Single Iwasa Misaki 3rd [Tomonoura bojou] (2014/01/08)

The good news...I was able to procure a ticket for the first event in Ginza.

The bad news, I started to come down with something last night after gallivanting around town with Tensai all day. So I am spending the day medicating. So far so good, I already feel a bit better after eating breakfast. Probably just a combination of jetlag+change in the weather I want to be in good health when I see Wasamin. Don't want to get her sick.

 

Illness got worse before it subsided. But I am feeling a bit better now. Gonna rest up again tonight in preparation for tomorrow...

Walking through the mall in Asakusa, stumbled upon a little Enka Music shop...



Wasa promo...right at the front door. [rock]



First event ticket GET. Yamano Music was the only shop that you could pre-order. The rest are all being sold "day of event"

 

All the way to Kumamoto!

Feeling MUCH better this morning. Now, a few early problems...

Seems a lot of fans had the days mixed up, and didn't think the events started until tomorrow. Good thing I posted on mixi, a few people might have missed the event.

Second Today is like Japan's "back to work" day. So a lot of people are going to be missing the events (Today AND tomorrow) because of work conflicts. Lets hope Wasamin has plenty of fans in the West when she has weekend events.

At least those fans can pre-plan for the 2-shot events in February and March. Those should count for 1st week sales too.

I guess there is an anime CD coming out this week? Seems that is the biggest competition.

 

Today was sort of a warmup for the events to come. Especially since tomorrow is the only day Wasamin is performing in Tokyo to support this release. Most of the major promotion is happening in Western Japan. It will be interesting to see how this strategy works.

For today you simply pre-ordered the CD (either version) and got a coupon (for the CD) and a handshake ticket for each copy you bought. Wasamin wore her light blue Kimono. 10-15 second handshake. Her manager gave us a bonus photo and a Tomonoura Autograph Board on exit. I thought we might get three different bonus pics considering it was three different music chains. But we got the same pic each time.



The turnout got bigger later in the day. Yamano Music in Ginza had the smallest turnout by far. It's a very classy store. More of a musical instrument store than a CD shop. They were looping the new PV on a giant screen behind the stage.



For my handshake...After I wished her a "Happy New Year", Wasamin was excited to tell me that some of my friends have been writing her fan mail. Hontoni????? I guess some of you have been mentioning me in your letters??? I wanted to be sure, but the store staff made you leave if you didn't have any more tickets. So that question would wait, I was off to Shibuya...



After grabbing a coffee at the Starbucks above Zebra Crossing, I bought my CD/ticket. They made you queue up on the outside stairwell. By the way, it is really cold here! So we got to freeze our butts off on the fire escape for 30 minutes. Luckily I was close to the front of the queue. And for my handshake I wanted clarification.




Yes, people are mentioning me in their fan letters to Wasamin...

Yatta! I exclaimed. That is awesome, guys! Thank You! I told her I talk to Wasamin fans all over the world. Oh, and this means she is definitely reading our fan mail. I need to ask her about the one I wrote her in November.

It was really cold at Tsutaya, and I was getting tired. (Remember, I am just getting over being ill) So I headed over to Tower Records Shinjuku for the final leg. I passed the time watching promos for the new "Mecha Mecha Iketeru" DVD Box featuring the Momusu Baka Test and Sports Festival. They also had us queue in the stairwell. Luckily, this one had heat.

I was so happy that S48/Ebi User loveandcoffee just made it to the event. So much fun watching her react to Wasamin!

Tower Records was the first place I heard playing the entire CD. Just as my turn for handshake came up, Ihoujin began playing throughout the store. It was the first time I heard her version, and I love it!!! I just sat there listening to it with Wasamin for 15 seconds. It was great. You could tell she is really proud if it. As Yoshida-san tapped my shoulder to leave, I told Wasamin I would see her tomorrow.

Here is a little bonus, the billboards for the new AKB48 Album and Watarirouka CD in Shibuya...





As for the rest of the week, so far I know of six fans who like me wil be following her to all of the events. Hopefully there will be more. But that's a good start. Some fans are flying to select events, but not all.

Anyway, that's enough for Day One. I look forward to hearing her sing, and actually getting my hands on these CDs. That begins tomorrow. And just a warning, since so much more travel is involved with this trip, my posts might be a bit sporadic. But I will do my best.

 

Let's start with some news articles. Lots of press there today! And a great crowd. I hope some news video pops up soon...

http://www.cinematoday.jp/page/N0059300

http://news24.jp/entertainment/news/1631896.html

http://natalie.mu/music/news/107224

 

Some pics from Natalie.mu












Wasamin was absolutely glowing in her blue Kimono.

Oh, I guess we didn't know the CD (both versions) comes with a bonus photo inside. There are 6 different photos that you can get!

 

This is a quick hit, because I need to catch te Shinkansen to Nagoya very soon...

Each event featured the same setlist format, similar to the previous singles...

Tomonoura (short version)
MC
B-side track
MC
Tomonoura (ful-version)

The events were MCd by Nishiyori Higashi from Nagara Pro. He also MCs the Nagara Pro Enka Matsuri

I was front row for all three events. Front row center for 1 and 3. Had awesome luck drawing in the lottery.

Out of the gate, Wasamin had some breathing issues on Tomonoura. Mainly on the beginning of the verse, and carrying the vocal on "Bojouuuu" She improved as the day progressed. By the 3rd event, she nailed it!

KFC Enka version, "duel" with Roura (Fukuyama Mascot). Awesome performance. In front of the press too. [rock] This is a real crowd pleaser!

Ihoujin. Slightly pitchy on the first try. We will see how she does with it today.

First event hs she helped me pronounce the song title correctly.

2nd event I told her she and Roura were cute together, and KFC-Enka version was great!

3rd event I told her the last performance of Tomonoura was perfect! I had a 2nd hs too, where I commented on her "sad eyes" while she sings Tomonoura. At first she took it as a negative, like she disappointed me. But I explained "No, it is good!"

On that last handshake I was behind one of her big fans who buys tons of copies, and the guy who wears the "Wasacar" around his neck. All of the sudden the attention is on me. Not sure why I became the topic of conversation. I'm going "Nani...Nani????"

BTW, Wasamin was giggling at my attempts at Japanese today

2nd event crowd was huge! 3rd event crowd not quite as big, but the handshake session went for around 90 minutes! Tokyo fans went all out today! Hopefully the 1st day numbers will be good.

I will upload more photos later...

 

Just got into Osaka after attending the Nagoya events. Passed by the SKE theater as the lucky winners of tonight's show (which I applied for) were queued up. But the weather is crappy, and I wanted to get to my Osaka hotel...

Some quick hits, I will add more in a bit...

Crowd was not very big. Nadya Park in Sakae is kind of a dead mall. Surprisingly, the biggest crowd was for the early performance when most of the salarymen were out on lunch break. Quite a few watching in business attire...

A large contingency of Tokyo fans made the trip. Thank heavens, or else it would have been really dead. However, a couple of the Nagoya fans bought over 100 copies!

The MC's were the same guys that hosted the Request Covers event in Suzuka. They were happily surprised to see me again. They also remembered where I was from! I thanked the lead guy for hosting the show.

Singing-wise, Wasamin was in top form today. I barely heard any mistakes. She has KFC-enka version wired, so no problems there. She also has a lot of practice with Akai Sweet Pea, so that was great. Ihoujin was much better today. And she was awesome with Tomonoura. During the second show I was right next to the speaker, so I was listening very closely to her vocal work. You can hear her voice coming from deep within. A lot of power today.

By the way, she does quite a few hand gestures with Tomonoura and KFC. So it is a lot more than the usual "palm on the chest" She is much looser on these songs.

I still can't get over how unbelievably gorgeous she looked. She had on a bright pink Kimono, but her hair wasn't tied up the way it usually is when she is dressed this way. It was long to her left side under her hair accoutrement. I just wanted to propose to her right there. When I told her how much I liked her hairstyle, she asked if I thought she was cute. I told her she was mecha mecha kirei, and that I loved her so much!

I also told her that when she sings Ihoujin she is singing about me

But the best was the MC where she was asking where everyone was from. Of course the topic of me being from San Francisco pops up (also Andy being from Hong Kong) Then she proudly told the crowd that Andy and I were following her all over the country this week! It's funny how they keep pushing for people to come out to the different locales. The MCs ask "Who is coming to Osaka? Hiroshima? etc... They should have a Wasamin fan-tour! I bet a lot of people would sign up. [rock]

EDIT: Early word is Tomonoura Bojou ranked #1 on Oricon daily [party]