meimichi | Kokuritsu: THE GOODS LINE FROM HELL

I HAVE BEEN THROUGH BOYBAND HELL AND SURVIVED.

(start point photo)

FIRST A NOTE TO ARASHI FANS WITH KIDS: if your kid was in a stroller or below an age where they cannot make an actual choice whether they want to be there or not, I hope you rot in hell for bringing them there today. Watching JE fans who are mothers neglect their kids in the name of fannish stuff is par for the course, and I'm used to seeing it, but seriously FUCK YOU IF YOU BROUGHT A BABY. I could hear little kids crying, and saw moms snapping at their kids not to whine after they'd been there four hours, and it made me so sad. If multiple people are passing out from heatstroke in that line, you should not be forcing your kids to go through that against their will.

I refused to get up earlier today than I usually do for school, because I really did not want to be on a mannin-densha commuter train. Ironically, if I had braved the train, I wouldn't have ended up in a mannin-densha situation.

I got to Kokuritsu a little before nine. I wasn't really shocked at the massive size of the line. It was not much longer than the line I'd waited in at night last year, and I got through that in three hours. Because of the line size, they seemed to have maybe opened up earlyish, so the line was moving pretty continuously right from the start.

I was having fun since I saw a girl with a Baby parasol two rows ahead of me early on. I had a Baby parasol too, and got so excited seeing a fellow comrade. I kept hoping the line would wrap around and allow us to meet in the middle somehow, and after two and a half hours it finally happened! We were only next to each other for about thirty seconds, but we caught each others' eyes immediately. Besides the parasol, she had brought an Emikyu bag to carry her goods in. XXXD And then she saw my Emikyu dress and exclaimed, "Green! Do you have the pink?!! I have it in pink!!" I said, "Nope, only in green!"

Then I told her, "I saw your parasol from a few rows back and got excited seeing I had a comrade in line with me!" "Yeah, I thought the same thing!!" And then the line moved and we were separated. Probably never to see each other again! Too bad. I wish we'd had a few minutes more, I wanted to be friends with her!

After about three hours in the line, we ground to a halt right near the front in the final big row.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

They kept us standing without moving the line an inch for over an hour.

The worst part was that the heat was absolutely unbearable and there were almost no clouds for cover. So people had parasols. But we were packed in like sardines, so people had their parasols stacked on top of each other and kept smacking people with them since they couldn't keep their hands steady for so long. After a while I got tired of holding mine up and put it away, except then the people in front of me kept almost poking my eye out with theirs, and there wasn't enough arm room for me to put mine back up again when I wanted to.

Everyone kept shoving in too close so they could FEEL like they were moving even though we weren't, it was a real-life mannin densha but in the sun and heat, and I kept just letting some people go in front of me because the alternative was to go totally crazy having them shoving me. I've never seen people be so rude in a fan queue before! The waiting wouldn't have been so terrible if not for the shoving and being trapped. D:

People in the row in back of us all sat down in line, but because everyone up front had shoved, we couldn't sit down because there was no room at all. Basically all the nice polite people were twenty feet behind me in line?

Then after a long while there, a girl a little in front of me just sort of bounced off the person next to her, who thought she was shoving and pushed her off. Then she bounced to the next person on her other side, and they realized she had heatstroke and was passing out. She was there alone, so two of the girls in front of me were struggling to hold her up so she wouldn't hit the blacktop, and everyone started yelling for staff. One of the staff guys rushed in and grabbed her, and asked her if she could walk. She was just totally out of it and couldn't say a word, just stared at him dazedly, and he half-carried-half-dragged her out of the line. D:

About twenty minutes after they carried her out, we had been there for...I don't know, maybe four and a half hours in all? My water bottles were long gone and even though I'd put on sunscreen, I could feel myself getting burned, and started feeling dizzy myself. Then the line moved a little so I could manage to get near a barrier and had something to lean against. At this point I was pretty much wondering why I was even doing this. I had come prepared for three hours, but once we were at over four and a half hours of baking in the heat squished up against each other, I just wanted to go home.

Fiiiiinally we got to cross the street.

(across the street. thrilling!)

Then finaaaaally we got to the stalls.

And it became clear what was taking so long.

(the lines. we were moving so I couldn't get a good photo.)

They'd changed the entire goods stall system so that instead of waiting in one line and buying everything once you get there, they had broken the goods up into separate stalls. The people who came in groups were fine, but... There were seven separate lines (ecobag/pamphlet, posters, jumbo uchiwa/radish kit, keitai strap, photos/penlight, towel/t-shirt, mini-uchiwa/notebook). So I had to stand in all seven of them by myself. Coming alone was a massive mistake. Even if the staff had told us this in the lines, it would have made things faster, because everyone in groups were holding things up by standing around trying to figure out their strategies on the spot, who to send to what line to buy how many things for everybody, and breaking up their money and stuff. ORZ

And then to top it off, the guards wouldn't let us use our parasols once we got to the goods line. I wanted to cry. I was totally covered except for my face, but now that I'm home, just my face is burnt like whoa. I need to bring sunscreen with me the rest of the weekend so I can keep reapplying. T_T

(view after getting out! final time: 5 hours, 37 minutes. they also had a tent set up for the heatstroke victims at the end.)

Anyway, the good news is aside from the lame keitai strap, the goods were the best they've been since Time, though Time's were still the best. If Jun's goods hair had been bad after ALL OF THAT, I would have cried. (Nino's is lol-worthy though.)

The best things are the individual member items like the clear files and the mini-uchiwa set. So cute!! Each clear file has the member in a photo with their Arashi color, doing their hobby: Ohno is fishing, Nino is doing games, Aiba is chilling with animals, Sho is surrounded by records, and Jun...looks fabulous. (No, seriously. XD) I liked them all but was limiting myself a bit so only got Jun's and Sho's. The mini-uchiwa are adorable and Jun's is the best, with him flashing a peace sign! So cute!!

I haven't opened the pamphlet yet. But I think they deserve snaps for the penlight design:

HOW CUTE IS THAT?!?!?!?!?!?!

I also really like the towel but I don't think its design would photograph well in my badly-lit apartment, so I haven't taken it out of its plastic yet. XD

Obligatory final loot photo:

Then I went on my way home (omg I have never been so happy to be in a subway in my life, NO SUNNNNN) and stopped at Ikebukuro Denny's on the way for the second time this week, because after that I totally deserved omuraisu again.

I have to go pick up my dry cleaning. Problem?

I DON'T THINK I CAN GET UP AGAIN. POSSIBLY EVER.