Arashi, Time~Kotoba no Chikara: Tokyo Dome 10/8/07

[meimichi]

Concert ticket: way too much money
Concert goods: lots and lots of money
Conclusion: TOTALLY WORTH IIIIIIIIT



Sooo. I woke up early, and then met explodinguterus for brunch at Hon-Kawagoe, then had to turn around and run back to catch the train to Ikebukuro.

Now, I'd never been inside Tokyo Dome before. When I was outside yesterday, I thought, "Whoa, this is really huge-looking from the outside." I knew it was bigger than Osaka, but I don't think it hit me HOW MUCH until I got onto my train (forty minutes out of Ikebukuro), and there were probably ten girls IN MY TRAIN CAR ALONE, clutching Arashi totebags with uchiwa handles peeking out of the top.

I was like, "Um, DAMN."

I got there about ten minutes before the doors opened at four, and spent that time turning in my fanclub application. Then I went inside with ease; yappari, nobody checks the ticket names (but I shouldn't have that worry again, huh!). Our gate was the first one let in, I think, and I was actually disappointed when I sat down: "I'm so far away from the stage!!" However, that was when the whole floor was empty: when people started filling in the seats, I realized I wasn't really that far. Anyway, I was in row 35 in the stands, first floor a little right of the middle...so I would say I was pretty much dead center of the Dome. I was definitely better off than people up in the second and third floors, but still far enough away that I was burning with jealousy of the girls in front of me. :( Being on the floor is definitely best, otherwise being right in front on the first floor since then you can see the hanamichi closely when they go by.

And...okay. So, I knew in my head that they had booked the Dome concerts at the last minute because of the nutso peak in popularity causing a wild ticket demand. But you know...hearing they sold out the Dome is totally different from seeing it.

It was fucking insane. I'm not kidding. 55,000 seats in the place and I did not see a single empty one from where I was standing.

I was going to write down the setlist, but frankly I had my hands full just watching everything and trying to keep up with everything going on. I was totally overwhelmed at the beginning, trying to pay attention to how to handle my uchiwa and penlight and whether I should be watching the monitors or the actual band, because you couldn't really see them very clearly when they were on the main stage, but if you watched only the monitors than you would end up missing something (like, I am pretty sure Nino grabbed Ohno's butt during YES? NO? but that's just going from the scream quota and from hearing he did it the night before, I totally missed it. ;P). Plus I was keeping an eye on the girls around me so I would notice when I needed to do something special with my penlight.

Anyway, the lights went out, and everyone turned on their penlights. 55,000 people, and most of them had penlights. The one for the tour is heart-shaped and changes colors, so it was amazing seeing this sea of lights all flashing rapidly; it looked like a rainbow planetarium! Then the stage lights started flashing up a bunch of different words to reflect the "Kotoba no Chikara" theme: I remember "freedom," "rain," "sun," "friendship," "graduation," but there were probably like fifty words or more flashing up and down across the main stage.

There was this big cube structure in the middle of the stage, and then it lit up and you could see the boys' silhouettes inside. The music started up and slowly it opened, and then they came rushing out.

The first set started with: "Everybody Zenshin," "Di-li-li," "Kitto Daijoubu", and "Oh Yeah!"

For the first set, everyone was wearing these ill-advised outfits with feather boas sort of wired to their shoulders. Sho complained during the M.C. that he hated these things, because when they would wave their arms, the wire would make it so the boa would hit them right in the face. (He called the staff to bring out his costume again so he could put it on and demonstrate, and everyone else snarkily asked him if he was going to try to fly. With that amount of feathers, IT WAS A POSSIBILITY.)

I'd heard about the moving stages, but I didn't UNDERSTAND until I actually saw them moving. Holy crap. There were two of them, and since one was larger than the other, they would pass OVER EACH OTHER. So the stages would be moving, and then suddenly on top of each other so they were performing on both tiers. It was AMAZING.

After the first set, MatsuJun introduced everything, explaining the theme of "Kotoba no Chikara," saying, "There are so many words that we take meaning from everyday, so many words in song lyrics that touch us. What kind of words come to mind for you?" Then he introduced Aiba's solo.

Aiba's solo really is cute! It wasn't totally complex, but he put on such a cute show of acting out the lyrics, especially when he sort of ruffled his hair, grinning and looking embarrassed while singing, "terekusakute, nakanaka ienai kedo, kokoro no naka de sakebu, itsumo arigatou..." I think it really benefits from being live; it's such a fairly quiet song on CD, but it seemed really energetic live.

Then was Sho's solo, which was sung at the back of the main floor, closest by to me of all the solos...I love Sho, but this is my least favorite of the solos. *laugh* Even the live didn't really change my mind on that point, as well as he sang it. I liked the sexy red couch setup, but while the amount of juniors around him kept increasing as the song went on, it started with just two and it looked awkward? Like there should have been three to start.

Then "Jidai," "Yes? No?", and "Carnival Night (part two)". I didn't know any of these songs by heart, though especially "Yes? No?" and "Carnival Night" were REALLY fun. Especially screaming out the spelling on "Carnival Night." MatsuJun ripped open his shirt during that song too, causing everyone to scream their lungs out.

After that was Nino's solo. I love this song, it's my favorite on the CD, though I noticed Nino didn't seem to sound as good live as he does on the album (not that I am knocking Nino's voice, he and Ohno are pretty much the glue holding the vocals together on the whole, but Ohno sounded SO much better live than on the CD!). Apparently, a few concerts ago, Nino got really tired and his vision got a little blurry, so he wore his glasses for the solo. In some interview I was reading, everyone was laughing over how the audience was screaming and declaring him to look "moe." *snort* So he said in the interview that he would keep wearing them for the solo Dome performances, and he did!

I really loved it even if the vocals weren't as perfect as the CD, the stage lights were rigged to look like falling raindrops during the song and it was really pretty and peaceful. I really love the, "Korekara wa, chotto kurai no wagamama ittemo ii yo. Demo, watashi ni dake yo...!" bit. At the very end, he ripped off his glasses with a flourish, and everyone went nuts screaming their heads off. *giggle*

Then..."Taiyou no Sekai." Then "WAVE". They didn't really sing it though, they spent the song organizing the whole Dome into doing the wave! This was INSANELY cool, because all three floors of the Dome were doing it, and you just saw this GIANT WAVE OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE and their penlights flashing as they stood. It was SO COOL. D:

Then, "Love Situation." You could tell everyone was holding their breath for the MatsuJun, "Chikazukitai!" bit and sure enough as soon as he said it, everyone went craaaaaaazy.

After that, "a Day in Our Life" and "Hadashi no Mirai"? I think then this is probably where the MC went. I also had trouble following that too; everyone yelled over each other quite a bit. They kicked off with Sho complaining about the costumes, and then Aiba said that during the first set, when they were riding the hanamichi around, he was on the same hanamichi as MatsuJun. They were supposed to take off the boa!coats between songs and toss them off the hanamichi to the staff below. But Aiba was so carried away waving to the fans that he forgot, and MatsuJun had to cross over to him and hiss, "TAKE OFF YOUR COSTUME!" in his ear.

Aiba said after concerts, you just want to go fall asleep. He was drinking and passed out after the concert the other night, and when he came to, his cell phone was in his hand. He looked at it and saw that he'd been writing a drunken email to the other four members saying simply, "ARASHI SAIKOU!!!" but luckily he didn't send it. *dies*

Then Aiba held up Sho's water bottle, which was CRUSHED in the middle, holding up his own normal one for comparison. Everyone was like, WTF ARE YOU CRUSHING THE POOR PET BOTTLE FOR?!! and he was like, "That's just how I drink it! Then the water comes out quicker, and isn't it better for recycling that way?" So they got him a fresh bottle of water and made him demonstrate his PET-bottle-crushing technique. They were all in sleeveless shirts, and he started flexing after he was done (if you saw Shukudai-kun's recent yoga episode, you know he looks pretty impressive doing this). It became this hilarious running gag for the entire rest of the night, where he would just start flexing his muscles for no reason at all.

Around there everyone announced they had absolutely no plan for the MC, though "probably everyone figured that out already." Then they started saying something embarrassing about Sho which I totally missed, and he said, "I don't mind if you say it as long as it's not on TV," and they were like, "You know we're recording for the DVD tonight, right?" ;P

As they were having this conversation, they started on the moving stage at the back of the floor, and as they talked, the moving stage drifted back to the main stage. Then Sho announced that he'd been named the main newscaster to cover the World Cup (everyone cheered like it was news, but this was announced days ago~).

Then they introduced Hey!Say!JUMP, who performed their single while the Arashi boys went back to change. Ummm yeah. There didn't seem that much interest though, almost nobody stood up for them (we were all still sitting from the MC). The only ones standing up with their penlights on seemed to be middle schoolers, from where I was sitting. I frankly am still nursing a grudge over the fact that the hyped-up new group ended up not having Toma in it (whyyyy haven't you debuted yet Tomaaaaaaa), so I really really didn't care. ;P

Then everyone came back out on their stools. They played two messages from fans across the screen, regarding "Kaze." One fan said she'd had a very tough summer, but that when she went to a live, she was fully aware of the lyrics to "Kaze" for the first time. It made her feel like she was able to forget all of her troubles. The second one talked about how when she heard it she realized that summer really was ending and that the lives were over, and how lonely she would be without concert season. Um...it was really more detailed than that, both were pretty deep and touching messages! So then they sang "Kaze," and I was like, "Ohhh, I see what they meant in the messages!" I think this was maybe my favorite of the night, really nicely-done and dramatic.

That led into "HERO," which also turns me all sappy, but at the end everyone was screaming because Nino smooched Ohno at the very end. It was really funny; Ohno was all wild flailing hands and everything. :D

After that? "Yabai-Yabai-Yabai."

OMFGGGGGG.

Okay, for starters, I really really love the song. And that's just...unnatural, because I should not love a MatsuJun solo that much. But somehow, they managed to write a song so disturbingly fun and catchy that I did not even care that he cannot carry a tune in a bucket.

And then the live act is just. GOD. The MJ Walk, right.

So, he starts out on the stage near that cube setup from the beginning, where the cubes are formed into steps. And he starts out walking up the cube steps, until he runs out of steps and JUST KEEPS WALKING UP AN INVISIBLE STAIRCASE, ON WIRES IN THE AIR. ALL THE WAY UP TO THE CEILING. Where he stands UPSIDE DOWN and then dances around ON THE FREAKING CEILING, and then he drops down lightning-fast, so fast everyone screamed because it just didn't seem possibly SAFE for him to drop like a bullet like that. O_O And then he moved back up, turning flips in the air... Then finally he floated back down to earth and started the actual song. As I thought, screaming along, "YABAI-YABAI! YABAI-BAI-BAI!" was as fun as expected. *giggle*

Then came Ohno's solo. I was kind of miffed since the whole group of girls around me sat down for it, and I was like, come on, don't sit down for Riidaa when you stood for everyone else! Granted, the song's beat is so quick that it's hard to move your penlight to, and there is not much in the way to participate on this one. But it didn't even matter because his dancing and singing was just. My jaw, it was on the floor. His singing on the CD is already amazing and he sounded SO MUCH BETTER here, he was just letting notes hang in the air and NAILING them, and at the very end when it ended, everyone around me let out this hushed, "Sugee!!" which was the only song that night meriting that awed reaction. :)

Then..."Kotoba Yori mo Taisetsu na Mono," "Pikanchi Double," "A.RA.SHI," "Sakura Sake," "Be With You," and closing with "Happiness." I think. This might be a bit off; I just stole someone's posted setlist from Osaka since it's pretty much the same, but I am pretty sure that "Kimi no Tame ni Boku ga Iru" was somewhere in this set as well...

"A.RA.SHI" is terribly fun, because everyone knows it, and the hand movements are so easy. So everyone is screaming, "WE! ARE! COOL!" at the top of their lungs while waving their penlights like maniacs. Same deal with "Happiness"; especially waving your arms on the, "Yeah, yeah, yeah!"

I think it was after "Sakura Sake" that they did the farewell speeches. It was really really beautifully-done and heartfelt, and so I was glad I came on the last day. Sho is the one I remembered best: he thanked everyone for coming, and said, "It's been eight years since we debuted. In the last two or three years, during our tours, we've kept seeing so many empty seats. We felt so helpless, and didn't know what to do. And yet, thanks to all of you tonight, we can see people smiling in the front row, all the way to the last people in the very, very back!" He kept pointing over and over, saying, "hitori hitori..." like he could really see every single person. :)

Then came Aiba...who opened his mouth, and promptly burst into tears, turning his back on the camera as he tried to pull himself together. He couldn't though! He managed to get out a very short thank you, and then totally dissolved into sobs!!! (The shrieking at this point became entirely uncontrollable.)

Next was Nino. He opened with, "So...Aiba-san cried, huh." XD He very beautifully said something like, "Arashi may suck at singing, and we may not be the best dancers out there, but we are the band with the most heart!" Then he added that he was sad since tours ending always mean the end of summer, and that they wouldn't be able to meet us for a while...

...but then said, "But the next time we see each other may be sooner than you think. You won't be waiting until next summer..." and everyone went fucking NUTS. He said that concerts are where Arashi is really in their element, and I don't know if he said anything specific, since everyone was screaming so loud just at the hint. But I am guessing that means winter tour, yes? Yes! YES! I'M THERE!

Then came Ohno, who was very to the point, and he smiled and thanked everyone for "coming to the matsuri they'd put on."

Finally, MatsuJun. Um...god he talked so long and it was all really meaningful and yet I am having trouble remembering. He was tearing up the entire time he spoke, though it didn't ever overflow into actual crying. He talked about how so many dreams were coming true; how he'd wanted to do an Asia tour and that had come true. How having two sets of Dome concerts in one summer was such an amazing thing, and that had come true. He added it wasn't because of Arashi that these things were made possible, but because they had all of us supporting them. And then he said, "Please remember...you're not alone. Because...you have me!" and everyone screamed. And then he added, "And you have all five of us! And look around you, you have all of these people here around you as comrades in arms! So all of you, please..." And then he said, "Ore-tachi no yume to...tsukiattekure!" AHHHHHH.

After the speeches were "Be with you" and "Happiness." During Aiba's solo in "Be with you," he was still sobbing so hard that he couldn't sing properly. <33333333 OH, AIBA.

Then, encores! The first was: "We can make it!", "Fight Song," "WISH," and "Love so sweet."

"We can make it!" was great fun. MatsuJun lost the janken for "Fight Song" (this is also hella fun to scream along to) and he had to go up in the bungee swing, which he complained about because "they already saw me up in the air once tonight, one of you should have to do it instead!!" It wasn't anywhere near as eventful as "Yabai-Yabai-Yabai," he kinda just dangled in the air.

"WISH" was great, and then about half of "Love so sweet" was sung by the audience on their own. The girls in front of me were HARDCORE and could do the entire "Love so sweet" hand movements, which were complicated enough I couldn't even copy along. I made up for it by singing as loud as I could, though!

After that, they left, and the "ARASHI! ARASHI! ARASHI!" chant was taken up. They turned off the stage lights, but of course nobody was deterred and we all kept screaming. Then, over the speakers, Sho said mock-wonderingly, "What is it they're all saying? I think they're calling for Arashi!" Then we had to scream louder and louder as he was yelling, "ARE YOU READY? ARE YOU REALLY READY?!" and then they came out for the next encore in their yellow tour shirts. :D The next two were "Future" and "Na-na-na." They were riding the hanamichi through the stadium, and throwing their signboards (MatsuJun got his all the way up to the THIRD FLOOR! Both times!! I felt like, "Yokatta ne!" for the people up high :D), but the group that wasn't on MatsuJun's hanamichi totally missed their cue to get on it, and everyone laughed at them as they were scrambling up and trying to get back on time to catch up with the other one making the rounds. *dies*

Then, they walked backstage again. More yelling. More screaming. More chanting, "ARASHI! ARASHI!" The next one was...oh damn, "Rock You" and "NA-NA-NA"?

One more encore; MatsuJun said they'd specially do one more because it was the final night! "Kansha Kangeki Ame Arashi"! They turned up the house lights all the way, and everyone was put on individual moving carts that got rushed up and down the floor aisles lightning-fast! They all ended up at the back platform and then walked out the back door, yelling their thanks the whole way. Sho was last out the door, and he turned around and waved to yell, "ZERO, ITTEKIMASU!!" and everyone yelled back, "ITTERASSHAI!"

I was scared about getting home, as I thought it'd be a nightmare. Luckily I'd had the foresight to buy my subway ticket home ahead of time, and my gate was the first one dismissed, so I actually made it home in exactly an hour; record time!

Um yeah and so...my fanclub membership = paid for. I'm going to be all overrrr winter con (assuming it is winter con~!), as much as work and travel will allow me to ballot for. D: It also occurs to me that actually getting home from Tokyo Dome was kinda girigiri, so I guess if I went almost anywhere else, it would probably have to involve spending the night...so, potentially difficult, but I'll save my money ne~~~!

Ahhhh I really need to find people to go with next time. It's the only way it could be more fun, is going with other people!



I...need to wake up in five hours. *cringe* Thank god I don't have to actually teach tomorrow. I'm also really hungry. Maybe one of these days I will learn to actually start keeping food in my apartment. I'm too tired to walk down to the konbini.

I also don't know how those boys do it; I felt ready to crash into bed by the end of the concert myself, and all I was doing was waving my penlight and uchiwa.

Comments

[ginzarhapsody.livejournal.com]

I frankly am still nursing a grudge over the fact that the hyped-up new group ended up not having Toma in it (whyyyy haven't you debuted yet Tomaaaaaaa), so I really really didn't care. ;P

OMG. So complicated why he didn't debut and probably will never debut. But essentially, he's over his "prime" to debut. If anything he'll become a stage/drama actor in Johnny's, but a lot of people just recognize that Toma's already past his chance to debut. Alas, you can blame the debut of NewS in 2003. *chuckle*

Also, my theory on Hey!Say!JUMP is the fact that the past two debuts were older Johnny's groups - Kanjani8 and KAT-TUN - so to get the younger girls back into the idol!loving!groove, they had Hey!Say!JUMP debut. I was a bit in disbelief myself at the start because there are much worthier juniors groups that should've debuted in my opinion, but they are in their late teens/early twenties, so yeah. In terms of business strategy, having Hey!Say!JUMP debut makes sense.

Anyway, I'm glad your really enjoyed the concert. Aren't they an amazing phenomenon? I mean, how that entire dome!full of fans were devoted to every word that came out of those boys' mouths? I find them fascinating if only because it's the one real place you can watch the fan-idol interaction live and in your face. Serious whoa!age. Though after reading your concert report and reflecting on my own Yokohama experience last year, I think aratamete I'm just not a concert!person. I love observing and am a total control freak, so I'm taking everything in rather than letting myself get caught up in the excitement. toriaezu enjoy the life of a fangirl, my dear! :D

[nyonyo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I kinda figured, but his star is rising so high now I was still kinda hoping against hope that the announcement would be him anyway (my kids at school are nuts over him to an insane degree, it's not just the girls either, even the boys are like, "That guy playing Nakatsu in Hanakimi is so, so cool!"). :/ I heard he's the only junior in the history of SMAPxSMAP to be a guest on the show, you'd think that kind of popularity would count for something even if it's really too late for him. ;P

As for Hey!Say!JUMP, they said tonight that they will have a Dome concert in November, and Nino was remarking on how it took Arashi this long to be allowed to have a dome. And yet these kids are getting it right out of the gate...?

I'm really looking forward to the next tour, really, since it was just so overwhelming figuring out what to do. Definitely cool watching the interaction, though! They really did keep stressing the "hitori-hitori" during their speeches when thanking the audience, I thought it was really impressive how with like the wave bit they were managing to get even the girls in the very last top row involved in the fun. :)

[ginzarhapsody.livejournal.com]

As for Hey!Say!JUMP, they said tonight that they will have a Dome concert in November, and Nino was remarking on how it took Arashi this long to be allowed to have a dome. And yet these kids are getting it right out of the gate...?

Though, I'm not as up on how popular the juniors are, these kids (save for one random kid who came out of nowhere) are actually really popular amongst their age bracket. And there are ten of them. So I think they could probably fill that Dome. ;P Or at least, that's what Johnny's sure as hell is hoping for. *chuckle* I think it should be interesting to watch how this new group matures. They broke up two junior units and ended two variety bangumi to make the group, so there are "bitter" fans as well.

I heard he's the only junior in the history of SMAPxSMAP to be a guest on the show, you'd think that kind of popularity would count for something even if it's really too late for him. ;P

I would bet that he is. It's just he hasn't performed music!wise since Christmas 2005. And he hasn't been a regular on the junior!bangumi since like three years ago. So I dunno. He was at his highest as an idol with the junior unit 4Tops (including YamaPi), right before YamaPi was stolen away to be the leader of NewS and debut in 2003.

[merisunshine36.livejournal.com]

I can't believe you went to an ARASHI concert in tokyo dome! I've only seen them on television and can't wrap my mind around such a miraculous wondrous thing. I'm wibbling inside just from imagining it.

[nyonyo.livejournal.com]

Up until last night, I'd only seen them on television, too~! It was REALLY fun seeing them live. :D

[banjocatbanjo.livejournal.com]

MJ WALK. :D

If there's another concert you want to go to, let me know! I'll definitely try to save the money for it.

I'm glad you had a great time! Drink lots of coffee today. T^T

[nyonyo.livejournal.com]

IT WAS A THING OF BEAUTY.

I bought two bottles of coffee drink before coming to work! But since I'm just sitting around all day, it's not too bad. :D

[kaori25.livejournal.com]

(T_T)(oO)(^_^)(>.<)
i felt soo many different emotions while reading that =P i REALLY want to go to one of their concerts now >.< i almost cried reading this cuz i wasnt there T_T but i love them WAY more now..if thats even possible =P
but thank you for sharing your experience,ne~ =D

[nyonyo.livejournal.com]

You're welcome~!! I think I loved them more too since last night. :)

[iso-pop.livejournal.com]

Reading this almost made me tear up myself. Thanks so much for this. I'll go to an Arashi concert if it's the last thing I do.

That Nino quote just killed me, because he's so right! I look at other JE bands like KAT-TUN and NewS and think what bonds? There are no bonds. Arashi demonstrates what true friendship is.

Again, thanks! :)

[iso-pop.livejournal.com]

I think I might blog in this later, so I hope you don't mind if I refer to this post. Being the big dork that I am it actually really touched me.

[nyonyo.livejournal.com]

I've never been able to get into other JE bands, yeah, so I thought Nino was really right so say so, since it's definitely the heart of Arashi that appeals to me. :) And yeah, link/refer to away, that's why it's here!

[makichan.livejournal.com]

You have a great memory! I really wanted to write out a full report but I figured someone else would do it (which you did!) and I can't remember stuff like that anyway. Plus my seat was godawful (3rd floor, but dead center!) so I missed some of the stuff that happened, I just heard lots of screaming for some stuff. (Like when Nino took off his glasses I just heard lots of screaming o_o)

I need someone to go to cons with too! I joined the fanclub a while back but was too late for dome balloting and couldn't get anyone to go with me anyway, so. ^^; If you ever need someone to go with, I'll be in Tokyo indefinately so let me know!

And thanks for the report, it will serve as my memory so when I go back to reflect on the con I can read this. :>

[nyonyo.livejournal.com]

I didn't remember all of it - if I hadn't had the setlist from Osaka Dome, there probably wouldn't have been much of a report at all since I'd never have been able to remember all the songs at all (especially I'm still a new fan, so if the songs were older I didn't always recognize them). And I think it's inevitable to miss out on stuff; they spread themselves out so completely over the whole dome that it's totally impossible to look everywhere at once. I'm looking forward to the DVD to see everything I missed. *g*

OMG, seriously? I'd love that! Do you mind if I friend you so I could maybe take you up on that whenever the next tour starts? :)

[hungry-worm.livejournal.com]

Ah, it sounds like it was so much fun! Thank you for sharing your report with us. ^_^

[grey-fuzzy.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you so much for writing this up. It's so exciting!! I feel like I was there!! It makes me completely determined to find a way to go to an Arashi concert SOMEHOW :D. Thank you again :).

[theahhmoment.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing your experience! Sounds like SO MUCH fun! =D

[jellyfishsongs.livejournal.com]

seems i clicked something wrong, my comment disappeared :O
anyway, thank you so much for sharing! :))))

[kudoushinichi.livejournal.com]

"Arashi may suck at singing, and we may not be the best dancers out there, but we are the band with the most heart!"

I don't know how to say it, but I guess the most lovable part of Arashi is... Arashi! I think a lot of artist sucks in real life, but when I watch them like in backstage, tv variety, etc... I adore them even more. They're just modest, kind, and hardworking. It's amazing to know there's still exist a band like this. I sincerely hope they would go on to success yet stay the way they are now.

Thanks for the report :)

[skippiey.livejournal.com]

I did not expect to cry from reading this D: Nino's speech... that is so true, so they may not be the best singers and dancers as a group, but their closeness and just about everything else simply makes them the best. In the words of a drunken Aiba, ARASHI SAIKOU!! :D

I really enjoyed reading your report and I could imagine it very well with your descriptions XD Thank you for sharing!

[luckypurple.livejournal.com]

thank you so much for sharing this ne, for fans who far away like me and couldnt go there now its really makes me happy.

how i wish i'm there ..sounds very nice ne!
aiba chan..awwwwwwwwwwww i feel like hugging him when i read ur post!

i hope u'll be able to go again, and if i can go one day maybe we can met up XD

[noreal99.livejournal.com]

Shooot! I'll go with you to an Arashi concert. Hee...I wish it was that easy. Even I'm hoping that they would have a winter con too, at the same time with Kanjani 8, but I doubt that. Anyway, thanks for the concert report. It was fun reading it. God, I miss their concerts!

[eyeslikefirefly.livejournal.com]

I think this is one of the best con reports I've read yet- I can imagine everything... of course it helps that I've already seen fancams of earlier TIME cons.. XD

Now I want to go to one of their cons so badly. I hope they really do a Winter con. *explodes* @__@

[pineapplebun.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing. Arashi are so appreciative towards their fans and have a humble attitude. It makes me love them more. ♥

i am sorry for this epic comment.

[happiegurlie.livejournal.com]

Thank you for writing the greatest con report ever. Hontou ni, arigatou gozaimasu. One of these days, when I'm studying abroad in Japan whilst living with my grandparents (a future that I alone have decided on and not yet told my grandparents about haha) I too will attend an Arashi concert. Definitely. Or else.. there's really no goal in life, is there? ;P

And as for a drunken Aiba who apparently needs to express his love for his four bestest friends .. OHH YES. THANK YOU, GOD. Too bad he didn't send it. I wanted to know what Nino's reply would have been.

Recording for the DVD? YES, PLEASE.

Aiba-chan naichatta. :D How freaking adorable, seriously.

[Oh, and PS.. FUCK YOU, NINO. I hate you for being the biggest tease in the entire Johnny's Entertainment business and I hope you and your other half, Ohno, spend your entire lives together. Errr, that didn't end the way I had planned it to.] Anyway, if Nino was serious about meeting somewhere sooner, klwjefioasjdfkljweifjwekjf *incoherent babbling & endless flailing* OMGWTFIAMSOTHERE.

Let me just congratulate you again on getting into the fanclub and going to their final con this year. Here's to going to future cons! *cheers* (ohhh i sooooo wanna go to one. i would kill to hear ohno live.)

[m4sita.livejournal.com]

thaaank u so much for the report!! hope that someday I can go to Japan and watch one of their concerts.... can't really stand it when I read the part where Aiba was crying huhuhuhu *_*

"Arashi may suck at singing, and we may not be the best dancers out there, but we are the band with the most heart!"

They might or might not know it but for us nothing can replace them even if they sux at singing... (they don't!!!) ^_^

[charurei.livejournal.com]

thank you for sharing your con experience. I really enjoyed reading this.

Nino, I love his speech! Arashi may not be the best singers/dancers but we are still helplessly drawn to them. What a charisma!

And about Arashi being at their element during concerts-- I've never been to their lives, and I might never have seen a lot of other artists' lives as well, but a lot of people and TV personalities testify how awesome their concerts are. I believe that, after all I gawked over their ONE con performance and that made me decide that I want to know more about this group's music. :)

[inuhariko.livejournal.com]

Excellent con report! I cannot wait for Dome DVD now!

[anamuan.livejournal.com]

aiba crying.
OMG, TOO CUTE!

[nyonyo.livejournal.com]

It REALLY was. He couldn't even get words out, much less sing! It was so cute!!

[verde-ivy.livejournal.com]

hehe, saw this posting on the Arashi community and just had to read it :) I love reading con reports (since it's the closest thing to actually "seeing" an Arashi live ^^;;).

You sounded like you had a blast! And I can't even imagine Ohno singing even BETTER in person because he sings so wonderfully on their CDs already. And hearing that Aiba cried is so touching :) He's so great ^_^ They had so many concerts this summer and now they are hinting on another...I want to go!! lol

Well, thanks for your report! I enjoyed reading it :)

[cc-o6o2.livejournal.com]

omggg I read the entire thing, and it was as if I watched the concert myself! hahaha. I was just wondering how are you supposed to get the tickets? Is there a process? going to the box office? bidding at auctions? I live in America, but I do plan on going to one of their concerts (yes i mean flying there haha. Im saving up), and around how much money are the tickets? You can tell me the amount in yen, because I can just find a way to convert the amount to USD, and if you have any advice for a clueless foreigner on these things please include that too! =P Thank you in advance.

[nyonyo.livejournal.com]

Check out jeconreports; on their sidebar, they have useful tutorials regarding JE concerts and explanations of how the ticketing system works. If you're outside Japan, your options are extremely limited and almost inevitably very expensive: if you're not in the fanclub, you'll almost inevitably have to pay a fortune, and you cannot join the fanclub if you're not living in Japan.

I bought my ticket from . If you get tickets through the fanclub they're 6800 yen, but mine cost me 20000 yen and I was actually lucky to be as close as I was for that price. On that site and on Yahoo!Auctions, tickets for really amazing seats (in the arena or in the stands right next to hanamichi) will routinely go for 85000 to 120000 yen.

[mojotastic.livejournal.com]

OMG I am burning with jealousy! This sounds so, SO unbelievably awesome. Also, leave it to Matsujun to totally ascend into the air with his gay walk and then twirl around up there. Man. I hope he does that again at the next concert.

So? In closing? Me. You. Arashi. Next summer. I can't wait. Seriously. My life is not going to be completely until I see Arashi live in concert. There will be a big, gapping, Arashi-sized hole in my heart.

[nyonyo.livejournal.com]

OMGZ, I did not even go into all of it! There were pyrotechnics and lasers, too!! They kept using green laser beams tracing out patterns on the ceiling, and then for one song, the lights went out completely, then then MatsuJun and Aiba were lit up with spotlights on opposite sides of the dome, and they both had handheld green laser pointers that they started waving around towards the ceiling. IT WAS SO COOL.

Next concert, the solos should be totally different, but he seems to be constantly trying to top himself in the concert design department (MatsuJun is in charge of everything for the concerts; he invented the moving stages and now all the boybands use them as a standard). I believe last tour or the one before, he was inspired by the previous Odoroki Arashi special where they stuck Sho inside a GIANT BALLOON AND FLOATED HIM UP TO THE CEILING...and what does MatsuJun ask after they've floated Sho up to the ceiling, "LOLZ I WANNA DO FLOAT AROUND IN A GIANT BALLOON MYSELF AT THE NEXT CONCERT. CAN I DO THAT??" I should YouTube that actually, I haven't actually seen it. So yeah, he's like guaranteed to be doing something just as wild next time if not moreso.

I'm really sad because when I was in high school I totally made fun of the boyband fangirls. And now I am going, "Oh shit I need to SAVE MY MONEY so I can go to AS MANY CONCERTS AS IS HUMANLY POSSIBLE NEXT TOUR. MAYBE I SHOULD SELL A KIDNEY???" :( WE NEED TO GO TOGETHER.

[mojotastic.livejournal.com]

So apparently checking out "Matsujun concert big bubble" isn't really that effective on youtube. I did, however, find this gem of Matsujun's dancing prowess: http://youtube.com/watch?v=9RzPXLWHKKo

Oh man. Thank you youtube. Thank you for bringing that into my life. Are those the moving stages that you were talking about?

OH FANCAMS!

I need to know immediately when the concert DVD comes out, as I'll be needing it. For...educational purposes. For next summer.

My. God....what have I become?

[nyonyo.livejournal.com]

Their Dome DVD just came out yesterday, for their first Dome concert ever in April. I'm sure someone will rip it really soon. I'll let you know if I see it, though I'll probably just end up buying the real thing myself.

Dude, those videos are like nothing. Here, I found Jun doing "Yabai-Yabai-Yabai." Though the coolness of how FUCKING HIGH UP he is really doesn't come through in the fancam, and this isn't from the Dome, where he changed most of it around to adjust for the high ceiling factor. I liked it better at my concert, the way he started on actual steps and just kept going up in the air was so freaking COOL-LOOKING.

And no, that isn't big enough for a moving stage. You can sooooort of see the moving stages here; they're actually fully stage-sized and detach from the main stage center platform. All five of the boys fit onto one of them quite easily with room to dance, and they can raise the height for the stage to be like twenty feet in the air near the stands, or right over the heads of the floor audience (you can see the audience right underneath Ohno and MatsuJun in that video). At my concert there were two, and they would sometimes overlap at different heights to make a double-tier, or join together like they did here. But I don't think it really comes through in fancams just because you can't really get a sense of how big it is; probably downloading the Dome concert video would be best. (There are the moving stages, smaller platforms like the ones in that video, mini-carts for each individual member to ride around, and the hanamichi, which are really super-tall carts on platforms that lift them up to face-level with the fans in the stands. Plus whatever other weird shit MatsuJun chooses to cook up, like those hot-air balloons or whatever...though obviously my concert experience was a little different due to it being in the Dome, it may not be as totally extreme when they don't need to cover as much ground?) Oh, or doing THIS. I was so sad because since the Dome ceiling is so high, they could only do one member instead of all five. Sob.

Oh wait wait! I just found the commercial they played like forty times for the Dome DVD while we waited for the concert to start! This gives you a MUCH better idea of what's going on, even if it's short.

And here's a much better video of Jun's solo. He didn't do the swinging wire in the middle of the song at the one I went to, though. Woeeeee.

...that was way too many videos.

Also, whatever you're worried about becoming, I promise you that I'm already there and worse. I'M A MONSTERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!1!1!1 [/Buster]

Seriously. Today I was showing my vice principal something on my keitai, and she pointed to my strap, "What's that?" I showed her and she said, "I thought you said you just had FRIENDS who were Arashi fans."

I said sadly, "No. I've caught it, too."

"The Arashi sickness?"

"The Arashi sickness."

"That's terrible."

"It really, REALLY is."

"...was the concert fun?"

"OMGZZZZZZ YESSSSSSSSSSSSS I'M GOING AGAIIIIIIIIN TO WHENEVER AND WHEREVER THE NEXT ONE IS!!!!"

[aishoni.livejournal.com]

"ZERO, ITTEKIMASU!!"

itterashai.. aah.. my baby went to read the news. I hope they include that part in the DVD.
Thanks for the report. I just discovered it today.
This just raises my mood for TIME. Thanks again.

[flubbz.livejournal.com]

hello!

haha i know its a random comment to a post you made soooo way back.. XD but i just wanted to thank you for this fab con report! :D

i'm going to fukuoka for their con this june and i ABSOLUTELY CAN'T WAIT! i hope it'll be as fun as your con experience, and of course hopefull my seats are as good XDD

[nyonyo.livejournal.com]

Oh, you're welcome! :D Have fun in Fukuoka!! I'm going to Osaka and Tokyo this round, hopefully we both get good seats!