In Okinawa w/ Miyavi - Exit Scene

11am

OMGOD! We got an AMAZING parting gift~!!

This morning, we all had to check out by 10am, but afterward, everyone milled about, taking group picture after group picture. We were all a little loathe to say goodbye and end our lovely vacation.

Eventually though, they called us to the buses, and we had to say goodbye to our hotel. As we were slowly pulling away from the front of the hotel, the tour lady stood at the front and told us we were all getting a little extra gift: a little hand mirror with the event written on the front. Everyone was very excited about this. As she kept talking, I noticed that the bus had turned the wrong direction, however I was distracted by the lady, who was still talking. There was a second surprise for us... Miyavi had made a personal video for us! A round of happy shrills went up, as we anticipated our private viewing.

One of the women from Miyavi's entourage took over from the tour lady and directed our attention to the TV set at the front of the bus. Clicking a button with flare, she said "Start!"

...

but nothing happened. She sort of tapped the TV, violence being the usual form of persuasion electronics respond to, and tried again. "Start!"

...

Nothing happened...

THEN SUDDENLY!!

The doors of the bus FLEW OPEN-

and MIYAVI HIMSELF walked onto our bus!!!

OMG! We all screamed!! We had been so distracted we did not even notice that the bus had stopped moving. Then suddenly he was just THERE, like the realization of a waking dream. Rosie and I were sitting in the 3rd row, so he was super close to us~! My heart swelled in my chest, sure to explode at any moment.

He didn't say anything for a moment, doubtless made quite speechless by a bus full of fans shrieking in his face, although that is probably a pretty familiar feeling for him. After a moment of letting us soak up his presence, he asked (Jap) "Did you have fun last night?" Of course we yelled out that we had! "You guys were totally fired up!" More cheering arose, quite a feat considering I think we all had our hearts in our throats. My eyes raked over him, taking in every detail, trying to memorize every second of this, our last moments together. I got the feeling he was doing the same thing, gazing at all of us, his 'family', and soaking up our presence as surely as we were soaking up his. Then he smiled and waved, exiting the bus. We all got up on our tip toes to peer over one another out the windows and watch him go. Instead of immediately leaving, he walked slowly around the bus and waved at everyone...

What can I say to express this feeling! It was SO wonderful, SO exciting-!! So, so... PERFECT an end to our trip. I think we had all been thinking it would be nice to see him one last time, off stage, just for us... and he gave us that. I was very appreciative of him for that.

Yes... thank you Miyavi.

The next couple of days, Rosie and I received another gift of sorts from Miyavi.

As soon as I arrived home from the airport, I immediately went online to the fanclub webpage to see if he had updated his blog. He had. He mentioned (in Eng.) that he had been pleasantly surprised to see us, the two foreigners, on the trip. He said he hoped we had had a good time and that we had made lots of Japanese Co-Miyavi friends.

Naturally I was over the moon to have received what amounted to a personal message on his blog. I immediately wrote back (via Comments) to assure him (in a mix of English and Japanese) that we had had a wonderful time, had met some really great people, and also to express how much I appreciated his bon voyage. I noticed that later, Rosie also posted a similar response to the same blog.

The next day, I checked his blog again and found he had updated it... with another personal message to us! He wrote that he was glad to hear we had had a good time.

Really, it was amazing to see evidence that he actually reads our comments and hell, he even wrote back! I felt like a million bucks. I floated on that cloud for days.

Really, being a foreigner in Japan has serious perks!!

CHEERS TO THE MOST AMAZING ADVENTURE YET!!

Co-Miyavi-FOR-LIFE Baer