Chuo Dori

I went to AKB48′s “Give Me Five” handshake event on Sunday, but since that will take me a while to write, and I need to begin packing for my flight home tomorrow I am going to skip it for the moment. Instead I will report today’s festivities…

I had won cancel machi for last Tuesday’s Team K show, but the storm that went through Tokyo that evening forced many businesses to close early. It also resulted in the Theater being closed for the evening. But I received an email that I could transfer the win to the show of my choosing. So I chose Monday’s show, which also happened to be Team K. But before I get into that…

As a tradition I always meet one of my friends for lunch in Toyosu whenever I am in town. We have a designated meeting spot outside Toyosu Station. So today I headed out to Toyosu in the early afternoon. I went to our normal meeting place, but there were four girls standing there. As I quickly surveyed the situation one of the four girls looked over and stared at me. To my surprise, I then realized that I knew who they were…

It was Momoiro Clover Z!!!

The entire group, except for Reni (the purple one) was standing there while their manager was hailing two taxis. Ayaka and Shiori were still wearing their school unis. I wasn’t sure if Momoka recognized me when she looked over (I have done handshakes and a two-shot with her in the past), so I just stood there pretending not to be paying attention to them.  I didn’t want to scare them away!  But when they left I tried to snap off a few paparazzi shots.

Never a dull moment in the land of Idols.

AKB48 Theater 2012/04/09 “RESET” featuring Team K and various Kenkyuusei

I had cancel machi #56, and this was the only sniff I had at a possible win while I was here. So it would either be this show or bust. Luckily most of the major members of Team K would be absent for this show. So that improved my chances. I didn’t really mind anyway since Yui and Moeno would be there. that was all that mattered to me.

I got up there about 5 minutes before the beginning of cancel machi. I could tell immediately that they had a lot of space because they were calling the numbers rather rapidly. 10, 20, 30, 40, still calling rapidly. When they got to 50 and still hadn’t slowed down I knew I was in good shape with 56. At the end they had gone past 100. So keep that in mind kiddies the next time you have a high cancel machi number. You never know…

So this would be my 29th theater show, and 7th time seeing Team K. It also meant I have now seen all the of the current AKB stages. It took a year and a half, but I have now seen A6, K6, and B5 live. And I was going to be in the seat lottery. Now historically I always had terrible seat lottery luck. I had never been closer than 4th row on the side. But that all changed last trip when I got front row center for SDN. I wondered how my luck would be today with ticket #211?

First call, 80-89
Second call, 70-79
Third call, 210-219…Score-a-rooni!

I didn’t get front row center. But I DID get front row on the left. Awesome! You guys know the RESET setlist, so I won’t bother with a track-by-track. Just some of the highlights from my perspective…
One again, first row always gets you some good one-on-one reactions. Yokoyama Yui and Sazaki Yukari, who I both had handshakes with yesterday both smiled at me right off the bat. But I was really looking for Moeno.

Unfortunately for me Moeno spent most of the show on the other side of the stage. But she came over on the third song and kneeled down right in front of me. When she looked up, she saw me, laughed and waved! LOL, too cute! In fact, just about every time she came over to my side she looked for me.  Moeno is a total flirt!

But I also got attention from a couple other girls too, especially Nakatsuka Tomomi. She kept pointing right at me in one song. Uchida Mayumi waved to me and smiled too. As did Nattori Wakana a couple of times. BTW, has Uchi always had her bellybutton pierced? Or is that new???

Oh, and I ended up being in the perfect seat if I was a Minegishi Minami fan. She was right in front of me quite a lot, and she demands your attention when she is there! I wanted to pay attention to Moeno and Yui, but I was afraid to not look at Miichan!

Also, sitting at the side in front puts you right next to the speakers. It is REALLY loud over there! You can also hear when the girls’ mics are live. Yes, I heard a few clunker notes along the way. But I had forgotten how much I enjoy K6. It is a very fun stage! And for the encore we got GM5, and Moeno playing a mean bass guitar! She really did a great job!

High Touch went very fast, but I got looks of familiarity from Moeno and Yui, and a few English “Thank You’s” I forget from whom.

It was a great last evening of the trip. Now it is time to pack for the flight back to Cali tomorrow. I will do my Sunday handshake event report ASAP.

CK in Tokyo

Tags: AKB48, Momoiro Clover, Team K