Hayami Show's 30th Anniversary Sightseeing Event
I went to Hayami-san's 30th Year Anniversary in Tokyo on April 25th, 2010. Hayami-san picked his favorite places in Tokyo, and took us on a surprise tour of those places. We had no idea where we were being taken until we got to each place. Hayami-san thought it would be fun if he did it this way. ^_^
UPDATE: Pictures have finally been added!
We met in front of the information board at Maihama station at 9, and after a few minutes of me not seeing anyone I recognized, a woman came up to me and asked me if I was me, (I was the only foreigner on the list, and Hayami-san's staff know me by now, which is really funny because they never even asked to see my ticket.) and she told me to go down the stairs and wait for the buses. There were two full buses that went on the trip, and I was in bus number 2. As I passed the buses, there were already people inside (since we were meeting up with the people who went to the tea ceremony the day before) and one woman in particular waved to me excitedly as I went by.
My seat was number 15, which was nice, because I was an aisle seat, and it was only 3 rows away from the front, where Hayami-san sat for part of the time. Once we were on the bus, Hayami-san came on and welcomed us to the sightseeing trip, and then read off our names to make sure we were all there. He read everyone's first and last names, but he got some of them wrong, and he had trouble with others (because they were obviously in kanji, and name kanji can be weird sometimes) so everyone had a good time playfully teasing him about it. Sometimes it would take him a second or two of staring at a name before he figured it out, but when he got to my name, he took a second, and then decided on only attempting my first name. It was amusing ^_^
Hayami-san was wearing a white shirt with a black (flower?) pattern on it, and a really stylish looking gold-champagne colored jacket. His jeans were a normal blue color, with the front part over his thighs lighter than the rest. They also had (purposely) ripped parts over them, around his upper thighs. He wore a normal pair of black shoes with about a one inch heel on them.
His jewelry included his usual two rings on his left hand (the dark tiger’s eye looking one and his pinky ring), along with some kind of sparkly necklace. I couldn’t see much of it, but it looked like there was some kind of gem or two on the end of it. His outfit was completed with his normal pair of sunglasses. He looked wonderful. ^_^
After that he left our bus, and our tour guide got on and we went on our way. As we were driving, she pointed out just about every tall building, park, etc. and told us about it. She told us we were going to a park first, and then we'd be off to Tokyo Tower. At that point all the girls on the bus let out a little scream and told her that she wasn't supposed to tell us that. The tour guide, a woman in her early 50's with a lively personality who was very easy to like, apologized profusely and said that she didn't know she wasn't supposed to tell us because no one had informed her. So then she was like "But you guys don't know where you're going next, do you? You didn't hear anything at all . . . not a thing at all . . . did you?" And all of us said "Nope, nope, we didn't hear anything . . . We have no idea where we're going . . ."
Our first stop was at Kasai-Rinkai Park. The moment I stepped off the bus, a woman literally grabbed my arm, and asked me “Japanese is okay, isn’t it?” and when I said it was, she told me that I should join her and her friends as we explored the park. The other fan club members all kind of know each other, or at least most people have a friend or two that are in the club with them, so I would have been one of the few people exploring by myself, so it was really amazingly sweet of her to just automatically include me like that. She took me over to her other friends and informed them that I’d be joining them.
We walked around the park and saw the fish kites overhead and all the gorgeous blossoms (the sakura were gone already, but everything else was still blooming.) We took some pictures of the flowers, and then some pictures together as a group in front of them. There were also small trains for little kids to ride which we brightly colored, so we took some pictures in front of them too.
Since there were two buses filled with girls, we were all set loose on the park before Hayami-san went to go explore it. So most of the time we’d randomly catch glimpses of him wandering around the area, but he didn’t actually join any small group of us. (I can’t blame him.) I didn’t see him at the park, but another girl had, and said she’d run into him just down the road. We headed back to the bus, and once we were all on, Hayami-san joined us for the ride to the next place. Most of the time he stood at the front of the bus, but when he sat down, he sat in the aisle seat just 3 rows up from me.
He kept trying to drop us hints about the next place. I’m not sure if he knew that our previous tour guide had accidentally told us or not . . . but he would start off a sentence, and then say “To-” and then he’d stop himself, and either trail off, or try to change the word into something else. He pointed out all the things we passed, one of which was the Tokyo Disney Land area, and he asked us “Have any of you been there before?” and all of us stared at him for a moment with a blank expression on our faces, until one girl piped up “We went there for your last birthday party . . . !” And we all laughed together at how silly he was for forgetting that. ^_^ He was so cute when he was telling us about the places we were passing, he’d be like “Oh! And on your left . . . my right . . . you can see . . . oh wait, there’s a wall there now, you can’t see it, can you?” We drove over the Rainbow Bridge, which was one of the things on our sightseeing list, and Hayami-san pointed out all the boats in the water, and some of the tall buildings in the area, along with the Fuji Television building. At the front of the bus, there was one step (that went down to where the driver was sitting) and Hayami-san was standing on it most of the time while he was acting as our tour guide, but at one point, he kind of stumbled off it backward, and was like “. . . I’m, ok!”
As we got close to Tokyo Tower, he pointed out the park surrounding it, and there seemed to be a little confusion at first as to where we were actually taking our group picture. At first Hayami-san said that we were taking it at Tokyo Tower, but then he had to correct himself. We actually ended up going to the park right next to Tokyo Tower and taking our picture there, with the tower in the background behind us. Which was good, because Tokyo Tower is really freaking crowded all the time, and taking a picture there would have been really hard.
I was looking at my chart for the group pictures . . . but it really didn’t make any sense, because there were a total of 4 charts, and each person was listed twice, so I didn’t know which of the two I was supposed to be following. Thankfully I stick out enough that the staff knew where I was supposed to be and they told me where to stand. I was actually in the front row, kneeling down, just one person away from Hayami-san. They told us they’d mail the pictures to us when they were done ^_^
We got back on the bus, and we only spent a minute or two on it as we went to Tokyo Tower. We got in line, and then went up the elevator to the second floor of the first landing, which was about 150 meters high.
When it was time to go, the line for the elevator down was insanely long, so we decided to take the stairs. We walked down 150 meters worth of steps, and we ended up being about 3 minutes late. Quite a few people were up to 6-7 minutes late because of the elevator. Hayami-san got back on our bus to talk to us a little bit, and he told us that lunch was next, but then two more girls got on the bus, and he was like “You’re late!” and the girls apologized, and then Hayami-san said teasingly, “We’ve all been waiting for you this whole time . . .” and the girls were like “omg we’re so sorry!” We were all laughing, and Hayamai-san said that he was just joking and playing around, but the girls still looked mortified.
The tour guide rode the bus with us this time, and the Meiji shrine was pointed out to us as we passed it, along with Shinjuku station, and Kabuki-cho. We ate at Batur Tokyo in Shinjuku, and the main dinning hall, which was absolutely gorgeous. Chandeliers lined the ceiling and there were round tables everywhere with thick, creamy-white tablecloths. The stage was in the front, lit up with pearly colored blue, purple, and pink lights, so the whole stage looked like it was glowing. Along the sides of the stage there were long, Roman-styled columns stretching up towards the ceiling. Towards the back of the room there was a large staircase that led up to the second floor. Leave it to Hayami-san to pick some place gorgeous. Near the back staircase was a table with a guy serving drinks. The two buffet tables were lined up along the two sides of the room. I was seated at table number 2, seat number 1 . . . which was actually dead center, directly in front of the stage. I had the best seat in that entire room!
The staff told us we could go get our food, and it looked wonderful. There was salad with slices of salami in it. There was pasta with tomato sauce, cheese, and visible spices. There was rice with muscles, scallops, squid, and peppers. There was also thick, round juicy hamburger patties “hamburger steaks” in a rich red wine sauce with mushrooms and tomatoes. I think there was a clam chowder soup too (or at least something that looked like it) but I didn’t get to try it because I didn’t see it anywhere.
For dessert there were small pieces of chocolate mouse cake, and what looked like cheese cake. There were also small custard plates with a blue berry on top, and raspberry sauce over it. Then there was also another type of custard in a round glass with gelatin and mixed fruit on top (a strawberry, a blueberry, and a raspberry,) along with a tiny, tiny leaf of mint. It was wonderful. There was also what seemed to be crème brûlée in a martini glass with mixed fruit on top. Everything was mouth-wateringly delicious, and probably some of the best food I’ve eaten in Japan so far. We had a few choices for drinks, (tea, soda, orange juice, and grapefruit juice), and I went with the orange juice.
After we were done eating, Sentimental Domino started to play, and the spotlight went up to the stairs in the back of the room, where Hayami-san came out. He came down the stairs and got up on stage then grabbed the microphone. Immediately he started jokingly lip singing to the song (since the vocals were being played over the speakers). It was so funny, and he was taking himself so un-seriously that everyone burst out laughing at his playfulness.
The staff member off to the right told him that it was “free-talk” time. So he welcomed us and thanked us for joining him for his 30th Anniversary Spring Traveling Trip, and asked us if we were having fun and such. He asked us what we thought of Tokyo Tower, and if we could see Mt. Fuji (we couldn’t), and he said we could only see it on a really, really clear day. He said a few other things I can’t remember, and when he was done he looked back over towards the staff member and asked something like, “How was that? Was that ok for a free-talk?” She said that it was good, and then they started the question and answer segment. Everyone previously wrote a question on a little card, and they brought a basket up on stage and had Hayami-san pick the questions randomly from the basket, then the staff member read them out loud.
I didn’t quite understand what was being said, but I think I got the gist of a few of the questions. One person asked that since it’s Hayami-san’s 30th anniversary of becoming a seiyuu, if the time has gone by really quickly. Hayami-san said not really, because the time seems to speed up and slow down sometimes. He said during certain periods and during certain anime he worked on the time went by really fast, and during other things the time went by really slowly, so he couldn’t really pick one or the other. At this point, he started using points on the stage as examples of a timeline. He was like “From here to here is Zetsuai and Mirage of Blaze . . . and then from here to here is Macross . . .” etc. Every once in a while he would ask us something like “You agree don’t you?” or “Isn’t that right?” or something along those lines. Most of the time he asked it to us in general and let one of us randomly respond, and other times if it looked like a person in the front knew what he was talking about or what he meant, he would ask them directly.
Another question was asked . . . I want to say it was asking about seiyuu hanging out together, but I really don’t know for sure, I’m just guessing. Hayami-san said that he spends time with, Chiba Susumu, Hiyama Nobuyuki, Morikawa Toshiyuki, and (I’m guessing he mentioned but I can’t remember at the moment), Horiuchi Kenyuu. He said they go out to eat, they go drinking, they shop around, etc. together. He said they don’t go to sing karaoke though, because they have their own bands that they sing with on stage, and I’m also guessing it’s because they don’t want to kill their voices for work the next day. When he was describing what they do together, he said a word I didn’t quite understand, but I sort of got the impression that it was a word similar to enkai, and I think he meant that sometimes after work when they’re all done with stuff they go out together. When he used the word though, he stopped himself and asked everyone if they knew what he meant because he didn’t seem convinced that everyone would know what the word was. At that point, he asked, “Do understand?” to everyone, when no one responded, he walked directly over to me and asked, “Do you understand? You understand, right?” and all I could do was barely manage a nod. This was for a few reasons . . .The main one being shock. When I first met him two years ago, he always had the “Oh crap, a foreigner! What do I do?” expression on his face. Most Japanese people have this reaction towards me because they aren’t confident in their English ability and they just panic when they’re put on the spot, which is completely understandable. So the fact that he not only purposely came up to me and spoke to me, but that he also did so while he was up on stage, where everyone could see and hear him really said a lot to me. During the whole trip really, I noticed a big difference in his demeanor towards me. When he spoke to us, both when he was up on stage and when he was on the bus with us, he’d actually look at me in the eye while he was talking (just like he did with everyone else). Everyone that went to this event was a fan club member, so he’s really gotten familiar with everyone, and he usually sees all of us about 4 times a year at least. In the past he’d try to avoid looking at me at all costs (probably out of fear that I didn’t understand a word he was saying and I’d do something unpredictable), but this time I was just one of the fan club members, and not “the foreigner.” During this trip, everyone was really friendly, and they stopped being so shy around me. I became “their foreigner” instead of “the foreigner.”
So yeah, the fact that he decided to speak to me of his own free will was rather surprising too, rendering me speechless.
Somehow Hayami-san got on the topic of a street he was on once . . . I got the impression that it was in a foreign country, but I can’t be sure. He used our tables as an example of it though; he said from my table to the table right next to it was about how wide the street was, and there was lots of stuff and people around and in the street, but then buses would come through, and the buses were just about exactly as wide as the street, (again he used our tables and his arms to indicate how wide things were) and he was surprised that it could fit, let alone having it come barreling down the street towards him. He continued using us as examples, but he started pointing to individual people to get his point across, and I have to admit, not being prepared for it, it was rather startling to have Hayami-san coming up to me and pointing directly at me. *laughs* I need some warning first . . .
After the question and answer segment, he was waiting for a box to be brought out, so he put the microphone down on the small round table up on stage. As he was putting it down though, he didn’t trust it to stay there with out rolling off, so he crouched down slightly with both hands extended out in front of him next to the edge of the table, waiting for the microphone to roll off the table into his hands. This wouldn’t have been very memorable, if it wasn’t for the fact that the microphone was rolling really, really slowly, and he was the only one on stage, with no one talking at the moment, so all eyes were on him as the microphone slowly inched it’s way over to him and off the table. (He did it for the sole purpose of being adorable, and he succeeded wonderfully and he got everyone to laugh.)
After the box was brought out, and Hayami-san showed us the presents that were inside. The staff member told us that they’d do a raffle with our table and seat numbers. First Hayami-san showed us the presents, all of which were bought at Tokyo Tower while we were there. The first one was a snow globe of Tokyo Tower, the second one was a Tokyo Tower key chain, and the third one was a Tokyo Tower candle. Next they raffled off two pictures of Hayami-san that were taken somewhat recently. It was of him standing in a bamboo forest, and the bamboo were really, really green. I believe it was actually taken in Kyoto-fu, in Saga Arashiyama, which is along the Sagano (San-in) line, which is actually just a short distance away from where I live! Sadly I didn’t win any of them . . . (I’ve won something in the past . . . And my seat couldn’t get any more perfect, so I really can’t complain . . .) The staff member had everyone bring up their name card so that Hayami-san could give them an autograph along with their present (without having to worry about which kanji to use), and then they would bow and thank each other. At one point, he asked one of the girls if she wanted the present he was about to give her . . . And I think there must have been some confusion on her part . . . Maybe . . . Because she said no o_O I think she wanted one of the other ones instead. Hayami-san teased her for it though, and she got the one she supposedly didn’t want. Oh! At one point though, Hayami-san was like “Do any of you not want these? If so, let someone else at your table take it. But it’s a present you know? Even if you don’t like it.” He said it teasingly of course. ^_^
After that was over, Hayami-san told us that we’d be going to Senso-ji in Asakusa. When we got there, I walked around again with the group of women. First we went to get our fortune told near the temple, then we walked around the shopping streets and looked at the large gates.
When that was over we went back to the bus and Hayami-san rode with us this time. He pointed out random places as we passed them, like Ueno station, Ueno park, the “American” shopping street, etc. This was the first time I really had no idea where we were going until we reached the place.
We ended up at the National Museum of Nature and Science (Kokuritsu Kagaku Hakubutsukan) in Ueno Park. I finally saw the giant sperm whale! I’ve been dying to see that thing for at least two years or so. There was also a steam locomotive outside of the museum on the other end.
The museum itself was really pretty. It had really nice architecture and stained glass windows. I didn’t realize it at first, but this was actually the place with the giant ammonite! There wasn’t just one either, there were two really, really big ones. I’d been wanting to see it ever since Hayami-san posted a picture of it. ^_^
As I was walking back with the group of women, we saw Hayami-san outside with some of the staff members near the buses. We all sort of had the same “omg! Hayami-san!” expression . . . Even though we’d been spending the day with him. We got on the bus and Hayami-san came on one last time to say goodbye to us. He thanked us for coming and hoped we had fun and such, and said goodbye. He stood outside as the bus drove away and waved to all of us.
Overall, the day went really well. The other fan club members have really accepted me and talk to me now, and that even includes Hayami-san.. I got to go around and see all of Hayami-san’s favorite places in Tokyo, and I even got to see the sperm whale and the giant ammonite that I’ve been wanting to see for years. The only bad thing was that I was kind of hoping that Hayami-san would be around a bit more at the places that we went to, but I really can’t complain too much. He was happy and smiling the whole time, and because of that, I was really able to have a wonderful time. The day then ended with a gorgeous sunset.
UPDATE: Pictures have finally been added!
We met in front of the information board at Maihama station at 9, and after a few minutes of me not seeing anyone I recognized, a woman came up to me and asked me if I was me, (I was the only foreigner on the list, and Hayami-san's staff know me by now, which is really funny because they never even asked to see my ticket.) and she told me to go down the stairs and wait for the buses. There were two full buses that went on the trip, and I was in bus number 2. As I passed the buses, there were already people inside (since we were meeting up with the people who went to the tea ceremony the day before) and one woman in particular waved to me excitedly as I went by.
My seat was number 15, which was nice, because I was an aisle seat, and it was only 3 rows away from the front, where Hayami-san sat for part of the time. Once we were on the bus, Hayami-san came on and welcomed us to the sightseeing trip, and then read off our names to make sure we were all there. He read everyone's first and last names, but he got some of them wrong, and he had trouble with others (because they were obviously in kanji, and name kanji can be weird sometimes) so everyone had a good time playfully teasing him about it. Sometimes it would take him a second or two of staring at a name before he figured it out, but when he got to my name, he took a second, and then decided on only attempting my first name. It was amusing ^_^
Hayami-san was wearing a white shirt with a black (flower?) pattern on it, and a really stylish looking gold-champagne colored jacket. His jeans were a normal blue color, with the front part over his thighs lighter than the rest. They also had (purposely) ripped parts over them, around his upper thighs. He wore a normal pair of black shoes with about a one inch heel on them.
His jewelry included his usual two rings on his left hand (the dark tiger’s eye looking one and his pinky ring), along with some kind of sparkly necklace. I couldn’t see much of it, but it looked like there was some kind of gem or two on the end of it. His outfit was completed with his normal pair of sunglasses. He looked wonderful. ^_^
After that he left our bus, and our tour guide got on and we went on our way. As we were driving, she pointed out just about every tall building, park, etc. and told us about it. She told us we were going to a park first, and then we'd be off to Tokyo Tower. At that point all the girls on the bus let out a little scream and told her that she wasn't supposed to tell us that. The tour guide, a woman in her early 50's with a lively personality who was very easy to like, apologized profusely and said that she didn't know she wasn't supposed to tell us because no one had informed her. So then she was like "But you guys don't know where you're going next, do you? You didn't hear anything at all . . . not a thing at all . . . did you?" And all of us said "Nope, nope, we didn't hear anything . . . We have no idea where we're going . . ."
Our first stop was at Kasai-Rinkai Park. The moment I stepped off the bus, a woman literally grabbed my arm, and asked me “Japanese is okay, isn’t it?” and when I said it was, she told me that I should join her and her friends as we explored the park. The other fan club members all kind of know each other, or at least most people have a friend or two that are in the club with them, so I would have been one of the few people exploring by myself, so it was really amazingly sweet of her to just automatically include me like that. She took me over to her other friends and informed them that I’d be joining them.
We walked around the park and saw the fish kites overhead and all the gorgeous blossoms (the sakura were gone already, but everything else was still blooming.) We took some pictures of the flowers, and then some pictures together as a group in front of them. There were also small trains for little kids to ride which we brightly colored, so we took some pictures in front of them too.
Since there were two buses filled with girls, we were all set loose on the park before Hayami-san went to go explore it. So most of the time we’d randomly catch glimpses of him wandering around the area, but he didn’t actually join any small group of us. (I can’t blame him.) I didn’t see him at the park, but another girl had, and said she’d run into him just down the road. We headed back to the bus, and once we were all on, Hayami-san joined us for the ride to the next place. Most of the time he stood at the front of the bus, but when he sat down, he sat in the aisle seat just 3 rows up from me.
He kept trying to drop us hints about the next place. I’m not sure if he knew that our previous tour guide had accidentally told us or not . . . but he would start off a sentence, and then say “To-” and then he’d stop himself, and either trail off, or try to change the word into something else. He pointed out all the things we passed, one of which was the Tokyo Disney Land area, and he asked us “Have any of you been there before?” and all of us stared at him for a moment with a blank expression on our faces, until one girl piped up “We went there for your last birthday party . . . !” And we all laughed together at how silly he was for forgetting that. ^_^ He was so cute when he was telling us about the places we were passing, he’d be like “Oh! And on your left . . . my right . . . you can see . . . oh wait, there’s a wall there now, you can’t see it, can you?” We drove over the Rainbow Bridge, which was one of the things on our sightseeing list, and Hayami-san pointed out all the boats in the water, and some of the tall buildings in the area, along with the Fuji Television building. At the front of the bus, there was one step (that went down to where the driver was sitting) and Hayami-san was standing on it most of the time while he was acting as our tour guide, but at one point, he kind of stumbled off it backward, and was like “. . . I’m, ok!”
As we got close to Tokyo Tower, he pointed out the park surrounding it, and there seemed to be a little confusion at first as to where we were actually taking our group picture. At first Hayami-san said that we were taking it at Tokyo Tower, but then he had to correct himself. We actually ended up going to the park right next to Tokyo Tower and taking our picture there, with the tower in the background behind us. Which was good, because Tokyo Tower is really freaking crowded all the time, and taking a picture there would have been really hard.
I was looking at my chart for the group pictures . . . but it really didn’t make any sense, because there were a total of 4 charts, and each person was listed twice, so I didn’t know which of the two I was supposed to be following. Thankfully I stick out enough that the staff knew where I was supposed to be and they told me where to stand. I was actually in the front row, kneeling down, just one person away from Hayami-san. They told us they’d mail the pictures to us when they were done ^_^
We got back on the bus, and we only spent a minute or two on it as we went to Tokyo Tower. We got in line, and then went up the elevator to the second floor of the first landing, which was about 150 meters high.
When it was time to go, the line for the elevator down was insanely long, so we decided to take the stairs. We walked down 150 meters worth of steps, and we ended up being about 3 minutes late. Quite a few people were up to 6-7 minutes late because of the elevator. Hayami-san got back on our bus to talk to us a little bit, and he told us that lunch was next, but then two more girls got on the bus, and he was like “You’re late!” and the girls apologized, and then Hayami-san said teasingly, “We’ve all been waiting for you this whole time . . .” and the girls were like “omg we’re so sorry!” We were all laughing, and Hayamai-san said that he was just joking and playing around, but the girls still looked mortified.
The tour guide rode the bus with us this time, and the Meiji shrine was pointed out to us as we passed it, along with Shinjuku station, and Kabuki-cho. We ate at Batur Tokyo in Shinjuku, and the main dinning hall, which was absolutely gorgeous. Chandeliers lined the ceiling and there were round tables everywhere with thick, creamy-white tablecloths. The stage was in the front, lit up with pearly colored blue, purple, and pink lights, so the whole stage looked like it was glowing. Along the sides of the stage there were long, Roman-styled columns stretching up towards the ceiling. Towards the back of the room there was a large staircase that led up to the second floor. Leave it to Hayami-san to pick some place gorgeous. Near the back staircase was a table with a guy serving drinks. The two buffet tables were lined up along the two sides of the room. I was seated at table number 2, seat number 1 . . . which was actually dead center, directly in front of the stage. I had the best seat in that entire room!
The staff told us we could go get our food, and it looked wonderful. There was salad with slices of salami in it. There was pasta with tomato sauce, cheese, and visible spices. There was rice with muscles, scallops, squid, and peppers. There was also thick, round juicy hamburger patties “hamburger steaks” in a rich red wine sauce with mushrooms and tomatoes. I think there was a clam chowder soup too (or at least something that looked like it) but I didn’t get to try it because I didn’t see it anywhere.
For dessert there were small pieces of chocolate mouse cake, and what looked like cheese cake. There were also small custard plates with a blue berry on top, and raspberry sauce over it. Then there was also another type of custard in a round glass with gelatin and mixed fruit on top (a strawberry, a blueberry, and a raspberry,) along with a tiny, tiny leaf of mint. It was wonderful. There was also what seemed to be crème brûlée in a martini glass with mixed fruit on top. Everything was mouth-wateringly delicious, and probably some of the best food I’ve eaten in Japan so far. We had a few choices for drinks, (tea, soda, orange juice, and grapefruit juice), and I went with the orange juice.
After we were done eating, Sentimental Domino started to play, and the spotlight went up to the stairs in the back of the room, where Hayami-san came out. He came down the stairs and got up on stage then grabbed the microphone. Immediately he started jokingly lip singing to the song (since the vocals were being played over the speakers). It was so funny, and he was taking himself so un-seriously that everyone burst out laughing at his playfulness.
The staff member off to the right told him that it was “free-talk” time. So he welcomed us and thanked us for joining him for his 30th Anniversary Spring Traveling Trip, and asked us if we were having fun and such. He asked us what we thought of Tokyo Tower, and if we could see Mt. Fuji (we couldn’t), and he said we could only see it on a really, really clear day. He said a few other things I can’t remember, and when he was done he looked back over towards the staff member and asked something like, “How was that? Was that ok for a free-talk?” She said that it was good, and then they started the question and answer segment. Everyone previously wrote a question on a little card, and they brought a basket up on stage and had Hayami-san pick the questions randomly from the basket, then the staff member read them out loud.
I didn’t quite understand what was being said, but I think I got the gist of a few of the questions. One person asked that since it’s Hayami-san’s 30th anniversary of becoming a seiyuu, if the time has gone by really quickly. Hayami-san said not really, because the time seems to speed up and slow down sometimes. He said during certain periods and during certain anime he worked on the time went by really fast, and during other things the time went by really slowly, so he couldn’t really pick one or the other. At this point, he started using points on the stage as examples of a timeline. He was like “From here to here is Zetsuai and Mirage of Blaze . . . and then from here to here is Macross . . .” etc. Every once in a while he would ask us something like “You agree don’t you?” or “Isn’t that right?” or something along those lines. Most of the time he asked it to us in general and let one of us randomly respond, and other times if it looked like a person in the front knew what he was talking about or what he meant, he would ask them directly.
Another question was asked . . . I want to say it was asking about seiyuu hanging out together, but I really don’t know for sure, I’m just guessing. Hayami-san said that he spends time with, Chiba Susumu, Hiyama Nobuyuki, Morikawa Toshiyuki, and (I’m guessing he mentioned but I can’t remember at the moment), Horiuchi Kenyuu. He said they go out to eat, they go drinking, they shop around, etc. together. He said they don’t go to sing karaoke though, because they have their own bands that they sing with on stage, and I’m also guessing it’s because they don’t want to kill their voices for work the next day. When he was describing what they do together, he said a word I didn’t quite understand, but I sort of got the impression that it was a word similar to enkai, and I think he meant that sometimes after work when they’re all done with stuff they go out together. When he used the word though, he stopped himself and asked everyone if they knew what he meant because he didn’t seem convinced that everyone would know what the word was. At that point, he asked, “Do understand?” to everyone, when no one responded, he walked directly over to me and asked, “Do you understand? You understand, right?” and all I could do was barely manage a nod. This was for a few reasons . . .The main one being shock. When I first met him two years ago, he always had the “Oh crap, a foreigner! What do I do?” expression on his face. Most Japanese people have this reaction towards me because they aren’t confident in their English ability and they just panic when they’re put on the spot, which is completely understandable. So the fact that he not only purposely came up to me and spoke to me, but that he also did so while he was up on stage, where everyone could see and hear him really said a lot to me. During the whole trip really, I noticed a big difference in his demeanor towards me. When he spoke to us, both when he was up on stage and when he was on the bus with us, he’d actually look at me in the eye while he was talking (just like he did with everyone else). Everyone that went to this event was a fan club member, so he’s really gotten familiar with everyone, and he usually sees all of us about 4 times a year at least. In the past he’d try to avoid looking at me at all costs (probably out of fear that I didn’t understand a word he was saying and I’d do something unpredictable), but this time I was just one of the fan club members, and not “the foreigner.” During this trip, everyone was really friendly, and they stopped being so shy around me. I became “their foreigner” instead of “the foreigner.”
So yeah, the fact that he decided to speak to me of his own free will was rather surprising too, rendering me speechless.
Somehow Hayami-san got on the topic of a street he was on once . . . I got the impression that it was in a foreign country, but I can’t be sure. He used our tables as an example of it though; he said from my table to the table right next to it was about how wide the street was, and there was lots of stuff and people around and in the street, but then buses would come through, and the buses were just about exactly as wide as the street, (again he used our tables and his arms to indicate how wide things were) and he was surprised that it could fit, let alone having it come barreling down the street towards him. He continued using us as examples, but he started pointing to individual people to get his point across, and I have to admit, not being prepared for it, it was rather startling to have Hayami-san coming up to me and pointing directly at me. *laughs* I need some warning first . . .
After the question and answer segment, he was waiting for a box to be brought out, so he put the microphone down on the small round table up on stage. As he was putting it down though, he didn’t trust it to stay there with out rolling off, so he crouched down slightly with both hands extended out in front of him next to the edge of the table, waiting for the microphone to roll off the table into his hands. This wouldn’t have been very memorable, if it wasn’t for the fact that the microphone was rolling really, really slowly, and he was the only one on stage, with no one talking at the moment, so all eyes were on him as the microphone slowly inched it’s way over to him and off the table. (He did it for the sole purpose of being adorable, and he succeeded wonderfully and he got everyone to laugh.)
After the box was brought out, and Hayami-san showed us the presents that were inside. The staff member told us that they’d do a raffle with our table and seat numbers. First Hayami-san showed us the presents, all of which were bought at Tokyo Tower while we were there. The first one was a snow globe of Tokyo Tower, the second one was a Tokyo Tower key chain, and the third one was a Tokyo Tower candle. Next they raffled off two pictures of Hayami-san that were taken somewhat recently. It was of him standing in a bamboo forest, and the bamboo were really, really green. I believe it was actually taken in Kyoto-fu, in Saga Arashiyama, which is along the Sagano (San-in) line, which is actually just a short distance away from where I live! Sadly I didn’t win any of them . . . (I’ve won something in the past . . . And my seat couldn’t get any more perfect, so I really can’t complain . . .) The staff member had everyone bring up their name card so that Hayami-san could give them an autograph along with their present (without having to worry about which kanji to use), and then they would bow and thank each other. At one point, he asked one of the girls if she wanted the present he was about to give her . . . And I think there must have been some confusion on her part . . . Maybe . . . Because she said no o_O I think she wanted one of the other ones instead. Hayami-san teased her for it though, and she got the one she supposedly didn’t want. Oh! At one point though, Hayami-san was like “Do any of you not want these? If so, let someone else at your table take it. But it’s a present you know? Even if you don’t like it.” He said it teasingly of course. ^_^
After that was over, Hayami-san told us that we’d be going to Senso-ji in Asakusa. When we got there, I walked around again with the group of women. First we went to get our fortune told near the temple, then we walked around the shopping streets and looked at the large gates.
When that was over we went back to the bus and Hayami-san rode with us this time. He pointed out random places as we passed them, like Ueno station, Ueno park, the “American” shopping street, etc. This was the first time I really had no idea where we were going until we reached the place.
We ended up at the National Museum of Nature and Science (Kokuritsu Kagaku Hakubutsukan) in Ueno Park. I finally saw the giant sperm whale! I’ve been dying to see that thing for at least two years or so. There was also a steam locomotive outside of the museum on the other end.
The museum itself was really pretty. It had really nice architecture and stained glass windows. I didn’t realize it at first, but this was actually the place with the giant ammonite! There wasn’t just one either, there were two really, really big ones. I’d been wanting to see it ever since Hayami-san posted a picture of it. ^_^
As I was walking back with the group of women, we saw Hayami-san outside with some of the staff members near the buses. We all sort of had the same “omg! Hayami-san!” expression . . . Even though we’d been spending the day with him. We got on the bus and Hayami-san came on one last time to say goodbye to us. He thanked us for coming and hoped we had fun and such, and said goodbye. He stood outside as the bus drove away and waved to all of us.
Overall, the day went really well. The other fan club members have really accepted me and talk to me now, and that even includes Hayami-san.. I got to go around and see all of Hayami-san’s favorite places in Tokyo, and I even got to see the sperm whale and the giant ammonite that I’ve been wanting to see for years. The only bad thing was that I was kind of hoping that Hayami-san would be around a bit more at the places that we went to, but I really can’t complain too much. He was happy and smiling the whole time, and because of that, I was really able to have a wonderful time. The day then ended with a gorgeous sunset.