^ I know roughly where I was standing, and even I can't find myself! I do recall, though, that I had a tough time seeing through the sea of arms when they were taking this picture, so I'm not surprised that I'm not visible.
So. You've already seen the set list, photos and videos, so I don't have a lot to add about the concert
per se, but I can tell you some stuff about the general experience that hasn't been covered yet.
PICKING UP VIP TICKETSSince Friday was the last day to pick up VIP tickets, I flew in on Thursday and went to get my ticket at J'Store first thing Friday morning. Even though I had the address and a Google map, it wasn't very easy to find. It turned out that J'Store is one of MANY little booths and shops inside a multi-story complex devoted to anime, video games, and Asian pop culture. When I got there, it hadn't opened yet, but I was lucky enough to run into a fan from San Diego who recognized me from New York, and he showed me where it was. So I picked up my ticket (actually a plastic sleeve containing the VIP ticket itself as well as a Ticketmaster ticket for entry into the venue), relieved to actually have it in hand after the chaotic online purchase, and spent the rest of the day sightseeing.
EARLY MORNING AT SALAI planned to hit the Museo Nacional de Antropología before getting into line for the concert, but I swung by the venue first, to check out the lay of the land. Here's how things looked at 9 a.m.:
You can see that there was already a fair number of people there. I talked to some guys near the front of the line, whom I had met at Berryz Kobo Matsuri, and they said they had got there at 3 a.m. To leave or stay? I decided to go on to the museum, but I lost a bunch of time due to some misleading signage, and by the time I got back on track, I realized that I didn't have enough time even to rush through the museum, so I hurried back to SALA and got in line. They were keeping the VIP line in order by having us put our names on a numbered list; I was #100.
WAITINGSo I waited out front for about six hours. I talked a bit with some of the fans, especially a guy from Spain (!) who was behind me. The crowd was mostly Mexican, of course, but there were Americans and Japanese, too. I later met a guy from Canada, saw someone representing Peru, and I hear there were people from several other Latin American countries, as well. At one point, Sakurai-san came by:
A few people took my picture, and a woman from Japan interviewed me. I don't know what media outlet she was working for, so I'll just have to see if my feedback pops up somewhere.
There were vendors selling unofficial merchandise, walking between the VIP and general lines and at booths right across the street from the venue. That's something that just doesn't happen in Japan. Unofficial goods, yes, but not so close to the venue.
Some fans passed out free yogurt. Others passed out round cardboard discs with a photo of ℃-ute on them, to use as fans (the waving and cooling kind). And another group passed out slips of paper to hold up during the encore: 来てくれてありがとう。またすぐに戻って来てください。Eventually staff came through, collected our VIP ticket stubs, and gave us our passes (on special ℃-ute lanyards) and wristbands.
Doors opened around 4:15 or so, and they gave each person entering a numbered ticket for the raffle. I had to check my backpack and buy goods before heading into the concert hall, so I ended up roughly tenth row center.
THE CONCERTThere were some interesting differences between this show and those in Japan. For one thing, the girls used a considerable amount of Spanish in their intros and MCs. Instead of the usual "Kyuuto desu!" we got "¡Somos Kyuuto!" The predominant fan chant (before the show and before the encore) was also new to me: "¡Olé, olé olé olé, Kyuuto, Kyuuto!"
As I mentioned before, the girls came out in two groups and drew numbers for the raffle. There were a total of ten winners, two prizes from each of the girls, which they autographed after the winner was located. Some of the prizes were member towels from the Mexico tour, but there were more interesting prizes, as well. The things I would most like to have won were Maimi's self-designed t-shirt, Airi's stuffed Suu-san, and of course Chisato's luchador mask. But I can't complain, since I DID WIN SOMETHING! Saki drew my number (0117) for a set of photos from the summer tour (plus a surprise Future Departure collection photo, which turned out to be Chisato), and Saki signed her photo for me. (I'll have to be very careful with it, in order not to smudge the
fingerprints.) I was close enough to the front that while Saki was signing the photo, Maimi could see that I probably wasn't Mexican, so she asked me where I was from. I called out: カリフォルニア! And she replied, "OH! Thank you! ¡Grácias!"
THE HANDSHAKE EVENTI heard that they sold 500 VIP tickets, and there were also handshake tickets given away with CD purchase (like the ones in New York), so the majority of the audience stayed for the handshake event. They had the CD ticket people go to the back of the hall and moved the VIP pass holders through the line first, and they moved us through the line FAST. The handshake order was Chisato, Saki, Mai, Airi, Maimi. Saki and Maimi recognized me from the raffle. I had hardly enough time to spit out brief, generic greetings, but when I came to Airi, I managed to spurt out, "Motto Buono! Onegai shimasu!" before staff rushed me along. We VIP pass holders picked up our CDs and autographed photos as we exited the line. Raffle prizes were picked up at the goods table after the handshake event; I thought we were going to get them directly from the girls, but that didn't happen.
AFTER THE SHOWThere was finally something on the marquee:
And here's the winner of Chisato's mask!