Life is Hard だから Happy

行きました！

すごく楽しかった！

I suck at writing con reports because I can never remember everything that happened. I didn't write one for Kokuritsu because so many other people wrote better reports than I ever could...seeing as Kokuritsu was my first Arashi concert, I could barely contain my happiness let alone remember anything beyond, 「キャアアアアアアアアアア！！！」 and I am basically a very lazy person and writing con reports take a lot of time and energy.

This time though, I shall grit my teeth and do it. I need to remember this weekend. I will be dreaming about it from time to time, I'm sure.

 

14th and 15th November 札幌ﾄﾞｰﾑ set list: 

感謝ｶﾝｹﾞｷ雨嵐

Lucky Man

Opening greetings

風の向こうへ　　

We can make it!

Crazy Moon～ｷﾐ・ﾊ・ﾑﾃｷ～

PIKA☆NCHI Aiba's solo

HORIZON

DANGAN-LINER

ｱﾚﾙｷﾞｰ

ｺｺﾛﾁﾗﾘ

Carnival Night part 2

言葉より大切なもの Nino's solo

Introduction of band members and 5x10 orchestra

Everything　

瞳の中のGalaxy

ｱｵｿﾞﾗﾍﾟﾀﾞﾙ

台風ｼﾞｪﾈﾚｰｼｮﾝ

曇りのち、快晴　Ohno's solo

a Day in Our Life  

ﾊﾀﾞｼの未来　

Oh Yeah !　

Step and Go　

Beautiful Days

MC

とまどいながら　Sho's solo

WISH　Matsujun's solo

僕が僕のすべて　

Attack it!

truth

明日の記憶

ARASHI Anniversary 1999-2009 (medley)

A・RA・SHI

SUNRISE日本

君のために僕がいる

時代

ﾅｲｽな心意気

PIKA☆NCHI

とまどいながら

言葉より大切なもの

Hero

ｻｸﾗ咲ｹ

WISH

きっと大丈夫

Love so Sweet

Happiness 

Believe

Arashi's ending words

5×10 

Encore #1 

PIKA☆NCHI DOUBLE

明日に向かって

できるだけ

One Love

Encore #2

ﾌｧｲﾄｿﾝｸﾞ

五里霧中

ﾏｲｶﾞｰﾙ　

51 songs in total　(お疲れ様でした！）

 

Day 1 - 14th November 2009, Saturday

The sale of concert goods started at 9am and I meant to be at Sapporo Dome before 9 but I end up only getting there around 10.40am. It was INSANE. I only had to wait about 2 hours and it didn't seem that long because the line was always moving. However, in many ways, it was MUCH worse than Kokuritsu for me.

Waiting to buy goods at the Kokuritsu concert was torture because it was so hot my feet were burning where they were exposed to the sun, I was uncomfortably sticky with sweat and sunblock, desperately thirsty and the line wasn't moving at all. In total, I think I (and concert bud) waited about 4 hours to get the concert goods.

Waiting to buy goods in Sapporo was worse because it rained heavily throughout the 2 hours I was standing there, my boots, though I waterproofed them, couldn't stand up against the onslaught of the heavy rain, deep puddles and small flood in the place we were waiting. They were completely soaked, to the point of squishing when I walked and after 1 hour of standing, I couldn't feel my feet anymore. I also had to pee very badly. I went to the loo before I started queueing but when it's that cold, you don't sweat so there is no outlet for all the water in your body. In addition, the constant rain just made me need to pee more. The rain started in earnest only around 11 and then it just got colder and colder. And did I mention that it was REALLY COLD?

About half an hour in, I started wondering if getting the Sapporo-limited charm was worth waiting in the cold and rain. I even mailed my friend and complained...but the line was moving and there were loads of people behind so I  thought the end was near. What I didn't realise was that even though the line was constantly moving, there was still a LONG way to go. It was only at the end, when I could actually see the entrance to the goods area that I stopped thinking 「意味わかない。」.

So I stuck it out and bought my charms and keitai strap and bath towels(!!!) - at Kokuritsu, the bath towels had sold out the day before I got there. And, because I queued so bloody long, I bought the Ohno uchiwa as well. I regret this a little because I'm not an uchiwa fan (haha pun unintended).

Got to the concert venue about an hour before the start of the concert. The train was so packed and you could see the surprise on people's faces as they beheld the insanity of Arashi's popularity at the moment. I was watching a couple on the opposite platform and I could clearly see the man say, 「嵐だ」 to his girlfriend. XD

My seat was waaaaaaaayy up on the third level. Seriously, I was only 4 rows from the last row. In the beginning, it was difficult to get excited when you're so far away but by the time 「a Day in Our Life」 came round, it was all good.

I must say that even though Kokuritsu is a far bigger venue, in Sapporo Dome, the space for the moving stage is really limited and you just can't see the boys as much as you could at Kokuritsu. In Dome, unless you're in arena or the first level...bad luck. As a side note, the atmosphere at Kokuritsu is electric. I could really feel the difference. If Arashi has another Kokuritsu concert next year, I'm going...no matter how much I have to pay. Plus, there was the freshness of all their performances. When they came out in their transparent outfits, it was incredibly fun, but by now, everyone was expecting it. In the beginning, it was like a beautiful surprise. (^^;)

Still, I enjoyed every minute of the concert. It started almost half an hour late, the sound was a little iffy in parts and Jun was very out of tune at some points but still, it was great. Also, they looked extremely tired at the end of the first day...so much so that I felt bad for demanding an encore.   

Favourite moments from the 14th:

When they sang 「瞳の中のGalaxy」, Ohmiya had a moment. It was very exciting. hahahahaha

「a Day in Our Life」 because it's so easy to get excited when we have to shout 「way」「上」「ねぇ」「someday」 at the top of your voice as Sho raps. One of my favourite concert songs. It's also here that I really started getting into the concert.

「A.RA.SHI」 because it's just so so so much fun to sing the song. I wish they could have done the full one instead of just a medley. At Kokuritsu, they seemed embarrassed but now, they look like they're having so much fun. They deliberately do all these yarashii movements in their transparent outfits. So cute.

MC! Because the MC is always fun. (MC for Saturday, 14th November.)

And of course, I love the encore songs.

Day 2 - 15th November 2009, Saturday

The concert started at 4pm today. It was on time and my seat was MUCH better. I was still in the stands but much closer to the stage. (Will post pictures when I get home.)

I'm getting tired so am going to truncate this. Will probably add more as I remember.

My favourite moment of both concerts was the MC for today.

Sho started by commenting that all of them noticed that in Sapporo, a sizeable number of men were in the audience. (This is true. There were many dads with their families - Arashi concert, a family outing! There were quite a lot of couples and even some guys who came with other guys.) Arashi were really tickled by this turn of events so they said they wanted to hear the men's voices. In particular, they wanted to hear 「嵐、大好き！」. So they apologised to us girls and hushed everybody. When the men shouted 「嵐、大好き！」, it was really amazing!! It was so loud!! I should have expected it because from where I was seated, there were guys all around. Of course, Arashi wanted to hear it again, this time just 「大好き！」.  Hahahaha. It was such fun. After that, they got just the girls to shout 「愛してる！」 which we all did, with much enthusiasm.

Then they talked about eating sushi on Saturday night after the concert. Apparently Jun's acting with an Oizumi-san who's from Sapporo and they went to a sushi place recommended by him/her(?). Sho said that he was sitting next to Ohno and that Ohno was like a 外国人 because when he ate the maguro, he apparently said, "Oh my god!". Nino took one look at Ohno's face and said, "You don't remember, do you?" Then Ohno said that maybe he said, "Oh maguro!" but...I don't know...it was so random. ;P

All the members said that they got back and fell asleep immediately but Aiba said that he watched the soccer match between Japan and some country I can't remember and he was preparing for his filming (he got the date wrong and the members had to correct him) and fell asleep holding his script. When he woke up in the morning, the script was on top of his face.  

I don't remember all of the talk but they asked Ohno what he wanted for his birthday and told him that anything was ok, even if it was expensive. He got all shy and he didn't want to say but in the end, he said he wanted a boat. HAHAHAHAHA. Jun immediately went 「ふさけんな」 and the rest started offering him the salt boat, kelp boat, straw boat, toy blocks boat and other boats but Ohno said it would be embarrassing, which set Sho off. Hahahaha. I think Sho said indignantly, "What do you mean by embarrassing!?? Aiba-kun and I have gone out on those boats so many times!" Oh my dear Sho...that statement speaks for itself. XD Then Ohno said he wanted a freezer for all his fish...(^^;;;;;)

Final 挨拶: Ohno ended his with 「また...またすぐ会いましょう。」 Me: *melts*

Final final 挨拶.

「子猫ちゃん達、また会おうね」

「また愛し合おうな」

「ｻｯﾎﾟﾛ、ﾀﾞｲｽｷ」 (大宮SK的ﾕｳｼﾞ風 ~ said with a strange accent)

｢I love (you) soooooooooooooo much」

「本日は…（本当に）ありがとうございました！」

I was hoping for more love from Ohno but...ah well. And that boy is too specific with his fanservice. I didn't get enough love from him. Next time, I must really make an uchiwa that says 「釣りに行こうぜ！」...but the uchiwa definitely isn't big enough. He was making cute heart gestures and pointing to specific fans all night. HEART GESTURES OK. I was dying from jealousy.  …((o ≧□≦)o

Aiba-chan is too cute in concerts. His enthusiasm is infectious. I'm liking him more and more. He puts his whole heart and soul into all that he does and he comes across to me as very earnest and sincere. Right now, he's #2. Go Aiba-chan!

Ohno's voice is really good. They were all singing live and today, it was Nino's turn to be terribly out of tune. Jun was more careful today and didn't shout so much so when singing his solo bit in 「One Love」, he stayed right on.

Lastly, (because it's almost 3am now and my train back to Akita leaves at 7.30am) I just have to say that Nino was wearing red pants for the encore and Ohno was wearing blue pants. OhmiyaSK much? I don't remember that on the first day. I liked it. ヾ(＠>▽<＠)ノぶぁっはははっはは♪

I feel sad that the concerts are over and at this point, I want to keep going to their concerts forever. When the concert ended on Saturday, I knew I had the Sunday concert to look forward to but now...

 

「じゃっ、行ってくる 。あっ、サヨナラじゃないよね、また会えるから。」

 

 

ありがとう、 またすぐ会いましょう。

...going to a concert by myself.

I wonder how it'll be? I thought I would be going to Kokuritsu by myself but it turned out I made a friend in the person sitting next to me and of course, I had my Kokuritsu concert buddy. (^_^)y

Sitting in my hotel room, watching My Girl and wondering if I should wake up early to join the goods line before it opens at 9...it all feels quite surreal. When did this become my life?

There's so much Arashi all around me...sometimes I just can't keep up. Yet at the same time I'm so happy to be here I barely know what to do with myself.

MatsuJun is lost in my apartment!

My Time con mini uchiwa of dear DoS is missing! How can something like this get lost in this small space?
It's going to drive me mad until I find it. (~ロ~ﾟ｡)

EDIT: 4.38pm Found him! Crafty scoundrel fell behind the shelves.

I think I may be falling in love with Aiba.

ヤバイよぉ！

Totally cried while watching him in My Girl. I can't wait for the next episode!

For a moment, I could totally see an episode of Utaban, maybe 10 years down, when Arashi re-unite with all the child actors/actresses they had dramas with. That would be amazing. The girl who acts Koharu-chan is so utterly cute.

マジヤバイ。

I think I've really hit the 「意味わかない」 stage.

I went to the bookstore to get my copy of Pia Ex and Wink Up (because Ohno is on the cover and c'mon...I have to buy it!) and left with a copy of Potato as well. ARGH. My resolution this year was not to buy so many magazines because really...after a while...I just don't know what to do with them all.

When I was packing up my room in preparation for my move to Japan, I had SO many magazines that I seriously wondered what was wrong with me. I sat in my room, surrounded by half my bank account's worth of Arashi-related merchandise and the only thing that came to mind was 「意味わかない！！！」 Some of the magazines were still wrapped in their original plastic because when I was working, I barely had enough time to sleep and finish my work let alone read any magazines. (>.<)

So my suggestion to fans who are just getting into Arashi now is this: Don't go out of you way to buy their old merchandise. Forget old magazines, concert goods and photobooks. You'll just go broke trying to complete your collection.

I wonder how much more money I would have if I weren't so obssessed with five adorable boys men?

暑い夏も終わり、秋になりますね。時期はサンマかな...　智

Oh Satoshi-kun...♥

Judging by the new photosets, I think JE has decided to run with Ohno and his fishing obsession. Fortunately for him, us fans are remarkably supportive. (^_^)y

While cleaning house today, I realised I should have worn my 3104 t-shirt to the concert. Ah...wasted opportunities.

This year, Arashi are having their DisneySea event on my birthday. Surprisingly, I don't feel sad that I won't be going. Can you imagine the crush? I'd much rather go nomikai-ing with my friends. イェーイ！

Time for Time for 天才！志村どうぶつ園！

Was watching Arashi videos (so, what's new) and it occurred to me that I should post this for posterity.

While I was in Tokyo for the new year and though I was sick and had lost my voice (couldn't even call out 'sumimasen' to the waitress at the izakaya), I still went for a 2-hour karaoke session with my friend. GO ME.

So at the karaoke place, the little machine thingamie lets you check the last 100 songs the previous customers had sung.

So we did. And they were ALL Arashi songs.

全部
本当に
嬉しいな ♥

Yappari...it made me really happy.

It was an idle morning spent reading yet another hate meme in the JE fandom. It’s a mystery why so many people waste their time reading and responding to the various comments. I can never understand why people can be so nasty with so little to motivate them. Nor can I understand those who try to turn a hate meme into one full of love and good cheer. Fruitless. On both points. Extremely fruitless for me because I should have been working.

I know why I read though. It’s a vicarious thrill - an insight into the lives and thoughts of anonymous online individuals. Even more so because most people don’t realise how much of themselves they reveal through careless words and impulsive postings.

The debate (and I use this term loosely) this time round, seems to be developing on the great Japan-Korea divide: Japanese boybands (i.e. Johnny’s) versus Korean boybands (namely DBSK, Super Junior, F.T. Island, Big Bang, SS501, etc). I read with interest only because, for a while, I went over to the dark side too. Seduced by hilarious variety shows, interesting dramas and the sheer volume of pretty boys, I spent several months immersing myself in the world of SM Entertainment – home to DBSK and Super Junior – and the general Korean entertainment scene.

It’s interesting. In Korea, there is the fan and then there is the anti-fan. Simply put, a fan loves, an anti-fan hates. Insanely popular groups like DBSK have hundreds upon thousands of fans and other celebrities are deathly afraid of offending said fans. An offended fan can cause a landslide of vitriolic comments to spread across the Internet like wildfire, creating scandals - something to be avoided like the plague. It isn’t uncommon to see celebrities apologising (whether in truth or for a laugh) to fans for saying anything remotely unkind or unflattering about a member of a particular group.

There isn’t any doubt though (at least in my mind) that many of the Korean groups are far superior to our favourite Johnny’s boys in terms of singing ability. They can really sing. The best our boys can hope for is to not go out of tune.

All said, after the frenzied YouTubing, the many (and I cannot even begin to list how many) shows I managed to get hold of, the impression I was left with was that the Korean entertainment world is so much more harsh and cruel than the Japanese one. The shows are noisier, more risqué and many times, not much is held back. And, after watching one too many celebrities apologise for a perceived insult, my interest waned. I still enjoy watching the odd Korean variety show and drama and I went mad and ordered albums from various Korean artistes (so by that definition I'm still suppporting them) but I'm firmly back in the rainbow-clad, roller-skating camp. Bring on the feathers! Bring on the neon! Bring on the out-of-tuners! I'm ready. I'm waiting. I have credit cards.

2008 is a new year and so far, I’ve discovered several things:

• My brief foray into kimchi land showed me how much I love Arashi after all.
  
• The chaos at work helped me realise that I can’t keep up with everything that’s happening in the fandom, and it’s ok.
  
• Clearing my room and looking at the insurmountable mountain of magazines shoved into corners / lining the walls illustrated, in vivid Technicolor, the fact that I can (and quite likely should) live without buying so many magazines.

Nino hugging and kissing boys girls boys(?) on Jousou Paradise is quite possibly one of the best moments of 2008 so far. (Jousou Paradise . . . I reiterate: I fail as a woman.)

And now Arashi are going to be the TV personality for 24HOUR TELEVISION 2008 with the theme: 「誓い～一番大切な約束～」 / A VOW – The most important promise.

相葉
今回また２４時間テレビをやらせて頂けることは、とても気が引き締まる思いです。
知らなかった現実や目標に向かって行くエネルギーの強さを肌で感じられる番組なので、五臓六腑で感じていきたいと思います！

松本
４年前に参加した２４時間テレビは、今までの人生で最も濃い１日だったと思います。
今年、またあの感動を味わえる事を楽しみにしています。
視聴者の皆さん、参加して下さる方々が感動できる濃い１日にできるように頑張ります。

櫻井
2004年から4年。再び24時間テレビに戻ってこられました事、光栄に思います。
2008年、前回に引き続きオリンピックイヤーであると同時に洞爺湖サミットなど、様々な『誓い』が交わされる年でもあります。日本中はもちろんの事、世界中の様々な方と共に、これからの未来へ続く『誓い』を交わしたいと思います。嵐にとって、また視聴者の方々にとって前回（2004年）以上のアツい夏になりますよう精一杯頑張ります。

二宮
また24時間テレビに参加させてもらえるのが嬉しいです。楽しく皆さんと24時間を過ごしたいと思います。嵐らしい24時間を、みなさんに届けられるよう頑張ります。

大野
4年ぶりの24時間テレビ、またあの感動を味わえるのは本当に夢のようです！
今の嵐と皆様で24時間素敵な空間をつくりたいと思います。
１人でも多くの方の幸せを手伝えるよう精一杯やりたいと思います。

From: 「24時間テレビ / 愛は地球を救う」

The theme suits them well, doesn't it? Completely in line with the themes of previous concerts, ONE and Time－コトバノチカラ－coming to mind.

I am excited! (Quite possibly because I might well be in Japan by then! Yay.) （⌒▽⌒）

I wandered off to kimchi land for a while, but I'm back and loving Arashi more than ever. Still, when I first watched the PV in its entirety, I must admit that I laughed so hard my stomach ached.

Don't get me wrong, I like the song quite a lot. The words mean much to me and Sakurap, as usual, is gorgeous. But the PV is really hilarious.

A summary of Step and Go:

1. Nino is a grandmother in a yellow shawl.
2. They dressed themselves in a mirror-free homeless shelter/thrift shop in the Land of Technicolour.
3. Sakurap is hot.
4. Leader looks unbelievably good in slow motion.

Oh Nino. Sometimes, protesting and giving your point of view is a good thing. (^^;) Fortunately, he is redeemed by a rather cool backflip. Nice.

Then you have Ohno. Oh Ohno. It's probably because he moves so slowly all the time that slow motion comes so easily. XD But still . . I am always amazed at the difference between PerformerOhno and ArtistFishermanOhno .

♥ ♥ ♥

Erm.
Maybe I like this PV after all.