Arashi Blast in Miyagi Concert Report for Sept. 23rd, Wednesday
Last day!
Today is the last day for Blast in Miyagi. And my birthday. What a nice present!
Last night, the Music Station line up was announced, so we knew they'd be filming the festival songs.
After getting some food and waiting in the shade, we went to go inside.
We had arena seats! They were really good! Right in front of the round stage and the left side of the main stage.
They had the right cameras for DVD filming tonight. Maybe we can expect a DVD?
There were also rumors that Johnny-san was seen at a taxi stand here. He might be attending the concert tonight.
We started on time with "Wild At Heart". Sho popped out of the stage in front of us. He kept gesturing "come on" for us to yell louder.
In "Pikanchi", Jun and Aiba were smiling widely for their duet.
The Arashi 3D flying stage did work today! No problems. They flew for "Happiness" around the same pattern as the first two nights. I'm glad they got it fixed in time.
N: Miyagi! It's the last night!
There was a cute moment when Sho put his hand on Aiba's shoulder and Aiba looked at him with a big smile.
"Troublemaker" had Jun teasing us that we weren't loud enough and Sho agreeing with him, "Yup, not enough."
J: Jump!
After "Love Rainbow", Aiba yelled, "Hey Miyagi! We made you wait! Let's have some fun!" He was totally channeling Jun and trying to be cool.
The carts went through the arena. We were directly next to the aisle and that's right where the carts came. If the members had reached out, we could have touched them. Jun came by us first. He was very good about trying to wave to everyone.
The greetings followed "Aozora".
Aiba's was the same as before, Sho added a "that's definitely not enough!", Nino's was the same with his random, "Let's go wandering around", and Jun's was the same with his squinty Ohno impression. Ohno pointed to himself as if saying "That's me?", laughing at it.
Ohno's was mostly the same, but he mentioned it was the last day and he was definitely overexaggerating everything. He finished his usual shouts but either didn't want to finish or he thought he needed to waste some more time, because he yelled, "How are you REALLY doing?" He was having so much fun. It was so cute! He dashed off the stage.
In "Janakute", I liked how Aiba ran his hand through his hair in frustration of getting hanged up on at the end and it stuck up a bit at the back.
Nino made it through his solo okay. He seemed to be singing more confidently.
He strummed his guitar loudly. "Miyagi! It's the last day! Put your hands up! Give me your voices!" For "Oh Yeah" and "Kotoba Yori", Nino came to our stand and waved a lot.
After some very nice hip shaking in "Zero G", they played the choir video. Only it wasn't just 2 or 3 schools, they invited all 7 schools. The video was a mix of the others and a new addition of a club with only a single girl in it. The boys were smiling wide when Jun looked over.
J: Please listen to this song.
He turned to the choirs.
J: Are you ready? Your expressions look really great.
A: Let's do it.
S: If this many students are here, then their families and friends may be here tonight too.
My impression was that the boys' voices were powerful for "Kansha Kangeki", but it was very pretty. It really made me remember my days in choir during high school.
Each member introduced a school or two at the end, but when it got to Aiba, he couldn't get the name out right. He said it slowly and then stuttered it too.
S: The sound really sunk into your bones, didn't it?
Facing the students as they filed off the stage, Nino said, "Thank you very much for coming."
S: Even though they had very little time.
Jun explained, "They had exams, but for us, they made the time for practicing."
N: Can I say something? During the introductions, why did Ikkokudou-san appear?
He's a ventriloquist that does imitations, and when he talks with his puppet, sometimes he staggers his own voice with the puppet's. Nino imitated the slow way Aiba said it.
A: I'm really really sorry!
J: Let's keep going! Stands!
At first, I wasn't sure what he meant, but for "Love So Sweet", they traveled around in the large carts and primarily only faced the stands. Jun and Ohno came to our side of the main stage. As they sang, they put their hands over their shoulders and stayed like that as they climbed the stairs to the cart. The other trio did their usual airplane and throwing their fists out. Just like last night, as soon as Sho's rap started in "Kitto Daijoubu", Nino stood in front of him, doing a low "come on" gesture that looked ridiculous and made Sho stop singing to laugh. At the end, Sho tried to say "wicked wicked every time", but bit his tongue at the end and messed up. He hung his head and shook it in exasperation at himself. When they came by us, Nino and Sho turned briefly to wave at the arena.
"Bittersweet" had a fairly normal duet. Ohno and Jun had their hands on each other's shoulders, singing only to each other. They moved to main stage and when they were lined up vertically, I'm pretty sure I saw Nino grab Ohno's hips, either to pull him into place so it was a straight line or to purposefully make him stumble a bit. At the final pose, Aiba and Nino were grinding their heads together, fighting for the space there. Sho glanced down and when he saw it, he burst out laughing.
MC
S: Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! We're Arashi!
Nino and Sho bowed to each other.
S: How is it so far?
J: I feel exhausted.
S: You WERE going full throttle.
J: That's because we're filming for the DVD today! Actually, we filmed a bit yesterday too.
Us: Eeeh?!
S: Well we've got a Music Station performance tonight, (Us: Yay!) so now is the time to fix your makeup.
Jun joked, "You can do it during our pointless MC."
S: Aiba-san, how has it been so far?
A: It's so hot! And the choir, since there were more people, it really sounded powerful.
S: There's something that I'm curious about. We shuffled our greetings and each member did a different one. Ohno did mine.
N: That's the best showpiece of them.
Jun looked up as he thought hard about how to explain it to Ohno, "There's something weird about it. Because you're not used to doing it, you're overthinking it and getting nervous and jittery about what you're supposed to say next."
O: I thought I needed to waste time.
Sho imitated Ohno's version of asking "How are you REALLY doing?"
Nino pointed to Ohno, "The one we should be asking that to is YOU."
The crowd burst out laughing at that.
O: It's hard to do it.
N: We're trying to do something that we don't do normally.
O: I can't get down the timing. For the Arashi call. And Sho always does this.
He did his Sho impression one more time and leaned forward as if expecting the crowd's shout.
Jun agreed immediately and said to Sho, "Ah, you DO do that."
Ohno did it twice more, much to our delight.
S: You're kidding, right? Do I really do that?
N: Try doing it from the start.
Sho did it once and he did the same thing. His eyes opened wide in surprise. "I DO!!"
O: And you usually end it with this.
He showed his silly rapper face and made everyone laugh.
O: I tried to do a perfect copy of his greeting.
S: I tried to do that too for Ninomiya's.
He demonstrated how Nino is always quick to leave after he says a quick "Yoroshiku".
N: That was close. But you should be moving about 3 "frames" slower.
Nino showed us his version, which was nearly exactly the same.
S: And then there's Aiba doing Matsujun's.
A: I try my hardest to be really cool about it.
N: You said "Thank you!" (In English)
J: I don't say that!
S: Is that how you picture him?
A: That's the Jun inside my head.
J: Me too. When I picture Leader in my head, I know it's not completely accurate, but it ends up like a Buddha's face.
He showed us the squinty face again.
O: Do I really do that?
J: Not that much, but that's how it is in my head.
Sho and Nino left to change, but as they were leaving, Sho went to Aiba, leaned close and started whispering in his ear, away from the mics. We screamed in approval.
J: Don't "kyaaa" at that.
We screamed anyway and he joked that we were taking it the wrong way. "They're just two "ojisans"."
A: No, it's not like it was a secret or anything. He said- (Aiba started giggling when he remembered) he said I had to apologize to him.
He wasn't able to keep a straight face as he explained how on the goods, when "you put the towel over your shoulders (he put it on Jun's to show us), and when you go to the toilet, after you wash your hands, (he dissolved into giggles again) you'll want to wipe it on the towel and guess whose face was positioned just perfectly to get wiped on every time." As Aiba kept laughing through his explanation, Jun followed along and when he wiped his hands, it landed right on Sho's face. We laughed hard at that.
J: It's a towel! It's natural to use it.
A: I was using it too and just Sho's face was getting really wrinkly. So I have a favor to ask all of you. Try reaching over further and using Matsujun's face too.
Aiba-sensei talked about the goods and when he named the 2 t-shirt colors, he called them "white" and "zunda-colored" (zunda is crushed soy beans that are usually used in sweets). So the Blast t-shirt ended up green because zunda is a famous food from Miyagi.
O: Did you think of everything from scratch?
A: The normal ones, like the t-shirts and stuff, I can do quickly, but the new ones that haven't been done before, I do have to think about it.
J: Like the soap.
A: Yeah! I was really grateful that the company which makes the bocchan soap okayed the idea.
Aiba and Ohno tried to remember where they'd sat the last time they'd come to that stadium to watch the World Cup and of course, had to point in different directions.
A: It rained during that game too. But we had no rain during our concerts this time!!
J: Stop! Don't say anymore than that. You never know what could happen.
A: It's never once not rained at our outdoor concerts.
S: It was sunny today. (He'd come back out in his happi and sent the other three to change) But who here brought their ponchos because we're just too dangerous not to?
Most of us clapped.
He bowed to us, "We're sorry for being Arashi."
He started to explain what we would do next.
S: This ridiculous talk- uh, this corner will lead into Music Station next. So all of you are going to be "performers" (In English). Nino, are you ready?
They started going through the dance. Sho asked Nino to turn around, but the first set of moves doesn't look any different from front or back, so Sho laughed and stopped him. Later, while Nino was holding the last pose he'd done, he'd spun around on one foot to show us how to do it the easy way. As they got to the clapping at the end, Sho had barely counted out the numbers and told us what to do when quite a few fans clapped the rhythm out perfectly the first time.
Sho looked out at us in surprise, " Ah! I see that some of you have done your research online because that clap was totally on beat." He gave an idol smile. "But it makes us happy that you did."
Sho made Nino turn around front and back many times to show us the moves from both sides. All five of them had come back out by the time they finished.
N: The staff says it's only a few more minutes.
J: 5 minutes. By the way, we'll just go straight into the 2nd half after the performance, so please get ready.
They joked about stretching and then all 5 of them started stretching in preparation.
S: How long? 3 minutes?
J: There will be a VTR and then Tamori-san will come on and say "Arashi~~".
One of them recommended they practice and had to decide who would do Tamori-san by janken. Aiba won. He put his hands on his eyes like binoculars in place of the sunglasses Tamori-san always wears.
A: Arashi~! Did you cut your hair?
They laughed at his deep voice.
S: Ohno-san, can you tell them where we are right now.
O: We're in Miyagi now.
Aiba as Tamori: Have you done anything fun in Sendai?
N: We had a lot of delicious food.
S: Last night, the 5 of us went drinking together.
Us: Ooooh!!
A: Okay, let's go to a commercial break.
We laughed at him.
J: We're performing an Arashi festival version of our songs and we will be welcoming a dance group named Kosuzume from Miyagi to perform with us tonight. Because it's our first time to do a live filming from the middle of a concert, we're kind of nervous.
S: We don't know what we should be doing.
O: 1 minute.
S: Let's get everyone excited. Can you stand?
He did several Arashi calls to get us pumped up.
A: 15 seconds.
We did a countdown together. The connection linked and Music Station's program started showing on the screens. We laughed because Aiko was giving a comment and obviously the timing hadn't been completely right. Next the VTR showed, so Arashi turned around to watch it. They got ready as it was ending.
Tamori-san called on Arashi and we cheered loudly.
T: It's the last day of your concerts, isn't it?
Jun listed out their schedule very seriously.
T: How is Miyagi for you?
We laughed because it was very close to the question that Aiba had asked during their practice interview.
J: It's been 8 years since we were here last. It's been great!
S: It's our first time to be performing at this stadium. The fans have come from all over Japan and all over the world.
T: What will you be singing?
J: It will be like a Miyagi festival.
He explained what he'd just told us about the dancers.
T: So that's why you are in happi.
They all turned around to show us their festival happi.
J: Yeah! Are you ready?! This is the last day!
Everyone was excited about Music Station and it being the final day, so the cheering was twice as loud as it's been any other day. We danced along with Arashi and enjoyed Aiba-chan dancing in front of us on the smaller stage for "Carnival Night". Nino was on the stand in front of us for "Guts", dancing and waving to us when he could.
The best part was right as the live filming was supposed to be ending, the camera found Ohno and he was giving the most awesome face, grinning widely with his tongue stuck out of one corner of his mouth. It was very cute.
Nino thanked the dancers for their perfect performance.
In "Fight Song", the cart came by us carrying Aiba. By some stroke of luck, he looked right at jun_yumemakura and returned her peace sign and then our eyes met and he grinned his squinty smile, waving to me and boblemon. I just love his big smiles. I'm glad we got lucky tonight.
Ohno thanked us for raising our hands and bowed before hurrying off stage.
We watched Jun fly for his solo, Sho called us his "fellow Arashians" in his solo, and Ohno's solo led into the dance remix.
J: This is the last spurt!
"Pikanchi Double" and "Meikyuu" ended in a flash. Down the aisle next to us, a cameraman was filming Ohno for the DVD from that angle. Ohno went up in the stand by us and was giving as much fan service as he could.
They climbed back on the Arashi 3D flying stage for "Sakura Sake". Sho knew it was coming, but even still, when Jun and the other started jumping during his rap, his singing ended up as yells. He was smiling at their antics though.
In "Arashi", the walking around in a circle thing was started with a look from Jun. However, Ohno wasn't paying any attention and Sho had to tap him on the arm and point to get him to move. They went around in the circle, but most of them ended up on one side of the platform and it tilted a lot. A laughing Jun struggled to get to the other side to restore the balance.
J: That was dangerous! So dangerous!
They made it back to the stage safely.
Speeches
Sho's speech was almost exactly the same as the other nights. As expected of our newscaster.
O: It's been 8 years since we last performed in Miyagi. More than ever, I feel that connecting through concerts is such an important thing. From now on, we'd like to come here. To Miyagi. If we can make even one more person smile, then we'll keep doing concerts here. It wasn't easy to accomplish, but we did it this time. And this atmosphere is also important to us. These 4 days here, we felt many different feelings. It's only with all of you that we can make Arashi. So please stay with us in the future.
A: Did you have fun?! (Yay!) No, I'm sure I had more fun than you! Seeing everyone's smiles, it's only at a concert that you can make this kind of atmosphere. Thank you. Like Sho-chan said, looking around, you know that Arashi has this many fans. To us, it's not so much where we will go, but who we'll go with that is important. Each step of the way, take your time and don't worry. We'll be there. So let's walk to the future together. Please keep following us.
N: I'm really hungry.... We danced a lot.... So I'm surprisingly really hungry. For a while there is was feeling like summer, but now it's cold. Turning to fall, then winter..... Then spring. (We cheered) Like that, the seasons will go around. To us, concerts are a wonderful thing. During every day life, you'll think about things a lot. But here, you don't have to think at all. We need days like that sometimes. It's funner that way. So let's have fun together. Today, I had fun too. Thank you.
J: Thank you. Wow, I really gave it my all. It was very fun. Out of the fans that came, for some it might have been a while since the last time and for some, it was their first. Thanks to you, we made it to 16 years. Thank you very much. We made it through the last 16 years with no fights, and now, through TV shows, dancing, singing, we can make your life a little funner. Next is the album tour. We want to make more fun memories together in the future. It's been 8 years, but we were very happy to be able to come here. We finally, finally came back.
He started to choke up and looked away. He didn't start crying, but he was close. He thanked us for coming again and reminded us that we are all under the same sky. Tonight too, he asked everyone to turn off the penlights.
J: As for the chemical lights, please hide them in your clothes.
The lights went off for "Hatenai Sora", gradually turning back on. They thanked us over and over again as they lowered.
In "Ai wo Sakebe", when they line up and do their poses, Ohno punched tonight and Jun blew kisses.
O: Do you still want to go on? A little more? Can you do it? Can you? Okay, put your hands up!
By the end of "Energy Song", they'd completely worn themselves out by running around. They jumped off the stairs and started huffing and puffing.
Sho said tiredly, "Zekkochou chou."
They sang the last song, "Yume ni Kakeru". Jun thanked the band, the staff, the people in Miyagi that helped, and us for coming. He was still tired and from yelling so much, his voice was going hoarse.
J: I don't have a voice anymore!
N: You're fine. You can keep going.
J: What's our name?! (His voice was cracking)
Us: Arashi!
They thanked us over and over, waving to everyone.
N: Let's meet again soon!
Jun's raised fist was the last thing we saw.
The concert ended at 7:30. We tried an Arashi call that the poor announcer couldn't quiet for several minutes until people realized that they weren't going to come back out. We were in the arena and had to wait for our section to be called.
It took half an hour for that and to get onto a bus at last, it took an hour and a half since the concert finished. We got back around 9:45. It was a long weekend with a hard schedule, but we accomplished everything we wanted to.
Next is the Japonism Tour! Can't wait for the album!
Pics:
<3
Today is the last day for Blast in Miyagi. And my birthday. What a nice present!
Last night, the Music Station line up was announced, so we knew they'd be filming the festival songs.
After getting some food and waiting in the shade, we went to go inside.
We had arena seats! They were really good! Right in front of the round stage and the left side of the main stage.
They had the right cameras for DVD filming tonight. Maybe we can expect a DVD?
There were also rumors that Johnny-san was seen at a taxi stand here. He might be attending the concert tonight.
We started on time with "Wild At Heart". Sho popped out of the stage in front of us. He kept gesturing "come on" for us to yell louder.
In "Pikanchi", Jun and Aiba were smiling widely for their duet.
The Arashi 3D flying stage did work today! No problems. They flew for "Happiness" around the same pattern as the first two nights. I'm glad they got it fixed in time.
N: Miyagi! It's the last night!
There was a cute moment when Sho put his hand on Aiba's shoulder and Aiba looked at him with a big smile.
"Troublemaker" had Jun teasing us that we weren't loud enough and Sho agreeing with him, "Yup, not enough."
J: Jump!
After "Love Rainbow", Aiba yelled, "Hey Miyagi! We made you wait! Let's have some fun!" He was totally channeling Jun and trying to be cool.
The carts went through the arena. We were directly next to the aisle and that's right where the carts came. If the members had reached out, we could have touched them. Jun came by us first. He was very good about trying to wave to everyone.
The greetings followed "Aozora".
Aiba's was the same as before, Sho added a "that's definitely not enough!", Nino's was the same with his random, "Let's go wandering around", and Jun's was the same with his squinty Ohno impression. Ohno pointed to himself as if saying "That's me?", laughing at it.
Ohno's was mostly the same, but he mentioned it was the last day and he was definitely overexaggerating everything. He finished his usual shouts but either didn't want to finish or he thought he needed to waste some more time, because he yelled, "How are you REALLY doing?" He was having so much fun. It was so cute! He dashed off the stage.
In "Janakute", I liked how Aiba ran his hand through his hair in frustration of getting hanged up on at the end and it stuck up a bit at the back.
Nino made it through his solo okay. He seemed to be singing more confidently.
He strummed his guitar loudly. "Miyagi! It's the last day! Put your hands up! Give me your voices!" For "Oh Yeah" and "Kotoba Yori", Nino came to our stand and waved a lot.
After some very nice hip shaking in "Zero G", they played the choir video. Only it wasn't just 2 or 3 schools, they invited all 7 schools. The video was a mix of the others and a new addition of a club with only a single girl in it. The boys were smiling wide when Jun looked over.
J: Please listen to this song.
He turned to the choirs.
J: Are you ready? Your expressions look really great.
A: Let's do it.
S: If this many students are here, then their families and friends may be here tonight too.
My impression was that the boys' voices were powerful for "Kansha Kangeki", but it was very pretty. It really made me remember my days in choir during high school.
Each member introduced a school or two at the end, but when it got to Aiba, he couldn't get the name out right. He said it slowly and then stuttered it too.
S: The sound really sunk into your bones, didn't it?
Facing the students as they filed off the stage, Nino said, "Thank you very much for coming."
S: Even though they had very little time.
Jun explained, "They had exams, but for us, they made the time for practicing."
N: Can I say something? During the introductions, why did Ikkokudou-san appear?
He's a ventriloquist that does imitations, and when he talks with his puppet, sometimes he staggers his own voice with the puppet's. Nino imitated the slow way Aiba said it.
A: I'm really really sorry!
J: Let's keep going! Stands!
At first, I wasn't sure what he meant, but for "Love So Sweet", they traveled around in the large carts and primarily only faced the stands. Jun and Ohno came to our side of the main stage. As they sang, they put their hands over their shoulders and stayed like that as they climbed the stairs to the cart. The other trio did their usual airplane and throwing their fists out. Just like last night, as soon as Sho's rap started in "Kitto Daijoubu", Nino stood in front of him, doing a low "come on" gesture that looked ridiculous and made Sho stop singing to laugh. At the end, Sho tried to say "wicked wicked every time", but bit his tongue at the end and messed up. He hung his head and shook it in exasperation at himself. When they came by us, Nino and Sho turned briefly to wave at the arena.
"Bittersweet" had a fairly normal duet. Ohno and Jun had their hands on each other's shoulders, singing only to each other. They moved to main stage and when they were lined up vertically, I'm pretty sure I saw Nino grab Ohno's hips, either to pull him into place so it was a straight line or to purposefully make him stumble a bit. At the final pose, Aiba and Nino were grinding their heads together, fighting for the space there. Sho glanced down and when he saw it, he burst out laughing.
MC
S: Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! We're Arashi!
Nino and Sho bowed to each other.
S: How is it so far?
J: I feel exhausted.
S: You WERE going full throttle.
J: That's because we're filming for the DVD today! Actually, we filmed a bit yesterday too.
Us: Eeeh?!
S: Well we've got a Music Station performance tonight, (Us: Yay!) so now is the time to fix your makeup.
Jun joked, "You can do it during our pointless MC."
S: Aiba-san, how has it been so far?
A: It's so hot! And the choir, since there were more people, it really sounded powerful.
S: There's something that I'm curious about. We shuffled our greetings and each member did a different one. Ohno did mine.
N: That's the best showpiece of them.
Jun looked up as he thought hard about how to explain it to Ohno, "There's something weird about it. Because you're not used to doing it, you're overthinking it and getting nervous and jittery about what you're supposed to say next."
O: I thought I needed to waste time.
Sho imitated Ohno's version of asking "How are you REALLY doing?"
Nino pointed to Ohno, "The one we should be asking that to is YOU."
The crowd burst out laughing at that.
O: It's hard to do it.
N: We're trying to do something that we don't do normally.
O: I can't get down the timing. For the Arashi call. And Sho always does this.
He did his Sho impression one more time and leaned forward as if expecting the crowd's shout.
Jun agreed immediately and said to Sho, "Ah, you DO do that."
Ohno did it twice more, much to our delight.
S: You're kidding, right? Do I really do that?
N: Try doing it from the start.
Sho did it once and he did the same thing. His eyes opened wide in surprise. "I DO!!"
O: And you usually end it with this.
He showed his silly rapper face and made everyone laugh.
O: I tried to do a perfect copy of his greeting.
S: I tried to do that too for Ninomiya's.
He demonstrated how Nino is always quick to leave after he says a quick "Yoroshiku".
N: That was close. But you should be moving about 3 "frames" slower.
Nino showed us his version, which was nearly exactly the same.
S: And then there's Aiba doing Matsujun's.
A: I try my hardest to be really cool about it.
N: You said "Thank you!" (In English)
J: I don't say that!
S: Is that how you picture him?
A: That's the Jun inside my head.
J: Me too. When I picture Leader in my head, I know it's not completely accurate, but it ends up like a Buddha's face.
He showed us the squinty face again.
O: Do I really do that?
J: Not that much, but that's how it is in my head.
Sho and Nino left to change, but as they were leaving, Sho went to Aiba, leaned close and started whispering in his ear, away from the mics. We screamed in approval.
J: Don't "kyaaa" at that.
We screamed anyway and he joked that we were taking it the wrong way. "They're just two "ojisans"."
A: No, it's not like it was a secret or anything. He said- (Aiba started giggling when he remembered) he said I had to apologize to him.
He wasn't able to keep a straight face as he explained how on the goods, when "you put the towel over your shoulders (he put it on Jun's to show us), and when you go to the toilet, after you wash your hands, (he dissolved into giggles again) you'll want to wipe it on the towel and guess whose face was positioned just perfectly to get wiped on every time." As Aiba kept laughing through his explanation, Jun followed along and when he wiped his hands, it landed right on Sho's face. We laughed hard at that.
J: It's a towel! It's natural to use it.
A: I was using it too and just Sho's face was getting really wrinkly. So I have a favor to ask all of you. Try reaching over further and using Matsujun's face too.
Aiba-sensei talked about the goods and when he named the 2 t-shirt colors, he called them "white" and "zunda-colored" (zunda is crushed soy beans that are usually used in sweets). So the Blast t-shirt ended up green because zunda is a famous food from Miyagi.
O: Did you think of everything from scratch?
A: The normal ones, like the t-shirts and stuff, I can do quickly, but the new ones that haven't been done before, I do have to think about it.
J: Like the soap.
A: Yeah! I was really grateful that the company which makes the bocchan soap okayed the idea.
Aiba and Ohno tried to remember where they'd sat the last time they'd come to that stadium to watch the World Cup and of course, had to point in different directions.
A: It rained during that game too. But we had no rain during our concerts this time!!
J: Stop! Don't say anymore than that. You never know what could happen.
A: It's never once not rained at our outdoor concerts.
S: It was sunny today. (He'd come back out in his happi and sent the other three to change) But who here brought their ponchos because we're just too dangerous not to?
Most of us clapped.
He bowed to us, "We're sorry for being Arashi."
He started to explain what we would do next.
S: This ridiculous talk- uh, this corner will lead into Music Station next. So all of you are going to be "performers" (In English). Nino, are you ready?
They started going through the dance. Sho asked Nino to turn around, but the first set of moves doesn't look any different from front or back, so Sho laughed and stopped him. Later, while Nino was holding the last pose he'd done, he'd spun around on one foot to show us how to do it the easy way. As they got to the clapping at the end, Sho had barely counted out the numbers and told us what to do when quite a few fans clapped the rhythm out perfectly the first time.
Sho looked out at us in surprise, " Ah! I see that some of you have done your research online because that clap was totally on beat." He gave an idol smile. "But it makes us happy that you did."
Sho made Nino turn around front and back many times to show us the moves from both sides. All five of them had come back out by the time they finished.
N: The staff says it's only a few more minutes.
J: 5 minutes. By the way, we'll just go straight into the 2nd half after the performance, so please get ready.
They joked about stretching and then all 5 of them started stretching in preparation.
S: How long? 3 minutes?
J: There will be a VTR and then Tamori-san will come on and say "Arashi~~".
One of them recommended they practice and had to decide who would do Tamori-san by janken. Aiba won. He put his hands on his eyes like binoculars in place of the sunglasses Tamori-san always wears.
A: Arashi~! Did you cut your hair?
They laughed at his deep voice.
S: Ohno-san, can you tell them where we are right now.
O: We're in Miyagi now.
Aiba as Tamori: Have you done anything fun in Sendai?
N: We had a lot of delicious food.
S: Last night, the 5 of us went drinking together.
Us: Ooooh!!
A: Okay, let's go to a commercial break.
We laughed at him.
J: We're performing an Arashi festival version of our songs and we will be welcoming a dance group named Kosuzume from Miyagi to perform with us tonight. Because it's our first time to do a live filming from the middle of a concert, we're kind of nervous.
S: We don't know what we should be doing.
O: 1 minute.
S: Let's get everyone excited. Can you stand?
He did several Arashi calls to get us pumped up.
A: 15 seconds.
We did a countdown together. The connection linked and Music Station's program started showing on the screens. We laughed because Aiko was giving a comment and obviously the timing hadn't been completely right. Next the VTR showed, so Arashi turned around to watch it. They got ready as it was ending.
Tamori-san called on Arashi and we cheered loudly.
T: It's the last day of your concerts, isn't it?
Jun listed out their schedule very seriously.
T: How is Miyagi for you?
We laughed because it was very close to the question that Aiba had asked during their practice interview.
J: It's been 8 years since we were here last. It's been great!
S: It's our first time to be performing at this stadium. The fans have come from all over Japan and all over the world.
T: What will you be singing?
J: It will be like a Miyagi festival.
He explained what he'd just told us about the dancers.
T: So that's why you are in happi.
They all turned around to show us their festival happi.
J: Yeah! Are you ready?! This is the last day!
Everyone was excited about Music Station and it being the final day, so the cheering was twice as loud as it's been any other day. We danced along with Arashi and enjoyed Aiba-chan dancing in front of us on the smaller stage for "Carnival Night". Nino was on the stand in front of us for "Guts", dancing and waving to us when he could.
The best part was right as the live filming was supposed to be ending, the camera found Ohno and he was giving the most awesome face, grinning widely with his tongue stuck out of one corner of his mouth. It was very cute.
Nino thanked the dancers for their perfect performance.
In "Fight Song", the cart came by us carrying Aiba. By some stroke of luck, he looked right at jun_yumemakura and returned her peace sign and then our eyes met and he grinned his squinty smile, waving to me and boblemon. I just love his big smiles. I'm glad we got lucky tonight.
Ohno thanked us for raising our hands and bowed before hurrying off stage.
We watched Jun fly for his solo, Sho called us his "fellow Arashians" in his solo, and Ohno's solo led into the dance remix.
J: This is the last spurt!
"Pikanchi Double" and "Meikyuu" ended in a flash. Down the aisle next to us, a cameraman was filming Ohno for the DVD from that angle. Ohno went up in the stand by us and was giving as much fan service as he could.
They climbed back on the Arashi 3D flying stage for "Sakura Sake". Sho knew it was coming, but even still, when Jun and the other started jumping during his rap, his singing ended up as yells. He was smiling at their antics though.
In "Arashi", the walking around in a circle thing was started with a look from Jun. However, Ohno wasn't paying any attention and Sho had to tap him on the arm and point to get him to move. They went around in the circle, but most of them ended up on one side of the platform and it tilted a lot. A laughing Jun struggled to get to the other side to restore the balance.
J: That was dangerous! So dangerous!
They made it back to the stage safely.
Speeches
Sho's speech was almost exactly the same as the other nights. As expected of our newscaster.
O: It's been 8 years since we last performed in Miyagi. More than ever, I feel that connecting through concerts is such an important thing. From now on, we'd like to come here. To Miyagi. If we can make even one more person smile, then we'll keep doing concerts here. It wasn't easy to accomplish, but we did it this time. And this atmosphere is also important to us. These 4 days here, we felt many different feelings. It's only with all of you that we can make Arashi. So please stay with us in the future.
A: Did you have fun?! (Yay!) No, I'm sure I had more fun than you! Seeing everyone's smiles, it's only at a concert that you can make this kind of atmosphere. Thank you. Like Sho-chan said, looking around, you know that Arashi has this many fans. To us, it's not so much where we will go, but who we'll go with that is important. Each step of the way, take your time and don't worry. We'll be there. So let's walk to the future together. Please keep following us.
N: I'm really hungry.... We danced a lot.... So I'm surprisingly really hungry. For a while there is was feeling like summer, but now it's cold. Turning to fall, then winter..... Then spring. (We cheered) Like that, the seasons will go around. To us, concerts are a wonderful thing. During every day life, you'll think about things a lot. But here, you don't have to think at all. We need days like that sometimes. It's funner that way. So let's have fun together. Today, I had fun too. Thank you.
J: Thank you. Wow, I really gave it my all. It was very fun. Out of the fans that came, for some it might have been a while since the last time and for some, it was their first. Thanks to you, we made it to 16 years. Thank you very much. We made it through the last 16 years with no fights, and now, through TV shows, dancing, singing, we can make your life a little funner. Next is the album tour. We want to make more fun memories together in the future. It's been 8 years, but we were very happy to be able to come here. We finally, finally came back.
He started to choke up and looked away. He didn't start crying, but he was close. He thanked us for coming again and reminded us that we are all under the same sky. Tonight too, he asked everyone to turn off the penlights.
J: As for the chemical lights, please hide them in your clothes.
The lights went off for "Hatenai Sora", gradually turning back on. They thanked us over and over again as they lowered.
In "Ai wo Sakebe", when they line up and do their poses, Ohno punched tonight and Jun blew kisses.
O: Do you still want to go on? A little more? Can you do it? Can you? Okay, put your hands up!
By the end of "Energy Song", they'd completely worn themselves out by running around. They jumped off the stairs and started huffing and puffing.
Sho said tiredly, "Zekkochou chou."
They sang the last song, "Yume ni Kakeru". Jun thanked the band, the staff, the people in Miyagi that helped, and us for coming. He was still tired and from yelling so much, his voice was going hoarse.
J: I don't have a voice anymore!
N: You're fine. You can keep going.
J: What's our name?! (His voice was cracking)
Us: Arashi!
They thanked us over and over, waving to everyone.
N: Let's meet again soon!
Jun's raised fist was the last thing we saw.
The concert ended at 7:30. We tried an Arashi call that the poor announcer couldn't quiet for several minutes until people realized that they weren't going to come back out. We were in the arena and had to wait for our section to be called.
It took half an hour for that and to get onto a bus at last, it took an hour and a half since the concert finished. We got back around 9:45. It was a long weekend with a hard schedule, but we accomplished everything we wanted to.
Next is the Japonism Tour! Can't wait for the album!
Pics:
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