While watching TV about two weeks ago, I saw a commercial for one of the many Golden Week festivities that were to be taking place. And who was to be at said event? None other than everybody’s favorite reason to eat curry rice, sweet Sonim. Once again, the event was going to be taking place at a location an annoying distance away from me—close enough to go, but far enough to be a pain. But also, once again, it was a free event, so I knew I had to go. One chance to see Sonim live before I went back to the States was great—two chances was even better.

The problem with this event was that tickets were to be handed out at 9AM. Which, of course, meant I had to get there by at the latest 8AM, as there was sure to be a line. Which mean I had to be on a train leaving my local station by 6AM. Which meant that I had to set my alarm for 5AM. Now, one of the worst things in the world for me is getting up early. However, I was bound and determined to try to get a good seat, so I swore to myself that it would happen.

From here, we’ll jump past pretty much everything up until the point where I get to the amusement park that the mini-concert is going to be taking place at. Because, as exciting as I know my adventures in train riding is for all of you, you don’t get quality reading material like that for free.

So I get to the station outside of Portopia Land (the venue for the event), and can see from the station that there is already a decent line waiting. Crap! I wanted to get a really good place in the line this time around, so I take my place in line while cursing myself for once again being later than the people ahead of me. Taking a quick headcount, I’m about 90th in the line. Now, your normal person would take the fact that 90th when the concert will be open to 1,000 people as a pretty damn good spot. But not me. If I’m not close enough to the stage, how is Sonim supposed to notice me from the rest of the crowd, realize that I’m the only one for her, and then jump off of the stage and profess her love?! That kind of thing doesn’t happen when you’re more than a few rows back, for God’s sake!

However, there is luck: they are giving out tickets for both the Noon show and the 3PM show at the same time. My hope is that enough people won’t want to wait until the afternoon concert, and will just opt for the early ticket. When it’s finally my turn to receive a ticket, I look down at the stacks; the Noon show is on number #63, the 3PM show at #25. Score. I ask for a 3PM ticket, and walk away smiling as I think about the fact that by my best guess, I should easily score third row center. Not too shabby.

I don’t want to enter the park yet, because once I do, I can’t leave until after the concert, which isn’t for another six hours. So, if there is anything fun around the station to do, I should do it now. I go wandering for a bit, and to my utter surprise soon come to a huge building looming in front of me sporting the Konami logo. A Konami office here?! I didn’t know it was located here, and curse myself for having forgotten my camera. Boy, would that fact come back to bite me in the ass later.

Realizing that there is nothing fun to do around the area, I break down and pay the extra $20 (on top of the $10 to get into the park) for an all-day ride pass. I go in, play some games, get shocked over finding a Dairy Queen, ride some of the rides (including a roller coaster that, while small, was really, really fun), play an amusement game, and win myself a huge blow-up pink Snoopy. While riding the cheesy log ride that goes up and over the stage, I can hear a song I’m familiar with. I look down, and can see Sonim rehearsing. Christ, why am I up here when she’s down there? Once the ride finishes, I go over to a spot where you can make out the stage, and find myself joining a small group of people who have also come over to watch Sonim. A few people try to take pictures with their cellphones, but are stopped—strange considering later events. After she finishes, Sonim looks up and over at us and waves while saying hello, which gets a big reaction from the crowd. She asks us to come see her at Noon, and with another wave, walks off.

That fun over, I walk over to where the lines will be forming, and notice a booth set up to sell Sonim goods. Three posters are hanging from the table, two for Tokyo Midnight Loneliness, and one that I’ve never seen before. Closer look, and it’s a poster for Hana. Crap, I want the poster. I ask about it, but am told that I can only have one of the TML posters, and only if I purchase a copy of the single. I already have two copies, thanks, don’t need a third.

Back to more waiting. The sun is in full force today, and I just know I’m going to be going home with my third sunburn in like a month’s time. I also wonder if I would be brave enough to ride the big wave ride, get soaked, and then go for a trip in the Cold Room.

Which let me stop for a moment here—these big wave rides. You know, you ride in a boat, it goes up a hill, then back down, and you get a big splash. Japanese people are the biggest wimps I’ve ever seen when it comes to this. Now, blame my crazy American way of thinking, but I always believed the point in riding a water ride was to get wet. Everywhere in Japan that I’ve seen such rides, they always sell ponchos to wear while riding it, and 99.9% of the people always buy them. But this place was even worse—not only were the ponchos in full effect, but you could also ride in a boat that had a full enclosure on top of it.

Finally, it gets to be 2PM, and an announcement is made that all ticket holders for Sonim’s 3PM show should line up. I do, more waiting, and we’re let in in full proper order according to our numbers. #25 out of 1000, fun time. I go in, race down the walkway, and take my place third row center.

Even more waiting (to the thrilling tunes of one Mr. Phil Collins, no less), and finally the MC lady comes out on stage. Says lots of things about how exciting the amusement park is, how we have to stay for the fireworks later, and of course how you can’t take pictures, video, or cellphone photos. No mention at all of tape recording? Odd. And then she calls out Sonim, and sweet Sonim indeed makes her big entrance.

Sonim mentions how hot it is today, but that she’s about to turn up the heat even more. We fans in the crowd give out a big cheer, and she breaks out into Curry Rice no Onna. No strap mishap this time, and when she finishes, she tosses two guitar picks out into the crowd. Damnit, just like two feet to the left and it would have sailed right into my hands. Grr. She talks about how she (either five years ago, or for five years) lived in Kobe for a while, and asked if it was okay if she broke out some Kansai-ben. Crowd goes crazy, and she indeed goes full “na” and all. She gets some big laughs, and Sonim says that maybe she sounds too strange speaking Kansai-ben. Of course, it was just because we were all surprised to hear her speaking it, not because we thought she sounded weird. She sounded good speaking it, in fact. Screw Tokyo, she needs to be an Osaka girl damnit.

Next up is Natsu ga Konai I believe. To be honest, it could have been Tokyo Midnight Loneliness next, but my best memory says that it was Natsu. She spoke more (can’t remember the exact topic), then TML was up. Finally, her guitar comes back out, which can of course only mean one thing—the song, out of all others, that I wanted to hear her play live. She says the next song is more a cold-weather song, but here it comes—Tsugaru Kaikyou no Onna. I am, without question, in utter bliss.

…and the people around me are taking her stinking picture! What is up with this?! People are just raising up their cellphones, taking shots, and nobody says anything. Before the concert started, the girl next to me was told she couldn’t do as such. But here she is, taking a shot during the concert, and the staff are just looking on and not doing anything. Getting a bit braver, she takes out a full-fledged camera, and gets a shot with no hassle at all.

Why of all days did I forget my damned camera!?! I am in the position to have the absolute perfect Sonim picture, and I forgot my stupid camera. And if I had a decent mic, I could even be getting an awesome live-MD made out of this event. My incompetence at times utterly baffles me.

The concert is over, and MC lady comes out again. Sonim mentions being on Ayu Ready that night. (She is? Why didn’t her website say so?) They then get to talking about Sonim working out, and one of the three big Sonim fans sitting in front of me asks Sonim to show off her arms. She gets a bit embarrassed, but then starts taking her jacket off while the MC girl is saying how lucky we are to be getting such fanservice. Sonim finally gets the jacket off, and flexes her right arm for us, which gets a cheer.

They chat for a while, and then MC lady says that Sonim has a special gift for three fans. Huh? What’s up with this? We are then told that we’ll play a huge game of Janken, and the three final winners get signatures from Sonim. Blaaa! So we all stand up, raise our right hands, and I decided to follow the advice of my ex-roommate: always go with choki (scissors). Sonim picks—scissors as well. And here is where Mollie gets screwed: I didn’t technically lose, but as I didn’t actually beat her, I must go back to sitting down with all of the losers. Man, screw that. The game keeps on being played until finally three winners are left.

One of the winners is one of the three guys in front of me, and you can tell how happy he is to be up there meeting Sonim and getting her signature. The second, as well, was an obvious fan. Then we get to the third guy, though, and the part I thought was total bull. Now, of course, I would have loved to have won. But if I couldn’t, then someone who is a real Sonim fan deserved to win. This third guy had to have been there just for the free concert, as he obviously didn’t care that he was getting her signature. When asked where he was going to put her signature in his house, he just kind of shrugged and said he didn’t know, and when done, he didn’t even attempt to shake her hand until he was directed to. Of course, since it was all just chance, the chance of someone who wasn’t a Sonim fan winning was obviously there. But it was still crappy that it happened.

As part of the promotion for Sonim’s latest single (Tokyo Midnight Loneliness), four special event dates were set up. One of those was to be held in Kyoto, which while not exactly close to where I live in Southern Osaka, was easy enough to get to by train that I was determined to go. I especially wanted to go because I was heartbroken when Sonim’s first solo concert tour was announced recently for Osaka on June 29th, one measly month after I would be returning to the States. I’ve been here for a year, and I miss out on my #1 want-to-do experience by a stinking month.

First, before getting into my trip, I want to ask why in God’s name this was being held in Kyoto and not Osaka. Last I checked, Osaka was one of the biggest cities in Japan. (After Tokyo and Yokohama, I think.) But no, Kyoto and freakin’ Nagoya get Sonim promo meets, but none for Osaka.

Anyhow, my plan was to get up around 7AM, be on a train by no later than 8AM, and be in Kyoto around 10AM. Check-in for the event wasn’t to start until Noon, but I knew that people would be already there waiting, so I wanted to try to get a good spot in line. Of course, as per always, I am not a person meant to get up early. By the time I finally border the train leaving from my local station, it was already 9AM.

The trip to Kyoto involved riding the local train, transferring to a subway, heading up to JR Osaka station, and then riding another train over to JR Kyoto. I unfortunately got stuck on a Local train from JR Osaka station, which stops at all stops, where the faster trains pass by all of the two-bit stations that nobody wants to go to anyhow. So, indeed, the trip did end up taking just around two hours.

I wasn’t really familiar with JR Kyoto stations, and it’s a pretty big place, but thankfully I found the place where the meet was to be pretty quickly. Indeed, when I found the line, there was already a number of people there waiting, some of which looked like they had been there for quite a while. I took my place and line, and began what would be a series of waits.

Finally it hit Noon, and the line began moving (but we couldn’t tell exactly why). As I got closer to the front, I took out the ticket that had come with the copy of Tokyo Midnight Loneliness that I had purchased. But there was no need for it—as I hit the front, I was handed a slip of paper and told that I didn’t need to return until around 4:30PM. I looked at my paper, a copied flyer with the number 133 written on it. I figured was a seat number or something, and started to wander around the area a bit. (Just in case I hadn’t understood what was going on, and needed to do something else.) We indeed were free to go, though, and then I noticed that the people who had handed us the papers still had a huge stack of them and were given them out to random people.

Hold up here a second! What is this crap? I went through the trouble of reserving a copy of the single on the first day, making sure that I had one of those little tickets, thinking it was my way to some special event, and here they are just giving out passes to any Jotaro Average walking by who might not even know who Sonim is?

I found out that I had maybe made a mistake in thinking: The event was a free mini concert, where I had thought it was like a fan meeting where you could get a signature or something. It was for the benefit of Sonim’s exposure to people, though, so I supposed I shouldn’t complain. I really wanted to meet Sonim up close, but since I couldn’t go to her concert, I figured it would be nice to at least see a mini one.

I was feeling really crappy about having gotten there late and getting a high number like 133. However, a short time later, I took a peek at one of the flyers that somebody had been handed, and noticed the number was 691. So, that made me feel a little bit better. I do wonder how many were passed out to actual Sonim fans, and how many went to people just looking to hear a free concert, though—it seemed that the stack of flyers the people were handing out started off being quite large.

So here I was, stuck waiting around a place I knew almost nothing about for four hours. I wandered the area a bit, found an arcade with cheap games (100 yen for Bemani, 50 yen for fighting and other games), and did whatever else I could do to waste some time. Around 4PM or so was back in the area, and when it was finally announced that we were to line up again, I joined a few of the other hardcore fans in running back to the queue area. You know, just in case the number we were given wasn’t important or something. It was, though, and we were let into the area ten at a time according to what number we had.

As upset as I had been about having #133, thank god that I did. From what I understood, the original place that was to be used was abandoned due to the rain. Instead, we were let into a place that was far too small to hold  a concert, even a mini one. It was basically a walkway in part of the station, and I wouldn’t have tried to put more than 200, 300 people at most in the area. Yet, there were over 1,000 people with flyers waiting to get in. I was about twenty feet, maybe less, from the stage, and thankfully everybody in front of me was sitting down. However, a row behind me, people were standing up, and stood all the way to the back. So, I imagine people not too far behind me on saw little more than Sonim’s head bobbing around over top of the crowd. As well, since we were just basically stuffed in some walkway, it was little more than sitting on a hard stone floor, and being cramped for room even trying to do that.

Some guy came up on stage, and talked to us while we were waiting for Sonim, asking if we had watched the previous night’s PopJam (which Sonim had been on), if we had watched her drama, how we were doing, things like that. He tried to get the crowd pumped up a little, and then told us to call Sonim’s name to get her out on stage. So, a Sonim chant goes up, and a few moments later from a tent in the background, out she runs.

The first thing you notice is that pictures do no justice to the beauty of this girl. Pictures also do no justice to the beauty of her hotpants.

So Sonim is there, saying hello, asking us how we were, that kind of thing. She mentioned (I think, at this point) that it had been a while since coming to Kyoto, and talked a bit about having been in Nagoya that morning. Crap if I don’t remember most of what she said—I was looking at Sonim live in the flesh, not twenty feet away from me, so you know. Up on stage, Sonim seemed a bit nervous. Not nervous in a screwing up, bad kind of way, but in a “not yet used to being up on stage in front of a crowd of people” kind of shyness way. She has her guitar with her, and she announces her first song: Curry Rice no Onna.

Oh merciful Lord almighty. Tell me she isn’t going to play all of her singles. She breaks out into Curry Rice no Onna, and I’m on the brink of tears I’m so happy. One of the things I really miss when it comes to Tokyo Midnight Loneliness is that we have no Sonim with her guitar. So here she is, just her and her guitar on stage, rocking out. This is the Sonim I wanted to see, but sadly my happiness wouldn’t last. While playing, the strap on her guitar halfway fell off—and I mean, pretty violently fell—but she didn’t miss a beat and played through it just fine. Her second song was Natsu ga Konia, the coupling song for TML, and by far (in my opinion) her weakest song. She talked a bit about being in Koukou Kyoushi, how she works out, and how she could kick the ass of everyone in the crowd. Okay, so she didn’t exactly say that part, but have you seen her? She could.

She then announces that she’s set to play her last song, and a big cry of “Whaaaaa!” breaks out from the crowd. As much as I’m loving this, as glad as I am that I could see Sonim, I’m about to seriously break something if this is all of the Sonim goodness that I get. Of course, her final song was Tokyo Midnight Loneliness. I like the song, I really do, but I wanted more than one song with guitar rocker girl Sonim, and I really really wanted to hear Tsugaru Kaikyou no Onna live.

The song ends, Sonim thanks everyone for coming, and leaves the stage. (Going the wrong way on her way back to her tent, which gets a laugh from the crowd.) Of course, the crowd begins demanding an encore, and the guy who was up on stage before is back and saying he doesn’t know if she can do one or not. (At the time I thought he was being honest, but he might have just been hamming it up.) He says that he’ll ask her management, and he looks back to the suit-wearing lady who had been accompanying Sonim. Can she do another one? The official-looking lady finally nods in agreement, and the crowd changes from chanting for an encore to chanting for Sonim.

And here comes Sonim again, and announces that she’ll sing—Tokyo Midnight Loneliness. Again. Okay, so who is to blame for this? Did the management types just not expect people to ask for an encore, so they didn’t bring the back-up music for any other songs? Whatever the case, we get the song again. Once again Sonim says her thanks and goodbyes, and she’s off again.

So is that it? All of the time and energy spent in getting there for four—technically three—songs live? That’s all the Sonim that I get?!? Just when I am ready to despair, announcer guy comes back and says that magical words that I was waiting for: “For those of you who have the special ticket from the Sonim single…” Yes! This is what I was waiting for! Those of us who have that little ticket from the CD now get to meet Sonim! Oh happy day!

Sonim comes out yet again, sits at a table set up on the stage, and the announcer guy tells people to start lining up on the righthand site to come up onstage. As the line begins forming, I mill around in my backpack to find a Whinnie the Pooh stuffed animal that I bought for Sonim. (Yeah, I know.) I look at how sadly small it is (only about 5-6 inches tall), but I didn’t know if I would actually have the chance to give it to her or not, so I didn’t want to buy a big expensive one for nothing. As I’m attaching a note to the doll (saying how great she is, and asking her to come check out my Sonim English fansite), I look at the stage and join a few of the fans around me in the shock we see. Up on stage are four hired thugs, probably from her record label or something, and they are basically pulling people across the stage. One is at the start, pushing people in the direction of the table. As a fan stand across the table from Sonim shaking her hand, two guys behind said fan were literally shoving him on his way, over to where a final person whisked them off the stage. With absolutely no exaggeration at all, each person was in front of Sonim for no more than two seconds. She didn’t even have much of a chance to see whose hand she was shaking or saying hello to, because she was already having to notice who was up next. Watching it unfold, it look like little more than a horde of cattle being herded through a fence or something.

And, to go off of the story for a moment, that is exactly one of my biggest problems with the Japanese music scene. For the most part, J-pop fans are indeed little more than cattle, expected to just buy up release after release with no question. If one of us calls foul, then screw it, there are thousands more like us shelling out the money. This is one of the reasons that my feelings towards Ayu has soured as of late; after a while, I just got tired of buying the same songs remixed and repackaged again and again. As glad as I was to see Sonim, to meet her, to hear her play live, the entire day just felt so fake in so many ways. I don’t blame Sonim at all for this, mind you. Of course, maybe she has no desire to spend much time slumming it with her fans. But when you’re an idol, you’re a carefully controlled entity, and you have little to no decision in what happens around you with your career. Get Sonim in, have her play a song or two, have her shake a hand or two, whisk her away. Call the fans in, make sure they buy the copy of the CD that comes with the poster even if they already have the CD with the DVD, crowd them into a little space, toss them a few songs, give them two seconds to meet their idol, then be sure to remind them about the upcoming album, concert tour, and i-Mode website where for only $3 a month they can download clips of Sonim’s voice.

What was I expecting? I don’t know. But it just reminded me of how fake J-pop really is, and especially with how small of an event it was, it wouldn’t have been hard to give the fans a bit more. I was especially disappointed in the way the event was handled as far as pictures. Now, obviously, there was to be no audio or video recording. And while I’m mixed on the ban of flash photography—the announcer guy tried to give us some crap about why for Sonim’s sake we shouldn’t take personal pictures of her.. because then we won’t buy the photos you’ll be selling later, of course—that is part of all Japanese events from what I’ve seen, so I wasn’t shocked. What did shock me was the ban also on cellphone photos. Now, what harm in the world would a cellphone picture of somebody be? I’ve seen many times before when cellphone pics were allowed. But here, the hired thugs were shining flashlights at any cellphones they saw trying to take pictures.

So, anyhow, back to me waiting there in the crowd. I contemplated if I should just get in line at that point, or wait to try to be one of the final people. If I’m one of the final people, maybe I’ll get a bit more time to meet her. (Watching later, the final people got a bit more, but not much. They still got shoved across the stage, but at least Sonim had the chance to see whose hand she was shaking.) Against my better judgment, I go ahead and just jump in line after a minute or so.

Give her the bear. Whatever you do, don’t let them push you offstage until she has the bear, I kept telling myself in my head. I get in line, and before I know it, I’m up onstage heading towards Sonim. And from that point… I really don’t remember. [laughs] Here I come to be not two feet from Sonim, and I can’t recall for the life of me looking her in the face from that close. I remember feeling her hand shaking mine. I remember her voice saying “Arigatou gozaimasu.” I remember dropping the bear onto the table right in front of her as I felt the hands of somebody behind me trying to force me on my way. I remember seeing a moment of her head turn in surprise as she noticed the Pooh bear that I had given to her. But the next thing I clearly remember after getting up onstage is then going right back off.

So—that was my day seeing and then meeting Sonim. Of course, I’m disappointed that I didn’t have more of a chance, to see her perform live, to meet her, to ask her to have children with me, that kind of thing. But still, I’m damn lucky that I got to meet her even for those two seconds. I actually came face to face with her, I can actually say that I’ve touched Sonim. I left the day with one pic of Sonim, and even then you have to take my word that the blob in the photo is her. If you know her Tokyo Midnight Loneliness outfit, then you can make out her boots, exposed legs, hotpants, and white jacket.