So here is the report of the freaking lucky me who traveled 800km to see Nino in Paris for the Premiere of "Letters from Iwo Jima".
I just came back an hour ago (well when I arrived it the 15th of February at 9:30PM, and now that I finished uploading everything, it the 16th of February and it's 6:00AM @_x), I'm exhausted, I'm still in dreamland, I haven't read anything yet about what happened in the Arashi community those past two days, I haven't realized, so beware of fangirl talk here!

So on Valentine's Day, I woke up at 5:00AM (I barely slept because I was wayyyyyyy too excited), I was already fully awake and I took the train from my home with only my little bag (because I wanted to go straight to the Ritz, no time to lose to go to the hotel, so no luguage) at 7:00AM (I live at the very South of France) and I arrived in Paris at 12:20AM.

I arrived in front of the Ritz (for those who don't know, it's the most expensive and luxurious palace in Paris (on Place Vendôme, you have Chanel, Dior, and right next to it is the ministry of Defense, so you've got lots of diamonds and cops in the same tiny place!)), because at 3:00PM should be the press conference. I went inside (I felt really OUT OF PLACE XDDD *felt like Tsukushi*) to ask for some informations and they told me it was only on invitations and they had a guest list blablablablabla so I went outside to wait (in the cold and the rain *my genkiness was highest that I ever felt in my life XD*), it was approximatively 12:45AM.









I was REALLY surprised that I was the only Arashi fan there (because I wasn't the only one to know about the Ritz), but I met two Parisians who were here since 10:00AM. You know they're the kind of people whose hobby is to follow famous people around and to take pictures with them (they told me unbelievable stories seirously, but I saw it all on there digital camera XD). They were here for Clint Eastwood obviously and when they asked me who I was waiting for, and I said "Ninomiya Kazunari" the lady went "Ooooh it's the cute little japanese guy isn't it? We saw him last night" and I went "WHAT????? ôO" And she showed me the video she took with her cellphone (for the ones who are interested, he was wairing a green Versace jacket and a white beanie with an orange and a blue stripes, for what I can remember. Well he was in a relax mode). So that's how I knew that Nino spend the night from Tuesday to Wednesday at the Ritz (how nice from Warner Bros! XD), because I seriously didn't know when he came back from Berlin and when he arrived in Paris.

So we were waiting (I talked about who Nino was etc etc...) and at 1:30PM.... NINO ARRIVED!!!!




OH




MY




GOD




The Parisian guy was saying "Hey this car that just arrived, I'm sure he's in it", a guy went out of it (I think it was he's manager of something) and then this tiny slim Japanese hottie went out of the car *0* (seriously, that's the first thing I thought! XD He's so slim and small! SO CUTE!)
I had like 1 seconde to think *dokidokidokidokidokidokidokidokidokidokidokidoki*, I shyly walked up to him:

Me: N...Ninomiya-san?
Nino: *looked at me dazed and surprised*
Me: Ano... Can you sign... *did the gesture to sign an autograph*
Nino: *smiles and nods* (HOW NICE OF HIM *0*)

And then his manager (well, I think it's his manager) told us to go under the entrance of the Ritz (because if you don't remember it was cold and raining). Still shaking (but trying to stay calm, not to be the crazy fangirl type), I hurried myself to take my Winkup magazine out of my bag, found in a dash the picture of Nino and gave it to him, I frenzily searched for my big pen, but couldn't find it, and I don't know how, but suddenly Nino had a big black pen in his hand "Daijoubu, daijoubu" he said *0* (I don't know who gave it to him (his manager?) or if he had one on him, well nevermind), and HE SIGNED MY WINKUP YAAAAAAY \o/










(Sorry I don't have a scanner)
I swear it's written "Ninomiya Kazunari" (well, in Kanji) XD It took me time but I finally saw it.
So I said to him "Arigato Gozaimashita" and I don't know what he said (well i couldn't quite hear him clearly but it sounded like a "It's alright don't worry" or something (well not in English of course!) and he gave me a big bright smile which will stay in my memory forever *0* (and I was like "OMG I LOOKED AT NINO IN THE EYES AND HE LOOKED RIGHT BACK AT ME *0*")

And like 2 seconds later, the VERY NICE Parisian lady said to me "Quick give me your camera, give me your camera" (because there was a security guard next to him (who looked seriously pissed of by this event (like I seriously care XD I didn't notice him AT ALL! I was busier watching Nino!) and earlier he said "No pictures!" (i've heard later that you're not allowed to take pictures of Johnnies (well I'm used to the way Johnny deals with the pictures etc but well...))... and she took A PICTURE OF ME WITH HIM (sorry, I'm just too over-excited just by typing this). Sorry I cut my face (yes that's my hair and glasses on the left), because you seriously don't care about my face, and I don't want people printing it and throwing rocks and arrows at my face XDDDD (or going Photoshop berserk!)









Here is the other picture I took (because all went REALLY fast!), sorry it's so blurry, but Nino was really kind to agree to take pictures because he could have just left right after the autograph, it didn't seem to bother him (well I really hope, I didn't want to be disrespectful).









And I also tried to film him but as my hands were shaking, I cliked twice on the "start" button so it's only 2 seconds long XD Gomen nasai! m(_ _)m (if you're wondering who the guy next to Nino is, it's the Parisian guy who loves to take pictures with famous people (but he was really nice, and he knew a lot of people, journalists, guards etc, so he gave me lots of hints)).





MU





And then he went inside the Ritz (I learned later that he spent his morning (well, a part of his morning) in Versaille (you know, the Castle), so I'm happy he had the time to visit Paris ^^ ). It lasted... one minute! It was so quick and so surreal at the same time! The moment he was out of sight, I turned around and it finally hit me "OMG I JUST SAW NINO!", I wanted to scream my joy (but Winky, you're in front of the most expensive place in Paris and there's a whole bunch of cops nearby XD), I had tears in my eyes etc etc.... the joy of the fangirl! All the pressure I had since the day before (will I be able to see him properly etc...) felt down all at once and I had more than I ever imagined by coming to Paris! *went directly to dreamland in 30 seconds*

Well after that we still waited outside (it was 1:30PM if you remember) we saw lots of journalists entering the Ritz. We hoped to see Clint Eastwood or Ken Watanabe but they were inside (someone told us later that they hadn't left the hotel since the night before, so I was DAMN LUCKY that Nino decided to visit Versaille XD~)

In the remaining time, I met Amandine and Celine (who I met on my entry on nino_daily about the Premiere and who are God damn nice!!! <3) but I was still surprised we were the only ones! Well we waited, we waited (and it was still freezing cold! My feet were wet from the rain (stupid shoes), so two times colder!), the press conference ended at 3:30PM (it was really quick ôO ) and all the cast stayed inside for individual interviews until the very last minute (which means, just before the red carpet at 8:30PM). All the journalists at the press conference got a really nice "Iwo Jima" bag (which I wanted to steal badly ;_; ).









At 6:00PM, seeing that Nino was not leaving, as I wanted to have a good place on the red carpet, I left for the UGC Normandie (I didn't know at this time when Nino was going to left) and my two friends stayed in front of the Ritz to at least see him leaving the hotel (they saw him around 8:20PM when he walked quickly to the car and he waved to them).

I arrived at the UGC Normandie around 6:15PM, the red carpet was still covered with plastic, there weren't any journalists yet but there was already a row of people against the barrier. So when I saw one of those people were just random people who were wondering what the hell was going on, I told them "You know, it's going to start only in 2 hours and a half, it's freezing cold, you seriously don't want to stay here mam', your children are going to catch a cold!", "Oh yeah you're right" she said (YEAH OMG GET AWAY FROM HERE *squish herself in the first row against the barrier and doesn't move anymore*).









I met a really nice fan of Arashi, who was next to me and there were also some Japanese fans (who live in Paris, at least one of them from what I understood), with whom I talked a bit (it was them who showd me the picture of Nino at Versaille. I don't know if they followed him or met him just by accident (but it was taken from the back (I recognized the clothes that he wore when I met him earlier), so I seriously doubt they went after him).
I was (once again) very lucky because 5 minutes after my arrival, there was already 3 rows waiting in front of the barrier.
The thing was, just in front of us was a 2m large space reserved for the journalists, so we wouldn't be able to see quite clearly with all the cameras and all (from what I saw, there were the French Channels France2 (it wasn't aired on the 15th February, and when I talked to the journalist she said she didn't know when they were going to air it, so I think it will be on the 20th or 21st, for the release of "Iwo Jima" in France), M6 (it will surely aired this Sunday on "Grand Ecran", the cinema TV show), Le Grand Journal (Canal+ (the report was shown yesterday night a friend told me! They did a report on Clint Eastwood but also spend a 2 minutes whole report on Nino!!!!)), BFM TV, and there was only one Japanese Channel (and no, it was not NEWS ZERO XD )). I'll check all their websites to see if they're going to show it.

Clint and the cast were supposed to arrive at 8:15PM (the tension was gradually rising (for what I could tell, approximatively 70% of the audience were Nino/Arashi fans XDDDDD)), and they finally arrived at 8:40PM.... and I filmed everything so images are better than words:






Mega | MF | 4S





I'm sorry if it's all shaking but when Nino arrived (and when he was close to us) I had like one billion arms throwing next to my face to wave at him or take pictures XD And with all the bloody journalists in front of us, it was hard to get a glimpse of him, but I've got him right in front of me (*so happy *0**) at around 7min (see screencap), I don't know if you can manage what he's saying, it's the Japanese fangirls who were screaming XDDDD (we screamed when he was walking, or far from us, but when he was talking right in front of us, whe stayed really quiet). I think (but I'm not sure if it's him) but I think I heard him say "Merci" to the journalist at the end :333333333
At one point I also went "OMG! CLINT EASTWOOD IS HERE *totally forgot in the frenzy XD* OMG MISTER CINEMA *zoom to him* ... 3seconds later *OK back to Nino*"
All the journalists were a little confused, they were like "Who is this guy???? Why are there fangirls here?" and they filmed us sometimes (especially the Japanese fangirls, who were interviewed at the end (the one who talked basically said that we had to watch the movie, that Nino was great, and that she loved Clint Eastwood blablablabla... Another Japanese guy (I don't know who it was, it was when everybody was gone, maybe he's a journalist, or someone from the staff), and I couldn't manage what he said (talked too fast) but I heard he talked briefly (and very happily) about Arashi).
At the end of the Red Carpet, when Nino finished all of his interviews (I don't know if it's just me, but I think because of the frenzy going on behind them, the journalists took a longer time to interview Nino than they expected (because they were obviously there for Clint in the first place. Nino was the last to leave ^^) when he finished, you cannot see it on the video, but he waved at us ^^

Clint and the cast stayed just a few minutes in the cinema (just for the presentation and that was all), we arrived too late to see them leave from behind of the cinema ;_; And I think they headed back to the Ritz.
Well at this point, I was deadly exhausted (too many excitation, too many scrashing against the barrier XDDD (seriously, when Nino arrived in front of us, the barrier nearly droped because all the people were pushing and a security guard had to come XDDD They clearly didn't expect that to happen!), I was also dead cold (since 12:40AM I was waiting outside in the cold! XDDD ), so we went to eat and we came back later, here is how the red carpet looked and the piece I brought back home X3










No need to say that I had GREAT difficulties to fall asleep (and I dreamed only about this day that night *Nino everywhere*), but I soooo do not regret to have traveled 800km for this! (I know it's nothing compared to the fans who go 10000km to Japan to see their concert (yay this summer it's my turn!!!)) I mean... this was surely the best Valentine's Day of my life XDDD And I met wonderful people *waves to Amandine and Céline-chan* And I still cannot believe that I got to have a picture with him and an autograph! (please don't flame me for that! XD I just took my chance!)
I took very few pictures (well, all in all, I just saw Nino 8 minutes XD ) but I privileged filming the event, so I hope you enjoyed it, and felt like you were there (well, all the waving helped XD)
And I also wanted to say a thank you to vivisectionlj who gave me lots of informations during those past two weeks, thanks for keeping in touch ^^

Now I'm deadly tired and I'm off to bed (converting/uploading the videos from my digicam took more time than typing all this XD)

~Winky

PS: Please if you want to link the pictures or the video, link to this post. They are really precious to me because they're a memory of this special day, but I want to share them with all the fans. Please don't upload them to streaming sites or something. At least don't remove the tags (they're not that ugly and big, you can live with them!). Thank you!

Edit: Got mentioned by Nino in Duet \^_____________________________^y