Sunday, June 8, 2008

Osaka - in the Hotel

Hi hi my dear sisters ....... I really like to thank you for reading my 1st Osaka post and gave me so much encouragement. We all love Yong Joon in our own ways. I guess in my own little way, I feel connected to him in my heart (just like you have your own special connection with him too). Honest, I was not upset or disappointed at all after the long wait, I was just tired and in pain. What touches me the most is you sisters, even though my story is nothing spectacular nor a successful sighting, still you are willing to read on and drop me a comment, for that I am really grateful.


It’s 4 pm on Saturday May 31 by now, I am actually a bit relieved that we can finally check in. Haha, seems like quite a few sisters are in the same boat. We are happy to have the graceful Pallet joining us on the Imperial floors (19/20/21), which have its own special badge-access. ‘HRH & company’ occupies the entire 19th floor and we are on the 20th floor, just 1 floor above, wakaka (laughing like the princess :)


Now, if you think we then have the liberty of weaving in & out of the 19th floor, that’s not the case. There is such heavy security outside the 4 elevators, well, unless you know how to speak Korean (just kidding). Otherwise if you stick your head outside just to have a peek, you are immediately told by a stone-faced guard to get back in or else ....... (believe me, I tried :)


We were greeted by a kimono-clad hostess in the room. After serving us some green tea and juice, she offered to prepare bubble baths for us. Cloudnine is so considerate, she decides to go with kiyomi to check out the situation at the Dome and let Pallet and I rest and relax.


Mishio calls from her room inviting me to join her friends for a quick bite before checking out the Dome. I sooooo want to see her again but I have a massage appointment later. I suggest maybe we’ll meet for a coffee after dinner. So sorry mishio, I hope you don’t think I am rude, this 'old set of bones' just have very weak willpower :)




How can I resist? I pick the ‘orchid and blueberry’ fragrance, the bubble bath is so relaxing and rejuvenating! As I close my eyes and reflect, "I get to be the laziest Bae fan ever! Every sister out there is diligently mapping out Yonsama’s next move and trying to catch a glimpse of him. And here I am, coming all the way to Osaka to hide in the bathroom!" Pathetic, isn’t it?


Oh btw, this is the view from the hotel room – which is the same view that Yong Joon looks out at Osaka. Poor thing, as Moon Soori pointed out later in the NHK press conference, he stayed inside his room most of the time.


On our way to the massage salon, Pallet and I passed by the lobby. By now, the café is quite deserted as most of the fans have already left.


The 4-storey high atrium of the Imperial Hotel is quite spectacular. The design and the construction of the walls and window panes are in Mission style from the Arts & Crafts Movement. You can clearly see the influence by Frank Lloyd Wright’s philosophy in ‘organic architecture’. Once desired to be an architecture student himself, I think Yong Joon would enjoy seeing this.


Kiyomi-san has made dinner reservation at the Japanese restaurant on the top floor of the hotel. Cloudnine told me this is a famous family of ‘kaiseki ryori’ called Kitcho – meaning ‘sign of fortune’. Hehe, is it a hint about tomorrow?


Kaiseki ryori (懐石料理) is an artistic Japanese cuisine that balances the taste, texture, appearance and colors of food. Dishes are beautifully arranged and garnished, often with real leaves and flowers. Only the freshest and seasonal ingredients are used and each dish is presented in small servings for appreciation.


Hehe princess, wish you were here to enjoy all these!





Oishii desu ne!

We enjoy the dinner so much that we are actually the last table to leave! When we walk out of the restaurant, I notice there are a few tall and big guys walking in front of us. Now wait a minute, isn’t that Yong Joon’s Mr. Shin?! Does that mean Yong Joon is around, has he just finished dinner here too?? I look around, no, no sign of the gorgeous man. Besides they look and walk too relaxed, doesn’t look like they are guarding anyone.


We quickly follow Mr.Shin & the rest of the guys into the elevator. Don’t know why, but just anyone close to Yong Joon is good enough. Boy, these bodyguards are really huge, we feel like little midgets standing in the middle of these giants. Well, they are not going back to the 19th floor, they press the 'Lobby' button. I guess it’s mutual understanding among us sisters that we’ll just follow these guys, so for a moment, we are frozen there too. Hahaha, this very kind Mr. Shin! I thought he has seen so many fans chasing after Yong Joon the whole day. The last thing he wants to see at night is more crazy women, but he is so friendly and patient. He smiles and takes pictures with many fans, so we become brave and go up to him to ask for a picture taken too. It’s around 10 pm and he tells us that Yong Joon is already sleeping in his room. Hmmmm, sweet dream Yong Joon, we know you have a BIG day ahead of you!


Hehe, my day is not over yet. I still have a ‘date’ with mishio. It was pretty late by then, as we sat in the smoke-filled bar and started our Yong Joon coversation. To be frank, I ‘know’ mishio but I also ‘don’t know’ mishio. I know her from her famous blog and her brilliant writing – from there, I can deduce that she is a very intelligent, learned, quick-witted and a strong will person. Of course, she loves Yong Joon very much, otherwise she would not even be here, right? But the mystery of the author behind such splendid writing does intimidate me a bit, not that I worry about how others view me, but what do I say to a gifted person like this?

Fortunately, Wenny (xiaoyi’s friend) from Taiwan byjfamily.net (she wrote a great write-up of the Premium Event in Chinese which bb has translated to English in her blog) broke the barrier by sharing her experience waiting at Kansai Airport. Thanks Wenny, it’s wonderful to meet you and hear your story. That night, mishio shared very briefly of her experience with Yong Joon's encounters. I listened attentively like a rookie to a senbai :) She comforts me that most often the result of these long waits for HRH amounts to nothing. As we have a long day ahead tomorrow, I reluctantly have to end our chat and grab my few hours of beauty sleep. I was hoping I can see mishio again in this trip but unfortunately we don’t get to meet up again. It is a pleasure meeting you, mishio!


As I go back up to the 20th floor, 2 men walk into the elevator and slide their card into the 19th floor! When they leave the elevator, I am so tempted to follow them out. Hehe of course I do not, Yong Joon's family will not intrude his privacy, right? (besides I do not want to be thrown out of the hotel!) All I can comfort myself is, hehe, I have never slept so close to HRH as tonight, hahaha!

Next - the BIG day

21 comments:

jill4byj said...

My dearest & sweetest Jaime,

Thank you so much for sharing your genuine and honest thoughts with us! My heart is with you... am happy to know that you were able to meet with many dear Bae-sisters in Osaka (especially our dearest Korachan and Mishio : ) Yes, the most precious gift our HRH has given us is the warmest friendship we received from the magical Bae-families around the world! I too love the Kaiseki ryori very much : ) … Knowing you’ve “slept so close to HIM” made me somewhat jealous too ^___^ Please take your time and share more of your honest thoughts with us… but please do relax and spend more quality time with yourself and your loving family!

Love you, always!
Jill

xiaoyi said...

Dear jaime,
Thanks so much for sharing such wonderful experience with us. When i'm reading your post, I was hoping so much I could be with you all..sigh. Anyway, there's always next time. ^.^
Thanks again!
Loves, xiaoyi

Anonymous said...

Oh darling if you needed to relax
you did after all you know your own straing and if you needed to recharge your batteries you did that is all no need to feel bad about it.
Sounds like a wonderful Hotel

Who knows maybe he was doing the same upstairs.

I keep reading about this,
That his bodyguards are huge,
but I had not read that Mr. Shin
was so nice to the fans.

And yes I'm glad you did not fallow those man out ,so you cut sleep in your hotel room so close to him.

In fact I'm begging to see that is more like an adventure wich nobody knows the outcome in this events, a glimpse here and there sometimes more.

But most of all a see a lot of Love in the Bae systers it warms my heart.


Moontime

Anonymous said...

Dear jaime,
Hi, this is Wenny.
This is my first time to come here and join your blog.
Your story is wonderful, too.
Thanks Xiaoyi.
I and Jaime can have a happy meet in osaka because of you.
Jaime is a very nice and I like you so much.
Hope we can meet longer next time.

Wenny

jaime said...

my dearest and sweetest jillie,

hahaha, I am only kidding. I can't even feel the breathing of HRH when I was sleeping.

You are so right, the friendship that we gained through BYJ is the most precious gift from him. One day when all the star watching is gone (even though I don't it to end), I hope our friendship with each other and our dear sisters will remain.

Please take care, my dearest!

love & hugs ... jaime

Anonymous said...

Hi Jaime,

Those " roller coaster days" have now become a good memory indeed. Thank you for your writing!!

We confirmed that the people on the 19th floor had dined at Kiccho the previous day. (Don't know HRH is included in this group though.)
Still it's good to know both, their
group and our group, picked the
same place for the first dinner in Osaka.

cloud nine

jaime said...

dear xiaoyi,

I actually admire you and other sisters with young kids who have the will power to stay and take care of your family. I feel guilty about leaving my hubby and son despite their assurance that they were ok.

I mean on one hand we mothers do need a break sometimes to just spend time with our girlfriends (hehe and our dream man too:) But our kids are always on the back of our minds. Let's be patient, dear xiaoyi, we'll have our turns eventually :)

love ... jaime

jaime said...

Thanks moontime for your comments. Yes, the warmth and kindness of the Bae sisters, which is also a reflection of our Yong Joon, is the best part of this Bae experience.

Thank you for your understanding, I guess knowing my own limit is probably something I should bear in mind in future Bae quest.

love .. jaime

jaime said...

Hi Hi Wenny,

so surprise to hear from you. Know that you had a very emotional trip, are you recovered yet? It's nice for me to know you too, thanks xiaoyi. Can you tell me how I can enter byjfamily.net without registering? or I need to sign in everytime? Please advise, thanks!

love ... jaime

jaime said...

oh really cloudnine,

they really dined at Kitcho?! So it's their first choice :) I think Yong Joon would like it. Thank you and kiyomi for taking me there.

btw, I just missed him today at Gosireh :( All I saw was the smiling faces of those lucky sisters. And he's leaving soon, so sad!

love ...jaime

Anonymous said...

Hi Chinggu!

Marvelous post! I admire your honesty & self-control(I wonder why you didn't bore HOLES under your floor knowing that HRH is just below you!). Good thing I wasn't with you or we could have pulled off the best crime in hotel history, i.e.,peeping how HRH sleeps!!! Boxers or shorts? Leaning on his right or wrong side? etc. etc.

Glad that you were able to meet our dear Yuko & the likes of Mishio , Wenny & Pallet and a lot more sisters. I enjoy reading all the funny stuffs that you always include in your write-ups.

Will be waiting for the next installment. Don't overstress yourself. We love you and you keep that in mind, okay?

Back to that very envious position of yours on top of his floor, next time, remember to bring along some very handy tools like a saw or better yet, an ice pick just in case you will end up again on top of him, uppssssss, hehheheeh! Just do not wear anything like Sharon Stone did in "Basic Instinct," hehhehee!

Love yah!
judy

bbmag said...

am terribly busy at work... but just wanna leave my footprints here. i read it, and i loved it... and hehe, you mentioned me!!

yea, i wish i was there too... the food's that good huh? :p

i've been to osaka twice, but never really did any serious sightseeing and going around, but i do remember osaka has nice food :p

Toujours_BYJ said...

wow wow Jaime, your trip reports are fantastic, I love love reading them.
Thanks for sharing chinggu.
Btw, how were your feelings when you slept on the 20th floor, knowing that our HRH were on 19th ? so close and yet so far .... ?

PS : Wenny's report is fantastic, I've also translated it too.

Anonymous said...

Dear jaime,
hm...To enter byjfamily.net, you need to register one account and login then you can enter the forum.
But when you login the site, you can choose to remember the account in you computer and you don't need to login every time.

My emotional trip...yep.
I don't know, sometimes I still feel that is an unreal trip just like a dream, haha.
Thanks bb and
Toujours_BYJ for translating my story although I may speak in so emotional way.
I am so happy that you like my report about the trip.

Love you all,
Wenny

vegasbyj said...

Hi dear Jaime!

Thank you very much for sharing your trip diary with us! I've been enjoying reading everything you have to share.

Have been terribly busy on this end, but never too busy to visit and check in.

Looking forward to reading more.

Take good care and thanks again!

Anonymous said...

dear jaime,

you are sooooo lucky! that you had a chance to sleep so closed to our HRH......:)Did you have a sweet dream?

I always love and enjoy reading your journey, thank you for writing it. And I can't wait for the next one...

Take care n don't skip breakfast again,OK?
Love n peace,
regie

jaime said...

hehe chinggu,

knowing my luck, I know the guys directly below my room is probably those grim-faced security guards. I ain't gonna drill a hole on the floor and end up staring at them all night! :)

love ... jaime

jaime said...

yeah princess, the ryori is pretty tasty. Sort of like Gosireh, but the Japanese version of it.

Hehe, I think Osaka to a lot of BYJ fans are Shinkansen station, Imperial Hotel and Kyocera Dome, no more! Nobody had time for sightseeing at all :)

Well, maybe next time!

love ... jaime

jaime said...

My dear camille,

Thanks for reading and your encouraging comments. I saw your translation on Wenny's report. Wow, you are so diligent. I hope the French speaking sisters can enjoy the Event too through your dedicated work.

Hehe, to be honest. HRH felt really far away cause he's in seclusion inside his hotel room.
I actually couldn't sleep cos I miss my family - hehe, at least I maintained some of my sanity, didn't I?

Please take care!

love ... jaime

jaime said...

dear vegas,

sorry for the late reply. thank you so much for always dropping me a comment. I understand how busy you are when school is almost over for your son. me too, scrambling to find summer activities for these active kids. Hope your son will have a great summer.

love ... jaime

jaime said...

hehe dear regie,

I am really just kidding. HRH is really not close to me at all. Nobody saw him that day and that made us miss him even more.

But I am grateful just to have a chance to go to Osaka and attend the Event.

Please take care!

love .. jaime