Actually, with his photos. On the spur of the moment, M and I decided to go to Jo Hyun-Jae's photo exhibition in Osaka. It's very last-minute, rush-rush, but with super-efficiency we took care of all the logistics in two days.
DAY 1 (2009.2.13)
We met up in Hong Kong and left for Osaka on Friday, Feb.13 (Black Friday!) As soon as we checked into our hotel, we headed straight for the exhibition site in Kintetsu Department Store which was right next door.
The photo exhibition was nestled in a corner of the Ladies' Wear Department on the 5/F. From the end of the central corridor we could see Hyun-Jae smiling at us, and we sprinted towards him. (Actually it's a larger-than-life photo of JHJ in a white shirt with a faux black tie and with his hands in his pockets.)
A little to the left were two BIG framed photographs on stands. Two? I did a double-take -- Hyun-Jae was on the left, and his friend Lee Dong Gun was on the right. Turned out this was a joint photo exhibition (but in name only -- because everybody came for JHJ.) The photos were surrounded by gorgeous baskets of flowers -- all for Hyun-Jae. The Hyun-Jae photo was basically the same one as the one at the entrance, but this time he's not smiling, just looking cool!
Several more giant posters came into view. We greedily devoured everything -- it's a visual feast! Then we saw a young lady sitting at a desk (turned out to be a staff member of the official JHJ Fan Club. ) We asked her if we could buy the posters and she said No.
"But we came all this way just for this!"
"From where?"
"Hong Kong." (from M) "U.S.A." (I flew from L.A. just two days ago.)
"Wow! Really?"
"Yes, really!"
"But you still can't buy these posters because they're not for sale."
"Let's check out the photos first," I said to M. (After all, that's what we came for.) The first photo was a bird's eye view of the June 23, 2008 Tokyo Fan Meeting, second part (JHJ in casual clothes.) I scanned the packed auditorium but could not find myself. The other 40-something photos were mostly taken at either the Tokyo Fan Meeting or Osaka Fan Meeting (June 22, 2008), plus Hyun-Jae in T-shirt and jeans at rehearsals and entering the venues. Two were of Hyun-Jae at the "G.P.506" press conference.
We did a quick round of the photos and came to a glass display case, within which were the following precious items:
1. a red-and-white pullover sweater (no label, so we guessed hand-knitted by Mrs. Jo, his Mom.)
2. a narrow black-and-purple striped tie (from his teenage days?)
3. "G.P.506" poster
4. Hand-written 2008 Christmas card to official JHJ Fan Club members (read: Japanese -- made us very jealous!)
5. Two autographed photos
6. Three previously unpublished photos
Next to this was a mini-theatre where the "Last Story" DVD was being played (and there was no shortage of viewers.) It was a shock to hear my own disembodied voice saying: "Beijing, China." It was that memorable moment at the Osaka Fan Meeting when overseas fans were invited to go to the stage and each asked where he/she was from. What followed of course was the 7 or 8 of us playing "Stone, Paper, Scissors" with Hyun-Jae and me losing (Sigh!) The lucky winners were Greencup of Taiwan and a member of CAFE Korea who appeared for more than a minute on the video, immortalized forever!
The JHJ souvenirs were in another room beyond. Items on sale included the wall calendar, photo album, "Seo Dong Yo" DVD (2 volumes only), "3 Dads/1 Mom" DVD, "Only You" OST, "3 Dads/1 Mom" OST, magazines with JHJ on the cover, and two sets of photos. The desk calendar and the CD were sold out! We were told more CDs would be delivered the next day, and they were taking orders for the desk calendar.
There was a notice board on which fans posted messages for Hyun-Jae. There was hardly any space left, but I managed to squeeze one in at the bottom -- "Dear HJ, You are my favourite actor in the whole world!" 95% of the messages were written in Korean which really surprised me. Presumably most of these messages were left by JHJ's Japanese fans, so either: (1) they were all proficient in Korean, or more likely, (2) they all prepared a message in Korean. And all I could write was Hyun-Jae's name in Korean and "Fighting!"
We went back to Miki, the official JHJ Fan Club staff, and told her we wanted to join. She asked if we had a credit card because they did not accept cash. I left M to start the process of registering while I wandered all over the place again. And I walked around (occasionally sitting down) for more than an hour (no exaggeration) and she's still not done. Problems: telephone number not accepted, e-mail address not accepted, credit card not accepted. They tried and tried. We used all four credit cards (from different international banks) that we had between us and all were rejected. Miki said foreign credit cards usually had this problem. By the time I could memorize all the details at the exhibition site, I told M it's time to give up. We're doomed to be on the outside looking in. We were going to take one last look and call it a day.
While we were poring over the souvenirs, Miki came to us excitedly and said she had found a way to get round the hurdles. Poor girl made over a dozen phone calls for us. So we started all over again. Still it wasn't smooth sailing all the way. I had to use two different e-mail addresses before I was accepted. But everything still hinged on one final detail which I'm not at liberty to disclose here. When that last piece of the puzzle falls into place, then we can become members of the official JHJ Fan Club. By the time we were finished, it was 8 p.m. -- closing time of the photo exhibition, end of Miki's work week, and three hours after our arrival at the site. We were very grateful to Miki for devoting over two hours to helping us, though we wished they wouldn't make it quite so hard for us non-Japanese JHJ fans. Still, our persistence paid off (at least we hope so.)
And then we remembered it was Black Friday.
DAY 1 (2009.2.13)
We met up in Hong Kong and left for Osaka on Friday, Feb.13 (Black Friday!) As soon as we checked into our hotel, we headed straight for the exhibition site in Kintetsu Department Store which was right next door.
The photo exhibition was nestled in a corner of the Ladies' Wear Department on the 5/F. From the end of the central corridor we could see Hyun-Jae smiling at us, and we sprinted towards him. (Actually it's a larger-than-life photo of JHJ in a white shirt with a faux black tie and with his hands in his pockets.)
A little to the left were two BIG framed photographs on stands. Two? I did a double-take -- Hyun-Jae was on the left, and his friend Lee Dong Gun was on the right. Turned out this was a joint photo exhibition (but in name only -- because everybody came for JHJ.) The photos were surrounded by gorgeous baskets of flowers -- all for Hyun-Jae. The Hyun-Jae photo was basically the same one as the one at the entrance, but this time he's not smiling, just looking cool!
Several more giant posters came into view. We greedily devoured everything -- it's a visual feast! Then we saw a young lady sitting at a desk (turned out to be a staff member of the official JHJ Fan Club. ) We asked her if we could buy the posters and she said No.
"But we came all this way just for this!"
"From where?"
"Hong Kong." (from M) "U.S.A." (I flew from L.A. just two days ago.)
"Wow! Really?"
"Yes, really!"
"But you still can't buy these posters because they're not for sale."
"Let's check out the photos first," I said to M. (After all, that's what we came for.) The first photo was a bird's eye view of the June 23, 2008 Tokyo Fan Meeting, second part (JHJ in casual clothes.) I scanned the packed auditorium but could not find myself. The other 40-something photos were mostly taken at either the Tokyo Fan Meeting or Osaka Fan Meeting (June 22, 2008), plus Hyun-Jae in T-shirt and jeans at rehearsals and entering the venues. Two were of Hyun-Jae at the "G.P.506" press conference.
We did a quick round of the photos and came to a glass display case, within which were the following precious items:
1. a red-and-white pullover sweater (no label, so we guessed hand-knitted by Mrs. Jo, his Mom.)
2. a narrow black-and-purple striped tie (from his teenage days?)
3. "G.P.506" poster
4. Hand-written 2008 Christmas card to official JHJ Fan Club members (read: Japanese -- made us very jealous!)
5. Two autographed photos
6. Three previously unpublished photos
Next to this was a mini-theatre where the "Last Story" DVD was being played (and there was no shortage of viewers.) It was a shock to hear my own disembodied voice saying: "Beijing, China." It was that memorable moment at the Osaka Fan Meeting when overseas fans were invited to go to the stage and each asked where he/she was from. What followed of course was the 7 or 8 of us playing "Stone, Paper, Scissors" with Hyun-Jae and me losing (Sigh!) The lucky winners were Greencup of Taiwan and a member of CAFE Korea who appeared for more than a minute on the video, immortalized forever!
The JHJ souvenirs were in another room beyond. Items on sale included the wall calendar, photo album, "Seo Dong Yo" DVD (2 volumes only), "3 Dads/1 Mom" DVD, "Only You" OST, "3 Dads/1 Mom" OST, magazines with JHJ on the cover, and two sets of photos. The desk calendar and the CD were sold out! We were told more CDs would be delivered the next day, and they were taking orders for the desk calendar.
There was a notice board on which fans posted messages for Hyun-Jae. There was hardly any space left, but I managed to squeeze one in at the bottom -- "Dear HJ, You are my favourite actor in the whole world!" 95% of the messages were written in Korean which really surprised me. Presumably most of these messages were left by JHJ's Japanese fans, so either: (1) they were all proficient in Korean, or more likely, (2) they all prepared a message in Korean. And all I could write was Hyun-Jae's name in Korean and "Fighting!"
We went back to Miki, the official JHJ Fan Club staff, and told her we wanted to join. She asked if we had a credit card because they did not accept cash. I left M to start the process of registering while I wandered all over the place again. And I walked around (occasionally sitting down) for more than an hour (no exaggeration) and she's still not done. Problems: telephone number not accepted, e-mail address not accepted, credit card not accepted. They tried and tried. We used all four credit cards (from different international banks) that we had between us and all were rejected. Miki said foreign credit cards usually had this problem. By the time I could memorize all the details at the exhibition site, I told M it's time to give up. We're doomed to be on the outside looking in. We were going to take one last look and call it a day.
While we were poring over the souvenirs, Miki came to us excitedly and said she had found a way to get round the hurdles. Poor girl made over a dozen phone calls for us. So we started all over again. Still it wasn't smooth sailing all the way. I had to use two different e-mail addresses before I was accepted. But everything still hinged on one final detail which I'm not at liberty to disclose here. When that last piece of the puzzle falls into place, then we can become members of the official JHJ Fan Club. By the time we were finished, it was 8 p.m. -- closing time of the photo exhibition, end of Miki's work week, and three hours after our arrival at the site. We were very grateful to Miki for devoting over two hours to helping us, though we wished they wouldn't make it quite so hard for us non-Japanese JHJ fans. Still, our persistence paid off (at least we hope so.)
And then we remembered it was Black Friday.
Do you have more photos?
ReplyDeleteMore photos now posted, with more coming. Hope you like them.
ReplyDeleteThanks share to pics.I will introduce in our Fanclub Carpediem.
ReplyDelete