Sometimes life takes such a surreal turn. It's 2 a.m. here, but the fact that I was standing in the barely-above freezing rain only twelve hours ago, preparing for a lonely-ish night in my apartment studying (yes, on a Saturday) and watching more J-dramas, still doesn't register.
My story begins with this morning, when I decided to take a bus down to Sapporo Dome to take photos of any Arashi signs for the concerts tonight (Saturday) and tomorrow afternoon as part of their 5 x 10 Anniversary Tour. For those not "in-the-know" about Johnny's Entertainment groups, you have to first be part of the group's fan club, then you have to queue for tickets months in advance. I had heard from other Arashi fans and bloggers that because this year's 5-dome tour was both high in demand and high in nostalgia, tickets were given out first to "Johnny's veterans" and fans who had supported them for years.
Basically, Japanese pop-crazed foreign exchange students like me are left out.
After walking inside the outer ring of the stadium around 1 p.m. (7 hours before the concert), I noticed several teenage girls walking around, Arashi 5x10 Anniversary Tour ecobags in hand and homemade MatsuJun and Ohno baseball caps on their heads. I turned a corner and followed the line of (clearly) Arashi fans to see where they bought them. If security had asked me for my ticket, I could have easily pulled the "I'm a foreigner" card and pretended like I didn't know. Because I didn't. If I had, I would've realized that anyone can come before the show at a designated time and buy tour goods, not just ticketholders.
I think I should mention the weather at this point. It poured nonstop from the time I woke up until about 7 p.m. Add in temps at a barely-thawable 6-degrees Celsius. Now imagine standing in line behind about 3,000 people - I'm serious - in a parking lot outside Sapporo Dome (the only place big enough to hold everybody, I guess).
Almost three hours later, long after I'd lost all feeling in my toes and had a frozen death-grip on my umbrella handle, I made it to the goods area. Prices were decent, cheaper than the Britney Spears or NSYNC concerts I went to back in middle school. Posters for 800 yen, large uchiwa (fans) for 500 yen and small uchiwa for 300 yen, clear file folders for 500 yen... A red anniversary-themed towel (which I noticed one woman use to dry herself off once she returned to the dome) cost the most at 3500 yen. Although fans had to wait in line for each item separately, the goods-getting system seemed efficient.
My items:
5X10 Anniversary Tour T-Shirt - 2500 yen
the same design Arashi wore during this summer's concert at the National Stadium in Tokyo
5x10 Anniversary Tour Pamphlet - 2000 yen
more like a 112-page glossy book than a pamphlet, with individual shots and recaps of all previous concert tours, including Korea, Taipei and Shanghai
5X10 Anniversary Tour Uchiwa (Large) - 500 yen/each
Sho, Nino and MatsuJun
5X10 Anniversary Tour Ecobag - 1000 yen
tan canvas eco-friendly tote bag with the tour logo in red and blue letters
Total: 7000 yen (roughly $70)
I almost sacrificed my toes for 17 minutes of fangirl possessions. Yet I was on such a high after buying my Arashi goods, I headed back to the dome's warmth, ready to go home. That is, until all the fans were directed out of the dome and in formation to enter once the doors opened at 4 p.m. I saw the foggy collage of thousands of umbrellas herald the ticket-holding crowd I envied, and for some reason I chose to stand outside in the rain once again, just to people watch. This 90-percent female crowd loves Arashi as much as I do, and I got a thrill out of the newcomers pointing at my Sho and Nino fans (which were too big to fit in my standard-sized purse) and asking where to get them.
Certainly, I had my selfish reasons for staying. I hoped someone would just happen to have an extra ticket they could sell. For a sold-out show in an arena with more than a 40,000-person capacity, at least one person had to cancel or come down with the flu or something. Well, so I thought, until I felt bad for wishing that someone would get sick - what if it was H1N1?? - so I began hoping something more positive, like someone who had a ticket and then decided they didn't really want to go after all. If it was their own decision, then I wouldn't feel so guilty about envisioning it.
And so I stood near the west gate, watching other people meet up and exchange tickets from online auctions on sites like Yahoo! Japan. (I had looked at those earlier this week, but some of the business transaction terminology confused me, so I chose to stay out of it.) I was envious, cold, hungry, and somehow still hopeful. I hoped I could hold out until 8 p.m., when the show began, and if I hadn't found a ticket by then, I would go home and try again Sunday morning.
Ten minutes before Arashi was scheduled to appear onstage, a girl about my age was wandering around my gate frantically with an older woman, going up to people and asking them something. I saw each of them tell her "no," but I had no idea what she asked. Then she looked at me a couple times, probably because I'm a foreigner, then asked me if I was going in. I replied that I didn't have a ticket. She asked if I wanted to buy one from her because her friend ended up not coming at the last minute, and I was like, "Hallelujah!" If only I knew how to say that in Japanese, of course.
Her face lit up and she called her mother over, yelling "I found someone! I found someone!" She pulled out the official Johnny's ticket envelope and, while escorting me over to the north gate, asked me which seat I wanted to buy and sold it to me for 7000 yen, the same price everyone else paid for theirs. No scalping price, no added interest because it was the day of. Because she was with her mother, I trusted her more than some random guy selling tickets like in America. (Another difference - there were no scalpers at the dome, no annoying guys trying to sell tickets for inflated prices. How refreshing.)
After I thanked her four times, maybe more, for the ticket, we separated ways and I went through ticket and bag check in record time. Turns out my seats were up in the nosebleeds, but I didn't care. Twenty minutes earlier, I had been standing out in the drizzle, ready to give up. Now I was in the Sapporo Dome with 41,000 other Arashi fans. Surreal. My night had completely changed.
About 20 minutes after 8, the screen started a flashback video of Arashi's ten years, and then Ohno came onstage and introduced the rest of the group. I can't summarize all 30-40 songs they sang as part of medleys, full-out songs or solos, but it was amazing. Instead of individual solos they've recorded before, they performed solo versions of various group songs. (Dang it. I was hoping for a Nino solo of "Niji" or "Kako.")
Solo songs:
Aiba - "A Day in the Life"
Nino - "Kotoba Yori Taisetsu na Mono" (played guitar :P)
Ohno - "Kumori Nochi Kaisei" (in his outfit from "Onii-san no Uta" :P)
Sho - "Tomadoinagara" (in a sequined, bright green sweatsuit)
MatsuJun - jazz rendition of "Wish" (wearing 1930's-inspired outfit - think suspenders and beige trousers - with NY skyline background)
I will try to list all the songs I know they performed, but I'll miss a few, and they won't be in order. Sorry, my memory isn't that great.
Opening - Kansha Kangeki Ame Arashi (Ohno lead-in)
2nd song - Lucky Man
Crazy Moon/Kimi wa Muteki
Kaze no Mukou e
truth
Jidai
Kimi no tame ni boku ga iru
We can make it!
Love so sweet
Aozora Pedal
Tomadoinagara
Typhoon Generation
HORIZON
Sunrise Nippon
Step and Go
Hero
PIKANCH
Hitomi no Naka no Galaxy
Sakura Sake
Everything
Happiness
Believe
Oh Yeah!
Carnival Night
Kitto Daijoubu
WISH
A RA SHI
Nice Na Kokoro Iki
Ashita no Kioku (with backdrop of each member's baby photos, just as in the Tokyo concert)
final song - 5x10
ENCORE #1:
PIKA**NCHI Double
Beautiful Days (I think it goes here)
One Love
ENCORE #2:
Fight Song
(another song goes here)
final song - My Girl (first time performed in concert, not yet released at the time of the summer concerts)
Highlights:
+MatsuJun taking control of the cameras on the rolling cars and making faces in the screens
+Sho continuing to rap even though the sound system went out for a few seconds
+The entire dome and stage turning into a planetarium for "Hitomi no Naka no Galaxy"
+Singing the "C-A, R-N-I, V-A-L, NIGHT!" in "Carnival Night 2"
+Audience and Sho singing the "A Day in Our Life" rap together over and over
+Ohno's remarks: "I'd heard Sapporo was cold...And it really is."
+Nino's remarks: "We appreciate you all being there for us. This year too, we'll work hard. With my movie, Jun and Sho and Aiba's dramas, and Ohno's... well, we'll work hard next year, too."
+MatsuJun walking around the floor audience
+Arashi changing the words to The Fight Song, and Nino laughing so hard he couldn't sing his lines
Middle part: Sho asked everyone in the audience to sit down, and Arashi begins to have a conversation similar to their talks on their numerous television shows. First, Sho talked about how they haven't been to Hokkaido since their Dream-A-Live Tour stop in July 2008. Then MatsuJun pointed out the fans in the highest seats (the creme-de-la-creme of the nosebleed section next to me), to which Sho asked, "Aren't you scared?" (Sho's had some hilarious moments hating to be off the ground for previous concerts.) He then asked us near the top who was scared and who wasn't, to which I raised my hand for the first to make him feel better. Haha... Then they began recapping their events on Challenge Week (Oct. 25-Nov. 1) and making fun of each other's mistakes during the live broadcast. Apparently, Ohno bowed too quickly at the end and, looking up with a confused face, paused too long before bowing again with the rest of the group.
Eventually, Sho shamelessly plugged his new show in January, asking the other members if he could have more time to elaborate.
Aiba's response: You only get 40 seconds!
Sho: Um, I need to go to the bathroom. Do we have enough time? (gestures hand above his head in a way I didn't understand, then rushes offstage)
Aiba and Ohno then talked briefly about finishing up filming for their respective dramas, and Jun seriously plugged his new drama next spring, which (if I'm right) he went to Shanghai to film.
Aiba: How was Shanghai?
Jun: Well, when I was there, everyone looked at me and said, "Ohno! Ohno!" No one knew it was me! (something along those lines)
The group conversation then finished, as Aiba yelled "Sakurai Sho, c'mon!" and the members went offstage to "look" for Sho. And so the concert continued with Sho's solo version of "Tomadoinagara."
And yes, if you read the song listing I made, you'll see that there were two encores. The first one was expected, especially because they hadn't yet sung their signature song, "One Love," but after that finished, the sound system automatically came on and some people began packing. Then we heard Nino and MatsuJun's voices and saw the stage lights dim again, and we're all "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"
We hoped for encore number three, even though MatsuJun had said "My Girl" was really the last song they would sing, so when one of the staff members with a voice strikingly similar to Nino's came on the PA to announce exits for bus and the subway station, everyone tensed for a moment, then sighed in disappointment. Imagine 14,000 disappointed sighs. You could distinctly hear it.
After the 3-hour, 15-minute concert, I met up again with the girl who had sold me my ticket. Turns out she had just flown in from Tokyo for this concert (like many others, judging from their rolling luggage and Sapporo Chitose tags) because it was impossible for her to get a ticket for the Tokyo Dome concerts in early December. Her friend ended up not coming, but she had just gotten into Sapporo this evening thanks to a delay and almost missed the concert herself. We talked about food, Japanese language and, of course, our favorite Arashi members. (Her fave's Nino.) Then we separated again to go home.
It's those friendships you make through mutual fandom that are the most exciting to me. You share these experiences with each other, usually because your friends aren't interested in the same music or books or entertainment as you, and even though you may never see each other again, you connected for a few minutes.
Well, in most cases it's a positive relationship, but also thanks to my fellow Arashi fans, a 25-minute walk home turned into two and a half hours. Only walking. No bus, no subway. I stopped by a couple of convenience stores on the way home to buy some food. I've never seen a Lawson or 7-11 so crowded, even at 11:30 p.m. on a Saturday, but at least I wasn't the only one buying dinner covered in Arashi memorabilia.
Pics later. :)
BLOG SOUNDTRACK: Arashi - LIFE
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