A translation, since it's been a while
YAY, I survived my pathology exam! Altho I dunno how I did, and it was pretty hard... hopefully I at least passed >.<
Anyways, I have 3 days off and I'm planning on catching up on all the Arashi I've been missing ^__^ Which might mean I'll be inspired to write a fangirly post at some point soon, we'll see.
To celebrate, I've translated some blurbs from the Dec 1999 issue of Duet. Yes,1999. Actually, bookwormqueen posted the scans and requested someone translate, so here it is ^__^ And I'll dedicate this translation to our MatsuJun, since I didn't get to write as great a b-day post as I would've liked for him on Monday.
I must say, I enjoyed reading this a lot, especially the blurbs about the boys' dreams and aspirations concerning where they'd like to go with Arashi. Even if they were just saying it to say it back then and hadn't really thought about it... it was awesome to read them now that we know how much they've grown and matured and can see just how many of those dreams they've made into reality.
And it was even better to see that the LOVE this group has for each other has never changed over the years, even if they as individuals have (a little). Ohmiya geez, lol. And MatsuJun fanboying Riida was just too cute, especially considering their positions in the group now ROFL XDDD
Anyways, here's a look back at the boys' thoughts shortly after debuting~~!
"DATA BOOK" (My random comments/notes in blue... cept for Riida's section they're in red, haha) Also with this part, I wasn't sure if I should've translated it into first person or what, but since they used quotes for only some parts, those I put into the boy's perspectives... ANYWAYS...
Masaki Aiba
Born Dec 24, 1982, Chiba-ken. (Blood) type AB. Height 174cm, Weight 50kg, Shoe size 26.5cm.
Nickname Aiba-chan
Fave food Unajuu (broiled eel over rice; it's awesome) Tendon (shrimp tempura over rice)
Food he dislikes Shiso (which is this leaf w/a really strong flavor that's used for seasoning)
Weakness "I guess, it'd be shiso"
Special skill Playing with his brother. Watching videos or playing catch, indoors or outdoors, anything's ok.
His type (of girl) "Lately I'm not really sure myself, but I guess, someone I can get along with?"
Something he always has with him Lipcream
Charm point His freckles (particularly on the the right side of his face)
Someone he's aiming towards (wants to be like) "Everyone has something good about them, so I can't pick just one person. I want to become someone who can do anything, be it talking (commenting) or dancing."
What he spends his days off doing Sit at home watching the wide shows or day dramas, just spacing off.
Jun Matsumoto
Born Aug 30, 1983, Tokyo. (Blood) type A. Height 170cm, Weight 48kg, Shoe size 26.5cm.
Nickname MatsuJun
Fave food Pizza, any kind of noodle (<--me too, esp soba! And pasta)
Food he dislikes Celery (he doesn't like the smell) "But, I like SMAP's 'Celery' (lol)"
Weaknesses Getting up in the morning, very weak against tickling (LOL, tho he'd prolly kill you if you tried it), gets depressed right away (Also LOL; I know how it is, you're too majime just like me, MatsuJun)
Special skill Baseball
His type (of girl) One who's honest/sincere
Something he always has with him MD player. Listens to Kubota Toshinobu and Mr Children a lot. "Because we're harmonizing in our songs, to learn/study more about harmonizing, I've started listening to artists like BoyzIIMen and TAKE6 a lot too."
Charm point His eyes and round face (which isn't so anymore, hehehehe)
Someone he's aiming towards "The good points of all our senpai are my aspiration"
What he spends his days off doing Shopping. "I don't have winter clothes yet, so I want to go shopping"
Kazunari Ninomiya
Born June 17, 1983, Tokyo. (Blood) type A. Height 168cm, Weight 48kg, Shoe size 26cm
Nickname Nino
Fave food Anything as long as it's edible "Lately everything's good"
Food he dislikes The chop suey from his school lunch "The way the flour was still all clumped up in it was horrible"
Weaknesses Nothing in particular. "But, I don't really like (am bad with) people who are all talk only, or who aren't clear with what they want/do/say"
Special skill Baseball, guitar
His type (of girl) Someone with the same values
Something he always has with him Script. "I'm always walking around with it"
Charm point His hands. "I think my short fingers make them cute. Also, it's unusual to have a freckle/mole on your palms, so I like that (about my hands)" (<--AGREED on both counts! We still love Nino's hamburger hands)
Someone he's aiming towards Higashiyama Noriyuki-san "I respect him because he works hard, but doesn't take himself too seriously and is really great towards his kouhai." (LOL, tho those koukai then went and dumped him in the water on the last Mote Arashi, Dame Arashi XDDD)
What he spends his days off doing Sleep as much as possible
Satoshi Ohno
Born Nov 26, 1980, Tokyo. (Blood) type A. Height 168cm, Weight 51kg, Shoe size 25cm.
Nickname Oh-chan. "The members call me Ohno-kun. But sometimes Nino calls me 'this guy' " (The word was "koitsu" which is a slang-y term for "this person," slightly talking down on them, but not always in a bad way... it's a word you'd use about your kouhai. LOL Ohmiya, how some things have not changed...)
Fave food Meat. "Especially yakiniku. And I like shrimp too~"
Food he dislikes Carrots. "I don't like how they're sweet"
Weakness Weak against having his butt/thighs touched (Lol, I hope not anymore, the way the boys *cough Nino cough* molest him sometimes all the time XDDD)
Special skill Drawing
His type (of girl) The girl he winds up liking (Awww Riida, you've been saying this since forever, huh?)
Something he always has with him Eyedrops to help wake him up
Charm point Nothing. "Maybe it's my spaciness?" (<--- YES!!!)
Someone he's aiming towards Shounen-tai
What he spends his days off doing If it was only one day off, he'd sleep. If he had a week off, he'd escape from Tokyo and visit the countryside. "I want to get away from the noise of the city and relax"
Sho Sakurai
Born Jan 25, 1982, Tokyo. (Blood) type A. Height 169cm, Weight 50kg, Shoe size 25.5cm.
Nickname Sho-kun
Fave food Pizza (particularly the seafood ones)
Food he dislikes Shiitake mushrooms (ME TOO XP mushrooms....)
Weaknesses Sleepiness
Special skill Soccer
His type (of girl) Someone that's easy to be around
Something he always has with him A watch. "I usually go to work bare-handed, with only my watch and wallet on me."
Charm point His forehead "The way it sticks out is really charming (lol)" (ROFL I died here)
Someone he's aiming towards Kimura-kun. "Because he's really kakkoii. Other than my senpai (at JE), it'd be Matsumoto Hitoshi-san (from Downtown). I was really happy when we got to be on HEY! HEY! HEY!"
What he spends his days off doing Stay at home watching movies and relaxing. "I used to go hang out around town on my days off, but lately I've been too tired to"
And the other blurbs, for your entertainment ^______^ I'm not sure what the questions were, but I think they were just asked about their dreams for Arashi, as well as how things were going so far, etc.
Sho
As far as Arashi's activities go, there's seriously a ton of things I'd like to do. We got to do a drama, "V no Arashi" together, it'd be great if we could have our own tv show. Like a variety show or something. I'd really like to go out to do things all over the country. Right now, during our free time at work, Ohno-kun and I have been doing skits (comedy) together. The contents... they aren't those ones where the pun is the joke, they're more "sophisticated" (he lit. said "our level's higher") than that. In general, Ohno-kun is the boke and I'm the tsukkomi. But really, we're just messing around, going along with the mood at the moment. If we get a chance, we'll show you our act. (I wanna see!)
This might not need saying, but I'd really like for a lot of people to listen to our debut song "A.RA.SHI" Me, I really like the dance during the chorus. It's called a breakdown, when the five of us are moving together to the side, it's really cool. It makes me really happy that we get to dance in front, not as the back dancers for our senpai. That and, there's nothing more fun than the times when we 5 are together. Maybe it's because of that that even though I'm sleep-deprived, I'm totally fine. With this high tension ("tension" = mood) of ours, I'd like to do all kinds of different things.
Well, and even though I'm saying all that, I think it's ok to think about and decide on our direction as Arashi after each of us has gotten the chance to do many different things. I personally would like to become better at talking with people. To get there, right now I'm trying to watch all kinds of different programs to learn from them.
Nino
We get asked a lot, "What's changed now that you've debuted?" but actually, nothing's really changed between us. I'm sure that if we continue achieving new things, we'll get something out of them, but that's still far in the future for us. And I mean, these members are the same people I've been with this whole time, things wouldn't change even if we tried. Although, I didn't know that Ohno-kun was that kind of person... He was in Kyoto the whole time for his play, right? So I only talked with him on the phone every so often, and I never realized how genki of a person he acutally is. It's like, "maybe he was just out of batteries this whole time...?" kind of thing. Perhaps getting up early is good for him (lol).
Our debut song is really hyper and great, right? I want people to pay attention to the dance for it. Not to the part with actual moves, the parts where we're just freely dancing. We're doing our very best there, so watch us, ok? (Awww Nino, so cute, of course we will/do! Always <3 ) Here on out I'd like to think of every project as a chance to learn, and challenge a bunch of different things. In particular, I'd really like to do more acting. The play "Stand by me", and of course dramas, were tens of times harder than concerts, but they felt great do. Plays are fun because they're live, so every performance is different. Even though during a scene where I got punched, one performance I actually did get punched and lost a molar and was really bleeding. (OMG Nino, daijoubu? Lol, even tho it happened 11+yrs ago...)
Someday eventually, it'd be great if we were able to do more things our fans want to see. If I made specific goals though, I feel like once we accomplished them then it would just end at that, so I won't do it.
Aiba-kun
The drama us 5 did together was really tough, filming until late at night and then really early in the morning. Not only that, but I had a slight cold too. And in the midst of that tense atmosphere, I said the line, "I'll mix Plan A and Plan B" as "Set A and Set B" instead. Because of that Ohno-kun couldn't stop laughing for the longest time, it was a mess. (ROFL, why do I feel like this sort of thing would STILL happen with them) But even though we had stuff like that happen, but the drama was a LOT of fun. The next thing I want to do... I guess it'd have to be a concert. Oh wait, doing a variety show with the 5 of us would be great too... when I start thinking about it, there's so many things I want to do I just don't know anymore. But before that, I have to work on improving my skills. Right now I feel like we're just absorbed with running our hardest and are waiting to see what the outcome will be.
My energy for work is coming from jet-skiing. It's what I most want to do right now in my private life. During our debut event in Hawaii, I got to try it out a little, and I can't forget that feeling of speed. Those fun memories are fueling my power now, I guess (lol). In actuality, I get really seasick though. In elementary school I'd always get so sick every time I went fishing on the ocean with my dad. But for some reason I was fine jet-skiing. The other day I was talking about this with Takizawa-kun. While I was at his house eating the fried rice we ordered for delivery. Moments like that, I want to cherish even more from now on. (Awww, Aiba-kun, you're so sweet~~)
Riida
Everyone in Arashi is just bursting with fun, it's great~ Now that we're spending whole days together, I've learned that MatsuJun is actually pretty quick-tempered. He'll suddenly get annoyed with himself for no reason (lol). The other members are the same as how I first thought them. With Nino, it's like there's another me. (You two were MADE for each other, seriously) Everyone's personalities get along well, so I feel at ease with them.
For "A.RA.SHI" I'm the main vocal, but honestly I'm thinking, "If I knew it'd turn out this way, I would've studied/practiced more singing" (lol). Besides singing, it'd be nice if I could figure out how to convey myself on tv better. Everyone always tells me, "You're a completely different person than the you on tv." That's why I don't want to watch shows I'm on. I always have the intention of working hard in my own way, but this one thing I just have no idea how to improve on no matter how hard I try. (Awww Riida it's ok, you're way awesome on tv now just the way you are!)
Something that's changed for me personally since debuting... I've gotten a lot busier, so my habit of being lazy has started fixing itself maybe? (He used "mendokusagariya" which is someone who doesn't want to do things because they're too much of a bother, lol. Which Riida STILL is, I dunno what he's talking about ^_~) Also, I've gotten better at controlling my sleepiness. Before, I was getting ten-something hrs of sleep every day, but now I have to get up early to get to work... It was hard at first, but I've started getting used to the busy lifestyle. Seriously, I wouldn't have been able to even think about it before. I think I've become more aware (of my position/situation) after debuting. It might look like I don't have any motivation, but that's not the case. I may look like that, but actually I'm full of motivation!
MatsuJun
Right now everyone's pulling together and working hard at our singing and drama. When we're in high spirits, we're all playing around together, and when we're being low-key, we're at it together. The members are all pretty unique in their own way, so when we're with each other it's incredibly entertaining. Especially Ohno-kun, he's the BEST. Because of his work on stage in "KYO TO KYO" I had this really strong image of him as a prince, just like (his role) Ushiwakamaru (lol). But in reality, he's actually kinda weird... anyway, his unexpected and random movements are funny. In the future, I'd like to do a variety show as Arashi, and it doesn't matter what the contents are, Ohno-kun will surely make it hilarious. At least, we'd be laughing a lot. He's so funny I'd really like to make him not only our dance leader, but also our variety leader too. He's a great mood maker.
In Arashi, my position is... the one who gets bullied (lol). I get teased and made fun of, but right now I think that's my position. There's just too many things about me (to tease)~ At any rate, we'll be putting out CDs from now on, so I'd like to focus and improve on singing too, not only dancing. I'll keep trying to improve, and someday it'd be great if I could challenge myself to do a solo too, though that might be far in the future. "A.RA.SHI" has many melodies mixed into it which makes it really great. Since we've managed to debut now, I'd really like to become No.1! (Haha, leave it to MatsuJun to have such big goals. I bet back then when ppl read this they were like, "Suuuuuure you guys'll be on top.... dream on" Well, it took them some time, but they did it, didn't they?)
What I really loved about this was that even tho Riida was being all harsh on himself about tv, MatsuJun goes and fanboys him like crazy for being so awesome and has every confidence that any variety w/Riida involved would be good variety. Which I quite agree with. And it cracks me up that nowadays, Riida and Aiba-kun are the ones to be made fun of instead XDDD <3333 you boys, you ROCK
That was all of it. Hope it was a fun read, sorry if my comments got in the way, I just HAD to write them, you know ^_~
Have a great weekend everyone~
Anyways, I have 3 days off and I'm planning on catching up on all the Arashi I've been missing ^__^ Which might mean I'll be inspired to write a fangirly post at some point soon, we'll see.
To celebrate, I've translated some blurbs from the Dec 1999 issue of Duet. Yes,1999. Actually, bookwormqueen posted the scans and requested someone translate, so here it is ^__^ And I'll dedicate this translation to our MatsuJun, since I didn't get to write as great a b-day post as I would've liked for him on Monday.
I must say, I enjoyed reading this a lot, especially the blurbs about the boys' dreams and aspirations concerning where they'd like to go with Arashi. Even if they were just saying it to say it back then and hadn't really thought about it... it was awesome to read them now that we know how much they've grown and matured and can see just how many of those dreams they've made into reality.
And it was even better to see that the LOVE this group has for each other has never changed over the years, even if they as individuals have (a little). Ohmiya geez, lol. And MatsuJun fanboying Riida was just too cute, especially considering their positions in the group now ROFL XDDD
Anyways, here's a look back at the boys' thoughts shortly after debuting~~!
"DATA BOOK" (My random comments/notes in blue... cept for Riida's section they're in red, haha) Also with this part, I wasn't sure if I should've translated it into first person or what, but since they used quotes for only some parts, those I put into the boy's perspectives... ANYWAYS...
Masaki Aiba
Born Dec 24, 1982, Chiba-ken. (Blood) type AB. Height 174cm, Weight 50kg, Shoe size 26.5cm.
Nickname Aiba-chan
Fave food Unajuu (broiled eel over rice; it's awesome) Tendon (shrimp tempura over rice)
Food he dislikes Shiso (which is this leaf w/a really strong flavor that's used for seasoning)
Weakness "I guess, it'd be shiso"
Special skill Playing with his brother. Watching videos or playing catch, indoors or outdoors, anything's ok.
His type (of girl) "Lately I'm not really sure myself, but I guess, someone I can get along with?"
Something he always has with him Lipcream
Charm point His freckles (particularly on the the right side of his face)
Someone he's aiming towards (wants to be like) "Everyone has something good about them, so I can't pick just one person. I want to become someone who can do anything, be it talking (commenting) or dancing."
What he spends his days off doing Sit at home watching the wide shows or day dramas, just spacing off.
Jun Matsumoto
Born Aug 30, 1983, Tokyo. (Blood) type A. Height 170cm, Weight 48kg, Shoe size 26.5cm.
Nickname MatsuJun
Fave food Pizza, any kind of noodle (<--me too, esp soba! And pasta)
Food he dislikes Celery (he doesn't like the smell) "But, I like SMAP's 'Celery' (lol)"
Weaknesses Getting up in the morning, very weak against tickling (LOL, tho he'd prolly kill you if you tried it), gets depressed right away (Also LOL; I know how it is, you're too majime just like me, MatsuJun)
Special skill Baseball
His type (of girl) One who's honest/sincere
Something he always has with him MD player. Listens to Kubota Toshinobu and Mr Children a lot. "Because we're harmonizing in our songs, to learn/study more about harmonizing, I've started listening to artists like BoyzIIMen and TAKE6 a lot too."
Charm point His eyes and round face (which isn't so anymore, hehehehe)
Someone he's aiming towards "The good points of all our senpai are my aspiration"
What he spends his days off doing Shopping. "I don't have winter clothes yet, so I want to go shopping"
Kazunari Ninomiya
Born June 17, 1983, Tokyo. (Blood) type A. Height 168cm, Weight 48kg, Shoe size 26cm
Nickname Nino
Fave food Anything as long as it's edible "Lately everything's good"
Food he dislikes The chop suey from his school lunch "The way the flour was still all clumped up in it was horrible"
Weaknesses Nothing in particular. "But, I don't really like (am bad with) people who are all talk only, or who aren't clear with what they want/do/say"
Special skill Baseball, guitar
His type (of girl) Someone with the same values
Something he always has with him Script. "I'm always walking around with it"
Charm point His hands. "I think my short fingers make them cute. Also, it's unusual to have a freckle/mole on your palms, so I like that (about my hands)" (<--AGREED on both counts! We still love Nino's hamburger hands)
Someone he's aiming towards Higashiyama Noriyuki-san "I respect him because he works hard, but doesn't take himself too seriously and is really great towards his kouhai." (LOL, tho those koukai then went and dumped him in the water on the last Mote Arashi, Dame Arashi XDDD)
What he spends his days off doing Sleep as much as possible
Satoshi Ohno
Born Nov 26, 1980, Tokyo. (Blood) type A. Height 168cm, Weight 51kg, Shoe size 25cm.
Nickname Oh-chan. "The members call me Ohno-kun. But sometimes Nino calls me 'this guy' " (The word was "koitsu" which is a slang-y term for "this person," slightly talking down on them, but not always in a bad way... it's a word you'd use about your kouhai. LOL Ohmiya, how some things have not changed...)
Fave food Meat. "Especially yakiniku. And I like shrimp too~"
Food he dislikes Carrots. "I don't like how they're sweet"
Weakness Weak against having his butt/thighs touched (Lol, I hope not anymore, the way the boys *cough Nino cough* molest him sometimes all the time XDDD)
Special skill Drawing
His type (of girl) The girl he winds up liking (Awww Riida, you've been saying this since forever, huh?)
Something he always has with him Eyedrops to help wake him up
Charm point Nothing. "Maybe it's my spaciness?" (<--- YES!!!)
Someone he's aiming towards Shounen-tai
What he spends his days off doing If it was only one day off, he'd sleep. If he had a week off, he'd escape from Tokyo and visit the countryside. "I want to get away from the noise of the city and relax"
Sho Sakurai
Born Jan 25, 1982, Tokyo. (Blood) type A. Height 169cm, Weight 50kg, Shoe size 25.5cm.
Nickname Sho-kun
Fave food Pizza (particularly the seafood ones)
Food he dislikes Shiitake mushrooms (ME TOO XP mushrooms....)
Weaknesses Sleepiness
Special skill Soccer
His type (of girl) Someone that's easy to be around
Something he always has with him A watch. "I usually go to work bare-handed, with only my watch and wallet on me."
Charm point His forehead "The way it sticks out is really charming (lol)" (ROFL I died here)
Someone he's aiming towards Kimura-kun. "Because he's really kakkoii. Other than my senpai (at JE), it'd be Matsumoto Hitoshi-san (from Downtown). I was really happy when we got to be on HEY! HEY! HEY!"
What he spends his days off doing Stay at home watching movies and relaxing. "I used to go hang out around town on my days off, but lately I've been too tired to"
And the other blurbs, for your entertainment ^______^ I'm not sure what the questions were, but I think they were just asked about their dreams for Arashi, as well as how things were going so far, etc.
Sho
As far as Arashi's activities go, there's seriously a ton of things I'd like to do. We got to do a drama, "V no Arashi" together, it'd be great if we could have our own tv show. Like a variety show or something. I'd really like to go out to do things all over the country. Right now, during our free time at work, Ohno-kun and I have been doing skits (comedy) together. The contents... they aren't those ones where the pun is the joke, they're more "sophisticated" (he lit. said "our level's higher") than that. In general, Ohno-kun is the boke and I'm the tsukkomi. But really, we're just messing around, going along with the mood at the moment. If we get a chance, we'll show you our act. (I wanna see!)
This might not need saying, but I'd really like for a lot of people to listen to our debut song "A.RA.SHI" Me, I really like the dance during the chorus. It's called a breakdown, when the five of us are moving together to the side, it's really cool. It makes me really happy that we get to dance in front, not as the back dancers for our senpai. That and, there's nothing more fun than the times when we 5 are together. Maybe it's because of that that even though I'm sleep-deprived, I'm totally fine. With this high tension ("tension" = mood) of ours, I'd like to do all kinds of different things.
Well, and even though I'm saying all that, I think it's ok to think about and decide on our direction as Arashi after each of us has gotten the chance to do many different things. I personally would like to become better at talking with people. To get there, right now I'm trying to watch all kinds of different programs to learn from them.
Nino
We get asked a lot, "What's changed now that you've debuted?" but actually, nothing's really changed between us. I'm sure that if we continue achieving new things, we'll get something out of them, but that's still far in the future for us. And I mean, these members are the same people I've been with this whole time, things wouldn't change even if we tried. Although, I didn't know that Ohno-kun was that kind of person... He was in Kyoto the whole time for his play, right? So I only talked with him on the phone every so often, and I never realized how genki of a person he acutally is. It's like, "maybe he was just out of batteries this whole time...?" kind of thing. Perhaps getting up early is good for him (lol).
Our debut song is really hyper and great, right? I want people to pay attention to the dance for it. Not to the part with actual moves, the parts where we're just freely dancing. We're doing our very best there, so watch us, ok? (Awww Nino, so cute, of course we will/do! Always <3 ) Here on out I'd like to think of every project as a chance to learn, and challenge a bunch of different things. In particular, I'd really like to do more acting. The play "Stand by me", and of course dramas, were tens of times harder than concerts, but they felt great do. Plays are fun because they're live, so every performance is different. Even though during a scene where I got punched, one performance I actually did get punched and lost a molar and was really bleeding. (OMG Nino, daijoubu? Lol, even tho it happened 11+yrs ago...)
Someday eventually, it'd be great if we were able to do more things our fans want to see. If I made specific goals though, I feel like once we accomplished them then it would just end at that, so I won't do it.
Aiba-kun
The drama us 5 did together was really tough, filming until late at night and then really early in the morning. Not only that, but I had a slight cold too. And in the midst of that tense atmosphere, I said the line, "I'll mix Plan A and Plan B" as "Set A and Set B" instead. Because of that Ohno-kun couldn't stop laughing for the longest time, it was a mess. (ROFL, why do I feel like this sort of thing would STILL happen with them) But even though we had stuff like that happen, but the drama was a LOT of fun. The next thing I want to do... I guess it'd have to be a concert. Oh wait, doing a variety show with the 5 of us would be great too... when I start thinking about it, there's so many things I want to do I just don't know anymore. But before that, I have to work on improving my skills. Right now I feel like we're just absorbed with running our hardest and are waiting to see what the outcome will be.
My energy for work is coming from jet-skiing. It's what I most want to do right now in my private life. During our debut event in Hawaii, I got to try it out a little, and I can't forget that feeling of speed. Those fun memories are fueling my power now, I guess (lol). In actuality, I get really seasick though. In elementary school I'd always get so sick every time I went fishing on the ocean with my dad. But for some reason I was fine jet-skiing. The other day I was talking about this with Takizawa-kun. While I was at his house eating the fried rice we ordered for delivery. Moments like that, I want to cherish even more from now on. (Awww, Aiba-kun, you're so sweet~~)
Riida
Everyone in Arashi is just bursting with fun, it's great~ Now that we're spending whole days together, I've learned that MatsuJun is actually pretty quick-tempered. He'll suddenly get annoyed with himself for no reason (lol). The other members are the same as how I first thought them. With Nino, it's like there's another me. (You two were MADE for each other, seriously) Everyone's personalities get along well, so I feel at ease with them.
For "A.RA.SHI" I'm the main vocal, but honestly I'm thinking, "If I knew it'd turn out this way, I would've studied/practiced more singing" (lol). Besides singing, it'd be nice if I could figure out how to convey myself on tv better. Everyone always tells me, "You're a completely different person than the you on tv." That's why I don't want to watch shows I'm on. I always have the intention of working hard in my own way, but this one thing I just have no idea how to improve on no matter how hard I try. (Awww Riida it's ok, you're way awesome on tv now just the way you are!)
Something that's changed for me personally since debuting... I've gotten a lot busier, so my habit of being lazy has started fixing itself maybe? (He used "mendokusagariya" which is someone who doesn't want to do things because they're too much of a bother, lol. Which Riida STILL is, I dunno what he's talking about ^_~) Also, I've gotten better at controlling my sleepiness. Before, I was getting ten-something hrs of sleep every day, but now I have to get up early to get to work... It was hard at first, but I've started getting used to the busy lifestyle. Seriously, I wouldn't have been able to even think about it before. I think I've become more aware (of my position/situation) after debuting. It might look like I don't have any motivation, but that's not the case. I may look like that, but actually I'm full of motivation!
MatsuJun
Right now everyone's pulling together and working hard at our singing and drama. When we're in high spirits, we're all playing around together, and when we're being low-key, we're at it together. The members are all pretty unique in their own way, so when we're with each other it's incredibly entertaining. Especially Ohno-kun, he's the BEST. Because of his work on stage in "KYO TO KYO" I had this really strong image of him as a prince, just like (his role) Ushiwakamaru (lol). But in reality, he's actually kinda weird... anyway, his unexpected and random movements are funny. In the future, I'd like to do a variety show as Arashi, and it doesn't matter what the contents are, Ohno-kun will surely make it hilarious. At least, we'd be laughing a lot. He's so funny I'd really like to make him not only our dance leader, but also our variety leader too. He's a great mood maker.
In Arashi, my position is... the one who gets bullied (lol). I get teased and made fun of, but right now I think that's my position. There's just too many things about me (to tease)~ At any rate, we'll be putting out CDs from now on, so I'd like to focus and improve on singing too, not only dancing. I'll keep trying to improve, and someday it'd be great if I could challenge myself to do a solo too, though that might be far in the future. "A.RA.SHI" has many melodies mixed into it which makes it really great. Since we've managed to debut now, I'd really like to become No.1! (Haha, leave it to MatsuJun to have such big goals. I bet back then when ppl read this they were like, "Suuuuuure you guys'll be on top.... dream on" Well, it took them some time, but they did it, didn't they?)
What I really loved about this was that even tho Riida was being all harsh on himself about tv, MatsuJun goes and fanboys him like crazy for being so awesome and has every confidence that any variety w/Riida involved would be good variety. Which I quite agree with. And it cracks me up that nowadays, Riida and Aiba-kun are the ones to be made fun of instead XDDD <3333 you boys, you ROCK
That was all of it. Hope it was a fun read, sorry if my comments got in the way, I just HAD to write them, you know ^_~
Have a great weekend everyone~