Hey, I'm in Nagoya!
I can't remember if I mentioned it here or not, but instead of getting tickets to the Osaka Dome Arashi shows, I hit for my 3rd choice, Nagoya Dome. Which really turned out for the better, after what we've heard about the Osaka ones (well, opening show at least) and as I didn't have to take any time off work to go to it.
So this morning I packed up my concert stuff, checked the train schedule, and left Osaka. A few things I noticed along the way: Once you get outside of Sakurai-shi (just a little ways past where I used to live, in Kashihara), it gets REALLY damn inaka REALLY fast; Mie-ken is almost all tunnels; Somewhere in Mie-ken there is a GIANT replica of the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace (thank you Dad, for passing down the ability to quickly identify classical sculptures), as well as a smaller replica of the Statue of Liberty, all just standing in the middle of a field together; Also, it is fun to curse Tsu and shake my fist at it out the window as it goes past.
The dome was easy enough to find, though you have no idea how much I appreciate there being multiple routes to all the concert venues in Osaka now. Imagine around 40,000 people all going to the same place at the same time, trying to use the same train. Yeah. Ick. It took people a bit to notice I was going to the concert along with them, and I didn't actually feel like I was on the way to a concert until they did. Habit, I guess. My ticket said I was on the 3rd floor, which in Osaka Dome means nosebleed, so I was pleasantly shocked when it turned out I was on the first level of stands, 4 rows back from the arena, on an aisle. Third-base side, for those of you who know baseball (Nagoya Dome is the home of the Chunichi Dragons, whose mascot is, inexplicably, a koala. Oh, Japan!). A bit far from the main stage, but that's what screens are for. The worst part of the seating was that I was behind the foul-ball net. (><)
The concert was really, really, damn good. They opened with Move Your Body, Happiness, and Step and Go! M.A.D. were the back dancers, as well as a group of girls that came out for some songs. The siege towers this time around were shaped like.... floats? from a circus parade or something, and the first one is SCARY. Carousel horses should not be GIANT. Oh-chan's solo was HOT, as usual, and Aiba's was really cute. For some reason, Nino's reminded me of Ryo..... I don't know why. MatsuJun's made me laugh at him, with his back dancers all dressed up in bedsheets, and Sho's was pretty good. Better than MJ's. No signboards, but I knew that from Osaka reports. And no A・RA・SHI, though we got an explanation for it in the second encore - MJ said they wanted us to go home with their new single (for the HanaDan movie) in our heads. Of course, we got them to come out for a third encore after that, and they did Pikanchi Double instead.... oh well. Some songs I haven't heard for a long time (if ever) live - Lucky Man, 五里霧中...
In the first encore (they came out super fast for this - I think the crowd had only said ARASHI! about 5 times) they came by on the siege towers again, and Sho, Aiba, and Ohno came up the third base line. When they got to my area, Sho smiled and pointed at me, and then Oh-chan pointed at my wrist (I was wearing his solocon wristband), pointed at his wrist, and then made a heart shape with his hands at me! Which is what he did at the C1000 event last fall.... excpet instead of being in response to a heart I had made, he did the heart on his own this time! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, and during the encore, they were talking a lot about baseball, and pointed out where home plate would be, and center field, and took a guess and what section of the arena was on the pitcher's mound..... and then Ohno pointed directly at home plate and said "So, that way would be a home run?" to which Nino and Aiba started laughing and asked him if he even knew the rules of baseball. "Nope!" And then he tried to defend himself by saying but Sho doesn't know either! (He does.) And then we got Ohmiya SK. Yay!
Tomorrow I'm planning to go see the Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts to see their Monet Exhibit. As long as I'm in Nagoya.
So this morning I packed up my concert stuff, checked the train schedule, and left Osaka. A few things I noticed along the way: Once you get outside of Sakurai-shi (just a little ways past where I used to live, in Kashihara), it gets REALLY damn inaka REALLY fast; Mie-ken is almost all tunnels; Somewhere in Mie-ken there is a GIANT replica of the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace (thank you Dad, for passing down the ability to quickly identify classical sculptures), as well as a smaller replica of the Statue of Liberty, all just standing in the middle of a field together; Also, it is fun to curse Tsu and shake my fist at it out the window as it goes past.
The dome was easy enough to find, though you have no idea how much I appreciate there being multiple routes to all the concert venues in Osaka now. Imagine around 40,000 people all going to the same place at the same time, trying to use the same train. Yeah. Ick. It took people a bit to notice I was going to the concert along with them, and I didn't actually feel like I was on the way to a concert until they did. Habit, I guess. My ticket said I was on the 3rd floor, which in Osaka Dome means nosebleed, so I was pleasantly shocked when it turned out I was on the first level of stands, 4 rows back from the arena, on an aisle. Third-base side, for those of you who know baseball (Nagoya Dome is the home of the Chunichi Dragons, whose mascot is, inexplicably, a koala. Oh, Japan!). A bit far from the main stage, but that's what screens are for. The worst part of the seating was that I was behind the foul-ball net. (><)
The concert was really, really, damn good. They opened with Move Your Body, Happiness, and Step and Go! M.A.D. were the back dancers, as well as a group of girls that came out for some songs. The siege towers this time around were shaped like.... floats? from a circus parade or something, and the first one is SCARY. Carousel horses should not be GIANT. Oh-chan's solo was HOT, as usual, and Aiba's was really cute. For some reason, Nino's reminded me of Ryo..... I don't know why. MatsuJun's made me laugh at him, with his back dancers all dressed up in bedsheets, and Sho's was pretty good. Better than MJ's. No signboards, but I knew that from Osaka reports. And no A・RA・SHI, though we got an explanation for it in the second encore - MJ said they wanted us to go home with their new single (for the HanaDan movie) in our heads. Of course, we got them to come out for a third encore after that, and they did Pikanchi Double instead.... oh well. Some songs I haven't heard for a long time (if ever) live - Lucky Man, 五里霧中...
In the first encore (they came out super fast for this - I think the crowd had only said ARASHI! about 5 times) they came by on the siege towers again, and Sho, Aiba, and Ohno came up the third base line. When they got to my area, Sho smiled and pointed at me, and then Oh-chan pointed at my wrist (I was wearing his solocon wristband), pointed at his wrist, and then made a heart shape with his hands at me! Which is what he did at the C1000 event last fall.... excpet instead of being in response to a heart I had made, he did the heart on his own this time! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, and during the encore, they were talking a lot about baseball, and pointed out where home plate would be, and center field, and took a guess and what section of the arena was on the pitcher's mound..... and then Ohno pointed directly at home plate and said "So, that way would be a home run?" to which Nino and Aiba started laughing and asked him if he even knew the rules of baseball. "Nope!" And then he tried to defend himself by saying but Sho doesn't know either! (He does.) And then we got Ohmiya SK. Yay!
Tomorrow I'm planning to go see the Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts to see their Monet Exhibit. As long as I'm in Nagoya.