Hello!
So since my last post a lot has happened
About a week ago my host mother took me to register my address at city hall and get registered in the national health plan, and then to get my 印鑑 ("stamp/seal", used instead of a signature) so I can open a bank account.
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| my stamp! It has "Megu" on it
So with that I've gotten most of what I needed to do out of the way! Which is nice, because now I can stop stressing out about it.
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Now everybody reading this is probably like, "but Meghan, why did you fly all the way to Hawaii to see a band that's from Tokyo???"
WELL. For those who don't know, Arashi is pretty much Japan's most popular band (tied with AKB48, perhaps a tad less popular than them) at the moment, and has been for about the past 5 years or so. I won't get into how their agency, Johnny's Entertainment, runs their company and how awful it is, but basically to get tickets for concerts in Japan they're only available to fan club members (only available to people who live in Japan, and costs a tonne to join every month/year - it's like a subscription) and even then, because there are so many people who apply for tickets, they decide who gets tickets with a lottery system. Actually getting tickets is near impossible, and even if you do get a ticket, it'll cost you your liver.
For this Hawaii concert however, tickets were for once available to foreign fans (a Johnny's concert available to foreign fans?!?!?!??!???!??? North American foreign fans!??!?!??!??!? I never thought I would see the day) on Ticketmaster for a surprisingly low amount in comparison to how much you would spend to go in Japan. Put that together with how cheap I get airplane tickets because of my parents both being retirees of Cathay Pacific, and all together it would be a lot cheaper (& actually not completely impossible...). This would be my only chance to ever see them.
So I took the opportunity and decided to go for it.
So on 19 September I headed out of the apartment and made the long journey to the airport. After the 6.5 hour flight I arrived in Hawaii and met up with one of my very best friends, Eurie, who was also attending the concert. After going to the hotel I met up with my other friend, Gena, and all their other friends and we all headed off to explore a bit of the city before the concert.
And then after waiting in the queue for about 4 hours, we went into the venue.
I can't really formulate into words my emotions about this concert, I'm still just kind of speechless.
Seeing these people that I've been watching through a computer or TV screen for 5 years live in person was just, wow. It made me pretty emotional as well because if it wasn't for them, I don't think I would be where I am today. When I first became their fan I was having a pretty rough time and they really helped me feel better and still continue to do so. Also around that time I had pretty much stopped learning Japanese and lost interest in Japan and I had just given up, but because of them I picked up my learning again and now here I am 5 years later living in Japan, living my dream.
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| Arashi banners in Waikiki! |
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So many palm trees
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