Arashi 20th Anniversary Tour 5×20 (December 7th)

To be honest, I couldn’t believe that I actually hit the ballot for their 20th anniversary tour. This was THE tour for me, and not just because it’s their 20th anniversary. It marked my 10th anniversary as a fan, and their 5×10 concert was the first I’ve ever seen on DVD. When my late sister and I went for Arafes, we were awed by the sensation of being there, watching everyone walking by with the concert bags, hearing the sound of cicadas, because we had watched that DVD so many times. We had envisioned ourselves walking down that same path every time, and it was almost eerie how it felt when we were actually THERE.

Ideally, she would be the person I’d take with me for 5×20. Even my friend (whose address I used for my FC) had said that because hitting the ballot for the second time was such an impossible thing to do (we thought), that it felt like this was a gift from her, because I missed Japonism when she passed away. I normally don’t believe in sentimental stuff like that, but it really did feel that way.

Blast in Miyagi (19th September)

This is a report (of sorts) for the Blast in Miyagi concert I went to. Salwa and I went to see Blast on September 19th, which was Arashi’s 16th anniversary of their debut as a group. Today is November 3rd, the 16th anniversary of their first single. Happy Anniversary, Arashi!

We were lucky to get arena seats, I suppose, and less lucky with accommodation, which filled up almost as soon as concert announcements went up. I knew from experience that even though the concert was supposed to end at 7:30pm, I would be really lucky to make the last train back to Tokyo from Miyagi, because (1) of course the roads would be congested, and (2) 50,000 people trying to get back at the same time? Even getting out of the stadium wasn’t going to be easy. So even though it would seem cheaper to purchase a ticket directly, I opted for a JR Pass, which would at least allow me more freedom in taking trains and re-reserving new tickets if I missed my train. Turned out to be one of the best decisions I made for this trip, as hard as it was to make (I was on a really tight budget, so it was extremely tempting to not take the JR Pass.) 

A trip to Keikarou

On September 22nd, Salwa and I went to Keikarou. After my first trip (during which I didn’t make it for lunch but managed to get in for dinner), I had always tried to arrive about half an hour before the restaurant opened. I only managed to go twice since then (in January and November 2012), and had been in the first batch of customers to be let in both times. Because of that, we thought it was safe to arrive around the same time again, especially since a lot of fans were flocking to Miyagi, and sometime in 2013 Keikarou had stopped displaying gifts from fans. Unfortunately, we underestimated the power of Silver Week. By the time we arrived, the queue was already very long, and we ended up in the line for over an hour under the very hot sun.

Aiba’s mother came out several times while we were in the queue, handing out menus and talking to customers, and saying stuff like, “are you okay?” and “sorry about the wait.” One of the staff came to us and tried talking in English; she seemed to be struggling a bit, so Salwa told her that Japanese was fine. She gave us the Japanese menu and talked to us in Japanese after that, but when we were seated, she talked to us in English again. We figured that she probably wanted to practise, so we started talking to her in English as well.

Kyocera Dome Osaka, October 27th

I’ve been thinking of Kyocera as “Osaka Dome” for so long that sometimes it’s jarring to remind myself that it’s Kyocera Dome.

Anyway, Fatin and I arrived pretty early, but not THAT early, so I was expecting a long-ish queue for goods by the time we got there. It turned out that on that particular day, the queue was comparatively short. We were among the second batch allowed to go into the goods area, and by noon, there was no queue at all! I wonder why? I overheard some fans behind us saying that it’s weird, so it isn’t just that Kyocera Dome lines were shorter in general…

Kyocera Dome Osaka

Kyocera Dome is a baseball stadium, home to the Orix Buffaloes. It opened in 1997 and seats around 40,000 for concerts.

The easiest way to get to Kyocera Dome is from Dome-mae Chiyozaki Station or Dome-mae Station, the latter being my most recommended way to get there. It’s a little further, but still walkable from, Taisho Station and Kujo Station.

You can see their seating chart here.

Arashi & Eito in Nagoya and Tokyo

First of all – happy birthday, Oh-chan!

I really was planning to write a Juntoshi for the occasion but only managed one paragraph :p I guess I’m lacking in motivation again. Or is it inspiration that I’m lacking right now? Maybe both. I keep thinking about one of the Sakumoto fics that I’ve left unfinished for a long time, and really hope I could actually finish one of these days.

It’s also Maru’s birthday, and since now he’s kinda my 2番 in Eito, happy birthday to Maru, too!

I was planning to update earlier but kept being busy or sick or both and now I don’t think I even remember enough to write reports. But I’ll try.

Day 4: Sapporo Dome

Honestly, a lot of things happened on the second day that I wanted to write about (when it was happening), but by the time we got back to the dorm we were staying at I was just too tired. And by now, a week later, the memory of the two days have kind of blurred together ^^;

We had thought that our seats for December 1st weren’t very good at first, but once we sat down, the first thing that we said was, “so close!” And it’s true, I’ve never been so close to the stage before. The “Superfresh” march/dance was on our side of the stage so we got to see that pretty clearly, and when they were on the balloons during “Tabi wa Tsudzuku yo” and “Lucky Man” they were probably the closest. Yet again, during “Lucky Man”, I was too busy looking at MatsuJun even though Sho-kun was in front of us *failed ichibaner*. Sho-kun was kind of mean, though. When he was near us he had three of the Popcorn balls that he hadn’t thrown yet. It wasn’t like I was thinking I’d catch one – he had his back turned to us, facing the arena instead, waving one of the balls like he was going to throw it to them. Every time, he turned to the stands at the last minute and threw it towards our side instead. None close to us, but I remember saying to Kelly, “Sho-kun’s mean, teasing them like that!” But, I guess to me that’s his charm point? Haha.

Day 3: Sapporo Dome

The first day of Sapporo Dome! Kelly and I arrived in Sapporo at around 9:30 in the morning, and by the time we reached our hostel we were ready to just crash into our beds and sleep til noon. Instead, we went back out and slogged through the snow to get to Sapporo Dome, to buy goods! Luckily, there wasn’t really a queue for goods today. One of the girls at our hostel told us that the earphone jacks (which are red for Sapporo, by the way. Yay!) sold out the day before. Thanks to the lack of queue, we got all our goods pretty quickly. This also meant that we had extra hours to kill, and all the nearby restaurants and cafes were completely full (with Arashi fans, of course). There was a display of Nino’s Pocky ads at a supermarket we passed. The entire area was crowded with fans buying Pocky, because they had a special where if you bought two boxes, you get a devil horns headband. I bought a couple, to give to my sister, who’s a Nino fan.

Day 1: Harajuku/Shibuya

On our first day we were going to wander around a few places, but ended up mostly just in the Harajuku and Shibuya area. We started out late, and headed straight to the Johnny’s Shop (I didn’t go on my last trip) for Popcorn shop photos. I also got a couple of Eito pics, but not as many as I would like to. Still ended up spending more than I thought >_<

We walked to Harajuku from Omotesando station, where we saw… Sho-kun! Lots and lots of him XD. Really it was Kelly who saw the posters and had to tell me three times before I focused and saw what she was pointing at ^^;

More Sho-kun and other pics under the cut 🙂

Day 2: Keikarou

Another pilgrimage to Keikarou. As amazing as always!

A few more pictures under the read more.