Truth to be told, I
have never even heard for Dalian before this trip, much less thought
of even visiting the place for just a weekend. Alas, Idols make you
do strange stuff that you would never have imagined yourself doing.
The event itself has no connection to idols at all, “第二届大连日本品牌展“
which translates to “The 2nd
Dalian Japan Brands Fair” There are about 10 booths set up in an
open space in the middle of a Wanda Shopping Centre (Which happens to
be owned by a guy who is richer than Jack Ma) As the name suggests,
the booths sell Japanese products like beauty and foodstuffs. It also
promotes tourism to Japan.
Shopping Centre where the event takes place
Speaking of jumping the gun, I should
start at the beginning of the story.
Once again, my flight is on a Friday
night. I end work relatively early at 7pm to zoom home for a quick
shower and off I go to the airport. My flight is at midnight via Air
China . I can proudly say that I have conditioned
myself to sleep on airplanes. I normally slip into la-la-land before
the plan takes off, so when I wake up above the clouds you can
imagine I get a little disorientated.
Actually the domestic flight into
Dalian was delayed so even via taxi to the shopping centre (which is
about half an hour away from the airport. The performance started at
1pm, but I only reached at 1.15, about halfway through the 2nd
song happened to be Iikurashi. There are about a 100 Japanese Wota
going crazy at the small stage.
It is not too difficult to find a place
near the stage because apart from the 100+ Japanese Wota, the rest of
the audiences are bystanders who happen to be in the shopping centre.
I am still wearing my 一般人Black
jacket so it is not obvious I am a fan too. The sound system is
horrendous as the music keeps cutting off and on through the
performance. The mics don’t seem to be functioning particularly
well too. Other than the technical problems, the girls sang pretty
well. Honoka didn’t sound too bad live, but when I watched the fan
cams at home, she did in fact go off tune quite a few times. It might
be due to the fact that they are in a shopping centre, so the singing
was not as powerful as, say Budoukan was.
My view for 1st Session.
They sang the pizza song, dakishme
anthem and 777. As it is my first time watching them, I don’t
participate much, more of enjoying the girls and observing the wota.
As expected of Stardusters, the fans are crazy (especially since they
did travel all the way to Dalian for this) their furi copy and chants
are co-ordinated and well practiced. It must have been quite a sight
for the ordinary people doing their shopping.
The girls also introduced themselves in
Mandarin and say a few standard phrases. Nao chan cannot remember her
lines so she writes them on her arm in black ink. This is very
obvious to the crowd and elicits lots of laughter. But Nao chan is
the boss so she CBF.
I supposed that since I wasn’t
wearing any outstandingly wota-ish clothing, it was difficult to
catch the girls’ eyes, but surprisingly Haruna did give me a nice
smile. She was always my 2nd favourite so I was happy. Nao
chan on the other hand is not very generous with smiles or waves to
people who are not her fans. This is something she could really
improve on. She also has the classic “resting bitch face”.
Unusual for my Oshi as I usually avoid these types, but I guess this
is something you won’t know until you actually see them live. Those
who seem to genuinely enjoy their time on stage are Haruna and
Chiyuri.
After the performance is over I move to the center to take some better pictures
After the performance, we go for lunch
at this pork ribs place. It was actually pretty bad and I wouldn’t
recommend it. The clams had sand in it as they were not washed
properly, and everything was on the salty side.
We could also explore the shopping
centre a little. I felt that the layout was generally similar to some
Western Shopping Centres I visited (Especially sub-urban malls in
Australia). The mall has big brands like Uniqlo, H&M, while the
main tenant is Wanda Departmental Store, thus named the Shopping
Centre. There is a big supermarket in the basement. Meanwhile I also
swapped my 一般人disguise
for my blue leopard printed Nao chan Parker.
Suited up
The 2nd performance slot was
scheduled at 4pm, so all the wota diligently gathered at the stage at
4pm to wait. However, at 4pm sharp, instead of the girls coming out,
a man who introduced himself as the organizer of the event took to
the mike. He informed the wota that this session will be postponed to
5.30pm due to the stage being unsafe for the girls. We didn’t
notice this, but during the first session, the girls were having
trouble dancing due to the terrible stage flooring (Made in China
FTW). So the stage is basically made of wooden plank platforms,
covered with a red felt–like cloth. But this cloth was not properly
pinned to the wooden planks so the girls couldn’t get a firm
footing and were in constant danger of falling.
Following this announcement, the wota
disbursed obediently to find something to occupy themselves for
another hour. We went to a Starbucks/Coffee Bean Knockoff called
“Caffe Bean” whose tagline is “咖啡陪你心”
which means “Coffee to accompany your heart”. I had a
frappe drink, and learnt a few more Chinese words.
Dalian Frappe
Once again, at about 5.30pm, the wota
gathered at the stage again. It seemed like Déjà vu that the same
man came out. Peppered with apologies, he told us that the 2nd
session would have to be cancelled. He explained that this was the
anniversary of a Shanghai Earthquake where some 30+ people died, so
the local Chinese people were not too happy with all the shouting and
the noise that the wota were making. He told the wota that for
subsequent performances, the Japanese wota would have to watch from
the 2nd and 3rd floors AND be more reserved in
their “Encouragements”. First floor would be reserved for locals.
Then, Tencho also spoke to us for a while saying very sorry for
everything, and that they will try their best to continue the
performances tomorrow, but no promises.
One thing I was very surprised, that
the wota did not complain much, they didn’t grumble. They reacted
as if it didn’t concern them even though they paid so much money to
fly from Japan and traverse this strange land. If it was Singapore,
everyone would be kicking up a great fuss. My respect for Japanese
wota grew. To make sure I didn’t understand them wrongly (also due
to the strange reactions of the wota = no reaction), I doubled
checked this info with a fellow Nao chan oshi.
Honestly I was really disappointed.
Having travelled so far and facing the possibility of not being able
to enjoy the lives as promised, there seemed to be no meaning in this
trip.
Crest-fallen, I cabbed to my hotel for
Check in. I chose this hotel as it was rumored to be the same hotel
that the girls would be staying at. Hotel Nikko Dalian, on their
website, they gave themselves 5 stars. Hotel Nikko is a chain of
Japanese Hotels and is also the official hotel for ANA Airlines. The
price was much higher than the normal hotels, but since it was only
for a night, I didn’t mind paying a little more on the chance that
we might see the girls.
The room is big and luxurious as
expected. There were many Japanese TV channels to cater to the
Japanese guests. The reception recommended a Chonqing Hot Pot nearby
so dinner was settled.
Somehow, I feel that I paid tourist
prices for nearly everything I did. I guess that is alright because
the meat tasted good.
Extra large Hot Pot!
On the way back, there was a Lawson
(catered to Japanese tourist as expected)
My thoughts on the City of Dalian
I had done some research on Dalian, in
which I learnt that it was a promising industrial city with lots of up and
coming projects. Having been to Shanghai 8 years ago, I expected
something similar to the bustle of the Bund. Boy was I in for a
shock. Once I touched down, even from the plane, there were miles and
miles of residential buildings, unoccupied, uncompleted and in
various states of derelict. This was definitely not what I read about
in Wikipedia. The streets and cars are covered in dust and sand from
all the abandoned construction sites. I could just hear the wails of
fail investments as I passed it all by in my taxi. I could not
imagine this magnitude. While we in Singapore complained of our lack
of housing. Here in the middle of Dalian city are hundreds of
thousands of unoccupied units of Condominums, just wasting away. I
remember thinking to myself as I saw a scruffy looking dog trot pass
my taxi, you gonna be eaten soon.
As expected of China, the streets are
not well paved, the roads are not well marked and there is a general
disregard for traffic rules. The buildings are falling apart, and
people pick fights in the street. This is the land my ancestors
hailed from.
Welcome to China.
