Um…this was a crazy day! This weekend is pretty much what I’ve been looking forward to and today was preeetty awesome in my world of YUI fandom.
So I got up early around 9ish to get to the airport by 10:30 to meet up with fellow YUI-Lover members and perhaps the YUI@HK group as well. On my way over on the bus, I got on and sat at the back and recognized this tshirt that this guy was wearing. It was the 3rd Tour ~ oui I LOVED YESTERDAY Tour shirt—which i didn’t bring but I knew he was pretty much going to the same place I was. I didn’t realize it but till leaving that the dude next to him was actually at YUI@HK member as well but I totally did not recognize the tshirt they had until they were all together in numbers.
As the bus was arriving I thought I’d try to talk with the YUI@HK guy with the tour tshirt so I whipped out my ipod and showed a YUI album and pointed YUI and smiled and he was like yes. haha so retarded but anyway, we walked in together and I met the YUI@HK members first.
My group was out at Gate A as they followed the display boards information on the flight number. But I had a hunch that sticking with this YUI@HK group was right and good thing we did.
Their banner was huge and they had a lot more people but that was a given considering we aren’t from that place. Lots of people had hand-made or some sort of gift/message to YUI. The funniest one for me was that this girl next to me had a MUJI bag with who knows what in it and tries to write a message quickly with a pen with major spelling issues. It was quite cute ha.
The YUI@HK guys were well organized and wanted us to welcome YUI properly by having a group cheer/welcoming message. We got to practice a few times and we also started singing few songs and managed to get the cameramen to film a few of us which is awesome.
This police/security came by and asked who this was and we all answered YUI and he was like does she have a chinese name? and we said no haha…
Anyway, as we waited, we kept singing to keep our energies up but there were the giddy ones as well. This girl behind me kept freaking out and wondered if YUI would recognize her from her previous Hong Kong appearance. Anyway, we recognized Sony HK Entertainment members and our group spread out a bit as we had our own photographers and gift givers and whatnot.
Every now and then people would be guessing if someone coming out was YUI, i.e. someone with a straw hat or something. There was also a lot of other fans that were there for the ex-korean Super Junior member. Anyway with small scream and yelps, people were already on the edge and ready for YUI.
We were pretty much all prepared for YUI’s arrival and when we finaaally did see her, people started chanting YUI! YUI! YUI! except the Hong Kong cantonese accent ends up sounding like “YOU…E, YOU…E” >__> which i don’t mind but it’s just not properly said.
Anyway she walked towards us and the girl behind me LUNGED forward and squished me…i was like oh god calm down!…I tried taking some video/shots but I don’t have many…the awesome shots will be floating about the world of the internet in no time and I’ll repost a few pics when that happens.
I tried to do video but it didn’t turn out so well because the MOMENT she came out and greeted everyone. the PAPARAZZI swaaaaaarmed her and her security guards. Because they did this, everyone else pretty much dashed at her with the calmer fans staying put. It was ridiculous how much press there were with the cameras….because she’s so small I could baaarely see her. It must’ve been a bit frightening for her but she was cooperative and tried her best to move around to say hi and to greet fans. so awesome! But yes i think she felt a bit overwhelmed but really glad to be there.
When I finally got to see her closer up, I was like omg she’s so pretty..it was like she came out of a magazine or photoshoot. She wore like this one piece shirt pants thing that had a plaid pattern with these platforms with the thick kind of gladiator like shoes. Again, I couldn’t get super close and I didn’t want to pressure her. Luckily, some of my friends were able to hand over a small gift that we had (a candle with our typography + graphic from Kikino’s collab cd) and a shaker. A few of them also got to touch and shake YUI’s hand which is pretty impressive amongst the chaotic paparazzi.
I also thought I’d be a bit taller than most HK people but..no…T__T I think i keep thinking Japan and Japanese audiences and how they are actualy really tiny..
In any case, I tried to take pics at a mid-range distance and Steph and I followed her down to the car.
YUI and her facial expression habits lol…
Everyone was just swarming around the car again where steph and I ran out to the end of the strip to say good bye instead without the chaotic people.
I tried to film her driving by and as she did she bowed and waved at us and in return I waved and bowed but i realized my camera bowed with me T___T I’ll upload the clip but omg haha I kinda had a fan-girl moment with steph hahaha.
Anyway, we walked back through the exit area and I noticed someone looking AWFULLY familiar. And then I realized it was Icchy (Sony Entertainment Artist & Repertoire and Datecchi (YUI’s stylist). Steph urged me to take ask and take a pic but I was a bit….worried about my random Japanese language skills.
Nonetheless, I had nothing to lose, and i dont think they realized people would recognize them so I approached Datecchi-san first and said nice to meet you and that we were from Canada and she was like wow you are from Canada to watch this concert? And I said yes and then I said in English that I remembered her face from staff/YUI blog’s. I complimented her saying that I really like the styles she has done with YUi and how they’ve been very good and she was very happy to hear it. I also told her we were very happy too that YUI could come to Hong Kong because I tried to say that in Japan it’s hard for gaijins/foreigners to get tickets.
At this point icchy laughed how I was speaking english/japanese Gaijin, japan Hard haha. I can’t believe i was able to splurt out random Japanese like that! So i said in japanese that i only know very little japanese. But Datecchi replied saying that i was pretty skilled! and i said no no i am not very skilled (ahah i can’t believe i learned this off pimsleur CDs and it’s still stuck with me!…)
I also showed her our YUI Lover collab CD and told her we gave these as gifts to YUI and e.u. band members. She remembered that and I told her how Steph & I were selected to be the dancers for the es.car performance at the concert tomorrow. She was lie wow about the dancers thing and then I asked if we could take a photo together. The translator next to her whom looked familiar too said that Datecchi was too shy but then Icchy was there and he saw our CD.
I was like Nice to meet you, and we shook hands and he remembered our CD and said “ah yes YUI-Lover, I will read!” And i told him again that there were about 30 people or so that came to Hong Kong to see YUI and he said “all from Canada?” and i said ah no and tried to list out the countries. They were like oh wow. Then I posed the picture question again to take as a group…and SUCCESS!
Haha even though it’s not YUI, it’s so cool to take pictures with the people working with her! Apparently, steph said the cameraman filmed a bit of it…but who knows what they’re gonna do with this content….
Both of us also realized that her e.u. band members weren’t here yet and we saw the cars. So Steph and I went up another level to wait for them and we peeked out the corner to see if they were coming. And they were! I recognized the LOUDLY MADLY Tshirt from the Rock in Japan fest? and omg …they were coming at us!
They were pushing their luggage and I couldn’t whip out my camera and whatnot as I was kinda the one speaking as Steph had the camera….
Anyway they were in momentum of moving and I held our collab CD and said “konnichawa!” and I held out the CD saying do you remember? and just literally named each of them as they walked by …i was like an idiot just saying “MAI MAI!, ARISA-SAN, BACKY SAN..and i coudln’t recognize Kaji right away..but Backy kept staring and they were all smiling and Mai Mai was super enthusiastic seeing it and i guess a little surprised…but the last person came by and it was yussuke! (e.u. band manager)
So i wanted to say thank you but b/c they kept moving i just blurted YUSSUKE ARIGATOU! Haha and e.u. band members laughed as they were liek YEA YUSSUKE YOU TOO haha and he was being shy and chuckled and kept walking.
That was pretty awesome that I got to speak with everyone except..YUI…ha so I guess now I’ll have to do that …and try to converse with her if she shows up to the dance rehearsal tomorrow. I haven’t even practiced the dance but oh man I can’t believe it’s really happening…I can’t wait but wow…this is gonna be pretty amazing.
Afterwards, I regrouped with the YUI-Lover members whom were debriefing themselves about what had just happened and going in twitter to spread word lol…..we also met some YUI@HK members and we chose to go out to eat together. We went for dim sum near by and we took up about two large tables. I also had to fix one of our EL Wire fan sign letters as it broke so I did that in between waiting for the food. It was good to be able to get to know some local HK fans and to chat with the South East Asian members as I had missed the events of the night before.
After lunch, we went to sino-centre? not sure but this place had so many floors of dvd, cd, japanese media, pop culture magazines, anime, figures, jpop stuff, it was soo overwhelming. The Singapore group managed to find a lot of great goods like a 1st press limited edition of YUI’s ‘feel my soul’ in its original packaging and tons of posters for SUPER cheap. I really didn’t buy anything for myself.
I went back with the Singapore group to their hostel to finish up the El Wire letters. We went through some of our pictures and got some twitter/internet time…..soon enough we headed out to regroup with others for dinner.
At this point we probably had like almost 20 people with us so we went to a dai pai dong. It served the claypot rice with the different meats and we had other dishes too. it was yummy but a bit greasy? It was alright–nothing mind blowing again. The Hong Kong food has been a bit…less than spectacular or maybe because people have hyped it up so much…..
Anyway, I’ve been traveling with a bad knee, not sure what happened maybe from basketball but I can’t bend it very well or straighten it out without some pain. but who cares right now because tomorrow..or actually in 13 hours I’LL BE IN REHEARSALS for the es.car dance!
And then…who knows what will happen.
The company TRiKs emailed us and told us we will be receiving posters so i’m super happy that I don’t have to hunt this YUI HK poster down!
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See this and more detailed reports in Gotchi’s blog!
Don’t forget to check the photo and video report too!
