Iwasa Misaki Fan Club Birthday and Debut Anniversary Event @ Pasela Resorts Ikebukuro (2024/01/28)

I hadn’t been to a Wasamin birthday event in a couple of years, so I marked this event as one I really wanted to attend as her free mini-lives have lately been sporadic at best. Plus, I have always enjoyed her birthday “parties.” They usually involve games, singing, and a 2-shot at the end. But little did I know this event would become somewhat “extra-special” for me.

I received my invitation in the mail around a week or so before the event. Actually, the envelope itself was the ticket. The contents were merely instructions and a description of the event. Wasamin also posted on social media that fellow AKB graduate Nakamura Mariko would be the MC. I spent Saturday at Koshigaya Lake Town buying a present for Wasamin and seeing FES*TIVE, Misaki’s Tokuma label mates who I hadn’t seen since before Covid. I got to Ikebukuro early since there was a fish & chips shop there I had always wanted to try. After that I headed down to the venue.

I was familiar with this Pasela location. Not only does it house Kamen Rider, The Diner, but I regularly do business with a company right next door. I saw the horde of Wasafans gathered on the sidewalk, and pretty soon doors opened. We had assigned seating, so there was no hurry getting in.

After confirming my reservation, I dropped off my gift and added my birthday message sticker before donning my happi and settling into my seat. I was in C1, third row on the far left. There was a bottle of water, quiz answer sheet, and a satisfaction questionnaire on my chair. Mariko came out pre-show and sat near me. The show started at 13:00. Mariko introduced Wasamin, who came out in a grey dress and a black ribbon in her hair. She said she wanted to wear something more sophisticated, and less “cute.”

After her opening MC, and some back and forth with Mariko, they brought out a honey-toast birthday cake, a specialty of karaoke shops. Wasamin tasted some of the fruit. Some of the conversation was about her debut single, and who attended those promotional events (I did!) and also the fact that it was her 29th birthday, AKA her NI-KU birthday. Mariko wondered what kind of “meat” event (Niku=meat)she could do. I immediately blurted out “BBQ Party!” in reference to an event she did around six years ago. She was like “Ooh, natsukashii!,” and then the game began….

I had just finished commenting on my questionnaire that the quizzes were hard for me, until they announced that this year’s quiz would be a game battle between Misaki and Mariko, and we just needed to predict the winner of each game. It was various kids games (i.e. beans and chopstiks) with a couple of word games (i.e. write as many circular objects you can think of) Wasamin won four of the five matches, and four fans had a perfect answer sheet, winning signed cheki. And then something interesting happened…

Mariko mentioned something about being good at speaking English, and Wasamin thought it would be a good idea to test her. “Kurisuuu!” My reaction was “Ehhh???” “Kurisu, please ask Mariko some questions in English.” As a mic was thrust into my hand, I struggled to quickly ask Mariko what she had for lunch. She quickly responded that she had a sandwich. I then asked her what was on the sandwich, to which she stammered “ham….lettuce…tamago, errr…..egg!” Wasamin immediately interjected that she had a fruit sandwich. “A fruit sandwich, that sounds delicious Wasamin” I noticed her new manager heading back into my direction, so I figured that was enough fun and handed back the microphone.

After reading a few of the birthday messages affixed to the board (damn, I should’ve written something more interesting) and a reference to the goods table, it was singing time.

Setlist
1. Akira
2. Koi no Owari Sangenjaya
3. Koisuru Fortune Cookie (enka version)
4. Mayonaka no Door/Stay With Me
5. Mujineki

This was pretty much the end of the show. All that was left were the two shots. We went by seat order, which made me around 25th in line. (There were over 200 fans there) She thanked me for participating in the event with Mariko, and said it was funny. I told her it was fun, and suggested this pose…

When they were taking various pics of her during the event, this pose got a huge reaction from the fans. So I figured it would be good for the memory. After that there wasn’t anything left to do, so I took off. I was supposed to meet a friend after the event, but through a comedy of errors those plans got blown up, so I headed home.