Watanabe Daisuke ～ 2 days/1 night Fantour - Report
Hello Minna,
It has taken me ages to write and upload this report and I sincerely apologize for the delay, but there it finally is...
the detailed fan report of Dai-chan's 2-day/1-night trip to Kaminoyama Onsen with his fans.
I hope that you will enjoy the read!
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Watanabe Daisuke - 2-day Fan Tour - Fan Report
The alarm sounded at nine o’clock in the morning on Saturday, September 9th 2017, a fairly decent wake up time for most people, but since I’m a night person and not exactly an early riser, I consider it as being still a bit too early for my liking. Usually the snooze button is my best friend on such occasions, which normally results in me finally dragging myself out of bed around ten o’clock or ten-thirty.
However, that morning everything was different. As soon as the alarm had gone off I practically jumped out of bed…blame it on the fact that I was full of ‘Dai-chan energy’ for I was about to do what I think must be every fan girl’s dream…I was about to go on a two-day fan tour with my favorite Japanese actor!
Since I had already packed my luggage the previous night, I could take it relatively easy. After a quick shower I got dressed, enjoyed a nice breakfast with a big mug of coffee and finally left my apartment around ten-twenty to catch the train to Tokyo station where we were supposed to meet up with the staff of H.I.S Travel at the Nihombashi exit at eleven-fifteen.
After a fifteen-minute train ride and a short walk through the station I arrived around eleven o’clock at the meeting point where a large group of fans, including my two friends, was already waiting. Once we had exchanged our greetings one of my friends gave me my tour members card and the train tickets for the Shinkansen which she had already collected for our fan girl trio.
Just a few minutes past eleven-fifteen our tour guide gave us some information regarding the boarding time and boarding procedure of the Shinkansen and then told us that we had about twenty minutes to go and buy some food for the journey, so off to the nearest convenience store my friends and I went to get ourselves some goodies. About ten minutes later we returned to the meeting point, each one of us carrying a bag that was filled with delicious stuff, a ham and cheese bread roll, a rice ball and a bottle of green tea in my case.
After a short wait and some casual chats with some of the other fans we finally made our way to the ticket barriers at eleven-forty-five. Our tour guide informed us that the train cars reserved for our tour group were the cars 15 and 16, so we all lined up at the according entrance barriers at the platform. Our train, the ‘Tsubasa 137’ to Yamagata arrived at eleven-fifty-five and departed at noon just as it was supposed to according to the travel itinerary that had been available for download on the event page of H.I.S.
Once we had all taken our seats and the train had left Tokyo station we received the official tour pamphlet from our guide, which contained basically the same information that had been available on the website, but had a really nice cover, a collage of pictures of Dai-chan from his debut days until now.
I took a couple of minutes to check out the pictures that had been used for the collage and a great number of them made me smile because, after having been a loyal fan since Dai-chan’s debut days and after five years of regularly attending his events and performances, I have a lot of beautiful Dai-chan and DaiMao memories that I associate with many of those photos.
Eventually I put the pamphlet into a sturdy plastic folder which I had brought with me, to make sure that it wouldn’t get wrinkled or dirty and then, after a short chat with one of my friends I turned my attention to the delicious looking bread roll I had bought earlier. However, I had just taken a bite when one of the fans sitting behind me exclaimed “Dai-chan updated his blog!” and naturally I decided that the bread roll would have to wait, fishing my mobile phone out of my handbag instead in order to check what kind of message Dai-chan wanted to share with us.
The update was very short, a picture of him on one of the Shinkansen platforms of Tokyo station and the message “well everyone, I’m on my way to Yamagata. I’m looking forward to seeing you there.” Grinning from ear to ear I quickly left a short comment for Dai-chan saying that we had just left Tokyo and that I was looking forward to meeting him too before I finally devoured my bread roll and made myself comfortable in my seat, looking occasionally out the window, watching as the view of the city’s skyline with its skyscrapers and massive building structures first gave way to that of towns with smaller buildings and eventually to that of fields, forests and mountains for miles and miles around.
About two-and-a-half hours later, around two-thirty-five, we finally arrived at our destination, a small town called Kaminoyama Onsen where we met up with nine or ten fans who had decided to join at Kaminoyama Onsen station instead of Tokyo station since they were living in the area.
Two shuttle buses were waiting for us outside the station to take us to the hot spring resort at which we would spend the rest of the weekend, a place called ‘Kogama’. As there were about 130 of us fans and the buses only fitted twenty-five passengers each we had to go in three groups and my friends and I went with the second group.
Squeezing into the small shuttle bus with all our luggage was a bit of a struggle, but after a ten-minute drive we finally arrived safe and sound at the resort where we let out a collective squeal the very moment our bus had reached the main entrance because Dai-chan was waiting for us already together with some other members of the resort’s staff, wearing a traditional, orange haori (a kind of jacket that is worn over a kimono or yukata) and when our bus was finally about to come to a halt he bowed deeply to us and with so much grace that it had an almost regal feeling to it which inevitably led us to let out another collective and excited fan girl squeal.
One by one we left the bus and since my friends and I were sitting in the back we were amongst the last passengers to get off and the wait until it was our turn, watching Dai-chan bow to each fan as he greeted them seemed like a little eternity, but finally it was time for me to get off the bus and as I approached Dai-chan, my heart beating a tad faster than usual, he bowed to me and then offered me wide and warm smile before he cheerfully exclaimed “Hi! Please come in!” I returned Dai-chan’s sweet greeting with a big smile on my face and then went to join the other fans in the lobby.
Eventually my friends and I made our way up to a meeting and party room on the second floor we would use for the first activity of the day, the painting of plates. Once we had stored our luggage, we quickly got ourselves a nice place at one of the windows that went out to the main entrance and watched Dai-chan getting ready to greet the next group of fans.
As he waited a couple of private guests arrived and being the well-mannered, polite gentleman that he is, Dai-chan bowed to them as well as they were welcomed by the staff as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do, which caused us to chuckle in amusement because we thought that Dai-chan’s behavior was behaving in an adorably cute manner.
Around three-thirty, one of the tour guides announced the beginning of the first event and under our applause Dai-chan made his entrance. He was dressed entirely in black, now that he had taken off the haori and he simply looked drop-dead gorgeous in his outfit.
Once we had calmed down Dai-chan picked up the microphone and welcomed us officially to the fan tour and said that he hoped to be able to spend an eventful and enjoyable weekend together with us, a statement that was met with another round of applause from us.
Next Dai-chan explained what we were about to do over the next hour. He said that that the hot spring resort was famous for the painting of decorative plates and that various celebrities and influential people had painted such a plate and that they were all displayed on the first floor. He added that he would not only sign our plates, but paint a plate of his own and warned us that decorating these plates was more difficult than it might appear at first glance.
With that he handed the microphone over to one of the resort’s senior staff members, who explained to us in more detail what we were supposed to do and what we should be careful about when applying the colors, we could choose from black, pink and blue, to our plates and then we went down to business.
With a pencil I made a rough sketch of the celtic-inspired design I wanted to apply to my plate, leaving a space for Dai-chan’s autograph in the top, right section of it and then I began to carefully apply the paint to my sketch. I was about half-way done with my work when I was asked to make my way over to Dai-chan’s table in order to get my autograph, together with my friends and the three other members who were sitting together with us at our table.
Since there were still some other fans waiting to get their plates signed my friends and I got in line in front of Dai-chan’s table and waited until it was our turn, but the queue was moving relatively quickly. Only a few moments later I could finally hand my plate to Dai-chan with a racing heart and while taking a look at my design he exclaimed “Ooh…sugoi! (amazing)” and offering me a big, radiant smile he gave me his autograph.
Smiling back at him I thanked Dai-chan for his autograph and with glowing cheeks I returned to my table to finish my work.
Around four-fifteen one of the tour guides picked up the microphone to announce the schedule for the second half of the afternoon and the evening. He explained that the dinner party in the evening would include the traditional making of rice cake, called ‘mochizuki’ in Japanese, and that Dai-chan would be the one making the cake together with four helpers chosen from amongst the fans via a lottery.
Dai-chan seemed quite surprised at the news that he was supposed to make rice cake during the dinner party, but naturally he agreed and drew four lots (pieces of paper with the numbers of our tour member’s cards written on them) out of a box that the staff had provided. The lucky winners were told that they would watch a tutorial video prior to the dinner party of how to go about the task they had to perform and with that the first event ended and Dai-chan announced that he would leave us in order to prepare for the evening event, saying that he was really looking forward to it.
Once Dai-chan had left, the room gradually emptied as all those who had already finished painting their plates slowly made their ways to their rooms in order to unpack their luggage, to relax a little and to get ready for the evening. On my way out, I passed by Dai-chan’s table and could catch a glimpse of the plate he had painted. It was covered with beautiful Kanji whose looks and style made it evident yet again that Dai-chan not only like calligraphy but also has lots of experience practicing it.
My friends and I had a beautiful, traditional tatami room on the third floor and for the next hour and a half we enjoyed some green tea while preparing our room for Dai-chan’s visit after the dinner party, decorating it with some autumn and Halloween themed items, which was a lot of fun and naturally we also did a lot of ‘Daisucation’.
Around six-forty-five we made our way to the dining hall in whose middle a stage had been set up, the tables seating twelve people each, grouped in a circle around it and luckily, we had been assigned a table that was set in such an angle to the stage that we would be able to see Dai-chan’s face all the time whenever he would be on stage, a thought that caused my friends and me to giggle happily.
PART 2: HERE