7 posts tagged “momoi”

(I mentioned being kicked out a concert over the weekend on Facebook. A little background on this first.)

Halko Momoi is a very popular singer and voice actor, at least in the anime community in Japan. Definitely one of the top five performers of her genre. She's my wife's most favorite performer.

Momoi was approached by Mr. O (not his real name) to perform at this fairly small event. Mr. O with the chairman of Anime Vegas, helped bring her to the event. This decision was made at the last minute. Her dedicated fans, mostly from out of state, including Hitomi and I, made special last-minute travel arrangements (flight, hotel, etc.) as well as worked on a "call book", brought hundreds of glow sticks, etc. We dedicated fans also make an effort to do live internet broadcasts, translate material, etc.

As it so happens, we were allowed to internet broadcast some of the performances at Anime Vegas. But not the concert for Momoi. And although the connection (through an EVDO modem) was physically disconnected, someone it was reestablished again automatically. (Or deliberately?)

Contractually speaking, free live broadcast was not allowed, although live recording was. As it turns out, the chairman got informed that the live broadcast was active. (By whom?) And then convention security was upon, at least, some of us. The guy manning the computer was kicked out immediately. And--by being in the front row with an Momoi t-shirt on?--some of us other guys were told to get out as well. (Not Hitomi, who looks innocent I suppose.)

I had nothing to do with any of the broadcast. I'm just part of this fan club, and I didn't know what was going on. Still there I was out in the hall with the chairman and a couple of other innocent and angry fans during the middle of the performance. Two or three songs later, we were let back in. Hitomi was a bit confused by this and you can read her blog, if you can read Japanese.

Needlessly to say, us fans were upset at all this, and vow not to return. Especially since she was only performing a short one hour set and here I was spending three days in Las Vegas, which is like Los Angeles but a lot more miserable.

...I could also fill this post with a list of things that weren't cool about the event but I will keep it to this.

To make up for all this I did have a lot of fun at meals with her fans. Monday, since Momoi wasn't showing up at all, Hitomi and I went and enjoyed a few short hikes on the outside of town, at Red Rock Canyon.

Friday

Left early in the morning to catch an earlier flight. Hitomi and I were on "standby" since she wanted to get to San Jose for Momoi's afternoon panel. Since I switched later I wasn't sure I'd be on the same flight. Took a taxi ($21 or so) to the Convention Center. According to Hitomi, to reach light rail system by bus takes "forever", even though you can see it's about a half mile away. Maybe after the San Jose airport remodel is done it will be faster.

Got rooms at the Hotel Saint Claire for about $105 a night. James T. was willing to have us stay at a more distant hotel but the hotel wasn't in walking distance.

Met some familiar faces and I tried to remember some names. Just a few Momoi fans from Japan came, and I suspect it was fear of the swine flu that kept them home. A few were rooming with locals, like Kent, who has been a fan since 1998 or so. Momoi's Japanese fans are very nice, but singularly obsessed, really.

Opening ceremonies were a casual affair. Fanime's a casual con, really. There were taiko drummers outside but they weren't too great technically but had showmanship. We mostly hung around until Momoi made a brief appearance.

Momoi's panel for today was titled "Path of the Otaku" according to the schedule but I guess she thought it was about "Seiyuu and Singing", which was supposed to be the theme for tomorrow. As usual, lots of vague, open-ended questions, although there were some specific and interesting ones as well.

Re: Path of the Otaku. As it turns out, I don't think any of the "Momoists" (fans) had girlfriends or boyfriends. (Just a guess.) To me, it seems the path of the otaku is a lonely path, in this respect. It would have been interesting to discuss what does it really mean to live your (entire) life for a particular hobby.

Went to watch Fist of the North Star, following the panel. I saw the movie version. I hadn't watched a whole lot it before, just bits and pieces, so I felt really educated to learn the backstory about exploding heads. Guy running the room hadn't setup the sound properly so I complained. Not a whole lot of interest in older anime these days, it seems.

Dinner...I went with several people in a car to Mitsuwa, a Japanese supermarket. We bought cheap (tasting) Japanese bento and curry. I complained about my katsudon which needed spice or pepper or something.

Saw Detroit Metal City, a parody about a death metal band. First up was the live action version, then some of the animated version.

Saturday

Hitomi left early to catch a movie, which was canceled and replaced with a serious Korean ganster movie. Koreans really love gangster movies. I wonder if Seoul is safe? I slept in a bit and saw some of K-ON!, which is probably the hit of 2009 in Japan.

Momoi autograph session at 12PM.

Following this was a maid life performance on Stage 0. Momoi shows up.

The past few years, Fanime has had a maid--English, not French--brigade, which dresses up accordingly and actually says the sort of lines you'd hear in a Japanese Maid Cafe. (I wonder why not just use formal English?) They also are expected to sing and dance a little on stage, play games with customers at a cafe, and take pictures.

3PM was Momoi's panel, followed by a call workshop. I spent a few hours translating an article for the call book, which was probably more of a souvenier for those that received it, than study guide as it was intended. Ironically, I'm not into learning calls myself, but I have somehow put in a lot of time working on them anyway. The workshop was for practicing calls but turned into more about otagei, which is a related topic. Otagei is pretty straightforward, except for the infamous Thunder Snake technique.

I killed some time looking at cosplayers out front of the convention area. Eventually we congregated and headed out for dinner. Found a Baja Fresh resturant, it lots of empty seating, fortunately.

Came back and watched two hours of "Anime Hell" which isn't really about anime or hell, but a collection of weird animation, clips from Japanese television, etc., that anime fans would enjoy. I guess "Hell" part refers to the black humor aspect. At 12AM was "Evangelion: Endless Debate" which would have been fun to participate in but I headed off to bed instead.

Hitomi's obsession was uploading pictures and blogging throughout the convention. Take a look at her blog...

Sunday

Day of the concert. Serious Momoists were itching to arrive first in line for an 8PM concert at around noon. I spent some time unwrapping glow sticks in boxes.

I went to see the voice actors for Resident Evil 5 at a panel. Saw how they blue (green?) screened it, and did facial motion capture. I was thinking that somehow all or most of the character movement, including stunts, and facial animation was actually animated from hand. But in reality, all of it was captured.

Carl Horn had a panel on manga and in particular Dark Horse Manga. In terms of print quality, they are probably the best. (There are really some terrible importers, like Tokyo Pop or CMX which somehow get by doing a half-ass job, so maybe consumers don't really care?) It was interesting to hear him talk about the printing and proof process. And also the move to publishing combined volumes of manga, which retailers love and saves money for publishers as well. Still, a thick book is hard to read. I was going to ask about slip covers--like why nobody does them--but forgot. (Okay, it's obviously a cost issue but I'd still like to see them.)

Visited the Maid Cafe. It was busy the whole convention. Hitomi had saved a spot for me and was waiting with other Momoists. All the maids were really nice. Our assigned maid was trying hard to interact with everyone but somehow either people were distracted or shy. She drew everyone a picture and we played a simple game. Then they put on a little performance, similar to the one the day before and we had pictures with the group.

Snuck into the Gurren Lagan documentary and watched how animators slave away to create a few seconds worth of footage. Hitomi wanted to see it but went outside to wait in line.

Johnathan, a Momoist, was helping out with the NicoNicoDouga (NND) panel. I was curious and went. NND explanation: People upload funny shit to this site. And then peoples' comments fly across the screen. Also: Japanese have their own set of Internet memes so the same concept is repeated over and over again. And unlike Youtube (which the Japanese do use), NND supports live streaming so the entire panel was streamed as well.

Then saw Baccano!, which was a recommended by some older fans...Lots of 1920s Italian mobsters and families going after each other. However one family in particular seems to have a few immortal people. Immortality comes in handy when you're a gangster.

Went to Anime Music Videos "Best of 2009". Interesting that AMVs have caught on world wide so they have an International community and international competition. Lots of effort to combine footage you don't own with music you don't own either. Sometimes the result is "cool" but the flaw I see most often is they are too overwhelming (lots of cuts) or long. The best are actually kind of repetitive or have a variety of pacing.

I finally make my way outside to the line. Hitomi's camped out. I play Momoi songs on my Blackberry. A girl ahead of me looks uncomfortable, lonely, and unhappy. I'm sitting next to her on a concrete wall surrounding the perimeter of the concert hall. She eventually stands up, as if she might have sat in something sticky, but I couldn't tell what it was.

Filtering in, I secure two seats about 2 rows back from the front. We weren't sitting in the front row but there are bigger fans than us and Hitomi doesn't like to be in front anyway.

Opening act was a anime music cover band, Makenai. They sang well-known songs and did a fairly decent job, but it was obvious the sound was a bit messed up and feedback was obvious. (Amaturish sound technicians strike once again.) They did have a few of their own songs, and the last of these was decent. Momoi fans being who they are were equipped with light sticks and had a few calls coordinted for the well-known songs, so it got pretty lively. But many of us were holding back, since we were preserving energy for the main event.

Needless to say, Momoi being the veteran that she is, put on a solid show. Not all my absolute favorites but many of them. With all the enthusastic jumping and gesturing I was sweating through my shirt. (Maybe from my bicycle training I have built up better endurance but I seem to sweat more even though I'm not straining.) With all the movement, I was a bit wary of landing on Hitomi but we had an extra seat open next to us so it wasn't too crowded.

I tried following the calls, and being a tall guy I knew for sure the people behind me were paying attention. But at times, I found myself paying attention to the first row rather than the performance itself, so I had to let myself go on autopilot.

Ninety minutes sure went by quickly. The biggest disappointment was how she was obviously pressed for time, not even having time to introduce her band members or "MC" as much as she usually does.

Concert's over and we are shooed out of the theater as quickly as possible. Out on the steps of the hall people are taking video, sharing pictures, and fans were interviewing fans about how the concert went. I had FOOD on the the mind but people were inclined to simply hang out. When the front lights went out, it was a sign to get out. So now the roving group of Momoists went to seek food. Not many places open at around midnight in Downtown San Jose, as we discover. Eventually somebody finds out Jack in the Box is open and nearby and people congregate there. I hit up a Tacqueria, grab a burrito, and head on over.

Lots of chatting about this and that. Eventually we're done eating and are taking up space. I head back to the convention center, while Hitomi heads to bed. (Actually, Hitomi heads back to post various videos and pictures.) I discover there's not much to do but hang out in the Pr0n room and watch Night Shift Nurses. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it Fucking Nasty, though I have worse in manga format. Notably, though, what I haven't seen in a manga are public hairs stuck to the face of a woman nor ejaculate in the texture of cottage cheese. Combine sex with violence and suicide and it's a bit of a downer. Most amusing moment of the night: Staffer passes through the video room with a megaphone, asking for everyone for "hand check".

3am and I'm a bit tired. Still we wake up around 9-10am. It's the last day. Momoi's autograph session is one of the few events I go to. 3PM we watch closing ceremonies and the convention's over. Then we spend the last few hours at a Japanese supermarket and bookstore. (Some out-of-towners don't have these I guess.)

東京タワー


Originally uploaded by ochawan

First day was spent getting to the hotel, the same as last time, Dormy Inn in Akihabara. Traveling from the airport was hard with our bicycles, both suitcases being difficult to get through the train stations. Still, we managed a good dinner, in the UDX building, and made trip to the rooftop bath before bed.

Second day was the Halko Momoi trip, starting in the famous resort town of Atami. Hitomi explained it as a hot springs tour, but the style, as stated by Momoi, was more similar to a school field trip. There were about 140 fan club members there, obviously all big fans of her. Most fans were 20-35 year old males (otaku), though a few older and younger. Maybe 20 females? And somebody's parents. And there was actually a fan from Seattle, Anthony, who I had never met, but who had met Hitomi at Anime North (Toronto).

Schedule: Meet for orientation in the lobby. There were a number of "Momoists" who Hitomi had met from different international conventions Momoi performed for in the U.S., Toronto, Canada, and Kassel, Germany. Online they meet and collaborate on fan events and materials, such as call books, some of which I've translated. Hitomi brought a present from her international fans, which was a photo book put together through the internet and she painstakingly assembled prior and during the trip.

Dinner was an enkai, a traditional Japanese style of banquet where you sit on zabuton (on tatami) and eat an elaborate meal off of multiple trays and drink a lot. Given what I read, I thought we might just eat, listen to a couple of words from Momoi, and call it a night. But Momoi talked throughout, discussing how her 2008 went, various funny and frustating events throughout the year. I should have taken notes, but we were told not to post anything online.

When dinner wound down, there were a couple of contests. First was a karaoke contest where fans were asked to come on stage and sing on the karaoke box loaded with her songs, without looking at the lyrics. Of course, first up was a tricky song (from her early days) that even Momoi herself couldn't always remember the lyrics for. And it turned from less of a concert into just people having fun: Momoi helped out a lot and the otagei folk gave their assist. It turned into something fairly reminiscent of her performance in Hawaii where Momoi with her wireless microphone wandered around and a friendly crowd with glow sticks surrounded her and did their calls.

Winding down was a bingo game. Unlike most bingo games I've played, just numbers are read off, not both letters and numbers. Effectively, there was less probability a of bingo per number called. Prizes were handed out. Hitomi got bingo and she forced me to the stage. Winners were asked (by the audience!) to sing or dance. I wasn't quite up for that. I guess I should have memorized some songs. I asked them politely to leave me alone. Momoi was a bit sympathetic as her fans are demanding. I got her signature on a picture frame and a "Thank you!" A hug would have been nice but would have made her fans mad.

Third day: We had breakfast on our own in the cafeteria, enjoying the "Viking" (all you can eat) selection of Japanese and European breakfast food. Around 10 or so, we all boarded buses, which were to take us to Hakone for BBQ. It was less of an American BBQ and really just yakiniku, meat grilled on a gas stove. Momoi ran around making toasts and stealing off of hot plates. We got to see Hakone from the bus, as well as Mount Fuji, but had little time to walk around.

We went off for bowling. It was a good choice of game for 140 or so people on the tour. (Compare to, say, baseball or some other team game.) I'm not good at bowling and neither was our team, but eventually I got the hang of it. A lot of others wore out physically, but I managed to not feel worn out at all. Prizes were handed out for highest team and individual and lowest scores. I felt like I should practice back in the U.S. With a bit more consistency I wouldn't feel as pathetic come next time.

On the bus, we watched a video of Momoi performing in Taiwan. The concert was during a typhoon, but yet her fans made it anyway. Her fans were singing along and doing their calls. (Though as the evening went on, people toned it down.) We were taken to Shinjuku station and made our farewells.

It's hard to choose where to eat in Tokyo since there's literally hundreds of places around the major train stations. We found some sort of "back alley" section near Shinjuku station where restaurants had somehow escaped urban renewal. While wandering around, I found a place run by, literally, a mom & pop, who might have been pushing 70+. And evolution suggests that any highly competitive environment produces species adopted to that environment. Given that, and how Japanese are also obsessive about food (see: Japanese television) and fastidious otherwise, we were in prime territory for a good meal. And cheap as well.

Fourth Day: It was prime weather for bicycling. I set our bikes up in the small room somehow and we set off for a short ride in town. Hitomi wasn't too keen on riding in the city streets, but like Taipei and Seattle downtown, traffic is fairly forgiving, since drivers are more attuned to stopped cars (on the side), pedestrians, and frequent stops.

Eventually we made it from Tokyo to the Emperor's Place near Tokyo station. Initially I was going to find some back roads, but given the number of bridges and odd angles to the streets it was simply easiest to navigate on the major thoroughfares. We road around the palace grounds, took a few photos, and headed toward Tokyo Tower, off in the distance.

Tokyo Tower was overrun by tourists, so after our curry rice lunch, it was back to Akihabara. (We were going to make a bigger route but since I dropped the map from my guide book, we cut the ride fairly short.)

Akihabara is the place of Maid Cafes. The one we went to is located on the top of some building, with gashapon and figures and premade cosplay clothing on lower levels: A layer cake of otaku-dom.

Hitomi bought tickets to angela's concert. They were one of the first bands to come to Sakura-con and perform back in the Hilton at Sea-Tac and since then Hitomi's been a fan and even had attended a concert earlier in the year. Masaki and his new wife, Chiho, as well as Mr. Nagahama, director of several anime were in the same section. We briefly said hello before the performance.

Since we were all late getting tickets, we were in the back but since those in the main audience were on their feet (and jumping) for the entirety of the 3 hour performance I was fairly happy to be in my seat. I guess I haven't gotten into atsuko's singing style in the past, but she's mellowed her voice a bit and I liked her "Domestic Love Band" voice even more. (Band members perform in both bands, which really are just defined by the style of music. The alter-ego band members mawkishly play in a crass, rowdy, hard rock style that simultaneously makes fun of itself and the straight-laced, poppy angela.)

Post concert we were invited backstage and talked a little bit with Masaki, Chiho, Nagahama and were briefly introduced to atsuko herself, and Yui Horie, who I didn't immediately recognize. (I think being tall changes the way people look.) Hitomi helpfully explained we did come all this way to Japan for the concert; a bit of a white lie.

Obviously we were in the midst of a lot of industry people, e.g. producers and performers and the famous, and I was the 190cm tall foreigner so I might as well been a celebrity.

We said our goodbyes and it was back to the hotel, and the rooftop bath before bed.

Fifth Day: Comiket (Comic Market.) Hitomi wanted very much to by Momoi's (first) dōjinshi, which was a collection of articles and pictures and thoughts she put together and left early in the morning to fight the throngs of otaku. Given the crowds, I had considered skipping it entirely and making my way out of town on a train for a bike ride but I hadn't been in many years and felt: Why not?

I took a combination of subway and train to Big Sight, and given I was riding around 12PM it was not crowded at all. Hitomi left me money but I had forgotten it and thus had arrived without any cash. Not a good thing in Japan. Still, eventually I found a Post Office ATM and later Hitomi and was okay. Crisis averted.

What I later realized was the place closed around 4PM and most of the "good stuff" was gone by the afternoon. Still, I had fun wandering around and given how much of a battle it is in the morning perhaps arriving late was for the best. Given the time limit to meet back with Hitomi, I only managed to see one half of the convention area, though I had spent a few hundred anyway. Heading off to the commercial section, I bought my first dakimakura, a body pillow cover from DLSite which will be soon sandwiched between Hitomi and me. (Hitomi's nice to sleep beside but not right next to since she wiggles.)

Dinner was okonomiyaki at UDX, followed by shopping at Tora no Ana, Tachibana Shoten, and back to bed.

Sixth day: To Aomori!

Hitomi has a bunch of entries posted from Anime Expo 2008. (Also check out her pictures on Flickr.)

I've been going since 1996. It's never really been run well in the past 15+ years until this year.

Perhaps due to firing the old con chair, or better internal organization, or by using hired professionals and having professional theater people, every event I went to ran on time and had few if any glitches. Of the glitches, there was one I found: Not enough spotlight on Yohko Ishida. I felt more let down by Famima!! which was unable to supply enough onigiri and sandwiches after being thoroughly raided on Friday.

Though, unlike past years, I didn't try to go to many events, aside from concerts. Instead, I spent time at "Artist's Alley" helping with the sale of our doujinshi and T-shirts. Although sales were good, there wasn't a whole lot to sell actually and really what it was was a place to hang out. Hanging out is what all the other attendees are there to do. We know people from Sakura-con and some industry people. Hitomi also now knows some Momoi fans from online that we met up with.

I'm disappointed I didn't attend more events and do more things. There was an industry event that we went to instead of Cosplay (Masquerade) which turned out to be one of those events that sounds good in theory. We were invited to The Edison, an ultra-classy bar with potentially interesting industry people, though the experience was plauged by extra-loud music. The effort required to converse over all that music made it not worth it. Returning back to the hotel, Hitomi met up with some people from a Japanese publication covering Anime Expo and we had an interesting discussion on the state of fandom, in Japanese.

We all agreed that younger fans don't really care much about where anime comes from or the history or old shows or for that matter having to pay for shows. But some other interesting things: Fashion (cosplay) is an important focus of fans; Goth-Loli not Moe' style is popular; Japanese guests aren't that important to fans. With fans getting older, it's become sort of an all-ages, family sort of event. Unlike back in 1996 where I was a college kid and everybody else was too (or just about). 30-somethings are running a convention for teenagers, which might explain why this year was more organized than ever.

Last week was another visit to San Rafael. I went through San Francisco airport this time, hoping it'd be easier for Hitomi to make it into town by BART (transit), compared to Oakland. And this time I went with the car rental company Enterprise, though will not do that again, as I ended up with a car that was heavily scented to cover up cigarette smell. The masking scent made me drive with the windows down, despite the rain outside.

San Rafael stayed rainy the entire week. Either it was rainy or the roads were wet enough to keep me off of them. I had my bicycle set up and inside the hotel room the entire week and I was unable to use it.

In terms of development, I figured out a whole lot of stuff with Maven and Hibernate, so I was a happy developer. JBoss Cache, which we use with Hibernate, had some weird internal stuff which I attempted to rectify. I came up with a high-level change-tracking data structure. It took a few attempts to integrate it, though I did not commit it, since there are several test cases that come with JBoss Cache which intentionally fail, so it's difficult to determine if my changes have caused any regressions

People, on the whole, treated me fairly well. I'm sort of the "innovator" for the next project, and I hope to not get too carried away and get shut down.

Friday night, Hitomi came in fairly late. I walked around San Francisco waiting for her to arrive, scouting out various shops and restaurants in the vicinity. I was walking through a neighborhood reminiscent of Bell Town complete with the drunken mayhem and smokers chatting on sidewalks outside of bars. Hitomi eventually arrived after 10PM, and I was ready for bed.

Waking up hungry put aside plans for a bike ride through town, though it was the first nice day since I came. Hitomi and I headed to the North End district, where she last had coffee -- Italian style? -- in a bowl. Then, we headed off to the Cartoon Art Museum in the Financial district, where their current exhibit was basically a collection of international political cartoons illustrating (literally) the worldwide contempt for George Bush and his cronies. In the Golden Age section were original newspaper strips, often signed by the original artist and addressed to the owner of the strip, e.g. "To Joe Smith", along with some comic book pages and other memorabilia. Absent were Japanese comics, though there were a number of Asian-American artists. I'm surprised, though, in a town with Viz Media, probably the largest importer of manga, there would be none of it.

Hitomi and I were treated by Boon and his girlfriend for lunch at the dim-sum restaurant, Yank Sing, where the final bill for four was $120, where ordinarily such a meal would be $30. Obviously, it was a step up from the usual, but we didn't even order drinks. We discussed the possibility of moving to San Francisco, but I wouldn't move for the weather: I don't hate Seattle's weather, and I don't mind it usually.

We walked back to the hotel, stopping at the ferry terminal for omiyage, walking along the waterfront back to Fishermen's Wharf. I hadn't noticed the sea lions at Pier 39 before, perhaps because of the season, but there were hundreds of them socializing and bouncing on the floating docks. I hadn't seen so many since last summer in Oregon.

The evening we had plans to visit Hidehiro and his wife and baby in the South Bay. Hidehiro was a staff member at Sakura-con and had moved to the Bay Area to work as an intern at Viz Media, in their legal department. His daughter, about three, has been subjected to Japanese idol music, to encourage her to develop into an idol herself, and apparently knows the words to many such songs. We had dinner and rice, and oddly no rice, chatted (in Japanese) about this and that. Hidehiro's wife, not too much into anime herself, wasn't part of much of the discussion. She did mention how afraid people were of losing their children at day care to kidnappers and some other interesting stories about kids in the area.

It was an interesting thought, that Hitomi just picked up on, to have children just so you have an opportunity to relieve, vicariously and directly, things from your childhood, such as holidays, play time, and kids shows. Still, there are many things Hitomi still wants to do before children, and so the years continue to go by. (For example: Mr. Nomoto, who stayed a few years ago in our old house, is planning another kayaking trip on the West Coast, this time someplace in the Queen Charlotte Islands as a private tour we were invited to attend.)

Sunday we had a bagel breakfast, followed by lunch with a fellow who staffed some of the first anime conventions in the Bay Area, Kent. Hitomi and I met Kent at Anime Expo, who happened to be a long time fan of Momoi Halko, and attending the same concert with us. He happens to know many people the game industry, but somehow has found himself at a small company making $12 an hour, which in the Bay Area is effectively poverty wages. We talked for about three hours about game companies, anime conventions, fandom, etc. He really wants to go to Halko's 30th birthday event in Tokyo, but his evil boss won't give him the time off. Again, the thought occurred, why not quit and find a better job through any of his well-connected friends?

Before the flight back, we went to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. My favorite (and Hitomi's) exhibit was of this Icelandic artist, Olafur Eliasson, who builds interesting installations of glass, steel, mirrors, lights, water, and ice. The exhibition artifacts resembled a cross between carnival Funhouse ideas, Buckminster Fuller geometric design, and somewhat the installation style of Yayoi Kusama, though with a sterile, geometric aesthetic sensibility.

The flight back we took separate planes, finally getting home and to bed around 1AM.

I was initially going to write about Kailua Bay, and the wedding today, but it's been about four days since I heard from Hitomi I've gotten worried. I have tried to my concerns aside and enjoy my trip, but it's gotten increasingly stressful.

Thinking back to the trip she planned so far, Hitomi was on a direct flight to Copenhagen from Seattle, and from there to Germany and later by train to Kassel, Germany for Connichi 2007. There, she planned to join several people who came from Japan in support of the voice actress/singer Momoi Halko. She bought about 100 glow sticks, which she packed up in her luggage for the concert. I think she also brought her laptop, though I cannot recall.

With all the usual activities I get myself into, I neglected to ask, and she neglected to provide information on her flight, where she planned to stay. I assume of course, the internet is ubiquitous, and with its countless channels, we would manage to communicate these details during the weekend. She'd at least go through internet withdraw enough to stumble into an internet cafe and check her e-mail. And I'd like to hope she's having a good time and happened to tune out the rest of the world. That would be fine, except I suspect she forgot about me who's needlessly worrying.

So, I went out and started e-mailing people on the Momoi support team on Mixi in Japanese asking if she'd been around, and for that I installed Japanese IME. I should have installed it ages ago. Hopefully, they don't think my Japanese is too weird. It's been rough.

Update:

I got a call at around 4:30AM this morning from Hitomi over a crappy phone -- pay phone? Apparently, she was unable  to contact me with her phone or use the Internet. So, she's safe.

In other news, my sister (Alsia) called me this morning and was wondering where my father was. I had to explain I was in Hawaii and had no idea.

Originally, we did not plan to attend Anime Expo (AX). But when Hitomi heard at Sakura-con that her most favorite singer in the world (Momoi Halko) was attending AX, we asked James to book us a room in Long Beach. James helps out Sakura-con and is a long time friend. He also runs a booth at many anime conventions, and was coming down with his crew to man his store. James is also a big fan of Momoi Halko, since he even released a fully licensed DVD (subtitled) of a concert she did as "Under17". (In fact, I believe Hitomi got hooked on her music because James was playing her in his booth and Hitomi ended up liking it so much.)

The initial plan was to attend Momoi's events and hang out with James, and make an attempt to see whatever other events and guests might come. And later, we found out our friend (and Sakura-con regular guest) Mr. Nagahama was appearing as an industry guest. We hoped to meet him sometime during the weekend. Mr. Nagahama was coming again to AX to promote the English release of Mushishi. (As an industry guest, he would be more free to go as he pleased and talk to attendees without AX guest relation security getting involved. And being a "Guest of Honor" means less time as a guest to do whatever you want, such as visit friends or wander about.)

Thursday

Thursday night, I left Oakland and flew to Long Beach directly. Hitomi was flying in from Seattle at around the same time. We took a shuttle, which happened to be with other AX attendees from Victoria, Canada. The group was of people about 10-15 years younger. They had that excitement that reminded me of my earlier days attending AX.

We stayed aboard the Queen Mary, the floating hotel where James and his crew were. The old ship has much of the original interior intact on the inside, but the rooms had a bit of mess left by years of incremental remodeling and redecorating. The lighting seemed a little gloomy and the furnishings a bit cheap. Two round windows opened out to the dock, and we let in a bit of the sea air.

I put my bicycle together as Hitomi and James chatted. Perhaps I would ride this weekend?

I took a shower, after spending some time figuring out the plumbing situation: They kept the original four valves in the bathroom from the old cruise ship days, where cold+hot salt+fresh water was used for baths, depending on if at sea or port. Curious, I tried to use them. One actually did put water in the tub, but it was cold only. The actual water controls were on the shower nob, which for some reason took some time for me to find. As for the toilet, the valve used a push-and-hold type valve which seemed to be original or at least quite old. Did they fill the toilet with salt water? I did not sample it.

Friday

Friday was the opening of the convention and usually on the first day, we spend a good deal of time gathering information and access control tokens: badges, tickets, stamps, etc. There were about 5 major concerts scheduled for some famous bands, as well as the usual programming and animation company guests from Japan and the U.S. Hitomi and I waited in line for about an hour to pick up about $200 in concert tickets. (They could not mail them?) James was kind to provide us with extra exhibitor's hall badges, otherwise we would have had to wait another 2-3 hours that morning to pick up our badges. (Supposedly, there was some delay in mailing the badges out ahead of time, caused by their printer, etc.)

We got hungry after all that running around. Unfortunately, none of the local food areas outside the convention center had prepared for the onslaught of 30,000 hungry fans. Hitomi and I waited in line (in the sun) about 20-25 minutes to order, and then, after discovering it would be probably 30 minutes more to get our order prepared, we decided to go to another place which seemed not to have quite the queue. Which place? Most everywhere else was hammered, one place was closed because they ran out of food. And in addition to feeding ourselves, we had agreed to feed James and his crew, which made food selection difficult, and getting our order slow, obviously.

After getting our order in, I was hot and tired. The heat was annoying me, being hungry I felt bad. And Hitomi's "managing" was annoying me. I went to get some water, the most convenient was water I got from the bathroom tap. Hitomi does not like "bathroom water", and Hitomi complained. Frustrated, I then tossed the water outside, which splashed near some stranger's legs who was coming in. Of course, I didn't realize I splashed him, and he came in and got mad, since I should have apologized. After being threated by some random thug, who explained if it were a month ago he "would have kicked [your] ass", and then waiting a long time for our food, we finally got to leave. Our chicken sandwich turned out to be seriously dry and overcooked, and our toasted bread was charred black.

The main event Friday was the S.K.I.N. concert. We were in a bit of a time crunch to get in, luckily they started about three hours late. Hitomi and I had, again, bought premium tickets. There was a line to get in, and the security staff after checking our bags and patting us down, tore my ticket, but not Hitomi's. For premium tickets, we were supposed to actually be a different line. Hitomi was told to go to this line. Since they weren't supposed to tear my premium ticket there, I was escorted over to the other side of the arena, and had to get an arm band. The purpose of the armband was I supposed to indicate I could sit in the premium seating area, though all tickets had seating assigned anyway.

I was ready to go in, but Hitomi trapped in line wanted her Nintendo DS. She asked me, via her cell phone, to walk over to her to hand her DS to her in line, but at that point I was told (repeatedly) I couldn't leave the building. They said they would kick me out and not let me back in if I did leave. (Lousy treatment for customers paying $40 for a ticket.) Hitomi was furious at me, she was stuck in the sun without a book or something to do. I tried to call her via my cell phone, but she didn't pick up. Did she leave and not come in? I waited inside for about an hour and then took my seat.

Despite the long wait and suffering in the sun, it was, incredibly, worth the wait: S.K.I.N. is a "supergroup" of very famous (and top talent) Japanese rock musicians from other famous bands. Though during the hour they played only four (long) songs, it was an impressive performance. At the end they surprised the audience by smashing their guitars and drum set. This was the first rock concert in which I've seen so much stage destruction, and though it seems sort of cliche of bands to smash instruments as some sort of mock sacrifice, somehow I felt I got my money's worth. I suppose they went all out since it was their world debut performance. Maybe it's analogous to smashing a wine bottle on the bow before the maiden voyage of a ship?

Dinner was Denny's. We went to Walmart for snacks and James bought booth supplies. Walmart is a miserable place, especially in the ghetto at the end of the month. We spent 25 minutes in line with our handful of items.

Saturday

I resolved to go on a bicycle ride in the morning. Maybe karma would send me a truck or bus to run me over, and put me out of my misery?

It was my first time bicycling along ocean. The first 6 miles was fairly pleasant, from the Queen Mary, along the shore to Long Beach beach, which helpfully had a bicycle path through the sand. The wind and light fog kept me cool. From the beach, I entered a bicycle trail inland along the San Gabriel "River". Rather than a river of water, it was a concrete culvert; mainly a river of concrete. To either side was heavy industry (oil refining?) and later trailers and mobile homes, nicer homes with flower vines climbing over their backyard fence. Eventually the landscape transitioned into light industry and car lots. Highways and freeways crossed above. There was virtually nobody 10 miles inland on this trail. It got hot.

An onshore wind pushed me upstream, and I rode in around 20 mph. As I road inland, the wind died down a bit. Returning was difficult; I averaged around 16-18. Total, I managed about 40 miles in about 2:30. I took a shower back at the hotel, met Hitomi for a pleasant early lunch at Gameworks.

Before pocketing my receipt for lunch, I noticed on the bill the following text: "Table ID: Nice Couple" Usually, they identify tables by number, but it our case the distinguishing characteristic was we were the Nice couple. I suppose we are agreeable, but I wouldn't say we were quite as nice to each other. Hitomi takes after her mom and sister in many ways and can be not so nice to me.

Following lunch, we attended a concert of voice actress from the show The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. This included Japanese voice actresses, who performed acting on stage, and several songs from individual cast members. There was also the American voice cast. There were issues with the translator, who was not a professional translator, and was MC'ing on the side. Because of her preoccupation with her own lines, often dialog wasn't translated, frustrating the audience and both Japanese and American guests. But the biggest problem were the audio synchronization issues. I'm guessing the monitor speakers did not work and the singers could not hear themselves.

The event of the night was "Anime Expo Idol", which was to be followed by a mini-concert by Momoi Halko. AX Idol is pretty interesting, as contestants either sing or voice act (VA) on stage. Judging was done by a voice acting studio (Bang-Zoom) and Momoi (both a VA and singer) was invited as well.

Momoi's concert had some of the same issues. She was off about 1/8 of a beat to the music, perhaps because she heard it when it bounced back from one end of the arena to her ears. On stage, what was odd too was how she jumped onto the tables and stage equipment: I found out later that she did this because she was angry that they were planning on cutting her concert because of scheduling issues.

The concert itself was completely unannounced, and was intended as a surprise. And this is probably why they thought they could cut it without complaint. But, still word leaked out, and I and her fans obviously knew of the mini-concert. Or, perhaps they carry glow sticks at all times? Well, many more fans would have come to AX Idol, or at least waited until the end, had they known she was to perform. There was just a skeleton of an audience left after people thought the event was over.

Sunday

Following the poor treatment of Momoi, at her panel in the morning, she explained she would have to cancel her remaining appearances to concentrate on her concert. (And later on her blog she would slam AX.) I've actually never seen a guest get so upset at a panel before, and especially never heard of a guest complaining publicly. Anime Expo, though, is notorious of being disorganized. Hitomi thinks they never said anything bad to her, but I do think they were thoughtless in their planning and preparation.

There at least was band happy that day. AX invited Oreskaband, which is a Ska band made up of (recently graduated) high school girls, who have played ending theme music for famous anime shows as well as commercials for Pocky in Japan. Their choice of instrumentation is fun, incorporating trumpets, trombones, and sax, mixed in with electric guitar and pop drum beats. Personally, I liked the brass section more than the vocals, which seemed a bit weak against all that enormous sound. The audience sure got into it, and I was hoping Momoi's concert might find the same level of response tomorrow. As a bit of a bonus, the girls tried to teach the audience Kansai (Osaka-area) Japanese dialect. I reminds me of the time I was heading off to Okinawa, and some Osaka girls I met on the ferry had fun teaching me their lingo.

Finally, I met up with Hitomi at Mr. Nagahama's Mushishi screening. It was the English dubbed version, which actually was surprisingly good. Hitomi went to sleep about 10 minutes into the episode in progress.

There was a short Q and A session. Unfortunately, the translator was really just some Japanese person who claimed to know English, so pretty much all the questions weren't translated correctly. And the answers weren't really complete. It's not to say I could do better, but Hitomi could have. But despite that, it was good cheer all around, as Mr. Nagahama, plus Funimation and the lead English voice actor, Travis W. got plenty of praise. One interesting thing was how the audience actually grew over time. Often, the audience shrinks towards the end...

Following the panel, Mr. Nagahama stuck entertaining a few dozen fans, who wanted pictures or an autograph. Hitomi and I sat down and waited patiently: We wanted to see if he was free in the evening. Following the panel, we brought him down to James' booth. Mr. Nagahama had a few purchases he wanted to make, and wanted directions to the local Wal-mart. And later, he wanted to see the new Fantastic 4 movie. He had dinner plans with Funimation later that evening, and he said he might call.

The main event for Cos-Play is the Masquerade. The format is basically 50, short 3-minute skits or "walk-ons", in which the former typically have pretty muddled stories, and usually just has enough time to somehow explain how 4 or 5 different anime shows' characters end up meeting in one place. And if you know the shows represented, and can follow the performance, it can be quite entertaining. AX -- being the biggest convention in the U.S. -- at least has a fair number of performances that are well-rehearsed, and if not I could at least enjoy seeing the costumes, in which most everyone puts a significant effort into making. Sometimes an elaborate costume can take half a year or more.

Due to the panel, I showed up late. I got a seat somewhat up the second balcony on the side. The two MCs kept the audience in check during the usual technical glitches and delays. I waited for Hitomi to call; she was with James and his crew. There was a half-time show, which was performed by a mixed martial-arts studio, though in costume and faced off ninjas against pirates. The two shows represented were Naruto and One Piece. I got a call: We'd be going to a movie at 11PM.

The Fantastic 4 was playing across the street. I was tired, and so at the theater, I actually bought a Coke. I ordered a small. Instead, I got a large: I then asked for a refund, but was told she couldn't, only a manager could, etc. So I asked for a small popcorn to compensate, and they had no bags. This was sort of the way service was for me in Long Beach: I always got served the wrong thing, and nobody was patient enough to set it right. Mr. Nagahama managed to get his order right.

Despite paying for a 32-ounce drink I would never finish, the movie was entertaining enough to let me forget about it. Yes, the techno-babble was just babble, the acting so-so, but at least the Silver Surfer was cool and so were the fights. Jessica Alba is cute without the glam make-up. And unlike James and Rik, I actually liked seeing her in a kimono. Kimonos are awesome.

Mr. Nagahama enjoyed himself. Rik and him talked about how this-and-that differed from the comic and animation adaptations. I had domain knowledge, myself. We took a 30 minute walk to the Hilton, and said our farewells. He gave everyone a hug and warm goodbye. Like many Japanese, he wouldn't stop waving goodbye while we still were in out of sight range.

It was a long walk back, and I went to sleep around 2 or 3.

Monday

Most convention-goers come for the weekend; Monday was slow.

Momoi had her concert and I got to stand and jump around for about an hour. Predictably, most of the audience didn't study the call guide, but with a little help from her loyal contingent in the front row, we a few rows back followed along pretty well. Caught up in all the audience orchestration, as it were, and trying not to elbow either Hitomi or James, I paradoxically missed out on Momoi's performance a bit more than if I was simply still. Too bad there wasn't a dress rehearsal, and so the next time, I could confidently jump and "fuu-fuu" ("hey-hey" in Japanese) the right patterns, and wouldn't have to take my eyes off her.

The funny thing about the event was how tired everyone said they got. The Japanese otaku are, on average, in better shape than us Americans, perhaps thanks to all the walking they must do to get around Akihabara. Personally, I didn't have any trouble with keeping my arms up high, thanks to my kayaking, though my knees were not liking landing on concrete on hard sandals. I should have taken tennis shoes or something.

The day was short. But before leaving AX, Hitomi and I took one more look around the dealer's room. In addition to the usual official anime/manga goods, there were actually quite a few pop artists, i.e. those who sell pop/anime-style goods, like t-shirts, prints, accessories, dolls, etc. In addition to a pop-art print, we picked up a few Nintendo and video-game themed things, and I got a CD from our friends at JapanFiles, who brought us one of our musical guests at Sakura-con. Hitomi promised to work on their parent company's (YesJapan's) textbook, basically their Japanese language books, which use pretty boring stock clip-art, and could use some sprucing up. The Japanese have Moe-tan to teach them English, why can't Japanese language textbooks have cute characters for English speakers?

After 3PM, the dealer's room closed, and while James and his crew packed up, we got some chairs out. We met up with some Sakura-con staff members, those in the relations or publicity departments who come to large conventions like AX for promoting Sakura-con. (I can't say it's entirely effective, but staff like the chance to travel for free.) In the past few years, Hitomi and I have been holding more house parties and inviting relations staff to come over for food and conversation. Though Hitomi suggests that we are "useless" compared to those staff who are more capable of Japanese-English translation. So why bother with a party if they should get rid of us anyway? Regardless of our own reputed utility, it's at least nice to be able to talk about our hobbies to other like-minded people. And it at least makes sense to use the capacity of our big house at least once in a while.

We said farewell to everyone at 4PM.

Goodbye to Long Beach. Goodbye to AX.