone who knew him. That's so shocking. Did they ever figure out what he had?

[JFC]

As of last night, all that I personally know is that his doctors were saying it they believed that he had a "rare" form of pneumonia.



The side of me that's angry wants to really rant about/at the doctors and why they couldn't figure out what he specifically had, but we all know that wouldn't be helpful in any way and like I said, I don't wish to derail this thread.

[Melon]

That is very sad. And very shocking. I'm not really sure what to say, it's some sort of freak accident. I'm confused how it happened, why only he became that sick, ect. Wow.

[Purin-chama]

From what I got from browsing the thread on JPH!P, someone said that he was somewhat sick when he arrived in LA...



Still, jab was a good guy... It's sad to see him pass. RIP man <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... #>/sad.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':danceman:' />

[Snowman]

Wow this is saddening... I find it hard to put words together that would express how horrible this is. My condolences to his loved ones. Wow... just wow. R.I.P

[Cyrene]

I didn't know him but...damn. That's rough, from going to something that you really enjoy to eternal rest. What a sad turn of events, R.I.P. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... #>/sad.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':danceman:' />

[eri]

I'm so sorry <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... #>/sad.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':danceman:' />



Can we send something to his family?

[Joel]

I think the thing that makes me feel so sad for him is that he was able to see Morning Musume and had the most fun in his life... and then he dies. It's just so sad.

[strawberryjam]

My condolences. That's so very sad. RIP. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... ryalot.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':danceman:' />

[Shoujo Q]

Having seen a picture of him at the JH!P thread, I remember seeing him at the panel and in one of the H!P booth lines. I'll think about him, even though I never officially met him or anything.







And on another unrelated note, I just noticed I have Madara's face staring at me. That was an unexpected lol.

[alita87]

I'm sorry to hear about about Jab. Even though I hadn't even heard of him til now it does seem really tragic to have something like this happen after such a great event. Probably most people who did get sick after the con didn't even think about it as illnesses after cons seem to be run of the mill since most people have just spent 3-4 days living a pretty unhealthy lifestyle. Hopefully people will keep a close eye on their own health in the future and remember that things like this can happen so suddenly.





And I'm with PQ, it was a bit of an amusing moment opening the bbs before work this morning and seeing Madara in all his musume surrounded glory staring at me.



Sorry I wrote one response then disappeared, my new job is incredibly busy and stressful but will hopefully turn into a great learning experience about my own abilities. I've been keeping upw ith things just have had no time to respond and probably won't have much this weekend either as I'm going back to Nagoya for the summer concert since I already had tickets there.



As for why the wota here might freak out, well there's a lot of reasons. And it's not even limited to extreme wota freaking out, a few of my friends that are American and Musume fans living in Japan felt the same sort of jealousy and momentary wanting to leave the fandom because so much of the AX visit wasn't fair. As has been mentioned the whole AX experience (without plane or hotel involved since that varied by individual) was an incredibly cheap concert, talk event, handshake, and signing event. While there is a handshake release event for every Musume single, the average copies needed to get into one of each day's events is 6, though that is higher or lower depending on which of the 3 timings you choose. The middle is the least applied for, the first and the last of the day require many more copies for a guaranteed spot. I and many of my friends limit it to buying 10 copies of the cheap version of the single, and that is considered very few and not wota at all as it is probably the smallest amount you can buy and be guaranteed into one if you put all of your cds into that one time. And although in the past I have heard of there being enough time to have a small word with each of the girls, for the past two events (the ones that I have gone to) even my friends that have been going to release events for years said that it was incredibly fast with you not getting anymore than 2 seconds holding each girls hand. If you can hold you body weight and not let the UFA staff push you you barely get enough to say one phrase to your favorite member, most of your phrases end up being the standard "Thank you for all your hard work!" with foreigners like me atleast having that factor as something to make us more noticeable and catch the girls' eyes before we get all the way down the line.



You can't hand over presents directly, although some fans have hidden them and done so quickly to the angry stares of UFA staffers, even at the paid fanclub only events you might get just a little more time to say something but not too much. I went to Makoto's solo talk event (which also came with a signed photo that I didn't even know was signed til I got to the event) and there it was very very small so you had about 30 seconds to say something small to her while holding her hand. For the younger groups, aka all those that are in Hello Project now, that is unimagineable. And all the fans know this so you devise ways of taking a longer time to drop your present in the box etc that gives you just a little space between you and the person in front of you to get noticed.



Autograph signings are pretty much like unicorns over here, they don't exist unless you have spent several thousands of dollars at the official shop (or buy your members personally signed giant poster when it is released through fanclub goods) or have really good timing in randomly grabbing a preorder for something like I did for the Makoto event. I don't remember everything I was shown by my friend who went on the Hawaii tour, but although he received a framed photo of himself with the girls in Hawaiin garb, there was no signature involved in that $4000 event.



I honestly think that UFA didn't really know what they were getting into when they signed on to this, since the H&A thing was much smaller and done almost completely under the guise of them as the fashion mascots and fans at Sakuracon actually seemed to respect the no photography rule. I'm glad that it went off without a hitch and the girls had so much fun, but it does like many of my friends here give me a feeling that UFA doesn't respect the members of its fanclubs all that much.



Anyways, that's just my take on things. I didn't mean it to sound anything like a rant, but I think that maybe it is hard to understand when wota are always presented this crazy bunch of guys, when in reality most are normal business men (and women, there are a lot of fangirls lately) who have just found one outlet to spend all their hardearned cash on. And UFA knows this, hence the average purchase at a concert coming to around $300 even for the only moderately obsessed fan.



Recently they have started "tour blogs" on the cell phone website and have some up about AX. Although there's no way I can transfer the pictures from my cell phone to here I could post translations of the girls blogs. Linlin's has been the most adorable so far with random English and an obvious obsession with anime herself.

[Pucchi-Mo]

[quote name='alita87' post='66516' date='Jul 17 2009, 09:25 AM']As for why the wota here might freak out, well there's a lot of reasons. And it's not even limited to extreme wota freaking out, a few of my friends that are American and Musume fans living in Japan felt the same sort of jealousy and momentary wanting to leave the fandom because so much of the AX visit wasn't fair. As has been mentioned the whole AX experience (without plane or hotel involved since that varied by individual) was an incredibly cheap concert, talk event, handshake, and signing event.



You can't hand over presents directly, although some fans have hidden them and done so quickly to the angry stares of UFA staffers, even at the paid fanclub only events you might get just a little more time to say something but not too much.



Autograph signings are pretty much like unicorns over here, they don't exist unless you have spent several thousands of dollars at the official shop[/quote]

I'm absolutely thankful for the AX weekend, however...

the concert was 1/3 the setlist of a normal Japanese tour, we didn't get an Encore (after they ended with the same song they performed 2nd), many people waited in lines for hours -after some jackass shuts the door on us and fans know nothing for a good while- then hear "no more today", and some people who finally did get to go to the meeting event were shushed when they tried to speak to the girls + some sessions didn't allow handshakes. The dedicated few got the glory.



I'm not complaining, I couldn't have asked for more (outside of the girls performing their album tracks ) I'm just presenting the reality of the situation.



That reality is ...those wota can go suck a big fattie. If anything, it's the fault of the wota who originally caused the companies to be so concerned about fan interaction. This was their first time in L.A. They had less strict rules before they were huge in Japan, right? So it isn't very different, they are obviously more likely to give special incentives to their new audience. Especially since UFA didn't even know just how much people would actually care. It certainly isn't our fault that UFA abuses their power and have so much control over getting every penny out of Japanese fans. They gained that power because the fans were willing to go along with whatever they say, no matter what cost.



Although AX was in my country, I still had to fly across it, as did many others. It's not like for most we just hop on a train or two to get to the event, so while it varied from fan to fan, it was a hell of a lot more significant traveling+hotel costs for most fans than anyone in Japan would have to endure. We didn't walk to AX, some fans came as far as China & Australia. Traveling isn't some minor factor that can be ignored because it took a lot of effort from the majority of people attending to get to this so called incredibly cheap weekend with MM. Plus, a bunch of fans DIDN'T get to meet them (there was a chance of this horrible possibility, but fans were still willing to travel crazy distances), so it's not like America was handed a free pass to grab MM's collective ass.



[quote name='alita87' post='66516' date='Jul 17 2009, 09:25 AM']While there is a handshake release event for every Musume single, the average copies needed to get into one of each day's events is 6, though that is higher or lower depending on which of the 3 timings you choose. The middle is the least applied for, the first and the last of the day require many more copies for a guaranteed spot. I and many of my friends limit it to buying 10 copies of the cheap version of the single, and that is considered very few and not wota at all as it is probably the smallest amount you can buy and be guaranteed into one if you put all of your cds into that one time.[/quote]



I never realized the true reason that fans buy a multiple copies of the same CD.

Also, how many times do you really need to meet them in a year? We had one (300 fans guaranteed) chance, I'm satisfied now.

Even if you buy those 10 copies, and you're successful, it still isn't as much spent as the cost of the average fan's AX accommodations. 10 regular editions are around maybe $120 right?

+ a concert ticket (how much is an average ticket? Around $70-80)

=roughly $200 to meet them & pay for a full concert.

For many AX goers, that amount covers, umm.. a flight, MAYBE.



In conclusion, the wota can still suck a big fat cock.

[AEUGNewtype]

[quote name='TightWetPucchi' post='66520' date='Jul 17 2009, 11:42 AM']Also, how many times do you really need to meet them in a year? We had one (300 fans guaranteed) chance, I'm satisfied now.[/quote]

This is so true. When they're this obsessive over doing something that really doesn't accomplish them anything in the long run, they have to have some other motives at play, and I hate to even start speculating what those would be, as most of it should be fairly obvious, as it involves being a creepy stalker, which has implied motives of its own.



EDIT: Hell, scratch what I just said, the way those fucking wotas acted during the MM panel was proof enough of what their real motives are. They're like horny little children yet none of them looked to be under the age of 30.

[Snowman]

the wota can still suck a big fat cock.

I second that notion. From New York - 6 hour flight, 4 days of waiting on lines that lasted about 3 hours each... depending on how early you get there. Half-assed concert (Not saying I didn't love it but come on... compared to what You wotas get...) Autograph Session lines that were totally unorganized. Even the lines for the Merchandise were horribly made. I don't know how organized things are out there in Japan but it must be much better than what we got. Then 6 hour flight back. That's just time. Half a day of flying. Almost 2 days worth of Waiting in lines comprised of Morning Musume fans and non Morning Musume fans (Who btw can get highly annoying which made the lines worse imo) so thats almost 3 days worth of crap for a 2 hour concert and 3 Autograph sessions that only a few got to all. I myself just got to the Last one which wasn't as good as the first two since we couldn't shake their hands or no small talk.



I'm not complaining at all because I had the time of my life, I'm just stating the facts of how it went down. Doesn't seem as sweet as they'd make it out to be.

[Madara]

Allow me to extend my condolences to the friends and family of Tim Marks, aka "Jabronisaur" and to those who knew him on the web. I'm glad he got to see Morning Musume before leaving us. That must have been some comfort to him in his final hours. I know it would have been for me. It seems to me that whenever there's a triumph of some sorts, it's often followed by a tragedy or just something real bad. There's a pattern here. The high has to be followed by a low. The universe exacts a price; someone has to pay for all the fun we just had. Believe me, I can give you examples from my own life. That doesn't make it any easier, it's just the way it is. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... #>/sad.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':(' />

[JFC]

Thanks for the kind thoughts everyone.



[quote name='mEri' post='66502' date='Jul 17 2009, 01:13 AM']Can we send something to his family?[/quote]Sorry I didn't reply to this sooner. I had to step away yesterday to try and come to terms with what's happened. I'm pretty sure that JPH!P will be setting something up to send to Tim's family soon (if they haven't started already). I can keep everyone here up to date on it if anyone wants to make a contribution/send their best to them.

[sadude]

[quote name='sadude' post='66473' date='Jul 15 2009, 11:39 PM']The main lady staff member told me to wait so she could get me a ticket, and while I did that a few MM members (Koharu, Aika, and JunJun?) walked right by the door where we were. Though I somehow didn't notice until they were almost out of sight, since I was too concerned with trying to look like I belonged there and faking concern about my yellow ticket.[/quote]

Instant replay! <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':hahaha:' />





(Edit: To the guy who PMed me the link to the video, thanks for that. I tried sending a reply but your PM isn't working.)

[JFC]

Okay, just to let everyone know, if you would like to leave a message of condolence for Jab/Tim's family, you can PM them to me here or you can post them yourselves in the following thread at JPH!P (if you don't already have a user account at JPH!P you'll need to create one to do the latter option):

http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=19712.0





Also, planning has begun on the Jab Tribute: http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=19786



At the very least there will be a scrapbook that will contain a printout of the thread that I linked above and all the messages it contains. That scrapbook will be given to Jab's family in Tampa, Florida (there's actually discussion of some JPH!P members flying down and delivering it to them in person). Submissions are totally welcome from anyone/everyone, be they written, drawn/illustrated, or some type of video/audio thing. Much like the messages of condolence, submissions can be posted in the Jab Tribute thread, or they can be PM'ed to me here, after which I'll forward them to the Tribute thread.







Also, here's the latest news for anyone that's interested. News of Jab's passing has apparently reached even 2ch, and daigong was able to contact (and get a reply from) Yaz Noya. The name may be unfamiliar, but people who went to AX for MM will know her as the "handler" and "semi-translator" for the girls at the Q&A panel (the one that sat on the far right of the table and "filtered" many of the questions that were asked at said panel). She was present at the AX GOH breakfast reception where Jab was lucky enough to get some time speaking directly to his favourite current MM member, Junjun.

It is not too late. I can't even formulate thoughts to words, but I will do it ASAP to find some peace of mind. If you haven't already. Please use the sigs in the first post, or just jack em off me.



Getting off my emo ass and going ahead with The Jab Tribute. I wanna thank arian for the forum banner. Crack Staff for being so swift in JABifying the forum. The JPHiP DJs for their touching tributes. And all the peeps who have come near and far to pay their respects. It is truly appreciated. Even on 2ch. JPHiP really is all about breaking down the borders, cuz in the end, we love the same things.







Got reply from Yaz. MM Handler. After I emailed and posted on http://www.myspace.com/morningmusumeofficial

Hi <Dai Gong>,



I am truly feel sorry about the news.

I remember him and plush Banana. I repacked and send back to Japan.



I hope he had good memories at AX and JunJun. His beautiful spirits goes to heaven.

I will pass this news to Japanese Management for sure.



Please send my regrets and heart to his family.



Rest in Peace.



Yaz

Truly, a touching message. Thanks Greg aka OpsMonkey for buying those bananas for him. I remember how we were like "D'oh! Forgot em in the hotel, and we went to give it back to him."

http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=197...85608#msg585608

[Madara]

PQ's friend, Andrea, used my camera to take this photo of us waiting on line for the concert: Sugoi, Kitaoji, PQ, Sadude, AEUGNewtype, Madara, Shirley, Lee (I don't know their screen names) and Snowman.



I followed Kitaoji's tips on how to post this so that the picture appears. I'm not sure what I did, so I'm hoping I can duplicate it.









Okay, I did a second one by trial and error (note to self: click on "All Sizes," then "Medium" and then copy the URL listed in the "Grab the photo's URL" box and paste that here).

This one's got L-R: Furuya, Maki Kanatsu, Ruby, ShinUkyo and Peach and it's right after the concert.







Two of Kitaoji's items autographed by Morning Musume.







Hangry (Yossi) at the booth, Thursday afternoon.



Sorry to take so long with this.

[sadude]

As an aside, while we were waiting in line, the guy that Sugoi knew and I managed to talk to one of the assistant managers (...I think that was his title...) of AX. We talked to him about the guest of honors and specifically about MM themselves, of course. He gave us a lot of good inside information as to the process of getting certain guest of honors, what it was like working for the con, and so on. He said some interesting stuff about the process of getting MM to come to AX... or should I say, the process of MM coming to do a concert at AX. Things that make you go hmm...

Someone asked me about the bolded part in the quote above. To clarify, the staff member just told us about a lot of details on contacting and working with MM's management. The guy compared it fairly often to the process of getting Shokotan to come last year. I think he was a fan of hers since he mentinoed her so often, whereas he spoke about MM strictly in a business sense. But ultimately the AX people are just concerned with getting relatively big artists to come perform at the expo, so he didn't have much to say about MM or H!P expanding into the US or anything like that, which is what we were curious about.



He seemed to have ideas or leads in mind about next year's performers but wouldn't divulge anything. We wanted to know if other H!P acts could follow in the future, but he mentioned that they looked for variety in their acts plus some sort of anime tie-in. They have a few connections in the industry, also, which helps.



The one thing he said which really stuck out in my mind was that MM's management contacted AX about performing, not the other way around. That's a fun basis for speculation.

[demodake]

Someone asked me about the bolded part in the quote above.

I asked you. And now I thank you. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... umbsup.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':eekrun:' />



I have been wondering which side started the deal, and it makes sense that Up-Front took the first step. It lets you imagine things, as you said.

I still wonder how they evaluated the results.

To clarify, the staff member just told us about a lot of details on contacting and working with MM's management.

I wouldn't want to be too insistent, but did he say something about how/what the management negotiated about the girls' requirements (such as their amount of free time)?

I ask because I think I understand the part of your report ending with "(Hi sadude, welcome to the world of idols.)".



Thank you again.

[Special Needs Tricycle]

Yeah, I'd really like to hear more about their workings with UFA. Tell us more? <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... iggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':eekrun:' />

[Madara]

As an aside, while we were waiting in line, the guy that Sugoi knew and I managed to talk to one of the assistant managers (...I think that was his title...) of AX. We talked to him about the guest of honors and specifically about MM themselves, of course. He gave us a lot of good inside information as to the process of getting certain guest of honors, what it was like working for the con, and so on. He said some interesting stuff about the process of getting MM to come to AX... or should I say, the process of MM coming to do a concert at AX. Things that make you go hmm...

Someone asked me about the bolded part in the quote above. To clarify, the staff member just told us about a lot of details on contacting and working with MM's management. The guy compared it fairly often to the process of getting Shokotan to come last year. I think he was a fan of hers since he mentinoed her so often, whereas he spoke about MM strictly in a business sense. But ultimately the AX people are just concerned with getting relatively big artists to come perform at the expo, so he didn't have much to say about MM or H!P expanding into the US or anything like that, which is what we were curious about.



He seemed to have ideas or leads in mind about next year's performers but wouldn't divulge anything. We wanted to know if other H!P acts could follow in the future, but he mentioned that they looked for variety in their acts plus some sort of anime tie-in. They have a few connections in the industry, also, which helps.



The one thing he said which really stuck out in my mind was that MM's management contacted AX about performing, not the other way around. That's a fun basis for speculation.

Interesting. The official story that I got is that AX went to Japan and asked UFA to send MM to AX and UFA looked around, shrugged and said yes. Something like that. But official stories don't always tell the whole story.

[Liana]

I finally got off my ass and wrote about the whole week here, which is mostly personal experience rambling and not interesting, but I do talk about the panel in detail under the "day 1" bolded bit (and AX Idol auditions if anyone was interested in knowing how many little karaoke girls showed up for Tsunku XD). So hey, if anyone wanted to know about that, there's an exciting link!

[sadude]

To clarify, the staff member just told us about a lot of details on contacting and working with MM's management.

I wouldn't want to be too insistent, but did he say something about how/what the management negotiated about the girls' requirements (such as their amount of free time)?

I ask because I think I understand the part of your report ending with "(Hi sadude, welcome to the world of idols.)".

No, he didn't say anything about negotiations or requirements. We didn't think to ask. There wasn't much else aside from what I posted.