For the first time ever, Hello! Project fans from all over will be gathering in The City of Angels to see Morning Musume’s first performance outside of Asia. So, why not hold a party?

Hello! Party Presented by Hello! Ranking

the sheraton downtown la

A party? A Morning Musume Party?

Yes. A Morning Musume party! We all love Morning Musume. For the first time, they'll be performing in the continental United States. But that's not all. People from all over the world will be gathering around Los Angeles to form the largest gathering of Hello! Project fans outside of Asia. It's time to celebrate.

Join us and your fellow fans for a night of games, dancing and karaoke!

If you've ever seen an episode of Hello! Morning, then you'll have a sense of the types of games we'll be playing — the infamous dangling game, the telephone drawing game, and two karaoke elimination games.

And the party doesn't have to end at 10pm! After the games, stay and finish the night off with dancing and karaoke to Hello! Project music. Have an itch to perform The Peace! or Resonant Blue with a few friends? By all means! This is a night to celebrate being a fan of Morning Musume with other fans of Morning Musume. Hold nothing back! :)

Map of the area

So where's this thing going to be?

We've secured a ballroom at the Sheraton, only a short 5 block walk from the Los Angeles Convention Center. If you're in need of an address, here it is:

Sheraton Los Angeles Downtown Hotel
711 South Hope Street
Los Angeles, CA 90017

Spread the word!

We don't want any Hello! Project fan attending Anime Expo to miss out, so spread the link around! Or if you prefer to do things more dramatically, we have prepared a promotional trailer you can use. ^~

In the end, we received 305 RSVPs! Yay!

Thank you!

We are proud to report that Hello! Party 2009 was a complete and utter success! According to our non-scientific headcount calculated through missing nametag stickers, we had over 350 people attend the event! There were a total of 364 nametags claimed, but we rounded down because of the possibility of duplicates.

Except for a few hitches, which can be expected at any event, everything went smoothly and by all reports people were enjoying the party as much as we were! If you have any photos or videos to share, please send the links to and we'll aggregate them on our YouTube playlist and Flickr group.

We'd like to take a moment to thank the people who went out of their way to help us out.

  • Dinny (rev2hd) of JPHiP — Thank you for generously allowing us to use your wonderful HD camera. Thanks to you we will have an amazing record of the event for people to discover or remember. Sorry you had to leave early, but we hope you had a great time anyway.
  • JapanFiles — Thank you for donating the prizes which allowed us to have something for the audience to look forward to! We were glad to see that you were genuinely interested in the event and we hope that you were able to enjoy yourselves. Dave, we hope your boss likes the footage you caught. :)
  • Martin (mp122984) — Your desire to live cast our event allowed people from all over the world to enjoy our party. When we heard that 250 people were watching it at once, we were flabergasted. We can only hope that they were able to enjoy it as much as the people who were there in person.
  • Joh, May, Amy, Rocky, Aaron, Jeff & Rodrigo — Thanks for letting us boss you around. XD When we had too much to do and not enough arms to do it, you guys stepped in to fill the gaps. Joh, May & Jeff, thanks for manning the registration table, which was open a lot longer than we thought it would be needed. We hope you enjoyed yourselves even though you spent most of the time on the other side of that wall. Rocky, Amy and Aaron, thanks for running around to meet our sudden demands. Without you guys, we would have looked pretty foolish interrupting the event running on and off stage to get what we needed. Rodrigo, thanks for helping us with the dangling game and with the setup.
  • Zac (CatchFiveBats) — Thanks for manning the sound mixer. With all the things we had to think about A/V wise, having another set of hands to make sure the microphones were kept in check was a gigantic help.
  • Michael, Shahboz and Fred — Our plans changed so much and so suddenly that we're pretty sure any other venue would have rejected us outright. You guys worked with us and were flexible when our budget was tight. Hopefully we didn't trash the place too much and we will be sure to work with the Sheraton again for our next AX event.
  • Jon — When we thought we wouldn't be able to film our party anymore, you agreed to go out of your way to be our cameraman. Not only that, but you helped with our prepratations leading up to the event and you even got our sound system ready for when people started coming in. You're a great help and we can't wait to see how you captured our event.
  • The Verduzco Family — Where can we start? We were in way over our heads and you guys helped pull us through everything. From transportation, to getting us a projector, to helping us find a printer for the flyers, to folding the pamphlets, to spotting us money, to helping us brainstorm ideas for props, to make sure we had food while we were working – there were so many things that would have failed if you weren't there. We can't thank you enough.

Thank you to everybody that donated! We were floored when we saw how much help we got from everybody both before and during the event.

Thank you to everyone that helped promote and spread the word: The JPM forums, International Wota, JapanFiles, JPHiP, Hello! Online, Sekai no Melody, Hello! Blog and Aewen. It's thanks to your combined efforts that we had such wonderful attendance.

Finally, thank you to everybody that was there, watching us online or thinking of us. It's thanks to your love of Hello! Project that an event like this could be successful at all. Hopefully this is a good indication that we may be able to do more in the near future! Please check back here soon as we'll be gaguing interest for the next Hello! Party. In the meantime, sign up for Hello! Ranking! :)

Frequently asked questions.

Since Hello! Party has now passed, we've hidden the Frequently Asked Questions, but if you'd still like to take a look at them, you're free to do so!

I heard Morning Musume's concert is on the 3rd. Will the party collide with that?
No!! The last thing on earth we'd want to do is miss out on Morning Musume's concert, or any of their events. Trust us, we wouldn't even show up to our own party if Morning Musume was doing something else at the same time. xD
Morning Musume's concert is listed as being from 2-3:30 on the 3rd. Hello! Party begins at 7.. you can consider this an after-party of sorts. And we will definitely adjust the day/time if the concert's schedule changes.
How do I get to the hotel from the Convention Center? (new!)
From the Convention Center, walk towards the skyscrapers to the corner of Flower Street and 12th Street. Cross to the other side of Flower and turn LEFT. From there, just go straight until you get to 8th. There will be a Macy's Plaza on the corner. Turn RIGHT at the Macy's and go in through the main entrance. Inside the Macy's plaza you will see the entrance to the Sheraton on the LEFT.
Links: Google Maps (Street View), Photo with labeled entrances
What ballroom is the party in? How do I get to the ballroom? (new!)
Hello! Party will take place in the California Ballroom (parts A, B & C of this floorplan). The ballroom is actually underground, so follow one of these directions to find the room:
- If you enter the Sheraton from Macy's Plaza, just follow the striped carpet (that you see as you enter) to the end. Turn left at the desk, where you will see escalators going down. Go down TWO floors and follow the Hello! Party signage to the California Ballroom.
- If you enter through the Sheraton's direct entrance (on Hope Street), go down the escalator to the lobby. Walk around the escalators to the other side of them and take another set of escalators down TWO floors. Then just follow the Hello! Party signage to the California Ballroom.
We are working on having signage at the hotel to direct people where to go to get to the ballroom, but they may be a bit small (and thus, hard to see). Just look for graphics that look like this website! If you get lost, just ask a Sheraton employees how to get to the California Ballroom.
When you get there, be sure to check in and choose your favorite member at the entrace!
Who is invited to this event?
Everyone! This party is not affiliated with any fansites or forums, so as long as you're a Hello! Project and/or Morning Musume fan, you're invited.
You're welcome to bring non-fan friends also, but be considerate enough to make sure they are open to attending a 3-hour event (or longer, if you're going to stay for the karaoke & dancing) revolving around something they may not know much about. Also, they will still be asked to pick a favorite member at the door, so you might want to fill them in enough to pick one. :]
Is there a cover charge or admission fee? (updated!)
The party is completely free!! :D However, if you'd like to help us out (the costs of running an event like this are pretty high), we will be accepting donations at the door and all throughout the evening. Any amount, large or small, will be greatly appreciated. But of course, it is by no means required (we understand some people can't afford it), and we hope that whether you can donate or not you have as much fun as humanly possible. ^^
Will the trivia and karaoke games include questions and music from just Morning Musume, or all of Hello! Project?
The games portion of the party will revolve solely around Morning Musume and its members (past and present) because we are celebrating their American debut, after all. After 10pm when the open karaoke and dancing begins, however, all H!P is fair game!
Is this party officially affiliated with JapanFiles, Hello! Project or Up-Front?
Not at all. Hello! Party is an event for the fans, by the fans. JapanFiles has been generous to donate some prizes, but that is the extent of it. Please don't expect Morning Musume to show up or anything like that.. that would be all of our dreams come true, but the chances of that would be something like winning the lottery.
Is there a way I can donate to help pay for the party, or help in any other way?
Since awesome parties are most definitely not cheap, we are accepting donations through Paypal. The link can be found on the sidebar of this page. Donations will help ensure a great experience for all fans by furthering our aim of not needing to charge an entrance fee, so we thank those who are generous enough to donate anything! ♥
Also, if you know of any companies or individuals that may be interested in sponsoring the expenses, please contact us ASAP with this information! If a sponsorship works out, it is that much more certain that the event will be the best fan experience of all time. ;D
If you'd like to help in another way, the most amazing thing you can do for us is to spread the link! The more the merrier, but how can we have a merrier party if not enough people hear about it? So please post the link on your blog, send it to your friends, Twitter it, share it on your communities, etc!
Will there be food and drinks served at the party? (updated!)
Unfortunately, catering is an expensive addition to any event. In order to afford food for everyone we would have to charge around $10/person, but we're sure you'd much rather find your own, more affordable, food. Since this is a 3-hour event, be sure to eat before coming!
To make things easier, there is a food court in the Macy's Plaza (to which the Sheraton is connected), so you can grab a quick bite there ahead of time if you're worried about cutting it close.
Water will be provided all throughout the event!
I can bring food and/or drinks to your party!!
Thank you for wanting to help, but unfortunately the hotel does not allow outside food or drinks to be served. We have to go through their caterers.
Will there be alcoholic beverages served at the party?
No, there will not. There is likely going to be a number of minors attending the party, so we don't want to complicate matters with booze.
If you're worried about karaoke in front of a bunch of people without the aid of some alcoholic courage, you should have time to step out of the party after the games (they end at 10pm) and come back when you're inhibitions are lowered enough to belt your lungs out in a bad Japanese accent! We're planning on keeping karaoke open until 2am (and maybe later if the crowd is willing to stay, and the hotel doesn't kick us out). ;3
There are two bars that are located in the hotel where our venue is:
Lobby Lounge
Open 11am - 12am, Relaxed
Martini's Sports Bar and Arcade
Open 5pm - 11pm, Casual

Hello! Party is brought to you by Hello! Ranking, which is brought to you by Revyver, with love. :)