Hatakeyama Chisaki / 1st Gen

PV of the B-side from Chaki's debut solo single


if the video does not show watch the video here

 

It was released in November. On HMV and CDJapan, she is listed simply as "Chaki"

BTW, not sure where the PV comes from, as her CD doesn't come with an accompanying DVD

 

Cute song! Chaki is so adorable. It sounds really familiar to me too. I'm wondering if she performed this when I saw her live a year ago...

Hopefully this single won't be difficult to get a hold of.

 

Chaki's Official Website...
http://chaki-web.wix.com/chaki

Has plenty of appearance and release information.

Her most recent PV...


if the video does not show watch the video here

The bummer is that all of her singles are venue exclusive.

She also seems to have this YouTube page, with live appearance videos...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChpTePstd0aTgPUctObyqkQ


if the video does not show watch the video here

 

Had a chance to catch Chaki live a couple of times this month. First at Tokyo Tower, then at a tiny club called Ship Seed in Shimokitazawa. Chaki sounded great! It was a lot of fun. She remembered my instantly, even though I haven't seen her in quite a while. And she signed her new album for me!

 

So I know this isn't exactly an "AKB48" Experience report, but I felt it would be a shame to bury this in the SDN48 section where pretty much nobody would read it...

Hatakeyama Chisaki: "Chaki Live Vol. 6" at Club Chelsea Hotel, Shibuya (2016/12/15)



I know a lot of people on Stage48 these days weren't around when SDN48 existed, and even if you were most of you didn't pay too much attention to them, which was too bad, since at the time they were my favorite thing about the 48-groups. And I just adored Chaki. I always said that if Meetan weren't in the group Chaki would be my oshi member of SDN. I occasionally wrote her fan letters too, and she always thanked me at high touch or handshake events after she received them. So after SDN48 broke up I have kept up with her activities, and have occasionally gone to see her perform.

It has been almost 9 months since I have seen Chaki live. She is high on my priority list when it came to artists or idols I like to see. However, since I am living here in Tokyo now I had to rethink how I am going to participate when it comes to seeing idol events. I am no longer here on vacation, so quite often my responsibilities have priority over fun. Even with Wasamin, I don't go to every event. Although she is the one that I will do my best to see as often as possible. As for the others, since I moved back in the Summer...

FESTIVE: Have seen three times, the last time was about a month ago
Tokyo CLEARS: Seen twice, last time was in early September
Hashimoto Kanna: Haven't seen.
MWAM: Haven't seen
PARMS: Haven't gone, and Kamen Joshi is no longer a priority for me since Himeri left.
Chaki: Haven't seen, until this event

Anyway, I checked Chaki's schedule last month and decided I would make a point of seeing her in December since she had quite a few events scheduled. But she had slipped my mind until I saw her thanking people on twitter for coming to her show last week. I thought, "Oh shit I forgot about Chaki again!"

So Wednesday was my birthday, and I was on social media quite a bit responding to people sending me best wishes. I noticed Chaki talking about her show the next day. So I sent her a tweet telling her I was thinking of coming. A few moments later Chaki responded asking me to "Please come to the show >

[img src="http://stage48.net/forum/index.php?attachments/img_5175-jpg.90898/" alt="IMG_5175.jpg" class="bbCodeImage LbImage" >

This was my first time at the Chelsea Hotel, although I had walked by it quite a few times when going to Tokyu Hands, so I knew where it was. Like so many of the clubs in Shimokitazawa where Chaki usually plays, it was a small, dingy little club in a basement underneath another club and a Kebab shop. Small stage, little bar. To be honest, the place smelled kinda like a men's room. But whatever, I was one of the first people in, so I would have a good spot. I didn't go to the front of the stage though, a stayed a few feet back toward the right. I did go over to the goods table since I wanted to a) pick up copies of Chaki's new single, b) pick up some of her old indie singles that I don't have, thankfully they had them in stock this time. (They didn't at the last show I went to). I also knew that Chaki has a Ponta Card, which you can redeem to go to a Chaki drinking party! Awesome prize, eh? I also got a free Chaki poster for buying multiple copies of the new single.


My Chaki AND Wasamin "frequent buyer" cards

It got to be around 15 minutes before curtain and there still wer only like 25 people in the club, including Chaki's mom. I was waiting to see if any of Chaki's SDN48 friends would show up (at Chaki Live Vol. 3 Rachel, Akiko, Hiromin, and Megu were in the audience) Lo and behold, in walks Nachu. She quickly waved to us in the small crowd before jumping into the dressing room, where we all could immediately hear Chaki squealing! Nachu hung out at the back of the venue for most of the show...



Finally the show started, 10-15 minutes late. Chaki came out in a pretty white dress, and to my surprise she had a new back up band. The all-female "ChakiPro Project", who were also all dressed in white. The band was really good, especially the guitarist, Kei-chan. She had a real bluesy Santana-like sound, and did a couple of real impressive runs. The setlist for the most part was pretty much her album, "Chakiism", which I bought back in March. I love the CD, and highly recommend it.



There is also a lot of audience participation during her performance. In fact, at one point her birthday committee pushed my up to the front of the stage, when Chaki saw this she leaned down next to me, shoved the microphone in my face, and we did a duet of the end of the chorus part of the song "Party". So now I get to say I have sung with an idol! (Well, actually Wasamin and I sang together once, but that was during a handshake) After that I got a bunch of high-fives from people in the crowd. The show ended after about 90 minutes, and a quick one song encore.


Chaki's band: (from left) Guitar: Kei-chan, Bass Guitar: Shin-P, Keyboards: Eimi-chan, Drums: Yuu

I was going to bail, but I knew that Chaki usually comes out and talks with the audience after the show, so I grabbed another drink and hung around. Eventually she came out, and started signing people's CDs. While I was waiting in the queue I noticed that the occasional fan was talking a cheki photo with Chaki, so I took a closer look at the goods "menu" and saw that a Cheki was 1000 yen. Cool! So I got to the front, Chaki immediately thanked me for "helping" her with the song. I asked if I could get a "Chaki Cheki" too, and she said ofcourse. I mentioned it had been quite a while since she and I had taken a photo together. She was like "That's true!" It was funny though, when she was signing my CD she got all embarassed that she had to ask my name. I don't see her that often, so I don't expect her to remember it. LOL. While she was signing the CD she mentioned our little twitter interaction the previous day. We took the picture, and I told her I would see her again soon. In fact her fans were asking me when I would be coming to see Chaki again. I told them later this month. She has a live in Ikebukuro on Friday, so I will definitely go to that.



And with that I left....

EPILOGUE:

So a funny thing happened the next day. I was writing a little blurb on Facebook thanking my friends for sending me birthday greetings, and I was talking about my birthday celebration was spent seeing Chaki, and how much I enjoyed the show. I then remembered that Chaki mentioned she had a Facebook page....

That's odd, I don't remember ever seeing Chaki entries on my Facebook timeline.

So I checked her page, and I had sent a friend request to her a long time ago and she never responded. So I re-sent it. Within minutes she accepted the request, then she started "liking" a bunch of random entries on my timeline, including some of the birthday wishes from my friends. She also "shared" my post where I talked about her, but she commented that she couldn't read English, so she didn't know what I was saying. So I responded telling her that it says the show was great and I had a lot of fun. A few minutes later she "liked" that post too.

All in all it was an awesome time, and I look forward to seeing her again next week.

 

Last week saw the release of new singles by two of my favorite artists, Wasamin and Chaki! I wasn't able to attend Wasamin's Wednesday event in Saitama, but I was able to go to Chaki's release event at HMV in Shibuya...


BTW, they had a big SMAP display in the shop, and there were quite a few people there snapping pics

I was really sad to see such a low turnout for her release event. I got there about 15 minutes before curtain, and there were literally 4 people there, including me. Eventually four became, six, and then eight. Chaki walked out a few minutes early, and to be honest I could see that she looked a bit disappointed. But the show must go on. Eventually the crowd grew to about 15-20, although some of them were just people who happened to be in the store. It isn't a big place.

I had a few drinks before the show, so I was a bit uninhibited, and was cheering really hard for her. She did a five song set, and then we lined up for benefits. With each handshake ticket, you had a choice of a cheki, shamekai, photo, signed CD, or two tickets for a poster. They also had a special drawing and promotion. If you bought multiple copies you got an extra handshake ticket. So like 2 CDs equally 3 tickets. You also got to draw to win one of three bonus prizes, which were signed concert notes and setlists from her solo live in December. Two of them were won, but nobody drew the third one. So she took it home. I ended up with six tickets, which was more than anyone else in the room. In fact, there were only three of us with multiple tickets. I ended up getting two shamekai, one cheki, two photos, and an autographed CD. (I already got the poster for free at her solo live) Anyway, here is one of the shamekai I took...


I mentioned to her on my first handshake that I though she looked really cute. Both she and her manager were like "Oooohhhh!" I guess that's me "making the moves" on the idols again. Much easier to do when you kind of already know the response, or non-response.

Side Note: I bought two copies of Chaki's album "Chakiism" back in March. I was in the mood to listen to it last month, but I couldn't find either copy in my luggage, so I figured I left them back in California. I was about to purchase a third copy. However, a couple of weeks ago I was checking for something in my computer bag, and I found one of the album copies. So yay! I can listen it without buying another one! In fact I told Chaki I had been listening to her album quite a bit lately.

Anyway, I hope this low turnout was just an anomaly. Not to mention the fact that technically her single has been available for a while. I mean this was "release day", and I already have 5 copies, some of which I got over a month ago.

 

Chaki announced today that she got married. She also wrote that she plans on continuing with her solo career.

Congratulations Chaki!!!

https://ameblo.jp/chaki-pu/entry-12342839796.html

I haven't seen Chaki perform for at least 6 months. I guess I will have to go soon and pay my respects.

 

I didn't notice that Chaki put out a video for her last single, albiet a year after the single came out, LOL.


if the video does not show watch the video here

 

Last night (11/07) Chaki gave birth to a baby girl.

https://twitter.com/chaki_pu/status/1060369807025946624

Congratulations Chaki-chan!

Now let's see how long before she is performing again.