Finally, met Kakihara Tetsuya at Comike! Kacky Handshake Event Report.
Today was the Kakihara Tetsuya (Kacky) handshake event at Comike. I woke up early in the morning to get there before 10 but well, not really that early. Thank goodness too because it would've sucked to have to wait more than an hour in that scorching sun. Nevertheless, I still got sunburned as well as tanned. Bleh.:p
But hey the lines and the heat were worth it in the end.
So in order to participate for the handshaking event, I had to pre-order the Hanayoi Romanesque Dorama CD featuring Kacky from the toyswalker keitai site. I did that Thursday night. And I was supposed to bring the confirmation email to the Hanayoi Romanesque booth to show as proof of purchase and as elgibility to participate in the handshake event. They gave me a ticket and told me to be back at the booth by 1:40. The handshake event started at 2. Looks like I could've showed up at anytime before 2 to recieve a ticket to the event. But since the website had said to come at 10, I had no idea that I could've just slept in a little more. I was also worried that it might take forever to get inside the hall since it took so long on Friday when I went. Luckily, Sunday wasn't as crowded and there was a heck of a lot more space to move around this time.
In between the time before the event, I just walked around the Industry Booths and also went down to the Circles area and looked around. I saw Naono Bohra while I was there. She autographed a dj for my friend and was so sweet. She was complimenting my friend on her Japanese, too. I was thinking of getting Fuwa Shinri's autograph but didn't have time to stick around for much longer because I decided to go back to the Industry Floor and rest for a bit. I had been standing the whole day and really needed to sit down.
Finally it came around time for the Kacky event! In order to be more organized and not have all the Kacky fans crowding the booth and being in other people's way, they had us line up outside of the venue. They let us in in groups of 20s.
koramay was in the first group to get inside.
I used this waiting time to think of what to say. Kacky is known for speaking 4 languages, one of them being English. So I figured if I ended up forgetting what I was gonna say, I'd just go ahead and fall back on my English. Usually, at handshake events there's a lot of pressure to say what you're gonna say and say it fast since the staff tend to rush you along by pushing you at a certain point. So, I thought I sure hope I'll have more time than to just be able to say a greeting and a short one sentence comment.
But they finally called the 2nd group of us in, and had us raise our hands like Japanese school children crossing the street while we made our way back to the Hanayoi booth. This is when I got my first glimpse of Kacky so up-close. I had been to the GL event earlier in the month but didn't get to see him this close as I was on the 3rd floor.
I swear everytime I see him in person, I can't get over how cute he is. :p If you have seen his pics in afureko pics or seiyuu mags, trust me he is way cuter in person. He was very oshare today and wore a nice black shirt with a black vest over it. And of course, he had his handtowel prepared and 2 staff members fanning him from the back and from the side. One of them was actually, holding a small electric fan up behind him.:p Much better than when Hirakawa came. He was totally dripping sweat and had only his hand towel to relieve him.
There were still like five more people ahead of us from the 2nd group and among them was koramay. I'm pretty sure a lot of us waiting in line were playing close attention to when she was speaking with him. I can't help but think everyone was thinking like me. Are they speaking in English or Japanese? But it was impossible to tell let alone hear from where I was standing. He looked really happy to see her again and it looked like their conversation was flowing well.
Of all the handshake events I've ever been to, his is the first one where I've ever been worried about blanking out on what to say. So, I went over in my head again about what topics I could bring up. I was really amazed about this event because the staff didn't force you away like they usually did at previous events I've been to. They actually, let people stay and ask as many questions as they wanted and people decided to just leave on their own. I like this method. No need to feel rush.
When koramay was finished, she came up and told me about what they talked about. They only spoke in Japanese it seems.
There was still some time before it was my turn so I watched the other girls as they went. I noticed someone commented him on his clothes. But I couldn't really hear a thing anybody was saying to him let alone his replies. When it got to the turn of the person in front of me, I was paying close attention to their convo for when it would be my queue to go up to him. I think the girl in front of me must've been nervous because she would paused to think of what question she wanted to ask and Kacky would patiently stand there waiting for her ask.
Then it was my turn!
I think he was shocked to see another foreigner there. XD
He was smiling so cutely. And dude I like how he gripped my hand. He has a nice firm grip. We held hands the whole time and every now and then he would squeeze it tight. I feel weird saying this but it felt nice.:p
I started off in English with a "Hi! Nice to meet you." And dude he totally replied in Japanese. :p
I could tell right then and there, he's totally not comfortable with speaking any English. ^^;
But no worries, because I had intended to speak in mostly Japanese anyway. Just wanted to see his reaction when I greeted him in English.
I think he was surprised when I suddenly switched to Japanese. I told him how I had been listening to the Okane ga Hoshii and Pash de Dash radio shows. And how funny I think they are. He was surprised that I listened to the shows and was flattered that I enjoyed them. I also told him that I went to the Gurren Lagann event. He was like "Oh you mean the Gurren Dan event?" And I was like yep!
And out of nowhere he responded with the event's catchcopy "Natsu da! Drill da! Gurren Lagann Matsuri!" I laughed and was totally amused because he said that totally in character! So cute.
I told him it was really fun and how I especially liked his scream during the nama afureko corner. He suddenly did a toned down version of it and exclaimed "GIGAAAA DRIIIILL!!" (At this point I was thoroughly amused and was totally like damn you're cool.<--no, I didn't say that to him, of course.)
I would've loved to talk more about Gurren Lagann but I had more questions to ask. Maybe he would've quoted more lines.:p
Anyhow, the next question I asked was "Did you used to live in Shiki?"
And he was like "where?"
"Shiki. You know Tobu-Tojo sen."
And then he totally had this look of astonishment on his face. (' o ')
Kacky: Yeah. How did you know that?
Me: I heard it when you mentioned it on the radio. (BTW, he mentioned this in an ep. of Okane ga Hoshii when they were talking about an event being held in Asakadai. Kacky mentioned it was on the Tobu Tojo line. Near Shiki. And Hatano asked how Kacky knew that and about the line. And Kacky said he used to live in Shiki.)
He was totally amused that I lived in Shiki and we talked about where I lived there and all.
He was surprised that I was living in Japan and asked me where I was from.
I told him.
And he asked if I was a student here. And I told him how I both study and work here.
I told him how I teach English. Which set me up for my next question.
Just how much English do you speak? Kacky replied "Just a little."<--in English. Dude, I like his voice when he speak English. Very cool.
And so I was like really? Actually, I figured that he didn't speak much English. At least not as well as Japanese and German. Even though, it's listed as one of the 4 languages he can speak it doesn't mean he can speak it fluently.
But I started teasing him on how I wanted to hear him speak English.:p (BTW, he does speak random English from time to time on the rajis.) He explained that he's too shy to speak English on the spot and how his English is broken. I was like aww that's ok.
He brought up that his native language is actually German.
me: Yep, I know. ^^
He talked about how he learned English in school. But he gets nervous speaking it. But he understands it because it has a lot of similarities to German.
Next, I asked if he had a blog. I knew about this one blog he has but wasn' t sure if he had any other ones. As I read in a Japanese forum that he had more than one. And the fans were doubting that one of the blogs wasn't actually his but someone using his name. It turned out that the blog is his since it was the one he mentioned.
So, I was like cool I'll check it out. Even tho, I really already knew about it. :p
And then he preceded to tell me stuff like feel free to send letters to his agency and stuff.
And how he hopes I continue to support him blah blah blah...
And I was like thanks, please continue to do do your best.
And he was like yeah, he'll work hard blah blah blah...
And I was like thanks for your time blah blah blah...
And then he was funny as we were about to say our goodbyes.
Kacky: Oh and take care of Shiki for me!
Me: Haha. Sure thing. ^O^
We said our goodbyes and thus was my moment with Kacky. It was so much fun! I can't wait till his next event!^^
It's kinda funny that within the whole conversation, we never once talked about anything Hanayoi related.:p
But I guess it can't be helped since the cd hasn't even be released yet.
Oh and I apologize with my excessive use of the word "like" in this entry.:p
Also, you may have noticed I've stopped romanizing his name as Kakkii. I wasn't sure how he romanized his name so I just romanized it as it's written in katakana. But last week I found his A&G blog and saw that they spell it KACKY. So I take this as the official spelling.
Well, that's it for now...I need to get some sleep now.
But hey the lines and the heat were worth it in the end.
So in order to participate for the handshaking event, I had to pre-order the Hanayoi Romanesque Dorama CD featuring Kacky from the toyswalker keitai site. I did that Thursday night. And I was supposed to bring the confirmation email to the Hanayoi Romanesque booth to show as proof of purchase and as elgibility to participate in the handshake event. They gave me a ticket and told me to be back at the booth by 1:40. The handshake event started at 2. Looks like I could've showed up at anytime before 2 to recieve a ticket to the event. But since the website had said to come at 10, I had no idea that I could've just slept in a little more. I was also worried that it might take forever to get inside the hall since it took so long on Friday when I went. Luckily, Sunday wasn't as crowded and there was a heck of a lot more space to move around this time.
In between the time before the event, I just walked around the Industry Booths and also went down to the Circles area and looked around. I saw Naono Bohra while I was there. She autographed a dj for my friend and was so sweet. She was complimenting my friend on her Japanese, too. I was thinking of getting Fuwa Shinri's autograph but didn't have time to stick around for much longer because I decided to go back to the Industry Floor and rest for a bit. I had been standing the whole day and really needed to sit down.
Finally it came around time for the Kacky event! In order to be more organized and not have all the Kacky fans crowding the booth and being in other people's way, they had us line up outside of the venue. They let us in in groups of 20s.
koramay was in the first group to get inside.
I used this waiting time to think of what to say. Kacky is known for speaking 4 languages, one of them being English. So I figured if I ended up forgetting what I was gonna say, I'd just go ahead and fall back on my English. Usually, at handshake events there's a lot of pressure to say what you're gonna say and say it fast since the staff tend to rush you along by pushing you at a certain point. So, I thought I sure hope I'll have more time than to just be able to say a greeting and a short one sentence comment.
But they finally called the 2nd group of us in, and had us raise our hands like Japanese school children crossing the street while we made our way back to the Hanayoi booth. This is when I got my first glimpse of Kacky so up-close. I had been to the GL event earlier in the month but didn't get to see him this close as I was on the 3rd floor.
I swear everytime I see him in person, I can't get over how cute he is. :p If you have seen his pics in afureko pics or seiyuu mags, trust me he is way cuter in person. He was very oshare today and wore a nice black shirt with a black vest over it. And of course, he had his handtowel prepared and 2 staff members fanning him from the back and from the side. One of them was actually, holding a small electric fan up behind him.:p Much better than when Hirakawa came. He was totally dripping sweat and had only his hand towel to relieve him.
There were still like five more people ahead of us from the 2nd group and among them was koramay. I'm pretty sure a lot of us waiting in line were playing close attention to when she was speaking with him. I can't help but think everyone was thinking like me. Are they speaking in English or Japanese? But it was impossible to tell let alone hear from where I was standing. He looked really happy to see her again and it looked like their conversation was flowing well.
Of all the handshake events I've ever been to, his is the first one where I've ever been worried about blanking out on what to say. So, I went over in my head again about what topics I could bring up. I was really amazed about this event because the staff didn't force you away like they usually did at previous events I've been to. They actually, let people stay and ask as many questions as they wanted and people decided to just leave on their own. I like this method. No need to feel rush.
When koramay was finished, she came up and told me about what they talked about. They only spoke in Japanese it seems.
There was still some time before it was my turn so I watched the other girls as they went. I noticed someone commented him on his clothes. But I couldn't really hear a thing anybody was saying to him let alone his replies. When it got to the turn of the person in front of me, I was paying close attention to their convo for when it would be my queue to go up to him. I think the girl in front of me must've been nervous because she would paused to think of what question she wanted to ask and Kacky would patiently stand there waiting for her ask.
Then it was my turn!
I think he was shocked to see another foreigner there. XD
He was smiling so cutely. And dude I like how he gripped my hand. He has a nice firm grip. We held hands the whole time and every now and then he would squeeze it tight. I feel weird saying this but it felt nice.:p
I started off in English with a "Hi! Nice to meet you." And dude he totally replied in Japanese. :p
I could tell right then and there, he's totally not comfortable with speaking any English. ^^;
But no worries, because I had intended to speak in mostly Japanese anyway. Just wanted to see his reaction when I greeted him in English.
I think he was surprised when I suddenly switched to Japanese. I told him how I had been listening to the Okane ga Hoshii and Pash de Dash radio shows. And how funny I think they are. He was surprised that I listened to the shows and was flattered that I enjoyed them. I also told him that I went to the Gurren Lagann event. He was like "Oh you mean the Gurren Dan event?" And I was like yep!
And out of nowhere he responded with the event's catchcopy "Natsu da! Drill da! Gurren Lagann Matsuri!" I laughed and was totally amused because he said that totally in character! So cute.
I told him it was really fun and how I especially liked his scream during the nama afureko corner. He suddenly did a toned down version of it and exclaimed "GIGAAAA DRIIIILL!!" (At this point I was thoroughly amused and was totally like damn you're cool.<--no, I didn't say that to him, of course.)
I would've loved to talk more about Gurren Lagann but I had more questions to ask. Maybe he would've quoted more lines.:p
Anyhow, the next question I asked was "Did you used to live in Shiki?"
And he was like "where?"
"Shiki. You know Tobu-Tojo sen."
And then he totally had this look of astonishment on his face. (' o ')
Kacky: Yeah. How did you know that?
Me: I heard it when you mentioned it on the radio. (BTW, he mentioned this in an ep. of Okane ga Hoshii when they were talking about an event being held in Asakadai. Kacky mentioned it was on the Tobu Tojo line. Near Shiki. And Hatano asked how Kacky knew that and about the line. And Kacky said he used to live in Shiki.)
He was totally amused that I lived in Shiki and we talked about where I lived there and all.
He was surprised that I was living in Japan and asked me where I was from.
I told him.
And he asked if I was a student here. And I told him how I both study and work here.
I told him how I teach English. Which set me up for my next question.
Just how much English do you speak? Kacky replied "Just a little."<--in English. Dude, I like his voice when he speak English. Very cool.
And so I was like really? Actually, I figured that he didn't speak much English. At least not as well as Japanese and German. Even though, it's listed as one of the 4 languages he can speak it doesn't mean he can speak it fluently.
But I started teasing him on how I wanted to hear him speak English.:p (BTW, he does speak random English from time to time on the rajis.) He explained that he's too shy to speak English on the spot and how his English is broken. I was like aww that's ok.
He brought up that his native language is actually German.
me: Yep, I know. ^^
He talked about how he learned English in school. But he gets nervous speaking it. But he understands it because it has a lot of similarities to German.
Next, I asked if he had a blog. I knew about this one blog he has but wasn' t sure if he had any other ones. As I read in a Japanese forum that he had more than one. And the fans were doubting that one of the blogs wasn't actually his but someone using his name. It turned out that the blog is his since it was the one he mentioned.
So, I was like cool I'll check it out. Even tho, I really already knew about it. :p
And then he preceded to tell me stuff like feel free to send letters to his agency and stuff.
And how he hopes I continue to support him blah blah blah...
And I was like thanks, please continue to do do your best.
And he was like yeah, he'll work hard blah blah blah...
And I was like thanks for your time blah blah blah...
And then he was funny as we were about to say our goodbyes.
Kacky: Oh and take care of Shiki for me!
Me: Haha. Sure thing. ^O^
We said our goodbyes and thus was my moment with Kacky. It was so much fun! I can't wait till his next event!^^
It's kinda funny that within the whole conversation, we never once talked about anything Hanayoi related.:p
But I guess it can't be helped since the cd hasn't even be released yet.
Oh and I apologize with my excessive use of the word "like" in this entry.:p
Also, you may have noticed I've stopped romanizing his name as Kakkii. I wasn't sure how he romanized his name so I just romanized it as it's written in katakana. But last week I found his A&G blog and saw that they spell it KACKY. So I take this as the official spelling.
Well, that's it for now...I need to get some sleep now.