Last night I visited my friend Mikey for our eagerly awaited “Idol Nite”. It’s well-known that Mikey is a HUGE Morning Musume fan – he’s traveled to California and NYC to see them in concert, owns so many DVDs and CDs and is generally super Momusu Otaku. On the other hand, I don’t know much about Momusu, but I do love SCANDAL, which is sort of like an idol band, in that they also have their legions of groupies. Mikey likes SCANDAL as well, so we decided to get together and geek out and watch videos and variety shows starring Morning Musume, SCANDAL and whatever else Mikey had in his iTunes library.
Of course it’s also a great opportunity to enjoy some saké, so we had a variety to drink. Plus beer and snacks and we were all set. When I arrived at Mikey’s house, I was surprised to see his livingroom was all prepared with Momusu photobooks to peruse, Sayumi fans diplayed on the tables, and even glowsticks at the ready! I used two of the glowsticks for mood lighting in the Fuchiko photos as you can see below. Yes, I had to bring over Fuchiko (フチ子) for the festivities! I’m glad I did because we had a lot of fun taking photos (before we got too drunk).
I had two favorite shows of the evening. The first one was of an elaborate prank played on Morning Musume, where all the girls spent the night in this small room, but it was actually a fake room built on a stage of an outdoor concert venue. The girls were brought there late at night, and it was so dark, they just thought it was a regular hotel type room with tatami. The next morning, Morning Musume fans filled the seats and then when everyone was ready, the walls of the fake room fell away, and all the girls woke up to a huge surprise. It was a little awkward but really funny. Then the music started playing and they had to sing a couple of songs while still half asleep and in their pajamas! They actually got into it pretty quickly and did a good job.
The second show I really enjoyed was of SCANDAL revisiting the old neighborhood where they used to hang out before they got big. It was funny to find out that they had to buy their outfits at Daiei, and their budget was 1,000 yen per outfit! They said they spent most of their money on studio time. They also stopped by the hostess bar, where they took their name from. The manager of the club came out and they confessed to him that they took the name for their band from the club, and apologized. The manager said he already knew! It was pretty funny. I really want to check out those locations where they hung out and even get a picture outside Scandal club!
Anyways, besides Morning Musume and SCANDAL, we watched some AKB48, some other HP! spin-off groups, and even some older Morning Musume when the girls were all different. It was so much fun, I learned so much, and there is so much more to watch that I am looking forward to Idol Nite 2!!
