Thursday, 7 September 2017

Attending @JAM Expo 2017

This year I made a decision to skip Tokyo Idol Festival and try out something new. Why not attend @JAM? Have been attending TIF for the past 3 years, and heard good reviews about this event. Furthermore, all venues are indoors so no worries being burned by the scorching sun.

AtJam! As featured on their twitter

Location is at Yokohama Arena and its held from 26 - 27 August. I was lucky that TGU offered free tickets, although their announcement was like 4 days before event proper. It doesnt matter though, would get the paid tickets either way.


How Yokohama Arena looks like on any other days (photo from wikipedia)

As my focus is primarily AtJam, my accomodation was set in Yokohama. Thankfully my nearest station goes straight to Kikuna, though I do need some fair amount of walking. Just look at the map.

Around 10 to 15 mins walk

Some groups that attend @JAM as seen below:



The stages being indoors were godsent. Air-conditioned and there's seats all around. For such a venue, I didnt expect that they'll fit multiple stages in it. Only problem was that finding the buppan and greeting areas was tedious first time round. For instance, to access a certain buppan area, although the guide states its on the first floor, you need to traverse to the 2nd floor, locate the hard-to-find sign and then proceed downwards to the area. Had my fair share of headache as they have 2 greeting areas, one of it is located outside at the parking lot. Again to access the latter, you have to enter the Strawberry Stage hall and exit from the rear.

Since I cant take photos during performance, these tweets will give you a feel of how its like.

The main stage for AtJam is the Strawberry Stage. Its segregated between standing mosh area and sitting area. Day 1 wasn't that crowded, had loads of breathing space in the moshpit. No worries being strangled by pinchikes this time. As for the seating areas, its supposed to be reserved but somehow those who reserve it dont bother and it becomes free seating for all. It becomes a chillax affair if you're dead tired from walking all over.

Below you can see the performances for the Strawberry stage. Again thanks to IDOL +1D.



AtJAM Agendas

One of my agendas here is to meet up with Takiguchi Hikari aka Takky. One of the popular members of drop and also one dubbed as the 'Once in Two Thousand Years' idol. Meeting her then became top priority because she announced graduation the day before. Though date of graduating is set 11 Nov 2017.


In my haste, screwed up Day 1. Firstly is finding the buppan booth. Secondly is getting the wrong cheki. I chosen the 2K Yen option, which means I can only get the cheki during their next event. Since I cant be certain I'll be able to attend any drop event again, I went for another cheki during Day 2. And the bummer about drop's buppan is that you can only get one cheki ticket per member per person. If Day 2 wasn't screwed up, would've gotten MisaMisa too.

Takky's cheki which I can only collect next event...

Next on the list is getting a proper cheki with Perorin from Beboga. Managed to nail it and was pleasantly surprised she remembered me during TALES Festival. Additionally, helped out a fellow wota back home to snag an Ayapamu solo cheki.

Perorin-sensei yo!
A certain fan happy with Ayapamu

Lastly was meeting lyrical school with their new lineup. Attended one of their performances at Peach Stage and the feels came back. I actually dropped the group after mei announced graduation. Only gotten curious when discovered newest member Risano speaks fluent and flawless english. Indeed, they're still the cool IDOLRAP group I used to love. Staff-san was great too, gave us free group cheki when found out we're foreigners. Felt so touched by their gesture.

After a year's absence, met them face to face again.

Similar to TIF, we have a food area in AtJam. They do have collaboration with idorus such as Akishibu Project selling ice-cream~


Me being an AKSB fan, here's their tweet showing how the merchandise area is like. For their merchandise, apart from getting their chekis via preordering CDs, you can get their random printed ones here.

In all, I am very impressed with AtJam. In fact, I am keen to attend this event again next year! Sure beats having to travel far and face the elements in TIF. Even the attendees are quite well behaved. Only drawback, since its all indoors, it lacks the festival feel. And Yokohama Arena is not exactly a very accessible place unless you drop off Shin Yokohama station. However, if you prefer a chill festival, I recommend people to try out this event.

 Chekis obtained
2x Yuechi (AKSB)
1x Hinahi (AKSB)
1x Yurina (AKSB)
1x Honii (AKSB)
1x Perorin (Beboga aka Nijicon Yellow)
1x Risano (lyrical school)
1x Minan (lyrical school)
1x lyrical school group shot
1x Takky (drop)

1x Takky need collect later....

**Inching closer to book completion. 32 more slots to go?**
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