Anton's Evening Online with Kurea Hasumi

Alright gang. So, as you know, I’m a big fan of Kurea Hasumi. God, she’s amazing. One of my all-time favorites. But alas, she’s retired, so I can’t really go to any events of hers. I was able to patronize her Bar Haru once, some time ago (it feels like forever), but I never thought I’d be able to attend any sort of fan meet or fun time of hers.

So it was with a great deal of surprise that I noticed her social media post advertising an online fan meet on the night of March 16th. The post promised a most excellent and fun time, and it was then that I got an idea. You see, while I’ve been to many a live event, I had yet to participate in an online event. I had no idea what an online fan meet would entail, despite the fact that I’d seen such events advertised frequently over my many months of perusing the JAV Event website. I had dropped in briefly on both of Eimi Fukada’s free hug events, just to see what they would be like, but I hadn’t sat down and watched a full online fan meet from start to finish.

So after checking up on the basic information of the event, I figured why the heck not? What did I have to lose by checking this online fan meet out? It would certainly be an interesting experience, and you all know me, you know I’m always down for new and interesting experiences. As such, when the day came, I was ready and waiting at the computer as the clock slowly reached the start time.

The event only properly began at 8:30, but to my pleasant surprise, at 8:15 the stream opened up for people to join. The chat was closed off to anyone who had not been a subscriber to Kurea’s Youtube channel for more than a minute, so if you wanted to chime in with some question, comment, or smart alec remark, you’d have to subscribe. I did not subscribe, merely staying in the shadows and observing, but as I saw Kurea’s chat buzzing with excited fans from all around the world, I hoped her subscriber count rose significantly that night.

Once the event began in earnest, Kurea took the stage and began to introduce her staff. I recognized the two bartender fellas from my own visit to the establishment, but as I looked around the space of that establishment I couldn’t recognize anything. Either they’d significantly redecorated or moved location since my last visit there. And then as if on cue, Kurea showed off the address of Bar Haru on screen, so that we all could visit the place whenever we were in town.

Yeah, I should probably take a moment to discuss my screenshots. Yes, I know they’re not the least bit professional. But I didn’t know if the stream would be available for viewing after it finished, and as such I wanted to preserve as much of the stream as I could. Unfortunately, sometimes a choice camera shot would be too brief for my fumbling fingers to capture, and other times said fumbling fingers would be busy typing notes on the event, and thus miss the action before it was too late. One time, when Kurea was lining up all her girls for us to see, I accidentally pressed the Alt key instead of the Win key, and was so cross at myself I remained in a foul mood for a full few minutes. So, as I show to you all all the halfway decent screenshots I was able to take, I hope you all will take pity on my own pathetic lack of talents. I did my best.

After basic introductions of the staff and location were complete, Kurea took the time to read the chat. And upon reading one foreign fan’s heartfelt message about what a great time they’d had when visiting the establishment, Kurea and her girls gabbed about the guest and the time they had come to Bar Haru. This wasn’t the biggest event of that night, but I bring it up because the fan in question may actually be one of our readers. So everybody, if you are this person, I hope you’ll leave a comment about your time that evening. And if you know this person, I hope you’ll bring their attention here to this article. Either way, we appreciate your continued reading of our website, and Kurea and her crew appreciate your patronage of her establishment.

At this point the first customer walked through the door, and he was a regular of the place. I don’t know just what sort of specific job he has, but he had that look in his eyes of the sort of office worker who is just glad that they survived the work week and made it to the weekend. His face and demeanor screamed “Thank God it’s Friday.” though in actuality, it was Saturday. Man, the thought that he’d just gotten off work on a Saturday fills me with pity for the poor fellow.

Thankfully, Kurea and her girls were there to brighten up the gentleman’s day, and they presented him with some Mr. Donuts. What’s funny is that at this point, enough of the chat didn’t know what Mr. Donuts was that Kurea had to explain it to them. I guess the franchise isn’t very popular outside of Japan? Is there a Mr. Donuts in your country? Please, leave a comment down below.

It was also at this point that I realized another issue with my attempts at screenshot taking. See, as you might have guessed, Bar Haru is a bar, meaning it’s full of stuff that violates ZENRA’s S&P rules. Obviously I didn’t want to violate those rules, but once the customers started pouring in and Kurea and her crew started pouring for them, I started to wonder how I could take screenshots without said pouring in frame. When Kurea and co. called for a toast, I sighed, knowing that I couldn’t take a picture of it. But I hope everyone who toasted, both at the bar and in the chat, enjoyed themselves that night.

I know I certainly smiled when Kurea decided to show off her costume, though that smile soured slightly as I desperately tried to take a good screenshot of it. In the end I don’t think I succeeded, but here are my best attempts.

And here is Kurea’s own social media post showing off her costume, just so you get an idea of how much I am not a professional photographer. Oh, it’s mortifying, seeing how poorly you did in comparison. But at least there are professional photos to show to you all.

At this point the seats had filled up, the conversation was buzzing, and the atmosphere was lively. It really looked like a good time, and even from my lonesome computer desk in the middle of nowhere it felt like I was having a good time. Even when the sound got fritzy for a bit, my mood remained good. It was only when the pizza showed up, and I realized with great sadness that there was no Pizza Hut anywhere near my tiny, tiny town, that I began to feel just a little forlorn.

When the last of Kurea’s girls showed up, she lined them all up for us to see, and gave a final introduction to the staff and location, before letting us all know when the next online event would be and finally ending the stream after only 90 minutes. I was surprised at how quickly the time had flown by, and how enjoyable it had all been, even without any Pizza Hut of my own. Seriously, there’s not even a Domino’s I can order from, I live in such a small town. But before I get any further on that tangent, I hope all of you Kurea fans out there will attend her next event. It’s on April 28th at 8:30, and you can tune in to see it on her Youtube channel.

Oh, and then to top it all off, the next morning after I woke up and checked out Youtube, I saw that a recording of the stream was free and available on Kurea’s channel. So in the end my screenshots were totally unnecessary! I could have simply waited until I had the full video to get some choice shots. But hey, after putting in all that effort, I figured why should it go to waste? So here in this article I’ve used screenshots I took that night, and if you want to see the event for yourself, you can check it out here. Until we meet again.