Report: Sho in Vancouver
By some stroke of luck, I happened to be in Vancouver today, so I got to see Sho as he came out of the airport.
After all the fan speculation, Sho did indeed end up taking the JAL, which arrived at 9:10 in the morning. When I got there at 9:00, there were already about 70 fans pressed against the glass railing, cameras at the ready. The girls around me spoke in Mandarin and Cantonese and English, but surprisingly, most of them were chatting in rapid-fire Japanese.
The two Japanese girls next to me had apparently been to concerts before and were freaking out that they'd get to see Sho from less than four feet away. One of them wanted to fix her makeup every five minutes. Together, we speculated on which hotels he might be staying at, and which tourist areas he might visit if he has time. XD
Around 9:45, Sho finally emerged. Thank goodness he came out through the Arrivals area, because I was half convinced that he would take the VIP exit through the side. Friends who've worked at YVR before tell me that there are exits reserved for high-profile travellers, but I guess Sho didn't take that route.
Predictably, he looked tired as hell. In fact, he was walking along the far wall of the hall, as far away from the crowds as possible. Sturdy-looking staff members (much larger and sturdier than him, I have to say) blocked him from sight.
The few glimpses that I caught of him showed that he was wearing a puffy gray down jacket, zipped up almost to the chin, and a ski cap pulled down low over his eyes. The only celebrity-like thing about him was that he didn't carry his own luggage - he had a very stylish shoulder tote, but the staff carried everything else. He didn't look up, didn't wave, didn't smile. In other words, he looked as if he were in no condition to appreciate the fact that he has fans in Vancouver.
Which you really can't blame him for.
I was grouchier than him coming off the same flight two days ago, and I didn't have to do Hanamaru Markets before takeoff. I also don't have tickets to the Opening Ceremony, so it's not like I have to save my energy for anything.
His manager spent the whole 10 seconds of the walk out of the customs area looking as if he were devising a quick getaway strategy. This was clearly an act born of experience, because the moment they merged into the common area, the fans rushed after them like a crowd of mad rabbits.
EDIT: Before anyone starts pointing fingers at Japanese fans though, I have to add that a lot of the older Japanese fans - the university students, the mothers - also hung back. Some of them were sighing and shaking their heads at the shrieking teenagers. If you really want to know who-mobbed-Sho and who-didn't, I'd say it's probably an even mix of everyone. =)
I guess the fan reaction was unanticipated, or they might have gone through the VIP exit instead.
Unfortunately for Sho (or fortunately for the fans, whichever way you want to look at it), the Vancouver airport is pretty accessible, so it was entirely possible to follow them right across the street into the parking lot. There was a funny moment when Sho stopped at the red light and everyone else had to skid to a stop behind him, so the whole crowd got bunched-up behind the crosswalk. I feel for the poor traffic control guy standing in the middle. He must've felt like a tsunami was coming.
The manager and his staff tried to get everyone to back off as much as possible, but there were still some girls surging in and coming back shrieking "I touched him!" and the like. 0___0
I had to hang back because I just didn't feel comfortable pressing so much unwanted attention on him. Also, I hated to think that he'd leave with a bad impression of Vancouver fans in general.
A lot of fans also swarmed their car, making it impossible to drive. I'm guessing they also held up the parking lot in general, since there were a lot of regular tourists standing around asking everyone within arm's reach "Who is that? Is that an Olympic athlete?" I told them that Sho's a reporter for the Japanese news, which is more easily understandable than "idol", but they clearly didn't believe me XD
As a matter of fact, most of the airport officials looked bewildered. I guess they didn't realize they would have 80+ crazed fans on their hands XD
Sho and his entourage ride a white van, if anyone's interested.
Anyway, because of the huge crowd around their car, it took them almost ten minutes to start inching away. I was standing just outside the parking lot so I didn't see how they did it, but somehow they finally broke away from the crowd and rolled away.
It feels a little like we gave Sho far too effusive a greeting for someone who has to be exhausted. So since she already put it so perfectly, I'll borrow
What I did manage to do is take a short (7 sec?) vid of Sho coming out of Customs. I also took a vid of the manager telling every to stay back, because they basically just shouted at everyone in Japanese. Either they were really panicked, or they had figured out that about half the crowd could speak Japanese. ^^;;
I'm sure a lot of other fans have better videos than me, though, so they should surface within the next 24 hours or so if you're interested in seeing them.
And now, back to sleep. I got 3 hrs last night from pure nerves and jet lag. *yawn*
Who else is watching the Olympics 2010 Opening Ceremony Tonight on TV? =D
After all the fan speculation, Sho did indeed end up taking the JAL, which arrived at 9:10 in the morning. When I got there at 9:00, there were already about 70 fans pressed against the glass railing, cameras at the ready. The girls around me spoke in Mandarin and Cantonese and English, but surprisingly, most of them were chatting in rapid-fire Japanese.
The two Japanese girls next to me had apparently been to concerts before and were freaking out that they'd get to see Sho from less than four feet away. One of them wanted to fix her makeup every five minutes. Together, we speculated on which hotels he might be staying at, and which tourist areas he might visit if he has time. XD
Around 9:45, Sho finally emerged. Thank goodness he came out through the Arrivals area, because I was half convinced that he would take the VIP exit through the side. Friends who've worked at YVR before tell me that there are exits reserved for high-profile travellers, but I guess Sho didn't take that route.
Predictably, he looked tired as hell. In fact, he was walking along the far wall of the hall, as far away from the crowds as possible. Sturdy-looking staff members (much larger and sturdier than him, I have to say) blocked him from sight.
The few glimpses that I caught of him showed that he was wearing a puffy gray down jacket, zipped up almost to the chin, and a ski cap pulled down low over his eyes. The only celebrity-like thing about him was that he didn't carry his own luggage - he had a very stylish shoulder tote, but the staff carried everything else. He didn't look up, didn't wave, didn't smile. In other words, he looked as if he were in no condition to appreciate the fact that he has fans in Vancouver.
Which you really can't blame him for.
I was grouchier than him coming off the same flight two days ago, and I didn't have to do Hanamaru Markets before takeoff. I also don't have tickets to the Opening Ceremony, so it's not like I have to save my energy for anything.
His manager spent the whole 10 seconds of the walk out of the customs area looking as if he were devising a quick getaway strategy. This was clearly an act born of experience, because the moment they merged into the common area, the fans rushed after them like a crowd of mad rabbits.
EDIT: Before anyone starts pointing fingers at Japanese fans though, I have to add that a lot of the older Japanese fans - the university students, the mothers - also hung back. Some of them were sighing and shaking their heads at the shrieking teenagers. If you really want to know who-mobbed-Sho and who-didn't, I'd say it's probably an even mix of everyone. =)
I guess the fan reaction was unanticipated, or they might have gone through the VIP exit instead.
Unfortunately for Sho (or fortunately for the fans, whichever way you want to look at it), the Vancouver airport is pretty accessible, so it was entirely possible to follow them right across the street into the parking lot. There was a funny moment when Sho stopped at the red light and everyone else had to skid to a stop behind him, so the whole crowd got bunched-up behind the crosswalk. I feel for the poor traffic control guy standing in the middle. He must've felt like a tsunami was coming.
The manager and his staff tried to get everyone to back off as much as possible, but there were still some girls surging in and coming back shrieking "I touched him!" and the like. 0___0
I had to hang back because I just didn't feel comfortable pressing so much unwanted attention on him. Also, I hated to think that he'd leave with a bad impression of Vancouver fans in general.
A lot of fans also swarmed their car, making it impossible to drive. I'm guessing they also held up the parking lot in general, since there were a lot of regular tourists standing around asking everyone within arm's reach "Who is that? Is that an Olympic athlete?" I told them that Sho's a reporter for the Japanese news, which is more easily understandable than "idol", but they clearly didn't believe me XD
As a matter of fact, most of the airport officials looked bewildered. I guess they didn't realize they would have 80+ crazed fans on their hands XD
Sho and his entourage ride a white van, if anyone's interested.
Anyway, because of the huge crowd around their car, it took them almost ten minutes to start inching away. I was standing just outside the parking lot so I didn't see how they did it, but somehow they finally broke away from the crowd and rolled away.
It feels a little like we gave Sho far too effusive a greeting for someone who has to be exhausted. So since she already put it so perfectly, I'll borrow
What I did manage to do is take a short (7 sec?) vid of Sho coming out of Customs. I also took a vid of the manager telling every to stay back, because they basically just shouted at everyone in Japanese. Either they were really panicked, or they had figured out that about half the crowd could speak Japanese. ^^;;
I'm sure a lot of other fans have better videos than me, though, so they should surface within the next 24 hours or so if you're interested in seeing them.
And now, back to sleep. I got 3 hrs last night from pure nerves and jet lag. *yawn*
Who else is watching the Olympics 2010 Opening Ceremony Tonight on TV? =D