Enishi 2018 Event

Caution: Long article and only in English as it was in the wee hours of this morning that I managed to finish up this article! Not perfect as I was half asleep and having my own sweet dreams, in euphoria! Apologies for any typo or grammatical error. No photography was allowed during the event, so you will not get anything taken of the event except where allowed. 

Yesterday was the big day, when we got the much anticipated hugs from our favourite man, Park Sihoo-ssi.

In the aftermath of the “Hug Event”, our sisters who are here in Lake Biwa got their hugs and must now be in dreamland, having most sweet dreams, and will be very reluctant to wake up! Shhhh…don’t wake them, please! They are re-living their very own sweet dreams! Kekeke! 😂

In the middle of the night or should I say wee hours of this morning, I was still hitting hard on my keyboard, putting down in writing the sequence of activities of the “Hug Event” for the benefit of our sisters who could not be here. Bear with me. I might not remember everything, not just because it was very late and I was tired, but also because I was, and still am, in euphoria! Who wouldn’t especially when a most gorgeous man just gave you a big hug? Was it a gentle hug, big hug or what? Read more and maybe even over the next few days to find out!

Eurythmics’ song “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” kept me company as I wrote. The reiterative same words kept rolling in my mind, even though some parts of the lyrics are way too cynical and not reflective of what was the situation. But that catchy music just got its tight grip of me!

Youtube Videos – Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) by Eurythmics

The weather blessed this hug event with blue skies and everything nice…the opposite of the day before when it was heavy rain, thunder and lighting such that the JR trains stopped functioning for four hours, leaving a number of our sisters stranded! Yes, I strongly believe that Park Sihoo-ssi brings good weather with him, proven many times over! The “weather man” as what the emcee told us he is! Hahaha!😄

Besides it being the first ever “hug event” by Park Sihoo-ssi, there were many firsts. It was the first time ever that there were so many attendees, close to 600, more if they could have secured more rooms I  would believe or a venue more convenient. But I can just imagine how exhausted Park Sihoo-ssi would be at the end of the evening! So many sweet dreams he had to fulfil! Having three stages in the huge hotel ballroom, so beautifully and thoughtfully designed and decorated, was also a first. The main Jukebox stage in the centre, the Grand Piano stage and the Umbrella stage at both the extreme ends. And so many mini Park Sihoo-ssi everywhere! The real Park Sihoo-ssi performed on all three, to ensure that his audience, even those at the far reaches, got fair treatment and everyone had a chance to watch him up-close!

The emcee came onto the Jukebox stage to make an introduction of the event and how this “Hug Event” came about. All because Park Sihoo-ssi made a commitment to give Enishi readers a hug when his KBS drama “My Golden Life” achieved an audience rating of over 30%. We all know that it  was way exceeded at over 45%! Well done, Park Sihoo-ssi! Your fans certainly deserved having their sweet dreams fulfilled as they, along with the general audience made this all possible! A round of applause, please for our favorite actor, our sisters and all the audience who gave them relentless support during the drama’s broadcast in Korea! Many thanks! 감사합니다!

The event kicked off with a question and answer session showing a video of Park Sihoo-ssi going through a list of interesting questions about himself and his likes and dislikes. I shall not go through everything but here, I share with you the questions and you guess the answers! Sorry, all in Japanese lah…scan and use Google translate! And unfortunately, unless you were here, you won’t be able to figure anything out! Got the picture? Next time, attend Park Sihoo-ssi’s events personally! That’s the only way you can get the whole picture! But more importantly, you will be giving him real support!

1) B 2) B 3) C 4) C 5) B 6) A 7) B 8) C 9) A 10) C 11) B 12) C 13) C 14) B 15) A 16) B

Oh, one thing I can confirm when Park Sihoo-ssi was going through the Q&A in the video is he is a “little” tone death. His humming of a few songs in the questionnaire while simultaneously watching the music videos just didn’t make the cut. We couldn’t recognise any of the tunes he hummed! Sorry Oppa…can’t help laughing out so loud over this! You were so funny enjoying yourself as you hummed, going off tune and not even knowing it!

A video was shared of the “backstage” of Enishi Volume 2 photo shoot where we saw the “teenager” Park Sihoo-ssi with his baggy yellow clothes and looking so young. Catch this on Park Sihoo TV on Fresh! Other videos were also shown from Park Sihoo TV including the “Making Film” of his drama “My Golden Life”, Jami & Dami showing their dear old dad reading his script from the the back of Japanese captions placards he was holding and of course, yesterday’s “live” broadcast with Oppa Park when he shared what was expected of the event. Subscribe to Park Sihoo TV now and get all the scoop and more! Jami, Dami, did I do well with the sales pitch? Meow!

The Emcee gave a rundown of the event before Park Sihoo-ssi made his entrance. Hahaha! 😄My extreme corner seat was a strategic spot afterall. Our man came in the entrance next to our table! He was so upclose! Green jacket, dark blue jeans, white shirt, breast pocket square with a pale blue background, dark blue, light blue and red stripe design and wearing his black and white sneakers!

Our man came bearing gifts for each of his fans and he presented them personally. Imagine having to go round to each table and handing out these gifts to around 600 fans! Hard work that will make one sweat…and it did. By the time he was barely half way through, our man has to strip off his jacket, sending ooohs and aaahs among the ladies! His white shirt was already soaking wet! Hand held “manual” fans, battery operated ones and towels, more, more, more! All these barely made his task bearable…but he finally made it before getting up on stage, after taking a very short breather back stage to freshen up! The gift? It was our very own “coin” with the word “Enishi” on it, made to operate an Enishi jukebox!

Park Sihoo-ssi told his fans about key highlights in his life currently. Good news had continued to roll! The filming of his new KBS drama “Lovely Horribly 러블리 호러블리”. The fifth anniversary of his Park Sihoo Japan Official Fan Club (JOFC). And recently, his attendance at the Mt Fuji – Atami Film and VR Feastival. In the last few days, many his fans followed and supported his journey from Seoul to Tokyo to Atami and all the way to Lake Biwa. He thanked them profusely for their unerring support.

The emcee praised him as to how he was getting more and more good looking. She thought it was all due to his life being filled with genuine love and affection from his passionate fans.

It was Park Sihoo-ssi’s first time in Lake Biwa, though he had been to Atami three times now. First time was for a spa vacation, second time was just passing through though he had a meal in Atami and the recent trip was his third. Attending the Mt Fuji – Atami Film and VR Festival was his first involving an international crowd and he was very happy due to the support he received. He enjoyed the red carpet and his fans were there in full force to lend their support. Not only that, there were other people there as well and they got to know Park Sihoo-ssi due to the overwhelming support and adoration they saw he received from his fans. Atami is beautiful and he might go there again.

Park Sihoo-ssi fans had been most supportive of his KBS drama “My Golden Life”and they were delighted to hear more good news of another KBS drama “Lovely Horribly 러블리 호러블리”.

He thought the script was refreshing and he was full of anticipation and working very hard to deliver a good drama for his fans. The emcee described Philip, his new role, as a cautious person. He had his good sides but he was not perfect. The emcee thought Philip was very much like Park Sihoo-ssi, and she hastened to ask if he noticed that about himself. Park Sihoo-ssi responded that it was difficult for him to describe Philip as the emcee had done all of that. For him, he usually studied and portrayed the character according to the script. In this case, it was like playing his natural self as Philip was also an actor. 

The emcee talked about Park Sihoo-ssi’s expressions and that she observed that in general, as his dramas unfolded, often times, Park Sihoo-ssi became so in synch with his reel characters that he literally lived them.

Since the drama’s name was “Lovely Horribly”, the emcee asked him to show an expression of “horribly” and suddenly, after thinking for a while, we heard a loud scream from him! A horrified scream! Yes, there would be horrible scenes in the drama, so be prepared! Of lovely, Park Sihoo-ssi said that he and his female counterpart had not reached the “lovely” or should I say lovey, dovey stage as yet, so it would be difficult for him to demonstrate. Of the other actors, their strong experience made good chemistry and they were working well and happy together.

The next segment of the program was “Summer Memories” and Park Sihoo-ssi shared some of his thoughts.

A song was in the background before suddenly, Park Sihoo-ssi shouted “stop”! “Season in the sun” was a song he had a habit of singing during his events because it was a happy, catchy, upbeat number that was much welcomed and everybody was happy listening to it. He recently liked the music of a Japanese female singer, Siba Dejune (not sure if I got her name correct as I could not find her on the web but this was how it sounded), who composes and sings her own songs. He likes her melancholic melodies and her vocals are very good. His favorite OST is none other than “When the Wind Blows” from “My Golden Life”. He hardly had any time to watch any new dramas recently but he occasionally still watched parts of “My Golden Life”. 

He likes upbeat songs like the one he danced to in a couple of events including in Odaiba in 2016 and for the Tokyo leg of the “Dramatic Thanksgiving Festival” in 2017. I have never gotten the name of that upbeat tune but each time I hear it, instantly “Funky Town” came to my mind.

The audience starting to clap, egged Park Sihoo-ssi to do a dance number. He was shy about it at first, laughing nervously, but nevertheless, he acceded to our request. Among the many songs he recorded, which one did he like best? “Shower” from his SBS Drama “Cheongdamdong Alice”! Recommended song which he thought fitted the melancholic mood when he goes camping or when it rained, was one from Michael Bluble. Can’t remember the song title, sorry, though there were some talks about the jazzy number “I will follow you…”

Now, Park Sihoo-ssi was given a big “coin”. And he was told that to operate a jukebox and get it to play a piece of music, he had to insert in the coin. Park Sihoo-ssi then sang his number “When the Wind blows” and jokingly commented that no one put in any coin but the jukebox played a song anyway. He loves to joke just to make his fans smile!

Then came the “Title track” which was on psychology karma with Park Sihoo-ssi. Three ladies from the audience who had the same “karma” as Park Sihoo-ssi by having the same responses to the questions in a quiz submitted earlier would have a photo taken with him. And there were quite a number! So lots had to be drawn. 

A video of the photo shoot of the upcoming Enishi Volume 3 was shown. It highlighted some of the features in the edition including foodie Park Sihoo-ssi eating at a teppanyaki restaurant and of him behind the bar counter learning to mix drinks. The rate he was twirling the mixer reminded me he had practice twirling his pen in “Queen of Reversals”! And the poster for this event, the one where he laid across a piano? We saw that photo shoot too!

Park Sihoo-ssi then came back on stage, this time on the extreme Grand Piano stage. He sang the song “Emergency room” (I think that was the song title) while playing the piano. He was dressed in the brightest outfit of a red-orange suit (yes! top to toe!) with a dark blue buttoned up shirt and a pocket square with drawings that looked like different types of food!  

He made his way from the Grand Piano stage at the far end to the middle Jukebox stage and then “Title 2: Game” begun. Each table had to identify the song which Park Sihoo-ssi gave hints to in a few words from the lyrics. Our table was bad, we got ours all wrong. But a few other tables, either by hook or by crook, got theirs right, thinking they would get good prizes, but ended up only getting stickers! Kekeke! 😂

Then he made his way to the last stage, the umbrella stage which was strategically next to us. He sang Kimowo there. We had the chance to watch our fill of this man up-close! How good he looked and how well he expressed the emotions of that song!

He left the room afterwards and we were shepherded to the outside swimming pool to watch the very short, less than five minutes of fireworks! As we filed indoors, according to our table seating, we were greeted just as we entered the hotel by none other than Park Sihoo-ssi! And yes, you got it right! He gave each of us a hug then! Super quick and it was over. I would have thought it would take yonks to get through the lot of us. But no! He was so efficient! Everyone got hugged in around half an hour! Wow! 

Then it was back to the ballroom for the closing! Park Sihoo-ssi said his heartfelt thank you. And the nice emcee managed to wing us another hug from this man! He was challenged to think about his next drama target and what he would give us in return. What could be better than a hug? A kiss maybe? To which he burst out in laughter! Clear, boisterous, unguarded. Now, that was what I would call “with gusto”…heard that, ladies?  Kiss? No way! So we had to just settle on another hug!

The target? Considering that it will be a weekday drama and on Mondays and Tuesdays where ratings are rather low…it won’t be high like that of the weekend dramas. So after much negotiation, we came to an agreement!

15% audience rating in exchange for another hug!

Want that ladies?  Want sweet dreams for all of us? Let us make it a reality! 

Work, work, work. Let’s get every friend or relative and their dogs or cats in Korea to watch “Lovely Horribly 러블리 호러블리”! Spread the work and get commitments! From one to ten, from tens to hundreds, to thousands, to millions! Let go for another hug from Oppa Park! Deal?

Let’s go, go, go! Yeah! Sweet dreams will be here again!

Credits – Many thanks! Video by Eurythmics, Park Sihoo TV; Photos – ParkSihooSsi.com and ParkSihooHongKong.com, Wow Korea, Park Sihoo Instagram

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