Chuo Dori

Okay, so that SDN concert was major. But it isn’t the only bit of fun I have planned for this trip. Not by a longshot, my friends. In fact, the SDN concert wasn’t even the only thing I did on Saturday. There was another event, and I was even more excited about this one than the SDN concert…

Iwasa Misaki – Solo Mini-live and handshake event at Sunshine City, Ikebukuro

This was going to be awesome! And I knew there would be no problem getting into the event since well, pretty much anyone in the mall could watch if they wanted to. But they were holding a special raffle early Saturday morning for the people who wanted “premium seating”. So I hoofed it over to Sunshine and met Tenkun. He had friends who were already there. We got there around 20 minutes before the drawing, and were around 50th in line. This was really good news since they had 200 premium seats for each of her three events.

So the way it worked, you went up to the table and bought a CD. Every time you got to the front you got handshake tickets, and got to draw a seat ticket for your choice of shows. Since there were probably around 100-150 people there, you could simply loop the line and keep drawing seats until you got a decent one. Of course you had to buy a CD too. I ended up with four, which means I have a new product for my shop!

Around 30 minutes before the show we queued up by lottery number, and went down to our seats. A lot of people had gethered around the free areas, so Wasamin was going to have a good crowd to cheer her on. In addition to the CDs, they were also selling Uchiwas and postcards. I have always wanted a Wasamin uchiwa, and now I have one

One of the bigwigs from Tokuma Records did the opening MC. Talked about Wasamin, and did a bit of banter with the crowd. They also explained how the handshake process would work. After a few minutes, out came my little hero. It was Wasamin!!!

She was dressed in her pink kimono, with a beautiful flower set in her hair. She immediately went io the short version of Mujineki. I was in heaven!!! I have been so worried that I would never get the chance to see her perform this live. And now I have. It was so great! But that wasn’t the only song she sang. Actually she sang four in total, with a short MC between each song. I know during one particular MC she mentioned that she sometimes shopped in that mall. Which would make sense since we already know from Sasshi’s 600 sec. segment that she and Komorin like going there. BTW, I was perfectly positioned dead center in the 2nd row. And there was nobody in front of me because of a break in the first row seats. So I was completely in Wasamin’s sightline, and her eyes were fixed on me much of the time.

As for the other songs, she did Heavy Rotation second. The third song changed for each show The early performance had Seto no Hanayome. The 2nd show was Kikyou. I didn’t see the third performance because of SDN, but I am guessing she did Tsubasa wo Kudasai. The last song was the full version of Mujineki. She sang brilliantly, and looked absolutely gorgeous. Even Tenkun remarked how great she sounded! Then came the handshakes. I had four tickets. You used one as you exited the seating, but could requeue for more after all the seated people went once. My plan was to use three in the first show, and one in the 2nd just in case I had to jam out of there to make it to SDN.

First handshake: Wasamin got that excited look on her face I have grown accustomed to. “Oshiburi!!!”, she says. It is funny because it feels like I was just in Japan for the Kazefui event. But I guess Wasamin missed me? So it seems long for her. She then whispered something to her manager. I hope it was something along the lines of “This is the man I am going to marry!” Anyway, I told her how much I loved Mujineki, and I was so happy to be back in Japan for the event. She responded with “I Love You”, which I of course reciprocated. And you guys think I am joking when I say that Wasamin and I are in love…

For the second round I told her that I learned what Oshiburi meant (I actually didn’t know when she originally said it to me) I asked her to teach me more Japanese she paused….”Arigatou???” Her manager laughed! I also congratulated her for winning the AKBingo! Diva contest. For the third round I showed her a picture of my AKB car. She loved it, and actually showed the picture to her manager.

For the last ticket I simply told her that she looked beautiful, and her kimono was lovely. Also, for each event you got a choice of an autographed signboard, or a postcard. Naturally most everyone took the autograph. So I will add that to my collection.

And this was all on the same day as the SDN concert. Not to mention the fact that I had another huge day planned for Sunday. So now you know why I was so exhausted after SDN. But at the end of the day, it was two majorly awesome events. Wasamin, as expected, did an amazing job. I am so happy they are pushing her single so much. It gave me plenty of opportunity to see her live. And I did, os I am a happy camper.

By the end of the night all I wanted to do was get some sleep and have some wonderful Wasadreams.

CK in Tokyo

Tags: AKB48, Iwasa Misaki