I need to write this otherwise I never will, well more than my existential post talking about feelings and crap. Alex and Jenny have already written theirs and there are other reports floating... I don't even know what I'm going to write but I feel like I should recap the experience for my own memorial purposes. Now that there are paparazzi pictures out, I am feeling refreshed.

So, let's start at the start.

( Omg so tl;dr it's not even funny. )

On Sunday I lead everyone on a tour of Tokyo, we walked through Nihonbashi and Ginza, went for a little ride on the Yurikamome, stalked around NTV, visited a temple and enjoyed the Tokyo Tower-ed skyline. I'm sorry Jenny that we couldn't go up. :( Or make it to Keio. I didn't think it would be that busy and we made some detours to the agenda. You'll just have to come back another time. Maybe by then, the new Sky Tree will be finished.

I would have posted sooner but I was so tired yesterday and LJ is being a bitch this morning.

This was it. There was so much to love and I had such a good time. The production quality was amazing, the VTRs on the big screens, our seats, the stage, the energy, the company: it was all perfect. There were so many good things that I can't just choose one or two as favourites and of course, now my memory of it are starting to blur a bit from being overwhelmed and excited and just plain exhausted.

There were no low points, no things I wish they had done better, no heinous costume accidents, no gross vocal mishaps. And even though I know logically that they are a little older than I am, but I don't feel like they are sometimes when I see them making complete asses off themselves on TV but last night, I really saw them as adults, as people my own age. I really feel like they have grown up a lot this year and that was definitely a recurring theme last night.

And I admit, I did get misty towards the end of 5x10. I didn't think I would cry at all. But (and now this is going to sound really sappy) if I didn't have Arashi, my time in Japan would have been drastically different, I'm sure. I was feeling kind of emotional at the end of the last encore. The lyrics of My Girl really hit me, about spending a season together but now it's over.

They weren't by any means perfect either: flubbed lyrics, missed lyrics, improvised lyrics, trips on the stage, jolts on the carts, trains of thought going too fast to keep up with mouths. Solid evidence in front of my face that they are human too.

Wow, this came out really existential and I didn't really mean for it to, but there you go. I can't fangirl about this with keymashing and babbling about how so-and-so was so hot (though at the time, I did, and if in my wettest, wildest dreams, if the 5 of them ever wanted to have an orgy with me, OH HELL YES) because I respect them too much. It seems like a very Japanese thing to me to be so thankful for ten long years; I can't think of the same thing happening with any artist/group in the English music scene.

Ah, it was just. Just.

And I'm pretty sure that they saw my flag because it was kind of hard not to. If this the 5x10 tour gets put out on DVD, and I don't see why it wouldn't, I'll be watching for it in the audience.

Now, if only my body would right itself, that would be great.

Are singing someone else's songs. They're doing part of some hit medley by some other guy (I missed the name but that song sounded familiar) and looking super hot. :D

Jun has some kind of... dirty thing with his hair going on that is really hot. But they went over board on the gel with Sho's. Everyone looks good in their grey jackets but I still prefer the black blazers & jeans.

And they sound really good. I can't say the same thing for Smap, Girl Next Door or Big Bang. :X

Watching the Making of My Girl and Ohno's explaining where all the parts of Mom's face come from.


I'm watching and thinking, wtf is inkaku, so I go to my trusty Goo Dictionary and type in いんかく and this is what pops up:


I'm pretty sure that's not the part Jun contributed to Mom's photo. But hot damn, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

PS. He actually says rinkaku, the outline/profile of her face.

PPS. I love that Sho says something that gets beeped out. Japanese doesn't even have swear words as far as I'm concerned. But you can't say "big dump" on TV (脱糞, dappun). Go figure.

PPPS. AIBA HAS A GAY SILVER PURSE.

I know the boys in Arashi are not musicians, with the exception of Nino and Sho perhaps. As far as I know, none of them have pursued an instrument seriously. Nino can play the guitar but I wouldn't say he's serious about it. I'm fairly confident he taught himself, which there's nothing with that, my brother did and actually so did most of the guitarists I know. Doesn't lessen their skills any but when I think of Nino, that's not what comes to mind. Just, "Oh, he can play guitar." And Sho took piano lessons as a kid but probably stopped at grade 5 or 6 (in the conservatory) maybe? I don't even know, I'm just speculating.

I find it harder to be impressed by people on the guitar than on the piano or the violin. Like my friend Ariel on the violin: she used to play in an orchestra and has been studying violin since she was a kid. I wish I had some video of her playing; it's amazing.

Anyway, my point is that they aren't musicians, they're not singers, they're idols. But tonight, it was the first time I saw them as proper singers. It was the first time I ever heard them harmonize and after ten years, they should be able to do that easily, if not after one. And it was good!

Anyway, as bland and unremarkable as My Girl is, it's growing on me.

I switched to Google Chrome; so far so good but I'm going to have to get my paid account back to get rid of these fugly ads, especially if I'm going to have US politicians stare at me as I write my blog entries.

And now they're doing some kind of Q&A special tonight with Arashi and EXILE. I wonder if I'll learn anything interesting.

And Jun's hair is :/. But what's new? Srsly, just slick it back and rock the Showa style. It would be so much better.

Here's the cross-talk from the FC bulletin this month. I'm going to do last month's one next.

Family Club Bulletin #45: Late Summer Issue

The ARS Times: volume.02
Today’s Arashi Free Talk about…

( Read more... )

PS: Yuckie-chan has scanned this so if you want to see what it looks like, look for it on her community (if you're a member).

The more I see it, the more I don't mind it.  I figured out what it is: it makes his face/head look bigger when it's short.  It's styled nicely for MSute tonight.  But Nino's is like a throw back to the monstrosity that was the Step & Go era.  And his jacket looks like a bad leisure suit . :/ 

The first time I remember to watch Music Station in a while and I am rewarded. :D  Oooh choreography!

I got the official announcement email from Johnny's web today. I haven't even looked at the comms but this is more for my information than anyone else's. Apologies to anyone for reading this for the sixty-second time.

( Cut to save your flist! )

Well, the fact of the matter is I can't afford to go to the stadium show. If tickets were only 5,000 yen, like they were last time, maybe. But 7,000 is a lot and I'm going to Singapore. I would love to go to Tokyo Dome. It's close to home and I sure that it would just be fantastic show. Lydia will also probably be here! I wouldn't mind go to Nagoya. I've been there once, I know my way arond and what's the best way to get there and back. Tokyo is the most balloted venue, I think so I think there's a better shot at winning Nagoya, but it's the last venue. And the last shows are always the best.

I've got til the end of July to figure this out. I think I have more friends who want to go than tickets available. And I wouldn't want people to make plans to come all the way here from overseas especially for the concert and then have no tickets.

Now that it's official, I really want to go!

I think I've figured out why I don't get Arashi news first (like you think I would, living in Japan)--I don't stalk 2ch or read any of the newspapers. But that's what LJ is for.

I love best-of albums. This one, I will pay money for. I wonder what kind of extra goodies they will include. The last few releases have come with a DVD. Maybe some kind of mini-documentary? And a concert~ I'm not surprised? Well, after the rumors before, it was bound to happen. Rumors don't just start from nowhere. And it's pretty much the same as was reported before. I'd love to stay in Tokyo for a show, rather than have to travel somewhere. But I can't afford a concert in August with Singapore in the mix. Maybe Tokyo Dome? Yvonne won't be in Nagoya anymore for me to crash but if I had a friend or two (or three) to travel with, that would be fun too. We could find somewhere to crash or just take a bus back to Tokyo afterwards. Since I've been to a show in Nagoya already, I know we could make it on time for the bus back. And it's the last show and if all my years in theatre are anything to go by, the last show is always the best. :) We'll see what happens with ballots.

Is it too early to ask who wants to go with me? LOL Never to soon to start planning, I guess. If the first show is in August, then balloting should be starting soon. It's only 2 months away. I'll probably get the FC announcement in the mail in the next few days. Come on, Johnny. I'm overdue to win something!

Long day of grade 6 today. At least they are an energetic bunch for the most part. Some maybe too energetic... At least the day will go fast. And then I have to go pay all my bills. Good-bye, 80,000 yen.

Because I was curious.

The Johnny's Family Club for Arashi has approximately 440,000 members. Or at least that's how many memberships have been issued--it's anyone's guess if the person with membership number 00000001 (Johnny-san?) is still active. Like every other institution in Japan, your membership number is your position in the chronology of things, you joined after X people. That's probably why they had to add the two 0's on to the front of the numbers--just in case they got into the millions.

I went to the Globe theatre website and counted the seats on the seating chart. There are 700 seats. So that's 700 people to make a full house. There are 34 performances of Nino's butai. Which means that an audience of 23,800 people will get to see it.

Let's assume that every single number issued for the fanclub belongs to an active member. And let's say the members have even numbers of fans, so that's about 88,000 people per member of Arashi. If all the people designated "Nino fans" in the FC applied for tickets, given that every seat in the house would go to the fanclub, only 27% could win. Out of the entire fanclub, only about 5%.

But the entire house won't be fanclub -- there will be some seats reserved for VIP and special guests. The lottery was also only for the S section, which I assume to be the first floor. This cuts down the number of available seats to 450 (x 34 performances = 15,300 seats), and the chances of scoring a ticket are even slimmer. Out of the entire fanclub, 3.4% of people could have won. The other two sections, the 2nd and 3rd tier, only old 150 and 100 seats respectively so the tickets for those will be snapped up like nothing else when the Playguide goes live.

What odds we face as members of the fanclub... it almost seems easier (or at least more likely) to score tickets in an auction or from a scalper. To those of you gunning for Playguide and what have you, I wish you the best of luck.