Event Hisakawa Aya College Festival Event Location Tokyo Rika Daigaku Date 1996.11.23 Time 16:30 - 18:00 Cost 2500 yen Guests Hisakawa Aya (久川綾)

• Report version 1.0 by Joe Petrow, 1996.11.24
  (some minor additions by Hitoshi Doi)

About 600 people were in attendance for Hisakawa Aya's Live Event at Rika Daigaku. Lots of cooking materials were set up on the stage, which were used for the duration of the event.

The music from the recent Mission Impossible movie played as Aya Hisakawa was introduced (in English) Aya came out, dressed in a black knee-length skirt, a white shirt and a white, frilly apron, with her hair in long braids. Six other people came out dressed as chef's helpers, and served as background dancers as Aya sang "Okonomiyaki Go Go".

After the song, Aya introduced herself, and went through a long stream of consciousness explanation as to how she got the idea for today's event.

"...when you think of festivals, you think of yakisoba! And when you think of yakisoba, you think of okonomiyaki!"

So Aya started to work on preparing the okonomiyaki, while explaining what she was doing to the audience. After a while she left one of her helpers with some mixing duties, and sat down to talk to the crowd.

Aya talked about many things. When they were discussing ideas for the Undoukai event, and Aya wanted everyone to wear kigurumi, she was told, "We can't do that!"

But Aya said, "If we can't do that, then it won't be a Hisakawa Aya undokai!" Then she explained how they found all the costumes at a shop in Kichijoji, and eventually everyone agreed that the kigurumi was a good idea. They were lucky to find the kigurumi, because the company that made the kigurumi went out of business, and the only ones left were the ones in stock at the store.

Aya did some very good impersonations of Inoue Kikuko (things that Kikuko had said during the Undoukai event). [She has her boke voice down very well!] Aya talked about how, even though she's doing all these silly things, she's still a seiyuu, and that's not going to change. She spent a lot of time apologizing for all the things related to her that are costing her fans money.

Then Aya brought two guitarists onto the stage, and explained that she wanted to try a new version of one of her songs. "I'm a little nervous, but please listen to this acoustic version of "Kono Michi ga Owaru Made ni"." They then did a VERY nice, seven minute acoustic version of this song. Aya's singing was very heartfelt, and a little slower than the album version. She said they only rehearsed the song three times, but it came out very well.

After the song, Aya went back to preparing her okonomiyaki. She got a rise from the crowd when she drank some water from a bottle, then used that water in her cooking! ("I'm not going to spit it out!") Her helper came out, carrying an oversized envelope under his arms. Eventually Aya saw the envelope, and said "What is this, a love letter?" She opened it up to reveal a big sign saying "Shitsumon" (question), and that was the introduction to the Question and Answer session.

Several people came up to ask Aya questions. One time she called up two very cute little girls, one of them dressed in a penguin kigurumi! Aya said she talks about a lot of things that they probably don't understand. She asked them "Is there somebody that you like?" (obviously referring to a boy friend type person) They both answered, "You!", and everyone started laughing! "Oh, you don't mean that kind of relationship, right?"

After this session ended, Aya turned the sign over and announced the Reverse Question and Answer session. This time, Aya called up people and asked them questions! She asked one guy, "If I were your girl friend, how would you feel about my work? For example, what if my photo book had turned into a nude photo shoot?" Another person said he worked at Kentucky Fried Chicken, which made Aya very happy (Kentucky Fried Chicken is one of her favorite foods). She asked another guy if he had a girl friend, and he said no. Aya asked another question about his love life, and he said he couldn't answer that. Aya said, "I understand, there are things I don't want to talk about either."

Aya said, "When we were talking to each other, for that instant were we able to convey these feelings with each other. That's what I want to accomplish with my concerts."

She talked more about money, saying "Don't spend it all on me, buy nice things for you mother and father, and other special people in your life. And if you have something left, then send me a present!"

Aya went back to preparing her food (once again drinking from the same water she was cooking with!) One thing a little different about her okonomikiyaki is that she mixes yakisoba in with it. She made a couple of references to Skuld in regards to her cooking, saying, "Atashi tte yappari tensai!"

After putting the okonomiyaki on the grill to cook, she left it with her attendant to go sing "Aoi Sora wo Dakishimetai". During the mid-song break, she went over to check on the okonomiyaki, helped to flip it over, and got back in time to finish the song! After the song Aya said, "That was great how it worked it like that!"

After they finished cooking the okonomiyaki, Aya announced the prize corner. She told everyone to get the piece of paper taped under their seats. They had the name of an ingredient in okonomiyaki, and if the name of the ingredient Aya called out matched what was printed on the paper, you won a prize. Most all of the prizes were things signed by Aya (the penguin girl won a prize!) The final prize, won by 16 people, was the chance to come up on stage and sample the okonomiyaki Aya had made!

Aya herself cut the okonomiyaki into 16 pieces, and handed each piece to each person, but told them all to wait to eat it at once. When they tried it, Aya went to some of them to ask their opinion. It looked like some people didn't like it, but all the people she talked to said it was delicious.

Aya sat down to talk some more. She talked about turning 28, and how the years used to seem to take so long to pass, but now seemed to pass so quickly. She said that good and bad things happen, but without the bad things we wouldn't be able to appreciate the good times as much. She said not to dwell on your failures, but to concentrate on the positives and good things in life, and give 100% in your efforts.

After thanking the crowd, Aya sang "Sunday" and "Jinsei Matsuriya" to end the show.