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Editor’s Note:

Actually, Wotaliano already submitted his report last night, but due to my sleepy eyes, it got delayed while in review. Sorry for the delay…

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~Report Start~

To give you a little background, it is customary for some foreign countries to do themed festivals in Japan, to attract tourism, present their local delicacies and so on.

I often hear of Asian countries like India, Nepal and Bangladesh doing it in Yoyogi park, one of Tokyo’s biggest and most visited parks. Indonesia did it there in 2010 and 2011 too, but moved to the very posh location of Roppongi Hills afterwards, and that’s where Indonesia Festival 2013 is held this year too.

The festival is held on 2 floors: the upper one had some firms’ booths, and from 14:00 they started selling JKT48 goods there.

This is what I bought:

But they were also selling T-shirts (red with JKT48 written in white) and Yang Mencinta Fortune Cookie CDs.

The lower floor had some food stalls (I had some tasty Sate there) and a bigger stage, where many bands played, and the JKT event would be held.

The event started a little later than scheduled, at around 15:10 maybe?

Overture played, then Aitakatta started. Nabilah was the center. The mix and calls were not many maybe, but in my honest opinion with that number of “hardcore” fans, it was normal…(normal fans would be too ashamed to do Mixes or calls in that open place, that’s Japanese character for you)

After the song, guided by a Japanese host (fluent in Indonesian), Sendy, Nabilah and Veranda first did their self introductions. Sendy did a short greeting in Japanese, then did her usual self intro. Nabilah did her usual introduction (Indonesian only) and Veranda introduced herself in simple Japanese.

They then answered some questions like how many times have you come to Japan, etc…

The next theme was members’ personal skills. Sendy started it off by singing Dangdut, of course. The song name was “Kopi Dangdut”, known in Japan as “Coffee Rumba”, apparently.

What can I say, except “Sasu666a Sendy”? It was clear she’s used to the stage, she knew full well how to move, how to rile up the crowd, everything…

After the song ended, the host guy requested another one, and Sendy said something no one expected: “I will sing a Japanese song which lyrics were written by Akimoto-sensei”…yes, the legendary Enka hit sung by the equally legendary Misora Hibari.

 
Frankly speaking, knowing that Sendy isn’t exactly fluent in Japanese, there couldn’t be a higher hurdle to overcome…

The result? I am not a native Japanese, nor an expert in Enka, so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but to my ears it was bliss. She sang well, pronounced the lyrics clearly enough, in one word: goosebumps. Japanese fans expressed similar opinions too, so it must have been good enough.

After Sendy, it was Nabilah’s turn. She did her viral hit, Caesar’s dance (is it?), at full energy while being supported by Sendy’s singing.

To be honest I only saw the video once and didn’t really understand it, and considering the fact we were sitting it was hard to dance with them… Once again I admired her courage at doing such a difficult-to-understand performance (for Japanese people at least) at full power. (Like with the Sule imitation in Shukan AKB)

Last one was Veranda. She started a small Indonesian lesson, first teaching the crowd how to say “my name is~” (nama saya ~). Then the MC asked her for something she’d like to be told at handshakings, but Veranda instead asked the crowd what they would like to tell her.

The first fan to raise his hand was an Indonesian guy residing in Japan (I think), who spoke with her and the MC in Indonesian…then a Japanese guy told her “Aishiteru” (I love you), which kinda surprised the MC, but not Veranda, who just chuckled and translated it as “Aku cinta kamu”. (Girl, I knew it. You’re used to this stuff aren’t you)

Needless to say, the Japanese fan who said risked to be blown away by that sudden gust of wind.

I personally was a little surprised she knew that word without the MC guy translating.

After this little romantic episode, it’s time for the last song, Yang Mencinta Fortune Cookie. After telling the crowd to stand up and teaching them a little about the choreography, we all danced it together. Veranda was the center, and according to a friend of mine (Nabilah oshi) who was there too, “I didn’t know KFC had so smooth, sinuous moves. She surely has class!“.

After the song, the members temporarily retreated: they appeared again at Western Union’s booth at 17. If you applied for a 7/11 Bank card, you could shake hands with Nabilah, while Sendy and Veranda handed pamphlets to the surrounding crowd.

As you might imagine, it was a free-for-all kind of situation: people took photos of the girls, took photos with the girls, shook hands with Ve and Sendy too, had them sign their CDs… with the staff permission, of course. The girls responded admirably to everyone’s requests.

I personally just shook hands with Nabilah, who was more capable in English than I thought, but I wasn’t mentally ready at all so it was a very simple convos (lol). She looked at me straight and intently though, I could feel she was doing her best there.

The “handshake” continued for 10 minutes or so, then the girls said bye and retreated again,

And that’s how the first day went.

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