Your AKB48 Experiences

Who is that guy-jin?

 

He is often in japanese TV show with "gaijin" otaku!^^
I think he was in Akiba Champion TV show, not sure!

 

he is patrick w galbraith.

Patrick W. Galbraith is a Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies at the University of Tokyo. His research focus is the impact of material conditions on fantasy, specifically how shifts in modes of capitalism and consumption impact otaku culture in Japan. His primary ethnographic field site is Akihabara in eastern Tokyo. He has worked as a freelance journalist specializing in Japanese popular culture since 2004, which culminated in writing "The Otaku Encyclopedia" and co-founding Otaku2.com. He contributes to "Metropolis" and "Otaku USA." (http://www.otaku2.com/articleView.php?item=213)

his FB if you interest to add him (http://www.facebook.com/Patrick.W.Galbraith)
his latest book is "otaku encyclopedia"

according to that video, he's takamina fans
so, yeah....can walking around with your oshi, taking purikura with her, and so on was so....WOW
urayamashi ne

 

^ he is a great guy, but if you read his "otaku encyclopedia"...

you will want to kill him....

in his article of akb48, he labeled the oogoe senbatsu as team A.

i almost ripped all the books in the shelf when i saw that last year. such an insult to fans of other teams. if what you said is true and he is indeed a takamina fan (and not that he just chose a random girl based on the wall pictures), i hope he tries to correct that error of his in his future publications.

word of advice though: try not to believe everything that's written in there.

 

^ i haven't read his otaku encyclopedia

but this....

when he wrote that article, maybe he didn't has "enough" information for that .... tabun

ahh...
theater....
maybe i'll be there on july-august this year with some fans from AKB48 indonesia forum
i hope we'll get a great experience this summer

*waiting impatiently for july

 

Jasey, seen the vid before but can't it doesnt really give a clear picture how the theatre store really is.

 

btw Youko, do you still in Hokkaido or move to Tokyo now?

 

i've seen that guy dressing up as dragonball z a number of times.




meh....not impressed at all.


doubt i'd call him an akb fan


oh yeah, to contribute to this thread and keep it on topic:

i went to Big Sight today for the satsuei-kai (photo taking session) and have some good ones.

for all of you who think i only take pictures with miichan, you're in for a surprise [nerd]

 

Show me! [shock]

 

OK this is my first post in a very very very long time......but i did go to the photo shoot event on the 13th 14th and will attend on the 22nd too.....and be prepared for some report after the 22nd with some pics of me and the members.

 

2Shot Meet Event
Tokyo Big Sight
March 14, 2010


warning: i was only able to get 2 tickets for today. probably 99.5% of the population at the event had more tickets than me.

acquiring the tickets

after epicly failing at getting tickets from the auctions for the past few days, i finally got fed up and decided to just go to the place and see if anybody would be willing to trade some of their tickets. arrived at the station nearest tokyo big sight at about 12:50pm. started to scout the nearby places immediately for any ticket sellers, but unfortunately, all the guys who set up shop near the station were only selling unofficial akb48 pictures, and some id's for river and sakura no shiori that i didn't know what was for.



met with shining ojisan a few minutes later and then we proceeded to the place. armed with zero tickets, and a crappy phone, it was a risk i was willing to take.. one which i cannot actually lose from XD.



when we entered the place, i was surprised to see the lobby so peaceful. i was expecting the place to be already in chaos since it was already around 1:30pm. i tried my best to search for a kind soul who would spare me some tickets, and after a few tries, i was finally able to find someone who did. at first there was no haachan ticket, and my choices were either kitarie, erepyon, or amimi. though i really wanted haachan, having a ticket of ANY girl would make the day 100x better. after some thought i politely asked if he would let go of his ticket for kitahara. luckily enough, he did.

then just minutes after i received my ticket for rie, another guy came and when i asked him if he had a ticket for haachan, he said yes. i was jumping with joy at this moment, but i tried to control myself and humbly asked him if he was willing to let go of his ticket. a few more laughs, and the ticket was mine. i couldn't believe i was actually going to participate in the event! though ofcourse i had a lot more girls in mind, right now these two tickets were enough to make me really happy.



going to the event spot proper



we went down to the event space which was actually 1 floor below the lobby, and when we got there i was so surprised to find hiroki and one of the theater regulars!! i saw that hiroki was holding a really nice phone.. with an 8megapix camera, and i started begging him if he would be kind enough to let me borrow his phone for a few minutes so i could take a decent picture with haachan. i was only equipped with a crappy nokia phone that i brought from the philippines, with a measly 3megapix camera and an awful quality to boast, cause seriously i wasn't expecting to get any tickets from anybody today. a few more convincing, and suddenly koba arrives holding the 12megapix monster camera phone that everybody was buying for the event. this was the first time i had met koba so i was pretty much shy to ask him if he could let me borrow his camera phone for a few minutes. i guess koba was just too kind, and a few minutes later, i was already pulling out my microsd from my phone to transfer to his phone, and a few minutes later the 12megapix monster was already in my hands!

creepy feeling

seriously, i have to share this. me, shining ojisan, hiroki, and koba all entered the far side of the event space. from the entrance we took, it was about half a kilometer walk towards the place where haachan was designated to take pictures with her fans.

with the loooooooooong straaaaaaaaaaaight walk, and sakura no shiori playing in the background... seriously... it was a creepy creepy feeling. it was as though i was about to go to heaven (meaning i just died somewhere), or i was walking to the altar to get married (and i'm a friggin guy!). seriously... bad combination.

pic with haachan

when koba and i reached the place where i was supposed to line-up for haachan, she was... taking a break. lulz. koba and i decided to wait near the back portion of the booths so we could see haachan go in, but all i saw was asuka (where my eyes almost popped-out). at one moment, pandadash decided to join us for a few minutes. hehe. a few more misunderstandings, then i started to line-up for haachan. less than 10 minutes of lining-up, the staff members started to plow the line asking for fans of certain members. it was a funny sight, as it was as if they were selling the members.

staff: "who wants sashihara? who wants sashihara? you? go go. who else wants sashihara?"

minutes later

staff: "who wants nakagawa? who wants nakagawa?"

really. big lol. then finally...

staff: "anybody for katayama? katamaya! who wants katayama?"

to which i left the line and ran to the front. obviously, the other people who were lining-up were for other girls. or should i say.. girl. i'll give you one guess on who that girl is. XD. anyways, i presented my ticket, the staff member marked it with a pentel pen, then off i went to line-up in front of haachan's booth. as i was lining-up, koba was kind enough to KILL me by telling me haachan was soo much cuter than she was yesterday, and kept drilling the image to my head. my nervousness was not at par with the usual 2shot jitters i have, but they were still there.

and finally it was my turn to go inside. staff member asked me "do you want to take the picture standing up?" to which i replied "yes." but when i got in and saw how beautiful haachan was in her seifuku... there was no way i was going to miss the chance to get my picture taken sitting beside her. i gave the camera to the staff member, and proceeded to greet haachan (all conversations were in japanese):

me: haachan, long time no see!
haachan: o!

*silence*

as expected, she doesn't remember me. and i don't blame her. its been a year since she last saw my face in the theater, and i don't write her fan letters at all.

haachan: shall we do the peace sign?
me: naaaah. lets do this. *makes wii sign*
staff: ok. ready... *click*
staff: hmm... your camera says it cannot take the picture.
me: (panic! its not my phone!) hmm.. lets see. (does settings one more time). ok one more time please.
staff: ok. ready... *click*. okay.

haachan: please come to the theater again, okay? bye bye!

at this point i was wondering if haachan actually remembers me. she used the term "again" when she mentioned about the theater. or maybe she was just assuming that cause i greeted her with "long time no see!"

oh well...

i gave koba back his phone cause he needed it to take a pic with a kenkyuusei member, then i proceeded to line-up for rie right after a few minutes of chit-chat with hiroki and the gang.

pic with kitarie

at this point, hiroki insisted that i wear the akb48 hapi (the blue one, ultra rare). i said yes, and i happilly brought the hapi with me. i lined-up for about 50 minutes for rie, contrary to the 15 minutes or less for haachan. though this time, i was only armed with my own crappy phone, i guess it couldn't be helped.

soon i was in front of the door for kitarie. with my camera ready, i gave it to the staff member and told her to press the center button, as everything was in english . before i could even approach rie:

rie: AAAAAHH!! that hapi!!!!
me: hi kit..
rie: wow! that's awesome! that's really cool!
me: i...
rie: now THAT is really cool. oh, since you have the hapi, shall we do the wotagei pose?
me: ok... like this? (does wotagei romansu pose)

staff: ok.. ready *click*... okay

me: (overtaking kitarie before she could say anything, i spoke in english) thank you so much rie! that was fun!
rie: AH!! wow! (begins to speak in english) thank you so much.
me: (in english) see you around!!
rie: (in english) thank you very much. see you again!

like... lol. beaten by an 18 year old girl. that was more than what i had bargained for. and i'm really glad i took hiroki's advice and put-on that akb48 hapi.


conclusion

i guess that would be it for me. right now i'm 10x hungrier for shows than for events like these. ofcourse unless i manage to get some tickets for the 22nd, then i would never miss the chance to meet more members. i still have a few girls in mind, but i'm not really sure if i could get tickets for them.

honest opinion

Spoiler

looking at the pictures, the quality is just awesome compared to the polaroid 2shots that i took with some members before. but i have to say, the pictures are just.. cold. i guess taking pictures with 500 people in one day, instead of the 5-6 people max for the theater 2shot makes a lot of difference.

and damn the girls look tired. haachan looked pretty tired when i met her, and that was even when she just returned from her break. as for rie, well, i guess the site of that blue coat just made her energy jump. i can just imagine what acchan would look like at the end of the day.

and finally, the pictures
sorry for overdoing the watermarks, but i've seen what some people have done to pictures of other people who posted their 2shots online. hehe. enjoy!

 

^ WOW....
it had been such a long time since i read your EPIC review youko
as usual, read your review can make my heart beating fast, esp in this review...read a review about how you took a 2shot with haachan just made my day......WOW......hahahaha

haachan looks so cute in there...can see her with big ribbon, it's very rare.
thx for share the photo with us...

great review youko....
please give my regard to shining oji & the others

 

^
wow youko, you finally moved to Tokyo again. congratz for your shanshinkai. I hope you go again on the 22th [clap] [party]

btw send my regards to shioji and the others.

 

Nice review PSN! Congrats on being able to score 2 tickets and an awesome phone to take the shots with! (Btw: the hapi pic is EPIC! [rofl])

So did Shioji or Hiroki take any shots? Or were they just there to hang out?

I can't wait to be back in Tokyo! I want to go to a satsueikai! I just need to get a new cellphone before then. I'm not sure if my phone even supports these new-fangled MEGApixels everyone's going on about.

 

Awesome review, Youko. Sounds like you had a lot of fun.

Thanks for sharing.

 

Youko congrats on successfully taking pics with Rie and Haachan, were you able to see any of the other girls at the place?

 

@mihipyon: will do. will give your regards to shioji.

@ruru: likewise. will also give your regards.

@caine: i don't want to spoil anything, but hiroki's pictures were far more awesome that mine. you know how wild he can get.

@haikara: hmm.. asuka and moeno only. saw asuka go in her booth, while a few minutes later i saw moeno leave her booth for a break.