Attending AKB48 handshakes: how-to (work in progress)

The purpose of this thread is to help foreign fans attend handshake events in Japan. It is constantly growing and changing, due to the addition of new information and changes occurring at the events themselves. If you have new information or questions, please post and we'll see what we can do.

While this thread is specifically written for handshake events, most of it should be valid for 2shot photo events as well.

Section A - Essential vocabulary

Since everything will happen in Japanese, it's helpful to be able to recognise some of the more important words. You can use sites like Google Translate and browser plugins such as Rikaichan to help guide you through the website portions of the process, but come handshake day, it'll all be up to you.

劇場盤 (gekijou ban) - theatre version of a CD release.

大握手会 (dai akushukai) - the handshake event featuring all members of the 48 family. Referred in this guide as "the big handshake event".

全国握手会 - (zenkoku akushukai) - the handshake events that occur around Japan. Referred to here as "national handshake". All groups do them, though they can be slightly different in their execution.

レーン (lane) - The number of girls can be different between the handshakes, but essentially, member(s) of the group will be waiting to meet you at the end of their lanes. You will give staff your ticket at the start of the lane, and then queue up to meet the girl(s). Which girl is in which lane is usually announced around a week in advance.

第x部 - the big handshake events are broken up into several time slots, when different girls can be met. the "x" is replaced with a number eg 第5部 is this 5th period of the day.

受付終了 (uketsuke shuuryou) - Entry into the lane for that period is over at this time. Typically half an hour before the end of the period.


Section B- The big handshake event

1) Getting a ticket

Section C - National handshakes

Section D - FAQs

 

Section B- The big handshake event
The big handshake event involves every member of the 48 family, and goes for all day. It is broken up into several time slots when different girls will be available to meet. There will not be any sort of live performance, the event is simply a chance to meet the girls and buy some merchandise. The tickets for this event come bundled with theatre version CDs purchased from the site chara-ani.


Part 1) Getting the ticket

Spoiler

Before you applying for a ticket, you need to be sure that you 1) have an address in Japan to send to, and 2) can pay via credit card (or have someone in Japan to pay Cash on Delivery for you). This can be difficult for people who live outside of Japan, but since the site is technically only designed for people who live in Japan, it's something you'll have to put up with.

The site you will be applying for tickets on is-

http://akb48.chara-ani.com/

i) Register for the chara-ani site

You can apply for tickets as a "guest" but this method will not allow you to later log in to pay for your order by credit card (it is COD only), or cancel your applications. Therefore, it's better to take the extra time and create an account.



If you don't know your name in Japanese, then ask a forum member who speaks Japanese to translate it for you.



You should then see a screen to confirm your details and receive an email to verify your email address.

ii) Apply for tickets

Spoiler

Technically, you are not "buying" handshake tickets. You will be buying the new theatre edition single CD, which happens to come with a handshake ticket. However you will only "buy" the CD if your ticket application was successful, so don't worry about ending up with a pile of CDs without tickets, they'll be cancelled automatically.

The front page lists various information about when the events will be on, as well as when application periods are open.



You'll need to agree to terms & conditions before applying.



When applying for tickets, you must choose which time slot you will buy for, and that ticket will ONLY be valid for that slot. Be careful not to apply for many tickets in the same slot, as the periods are only 1.5 hours each, and you may spend as much as half an hour in line to to meet a popular member.



Once you've submitted your application, you can go to the application history screen and view what you've done, and cancel applications that haven't been put into the lottery at the end of the application period yet.



Once applications close for that round, you'll receive one to two emails a few hours after.

The email listing all the applications that were successful looks like this-

The email telling you the applications that were unsuccessful look like this-

Again, you can go onto the website and check your account to see won/lost tickets (red for won, black for lost).

iii) Pay for tickets

Spoiler

Shortly after the final round has closed, you'll receive an email with an invoice number asking for payment. It's time to go back to the chara-ani site and pay.


First, go to the invoice section of the website.


Find the invoice for your order and click the little button in the right corner.


You'll see your invoice, along with the option to pay it, the small grey button down the bottom.


This is the payment option screen, you'll want to pick the first Credit option to pay with credit card.


Here you put in your credit details. Make sure to write in your name as it appears on your credit card (eg in English characters if that's how it looks) and hit our friend the big pink button to confirm. Your credit card will be charged shortly after confirming payment.


If you go back to the invoice screen, you'll see that the green box displaying the status of the order has changed. When the CDs ship it'll change again.

Part 2) Attending the event

Under construction.

Part 3) Warnings

Typically, entrance into a lane will occur a few minutes before start of a time slot, and will close
HALF AN HOUR before the official end of the slot. The exact closing time will be listed on the front page of the chara-ani site under the schedule. Do not be late.

 

Reserved

 

Reserved

 

Reserved

 

^ Your face is not blurred in the photo. Fans are editing their own photos for privacy when posting on the internet. After all, most everyone is interested in the girls anyway.

As for your handshake question. That really depends on what type of event you are going to. You are right, bunching your tickets together gives you more time in one shot, and a chance to have a slightly longer conversation. This plays more into the individual handshake events. As for how long? They say each ticket is good for 10 seconds. However, that can slightly vary based on many factors. There is a limit on how many you can use in the first 30 minuts of a slot. I am pretty sure it is three.

At the National events they pass you through rather quickly, so you don't have much chance to say anything other than a quick greeting. Plus, you can only use one ticket at a time. However, at the end of the National events they allow people with a lot of tickets to use their remaining tickets to spend a longer time with the members. How long? I am not sure, but my guess is it's no more than a few seconds per ticket.

 

The last couple of national handshakes I've gone to, I've watched the staff and they time it as 1 ticket = 7 seconds using the stop watch (ie the staff member with the stopwatch says "time up" when 7xnumber of tickets seconds has passed). However the speed and power with which the staff pull you away from the member and throw you out of the booth is what can vary


Sorry for not finishing the guide yet, I'll work on it on the weekend, ready for the 2shots the following weekend!

 

I plan to cover all that in the final guide, sorry it is taking a while. Quickly:

You can choose to redeem up to x amount of tickets (at first 5, then later 30+) at the time of entering the line. You tell the staff how many you wanna use at one time. So you can either get both photos/amount of time for handshake at the same time or loop around and do it again.

I found the time allocation to be really, really dependant on the staff. In theory you walk in, put your bag down if any, shake hands with the girl, tell the pose, do the pose, maybe shake hands again, and leave. You can talk during this time but you'll be ushered out at the end. Now for some girls you can linger a bit, for some the staff will physically get between you and the girl to get you out of there (happened to me with TANABE MIKU of all people, the staff member was acting stricter than Takamina or Yukirin's staff ffs ).

So basically you can say a few words but don't expect a long conversation. It's a factory production line and they'll usher you through it.

 

The event staff is an outside agency. I don't think they assign people permanently to the members. It will change from event to event.

 

Let's take these one by one....

Yes, the method for buying the singles for handshake event tickets via chara-ani is exactly the same as the method for buying the album for 2-shot tickets. However, the theater version application process for the sister groups can be slightly different.

The ticket that came with your copy of Mae Shika Mukanee is for the National Handshake event. These events are a bit different. There is a mini-live that takes place. After which the handshake part occurs. You don't need to pre-select which member(s) you want to meet. You simply queue in the lane of your choice. Your handshake ticket merely has a serial number. There will be a chart projeced that tells you which lanes are accepting which serial numbers at any given time.

As for registering on the chara-ani site. The answer to all of your questions is YES. You need to translate your name. You need a Japanese address and telephone number, and you can use a personal email address like Yahoo or GMail.