Meeting Mao - My Fan-Meets with Mao Hamasaki

After the fun night out I had at BAR HARU, I decided to see if there were any AV actress fan meets in my area. And, by sheer, wonderful coincidence, there was a fan-meet in Osaka for Mao Hamasaki scheduled a week after I returned home. More than that though, the day that tickets first went on sale also happened to be the day after I would be spending the night in Osaka on my way back. So, given what an opportunity this was, I felt almost like I had to attend.

    
Event posters for the first and second fan-meets I would attend.

During the rest of my trip, I made sure to do my research on how to get tickets. They would only be available at a specific shop, and I would need to buy a specific DVD at that shop and exchange it for a ticket. But there were only 30 available seats for the whole event, so I would have to be quick in getting my spot.

Now, you gotta understand. I may be a big fan of Mao Hamasaki, but I'm certainly not the only one who likes her. She's been in the industry for 10 years at this point, and I had always assumed she was an A-List celebrity in the AV field. She has this wonderful charm about her, where she's cutesy and petite, but she'll get this mischievous glint in her eye as she pounces on her performing partner, her adorable manner hiding an impish aggressiveness. Plus, she's a DJ and a non-adult film actress as well, so I have to admire her hustle and work ethic.

Because of all this, when I saw that the store opened at 10:00 AM, I assumed that I would need to get there by 9:00 at the latest, because surely a big-name actress like Mao would have scores of fans lining the street, waiting for a chance to buy a ticket to see her. Right? Well, not so much. I got to the store by 8:45, and then spent a very boring 75 minutes waiting for the store to open while trying not to drain my phone's battery. When the doors finally did open, there was no line like I'd expected. And indeed, when I went to the special shelf housing event DVDs, and couldn't find the DVD I'd been told to look for, I grew worried. Was this the right store? Had I made a mistake? Worriedly, I asked a nearby staff member if they had the Mao Hamasaki event DVDs, and he, looking flabbergasted, said that they hadn't expected someone to be looking for them so early, and that I would have to wait for the DVDs to be put on the shelf.

    
The store interior

Once again, I had to wait about an hour for the staff to get things set up, although this time the scenery as I walked and waited was much nicer. Also, I was relieved to know that I was in the right location and very likely would secure a ticket. When a staff member came to tell me the DVDs were all ready, I apologized for any inconvenience my early arrival had caused, to which he laughed and said that it was no trouble, merely an amusing surprise.

Once I bought a DVD and received a ticket, I asked if it was alright to bring gifts not only for Mao, but for the whole staff when I went to the event. Again, I was met with looks of surprise, which made me wonder how often the staff received gifts, but they assured me it was alright. So with that all settled, all that was left to do was wait a week until the event itself.

      
Some promo pics Mao took for the first event

Because the fan-meet was on a hot summer day, and I knew from my time working in a concert bar how miserable the workers would most likely get, I decided to bring some ice cream for the staff and Mao. My only real worry in this was that Mao might have some dietary restrictions and not be able to eat ice cream, but once I arrived and gave the staff my gift, they were all very thankful. And Mao herself would later be quite pleased by the ice cream, assuring me that she had no special diet I needed to worry about.

The way fan-meets work for this specific store is that there's a fifth floor to the shop that is normally closed off, but opened up for events. You go to the entryway of that floor, show your ticket, and take a seat. Something important to note is that the number on the ticket you buy is not necessarily the order in which you will be seated. The second time I went to a Mao Hamasaki fan-meet, I was the first person to buy a ticket (and thus had the number 1 written on it), but because I was the fifth person to arrive at the event itself, I was fifth in line to actually meet Mao. The walls of the fifth floor are covered in signatures and well-wishes written in marker by adult performers who have come to this store, and, a word of warning, if it's a very hot day and you've gotten sweaty, do not sit with your back to these walls. I learned the hard way that not only will you smudge the message, but you'll stain your shirt.

      
Some promo pics from the second event

When the event starts, Mao's manager will show up to explain the rules to the attendees. They're pretty much what you'd expect; don't be a creep, don't try to touch or discomfit Mao, that sort of thing. And then after reading the rules, the manager will go around to check your ticket to see how many DVDs you bought, and subsequently what specific things you can do at the event. As you'd expect, the more DVDs you buy for your event ticket, the more stuff you can do, and the more points you earn on the point card you get for attending the event. The weird thing about this though is that the point card is not for a particular actress, but rather the production company that is behind the fan-meet. So even if you go to all the fan-meets for a certain actress, you may never raise your card points up that high (though you'll certainly have collected a plethora of point cards).

The first time I went, I only bought one DVD, and the second time I bought two. I could have bought as many as six if I'd wanted to earn a lot of points, but considering how these DVDs are worth about 3,000 yen a piece, I didn't think it was worth it. Sure, I would love to sign Mao Hamasaki's boobs or whatever it is they let really high spenders do, but I don't make nearly enough money to see what perks I'd unlock by buying a dozen DVDs. So apologies, reader, if you were hoping to see pictures of that.

What you do unlock with one DVD though is a minute of talking to Mao while she signs a photograph for you, and another minute where she goes through a series of poses and you can take as many pictures as you want. The manager has a stopwatch on him at all times, just to make sure you don't go over your minute. And the first fan-meet I went to, I'll admit that made me nervous, though by the second meet I didn't even notice it. If you buy a second DVD, you get to have your picture taken with Mao, which I did. And I must apologize for the awkward pose you see me in, but the reason for this is that Mao wanted me to stand at my full height, but she was also tugging firmly on my arm (for someone so small she's actually quite strong), so I ended up in a sort of semi-hunched, John Boyega stance.

Seriously, she has a really strong grip

Both times I saw her, Mao was bubbly and effervescent, and, like most people in this country, she was utterly fascinated by my height, even asking to touch my muscles at one point. As you can see, said muscles are nothing special, and I'm sure Mao was only flattering me with several of the compliments she gave. But even so, there were several genuinely kind things she said which I don't think were mere puffery, and the second time I saw her, she seemed glad that I was there. Mao's manager said I was a decent sort, and the store staff now know me as "That nice boy who brings ice cream for everyone" (seriously, that's how one staff member introduced me to another staff member at one point), so I think I made a good impression. And while I know Mao has many fans, and she surely can't remember all of them, I do hope that when she thinks back on pleasant fan interactions, I am someone she remembers. I know that when next she comes back to Osaka, I will do my best to attend her fan-meet. Though maybe I don't need to get a full week's head-start on buying tickets.