Hello! Project 2011 WINTER Concert

Today I went to my first H!P related concert - the Hello! Project 2011 Winter ~Kangei Shinsen Matsuri~.  Wow, what an experience!  I am still trying to get over it!  I've watched many concert videos so I pretty much knew what I should expect - but it is quite different if you are actually there!  It was just surreal from many points.  First of all, to see my beloved idols with my very own eyes (almost made me cry!).  Second of all, the fan experience, being surrounded by other wotas that brought so much energy to the place.

The venue was the Aurora Hall of Chukyo University Center for Culture & Arts in Nagoya.  I was a bit worried about it but getting there was totally easy.  There was even an underground tunnel from the subway station to the building!  I arrived about 2 hours before the show because I was a bit worried and still had to get my actual ticked from the ticket counter somewhere.  There were maybe about 50 people around when I arrived and there was no lineup to the concert goods outside counter.  I wanted to buy the Berryz T-shirt set but they didn't have XL anymore (oh Japanese clothing sizes!).  So I ended up buying 2 glow sticks (red in colour).  I also asked them about the ticket and the lady explained that there will be a ticket booth set up inside the building near the entrance but I am a bit early!

So, off I went to find food (I didn't eat dinner so I was quite hungry).  Got some nice buns from a bakery place inside the subway station and ate them outside of the concert hall.  After about 30mins, the previous concert finished and people started to come out of the building.  It got a little bit busy.  I noticed that people were buying concert tickets from a little both in the hallway so I went there and asked if this is where you pick up the tickets - it was!  So I had to show some ID and was handed my ticket - floor 1, row 30, seat 47.

Around 5:15pm, people started to form a small line outside to the entrance doors. So I stood in there since I didn't have anything else to do - I was maybe 20th in the line!  The doors opened at around 5:30pm.  First they asked for the ticket then another person asked if I have a camera to which I said I don't so I was given some pamphlets and off I went inside.   Inside was a much larger concert goods setup with about 6 or so stations.  There was also a large table with DVDs/CDs for sale.  I went in to find my seat.  I was seated in the 2nd last row on the side by one of the alleyways.  Which was a conveniently placed seat since I only had one neighbour but it was a bit far from the stage.  There weren't many people sitting down and the place was nowhere near busy so I went to the lobby, looked at the goods for sale and bought some ;P.

I bought a concert bag - gotta have a bag to carry all the other stuff, right? :P

And I bought the Momusu T-shirt set which lucky did have an XL size!  The picture cards are awesome!!!

 Back design:

And I bought the poster - which is both huge and quite thick paper (almost like photo paper).  Now I need to figure out how to put that up on the wall without damaging it - any ideas?  Very pretty though!

So here are the things I brought back in the bag: the poster, the t-shirt set, glow sticks (one shown) and the advertising pamphlets:

So then I sat down and waited about 45minutes for the concert to start - most people arrived maybe 15 minutes before the concert.  So next time, I have to come later :P.  However, sitting down waiting gave me an opportunity to watch the wotas prepare for the concert:  taking off clothes, putting on special coloured t-shirt (I guess from another concert - the ones from this were only black), prepping the glow sticks, making a hat out of the micro fiber towel, things like that.  Quite interesting!

A few minutes before the start of the actual concert, Kikkawa Yuu appeared on stage and sang Sayonara Namida.  I know of her (starting from the 8th gen auditions) but I was really not very interested in her (a bit difficult to follow the Eggs) but her performance blew me away!  Seriously, her voice in the performance reminded me of Ayumi Hamasaki - it was not "good", it was "excellent"!  I really don't want to compare her to Manoeri (Mano is cute and all and I like her but...) but wow!  I am now really looking forward to her first single!

Then the concert started with all the girls appearing on stage.  I won't talk about the setlist (A2) in detail since first of all, I don't remember and second, the setlists are available online.  Basically, after the opening song (3,2,1, breakin' out!) that everybody performed, each group performed their upcoming singles.  I liked C-ute's upcoming "kiss me aishiteru" quite a lot - the outfits.. oh my!  The new Berryz song was quite interesting.  Morning Musume's performance of "onna to otoko no lullaby game" was quite something (5nin but still...)  Aichan did a few awesome dramatic pauses (i.e., music pauses...  wait... wait... aichan starts again).

After the regular songs, the shuffle group songs started (I went to the shuffle concert A2 setlist).  They were quite interesting.  A bit sad in the groups that were missing the Momusu members that just graduated.  I was very surprised about the performance of the tiny Miyamoto Karin in Shin Mini Moni - not only was her dance awesome, her singing was great (probably the first time I heard her sing).  I really liked the High-King performance.  

At one of the MC sessions, Sayu was talking about the 8th anniversary of the 6th gen and from time to time the camera would go on Reina when Sayu was talking and sometimes Reina looked so funny - like expressionless - that everybody laughed and Reina kept looking back at the screen complaining that they are filming her while Sayu is talking.  When the 9th gen members were introduced, sadly, the 3 new ones could not make it so only Mizuki did her intro.  The other 3 were introduced by the MCs through info screens.  Cool thing is that the new nicknames of the new members were given out.  

After the Shuffle groups were some performances of Mano, Smileage, and then an awesome medley-like performance of C-ute, Berryz, Mano, Smileage, and finally Morning Musume (basically, the group growing in size with every switch in song).  Finally, the Eggs joined and everybody performed the last few songs including "how do you like Japan" - which made me want to yell out "I do I do".  And then it was over... idols departed as suddenly as they appeared... yet they still remain in my mind.

A little bit about the wota experience.  The "always hard working" Japanese male goes through a lot of stress in his life.  I think that concerts just like this are one way to unwind/relax/let it go.  Kinda on par with the business drinking sessions, game centers, or karaoke.  That might be why some wotas are seen to basically go crazy during a concert - in a healthy way!  It was quite interesting to see the people wave their light sticks (I also tried but I found it a bit difficult to do it in unison with the crowd!), do dance movements, jump in the air, yell out, etc.  The wota experience definitely positively impacted my first concert experience in Japan!  I will definitely be back!  

みなさんどうもありがとうございました。がんばってください！