Friday, woke up relatively early, wanted to get in the queue for the concert early to get to the front. Off to try the hotel “breakfast”; it basically consisted of some slices of bread, and a toaster, no plates or anything, or if you were adventurous you could have attempted to have some chocolate cereal from a coffee mug. >_<

Off to the expo and experiencing yet more fantastic French driving skills, this time from a suicidal bus driver, he told everyone to get on without paying, and then proceeded to speed right to the convention, not stopping/slowing down for anything or anyone (even if they were already on the zebra crossing).

Arrived at the expo, walked around to the back where the concert line was and joined it immediately. GOD IT WAS HOT!!! People saying stuff like 32°C… at 9am?! Dumped our bags to reserve our spot pretty much at the front of the line, then retreated to some nearby shade.

At around midday they let everyone into the main queuing area where those with the special “pack” tickets were split off into a separate line (of which there were like 5 of us at most). There was supposed to be a lottery draw thing for the signing that day, but the staff basically told us we couldn’t leave the line now (and by all accounts the line for the lottery draw was way way too long anyway), so we were sat there until 18.30. Got to listen to all the other concerts going on, some good (the MOSAIC.WAV sounding band whoever they were), and some not so good (when an entire song’s lyrics are “FUUUUCK, FUUUUUCK, FUUUUUCK, FUUUUUCK” then I have to say they’re not very talented). Closer to the time we were let in Morning Musume started their sound checks, we watched at least two songs through the window before one of the staff noticed and closed the curtains, lol.

Eventually let in, and after a short dash to the front there we were, front row get! All standing, no seats too! The rather smug looking press all walked into the press section in front of us which was slightly irritating… until one of the up front staff came in and pushed them all to beyond the sides of the stage and told them not to come back (haha, owned!).

Concert was pretty good, decent balance of new songs and old songs. They really needed to make more use of those bunny outfits though, lol. Front row really is good, all of them on stage can see you all of the time! ^_^ For some reason though throughout the concert various TV cameras kept shoving the camera literally right in mine and @ptom98′s face, lol (see here and here aww, someone removed the youtube video of the news report).

One thing I did notice during the concert though was that Sayu either had a bruise or massive love bite on her chest… been up to some funny business eh Sayu?

Midway through the concert the “special guest” Nakazawa Yuko came on, she spoke a bit, a translator spoke a bit in French, some long videos were played, it was all kinda boring, until the crowd all started singing one of the songs and she started crying on stage, aww.

MM back on, more songs, then it was over, and unlike AX we actually got an encore here (albeit only 1 song)! I’d say this concert was better than AX’s.

After the concert went to pick up our “pack” goodies, gotta say i’m impressed. T-shirt, poster, badges, limited edition CD’s with box and *ALL* of their singles, very very worth the 100 euros for the ticket (especially considering it got us to the front row, lol).

(the booklet has lyrics for all of their songs in romaji, along with some sort of interview (I think) in French with all members past/present)

Pretty much straight back to the hotel after being attacked by mosquitoes outside. Showered and attempted to purchase pizza from a take-away place, but completely failed, lol. Ended up in a restaurant with everyone with some of the rudest staff i’ve ever met, slamming glasses down on the table, throwing forks around (and that’s not even mentioning that almost all of their food was out of stock… and super overpriced… 15 euro for a burger and chips).

Grabbed a beer or two in the aforementioned bean bag hotel bar. This French barman was actually quite friendly, he said “i’m going to be closing up shortly, so just buy as many bottles as you need to get you through the night”, lol!

And so day 2 concludes…