One Year Ago......... "Everything" Changed....
Today is my 1 year Arashi Anniversary!!!
Well to be honest it's actually my 1 year Jun anniversary because i don't know the exact date i became an Arashi fan but this was the day i was baited into the fandom!! ^-^
I was talking on the phone earlier to one of my friends and when i told her it was my 1 year anniversary, i was so surprised that she remembered the conversation we had exactly a year ago! It was just after i had decided to watch the HanaDan j-drama and googled the cast in google images. The conversation went something like this:
Me: You know that manga i was reading? Well i decided to watch the drama of it and oh my god one of the actors is REALLY hot!!
Anita: Really? What's his name?
Me: I dunno but type in "Hana Yori Dango japanese cast" and see the picture of four guys? Well he's...
Anita: ..... the one who kinda looks like Michael Jackson?
Me: YEAH!
Anita: Woah he is hot!
Me: I know! Hold on....... it says his name is Jun Matsumoto.
Anita: Jun what?
Me: Matsumoto. Oh! It says here that he's in a band too!
Anita: Cool, are you gonna look them up?
Me: Dunno, probably not.
(That was a very bad description of our conversation but you get the idea!)
Anyway so i decided to watch HanaDan and i completely fell for "the guy with the gorgeous smile". Seriously even to this day, i melt when he smiles!! ^-^ Anyway, i watched all two seasons within a couple of days and when it was over i was so desperate for more! I downloaded the soundtracks and couldn't stop listening to the the two theme songs! S there was two songs on my ipod under the name "Aashi" but i knew absolutely NOTHING about them. The name sounded vaguely familiar but i didn't know where i had heard it from. I decided to google them and got SUCH A HUGE SUPRISE when i realised that that was the band Jun was in!
So i guess that was when it really started, or at least started to start!
I looked up so many videos of Jun on Youtube but (please don't stone me!) i didn't really have any interest in Arashi. Of course, it was impossible to not watch their videos too, there was only so many videos of Jun on his own.
BUT THEN i came across the video that i totally owe for actually bringing me into the Arashi fandom!!
Unfortunately i searched everywhere on Youtube but it's been removed (grrr!) but i was a clip from VS Arashi #60 where Fall in Love were the guests. I watched it because Jun vs that guy was so cute and the glaring thing was hot but then for the first time, i noticed someone else fro Arashi. Sho was ABSOLUTELY FRICKIN ADORABLE!!!!! He was just so cute and from then on i started noticing Sho more and more, and then Aiba, then Ohno and THEN that was it!!
For some reason that i completely don't understand i didn't like Nino!
I think me not liking Nino lasted until the end of summer because (if i'm remembering right) that was the time i got my Time concert DVD and as i said in another post, i fell for Nino when i saw him perform "Niji". That was just the moment that turned me and then i suddenly loved him as much as the others!!! I don't really think i ever "didn't like" him, it's just i was indifferent to him. Does that make sense?
Anyway i love them all now so it doesn't matter!! ^-^
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Okay so now i just have to give a list of the Arashi songs that really mean something to me. Some of them may not even be my favourite songs but they have a special memory or something associated with them!
1. WISH - This song is special for obvious reasons. It's the first song i ever heard of theirs and i heard it exactly a year ago! I always loved the lyrics and just how happy it is. Plus i adore Jun's solo of it in their 5x10 tour! Seriously i think i may even prefer it to the original! *~*
2. Love so Sweet - When i was listening to those two Arashi songs on my ipod, i regarded this as my favourite song. For some reason i always forget how much i like this song until i hear it again. Oh and the first time i saw the PV i laughed my head off because it was so cheesy but now i just smile because it's so cute! I guess when you get used to Arashi, your idea of "cheesy" changes! ^^
3. Everything - This song is and always will be sooooooooooooo special to me because i regard it as my "first Arashi song". Even though i heard WIsh and Love so Sweet before it, this was the first song that i actually looked up and watched properly. The other two were just songs i heard in the background of a great drama, but Everything was the first Arashi song i truly loved!! The interesting thing is that i had no idea how new the song was when i looked it up. I just simply typed in "Arashi" into youtube and watched the first pv to come up. Thinking about it now though, that was probably because it was so new, ne? What's funny is that a few days later i watched the same video again and only then did i notice that it said the PV had been added a week ago so i probably watched it on the day it was released!! ^-^ But anyway i love how mellow this song is. It was probably a good song to get me into the fandom because if i had watched something like "Kitto Daijoubu" first, i'd probably be a little weirded out!! XXD Also i remember when i was watching it i turned away for a second and then i hard this voice that i instantly recognised (i don't know how though). It was of course Jun, who i don't care what people say, i love his voice!! You know this video is probably the reason why the hairstyle he had in that pv is my favourite too! Just a thought.
4. One Love - I saw the pv WAY before i watched the HanaDan movie. In fact i don't think i watched the movie until around Halloween but i looked up this pv the same day as Everything. Anyway, whenever someone would ask me what my favourite Arashi song is, i usully answer "One Love" out of habit. to be honest i don't think i could name any one song as my favourite because i have about 5 that are tied but if i really HAD to pick, it'd bea tie between One Love and Pikanichi Double. I just love the lyrics and because i'm unashamedly Jun biased, i LOVE that he has three solo parts in it and i especially love the last part!! It makes me swoon everytime.
5. Fight Song - This song got me through my leaving cert and i swear i'll never forget it! Up until then i always used this song to lift my spirits, especially before exams but i totally relied on this song during my lc week!! Everytime i was on the verge of a mental breakdown (which was surprisingly often) i just took a 4 min break to listen to this song and it really helped! I love every performance of this. For me, a concert just isn't a concert without this song! For some reason i love how i most cases it only seems to be Nino and Jun who actually sing it while the rest just laugh or talk through their parts!! ^-^ Seriously just watch the Time or AAA 2008 concert if you don't believe me!
6. Pikanichi Double - Considering how much i love this song, i'm so surprised at how long it took me to hear it. I actually didn't hear it at all until the All the Best album. Then i saw the perf of it on AAA 2008 concert dvd which i think i got sometime around October. and completely fell in love with the song! IT'S SO PRETTY!! I guess you could say it's my second fav song or else it's tied with One Love!
7. Crazy Moon ~ Kimi wa Muteki ~ - There's nothing really special about why i love this song but i had to put it here because i was so addicted to it for months! The funny thing is i remember hearing it on the All The Best album and having absolutely no opinion on it. It was like i hadn't really heard it. I can't remember when i began to love this song but from the moment i saw the PV i was hooked!
8. Niji - I already mentioned it above but this song is responsible for me loving Nino and for that i'm forever grateful! Not only that though! I also love th lyrics, so pretty and this was also the first Arashi song that i tried to learn on the piano! ^-^ Enough said, i just love this song.
9. Hadashi no Mirai - It's actually kinda funny me mentioning this song because it's not exactly very serious or emotional but i just love it so much! It's impossible for me to listen to it without doing the hand movements!! ^^
10. 5x10 - Do i really need to explain why i love this song? I think everyone knows how amazing it is, what the lyrics represent and just how emotional it is. Even though i've only been in the fandom for a year, this song makes me sooo proud to be a fan!
AND NOW< THE MEMBERS!!!!
(i'll just go by age, it's easier!)
1. Satoshi Ohno
Oh-chan is just too adorable!! Somehow without me realising, he's fished his way into my top three! He's the member who i gradually warmed up to more and more the more i saw him. In the beginning he was just "Ohno" but now he's that adorable little fisherman who won me over with his blank facial expressions and silent demeaner. And it never ceases to amaze me what a brilliant singer and dancer he is. When he's just standing there, looking all lost and confused, you can't predict that he's going to do an amazing dance routine or reach notes i've never even heard of!! Plus i love his art!! SO cute!
2. Sho Sakurai
Ok i just couldn't resist putting in this picture because, COME ON, Sho-chanhas an amazing body!! I'm not a perve, i swear! ^^;
Sho is, hmmmm, how do i talk about him? He one of the most amazing people ever, to sum up! He just astounds me! I was never someone who liked rap but sakurap is a whole other story! I love that he can write rap lyrics and sing them so beautifully! ^-^ And i adore the fact that he's a newscaster for reasons i can't really explain.... it just really amuses me. Plus the fact that he's the "most intelligent" of Arashi is something too right? I remember reading that Sho was fluent in English and Korean from watching random Arashi clips, i'm beginning to wonder if that's true? Well, i could believe the english thing but i've never heard him speaking Korean. Maybe, he has to dumb down his english on tv or something?? *~*
3. Masaki Aiba
Ah Aiba-chan! I've said it before and i'll say it again, i really think if it wasn't for Jun, then Aiba would be my ichiban! SO i guess in that case, he's my niban!! ^-^ I love AIba to bits, how lovably, dorkably, sweetly cute he is! All those A no Arashi experiments and Aibaland segments just make me love him more. The thing is, if my friends were to pick any Arashi member as being similar to me, i know they'd pick Aiba because, honestly one of the reasons i love him is that he does all those stupid dorky experiments that i don't have the time or money to do myself!! =^-^= I probably should be bothered that i'm pretty similar to the baka of Arashi but i'm not! He's super adorable right? Honestly i just have the biggest urge to give him a hug!! I love how much he loves Arashi and how he always cries and gets sentimental at concerts and stuff! It's just too pecious! Really for me, Aiba is just a big lovable bear!! ^o^
4. Kazunari Ninomiya
I really do love Nino and that fact makes me soooooo thankful. It would be awful if i stayed "indifferent" towards him forever so i'm glad i didn't. Anyway, Nino is amazing right? I already said Sho was amazing but Nino's amazing in a whole different way. Seriously he is one of the most talented people i've ever heard of. I've lost count of the amount of instruments he plays, seriously! And as for his magic tricks, i'm completely stunned every time! HOW DOES HE DO IT??? And that whole hypnotism thing (despite being hilarious) freaks me out so much. I'd love to be able to do it too! He really just amazes me! Also, it's a bit random but i love how during the Rolling Coin Tower of VS Arashi, he always sits on the edge of the table! It's so cute. And the way he can bend his arms is so insanely weird and i love that! I also love the latest interview where he said Arashi was "his Arashi" and how he got to see things we'd never see!! *jealous* Oh and one last thing, i love how he can do summersaults so easily! *jealous again*
5. Jun Matsumoto
Ah Jun, my Junnie! What can i say? There are two many things i love about this guy; his smile, his cheekbones, his hair, his laugh, his voice (yes i really do like it), how serious he is with work, how he's the "idea man", how much of an entertainer he is, his hat fetish (i sincerely doubt that it's a coincidence that i've been wearing more hats in the last year!), his ring fetish, his clothing style, how much of a perfectionist he is, how he acts so cool but is really a dork at heart, how considerate he is, all of his nicknames (Matsujun, Matssun, etc), how amazing he is at everything, how crap he is at golf, his "defined face" (lol), how competitive he gets, how he ALWAYS crouches on the ground (seriously if you haven't noticed, look out for it!), how he completely knows what the audience wants, how he doesn't give too much a way, how when asked what type of girl he likes, he said "someone i can respect and admire", how he always gives such serious and detailed answers in interviews, how he can make absolutely anyone fall for him without trying, how romantic he is, how he can be so shy sometimes, all of the Matsujun pairings (Sakumoto, Matsumiya, Juntoshi, Junba).
THAT is a very brief summary of why exactly i adore Matsujun! He's my absolute ichiban and i'm so proud to be Jun-baited. Every interview i see of him makes me love him more!!
Man this is getting very long!!
Well i guess all that's left to say is why i love Arashi as a whole! =^-^=
- They make me smile and laugh no matter how sad or lonely i'm feeling. In one year they've never failed to make me happy!
- How modest they are. No matter how famous they get, they always take it in their stride and don't let the fame go to their heads. I sincerely hope that doesn't change.
- The fact that they have no problem with doing the most stupid, dorkiest, embarrassing things on national tv!
- All of theirs tv shows. I nearly cried when i heard AnS was ending. I miss that show so much. HnA, VSA, AniS and all their old shows are so wonderfully dorky and cool!
- How close they are! It's impossible to miss what good friends they are and it's obvious they're not faking it. They couldn't possibly fake that affection and love and it's sooooo cute to watch!
- The member ai. Kind of similar to the above point but also kinda different!! It's so cute to watch no matter what pairing!
- How they've made me completely exceed our bandwidth month in month out and made my dad yell at me because of it. Well i don't really love that but i had to mention it! I can't stop downloading their shows!
- The fact i can stay all day online and not get bored thanks to them!
- How cathcy their songs are! Even if i don't know what i'm saying, i always sing along with them and do the hand gestures!
- Even though i've been technically learning Japanese for 3 years, it was only when i got into the fandom, that i got serious! it made me sooo motivated to learn it because i wanted so much to be able to watch their shows without subtitles!
- How even though i've only been in the fandom for one year, it feels like it's been WAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY longer!!
- How they've led to me discovering ohe Japanese artists and groups such as Tegomass, Ai Otsuka, Berryz Kobo, Momoiro Clover and other actors too!
Anyway, i really need to be finishing this soon so i'll just end with this. Throughout my relatively short life, i've gone through so many obsessions but they never really stuck. So when i got into the Arashi fandom, i thought that it would probably be the same even though i really didn't want it to be! But since then, my obsession has not only stayed as big, but has actually got bigger by the month!! I feel like i've been in the fandom for years not just one single year! But i'm so so so grateful for that one faithful day one year ago when it all began!