[Yoko] Solo Con in Ehime
I went to Yoko's solo con in Ehime today.
It was an emotinal roller coaster ride the whole day for me today! In the morning, I left my house feeling excited for the upcoming day. I got on the bus (a 4-hr ride from Kobe) and was looking at some internet sites on my phone.
Then I saw the bad news.
I've had this bad feeling the whole week since the Aomori show because I heard that he was crying for most of the last part of the show and that only Maru and Shota were at the filming they were doing in Aomori. Yoko was scheduled to be there; he was talking about it during one of their shows. His J-web diaries have been short and weird, too. There was definitely something wrong.
Then I saw the bad news. It was confirmed, in the worst possible way.
I didn't know what to think. I was still half way to Ehime and I felt like I was about to throw up because of all the emotions I felt. I didn't know how to participate in the show... was it okay for me to smile? Was it okay for me to dance and sing along?
I got to Ehime and I knew I had to eat something because the show was at 2:30pm and it was 12:15 when I got there. I had another hour until my friends came, so I found a small cafe to eat some pasta. I had a hard time finishing the meal because I was already feeling so emotional inside. I finished it though, because I knew I'd need it.
I went to the venue to meet up with my friends. One of them knew but the other one didn't yet, and I wasn't sure if I should tell her before the show or after. But, I knew I had to at some point since she's been a Yoko fan for ages. I told her as we were lined up in the line to go in. It wasn't the easiest thing to say. I started choking up at that point already. She couldn't believe it.
So we were all feeling kinda down as we headed to our seats. 2nd floor 1st row, had a great view of the stage. The concert began and I wondered how many of the people in the crowd knew at this point.
Yoko came out and he definitely looked tired. His eyes looked like he had been crying a lot lately, but of course he didn't show his sadness. He sang the songs just fine. Right before cHocolate, he said that he remembers coming here during the 47 tour. He said he wouldn't say whom, but one of the guys said "That sucks!" when he saw the Matsuyama Castle as they came into the venue, haha. He admitted that yes, it wasn't much and that it looked like some rich person's house if you didn't know that it was a castle.
He did his Black Ranger skit fine, too. There were very few adlibs but he made Monkey-Hamanaka do the "mokkoriina" thing. (Please read my previous concert reports for this because I don't feel like writing up a whole report today.)
During the MC, he was a bit slow, I thought. He didn't really know what to talk about, so he did his usual "Where in the world is Ehime?" and "What's popular in Ehime?" talks. Fortunately, he knew that Ehime was in Shikoku and not in Tohoku, but he did say "Kagoshima" when it was supposed ot be "Tokushima," lol. He kept on asking the crowd what food was famous in Ehime, but neither he nor I had ever heard of these things before so we were like "Huh?"
He went through the rest of the setlist, and as it got towards the end, I started to wonder. "Is he going to sing it? If so, what's he going to say??"
He did sing it and he had his little speech before the song.
First, he thanked everyone for coming. Then, he had to pause a bit to find the right words. I started crying here. I just couldn't stop. I couldn't stop crying until the show was over (2 encores)!
"Some of you may be worried. But I'm okay. I will do my best with my two brothers. This is all I can say for today... Thank you very much."
...He didn't say exactly what happened, but those were his words. He sang most of Onigishi, but he had to stop a few times because he just couldn't sing it. The narration (?) part, he couldn't say at all. (My friend went to the 2nd show as well and told me he was able to say this part in the 2nd show.) But, he sang til the end.
Before the Hitotsu no Uta in the first encore, he was trying to find the words once again. He said that there is nothing that is definite. Do take care of your families, because you just never know.
I was crying through this song as well, and it was the first time out of the many times that I've sung this song that I couldn't sing the "Lalalala" part with everyone else.
For the second encore, Giga Maji Mega Fight, he tried to be as hyper as possible. But it hurt even more to see that because his smile was looking tired. This I think was the first and hopefully the only time I couldn't sing along and just had to cry through this cheerful song as well. I couldn't stop but be a bit emotional.
I read his J-web entry on the bus ride home and that made me cry once again. I'm glad there was no one sitting next to me because it would have been a bit awkward. During the 4-hr ride home, I kept on having sad thoughts for the first half, but I was able to fall asleep in the last few minutes. I felt so exhausted by the time I got back to Kobe.
I've been to the show in Osaka when his mom was there, I was at the few shows before Mother's Day/his birthday where he kept on telling us to say "Thank you" to our mothers, and then I was also at the show on the day of Mother's Day/his birthday, so after all this, this Ehime show was really hard for me. He was just talking about how he was going to give her a trip to Korea for Mother's Day, too.......
Anyway!! I'm sorry if I made people's days even sadder with this post, but I just wanted to let you all know that Yokoyama You is a very strong man and he is doing his best to move on. The Kanjani8 guys are all there for his support as well. He has friends. He has his brothers. He has his fans. He is supported and loved by so many people that he is going to overcome this sadness... maybe not completely, but eventually.
I don't want to say "ganbatte" to people who are already "ganbatteru," so I just want to say "Thank you, Yoko." Good luck the rest of the tour, boy. She'll be watching.