#xeed

You can also find here the video of my own cards. The new version will look similar to this :)

First of all, there were 7 Stations in total - and I really have to thank Doha's fans so much for showering him with love and making all these stops possible. I really had such an amazing and fun day while visiting them all, running into fans here and there and appreciating what they made for Doha and their fellow fans. Every stop was decorated and prepared with so much love. Thank you all so, so much.

Here's a short overview of all the stops including links to the posts!

Subway ad 1

Subway ad 2

Photospot 1

Photospot 2 Birthday Fragrance Event

I think this one might deserver a bit of an explanation, because it was one of my favorite spots. It is a perfume store. You can go in, scan your favorite picture of Doha and the app will analyze the picture and suggest three scents to you. Then you proceed to the next room and smell the three scents and you can buy one of them (or multiple, I guess...). Another set was some kind of fragrant cushion, probably for your closet to keep the clothes smelling fresh? There also was a screen where we could leave messages for Doha.

Flowershop Event

Another station that deserves an explanation. This was a beautiful, small flower shop. By buying a set of flowers you also got a few freebies like prints of Doha. There was a space to sit down and the fan in charge of this stop also offered scratch cards where you could win different photocard prints, polaroids and other things! The hole decoration was also VERY amazing. All CDs releases of Doha lined up, pictures from small until now. A screen playing his videos. It was decorated with a lot of love. <3

Photospot 3

(user is currently private on Twitter, so I'll just share the picture)

Subway Ads 3

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Listed above was my route through the stops! The first two ads were thankfully at the same spot. We just had to wait for multiple other ads to finish - which was fun, because I knew some other idols screened, too! Don't mind the blurry photocard. It was harder than I thought to take these and because it was the first stop I was simply excited, I couldn't focus on both, the ad and taking a picture... Sorry!

Then it was time to walk to two of the photo spots! The first one was a very fancy photobooth and I had to figure out a way to make it accept my card payment, because of course it didn't accept my cash I had exchanged previously. But the pictures were the best from picture quality! Fun fact I didn't know: some of these newer picture machines will film you while taking pictures and you can download the film of how you looked while taking photos. I didn't know so I look goofy as heck but I love that concept! :D (Sorry, I'm an old school japanese purikura machine girlie... There aren't really many (any???) of these machines where I'm from...)

The second machine was easier and more what I was used to. There were 2 frames. I was a bit over finding new poses by the 4th picture, but taking pictures alone is only half as much fun. I'd suggest bringing a friend, if you can!

Both picture booth locations were lovingly decorated with Doha photos, pinned to the wall in form of a heart. Apparently, some people leave their leftover photos and stick them to the walls of these photo booth locations and since I mistakenly printed FOUR of the green frames at first, I pinned one to the wall. I hope I didn't break any unspoken rule of idol birthday etiquette, but I promise I still had enough pictures for myself and felt ok pinning it to that wall.

Then comes my favorite spot of the tour! The perfume store! In my life, I have owned and used only 3 perfumes. I usually don't wear them, so I was a bit worried I might dislike the stop, but I decided that whatever it was, I'd just get everything. So I walked in and the lady asked me which of the two options I wanted, and I said "Both!" in Korean. She was so kind and talked more in Korean with me, but I felt bad because I only understood like...40% of what she said. She still explained very well to scan my favorite photo (I scanned that photocard I used in all the picutres, by the way. It's definitely one of my favorite Doha pictures. And it was the one I had fastest at hand) and then the app loaded and loaded. Because the internet plan I had bought decided this was the time to be as slow as a snail (don't get Holafly...) but finally, three options popped up. The first one was something with sea salt (?), the second one with yuzu and the third one had something with rosemary. In any case, I only really liked the yuzu one, chose to buy that one and I am obsessed with it since then. I also want to say again that the ladies in the store were the embodiment of kindness and friendliness. I felt welcome and in all honesty, if I had known how much I'd like this perfume, I'd have tried a second picture and bought another one. I am so thankful to the people who worked on this stop. It was very unique and fun!

In the store there were two very tall screens on which you could send a heart with your message in it. Only downside: you can only write in one go. No letting go of a letter because that just sends the message onto the screen. Well, make way for my horrible cursive! I managed to write a little "Happy Doha Day" and was very proud of myself XD (Probably because the kind ladies in the store were applauding me haha)

Look, I'm not saying it's written beautifully, but mine is the top heart in this picture and it's one of the few proper messages. I'm so proud of that haha I've also added a picture of the beautiful decoration in the store.

Next I went into the flower store. It was probably the most intimidating place, because there were actually other fans there and I felt shy and was confused because the poster told us there is also a scratch-card? In any case, I bought the beautiful flowers and then I bought three scratch cards. Every card had a price in it, so I received 2 times a card that had Doha with glasses on the front - and at the same the same image but lenticular - so his eyes would 'disappear' behind the glasses. And I don't remember 100% but I think the third price was a picture-series in form of a negative? It had Love to Love moments of Doha on it. I loved all the presents. <3

Now I felt at an disadvantage here because actually I would've loved to buy like 10 more of these scratch cards. But I don't know the etiquette - how much is too much? I didn't want to buy them before others had a chance and I wasn't sure if buying too many would be seen as rude... Now thinking back, I imagine whatever money comes in through the scratch cards probably buys other fanclub activities for Doha so I feel stupid for not buying more. IN ANY CASE. They were very nice there. I met another international fan, but sadly she didn't tell me her name when we met later. I took a few pictures and left.

So up until here my friends were very brave. They stuck through every stop with me but were getting really hungry. That's why we decided to go eat. We went to our favorite Bibimbap store and that's when I saw that Doha was already touring the stops. I thought He'd come to one or maybe two stops but this crazy man loves his fans so much, he made the full tour... (But...keep in mind: he said on bubble that next year he probably won't be able to do a tour like this anymore. Because there have been some accusations that aren't true and it's just not good to keep it up, if it causes problems. It also takes quite a lot of time...)

Doha shared he's at the photo spot that I hadn't done yet - and with how the stops were laid out, I thought he'd probably go to the flower shop soon, which wasn't too far - but we were here eating! Since my friends seemed tired...I wolfed down my food and excused myself. Because even if it's just a glimpse, I did want to see Doha.

I went up to the flower shop - and fans were already standing outside. You have to imagine, the shop is on the upper level, so there's stairs going up. Some kind Japanese fans explained that if I had bought the flowers previously, I could go up and in, and so I did! I didn't see much, but many fans gathered and Doha talked and looked at everything. Did some jokes with everyone. I just stayed in the back at the door. It's so surreal to finally see him standing there in person, just like that, after three years. He kept saying he should leave and making his way towards the door so I was jumping in and out of the store like some lunatic... Sorry about that!

He left the store and went to the perfume shop, which was in the same street. Everybody followed him nicely, while he waved at everyone. Now the perfume shop was on a lower level, so you had to go downstairs to access it. Some were bold enough to follow him, but I just stood outside with most of the others and looked how he experienced the spot on his own. I really wonder if he got a perfume and what it smelled like haha

The most fun part was, that many tourists and also Korean people stopped and tried to see who was in there. When someone told them it was an idol they'd ask and also ask us for his instagram. It was all in all very funny! When Doha came up a car tried to come through the street and while we probably didn't do well in keeping off the streets, I think everyone did well keeping each other safe and clearing the street for any coming cars! My personal highlight was when Doha came up from the store and recognized that I was there. I know he looked, smiled and waved at everyone - but it just felt nice to have him say hello individually as well. <3

So he stood there in the street and said he'd go to the next stop. It was kind of like a good-bye so I also just stood there, looking after him until he was gone around the next corner. To be honest, at his point I was exhausted already. So I took all the energy I had and went to the last photo spot. It was empty, but the decoration was very cute as well! I just love the detail in every store. There were so many pictures and a big balloon with the date. I quickly took the Doha-frame-picutres (at this point, I had experience - but also, this machine was easy to handle! And if I remember correctly it was this one where the creator fan had actually uploaded a tutorial. That helped a lot! <3)

This was the end for me. I really wanted to do more but we were at the start of the third week of our trip and there was no day we didn't walk A LOT A LOT so even though it was only 14K steps at the end of the day, I couldn't lift my foot for another step after that.

So that was my full Doha birthday report.

Thanks to all the amazing fans for making creating these spots. I think I keep repeating myself, but they were filled with love and I had so much fun. I'm really glad Doha has so many amazing supporters and that we get to be a part of their love for Doha through these stations.

One last picture of some of the goodies (the lenticular cards are my decoration at work so I don't have them here for the picture. I also dried some of the flowers to bring them home as a memory - still need to figure out how to use them and keep them safe!)

I made cupcakes "for" Doha yesterday (they are entirely to sweet, the strawberries are still really sour and it doesn't even look cute 🥲 🥲) and I got to ask him something important: I have this distinct memory of "Doha loves Strawberries" from when I first started liking him and that's why I usually use the strawberry emoji when I translate his talk. And then someone asked why the strawberry and I couldn't explain, so today I asked. So apparently the fandom name 딸래미 (dallaemi, daughter) + 애기 (aegi, baby) (?? I THINK that's what he said... I'll watch the video back after my con weekend and correct this if not 🙈) mashed together is dalgi 딸기 (=strawberry in Korean) so that's why he loves strawberries and where I made that connection 🥰