Nico Nico Cho Party: Day 2 and Goodbyes!!

Hello all!!

Thank you for the feedback on my last post! I really appreciate it. I'm glad people are still reading even though it's taken me so long to write these.

Ok!

The last day of Cho Party, Ari and I slept in until almost noon. Having barely slept the day before, plus all of the excitement and the time difference had finally caught up to us I guess. There were no emergency emails from Sato and we didn't have to be at Makuhari Messe until call time at four.

Around midday we were finally dressed and headed to Makurhari Messe. I had three goals: see Berryz Kobo perform, and to catch Yakko(☆) and Manako(☆) at the odottemita booth, and to meet up with another odorite named Miho＊* (☆)


Miho and I have followed each other for about as long as I can remember. We both love Hello! Project. She was actually on stage at the Aru Aru City booth the day before, but I didn't recognize her because she was cosplaying. She later tweeted me asking if I was at the Aru Aru Booth because she thought saw me in the audience! I'm such an idiot!!

We agreed we would try to meet at the Odottemita Booth at around the time when Yakko and Manako were on stage to teach Viva Happy.

It was fun, they make a great team!!!

But through all of this I couldn't find Miho....

And while we were at the odottemita booth, Berryz had already performed. I missed them both!! I wonder if Miho was at the concert...

By the time Yakko and Manako's slot was over we decided to head back to the hotel to rest and eat before call time. We had just left the main hall and were only a short walk away to the hotel when a woman came up from behind us.

It turned out she was a Nico viewer who watched our videos regularly! She asked us to take a picture with her son. She said "Welcome to Japan!" bowed and hurried off. Ari and I felt so grateful. That was probably one of the highlights of our trip.

We ended up not getting any rest at the hotel so we just headed of Makuhari Messe when it was time. This time we mostly waited around backstage because the only time we'd be on stage was for the encore. Ti☆in! had also disappeared somewhere for almost three hours so we had to find some way to entertain ourselves....

Mica showed us how you eat chicken nuggets from McDonald's in the Philippines. With rice!

 The second day felt more of a day to just enjoy the show so I watched a good portion of the show from the audience including Mica's solo (which was amazing!!)

This day I was able to take pictures with...

Tadanon!(☆)

Torasan!(☆)

MARiA(☆)

And I am extremely embarrassed to say that I have no idea what this group called themselves. I just know that Penta(☆), Lilia(☆),  Mariyan(☆), Wata(☆),Yakko and Manako are in it, they're performance was superb and I had to get a picture with them.

However Penta wasn't present when it was time to take the picture...

But she did walk up to us and ask us to sign Cho Party's brochure next to out promotional pictures. (Some of the members in this picture are holding a copy of one) For anyone wondering, Penta is just as adorable and sweet as you would imagine her to be.

With Mii(☆)

With Ti☆in! and Musumen(☆) minus Aoi

With Yappi(☆) and Tama(☆) they're such talented musicians!!

The show was incredibly long, (over five hours!!) By the time we were called to the stage for the last number I wondered if the audience was tired. But almost everyone was standing and cheering still! It was pretty impressive! And even though it was after ten they still called for an encore!

The encore was probably the most fun I had at Cho Party because they sang a sort of extended version of "Skill". There was a huge tub of hot water involved!

There were fun surprises even for us performers! These hearts fell from the sky.

Mine had ripped so Fine gave me his. 

Ari later revealed to me that the one he gave me was one that she had picked up from the floor and handed to him. This depressed me a bit for some reason. 

Mii gave Ari and I these as a gift!!

After the show there was a final kanpai. And then it was finally time to wish everyone a goodbye. I certainly almost cried when Sato said he had to leave early and wouldn't be accompanying us to the airport.

We spoke with Melochin(☆) a little bit. Many things happened in the conversation but at one point he said "you dance, I sing" and he broke out into Happy Synthesizer. This was mostly embarrassing because Ari and I had completely forgotten the choreography as we hadn't done it in almost three years. But we got two fun pictures out of it.

So, so, so blurry. Melochin is the only one who looks good but he still sent it to us Forever grateful.

Then we did a five point star!

Melochin is indeed very sweet and patiently spoke with us for quite some time.

We were able to say goodbye to Miume(☆). She gave me hug and then said I smelled nice at which point my heart dropped into my stomach.

As I said goodbye to Yappi,  he told me that I didn't have to greet everyone before I left, just a few people, but knowing that there's a HUGE chance that I may never see them again made me feel inclined to at least say goodbye to as many people as I possibly could.

After we greeted as many people as humanly possible, Ti☆in!, Mica(☆), Ari and I finally headed back to hotel. There it was finally time to wish Ti☆in! goodbye as well since the chance we'd see each other again before our flight was pretty slim. There was a real feeling of accomplishment and gratitude and we were all pretty satisfied with our experience at Cho Party. So when we finally said goodnight and parted ways I didn't feel the need to cry.

The next morning there was a little bit of time before we had to catch the bus to the airport so Mica, Ari and I went to the mall one more time for some souvenir shopping.

On our way back to the hotel to wait for the bus, something hilarious happened!

I spotted Ti☆in! walking down the street and became suddenly overwhelmed with excitement. So I called them...rather loudly. 

They looked extremely surprised and almost confused but waved and continued. 

Later, it even came up in their after Cho Party broadcast. Fine in particular didn't know how to feel about it because he'd felt a sense of closure the night before only to see us again the next day.

I probably shouldn't have yelled their name in the streets, that had to have been slightly embarrassing...

But we also ran into Musumen which was exciting! They were a little less confused to see us and wished us a good trip!

I definitely said I would talk about how we met Musumen but there really wasn't much to talk about....I can definitely say they're a fun bunch and I was particularly grateful when Kimagure Prince(☆) said he remembered my Kiss Me Aishiteru dance cover. In return I told his that I loved his Suki Suki Beam Shiawase Beam cover and we danced a small portion of it together in remembrance which was exciting!!

Overall my experience at Cho Party was fulfilling and eye opening. One thing that I realized about Cho Party is that for the most part there really is no gap between the audience and the performers. It felt like a stage created by Nico Users. At any moment any  teenage girl sitting in front of her laptop half way around the world could decide, "I love this and I want to do this!" and actually do it. When Guilty Hearts was on stage, everyone backstage was glued to the tv screen or in the back of the hall cheering just like the audience; just as enthusiastically. There was no competition or bitterness. It really was a party and everyone supported each other. We were all gathered in the same place, celebrating the same thing and that's what was the most fun about it. That's probably why I loved participating in the encore parts the most. That's probably why even after five hours the audience showed no sign of fatigue. So if you're reading this entry and think, "it's so far away, I could never do that, I'm here to tell you that you most certainly can!" Just by expressing the same enthusiasm as everyone else you can do it!

Anyways, thank you all so much for reading about my experience at Cho Party! I left out quite a few smaller anecdotes but if there's anyone at all that you'd like to hear more about please let me know in the comment section. Otherwise this is my last entry!

Thank you so much for your patience and support!

Ki Mo