OMG
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the2belo and anyone else who watched Ainori in its waning months...
After my orientation for the summer camp thing (which, btw, I am apparently only doing the Aug 3-7 week, not the Aug 10-14 week... doh), I went to Harajuku, to Maasai Market, which is Ainori member Hide's shop to trade African imports, crafts and whatnot. But the reason I went is because Ainori member Shrek was going to be there.
I took a deep breath and walked in, and he was just standing there! It wasn't crowded when I entered at 11:30ish, so I actually talked to him for a bit -- said I was a big fan, asked if he was still living in Hyogo, how he felt about the end of the show, whatnot. He said that he didn't regret what happened to him but he felt really bad for the new members at the end who wouldn't get to take their trip. And he was like "Holy shit, you can speak Japanese really well!" and I said I'd been living in Japan two years and all. Mostly I was falling over my words like "I can't believe I'm talking to you! I watched you on TV for so long!" which was pretty funny.
Anyway, the thing is, if you wanted to take a photo with him, you had to actually buy something in the store, so I talked to a store clerk for a while and she helped me pick out a cellphone strap. She was also like "WTF why do you speak Japanese so well," and I'm like "I don't!" and she noticed my Ainori cellphone strap, and asked which member I was a fan of (to which I said "the last group was Shrek... before him was Carbonara... I liked anyone who made me laugh a lot!") So yeah, I paid 800 yen for a small charm with a strap attachment and then got to take a photo. It was really funny. He said thanks for coming in -- but he said "arigato", and I'm like "ArigaTON janai?" since his funny catchphrase on the show was always saying "arigaton" instead of "arigato". He laughed, everyone laughed, but unfortunately there was a HUGE line at that point -- I would have liked to talk to him more! I said "good luck from now on -- I'll always cheer for you!" or something retarded like that, and I left. There was even a line outside the store to get in at that point. Sigh.
Here's what's stupid -- I heard he was a baseball fan and I wanted to talk to him about it, but I didn't get to. He has a blog though -- I'm thinking of leaving a comment like "I'm the dumb American who came in today... I wanted to ask about baseball, what's your favorite team?" etc. I'm sure he'd remember me -- it's not like American Ainori fans are that common...
Oh, and GET THIS: during the orientation session in the morning, Ricky Barrett's wife was one of the other camp counselors. (Barrett is a pitcher for Yakult this year.) Apparently she works part-time as an English teacher to keep busy here. Beforehand we were all chatting and people were saying where they live, she said she lived by Gaienmae and I'm like "Oh! By the stadium, that must be nice" and she said "Yeah, my husband plays for the Yakult Swallows" and I'm like "YOU'RE FUCKING KIDDING ME. WHAT?". But in the interest of not being a ridiculous fangirl I didn't ask any more really after a few small talk questions. Sigh. I should have said that I'm a writer for japanesebaseball.com and all that but didn't think of it until later and really didn't want to be a total fucking dork and all.
So yeah, it's 12:30pm and I am home already from a fairly overwhelming morning. Still kicking myself about being a dork at Maasai Market and whatnot but I'm sure in a day or so I'll be in "don't sweat the small stuff" mode again like "hey, it took a lot of courage to go in there and be 'that freaky gaijin Ainori fan' -- good job, self!"
the2belo and anyone else who watched Ainori in its waning months...After my orientation for the summer camp thing (which, btw, I am apparently only doing the Aug 3-7 week, not the Aug 10-14 week... doh), I went to Harajuku, to Maasai Market, which is Ainori member Hide's shop to trade African imports, crafts and whatnot. But the reason I went is because Ainori member Shrek was going to be there.
I took a deep breath and walked in, and he was just standing there! It wasn't crowded when I entered at 11:30ish, so I actually talked to him for a bit -- said I was a big fan, asked if he was still living in Hyogo, how he felt about the end of the show, whatnot. He said that he didn't regret what happened to him but he felt really bad for the new members at the end who wouldn't get to take their trip. And he was like "Holy shit, you can speak Japanese really well!" and I said I'd been living in Japan two years and all. Mostly I was falling over my words like "I can't believe I'm talking to you! I watched you on TV for so long!" which was pretty funny.
Anyway, the thing is, if you wanted to take a photo with him, you had to actually buy something in the store, so I talked to a store clerk for a while and she helped me pick out a cellphone strap. She was also like "WTF why do you speak Japanese so well," and I'm like "I don't!" and she noticed my Ainori cellphone strap, and asked which member I was a fan of (to which I said "the last group was Shrek... before him was Carbonara... I liked anyone who made me laugh a lot!") So yeah, I paid 800 yen for a small charm with a strap attachment and then got to take a photo. It was really funny. He said thanks for coming in -- but he said "arigato", and I'm like "ArigaTON janai?" since his funny catchphrase on the show was always saying "arigaton" instead of "arigato". He laughed, everyone laughed, but unfortunately there was a HUGE line at that point -- I would have liked to talk to him more! I said "good luck from now on -- I'll always cheer for you!" or something retarded like that, and I left. There was even a line outside the store to get in at that point. Sigh.
Here's what's stupid -- I heard he was a baseball fan and I wanted to talk to him about it, but I didn't get to. He has a blog though -- I'm thinking of leaving a comment like "I'm the dumb American who came in today... I wanted to ask about baseball, what's your favorite team?" etc. I'm sure he'd remember me -- it's not like American Ainori fans are that common...
Oh, and GET THIS: during the orientation session in the morning, Ricky Barrett's wife was one of the other camp counselors. (Barrett is a pitcher for Yakult this year.) Apparently she works part-time as an English teacher to keep busy here. Beforehand we were all chatting and people were saying where they live, she said she lived by Gaienmae and I'm like "Oh! By the stadium, that must be nice" and she said "Yeah, my husband plays for the Yakult Swallows" and I'm like "YOU'RE FUCKING KIDDING ME. WHAT?". But in the interest of not being a ridiculous fangirl I didn't ask any more really after a few small talk questions. Sigh. I should have said that I'm a writer for japanesebaseball.com and all that but didn't think of it until later and really didn't want to be a total fucking dork and all.
So yeah, it's 12:30pm and I am home already from a fairly overwhelming morning. Still kicking myself about being a dork at Maasai Market and whatnot but I'm sure in a day or so I'll be in "don't sweat the small stuff" mode again like "hey, it took a lot of courage to go in there and be 'that freaky gaijin Ainori fan' -- good job, self!"
no subject
Will you bump into Mrs. Barrett again over the course of the week? You may well judge that the situation suggests she'd be happy to talk about it a bit more, and - as much as I maintain there is nothing wrong with being a fanboy or a fangirl - you are clearly a courteous one rather than a ridiculous one for waiting to try to find a better moment for her to talk more about it.