Ever since Hey! Say! JUMP announced their ASIA TOUR last January, I’ve decided to cancel my Singapore plans and go to the concert in Thailand Hong Kong instead.
Preparations were rough. Money was scarce but then again, this is better and cheaper than struggling for a Japan concert. The concert ticket sales opened last April 10 via HKTicketing (http://hkticketing.com/). Thank you very much Sachi (and Ate Ai) for the very good seats! For the accommodation, we searched the internet for the cheapest one and we ended up getting a hostel in Chungking Mansion at Tsim Sha Tsui.
☆ May 25, 2012 ☆
My mom and my little sister accompanied me to Megamall around noon time. We had our lunch at Bubble Tea and I bought an adapter for the electricity plug while I wait for Sachi, Marsky and Pau to come. Then, we waited for the shuttle bus to Clark Airport at the back of SM Megamall Building A. Our flight to Hong Kong is around 7 P.M. via Tiger Airways but our flight was combined with Sea Air. If everyone’s wondering how’s my first flight, it was okay. I’m used to travel 2 hours because of school so the plane ride kind of felt like a bus ride except for the engine sound, the seat belt and the view outside the window.
We arrived at Hong Kong around 9 o’clock, I guess? Then, we rode a shuttle and met with Jhamii at the Arrival area. We rode a double decker airport bus to our accomodations. When we arrived at our place, we got our valuables, had our dollars exchanged and went out for dinner. Since it was around 12 midnight, some shops are already closed so we settled with McDonalds. During our stay at McDonalds, some Chinese people around the age of 20, approached us and asked if we can greet their friend a Happy Birthday. Sachi is an idol, file number 1.
I’m the one with the violet nail polish on the fingernails.
☆ May 26, 2012 ☆
The next day, we woke up around 8:30 A.M. and prepared ourselves to meet Jhamii, Jelou and Pau at Starbucks. Starbucks is always our meeting place in every place we go to. LOL. We rode the MTR from Tsim Sha Tsui to Kowloon Bay. Their MTRs are cool. Very fast-paced, clean and safe. Compared to our MRTs here, their MTRs have mirror walls/gates so that people won’t fall down the train rails. After meeting at MTR mall, Sachi, Marsky, Jhamii, Pau, Jelou and I rode the shuttle bus to KITEC together. When we arrived, we saw lots of teenagers wearing lolita and Liz Lisa dresses. You can obviously tell that they are fans. It is as if everyone planned to have a dress code.
We went to the concert merchandise booth and was surprised by the line! The line occupied almost the whole floor. We were given a piece of paper to fill in how many items we are going to purchase. The merchandise booth closes an hour before the concert and opens again after it. Yabu Kota’s name was mispelled and it made a buzz on the internet.
When we arrived at the line, we saw our friend from Singapore! Saki is the very first overseas online friend we have met. It was very awesome. I’ve never imagined that I will be able to meet a friend from overseas.
No, we did not plan the Union Jack thing. The three of us were surprised.
After getting our merchandises, Sachi went in the concert hall to watch the 3 P.M. show while Marsky and I ate our lunch at Bentou. We met four Chinese fans there! We were asked if we were Japanese. LOL. They are all from China, they speak a little Japanese and don’t know English. Good thing, Marsky knows Nihongo. There’s a language barrier but it was fun interacting with them!
After the 3 P.M. show, we met with Sachi and she told everything that happened in the concert. She gave us tips on what to put on our uchiwa besides the boys’ names. Yabu Kota asked her during the MC part but there’s this Keito fan who keeps on calling Yabu thus our friend being ignored. I feel bad and disappointed for my friend.
We bought additional materials and went back to our hostel to leave our things and went out again to go to the night market! We waited until Jhamii, Pau and Jelou finished watching the 8 P.M. concert. We roamed around Mongkok until 12 midnight and rode a taxi on our way back. Then, had a Skype talk with Kimmu until 2 A.M.
☆ May 27, 2012 ☆
Our original plan for this day was to meet with the Chinese fans and go to Harbor City but they said they can’t come so we ended up roaming around Tsim Sha Tsui. Shoppiiiiiiiiiiiiing! Sachi and Marsky bought Gong Cha milk teas then we ate at KFC for late lunch. We went back to the hostel to change my boots and clothes.
Bought Nishi Yukito and Hashimoto Ai’s Kokuhaku, Kawashima Umika’s Star Watching Dog, a ViVi magazine for Saichi and a cute yellow top.
Went to KITEC around 5 P.M. to meet with Saki but we weren’t able to because of communication reasons. My “roaming” is not working so I ended up not getting her text messages. We just waited for the concert to start…
The Chinese fans were giving out a blue cloth and a piece of paper. It states there that we will sing “Star Time” after the encore. To my surprise, it seems that they supplied everyone with it. The concert hall turned blue because of these after HSJ’s encore. HSJ went out again even if the concert ended already. They sang Star Time in a capella (no instrumentals, live singing only).
THE CONCERT IS INDEED WORTH IT. I WAS ABLE TO GET A CHUU~ FROM KAWAI FUMITO AND DAIKI ARIOKA. TAKAKI YUYA AND OKAMOTO KEITO WENT DOWN THE STAGE TO INTERVIEW MARSKY (I was beside her.) AND STAYED RIGHT IN FRONT OF US DURING THE MC PART. ALSO, HASHIMOTO RYOSUKE WENT DOWN THE STAGE AND I GOT A HIGH-FIVE FROM HIM.
When the Hey! Say! JUMP cloth that covers the extension stage were removed, I felt like I was watching a 3D movie. I can’t believe my eyes. My favorite parts were Mayonaka no Shadow Boy and Thank You ~Bokutachi kara kimi e~! The sort-of LCD cloth effect made me go “Wow!” the whole time. The photos that were taken by Yuto showcases his other talents other than playing the drums. The concert became more interesting because of A.B.C.-Z. It makes me awe every single time they do a stunt. The production is awesome too. The concert won’t be that great if it weren’t for them. I graduated a course that is related to production so… I’m really amazed. I wish I can find a work similar to the staff.
After the concert, everyone gathered around and started talking and talking about our experiences. Pre-concert excitement, post-concert depression.
We roamed around Tsim Sha Tsui again until past 12 midnight. It was raining hard too so we decided to stop. We went back to our hostel, started packing up, listened to Marsky’s Western playlist until we noticed that it was already 5 o’clock. Everyone decided to take a nap while I listen to music… then I ended up taking a nap too because the concert and packing up is pretty tiring. Good thing, I woke up around 5:45 or else we could’ve missed our 9 A.M. flight orz
I bought souvenirs at the Disneyland shop. My little sister has been looking for a Lotso teddy bear ever since Toy Story 3 started showing in theaters. Good thing they have it. I’m so happy!
In conclusion, I’m happy about my first trip overseas. No nagging from parents on what time to come home, what to wear and what to do. Experiencing a different kind of environment and being independent with friends.
Bye bye Hong Kong. It was nice meeting you. I will come back sooner or later. If not, I might get addicted to travelling.
Photo (c) Jhamii, Marsky and myself.
Uchiwa!
Finally decided to do it today because I’m panicking my little sister want to help. The uchiwas I made are “Arioka” and “Fumito” …and also a フィリピン uchiwa just to tell them that I will go all the way to Hong Kong just to see them.
The hardest part was cutting the kanji, I swear. <(‵^′)>
Party hard sleepover!
I spent my weekend at Kangbon’s residence with Marsky, Pau, Mae, Sachi, Kat and… the list goes on. We had our rehearsals around the afternoon and went to the grocery to buy food and drinks for our sleepover.
It was a fun night! Everyone was eating, drinking, laughing… and eating again and again. 「PANCREASください！」are the words of the night. Happy Birthday Ryun! While everyone’s busy, I watched (and copied) lots of AKB48 videos on Kangbon’s laptop like AKB0048, AKBingo! and etc. Around 11 P.M. we panicked over Shiritsu Bakaleya Koukou and flailed over ikemen Kaoru and Hokuto’s part-time job. One at a time, everyone started sleeping while the rest of us watched a little Death Game Park, Hammer Session and GANTZ Final Answer. Sachi, Pau and I slept around 4 A.M. Surprisingly, everyone’s phone started ringing simultaneously after an hour. WHAT IS SLEEP? OMG.
The next day, we were having random talks about everyone’s cellphone and ringtones lol. We watched Tokyo Girls’ Style’s 1st Japan Tour DVD and marathon-ed all the 2012 Shounen Club episodes. I’m now LSS to Sexy Zone songs orz
Oops, I think I made this post too detailed? :))
Photo (c) Marsky’s instagram
奇跡だ！♥
We went to the mall last Saturday to buy stuff for the trip like a luggage bag, shorts, nail polish, etc. The most fun part of it is someone’s in an incredibly good mood. Heee :”>
Belated Happy Mother’s Day to all your moms!
Went to Gateway to meet-up with Saichi. We talked about our bum lives, work and the like. She’ll start working in a few days and here I am waiting for the trip to come so that I can apply for a job afterwards.
It rained very hard so we stayed longer in Gong Cha. After that, we went to Saizen to buy myself some uchiwa materials. I kind of promised to Saichi that I’ll buy her a Seventeen, ViVi or Popteen magazine. Oops?
Photos (c) Saichi