Seeing Sonim – Part One

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.