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My ACen Experience

My ACen Experience (This is as I typed it at the con)

5-16-13

                Today has been fun. I waited until Laura and Chris picked me up, which was a little after 2 pm. Then we headed on to Mitsuwa. I had not been there in awhile so that was nice. I had a really good chicken called The Governer’s Chicken. I also got some good strawberry chocolate candies. We met some of Laura’s friends there. Then we headed for our hotels. Laura was dropped off first, and me 2nd. I was staying at the Aloft. I checked in and went up to the room. When you walk in you immediately see the desk and a window. If you turn left you see the bathroom, which had a sliding door separating the sink area and shower. Then in the main area there is a nice, and comfy actually, bed that has white sheets, 2 regular pillows, and 2 roundish long ones. There are 2 desks and windows, but the 2nd one is over the AC and heat unit. It is a really nice hotel room. It is a little noisy when the planes go over, since it is right by the airport, but it should be okay. Once I got settled I showered and began to write in this journal. It has been a good day except for that bit of traffic run-in. But it was fine. I hope to sleep tonight since tomorrow I will be shopping and going to the concert! Squeee! So excited! The theater is right across the street! I can’t wait. Will write after the concert. ~end 5/15~

 5-17-13

Kalafina Day! Hehe!

            I woke up around 9 a.m., after kind of restless night. I had some nightmares, and kept hearing this clicking noise. But I did not really care, since I was going to be shopping. I got ready and went down to wait for the shuttle. It came a little after 10. I started to wander a bit, and tried to look at each booth. I saw Frank and Pedro (who work at my brother’s arcade), at the beginning. I also met up with Jeff and Nina. I got a Higurashi manga, a kitty pouch that is adorable, a Portal t-shirt (since I did not bring any other shirts except for tank tops, stupid me) and a present for my brother. Then I went to the artist alley to look for my friend Lisa. I found her after some wandering. I got a cool print from her. 

         Then I looked around. I found a small print of Mami from Madoka for my brother, a white dango from the same person, a really pretty pendant with a butterfly on it and a present for my cousin. Also I got a cool leather pouch from before. There were so many people, I was getting a little tired and hungry around noon so I decided to go back to the hotel and get food. Soon is the concert! Only 6.5 hours away. I may go back to the con but we’ll see. I have tomorrow too.

         There are no words to express how happy I am right now! The concert was just gorgeous! I even like ‘signal’ a little more, but still don’t like Hikaru’s part. Obbligato was sung! I was ecstatic! Ooooooh I loved it. The other songs were: oblivious, consolation, Kagayaku, red moon, Hikari no Senritsu, Door, Magia, Mirai, ARIA, signal, obbligato, ongaku, manten, to the beginning, Hikari furu, and Yume no Daichi. Red moon gave me chills. Hikaru sang in a deeper tone than usual, I thought, it was haunting. I love it more now. The same with Kagayaku, although there the sound was a little fuzzy still, because it was so loud. It was really clear before when they were showing the PVs. Wakana hit all her high notes. The only things that would have made it better would be if Konno had been there, and if they had sung Kyrie and lirica. But I loved it. And I sat next to nice people. The girl next to me thought she dropped her wallet around ongaku or so, but I could not see anything but she kept looking. I was just like ‘wait until the end when you can look better’ ugh, but it was still enjoyable.

            Then I followed the crowd of people to the signing, so it wasn’t hard to find. I was a little worried since the line was sooo long when we got there, but I talked with a few nice guys (one even said he had been on CPM before) about the band until I got in! I was so nervous I was shaking, but I gave Wakana my picture of symphonia I had drawn and she said “Oh! Symphonia!” And thank you.

          I actually said arigatou this time. I got my 5th book signed. It is amazing! 

          I might go to the 2nd signing tomorrow to get my consolation cd signed, since I could only do 1 item. 🙂 I am just so happy. I had a wonderful awesome day and wish it would last forever. I felt like it was a dream at the concert. (Even if the sound was kind of messed up and there was no Konno.) Ahh I am happy. Well, bed soon I think. More Kalafina and shopping tomorrow. (Well, today actually heh) ~end 5/17~

5-18-13

        Today I woke a little later than intended, but I got ready and checked out of my hotel and headed to the center. I shopped for awhile and found some cds I wanted, a DVD set (ef a tale of melodies), a pretty bracelet, a cute cat plush, a cute jelly knit plush, a bottle fairy necklace and a dust necklace, a pin, and Kalafina bag and 5th keychain from the Kala booth. I love the bag so much. I got the last one too! I wanted the to the beginning poster but they were sold out and only had the anniversary one left.

        I hung out with Lisa a bit before going to the panel. It was hard to find, but I found it and could have stayed in the same spot and I would have been fine. (I also went to the furthest hotel lol Glad I wasn’t the only one.) I made it on time before they came out. They talked about the hardest songs and the ones they liked. Wakana said signal was hard to sing because of the chorus, Keiko said obbligato, which I thought was strange, and Hikaru I thought said hikari furu. They also talked about the Chicago area and where they went during their free time. One of the interesting questions and answers was how do they keep their voices so beautiful or something like that. Keiko said she takes great care of her voice by drinking a lot of water, put moisturizer in her room and on her throat to keep it from getting sore. I thought that was interesting. Then I decided not to go to the second signing and shop more and then left Lisa to go get something to eat. I went to Toby Keith’s Bar and Grill across the street from my hotel, and had a really good chicken sandwich and an awesome brownie sundae which defeated me. Lol It was so big I couldn’t finish it. Now I am waiting to be picked up as I am writing this. Which is soon. I am sad to be leaving but I am out of money but I enjoyed my time at ACen. The concert was just awesome. The panel and auto session great, found cds and other awesome stuff. 🙂 Now it’s time to go home. Sigh.

~ACen end~

  

Concert details:

 

We did have to wait awhile for it to start, but it was all so worth it. I loved each song, even if I did not like the actual song too much (like signal). I loved that they showed a lot of the PVs beforehand.

 

oblivious: The girl that sat next to me said this was her favorite song of the band, and it is still great and holds a special place in my heart. The opening for it was a bit weird, different from overture, I thought. But then the song started. Even though the sound was fuzzy, it was still amazing. I noticed no Konno as well, and was a bit saddened, since he is my favorite band member (besides the girls). But it was still a great performance.

 

consolation: I still don’t like the beginning of this song. The rest of it though got me going for the rest of the concert. The guitar was awesome!

 

Kagayaku: It is not one of my favorite songs, but it was really beautiful. I liked the piano part.

 

red moon: I am the opposite of what coral thought. I thought this was a great and haunting performance of this song. I loved it more than the original! Hikaru’s deep voice in the beginning was amazing and I think it was one of the best in this live. It made me love the song more.

 

Hikari no Senritsu: Kind of a weird one to play right after red moon. But I liked it. The girls seemed to be having fun.

 

Door: I am also opposite of coral as well, since this is my favorite ballad from consolation. I did not know it was this song either, since the piano was different, but after awhile I liked it, like towards the end. (I think this was the song that Keiko did a part at the end that sounded like Margaret Dorn.) I loved this song to the point I was almost in tears.

 

(Was Magia first or Mirai? Could not remember)

Magia: Loved it. It was better than the other previous lives I have heard of this song.

 

Mirai: Everyone knew this song, and it was great. I do love both versions of the song, so I was happy with this one. The harmonies were great. They looked like they were having fun again.

 

ARIA: Such a powerful song. I love it. Hikaru just nails everything and so does Wakana and Keiko.

 

signal: I still don’t like Hikaru’s part, but Keiko’s is just amazing, and Wakana was amazing on her ahhhs. (I still think of origa with this song).

 

obbligato: I nearly fell out of my seat when this song started, although I was in the first row of the balcony, so that wouldn’t have been good. I did not want to stand up to be in someone’s way, but I clapped and cheered. It was just too good to be true, ‘they’re playing my favorite song? I must be in a dream!’ I thought. Hikaru’s deep voice was awesome, and Wakana nailed the high notes again. I just love this song so much. My favorite of the live, of course.

 

ongaku: It got everyone on their feet again, rocking out. This song is awesome live. I’m glad I got to see it twice! Even though in 2008 it was first new, but they still did an awesome job even then. And this time it was with the band. Koichi was just awe inspiring.

 

manten: I loved this. Since it is a slower song than ongaku, it was strange to hear this first instead of to the beginning. But I do like the song.

 

to the beginning: Just amazing. I loved all the harmonies, and the Kajiuran. The beginning of it was a little shaky, but they pulled it off.

 

Hikari furu: Like coral said, beautiful! Wakana’s high notes perfect again. Tears almost to my eyes. Someone screamed really loudly behind me when this song started. Heh I think they love it too.

 

and Yume no Daichi: Really really beautiful. It was a fitting end song, and everyone went awww when they said it was the last one. *sigh* I want to be back there right now. Even listening to the songs on the cds is not the same.

 

All in all I thought it was amazing. Keiko was so cute when she said they don’t eat dogs, when someone suggested to have Chicago hot dogs. Hikaru spoke really good English, and her voice is surprisingly deep compared to her normal voice. I loved all of it, all of the con, everything. It was just a truly great experience that I will remember and love the rest of my life.

 

The End

This entry was posted on Friday, May 24th, 2013 at 4:10 pm and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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