Touko's ochakai

[matataku_hoshi]

Since someone asked, no, I'm not in Touko's club. jenebi is, however, and she was nice enough to get tickets for me, arlecchinic, and arlecchinic's friend.

Unlike Kiriyan’s ochakai, there were no tables, just rows of chairs.  I would imagine this was done so that they could fit more people in.  We were in the H section.  We were fairly far back, but at least we were center.  Considering that they had to put four of us together, I thought we did pretty well for seating.

Each seat got a gift bag.  Our gift bags contained an ochakai program (with a message from Touko), a random Touko postcard (mine was from Song for Kingdoms), and a cell phone privacy cover.  (One of those clear things with a design that you put over your cell phone screen to keep other people from looking over your shoulder at what you’re texting).  It said “Aran Kei – El Halcon” on it.  It’s actually pretty cool, but I’m not sure if I can actually use mine given how much I hang out around Kiriyan cultists.  Regardless, it made me happy.  Will try to post pictures at some point.

There was also a bottle of tea and a bag containing some muffins in stuff.  I guess this was in lieu of us actually having tables with cake on them -_-; I discovered later one of the cookies in the bag had “Kei Aran” written on it.

Touko’s club had a lot of merchandise.  Not only was there the stuff from this show, but there was a really big backlog of stuff from previous shows.  We couldn’t actually receive our merchandise then.  Instead, we turned in our order forms and paid for it.  We’ll receive our stuff sometime in the next couple of weeks.  I ordered some club off-stage photos, pictures from this ochakai, a club postcard set, Aran Kei name stickers, and a pair of Touko socks.  I figured the last one would go well with my Kiriyan laundry bag set.  This all somehow came to a ridiculous amount of money which I’m trying not to think about.  They were selling towels that said “Kei Aran – El Halcon” on them that looked pretty cool, but I decided in the end that 3800 yen was too much.

When Touko came in, she had a basket of paper flowers.  As she walked towards the stage she threw handfuls of them at the audience.  When she got to her table, we all said “Kampai!” and drank from the bottles of tea that we got in our gift bags. 

First was a Q & A session.  Whenever Touko couldn’t immediately think of an answer to a question, she would get his adorably “out of it” look on her face while she stopped to think.  One woman asked what Touko and Asuka were saying when they speak to each other in Spanish.  Touko actually didn’t know.  She asked if anyone in the audience spoke Spanish.  A bunch of people looked at Cate, Kirsten, Gen, and I, but we unfortunately only speak English.  Someone sitting in the back did speak Spanish however, and was able to translate.  Touko called her kakkoi <3

Next was a video letter.  I got really confused by this, but I think it was from an older otokoyaku OG (I’m so sorry, guys, but I don’t know who) and featured them working in a ramen shop.  This made Touko crack up.  We then moved onto a Oui or Non game (aka True or False).

But…it was just a ruse!  The OG who was in the video letter actually came to the ochakai!  Touko was completely shocked because she wasn’t expecting it.  I apologize for not being able to provide more details, but I was pretty lost.

After that, we actually moved onto the Oui or Non game.  Everyone stood up.  We were given statements about the show.  If they were true, we raised one hand.  If they were false, we raised the other hand.  If we got them right, we could continue to stand up.  If not, we had to sit down.  They were things like “There are two windows in Tyrian’s room.  Oui or non?” or “The mast falls down on the right side of the ship.  Oui or non?”  In the end it came down to about five people.  They played rock paper scissors.  The winner got a signed Touko picture.

Next came the prizes.  Touko cultists who had done iri/de a certain number of times had their names put in a drawing for getting their picture taken with Touko.  I think there were about two or three winners.  Touko put her hand on the backs of each one as their picture was taken.  We all swooned and were jealous.  Other than that, there were drawings for signed Touko things.

About half way through the drawing I resigned myself to the fact I wasn’t going to win anything – really, what were the chances?  Still, my ears perked every time I heard my section called.  Towards the end, my section was called…and then it was my row and my number.  I had barely comprehended this when Touko said my name, pausing and stumbling slightly as she said it.  Apparently there was a bit of a murmur from the audience.  I was too busy being in shock to notice.  Somehow I managed to make my way up to the line where people were receiving things.  I was shaking I was so…happy?  Nervous?  Flustered?  Probably all of those.  Mostly shocked, but in the best of ways.  At the time I wasn’t even sure what I had won.  Touko gave it to me, and I somehow managed to bow and scurry away without embarrassing myself.  It was a copy of the October Kageki (which ironically has Kiriyan on the cover).  At the time I thought that was all it was, but was happy that at least I had my memory of Touko.  When I got back to my seat, Gen and Cate pointed out that the first page (which had a Touko picture) was signed by Touko.

I used to not understand why the women who receive prizes on ochakai videos looked so reaction-less when they received their prizes from stars.  Now I understand: They’re too in shock to do anything.  They’re trying their best to not trip as they walk by the brilliance.

(The next day as I was walking around the Hana no Michi several Touko cultists recognized me as that gaijin who won a prize.  I was amused).

I need to e-mail the Kansai to see if they include the gift-drawing part on the DVD, but if they do, I think I’m obligated to buy this DVD.  I will then make a .wav file of Touko saying my name and play it over and over :D  And make an icon of me and Touko standing next to each other…oh God… At first I was worried that being on the video could possibly get me in trouble with Kiriya B Dreams, but Cate’s daihyou-san was there.  I don’t really understand the logic, but apparently it’s okay to go to ochakai for stars who aren’t yours.

I spent most of the rest of the ochakai walking on air.  (Or sitting, but you get the idea). 

Touko next picked some questions from fans from a basket.  One of them asked what she dreamed about recently.  Touko just said “Uh…I don’t know.  I don’t really remember my dreams.”  She moved the question off to the side in a way that implied she didn’t really want to answer it.  It’s hard to explain, but it was pretty funny.

Touko sang a song for us, which was something from Revue Orchids.  Gen got very excited because Touko looked at her for a bit while singing the song.  As much as I love the characters Touko plays on stage, it was something else to have her sing to us as Touko and not a character.

At the end the club gave their present to Touko.  The woman who was presenting it was so nervous that she tripped on the stairs to the stage and could barely read the message that the club had written to Touko.  Touko had to tell her to breathe.  As Gen pointed out later, having Touko tell you to breathe might not actually help ^^  In any case, the present was curtains for Touko’s home.  I think Touko said afterwards that she had picked out the colors.  I thought that was cool because it was practical and probably something she actually needed.

As she left the room, she once again threw paper flowers from a basket.  There was more swooning from the audience.

If you haven’t noticed from my description, there was sadly no handshaking.  I think it would have just taken too long with the number of people there.  Okay, so maybe they could have managed it, but it would have taken away from time to do other things like having Touko sing beautifully to us and playing amusing games.  Even at Kiriyan’s ochakai, which had maybe half the number of people, it took about 20 minutes.

 

jenebi, you rock for getting us tickets to this.  I really had a lot of fun.

 

And as for you, dear reader, you get a Touko cookie AND a muffin if you've gotten to the end of this :)

 

Comments

[demoneyeskyo87.livejournal.com]

Aww what a nice thing jenebi did for you, :)!

Interesting to hear that Touko's Ochakai is so different from Kiriyan's though.

Will try to post pictures at some point.

Ahh, but you must, :)! I would love to see what that Cell Phone cover looks like since it has El Halcon in it.

[muffin-song.livejournal.com]

I think all ochakai are a little different, although they generally follow the same format. A lot of it depends on the number of people. For example, for much smaller ones the siennes take pictures with each table at the ochakai.

Gen just posted her pictures of her loot, including stuff of the ochakai, so I may take that as my excuse to be too lazy to post any of my own -_-;;;;

[demoneyeskyo87.livejournal.com]

Yeah I saw what lots of Shinnies she has and what a collection she has, O.O!!