Here I am again, writing about my latest trip to Japan.
This time I went to watch Muto Tomu’s stage play “Bakumatsu Taiyouden Gaiden” and also went to handshake events in Makuhari Messe. I spent three days in total for AKB48-related-event and two days travelling with my brother. Actually, I felt bad with my brother because I was busy with the events and could barely guide him to explore Tokyo.
I originally did not know anything about Tomu’s stage play because it had not been announced when I purchased handshake and flight tickets. I discovered that I would be arriving in the morning of the stage play’s final show. I had no other option, but to apply for the final show. However, this stage play was said to be popular and should be hard to get a ticket. It turned out to be true, the tickets were sold out just a few minutes after the sell started.
I failed to grab a ticket. But I did not give up.
I checked on their site that there is an English page for overseas customer. I filled out the form and requested a ticket for the last show. The ticketing centre replied my email the next day and said that the final show’s ticket was sold out. They offered me an alternative date, yet I could not change my flight’s schedule. I told them that I would like to be put on the waiting list, but it was impossible as there was no waiting list. They informed me that they would enquire to the organiser and asked whether they could get an additional ticket for me.
Voila! The organiser arranged an additional ticket for me!
Yeay! I guess I was lucky! Eh wait, was I?
Frankly speaking, the ticket was crazy expensive. It was 10,800 yen for S seat which I initially thought should be closer to the main stage. Yet, I was wrong. Lol.
The venue is divided into two floors where the S seat was located on the first floor. I got a seat that was quite far from the main stage, but I could still see the main stage clearly without having to use binoculars. Yeah, there were a couple of people who brought binoculars.
The audiences were dominated by women because the main cast is a famous musical actor. It felt strange for me, as an akb fan who is always in a men-dominated venue. Lol. Although I’m also a woman, I felt intimidated by the amount of women in the venue.
Fast forward to the stage play.
It was hella funny. I’m glad my Japanese ability has improved thus I could understand about 60% of the dialogues. I could laugh together with other audiences, but It reminds me to my poor Japanese skills when I watched Tomu’s first stage play (re: outside AKB) “Black 10-kai” in 2017. I could only understand 10-20% of it. I did cry when I watched Black 10. It was not because of the story line, but I was touched with Tomu’s improvement.
Of course, this time Tomu also showed her significant improvement. Her acting skill is more natural. She looked so sexy in traditional kimono. Her body gestures and intonation were perfect for her role as a prostitute. There was one particular joke that cracked me up: When the main actor tried to run away from Tomu, he decided to shout “AKIMOTO YASUSHI” to other direction, hence Tomu should bow to that direction and said “Otsuksaresamadeshita”. The main cast successfully escaped from Tomu. After all, the stage play was very amusing and I’m glad I could watch one of Tomu’s milestones in her acting career. I can’t wait to watch her upcoming movie that will be released in 2020. I will definitely fly to Japan to watch it.
The next day I went to Makuhari Messe as usual to attend the handshake event.
Unfortunately, Tomu looked so tired that day. She was exhausted after performing 15 shows (re: stage play) in the past 10 days. Nevertheless, she did not want to cancel her schedule in handshake event and tried to push her limit. It was her first handshake event after the announcement of her passing the weather forecaster exam. Not to mention, Tomu rarely cancels her handshake slots in her entire career. She stayed until slot 7 and decided to withdraw on slot 8 for the sake of the next day’s handshake event. I could tell that she was extremely tired when I talked to her earlier that day. I planned to use oshimashi for her slot 8, but my Japanese friend told me that Tomu might withdraw from slot 8 so she suggested me to use the remaining tickets on slot 7. I did so, but I was trying to figure out what I should say to Tomu. For some reason, I did not want to talk about something related to her current health condition. It was pointless to ask whether she was sick. Probably, she would say that she was alright although we knew she was not. I decided to ask her to come to Jakarta and told her that she has many fans there. I’m glad that it could draw a smile on her face.
In case for Muto Orin, she was very sweet as usual. She still remembers my name, even though it had been half a year since I last met her. I recommended her a new bubble tea shop located in Harajuku because apparently it is famous in Singapore. Orin really loves bubble tea and can’t stop talking about bubble tea in her private mail. Therefore, I came up with a recommendation. In fact, I’m not a big fan of bubble tea because it is too sweet for my liking. I’m more a coffee person. Haha. When I recommend a bubble tea shop, it means that it is a good one!
Anyway, I could meet a few of Korean friends on the first day of handshake event.
One of them is Muto Orin’s fan. We’ve been following each other on twitter for quite a while and I always see him on Orin’s 755 or SHOWROOM. We share a common interest in coffee, he gave me a bag of coffee beans that he bought in Korea. It was very nice of him!
I also met other Korean friends whom I met last November. They are girls and we’ve been following each other on Instagram. I observe from their Instagram that they frequently fly to Japan for individual and national handshake events. They like a lot of members. Haha. One thing that I noticed is that their Japanese skills have gotten so much better than the first time I met them. There were four of us: Japanese, Korean, and Indonesian. We talked mainly in Japanese and sometimes I used a few English words if they were lost in translations. Our Japanese friend also helped to explain some words in a super simple Japanese, thus we could understand what it means. It was very interesting to see the process of language exchange between us. For sure, Idols have united us.
The second day was less crowded. Most of my Korean friends returned to their country and a couple of Japanese friends could not come due to work commitments.
Tomu has recovered a bit and was more energetic than the previous day. I was extremely nervous in front of Tomu and came up with very random topics, such as bubble tea shops, lipstick, or countries that she wants to visit. Lol. At the end of day, I told her that I might be coming to Japan again later this year and asked her not to graduate soon. To my surprise, she said that she wanted to visit Jakarta, thus she won’t graduate soon. Haha. It means that she remembers where I come from. Tomu usually forgets where I come from, but I’m pretty sure she remembers my face.
Meanwhile Orin clearly remembers my name. She immediately called my name, “Aya-chan” when I walked to her that day, even though I had not said anything to her. Haha. On my last tickets with her, I told her that It was my last. She asked me whether I would be going back soon. I told her that I would be travelling with my brother for a bit and my brother was at Disney Sea on that day. She looked very concerned and asked whether it was okay for me to not go to Disney Sea. I told her that it was alright as long as I meet her. Haha. She was very pleased with my answer.
After finishing with Orin, I planned to go back early and have dinner with my brother. However, I suddenly encountered the head of Tomu’s seitansai committee. She personally asked me to help out and join the celebration of Tomu’s weather forecaster exam at the end of slot 7. Of course, I could not refuse because I realised that many people did not come on that day. We initially arranged the celebration on the first day, but Tomu was sick thus we postponed it. I said yes to her. My schedule finished at about 5:20 PM, but I had to wait until 8:00 PM to participate in the celebration. I’m glad that my Indonesian friends still had tickets until the last slot thus I could hang out with them while waiting for Tomu’s slot to end.
The celebration went well!
Tomu was extremely happy to see us with the boards. She walked down to us and took a picture with us. We suggested her to take the letter “O” and told her that it stands for “Omori Miyu”, she immediately grabbed it while laughing. She said a few words to us, thanking us for our endless support for her and hopes that she can get jobs that will make everyone happy.
These three days were full of memories with good friends and obviously lovely idols.
I’m glad that I did not miss them out.
Flying for 8 hours was worth it.
Chaula Rininta Anindya 