“Yuuhi wo Miteiru ka?” Individual Handshake Event Report

Handshake events are often considered capstone events of the idol business for both the idols and the fans. This is the time when idols can meet their supporters face-to-face and receive input directly, in addition to showing a more personal side aside from the one fans see onstage. Indonesians also call the day of such an event—not inaccurately—as National Delusion Day.

Whether one spends a mere ten seconds or a cumulative ten minutes with his or her idol, it is clear that the fan also feels that the idol cares and attempts to know him or her better. This is what Indonesians mean when idols waro (a Sundanese verb) their fans. That is, idols are giving personal attention to their fans. Such actions actually go beyond the handshake event day as many fans continue to seek their idols’ attention at theater performances and other events.

Prelude

I made the decision to participate in an individual handshake event for the first time in late July, nearly two months prior to the actual date of the “Yuuhi wo Miteiru ka?” event. This is the third individual handshake event for JKT48.

Fortunately, the date of the event coincided with an extended holiday weekend for me, so there was an excuse to visit Jakarta again. As many of you know, I have previously chosen Beby as my oshimen in JKT48. Therefore, my objective was to be able to meet her one-on-one and convey my admiration and support for her. I bought 11 tickets through proxy and fellow JKT48Stuff contributor djt. Five of these tickets were for Beby.

Many fans in Jakarta accumulated their ticket purchases slowly over the course of two months, but I decided from the beginning whom I wanted to meet based on impressions of my previous theater attendance, so I purchased them altogether. Over this period, JKT48 held multiple events including the Pajama Drive set list revival show. I speculate that the results of the revival show votes may have convinced some fans to purchase additional tickets for members to whom they did not previously pay attention.

My ticket purchases, however, did not change. Until the Thursday before the event.

It was announced that because of concerns for Beby’s and Stella’s well-being, their individual handshake events would be rescheduled. I understood that their health are an important priority, but in truth I was devastated. (I had also purchased one ticket for Stella, so this totaled to six tickets of 11 that would be wasted.) After all, an overseas journey just to have a cumulative 50 seconds with his favorite member was not an easy decision to make.

Without a predetermined date for their rescheduled handshake events, I could not guarantee that I would be able to attend. Rather than wasting six tickets, I decided to exchange them for other members In a desperate attempt to salvage my weekend, I solicited input from Twitter on members with whom I should meet. Up to midnight before the event day, I was still struggling to make a decision.

Day and Individual Impressions

Although my first handshake session was not scheduled until 2 p.m., I went to the venue early in the morning to rendezvous with others who have assembled for the special day. I was finally able to meet fellow contributor Japarta in person, as well as a Japanese guest of this site’s Jadilah Nekad project. Despite our guest’s inability to speak English or Indonesian, he was still enthusiastic about arriving in Jakarta to attend the event. I even had the opportunity to put to use what meager Japanese I learned from watching anime. Japarta, who is practically fluent in Indonesian, served as an interpreter between the guest and Indonesian fans.

The event venue was quite empty in the first few sessions of the morning but was entirely flooded by fans by the afternoon. The crowds had multiplied exponentially such that officials had to repeatedly plead over the speaker system so that attendees do not loiter near the shopping mall’s shopfronts and cause inconveniences for other patrons. One acquiantance commented to me that some who were loitering did not even possess any handshake tickets, yet they continued to watch from the floors above for the entire day.

Anticipating the rush, I went to the ticketing booth at about 10:30 a.m. in order to exchange Beby’s and Stella’s tickets with other members’. As it turns out, the same booth also served those who wanted to purchase additional tickets for upcoming sessions on the spot. This resulted in utter chaos, as Indonesians are commonly known for their disorderly queues. It took me one hour before I finally exchanged my tickets, and our Japanese guests spent one and a half hours in line for additional purchases but could not make them in the end. Immediately, I felt that this was a sign of things to come for the remainder of the day.

Ratu Vienny Fitrilya – Session 6

A handshake with Viny was highly recommended by several of my acquaintances, some of whom had chosen her as their oshimen. One also mentioned that despite having never met Viny, he could sense that she has the potential of becoming a successful artist. Team KIII’s “smiling eyes” already has quite a reputation, and I admit that her performance of “Bunga Matahari” was one of the highlights of my attendance at Matahari Milikku in June.

I had initially intended for Beby to inaugurate my first handshake event, but because that was out of the question, I randomly decided whom I would meet first during this session, and the choice was Viny. As it turns out, fellow contributor Redranger48 who is an avid Viny supporter had notified her through Twitter the night before that I would be stopping by her booth at this session. However, I made the mistake of only introducing myself at the end of my allotted time. After I identified myself, she immediately recognized my name because of the previous notification. When I entered the booth, it seemed as though she wanted me to speak first, so I went ahead and said that it was my first time attending a handshake event.

Despite the brief conversation with Viny (whose flow was also disrupted because of a security personnel who loudly counted down from five seconds midway through my time), I could definitely agree that her eyes and smile are important charm points. She was wearing a white one-piece dress with a pink jacket which further accentuated her slim figure, and I think it was a natural fit. I had not previously seen her wear her in a ponytail though, so I was not quite used to it.

It should be noted that during the ticket presale period, four of Viny’s five sessions were sold out, which was the most of any member aside from Akicha. Because of the strong demand, perhaps I expected too much out of a handshake with her, and the session only felt ordinary to me.

Cindy Yuvia – Session 6

Cindy Yuvia’s ticket was the result of exchanging Stella’s ticket. There was no particular reason for selecting her other than the fact that I wanted to experience for myself her infamous cute and innocent demeanor. The joke within the fan community is that she is so cute that one would want to kidnap her in a sack and take her home to care for as his or her own.

I had no expectations for this handshake as it was not my first choice. In fact, I was afraid that I would have no topic to discuss with her. Having learned from the previous handshake with Viny, I decided to introduce myself first before delving into the conversation. I informed her that I was a first-time attendee, and that I was coming from overseas. She didn’t seem to be able to come up with a clever response to that information, so the conversation proceeded regularly with her asking me where I come from and later wishing me a safe return journey.

She was wearing a white printed shirt with blue denim shorts and suspenders which enhanced her childlike image, yet one should be reminded that Cindy Yuvia is in fact older than several members of Team J, including Beby and Shania. Perhaps it is because of this image and personality that she does not seem to respond well to serious or “average” topics. As fellow contributor djt later recounted his handshake experience with her, I felt that she would be a prime target for teasing if one could come up with a good lead-in such that the comments do not appear condescending.

Shania Junianatha – Session 6

I had initially intended on purchasing a ticket for Shania, but all of her sessions coincided with Beby’s. Therefore, I decided to exchange one of Beby’s tickets with hers. If Viny is the “smiling eyes” of Team KIII, that title belongs to Shania in Team J. The assertive 15-year-old is perhaps the opposite of Cindy Yuvia and appears mature beyond her age, which also caused her to become the target of a nasty rumor as some attendees later discovered.

Knowing that Shania is close with Beby, I felt comfortable in informing her that the ticket was originally meant for Beby, and I decided to exchange it because of her absence. Shania seemed kind and understanding enough and asked me to continue supporting Beby regardless of the absence, and I assured her that would be the case. Because of her popular status, that was essentially the only topic we were able to discuss aside from introducing myself before security personnel pushed me on.

She wore a black-and-white striped dress shirt. While it was plain, it was a symbol of her mature beauty. I believe that if one did not know her true age when first meeting her, it would be easy to mistake her for a 20-something young woman. As seen in TV and theater appearances, Shania appears to easily adapt to any conversation topic, and even if she is not your oshimen, she will ensure that you felt that purchasing her handshake ticket was worth it.

Sonia Natalia – Session 7

My purchase of Stella’s ticket was intentionally paired with her younger sister Sonia. I’ve long considered the two as the sister pair I supported the most in JKT48. Although neither are my oshimen, I am interested in seeing what they can achieve together in the group. This is why I was supporter of the Stella–Sonia pair for “Air Mata yang Tak Tersampaikan” in the Pajama Drive revival show, even submitting 20 SMS votes when I happened to be in Jakarta on the final day they were accepted.

That message of support, as well as consolation for not being able to fulfill the hopes of seeing the two sisters together on the same stage, was supposed to be spread over Stella’s and Sonia’s sessions. With Stella’s absence, I decided instead to ask her to pass on my well wishes for her sister. Otherwise, I informed her that I will continue to support them as a pair, not one or the other.

Sonia wore a colorful printed dress, which I thought was quite fashionable. I think this is a good trait of Stella’s which she has taken after. Given that Stella has previously worked as a model, it was expected that Sonia would have similar tastes since the two sisters are quite close. Sonia may not be as witty or as talkative as her older sister, the two certainly project an aura of familiarity as if they are one’s not-so-distant relatives, perhaps as one’s cousins.

Rica Leyona – Session 7

A handshake with Rica was the recommendation of fellow contributor AnakDekan in exchange for one of Beby’s tickets. His reasoning was that Rica is quite gracious and acts as if the one who shakes hands with her is an old friend. I also later learned from Japarta and our Japanese guest that she and Sendy are actually quite popular in Japan, which was an eye-opener because they are often overlooked by Indonesian fans.

Rica was the first one to show genuine interest in the fact that I was coming from the United States and even asked how I am able to speak in Indonesian. I informed her that this was also my first time attending a handshake event, to which she asked why I had chosen to meet with her. She seemed flattered by the recommendation that AnakDekan had given me. Despite having just one ticket, I considered it to be a fulfilling and smooth conversation.

I suspect that Rica’s experience as a Starbucks barista is the reason she is able to create a friendly environment for conversing with fans. I feel that she is definitely one member who deserves more attention than she receives, and I wouldn’t mind meeting with her again in the future because I have also overlooked her in the past.

Rona Anggreani – Session 7

Ayen’s handshake ticket is another which I received in exchange for Beby’s. This was a request by fellow contributor Wotaliano which I was unfortunately unable to fulfill. This is perhaps one example of the chaotic nature of the event that caused such incidents to happen. Because of the number of member booths, the venue was separated into two floors within the shopping mall—the lower atrium and inside JKT48 Theater.

Sonia’s and Rica’s sessions were located inside the theater, but Ayen’s was located in the atrium. Having spent 40 minutes in queue for the first two and another five walking around and speaking with them, I rushed to the atrium for Ayen’s session. I had to squeeze my way to the front of the queues as the clock was nearing the end of the seventh session and fans were already in line preparing for the eighth session. By the time I had my ticket verified, it was past the assigned time slot for the seventh session, but officials had not yet called out its end. I remained hopeful and ran toward Ayen’s booth, but before I reached it I saw that she was leaving with a security personnel. Understand that her line was empty at the time, but others in the same session such as Noella in the next booth were still preoccupied. I called out to Ayen to no avail, and thus my chance at a handshake with her went up in flames all because of uncontrolled queues and slow processing. I was not the only one as another person behind me also came to meet her.

Frustrated over the delays in the seventh session, I was less optimistic at my odds in the eighth session because I was to meet with four members instead of three. I was already aggravated and once again forced to queue from the beginning for the next session.

Diasta Priswarini – Session 8

I had come to take interest in Diasta only about a month or two ago. Although she rarely appears with JKT48 recently due to the rigorous commitments of her academic program, her most dedicated fans remained hopeful that she would not be forced to graduate from the group. Because I knew very little about her, I wanted to meet her myself and find out more about her personality. Diasta’s miraculous rise in the Pajama Drive revival rankings appeared to have re-energized interest in her as well.

Yet despite garnering renewed interest, turnout for her handshake was low as I expected. The security personnel watching over her booth was particularly understanding and allowed each person a substantial amount of time to converse with Diasta because the queue was quite thin. A female fan in front of me was able to present her a stuffed animal gift and proceed conversing for the next 20–30 seconds.

As I entered her booth, there was no one else behind me. I started by introducing myself and explained that it was my first time at a handshake event and wanted to meet her in person. She also expressed her gratitude in my coming to meet her and asked whether I would watch the Aturan Anti Cinta theater set list again. When I informed her that I would be watching the show on the following day on Sunday, she regretted not being able to appear on that day. I then promised her that one day I will try to come and watch when she is on the performance roster. As security pushed me on because another patron was approaching, I quickly asked how her most recent undergraduate thesis defense went, to which she responded that it went well and that it was the first of six.

I honestly thought Diasta was taller than I expected. It may be because there are so few photographs of her public performances that I have not been able to gauge her height compared to other members. She was also beautiful in person, wearing a one-piece dress with a jacket. Although it was clear we were running out of topics to discuss, she was kind enough to attempt to continue the conversation until the next fan arrived.

I understand that it must be difficult for fans of Diasta to show their support when she appears in so few theater shows. Her situation is one example why a handshake event is so treasured by fans because it is time that one is guaranteed to meet with his or her idol. Moreover, when the fan base of those members are relatively small, the time spent with the idol can span up to 30 seconds or more, resulting in a more meaningful conversation.

Jennifer Rachel Natasya – Session 8

Aside from Beby, Rachel’s handshake was one I had most anticipated. I saw her for the first time performing in “Bunga Matahari” when I watched Matahari Milikku for the first time in June. I honestly was not aware of her existence prior to that because I had paid little attention to second generation members. However, her performance was one of the reasons why I was forced to reconsider my evaluation of the second generation. I was disappointed when the Team KIII roster announced later that week excluded Rachel.

I told her this and how I was captivated just because of her single performance. She was moved by my story and at the same time felt saddened in having to recall not being selected as part of Team KIII. It might have been selfish of me, but I hope she knows that there are many fans who wish she had been chosen for KIII having been a regular performer in Matahari Milikku. As I left, I cheered her on, hoping that one day she will promoted to full member status.

Rachel wore a floral print dress with lace jacket, which brought out her youth and contrasted with her dark-colored skin quite well. It has been said that her sincerity is one of her charm points amid a series of rowdy and outgoing personalities in the second generation, and I have come to agree with that assessment. She may be more sensitive than others, but I believe it is a handshake one could not possibly regret.

Sonya Pandarmawan – Session 8

I purchased a ticket with Sonya for the specific intent of attempting to speak Mandarin with her. Given her heritage, I felt that she was one of the most culturally Chinese among the Chinese Indonesian members. As an ethnic studies enthusiast, the Chinese Indonesian members have always intrigued me as I am curious about their social and cultural identities growing up in a post-authoritarian Indonesia.

Although I initially greeted her in Indonesian, I immediately switched to Mandarin asking if she would entertain my wish to speak with her in the language. Thankfully, she said yes and was seemingly confident in her skills as well. The conversation itself was quite generic in content, but being able to speak with a member in another language gives one a feeling that you have had a more unique experience than others. I will say that I absolutely loved her Mandarin pronunciations as they seemed quite natural.

When I first watched Aturan Anti Cinta in May, she was not included in the performance roster, thus this was the first time I was meeting her in person. She wore a simple dark-colored blouse, which I thought was a good decision as it did not attract attention away from her facial features. With some ethnic bias, I would say that Sonya is one of the most gorgeous Chinese Indonesian girls I have ever met, with her long flowing hair as a major charm point.

Jessica Vania – Session 8

Knowing that Jeje and Sonya are close friends, I wanted to meet both of them at the same time while I could. Although she performed in the theater performance I attended in May, she did not really catch my attention then. That has changed over the past few months. When I decided to exchange Beby’s tickets, I knew immediately that one would be exchanged to Jeje. However, I was extremely worried that the ticket would be wasted much like Ayen’s because Jeje’s session was located in the theater when the three others in the eighth session were located in the atrium.

As I rushed to the floor above, I was somewhat encouraged that the queue was significantly shorter than in the previous session, and before long I was inside the theater. Jeje is known to be quite witty, and I wasn’t quite sure what topic would interest her. At worst, I was expecting that we would be talking nonsense and jokes through the entire conversation. I was therefore surprised when she took interest in my American origin, as she informed me that she also has family members in the United States. We were able to discuss quite a bit, but I have chosen not to reveal the rest of the conversation out of respect for her family’s privacy.

Perhaps my fears were unfounded because Jeje was friendlier than I expected. After reports of a certain incident between Jeje and a JKT48 fan at the previous handshake event, I wanted to be more cautious on how to approach her. Needless to say, I was encouraged to have a better sense of Jeje’s personality. She wore a simple dress, whose purple color I thought matched her well.

Rena Nozawa

I decided to exchange Beby’s last ticket with Rena’s despite the fact that her session had been rescheduled from the day to late in the evening. As it turned out, she even began her session more than 30 minutes past the intended time because of traffic on the road after arrival at the airport. Redranger48 and I were already in queue when we suddenly heard rumors not long before Rena’s session started that she was preparing a surprise.

When officials finally opened the theater for the session, we were able to have our tickets verified quickly, but the queue inside the theater was still quite long because five handshake sessions had been crammed into a single evening session. While in queue I met Jovi Dominico for the first time, whose testimonial on Rena I had translated several months ago. We spent about an hour in queue, and the anticipation was perhaps more intriguing than previous sessions because her booth was situated in a way such that she is obscured by two mirror panels so that we could not see her in person until we went up to her face-to-face.

As it turns out, she was wearing an intricate blue costume similar to the one worn by the title character of Disney’s Alice in Wonderland (1951). She explained that she loves to watch Disney’s works, and that interest only increased after returning to Japan. As I only had one ticket with Rena, I couldn’t spend much time with her, and personnel were more strict in timekeeping so that the session did not run late into the night. I decided to use English when conversing with her because I felt that it was more of a native language to her having been educated in an international school. Because of this I felt that the conversation flowed more naturally instead of her occasional stutter in Indonesian and Japanese.

We were instructed to sit down inside the theater after shaking hands with her, not knowing what would sort of event or announcements would follow. As suspected, the music video of “Fortune Cookie yang Mencinta” was played, but fans appeared to have become tired of it and only cheered when Rena came into the camera. Next came a surprise screening of a never-before-seen “Karena Kusuka Dirimu” music video. This was not a new production as it still featured Cleopatra Djapri, which meant that it was at least a year old. In my opinion, it was a better music video than “Heavy Rotation” as it featured numerous closeup shots of individual members in beautiful white dresses and blouses. Fans cheered wildly throughout the entire viewing and even sang along to the music. Its style was very similar to the music video of “Kimi no Koto ga Suki Dakara” in AKB48’s 14th major single, having been filmed in an open field.

Rena then proceeded to conduct her monologue quite well, expressing her feelings on being able to meet fans in Jakarta again and her desire to remain affiliated with JKT48. In preparation for AKB48’s upcoming Janken Taikai she played several rounds of rock-paper-scissors with the entire theater until six prevailing attendees remained. She then took questions from all six and answered them one by one for all the attendees.

1. On joining Team K, she felt extremely anxious but very happy and honored to be part of a new family.
2. On the unit song of choice in the current Team K Waiting Stage, fans overwhelmingly requested her to take part in “Candy”. She also had nothing but praises for Team K captain Yuuko Ooshima.
3. On impressions of returning to Indonesia, she was extremely happy to be able to meet local fans again. She conveyed that she would not be able to work as hard without the support of Indonesian fans.
4. On performing in “UZA”, it was an extremely difficult song to learn, and she struggled in the early stages of learning it. However, she wanted to perform it once again in the future and proceeded to demonstrate a segment of the dance for attendees.
5. On Pajama Drive revival, she lamented not being able to participate. Fans initially wanted her to take part in “Ekor Malaikat” again but quickly changed their minds when she hinted at wanting to perform in “Prinsip Kesucian Hati”.
6. For the final question, the fan happened to be on his mobile phone at the time, and Rena called out “Halo, Mama!” (“Hi, Mom!”). The entire theater burst into laughter at this. On Japanese fans, she was surprised to meet so many who have supported JKT48 from the beginning and have said that they would continue to support her in AKB48.

Despite the delays in Rena’s session, it was clear that Rena’s fans were very satisfied with the special treatment they had received from her. It was clear the mood was giddy following the session, and as a joke three security personnel lined up at the theater’s exit to high-five all the departing attendees. Compared to the Rena I saw in May, I think she has matured quite a bit since her return to Japan. I was also impressed in her ability to conduct a solo talk event for fans, and I am certain she will learn many more skills as a member of AKB48. She may no longer be an idol that fans can meet every day, but fans are likely to continue to flock to her whenever she visits Indonesia.

Final Impressions

Despite not fulfilling my original intention of meeting Beby, I was satisfied with the experience of meeting one-on-one with members. It was clear that JKT48 management should be reconsidering the event’s operations because there were a number of logistical failures that occurred throughout the day. Division of the booths at the venue was not communicated clearly, and it was not uncommon to see fans who queued at the theater above realize too late that they should have been queuing in the atrium. In focusing on the micromanagement of timekeeping at member booths, personnel appeared to have neglected macromanagement of the event.

I also couldn’t help but feel sorry for members who waited in their booths but saw very few fans in their sessions. It appears that overseas (Japanese?) fans had bought Akicha’s tickets in bulk but did not attend the event. Despite her sessions being sold out, there was very little traffic at her booth. As I queued for Rachel, I also watched Uty keeping busy in playing with her stickers as there was no traffic for her in the beginning of the eighth session. This is an unexplained dichotomy I have seen in the second generation where several Trainees are more popular than some KIII members and yet are not yet full-fledged members.

As our Japanese guest of the Jadilah Nekad project stated, perhaps the best experience of this event was not meeting members, but rather meeting other JKT48 enthusiasts. Sharing handshake stories among each other and other experiences of the day made the event much more enjoyable, and I was able to gain a broad view of the event rather than focusing on my individual experiences. Although we often seek individual attention from the idols we pursue, we often overlook the shared experience which would help keep fan delusions in perspective.