Berryz Boyz and Girlz Rock

Saturday in Osaka there was an event for Berryz latest single. If you bought the box set from a certain company, you could get your picture taken with the “boys” of Rock Erotic, and or the “girls.” There were also individual handshake events later in that came with the regular editions if the CDs.

Saw the boys first. They were all happy to see me. Kentucky-san. Got to interact with them for a little bit before moving on. Yurina made a comment on how tall I was, something that I would follow up on later. The pose was from the ROCK Erotic MV, where the boys do that finger lift thing, yeah.

The girls were next, and again I got some enthusiastic welcomes. Risako remarked as well, that she had seen me earlier in the day. The pose I chose was Momochi’s yurushite nyan. I kinda messed up on it haha, the girls all seemed to find it funny that I wanted to do this. Momochi most of all of course.

Third, the boys again and some more pleasant conversation. Lingered a bit on this one talking to Chii. I did a guitar pose, and Chinami asked if I played the guitar, and I had to clarify that no I didn’t, it was just a[nother] pose from the MV. Nothing exceptional here, but it was nice seeing the girls, starting things off with pleasantries.

Individual Handshakes

A couple hours after the boy/girl shots, Berryz would return for the individual handshakes. Going into it I had 12 tickets, one for each member, with a few extra for Chinami; ended up with around thirty something tickets however, by the end of the day.

When I spoke to Captain last month, I told her that I would be coming to Budokan. She seemed really excited to hear that. When it came to the individual handshake, I told her that I had had a good time the night before at Budokan. She enthusiastically mentioned that she had seen me there in the first row during the concert. I went on to tell her that I enjoyed seeing her dance, and that I thought she was the best dancer.

Momo‘s line was empty a few times, I think she may have been crying a little bit because of it. I can’t confirm that, but she definitely had tears in her eyes at one point. At the start of the second handshake I was at the front of Chii’s line and could see over to Momo and she was clearly broken up. Anyway, when I went to talk to her, I had a few things to say. One, was that I thought she was the “perfect idol.” I think I’ve mentioned on this blog before what I mean by that, but whether she is playing a part or showing her real character, I’ve always felt that she is really an idol in a sense. She was really happy when I told her that. I followed it up, saying that I hope she continues to be a person people can look up to. I meant that to say, as an idol, being idolized, but also as a person, as someone people look up to, whether she’s being a teacher or doing whatever else in the future.

Chii, what do I say, what do I say? 5-10 seconds is a long time to be positioned in front of your idol. It almost seems silly to say that, buts it’s the truth. At the same time that I say that it is a long time however, it is also extremely short, yeah, obviously. Sometime before or after the event I could write a book of things I want to tell her, to ask her. Face to face however, the nerves got the better of me. Now, were this in a more casual setting, and the time were longer, I don’t think I’d have a problem coming up with things to talk about (ignore the difficulty in communication because of lack of Japanese ability). The pressure to get everything right in those few seconds however, left little room for mistakes and, yeah, just more pressured.

I was a bit reluctant to keep getting more tickets to see Chinami, but at the same time, it’s like, how could I resist you know. So, needless to say, while it was hard to figure out what to say exactly, I did end up saying a lot. I talked about how her smiling face makes me happy, how ever since I saw her in Gag100, I’ve liked her… lots of little things like that. I told her that while I can’t play the guitar, I have started to play the drums. Her response to this was in English, “Can you play the drums?” Said with short pauses in between each word. Adorable as fudge. I replied in kind, my tone and spacing of the words matching hers, after acknowledging that I thought her English was good, “I can play the drums.” I’ll mention, while I do have a drum set, my actually ability to “play” the drums is questionable, hahaha.

On to bigger things… a friend had mentioned some time back that she and or another friend could help me talk to Chinami, and so that ended up happening a few times. A friend would go before me to kind of set things up, then I’d go in and talk with Chinami with a sort of pretext. I won’t get into the details of all of that, but I will mention one thing.

My friend went before me and was talking about my tattoo. Chinami’s reaction was quite enthusiastic, though that is perhaps to be expected as all of her interacts with me and or about me are, heh. I, being right outside the little booth, Chinami turned to me whilst her and my friend were still talking, and I flashed her my tattoo. Now, I’m sure she has at least heard that I’ve got a Chinami tattoo, and she may have even seen a picture, but she had never seen it in person before then. So, when my friends turn was over and done, I went in and gave her a closer look at it. Pointing out the obvious, that it was her drawing; saying that I got it done in 2009. So, yeah, that’s over and done with. Chinami has seen it, though, I’ll point out, if it wasn’t clear, I only showed her the Chii/Berryz tattoo that is over my heart. She has yet to see the large sunflower on my left arm, or the other Chii on the right side of my chest. She was happy to hear about and see it in any case, and I was happy because of it.

I saw Maasa a few times, she is my second favorite in Berryz after all, but it was difficult to find something to say. No matter, I figured out something. Telling her about how I thought she was cool as Berryz Kamen Red, how I thought she was the best MC. Not much else, but perhaps she now has a little bit of insight into how much I like her.

Miyabi. I think she has the best voice in Berryz. Not to be confused with my favorite voice which is Chii’s, but best in some technical aspect, not that I’m really a good judge of that. So, not only do I think she is the best in Berryz, but in all of H!P as well. When I went to talk to her, I told her as such. She seemed a bit surprised, though if I recall, I had told her something similar a couple years back. On top of complementing her voice, I told her that I bought her fashion was also cool. She is perhaps the most fashionable of Berryz from what I can see, and I wanted her to know that I felt that.

As I mentioned up post, Kumai had remarked earlier in the day that she thought I was tall. Well, I used that comment as sort of a stepping stone for the handshake I had with her. I asked/said that were both tall, aren’t we? To which she agreed. I followed up by saying, but only one of us is beautiful. Kinda cheesy, right. But Yurina is a beauty, and I had wanted to tell her that.

Risako, Risako, I just can’t get a read on you and that drives me crazy. Shy, coy, bold, happy, enthusiastic… Mysterious. That’s it, there’s a mystery behind those eyes. I told her that. I told her that’s what I really like about her. It was in a vague sort of way, as if I were saying, what I like about you Risako, je ne sais quoi. That’s pretty much what it boils down to in any case.

Great time seeing all the girls. Greater time interacting with Chinami. So much fun, even if it is sometimes difficult so figure out what to say and or it can otherwise be a bit nerve wracking.