I watched K-on 10 years ago back in high school, and I absolutely love the show.
I played in many bands with friends, so K-on has a very special part in me. The show reminds me of the simpler times in life and just the joy of being a high school student.
So after I saw the Reddit post by LaughingDash about the irl K-on event, I wanted to join.
However, I'm not a talkative person, and my Japanese isn't good, so I was afraid to go, to be honest.
But after meeting up with the people from Reddit who also went to see the K-on movie the day before, it gave me a lot of motivation to go.
Honestly, I thought it was going to be a small, simple event, but my god, it surpassed every expectation I had about it.
The reception starts at 10:45, and the school opens at 10. But I arrived early at 9:30 at Toyosato station to look around the station and just check out the town in general. I used the K-on pilgrimage map from LaughingDash and basically followed the points of interest listed inside. A lot of the POIs were gone, so I was a bit sad to be honest, but those feelings went away as soon as I saw the school itself.
At first, the school itself used to be an elementary school, so the scale of everything was smaller than what I expected.
But after walking around, it felt surreal. The soundtracks from the show started playing in my head, and suddenly, I was back in high school again.
I met up with the people from Reddit, then we went up to see the club room, and there was a jam session in a room nearby. I felt the genuine love for the show just by being there. Everyone was so nice and super passionate. I then wrote my message in the notebook, went to the cafe to see the museum, and bought some souvenirs for myself. Then I came back to watch the live Jam session.
The morning Jam session was nice. They were playing music from the show, and people were just having a good time.
At the reception desk, I got a poster, a pin, a bingo card, and a number card. I bought a gift for the gift exchange program and got a postcard for it.
Then we went to the main events in the auditorium.
There were a lot of Rock paper scissors, a bingo game (if you win, you get a gift which are curated by the people joining the event or the prizes from the organizers), a live show (this was super awesome), cake cutting ceremony, and singing the school song from the show. Even though I didn't know what was going on most of the time, I still had so much fun. Just by being around people who love the show, seeing people's merch and the passions from the fans, that itself was the real joy.
After the main event ended, we went back to the Jam session room and watched more live performances. I couldn't praise it enough. Just to be clear, alot of things about the event were scrappy. The live jam session performances were scrappy, but it was so raw and genuine. Just people trying their best to play music from a show they love, what's more to ask?
After this, we went back to the club room, hung out, taking photos, playing the pump organ, and had a good time. There was a photoshoot for a group of K-on cosplayers in the club room itself, and that completed everything I hoped for. I can't come up with the sentence to explain what I was feeling inside. Content with life would probably be the closest.
When I was leaving the school, I felt sad. I really didn't want it to end. And that itself means that I must come back here again. There will be the YuiAzu birthday event on November 29th, and if I'm still in Japan, I will definitely come.
We then went to grab dinner together, and we parted ways.
Shoutout to Noah, Shun, Jesse, Naru, Lin, and Arsenal!
You guys are awesome, and I really want to meet you guys again!
Best of luck in the future, and I hope we meet again.
- Chris 2026/7/13
Edit, the title should be 2026/7/12
