MANO MANIA - CONTINUED

Here's a round-up of the last couple of events Mano had last week, promoting "Kono Mune no Tokimeki wo".

At Friday, she went to Queens Square mall in Minatomirai, Yokohama, for a mini live and handshake event. Assisting her did the same lineup as the day before; Kikka, Saaya, Sekki and Momoka.

The set list:

1. Kono Mune no Tokimeki wo
2. Otome no Irori
3. Kono Mune no Tokimeki wo

I arrived around two hours before the mini live would start, after have planned to get there earlier but managed to miss two trains (lol) and got there an hour later than planned. But it was ok since I managed to get like 4th row and made it to the reherseal :-). Saaya was once again looking stunning with a one piece dress and a cool baseball jacket. Kikka also looked great in a black kind of casual dress.

Mano as always talked about the weather, which today was rainy, but wasn't an issue since the events were taking place inside. She also talked about how she used to go to this mall when she was a kid to visit a Snoopy shop. Adorable as always.

The handshake event wasn't all too intresting, but here's some highlights:

①

俺： 俺名前は？
北原： オマリーさん！
俺： 女優宣言行きます！
北原： お～ありがとうございます！
（まってます？ｗ）

桃香： オマリーさん！
俺：　ありがとうございますｗ

真野： オマリー！
俺： Thank you！ｗ
俺： バイバイ！
真野： バイバイ！

Me: My name?
Saaya: O'Malley-san!
Me: I'll be going to Joyuu Sengen! (Egg FC event)
Saaya: Oh～ Thank you!
(I'd expected her to say "mattemasu", as in "I'll be waiting for you", so I'm not sure if she understood what I said, lol.)

Momoka: O'Malley-san!
Me: Thank you! *lol*
(I feel bad about never having more to say to this lovely girl... orz)

Mano: O'Malley!
Me: Thank you! *lol*
Me: Bye-bye!
Mano: Bye-bye! *lol*

②

俺： 新人公演に行たけど、見えた？
北原： え？お～はい！見えたー見えた！

真野： オマリー！
俺： Hello！
真野： Hello！
俺： How are you？
真野： I'm fine, thank you！
俺： Thank you！ｗ
俺： Bye-bye！
真野： Bye-bye！

Me: I went to Shinjin Kouen, did you see me?
Saaya: Eh? Oh～ Yes! I saw you!
(To get yesterday's confusion cleared up ^^;)

Mano: O'Malley!
Me: Hello!
Mano: Hello!
Me: How are you?
Mano: I'm fine, thank you!
Me: Thank you! *lol*
Me: Bye-bye!
Mano: Bye-bye!


After the event I went with my friend to the radio studio in Yoyogi I went to the other day where he's usually going every Friday with his friends. I hanged out with them and we went to a family restaurant where we spent the night, before me and my friend took the first train to Toro in Saitama the next day for another event with Mano-chan.

When we got there at 6 AM in the morning there was already around 10 people there! Surprisingly the weather seemed to turn out to be good that day. But after a couple of hours waiting and then getting to take our spots in front of the stage, of course it started raining right before the girls would come out for the reherseal. Mano hadn't brought her piano with her since the weather forecast had said there was a high chance of rain. The lineup was the same as the two days before and today the set list was as following:

1. Kono Mune no Tokimeki wo
2. Hajimete no Keiken
3. Kono Mune no Tokimeki wo

Again, Saaya and Kikka looked stunning (lol). I was glad to see Kikka's energy this day since she had to run out during the handshake event the day before for some reason, making me worried she wasn't feeling all okey.

The rain was really bad but when the girls entered the stage for the mini live it had stopped. Then of course when Mano mentioned that it was ok it had just started again, rofl. Still it was a lot of fun. I love when they perform Hajimete no Keiken (my by far favourite Mano song).

This day I gave Mano-chan the letter I've been mentioning before. It was written with hast, but I believe it was still good. However, it was in English, so I have no idea if she actually managed to understand all of it, even if someone helped her translate it. So I'm definitely gonna try to write something in Japanese before I head back again to make up for it.

Handshake event summary:

①

俺： 僕は何歳ですか？
北原： えぇ・・・２５歳？
俺： 二十歳ですｗ
北原： お～
桃香： w

Me: How old am I?
Saaya: Ehh... 25?
Me: I'm 20 years old. *lol*
Saaya: Oh～
Momoka: *lol*

俺： Ehhh, see you in Shinjuku!
真野： See you in Shinjuku! ｗ

Me: Ehhh, see you in Shinjuku!
Mano: See you in Shinjuku! *lol*

②

俺： Can I send you a fan letter in English?
北原： えぇ？
俺： Fan letter, English, OK?
北原： NO, NO, NO !!!
俺： 済みませんｗ
桃香： w

Me: Can I send you a fan letter in English?
Saaya: Ehh?
Me: Fan letter, English, OK?
Saaya: NO, NO, NO !!!
Me: Sorry. *lol*
Momoka: *lol*

俺： See you later!
真野： See you later! w

Me: See you later!
Mano: See you later! *lol*

After the event I went back home to get a couple of hours of sleep before heading to Shinjuku for another handshake event with Mano only. I was still really tired, so even though we got A LOT of time with Mano (once I was standing there for probably around 20 seconds!!!), I wasn't able to get much said. I asked her in English, just to test her, if it's ok that I gave her a fan letter in English. She got lost and I repeated myself, talking extremely slow, and then she looked at the staff for help (cute, lol), so I explained the situation to her in Japanese and told her that I was sorry, lol. This was pretty funny, however:

俺： 恋するハロキッテイに行きません、ご免。
真野： マジで？！
俺： はい、来月は、スウェーデンに帰ります
真野： お～スウェーデン！！すごい～！
俺：　がんばってください
真野： はい～がんばります！
俺： バイバイ！
真野： バイバイ！

Me: I won't be going to "Koisuru Hello Kitty", sorry.
Mano: Seriously?!
Me: Yes, next month I will be going back home to Sweden.
Mano: Oh! Sweden!! Cool!
Me: Please do your best.
Mano: Yes, I will!

I was surprised by her reaction over that I would be going back to Sweden. I thought she already knew that I'm coming from there and I had expected her to be sorry or something for me having to go back, but she just found it cool, lol.

The next day was the last day of events. Held at La Qua, next to Tokyo Dome. It's a huge outdoor space so I didn't rush with getting there, instead heading to an event with my friend's favourite idol group, "Momoiro Clover". They are not very famous at all, but did manage to sell around 10,000 copies with their major debout. It was only 1,000 yen to attend the event which consisted of a mini live for then having a signing session where you got a personally signed autograph from one of the girls. It was random which girl you'd get it signed by and luckily I got it from the one girl that had caught my interest, Akarin. Unfortunately I didn't have anything cool with me that she could sign so I just got it on a blank piece of A4 paper, lol.

I arrived at La Qua for Mano's events about 20 minutes before it would start. Already around 1200 tickets had been sold for the handshake event! (Compared to the previous days number of around 700 per event.) Even though I was standing in the back I was surprised to get to see Mano noticing me and waving at me. I could tell because she always change her normal smile to this huge big grin on her face when she notices me and starts waving faster while locking her eyes at me, lol.

For the event I attended, she had S/mileage as backup dancers and once again Kono Mune no Tokimeki wo was performed twice and also Sekai wa Summer Party.

At the handshake event I only said thank you to all of the girls because it was so fast. However Mano managed to squeeze out that she had read my letter already and thanked me for it!

I was sad that I couldn't go to the evening event, which involved Saaya and the other girls again. Unfortunately I had to go to a Morning Musume concert that I had already bought a ticket for. Which was a lot of fun as well though, of course. The end of a really awesome week. :-)


Right now I still feel a bit overwhelmed and extremely happy for Mano-chan's achievement earlier today with the daily #1 at Oricon. After been supporting here for over a year from her first indie release, attending her events at locations outside of Tokyo, at would you cold almost call the country side, with less than 50 people showing up, following her from practically not having much support at all for then making it to something as big as getting a daily #1 Oricon. There's no greater satisfaction from being a fan than seeing your idol reach a major success.

To be honest, I think I have to admit that this girl currently is my favourite H!P member. Everything she does just amazes me and makes me want to support her as much as possible. Her mentality and devotion towards her job and obvious love for her fans is just mindblowing. She's making up for her lack of talent in other aspects (such as singing, dancing and being entertaining) by always working extremely hard but yet not showing any signs of getting out of energy, constantly having a smile on her face and showing how much she loves what she is doing. Mano Erina is simply awesome. Period.

PS. In 4 hours Mano is gonna be at the Hello Kitty show "Kitty's Paradise Peace", as a host of her own corner and having the ending song. Don't miss it!

オマリー