The other day we went to the チェキ / cheki / two-shot promo event for the latest Morning Musume single. The event info page is here:
モーニング娘。’14 56thシングル 『時空を超え 宇宙を超え／Password is 0』発売記念 個別チェキ会 最終販売受付決定のお知らせ
If you can't or don't feel like reading, mind you, you can't just walk into the event unprepared, you need to get your cheki ticket in advance. You do so by ordering the single box set (containing all versions of the single, plus a nice box to hold them) from the linked page.
For the two-shot event, members are grouped into five two-person groups. When placing your order you select which group you want your two-shot ticket to be. Important: you will get a two-shot ticket for only one member in the group at random. So if your favourite members is grouped with your least favourite then it's a gamble.
Both me and Berry were lucky and got Riho and Haruna which was exactly what we wanted!
The sales of the box-set with cheki tickets only open for 3 days, so do keep track of them. We went to order ours on the first day soon after sales started, but Group A (Sayumi and Mizuki) was already sold out - and this was before Sayumi's graduation announcement.
There were two other versions of the event too, Group Cheki (3- or 6-shot) and the good old handshake. We actually didn't know about those while ordering ours, but if we knew better we'd probably go for one of the group shots.
Anyway, each event only lasts an hour, so have the transport figured out and don't be late.
During the event, which for us was in what looked like a conference floor in an office building we waited in the waiting area until the doors opened to the big room where individual lines and cheki booths were located. There wasn't a mad scramble, in fact many fans seemed to linger around instead of lining up immediately.
As usual the majority were wota-looking males, but girls made up a good quarter of the crowd. I even saw at least two other couples too. At the time I was the only obvious gaijin though.
The lines were marked with signs, besides it was easy to figure out which line was whose by looking at the swag worn by fans. I failed at that part myself - I didn't bring my Riho t-shirt to Japan in trying to keep the luggage weight down, but I did bring the wristband which I then forgot to wear on the day. Also when deciding what to wear my thinking went towards trying to look relatively good so I wore a shirt which happened to be green-ish in colour. Which also happened to be just like Masaki's colour, who happened to be the other person in Riho's ticket group... While wearing your member's swag wasn't a strict rule (there was a good number of casually dressed fans), needless to say I felt pretty foolish wearing my green shirt in the overwhelmingly red line.
Looking at the lines, you could get a good idea of who the popular members were. Sayumi and Riho's were the only two lines that looped around. Some had maybe 5 people in them, and some actually had none. Pretty sad for the girls inside.
For better understanding, this is what the cheki booth area looked like (phear my awesome ms paint skills):
As you near the front of the line you leave your bag on the bag drop table. No bags or backpacks are allowed in the booth.
When it's about your turn the first staff person checks your ticket and asks you what pose you want to do. I actually had an idea in advance of what I wanted to do, but I didn't expect I'd have to explain it via 3rd party. To avoid delays I just half-said half-showed the typical peace pose. From the looks of it, a lot of the wota were going for the heart pose (you know, the one where you arc your arm over your head).
Once the previous person leaves you're ushered in and the staff person tells the photographer what pose to do, which they then relay to the member. You sit down, do the pose, have the picture taken, and leave. A few seconds later you get your photo via the staff person as you wait on the other side of the bag drop table.
Sounds short? Well, it was. I counted a total of 5 seconds I spend "with" Riho:
Second 1 - enter the booth, say hello Sayashi-san
Second 2 - walk to the chair and sit down
Second 3 - pose
Second 4 - have the photo taken
Second 5 - get up and be ushered out immediately
If I'm exaggerating then only so slightly. In reality is was probably somewhere between 5 and 10 seconds. Maybe you can stretch it out a little if your legs are short and you walk slow.
The cheki is actually an Instax Mini frame (62x46mm / 2.4x1.8in actual photo size) instant photo. It takes a minute or two to fully develop. You can wait for it in a separate waiting area. In case the photo is blurry, underexposed, or badly framed (as in a head cut off etc.) then you're allowed to have it re-taken, but not if you're just generally unhappy with it.
That's it basically. We left feeling somewhat unsatisfied. A two-shot with your favourite is an amazing souvenir, but at $90 for the single box with a cheki ticket it's just too much. We wouldn't do it again. I didn't expect a private dinner, but I thought I'd have at least a short conversation with Riho and get to do the pose I hoped. Or, you know, shake hands. 30 honest seconds would have made me happy. But none of that, I seriously didn't even have a chance to blurt out which far part of the world I came from.
As I said in the beginning, they had a separate handshake event on that day too, but making people buy one single box for the cheki and another single box for the handshake feels greedy and alienating to the more casual fans.
I told my story, make of it what you will.
I'm not against the idea of the event as such and this tiny photo might be my most prized piece of collection now, but either price it less prohibitively or give people time for a little interaction with their idol. Really, if we had tickets for one of the unpopular girls and came 10 minutes after the event started we could have been in and out of the building within two minutes. :wut:
But when thinking and writing about it so many days after the event my rational thinking kicked in.