A Morning Musume。’14 Hawaii 2014 Report

Part 4: Day 2: The Part You Probably Want.

Day -1 ended with us happy. Day 0 happened to expected results. We as a group gathered to work on our plans, and wondered if our choice of meeting might be a good place, but we were just throwing our chances into a slot machine. Day 1 was not a day for us, we weren’t FC members, we weren’t on the tour and Day 1 is certainly the day for FC members. If you followed reports from fans in the tour Day 1 is often indoors, or in private areas, and have them doing all the wonderful fan close things. It’s a wonderful time for fans and Momusu to interact close and friendly. Also because it has them working all day to do things with the fans the girls often do not get time to go shopping or anything, meaning chance happenings or anything are not possible. It’s both an understanding that we shouldn’t do anything and a logical thought that trying to find anyone is foolish in the first place.

Day 2 is almost like a different story. In the olden days if you wanted to see the fans, feel the aura of the fans, they would open a mini-store during Hawaii tours, where fans would line up to buy all the goods they could handle, and where on the last day (usually day 2), we could also get in to try to buy things which were not reserved to the FC participants. Currently that no longer exists, and so seeing fans in motion is fairly limited.

We’re going to fast forward here, because I’m just about as impatient as you to getting to the good part. So basically the big thing in Day 2 is the live performance. At least for someone on the outside the live performance is about as close as you can get to knowing exactly what’s going on. For several tours now, the company has used a certain reserve-able outdoor but enclosed property on a college campus as their location of choice.

While it still is a private event, there is certainly an area of influence it extends to beyond the private zone. Over the years I’ve found the event, and slowly learned about how it works and what happens. And there I found a way I could help, even a little. The Hawaii tour uses a very small part of company staff, using JAL staff, private security, and even employing the college campus staff for the area. Unfortunately the college campus staff, and private security often do not come with any knowledge of Japanese. This means while tour staff is busy controlling bus outtake into the live, the handing out of the merchandise the fans have purchased, and guiding them to their seats, they do not have the manpower to help regulate the bathroom facilities.

At my first adventure to seeing this set up I had seen very long lines in certain bathroom areas based purely on the lack of open area. Over the years I’ve talked with the custodian staff (who is often different per event) and learned they just open the bathrooms, and have no responsibility to guide people to them. The long lines and disorganization often led to time consumed waiting to the restroom, eventually I began volunteering whenever I showed up to help regulate the bathrooms. At first the staff had no idea who I was, but over the tours they’ve gotten use to me being around, and thank me for the assistance.

Now I make signs to help guide them to the restrooms, and during the initial charge I stand as a guide to the restrooms, pointing them to the freer bathroom area of the two in order to keep the lines going smoothly. It’s gotten to the point that I’ve even made a friend of sorts who’s in the FC, though because of the time constraints we hardly get to talk much. Some people remember at least the presence of someone showing them where the bathroom is and asked me if I’m there all the time. I could say little back in the small time passing each other, but I showed my support for the group and made sure to proclaim, “Sayu Saikou” to the best I could between pointing them to the bathroom and asking them to enjoy the show. It’s a great thing I feel I can do to contribute to their time here in Hawaii. Granted it has the added benefit over the years of them allowing me to hang around closer than one would normally be able to, but at the same time task myself with attempting to keep unwanted people from getting too close to the performance as well. I feel a little hypocritical sometimes when I have to walk up to someone and say, “This is a private performance, please refrain from hanging around,” but at the same time I’ve seen people trying to take pictures and record things, both very unwanted by the staff, and turning them away feels like I’m helping.

This tour things this time were a little more frantic. After waiting for the tour buses, we noticed that the bathrooms weren’t opened. We met with the campus staff and learned there was a communication malfunction and we began to worry. The campus staff understood things weren’t the way they were supposed to be, and for the security, while they learned we were volunteers, they had no idea how many people would need the restroom area. Eventually the doors were open and we began to direct people to the bathrooms. The closest call I’ve ever seen for the fans, but one luckily avoided.

Over the times, the staff has gotten more into communicating with us too, the first time they just wanted to make sure we wouldn’t try to go in, which we acknowledged and respected. A couple times later they asked us if we were fans and how we knew it was going to happen. This time, I believe it was the first time a member of the staff shook our hands to thank us. Honestly I’m not sure if they were JAL or UF staff, but they acknowledged we were volunteers and thanked us. We’ve gotten thanks before for helping, but it felt like a big step to be acknowledged in such a way. And our reward was for what felt like the first time we were able to watch (from a good distance away from the actual event) part of the performance. We still had to ask other people to leave, we still had to avoid being anywhere near camera line, and if anyone came out we had to point out the bathrooms, but we were okay.

At the same time these things are unstable. I’ve made it sound like it’s always been slow progress, but it hasn’t always been so. There were times we helped and they still asked us to leave. Times when the custodians felt that the Japanese staff were being less than grateful for our assistance. Times when security has said we were okay, only to later have to shoo us away. And times when we did what we did and still had to just listen to the concert outside of the “private event” visible range. We were lucky this time, and who knows, next time I may ask if I can help, even put up signs only to be kicked out immediately after, it is an uncertainty we can never account for.

The show itself is a give or take when it comes to being there. From the outside, the music and the singing is very clear. But because of the way the sound system works, hearing the talks is fairly limited. We sit at an angle almost perpendicular to the stage so seeing them is give or take. But during this time we enjoyed a great show as we could. It’s wonderful getting to hear group songs like Password is 0, One Two Three, and Egao no Kimi wa Taiyou sa in person. And hearing classics like Mikan and Love & Peace remind me that in our own little way we’re living life as best we can. During the live, Fukuchan blew me away with how much she’s grown over the years with her solo singing. And Sayu as always impresses me with her style despite her weaker overall singing power. And it is fun doing hand motions for things like Pepper Keibu and Shanimuni while we stay out of camera and audience view. Of all the things the weirdest thing to see was Riho doing Kaitenzushi, her dance looked like a woman running in place in a circular pattern, and them spinning around. I couldn’t help but laugh at seeing her act so sporadic.

There’s always some fun in seeing the fan interactions, especially since they don’t often include those in the DVDs anymore. The fact that PureMoni seems to be an ongoing theme during the tour made their fan interactions really fun to see, one fan in particular was masterful at doing furi to get the girls to guess songs. We’re far enough away we can’t see much well, but we do get to have fun on the side.

I’m sure there’s people who comment that I’m taking advantage of the situation and interrupting an event. In some ways it may be so, but it is a problem regardless of me being there. There is always an open area, people are always drawn in by the music. I try making the effort to keep the area safe from people trying to record or take pictures, doing my part to be helpful in my amount of disturbance. We could argue about if what I did was bad or not, but I can’t do much other than tell you what you’ve read. I’ve volunteered, done what they’ve said, and I feel I’ve earned what I got. If you’ve been to a concert in Japan you know you can enjoy the sound check outside the venue while waiting to buy goods even if you aren’t going to go in, this feels similar in a way.