This was requested, please note that this is copypasted from me typing on my phone (while standing outside in the rain for hours)
Okay so, C-ute concert. (Light house in Mito)
Estimated 200 people attending, super small venue- super close and low stage. The members were clearly surprised at this, especially MaiMai got visibly flustered. They stood on box-thingies (?) for some performances that got them even closer to the edge of the stage, but also didn't seem quite safe since they kept getting close to falling backwards, especially Mai, though Airi had a pretty close call too.
Chisato mentioned how she was worried about a lack of energy in such a small venue but she said that everyone seems plenty fired up. She also said she has a sore throat and her voice was a little rougher than it usually is.
Now, for the really fantastic part. They kept talking about Natto (since it's a regional dish? Tbh most of their MCs were too hard for me to understand) and during the naruchika lottery photo signing, they asked for members of the audience who hadn't tried natto yet.
It was then that Maimi said that since apparently there are foreigners attending she wanted to know if we'd tried Natto yet while looking straight at me.
tbh at the "there's foreigners attending" I was already shaking Momo and Ryu all "OMG OMG OMG" which is why this next part is a little fuzzy on the details.
We kinda had a conversation about how we hadn't tried Natto, we only just arrived, Momo told them she's from Scotland. There was a ton of confusion, Airi and Chisato tried speaking english (I think Chisato said: "You like Natto?" Well it somewhat concluded with them trying to get us to try it and applauding for coming to Japan for the first time which was pretty damn amazing.
Later in the concert Airi brought up Natto again (and they shared a story how during Buono! apparently she cried because there was no natto) and they asked everyone,"the foreigners too!" to try it.
And lastly, Maimi brought it up again during the final "thank you!" MCs, thanking everyone for coming, the 2nd level for participating and the foreigners for coming all the way.
The setlist was pretty amazing too, their energy was fantastic even though they messed up quite a lot..? Mai complained about someone (Airi) stealing her place in the formation after Sakura Chirari.
There was a LOT of giggling and one time Chisato said something in private but didn't put the mic low enough so part of it was shared lol
aaand then handshakes. honestly after what had just happened, the total lack of sleep and with the speed of handshakes I mostly mumbled my way through arigatou, tried and failed badly at telling them the concert was fun. I did get to say something nice to Chisa though, since she was last in line. I told her "thank you. your voice is really sexy" since she'd apologized for her raw throat. It got a pretty gread reaction from her hahaha, she did a 180°so she could wave goodbye to me a bit longer!
Well since I'm awake noe might as well give my impression of Ariake live #1
sitting on the 2nd floor I was pretty far but I had a pretty clear view. seeing them appear, they seemed so tiny! (well, most of them are). Oddly enough, the person who sat on my other side (aka not momo) was a jap miya fan I met and talked to both at Buono! & Berikyuu in Paris which was pretty hilarious given the size of the venue.
The KSS performed with Kobushi Factory girls still, and they're all super energetic. KF's song is suuuuuper powerful and I love it to death. From what I know about the girls, some ofthe lesser known members are featured very strongly, and they're doing a really good job.I expect greatness from this group. (Mimi from the present: Well they just won their first award today soooo...)
Country Girls are so so so so adorable you just really want to squish them and never let go ajdjakksjdksl babies. They're really good at stealing hearts apparently.
J=J performed their new song , and the outfits are soooo pretty!!! The leading 3 have really powerful voices and gdi Tomoko someone this young shouldn't be this ... seductive? She's really good at making bedroom eyes lol
Angerme rocked the hall with Taiki Bansei and wow are Meimei, Rikako and Murotan energetic. I'm a little sad that Rinapuu didn't really stand out to me since she used to be my #1, but now Murotan has really cemented herself on the top haha (Mimi from the present: LOOOOOOL we'll see how long that lasts).
Momusu performed Tiki Bun which is a song I really stopped caring about a while ago. the amount if members made it a bit hard to notice members individually and sadly I really have no impression of 12ki as I barely noticed them. Rihoriho's stage presence is a gift to mankind.
C-ute's performance left me feeling a bit eh since I saw them perform the same song much closer just the day before, and I guess they couldn't really top that experience. I found myself singing "kuuuuyashikute" for the rest of the day though haha
The units from
the past section sadly had no OG surprise guests, but it was really fantastic anyway. My favorites were Captain and Maimi as High King, Miya and Airi singing Masayume(which made me cry since there were so many purple penlights) and of course Buono!
Buono! had the black/grey costumes from e.g Yubi Matsuri and oh wow they are soooo sparkly the cameras don't even catch it. Tabidachi no Uta made me bawl since they announced as Buono!'s song for Berryz.
The Berryz-song Cover was
pretty nice as well. Airi doing Risako's monologue from Motto Zutto=💖💖💖
CG covering Waracchao yo Boyfriend was beyond adorable. that was a well made choice for sure.
The last block was more or less a regular Berryz concert. i really liked the costumes, especially the ones for the encore are pretty.
me sitting were I was, Miya was facing my direction from the walkway stage quite a few times, and I think she might have seen me, but with such a distance it's a bit hard to tell. (Mimi from the present: Wait for it, Mimi from the past. Just wait for it lol)
I totally forgot to take out my towel for Yuujou Junjou etc
Captain and Risako really are crybabies ugghh can I just wrap them up and make them hot chocolate?
They performed some older album songs which I adored adored adored.
the last song was Sono Subete no Ai ni which is just mean okay?
Anyway, I am super super happy with the concert even though my everything still hurts.
Since I missed the JJ and CG handshakes yesterday, I'll go for them today !! 💖
(oh and also Hello!Store in akihabara is way bigger and more populated than I ever imagined. It's really pretty and dangerous for your wallet. I mostly bought a ton of Berryz outfit keychains lol
Handshake report!! my fingers are cold so typos are whatever(might fix this up)
I had two tix for JJ and CG each
we formed a line from the venue to the tent
when they walked past they were like: OOOOHH Foreigners!! which was pretty awesome!! Especially Sayubee seemed happy to see us.
hansdshake:
karin: ohhh! -superwatt smile-
me: sorry, my hands are cold!
k: it's okay!! thank you!!
me: thank you!
uemuu: thanks for coming!!
me: yeah! I'm german!
u: ohhhhhh!!!!
yuka: ohhh!!
me: (I forgot what I said)
yuka: your eyes are pretty!
me: thank you!!!
sayuki: Ohh!! thank you!
me: thank you!! I love your voice!
Tomoko: thanks for coming!!!
me: thank you!! give your best!
2nd round was much faster
Karin: ohhh!
me: please come to JE!
-push-
Uemuu:*was listening in*
me: OK?
-push-
Yuka
me: Please come to France! (bc JE duh)
-push-
Sayuki
me: Please come to JE
tomoko: (???)
me: let's meet in Paris!!
we lined up towards the venue again and waved them goodbye
then CG came out right after
they seemed pretty overwhelmed (and tiny lol) and the waving they did was pretty much by the manual instructions except for manaka who stayed behind a little and kept stopping to wave wildly in all directions (she did a full 360° so she could wave at everyone before she started walking)
handshake
I pretty much told all of them to work hard on their major debut and got thank you's in return.
Risarisa went omg when she saw me lol, the others gave what are probably standard reactions and answers
2nd round I told then all to work hard for their live in Germany heh their reactions were awesome!! they seemed really happy and RisaRisa deathlocked my hands 💖💖💖
when we waved them goodbye again Mai and Risa noticed me and waved really enthusiastically and smiled
💖💖💖
super happy
ariake break rn
airi cried during tabidachi no uta, momo made her smile by pointing at her face during the line "egao mo nakigao mo kimi no mono"
Miya waved at me during Kataomoi & I know this for sure bc a) she waved towards me and b) I was the only one waving when they came over here so it was her waving in reply
setlist is slightly different but the unit songs stayed the same
(It's on the DVD)
berryz solo live part next
it's over and miya waved at me again during soni subete no ai ni as if my face wasn't ruined already
super short convert review
It was fantastic. I enjoyed it even more than the first (probably because I was more well rested)
The setlist was different only for the opening groups and the other groups performing Berryz songs, everything else was (mostly) the same.
MM did One Two Three which was so so so great
CG covered Happiness ~KK~ and the audience did the chant they usually do for Maasa (Maasa ni deaeta~~~!!). Momochi mentioned it later, and then got Maasa to sing the part acapella so the audience could do it for her too.
She then got Chinami to do the "No Nyu? No Nyu!!" part from Gag100 and Chii was super ashamed hahhaa
Airi cried super hard during Tabidachi no Uta and Momochi made her smile pointing at her when she sang "egao mo nakigao mo kimi no mono".
I got Miya to wave at me twice (;A;)/////
Captain, Miya & Risako cried during encore. Risako said she was sad that since for some fans it's the last time seeing Berryz and she apparently had voice problems (???) so she was worried that her voice didn't carry to the fans properly.
OG members Johnson, Charmy& Yossie appeared together with H!P leaders as graduation ceremony.
Kaori talked about how one time Maasa cried bc she did something wrong and couldn't get the reward (I think it was sweets?)
Charmy said Momochi stole her character, and then Kaori was like:Yeah and Kumai stole mine!!!!
Maimi cried so hard reading her letter to Berryz, Captain broke formation and ran to hug her and for a while they cried in each other's arms.
KAY Foreigners Bustour& Berryz event report.
The tour was completely, completely awesome.
We went to the MV locations of Be Genki -> Cha Cha Sing -> Kokuhaku no Funsui Hiroba -> Loving You Too Much (aka having Lunch at H!P office where no fan has been before. It was delicious.
The fans were all really great too, we did some enthusiastic chanting& the mood inside the bus was great.
They surprised us by going to the Berryz event which was awesome, awesome, awesome.
It was like a Berryz exhibition/ scavenger hunt, with games and food and the members hanging around for a while (or handing out food and prices as well). I went straight to the stage though, and eventually I progressed into the 2nd line with only Momo (aka a small person before me).
When the members got on stage Miya pretty much noticed me right away and waved.
They then split up to do individual things.
Maasa & Yurina were at game stations, Chinami walked around in the fish costume, Momochi walked around in a devil costume, Miya and Saki handed out food. Risako also was at the games for a bit but she's very sick so I think they were trying to let her relax.
Both Chinami and Miya joined the (fantastic) MCs on stage for a while. Miya waved and smiled at me again
When Chii was on stage the MC talked about us (he'd previously said "oh the foreigners are here!" and asked where we're from) and Chii tried talking english with various foreign fans.
At this point I felt like shit and bad a pretty high fever durkng the mini live. The live was great, but Risako's voice didn't come out at all do Captain and Miya covered her lines.
After the event we went to the H!P store, and then we had a bit of spare time to explore. We met up again for dinner and karaoke.
I took tons of pictures and videos that I intend to upload to YT as unlisted. When I do, please don't spread the link without my permission. The staff was super amazing today and they asked us to not share everything on socisl media. While I definitly want to share my report and pics here (since my fb isn't visible for anyone), I'm didn't share as much on twitter, and the video would have way more details. (Present Mimi: oooops well lol. I don't think this will garner many readers but y'know)
This was such a wonderful experience I hope they consider doing this again so other fans get the chance as well and I don't want to ruin it for them by going against their wishes. Thanks!!!
Okay I'm not gonna give a full concert report as I'm sure most of you have read one if you haven't watched the stream, so I'm just gonna give some details you won't really find from any official source
Kobushi Factory, CG and J=J opened, and there was a huge difference in these groups acting as an opening act compared to them being on the setlist like in ariake because the chants weren't all there.
The H!P members took seats two blocks away from ours. Everyone was waving at them (so did we) but Chisato noticed me and waved back really wildly
I think she remembered me from the concert in Mito. Then C-ute members saw Erika though and they all started screaming and had a grouphug.also later when everyone had turned back to look at the stage I glanced over to see how they were doing and felt like Take-chan was looking in my direction. I wasn't really sure so I waved at her and she actually waved back!! I went all "OMG OMG OMG" on Kiki grabbing her arm but Take-chan was actually doing the same thing? She's grabbed Ayacho's (? I think) arm and was bouncing up and down like I'm the idol which ??????? so yeah I oshihen'd in Angerme (again) oops
Kanon had a green and a red penlight and did the "BERRYZ IKUBE" arm movements from start to finish. C-ute all had Berryz official penlights in color switching mode. Most of the other members didn't have penlights.
During the concert I got Miya to wave at me~
When Risako gave her last MC the whole hall was sniffling. When Maasa and Chii broke down respectively, so did the hall. Captain's last MC was met with quite a few yells of "THANK YOU!" from fans.
When Miya mentioned the fans that had come from abroad she was looking in
. This was also the one moment of today where my voice worked the way I wanted it too (it's pretty nonexistant todaY). You can actually hear me screaming on the DVD lolMaimi was crying super super hard during the MCs, she was just sobbing into her hands. I also saw Chisato cry really badly. I saw Airi sit really still, I think she was crying silent tears.
I'm so, so, so thankful for them. I'm incredibly sad to see them go but I'll try my best and support them in the future as well, especially Miya of course. At this point I think she's somewhat aware that I exist so I hope she will remember me even if I don't get to see her anymore. (present Mimi: ... ohhh guuuurl) That's probably kinda selfish of me though.
We got to talk to staff a bit after the live as they were in our section apparently so we thanked them with tearstreaked faces haha (Present Mimi: there was also some important CEO someone else introduced to me but I have no idea who he was I just remember being unable to say hello properly bc I was crying so much)
lastly, BERRYZ IKUBE!!
