mayu's solo event.

MAYU'S SOLO EVENT.

HANDS DOWN THE BEST EVENT EVER.

Let's see..

This event was a really emotional one. 

Even after more than a month later, I can still cry upon thinking back.

Back when I was applying for her solo events/live, I wanted to win the cheki session so badly. I mean, it's a polaroid with Mayu!!!!!! But sadly I didn't even tho i spent around 2-3 tickets on cheki applications. 

But I won the voice recording session with just 1 ticket. LOL 

Initially I only won the voice recording session in the 1st round of applications. I was so worried about how things would turn out initially because (i) I didn't want to fly all the way there just to record her voice, but (ii) I didn't want to let this opportunity slip by either. Luckily, I won the solo lives so all's good.

Event started at 13:00. They'll start the administrative stuffs at 12:00.

Venue: Nogizaka Building

Prior to the event, aka from the time I won my application which was way back in June, I kept thinking about what to get Mayu to say. I didn't want typical stuffs like "ganbare~" and the likes. I couldn't decide so kept procrastinating. And the result of procrastinating? I still had no idea what to get Mayu to say ON THE DAY ITSELF. LOL.

I had some rough plans, but nothing confirmed. But one thing's for sure, I wanted Mayu to speak some english. HAHAHAH

But things didn't turn out the way I expected...

Reached the venue!

And guess what.........

YOU WERE ONLY ALLOWED 5 CHARACTERS MAX. LOL WTF. dk to laugh or cry.

Good thing was I can scrape all ideas I had, which weren't finalised yet. Bad thing was I had to scrape all ideas I had, including asking Mayu to speak english.

Sigh.

Then I kept wondering what phrase would be good. And with my limited Japanese it's reallyyyyyyyyyyyy hard. I can't ask her to say "isabelle, purin" either, so yeah LOL. 

After mulling on it for veryyyyyyy long, I finally decided on this......

A very typical, non-unique one: "isabelle, ganbare". HAHAHAHAH

After more waiting and letting those who won kamiseki & special passes go in first, we were finally called to queue~

Omg I was so nervous I swear. Since the night of the previous day I was so nervous about meeting Mayu I constantly had stomachaches. Even on the train.... while walking to the venue.... I WAS SO NERVOUS ALL THE TIME.

In the queue, they checked our bags. That's when I realised they didn't do bag checks and all for the solo live the previous day. Which was pretty good, because I could at least experience events without all the added security. But it's bad also, because it's really unsafe considering the distance between Mayu and fans...... but it's all good. Nothing happened, I'm glad. 

Wristband pass & the ticket~

I WAS STILL SOOOOOOO NERVOUS.

The room itself wasn't very spacious, just enough for a queue to form at the front and seats at the back for those who won kamiseki. There was a small stage as well, with a table & a chair on it, like typical autograph sessions at shopping malls, you know what I mean.

After more waiting and with increasing nervousness levels..... the event finally started! Mayu's friend, Namio came out to do the MC first! 

And suddenly from the corner of the stage, I saw the curtain opened a bit and Mayu's face popped out. LOLLLLLLLLL

Maybe it wasn't very obvious, but I can't say that with certainty, but since not many people cheered I'm guessing many didn't see Mayu? But it can't be that case as well, the stage is so small too. But yeah. Mayu's face popped out and then she covered it till only her eyes can be seen. LOL SO CUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then her friend continued talking and doing the intros and suddenly Mayu opened the curtains wide and revealed her full self. HAHAHAHAH. And of course everyone noticed it because loud cheers! Then she closed it..... i think? I can't remember omg.

After the intros and all were over, we called for Mayu and she appeared~ In the same Deai no Tsuzuki dress.

She had a short exchange with us fans, and these are what I can remember:

(Mayu to the fans at the kamiseki)

Fans: We can't see anythinggggg (bc we were all queuing infront)

oh oops ok I can't remember EXACTLY what she said but it was something cute as usual... maybe something along the lines of like "just hear me" or like "try your best" something like that............ omg I really can't remember wow...

(Mayu to us, those who won the voice recording)

Fans: (complaining) 5 characters is too short!!!!!

Mayu: Too short? Sorryyyy (短い？ごめん) <--- IN A VERY CUTE VOICE AND EXPRESSION!!!!!!!!!

Then without further ado, the event started. As you can see from the picture, I'm #20. My turn's coming soon.......... NERVOUSNESS LEVEL MAX

The entire room was asked to remain silent so that the voice recording could be clear and all. And after the first guy ended and he was walking off, Mayu said out loud "That was (name)~" and her friend was like "Mayu don't expose (their names)!!" HAHAHAHAHA

But Mayu being Mayu, she obviously didn't care and while she didn't do that for every person, she did it randomly. And each time she did it, the whole room burst out laughing. HAHAHA

Closer to my turn, they had staffs check our phrases to ensure it's fine. Then we were ushered on stage...... omg I'm so nervous like now while writing this omg can I even write this properly omg

(DEEP BREATH)

Okay. 

One by one, the people in front of me finished their turns. Slowly, very slowly, my turn was approaching. I WAS SO NERVOUS OMG I HAVEN'T MET MAYU FOR 9 MONTHS

And finally........

My turn......

(omg im smiling to myself like an idiot and my face is so hot while writing this)

Before the recording, she would read out our names as a form of practice or something idk.

She read out my name then she paused for a moment. I thought she paused because it was in katakana and OBVIOUSLY not a Japanese name so like y'know something different from the first 19 people or something. 

Just when I was about to say I'm from SG..

Guess what she said.....?????????!!!!!!!!

"Isabelle? Eh? You're the one from twitter..?"

AND OBVIOUSLY I WAS SO SHOCKED BECAUSE THAT DEFINITELY WASN'T WHAT I EXPECTED??????? Then Mayu continued:

"I always see your mentions on twitter"

EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

No no no no no no wait what?

Here, in front of me, is my idol telling me she sees my twitter mentions??????

The idol that is so popular in Japan and is even known internationally, the idol that receives hundreds of replies with each tweet she posts, the idol that I never imagined would notice me because we live 5000km away, is telling me she sees my mentions and she even remembers my name???

To be honest, one reason why I was so shocked was because from the day she created Twitter, I told myself NOT to expect anything. Don't expect her to read my replies or anything, considering how busy she is and the amount of replies she gets. Bottom line: have no expectations.

Fun fact: I wrote my name on the paper for this event in katakana, イザベル, and my twitter name is "isabelle". Despite that she still knows it's me.

I could only nod continously, while being TOO shocked.

Then she started recording the phrase and for the final "chat" we had..

(chat in quotes because I was too shocked to say anything.... as usual like last year's HS)

Mayu: thank you always!!! (いつもありがとう！！)

Me: (smiling like an idiot and probably blushing like mad and nodding i guess idk)

Not sure if Mayu said "bye bye" when I was leaving, but I'll just leave this here as part of memory in case I forget. (Write more better than writing less hahahah)

While leaving, she kept looking at me, smiling and waving happily. I didn't even know if I should walk away because she kept looking, waving and smiling at me LOLLLLL so if I walked away it's like rejecting her IDKKKKK.

Then she said out loud "that was isabelle~~" and yeah it earned laughters from the crowd because she's still exposing our names LOL

After FINALLY walking down the stage, I was brought outside and asked to playback my recording to check it's fine. My phone's volume was high and the recording scared me by being too loud LOL. 

Then I walked out of the building smiling like an idiot....i couldn't even stop smiling when walking past strangers & the security guard LOLOLOL. I think they understand anyway~

I just had to take a photo and at the building itself was quite impossible bc rather embarassing & there's a guard there, maybe he'd stop me from taking photos. Besides, the building was nothing much because we initially gathered at the carpark and the building exterior was just a black wall and I don't even know if the name Nogizaka building was on it. So really not much stuffs that stand out that shouts "MAYU'S SOLO EVENT". 

The next closest thing, I guess, is with the station name LOL. It's not bad because

(i) It constantly reminds me of the venue itself, Nogizaka building &

(ii) Nogizaka46

HAHAHAHHA

Some regrets I have were not being able to tell Mayu things like I'm from SG, her solo live was good, I'll be going to 2shots in Mar next year..

It's always like that wtf. I'd plan what to say and practice so hard so as not to stumble, then I'd meet Mayu and she'd say something unexpected (like during HS last year, she remembers I'm from SG and now this where she knows me), then I'll get all shocked and blank out and end up nodding whatever time I have with her away, then walk out, calm down, and start regretting not saying whatever I wanted to say.

lol.

I eventually wrote a letter to her so hopefully my thoughts are properly delivered to her.

But overall, like I said, hands down the best event ever.