Sunday, 18 February 2018

Japan Expo 2018 - 3 Years and Counting


For the 3rd year running, attended Japan Expo in Thailand. Events in Thailand are downright amazing, from the lineup, content right up to their passionate crowds. Japan Expo 2018 this time has loads idol goodness to appease the wotas of all shapes and sizes.

The list goes like this:
Maneki Kecha
Wasuta
Ready To Kiss
SAY-LA
FESTIVE
AngeReve
Tokyo Flavour
Spring Chubit
Milcs Honmono
AKB48
Zipang
Sweat'16
Hiiragi Rio
fleramo
Male cover unit MeseMoa
And of course, my favourite group Akishibu Project!

Maimi Yajima and May J were part of the guestlist too. And other non-idoru groups such as Ryoma Quartet, SORGENTI and YURU joined the fray. ( Full Line-up of guests here > http://japanexpothailand.com/artistguest/ )
Hello again Japan Expo Thailand!

The accomodation this time set at arnoma grand. Hotel faces the venue and its the to stay-in place for most of the performers and the idols. Managed to bump into Norakura and Ready To Kiss in the lobby. Akishibu Project though, we found out was in the same as a friend of mine.

Day 1 starts off with site reccee and of course, AKSB! Ready To Kiss and SAY-LA had a delay in their flight and unfortunately unable to perform on Day 1. FESTIVE has to do cover for that short time. To make it up, RTK held a free 2-shot cheki with the fans.
Opt for Ayuko. She remembers!

Day 2, started off at the Japan Expo Stage. Maneki Kecha starts the day with Joudan Janai, which triggered everyone to go WILD. I didnt manage to catch AKSB 1st performance as we bought the tickets to the special Meet&Greet stage. Honestly, should have not bought the tickets for BOTH DAYS.
Meet and Greet Stage tickets

For Wa-suta, I was livid when they performed Yokoso Jappari Park! Nooooo, earworm! Thankfully got the Malaysian wotas to help out with the merchandise and a 2-shot ticket with Ha-chin. Well her response wasn't as bad as last year. She's kinda... genki?

Passionate Fans with the Banner



During the night, wanted to see fleramo perform. Alas there's some delays so the performance dragged late into the night. Still, managed to meet fleramo and had a small chat. Introduced them to Suzume too. When the event starts proper, watched and did the beer mix with actual beer somehow dripped onto me. WTF! And witness Hiiragi Rio too. The fan who is a familiar face at her lives was there too!

Do you want Suzume to be a BIIRU lady? LOL

This is the true definition of dedication. Even with injury, he still makes an effort to head to Thailand and support RioRio.



Day 3, again I missed AKSB 1st performance. And again its due to attending the Meet&Greet stage. However, I left right after FESTIVE as I want to settle the buppan for the other members. Managed to meet Ruka and Yuringo, both were glad to see me though I was called a "Taiwan-jin" instead of "Singapore-jin". Well can't fault them since my first encounter with the newer members was in Taiwan.

Last AKSB indoor stage?

For the outdoor stage, my voice got worse. Got lifted up during new world (thanks to the wotas nearby), shouted "Yue!" like no tomorrow. Thats it, I'm gonna get it from my boss when I fly back. And finally Manatsu No Serenade! Been waiting for that song. And off to their last buppan and last meetup with Yuechi and Honii~

Close to end of Day 3, my checklist has Chiai, Norakura and all members of Akishibu Project done. Now for the last person to meet: Icchan from Milcs Honmono. I am actually not hoping so much from them. Maybe just pass by and say hi. Until I see Icchan...

Icchan noticed you

*Meeting Icchan*
Waves at her
Me: Haiii Icchan! Shingapooru kara (Hi Icchan, I'm from Singapore - YES, I know my Japanese is bad dont curse me uhh)
Icchan: EH??? HISASHIBURI! Oboette?" (Eh! So long no see, remember me?)
Me: Ah??

So because Icchan was the very first idol to say Oboette and not the other way around, I have no choice but to part my 500 baht for a mobile 2-shot... To be honest, I was surprised. I didnt see her  close to 2 years now. Cant be helped because Milcs Honmono knows how to draw in the crowd.

OK, you win Icchan.

Apart from them Japanese idorus, made a point to meet and chat with the Thailand idorus. Most notably Mogo, since we met during IDOLIDGE last year. Introduced her and the members of Chone-Bi to Suzume too.

Suzume and members of Chone-Bi

So the spoils of war as followed:

Chekis received
Chiai (Maneki Kecha) x1
Miyu (Maneki Kecha) x1
Ayuko (Ready To Kiss) x2
Norakura (Majibanch) x1
Miichan (AKSB) x1
Mizuki (AKSB) x1
Hinahi (AKSB) x1
Yuringo (AKSB) x1
Ruka (AKSB) x1
Honii (AKSB) x2
Yuechi (AKSB) x3

Cheki is inclusive of Willy and Keeve

On a sidenote, It was great to see Yuechi again. But somehow, her body actions and our conversation, I just cant help she starting to feel distant. Perhaps I am overthinking it too much, but I kinda have a bad feeling from the interaction. Maybe, I am starting to feel that its time to let go of Idol Fandom?

Regardless, Yuechi is the only person that made me go truly deep into idoru fandom. It's been 3 year and counting, I will always be there cheering her on and wishing the best for her.

お前が一番ゆえち！！！



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