Holiday Horror for Non H!P Fans

Wednesday, 25th April 2007 00:49

What happens when your best friend decides to go to Tokyo with his girlfriend...you print out directions to a bunch of Hello! Project Stores from Hello!Online, hand over some Yen and demand that they at least find one of these stores and take pictures and buy lot's of aimless things.
This is Chris's story...


Firstly it all starts with bad directions. The ones I were given leaved a little to be desired since the shop sign they said to look for no longer existed (at least not that I could see). Through luck (or fate) I found the store I was looking for. As soon as I laid eyes on the entrance I knew this was going to be a BAD experience.

As I walked through the door with my girlfriend the staff started to laugh at me and point (not a joke). If this was not embarrassing enough I then had to ask how to shop there. The walls are covered in photos you can buy, and I mean COVERED. There are literally 100s of them. So I began the SLOW process of selecting what to buy. This is made even worse by the fact that the forms you have to fill out have the different areas separated off by number, so for example if you want card 4113 you go to the 41 box and then write in 13 then the amount you want. Unfortunately the form is not in any sort of numerical order so it takes an age to find the box you have to fill in. All the while the staff look on laughing LOUDLY.

With the selection of photos and other goods (shown on posters) complete I went to the till. It took about 5 minutes to put it all through. The 60 year old balding Japanese man behind me did not seem amused. He had a job to go to. I then had to wait for 10 minutes while they pulled the order wearing gloves in order to not get finger prints on my fresh new photos. Once they FINALLY called me they then proceeded to layout EVERY SINGLE PICTURE I had asked for in front of me to make sure the order was correct. By this point I just wanted out and just kept saying 'Hai Hai Hai Hai' as much as possible.

I left the store, took a few photos and then went on with the rest of my otherwise perfectly normal holiday.


...and all that's left to do is post his photos (this is the Harajuku store), and if you think he's exaggerating just look at the photo of him standing in front of the store, he looks like he's having the time of his life!...although I know for a fact he's a closet Mikitty and GAM fan.



TAGS [ Chris Hello!Project Official Store ]
Posted Wednesday, 25th April 2007 00:49 | 4364 Reads

Comments

Comment by MorningBerryz on Wednesday, 25th April 2007 05:01
EEh! They were laughing?! Nande? Nande? I love the way that you blew up the photo of his face! He does not look too happy. The store that was here in Hawaii had all of the photos in sleeves and I find it interesting that they wore gloves there. Walls of photos! It must have been quite a sight! Looking at the pics it doesn't look like the store was easy by any means to find. It's awesome that your friend Chris was able to find it. Plus with a key sign now missing. I like the part about the 60 year old man waiting behind him who needed to get to work! LOL. 60 years old!!! Eh?! The outfit display on the outside of the store is similiar to the ones that were in the Hawaii store with the messages and autograph cards behind them. That's really cool! Your friend Chris is a brave man! His story has go to be one of the best if not the best stories about shopping in a Japanese store! :)


Comment by bulmasman on Wednesday, 25th April 2007 10:45
LOL he really doens't look happy does he. I'd be loving it personally, i could put up with the laughter if it meant getting my hands on H!P merchandise!


Comment by Craig on Wednesday, 25th April 2007 12:19
Great post.

I'd like to sell H!P stuff one day, on a table in the corner of my very own H!P Art Gallery... I'd certainly treat people better than your friend was treated...


Comment by Frox on Wednesday, 25th April 2007 13:37
Hehe, great story :D
I want to be laughed at to ;o


Comment by Shirow on Wednesday, 25th April 2007 18:42
I wonder why they were laughing at him? because he is English? I'd be really mad if they laughed at me.
Id love to go in the hello project store... yet my bank balance would vanish within minutes.


Comment by paul.thomas on Wednesday, 25th April 2007 23:49
I'm not entirely sure why they were laughing at him, the Japanese are normally quite polite...it may have something to do with his face, lol, if he walked into a store I was working pulling that face I'd be laughing too!!
It may have been his girlfriend reaction to the shop, let's just say she's not the biggest fan of H!P...although from what I was told she did start to enjoy picking the photos, so who knows?

I'm really looking forward to going to one of these stores myself.


Comment by arashi on Thursday, 26th April 2007 06:56
Wow! They were laughing? I'm surprised! Still what a lucky bastard! I'd give my left.... expendable body part to get into an H!P store!


Comment by Double J on Thursday, 26th April 2007 08:30
It's quite rude of them to make fun of your friend. No wonder he looks peed off. I never had that problem myself when I went into the Shibuya store. Where exactly is the Harajuku store? I must have missed it. Is it down Takeshita dori?


Comment by Megumi on Tuesday, 19th June 2007 20:34
Why? Why were they laughing at him?? O.O I went to Johnny's Shop (the official shop for Johnny's entertainment artists) and they treated me like any other japanese fan. Sure that must be a hard moment to your friend! >.<


Comment by paul.thomas on Friday, 22nd June 2007 15:31
Megumi, your guess is as good as mine, I've asked Chris and he has no idea either, I still say it was walking into the store with that look on his face, lol


Comment by Brian on Wednesday, 15th August 2007 20:36
Hahaha, great read.
But look at it from the bright side, at least you can say people from the H!P store laughed at you!

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