NYCC report! pt1
This is really going to be long!(actually 11 pages long in Word)
This is from my memory, with quotes, so I'm going to try my best to put everything just as they were said, but I may occasionally phrase it a little differently. On account of not being able to remember exactly what was said.
I'm starting off with my journey from the beginning, so if you want to jump straight to the "OMG SHO" it'll be clearly marked and bolded, and ginormous, you won't miss it ! and I apologize in advance for using caps alot, but I just can't describe the emotions without them XD
So at 11:00pm Thursday night we (myself, twin sister, mom and my friend) left home to start our NY adventure!
I was so psyched! We bought food for the journey and set off!
I brought my ipod along with me, so almost the whole 6 hours we sang Arashi (and a couple other bands). My voice was so sore, just after that XD
I wanted to listen to all of Sho's solos! I kept squealing over and over again "OMG I CAN"T BELIEVE WE"RE GOING TO SEE SHO!"
I still can't believe that we saw him now!
so after 6 hours of traveling we make it into NYC! We came in off the Lincoln tunnel and went straight to a parking garage on 9th and 34th st (lol somehow I soon learned like how to navigate the city D: )
When we parked I thought "Oh I'll just gather everything, fix my makeup before we leave"... but I guess it doesn't work that way, they park the car for you lol. So I had to quickly grab all of my things and jump out of the car.
lol what is open at 5am in the morning XD? We had 3 hours to spare before even the early crowd from aibakaland would be showing up at the con.
so at 15 degrees (like -9.4 celcius) we started walking, where we didn't know. Just in the general direction of the Javits center.
We came across this place called the "Skylight diner" so we decided to eat and eat as SLOWLY as possible to stay out of the frigid temperatures outside.
We managed to stay there till about 15mins to 7 :D
From there we decided to walk up to the Javits center (on 11th ave and 34th st).
I was so surprised! As it turns out the doors opened at 7am! So we didn't have to wait in line outside in the freezing cold! I was so happy!
Immediately we both got out our Uchiwas, hoping that other fans would spot us.
after roaming about for a while, the staff told us that we couldn't get our tickets until 10, but before 8 we asked again and they gave us our tickets! yay!
They had already begun to form a line downstairs, but I didn't want to go down yet, cause I wanted to wait for our group from Aibakaland, I had no idea what any one looked like, so I was just waving my uchiwa in the air XD.
So Beth and I walk around , and we're just standing there and all of a sudden this little aunty from Japan came up to us and said "SHO??!!" so we're like "yes, we're here to see Sho!" and so she said that she flew in from Japan last night (the same plan as SHO!) to see him too!
She asked us how we got into Arashi, who our favorite member was from 1st to last and we talked about dramas! Like how Oh-chan's acting in Maou was amazing, or how Uta no onii is adorable and she started singing " Omocha no cha cha cha!" she was so cute! So we fangirled together and she was showing us pictures of Arashi from her cell phone (including Sho's Act +19) and I was showing her pictures from my ipod!
Well 8am came and we were sitting down when a group of 5 girls came over to us! It was Destini,
winkychan another woman (who I can't remember her name, I was around her a lot of the day too *aweful memory), cutetakato , and rainawallis and they said "oh go down stairs already!" to us , but we waited for a couple of them to get their press badges and came down with us).
The line was TINY! we were within the first 25 people in line! after a while, more and more girls from aibakaland showed up~ Mishi, thank you for this hot and sexy Sho badge, seriously I love it! I'll cherish it forever along with my badge and all of these memories!
There were a TON of Aunty's from Japan. I mean ALOT! Some younger Japanese girls aswell.
I met a fellow Aiba-wifey! I gave her a high five, I was like "YES"!
I'm not positive, but I think that
rainawallis printed out the Chorus for all of us so that we could sing "Believe" to sho! So we practiced that alot in line (since we had from 8-1 to wait), and in general just fangirled, about our favorite member, how so excited we were to be here, dramas, and again general flailing, it was SO much fun. Other than the hard floor and having no food and water XD.
Some girls who came later joined us in our line, and some didn't. I don't know if they thought they couldn't or something. But we were just telling all the girls who came over to us to come and sit in line with us aswell.
Jess started dancing the choreography from A.Ra.Shi and soon everyone was like "I WANNA LEARN" including myself. But I think i'm dance challenged, I tried to hard, but failed xDDD.
I did take a cam of their dancing !
All kinds of people looked through this glass panel from the upstairs down on us, every time they did we screamed and waved our uchiwas at them XD. The Teen age mutant ninja turtles came down XDDD and a bunch of different people like that came and entertained the crowd.
We sang "Believe" for a number of different people, and these guys came down with big cameras recording the crowd so we waved our uchiwas at them! yay!
1 o'clock rolls around and we began our mass exodus to the Nikkatsu booth. I had a general idea where it was, but wasn't sure. So I ended up in the 5th row back from the booth, we were squeezed in there like sardines, and we stood there till 2:45. I was in a lot of pain, and very hot. and we kept being squeezed tighter together. I kept thinking, "they won't possibly let Sho down here" it was honestly just a booth, no real huge table, or anything blocking it off from us and Sho. I Knew that due to security they wouldn't allow it to happen.
The guys at the booth were like SHOCKED that there were that many Arashi/Sho fans. I honestly don't think that they anticipated that AT ALL. So their planning was definitely not good. But again it was due to the fact I think they didn't know this many girls would be coming there. they probably thought something like "I mean Sho Sakurai, who is this guy, some jpop star, 'kay there can't be many fans in the us." Totally wrong A TON of them.
a dozen different people kept leaving and coming to the booth. They looked flustered and upset, angrily talking on their walkie-talkies and cell phones trying to figure this all out. I soon then noticed that across on the upper level there was like like big glass booth were people kept coming in and out pointing and talking on their walk-talkies (to whom I gathered to be the same guy at the Nikkatsu booth). So this went on for quite some time.
Girls kept screaming every once and a while, that were false alarms xD. But then they screamed and were like "OMG ITS SHO!" I guess on the upper level he walked by this glass window. and I tried to hard to see him.
I think I may have, I distinctively saw the outline of his hair XD. I really do believe it was him, but then again it could have been my imagination.
So at around 2-ish~ (very roughly) they told us "look you guys gotta step back, THERE ARE A VERY LIMITED AMOUNT OF TICKETS TO SEE YATTERMAN TONIGHT and we won't be giving them out until 3" they also told us that because of Security reasons Sho wouldn't be coming down to the booth but rather he would be appearing in that very same glass panel (box) with all the security guys in it) AND he said "Sakurai-san will stay up there how ever long he likes"
But this is exactly what I thought would happen.
I mean, it's not like we would have hurt our dear Sho-kun but it wasn't a controlled crowd and they didn't want to take any chances. Which is reasonable for their part. Though I have to say I was a little disappointed.
and he said " you can stand down below there and take pictures do whateva you want"... HE GAVE US PERMISION TO TAKE PICTURES...?!! Totally taking advantage of that!
But again they said to step back and break up this crowd.
......
NO ONE moved. But I thought to myself "They are security, I really should listen to everything they have to say". So myself and a couple other girls thought the same thing and managed to squeeze, pull, inch our way out of this HUGE crowd. It was extremely difficult to do so. Plus I had already got tickets through Ningin, so I had guaranteed entrance into Yatterman (thankfully). Because as I hear they only gave tickets out to those who were in the FIRST row only. I felt really bad for all the girls who didn't get tickets. So this is why I will go into FULL detail about the premier!
But to move on, I made my way over to where we would be standing to see Sho from above and I imediately saw rainawallis , and was like "hey we had the same idea". We were pretty close to the front aswell.
I don't know how, but that group that was in front of the Nikkatsu booth had some how like tripled in size! There were SO MANY PEOPLE! For real, it was insane!
We really must have caused a spectacle XDDD. I can't wait to see if any of the madness makes it on the news (Japanese news or American). But since I was so close I couldn't hear any of the reactions from other people about this, I did see a couple of "what ?" expressions.
Sho was supposed to appear at 3, but it wasn't until quite a bit after 3 that he finally came out.
But before that people were coming in and out of the booth up there, it looked like Sho's manager and security.
They kept on taking pictures up there of us, it looked like they got a real kick our of our madness XD.
The expression on this one womans face was PRICELESS! rofl. She stepped out of the door into the glass room and her face upon seeing the crowd was :
1. SHOCK . her expression was hilarious, and wild XDDD
2. Disbelief. She just kept staring at us with her mouth open hahaah.
There was this one security guard in particular that alot of fans were REALLY mad at.
I personally wasn't mad at him in the slightest.
He kept poking his head through the door, making a numerous amount of people come through the door. He basically kept tricking us to think that it was Sho who was coming out of the door each time. He was even laughing at us.
But really if I were in his position and knew nothing about this "Sakurai guy" it would be fun to mess with the crowd xDD.
FINALLY SHO CAME OUT OF THOSE DOORS!!!!! in all of his beauty and glory !
His reaction on first coming out was like "o.o *waves , looks around, O.O" I think he was surprised aswell to see THAT many fans down below!
As he was waving, smiling and i'm sure laughing with his adorable laugh, rainawallis was like "EVERYONE! LETS START SINGING!! SING ARASHI!"
so simultaneously the whole crowd broke out into the Chorus for A.Ra.Shi!!!
SHO WAS SO CUTE!! OMG! He moved closer to the glass and was trying to listen , and then he was like "0.0 :DDDDD" and as we sang the last part "arashi, arashi for dream" HE DID THE LITTLE HAND THING WITH US!!!!!
WAHHHH!!!! SO CUTE!!!!!!
I wonder if he was shooting for News 0 at that time, because there was a camera man beside him and he was pointing and kinda looked like he was talking for a sec.
But after a short minute and a half after doing this little arashi thing with us he bowed and waved goodbye!
I have one bad quality video of this, my hands were shaking so badly and my mind was all in a flutter, so I don't have pics of that, just a bad, short clip.
BUT Aaron being in the way back, got EVERYTHING on tape. in a REALLY REALLY good quality too! So I have a min and 15 sec vid of Sho being ADORABLE!
As the crowd dispersed we were walking when this little Japanese woman said "excuse me, can I interview you" so she interviewed myself and my sister!! this is roughly what went down
"so how long have you been an arashi fan
"um about 1 year (same answer for Beth)"
"How did you come to be a fan?"
"I starting watching the drama "Hana yori dango" and through Jun I became an Arashi fan" I also said something about how I love arashi
"What do you think about Sakurai being in Yatterman?"
"Oh I'm really excited! I love sakurai-kun and think he's a great actor, I'm super excited to see the World premier tonight"
"have you ever seen the anime"
"um, not really, bits and pieces"
-Beth "yeah, I've watched quite a bit of it, I'm also really excited to see sakurai-kun in this role!"
and that was basically it xD. I wonder if I'll be on the news >_>.
After that, I was dying of thirst, I hadn't drank anything since 6am (by now it was like 3:30). So I got a drink and sat down forever.
We walked around Comic con for a while (since it's pretty SWEET).
But I decided to go to the Yatterman (Nikkatsu) booth again to ask a couple questions.
One of the gentlemen was sitting there, so I wanted to get some information on what to do once I got to the theater. I told him I had won the contest through the website ningin and he explained everything to me. I also talked to him about how crazy it got with all of us at the booth, and apologized. He said "yeah, it really didn't turn out like we had expected. Plans kept on changing all the time. Sakurai was originally supposed to be at the panel in a large room, so that it could be controlled and everyone would see him. But then it was changed to him being here at the booth, but again we wanted him to be safe so we decided that it wouldn't be the best idea to do that". Which I said was understandable.
I also got directions on a couple of different ways to get to the DGA theater.
We decided that we wanted to walk there. LOL which took us a REALLY LONG TIME. We walked on 34th street clear down from 11th ave to 6th ave, and then we walked from 6thave to 567th street!
It was really neat though, because we passed by Madison square garden, radio city music hall, the empire state building, that LOVE sign". It was really awesome cause I've never been to NYC before! I was glad we walked, even though my feet were DYING. I just wanted to cut them off. They hurt SOOO bad.
We get to the DGA theater at 5:30 and I asked like 5 different guys on which line I'm supposed to be in, and each one gives me a different answer. They said that since I didn't have a ticket I was supposed to go in the HUGE line.. But I knew that wasn't right. So again I asked another guy, and because I'm paranoid I printed out copies of the PM that I had gotten from David Hou on Ningin. Which was a REALLY good idea, because in order to get into the short line you needed an email verification! so I was like "*whips out page* I hope this'll work!" and so he gets someone else to look at it, and FINALLY I get into line lol. As soon as I walked into line I saw the one lady (wahh, if you read this please give me your name) with the long black hair, and Rainawallis and another girl (which again , can't remember her name, if you read this comment dear). so I said "oh haha, I should have known this was the right line if I had looked in and seen you guys xD".
I had to figure out what to do, Mom and Aaron didn't have tickets into the theater. So they had to do something in the meantime from 5:30 on until the movie was finished. I also do not have the convenience of having a cell phone. So I asked if I could stick near the one woman and gave her cell phone number to Aaron.
A guy in a BRIGHT PINK suite came up and I saw him giving movie tickets to those ahead of me. So with my cold and shaking hands I pull out my wallet (from my AAA bag, which was SO HEAVY, I had like EVERYTHING in it). and got my ID out, I said "I'm on the list, I won tickets through Ningin, My name is Kyla____" and they flipped the page (at that point I was like. OH CRAP YOU BETTER FIND ME ON THERE ZOMG). But they did and I told them that Beth was my guest!.
I was shaking so badly at that point I was like "Beth can you put my ID back in my wallet , I don't have the motor function to do so D:" lol. They moved us out of line down into a gated off area right outside the red carpet. There was the first line of people, and then Beth and I were right behind Rainawallis in the first line (So we could see really good).
from that point on (which was probably 6:00/6:30). We waited outside in the BITTER BITTER cold till Sho came!
Beth was dying from the cold (cause she didn't wear a coat, just a hoodie) and my feet were about to fall off. But I just kept thinking "going to see sho, going to see sho. real live person 0.0. going to see sho" and looked at my badge, it made things easier. Plus we were inline with people we had previously met so that was fun.
it was kind of funny, because people were passing by us and being like "lol whut? is going on????" and many of them stopped and asked. Rainawallis, answered them pretty much everytime. She really got it down and simple XD lol. There was a group of girls across the street who looked and us, and finally came over, she was standing quite far away when Rainawallis was like "do you want to ask whats going on?" lol so she told her and she didn't look to enthused XD.
There were a lot of families that got into the theater, they must have been family members or something. I'm not sure. They were all dressed up fancy!
Some guys came out and said "we were told to tell you, not to use those fan things, okay? you can use these instead" so he gave us this little Yatterman symbol (the underwear) poster to wave. But I didn't want to because, it would have blocked people's view in the back.
We're standing there and we see What appears to be Sho's body guard (a big black guy) and his manager out on the red carpet! moving the barriers around, and getting ready. We're thinking "OMG SHO"S COMING REALLY SOON" and sure enough, the huge line of girls behind us starts FREAKING out. Here comes this HUGE white limo that had see through glass and was lit up with a purple-ish blue light come up! SHO! YOU COULD SEE HIM! through the limo's window.
From what I hear they went really slow past the group of girls in the back, so they at least got a glimmer of his beautifulness.
As he was going slow up there, the guards and everyone on the red carpet were egging us on to scream "YATTA MAN"!
so we did "YATTAMAN YATTAMAN YATTAMAN!" over and over and over again!
Sho was smiling and looked surprised as he was still in the limo about to get out. He looked like he was going to get out, then sat back down and we continued to scream, and then HE GOT OUT!
We were still screaming but not as loud.
he walked by, I swear he looked into my eyes! I'm sure everyone is going to say that though xDD
He waved and turned to the other side where the press was, they took pics, and as he walked closer to the door we yelled "CHESTO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" LOL He looked over! ahahaha so surprised to ":OOOO!" hahahaha. and we just yelled various things~~
this deserves a keysmash flail scream holy lawd GUQADM,KSAJHNSCZMKADJKIFEHIOFJNKD M,DFSDJHKDFSDJHKFJKFDSNSF
I have never, ever, EVER seen someone so beautiful. I mean gorgeous in my life. With my own two eyes.
He's so TINY! OMG! SO LITTLE! He looked to be about as tall I me (5ft 4)! It was like eye level! He was like a porcelain doll! So perfect! His hair! OMG, so awesome/perfect! it was longer and flared out towards both sides.
He almost didn't seem real. it was so surreal!
You would think that normally people look better in pictures/tv.
NO
Sho is the exception. I really didn't think he could possibly be more beautiful.
But pictures do him NO JUSTICE at all. He's more beautiful in person then you could ever imagine! ♥_♥.
okay enough with the flailing for now. On to more business.
After Sho got inside, they started letting us in. We had to have our tickets out. But I had put my in the safety of my wallet. so I was fumbling to get it out, again with no coordination. I as shaking so badly, my heart was going a million miles an hour.
I show them my ticket and Beth and I follow directions to go to the middle row. We were 5 rows from the front!! SO CLOSE! There were more Yatterman poster things on our seats (which I kept). and we sat down. Behind us was more winners from aibakaland, darkwatersunset, jess , oORainneOo. Steph (darkwatersunset) had bought the Arashi is alive photobook at kino earlier and they were talking to a couple of guys from press in front of them, explaining that Sho was from Arashi and they showed them pictures of the group and pointed out Aiba/Ohno/Jun/Nino to them.
It seemed like the one guy had it forever , I think they looked through the entire photobook xD. And they were really surprised at the one pic of a crowd from a con xD!.
So the guy in the Pink Suite gets up on stage, tells us that we are being filmed here tonight, if we didn't like it to leave xD. lol no way.
And that we weren't to take pictures at all. The press would be allowed to take pics, but we weren't.
Also not to pirate the movie, all the formalities. He was funny though. He said that if we were caught recording they had people in from Stanton Island who would kill us XDD rofl.
He said
"They told us to teach you something, now it's pretty simple... YATTA YATTA YATTAMAN!"
So we all began yelling it as loudly as we could, faster and faster and faster! Until omg SHO and Miike came out on stage! I WAS SO CLOSE!
SHO spoke in english!!!! He did really good! It was so CUTE!!! I love hearing him speak english! He talked about how Japanese anime/culture is becoming more popular in America, and that he hoped this movie would continue to help that. He also said something a little funny, and I can't remember what it was. but it was really cute.
After Miike was done talking (he used an interpreter) we CLAPPED and they left the stage and went behind this little curtain again. We still clapped~
The lights went out, and then I saw a little light where the curtain was, and I saw Sho again, he and Miike walked RIGHT past us! The waked up to a balcony seat not to far from everyone. If I looked directly behind me I could see Sho's face like right there on the upper level.
I have to admit, I turned around MANY times during the movie, just to watch Sho's face XDD lol.
Yatterman: Well Miike is definitely an interesting director, I've never seen his work, but I know of it.
It was really cracky, full of "lol whut? ehhhhhhhh? and even more ehhhhhhh???" moments XD. oh my.
Sho was really cute in it and so was the Yatterman no 2~
I have to say that I enjoyed the second half of the movie much more than the first part. I really liked the second part! But the first part was really like perverted lol. Not my cup of tea, but whatevs XD.
Yatterman was a cute loveable and clumsy character, a really good role for Sho-kun ♥♥♥.
At the end of the movie, they played "believe" in the credits and ALL OF US sang it! The whole crowd of girls broke out in song! It was awesome! This older guy was sitting in front of us was funny, as we continued to sing he was like dancing around in his seat lol.
After the lights turned on, we ALL started clapping really loud and Stood up and turned around to Face Sho and clapped and screamed forever. He was bowing and waving to us, he was really humble ♥♥.
We sit down and the guy in the pink outfit and another guy go up on stage to stall for time, cause they were setting up for an interview with Sho and Miike.
Here are some things he asked the audience.
"So enjoyed the movie?"
tons of screams
"How many of you here are Sakurai fans?"
and with the decibel we screamed at , we could have broke every glass window in NY. We screamed so long and so loudly xD
"How many of you are Miike fans?"
lol there were screams, quite a bit .
"so I can tell that the pitch at which the Miike fans scream is much lower" XDD.
Then he asked us how many of us was if this was our first Miike film. and things like that.
well again, SHO! and Miike walk right past us again! to the stage where they sit down.
I just have to take a minute here and describe Sho's outfit. For real. it was So nice! He looked really super sharp!
It was a gray suit, very tailored to Show off his hot body but the inner part of the suit was a vest that had really awesome buttons and went up to about I would say before his chest in a rounded deep cut. I can't remember his tie....I think it was blue though. And he had really awesome brown shoes on. I love Japanese fashion, especially their shoes, seriously they were awesome.
They introduced themselves, and sho was like "I'm Sakurai Sho" and we screamed "WE KNOW!" and he looked surprised
(I honestly can't remember if he said this before the movie or before the interview)
The first question directed towards sho, he answered in English, but after that he asked if he could talk in Japanese. He was so cute when he asked it to! hehe.
The interviewer asked various questions towards the both of the concerning Yatterman and Miikes take on it.
Miike was answering and Sho burst out into his cute laughter. Miike said "I just want everyone to know, that not everyone in Japan is like this, there are very normal and respectable directors, not perverted like me" or something to that nature. lol.
Sho talked about how he was glad he got the part, and how he watched the re-run yatterman series when he was young ( he said like 5) .
I really tried to listen and understand his responses in Japanese.
He seemed honestly shocked at the number of Arashi fans.
and Sho said that when he got back to Japan that he would Tell everyone else in the band about us and how we were there to support him! OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and he said "I love you"**** back In Japanese to us ;______; **(According to my sister, though I myself didn't hear it)
;______________; ♥♥♥♥
He was just so cute answering these questions!
Even when they interviewed Miike, I stared directing at Sho. I never lost eye contact.. well once I did, because he looked directing into my eyes, and I as like "OMG HOLY CRAP *LOOKS AWAY*". But then I just stared at him 0.0 the whole time. I don't care. I was soaking up as much of his beautifulness as long as I possibly could. I mean... is this going to happen again.... maybe. But this for me was like a once in a life time thing.
He just looked around the audience, making adorable faces, biting his lower lip. being cute.! WAHH!
and then they let fans ask questions!
I was way to chicken to ask any questions, my mind went blank aswell... so I didn't ;______;
He was asked things about yatterman, and general things like that.
One fan asked if they would ever do a concert in America. And Sho looked around like "oh I can't respond to this" so he said "um..... I'd like to focus on how you guys feel about Yatterman". So even though I wanted another answer, i'm sure he was told what kind of questions he could answer and what one's he couldn't.
One girl from Peru said to him "I know how you talk about wanting to go to machu picchu" and his face was priceless he mouthed "machu picchu" and he was like "so I brought you a piece of machu picchu! I don't know if you can accept it or not" so she gave it to one of the body guards.
But Sho's face was like "ZOMYGOSH, I want that right now O.O O.O!!!!!" he did a little "O" face xD.
One fan said something about how he felt about playing the character yatterman, since bothe of their personalities were very simple. Very lovable but clumsy.
and he answered back with "you know, after a while I thought, I am alot like this character" XD(something like that)
I love Sho's expressions ♥.
and soon enough, after a couple more questions to the both of them it was over and we all stood up and clapped and screamed and he again waved and smiled/looked shocked/humble at it all and we did it until they left the room @__@!!!!!!!!!!!!! AMAZING!!!!!!!!
After I had to figure out how to get a hold of Mom and Aaron, so Jess let me use her cell phone, and so we left. But before so I told everyone it was nice meeting them and such.
We got out (at like 11) and mom and Aaron were waiting for us, as we walked away from the Center Aaron said "I saw sho!" and I was like "lol whut?" so apparently as they were waiting for us outside Sho came out and got into the limo, but before doing so aaron said "thank you for coming sho! have a safe trip back to japan" and I was like 'NO JOKE AARON"! And my momma saw him to!!!!
We left , me jumping and giddy in glee, running on no sleep and no food since 6am. We caught a cap to the parking Garage up on west 34th street and leave.
lol I got home at 8am this morning, slept a little in the car, but I've been writting this since then!
I have video and pics that I'll be posting in another entry. It'll be friend locked, so if you want to see them, just add me!
I hope you enjoyed my tale of Adventure AT NYCC!