>>>It Really Happened, Terrible Banquet of Kenichi Ito ~Third Volume~ (hontou ni atta kowai utage)
Appointment at 11:30, I got my hair cut, finally, and styled up as I like it. They gave me a brand new extension also, happy times. While Haruka was getting done up, I sat down in the nook where so many DA Family members have posed, and did my homework next to the freaky yellow guitar Ken signed and drew bean sprouts on and collection of hundreds of DA, Iceman, TMR, and etc singles. For a change it was not raining - so we walked back to Shibuya, stopping for a purikura. We took eight shots - but they gave us 10 seconds to pick, and we didn't realize, so we only ended up with two - bastards. We cut them out and stuck them on our cards for Kenichi, the cards with proof we'd gone to all his kowai banquets, that we would soon give away forever in exchange for a meeting. Eee. Once back at the station, we boarded the train to Uguisudani, with over four hours until the banquet started. What the heck would we spend all that time doing? Crazy. It's around 40 minutes from Shibuya to Uguisudani, and poor half-sick Haruka fell asleep on me as I doodled in my handy dandy notebook. I shook her awake as we arrived, and she seemed super shocked she had fallen asleep... Japanese people have a way of sleeping on trains, then waking up right when it gets to their stop. Maybe she was scared her magical Japanese-person train power had been lost. We walked down to Tokyo Cinema Club, which was totally deserted. We hovered for a bit before we heard Ken's voice yelling - yeah, literally, we did. But it was coming from the sixth floor of the club - we were on the side, so we could hear it coming from the building. He was singing The Last Night. Rehearsal, all right baby! But it had given away what one of the songs would be that night. Oh, big deal. We got some food at McDonald's, and killed our time whining about stuff and exchanging tickets and fangirling. Lots of fangirls were in there - at one point, I went into the bathroom, where there were two other Ken cosplayers doing makeup. It was a Ken convention. Only in a Japan can you be in a McD's bathroom and be surrounded with Ito cosplay.
We settled in, got our drinks, chatted it up with some fans, and Haruka pointed out an evil web mistress who is known for being a scary stalker of Ken. She was this old middle aged lady! No wonder she's so scary. Get a husband, lady, geez! I hope when I'm a middle aged lady I have better things to do than stalk Iceman members. I hope when I'm a middle aged lady Kenichi is enjoying life in an old folks' home or doing well with his lung cancer treatment (as opposed to being dead already :D).
Fookin' 'ell. The video ended, and the James Bond theme (sigh) played.. this time when it wrote all the names on the screen, everyone had a nickname... like Kago-chan was Dandy, Ken was Yappi! Whuteva. Ken burst out from the curtains dramatically, in a red suit and looking very skinny and tall and his hair, as I'd predicted, was gigantic. Really gigantic. He got down on stage and wasn't talking for too long before I thought to myself, "Who the hell's jumping up and down on the balcony?" We were shaking. I realized then as people down below us began screeching and Haruka yipped "Jishin!" Earthquake! What was going on. The stage must be super sturdy because Ken only realized what was going on when he saw us freaking out (and he hadn't done anything cute). We yelled it's an earthquake, LOOK! The entire light structure above him was shaking and swaying like it was going to fall on him and us. All the lights came on, the way they do when a movie is over. Ken was just standing there looking shocked. His words of intelligence... Ken: We're still shaking?
When he was done he tried to talk to us some more, but there was ANOTHER. GOD. DAMNED. EARTHQUAKE. Ken told us to find out information on the earthquake, and he actually looked worried. A girl near the front checked on her cell phone and yelled at him that it was a level 4 quake and it was hitting the worst in Saitama, which is where both Kenichi and I live. Ken looked even more worried, and Haruka started panicking over my family being all right (I wasn't too concerned, this house is very sturdy). We would actually learn much later that this series of quakes that rocked Toyko killed multiple people and derailed a shikansen (bullet train), and would make international news. At this point, though, Ken was joking that the building might fall down. We were like, don't tell us that, you idiot! And he made crashing motions with his hands. Boom! It will collapse this way! Ah, yadaaaa Ken!! Mizue, Tohru, and Kago-chan came out, and told us in back they'd been wondering what the heck Ken was doing during the quakes. They chatted it up a bit, discussing Kaori's musical that was going until the 26th of October (why she'd only made it to the first banquet), and Tohru's live in Ikebukuro the next day. Tohru is really this hilarious guy who's pants never fit, and he's very talented and bouncy... I would have liked to have gone, but Ikebukuro itself it too costly for me to go to. They forced poor Tohru to sing "Tonight", and he totally messed it up. We all giggled at him, because he's a guitarist, not a singer. It's funny to hear someone sing who's worse than Ken. So, they played Tonight for real, as their first acoustic song. And during Tonight, the worst earthquake chose to hit. We began shaking VIOLENTLY this time, and Haruka practically jumped into my lap, clinging to my arm tight. We shook so hard people were actually SCREAMING this time, and the poor guys on stage just tried their best to ignore it and keep putting out. It lasted around 30-45 seconds, and the whole time Haruka and I clung to each other like whimpering babies. They had to shut the spotlight off again, as it was bouncing so madly that it looked ridiculous, so Ken had to finish in near darkness. It really, really felt like the building was going to collapse. When it stopped, we were incredibly shaken, and at the end of the song Ken just kind of sighed "We shook, didn't we? Yeah, we shook. Are we okay???". Well, we didn't collapse, so I guess so! He asked us if we'd ever had earthquakes happen during lives before. Well, Ken, considering most people in the room are there because they loved Iceman, and loved you the most of the Iceman members, and went to Iceman and Mads and Seeker lives, following you the whole time, and they've never had it happen, you probably haven't, either. Still. They did a Japanese song next, seken shirazu, and after that, Kago-chan sprung another game show round on them (when the theme music played, we all clapped with it happily). Ken was like, SHIT DUDE! No! I don't wanna do the game show! I suck at the game show! No! No game show! KITTE NAI YO!!!! They did it anyway, Ken's ideas sucked again, and he started to actually rip the notebook apart and eat the pages. Sweetie.... calm down. It's not your fault you've got brain damage. Tohru was declared champion. At one point during the game show, Ken kind of scrunched his sleeves up and put both his arms part way in the air while Tohru was talking...girls started yelling "KAWAII!!" and Haruka even leaned to me and squeaked "Kawaiiii!" Ken heard them and looked at what he was doing and suddenly stopped. Poor dude don't wanna be kawaii!! They announced the next song was Stand By Me. They tried to make Tohru sing it - Mizue gave him the lyrics - and Tohru freaked out, "BUT THIS IS ENGLISH!!". Ken said, "But you're fluent in English, right? Hahaha." And Tohru was like - "NO." He sung a few lines and I tried to stifle my laughter. I couldn't understand one word of it, poor guy. Ken told him it was wonderful, and I muttered that it was SO not. Finally Ken sang it for real, and did pretty good. He stumbled on "zaa lain" as usual, and "dah-link dah-link!". Mega freak. There was one more tiny earthquake, for only 10-15 seconds - which meant it would probably be the last. Thank you, sweet Jesus. I rushed to the little shojo's room when they left and met up with my HOMIES!!!! My Mads posse and gang! We chilled it out, discussed super secret plans to go to America with me in the winter, and fangirled as much as possible. I swear I'm in lust with my Snakey, too bad I'm the only lesbian in Japan, or so it seems. When the video resumed, there had been a scary hand print put on Ken's car! WHOOOOA scary! Not really, but they were FREAKING out! Who put this hand print on his car? It was a child, they concluded, because it was so small next to Mizue's and Ken's hands. But it was kinda weird looking. So, they went to ...a SCARY CAR WASH. For this ONE hand print. They sat in the car and Ken and Tohru kept going "AAAHHHH WAAAAAUGH WHOOOOAA!" as the car went through the works. Yeah guys, really mature... you're how old again? Oh yeah, Ken still watches Full Metal Alchemist and Dragonball... and is retarded... never mind. They ended that final segment, and showed some rehearsal movies. Okay okay, start the live, dudes!
"I'm listening to YOU right
now."
He told us next was a song about his precious summer memories....awwwww how cuuuuuuuuuute. It was End of Summer, and he barely sang the English again, grrr! The song is so reggae, it makes me joyful. I love the style, it's ...something different, right? He announced the next was a song we liked to rock to, and indeed it was, IROAI! MY FAVOURITE, HURRAY! He kept jamming down on each end of the stage, and he started bouncing up and down at one point, Fate Weather style! Ken, you will always be the guitarist of Iceman... :P Before the final song (I totally knew what it would be... heh heh), he said thanks to everybody, hoping we had fun at his finale banquet, and that after we could meet, such a fun time, isn't it! They finalized it all with The Last Night (I had NO idea!!! @_@), and we rocked out to Ken's little "UWAAAAAAA" notes, and he threw pics into the crowd. I have to say that he kept staring at me a lot, and it was easy to catch, as I was in the balcony... and he always looked at me when we were supposed to be singing English for him. When he threw his pics, he definitely threw two of them up at the balcony, one in my direction, but being a pic it hit the wall and bounced down. Another balcony-throw landed inside the balcony's architecture, and we all tried to get to it, but if we'd gone as far as the pic we'd have fallen off. One fangirl was so pissed about this, she tried to get Kenichi to come help her first, then staff... everyone ignored it. I bet the pic will still be there next time. Poor SEXX pic!
Then they were pushing us forward, and each girl disappeared around the corner, then hopped back out a second later. Literally, one or two seconds! Was he like shoving us away when we got inside?! No time to talk! It was my turn in no time, and I stood near him as the girl before me got her postcard, and then I was just a foot away. I grabbed his hand as he offered it to me, and kinda lost all my compose and just went "...". He didn't give me a chance to say anything anyway, because the moment he saw me he got this look in his face - the same look I get on my face when I'm told with a second's notice that I have to give a speech in Japanese in front of a hundred people. He stuttered. "Oh! Oh....thank you! Oh thank you," he said, and I just grinned at how funny it was. He was trying. I said "Yes, thank you too!" back, trying not to laugh, and he paused, looking thoughtful, then... "Nice to meet you." I laughed a little this time, such a trooper he was! And then he looked disappointed in himself, telling me in Japanese that he can't really speak English at all. I assured him he'd been great! It was then I noticed that I was still clutching his hand in both my own, and had been clinging to him like a pathetic lost puppy. I set him free, took my postcard, and did a little Domo arigatou gozaimasu bow, got the same in return, and stumbled out. Haruka was in and out after me, and she glomped me and jumped up and down, squealing. I realized then how I'd been staring at his face and grinning like a retard. I didn't WANT to come off at his stupid American 19 year old fangirl, but I know I did. Still, I pride myself in being different! I was the only person all night he said "Nice to meet you" and "Thank you" to - refreshing. Jesus! We found my MAD POSSE, sticking the postcard in Snakey's face and she squealed. We did our surveys, handed them in, and headed out. At one point loud screams came from the second floor where Ken was - I wonder if some dumbass had screamed in his face. How I pitied him, then. The line was massive to see him - around 500+ people strong - so we took out leave. Outside we waited for the posse, who emerged slowly. My Snakey was in shock and crying, despite having done it two other times. I consoled her with cuddles and by pressing her hand that Ken had touched on her cheek. She rubbed it, whimpering "Ken-chan, Ken-chan...".
What a wonderful night it was. I remember walking home from the station, and listening to Expander Drive Machine in my headphones... I had a weird shiver run through me as I realized I'd been clutching this man's hands not an hour ago, and watched him perform music I love live. It's an odd sort of thing that happens to me now and again. It's bound to occur, when you're living your dreams. I hope it's not seriously
the final banquet like he kept saying! Only time will tell...
EXTRA: Here's the link to a news article about the earthquakes. It mentions the first one was at 5:56 - the banquet began at 5:30 with the video. There's a bit of a timeline for you. Set List - It Really Happened,
Terrible Banquet of Kenichi Ito ~Third Volume~ (hontou ni atta kowai
utage)
Players:
|
A
SMOKER DAY! HURRAH!
All
our other live-going friends got there late, so we hung at the conbini,
bought our new postcard sets, and oogled mine. How geeky is Ken! His pants
were pulled up around his belly in all of them, and he just looked very
dorky and sweet. He's getting really wrinkly... maybe if he didn't smoke
what seems like two packs a day, it wouldn't be so bad, but...really. I
took some photos and giggled at the Mr. D cosplayers hanging out before
heading inside. The idiot manning the second floor balcony, where we chose
to sit so we had first dibs at Kenichi afterwards, at first tried to turn
us away - what the hell dude? We have second floor tickets, and throughout
the live people are always getting up and moving around and going upstairs
and downstairs... so what's your deal? It's not fucking off limits. Go
die, you dipshit.
It
began, and it was grandful fun. The final kowai utage's video started.
This time Mizue joined Ken and Tohru! They were going to go to a terrifying
tunnel. Ken's hair looked really long and shaggy... poor guy, the longer
it gets, the bigger it is when he poofs it up. So they all crowded into
Ken's car (I saw the Dog In Car sticker on there... sigh) and drove off,
getting lost plenty and asking directions. We all found it hilarious to
see Ken, Mizue, and Tohru bowing and going "Sumimasen deshita!!" Respectful
thanks for your troubles! They drove to this scary path first, which was
surrounded by old, gigantic, people sized sewer pipes going into the mountains...
it was actually scary, we kind of "ooooh"ed. I wondered if Ken was filming
that particular part, because we didn't see him at all in the shot, not
even when it turned a bit - just Mizue and Tohru, who was taking photos
like a dork. We then saw Ken - he was hovering way in the back like a wimp
pussy boy! Mizue tried to get him to go inside the path and Ken was like
shake head shake head! PUSSY ASS FAGGOT GAY BOY GIRLY MAN.
It
stopped and we calmed down. Ken decided it was okay and proceeded with
the banquet. He sat down to tell us his tale of Ushiro no Kenichitarou,
and Iggy. This time Goku from DragonBall Z... argh... and he called the
story Ushiro no Kenichitarou GT...get it? Dragonball GT? ARGH. I can't
even...argh. As Ken told the story, I felt it again. We were shaking. The
spotlight on Ken started dipping up and down, and they were panicking as
quietly as possible (to not be a bother to Ken) below us. Ken tried to
continue as smoothly as he could, but he kept muttering between pages,
"Are we shaking now?!?!? Are we okay???" It ended in a short time without
much drama. I didn't really understand his story at all, but in the end
everything ended rather suddenly and the audience was like WHAT? WHAT HAPPENS?
Ken just laughed. Haha. The credits played and showed some old drawings.
When Ken's drawing of Full Metal Alchemist's Edward Elric showed again,
everyone screeched happily.
Weird
intro music that was definately written by Ken began playing, and they
came out amid flashing lights, and jammed right down into SEASON!
Only one Ken solo even so far for me has no started with that song. He
kicked up a storm and was generally very energetic. After came my big fangirl
moment - HE DID WEEKEND BLASTERS!!!!
FOR THE FIRST TIME! Do you KNOW how much I love that song?! No, you don't!
I'd always written to him to do it, and he did it, I'M SO HAPPY! I screeched,
literally, and Haruka grabbed me and we bounced up and down. We rocked
out the house, we raised the roof! Yet he barely sung the English as usual.
PUSSY WIMP! When he finished he asked us if there had been earthquakes...
and laughed and said there was no way to tell because we were all rocking
anyway! He then put his guitar aside for Don't
Stop the Radio. The next song I could absolutely not place
at first because of the weird opening, but then I heard Mizue and Tohru
going "down down down"... it was YOU!
Yay! The official Most Abusive Use Of The Word "You" In Any Song Ever song!
And such a hard song to discuss with foreign fans...
And
we lined up to meet Kenichi. The balcony sitters got first hit! I stood,
number five or six in line, knowing exactly what I'd do - no fangirling
from me. I'd go in, confidently shake his hand, and say Thanks Ken, and
some clever words in Japanese, and try to get him to speak some English
to me. And he'd give me my postcard and I'd swagger out, totally composed
and unfangirly.
And
I returned to my poor Saitama, having an odd moment as I doodled on the
train and a salary man fell asleep on my shoulder and breathed alcohol
breath in my face.. that I was going home to sleep, and Ken was still shaking
people's hands and getting screamed at. Sigh. Poor guy. Yet I can't pity
him TOO much - I wish my job was rocking out hard to awesome music every
weekend, right? :P
03.
Don't Stop the Radio
