Sayashi Riho Bus Tour Personal Account

I had the pleasure of attending Riho Sayashi’s last bus tour as a member of Morning Musume ’15. Here is my story.

Day 1

We gathered at Tokyo station on Saturday morning and rode our bus to Boso, Chiba. I believe the total number of participants was 372 with 9 buses total. We were separated in about three different hotels.

One of the first things was the on-the-bus video which took the format of Riho's old radio show ‘RIHO-DELI’. It was one of my favorite things she did over the years and I missed it dearly, so I was so ecstatic that they brought that back. They had all the sound tracks they used on the actual show (even Deli-Kun, Riho's pet/partner). After a brief introduction and explanation of the trip, they had their "Shuwa Shuwa Mail Corner" which was a part of their radio show where they read and answered emails they received. Since this was a special version the emails were sent from the other members Morning Musume ‘15. Sadly these Riho deli segments won't be on the DVD.

The first activity was two-shot picture. Rather than the usual cheki, this was taken by a professional camera man. It was taken in one of the ceremony rooms at the hotel I stayed at. First, our whole bus was taken into a waiting room and the bus tour MC Suzuki Keita from Jo-Jo Gundan came in to greet us. Then Riho was called in to the room and we finally got to see her! She was being very goofy and she walked into our room with her face hidden behind a big poster (that had our bus number on it) and she had changed her voice to say "Hi everyone. What if I'm not Riho Sayashi?” Then she asked us if we had already chosen our poses for the picture and that her pick will be the Sayamaru pose. I ended up asking for the LA pose. I first panicked because I forgot to ask her to smile but I ended up getting the best face. We received the printed picture at the end of our trip and it’s an L size. To top it off, she even signed each and every one of our pictures.

Next, we had a chance to pick up some goods. We then drew two lottery papers, which indicated our seats for the concert later in the day as well as the event the next day. There was a nice early dinner before we headed out to the venue.

Now this venue was amazing. It was very new and clean, and also probably a lecture hall because each seat had those pull up tables. All of the rows were higher than the other so I don't think anyone had trouble seeing Riho no matter what seat you had pulled. As for the concert, most of the fans were expecting to have a similar set list to her solo live she had a few days before but she actually changed most of it.

The only same song was the new Tsumetai Kaze. The rest of the set list is as follows:

- Kimagure Princess
- Take off is now!
- Kiseki no Kaori Dance
- Moonlight night ~Tsukiyo no Ban da yo~
- *Present corner*
- Go Girl Koi no Victory
- The Matenrou Show
- Dokka-n Cappriccio
- Egao ni Namida ~THANK YOU! DEAR MY FRIENDS

During the present corner Riho picked out seat numbers from a box. One person won a present of Sayashi drawing their face (which was surprisingly good). Two won Sayashi writing a calligraphy kanji for them. Whoever got chosen would come up to the stage and Riho wrote the first kanji that came to her mind by looking at them. One guy got 柔 which basically means soft and it was because the guy was a bit chubby. The next lady got 凛 meaning frigid and dignified. For this one when she first thought of it she couldn't remember how to write it so she almost gave up, and told the MC she'll change it. We wanted to know what it was though, so then the audience shouted out how to write it and she ended up sticking with it. One person won the ability to have her record a voice message onto an alarm clock. He asked for "It’s morning, wake up. Shuwa shuwa pon!!" It was really cute! The last present was three bracelets that Riho had made in her free time.

Concerning the performance itself, the place was most heated up during Dokka-n! The last song, Ayaya's Egao ni Namida ~THANK YOU! DEAR MY FRIENDS, made me burst into tears, especially since I was an old Risa Niigaki fan too (this song was her graduation single). Part of the lyrics say: We'll probably see each other again. We'll probably see each other again smiling. It was optimistic and left us with less bitterness and more hope. It was just a train wreck of feelings for most fans because at her solo live a few days back, she started out with her song from the play Stacy's Kimagure Zetsubou Arigatou. The song begins: Thank you, so don't be hurt. Thank you, so don't be sad. I thought that was said straight to us fans and it was very sad but at the same time you knew she was reaching out to us and trying to send a message. You know she picked the songs carefully, and I'm so glad she had these opportunities to perform all of them in her short time.

After the live we all got to say bye or good night to her on our way out as handed out a pouch with the bus tour logo on it.

Day 2

Today we started the day off at a farm called Mother Bokujyo. We watched a sheep dog show with Riho, and she even got to feed a baby sheep. After that we took group pictures. One group was half a bus with 18 teams in total. I was lucky enough to stand right next to her in the picture! I feel like I used up all my life’s luck! That one is a 2L sized picture.

After that we had lamb meat barbecue for lunch. At that place Riho came to say "Itadakimasu" with us and walked around the room. Her outfit for the second day was the cutest thing ever. While we ate we also received these custom packaged gums since lamb meat is known to smell (although no one wanted to open them).

Next was our last planned evening event. It started out with watching a fan club event history compilation video all the way back to her first fan club 9th generation greeting event (which was adorable). Some memorable moments were talked about and then the NYC concert came up and the MC asked if any of us in the audience had gone to the concert. I was so happy I got to proudly raise my hand to that. I’m pretty sure she thought I was one of the Japanese native fans who supported her, though.

The next part Sayashi had been told that they’d hold a Q&A event, but it was a secret surprise planned by the staff and us fans. Before the tour, we had received a message card to fill out and all those cards were put into albums to give to Riho for her bus tour memories. A leader was picked from each bus to give a small message/speech on the stage and after their message they would hand their bus's album to her. Then all the people on that bus would stand in the audience and shout our previously chosen short message to her. Some messages were: "Hyahho-i x3", "Please believe in yourself!" and my bus’s was "We will always love you". My bus leader's speech was the most honest and heartfelt.

"You're actually going to graduate...I can't tell you congrats from the bottom of my heart. Do you remember at your birthday event this year you had said 'I realized that taking care of myself is the way to give back to my fans'? That is correct. Please take care of yourself. Both your body and your heart/mind. Please be healthy. Thank you for everything. We will always be rooting for you. I will not graduate being a Sayashi-oshi."

The whole room was as one at that moment, because our team leader expressed everything we all wanted to express. After all our speeches were done, as our last present to her, we all sang Maji Desu ka Ska! to her and she walked around the aisles while she held her tears.

After that, Riho spoke. "I'm always trying to give back to my fans...but my fans would always give back so much more. I can never beat my fans."

One last surprise was announced from the MC and it was a video from her favorite person. All the fans murmured that it has to be Takahashi...but it turned out to be Rola, the half celebrity. She had been one of Riho's favorite celebrities for a long time, and the staff was able to get a video message from her saying congrats on your graduation and good luck on your study abroad. Sayashi was so surprised and happy that she wanted to watch it twice.

After that was a handshake on our way out. I was so full of emotions it was really hard to think of what to even say to her. When I got there I was able to tell her that the two days were so much fun, and that English isn't too hard so ‘ganbatte’. She was like, ‘Oh really?’, but I successfully got to tell her what I wanted.

Then we all went back to our buses. She came out to wave and say bye to each sides of our buses and we went on the road to go home.
 
Or at least that's what we thought! On the bus we had watched our last episode of the Riho Deli video and then one more video started to play. It was the MC and he was talking about how much fun the event was and how sad he was that it ended. He went on to say "Don't you want to see her again!? You can't go home yet! One last surprise event! Head straight back to the farm!"

Excited, we were taken back to the farm. It was dark and super cold by then. The surprise event was that Riho would be brought to the place thinking she's going to shoot a little video with the illumination at the farm in the dark. She would come with an eye mask because the director wanted her pure reaction and things like that. In truth, all 372 fans were waiting for her arrival in the dark trying our best to keep dead silent so we wouldn't be noticed.

After getting settled in our spots and having our procedure explained, the car with Riho came driving in to where we were. Then comes out Riho with an eye mask lead by her manager, the camera man and the director. She walked right next to the big crowd of fans as we held our breaths. The funny thing was, since it was a farm with a bunch of sheep, in our dead silence you could clearly hear the sheep bleating in the distance. This made a lot of us fans snicker. When Riho was walking to her spot, she got excited when she heard the sheep too. The director said "Why don't you have a conversation with them?" and Riho laughed and went on to bleat at the sheep in the distance. She even got a reply back from a sheep and she was super excited. At this point we fans were dying trying not to laugh, and that was the hardest part of the bus trip.

Once she got to her place the director counted down to take off her eye mask, and when she did, we greeted her with the biggest "SURPRIIIIIIIIISE!!!" She was so dumbfounded and taken aback she tripped off her small stage! It was the cutest reaction! She was so impressed by our silence and said that she didn't feel any presence and she was also super embarrassed because we had all heard her conversation with the sheep.

Then the MC explained the situation and as the last surprise fireworks went off!

It was just the greatest grand finale to our amazing trip.

-Konomi