Anime Expo Day 3 had 3 things on the agenda:

1. 1: Tsunku panel.
2. 2: Morning Musume autographs.
3. 3: Hang out with friends/bloggers as much as possible.

Overall summary of the day:

1. 1. Task completed.
2. 2. TASK FREAKIN’ COMPLETED
3. 3. Task Completed.

Having task 2 completed pretty much made my life… Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but it was insanely awesome… Read on to learn more on the day.

johpan and I arrived at the lacc just a little bit before 9am. We headed straight to the place we lined up for autographs on Thursday and got our place holders. At 9 am we got spots #152 and #153. It seems some people had been there since 3:30 am, having headed over to the LACC without sleeping after Hello! Party. johpan stayed in line while I went to the Tsunku panel at Petree Hall. Tsunku’s panel was quite interesting and all his answers were very detailed, unlike the answers from Morning Musume’s panel. Check out the transcript for Tsunku’s Q&A panel at International Wota.

After the panel, I went back to the autograph line to wait it out. Luckily the autograph session started right on time. As mentioned from day 1, 500 tickets were handed out after the panel, but seeing as only 152 fans got autographs the first day, it was up in the air as to whether we’d get through the line today. I was actually supremely worried that the line would stop at johpan (since he had #152) and I’d miss out on the autographs. That would have made me cry… (I’d be disappointed of course, but mainly it would make me cry due to sibling rivalry).

At around 12:10 (the session was ending at 12:30), we were 1 line away from the front. At 12:20, I was 3rd in line and just hoping and praying that they wouldn’t close the door on us. And then the AX volunteer said “All right! Next 4 people!” and my heart started to race.

We were moved into another room with a short line.. And at the front of that line sat the girls, signing away. It was amazing to see the girls up close like that without having your view blocked by their constant entourage. I was getting a photoset signed and I had it set out in the order the girls were sitting in.

After joh finished with Aichan, I was up next. I walked up to her and she greeted me with a big smile.

Ai: Hi!
Me: Konnichi wa! Takahashi-San wa daisuki desu!
Ai: (looking up from signing) Arigato!!
Me: said something that I absolutely cannot remember. XD 2001nen hajimete kikimasu Morning Musume. (LOL I know that was a terribly incorrect sentence in Japanese – there weren’t even any particles in that sentence, but WTF!! Aichan was right in front of me! I couldn’t think straight.)
Aichan: Arigato!

She handed her photo back to me and I was about to move on to Risa, but then she gave me this cute expectant look and stuck out her hands. So I went back and shook them with a very enthusiastic “Arigato!”

Now when I say “shook hands” I don’t mean her right hand clasped my right hand and we shook hands. This was a double handed hand shake (meaning I put down my photos for a second) full of awesomeness.

Up next was Risa. I handed her her photocard with shaky hands and she greeted me with an enthusiastic “Hello!”

Me: Niigaki-san wa daisuki desu. (yes, I cringed on the inside when I said that seeing as I just said it to Aichan, but I love them both!! XD) Gokki memba wa daisuki desu.
Risa: Ah! Thank you!! ^_^

She then handed my card carefully back to me and shook my hands (yes, another double handed handshake… All the girls were double handed hand shakes^_^).

The rest of the girls were in their usual order or Eri, Sayu, Reina, Koharu, Aika, JunJun and LinLin. To the rest of them, I just said “Konnichi wa” and “Arigato gozaimasu!” with a handshake to each girl as well. Some of the girls said “Konnichi wa!” while others said “Hello!”, but I can’t remember who said which exactly… It’s kind of a blur. XD

However, I do remember that Reina took the longest to sign her autograph. She was still signing, and my brother was done with Koha. I looked up at Koha who smiled at me, then the lady standing behind her prompted me to give Koharu her photo to sign. My hands were shaking (as they were through this entire experience) and so the woman took Koha’s photo which was on the top of my pile (in my left hand, the signed photos were in my right) and handed it to Koharu. At this point, Koharu gave this confused, bewildered look, like “why didn’t she hand me the photo? 8S” I’m pretty sure I gave her a bewildered look back ’cause I felt like I should say hi to her, but I was still at Reina in the line… XD So, there was an awkward pause, but then she started signing. Reina finished her with long (but cute) signature, said thank you or arigato to me and shook my hand. I then moved on to Koharu and finally said “Konnichi wa” to her. It was quite an amusing experience. I got an up-close, live view of Koha eyes and it was awesome! 8D

After all the girls signed the photos, johpan and I left the signing room and immediately set our stuff down outside of the room to let them dry off. My hands were shaking so strongly as I set the photos down. XD I really should have gotten something ready to say to each of the girls, but alas what’s done is done. But still, even with my lack of conversation with the girls it was still an amazing experience. Handshakes FTW!!

After the autograph session, we went to West Hall in front of the AX ticketing booth to meet up with some wotachatters to take a group photo. As we were waiting for Bryan of Hello! Ranking to show up, we met up with Sacred Cultivator of Hello! Fansubs which was pretty awesome. (see group photo at top of post)

After the group photo, we took a shot of the International Wota staff in attendance.

The rest of the day after that was pretty lax. CatchFiveBats, CK and Amy went off to get their things signed at the afternoon autograph session. johpan, Rocky and mp went upstairs to the arcade while I went to the Power Rangers panel for a bit. It was cool to see the Power Rangers telling stories about some of their favourite experiences during filming.

The actress who played Rita Repulsa was there and someone asked her to do the “After 10,000 years I’m free!!! It’s time to conquer earth!!” in her Rita voice. XD It was pretty awesome.

I eventually met up with johpan and Rocky at the arcade, and after johpan and I played a few rounds of ParaParaParadise, we left for South Hall to meet up with the others as they all got their autographs already.

It seems the 2nd autograph session was insanely rushed. There are multiple reports that the girls didn’t seem to enjoy it much because they weren’t allowed to really interact with the girls. It definitely wasn’t an autograph session/handshake event like what the morning session (and Thursday’s session) was. It seems fans were told “No contact with the girls. No small talk.” I just have to say I am so glad that I got to go to the morning session. I waited a total of 5 hours for their autographs, but it was absolutely worth it.

People were obviously upset in the afternoon session, but really there wasn’t much they could do. 300 autographs in 2 hours? That’s absolutely insane! Seeing as in the 1.5 hour morning session, they only got through 160 fans, they obviously couldn’t double the amount of autographs with only an additional 30 minutes if they continued to handshake and chat with the fans. The girls were signing for a total of 3 hours and 30 minutes on Day 3. As upsetting it was for the afternoon fans, it was awesome of the girls to do so and I can’t be anything but thankful for everything they did while they were at AX.

We met up with the others at around 4pm, and Rocky and Amy were getting picked up soon. The rest of the afternoon was spent hanging around with CatchFiveBats, CK, KirarinSnow and Paul Thomas of Hello! Blog until our cousin came to pick us up.

It was sad to say bye to the siblings, but it was awesome to meet them. johpan and I also said our goodbyes to KirarinSnow, CK and CatchFiveBats, though we ended up meeting up with CK and CFB again the next day. Day 3 was the end of my Anime Expo and Morning Musume experience, seeing as Morning Musume left LA the next day and didn’t attend the AX closing ceremonies.

But this was seriously one of the (if not THE MOST) amazing weekends of my life, and I definitely will never forget it. It has revived my love for Morning Musume. It’s funny, but now when I look at pictures or watch one of their PVs, and I get this warm bubbly feeling within and I just get so excited. It was ridiculously amazing, and I’m so glad that I decided to make the trip out to see them. It was definitely worth every penny!

One more Expo post to go, which will detail day 4 (though I didn’t actually attend any AX events) as well as overall thoughts of the weekend.

And… a final addition to this post, for it was just linked on Hello! Online’s twitter. Here is a video taken from the opening ceremonies (I know it’s in the wrong day, but I want people to see this, and it will get lost for people who read the blog through a feed reader) when Morikawa (the voice of Sephiroth) came up and Ai-chan completely fangirl-ed. This clip is AWESOME and I favourited it right away. Ai-chan looks about ready to faint when he says his Sephiroth line. I LOVE it. ^_^