matataku_hoshi | Kiriyan's Tokyo "Me and My Girl" ochakai

Last night I went to Kiriyan’s Me and My Girl ochakai with

arlecchinic (who I think most of you know) and Kelly, a friend of mine from out of town. The last time I went to a Kiriyan ochakai it was by myself and I sat at a table with people I didn’t know. I have to say, it’s much more fun going with friends and I had a very lovely evening.

The doors opened at 6:30 and I scurried in to get my merchandise. I’m…not quite sure what it says that I got 5000 yen worth of stuff and I was really proud of myself for keeping it under that amount -_-;; I ended up with senjafuda, Kiriyan MiiMai stickers, Kiriyan MiiMai stage photos, some MiiMai laminated cards, a postcard set, and stage photos from Jazzy Fairies/Revue of Dreams that they were randomly selling. I’ll scan some of them later. Buying stuff at ochakai is usually really rushed, since everyone wants to get stuff before it’s sold out and there are some many people. Per usual, I wasn’t completely sure what I was getting until AFTER I got my bag of goods -_-;;

Out of five rows of tables we were the third back and relatively in the center. I was pleased ^^ I think there were about 500 people there total spread out among 50 or so tables. Our ochakai gift turned out to be…the postcard set I had just bought. Well, it was a very cute postcard set, so I won’t complain. And they came in a cute plastic case that said “Kiriya Hiromu.”

All of the staff were dressed as Sally in her Lambeth Walk costume <3333 Kiriyan came in around 8:00. After doing the kampai, the question and answer session started. I was talking to a fan club member the other day and we decided that Kiriyan usually has a sort of tension around her. At the same time, she is from Kansai (meaning she can’t be completely uptight) and is really funny. It was fun listening to her answers.

First came the part where Fukano-san (the club president) asked questions to Kiriyan. I think these are submitted by members beforehand. Per usual take my Japanese with a grain of salt, but I think I got these mostly right.

Kiriyan was asked if she got any advice about the role from OGs in previous productions of MiiMai. Kiriyan said not in particular, but Tsurugi Miyuki and Kodama Ai came to shonichi and told her “ganbatte.”

Another one was whether Kiriyan missed not able to go into the audience for “Lambeth Walk.” She paused for a moment and said that she hadn’t really thought about it before, and that she has fun being on stage with Taki-san. What else…she got asked how she felt about “Love Makes the World Go Round”, where she has to act drunk. Kiriyan said that scene was very relaxing and fun.

A few questions in, Fukano-san started putting on funny hats and asking Kiriyan questions as characters from the show. Kiriyan got confused with the first one (Bill) and Fukano-san apologized for being a bad otokoyaku XD She also put on hats for Sally, Parchester, Anastasia Brown, and Maria.

I think it was while Fukano-san was “in character” as Bill that she asked Kiriyan (as Sir John) when they started to like each other. They both agreed (in character) that it was from “Love Makes the World Go Round” onwards that they started to like each other, whereas they had been indifferent before.

Half way through they did the handshaking. Kiriyan is…a very beautiful woman, in case you haven’t noticed yet. And I’d like to think that by the time she got to the third gaijin in a row (which was me) she was thinking, “This is all your fault, isn’t it?” :D

For the game this time, each of the staff members came out holding a large sized poster of the various noble/rich characters that Kiriyan has played (Rulolph from the Prisoner of Zenda shinjinkouen, Louis XIV from Bara no Fuuin, Algernon from Ernest in Love, Oscar from BeruBara, Nakano Ooe no Miko from Akanesasu Murasaki no Hana, Boldiszar from Magician no Yuutsu, and Sir John from MiiMai). We had to guess which character Kiriyan would say she could most easily become friends with. There was a first choice and a second choice. If you happened to get both right, you got a prize. I ended up guessing Boldiszar and Sir John. Kiriyan’s answers were in the end Algernon for the first choice and Rudolph for the second. (See, I love Algernon, but he’s so crazy that I wasn’t sure if Kiriyan would be friends with him. I had been thinking about Rudolph but didn’t put him down in the end).

After the game came the prize section. The way they usually do it with Kiriyan’s ochakai is that there are some individual drawings, but there are also drawings where the whole table wins a prize. The first table called would receive a signed program…and it was ours! As I commented to Cate and Kelly, I’m a bit worried that I have used up the entirety of my allotted amount of luck for life, but hey, I got a signed program from Kiriyan! No complaints here! :D (A club friend of mine gave me a high five on my way back to my seat ^^)

Next came the section where tables had their numbers drawn and someone at that table could ask Kiriyan a question. Last time I remember it only being about three or four questions, but this time it felt like it went longer. Someone asked if Finch and Bu-chan (Asako’s dog) had any interesting interactions lately. Kiriyan said they haven’t met up recently because Finch isn’t really interested in other dogs. Or other people. I get the impression he mostly just likes to lie around ^^

Another person asked who she’d like to play in the show other than Sir John. Kiriyan’s answer was Parchester. I approved ^^ Trying to think what else was asked…someone asked what is the first thing Kiriyan does when she comes home to Kansai after being away in Tokyo. Kiriyan said that she opened all of the windows to air the place out. Oh, and during this section Kiriyan answered questions at a couple of tables next to ours, which was nice <333

I think it was in this section that someone asked what it was like doing the finale number with both Mirio and Ai-chan. (For those who haven’t seen the show, the second finale number is led by Kiriyan and she is paired with whoever is playing Jackie that day). Kiriyan talked about how she had often been paired with Ai-chan, and how there really was a difference between the way an otokoyaku and a musumeyaku approached the role. For one, just the size difference between Ai-chan and Mirio made a difference in the finale number. Also, the way that they do the hand motions in Lambeth Walk are different. (It’s hard to explain, but I got the impression that Mirio’s were much more masculine).

After the prize section was the presentation of the club gift, which in this case was the outfit that Kiriyan was wearing to the ochakai. (They did the same thing last time. I wonder if it’s a tradition?) After that, Kiriyan sang Lambeth Walk for us. I have to admit the song isn’t quite as good when you don’t have an ensemble singing along and there’s no dancing, but Kiriyan was singing to us and I certainly wasn’t going to complain. The poor girl looked nervous but she did very nicely anyway. It turns out I’m not going to be able to go to the Hakataza performance so I’m glad I was able to see this little preview. She walked around the tables during this part. All of the audience members did the Lambeth Walk hand motions.

So, in short, I got to shake a goddess’ hand AND receive a present from her…it was a very nice way to spend a Sunday evening :D I really do love ochakai. If you ever have a chance to go to one I highly recommend it.