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.

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 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 🙂

Japan Day 2: Arafes

The gates open at 3pm. My sister and I arrived at Kokuritsu at around 3:15, and the train station and entire path to the place was already packed with people going to the concert, people planning to just hang around and listen from outside, people holding up “please sell me tickets” boards, and people trying to keep everyone else in order. We noticed it when we came to line up for goods, too – just the sound of cicadas and seeing everyone walking with their Arafes shopping bags or wearing Arafes t-shirts made us feel like we stepped right into the 5×10 overture. I know some fans who aren’t so keen on Kokuritsu concerts because of the sheer size of the stadium, but for us it’s a special thing, and we’ve wanted to attend to a Kokuritsu concert ever since we first became fans. I’m so glad that we got to go, together!

Kokuritsu Kyogijo Stadium

Kokuritsu Kasumigaoka Rikujo Kyogijo, or the National Olympics Stadium, was used as the main stadium for the opening and closing ceremonies ding the 1964 Olympics in Japan. When used for concerts, it seats around 70-80,000. In May 2015, the stadium was demolished, so that a new (and larger) National Olympics Stadium could be built there, in preparation for the 2020 Olympics.

The Stadium is easily accessible from the Kokuritsu Kyogijo Station (JR Chuo-Sobu line), or from Gaeienmae Station (subway Ginza line). It’s best to go from Kokuritsu-Kyogijo Station, which is very near the stadium.

Day 1: Goods

I’m going to sleep now, so… lets just say, I spent about seven hours in the goods queue today. >.<

Long Overdue Trip Post! Day 13: Odaiba

We met up with Kishiko, Ono-chan and Siti for a trip to Odaiba ~ I didn’t get to go  on my last trip, so I decided that I had to fit it in this time, despite the fact that it cost quite a lot and we were running on a tight budget :p It was fun, anyway, because it’s my first time in Odaiba as an Arashian, so the kinds of stuff we did/looked at this time were completely different from all my previous trips.

In the evening Salwa and I went on to meet her friend, another Arashian for a quick dinner and trip to Mandarake. The day after would be our last (technically speaking), which we spent in Ikebukuro and Meiji-jingu with Kishiko and Siti. On our actual last day we spent the whole day at Haneda, so this actually concludes our trip. Until next time, I guess? ^^

Long Overdue Trip Post #9: Jimbocho & NTV

Day 9 (Jan 19th) really wasn’t supposed to be about Arashi at all, but instead about the other great love of my life – books. Met up with Ono-chan to see the buildings of some of my favourite publishers, and browse through many, many antiquarian bookstores.

And then, of course, I found out that even when I don’t go looking for Arashi, they’ll still appear in front of me. In the form of back issues of magazines. I actually found magazines and newspapers from/about their debut, but photos weren’t allowed and the mags were too expensive (of course) to buy, so I treated the whole thing like a wonderful museum experience, stared at all the old mags, calendars, chirashis, movie pamphlets, and shop photos in awe (not to mention J-Rock memorabilia! But that’s another story to be told in another blog/time), and moved on. These are some of the not-so-valuable items, displayed outside the store –

Long Overdue Trip Post #6-8: Kobe, Johnny’s Family Club

The day after the concert Salwa and I left Fukuoka very early in the morning, stopping at Shin-Kobe just around lunch time. In Kobe we met with an old friend of mine, who recently moved there from Osaka. He and his wife took us to lunch and around town, which was really nice of them, and I’m really glad I got to see them, because usually I only go to Tokyo and never get to see my friends who live elsewhere. Anyway, besides picking up lots of Hitachi and AU pamphlets, we didn’t see or do anything Arashi-related, but I did find this place that sold unofficial phone straps:

Day 12: Johnny’s Family Club, Mandarake

Second to last day here. Tomorrow I’m meeting friends, so today’s really the last of my Arashi related posts from here.

Shi-chan and I went to JFC and only just missed Arashi’s video message, so we stuck around for a little more than half an hour to wait for it to play again. It was fun watching the other vids too, especially by Tackey & Tsubasa and Kanjani8. Speaking of K8, two of our friends went to Ichikawa to get their concert goods, and they’re so much nicer than the Arashi con goods. Now I really want a K8 tote bag…