Those 3 days were a precious unforgettable memory in my heart, and I've always wanted to write about it. Unfortunately, I was busy after that, and this draft has been here forever since then.
Today I decided to edit and pubplish it on my blog, just in reminiscence of my first time meeting the guys in real life. Hope anyone who read it can feel all the emotions that we had last year ^^
note: this is a very long and detailed report, because I want to write down everything that happened before I forgot them. Please bear with it ^^;;
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2011.11.08
This afternoon, w-inds. arrived at Noibai International Airport, Hanoi, Vietnam.
This is the 2nd time they came here for the Vietnamese - Japanese friendship music festival (1st time was in 2008).
Of course, we were planning to gonna meet them at the airport.
Maybe some of you already knew, I didn't get to see them in 2008. That's one of the things I most regretted about, so this time I told myself, I need to meet them, no matter what. However, right from the start, everything seemed to be very hard on us.
Three years ago, because the concert was open to public, fans from Thailand and Hong Kong came as well. And I have to say that Vietnamese fans were very lucky that Hong Kong girls brought news with them, included flight number, time and date etc. However, things were not as easy this time. Since the very start, we didn't have any piece of news - all information is protected carefully from being leaked. There were only our surmises based on w-inds.' and flight schedule we got from our friend who was working at the airport. Finally we decided that they would come on JAL flights either on Friday night (11/7) or Saturday morning (11/8).
In the afternoon of 7, at 1pm I received a short text from a girl: "w-inds. had arrived this morning. We are waiting in front of Nikko Hotel (where the conference was supposed to be held)". I was both surprised and disappointed thinking we missed the chance to greet them at the airport. We waited before Nikko for the whole afternoon, but didn't see either w-inds. or Sugi-san (Japan - Vietnam friendship ambassador, a close friend of w-inds., who invited them to Vietnam twice). Being tired and hungry, several girls came home; but we hesitated - what if w-inds. hadn't come yet? There might be a chance they would arrive later so we continued with the plan at airport that night.
9pm in the evening, I and 3 other fans got off the bus and met up with a group of fans. There was a total of about 10-15 ppl waiting there since 8pm; we brought banner and other stuffs like presents and books for autographs. The JAL flight we were waiting for landed at 9.40PM. We waited till 10.15 but there was no sign of w-inds., except a staff coming to get 3 VIPs from avex - as if I know who they are :P despite being disappointed, everyone decided to come again the following morning. I reached home at 11.45, took a fast shower and went asleep to prepare for another long day awaiting.
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This morning, I arrived the airport at 10am. There was no sign of w-inds. in 9.30 JAL flight, we were finally persuaded that w-inds. came earlier with Sugi-san and everyone almost gave up. At that time we met a group of AKB48 fans who flied to Hanoi from other cities; they had stayed there since midnight. From their information, it seems other artists (AAA, Koda Kumi, AKB48 and EXILE) would come in the afternoon. Most w-inds. fans there had a day off from school or work, so we had the afternoon free. Staying and greeting other artists was not a bad idea, plus there was still a string of hope that w-inds. was on this flight.
12pm. While wandering around for lunch, I and Myxd bumped into a Vietnamese staff from Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Using most of our flirting skills (joking! haha XD), finally he let us know that "a group of Japanese artists will come in a special reserved ANA flight this afternoon". Damn, we didn't expect they would reserve a whole plane for the artists and Japanese staff! This explained why it wasn't in the list of usual flights from Japan we asked for (all arrived in the morning or late night) x______x still hoping w-inds. was on this flight, we ran back to let other fans know. Everyone was really excited.
1pm: I noticed the appearance of many people at the airport, dressed in black suits, holding signs written in Japanese or English. We tried to talk to some Vietnamese staff, but it seemed they didn't know much other than people who they were assigned to get (politicians or businessmen who I don't know). Since there were 2 gates at the International Arrival Terminal, we decided to split into 2 groups.
2pm: a middle-aged Japanese man caught my attention. He came to talk with the large crowd of AKB48's fans at the airport, through an interpreter, asking about how they knew AKB48, how they were feeling waiting for the girls and so on; finally he told them AKB48 was coming soon for real. Decided that he must be an authority, I and 2 girls quickly approached him right after he left AKB48 fans. God knows what was wrong with us, we totally neglected his interpreter right there and asked in English. That kind man listened patiently, nodding regularly (which, for god's sake, was a sign he understood RIGHT?), and finally answer our question ("did w-inds. arrive yesterday with Sugi-san?"). YES. This struck on us real hard - we totally believed him.
Decided that everyone needed know this information, we were on the way back when a group of AKB48 fans hurriedly ran pass us. "What's wrong?" "What's happened?" "Anyone came?" - didn't pay a second to think, we followed them to Gate 1B. There was... nothing there, lol. Talking to a girl, it seemed there was information that passengers in ANA flight would arrive at 2.30 and exit at this gate. We decided to stay there while contacting the head of other group to let her know.
2.30pm: some ppl went thru 1B, but we didn't recognize them. The anxiousness made my stomach hurt; all we could do is waiting. I checked my bad again: marker, notebook, a RyuTube book I chose randomly and poster from the latest PATi-PATi that featured w-inds. on cover, and was sad that they couldn't be used.
2:39pm: Someone screamed. Then we saw a blond-haired.... KODA KUMI!! She was alone with only 1 assistant. Everyone ran to her, crowded around her, took photos and asked for autograph. I respected Koda Kumi, but she had never been in my favorite list; so I just sat outside taking some pictures.
2:40pm: AKB48 appeared at the exit. I didn't pay much attention at them... so that's it.
2:41pm: A large crowd of AKB48 fans had moved away; but even if they had been there, there would have been no way they could block the sign of a group of 180cm tall men!!! It was EXILE!! Screamed my lung out, I ran towards them; they all dressed in dark-coloured clothes, some members wore face masks and I could only recognize Makidai, HIRO and Atsushi (called his name and he smiled at me T^T). By the way, I didn't see Takahiro and finally believed the rumour that only one vocalist of EXILE came to Vietnam :(
2:42pm: (remind: I TOTALLY believe w-inds. came the day before) I quickly followed Atsushi... when I heard another shriek and crying out. Turned around and I saw KEITA.
THE REAL KEITA IN FLESH AND BLOOD (and clothes, ofc).
He was about 5 meters away from me - and it happened really fast, the end of my right eye caught sight of a bald head passing by. My brain freezed - but thankfully, my legs ran by instinct!!
Finally caught up with Ryuichi when he stepped out of the terminal, I quickly took out the RyuTube book and asked for autograph, voice shaking. "No thanks", he said with a slight British accent, and continued to walk towards a van waiting outside. I think my whole body freezed again in shock, before I gained back consciousness and realized Ryohei also got into the van. Keita was still walking though; being crowded by fangirls, he moved slowly, signed for them while having a faint smile on his lips. I took this chance to get some photos closely.
Several seconds later, all three members of w-inds. were settled inside the van. Thinking this was the end of it and they were going to hotel soon, I looked around... and almost stopped breathing when I saw a familiar figure 2-3 meters away on the right. EXILE's TAKAHIRO!!!! Gdi, I totally thought he didn't come!! Quickly leaving the group of w-inds. fans, I walked towards him. There were only several Vietnamese EXILE fans at the airport and I didn't see them anywhere; Takahiro was talking to some Japanese fans (who must have followed them here, sugoi!), giving autograph and taking photos (!!). I waited until the girls left to approach him. He was REALLY tall and handsome. When I said I was a fan of them (using the simplest English), Takahiro had a broad grin (I think it was sparkling! ♥) and agreed to sign for me. Thankfully I had a notebook with me; just so you know, his signature is one of the most complicated I've ever seen XDD
Of course I wanted a photo with Taka, but all I had was cellphone camera and no one to help. Looking around for a normal person (there were only other EXILE's members around us, lol), I surprisingly found w-inds.' van was still there. Didn't really think of it, I quickly said to Takahiro "thank you" before ran back to w-inds. (that was quite sudden, I hope I didn't hurt Taka -______-).
-to be continue-
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