On January 06, 2012 there was a LIVE streaming of Jin Akanishi’s fanmeet in Yokohama at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles.

Doors opened up at 5:30pm but according to my friend, people started to line up two hours prior to that! I found it surprising since he wasn’t actually going to be there, it was just a live streaming. I got there at 5pm, so I didn’t have to wait long but the turn out was pretty good. The line weaved around in a square and eventually had some people along the long ways of the sidewalk. In total there were around 200 people. Right on the dot, at 5:30pm they were letting people in. Once you got in, there was a table set up where one person would check you had the ticket for the event. Oh and I forgot to mention, it was free! Once your name got crossed out, the next person put a wristband that allowed you entry to the event. Going up some stairs, there was another line to wait in until doors opened about 10 minutes before the event officially started. As we walked in, we were handed postcards with his autograph, a picture of himself with a message and in the back a 2012 calendar. In the mean time, the MC PK gave us a rundown of what was going to happen for the next hour.

Exactly at 6pm, or rather 11am in Japan, the fanmeet started with a LIVE performance of his U.S debut song “Test Drive.” We were all quietly watching and cheered at the end. He then introduced himself and proceeded to perform “Eternal.” Right when the background melody started playing, there was smog that all around him and he started coughing because there was too much! The music stopped and he said how it looks cool and all but that it was too much. Over in Japan, one of the staff apologized and so they started the song again. Right when he was about to sing, the smog was coming up again so he stopped the music. After this second time it was evident he was doing it on purpose, throwing witty remarks when the smog was switched for fire! After amusing us for a bit, he finally got around to singing the song. It was a very pretty ballad and the whole audience was quiet until the background music stopped playing.

Next, it was time for the part where we, the audience in LA, were being shown to Jin and his whole 15,000 audience in Japan! It was pretty cool since this is the first event I have heard of and attended where it was a LIVE streaming from an event overseas on a huge screen with no lag! Well atleast on our side. We could see how it would take a couple of seconds for whatever we said to reach Japan so all of us in the audience had fun with that. Jin was in full screen and one of the first things he said was “I’m here missing you all in LA, I can’t wait to get In-N-Out.” Haha. We kept saying “hi” back and forth and then he introduced his next song, “Sun Burns Down.” Yes, his next single that will be released on January 24th! It was pretty cool that were were some of the first people here in the U.S to get to listen to this exclusive! The song is upbeat, definitely has a clubbing feel to it and it doesn’t sound like it will disappoint! I wish I could share with you all since there were no rules on no recording, but I’m pretty sure youtube would be quick at deleting my videos so I’ll just have to let you wait a couple of more days until it’s official release.

After his performance there was about a 20 minute part where Jin chose names with questions for him out of a box. One box was with questions from U.S fans and he picked out two. The first was by Jackie/Jacky who asked “How do you like recording in America so far?” He replied with “I loved it. Hot girls.” Then there was an awkward silence, haha. The second question he picked out was by Phonenix who asked “Who are your American music influences?” He said “I love every single U.S artist but, uh, well I love Lil’ Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Michael Jackson.” Right after that, problems with the stream on the Japan side started to have problems. This kept on happening until the end of the event, and what had everyone cracking up was when he got a bit annoyed and said “F*ck this shit!” Ofcourse everyone cheered in agreement since everyone was sighing when it kept happening. After the two questions from U.S fans he proceeded to pick out questions, about five to ten from his fans in Japan. The most memorable was when they asked him “Why do you always wear sunglasses and/or a hat?” He said that it makes him feel safe and even went as far as comparing it to safety girls feel when wearing bras, oh boy.

As the questions came to a close, he said he was thankful for all of the fans in Japan for coming. As a gift, he would be standing outside the venue and bid everyone goodbye. With that, a clip started playing that showed him during his stay in Los Angeles. At this point the stream was acting up alot but since it was near the end and atleast it did not start in the beginning, it was alright with us. The event was supposed to end at 7:00pm but it went a bit overboard, for about 20 minutes. Not that anyone was complaining!

There was much more he talked about but these were the highlights for me. Ah and I forgot to mention that there were actually people that flew in for this event! Two girls from Rhode Island and one, or a few, from Chicago, wow. Anyways, on our side the event ended by a special announcement telling us that as a thank you, we will receive emails next week with pre-sale access to his concerts in the U.S this year! Yes, he will have 5 concerts in the U.S this March! Los Angeles on March 9, Vancouver on March 10, Hawaii on March 12, New York on March 15 and finally San Francisco on March 17.

Overall I had fun since this is the first event of it’s kind that I have attended! It was as close as you can get to being there, free of charge. I loved that were were able to interact with Jin and have fun at the same time has his fans in Japan. I can’t wait for his concerts in the states and hopefully will see him LIVE soon!