u/AfraidInspection2894

Yesterday I ran in the SMTown 10K today I woke up at 4:30am to go to the airport and fly to Tokyo so I could attend Xnghan&Xoul' Japanese Debut Showcase - Ignite. My body hurts in places and ways that never has before. All that to say I love Xnghan&Xoul so much and it was totally worth it.

Before my review I love him so much. He is such a good performer and always gives it his all. This is my 8th event of his and I can't wait to attend more! I need him to have more events in Korea so I can attend!

I was at Xnghan&Xoul's Japan Showcase today and it was so good! It lasted an hour and a half and he performed all of his songs with choreo! Songs that didn't have choreo before like WishList and Light the Fire had choreo that were really good. It went well with songs and Seunghan and all the members of Xoul are such good dancers. The song that really stood out to me was Dancing Anyway. The choreography blew me away. They used chairs as props and had some really cool moves including one where Seunghan was being tilted back in the chair and another where he walked across them. I am not good at describing what happened but it was really cool.

Other than his own songs Seunghan also performed a cover of a Japanese song. I did not know the song but a lot of the Japanese fans did and at one point were singing along with him. The song was more of a ballad so he got to show off his vocals. Speaking of his vocals, they were incredible. He was singing live and you could tell! Even with all the complex choreo he sounded really good and stable!

As far as language goes he spoke in Korean a lot but he was really trying to speak Japanese. You could tell that there were moments where he got flustered and he kept saying yokatta (I/it was good). It was really cute to watch. He also made the translator translate names of Pokémon. He was saying what Pokémon all the Xoul members were and the translator was translating the Pokémon names from Korean to Japanese (I know it's her job but I found it pretty funny to see). Also one of the Xoul members was teasing him about his love of Pokémon. In general the 4 Xoul members all had a good vibe and I liked them a lot. There was also a short segment where they all got to show off their dance and all 4 of them were incredible.

The performance was fantastic and I was able to get all the merch I wanted. Overall the only thing that annoyed me was that the venue required that you buy a ¥600 drink to enter and it had to be cash or suica card. It should have been part of the ticket price if they were going to require it.

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Yesterday I ran and finished the 1st ever SMTown Run Club event and I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand I finished the race and I finished with my best time (84 minutes) and I am super proud of myself that I finished and didn't get injured. Also I got a lot of free stuff from the run kit, the finishers kit, and then they had a bunch of sponsors who were doing giveaways. It was also cool to see all the different idols participating and even getting to high five Minho who after finishing once went and did the Run again so he ran by me 3 times. WayV and Minho's performances were also super cool and especially impressive since they all participated in the 10k earlier in the day.

That being said there were a lot of areas that could be improved on.

For starts the race course.

It was longer than 10km according to my tracker and several other people the course was actually ~11.3 km meaning that it was over a kilometer longer than it should have been.

The race was mostly flat but started and ended with a pretty large steep uphill and there were a couple other slopes. I would guess about 2km had some kind of slope.

Also the location was in the middle of nowhere. I understand wanting to minimize interference but traffic was really bad even taking the shuttle bus and there was not a lot around. Also since it was remote the bathroom lines were crazy long and there was no soap or water to wash hands.

Speaking of the shuttle bus I appreciate that they had free shuttle buses but they needed more and a better schedule. There was a schedule shared with the morning shuttle times but in actuality it was not followed and the schedule was whenever a bus showed up. In the afternoon the performance ended around 4:15 and the buses didn't arrive till 5:30 so they just had everyone sit on the ground for over an hour for the first batch to arrive. I am lucky enough I made it on the 1st batch but if I didn't it was over an hour till the next batch.

Lastly, the performance. It was advertised as H2H, WayV and Minho and as being from 2 to 4:30. However there were also 2 DJs who performed until ~3:15 then H2H came out (tbh their performance was not great. Like I get they are rookies but still I expected better especially since none of them did the run). They performed 4 songs and then WayV came on and performed 4 songs and lastly Minho performed 4 songs. The performance wrapped up around 4:15 and there was less than an hour of idols performing. Maybe my expectations were too high but from the instagram I was expecting longer performances.

Like I said it was a bit of a mixed bag and there were definite organizational and logistical issues that need to be addressed like the course length being wrong but in general I did have fun and am proud of myself for successfully finishing the run. Also the djs were good and WayV and Minho were fun to see. If they do it again next year I will probably run again although I may just get a taxi and bring a change of clothes and shoes

To start there are only two entrances for the whole arena area and a total of maybe 12 doors between the 2 entrances. However when leaving the concert only 3 doors at one of the entrances were open. So ~12,000 attendees were being crammed through these 3 small doors. As you can imagine it was incredibly crowded and there is a lot of touching and yelling. Then almost all of these people are herded down 2 escalators where you can then exit the building. Walking outside there were contradicting signs and the staff were all shouting but they were shouting different things. I ended up at the wrong shuttle bus because the signs were unclear and staff instructions were conflicting. I finally find the way I am supposed to go and there are thousands of people all trying to get on the narrow sidewalk to get the airport shuttle bus. People are shoving, it's hot, and staff are shouting but not really doing much which is understandable since there are not many of them and there are a lot of attendees. In the end it took me an hour to leave the arena after the show ended which means I don't get home till 11. Inspire is the only venue where I constantly have issues leaving and see people shoving and pushing. A major part of the problem is the difficult to get location and the lack of exits for the actual arena.

The concert I went to was so much fun and it sucks that my night ended on a bit of a bad note due to the exit situation. I am not sure what can really be improved other than adding more exits to the arena building, better signs, and more shuttle busses and staff.

Today SM is hosting an NCT Flea market as part of Seoul fashion week. There is old merch, stage outfits and a bunch of other stuff from the members. In general it is really cool and people have gotten some great stuff.

The issue is Taeil's belongings are being sold and they are being sold with out warning or label. Multiple people have accidentally picked up an old outfit of his since the stage outfits are not sorted or labeled. His belongs should not be sold at all much less with no label and it is really gross that SM is selling it especially since so many of NCT fans are young women.

It also says that there are no refunds and it is not clear if people can refunds for Taeil's belongings. Even if they can his stuff never should have been on sale also there was a very strict and small limit to what a person can buy so fans are missing out on getting other outfits/belongings.

Edit: Apparently they are also selling Lucas's belongings. Which not as bad as Taeil but still should not be sold or at least have some kind of label/warning about who it belonged to.

Today SM is hosting an NCT Flea market as part of Seoul fashion week. There is old merch, stage outfits and a bunch of other stuff from the members. In general it is really cool and people have gotten some great stuff.

The issue is Taeil's belongings are being sold and they are being sold with out warning or label. Multiple people have accidentally picked up an old outfit of his since the stage outfits are not sorted or labeled. His belongs should not be sold at all much less with no label and it is really gross that SM is selling it especially since so many of NCT fans are young women.

It also says that there are no refunds and it is not clear if people can refunds for Taeil's belongings. Even if they can his stuff never should have been on sale also there was a very strict and small limit to what a person can buy so fans are missing out on getting other outfits/belongings.

Edit: Apparently they are also selling Lucas's belongings. Which not as bad as Taeil but still should not be sold or at least have some kind of label/warning about who it belonged to.

I am subscribed to Xnghan&Xoul's Weverse and pay for a membership. I also have it set that I am notified for all posts, moments, and lives. I have double and tripled checked that everything was turned on. Despite this I only occasionally get notified. Like I never get the notification for new moments and only get notified about the half time for Lives and posts. This has been happening pretty much since the update. Does anyone know how to fix this or is having similar issue with Weverse not sending notifications?

I tried to register for an event in October but face the issue of not having a Japanese phone number or adress is there any way around this?

It was recently annouced that Xnghan&Xoul would be part of The Performance in Tokyo in October. It was also announced that presale/raffles for fanclubs started to today. I tried to enter the raffle on SM JPN website but couldn't do it since I don't live in Japan and don't have a Japanese phone number or address. I was wondering if there was any way around this or if I just can't enter the raffle.

In his recent Weverse live Seunghan (Xnghan&Xoul, ex-RIIZE member) read the question if you could go back 10 years would you still become an idol trainee? And he said yes and then added he no bad memories only tough times but they weren't bad memories. link to clip

His response and view on everything that happened to him is really healthy and inspiring. After everything with the funeral wreaths and death threats that he can still say that he has no bad memories takes a really postive and mature mindset that most people don't have. I know I wish I had a mindset like this but I don't. I fixate on a little things and criticisms that I shouldn't. It's so easy to ruminate on critisms (in his case death threats) and have them ruin things but he doesn't, instead saying he had tough times but no bad memories. There have been other times where he has referenced his time on hiatus and preparing for his solo debut and whenever he does he doesn't talk about it negatively just as different. As an idol especially one who went through something like Seunghan did to be able to not fixate on criticisms and negative experiences is truelly impressive and shows a lot of emotional maturity. In general Seunghan seems to have a really healthy mindset and support system and I hope that doesn't change.

Xnghan&Xoul are about to have their first anniversary. I was hoping see anniversary content and to check out and probably buy some 1st anniversary merch. His debut date is soon (July 31st) and there has been no mention of any anniversary plans or merch yet.

So I was wondering do all SM artists get anniversary merch? Also about how long before the anniversary date are merch details and anniversary plans announced?