I Was at the Fan Meeting with Robert Pattinson & Chris Weitz in Japan Last Night

Part two can be found here.

For Christmas last year my friend, Shari in Virginia sent me Twilight. She talked about the series all the time, and she finally managed to suck me in. I read Twilight in a few days and was immediately on the hunt for the next three books. The NEX (Navy Exchange, the store on base) didn’t have them, so I ordered them from Amazon.com. The books couldn’t get here fast enough, so my friend, Melissa, let me borrow New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. The day before finishing Breaking Dawn the three books arrived from Amazon.com. Within 11 days I had read the four books and then proceeded to Midnight Sun.

By this time “Twilight” was out all over the United States, but it wasn’t opening in Japan until April 4^th and the base didn’t end up showing it until January.

So Shari, thank you for sucking me in. I wouldn’t be writing this if it wasn’t for you!

After seeing the movie I got caught up in the madness. I wouldn’t say it was obsessive, but I’d look at fan sites every couple of days. One of my favorites was Twilight Singapore, and we got in touch with each other after I had found a “Twilight” magazine. I scanned the pages and emailed them to Shari and TS ended up posting them on their site. From that point on we emailed back and forth. They came up to Tokyo for the “Twilight” premiere in February, and the ironic thing is that Bob, Keanna, Sydney and I were on vacation in Singapore!

Skip ahead to mid October and I find out from Twilighter’s Square that “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” press tour was coming to Tokyo. I did the Google Translate thing to find out as much info as I could in English, and emailed my friend Mayumi to see if she would mind translating for me. PIA (the Japanese version of Ticketmaster) was selling them online, over the phone and at their store locations beginning at 10 am on the 18th. They had 400 tickets available, first come, first serve. I searched online and found a PIA location in Yokohama, about 35 mins north of where we live. Three days before they went on sale I went up to make sure I could find the place, try to ask questions and see exactly what I had to do. The woman looked on her computer for a few minutes then made a phone call. She told me “no information,” then something else in Japanese, and I understood enough to know that she was telling me to come back on Saturday to see if there was any more information. She gave me a number to call, but it was always busy. Not sure what I would have done anyway because it said “Japanese only” on the card.

Sunday morning came around, I hired a babysitter and my friend, Laurel, and I headed back up to Yokohama at 7 am. Our goal was to buy four tickets; two for ourselves and two other Navy wives/”Twilight” fan friends, Dacia and Mel. Doors opened at 10, so when I got there and saw no one in line at the door to the mall (PIA’s inside) we were very excited. Our hearts were pounding because the time was getting closer and not too many people lined up behind us. We thought we actually had a chance! Long story short, we run up the escalator, down the hall and manage to be one of the first ones in line. It’s our turn and as we’re walking up to the counter, not even three minutes after 10 am, the woman behind the counter says “Twilight-o? Gomen nasai,” and then she bowed. That was it, they were sold out that quickly because she said “I’m sorry.” The tickets for ¥10,000 (about $110 USD) are for the fan meeting on the 3rd and the "Twilight Saga: New Moon" premiere on November 17th here in Tokyo. It doesn't officially open until the 28th, and it will be the morning of the 17th in the U.S., so we will be seeing it first! Laurel and I were disappointed, but we knew our chances were slim because we couldn’t order them online or over the phone since both were Japanese only.

I posted on TS that I had a failed attempt at a ticket and was so disappointed! But last Friday Maria from TS emailed me saying they got a lead that more tickets were available. I checked out the website, called Mel and Laurel (Dacia was on vacation) and told them the news. My heart was racing and all I wanted to do was figure out how to buy a ticket! Sydney and I walked Keanna to school and my phone was ringing as we walked through the door. It was Laurel telling me she figured it out and had a confirmation number. I screamed so loud I'm surprised my neighbors weren't woken up! I ordered my ticket, Mel ordered hers and Laurel ordered one for Dacia. This was it, we were going! Now all we needed to do was find child care!

Everything worked out and we left our house at 9 am yesterday. We arrived at Shinagawa station at 9:50 and figured out where we had to go…Shinagawa Inner City Hall. We had tickets but not assigned seats, and we knew they were being assigned at 1 pm, first come, first serve. They had a line already started but we were put in a different line since we had what was considered “Foreigner Tickets.” Well lucky us because we were first in that line! After posting on TS about getting a ticket someone else had commented that they were also going…well it’s a small world because they were behind us in line! We ended up meeting Azlina and Nurul from Twilighters Malaysia. We all chatted and took pictures together. Laurel is from Washington State and went to visit there over the summer. She was able to make it to Forks, WA and was showing Azlina and Nurul pictures. We waited for a few hours and brought our iPods to help pass the time.

At 1 pm exactly we were called to the table to get our pass and seating assignment. The seats for foreigners had already been set aside, so we weren’t sure where they were going to be. We could see a map with sections A, B & C and 10 rows making up each section. So B9, my row, was the 19^th row. None of the good seats were in our batch of passes and understandably so, the PIA tickets were purchased first and they had the right to the better seats. I was happy just to be there, believe me! None of us would be there if it weren’t for Twilight Singapore and for that we were, and still are very appreciative!!!

After we got our passes we wanted to grab a bite to eat. There’s an Outback Steakhouse right across from where we were, but FYI they’re not open for lunch. We ended up cutting through Shinagawa station and walking up a hill to another one…on the way we went by a TGI Fridays. We drank, ate, laughed, drank some more and talked for nearly three hours…we had plenty of time because the doors didn’t open until 6 pm. From there we walked back the way we came and stopped for coffee at a Starbucks inside Shinagawa Station.

Finally 5 pm came around and we headed back to Shinagawa Inner City Hall. People were lined up but there was no rush to get in…we just wanted to get inside to warm up! We met back up with Azlina and Nurul and chatted some more. While Laurel was in Forks this summer she bought some goodies and brought them with her yesterday. She ended up giving Azlina and Nurul a keychain from Forks and they were so appreciative! I promised Twilight Singapore that I’d email them from my phone and send pictures when I could, and they posted updates on their site; click here, here and here to see them.

As we walked through the doors we were handed a balloon, and straight ahead was the Volvo, the XC60. It wasn’t the same one from the movie because if you notice the steering wheel is on the right. We made our way into the hall, found our seats and waited about 20 minutes until Rob and Chris came out. Here's a video I took of their entrance.

I will post the second half tomorrow along with about 65 more pictures and four more videos!
*Update: part two can be seen here.

*I was just informed that RobsessedPattinson has my five videos posted from YouTube here.*