meimichi

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, FLIST!

BEHOLD MY PUMPKINS.

...I realized after the fact I really should have done the 5x10 crown logo instead of trying for kanji, since 5x10 would actually have translated perfectly to pumpkin. OH WELL.

Sho's emoji would have looked precious in pumpkin form, but we put off carving until last night and I got tired after doing these two. Another year, maybe. XD

CON REPORT PENDING. (This might take a while.)

APPARENTLY THE DVD TAPING WAS LAST NIGHT

THAT IS THE GREATEST TRAGEDY OF OUR TIME BECAUSE TONIGHT WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITE CONS EVER. (TAKE BACK COMPLAINTS ABOUT SETLIST. WAS WONDERFUL WITH THE RIGHT AUDIENCE. POOR DVD TAPING.)

IT WOULD HAVE BEEN AMAZING NO MATTER WHAT (I LAUGHED, I CRIED, PERFECT AUDIENCE, STADIUM COMING TOGETHER, ETC)

BUT THEN DURING THE MC, AFTER KAIBUTSU-KUN'S SONG, JUN AND AIBA BOTH CAME OUT AND DID THEIR LITTLE PUT-ON REACTIONS

AND THEN AFTER THEY CAME OUT

YUUJI WALKED OUT

AND SHO WAS BEHIND HIM AS TAKA LOOKING LIKE HE WOULD RATHER BE ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD AT THAT MOMENT

YUUJI: "HELLO KOKURITSU! WHENEVER WE COME, THE OLD MAN AT THE JIMUSHO GETS MEGA PISSED AT US. I'M PRETTY SURE WE'RE GONNA GET BUSTED BIG TIME TOMORROW!!!"

AND EVERYONE WAS LOSING THEIR SHIT AND SCREAMING BECAUSE WE COULDN'T BELIEVE THEY WERE DOING IT AT FREAKING KOKURITSU SINCE IT WAS A FREAKING MIRACLE THEY WERE ALLOWED TO DO IT THROUGH THE WHOLE FIRST DOME TOUR AFTER THEY WERE EXPLICITLY BANNED FROM DOING IT AT THE EARLIEST DOME SHOWS (THEY PROBABLY WILL GET TOTALLY BUSTED TOMORROW LOL) AND ON TOP OF THAT SHO IS THERE BATTING THE GIANT FEATHER OUT OF HIS EYELINE, LOOKING LIKE HE WISHES A HOLE WOULD OPEN UP AND SWALLOW HIM OFF THE STAGE

"...YUUJI? HAS TAKA CHANGED?"

"TAKA? NOPE. THAT'S HIM. SUNGLASSES AND AN 'S' ON THE SHIRT! THAT'S DEFINITELY HIM! SAY HI, TAKA!"

"… (in his totally normal voice) …hi everybody."

Then Yuuji sneaked off the stage while Sho's back was turned. was like, "What are you even DOING here?" and Sho was like, "I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THE ANSWER TO THAT MYSELF, IF YOU FIND OUT THEN LET ME KNOW!!"

Jun was like, "Well, are you guys going to do anything? The cannon thing?" Aiba claimed he'd actually seen the cannon stashed somewhere with the tour equipment so they could probably haul it out if it was needed.

Sho said no, they weren't doing the cannon. Jun asked, "Well, do you guys even HAVE anything else you could do?"

At that point a really loud collection of screams went up from the back of the arena audience, with everyone shrieking, "FIIIIIINAAAAAL LOOOOOOOVE!" like their lives depended on it. lmao Arashi fans are the best.

Nino then trotted back out in his tour costume. "Hey! While I was getting changed I saw that other guy running the other way, and he told me to tell everyone that Taka is going to regale us all with a backflip!"

Sho was just like I WANT TO DIE RIGHT HERE. "NO NO NO NO NO."

"NO, THE OTHER GUY WAS VERY SPECIFIC, HE SAID IF ALL OF US HELP YOU, YOU CAN DEFINITELY DO ONE!"

Sho was like, "いやいやいやリアルにごめんね！！！リアルにごめんね！！！！ We're outta time, I have to go!" He fled offstage and then paused at the curtains and went, "I have just two things I want to say. One is: I've learned that this job can be really difficult some days. Two is: (in the silly Taka voice) Everyone at Kokuritsu, thank youuuu!"

THIS IS THE GREATEST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED EVER Y/Y/Y/Y/Y??????

GOD TONIGHT WAS PERFECT BUT THAT WAS BEYOND AMAZING.

wake up: 4:35 AM
first train: 5:16 AM
arrival: 6:18 AM
left at: 1:25 PM

this is not faiiiir, last year i got there at nine thirty and yet made better time

my body feels like one gigantic heatstroken sunburnt bruise

i know and understand the entire boyband cult marketing strategy and am aware i am just playing their evil psychological game by doing this, i wish i were ignorant since knowing just makes it more embarrassing

why can't we buy this crap on the internet as god intended

last year i swore i'd never do this EVER AGAIN EVER EVER EVER, venue-limiteds be damned, NEVER AGAIN, it was the worst experience i ever had as a fan. last year it took five hours and forty-five minutes

this year it took SIX hours and forty-five minutes and i got there at six-thirty in the morning this year, the ONLY reason i might rate it as a slight improvement was that this year at least i wasn't all alone and it was cloudy in the early morning (but i still got sunburned later on)

i don't see how anyone could do goods in the morning and go to the con in the evening at that venue, i was sooo wobbly on my feet getting out of there and felt sooo sick.

( MY ADVENTURES IN LINE THIS MORNING + a few setlist spoilers overheard from outside the stadium )

ugh and now I'm going to bed and not coming out for YEARS, I am so so so glad I am not going tomorrow so I can recover from this ;w;

WAAAH I've been dashing around since Friday morning and actually fell asleep in my seat before the concert started. I'm taking it easy tomorrow so I have more fun. I'll start writing my actual report tomorrow and probably post the whole weekend at once, but drive-by highlights:

+ Comments I've seen about how "Kokuritsu was epic but the Domes are a big party" seems to be holding true. Kokuritsu >>>> tonight's laid-back style, liek whoa, but both are fun in their way.

+ Final encore: "season" is out, "My Girl" is in. Nothing else new. No encore performance of "A.RA.SHI." I don't know if it was like that at all the domes so far, or if they cut it due to starting late tonight.

+ Most technical trouble I've ever seen in an Arashi concert indoors. Started twenty minutes late, sound fading in and out, screens scrambling, and it was hella obvious they couldn't hear themselves sing a lot of the time the entire night through. On Jun's "hyakunen saki mo~" he abruptly yanked his earpiece out since he obviously was having no luck with it in, lol. The sound fading in and out wasn't bad, though, since the audience picked up the slack singing.

+ They made "Attack it!" longer with like an extra minute of just yelling JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP! Oh and since the setlist shifted a little, I got to hear Jun sing "kokoro nusunda orera wa hannin~?" this time. I CAN DIE HAPPY

+ Jun put in a good effort at hiding it, but obviously had a cold. :(

+ He changed his shirt during the MC. The camera like *~panned up~* while he was stripping and the audience started shrieking at him. Jun/Mao tinhatters have been freaking out over the tour since every time he's stripped, he's done the move that Mao said made her dokidoki on Himitsu. I didn't see him take it off but he put the new shirt on the same way lol.

+ BAMBIS KONBI FACTOR: talking about the Odoroki live, Sho said in a very tiny voice, "I wasn't scared at all on the flying stage." LOL YEAH RIGHT. Jun said, "Sho-kun got majorly pissed at me for real, while we were doing that." Jun said he was being a huge attention whore trying to wave at the camera while they were floating around, and so to get close to the camera, he grabbed onto Sho's wire to try to push off it to propel himself towards the camera. When he grabbed it, Sho LOST HIS SHIT and started screaming, "MATSUJUN, LET GO, THAT IS MY LIFELINE, MY LIIIIIFELIIIIINE!!!!" Nino said it was fucking hilarious.

+ Ohno's speech: "For our eleventh year, we want to go back to the feeling we had when we were just starting out in year one. So if you notice any one of us getting full of ourselves, please feel free to call out, 'That guy's getting full of it!'" LOL.

+ Has nothing to do with anything but the chick next to me kept putting her uchiwa up and...omg I've seen other girls actually hit other girls for doing that, and while I'm not quite that bad yet... I first tapped her on the shoulder, and told her she was breaking the rules. She apologized...and then kept on doing it.

This is the second concert this has happened to me, and I wasn't going to have this chick waving an uchiwa with a giant picture of Nino in my face all night, because I can look at pictures of Nino for free but I paid airfare to see the real thing thanks. After about twenty minutes of repeatedly telling her to keep it at chest level, I lost my temper and started grabbing her arm and yanking it down every time she put her uchiwa in my face as if I was possessed. I guess I'm one of thooooose people now? OH DEAR.

+ AND NOW BED FOR ME

+ P.S. I'VE BEEN IN SAPPORO FOR OVER 24 HOURS AND HAVEN'T EATEN A SINGLE THING PURCHASED OUTSIDE OF A KONBINI.

( ありがとう。これからも、ありがとう。 )

(edit: Wow. I don't think my con posts last year ever got over thirty or forty comments. When I woke up and saw all of these, I was stunned. Thank you so much, you guys! I'm trying to reply to people who had questions about the con now, but I know there's no way I'll end up replying to all of these because it's so overwhelming. But suffice to say I hugely appreciate all of the comments that have been left. Thank you!

I'm also still slowly editing things in and revising as I remember stuff, by tomorrow I'll probably arrive at the final version if any of you wanna check back.)

ORZ I am so tiiiiired. We've been running around all over the place.

PHOTO POST TIME. There's something for everyone here, and by "everyone," I mean, "the people who share my sick obsession with a certain drama that starts with Hana and ends with...Dan." Though there's some Maou stuff in here too.

( THE HANADAN WALKING TOUR: DAYS 1 & 2 )

The rest of the past few days in brief: Utaban was absolutely amazing, Maou tonight was my favorite episode so far, we took other purikura that I may have decorated with an obscene amount of sparkles and written "both dazzled and dazzling" on, I still want to see Hanadan Final more times, and my 24 Jikan Terebi t-shirt has shipped, yay.

Arashi on "Ousama no Buranchi" to promote the retooled Arashi-chan: PLEASE TO KEEP DOING THIS CORNER. I LOVE IT.

The last time they were on and did this, it had them doing fill-in-the-blanks quiz competitions from interviews since their debut, but it was fail. So to make it more fair, they chose only interviews from 2008 this time. But even then...

( ...it was so funny I ended up just translating the card portions for my post since I couldn't pick a cutoff point for flail. )

And the "Hana Yori Matsujun" episode showcasing Jun's date with Ooshima-san looks like it has the potential to surpass Ryo's date with Haruna on Daidaya for epic lulz. The date looks hilarious. Aiba and Nino apparently invade said date, which will be hilarious. And Mao will be stalking them the whole time in Tsukushi-mode, which will be even more hilarious. THERE IS NO DOWNSIDE HERE. Plus, Jun + horseback riding = WHY SO HOT.

I really want to make a moving gif icon of that epic bitchslap. That was amazing. ...GIP!

...I'm still so behind on Arashi TV. orz There's so much Hanadan stuff this week airing live, I won't be able to catch up for a while...

My new Arashi keitai strap has died. It hasn't even been a month! My phone was buried under my pillow, and when I grabbed it, the strap got caught. I tugged it free, and...beheaded the caterpillar. Poor caterpillar.

Anyway. The Hanadan Final countdown excitement continues. I'm enjoying my Returns DVDs very much. Especially since the premiere and the finale are extended director's cuts. I haven't watched the finale yet, but the premiere extended cut offered Toma and his minions stripped down to their boxers, so I have high hopes for the finale extra footage.

And so, picspam. Yes, I have already picspammed this two-hour episode once. But this time, the caps are DVD quality, and I've gotten much better at making them pretty!

( Hana Yori Dango Returns 01: picspam! )

Hey, you guys? You know what I unquestionably love best of all about queueing for JE stuff?

Eavesdropping on other fangirl conversations. Extra points if the girls in question are kinda bitchy.

I was queueing today (for a short time, as seats were already decided, after all) and the girls in back of me were such elitist bitches. They were just sort of looking around and surveying the rest of the crowd, and commenting on how their Satoshi fan brethren were clearly the most 気が強い of all Arashi fans. "Well, of course, Sho-chan fans are probably almost as good. But, ugh, Aiba-chan fans are soooo immature!" Oh, boybands, never stop being serious business.

( Amatsukaze: Aoyama Gekijou, 3/22/08, 1:00PM )