New York. I don't think I'm really cut out to be here. I'm not tough enough. Anyway, here is my report. If any of you have seen my picture updates through my phone, you would know that my computer broke. (Yes, the cutie I got from Santa.) I'm writing this on one of the public computers, which means I can't go back and edit this entry when I feel like it. There might be some important details I've gotten. Sorry! Though I suppose a broken computer isn't as bad as what happened to Destini, who got her got her glasses broken AND lost her contact case. ;__;
Woke up at around 4:15 on Friday morning. Even though I was rushing, we were late and still didn't make it to the Javits Center until around 5:30. (We were supposed to meet at 5. I'm so sorry.) I wore a ton of layers, thinking we were going to stand outside until 7 when the doors open. But, the doors were unlocked at 5, even if there was no one there. 8D So I just let myself in. Nessatoshi, Jr, Wendy, and April were already there, but other than that, no one. Not only were we the first Arashi fans, we were the first group of people there all together! A stark contrast from a message board I went to that recommended lining up in January. xD So we played Mario Kart until around 6:30? 7?ish until a few other people got there and started forming a line. Unfortunately, a few people got in front of us. Including Miss Spiteheels/Arashi.vox herself (OH HI. Are you going to rant about us bad apples in your journal again?) looking as menecing as ever, although she didn't really cause much trouble this time, besides waving her extra large "Maximum Chikubi" sign and blocking some views. Anyway, at 7 they let the now 30 people strong line into a special queing room, which we stayed at until 1.
Honestly, this was the highlight of the whole trip. Sitting around plotting the murder of a certain person with our limited arsenal (an apple and a kendama), talking about Barney getting killed by his drug dealer and Baby Bop getting herpes, among other things. (April is so awesome and I love her.) Somehow, before we knew it, our group of six had about 5 more people we didn't know! Destini had a handmade Yatterman uchiwa, but she had to leave to go to the press conference, so it was lying on the ground. A few girls came up to us and asked us about it, and proceeded to sit with us the entire time. Haha, nice plan guys. In front of us, there were two nice Japanese fans, a small group of comic book nerds, and then of course Spiteheels and her minions in front. A little further in back of us, there was a larger group of obnoxious fans singing the chorus of Belive. Over and over again. Let's just call them the Annoying Brigade. Really guys, you were there since 8 or so, you had time to learn the rest of the lyrics! xP
Finally, it was getting closer to 1, and everyone started standing up. Then, a special guest arrived to greet the line! Ninja Turtles!! ...oh. um. okay. We started talking with everyone about how we're not going to push, we'll all be civilized, etc, and finally the doors opened. Beeline to the Yatterman Booth! Somehow made it to the front row. The table where Sho was going to be was about a yard from us. But clearly, there were a lot more people than the staff imagined. I heard someone say 600, but I estimated around 400. Which didn't make much of a difference when there was an average of 10 people at the other booths. The staff started getting worried looks on their faces. They had walkie talkies, but we couldn't hear what they were saying because the speakers were broadcasting Believe from the trailer so loud. (aughh not again! xD) After standing there for around an hour, they finally made the decision it was too dangerous for Sho to come here. He would be up on a balcony waving to us for the 15 minutes instead. We were heartbroken. We're not /those/ kind of fans! We're well behaved. We would never push or shove. I was sad the security looked down on us like that! ...it was a horrible mistake in thinking that. The security was right. As soon as they started passing out tickets, the shoving began. The people in front got trampled, and poor Jr. fell down and had to be carried away by the security guard to keep him safe. I kinda fell down too and was buried in the crowd. It was hard to breathe, I really thought I was going to die for a minute. The people in back of us? The very same ones we thought we were friends with, that said they wouldn't push. We later found out that some of the girls in back had already been guaranteed tickets, and one was even a press member. Then, the guy stopped handing out tickets and Destini was able to drag us out of the crowd. We were crying, it was so scary. I was so embarrassed to be an Arashi fan at that time. I know we all went into this with the "every man for himself" mentality, but that was ridiculous. A little boy got hurt. How do you justify that? Yeah, you. Some of you have got to be reading this. You know what? Fuck you guys.
Okay. now that the first rant is over. Yeah, we got tickets. Except poor April, who had to leave the crowd because she was getting sick. I feel so sad for her. Or was she lucky? I dunno. We all stood around recovering from shock and waiting to see Sho in the balcony above us. We would all gasp when the door opened, only to see another security guard come in and laugh at us. *dies* Finally, Sho came out, wearing a tailored suit and vest, very gentleman-ish, only without the tophat and monicle. He looked down on us and waved. Then we sang A-RA-SHI, and he did the furitsuke with us. Then he left. That went by in a flash! Definitely wasn't 15 minutes. More like 2. But I didn't care, we got to see him in one piece. Undoubtably he would have been in many more pieces if he had come down to greet us.
So, what now? April decided to stay at the convention, while the rest of us headed to the Director's Guild Theater. Oh shit, there was already a line of about 50 people! Not all of them had tickets, though. Actually, they gave out less than 20, not the previously stated 150~ so most people didn't get them. ;_; Now was the moment of truth. It was about 18F (-7C) outside and we had four hours of waiting to do. 18 isn't really that bad. But standing out in it for four hours, after we had been literally standing in line all day, was hard. Those two Japanese fans I mentioned earlier were nice enough to give mini heating packs to Jr, who was having the hardest time. One lady stopped us to ask "Is Hannah Montana here? I've never seen such a huge line in front of this theater." *DIES* After a while, we were split up into two lines. Ticket holders and non ticket holders. Then another line for press/people on the guest list. The list was huge. So many people were getting let in, we didn't think we had a chance. Then they asked for contest winners. It turns out that lady_gemma girl from the a_ra_shi LJ community advertised herself as the owner of an "Arashi fanclub" got 15 free tickets to give away for a 'contest.' If you saw her post, you would know she just saved 4 for herself and friends and gave away the rest on a first come, first serve basis. Yeaahh. And since when is owning a LJ community considered being press anyway?
More people got in before us. Except, these fans didn't go into the theater, they lined them up on the red carpet (which I couldn't even see) to greet Sho. Finally, he and the director arrived. In a car with tinted windows, but some people were able to see him and said he had he mouth open, while the director laughed. By this time, I'm sure there was about 600 fans in line, so I guess it was pretty surprising. xD He walked the red carpet, I assume, and went in together with the 'contest wining' fans. More and more guest listers started getting in as well.
Then, miraculously, they started letting the ticket holders line in! They stopped and closed off the gate at us. Another time when I couldn't breathe, I was so nervous. Finally, the guard OK'ed us and we were let in and given pamphlets. The theater actually wasn't all that full yet! I don't know what the problem was. We were getting ready to sit in the second row, when a staff member said we could sit in the first. Unlike USC, the front row wasn't reserved. So we sat in the very front row, in the left hand corner right next to the curtain to go on stage. Seriously the best seats in the house. Oh shi-- I was getting nervous.
Mr. Pink Suit who had been with us almost the entire four hour wait, told us to start doing the Yatterman call. Yatta! Yatta! Yatterman!!! Sho and Miike came out about one meter from us, walked into the stage, and gave little welcome speeches. Miike in Japanese, and Sho in English. I could tell it wasn't anything prepared like Jun's, he was just talking normally. Although honestly his accent wasn't that much better than Jun's. Although I'm biased and I'm sure Jun practiced for a gazillion years while Sho just talked off the top of his head. xP But there's no denying Sho is smart and definitely fluent. He used lots of big words, although I don't remember them at the moment because I was crying too hard, sorry. Mr. Pink Suit warns us that people from Japan flew all the way here to kill us if we took pictures or videos, which is a very accurate respresentation of JE, if I do say so myself. The lights dim, and they casually walk by us again to take their own seats in the back of the theater. Oh hey there Sho, why are you so close to me?
The movie starts! Woooo. Fukada Kyoko stole the show as Doronjo. I loved her and the rest of the gang. There were some funny parts, some parts that left you going "Wait what the hell?" and it was all around an enjoyable little film. <3 Definitely not Oscar material, but we already knew that. During the credits, I heard the full version of Believe for the first time that day. xDD Won't say any more, don't want to spoil anything.
Now for the Q&A. Sho comes back on stage after disappearing to do his hair. He answered a few questions in English, then got lazy and switched to Japanese. I don't think he ever used the translator to translate questions, though. After a while, Pink Suit started going out into the audience to ask questions. A girl raised her hand and asked if there were any plans for Arashi to do a concert in America, and a very pissed off Sho answered "Why don't you ask questions about Yatterman first?" Geez. I understand it would be frustrating if every single person asked about Arashi, but that was the first question. Really, who does he think he is? Did he really expect to get respect as an actor for a movie like this, and expected all of us to be there just for him? Well, he lost all respect in my book for that. He's so fake. I know it's comparing apples and oranges, but Jun, a normally angry guy, looked so humbled and grateful to all the fans, and answered that he would love to come back. Don't forget what brought you here in the first place, Sho. It definitely wasn't your superb acting skills that made you famous. Rant #2 (or was it #3?) over.
Unfortunately, some other fans were pretty KY and asked more questions unrelated to Yatterman. But hey, Pink Suit kept knowingly handing the mike to fans. A girl from Peru brought a present from Machu Pichu, which would originally have been nice, but the timing was really bad and probably made Sho even more pissed. But I must say how wonderful the South American fans were. They were some of the few that didn't push, and the girl from Peru (sorry I don't know her name ;;;) even came up to us to check on Jr to see if he was okay.
There were some questions to Miike, and then they left. The problem was, I had made a card and everyone had signed it, but I didn't get the chance to give it to him. (At that point I wanted to wad it up and throw it in his face, but it was a card from all of us, so I didn't have the right to do so.) We gave it to some other guy instead, and he said he'd pass it along to the manager. LOL, managers. It probably ended up in the trash can. My apologizes to everyone that went through the trouble to sign it.
After the theater started clearing out, we met with Destini who was clearly upset, which made me feel really depressed. I wish there was some way I could have cheered her up. Everyone was feeling pretty bad as Nessatoshi's group left in a taxi and my aunt and I walked back to the hotel.
It was an experience, I guess. I still feel a little embarrassed to be an American Arashi fan right now, so I think I'll lay low for a while. I had a lot of fun with my friends, and I'm really, really grateful for that. I love you guys~~
Sorry for the typos, etc etc.
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