grr...LiveJournal is being stupid, so I will post my art recs here for now.
http://members.chello.at/udo.starnegg/HP.html

 
Before class, we watched the Pop class while discussing the run-down of tomorrow’s performance. It’s so much fun to watch them, because the kids are so adorable, and Anna-san is even more energetic and smiling and full of joy and life than usual. Today I was surprised to she her actually get down on the floor and do some House-like steps. Maybe she was practicing a dance with one of the kids, but it was very cool, and unsual for her to do floor steps like that. She was so full of energy, singing along to the song with a big smile. Yuuta kind of wondered around the room, which amused me. Atsushi cut his hair, it is shorter now, and seems a bit lighter as well. Yuuta had his hair down for a bit, and was putting it up in a ponytail and looked so pretty! And Anna-san’s hair was completely wet, although with sweat or water or both I’m not sure. At any rate, everyone one of them was so hot, that when Anna-san with her sexy wet hair came to open the door of the classroom to let us all in, I almost didn’t want to go in, the room was so filled with Hot! LOL Man, between the three of them….(Sorry Namio LOL)
Then we did exercises, which was rather uneventful, just that Anna-san was hot as always. Today Anna-san was wearing a navy tank top I’d never seen before, over top of a black sport bra (tank top?), and white windbreaker pants.
After that we practiced ‘Miami’. For the first time ever, ZinRye taught us! Sometimes we’ve split into groups and one of the boyz will teach us, but this time all three of them taught all of us. It was cute, cuz they were all lined up in a line (Namio, Atsushi, Yuuta) in the front, and they went through the dance. As interesting as it was thought (especially because when ZinRye do the dance, it looks sooo different LOL) it was hard to follow, because there was three of them and today soo many people came to Hyper, so there was a lot of people too. So, as far as a teaching method goes, it didn’t really work so well. About half way through Yuuta stopped teaching and sat against the wall, clapping the beat and leaning with his head back sexily against the wall, kind of watching Atushi, which made me imagine he was wishing he was having sex with Atsushi instead, which made me crack up. LOL While the Boyz were teaching us, Anna-san was crouching on the floor on her knees, writing in a notepad. Every so often she’s lean forward, her eyes sweeping the room, and in the position she was in, which was almost a crawling position, it was really hot.
After we had been taught by the Boyz, Anna-san got up and said that she’d give us all our places. Apparently that’s what she had been figuring out on the paper. So she went through her list, and gave us all our positions for the dance. When she told Emi-chan, Emi-chan was spacing out, so she didn’t hear. So Anna-san said, ‘Soko darou!’ (You’re over there!) in a loud Yankee (gangster) voice, and did her yankee face, with the wide scowling mouth, and head tilt to motion Emi-chan to her place, combined with more Yankee-like growling and R rolling, etc. It was so funny! We all laughed! Anna-san totally looked like a Yankee! She is such a good actress.
So we practiced the dance a lot, which is still really hard, and then we broke into groups to work on the group part. Atsushi taught my group again, and he explained to us that since our group dance is easy, we have to do it ‘merihari yoku’, with a lot of life to it. Anna-san also gave us our places in our group parts, and when she gave people their places, she took them by the arms and lead them over. I was one of the last people in my group to get my place, so I was afraid she might not touch me, but she beckoned me over, and still touched my arm to move me in the right place, so I was very happy.
So then we practiced the whole dance a lot. It’s so hard! Waa! Hopefully I’ll get it at some point. LOL
At some point near the end of the lesson, Yuuta was dancing, and he did this move
(At one point, earlier, Atsushi had done that no handed backwards flip thing) where he stood on his hands, with his legs out in the air, and I swear Atushi was looking at his ass. LOL When Yuuta stood up from this move, his face was all red, because all the blood had rushed to his head over course, but it made it look like he was blushing, which worked for my slashiness. LOL He and Atsushi and Namio laughed and did strange dances, including one where Yuuta spun and jumped like a ballerina, after which he sunk to the ground and laughed and laughed, and he was so pretty and totally uke-like!! God is that boy the uke, no matter how wild he is!! Today was very good day for Atsuta shipping! Speaking of Yuuta, Haru-kun, the little Pop boy was there today, and at one point Yuuta was playing with him on the side, and he started trying to dance like us, and Yuuta cracked up for so long, and smiled at him with a big smile.
When class was over, we had Anna-san play Yagyugaiden, and we all danced. This time, Haru-kun came over, and ‘danced’ the whole thing with us. He actually got the gist of it pretty well, for being like 4 years old and just copying all of us. It was the cutest thing in the world!! I couldn’t stop smiling and laughing, it was sooo adorable!! Anna-san watched him with a huge smile on her face, laughing and laughing. It was sooo cute.

 
Today’s lesson was at the Kanagawa Sports Center, which you have to take the bus to from Yokohama station. As I was trying to figure out which bus to take, I ran into Fukuda-san, so we rode the bus together. She told me that they had all had dinner yesterday, and been their when I’d sent my post-MAX concert post. So we talked the whole ride about MAX, and also about B.B/Dream Planets, and how wonderful lives are when the performers really look at you and smile and wave, etc, and how much better seeing people live is than videos. We had come 30 minutes early, because the group of us that’s going to be in Momo-chan’s school festival had a little practice before class, so when we got there, Anna-san and her okaasan, were sitting in the lobby talking to some Pop parents. Anna-sam smiled brightly and said Ohayou Gozaimasu, and we echoed it.
I was so unused to seeing her before lessons in regular clothes that it took me a minute to realize it was Anna-san. LOL
As we stood in the hallway, going over the particulars of the day and the changes we made to suit the stage and audience etc, Anna-san, and what I swore was Yuuta wearing a black hat, but apparently wasn’t because he wasn’t at the lesson today, so it must have been Atsushi. So we all went in, and made a fake stage with string and tape, and practiced. First we did it by the count a couple times. While we were practicing, Anna-san was sitting on the floor by the MD player, listening to ‘Lady Marmalade’ and singing along softly to herself. It was very cute, because for example, I noticed at one part she was singing along to Christina’s Ooohs instead of the chorus. I would give anything to her hear sing louder, to an English song. Seriously. I think I might die. LOL
Anyway, when the song ended she did stretches, still sitting down, to the exercise song (The song we use is MC Hammer’s ‘Anything goes on the dance floor’), doing the neck stretch where you roll you head back. (She looks so pretty (not to mention sexy) when she does this, rolling her head back slowly with her eyes closed....) She also spent a long time in a complete split; I am in awe of her flexibility.... LOL We asked her if we could play our tape, but she said that she was copying the exercise song for someone, so we’d have to wait. So we kept practicing to the count until she said that we could use the MD player. Then we did the dance to the music, several times. We kind of sucked, because we were all off, since it’s been so long since we did the dance, but Anna-san watched us, with a smile on her face, laughing along with us when we were really off, and smiling at me when I happened to look at her. (This was quite different than how she was later in the lesson when she watched Namio and Atsushi dancing, when she had a very serious expression on her face, almost a frown, after which she went and talked to them a bit. Such is the different between us who are doing it for fun, and Atsushi and Namio who are trying to debut). Anyway, it was interesting, seeing her along, in her own little world so to speak, singing and stretching, because for the first time ever I kind of understood how she could have been unapproachable and intimidating at one point in her Actor’s career, if she didn’t smile and didn’t try to be friends/friendly with her students, especially because she has so much talent herself.
Today I was very happy to see that Anna-san was wearing my favorite outfit of hers, the tight black spandexy tank-top which shows her belly, and her baggy black windpants. She also had her hair in a ponytail, which I personally like better than her short hair. She just looks so cool, and so beautiful in that outfit.
After we had finished, and it was time for the lesson to begin, Anna-san announced that the Hyper lesson for the day would begin, and we all gathered together. Anna-san told us that today we had someone sitting in on a lesson, and we were all suprised. Anna-san announced, ‘Let me introduce....Makino-san!’ It was Anna-san’s okaasan! I guess she finally got tired of just watching, and wanted to try out a class. LOL Anyway, we all laughed. It was really cute though, because Anna-san called her okaasan ‘Makino-san’ the whole time, and talked in desu,masu form to her. For example, at one part, Anna-san’s okaasan was taking a drink of water, and Anna-san said, mock-sharply, ‘Makino-san, kyukei ja arimasen yo!’ (Makino-san, this isn’t a break!) Today we started ‘Miami’. It turned out that all of us had done Miami at least a little, even Shuu-kun, and Tama-chan, who Anna-san asked very carefully, and showed a bit of the dance to to help them make sure. So we started off by going over the chorus. Well, Anna-san kept going on about how difficult Yagyugaiden was, but I think Miami is a lot harder!! It’s got all these turns, and steps, and I keep messing up which foot to start with, with messes up all the next steps. It’s kind of like the domino effect. LOL Plus it’s really fast. There’s this one part with this spin, and it’s really hard to do, so I had Takako-san and Yumiko-san trying to teach me during break, along with the pose after the spin, which seems really easy but is actually hard to get right, but then by the time they said I got it to look cool, I was too embaressed to do it in front of the mirror. LOL
Since Anna-san’s okaasan didn’t know the dance, Anna-san said, ‘Makino-san, you’ll have a private lesson with either Namio or Atsushi. Pick whichever is your type.’ We all laughed. Anna-san’s okaasan said, ‘Namio-kun’. Anna-san laughed. ‘Lier! In the car you said, Give me Atsushi for the private lesson!’ to which her okaasan said, ‘But I’ll be embaressed if he thinks I’m a horrible dancer.’ Anna-san laughed. ‘So, you don’t care what Namio thinks about you then?’ Well all laughed, especially when Anna-san added, ‘Besides, Namio doesn’t know the steps.’ LOL I think she ended up having Namio teach her anyway, I’m not quite sure.
When it was time to learn our group dances, however, my group, which was the ‘genchi/kazoku’ (native/family) group, was taught by Atsushi-kun. Once again, Atushi is a pretty good teacher. He’s very patient, and goes through all the steps very slowly, checking to see if we had any questions or anything, and showing us some of the moves from the front as well as the back. He was also very good with the little kids (tama-chan and shuu-kun), even joking with Shuu-kun (in a serious voice LOL) that he should practice the right hand poses and then on the actual concert do the gets pose, when Shuu-kun started joking around and doing the gets pose. Anna-san came over for a bit to watch us, and she smiled at me and caught my eye as we danced our part.
While she wasn’t watching us, and I assume the tourist group which Namio was teaching, Anna-san was teaching the ‘gal’ group, which I made sure to watch as much as I could while learning my own group’s dance. According to Yayoi-san and the other’s, the gal dance is pretty difficult, especially all the hip movements, since it’s the feminine, sexy group dance. Well, of course Anna-san made it look really easy, and it was fun to watch her, because I love to watch her do that feminine/sexy kind of dancing, because it’s pretty different than her usual cool dancing, and she looks so good! I especially got a kick out of the end of the gal dance, which involves one hand on a hip and the other waving, as song says, ‘And all the girls are like ‘Hi Will!’’ (Miami is by Will Smith, in case you were wondering) So then we practiced the groups dances and chorus a few times, and then the lesson ended. Anna-san kept saying ‘daijoubu desu ne?’ but I wasn’t daijoubu at all. LOL I’ve got a lot of work to do on this dance! It’s really hard! But I like it a lot, it’s a really fun song and whatnot.
Note: Here is the inside story on Anna-san’s okaasan sitting in on a lesson, from Anna-san’s post on the BBS. Apparently this morning she asked her okaasan, ‘Why don’t you try the Hyper class?’ and her mom said, ‘Maybe I will.’ LOL
Also, I would just like to say that I am not appreciating the Anna-san/Namio couple rumour/joke that is being talked about on the BBS, which Anna-san says Namio is spreading as a joke. I mean, I know it’s not true, but I still don’t like it.

 
My 2nd MAX concert!!!
This is kind of a hodge-podge report, since I was so excited and so much went on during the live that I can't write a straight report like last time. This is kind of a collection of the things that stuck out most.
Also, I’m not sure of the order after the solos, until the very end….

1.Festa
2.Another truth
3.Stay (MC)
4.Give me a shake
5.Lina solo - Crazy in Love (Beyonce)
6.Aki solo - Stuck (Staci Orrico)
7.Nana solo – Get into the Groove (Madonna)
8.Reina solo - ?
Perfect Love
Love Screw
Always Love
So Real
Ride on Time
(a second MC was somewhere in there)
Encore: Tora Tora Tora
Special Encore: Issho ni…

The clothes:
Li-chan was wearing grey denim hip-huggers, and a silver sequin/metal-like top over a flower patterned bra. The back of the silver shirt consisted of one strand of thread to tie it on. Her hair was all crimped, and the front was tied up on top of her head in a little pony tail, which kept falling over her face. LOL I think she had extensions on, because her hair was really long, it reached to mid-back. It was really wild, because of the volume the crimping gave it.
Reina was wearing a black sleeveless dress with a low waist and a pleated skirt. Underneath it she was wearing fluorescent pink lace spats over black fishnet tights. She also had one flourescent pink fingerless glove, long rhinestone earrings and a big rhinestone necklace. Her hair was down.
Aki had on a long sleeved olive green body suit, over a white shirt with some kind of gold writing on it. Her bangs have grown a bit, and they were gelled over her eyes in a rock star kind of style.
Nana-san had on a tiered blue patterned skirt, and a loose vest over a white shirt. The front pieces of her hair were tied up in two ponytails.
During the MC, they talked about Aki’s birthday, and we all wished her Happy Birthday. Then they talked about what they had done that fall. Li-chan said that this was her fall for reading, and everyone looked at her in disbelief, and she said ‘Just kidding!’!
Reina said that she had had a barbeque and everyone clapped. She laughed and said, ‘Wow, my barbeque deserves a round of applause?”
Nana-san said that she had started doing Yoga, because Li-chan had recommended it to her, so they went to yoga together. Li-chan explained how a friend of hers had said that when she went some kind of black snot or something had come out of her nose, and Li-chan had thought, ‘I have to try that!’. I’m not actually sure what the black snot or whatever it was is. Then Nana-san showed everyone a stretching exercise, and everyone in the audience did it. She said that it really worked, and that now that she did yoga, her calves didn’t swell anymore. She complained that Li-chan said that she just had fat legs, but it was really that they swelled, and now they didn’t so they were slimmer. Li-chan said she couldn’t tell the difference. LOL I forget what Aki talked about but it caused the audience to say she was cute, which Aki was happy about. Li-chan whispered something to Reina, and she and Reina cracked up. Everyone looked at them, and wondered what she said, so Reina finally explained that Li-chan had said ‘No she’s not!’ But they explained that Li-chan’s teasing Aki was her way of expressing her love. Nana, I think, asked Li-chan if she really loved Aki, and Li-chan said, ‘Nah, not really.’ But Nana (?) said that Li-chan was always hugging Aki, and Li-chan agreed, saying that she hugged her all the time, and someone did an impression of Li-chan hugging Aki from behind and saying ‘Ganbarou ne’, which Li-chan said she did a lot. LOL

The beginning of the Live was the same song order as the FC Live, up until the first MC. GMS was a special Gakusen live version, with two students (I assume) who came out and rapped during the instrumental parts, etc. It was very cool. Li-chan’s solo was a longer version of ‘Crazy in love’ which she sung a short of at the FC live. One of the rappers rapped with her in it. I am sure that a lot of the fans were jealous of the rapper (assuming he was a student) because Li-chan did some pretty sexy dancing with him, like a tame version of grinding near him. The song fit her really well, she had a very diva like aura going today, with her outfit and her hair, and her sexy cool expressions. Her voice has gotten so much better, she even put flourishes on the end of notes and that kind of thing, several times during her solo lines.
Aki sang her solo with a stand mic, and it had a bit of a rock feel to it because of her hair. It was a pretty good performance, although she was a lot better during the strong parts of the song than during the high notes, where she was a little weak. You could tell just a bit during her solo that she hasn’t been performing (singing) as long as the others.
Nana-san’s performance was very cool. It was basically Madonna’s ‘Get into the Groove’, but only the chorus, the rest of the song was a rap in Japanese. She did a great job. She is a really good rapper. I’ve noticed Nana’s in real life than a lot cuter than she comes across on tv. She’s just so adorable.
Reina’s performance was amazing. She performed some rock song obviously by some male rock band, because at one part there was a spoken line, which she said in a very husky voice, which was something along the lines of ‘Don’t you wanna be my girl?’, (I wanted to yell ‘Yes!’ LOL) which was also repeated in the lyrics. I’d never heard Reina perform rock before, although I know that’s what she has usually performed for her solo songs, the FC live this year being an exception. She is amazing. Her voice was so strong and rock-like, very unlike the more feminine, almost nasal quality it usually has. She can really project. She has a great presence, and also makes great face expressions, a lot of pursing her lips. She just always seems like she’s having so much fun. I can see why the other members say she’s the life of the party.
There were several parts where Li-chan and Reina, or Li-chan and Nana-san would face each other, and sing to each other, and their expressions were so cute to watch, because you could really see just how close they really are. At one part, Reina and Li-chan came over and were singing to my section of the audience (I think it was Tora3) and it made me happy to have my two favorite members right there, so I waved as hard as I could, and was eventually rewards with smiles and waves from both of them, although at different times.
At the end, MAX did Issho ni, as an extra, and we all sang along with them, and it was just so nice, all of us singing along together, it felt like MAX and us the fans were really close, and united.
Once again I was really impressed with MAX. Everything about them. They’re singing just keeps getting better and better, their dancing is amazing, the closeness of their friendship is amazing and really evident, and so is their enjoyment of what they do, and their love for their fans, which is expressed in how much they smile and wave at their fans. If you keep waving frantically for long enough, each member will smile and wave at you at least once. They just have so much talent, and they’re such nice people as well.

I also got to know a bunch of the Japanese MAX fans, some of whom have known each other for years, and always keep each other posted on events and meet at them, even though they may live in completely different parts of Japan. One girl I became friends with had Nana-san’s signature on her cell phone! She had seen her in the train station, and gotten Nana-san to sign it. She also had two photos on her cell phone she’d taken of Reina and Nana-san at other events. The fans I met said that if I met Li-chan she would probably talk to me, maybe even in English, because she likes Americans. LOL they said that at first when they saw me there, they had thought that I was a friend of hers.
LOL I wish! When we got back to the train station, one of them saw someone that meant that MAX was probably in the station, and there was a moment when they discussed going to see them, but since we didn’t know what part of the station they were at, we didn’t. I was pretty amazed by that, but I guess if fans know when and where MAX are going to be going home in a station after a live, it’s fairly common to go there and wait for them there, which I had never thought of…
EDIT: I just got an e-mail from one of my new MAX fan friends about the concert in Kyoto today, and she told me that one of them somehow ended up going home on the same train as MAX! God I wish that was me!!