Don't think I forgot! Time to finally upload my journal of the last half of my trip to Mexico. I know it's been many months, but some may still be interested. Ground zero of concert day. Enjoy.
DAY THREE - C-ute no Hi
So it finally was here! The big day! We actually ended up getting up and getting ready a bit earlier than we planned, so we went downstairs for our egg breakfast then walked on over to the venue. The churro stand from the day before was up, so we got some yummy churros on the way. We got to the venue and there were already almost 50 people lined up. I particularly found this irritating because we were informed multiple times that we would not be allowed to line up until an hour before the doors would open. This was at about 10:30am by the way. The VIP doors opened at 4:30pm. We were hoping to get our VIP stuff situated and then do sightseeing, but it was at that time that we realized we wouldn't be able to leave the area and would be stuck there the whole day. Neither Manuel nor I are particularly fond of waiting in lines for a long time. We called up Tiffany and Hector so they could head on over. Now here is the fun part.
Manuel and I were also there on behalf of A-To-J Connections. I can only disclose so much information, so forgive me if I leave some details a little vague. We were communicating with a representative from Up-Front Link about getting the ability to do official coverage of the concert. He had asked us to meet him at the venue, so we spent almost the whole time looking for him. We were able to grab one of the J'Fest guys who busted his butt to get a hold of this representative for us. While we waited (since the representative was quite busy), we went around the line and interviewed some of the fans. That information is disclosed through A-To-J Connections. Needless to say, it was fun and we met some really excited fans. One that particularly stood out was a lady who was dressed in Saki's Sekai ichi HAPPY outfit. Eventually we got a hold of the representative and he informed us that we had permission, and that he might be able to get us an interview the next day, and that he would let us know for sure later in the night. This totally excited us.
From there, we headed to our legitimate spot in the line. On the way there, we saw some people dancing to some H!P songs. We convinced Tiffany to join them and they had a blast. The rest of the time we conversed a little, but mostly waited, exhausted already. Finally the line started moving, and we got in quite smoothly and simply. The guy at the door asked me to give him my medicine, because I couldn't take it in with me. I probably should have left it at the hotel, but I always keep it with me just in case. He told me he would let me have it after and to look for him (I totally forgot to look for him, by the way.). I checked in my bag and got to the goods table. The good thing about being VIP is that I didn't have to worry about missing out on any merchandise. They were also allowing us to buy more than one of each. I got the Chisato towel/wristband, photo set and T-shirt for myself and bought some stuff for friends who were not able to make it.
Upon entering the venue itself, the concert hall was a bit underwhelming in size, and the 1300 tickets sold (total, sold out) made more sense to me. It was about the same size as Best Buy Theater in NYC and Shinjuku Blaze in Tokyo. On the bright side, this meant the concert would be a lot more personal. I proceeded forward and noticed Manuel and the others in the VIP area. While it wasn't head on with the stage, it was in a nice snug spot right in front of the stage on the left side. Right next to the staff area, actually (where Tiffany took a picture with Sakurai). I quickly changed into the concert's shirt, and decked myself out with the two Chisa towels I had (one from the venue, the other I bought from a friend overseas a while ago), the Chisa wrist band and my King Blade (set to green, of course).
Now I won't get into too much detail about the concert itself, since you can read about it in our official concert report (http://www.a-to-jconnections.com/the-hello-idol-blog/vamos-a-mxico-a-c-ute-experience) and I talked a little about it in a My Obsessions episode (https://youtu.be/6AvhQgf-BDk). I do want to point out that the high elevation caused the girls to not be able to perform at their best. They actually said they weren't even able to lift their legs up as high as they wanted, it was that bad. Even with that in mind, they performed so amazingly that this had quickly become my favorite concert I had ever been to tied with Lovendor's final show from their Steal Your Heart tour. I seriously can't even begin to imagine how amazing they are in a less difficult atmosphere. They were all so amazingly energetic and enthusiastic, it blew me away. What's even more, the Mexican fans were explosively loud. The amount of energy they had was phenomenal, and was way more than any American or Japanese concert I had ever been to. I was flabbergasted.
Some things of note. Fist, was the awesome set list. Every single song they performed was absolutely amazing. A really good set list from throughout their history. Ones that particularly stood out to me as being really amazing were: Ooki na ai de Motenashite, which was the song that introduced me to the group back when it released and also happens to be my favorite song of theirs (I was especially happy for this happening because it isn't performed too much in their lives anymore. I almost teared up.); I miss you, which is very well done and I haven't had the chance to see it live yet, it blew me away (Since I've only heard the song on a crappy sound system, I had never heard the 'tuuuuu tu tu tu' part before, and it really made me happy.); Midnight Temptation, which is my favorite album exclusive song of theirs and I had no expectation of them performing this at all; The Middle Management, which happens to be my second favorite song of theirs and was better seeing live the second time then the first, oddly (I saw them perform this at Berryz Matsuri.). I can't emphasize enough how awesome the set list was. IT WAS AWESOME!
It was a great concert when it came to interactions too! They tried really hard to hit every spot as often as possible, giving us all a lot of eye contact and lovin'. For me personally, there were a few stand out interactions. I had excitedly put up a heart for Mai when she was facing our section and she gave me a heart back. Saki gave me a warm smile once, though most of the time she approached our section her attention went completely to Manuel, since he totally oshi'd out to get her attention with his blue garb and giant stature. I was definitely the most prominent Chisato fan in the VIP area though, so that worked to my advantage multiple times. I made eye contact with her multiple times, but there was one particular time that I was hopping up and down waving to her. She stayed there for a few seconds waving to me and jumping up and down too. That totally made my heart melt! Chisa is the absolute best ever!!! The rest of the interactions and fun stuff involving the concert can be found in my video and our concert report, so I won't take up more space with that.
After the concert was over, I was totally sweaty, hot, nasty and extremely exhausted. As is always the case after I attend a concert, my hip problem was definitely having an effect on me. Also as always, I didn't care, because it was all totally worth it. We all ended up being told to line up against the left wall for the hand shake. Even though VIP was guaranteed the hand shake, people went insane. It was extremely distasteful and terrible how everybody acted. Everybody shoved each other into the wall and since we were closest to the wall, we got smashed and couldn't move a centimeter. It was extremely distressing and uncomfortable. We were like this for almost 15 minutes, and I felt terrible especially for Tiffany, because she's a bit shorter and was basically being smothered. Eventually, the staff put the non-VIP in the main hall and forced us to line up in a respectable manner. Soon, we started moving through the handshake. It was actually really fast. Realistically, it was probably about the same time per person as the Japanese ones I've been to, but it felt shorter for some reason (I felt like I was able to get at least a little more in edgewise in Japan). It was definitely less than the time in NYC. It was all a blur, and I don't particularly remember the order we went in. I only remember the first and last people, who were the only ones I was properly able to say anything to. The first was Chisa. I totally geeked out and told her that she's my favorite in the world! She saw all my garb and got excited and said 'thank you! I love you too!' The other three in the middle I was only able to say a quick 'thank you very much' to, though they all gave good shakes and huge smiles. The last in line was Maimi. She was a wonder to behold. She gave the warmest smile I had ever seen, a smile that would make anybody melt instantaneously. I shook her hand and told her that I'm from America, and that she has a lot of love from the fans over there. She thanked my profusely and gave me a strong and heart felt handshake. I was being shoved through as I said this, but she held onto my hands so that she could say what she wanted. She told me that she hopes she can come to America, and thanked me for my support. She gave me one last smile as I was being shoved even further away, and moved on to the next fan. She certainly got a bunch of extra respect points from me for this. On the way out, they gave us VIP holders a signed A5 photo, the special CD and the actual handshake ticket in case we wanted to keep it for the sake of collecting (which I did). On the way out, after I grabbed my bag from the bag check, I stopped by the goods table. They still had some photos left, so I bought a couple extra, in case there were friends I forgot about.
We hung around the concert hall for a short while, then headed back to the plaza near Tiffany's hotel (along with another Mexican fan who was a friend of Carlos' and also a couple Japanese fans). We found a taco place over there, and decided to stop by there to eat. It ended up being really tasty, actually. I ended up getting some special beef tacos that were a little more expensive than the normal beef tacos. With it, I ordered a Fanta, which I hadn't had since I was in India years ago. The tacos were extremely tasty, particularly because the meat was really well seasoned. Manuel drank a couple of beers and totally got drunk off of them. It was quite amusing to watch him fumble around and act silly merely from drinking two beers. Later on, when walking around, he starting taking video of random things like buildings and us walking. Silly Manuel. Anyway, we took a group picture at the restaurant then headed out. Before we parted ways, Manuel had received an e-mail with a confirmation for the interview the next day. Our excitement suddenly went up tenfold.
We parted ways and headed back to our respective hotels. I worked with Manuel for quite a while getting everything ready for the interview the next day (with some input from Tiffany, thankfully). We ended up going to bed quite late as a result of this, but regretted nothing. The next day was going to be an extremely important one for us.