Momusu at AX! (Part 4)

Even more continuation of the greatest weekend ever. Sorry for any lack of details or people I leave out...it's all kind of a blur, especially the first couple days.

Saturday
Alright, so...on Friday at the concert, somehow I managed to lose my autograph voucher. D: I was keeping it in my badge holder, so I'm sure it fell out while I was jumping and so forth. The night before, at Hello!Party, maiZe actually got ahold of an extra voucher to give to me, but I was already kind of on the fence between attending the Tsunku panel or the second autograph session, so I denied the voucher, claiming that fate had decided I was going to the Tsunku panel or something. Well...I woke up Saturday morning and realized the horrible mistake I had made. I've always been the type who thought that just buying autographs was stupid, and if you're going to have an autograph you should get it in person...and here I was blocking myself from what would likely be the only opportunity I would ever have to do this with FREAKING MORNING MUSUME!!! D: So when I got to the convention center around 8:15AM, I made a mad dash for the autograph session line in hopes that OpsMonkey still had the extra ticket (maiZe ended up just giving it to him, saying he should give it to someone who doesn't have one)...but he had already given it away. T-T So I was feeling pretty bummed about essentially shooting myself in the foot, obviously.

Anyway, at that point I decided to take my seat in the Tsunku panel, which actually made me feel a little better...the crowd wasn't nearly as large as at the Momusu panel, but everyone seemed much more serious and focused as they waited. I could tell this was going to be a good Q&A session...and it most certainly was. All the questions were good, the answers even better, and everyone was very professional, for the most part...it was really satisfying to see The Man Himself getting the respect he deserved. :P Once it finished, I actually felt that missing the autograph opportunity was pretty well worth it.

There were plans for a wotachat/IW photo to be taken around noon on Saturday, and at this point it was about 10:15, so I went and sat down in the planned meeting spot until everyone started showing up...but, of course, as I sat and looked over the purchases I had made in the last day or so (some video games, actually...I got all the H!P stuff I wanted on Thursday :P), the regret of missing my chance for autographs snuck back up on me. After a bit, some wotachatters started showing up for the picture...and as we were waiting for everyone else to arrive, I started babbling about how I wished I could have gotten autographs. When Amy heard this, she told me she had a ticket for the guaranteed autograph session that afternoon that she could give me. : O So I had a little conniption fit (ask any of the people I've mentioned in these entries...they can confirm, I was kind of flipping out XD), called my roommate and begged him to bring me the poster I bought but left in the hotel room (which he did, thank you roomie <3), participated in the wotachat picture, and made my way to the autograph session.

They were holding the session in the back of the exhibition hall, so Amy, CK, Paul and I all made our way to where the line was forming. They weren't allowing people to line up past a certain point, so we had to kind of camp out at a table nearby until enough space cleared up at the end of the line for us to jump in...then the nerve-wracking process of waiting in line began. I had a few people come up to me and ask what we were all in line for, and I just kind of flashed my voucher and said "Morning Musume autographs". One of them was this girl and her dad, and after I answered them, they continued walking and I heard the dad ask "You wanna get an autograph?", obviously trying to do something nice for her. CK and I just kind of looked at each other and quietly said "Yeah, good luck with that". XD

Anyway, the line actually moved fairly quickly, and before I knew it I was in the curtained-off area with Morning Musume sitting right there in front of my eyes. O.O There was a line of 5 or 6 people between myself and the table, and JunJun (who was at the end) actually didn't have anyone in front of her for a little while when I walked in. She was practically looking right at me, and I could have waved at her, but I wimped out. T-T (nervousness will do that to you, haha) Also, Sayu was next to her (I think), and she seemed to be zoning out a little bit...I'm sure she was tired. D:

Anyway, Reina was first up when I got to the table. I greeted her with a simple 'konnichiwa', to which she responded with the same and a quick smile, then proceeded to write out her very long-winded and detailed (and cute :3) autograph...I remember it being kind of awkward as I waited patiently for her to complete her masterpiece...it took so long. XD When she finished, I said a simple 'arigatou gozaimasu', which she returned before passing the poster along.

Then came LinLin. Now, I have to make a quick deviation here and say that LinLin COMPLETELY won me over throughout the course of AX. When maiZe, Joh and I were lucky enough to catch Momusu walking in for opening ceremonies on Thursday, LinLin seemed to be the only member who didn't look totally bewildered (in fact, she looked really happy to be there, latched onto Ai-chan's arm just chatting away <3). And the fact that she spoke English throughout the Q&A panel and a lot of the concert really impressed me. Plus she's such a goofball, and she was all smiles whenever I saw her at the events. <3 As such, sometime during the week I decided that I would let her know she was my favorite if I made it to an autograph session. ANYWAY, I greeted LinLin with a plain 'konnichiwa' (just like Reina, and every other member at the session :P), which she repeated back. As she was signing I said a quick 'daisuki desu' , and she looked up and said "arigatou!" to me with a quick smile before going back to finish her autograph ('daisuki desu' obviously doesn't have exactly the same meaning as "you're my favorite", but I didn't want to say that so bluntly with the other members there, even if they may be used to it - LinLin's definitely at the top of my list, but I like all the other members too much to just blatantly say "yeah, I like her more than you" :P). Once she finished, I said a quick 'arigatou gozaimasu' and received the same from her, then she passed to the next member.

After LinLin was Ai. A quick observation...while all the members were wearing red sparkly dresses (they looked like concert outfits to me), Ai was also wearing this cute little jacket. I think it was kind of a thin windbreaker, leopard-print...and it had little black cat ears on the hood, which she had pulled over her head. It was adorable! XD (EDIT: pic here ...okay, so maybe it's not exactly cat ears...and actually, it turns out that all the members were wearing that outfit...oh for pete's sake, Morning Musume was RIGHT THERE, I'm lucky to remember anything at all XD) Anyway, I remember that she was fairly straight-faced throughout the whole thing, except for a quick smile during the exchange of 'konnichiwa' and 'arigatou gozaimasu'.

I greeted Risa in the same manner as LinLin, Reina, and Ai, and thanked her the same as well...but when Risa was done signing her autograph, the next girl was still finishing up hers. There was kind of this awkward moment as Risa and I had to wait, then she said a quick something about my Japanese...either that it was good (my accent isn't bad, I suppose...so it's possible XD), or just acknowledging the fact that I was using Japanese, I don't exactly remember...regardless, I managed to stutter a quick "a-arigatou" in response as I made my way to the next member. :P

Now Aika REALLY impressed me here. I've never been a huge fan of hers (before this, I always kind of deviated between thinking she's good and only okay), but she had so much energy and spunk here that I couldn't help but be charmed by her. She gave me a big smile when she said 'konnichiwa' back, and a very enthusiastic 'arigatou gozaimasu!' when I thanked her after she finished. What a cutie pie. :)

I don't remember much of anything about Eri, other than the fact that I said 'konnichiwa' and 'arigatou gozaimasu' to her and she smiled and said each back, just like with all the other girls. D:

I also can't remember exactly which order Koharu and Sayumi were in...I believe I saw Sayu next to JunJun when I first walked in, and JunJun was definitely last in line, so we'll say Koha was first.

Honestly, Koharu was kind of short with me. D: Somehow I hesitated and didn't greet her when she received the poster, and she didn't really say anything either...just quickly signed. I did remember to say 'arigatou gozaimasu' when she finished though, and I'm fairly certain she said that as well before passing the poster on.

When I got to Sayu, she actually said "hiiii" to me before I had the chance to say anything, so I just skipped the Japanese and said "hiii" back. She was quick when she finished as well, and ended up saying "thank youuu" to me before I could thank her, so I just said "thank youu" back as she passed the poster on. XD I have to note that her English was adorable here. <3

And last but not least, JunJun...who I sadly remember absolutely nothing about. D: I know I greeted her the same as everyone else, and I'm sure she was perfectly cheery...but that's as much as I can muster. I feel bad neglecting one of the pandas like that. D:

After the autograph session finished, I wandered out into the exhibition hall (holding my poster like it was more precious than my life...which, by the way, it is :P), where they had a bunch of tables set up in a corner with people just kind of resting and waiting around and so on. I'm sure a lot of them just got their autographs and were waiting for the session to finish so they could see the girls leave, but I just waited for CK and Paul Thomas so we could make our way out of the exhibition hall to meet up with Amy and Kirarin*Snow, who got their autographs shortly before we did. There was probably a good hour of time here spent standing and chatting in the South Hall lobby as we waited for people to finish up what they were doing and discussed dinner plans. I got to meet Mozenator during this, which was cool...he seemed like a really nice guy. We ended up with a group consisting of CK, Kirarin*Snow, Amy, Rocky, Joh, maiZe, Paul Thomas, Mozenator and myself, I believe. This was also when Amy and Rocky made their final leave, which was sad. D: Shortly after the Nugget Twins left, so did K and Mozenator (D:)...then CK, Joh, maiZe and I wandered off to a quieter area of the con to sit down and talk. Shortly after that, Joh and maiZe had to leave (D:)...so CK and I met up with OpsMonkey to wait for Paul Thomas (who had to leave for his final meeting with the folks at JapanFiles), and we sat and talked for a while as well. Once Paul finished taking care of his business, we made our way to Lawry's Carvory (recommended by CK - you rock dude), where I had the best sandwich I've ever eaten, not even joking (prime rib sandwich w/au jus and chips...$15, but worth every penny).

After dinner, we all headed to the Westin Bonaventure to hang out with Paul and some of his friends at a bar over there, which was hilarious...although CK left after a few minutes to take care of some things. Ops and I ended up checking out the 'official AX party', which was TERRIBLE (dark room, strobe lights, people with lots of glowsticks and no dance skills, crappy house music, and a very loud and annoying DJ), which took up no more than 30 seconds of our time, then we headed back to the bar for some more good times. A little while after that, Ops and I headed back to his hotel so I could leech off his internet for one last night, then at about 3:30AM (x.x) I walked back to my hotel and crashed for the night.


Still more AX post(s) to come...