The Apple of My Eye
When I moved to my new flat I promised myself that I would do three things, get a new job, keep my flat clean and tidy and join the Shiina Ringo fan club. Unfortunately, so far I have only managed to achieve one.
Guess which one that is.
The Shiina Ringo fan club is slightly oddly named Ringo Han and has been around for rather a while. Before I joined I heard that you could get cheap concert tickets, that she has done exclusive concerts for members and that you can get hold of unique merchandise. This sounded rather good but after I joined I was a little disappointed.
After I paid the membership fee I could access a rather cool looking Victorian style part of Shiina Ringo’s website but due to my poor Japanese it was a bit of chore to navigate. So I waited and waited to get something cool through the post from them. When something finally came I was left slightly dissatisfied.
It was simply a postcard, a nice postcard granted, but just a postcard nevertheless.
After I got over that bitter pill, I forgot all about it and it was quite a shock to get this in the summer:
It’s pretty hard to tell what the hell it is but it turned out to be an air freshener. What that has to do with Ringo I have no idea. I guess she likes seashells.
Overall I was kind of unhappy with my haul from joining the fan club, or at least I was, until I got this:
Just what is it? Well it is apple shaped so I could where they were coming from there and it had my name and membership number on it but as far as it’s use went I was none the wiser. It came with a little note which, after deciphering with the help of a friend, I found was pretty confused about what to do with it too. It suggested that I use it as a coaster, but only sparingly as it was unique and should be treasured. I’m not sure if that note was written but Ringo herself but it does sound like the girl who once released a limited edition of a CD and the only bonus was a hand written note which simply said sorry that it was the only thing special packed with the CD.
Overall I’m dead happy that I joined this fan club though, simply because I was able to get a pair of excellent tickets for her next Tokyo Jihen gig for just about half of the street price. Which makes it all worth it.
