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

Nico Nico Cho Party: Day 1

Hello!!

It's been far too long!!

In my last post I asked if anyone had any specific questions about Cho Party. I got one so I'll address that first. 

To the person who asked if since Tatsuki usually tries to stay in character all the time if and he and Puppipi ever took off their wigs. My answer is yes. They never wore them during rehearsal but they were just as sweet outside of costume as they were inside of costume. The only person who wore a costume at all times was Torasan. He always, always, wore his mask!!

Thank you for asking! If anyone else has any specific questions about anything please feel free to leave a comment!

Here's a new Cho Party update.

I realized that even though the last post was long I left some details out. Sorry!! I'll have to include them in the next post because this one will be quite long.

The 26th was the first day of Nico Nico Cho Party!!!

Almost everyone had to report to Makuhari Messe by 9am to tech the Opening Act.

Ari and I had been practicing at 3am the night before, after coming back from Mii's room, since the material had been so new to us. We were tired but also excited!

Tech on stage for the Opening Act was pretty exciting. I still wasn't able to get used to how bright and hot the stage lights were though....

Luckily it went much smoother than the day before and we were done within the hour.

After tech Mii, Mica, Ari and I headed to  Choukaigi. 

The normal line to get into Choukaigi was extremely long. But luckily Mii found out that with our performer passes we were able to enter just about any side door!

The side door that we used led us straight to Funyassi!

Most people would have been absolutely ecstatic to meet Funyassi but this was the one performer I didn't want to run into! Funyassi is soooo scary!!!

It moves weird.

Even so, I took a picture.

As soon as we got into the convention center I was overwhelmed! There were so many booths, stages and events happening! And it was incredibly packed so just maneuvering through the crowd was difficult. I tried to take pictures of the venue but they all came out blurry. 

Mica ended up going off on his own while Mii, Ari and I stuck together.

First we found the Choukaigi bus!

 We even wrote our names!

Our first stop was Morning Musumen's booth since I told them I'd try to stop by. (Meeting them is one of the stories I forgot to write about..)

The line for merchandise and signatures was extremely long so we just waved at them and moved on.

Next I found Magical Ban☆ Bang's booth! I wanted to go there to meet Shiita (☆) because I've been such a fan of hers for years! She wasn't there....But Norakura (☆) who I'm also a huge fan of was!!!

I was extremely nervous and ended up leaving in a rush without saying anything...

Next we found the Nico radio booth.

We waved at Ryoran! (☆)

Followed by the Aru Aru City Booth!

Torasan (☆), Tadanon (☆), SLH and a few others were dj-ing and dancing along to vocaloid music. They had so much energy and it was a lot of fun to watch!

Somehow, my eyes were drawn to Tadanon the entire time. I don't think I've ever seen someone completely pour their soul out on stage to vocaloid music before. It was amazing!!

I think it was at this point that I became a huge fan of him. 

Halfway through the show, Ari went off to find internet connection and check her e-mail in case we received an urgent message from Sato about Cho Party. (We actually had to do this every hour which was a little taxing but necessary)

And so Mii and I went on our own adventure!

We went to the odottemita booth!

They were having a choreography competition but in between numbers they would call random audience members to the stage. Being the only foreigner in the crowd I was spotted easily and called on stage! It was extremely nerve-racking and I couldn't form complete sentences. I ended up calling Mii to the stage to help me...

I managed to say my name and that I was performing in Cho Party before getting confused and finally being allowed off stage....

Next, we headed off to find food!

I think this was called Nico Beef!! (beef, cheese and seaweed over rice!)

みいちゃん！♡

By the time we were done, we decided to head back to the hotel to rest before call at 5pm.

Waiting in the rehearsal room was exciting! Finally seeing everyone in costume, up close, buzzing around and taking pictures!!

 There was a television monitor set up in the rehearsal room so that we could watch the live stream. It started as soon as the venue opened. It was both nerve racking and exciting to watch all of the seats fill up!

Finally about ten minutes before curtain, Abe-chan (☆) came in and gave a motivation speech.
It ended with the Cho Party chant!

Abe-chan: Love! Smile! Chaos! Se-no, (ready)

Everyone: NICO! NICO! CHO PARTY!

From then on it only got more exciting!!

First was the Opening Act. Waiting back stage, I kept bouncing on my toes, but Ti☆in! looked extremely nervous. One of them (Fine maybe?) had the idea to put our hands together and shout "We got it!" as a team chant! (I'll explain the origination of our chant in the next post)

I was really happy that they remembered the English phrase that we taught them!!

When the music for the Opening Act started I almost cried!! 

Standing on stage in front of 6,000 people is interesting and not at all what I expected.... I was so focused on performing and dancing with everyone that I didn't really see much of the audience at all. It made it easier actually.

As we were exiting the stage the next group of performers were already lined up to enter. (for yaranaika I think?)

Shiita was there!!!

We immediately recognized each other and spazzed out but I had to go back to the rehearsal room and she had to go on stage...

After her performance we finally met!! We'd known of each other for so long...
For a while we kind of just held hands and grinned for a while. I remember her saying, "The world is pretty big huh?"

To the left of us Ushi Dorobo are about to go on stage!

From then on it was  a lot of waiting, walking around awkwardly, practicing, watching the stream, trying to speak in Japanese (failing...) We were also allowed to watch the performance form the venue near the back entrance (where the audience wasn't allowed to enter or exit) behind a barricade. 

Often times the way we were able to introduce ourselves to other performers was by offering them American candy we brought or by asking for a picture. (We were able to meet Ushi Dorobo this way)

We never got a picture with Ushi Dorobo, but I can tell you that they're a pretty excited group! Nina in particular laughs very loudly and runs around the room. I enjoyed them!

Miume (☆) said she likes my fashion sense!!!

I don't know why but  when we first met them, Sacchaso (☆) just ran up to us, posed and said, "I am Japanese!" Then she made a triangle over her head and said "Mt. Fuji!!"  all in English.

At another point during the show. Tadanon happened to be sitting at the same table as us so I told him that I saw his performance of "yaranaika"  from the audience and it was hilarious. He just kept laughing and looked extremely embarrassed for some reason, which I thought was adorable.

I made sure to watch Ushi Dorobo's performance from the audience. This was great because, 1. they were absolutely amazing! and 2. little Ririri was dancing along with them from behind the barricade!! It was so cute!! She got a little wild and the staff had to make sure she didn't accidentally go past the barricade. 

After their performance I went backstage to tell them that I loved their performance!

Azuma (☆) burst into tears. I didn't know what to do.

It was getting close to the end of the show and Ti☆in! was no where to be seen so Ari and I practiced in front of the mirror by ourselves. Ushi Dorobo was to the right of us and they started getting noisy again. We soon realized that they were watching us. They kept saying things like, "kakkoi!!!" and "so cool" They were extremely animated about their enthusiasm so we started laughing which made them say "they're laughing!" which made us laugh harder. It was hysterical.

Ti☆in! came back in the middle of us practicing so we rehearsed it once more together before it was time together.

This next part, Ti☆in! talked about in their live stream so I don't feel bad about sharing!!

A little before we were supposed to go on stage we got news from staff, that the show was going on for too long so our performance was no longer the encore, just the last dance number.

This was stressful because initially our cue to go to out places was the audience shouting "Encore! Encore!"

And by the time we got backstage the staff still hadn't given us a new cue...

The confusion didn't stop Sato from being a dad and taking more pictures. When I asked him why he took so many he said that it was because these are things we'll want to look back on. So sweet!!

Papa!

Yay!! 

Suddenly, Ryouran came out of stage and called all of the performers on stage....which had not been rehearsed. This was a problem because there were now performers standing were we were supposed to be dancing for the second verse. 

And then the music started.

But I could feel that the four of us wanted to have a good performance no matter what so  we some how made it work!

This last one is from Abe-chan's blog before everything was taken down for some reason..(?)

In the end we performed without incident. It was so much fun!! We were so in sync! The entire time I just thought, "It's happening! No way! All of our hard work has led up to this point...."

After our number there was one more song and then Cho Party Day 1 was over.

Papa (Sato lol) caught us walking off stage!

I think I was actually saying "Papa!" here....(lol)

Then it was time for pictures!!

With Pupuppi (☆) and Tatsuki (☆) from Arsmagna!!

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Pupuppi is precious!! Their (manager?) made sure we got a picture with them after we asked on the first day of rehearsal.

You can’t see it from here but they had some AMAZING eye make-up happening!! 

Tatsuki is so sweet! He doesn't shy from you and I always felt comfortable talking to him.♡

 P.S. You can see Fine in the mirror.

With Guilty Hearts, Mica and Fine and Tsurutei!!! 

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They enthusiastically congratulated us after Tell Your World！ 

Miume said “センスがいい” Which translates to good fashion sense. I almost cried… 

They’re all really nice! We spent some time talking during tech rehearsal and after the show tonight. 

I can’t wait to see them again!! Merochin is SO. FUNNY. Right before we took this picture he looked at us and sung “Do you want to take a picture?” to the melody of “Do you want to build a snowman?” 

P.S They’re outfits look amazing up close!! They let me have a closer look at them. I love the jackets!!!

One of the highlights of the evening was probably turning around after Cho Party ended and seeing Miume and Ry☆  directly behind me! They said we danced well. Gah!!

There was a bit of an after party after the show. We had a toast. Kanpai!!

At first everyone thought it was hilarious that Ari and I grabbed alcoholic beverages. We later found out it was because they thought we were underage....

We're 22 by the way, and we were STILL one of the youngest performers there!!

Ti☆in! actually thought we were in high school. I will take it as a compliment!

At the after part we also ended up talking to Muratomi (☆) (He told us to call him Tommy) and Dragon (☆) from R.A.B. We got along really well. 

They said our style was "clean"

Unfortunately they weren't around the next day..I wanted to talk to them more!

It was around twelve by the time we all headed back to the hotel with Ti☆in! to call it a night.

I'm pretty sure Ari and I fell asleep within the hour.

And that was Cho Party Day 1!!!

Thank you for reading! The next post is coming sooner than you think!! (and not in over a month（´-`）.｡oO)

Ciao ♥