Forum - View topicNEWS: Short Video of Halko Momoi's Hawaii Performance Posted
|
Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
PantsGoblin
 SubscriberEncyclopedia Editor  Posts: 2969 Location: L.A. |
|
|||||
|
I just got back from Hawaii going Halko's concert. "Legendary" is an understatement as to describing what happened last weekend.
Just as a note, I've been told I'm not allowed to talk about certain events that happened during this trip with Momoi, partially for my own safety. If it was up to me I'd be talking about them in a heartbeat, but I have little say in this. And for everybody who wasn't there, here is some text from some of the handouts to the audience made by fans: http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture297.jpg From the "Call Book" in the middle:
- Written by Kent & Ochawan From the pamplet on the right:
Sorry, I'm not sure who this is written by or who drew the picture  (I will try to find out)
From the flier on the left:
Art and text by coverman She was also pointed out in an article in the "Honolulu Advertiser" (Hawaii's largest daily newspaper) as being convention center's most noticeable performer on Saturday. And she was. Momoi practically stole the show at this festival. Last edited by PantsGoblin on Fri Mar 21, 2008 6:04 am; edited 2 times in total |
||||||
|
||||||
|
PantsGoblin
Subscriber Encyclopedia Editor Posts: 2969 Location: L.A. |
|
|||||
|
Now on to the actual trip:
I actually decided on going at the last minute. Literally the night before. I'm not sure how I did it still lol. But it was the best decision I've ever made in my life. I've been to Honolulu before a few years ago, so lot of the scenery was familiar to me. http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture172.jpg I didn't have much choice on such short notice so I ended up staying in a hostel. Priz (Kent) was also staying in the same place. I met up with fellow Momoists Priz, catsspat, tenton, and Paranda (Mandi was off meeting up with another one of her friends from online) in their hotel (cause my place was crap lol) http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture177.jpg We hung out and watched the Halko's AX DVD (which I've already seen numerous times). We also talked about a bunch of things. It's really cool to talk to people you know online but have never met in person... It's kind of weird feeling though. At some point in the conversation (it may have been another day but it was in the hotel) I brought up how I met Ryoko Shintani in Japan once. Catsspat (who listens to a lot of seiyuu radio shows) actually told me she talked about me on her radio show. I didn't know this... I still want to meet her some day again. It's really nice to know this though. We also opened up a bunch of glow sticks because we didn't want all the wrappers littered around the convention hall after the concert (there was something like 600 in we had in that room alone iirc)... Well, were planning on going to an Italian restaurant for dinner. We rented a car. Uh, not all of us, uh, quite fit in the car so it was quite a sight. It was a clown car I guess. I'm not doing it again. To top it off we also got lost and somehow ended up at an elementary school. We finally found our way though. I wasn't expecting the place to be so expensive but it was good. I got calamari marinara... The next day... the Japanese tour group wasn't set to arrive until 3:00pm or something (iirc), so I spent most of the day walking around with Priz, catsspat and tenton (Paranda was off with Mandi somewhere). Oh ya, none of us 4 were part of the official tour (I may have been if I didn't decide to go at the last minute), so we didn't get to go on the scheduled tour, and two dinners. I still had a heck of a time though. Anyway, we went to the International marketplace. http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture190.jpg Priz (who has been a fan of Momoi for 9 years, longer than most Japanese fans, and is quite possibly her first American fan) was planning on getting a T-shirt for Momoi there. He didn't get it quite yet. There was also quite a few other cool shops there. We also walked down to the convention center to get a look at it and walked back. We went back up to the hotel and watched some stuff and waited for the tour group to arrive. Also Hawaii's really beautiful. You see those pictures of the water that's so blue. It really is that blue. http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture196.jpg The tour group arrived and we met up with Paranda and Mandi too. http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture199.jpg The guy in the blue shirt is coverman (one of her Japanese fans, who also posts on the international Momoi boards in English). He's a very dedicated person, probably one of the most dedicated fans I've ever seen. If it wasn't for him we may have not even known about this event. He was the one who made a lot of fliers and did a lot of the artwork. He puts so much work into anything Momoi related so I just wanted to thank him here. I think from the start her fans are what drew me to Momoi herself, so I have an attachment to this group even though I've never met any of them. It was so cool to see all of them. There was the planned dinner party with Momoi planned. Me and a few other guys just went over to the International marketplace for some food while the others enjoyed the party. Paranda talks about the party if you're interested. http://paranda.net/ Later that night after the party, we met up with all the Japanese fans in their rooms. http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture203.jpg We practiced some of Halko's songs from her call book. Apparently, they said we were going to perform the song "Party" on stage with Momoi on Sunday (wasn't quite sure it was going to happen). So we did that one over and over. After that we went into another room with like 15 people and we all put specially designed stickers (with Halko's name etc.) on thousands of glow sticks to get ready for the concert. A lot of the stickers were kind of hard to peel of so it was a bit tedious but I really wanted to help because of my lack of doing so at AX. We had a few drinks (well, I just had a Pepsi since I don't really drink that often) and it was all cool. The next day was the day of the first concert so we were all pumped. I had breakfast downstairs at the hotel with Priz, catsspat, tenton, and coverman. http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture205.jpg There was a big aquarium which was cool. We all got in the car and headed to the convention center about an hour or two before the concert was scheduled. http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture205.jpg I watched a few of the other performers. Particularly, I was pretty impressed by the first set of performers (Suga-ren). The other Japanese fans arrived and we were given a special room to get ready in. Then it was time for the concert. We passed out call books, pamphlets, and glow sticks to all of the audience. Here is the concert if you want to see it: http://youtube.com/watch?v=97l8PbRL-EQ http://youtube.com/watch?v=5n7H7s8szOM http://youtube.com/watch?v=pgQFzOhrE7c http://youtube.com/watch?v=Let_DTz5V0w' It went really well. I think a lot of the staff wasn't expecting it, they were pretty impressed. I had some of the staff from the Honolulu festival coming up and asking me questions too. A lot of them didn't know all of the stuff we handed out and did was all fan-made and done out of dedication to Halko. I was really happy it went so well. There was also an autograph session. http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture233.jpg And I got a picture with Halko. http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture239.jpg It was like a dream. The shirt was also signed by her. She even read out what it said on the shirt. I've never heard her say "mugi mugi" right in front of me but it was so cute I like died from cuteness. Oh ya, the character is Komugi from Nurse Witch Komugi her most well-known (and her personal favorite) character she voices. http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture241.jpg There was a lot of cameras on her to set up by fans... http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture248.jpg Somebody got this signed by her. catsspat told me what it said but I forgot .
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture251.jpg Someone also got Tokunaga signed by her. It's the huge cat-like doll Anise (Halko's character) rides from Tales of the Abyss. Last edited by PantsGoblin on Fri Mar 21, 2008 6:08 am; edited 1 time in total |
||||||
|
||||||
|
PantsGoblin
Subscriber Encyclopedia Editor Posts: 2969 Location: L.A. |
|
|||||
|
For lunch, we ate at a burger joint. Some of the Japanese guys showed us some little figures they made modeled after Halko. They were really cute. I didn't get any pictures of them but I think Mandi did. Later that day we also went to Toys n' Joys with a bunch of the Japanese guys.
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture258.jpg Personally, I'm against anything to do with bootlegs and do not support any store that carries them, so I didn't buy anything from them. Paranda bought a shit load of stuff though... Don't think I've seen anybody buy that much anime stuff since the last time I was in Akihabara (in which I have spent over $1000 on that stuff)... I did buy some stuff from some other store that didn't carry any bootlegs though. Mandi's friend was showing us around most of this place so I thank her for that (she lives in Hawaii). Also all of the Japanese guys were taking pictures of random street signs. http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture258.jpg I suppose I did that kind of stuff in Japan though too... We found a playground... And of course what better thing to do at a playground than to pose like Halko on the front of her "Yume no Baton" CD. http://shop.mu-mo.net/avx/sv/item2?jsiteid=mumo&seq_exhibit_id=6121&photo_no=1 http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture264.jpg See the similarity? A bunch of us did it but I wasn't one. I also noticed a placed called "Tamura's" which happened to be a bar and thought of "Yukari Tamura"... The Japanese guys caught on and started calling it "Yukarin's bar"... Also the cab driver sung all of "New York New York" on the way back to the hotel after Paranda mentioned he was from New York. He also took a wrong turn which made it take longer because he said he apparently wasn't used to driving down around Waikiki. I assume he just wanted more money though. The Japanese guys wanted to eat at "Anna Miller's" for dinner. So we took another cab there (ya, btw, there was like 4-5 cabs each time going back and forth, we told the drivers where to take the Japanese guys and then us English speakers went in the last cab). The cab driver was moderately normal this time. http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture268.jpg Got to "Anna Miller's". Surprisingly it didn't take as long as I thought it would to get 17 of us seated. http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture273.jpg Had a good time at dinner and got to know Paranda, Mandi, and Mandi's friend (sorry I don't know her name). After dinner we took some photos. http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture277.jpg http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture278.jpg http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture280.jpg This was also the guy doing the "Kawaii Jenny" crossplay at the dinner Paranda talked about. http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture281.jpg I wasn't expecting him to grab me so I couldn't stop laughing... Later next day... We got to the convention center. Coverman gave us some of the Fliers he designed, that happened to also be huge stickers, to put on ourselves. http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture284.jpg Then we all went outside to wait for Momoi to arrive in her limo... http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture285.jpg I got some video of this but since my camera doesn't have a speaker there's no sound... I should have gotten a speaker before this. It's still a nice video though. http://youtube.com/watch?v=ry5Vf7_0s_Q Also, it's kind of hard to see but her mug has Majokko Tsukune-chan, either that or a character designed by Hiroaki Magari (who is one of Halko's favorite artists). I didn't get a good look at it so I couldn't tell for sure who it was. Now, I didn't get much pictures inside the convention this time unfortunately. The concert went very well though: http://youtube.com/watch?v=lsrrIVS0dSk Then something amazing happened. Halko invited us to perform on stage. It was truly magical. Probably the best part of the trip. Not to mention one of the best parts of my life (not exaggerating). http://youtube.com/watch?v=YQSrfKiBDuY I was so happy... I actually did cry a bit during "Yume no Baton". Just in all my years of being a fan of hers I never imagined being able to perform live on stage with her with all of her Japanese fans and American fans. But enough of the mushy stuff. It was totally awesome also. Even some of the kids from the audience came up on stage. There are also some pictures from various sites: http://www.americanwota.com/2008/03/halko-at-the-honolulu-festival/ http://jpop4u.wordpress.com/2008/03/16/halko-momoi-performance-in-honolulu/ After that godly event, there was another autograph session also so I got a CD signed by Halko. Then Priz got an interview with Momoi in her limo. Mandi and catsspat were also invited because they could translate. Me, Paranda, and Tenton were left out god dammit... Momoi was the last performance of the day so the parade started soon after. http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture288.jpg It also started raining and there was a rainbow after. http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture289.jpg More of the parade also and some floats. http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture290.jpg http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/PantsgoblinX/Picture291.jpg The fan club had dinner later that night with Momoi (I'm not sure what happened there but I think Paranda will report on it. Me, Priz, catsspat, and Tenton had to go somewhere else though so we had ramen. And even though I usually ate faster then them, I figured out I apparently eat ramen the slowest... The fan club returned from dinner and we all said goodbye to Momoi. She shook my hand and MY GOD, holy shit those were the softest hands I've ever felt. I don't know how to explain them. We sung "Yume no Baton" and waved glow sticks as she walked back to her hotel... Mandi & Paranda also gave us all presents. Pink M&Ms with the words "Momo-i" and "Moe is rock" written on them. I had to leave early the next day, so I had to say goodbye to all my friends that night. I'm never going to forget the memories I made here. One of the best times in my life... I want to meet them again sometime, it will be awesome... Until then... |
||||||
|
||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group