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Trip to Korea pt.1 - preparation & travel to Korea
Hi, everyone.
First I would like to thank everyone for great support shown for Rain at LAX airport and Comic con.
Rain was very suprised and happy.
He was sooooo proud of his fans and really really appreciated for the support you guys had shown.
Now... Let me tell you the whole story...
It will be long (some may boring...) story.
I left USA on the night of July 20th.
a week before I was finishing up getting his presents for fan meeting and his b-day.
Like we discussed, for the fan meeting I got Trikke 3 wheeled air scooter.
OMG.. I didn't know it would be that BIG and HEAVY!
When I received the shippment, I just gave up and took it as it shipped to Korea.
And for b-day gifts, I got Rock & Republic Floyd Jean (Tangled Thoughts) and Rock & Republic Spellbound Skull belt.
It looked very nice. If you haven't seen what it looks like you can check it out by googling it or on the gift posting.
After long 14 hours flight, finally arrived in Incheon Airport and waiting for bags.
I got three baggages including scooter and waiting for another bag. I am waiting and waiting and.... bag is not coming out.
I checked baggage claim tickets and wouldn't you know... I only have 3 tickets.
I left one bag somewhere!!!! My mind was going crazy! Couldn't remember I left it at home or in front of JFK.....
OMG~~~~
As soon as I got to where I am staying, I called home and found out... I left it at home!!
How stupid I felt.... All the gifts were in that bag. EVEN Rain's B-day present were in THAT BAG!!
I had to tell my husband to ship that bag to Korea. Just counldn't believe it.
Other than that..... everything went ok, LOL.
From the day I arrived, I am running around everywhere before our rain-usa biers arrived.
3 weeks is just to short to take care of business and personal matters.
Around 25th, I am starting to getting contacts from USA members and other countries associates.
On 26th, we had b-day party for my mom.
(actually my mom's b-day is 27th but you know... NO CAN DO on 27th... Ohhhh I am a such bad daughter....)
Anyway... we had a great time and I was suppose to go to help out set up the fanmeeting at the venue but...
didn't make it due to b-day party finished late.
Fan meeting day.
Prior to fan meeting day, I verified with J-Tune to make sure there will be gift presentation segment.
Because I really didn't want to drag that BIG thing around.
That morning, I started to wrapped the present and OMG....
It is just too darn big. Wrapping paper I bought weren't enough to wrap that big box so had to run out to get some more.
My mom, my bro and I, all 3 were wrapping and it still took us 1 hour. And!! Here I thought... it would only take me a 30 min. by myself.
In a mean while, I got to be thinking and it would be nice to have a flower stand from Rain-USA.
Soooo.... I start calling the flower delivery shop and make sure to delivered on time since fan meeting was few hours away.
There were 2 flower stands at the entrance to the fanmeeting hall and one of them were ours. It looked very nice.
After fanmeeting we all gather around flower stand and took a picture.
Finally, finished all the wrapping and off to the fanmeeting.
fanmeeting continue on part 2.
Trip to Korea pt.2
Now, part 2.
Fanmeeting
When I arrived at the venue there are already a lot of people gathered and lined up.
Some people are getting in line to pick up tickets, some people are getting souvenirs and some people are in line to get in.
I was running around to get rid of this BIG bulk (present) but couldn’t find any dolly to carry the item. Finally one of Canadian supporter helped me to carry the item to venue.
Inside, the staffs were so busy finishing up last minute set up.
We put the present down and try to take a picture and you know WHAT!!!
I forgot to bring my camera. How could this happen. Either my head is not attached to my body or… geez I don’t know! So, sorry…. No picture of the present. The box was wrapped in golden colored oriental looking wrapping paper with dark brown tape draped and big letters of Rain USA horizontally in the middle of box.
I picked up the tickets and check the seats. Seats were not great but not so behind that I couldn’t see him. But stormy’s seat were the best. Her seat was in second row. And she still used binocular to check Rain out, LOL. All Rain USA peeps were spread over the venue. It would have been nice if we could seat together but I know it would be hard to set up each country’s members seat together, not to mention which county members would seat first. Also, there were so many press and media people.
First, one of Korean Cloud personnel came out with supporter who helped translation and welcomed the fans and explained the little event we will do for Rain. It all got translated to English, Japanese and Chinese.
Music started. It was ‘Harudo-not a single day’. He sang benind white curtain. His voice was strong and pretty good. I think he practiced singing. I heard, he chose that song as first song to sing for fans. I thought it was very appropriated for the occasion and the song shows us how he feels about his fans. Just think about the lyric of this song. ‘There wasn’t a single day, I haven’t thought about you…..’ I think he wanted to let his fans know he was thinking about the fans.
Curtain went up and now we see him clearly. He looked good except hair. Just can’t get used to his hair. (I am soooo glad he cut it all off now!)
And, I think he sang two more songs, ‘It’s Raining’ and ‘How to avoid the sun’(can’t remember now….)
He said hi and it has been long time since we’ve all seen each other. And, he said how much he has missed his fans. He asked the fans how do we like his new hair style (I guess he monitored some comments from the media, LOL). He also acknowledged the fans from all over the regions by saying hi in different languages and asking where they are. Then, he introduced today’s host, good friend or his, Kim Jae-Dong.
The host was asking questions on behalf of fans, do some games and showed fans’ talents shows. Overall he looked relaxed and looked like fully enjoying himself surrounded with people who love him the most.
Rain talked about making Ninja Assassin. How hard it was for him to restrict food intake, especially when he is one of those person who loves food. LOL… while he was talking about his diet, he became technical in terms. I guess he was into it thorough and thorough, learned a lot. Also he talked about one of scenes, you know… it is R rated movie, the scene he was talking about was kinda brutal. (will not go into detail, just go see the movie when it comes out.)
The host also asked about what if. What if he has girl from what would he like to do…..
LOLLLLL….. He must have been too comfy. His answer? …….. He would like feel…..
Her. OMG! Then he realized it came out wrong way and there are a lot of media at the venue. Hahaha…. You guys should seen him try to take it back and smooth it out. He end up saying that wasn’t what he meant and what he wanted to say was hug. Yea…. Right…. Also he started talking about the club and, of course, he did rephrase that also. Saying if anyone happened to see him in the club, he is there to get some inspirations for new dance moves. LOL. Then he decides to say… What club? What the heck is that? Is that the place people goes and dance? Pooohaha! Later he contradicted himself by talking about the club again. Rain, you are a terrible lair.
He also gave some tip on cooking. He actually knows how to cook. I was amazed.
The host and Rain are very close and I guess they go hiking together when Rain has a time. Mr. Kim was teasing fans by saying he has a plan to go hiking with Rain next weekend but will not let fans know where. Meany! Rain talked about squirrel story. While they were hiking Rain saw a squirrel and this squirrel was posing for him. He showed the pose. Everyone was cracking up and you guys may saw the picture of Rain mimicking the pose (the one Rain holing out folded arms).
The host also asked about any distressing (heartbreaking) moment in his courier. He talked about deceaded cancer patient fan, An So-Bong, who got diagnosed stomach cancer while she was pregnant. But instead of treatment, she chose to have baby. Her little wish was to see her little girl’s first b-day and a little after little girl’s b-day she passed away. He wishes he could done more for her but couldn’t do much. And mentioned how a little thing can be big happiness to the others. This got to think about her again and how lucky we are to be here to see all these and thankful for our health. And, silently cheer for the little girl and her husband.
All these talk was done in Korean. It would have been nice there were at least some translation but… It was really hard for oversea fans, especially majority audience were oversea fans. Once in a while, Rain was mentioning his fans are learning Korean and they probably understand all these. Rainnnnnn~ We appreciate you think very highly of your fans and yes, a lot of oversea fans are trying to learn Korean. But…. Common… That is asking a little too much! I saw a lot of oversea fans’ clueless faces and react after watching Korean fans reaction (laugh when they laugh, clap when they clap, etc). At least I was one of lucky one who could understood Korean but I had to explain what is going on to my daughter while Rain and Mr. Kim was talking which let me miss a lot of their talk.
There were also Talent shows. This year, there were two teams.
One was Korean team. They are I think kindergarteners, one boy and girls. They did Rain dance perfectly with Rain song, don’t remember which song it was. It was one of these three, Instead of saying goodbye, It’s Raining or I’m coming, Sorry~.
Rain must really like kids. I could see how he adores those kids giving hugs and kisses. (I bet a lot of people wished to be those kids at that moment.) He wanted to sign them up to his company, LOL.
The other team was Taiwan team parodying 24 hours: The Day. It was hilarious.
Rain fans are all talented and maybe someday we USA fans can get together and do this kind thing too. Ahhhhh~ US is just to darn big!
Next was game time with fans. The randomly selected fans from audience and did game with Rain. But the game is set for Rain to lose no matter what. You got to see Rain’s face. You know… Rain HATES losing. So for him to lose all the time doesn’t sit well with him. But watching him losing was fun, though (tell you the truth).
One of teenage fan got selected and she cried whole time.
Prize giving away segment was next, I think. Of all those people getting prize…. All I hear is section F and section C. Where the heck is A?!!!! There are people in A, too.
First it started with Wow…. Yeah…. Maybe next one? ….. then as time goes by…. Yea, yea, yea…. F again, C again….. finally got to the point, for petty sake even I think back now…lol, tsk, whateva… finish already. Sooooo… as you can figure out by now, didn’t get any prize. I don’t think anyone got prize from our group A(memory is fading).
Right after this segment, we did short event for Rain. Red card shaped up as heart by fans and all shouted ‘Jung Ji-Hoon, I love You!(in Korean)’ (or was it ‘I love you Jung Ji-Hoon’)
Ohoh. Also some of presents opened and showed to fans. Unfortunately ours didn’t get to show.
He said his new Asian special album is coming out in October and he would like to continue but he has other schedule, some commercial shooting session, so finished there.
Then he disappeared to behind of stage and fans started to chant encore.
Finally he came back riding a crane from left side and start singing ‘with you’. Back dancer and Rain are starting to throw some stuff. People were going crazy to get those. First we didn’t know what it was and later got one and it was marshmallows. I heard it was hand packed by Jtune and Cloud staff. I also heard Rain was first scared of getting on that crane but once he got on it he didn’t want to get down. He was suppose to sing only first part of song while riding that crane but end up singing the whole song. Had to give him a pep talk and do a little pursuation to push his ego, LOL. He still is like a kid.
That is how fan meeting ended. If only there was a little more consideration for oversea fans. And, not because I am from USA, For promotional stand point it would been better for Rain if USA and England were mentioned at the introduction of attending fans’ regions. Everyone knows Rain has a lot of fans in Asia but it would have been nice to show outsiders there are enough fandom in other region areas like Europe and US, even these area fans came to Korea to see him. I hope they are able think to utilize every opportunity in the future.
After fanmeeting we all got together by the flower stand and took a picture and off to dinner. All and all we had great time.
source : Jay@ Rain-USA
From: Benamoo |
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发表于 2008-8-15 19:20
