[FANACC] KAT-TUN Encounter

I was meaning to officially start with a more mundane post—something along the lines of “More about me” or an outfit post but then the incredible happened to me yesterday.

 creds to hiphopgeo instagram

Click post title for the entire experience and girlish spazzing

              As Jpop followers know, KAT-TUN was in New York City (this was verified by an instagram post made by their choreographer) and as I have been a fan for quite some time, I decided to accompany my friend J to make an attempt to meet them. She attempted to find them the day before on Thursday with no luck, although she did manage to narrow down the studios that they were possibly located (the addresses of which she found online—ah, I do love the internet, I have no idea how I would survive without it). I accompanied her on Friday, we embarked on our mission immediately after school and traversed lower Manhattan—we decided to go visit their studio first and if that proved fruitless, visit their agency. After walking around the general vicinity of Madison Square Garden and the hotel the New Yorker (which by the way is where JYJ [for all you Kpop followers out there] stayed on their first visit as a group to New York), we were crossing the street to get to the building which houses their studio space when coincidentally, a group of Asians holding what looked like props and too much food for the four of them came to a stop next to us. Nothing really indicated that they were connected to KAT-TUN in any way but because of these small indicators and the fact that they were speaking Japanese (It seems as though relatively few Japanese people live in the states in comparison to Chinese/Koreans)—and perhaps, in the heat of the moment, I was projecting too much, I immediately assumed that they were part of KAT-TUN’s entourage and I told J that we should tail them. To our surprise, they entered the building that we had intended on entering and we followed them onto the elevator with little difficulty (the security was not as strict as I had expected: we were only required to have our faces filmed and state our destination [which one could casually fabricate; e.g. Floor 16) as we passed through turnstiles).

             They got off on Floor 10 and we stayed on the elevator so that we would not incur any suspicion; we descended onto the ground floor again because we were not sure that the people were actually connected to KAT-TUN and we stayed outside the elevators debating what we should do. At that very moment, a group of people passed by and got into the elevator we had just exited-- it was as though time was suspended (clichéd I know, but bear with me) but for me, the entire affair occurred in slow motion and felt quite surreal. I slowly recognized Koki, Nakamaru and then Kame surrounded by perhaps two of their managers (Sorry, I did not really pay attention to the latter group of people). J and I gaped at each other (she tells me that I recognized them first and she only knew of their presence because of my silent awe but I maintain that she [who is a bigger fan of KAT-TUN] saw them first...after all, she did gasp out omg before going into shock). I shook out of my stupor and attempted to enter the elevator again, but one of the managers stepped in front of me intoning quite clearly: “no.” Deflated, I stepped back but before, the elevator doors slid to a close, J who had by then snapped out of her shock, calmly uttered “Hi Koki!.” Koki grinned and replied “ni hao” (why he replied in Chinese I have no idea…after all, we don’t look obviously Chinese—we could have been Korean, Vietnamese, Thai or even Japanese for all he knew; also, we were speaking in English and we reside in New York, so should he not have replied with a simple hi?). Might I add here that Kame looked entirely disinterested all throughout (he stood with his adorable hair with those flippy ends, leaning coolly against the elevator wall)—a brief apology to Nakamaru fans, I am a Kame bias (evidently) so the former completely escaped my attention.

             After they left, J and I stood in quiet excitement until I saw someone who looked like Tatsuya walk cross my line of vision (I’m quite disappointed that J did not recognize Tatsuya first after all, he is her bias). I hysterically whispered “Tatsuya’s here, Tatsuya’s here” at which point J descended into her shocked stage again. Taguchi (my second favorite now that Jin is gone) and Tatsuya slouched in a super model fashion while waiting for the elevator. I ventured: “excuse me…Excuse me?” The two turned towards me with questioning looks. I asked them if I could take photographs with them or get a signature and proceeded to pantomime with my hands when it appeared they did not understand. They both turned to their manager who informed me no, they had to “hustle” (although in retrospect, a signature would have taken all of 10 seconds each—they were waiting for the elevator anyway). Taguchi smiled sheepishly, apologizing and proffered a large warm hand to me [which I gratuitously took] and J to shake and they too entered the elevator (Tatsuya was as equally disinterested as Kame was).

             Although we debated whether or not we should wait for them to exit again, we ultimately decided to leave them alone and not throw away our pride. Although we did not get pictures of the wonderful boys, here is a photo of the area where the fateful encounter (the third elevator from the right/2nd from the left) happened and pictures of some of the entourage members (all of whom wore trendy attire) respectively:

                                                                                 (faces blotted out to protect their privacy)

And to make up for the dearth of photographs, here are two [enhanced] pictures of cakes (the green tea cake was for my 18^th birthday that J bought me) that I had recently:

*I sincerely hope I did not come off as excessively rude (or desperate) when I tried to enter the elevator, I was caught up [and Kame’s beauty drew me in?] in the experience and I did not lunge at them if that is any comfort—I assure any concerned fans, I tried to get on in a mannerly albeit a little stunned manner. Although I do wish that I had at least gotten Taguchi/Tatsuya’s autograph as a [permanent] memento that won’t gradually fade in my mind... and I wonder if I readily had the sharpie in hand, they would have signed it.*
Also... Happy Anniversary, KAT-TUN!!! ♥♥♥ 

                                                                                                                          Joules