Best days ever~!
You guys all probably know this, but rainawallis and I went out to LA for the world premiere of Gantz. We flew out yesterday morning, leaving at the unseemly hour of 6:45am which meant waking up at 3:30am. You guys might not know it, but I'm not a morning person at all. I hate getting up in the mornings. But in the end, it was all worth it!
rainawallis and I had a spate of good luck all day yesterday. The first sign of a great day was looking for the shuttle bus that would take us to the rental car company. Now, I'm kinda an anal traveller and poor rainawallis has to put up with my little obsessions (such as getting to the airport insanely early.) I like to know what to expect each step of then way, so when we were waiting for the rental car shuttle bus, I asked Liz to call them just in case you had to notify them that you were waiting. It's a good thing that I did, because while the car company's name was Deluxe, the shuttle bus was operating under a different name. What name, do you ask?
Yup, it was Johnny Park!
We took it as a good sign of excellent things to come~
At the car rental, we were told that they had no more economy cars (which is what we had booked) so both rainawallis and I were suddenly wary, thinking that this would be a bait and switch scam (after all, the car rental was SO cheap.) So we were rather hesitant when the salesperson told us that they would be getting us a rental instead. I kept thinking, "Crap, a convertible. How much more is his going to cost us?!" imagine my surprise when she added, "We'll be giving it to you at the same rate, of course." rainawallis and I looked at each other and flashed huge smiles and I believe a woot or two was uttered. It wad my first time In a convertible so I can understand the draw. There's nothing nicer than riding through the city on a warm day with the top down~
After picking up the car, we used rainawallis's GPS system on her phone and made good time getting to the Chinese Mann Theater where we met up with Allison, the girl who gave us her extra tickets, her friend Amanda, and about 30 other west-coast Arashi fans. We weerer such a huge gaggle of girls... It was craziness but fun. We met up with Yuli, showa, riteandreader, and cutykoala again. It was lovely to see old friends again and make new ones~
At about 3:00pm, they started hustling us into the theater and lining us up, first to get our tickets and posters and then to get in line for the actual theater. After getting into then second line, there was a seeming interminable wait with many of us looking at our watches and counting down to when Nino and MatsuKen would arrive. There was much speculation about where they would be arriving and whether or not he would walk by us. We had heard that we would, but we didn't have any official confirmation so...
In line, I was standing with rainawallis, Yuli, mycutykoala and her friend. mycutykoala had to go to the bathroom and so did I, so about half an hour before Nino was scheduled to arrive we made a mad dash to the toilets, not wanting to risk missing him. Afterwards, she told me that she had asthma and the dash was really hard. Ah, the pain we endure for Arashi.
We got back in line and about 15 minutes before Nino was supposed to arrive, I get a call on my phone. I look at the number and recognize the Japanese area code. Not sure what the call could be about, I pick it up. It turns out that it's from Interac's Tokyo office calling to let us all know about our placements. I was sure that I would be out somewhere in the countryside in a prefecture that I've never heard of, so imagine my surprise when he told me, "So, your placement is in Tokyo City."
WHAT?!?!?? Are you kidding me?!?!!! I was totally resigned to working my way closer to Tokyo over the next couple of years because EVERYONE wants Tokyo. And usually Tokyo BOEs demand ALTs with some fluency in Japanese and teaching experience under their belts. I can honestly say that I have neither. Tokyo is like the golden apple that ALTs work towards... And I got offered it right out of the gate. I can only conclude that my I owe my boss and my teachers a HUGE debt of gratitude because that's the only reason that I can think of as to why I got such a plum placement.
It turns out that I'll be teaching at a JHS in Machida, which is on the western side of Tokyo, close to Kanagawa prefecture. It'll take me about half an hour to get into Shinjuku on the train, which means frequent visits to the Johnny's shop~!! and i'm close enough to make it to the tapings, should I ever hit~
Anyway, when I heard about my placement, I started shouting and jumping up and down with rainawallis, which caused kimi_no_tuski's mom to come over and ask us what happened. I guess she thought that my joy was due to Nino... Hahaha. She looked kind of disappointed when she found out that it wasn't. Still, for me, it was yet another reason to call this a good day...
A little after 4:30ish, there was a sudden buzz and screaming that alerted us to the fact that Nino was in the house. Seconds later, the idol himself walked by. I got a picture of him but rainawallis scored an amazing video! In what seems like a flash, he was gone and we were soon filing into the theater, turning in our tickets to get a free Gantz shirt.
We ended up sitting about 5 or 6 rows back from the stage with the press set up 2 rows in front of us. We were close to the right-hand side, which was kind of a bummer until later when it turned out to be a blessing in disguise~ why, you may ask. Because Nino and MatsuKen walked down the right-hand side to reach the stage. They also exited on the right to get back to the lobby~ so we got to see Nino up close quite a lot.
After their introductions, they did the standard welcome/greeting in English. Nino's was quite good and MatsuKen's was better than expected. I recorded a little bit of it, but I was kinda late so only got Nino saying his name in English and telling us to enjoy the movie.
As for the movie itself, it was much better than I thought. I had heard that it was violent but only the first alien battle was disturbing. I had to cover my eyes.... MatsuKen and Nino's acting was superb but the voice actors that dubbed them were incredibly awful. It really solidified my prejudice against voice actors here in the US... Especially if done through companies like Viz. Even Nino and MatsuKen seemed disappointed with the dubbing... I think that when I get to Japan, I'm gonna try to watch it in Japanese if it's still in theaters.
After the movie there was a question and answer session with Nino and MatsuKen who answered questions that people submitted over the Internet. The best question was whether or not either star would survive a Gantz mission. Nine said that he'd probably die and therefore he'd hide behind MatsuKen. The best part about this answer was that he ducked behind MatsuKen to illustrate it~ 著かわいい~!!
After the regular question and answer sessions that was broadcast all over the US, the LA audience was given a chance to ask their own questions. I raised my hand because I wanted to ask Nino why he'd given on making cakes after making on for MatsuKen's birthday when they were on the set together but then I ended up putting my hand down because it's a bit of a silly question. The other questions that were asked were all great though... And the funny thing was that the first 3 people picked to ask questions were all people that rainawallis and I knew~
After the movie, we gathered in the lobby and gave sound bytes to the Japanese media present, but sadly none of us were quoted. (T_T) While organizing anything with all of us was like herding cats, it was eventually suggested that we go to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. We split up into two tables and Allison (the girl who gave us her extra tickets), Amanda (her friend), Yuli, rainawallis, and I ended up at a table together. The other table of girls decided not to stay but we had already ordered, so we stayed to finish dinner.
Actually, we were kinda rushed out of dinner because there was a live band that started up about half an hour after we got our food. Their music definitely wasn't my cup of tea, but it wouldn't have been so bad if we could still hold a normal conversation while they were playing. Sadly, this wasn't the case. And since the band wasn't Arashi, we quickly asked for our check and made our escape. I think we all got headaches from it, though, because the waitress was rather slow in bringing the check.
Outside, we met up with Lynn, her friend, and her parents. Lynn's mom ended up taking amazing pictures and videos of Nino and MatsuKen because she pretended to be press. Hahaha, sounds like a familiar tactic~
By this time, it was getting pretty late and rainawallis and I were suffering from jet lag so we decided to call it a night. We told Allison that we'd give her a ride to her brother's apartment. Sadly, Liz's phone was running out of battery, so we used Xallison's iPhone and google maps. Just to let you know, google maps on the phone sucks. Or perhaps google maps on the AT&T network sucks... We got so lost using that stupid app. We kept missing the exits that we needed. Actually, the first miss was our fault because we we're having so much fun talking but after that... It got to the point that we felt like we'd never get Allison to her brother's house! I think it took us about 2 hours to get her home (it should have only been half and hour at the most.) It was total fail... But talking with Allison and Amanda made it fun... Arashi fans rule~!
By the time rainawallis and I got to the hotel and checked in, we were dead tired. We got ready for bed and I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. We only got a couple hours of sleep because we had to get up for our early flight out the next morning. Still, even with the sleep depravation, the trip was worth it. Not only did we get to see Nino in person, but we got to meet up with old friends and make new ones~ best day ever!!