Nippon Chapter 2 - Going for Arashi Con

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This was the hotel that Becs and I stayed at while we were at Yokohama. It was a wonderful change from the one we stayed at for the past 10 days, because this one has shopping places linked to the hotel, the room was fantastically cosy, and even the bellboy was good-looking! I was tempted to take a picture of him just to prove my point, but erm, luckily rationality took over ^^

I loved the fact that our room was on the 29th level. There was this serene feeling just admiring the pretty view of Japan from there.

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Plus, we could also see Yokohama Arena! I could easily spot the crowd of fangirls gathered outside the concert venue. Hahah, I was even tempted to whip out my pair of binoculars just to see if I could spot Becs amongst them (the tickets were way over my budget, so Becs had no choice but to go without me)!

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The day before we were due to arrive at Prince Hotel, we decided to pop down to Shin-Yokohama in advance just to check out how the place is like. It was important because we only had each other to help move our luggage from Ueno to Yokohama after all. Just one day in Harajuku could make us shop and buy non-stop, what's more we had 10 very fulfilling days of walking and exploring at many other places!

Anyway, when we first stepped into Shin-Yokohama, it was a Sunday and gosh, the place was teeming with fangirls! Everyone seemed to want a ticket for Arashi's con - they were all lined up outside the train station and holding handwritten placards a placard that could be roughly translated to: "Please give me a ticket". If anyone needs proof for Arashi's popularity, I guess that scene could well explain everything then.

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So many people. It was obvious that fangirls dominated that area - all the fastfood restaurants became meeting places for fangirling and making new fan-friends!

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Waiting and hoping that someone would sell them a ticket. I didn't dare take a photo too upclose; the girls may be feeling frustrated already not to watch the concert. Better not incur their wrath!

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They were supposed to be the fangirls' last hopes - the scalpers! Haha, Becs did expect them to be more yakuza-like wearing suits, but from what we witnessed, they looked more like fierce-looking uncles in white T-shirts and bermudas!

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Negotiations taking place. The tickets were really expensive! I was shocked when I heard that one could fetch something like 30,000yen! The fact is, there really IS high demand anyway.

By the time we finished walking around, it was evening time. Then Becs spotted the queue for the con goods, and it was comparatively a lot shorter since people tend to queue early in the morning rather than at a later time. They wouldn't want to risk going later in the day and find some items out of stock, I was told. We were really lucky, the line moved fast and we managed to buy what we needed in less than an hour.

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Waiting in line to the tent selling the goods. Thank god for the fine weather too, not too hot!

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The Johnny's staff hard at work even till evening. Many of them had towels around their necks. Becs was pleased, she said their sweat won't drip on her precious Arashi stuffs then! Hahah, hilarious! It's always good to have a friend to chat with while queuing ne~~