Anyway~ I guess this is just the blog about the trip to Waikiki for SCANDAL which will include pictures of SCANDAL and Waikiki. I spent 5 days in Waikiki so this blog will be split up into days to make it easier to navigate. Here is a table of contents if you’re just looking for something in particular (use CTRL+F to find):
Day 1: Arrival in Honolulu
Day 2: Greeting SCANDAL at the airport
Day 3: Press conference, banner making, getting close to Mami, and seeing Haruna randomly
Day 4: The Ekiden (with pictures of SCANDAL) and the live
Day 5: The fan tour (handshake, lei, acoustic, talk, and picture)
I suppose it is obvious that I'm home now. I don't honestly know how I feel about it haha. It's good to be back in California. As much as I loved Hawaii, I know that California is where I'm more suited. But... There's just a lot of stresses here and I'm not sure I'm ready to go back to it. This trip meant more to me than just seeing SCANDAL. But considering this blog will be linked on Wattpad as well for my followers, I'm going to stop there as they no one needs to know beyond that.
The trip was fun. There was a lot of joking and laughs between the people who were there, even if the English-Japanese language barrier was there for some of us with the Japanese fans. None of that mattered, we all still had fun together regardless.
SCANDAL brought together dozens of different people from different places across the globe and helped us all get along for the trip. It didn't matter who we were back at home or what kind of life we lived; none of that mattered in Hawaii. In the moment, we were all just SCANDAL fans all brought to Hawaii for our love of SCANDAL. It wasn't easy getting there but we all came for our girls and that brought us together. The girls and their music helped us put aside our differences for the trip; it's amazing what music can do for people, isn't it?
There were a lot of good memories made with the band and with the others fans that were there. Memories that I do cherish and won’t forget.
So please enjoy the blog~
Day 1/May 29:
I arrived at the Honolulu airport at around 11:30 am. The person I was staying with had arrived at around 11:20 am, so he was waiting for me. Now let me tell you: Honolulu's airport is awful. I thought SFO was bad but man, HNL is even worse. I landed at the other end of the airport and had to take forever to make it to the baggage claim.
My roommate and I ended up at separate baggage claims that were basically on separate sides of the airport. I stayed at my baggage claim and he came and found me, which was our first meeting. We hadn't spoken to each other more than a couple times before coming to Hawaii. A bit reckless? Yes, but I put my faith in him as a SCANDAL fan.
Anyway, we hitched a taxi to the motel which was in Waikiki. All we did at the motel was drop off out luggage and left because our room had no air conditioning. We went for lunch at a small Japanese place across the street before deciding to head to Safeway for some snacks and water. Hawaii has some sweltering heat. It changes between breezy and humid. The day we got there, it was a humid 85 degrees, so really hot.
Along the way to the Safeway, we went past a really beautiful canal (that someone from the area later told us not to touch). Here are a few pictures from the walk:
Cut a few hours and some more people had arrived. We went to meet them and hung out for a while. We met up with three more people, so there were a total of 5 of us by then. Really, we randomly wandered Waikiki until we found ourselves at the beach for a bit.
Two of the people decided to head back to their hotel for some rest and I did the same thing after a while. I didn't go back out that day; it was around 7:30 pm when I went inside. I guess for the first day, I felt really uncomfortable. Everyone already seemed to know each other so it really intimidated me as someone who is really shy and pretty socially inept.
Day 2/May 30:
By the end of the first day, around 13 people were in Hawaii. Many of us met up at around 8 am and we headed to the airport. Some had deduced what flight SCANDAL could possibly be arriving on. It was our best bet so we went with it. We went in groups but we all met up outside the international arrivals exit.
We had a lot of stuff for SCANDAL. We had a large banner with a drawing someone from Japan created upon request. We also had fresh leis for them and SCANDAL Heaven t-shirts to give them. We were really excited to be welcoming them into America again.
This is a photo that was taken at the airport when we were waiting for SCANDAL:
Photo is not mine, the credit belongs to Jade
We never did see SCANDAL though unfortunately. It turns out that there was a second exit we didn't know about. We found this out when someone from Hawaii posted about greeting SCANDAL. We were taken aback at first and really disappointed at the fact we had missed them. We were literally like 20 seconds away from SCANDAL. We didn’t know there was another exit and didn’t really search for one, so it was disappointing. Although, I guess I can’t say much on the airport since I’ve never tried doing anything like that before. I was just following the people who seemed much more experienced haha.
So after we failed at greeting SCANDAL, we decided to go back to Waikiki and we kind of just explored. We ended up at some shops, the beach, and a place called Zippy's for lunch. After a few hours, more people were present so we went up to the Ala Moana shopping center for food. We actually ended up at a Korean BBQ a few blocks away, it was the only place that would serve a party of 20.
Here is a picture of the beach since I didn’t take any at the restaurant:
Dinner was fun, there was a lot laughs. I was slowly becoming more comfortable around others by this point. After dinner, I and a few others walked someone back to their hotel. She was staying with her family away from Waikiki and wanted help getting back.
We got lost on the way back to the bus stop and ended up having to catch what I guess was the last bus for the night. I didn't get back to the motel until like 12:30 am but it didn't bother me too much because it was kind of fun to be around the people who came with. It took a while for people there to see past my quiet ways but I felt like at the end of the second day, people were accepting me as part of the group even if I was really quiet.
Day 3/May 31:
Day 3 is really when the big SCANDAL events began. May 31 was registration for the Honolulu Ekiden and it was registration for us who were going on the SCANDAL fan tour. We all went there pretty early at 10 am to get everything registered and set. Once we were all registered, many of us went to kill a few hours. We were all back by noon for a press conference starting at 2:30 pm, we wanted good seats to see SCANDAL haha.
While we waited, we had people sign the banner for SCANDAL. International and Japanese fans all signed it and wrote a small message for the girls. The plan with the banner was to give it to the girls by the end of the trip so that's why we signed it.
Here are some pictures of the performers before the press conference:
Eventually the press conference did start. Some of us actually saw the girls before they came into the room. There were plants concealing the entrance the bands came in through but Mami's orange hair made her easy for us to spot the band despite it. Those of us who saw kind of just looked up and saw the orange hair randomly.
The press conference started and each band said a few words. Only one member of each band spoke and Haruna was chosen to speak for SCANDAL. Before they spoke, people were waving to the girls. Tomomi was the first to notice and she just kind of raised her hand a bit and shyly waved back to everyone who was waving to her. Mami got in on the waving too, she seemed really happy during the entire conference. Rina and Haruna were a bit shy at first. They hardly waved and seemed really nervous. By the end of it though, they had both loosened up and seemed a lot happier.
When the conference was happening, the people in the front row were holding the now signed banner. I believe it was Rina who was the first to notice and pointed at it. They all seemed so happy when they saw the banner.
Anyway, the girls spoke and Haruna just said a few words about the ekiden, how they were happy to be in Hawaii, and how they hoped people would come out to see them at the music festival.
Below is a picture of the girls from the conference. It is not mine as photography was not allowed. It's an official photo:
The entire conference was like 10 minutes long. Once the bands left, the staff actually blocked the doors probably to prevent us from trying to follow the bands. Honestly, we were really respectful. We completely behaved ourselves the entire time and respected SCANDAL. I’m very happy with how people acted.
I can openly admit that my attention was largely focused on Haruna most of the time. It was just really surreal seeing Haruna in person. She is so beautiful in person. And a lot shorter too. As SCANDAL left the stage, we all waved to them and they of course waved back at us. The fangirl in me would even like to think Haruna waved to me haha.
Anyhow, the conference ended and we broke into groups until 5 pm when we had to be back for the banner making. I went with some people to an udon restaurant a few blocks away. It was funny because on the way, one of the people asked me how it was seeing Haruna for the first time. He knew Haruna was my favorite so yeah lol. If you want the answer to that, it was amazing seeing Haruna for the first time in person.
We had our lunch and then went back to the Marriott to wait for the first of the events to begin. The tour took over the Japanese fans first at 4:30 and then took the international fans over at 5 for a banner making. The banner was a white one that was for the ekiden runners to support them. We put sticker type images of SCANDAL on each side of the banner. The Japanese fans signed the left side and international fans signed the right side.
Here are some photos of the banner making (and the trip there owo):
After we all finished writing on the banner, we were asked to go sit down while they brought the band out. Before they did, they made sure to instruct us to clap when SCANDAL held up the banner. Of course we would clap. It's SCANDAL. We clap for everything they do lol.
The band came out to sign the banner as well. Haruna was the first one to get started and Rina followed her. Mami and Tomomi waved at a few people and in the crowd, some shouted happy birthday to her. Tomomi actually kind of just stood there, waving and talking to the fans. It took Haruna pushing the markers toward her to get her to actually write on the banner lol.
Once they wrote their messages, they put 'aloha' in big letters at the top. Mami chose the orange on and when she did, the fans kind of giggled. Someone from the international side made the comment along the lines of 'she's using orange like her hair' (not exact but you get it). Mami heard and looked up; she smiled at us and we laughed again. She laughed as well before finishing writing. I’m not sure how much English Mami understands but she seemed to understand that.
Once the banner was done, SCANDAL held it up and of course we clapped. We were then led over a bit to take a picture. They placed the short people and girls in front. They had us kneeling. Where they put me, I was one spot from Mami. Mami is a really sweet and happy person; she’s excited and happy pretty much every time we saw her. At one point, the wind blew the banner up and the person next to me held it down for her. Mami turned to us and thanked us for it and made a small joke about the wind.
The picture was done and as the girls went to leave, someone from the international side began a Timo chant. Everyone joined in to get her attention before we sang happy birthday to Tomomi. She looked like she was blushing when she went to turn and leave again but Haruna stopped her from leaving. She gave Tomomi a push back in our direction and I believe murmured to her to say something to us. She thanked us for the mini celebration and said she was happy to get to spend her birthday with us.
The girls left after that and we all went our separate ways for a bit until dinner time and the “SH Meet Up”. I followed a friend back to his hotel at the Marriott. As we were going up to his room, the elevator stopped at the 7th floor (his is on the 9th floor). I wasn't paying too much attention but my friend was. He stopped the doors from closing and said 'Haruna?' in a surprised tone. I looked up and sure enough, Haruna was walking past the elevator. I don't know if he actually meant to call her or if he just said it out of surprise and she turned around from hearing her name.
She did give us a weird look when she turned to look at us though lol. Honestly, I didn't say much to her. A bit too nervous seeing her randomly like that. I believe the only thing I managed to say was ‘good evening’ in Japanese, with a lovely stutter from nervousness of course. We let her get going again pretty quickly since we didn't want to bother her too much. It was just nice to be able to see her randomly like that and say hello to her.
A few hours later, people wanted to meet up at a fish market & restaurant that I forget the name of. Personally, I wasn't feeling the place chosen simply because it was nearly $50 per person. I don't like fish as it is but I could have put up with it had it not been so much. I was in Waikiki on a budget so paying that much for dinner didn't sit well with me. I and a few others (around 6 of us) went down to the food court and found a little Japanese place that was going out of business and selling their bentos for cheap. So we had those and then headed back up to the restaurant to be with everyone else.
Everyone went back to their respective motels after that.
Day 4/June 1:
The big day haha. This was the day of the Ekiden and the opening ceremonies began at 4:20 am. So the runners had to be down there by then. I wasn't running so I didn't head down until a bit later. I was up by 4:00 am and at the start line by 5:15 am. I got there just barely before SCANDAL made their appearance.
It took a bit but I was able to run into other SH members. SCANDAL first appeared at the start line, surrounded by their staff. It's nice to see how much their staff truly does care for them. SCANDAL did something I couldn't see before being led through the crowd. They were moved to the railing where they draped the banner over the edge to cheer on the runners who were getting ready to depart.
Naturally, we followed SCANDAL. We weaseled our way to the barricades and a lot of us took photos. No staff or officials told us that we weren't allowed to photograph them so we all took the opportunity to get some photos of SCANDAL. The girls stayed for a few minutes before moving farther down and we followed them.
We waved to them and kept up with the photos. We didn't call out to them though. I think we all understood that the ekiden was the ekiden and not about SCANDAL, so we wanted to respect that and didn't call out to them. We just waved. SCANDAL was the only band that didn't run the ekiden, Kimaguren and Monkey Majik both ran.
At one point, Mami pointed at the person from SH wearing the Doreamon costume. That was actually an accidental photo but I'm glad I got it because he seemed really happy when he was showed it~ The photo is below:
Here are some other photos of SCANDAL from the ekiden start:
Once the runners departed, SH's first runner went and had the Canta head on for a few meters. When he went past the girls, they noticed instantly and cheered for him. They seemed really happy to see someone running in a Canta head. Rina, I know, loved it. She was laughing really hard when she saw the Canta head.
After that SCANDAL left and those of us not running left as well. We put the other runners on the shuttle before deciding to meet up at IHOP for breakfast. People came little by little until we had a fairly large group. This was where we heard 'You Song' for the first actually, sitting in the middle of IHOP lol.
After we had breakfast, I and a few others went back to our hotel rooms for a quick break. It was 8am by now and we had all been up since 4-5 am. Others headed straight down to the beach to reserve spots for the live.
I joined the wait about 10:30 am. We kind of just sat around on the beach and talked. About 11:30, someone saw that Rina sent a tweet about doing a sound check at 12:30 pm. Around noon, one of the staff came out to speak with us (people had their scandal heaven shirts on so it was obvious) and told us that we could watch the sound check but SCANDAL didn't want us disturbing them. We needed to stay quiet if we wanted to watch and of course, photography wasn't allowed.
We kept our promise and were very respectful. We talked among ourselves but we never disturbed the girls. It was neat to see. I really liked being able to see how the girls work and how they get ready for a show. It was a wonderful treat to be allowed to watch them sound check. At the end of the sound check, SCANDAL turned and waved to us before leaving.
We went back to waiting and some people went to get food, but I just stayed on the beach. It felt nice; we don't have warm beaches like that here in San Francisco; ours are usually foggy lol. I do have a wicked sun burn on my arms though. Even with sunscreen, I got burned. It was worth it though for the sun and for SCANDAL. The sun felt so nice~
At around 3:15 pm, we started to line up for the early entry. We got sent away again though lol. We were able to fully line up at the correct time of 3:45 pm. It took Emke a bit longer to sound check though so we weren't let in until around 4:15 pm.
The event started at 4:30 with talk from the hosts that was pretty much just stalling. They came up later and introduced Emke to the stage. Emke did three covers. One was Pretender by The Foo Fighters and another was Shunkan Sentimental by SCANDAL. I didn't know the third one. The band is really good. Their guitarist can really play; I was impressed by how good she was. They band as a whole has got a good future ahead of them.
After Emke, the hosts came up again. They talked about the bands to perform and when they mentioned SCANDAL, the host jokingly said that SCANDAL brought a legion of fans with them... To which we cheered lol. He continued to joke by saying every time he said 'scandal' people cheered, so we cheered and did that whenever he did mention SCANDAL.
They did the awards ceremony next (SH teams and SCANDAL's teams don't win anything unfortunately). After the awards, Monkey Majik played. I had never heard them before so that was a first for me. They're a Japanese-Canadian band so it's an interesting set up. The band is really good, I was impressed with them.
After another intermission for set up, SCANDAL was set to come out. Rina had actually come out earlier to help set up the drums. A few people I heard said they could see SCANDAL peeking around the corner haha. By this point, we had all been standing for at least two hours waiting for them so I'm sure many of us had pained feet, but we all knew SCANDAL would be worth it. The hot sun beating down on us didn't help with the pain lol.
People also say they saw SCANDAL stretching and just all around being the dorks we know they are haha. I was in the middle, right in front of where Haruna stood so I couldn't see that. It was a sacrifice I was willing to make though to get such a spot close to Haruna. Being near her in the live was the one thing I absolutely wanted to do. I was standing off to the left, kind of between Tomomi and Haruna. So it was kind of hard to see Mami. Rina was as easy to see as Haruna was.
Set list:
1. Satisfaction
2. Taiyou to Kimi ga Egaku STORY
3. Runners High
4. Awanai Tsumori no, Genki de ne
5. Departure
6. Love Survive
7. Doll
They did an MC between Taiyou and Runners High as well as between Departure and Love Survive.
SCANDAL was incredible. I had high expectations for their lives but it was much more than I was expecting. This was my first time seeing SCANDAL. In fact, it was my first concert ever. I'm happy to say SCANDAL was my first. The live really was incredible in so many ways. The girls were so happy and enjoying themselves so much. It was great to see them having so much fun; I'm glad we could make them so happy!
Satisfaction was a great opener. I hadn't been expecting them to play a song like that during the live so it was a great surprise when we heard them begin Satisfaction. The crowd got into SCANDAL's live really quickly, but that's not surprise haha.
Taiyou made us even more excited I think. I remember heard a number of people say they wanted Taiyou or Taiyou SCANDALOUS to be played so SCANDAL definitely fulfilled the wishes of their fans with this one. There was a lot of jumping and the whole towel thing as well. I used my towel as well but I think I was pretty bad at it. It's a lot harder than it looks haha. The girls had such bright smiles on their faces; they seemed really happy with our energy for them.
Runners High was great! It was really energetic song and Haruna sounded amazing~ During the 2:21 to 2:32 clapping part of the song, I'd say we did pretty well. I think we got a bit messy when it sped up at the end but the slower part went really well! The girls seemed happy about it as well. Mami rocked her solo as well.
During Awanai, there was a lot of loud singing going on. During the chorus part, it sounded like at one point, we had gotten louder than Haruna was singing~ That might have just been the sound system of course. I forget if it was during Runners High or Awanai but at another time, it seemed like we sang a small part for Haruna. We were singing but Haruna wasn't. She had a pretty big smile on her face after it~
When the girls began departure, they had that little sound that's at the beginning of the track to open the song. Departure was really good and Mami did awesome at the solo.
For me, Love Survive was the highlight of the live. I love seeing Love Survive be played live. The rock breakdown was killer. Haruna came close to the front of the stage and just all around rocked the stage. I never thought I'd be able to witness that song live so it really was a treat to be able to see it right in front of me. A little gushing now... Haruna looked so very gorgeous on stage during Love Survive (and the entire performance of course). She really has an amazing stage presence and I'm glad to have gotten so close to where she was.
Doll was the final song of the night and I was so glad to hear it. Five years ago, Doll was the first song I had listened to. It is the song that I me started on SCANDAL and I've always wanted to hear it live. There was a wave of emotions hearing it at a live I was actually present at. Of course, we did the towel swinging thing again (and I was still terrible at it).
The girls left the stage after Doll. They waved to us of course and some of us called out to them. I called out to Haruna a few times and got a wave out of her. Haruna was the first one to leave the stage with a wave and a “bye bye”. Rina followed her and then Mami and Tomomi left. We started chanting “encore” but unfortunately didn’t get one.
The show, overall, was completely amazing. It was everything I’d heard it was and a lot more. It was a great experience and it was a great place to have a first experience. A live on a beach? I tend to love the beach so it was really awesome that my first concert and my first SCANDAL live was held on the beach.
After SCANDAL’s set, some of us slowly made our way out of the crowd (and I hear Kimaguren had quite a lot of fans take our spots when we left). I left my spot mainly because I was practically dying of thirst from the shouting and singing haha. I went over to the Jamba Juice that was selling their stuff for $5. It was pineapple and while I’m not too fond of the flavor, I didn’t really care. I just wanted something to drink.
I went with a group of people over to the ABC Store across the street from where the live was so we could all get some drinks (the smoothie wasn’t very filling). We never did go back to the live area. We sat outside the store, listening to Kimaguren from afar for a while. Kimaguren is actually pretty good, all of the bands were. We did leave before Kimaguren’s set was finished. We took our little group down the street a bit until we found the Honolulu Surfing Museum where we had dinner together.
We all went back to our hotels after the dinner and I think other SH/SM people did the same thing as us. I couldn’t stand out any longer; my feet were killing me from standing for so long. Rest was needed to prepare for the next day~
Day 5/June 2:
My fifth and final day in Honolulu. I woke up at the usual time of 7:30 am to take my medication but fell back asleep soon after. I didn’t really get motivated until around 10 am. There were people who I heard did go to the zoo but I was still sleeping when they did so I didn’t attend. My roommate left to go somewhere I forgot and around 11 am, I decided to go find something to do. I just wandered around Waikiki until about 2 pm where I found myself back at the Marriott. I ran into my friend again and we went back up to his room to watch a movie.
I left his room around 3:30 to go to the Hyatt to hang out with some other people. We kind of just hung out, talked, and listened to SCANDAL until we had to leave for the 4:30 meeting for the fan tour. We all met in the lobby of the Marriott and were checked in. When we checked in, we were given a card where we had to write our name, location, and a question on it. Thinking of a good question to ask SCANDAL can feel like so much pressure.
When we were getting on the bus, we handed in the card and were given an envelope with a random number in it. The number was where you got to sit during the dinner and acoustic show. It was a lottery and completely up to luck. I got pretty lucky you could say. I was sitting in a spot where I had a good view of Haruna and Tomomi. Mami was seeable as well but it was kind of difficult to see Rina. A bit disappointing, I wanted to see her playing that new instrument. I mean, I did see it of course but it was harder to see than I would have liked. But overall, I was content with where I was sitting.
The fan tour began with us being bussed to a secret location (which was a small restaurant in Honolulu). They allowed the Japanese fans in first probably to keep things organized due to the language barrier. Once they were in, we were let in. The staff did a quick search of our bags because, as they said, they didn’t want someone trying to attack SCANDAL like AKB48 was recently attacked. Thankfully they didn’t find anything so that was good.
When we got closer, we saw the girls standing outside of the restaurant. I think that’s where the nervousness set in for a lot of people who had never seen or met SCANDAL before. Before we met them, we were allowed to give them a gift if we wanted to, which you can see the ones I gave to SCANDAL below:
You didn’t have to give them a gift, it was just if you wanted to and I did. The start was being given a handshake from each member. Oddly enough, their hands were kind of cold… With the exception of Mami who had hot hands. I’m not even sure how that was possible in the Honolulu heat but somehow, they still had cold hands. I could also say that their hands were really soft haha. At the end after you shook hands with Rina, she would put a lei on you. The leis came in pink, green, and orange. Rina gave me a pink one.
When she gave me the lei, she pointed to my shirt (I was wearing the purple SH one) and said “SCANDAL Heaven” kind of like a question and with a smile. I nodded to her and told her yes, because I was too nervous to say anything else and I sadly was too nervous to remember any of my Japanese. It was nice that she noticed the shirt and does know who we are though~
We went inside and waited a few. The girls soon came into the restaurant as well and talked with us. Honestly, the translator was terrible. Half of the time, she wasn’t even translating anything and when she did, she did shortened versions of what SCANDAL actually said. I guess I’m a bit luckier since I do speak some Japanese. My Japanese is bad but I knew enough to get the general gist of a lot of what SCANDAL was saying. Definitely not enough to translate it for anyone though.
After SCANDAL spoke, they left again and we were allowed one table at a time to go to the buffet in the back. The food they served was pretty good and they had a decent variety. The desert was really good as well~ As we were eating, we were allowed to go out and take a picture of the banner we had helped make with the girls.
Also while we were eating, we got to listen to a radio interview that hadn’t yet aired. It will air on a Hawaii radio station soon but we got to listen to the interview early.
Once dinner was finished and everything was cleaned up, SCANDAL came out again, this time dressed in Hawaiian attire that I think surprised people. It surprised me. The girls really did look very gorgeous in their Hawaiian attire.
The next activity was a Q&A session where five of our questions were chosen to be asked to the girls. The girls were really beautiful in their attire. The first question was about marriage and what age the girls wanted to marry at (it was actually asked by a fan who had recently gotten married themselves). I don’t know what Rina said (she was speaking a bit fast for me to understand) but whatever she said really seemed to be something Haruna enjoyed. She was laughing a lot and pretty loudly too; she was having a lot of fun with Rina’s answer. Haruna was actually the one who pushed the question off to Rina who tried to push it to Mami who didn’t really respond so Rina got stuck with it.
Actually, Mami was pretty quiet during the first half of the tour. It was odd to me because the entire they were in Hawaii, she was probably the most excitable one. She was always smiling, laughing, and talking but it took her a bit to get talking with the fan tour. By the end of the tour, Mami was back to her happy self again~
These were the questions and they are probably in the wrong order (and paraphrasing a bit) :
1. At what age do you want to marry? (I didn’t understand any of their answers and the translator didn’t translate any of it, I’m sorry)
2. What is your power? (Tomomi: Everyone | Haruna: Food (she answered “gohan” which I believe can mean both “cooked rice” and “meal”, but I believe “meal” is the more common meaning) | Rina: Everyone and the sound of their instruments | Mami: The band and the fans)
3. Why doesn’t Haruna like bars? (She said the scenery of a bar scares her)
4. Does SCANDAL prefer a snowy mountain or a beach? (Tomomi, I believe, raised her hand for both a snowy mountain and a beach. Rina and Haruna both said a beach and Mami answered mountain)
5. Is there a chance of a world tour? (Rina answered that they want to do a world tour and will try hard to make it happen)
After the Q&A session, it was game time! The game was that we would be given a Hawaiian word. However, the girls would not be told what the word meant. Only the fans would be shown what the word meant in English and Japanese. However, we couldn’t actually tell the girls. We had to do charades to try and get the girls to understand what we were trying to say.
The fans were split into four teams: Team Tomomi, Team Haruna, Team Mami, and Team Rina. I was on Team Haruna (yay). We all did our best for our girls! Honestly, we looked like a bunch of fools but we had so much fun with it. People were doing the funniest gestures trying to get them to understand. I think one of the best was the first one “Wahine”, which means girl. A lot of people took to pointing at the girls themselves but other people were doing some really hilarious gestures. All of the words had some really hilarious gestures. There was a lot of jumping around and shouting; it got really loud during this game.
Haruna was really confused and so was Mami. I noticed that Haruna kept looking in between the two tables assigned to her; she was so confused and couldn’t figure out what we were trying to tell her haha. It really was very cute to see her so confused. Mami seemed just as confused as Haruna while Rina and Tomomi seemed to be throwing out whatever came into their minds.
In the end, Team Tomomi won and they got a bumper sticker signed by the girls. So lucky aha. After it was all said and done, the girls said the game was a lot of fun and it was especially fun to watch us from the stage. After the game was probably the highlight of the night… The acoustic live! The set list for the live was:
1. Uchiagehanabi
2. Hikare
3. Departure
I was really surprised to hear Uchiagehanabi and Hikare acoustically; those definitely weren’t songs that I was expecting to hear be played at an acoustic live so it was a really good surprise. Hikare is such an unknown song so it was really awesome they played it and gave it a spotlight. Although, I guess it wasn’t unknown against any of us since all of us were big SCANDAL fans (we paid how much for the fan tour after all haha). I think most if not all of us there know all of SCANDAL’s songs.
Uchiagehanabi sounded really good acoustically. It actually didn’t sound too much different from the regular version. It was a really amazing song to hear. Hikare was just as awesome. The opening was playing by Rina and Mami; they both did amazingly well. Rina actually played an instrument she said she had never played before (I don’t know what you call it). She said she had practiced really hard with it for the acoustic live and she really did amazingly with it. Hikare truly showed Mami and Rina’s skills.
Departure was a great song to hear acoustic. Actually, for the first half of it, Haruna sang and played it alone. The other girls came in later in the song. It was really a moment where Haruna shined and shine she did. She did amazingly and it showed how strong of a musician she is. She really captivated my attention with that performance.
During each song, the audience was completely silent. We all stayed silent and simply listened intently to SCANDAL’s music. Once each song ended, we clapped for them and let them continue the live. The live ended far too soon (haha) but it was a great live and it truly showed how talented each and every one of the girls is. They are all amazing musicians.
After the acoustic, the girls spoke again, each saying something about the night. I don’t remember what the other girls said but I do remember that Haruna said the night was a treasure for the band and for the fans they got to share the night with. She also mentioned how she was happy that the fans had been so respectful of SCANDAL in Hawaii. If we saw them randomly, we did say hi to them and things but we tried our best not to bother them. So Haruna seemed happy that we respected them and their privacy.
The girls also said that they were happy we listened to their acoustic performance with our hearts. They said they were watching us as they played and were happy to see how intently we were listening to them.
Anyway, after the girls said their parting words to us, the staff set up for the picture. The girls were stood up against the waterfall like structure that was on the stage. Tomomi and Haruna were on the left and Rina and Mami were on the right. We were allowed to stand in between Haruna and Rina. We weren’t allowed to touch the girls; they said specifically ‘no hugging’. When I saw we got to be between Haruna and Rina, I can admit that I got a bit nervous to be that close to Haruna. I was nervous to be that close to any of them.
We did the picture fine and I thanked them softly for coming to America and hoped that they come back again. I did also say softly to Haruna something that is probably embarrassing (“daisuki, Haruna-chan”). I don’t think she heard me though haha, and I might just be a bit glad if she didn’t. I said it way too low for anyone to hear. I had wanted to say that to her the entire trip so even if she didn’t hear, I’m just glad I managed to finally get it out.
After that we were sent back to the bus where we were given the official gift which ended up being a denim bag with an exclusive Hawaii design on it. I love it; I’m actually using it as my bag now. I needed a new one anyway. It was a really good gift, much more than I had been expecting. The host guy took photos of us on the bus, saying that SCANDAL wanted them.
This is the bag:
After that, we left and as they took us back, there was a small speech and mini celebration to commemorate what was the end of the trip for many. Many people headed home on June 3 (myself included) so June 2 was our last night together. When we got back to the Marriott, there was an ‘after party’ at the bar. I did regrettably leave early because, even though it wasn’t a real bar, the bar scene is not my thing and I wasn’t comfortable. So I just left early. I wish I had stayed longer to be with everyone for more time but I just couldn’t handle the whole bar scene thing.
Headed back to the motel, I honestly felt like I was in heaven. The entire weekend was perfect in every way and was definitely one of the best weekends of my life. It was definitely the “vacation” I needed. Being with SCANDAL and members of SCANDAL Heaven and SCANDAL Mania made it so much better than I had expected. I had a lot of new and exciting experiences on this trip and I met a lot of amazing people from SCANDAL Heaven, Hawaii, and SCANDAL Mania.
But that was the end of it for me. I headed home the next day. I had a flight out at 1:30 pm. My roommate and I checked out of the hotel at 9:30 am and I had them hold my stuff while he took his to someone else’s hotel. I came back for it around 11 am and headed to the airport for home.
I had a lot of fun and I hope SCANDAL comes back to the U.S soon so we can all get together and do this again~
