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Dear Everyone,

Today was a eventful day for all Seiko fans in Tokyo and those who made a
special trip down to Japan's capital for a super treat as part of Seiko's
nationwide "Love&Emotion"+"Anata shika mienai" promotion.

Today's lineup was sure Seiko overdosage (!); and as always my personal most
effective source of quality living: keeping my hectic work-life with some 
healthy balance of emotional and spiritual spice and inspiration. Here is what 
happened.

(1) 30min Live radio show (FM Tokyo station)
Seiko was to appear in the radio show from 1-1.30PM. Venue, Shibuya. I hardly 
had enough sleep the entire week but I got out of bed at 7am so that I would be 
at Shibuya at about 10.30AM. I remembered specifically to set my video deck to 
record a short interview on TV anytime from 9.30AM to 2PM before I left. There 
was already a long cue right outside the venue and the fans who had gone 
specially to Mie to see the first concert of 2001 tour were very careful not to 
talk about it as there were many around who did not want to be informed about 
the contents. (It was not easy to refrain from asking too.)  It hit 10min 
before 1PM and we were allowed in groups of 30s to stay in a temporary blockage 
set up just outside the sound-proof glasswall by the road. there were about 5 
small monitors hung  by the ceiling,...but honestly who would be looking at it 
when we have right in front of us the REAL THING. 5min before 1PM Seiko came 
into the small glasswalled room and the 30 of us waved fantically. We were 
separated in sound and by the glass wall but we were at most 1.5m away from 
where she was sitting. :) Her glance was slow but sincere and she smiled as her 
eyes moved from one end to the other. The eye contact is deadly. One word to 
describe the experience...MELT. ANyway she looked at the script and show starts 
5 min later. All this we were stretching our necks and bodies to get a closer 
glimpse of what she was wearing what color make she has and also do a lot of 
lipreading... then the guardmen announced that we had another 30sec before the 
next batch came in. End of 7min appetiser. We got out. Then potable radios and 
pocket tvs came out of veteran fans to listen to the raido show and to check on 
the TV interview ... by chance which came on almost immediately after we got 
out. Mobile phones came on too as requests for songs were sent to the URL 
through the phones and updates to other fans done almost immediately. phew!


(2) Main appetizer. HMV talk show at 3.30-4PM
It was about 1.30PM and time to ajourn to next venue SHinjuku HMV. This is a 
first that Seiko was having talk show organized by Music Store. It was located 
at the main Shopping Complex at Shinjuku called Times Square and we had to be 
there by 2.30PM. So it was a super quick lunch at Macs. Only 300 people had the 
invitation card which was given out on a FIFO basis to those who have ordered 
and paid for both the Single and Album weeks ago. (Invitations were actually 
auctioned at auction sites!) My no. was in the 40s. I quickly filled in the 
questions in the questionaire and thought carefully of a question for Seiko as 
the Talk Show included 5 special presents for those questions picked out. At 
HMV we were made to queue again at the emergency stairway exit and were let in 
in groups of 20s into the HMV premise located at 12th floor. A little floor 
area was made in front of a full screen of 5x4 mini monitors. There was grills 
to act as passage way. As we were led in like little school kids in an excusion 
to the small opened space (they had moved all the CD shelves to one side), 
cameras and tv cameras of all tv stations and sports papers& tabloid magazines 
clicked away. :( It was all standing and it was just like in Zepp Tour in 1999. 
The entire placed was filled to capacity and lucky shoppers who were at the 
shop at that time stood around the allies of teh CD shelves to catch a glimpse 
of the event. As I looked around (adn tried to hide from the cameras) I thought 
the entire shop had come to a halt as all the customers, fans or otherwise 
stood still waiting for Seiko's arrival. It was nice as we also had Seiko's CD 
played over the shop's audio system (a sure rarity for Seiko in JP nowadays 
unfortunately). At 3.30PM the entire video clip of "Anata shika mienai" was 
shown and it was absolute breath-taking. Immediately after that Seiko came in 
and it was all cheers and smiles on everybody's face,... hearts beat very much 
quicker too. The mood was very much in a Seiko concert: there was rapport with 
the audience and Seiko even sang a few lines acapella of 3-4 tracks from the 
new album. It ended at 4.30PM, much much longer than we had anticipated (of 
30min)....probably thanks to the interviewer who did an excellent job of 
question contents thus Seiko returned the favour with long answers. The leads 
from the interviewer was well balanced with Seiko taking control of the 
TalkShow interchangeably as she took control of the floor by responding to fans 
inpromtu questions thrown in. A long and very satisfying 1hr talk show. THere 
were many things that were said during the hour... I will cover the key topics 
in the next posting


(3)TV interview/others
Got home tired after dinner to check if I had recorded the short tv interview. 
Success! I have put the Single in repeat mode. I love the Remix of Ava Maria 
too ....I love the new single .. the words are too real. I have the Album but 
I have refrained from listening to that as I want to go to the Concert without 
any idea of the album...(fighting hard) but the cover is great! the paper used 
in the CDs are slightly thicker than previous. and creative designs much 
better. This years' concert pamphlet is a steal! :P

THE NEW SINGLE, TITLE SONG AND COUPLING IS SO GOOD. If I could change anything,
I would like another version of the title song... one without any vocals backup.
(I honestly wished there was lesser backup vocals. Guess I am just too used to 
the plain Seiko Sound only :P)

Tzing
ps. special thanks to all personal mails sent on "Seiko's Magic FUN 6/15.