today my life was made that much better <3333
Ahhhhh!!!! Magical things involving JIRO happened today. But before I do that I forgot I didn't finish my band meme!
Let's see, why is GLAY my favorite band? So many reasons. I could easily write a term paper on this. At my school in Tokyo I actually wrote an essay on them. More of a speech really, since I had to memorize it and give it to the entire school.
Of course, I love their music. I was really getting bored with all of my music and started to loath the American music scene in particular when I first got into them,. But when I heard them for the first time it was so fresh and exciting! They have so much variety but they are consistently good! I love rock music, and they really embody everything I look for when I'm trying to find bands that I like. All of them are such talented musicians, and you can really hear the passion for their work in their songs. You can see this in their performance as well. They never half-ass a performance. They are so amazing to watch live. You could be dead tired from getting 1 hour of sleep and camping out in front of the LA HOB for hours upon hours two days in a row, and you still get pumped up- not from just the adrenaline of being in the same room as them, but because they project this love and energy unlike anything I've ever witnessed before.
Even more, I believe that all of them are genuinely good people. I don't know any of them personally, but from everything I've read, seen, stories I've heard from people who have run into them, and from small more personal encounters with them, I really just get the sense that they are extremely nice guys. They just seem so grounded compared to what they could have become with so much fame and fortune. Teru and Takuro are humanitarians; Hisashi is a shy geek who's not afraid to admit it. Jiro's a fun-loving sometimes OCD bro with lots of interests. Above all of it really, you can tell that they genuinely love their fans. They consider their fans with each decision and action they take as a band. And even more recently, they are really trying to reach out to their international fans as well. (Please give us paypal option for HS!!!! XD)
I guess to sum up, GLAY is the band that has gotten me through the best and worst of times. I owe them a lot, and all I can do to repay it is continue to stalk Jiro to keep loving them and supporting them like they have done for me.
Now then....JIRO news!
After the September issue of Happy Swing, I sent in a photo to Jiro's Photo Factory that my friend Akiko (Oohara, for those of you that remember the cute Jiro look-a-like from Japan that asked us all to write messages in her little book in line at the HOB in 2009) took after the Yokosuka live in July of my friend Izumi and I. It was the first time I had seen Izumi in a year. We had become really close friends while I was going to school in Tokyo and even though we kept in touch through email, Skype, mixi, etc, I didn't think I'd be able to see her again so soon. Well, I got to go to Japan this past summer and I won 4th row tickets to the Yokosuka live, and so of course I asked her to come with me.
Well I didn't think Jiro would even consider choosing my picture because it was several months after the hall tour and seemed kind of an awkward time to submit that photo, but I did.
My December HS hasn't arrived yet, but since January 1st I'd been receiving all of these cryptic messages from my Japanese friends saying things like, "Jo, OMG you're going to freak when you get your HS!" but no one ever told me why. Well, today I finally got Izumi to crack:
Jiro not only chose my picture, but he wrote a comment back to me!
To translate, he said, "Thank you for coming all the way to Japan to see GLAY! I remember you very well (And he used "kimi" for "you!!! Kimi is like a term of endearment!) You stand out a lot in the picture I took at the America tour!" (He used the phrase アメリカツアーの時にボクが撮った写真にバッチリ写ってるんだ！バッチリ is like a slang word for perfect or really good, so I guess he kinda also said I photographed well in the picture he took at the US tour!)
Anyway, I've been an happily emotional wreck off and on all day. I can't wait until my own issue gets here! I'm so paranoid that my membership renewal money got lost. I hate waiting to find out it it got messed up or not TAT.
Let's see, why is GLAY my favorite band? So many reasons. I could easily write a term paper on this. At my school in Tokyo I actually wrote an essay on them. More of a speech really, since I had to memorize it and give it to the entire school.
Of course, I love their music. I was really getting bored with all of my music and started to loath the American music scene in particular when I first got into them,. But when I heard them for the first time it was so fresh and exciting! They have so much variety but they are consistently good! I love rock music, and they really embody everything I look for when I'm trying to find bands that I like. All of them are such talented musicians, and you can really hear the passion for their work in their songs. You can see this in their performance as well. They never half-ass a performance. They are so amazing to watch live. You could be dead tired from getting 1 hour of sleep and camping out in front of the LA HOB for hours upon hours two days in a row, and you still get pumped up- not from just the adrenaline of being in the same room as them, but because they project this love and energy unlike anything I've ever witnessed before.
Even more, I believe that all of them are genuinely good people. I don't know any of them personally, but from everything I've read, seen, stories I've heard from people who have run into them, and from small more personal encounters with them, I really just get the sense that they are extremely nice guys. They just seem so grounded compared to what they could have become with so much fame and fortune. Teru and Takuro are humanitarians; Hisashi is a shy geek who's not afraid to admit it. Jiro's a fun-loving sometimes OCD bro with lots of interests. Above all of it really, you can tell that they genuinely love their fans. They consider their fans with each decision and action they take as a band. And even more recently, they are really trying to reach out to their international fans as well. (Please give us paypal option for HS!!!! XD)
I guess to sum up, GLAY is the band that has gotten me through the best and worst of times. I owe them a lot, and all I can do to repay it is continue to stalk Jiro to keep loving them and supporting them like they have done for me.
Now then....JIRO news!
After the September issue of Happy Swing, I sent in a photo to Jiro's Photo Factory that my friend Akiko (Oohara, for those of you that remember the cute Jiro look-a-like from Japan that asked us all to write messages in her little book in line at the HOB in 2009) took after the Yokosuka live in July of my friend Izumi and I. It was the first time I had seen Izumi in a year. We had become really close friends while I was going to school in Tokyo and even though we kept in touch through email, Skype, mixi, etc, I didn't think I'd be able to see her again so soon. Well, I got to go to Japan this past summer and I won 4th row tickets to the Yokosuka live, and so of course I asked her to come with me.
Well I didn't think Jiro would even consider choosing my picture because it was several months after the hall tour and seemed kind of an awkward time to submit that photo, but I did.
My December HS hasn't arrived yet, but since January 1st I'd been receiving all of these cryptic messages from my Japanese friends saying things like, "Jo, OMG you're going to freak when you get your HS!" but no one ever told me why. Well, today I finally got Izumi to crack:
Jiro not only chose my picture, but he wrote a comment back to me!
To translate, he said, "Thank you for coming all the way to Japan to see GLAY! I remember you very well (And he used "kimi" for "you!!! Kimi is like a term of endearment!) You stand out a lot in the picture I took at the America tour!" (He used the phrase アメリカツアーの時にボクが撮った写真にバッチリ写ってるんだ！バッチリ is like a slang word for perfect or really good, so I guess he kinda also said I photographed well in the picture he took at the US tour!)
Anyway, I've been an happily emotional wreck off and on all day. I can't wait until my own issue gets here! I'm so paranoid that my membership renewal money got lost. I hate waiting to find out it it got messed up or not TAT.