Hibiki

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This year’s OrePara was a special one because it would be the last performance for Iwata Mitsuo, aka Micchan.

OrePara 2013 Kobe

This year I decided to fly into Kansai instead of taking the night bus. It cost just a little over $100 roundtrip. The only catch was that I had to fly out of Narita with is a real pain in the butt to get to. Kobe was incredibly cold last year but it was surprisingly warmer than Tokyo this year (all things relative, of course). Since it was Micchan’s last performance this year, his goods sold out rather quickly.

My seats for the first day were 8th row to the left, and for the second day I was third row to the left. As usual, the event started off with the OreParap. It was cute because Iwata started singing the last “saa hajimeyou” a bit too early. He made the same mistake both days in Kobe. XD

OnoD was the top batter for the first day. He wore a suit and had his dancers with him. His set list included: Kiss Kiss Kiss, DELIGHT, Ascending&Descending, Kimi Nashi de, and Monochrome no Niji. There was much dancing during the first two songs. During the instrumental part for Kiss Kiss Kiss, OnoD slowly blew a kiss which had the audience screaming. OnoD also talked about how they had to retake the fruit eating scene in the PV a few times so he kept having to eat pineapples. ^^; This year, each of the performers sung one of Iwata’s songs as tribute and OnoD sang Kimi Nashi de, a song that he’s mentioned many times that he really likes. The song is very nice and with all the emotion it definitely made me wibble.

The event ended with the usual performances of Galaxy Bus and Nemuru Mono tachi he. Continuing from last year, it seems to have become customary to specify certain groups of people to sing Nemuru Mono tachi he.

For the second day, OnoD was second after SuzuKen. He sang Kiss Kiss Kiss, Tori no Yume, Kimi Nashi de, “Arigatou,” and Monochrome no Niji. After Kiss Kiss Kiss, OnoD announced that today would be Yuka’s last performance this year. Apparently due to a schedule conflict, she wouldn’t be able to perform at Ryogoku. Anyway, I was very satisfied with this set list since finally we’ll get OnoD singing “Arigatou” live on DVD! I love the song but it’s always sung on the first day of OrePara which means it wasn’t recorded on DVD. OnoD of course sang it for Micchan and it nearly had me in tears.

Since all the performers were singing one of Iwata’s songs, Iwata in turn sang one song by one of the others. He sang OnoD’s Daisuki on the second day of Kobe, complete with the dance and everything. Similar to last year, they had a little skit and out came OnoD in a dog costume, and Suzu as the father and Morikubo as the mother. XDDD OnoD’s mentioned several times that he’s the pet dog of OrePara. So cute! Apparently he’s named Mosu and when Iwata called him over he excitedly did so and pretended like his tail was wagging. At the end of the song, Iwata sang “M-I-T-S-U-O Mitsuo!” instead of “Daisuke.”

This night’s performance of Nemuru Mono tachi he turned out to be a really special one for my friend and I. They were having smaller groups singing the lines (boys, people from Shikoku, people in their 30s and up, etc) and Iwata actually requested for all the foreigners to sing! Of course my friend and I jumped up and down frantically. Morikubo noticed us and stood in front of us, cheering us on the entire time. It was bliss. Needless to say, I think we’ll be on the DVD, LoL.

Every night after Galaxy Bus, there was a video message from a past guest. On the first day it was Terashima Takuma and on the second day it was OLDCODEX.

Read more…

Reports/Photos Ono Daisuke

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The Dear Boy Matsuri event took place on November 24 in Misato, Saitama. As the name suggests, the event was limited to boys only at the actual venue. We girls were not allowed and had to settle for a live viewing.

In the morning I stopped by the theater to buy goods. There was no line at all and I was able to get all the stuff I wanted with ease. Chuckled when a few young boys were looking at the goods and wondering what the heck they were for. ^^; Went home for a few hours before returning for the start of the event. The seats I had were in a great location. It was the first row  between the front block of seats and the rear so the walkways was in front of me and I had a lot of leg room. My seats were pretty much dead center too. If it only weren’t for the two loud, obnoxious high school girls to my left… -____-

Yagihashi kun, dressed up as “Misatoman,” was in charge of the maesetsu. He wore a body suit with the OnoD Wild boxer pants and a mask that had “Misato” written on the forehead (think Kinnikuman). The only warning was that even though there are no girls at the venue, they are not allowed to dress like him (underwear only). Yagihashi kun had the audience yell out, “Hi~! Fu~! Mi~sato!” Chanko chan then came out and reprimanded Yagihashi kun for his lukewarm maesetsu and the fact that they can’t understand what he’s saying with the mask on. He then attacked Yagihashi kun with a Bear Claw and exclaimed that up until now, he was the one who was in charge of the maesetsu. Helpless on the stage, the boys started chanting “Misatoman” to which Yagihashi responded to and said the event would be starting soon.

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Reports/Photos DGS

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June 22 was the Kiramune Fan Meeting in Sapporo. It was my first time in Hokkaido. I took the Friday off and arrived a day early so I would have some time to do some sightseeing. I flew Air Asia, which cost just over $100 roundtrip. So cheap! The only drawback is that it flew out of Narita and Narita is a pain to get to. I would have much preferred to fly out of Haneda but at this price I won’t complain too much. Arrived in the early afternoon and met up with my friends with whom I’d be going to the event with. It was funny because on the way to Sapporo from Chitose Airport, there was a building with “SUZUKEN” written on it.  Suzu~!

It was already pretty cloudy and dark on Friday but on Saturday it began to rain. Oh, Namikawa. It was more of a misty kind of rain, but still. Lined up early for goods. They split the line between the event goods and the badges. My friend stayed in the goods line for me while I went for the badges. Didn’t get Kamiya. =( I ended up trading for him several days later, but it was a shock when I got three Kakiharas. ^^; Hung out in my friends’ hotel room until it was opening time for the event. Our numbers were in the low 100s so we actually got first row to the left of the stage for the noon event! For the night event we were closer to the mid-100s so we got second row on the left.

The corners were the same for both the noon and night events though of course what they talked about was a bit different. Read more…

Reports/Photos Kamiya Hiroshi

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Today was the release commemoration event for Kamiya’s Hareiro in Tokyo. I won the lottery for the first event. I came about half an hour before doors would open and the ID check was a breeze. Instead of passing out a paper after however this time they put a wrist band on you instead to show that you’ve checked in.

When we got into the venue, Hareiro was playing in the background. My seat was on the right side, about 8 or so rows back. It was still pretty close to the stage and as it turns out, my new friend whom I had just met through another friend sat right in front of me, and directly behind me was another friend’s friend, LoL.

Anyway, Hare Nochi Hajimari no Hi started playing and out came Kamiya! He wore an outfit from the jacket cover photo shoot, the white shirt, jeans, and red sneakers. He thanks everyone for coming and all that before diving into the talk show, which was basically looking at behind-the-scene photos and video while Kamiya commented on them. He mentioned that it’s much harder for him to do an event like this than autograph or handshake events, and that it’s not like he enjoys looking at photos of himself and talking. If he had a choice, he would put mosaics all over the photos. ^^;;; The photos covered the following: Harezora Party, KiraFes 2012, Fan Meeting in Okinawa, Kagi no Kakatta Heya, SABA PV/jacket cover shoot and release commemoration events, Hareiro jacket cover shoot and Hare Nochi Hajimari no Hi PV shoot, and lastly KiraFes 2013.

The photos from the PV shoots were great. We got to see Kamiya lying on the bed with the cushion and lying on top of the pool table for the SABA PV. XDDD There was also a photo of him sleeping on the couch during a break which was really cute. There were also photos of Kamiya rehearsing for the dance for Namikawa’s UTAO too. When Kamiya was making a comment about Kagi no Kakatta Heya, it was kind of funny so my friend behind me and I laughed a bit, and Kamiya pointed right at us and said, “You guys over there just laughed, didn’t you.” XDDD Sorry~!!! LoL. For the SABA PV he talked about how the pool table wasn’t level so there were a lot of bad takes where the ball would start rolling. ^^; On the day of the PV shoot for Hare Nochi Hajimari no Hi, it was covered with snow outside and very cold. For KiraFes 2013, he talked about popping up from below, riding the carts, etc. The photos of Namikawa’s performances were funny. XD

After the photos, they showed video of Kamiya’s rehearsal for KiraFes 2013 and also behind the scenes of KiraFes 2013. Kamiya was really cute in some of the scenes. In one of them, he showed the stuff he had in his corner of the dressing room. He had a gold bag that was actually goods from Miyano’s live that he got from Miyano. XD We got to see Kamiya practicing the dance moves for KiraFes, etc. He explained that studio rehearsals are usually about 4 hours long, and then on the day of the event they rehearse again on the real stage to make sure everything is OK. It was really cute seeing Kamiya cheer the other guys on during their rehearsals and dance. For the studio rehearsals when Kamiya was singing a song that didn’t have dancers, the dancers were sitting in a corner and cheering him on. It was cute. XD It turns out that the pop-up mechanism on the stage isn’t mechanical but actually popped up using manpower. On the day of the event when Kamiya went to rehearse, he was wearing a cap and trainer jersey. Apparently he tends to always wear that jersey to all rehearsals. He looked cute in a cap. =3 Since they have all this footage I really wish they would put it on the DVD. The making bonus videos on the KiraFes DVDs are always so short compared to like OrePara. =(

After the video, they had a present lottery, and my friend sitting in front of me actually won! It was a signed Hareiro poster. So jealous~ XD At the very end of the event, Kamiya read some advertisements and then thanked everyone for coming again. After he left the stage, they showed the live reading portion of the Harezora Party event since that wasn’t included on the Hareiro DVD.

We got to see and hear a lot about stuff that goes on behind the scenes which was really interesting. I was also reminded yet again of how well Kamiya can talk. His talks are always fun and interesting, and he’s such a humble and modest guy. For coming to the event, we were given a special event-only bromide on our way out. The photo was different for the first and second events.

Can’t wait for the Kiramune fan meeting event in Sapporo next month! =DDD

Reports/Photos Kamiya Hiroshi

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Dear Girl ~Stories~ Festival Carnival Matsuri took place at Nippon Budoukan on February 23. My friend and I arrived around 9, which was an hour before goods would go on sale. It took us about 10 minutes to walk to the end of the line, which was at least a quarter mile away from the actual venue. Apparently there were already about 500 people lined up at 6AM, which means a lot of people came on the first train. There was news on Twitter that the line was longer than the goods line for B’z concerts. CRAZY! It took over 5 hours to get to the front of the line, and by the time I got there they were already sold out of the orange towel and red wristband. While in line though you could sometimes hear them rehearsing inside. I distinctly heard Dear Girl wa Nemuranai and Shiny x Shiny being sung. X3

My seat was the very last row on the second floor (which is actually the third floor at Budoukan), so I was literally at the back of the venue. It was facing the stage though so while a little far, I still had a good view. I was near a ceiling vent though and for some reason they decided it was a good idea to have air blowing it from it. So cold! The stage was a rather simple setup with stairs that lit up and the letters DGS in lights in the middle.

Anyway, the event started off with a maesetsu by Yagihashi kun. If you remember the Yagihashi Sousenkyo voting in August/September of last year, Yagihashi kun had to go on stage wearing whichever outfit got the most votes, and the outfit that got the most votes was the one from OnoD’s seitansai where he was wearing a suit and the back was ripped. Yagihashi kun appeared on stage in a suit and began explaining the usual no photos, no recordings, no kokan (crotch) bazookas, etc. In the middle of his talking, part of the lights on the DGS sign behind got messed up so Yagihashi kun went to fix it and when he walked towards it, he had his back to the audience. …He was backless. XDDD Even the pants! He really did wear the outfit from the Sousenkyo! LoL. Chanko chan then came on stage with a kokan bazooka, and Yagihashi kun protected the audience by insisting that he get shot instead of the crowd. Chanko chan shot him in the crotch, and down went Yagihashi kun. He was carried off on a stretcher by staff. XD Read more…

Reports/Photos DGS