Sunday, October 18, 2009

A week to cherish - IV


Hi hi sisters ...... You can say the next segment was really the business side of this event – to promote Korean tourism. I think it fits well with the theme of Yong Joon’s travel book and his role as Tourism Ambassador. Yong Joon came out from the back with the President of Korean Tourism, Mr. Lee Charm. Yeah yeah, the ‘Stairway to Heaven’ guy!


Yong Joon seemed to enjoy an amiable friendship with Mr. Lee, he smiled a lot when Mr. Lee was addressing the audience. There was a lucky draw for air tickets to Korea, Yong Joon was reading out the winning seat number in Japanese, so cute! I had a feeling 99.9% of the fans were hoping to win, not because of the tickets, but the slim chance that Yong Joon ssi might glance at the direction of the spotlight that shone on the winner's face! Hehe of course, I was nowhere near any of the winning seats :( Oh oh, you know Mr. Lee promised that if you visit Korea and mention you are Yong Joon's family at Immigration, he will give you a bottle of makori; so don't forget, huh?


What follows was the ‘lengthy’ speech by the Ambassador of Korea to Japan and his recognition of Yonsama’s influence on Korea-Japan relationship. Since this was a formal segment, Yong Joon seemed to be quite solemn and in deep thought. In hindsight, maybe his high fever was getting to him and he was dazed and tired, sob sob :(


By now 2 hours had gone and it looked like the show was still going strong, not that I was complaining. The turntable slowly rose up again, and our prince was sitting on a park bench holding a pen and his book, next to him was an old fashioned red mail box. He smiled to us, put his handsome head down and started writing. The camera zoomed in from behind and we saw him writing on a postcard in Japanese!


With his slow but smooth pen strokes, he was cautiously sculpting each word, then each sentence. For me, I was amazed at how Yong Joon could memorize a passage with so many kanji and hiragana! Yes, I was very moved and felt so much closer to him by the fact that I could actually read what he was writing this time. I notice tears started streaming down some of the Japanese sisters' faces. Even though we were not on the road with him this past year, but we had read wonderful little stories of how diligent, humble and tiring he was during his journey. We understood and ached for him, now we breathed a sigh of relief and were happy that he has come back to us :) I have extracted flowerbossa’s translation of his postcard here, thanks flowerbossa :)


"Completing a long journey, I have come back.
When I was seeing , listening to, or eating good things,
the very first thing that came to my mind was you, my family.
I would like to continue dreaming the same dreams with all of you."


Hehe, I think his act of mailing the postcard symbolized that it was sent to all our hearts, so sweet! He then began reading a poem from his book written by a monk where he learned about tea (p. 171). I was totally lost again even though he read it in Japanese. Afterwards Yong Joon went backstage, the MCs appeared and gave us instructions to make a little pouch with the colored bojagi cloth we had in our loot bag. FYI, when we entered through the Dome ticket gates, we each received a loot bag containing some promotional pamphlets and a colored handkerchief for waving. Haha, I guess that furoshiki lesson does have some use :) The MCs asked us to keep very quiet when Yong Joon came up again, then he would signal us to surprise him with our 45000 colorful bouquets.

Look at how curious he was wondering why it was so dark and quiet, hehe he usually is greeted with thunderous applause and cheers .....

hehe, thinking where were they all hiding?

Then all of a sudden, the light came back on and we cheered at the top of our lung and waved our little bojagi pouch with all our might, disregarding our arthritic shoulders and arms. That was quite an impressive scene inside the large Dome, you could imagine how touched and happy Yong Joon was. Haha, later Olivia told me the MC Miyamoto san joked that lucky he could only see the 45000 colorful floral bouquets and not the faces holding them. He was probably teasing about how 'not young' our faces are, haha so mean! I always have a good impression of Miyamoto san because he was the first Japanese TV interviewer of Yong Joon in 2004 and just love his sarcastic sense of humor :)


Next Yong Joon drew 10 ultra lucky fans who could receive a personal autographed book from him, so envious! Sigh, I knew I would not win since I didn’t even fill in my entry, I almost want to bang my head on the ground at that time! By now, we really didn’t know what kind of luck we were having, but were very fulfilled even if the show would just end this way because Yong Joon had spent so much 'alone' time with us already. What more could we ask for from the man we love? But NO, there’s more, not only more, he saved the best for last
! to be continued ........

18 comments:

jenny said...

Dear jaime

How are u ? One weeks never come to your blog and a lot to catch up this weeks. Me just returned from brisbane this morning after a weeks holiday there. Anyway just drop by to say hi and thanks for the update of the 2 events. Wow already part IV . i just in part I. hahahaha

I heard from my sisters here that the gathering is great and they get to know quite a number of oversea families there and also I saw the pic of the gathering.

How is the weather there ? Anyway have a nice week ahead and take care.

Love

Jenny

jaime said...

dear jenny,

welcome back! holidays in brisbane, do u have a relaxing time? pls don;t worry, really not much news after YJ left japan. it's good to have this quiet time actually, for both him and us :) pls take your time to read, no hurry.

love ,.. jaime

Anonymous said...

Dear Jaime and Bae sisters:
Today the weather over here has turned for the better.
Congratulations on your new postings. As usual your observations are original and rare. Nobody else can watch such phenomenological events with your brand of humor, wit and even self deprecation. That is why I enjoy revisiting your blogsite.
Thank you for sharing with us.
Sarang Hamnida,
josephine

gosijo said...

Part IV so soon! I hadn't dared hope...

Perhaps within the family we'll think of that time as the other (and even better) Golden Week in 2009.

Learned lots while reading your account.

karen said...

Hi hi Jaime,

I'm fine over here. Hope you doing well too cos now everything has settle down and it's quiet time again.
So touching in this post, Jaime.
Even YJ-ssi is on high fever that day he still come to meet his family, we are so proud to become part of his family.Hope he is well by now..

Waiting for your next part posting..hehehee...is so nice to read and recall the memory what we can see thru the clips, even though we can't attend it live.
Thanks for sharing, Jaime

You take care too...

Love.Karen

yudi said...

Dear Jaime,

My mind flying back to the Tokyo Dome while reading your posts about the events, it is indeed heartwarming and unforgettable moment. I agree with you that it is good to have this quiet time, so I could digest so many staff while our prince is recovering. Hope to see him coming out again healthy and happy.

By the way, I finally (I mean my brother in China) received the package from Yesasia, can't wait until my husband's next trip to China to bring it back to me.

Love to watch the drama from his early years, he was so cute and I am astonished how much he has evolved during the years.

Hehe, it is getting too long here. Thanks for your writing and take care.

love...yudi

Unknown said...

Hi jaime

Part IV so soon? I'm not complaining, of course. I take it as a sign that you are more relaxed now and life is getting back to normal for you :)

Reading this part puts me in a mushy mood, seeing the pix you posted makes me wanna hug him so much, esp knowing that he was not well at that time. If I feel this way, I will not be able to fathom how you sisters must have felt there at the event together with him.

Take care.

Unknown said...

How many cases of makori are those Koreans customs agents going to have on hand to meet this kind of demand?! LOL!

jaime said...

Dear Josephine,

Thank you always for your comforting words. Hehe for the self-deprecating part, it's just my own little way of putting myself back into persepctive :)
Glad that weather has gone back to normal for you.

love ... jaime

jaime said...

dear gosijo,

Hehe, I am on the verge of forgetting every detail, so it's really in my best interest to jot it down now, or never.

Thanks for your email, I'll write to you soon :)

love ... jaime

jaime said...

Hi Hi karen,

Yes, my heart ached when I heard that he had to leave early because of his illness. I remember last year in the Osaka TWSSG event, there were so many details that I wasn't aware of even though I was an audience inside the DOme. But this time it's totally different, he really dedicated himself to us. Now I feel bad knowing that he was so sick then :(

thanks for reading and your patience. please take care!
love ... jaime

jaime said...

Hi dear yudi,

I am so happy for you that you will have the BFY DVD finally. Hehe, you will be very very busy. Me too, I love Yong Joon's early dramas like Love Greetings and First Love - he was less famous and less successful than now, but that young and inexperienced face was so precious. Happy watching!

Please take care!
love & hugs .... jaime.

jaime said...

Hi Hi alcy,

Thank you for caring, I think I am trying to learn how to manage challenges and stay positive.

To be honest, I feel bad that I didn;t know Yong Joon was that sick in the Dome. Maybe we were just too immersed into the excitement of seeing Yonsama. Eventhough I notice that he was extremely gentle and delicate, but we knew that he wouldn;t want it any other way.

I am happy that you are also feeling that joy and excitement. Thanks for coming by!

love ... jaime

jaime said...

Hi tamar,

I was wondering too. I think they should prepare a set of Yong Joon's postcards or posters for publicity instead. I think his family treasure his pictures more than the liquor :)

... jaime

Anonymous said...

Hi jaime,

Thanks for sharing your precious experience during YJ's Japan visit. I can't wait for part V. Love reading your date with YJ.

How I wish I'm there..

always,

Jelen

jaime said...

Hi Hi Jelen,

Hahaha, date w/ Yong Joon? What a wonderful way to see it! But you are so right Jelen, this event did gives this kind of feeling because Yong Joon spent so much 'alone' time with us, yum yum :)

Sorry, still haven;t started on the part V yet. hope you can wait, have a nice weekend!

love ... jaime

Unknown said...

Jaime, You have a point but some sisters (not mentioning names) seem to only want to talk about wine on my blog! LOL!

Anonymous said...

he looks so old at his age.....