[Personal] 03.15.2012 Jin Akanishi JAPONICANA NYC Concert + VIP Fan Report
HI didn't write up a fan report of Jin's Yellow Gold Tour NYC concert from 2010, so I figured that I would write one for the experience this time around, especially since it was such a once-in-a-lifetime event. Jin will always be my first Johnny's love (11+ years of being a fan!), and he holds a very dear place in my heart -- I can't believe I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to meet him! :D
I didn't get home until Sunday evening, which explains why I'm writing this so late (you know how it is when you've got school and work). But hey...better late than never, right?
**ALL PHOTOS TAKEN BY ME.**
Concert General Impressions: Japonicana was definitely more low-key than Yellow Gold was, and I think it was a due to a combination of factors: ticket price, timing (THURSDAY, anyone?), it being his second tour, etc. It was a bit short as well; I was expecting a 2ish-hour concert like how YG was, but this one ended up being barely 1.5 hours with a 15-minute intermission. Jin's backdancers were AWESOME, but they didn't seem as embedded into the show/tour as the crew from YG was. In YG you were introduced to everyone and they were very much incorporated into the feel and "story" of the concert. This time they were pretty much awesome accessories...which is totally okay, but it's just something that stood out.
Now onto the details!
First things first: since the concert this time around was on a Thursday, I had to do some serious schedule rearranging in order to get my schoolwork and priorities taken care of before heading off on my trip. This meant that even on that Thursday morning up until 9:15am, I was still in one of my classes taking a heinously long and terribly tedious lab practical exam (the last of my 3 exams for the week). In retrospect, it's so weird to think about how I was in class in northern VA in the morning then BAM! at NYC at Jin's concert a handful of hours later. Trust me, it was and still is a very odd feeling.
At around 9:30am I got dropped off at the closest metro stop and I took the orange and red lines to Union Station, where I then proceeded to board my 11:03am train to Penn Station, NYC. (The train ride itself was uneventful, unless you count me listening to JAPONICANA on repeat on my iPad and falling asleep in a totally ungraceful position, despite my name.) I pulled into Penn Station a few minutes earlier than scheduled (2:20pm), then went to meet up with my concert buddy, mikarocker (you can check out her report over at her LJ HERE).
I stashed my luggage away and we headed over to 43rd St. to meet up with my sister for a ticket hand-off (she bought our tickets and thus everything was sent to her in NYC); she was in the area for a meeting so it was super convenient. My friend and I then headed over to Times Square where we got food and did the other necessary preparations before getting into the line at around 4pm. We had heard that a bunch of fans camped out the night before in line, which is absolutely nuts, but I suppose every fandom has got it's intense people!
Ticket of awesomeness!
I went and picked up my VIP pass(es) at the box office as well, and I was pleasantly surprised at their really pretty appearance -- stiff laminate, metallic sheen, lanyard -- that sort of thing. Funny story about the VIP package by the way...when we first got a hold of them online the event company had messed up the prices on them so they had to call us one at a time to get it all fixed (TERRIBLY handled). When they called my sister, she had specifically told them that we had wanted 2 tickets but only 1 VIP package, but somehow we ended up with 2 VIP packages. Hence the 2 passes pictured below. We ended up selling our extra pass and thus made the girl behind us very happy. Yay!
VIP passes -- so shiny!
The whole waiting in line thing wasn't as slow or boring as I thought it would be, but I'm sure it's because I was super excited and we had made friends with the two girls in front of us (who were there for Joseph Vincent, one of the opening acts). As a random observation, a lot of the Japanese fans had taken off their shoes while waiting in line and were standing on spread-out newspapers on the sidewalk, which I found rather odd. But okay, I digress. My sister met up with us at around 6:45pm and not too long after we were ushered into the venue!
Even though it wasn't all that early anymore, the whole place was rather empty, which I found kind of sad, but it allowed us to be really close to the stage despite having lined up fairly late by concert standards. At around 7:40pm Paperdoll (official website HERE) got on stage and performed a good handful of songs. I enjoyed their songs a lot despite the fact that many people seemed disinterested. ("You Can't Stop It" actually got stuck in my head for awhile the day after.) I'm actually quite partial to rock bands with female lead vocals so it was right up my alley. :D
Then...Joseph Vincent came on stage for his acoustic performances! To be honest, I didn't know too much about him beforehand, but he was just so personable and such a wonderful singer that he's earned himself a fan in me! I love how he threw out a towel (apparently they ran out of shirts) and literally got off stage to serenade "I Want It That Way" -- think BSB -- to her face. His covers and original songs were all amazing; I'd totally go see him if he comes back for his own concert! His style and voice totally reminds me of Jason Mraz, an artist I absolutely adore as well. I loved his whole segment!
JV was so sweet and put on a fantastic performance!
THEN...the part we had all been waiting for! (I looked around during the opening and although it was fairly full it definitely was nowhere as crowded as YG was...I blame the weekday scheduling.) The curtains closed during setup and then Jin came out to the beat of "Sun Burns Down"! A very fitting choice for the opening song, if I do say so myself! The crazy lighting and people around me made it sort of difficult to take good photos, so I apologize for the awful quality!
He had on sunglasses, a jacket (leather?), and a chunky scarf...and he had POODLE HAIR. I have to say, I don't normally find poodle hair all that flattering on anyone, but Jin somehow pulled it off. I got super excited because we were so close to the stage -- I was in the seated section last time and only saw him from afar at YG. I didn't write down the set list, so my memory on that is a bit jumbled (check out other people's reports for an exact order).
Terrible photo (completely zoomed out), but it was the only one I got from the first half.
You can sort of see his outfit. Sort of.
I wish Jin danced more, but what dancing he did do was absolutely awesome. Everyone screamed so hard whenever he moved his hips in any sort of motion, LOL. During Body Talk he took off his sunglasses and everyone cheered super loudly at that as well. As a random side note, the female backdancer who was doing the Body Talk dance had a mildly scary face, but I think that was due to her super bold and thick stage makeup. O__O;;
There were maybe around 5? songs in the first half -- way too short in my opinion! What he did perform, though, was awesome and everyone was singing/dancing/waving/screaming along. After a 15 minute break, the curtains opened to "That's What She Said" (definitely not my favorite song, but this performance was super memorable and made me like the song more) -- the female backdancers were in sexy outfits with red satiny scarves. They struck racy poses along with the beat and there was a really cool effect with strobe lights throughout the performance.
Jin came out with his phone (he had this black lanyard phone strap on it) to record the audience and a cup full of...some sort of liquid, which he was sipping along to the lyrics of the song. He was wearing a denim button-down shirt and simple pants, which accentuated the fact that he's skinner in person than I had originally thought (not that I believed he was "fat" or anything!). The strobe light effect came back with the female backdancers wrapping their scarves around him, which was totally one of the highlights of this song for me. HOT!
"Aphrodisiac" followed "That's What She Said" if I remember correctly and since it's one of my favorite new songs from the album, I was going nuts. They bust out fedoras and pimp canes sometime during the transition and I couldn't stop laughing at the sight of them. OF COURSE Jin would need a fedora. OF COURSE he would need a pimp cane. During the song Jin threw his hat into the audience (on the opposite side I was standing of, so there was no chance at all for me LOL).
Gotta love the poodle hair of doom.
Yellow Gold (possibly my favorite Jin American release?) was sung sometime during the second half as well -- it was awesome as usual despite the lack of the effects that was seen in his previous tour. Pindom was thrown in the mix somewhere as well and gosh, that song is so perfect for a concert with the heavy bass lines and strong beats.
YAY BLURRY PICTURE!
The concert ended (it passed by so quickly!) with California Rock, which, you've probably heard by now, involved some awesome fans throwing bras up on stage. Kudos to you fantastic fans out there who came up with the idea -- you got to see his amused giggle face and it was adorable. :D
He's absolutely beautiful up close.
The curtain closed and we all chanted "ENCORE!" with all our might which brought Jin back to the stage for a rendition of "Seasons". That song is incredibly pretty and it was so cute how he kept interrupting himself to ask if we knew the song and if we knew the words and such. I love how it was live singing and spot on the entire way through. GORGEOUS.
When the curtains finally came to a close for a final time I think he said something like "Love you, New York!" and "get drunk...get horny" (I DIED LAUGHING). Oh Jin, you never fail to please. :D
AND THEN...MEET AND GREET TIME!!
M&G General Impressions: Jin is extremely gorgeous in person and was very polite and nice despite looking fairly tired. He gave me the impression of being a cool guy who is rather shy and reserved with strangers. He didn't look me in the eye for long periods of time (I think due to Japanese cultural nuances). Overall, he's a very nice guy and meeting him made me love him even more. :D
We got directed through some side doors where a guy checked our VIP passes with a flashlight (totally made me feel important). Everyone there mingled with each other for a bit while one of the organizers took an inordinate amount of time to put us in alphabetical order. I chatted some more with the girl to whom my sister sold her pass to; she was really nice. The organizer guy with the list of our names passed around post-its to write our names on for Jin and he made a point that kana or English was okay but not kanji because Jin's kanji wasn't all that good. All of the Chinese girls in the line were disappointed! There were about 20 or so people at the meet and greet.
Each person went into the room one at a time; since I started off in the middle of the line I had no idea what was in front of me. I was super excited, and the wait just made the excitement increase a hundred fold! FINALLY when I got to the doorframe, I peeked in at the girl who was currently in the room and saw Jin (seated at a table) laugh at something she said, which was really cute to see. It seemed totally surreal that he was so close!
(Side Note: The woman taking the photos -- his manager? -- came out during the time that girl before me was talking to Jin and asked the organizer dude who put us in order who all the people standing around the room drinking out of plastic cups were and no one knew who they were. LOL. So random. I think I recognized one of the people as a member of Paperdoll, but apparently the rest of the people lounging around were a mystery to even the organizers. HAHA.)
THEN, the guy at the door told me to go ahead and enter, and I somehow I managed to shuffle into the room. It was SO AWKWARD and I couldn't help but remark, "Gosh, this is very awkward." half to myself and half to the room -- it made the cameraguy and the woman (manager?) and Jin laugh. Gosh, he is absolutely BEAUTIFUL in person (especially laughing!) and definitely smaller-looking than what I've been imagining! I had the impression he was rather tall for some reason. It was difficult to tell since he was seated behind a white table, but there was enough to estimate with.
The lady with the camera, after laughing at my comment, responded with, "It totally is. Picture?" (Haha, nice lead-in transition.) With more awkwardness, I walked around the table and bent down so that my face was on the same level as his and literally 2 inches from his (SO CLOSE!!).
Lady: Ready for the picture?
Jin: Yeah, totally!
Me: Um hm! *trying to hold a smile, which was rapidly turning into a really weird expression*
After that was done I walked back around the table to face him and the cameraguy asked me if I was from New York. I told him no, I was actually from D.C. and that I braved the horrible traffic just to come see Jin (LOL, I'm having a conversation with the cameraguy instead of with Jin.). At that, Jin was like "Oh wow!" with a moderate amount of enthusiasm. I told him I had arranged my school schedule in advance and had just finished an exam that morning, even.
Me: I even had to take a bunch of exams early! This morning was my last one. .___.;;
Jin: *soft laugh* Oh wow, good student then. Good job!
There was a lot of wow-ing and thanking from that guy -- very adorable!
Next, I asked him to stop by DC next time (if he does you know who to thank! JK JK.) and that he should come see the cherry blossoms next week since they're so pretty right now. The cameraguy then cut in:
Cameraguy: Oh yeah! The cherry blossom festival...isn't AKB48 performing there this year?
Me: *to cameraguy* Yeah! So I hear anyways; it's during the weekday though so the timing is weird.
Jin: Oh really? *o__O expression* That's cool!
Me: *to Jin* Next year, it should be you!
Jin: I'll look into it. Totally.
(I love how I kept talking to the cameraman randomly.) I then transitioned into another topic -- I was totally rambling at this point.
Me: So, I've been a fan of yours for over 10 years now.
Jin: Really? Oh wow, thank you so much.
Me: Yup! It was really difficult to support your work back then -- I had to get my cousins in Asia to send me stuff. (Note: this is a partial lie, but I didn't want to tell him that I download stuff up the wazoo, LOL.)
Jin: Oh wow, thank you so much.
Me: It has been really amazing to see you evolve over the years and see how your compositions and musical style have developed. It's been a pleasure watching you mature as an artist and I'll support you in all your endeavors! I really enjoyed your concert and I'm so happy you decided to come over to America.
Jin: Thank you so much!
I don't think he understood what I said completely -- I totally should have stuck to simpler sentences!! -- so he kept repeating "oh wow" and "thank you so much" with a variety of facial expressions while the cameraguy and the lady with the camera made more diverse responses, LOL.
At the beginning when I had walked in, the lady had taken my post-it and gave it to Jin which he used to write my name on the poster -- at some point he had finished signing my poster (I wasn't paying attention). At this point he picked it up and handed it to me with a "here you go" and a smile.
Me: Thank you so much! *sticks out hand hesitantly* ...would you mind...?
Jin: Of course! *said very enthusiastically*
We shook hands -- his hand was large and pretty and very warm. He had a nice, firm handshake that gave off a friendly air. Can't believe I was able to shake hands with someone whom I've admired for so long! It was like a dream come true, and I'm sure to never forget the experience. I left the room through this weird hallway thing and looked back at him really briefly -- he shot me a friendly smile -- and then I exited.
My signed poster!!11!11!1
Ignore the black rectangle under my name -- I asked Jin to sign my whole name. *0*
I am so honored to have had the opportunity to meet Jin; I hope he does something like this again and that he comes to DC sometime! I would definitely do it all over again...and again and again. :D They're going to be mailing the photos to us so it may take awhile before I get mine (considering it's going to be sent to my sister first). When I do get it, I'll post a scan!
Thank you, readers, for making your way through this extremely rambly and long-winded report! Let me know if you want to know anything specific about my experience or whatnot. Wish you guys were there with me. <3
I didn't get home until Sunday evening, which explains why I'm writing this so late (you know how it is when you've got school and work). But hey...better late than never, right?
**ALL PHOTOS TAKEN BY ME.**
Concert General Impressions: Japonicana was definitely more low-key than Yellow Gold was, and I think it was a due to a combination of factors: ticket price, timing (THURSDAY, anyone?), it being his second tour, etc. It was a bit short as well; I was expecting a 2ish-hour concert like how YG was, but this one ended up being barely 1.5 hours with a 15-minute intermission. Jin's backdancers were AWESOME, but they didn't seem as embedded into the show/tour as the crew from YG was. In YG you were introduced to everyone and they were very much incorporated into the feel and "story" of the concert. This time they were pretty much awesome accessories...which is totally okay, but it's just something that stood out.
Now onto the details!
First things first: since the concert this time around was on a Thursday, I had to do some serious schedule rearranging in order to get my schoolwork and priorities taken care of before heading off on my trip. This meant that even on that Thursday morning up until 9:15am, I was still in one of my classes taking a heinously long and terribly tedious lab practical exam (the last of my 3 exams for the week). In retrospect, it's so weird to think about how I was in class in northern VA in the morning then BAM! at NYC at Jin's concert a handful of hours later. Trust me, it was and still is a very odd feeling.
At around 9:30am I got dropped off at the closest metro stop and I took the orange and red lines to Union Station, where I then proceeded to board my 11:03am train to Penn Station, NYC. (The train ride itself was uneventful, unless you count me listening to JAPONICANA on repeat on my iPad and falling asleep in a totally ungraceful position, despite my name.) I pulled into Penn Station a few minutes earlier than scheduled (2:20pm), then went to meet up with my concert buddy, mikarocker (you can check out her report over at her LJ HERE).
I stashed my luggage away and we headed over to 43rd St. to meet up with my sister for a ticket hand-off (she bought our tickets and thus everything was sent to her in NYC); she was in the area for a meeting so it was super convenient. My friend and I then headed over to Times Square where we got food and did the other necessary preparations before getting into the line at around 4pm. We had heard that a bunch of fans camped out the night before in line, which is absolutely nuts, but I suppose every fandom has got it's intense people!
Ticket of awesomeness!
I went and picked up my VIP pass(es) at the box office as well, and I was pleasantly surprised at their really pretty appearance -- stiff laminate, metallic sheen, lanyard -- that sort of thing. Funny story about the VIP package by the way...when we first got a hold of them online the event company had messed up the prices on them so they had to call us one at a time to get it all fixed (TERRIBLY handled). When they called my sister, she had specifically told them that we had wanted 2 tickets but only 1 VIP package, but somehow we ended up with 2 VIP packages. Hence the 2 passes pictured below. We ended up selling our extra pass and thus made the girl behind us very happy. Yay!
VIP passes -- so shiny!
The whole waiting in line thing wasn't as slow or boring as I thought it would be, but I'm sure it's because I was super excited and we had made friends with the two girls in front of us (who were there for Joseph Vincent, one of the opening acts). As a random observation, a lot of the Japanese fans had taken off their shoes while waiting in line and were standing on spread-out newspapers on the sidewalk, which I found rather odd. But okay, I digress. My sister met up with us at around 6:45pm and not too long after we were ushered into the venue!
Even though it wasn't all that early anymore, the whole place was rather empty, which I found kind of sad, but it allowed us to be really close to the stage despite having lined up fairly late by concert standards. At around 7:40pm Paperdoll (official website HERE) got on stage and performed a good handful of songs. I enjoyed their songs a lot despite the fact that many people seemed disinterested. ("You Can't Stop It" actually got stuck in my head for awhile the day after.) I'm actually quite partial to rock bands with female lead vocals so it was right up my alley. :D
Then...Joseph Vincent came on stage for his acoustic performances! To be honest, I didn't know too much about him beforehand, but he was just so personable and such a wonderful singer that he's earned himself a fan in me! I love how he threw out a towel (apparently they ran out of shirts) and literally got off stage to serenade "I Want It That Way" -- think BSB -- to her face. His covers and original songs were all amazing; I'd totally go see him if he comes back for his own concert! His style and voice totally reminds me of Jason Mraz, an artist I absolutely adore as well. I loved his whole segment!
JV was so sweet and put on a fantastic performance!
THEN...the part we had all been waiting for! (I looked around during the opening and although it was fairly full it definitely was nowhere as crowded as YG was...I blame the weekday scheduling.) The curtains closed during setup and then Jin came out to the beat of "Sun Burns Down"! A very fitting choice for the opening song, if I do say so myself! The crazy lighting and people around me made it sort of difficult to take good photos, so I apologize for the awful quality!
He had on sunglasses, a jacket (leather?), and a chunky scarf...and he had POODLE HAIR. I have to say, I don't normally find poodle hair all that flattering on anyone, but Jin somehow pulled it off. I got super excited because we were so close to the stage -- I was in the seated section last time and only saw him from afar at YG. I didn't write down the set list, so my memory on that is a bit jumbled (check out other people's reports for an exact order).
Terrible photo (completely zoomed out), but it was the only one I got from the first half.
You can sort of see his outfit. Sort of.
I wish Jin danced more, but what dancing he did do was absolutely awesome. Everyone screamed so hard whenever he moved his hips in any sort of motion, LOL. During Body Talk he took off his sunglasses and everyone cheered super loudly at that as well. As a random side note, the female backdancer who was doing the Body Talk dance had a mildly scary face, but I think that was due to her super bold and thick stage makeup. O__O;;
There were maybe around 5? songs in the first half -- way too short in my opinion! What he did perform, though, was awesome and everyone was singing/dancing/waving/screaming along. After a 15 minute break, the curtains opened to "That's What She Said" (definitely not my favorite song, but this performance was super memorable and made me like the song more) -- the female backdancers were in sexy outfits with red satiny scarves. They struck racy poses along with the beat and there was a really cool effect with strobe lights throughout the performance.
Jin came out with his phone (he had this black lanyard phone strap on it) to record the audience and a cup full of...some sort of liquid, which he was sipping along to the lyrics of the song. He was wearing a denim button-down shirt and simple pants, which accentuated the fact that he's skinner in person than I had originally thought (not that I believed he was "fat" or anything!). The strobe light effect came back with the female backdancers wrapping their scarves around him, which was totally one of the highlights of this song for me. HOT!
"Aphrodisiac" followed "That's What She Said" if I remember correctly and since it's one of my favorite new songs from the album, I was going nuts. They bust out fedoras and pimp canes sometime during the transition and I couldn't stop laughing at the sight of them. OF COURSE Jin would need a fedora. OF COURSE he would need a pimp cane. During the song Jin threw his hat into the audience (on the opposite side I was standing of, so there was no chance at all for me LOL).
Gotta love the poodle hair of doom.
Yellow Gold (possibly my favorite Jin American release?) was sung sometime during the second half as well -- it was awesome as usual despite the lack of the effects that was seen in his previous tour. Pindom was thrown in the mix somewhere as well and gosh, that song is so perfect for a concert with the heavy bass lines and strong beats.
YAY BLURRY PICTURE!
The concert ended (it passed by so quickly!) with California Rock, which, you've probably heard by now, involved some awesome fans throwing bras up on stage. Kudos to you fantastic fans out there who came up with the idea -- you got to see his amused giggle face and it was adorable. :D
He's absolutely beautiful up close.
The curtain closed and we all chanted "ENCORE!" with all our might which brought Jin back to the stage for a rendition of "Seasons". That song is incredibly pretty and it was so cute how he kept interrupting himself to ask if we knew the song and if we knew the words and such. I love how it was live singing and spot on the entire way through. GORGEOUS.
When the curtains finally came to a close for a final time I think he said something like "Love you, New York!" and "get drunk...get horny" (I DIED LAUGHING). Oh Jin, you never fail to please. :D
AND THEN...MEET AND GREET TIME!!
M&G General Impressions: Jin is extremely gorgeous in person and was very polite and nice despite looking fairly tired. He gave me the impression of being a cool guy who is rather shy and reserved with strangers. He didn't look me in the eye for long periods of time (I think due to Japanese cultural nuances). Overall, he's a very nice guy and meeting him made me love him even more. :D
We got directed through some side doors where a guy checked our VIP passes with a flashlight (totally made me feel important). Everyone there mingled with each other for a bit while one of the organizers took an inordinate amount of time to put us in alphabetical order. I chatted some more with the girl to whom my sister sold her pass to; she was really nice. The organizer guy with the list of our names passed around post-its to write our names on for Jin and he made a point that kana or English was okay but not kanji because Jin's kanji wasn't all that good. All of the Chinese girls in the line were disappointed! There were about 20 or so people at the meet and greet.
Each person went into the room one at a time; since I started off in the middle of the line I had no idea what was in front of me. I was super excited, and the wait just made the excitement increase a hundred fold! FINALLY when I got to the doorframe, I peeked in at the girl who was currently in the room and saw Jin (seated at a table) laugh at something she said, which was really cute to see. It seemed totally surreal that he was so close!
(Side Note: The woman taking the photos -- his manager? -- came out during the time that girl before me was talking to Jin and asked the organizer dude who put us in order who all the people standing around the room drinking out of plastic cups were and no one knew who they were. LOL. So random. I think I recognized one of the people as a member of Paperdoll, but apparently the rest of the people lounging around were a mystery to even the organizers. HAHA.)
THEN, the guy at the door told me to go ahead and enter, and I somehow I managed to shuffle into the room. It was SO AWKWARD and I couldn't help but remark, "Gosh, this is very awkward." half to myself and half to the room -- it made the cameraguy and the woman (manager?) and Jin laugh. Gosh, he is absolutely BEAUTIFUL in person (especially laughing!) and definitely smaller-looking than what I've been imagining! I had the impression he was rather tall for some reason. It was difficult to tell since he was seated behind a white table, but there was enough to estimate with.
The lady with the camera, after laughing at my comment, responded with, "It totally is. Picture?" (Haha, nice lead-in transition.) With more awkwardness, I walked around the table and bent down so that my face was on the same level as his and literally 2 inches from his (SO CLOSE!!).
Lady: Ready for the picture?
Jin: Yeah, totally!
Me: Um hm! *trying to hold a smile, which was rapidly turning into a really weird expression*
After that was done I walked back around the table to face him and the cameraguy asked me if I was from New York. I told him no, I was actually from D.C. and that I braved the horrible traffic just to come see Jin (LOL, I'm having a conversation with the cameraguy instead of with Jin.). At that, Jin was like "Oh wow!" with a moderate amount of enthusiasm. I told him I had arranged my school schedule in advance and had just finished an exam that morning, even.
Me: I even had to take a bunch of exams early! This morning was my last one. .___.;;
Jin: *soft laugh* Oh wow, good student then. Good job!
There was a lot of wow-ing and thanking from that guy -- very adorable!
Next, I asked him to stop by DC next time (if he does you know who to thank! JK JK.) and that he should come see the cherry blossoms next week since they're so pretty right now. The cameraguy then cut in:
Cameraguy: Oh yeah! The cherry blossom festival...isn't AKB48 performing there this year?
Me: *to cameraguy* Yeah! So I hear anyways; it's during the weekday though so the timing is weird.
Jin: Oh really? *o__O expression* That's cool!
Me: *to Jin* Next year, it should be you!
Jin: I'll look into it. Totally.
(I love how I kept talking to the cameraman randomly.) I then transitioned into another topic -- I was totally rambling at this point.
Me: So, I've been a fan of yours for over 10 years now.
Jin: Really? Oh wow, thank you so much.
Me: Yup! It was really difficult to support your work back then -- I had to get my cousins in Asia to send me stuff. (Note: this is a partial lie, but I didn't want to tell him that I download stuff up the wazoo, LOL.)
Jin: Oh wow, thank you so much.
Me: It has been really amazing to see you evolve over the years and see how your compositions and musical style have developed. It's been a pleasure watching you mature as an artist and I'll support you in all your endeavors! I really enjoyed your concert and I'm so happy you decided to come over to America.
Jin: Thank you so much!
I don't think he understood what I said completely -- I totally should have stuck to simpler sentences!! -- so he kept repeating "oh wow" and "thank you so much" with a variety of facial expressions while the cameraguy and the lady with the camera made more diverse responses, LOL.
At the beginning when I had walked in, the lady had taken my post-it and gave it to Jin which he used to write my name on the poster -- at some point he had finished signing my poster (I wasn't paying attention). At this point he picked it up and handed it to me with a "here you go" and a smile.
Me: Thank you so much! *sticks out hand hesitantly* ...would you mind...?
Jin: Of course! *said very enthusiastically*
We shook hands -- his hand was large and pretty and very warm. He had a nice, firm handshake that gave off a friendly air. Can't believe I was able to shake hands with someone whom I've admired for so long! It was like a dream come true, and I'm sure to never forget the experience. I left the room through this weird hallway thing and looked back at him really briefly -- he shot me a friendly smile -- and then I exited.
My signed poster!!11!11!1
Ignore the black rectangle under my name -- I asked Jin to sign my whole name. *0*
I am so honored to have had the opportunity to meet Jin; I hope he does something like this again and that he comes to DC sometime! I would definitely do it all over again...and again and again. :D They're going to be mailing the photos to us so it may take awhile before I get mine (considering it's going to be sent to my sister first). When I do get it, I'll post a scan!
Thank you, readers, for making your way through this extremely rambly and long-winded report! Let me know if you want to know anything specific about my experience or whatnot. Wish you guys were there with me. <3