California: REPORT 1
Well, I just got back from my trip to California!! and here it is! The official J-rock weekend Part One! (Part Two will consist of the Hyde Live *___________________________*)
So Saturday early morning, I pick Becca up and we head to my sisters house. Glenn finally gets up and takes us to the airport where we attempt to do a self check-in but its different than the ones at the philadelphia airport, so I was like ?_? at first. I finally get my boarding pass printed when we realize Becca didn't have her paper with the confirmation number on it so we call rae anne and she totally couldn't find the paper so that failed so we just had this lady do it at the desk. After trying to tell us there wasn't a flight booked for her, I told her you've got the wrong flight lady and she was like "oohhh ^^;" so we got her pass and later I realized I totally had her confirmation number on another print out ^^; sorry becca XD
So we get on the plane when they call us, becca had the window I had the aisle (stupid people who recline *shakes fist* I'm too tall and it bangs my knees up) the plan was that no one likes to sit inbetween two strangers so we might not wind up with anyone between us, but seeing it was the holiday weekedn, we wound up with this weird guy in between us who immediately put on this eye mask and went to sleep o.o apparently while I was sleeping, he decided to shut the cover on beccas window which pissed her off.
Anyway. Before I know it, our flight lands an hour early, weird guy next to me goes to the bathroom and I realize he's not wearing his shoes o.O; so we get off, and get a cab driver.
OH. MY. GOD.
I swear to god, our driver was none other than Carl "Smokey" Isshi, the lead singer of the defunct band Kome Kome Club (the originators of the song "Roman Hikou") His hair... he was wearing a suit... the sun glasses... the accent... the ability to make me feel weird in a giggling school girl sense when he handed me back the address of the hotel we were staying at, tipped his glasses down and said "thank you" in a sultry voice O.O;;; When Isshi disappeared off the face of the earth... I had no idea where he went. Now I do. He's a cab driver in Orange County, California. O_O God speed, Isshi, god speed.
We get to the hotel, and ask if we can do early check in. HOT! WE COULD! So before we go to our room, I asked the guy if he knew the address for the convention center. He said no, and asked what was there and I went "uhh... a convention o.o" and he goes "anime expo?" and I'm like asadfjkl; don't ask if you already know! XD and he tells us he's going on monday and tuesday. He was like wow you're from jersey? XD
We get to our hotel room, drop off our stuff and attempt to find a licquor store so we can get Miyawaki and Sakai's presents for dinner. After much stress, we get to one, becca buys the stuff, we go back to the hotel, drop it off, go to the convention center and attempt to get in line.
HOLY. SHIT.
There must've been 500 people in line ahead of us and we only had an hour before Mana's panel. After waiting a half hour without going very far, we decide that alas, we will miss Mana anyway, and that's the only thing we needed a con pass for, so we get out of line and head into the exhibit hall pass line, which had maybe 150 people in it. So we go through that line in an hour, get a little "admit One" ticket and a hand stamp and make a beeline for the dealer's room. We find the Tofu Records booth and Hyde hadn't been there yet, so we checked in with Harry and he told us that the location to meet for the dinners had changed so we're like -__-; so complicated.
We head back over to the Tofu booth and YAY! HYDE Faith tour T-Shirts! We bought a shirt and sat down and waited for Hyde, angsting over when he would get there because becca and I still had to actually pack the gift bags for Miyawaki, Sakai, and Hyde. One of the Tofu staff, Kaki, started talking to the crowd and told us about the no pictures things and stuff and made idle chat then disappeared. Finally at 4pm she comes back and tells us that Hyde is coming at 4:30 so everyone cheered. 4:15 reaches and she starts giving us this play-by-play of where he was XD "He's leaving his hotel!!!" "He's getting in the car!" "He's on his way here!" Then it gets better: "He's in the parking lot!" *ten minutes later* "He's getting out of the car!" XD I looked at Becca and went "MY GOD, it took him quite some time to climb out of that car didn't it XD" "He's walking to the building..." "He's picking his left nostril with his right index finger" "He's in the building" "He's on his way up" "Everybody, let's countdown from 10!!!" after the countdown you hear shrieks and screams as you see 25 staff security and finally you see Hyde as he stepped up onto the side of the stage. He gets about halway across the small, small stage when his face goes 8O and his mouth makes a "waaaooowwww" as he looks overwhelmed at the amount of people standing there waiting for him. So he continues on over to his director chair and attempts to sit in it. Attempts being the key word. XD; He had to grab the handles and litterally hop up into the chair XD I was reminded of that Super Pop Beat magazine I have with the pictures from the press conferance with him and Gackt about Moon Child where in the picture, they're both sitting in director's chairs and Hyde's feet dangle onto the rung of the chair while Gackt's are planted flat on the floor XD Hyde crossed his legs and put his foot on the bottom rung of the chair as Kaki sat down and had her feet touching the floor lightly. Mind you Kaki is from Japan as well. XD; So after Hyde stops concentrating on getting into the chair, he looks out at the screaming crowd again, and Kaki introduces him again and he tries to say something, but his mic isn't working right D: so they fix it fast and he syas into the mic loudly "hah-looow!" and everyone screamed like raging animals and he made another 8OOOO face which made me crack up XD poor little thing, we must've terrified him. XD Then the questions started. One of the questions was in reguard to his lyrics; about how there's that religious content yet he himself isn't an avid believer. I can't quite remember what the question was exactly, nor what he answered (aah, asadfjkl; fireworks just scared the bejeesus out of me O__O;) Then there were some other questions reguarding the new album and it's message and his answer was that the message Faith is supposed to send out is that if your listening to the album while in a bad mood, whether your sad or angry, if listening to the album makes you feel better, that's what he's trying to convey. A sense of feelings that can change one's one outlook. He also said he was nervous about playing, but was going to give his best, and another question was if he had done any sight seeing yet. He said he hasn't exactly gone sight seeing, but he did go shopping Friday, then they spent 5 minutes trying to figure out exactly where he shopped, but the translator and Kaki failed. Yes, even though Kaki is Japanese and from Japan, they had a translator as she was the one asking the questions in english. The best question that was asked was in reguards to his clothes. It was along the lines of 'is your choice in clothing inspired by something and if it is, what?' and he just went "ano... *glances down at his clothing* ano... o.o; *looks around* ano... ?__?" and he just sort of muttered somthing along the lines of XD i don't know how to answer this XD! So Kaki says "okay lets try it this way, how did you decide on what you're wearing today?" and He answered "ano... *looks at his clothing with this duurrr look and raises his shoulders with the most adorable ^^; I don't know smile on his face* umm... well first I picked out the pants and then I picked the shirt and jacket that matched..." and everyone cheered while he still had this look of "what? is there something wrong with my choice of clothes?? XD" that question totally bewildered him X3 you could tell he's never been asked that before. The questions are over, and now it's time for Hyde to sign the big Hyde banner that I guess was one of the raffle prizes. If you bought the Faith album, Tofu gave you a little raffle ticket, and at the very endo of the event, Hyde picked out a bunch of numbers out of this plastic bowl and called out the numbers. THAT was adorable. "Shix, four, four, eight... two, four." He took some pauses as if to remember what the numbers were in english it was so freaking cute XD all of his numbers were PERFECT except for six (shix) and three (shree). Seven came out perfect, and me and becca were fan girling over his utter cuteness with the number calling. So it's time for him to leave, he says he goodbye message and blows kisses to the crowd and left with his 25 staff security men XD; Me and Becca just looked at eachother like *___* that was surreal. I couldn't believe how close we were to him. It was incredible.
So we get up, and make a rush to the Jpophouse booth before heading back to the hotel so we could prepare the gifts. It was only 5pm and Miyawaki and Sakai were scheduled to be there between 4-6pm so I thought maybe we had a chance.
Nope. They had already gone -__- So Becca and I headed back to the hotel where we went to prepare gifts. Except I totally forgot a gift bag, so I ran to the gas station next to the hotel and bought some chocalte milk for me and water for becca and got a paper bag because noone had gift bags to sell -__-; so I go back, make a totally bootleg gift bag out of it using ribbon becca brought to make handles, and I pack his stuff.
We get our stuff together and head back to the con center where Becca beelines to the Hilton Hotel where she's supposed to meet harry for the Miyawaki dinner, and I head into the con center to sit down and chill until it's my time to go. First I had to deliver Hyde's gift for becca to the Tofu booth, but alas, they were gone after a staff member let me in specially just so I could drop it off -__- so I was like well crap. Becca better be getting out of the van as I go to get in so she can take Hyde's present back with her XD So I find this row of cushioned seating things against the back wall and sit down. No sooner than three minutes later, this guy comes over and sits down right next to me when there's totally plenty of empty seats against the wall and I'm like -__-# I want to sleep don't talk to me. But noooo of course not.
He starts talking and asks me questions and to sum it up, he works for Geneon Entertainment, offered to show me the executive suite where all the press conferances and pictures for The Indigo were being held, asked me to dinner, I said no I was waiting for someone, he comes back and gives me his phone number and tells me call him, but if I don't that's okay too. -___-; Oh, he also gave me this letter opener promo thing that said gunxsword but obviously I had to leave that behind in the hotel room as nifty as it was because I can't take that on the plane -__-;
It nears time for me to go to the hotel to meet for Sakai's dinner, so I head over to the hilton and wait in the lobby. Finally after pacing around and seeing people who I thought were the other dinner attendees, Nora appears and I go up and meet Hannah who was way cool ^__^! We must've talked about D'espairsRay for... the entire time until Sakai came XD; *feels guilty* Jen, Ebony and Kana showed up and we waited for Harry to get there in his soccer mom mini van ahahahahahahaaskljdf; He arrives and we get in.
Now, the ride there was just weird. Besides the fact that Harry drives like a New Yorker bred with a New Jersian and that bastard child became an indianapolis 500 racer, he had Girugamesh playing in this minivan. Not that I wasn't expecting it... it was just weird to be in a car not mine nor my friends, but yet a 42 year old man playing hard core Jrock o.O
So we get there, to Red Robin (blech -_-) and wait for our table and we see everyone from Miyawaki's dinner come walking by when I'm like YES! and give Becca Hyde's bag and she give me her camera telling me I'll need it so I'm like I guess they forgot the polaroid? and we go in and sit down.
Mari is just leaving the table telling everyone to have a seat when she sees me and goes "you! what are you doing here?! XD" and I laughed and told her i know I'm crazy for coming from the east coast XD So she leaves and then comes back and asks if I'm sitting on her jacket and I'm like o.O; no? so she looks around for it but can't find it so she said some things to me that I can't remember and left and finally Sakai comes in after the guys from Cure Magazine. He comes sauntering over, all cool like; not nervous at all; and sits down and we introduce ourselves as the pictures start -__- Those Cure guys were EVERYWHERE taking a ZILLION pictures. As we introduce ourselves, Sakai repeats our names back to us, it was cute :3 although he messed up Hannah's name and Nora corrected him (I think he called you Haley? XD) So I said my name slow, loud and clear and surprise! He actually got "Jessica" out 100% perfect! X3 it was sooooo cute.
Anyway, so Jen gave him her gift and he started to open it when Jen said Noo... uh.. no? and Nora asked if he could open it and Sakai's looking at he rlike o.o? and starts to tuck it in his jacket like its a secret present (again, so cute x3) when Jen says "ehh... ok he can XD" so he starts to open it and goes "AHH!" and finishes tearing it open real fast as the Cure guys take pictures of him holding his new carton of Malboro Menthol Cigarettes XD; He asked how she knew he smoked those and she answered in interviews he's said it and he laughed and was like oh yeaaahhh XD I don't even know where to start about the conversations that went on or the questions that were asked because Ebony spoke really impresive Japanese, Jen was decent at it, and so was Kana. I can understand what's going on and what's being said, but if I tried to speak it, it would be beyond non-grammatical, so I didn't even try and Hannah just looked confused XD A lot of conversation went around when we weren't asking questions, things like Ebony and Jen telling Sakai that they study their japanese at Berkley and they joked around saying he should go there one day haha. Tons of questions were asked, and Sakai answered every last one, he was so happy and laughed and smiled a lot. He poked at his salad when we told him to eat XD it was cute. Other than Ihop, he hadn't been anywhere else to eat yet, but he said that he loved pancakes XD On the flight here, he said there were no other Japanese people on their plane so when him and Wataru would talk they just kind of got looked at so they both wound up just sleeping the whole way here. The rest of the band couldn't come with them because they were doing a session recording back in Japan, and Sakai said that the others were jealous, apparently all of them really wanted to come over here. (I guess Kisaki and Kamijo have built up America to be this place of ut-most awesomeness to everyone on undercode o.O;) While he was nervous about coming over here, he wasn't sure what to expect; he was scared, but not in the bad kind of scared way, as in the new places are scary way. He said he really wanted to see California and meet his fans. When they got into CA, he was amazed. He was really impressed. He said that Japan is really crowded, everything is so close together everywhere, especially in the cities, but here, even in cities, things were so much bigger and more open and there was so much room. He loved that. They hadn't done much yet being in CA, but he made one thing clear XD He doesn't want to go to Disney Land. He's been to Disney Japan 3x and said he didn't have to go again XD so we told him but it's the orginal! and he said it was scary because he doesn't like rollercoasters because he's afraid of heights XD So we joked around and told him he should go to Six Flags and he called it scary XD He asked if any of us has ever been to Japan before, and Jen and Ebony said yes and briefly talked about where they went. Then we started talking about the band; why'd they choose to be a concept band; how the sound of the new songs has gone soft; why they picked specifically 12012 as the name; what they expected out of Oni-Con; what bands he liked; what he thought of the other UnderCode bands... The chose to be a concept band because of a story they really liked and as Wataru writes the lyrics, it was his decision; they went soft so they can appeal to every aspect of music, they wanted to show their versatility; Up until they had formed a band, there was no other band in Japan that had the band name being in all numbers so that's why they chose 12012; they don't quite expect anything, they just really hope their fans show up to support them so they can all just rock out and have a good time; he likes KoRn XD; he gets along well with the other bands, they all look up to eachother in a respectful way as musicians and friends.
After I asked why specifically 12012, he asked after answering if there were any bands in the US that had it's name in just numbers and we told him there was one, 311. He asked if that meant anything and we told him it's also taken from the california penal code, except 311 means indecent exposure and he got a big kick out of that XD After he answered KoRn, he asked us what other bands we listen to, american and japanese and if we go to live houses frequenly over here. We all agreed KoRn is okay, and we just kind of stared like american bands? we gave up on them long ago... so he asked us what the appeal of Japanese music to us is versus American music, because to him American music is amazing, it's different and nothing like music in japan. We told him that's how we feel about Japanese music. When you hear the same style of music repeatedly, it gets boring and drab, but to us, with Japanese music there's such variety and passion put into their music. Sometimes not being able to understand the lyrics by the actual word meaning is a good thing, you can hear the songs meaning through the emotion poured into it; something that we don't hear in american music anymore, not because its not there, but because we lost interest. When he asked about the live houses and if we go often, we all pretty much answered the same thing, yes, but pretty much the only bands we see here are japanese ones ^^; He says he has no spare time to do anything because even when he does have a chance to sit at the computer, he's always doing something for the band. If he were to have spare time, he loves all thing electronic, from robots to ipods. He's even into making Gundam models ^__^ He has a play station 2, and his favorite games are his golf games. He's such a nerd x3 Jen asked if he liked Ebony's hair (mind you they had been drinking a bit before the dinner ^^;;;) and sakai sort of poked it (it was in corn rows that stopped and went into straight long hair extensions) and siad it was cool haha. Then Jen asked if he liked Ebony's big boobs XD; and Ebony yelled "Yamero!!!! >OOOO" at her and told sakai to ignore Jen XD Sakai just cracked up while the Cure guys looked entertained. Then the head of Cure asked Nora wtf Hannah and I were eating and Nora tells him they're cheese sticks and the whole table of Cure people are like *___* GIVEMENOWASADFJKL; so Nora told our waitress that they wanted some, as none of the Cure staff spoke english either XD Poor Nora must've felt like a babysitter. it was funny because as a lot of conversation is happening in all Japanese, Kana and I were clueing Hannah in on what was happening and Nora looks at me like @__O you too? and I told Nora I can understand words and process what's being said, but speaking I'm gramatically messed up and can only say certain things XD;;; so she winds up translating what ebony is saying for a lot of the time XD; Sakai likes to drink beer, he said he would've had a drink but he left his passport back at the hotel (like they'd card him anyway XD) Jen, being tipsy, had to ask her infamous question; What's your favorite sexual position? and like I said, he answered EVERYTHING. He just kind of looked like O.O when she asked, but he totally answered doggy-style and laughed about it XD so of course that provoked me to ask what his favorite animal was and he thought about it and said "doggu!" in english and started to crack up x3 it was cute, and I'm glad he had good humor not to be weirded out or offended by the sexual question XD but he said seriously, he loves miniature dauchsunds, which is the kind of dog Tooru has :3 cute, ne? he said the dog breed in good english too, it was cute! Hannah asked about what a lot of people have been saying; when 12012 comes in October, is Kisaki coming with them? I mean, it is their first performance here, and we all know how protective Kisama is... So Sakai said he didnt know anything for sure, but there's a good chance he might. I also brought up about how in an interview he said he promised to shrink 1cm for the new year, so does that mean he doesn't like being tall? He laughed as he answered that he was always told that the perfect height for a guitarist is 178cm (he's 183cm or rather, 6ft) so he always said he wanted to shrink down to 178cm, but now he's come to terms with his height and accepts it XD then he laughed some more XDDD A lot more conversation and questions happened, he asked us a good deal of questions too ^^
Now, I purposely waited till now to talk about this because... well, its just... XD;
During the begining of the dinner, the table right behind Sakai had someone at it who got the magical embarassing moment of having the waiter/esses sing happy birthday to them. Sakai seemed confused yet highly entertained when that happened as he turned around completely in his chair and watched in awe as it happened XD; Nora was crouched down between me and Hannah when she mentions that Sakai's birthday was last week and I thought Oh yeaahhhh, Kisaki posted about that... then I couldn't help it, it flew out of my mouth at Nora "OHMYGOD HAVE THEM SING HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SAKAI O__O" Hannah agreed, so did Kana, then Jen and Ebony heard and were like xD omg yes! So Nora went off to find the waitress but failed. At the end of the dinner, Hannah reminded Nora (THANK YOU HANNAH!!! *__*) so Nora went off and found the waitress, found her, told her, and came back. The waiters and waitresses gather in the corner and started clapping, but I don't know if they just couldn't clap together or what their problem was but Sakai was in the middle of talking and we all kept turning and looking at them, so Sakai's speech slowed down as he looke like ...o.o? what's going on? And the group came over to us, clapping and singing as they surrounded the table and sat down a sundae in front of him and continued singing. Sakai started to clap along with them getting really into it so we all clapped along too while the Cure staff looked utterly confused and amused by this XD So they finish singing "Happy happy birthday..." and go to leave and Sakai raises his sundae and shuts "Omedetto!!" at them XD I'm like, we should be saying that to you Sakai XD; so he takes a taste of it as the Cure guy hopped out of his chair fast to get a picture of him with the sundae XD One picture is with him just holding it, the other picture was taken when Sakai wasn't paying attention so he's got a piece of whip cream in the corner of his mouth (oh the cuteness XD) So Sakai tells us he likes sweet things, but not whip cream so much, so he digs down deeper to the ice cream which was adorable. Really adorable. :3 Cuteness overload I tell you, overload! So its picture time, first a group shot of the table, then individual shots. For the individual shots, we went and sat next to Sakai and it was funny, when I went to sit down, he looked at me like o.o; I see eye to eye with you in the chair O_O!The Cure guys take pictures of the the group with Sakai, and I hand Sakai my present for him the ghettolicious bag I had to make for him. I waited til the end because I didn't feel like having to explain the t-siren whistle to the other girls; if they heard about it, they heard about it; Hannah was the only one I knew that knew about the story behind it in detail (i totally fan girled on her about it XD;) plus to me, it seems more personal for him to open it later and get the chance to look at everything accordingly without feeling pressured to give me a reaction. We get handshakes and Sakai learns what the meaning of "Hug" is because apparently he's not framiliar with the japanese slang term "huggu" which Nora tried to use which made me want to shout DAKISHIME!!! as he looked confused when Hannah and Ebony went to hug him XD So Cure takes more pictures (seriously man @__@ so many XD) as Sakai goes to leave, taking pictures of him turning and waving goodbye to us, and us waving back. After he leaves, Jen asked the Cure magazine head if he liked Ebony's boobs XDDDDDDD Ebony screamed at her again to stop and covered Jens mouth and told him to disreguard Jen and he was CRACKING UP HARD CORE. The Cure guy taking pictures laughed too while the one girl sat there like ^^; with her note pad full of notes about the dinner I suppose. So we asked the head of Cure what issue this was all going to be in/when it comes out and he said August. Now I assume he means the September issue that comes out in August because August's issue, if it's not already, should be out within a week o.o So now I have to wait for that issue, and Becca has to polish off her roll of film, so Hannah, we'll have to wait to get our pictures -__-; If the picture of Sakai and his sundae makes it in, which I'm sure it will, now you'll all know what it's about, and that I'm responsible for making Sakai go through one of the most embarassing things in America that can happen to you at a resturant XD
So Harry takes us back to the hilton, we leave, say goodbye to ebony jen and kana and hannah and I walk to find becca and we talk some more and then start heading back to our hotel. After repeatedly trying to say goodbye and getting distracted by all things Mana, as we didn't go to the panel we had to hear about it from someone ^__^, we finally said goodbye to hannah on the sidewalk and went back to our hotel after getting sprayed by sprinklers and having near gross experiences with walking into spider webs. We crashed to sleep at 1:30 am just to get up in 5 hours to go get in line for Hyde. Which is where I'll continue tomorrow cos it's late and I'm sleepy, bitches. (hahahahahahaha becca, Shut up bitch!)
I told Becca he was going to get his own paragraph. Now, I'm not 100% sure, but I'm damn near sure he was an Aoi cosplayer. And by far, this was the most gorgeous J-rockish guy I have ever seen. His hair, his style, the lip piercing... *_____* He looked like Aoi to a T, so much that from where I was, I couldn't tell if he was Japanese or not. He was utterly gorgeous. And I told Becca that I was going to take her plane ticket back away from her and giveit to him and she could stay in CA because I was taking him back with me. XD He was gorgeous I tell you, GORGEOUS!
Okay sleep time~!
So Saturday early morning, I pick Becca up and we head to my sisters house. Glenn finally gets up and takes us to the airport where we attempt to do a self check-in but its different than the ones at the philadelphia airport, so I was like ?_? at first. I finally get my boarding pass printed when we realize Becca didn't have her paper with the confirmation number on it so we call rae anne and she totally couldn't find the paper so that failed so we just had this lady do it at the desk. After trying to tell us there wasn't a flight booked for her, I told her you've got the wrong flight lady and she was like "oohhh ^^;" so we got her pass and later I realized I totally had her confirmation number on another print out ^^; sorry becca XD
So we get on the plane when they call us, becca had the window I had the aisle (stupid people who recline *shakes fist* I'm too tall and it bangs my knees up) the plan was that no one likes to sit inbetween two strangers so we might not wind up with anyone between us, but seeing it was the holiday weekedn, we wound up with this weird guy in between us who immediately put on this eye mask and went to sleep o.o apparently while I was sleeping, he decided to shut the cover on beccas window which pissed her off.
Anyway. Before I know it, our flight lands an hour early, weird guy next to me goes to the bathroom and I realize he's not wearing his shoes o.O; so we get off, and get a cab driver.
OH. MY. GOD.
I swear to god, our driver was none other than Carl "Smokey" Isshi, the lead singer of the defunct band Kome Kome Club (the originators of the song "Roman Hikou") His hair... he was wearing a suit... the sun glasses... the accent... the ability to make me feel weird in a giggling school girl sense when he handed me back the address of the hotel we were staying at, tipped his glasses down and said "thank you" in a sultry voice O.O;;; When Isshi disappeared off the face of the earth... I had no idea where he went. Now I do. He's a cab driver in Orange County, California. O_O God speed, Isshi, god speed.
We get to the hotel, and ask if we can do early check in. HOT! WE COULD! So before we go to our room, I asked the guy if he knew the address for the convention center. He said no, and asked what was there and I went "uhh... a convention o.o" and he goes "anime expo?" and I'm like asadfjkl; don't ask if you already know! XD and he tells us he's going on monday and tuesday. He was like wow you're from jersey? XD
We get to our hotel room, drop off our stuff and attempt to find a licquor store so we can get Miyawaki and Sakai's presents for dinner. After much stress, we get to one, becca buys the stuff, we go back to the hotel, drop it off, go to the convention center and attempt to get in line.
HOLY. SHIT.
There must've been 500 people in line ahead of us and we only had an hour before Mana's panel. After waiting a half hour without going very far, we decide that alas, we will miss Mana anyway, and that's the only thing we needed a con pass for, so we get out of line and head into the exhibit hall pass line, which had maybe 150 people in it. So we go through that line in an hour, get a little "admit One" ticket and a hand stamp and make a beeline for the dealer's room. We find the Tofu Records booth and Hyde hadn't been there yet, so we checked in with Harry and he told us that the location to meet for the dinners had changed so we're like -__-; so complicated.
We head back over to the Tofu booth and YAY! HYDE Faith tour T-Shirts! We bought a shirt and sat down and waited for Hyde, angsting over when he would get there because becca and I still had to actually pack the gift bags for Miyawaki, Sakai, and Hyde. One of the Tofu staff, Kaki, started talking to the crowd and told us about the no pictures things and stuff and made idle chat then disappeared. Finally at 4pm she comes back and tells us that Hyde is coming at 4:30 so everyone cheered. 4:15 reaches and she starts giving us this play-by-play of where he was XD "He's leaving his hotel!!!" "He's getting in the car!" "He's on his way here!" Then it gets better: "He's in the parking lot!" *ten minutes later* "He's getting out of the car!" XD I looked at Becca and went "MY GOD, it took him quite some time to climb out of that car didn't it XD" "He's walking to the building..." "He's picking his left nostril with his right index finger" "He's in the building" "He's on his way up" "Everybody, let's countdown from 10!!!" after the countdown you hear shrieks and screams as you see 25 staff security and finally you see Hyde as he stepped up onto the side of the stage. He gets about halway across the small, small stage when his face goes 8O and his mouth makes a "waaaooowwww" as he looks overwhelmed at the amount of people standing there waiting for him. So he continues on over to his director chair and attempts to sit in it. Attempts being the key word. XD; He had to grab the handles and litterally hop up into the chair XD I was reminded of that Super Pop Beat magazine I have with the pictures from the press conferance with him and Gackt about Moon Child where in the picture, they're both sitting in director's chairs and Hyde's feet dangle onto the rung of the chair while Gackt's are planted flat on the floor XD Hyde crossed his legs and put his foot on the bottom rung of the chair as Kaki sat down and had her feet touching the floor lightly. Mind you Kaki is from Japan as well. XD; So after Hyde stops concentrating on getting into the chair, he looks out at the screaming crowd again, and Kaki introduces him again and he tries to say something, but his mic isn't working right D: so they fix it fast and he syas into the mic loudly "hah-looow!" and everyone screamed like raging animals and he made another 8OOOO face which made me crack up XD poor little thing, we must've terrified him. XD Then the questions started. One of the questions was in reguard to his lyrics; about how there's that religious content yet he himself isn't an avid believer. I can't quite remember what the question was exactly, nor what he answered (aah, asadfjkl; fireworks just scared the bejeesus out of me O__O;) Then there were some other questions reguarding the new album and it's message and his answer was that the message Faith is supposed to send out is that if your listening to the album while in a bad mood, whether your sad or angry, if listening to the album makes you feel better, that's what he's trying to convey. A sense of feelings that can change one's one outlook. He also said he was nervous about playing, but was going to give his best, and another question was if he had done any sight seeing yet. He said he hasn't exactly gone sight seeing, but he did go shopping Friday, then they spent 5 minutes trying to figure out exactly where he shopped, but the translator and Kaki failed. Yes, even though Kaki is Japanese and from Japan, they had a translator as she was the one asking the questions in english. The best question that was asked was in reguards to his clothes. It was along the lines of 'is your choice in clothing inspired by something and if it is, what?' and he just went "ano... *glances down at his clothing* ano... o.o; *looks around* ano... ?__?" and he just sort of muttered somthing along the lines of XD i don't know how to answer this XD! So Kaki says "okay lets try it this way, how did you decide on what you're wearing today?" and He answered "ano... *looks at his clothing with this duurrr look and raises his shoulders with the most adorable ^^; I don't know smile on his face* umm... well first I picked out the pants and then I picked the shirt and jacket that matched..." and everyone cheered while he still had this look of "what? is there something wrong with my choice of clothes?? XD" that question totally bewildered him X3 you could tell he's never been asked that before. The questions are over, and now it's time for Hyde to sign the big Hyde banner that I guess was one of the raffle prizes. If you bought the Faith album, Tofu gave you a little raffle ticket, and at the very endo of the event, Hyde picked out a bunch of numbers out of this plastic bowl and called out the numbers. THAT was adorable. "Shix, four, four, eight... two, four." He took some pauses as if to remember what the numbers were in english it was so freaking cute XD all of his numbers were PERFECT except for six (shix) and three (shree). Seven came out perfect, and me and becca were fan girling over his utter cuteness with the number calling. So it's time for him to leave, he says he goodbye message and blows kisses to the crowd and left with his 25 staff security men XD; Me and Becca just looked at eachother like *___* that was surreal. I couldn't believe how close we were to him. It was incredible.
So we get up, and make a rush to the Jpophouse booth before heading back to the hotel so we could prepare the gifts. It was only 5pm and Miyawaki and Sakai were scheduled to be there between 4-6pm so I thought maybe we had a chance.
Nope. They had already gone -__- So Becca and I headed back to the hotel where we went to prepare gifts. Except I totally forgot a gift bag, so I ran to the gas station next to the hotel and bought some chocalte milk for me and water for becca and got a paper bag because noone had gift bags to sell -__-; so I go back, make a totally bootleg gift bag out of it using ribbon becca brought to make handles, and I pack his stuff.
We get our stuff together and head back to the con center where Becca beelines to the Hilton Hotel where she's supposed to meet harry for the Miyawaki dinner, and I head into the con center to sit down and chill until it's my time to go. First I had to deliver Hyde's gift for becca to the Tofu booth, but alas, they were gone after a staff member let me in specially just so I could drop it off -__- so I was like well crap. Becca better be getting out of the van as I go to get in so she can take Hyde's present back with her XD So I find this row of cushioned seating things against the back wall and sit down. No sooner than three minutes later, this guy comes over and sits down right next to me when there's totally plenty of empty seats against the wall and I'm like -__-# I want to sleep don't talk to me. But noooo of course not.
He starts talking and asks me questions and to sum it up, he works for Geneon Entertainment, offered to show me the executive suite where all the press conferances and pictures for The Indigo were being held, asked me to dinner, I said no I was waiting for someone, he comes back and gives me his phone number and tells me call him, but if I don't that's okay too. -___-; Oh, he also gave me this letter opener promo thing that said gunxsword but obviously I had to leave that behind in the hotel room as nifty as it was because I can't take that on the plane -__-;
It nears time for me to go to the hotel to meet for Sakai's dinner, so I head over to the hilton and wait in the lobby. Finally after pacing around and seeing people who I thought were the other dinner attendees, Nora appears and I go up and meet Hannah who was way cool ^__^! We must've talked about D'espairsRay for... the entire time until Sakai came XD; *feels guilty* Jen, Ebony and Kana showed up and we waited for Harry to get there in his soccer mom mini van ahahahahahahaaskljdf; He arrives and we get in.
Now, the ride there was just weird. Besides the fact that Harry drives like a New Yorker bred with a New Jersian and that bastard child became an indianapolis 500 racer, he had Girugamesh playing in this minivan. Not that I wasn't expecting it... it was just weird to be in a car not mine nor my friends, but yet a 42 year old man playing hard core Jrock o.O
So we get there, to Red Robin (blech -_-) and wait for our table and we see everyone from Miyawaki's dinner come walking by when I'm like YES! and give Becca Hyde's bag and she give me her camera telling me I'll need it so I'm like I guess they forgot the polaroid? and we go in and sit down.
Mari is just leaving the table telling everyone to have a seat when she sees me and goes "you! what are you doing here?! XD" and I laughed and told her i know I'm crazy for coming from the east coast XD So she leaves and then comes back and asks if I'm sitting on her jacket and I'm like o.O; no? so she looks around for it but can't find it so she said some things to me that I can't remember and left and finally Sakai comes in after the guys from Cure Magazine. He comes sauntering over, all cool like; not nervous at all; and sits down and we introduce ourselves as the pictures start -__- Those Cure guys were EVERYWHERE taking a ZILLION pictures. As we introduce ourselves, Sakai repeats our names back to us, it was cute :3 although he messed up Hannah's name and Nora corrected him (I think he called you Haley? XD) So I said my name slow, loud and clear and surprise! He actually got "Jessica" out 100% perfect! X3 it was sooooo cute.
Anyway, so Jen gave him her gift and he started to open it when Jen said Noo... uh.. no? and Nora asked if he could open it and Sakai's looking at he rlike o.o? and starts to tuck it in his jacket like its a secret present (again, so cute x3) when Jen says "ehh... ok he can XD" so he starts to open it and goes "AHH!" and finishes tearing it open real fast as the Cure guys take pictures of him holding his new carton of Malboro Menthol Cigarettes XD; He asked how she knew he smoked those and she answered in interviews he's said it and he laughed and was like oh yeaaahhh XD I don't even know where to start about the conversations that went on or the questions that were asked because Ebony spoke really impresive Japanese, Jen was decent at it, and so was Kana. I can understand what's going on and what's being said, but if I tried to speak it, it would be beyond non-grammatical, so I didn't even try and Hannah just looked confused XD A lot of conversation went around when we weren't asking questions, things like Ebony and Jen telling Sakai that they study their japanese at Berkley and they joked around saying he should go there one day haha. Tons of questions were asked, and Sakai answered every last one, he was so happy and laughed and smiled a lot. He poked at his salad when we told him to eat XD it was cute. Other than Ihop, he hadn't been anywhere else to eat yet, but he said that he loved pancakes XD On the flight here, he said there were no other Japanese people on their plane so when him and Wataru would talk they just kind of got looked at so they both wound up just sleeping the whole way here. The rest of the band couldn't come with them because they were doing a session recording back in Japan, and Sakai said that the others were jealous, apparently all of them really wanted to come over here. (I guess Kisaki and Kamijo have built up America to be this place of ut-most awesomeness to everyone on undercode o.O;) While he was nervous about coming over here, he wasn't sure what to expect; he was scared, but not in the bad kind of scared way, as in the new places are scary way. He said he really wanted to see California and meet his fans. When they got into CA, he was amazed. He was really impressed. He said that Japan is really crowded, everything is so close together everywhere, especially in the cities, but here, even in cities, things were so much bigger and more open and there was so much room. He loved that. They hadn't done much yet being in CA, but he made one thing clear XD He doesn't want to go to Disney Land. He's been to Disney Japan 3x and said he didn't have to go again XD so we told him but it's the orginal! and he said it was scary because he doesn't like rollercoasters because he's afraid of heights XD So we joked around and told him he should go to Six Flags and he called it scary XD He asked if any of us has ever been to Japan before, and Jen and Ebony said yes and briefly talked about where they went. Then we started talking about the band; why'd they choose to be a concept band; how the sound of the new songs has gone soft; why they picked specifically 12012 as the name; what they expected out of Oni-Con; what bands he liked; what he thought of the other UnderCode bands... The chose to be a concept band because of a story they really liked and as Wataru writes the lyrics, it was his decision; they went soft so they can appeal to every aspect of music, they wanted to show their versatility; Up until they had formed a band, there was no other band in Japan that had the band name being in all numbers so that's why they chose 12012; they don't quite expect anything, they just really hope their fans show up to support them so they can all just rock out and have a good time; he likes KoRn XD; he gets along well with the other bands, they all look up to eachother in a respectful way as musicians and friends.
After I asked why specifically 12012, he asked after answering if there were any bands in the US that had it's name in just numbers and we told him there was one, 311. He asked if that meant anything and we told him it's also taken from the california penal code, except 311 means indecent exposure and he got a big kick out of that XD After he answered KoRn, he asked us what other bands we listen to, american and japanese and if we go to live houses frequenly over here. We all agreed KoRn is okay, and we just kind of stared like american bands? we gave up on them long ago... so he asked us what the appeal of Japanese music to us is versus American music, because to him American music is amazing, it's different and nothing like music in japan. We told him that's how we feel about Japanese music. When you hear the same style of music repeatedly, it gets boring and drab, but to us, with Japanese music there's such variety and passion put into their music. Sometimes not being able to understand the lyrics by the actual word meaning is a good thing, you can hear the songs meaning through the emotion poured into it; something that we don't hear in american music anymore, not because its not there, but because we lost interest. When he asked about the live houses and if we go often, we all pretty much answered the same thing, yes, but pretty much the only bands we see here are japanese ones ^^; He says he has no spare time to do anything because even when he does have a chance to sit at the computer, he's always doing something for the band. If he were to have spare time, he loves all thing electronic, from robots to ipods. He's even into making Gundam models ^__^ He has a play station 2, and his favorite games are his golf games. He's such a nerd x3 Jen asked if he liked Ebony's hair (mind you they had been drinking a bit before the dinner ^^;;;) and sakai sort of poked it (it was in corn rows that stopped and went into straight long hair extensions) and siad it was cool haha. Then Jen asked if he liked Ebony's big boobs XD; and Ebony yelled "Yamero!!!! >OOOO" at her and told sakai to ignore Jen XD Sakai just cracked up while the Cure guys looked entertained. Then the head of Cure asked Nora wtf Hannah and I were eating and Nora tells him they're cheese sticks and the whole table of Cure people are like *___* GIVEMENOWASADFJKL; so Nora told our waitress that they wanted some, as none of the Cure staff spoke english either XD Poor Nora must've felt like a babysitter. it was funny because as a lot of conversation is happening in all Japanese, Kana and I were clueing Hannah in on what was happening and Nora looks at me like @__O you too? and I told Nora I can understand words and process what's being said, but speaking I'm gramatically messed up and can only say certain things XD;;; so she winds up translating what ebony is saying for a lot of the time XD; Sakai likes to drink beer, he said he would've had a drink but he left his passport back at the hotel (like they'd card him anyway XD) Jen, being tipsy, had to ask her infamous question; What's your favorite sexual position? and like I said, he answered EVERYTHING. He just kind of looked like O.O when she asked, but he totally answered doggy-style and laughed about it XD so of course that provoked me to ask what his favorite animal was and he thought about it and said "doggu!" in english and started to crack up x3 it was cute, and I'm glad he had good humor not to be weirded out or offended by the sexual question XD but he said seriously, he loves miniature dauchsunds, which is the kind of dog Tooru has :3 cute, ne? he said the dog breed in good english too, it was cute! Hannah asked about what a lot of people have been saying; when 12012 comes in October, is Kisaki coming with them? I mean, it is their first performance here, and we all know how protective Kisama is... So Sakai said he didnt know anything for sure, but there's a good chance he might. I also brought up about how in an interview he said he promised to shrink 1cm for the new year, so does that mean he doesn't like being tall? He laughed as he answered that he was always told that the perfect height for a guitarist is 178cm (he's 183cm or rather, 6ft) so he always said he wanted to shrink down to 178cm, but now he's come to terms with his height and accepts it XD then he laughed some more XDDD A lot more conversation and questions happened, he asked us a good deal of questions too ^^
Now, I purposely waited till now to talk about this because... well, its just... XD;
During the begining of the dinner, the table right behind Sakai had someone at it who got the magical embarassing moment of having the waiter/esses sing happy birthday to them. Sakai seemed confused yet highly entertained when that happened as he turned around completely in his chair and watched in awe as it happened XD; Nora was crouched down between me and Hannah when she mentions that Sakai's birthday was last week and I thought Oh yeaahhhh, Kisaki posted about that... then I couldn't help it, it flew out of my mouth at Nora "OHMYGOD HAVE THEM SING HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SAKAI O__O" Hannah agreed, so did Kana, then Jen and Ebony heard and were like xD omg yes! So Nora went off to find the waitress but failed. At the end of the dinner, Hannah reminded Nora (THANK YOU HANNAH!!! *__*) so Nora went off and found the waitress, found her, told her, and came back. The waiters and waitresses gather in the corner and started clapping, but I don't know if they just couldn't clap together or what their problem was but Sakai was in the middle of talking and we all kept turning and looking at them, so Sakai's speech slowed down as he looke like ...o.o? what's going on? And the group came over to us, clapping and singing as they surrounded the table and sat down a sundae in front of him and continued singing. Sakai started to clap along with them getting really into it so we all clapped along too while the Cure staff looked utterly confused and amused by this XD So they finish singing "Happy happy birthday..." and go to leave and Sakai raises his sundae and shuts "Omedetto!!" at them XD I'm like, we should be saying that to you Sakai XD; so he takes a taste of it as the Cure guy hopped out of his chair fast to get a picture of him with the sundae XD One picture is with him just holding it, the other picture was taken when Sakai wasn't paying attention so he's got a piece of whip cream in the corner of his mouth (oh the cuteness XD) So Sakai tells us he likes sweet things, but not whip cream so much, so he digs down deeper to the ice cream which was adorable. Really adorable. :3 Cuteness overload I tell you, overload! So its picture time, first a group shot of the table, then individual shots. For the individual shots, we went and sat next to Sakai and it was funny, when I went to sit down, he looked at me like o.o; I see eye to eye with you in the chair O_O!The Cure guys take pictures of the the group with Sakai, and I hand Sakai my present for him the ghettolicious bag I had to make for him. I waited til the end because I didn't feel like having to explain the t-siren whistle to the other girls; if they heard about it, they heard about it; Hannah was the only one I knew that knew about the story behind it in detail (i totally fan girled on her about it XD;) plus to me, it seems more personal for him to open it later and get the chance to look at everything accordingly without feeling pressured to give me a reaction. We get handshakes and Sakai learns what the meaning of "Hug" is because apparently he's not framiliar with the japanese slang term "huggu" which Nora tried to use which made me want to shout DAKISHIME!!! as he looked confused when Hannah and Ebony went to hug him XD So Cure takes more pictures (seriously man @__@ so many XD) as Sakai goes to leave, taking pictures of him turning and waving goodbye to us, and us waving back. After he leaves, Jen asked the Cure magazine head if he liked Ebony's boobs XDDDDDDD Ebony screamed at her again to stop and covered Jens mouth and told him to disreguard Jen and he was CRACKING UP HARD CORE. The Cure guy taking pictures laughed too while the one girl sat there like ^^; with her note pad full of notes about the dinner I suppose. So we asked the head of Cure what issue this was all going to be in/when it comes out and he said August. Now I assume he means the September issue that comes out in August because August's issue, if it's not already, should be out within a week o.o So now I have to wait for that issue, and Becca has to polish off her roll of film, so Hannah, we'll have to wait to get our pictures -__-; If the picture of Sakai and his sundae makes it in, which I'm sure it will, now you'll all know what it's about, and that I'm responsible for making Sakai go through one of the most embarassing things in America that can happen to you at a resturant XD
So Harry takes us back to the hilton, we leave, say goodbye to ebony jen and kana and hannah and I walk to find becca and we talk some more and then start heading back to our hotel. After repeatedly trying to say goodbye and getting distracted by all things Mana, as we didn't go to the panel we had to hear about it from someone ^__^, we finally said goodbye to hannah on the sidewalk and went back to our hotel after getting sprayed by sprinklers and having near gross experiences with walking into spider webs. We crashed to sleep at 1:30 am just to get up in 5 hours to go get in line for Hyde. Which is where I'll continue tomorrow cos it's late and I'm sleepy, bitches. (hahahahahahaha becca, Shut up bitch!)
I told Becca he was going to get his own paragraph. Now, I'm not 100% sure, but I'm damn near sure he was an Aoi cosplayer. And by far, this was the most gorgeous J-rockish guy I have ever seen. His hair, his style, the lip piercing... *_____* He looked like Aoi to a T, so much that from where I was, I couldn't tell if he was Japanese or not. He was utterly gorgeous. And I told Becca that I was going to take her plane ticket back away from her and giveit to him and she could stay in CA because I was taking him back with me. XD He was gorgeous I tell you, GORGEOUS!
Okay sleep time~!