My First Johnny's Dome Concert Experience ~NEWS LIVE TOUR 2016 QUARTETTO~
WARNING: This is not a concert report. Just a journal of my experience. ;-)
If you want a concert report, I suggest you read the post by himitsuru here:http://himitsuru.livejournal.com/32318.html
It had always been my dream to be able to watch a concert of a Johnny's group, and I was very lucky to be given the opportunity to fulfill that dream with the Tokyo Dome concert tour final of no less than NEWS, a group I've known and liked since I was a college student (that's about 10 years ago when they were still a 8-member group!).
I would like to take this opportunity to thank himitsuru for taking me to this awesome concert with her. She was the lucky girl who hit the concert ticket, and I was the lucky one to be introduced to her as a fellow Pinay (and a Cebuana too!) Johnny's fan working in Japan. I hope to get the chance to go to more concerts with you, himitsuru! XD
I've witnessed the line for the concert goods a few years back for a Tegomass concert (I was just a passerby back then) so I knew how long it could be. And so I started my concert experience a day prior to the concert date by lining up to purchase the concert goods beforehand. I bought a pair of binoculars at Akihabara earlier that day, and rode the JR Chuo Line to Suidobashi station, the nearest station to Tokyo Dome (Kourakuen station for those taking the Tokyo Metro). The shop opened at 11:00, but I wanted to avoid the opening rush so I started lining up at around 15:45. The flow of the line was smooth, and I was able to purchase my set of goods after lining up for an hour. I got myself a tote bag, pen light (this is a MUST), towel, group clearfile (since I don't have a specific favorite in the group), and pamphlet. I was contemplating on buying a jumbo uchiwa but as I mentioned earlier I don't have a particular favorite... And they didn't have a group uchiwa. So I wasn't able to choose whose uchiwa to buy (I narrowed it down to Koyama and Tegoshi but wasn't able to make a final decision). I then went home feeling satisfied and ready for the concert the following day.
On the day of the concert, we agreed on meeting at the venue at 16:00, which was the time for the gates to open. I arrived at the venue on time, but himitsuru was still hurrying towards Akihabara to buy her pair of binoculars. So, I decided to walk around and check the area. The venue vicinity was huge, with many fangirls dressed up in costumes and eye-catching outfits holding decorated uchiwas of past and present NEWS concerts. I had a bit of a culture shock. :-D I didn't know these fangirls were so dedicated and prepared for the concert. Seeing them holding uchiwas made me realize that I too should be holding an uchiwa... I was prepared with the signage uchiwa we agreed to make, which says フィリピンから来たよ！(which means "we came from the Philippines!"), but I thought I should have a member uchiwa as well. When I made my way to the goods sales area, I was surprised to see that there was no more line! But, there was a reason behind it... Most of the goods were sold out. @_@ I then realized that I made the right choice in buying the concerts a day prior. As for the uchiwa, only Koyama's uchiwa was available (this will play a role in one of the happenings during the concert)! It was a good thing my choices were narrowed down. ;-) so I bought the Koyama uchiwa and looked for a place to sit down and wait.
As I was seated in one of the stone benches, I ate the onigiri I brought with me (there will be no time for you to eat during the concert!) and sipped a few sips of water (I didn't want to add much to the volume in my bladder). Then I met Meg, one of the Cebuana NEWS fans I had the honor to meet through this concert. :-) we had a little chat while waiting for himitsuru, then himitsuru arrived hurriedly from Akihabara. We immediately took pictures, and shared with each other how excited we were for the concert with some mild shrieks and boisterous laughters. It didn't seem like it was the first time we ever met! himitsuru handed us our tickets, she met up with a few more other friends, and Meg and I entered the venue ahead to our respective seats. Our seats were what they call stand seats (we entered through Gate 40), and we thought we'd be really really far from the stage, but to our surprise the view was great! We could see the stage clearly and had a view of the entire dome. Binoculars came in handy when the boys came near, for us to have a better view of their faces, but it wasn't really necessary throughout the entire concert.
When the concert started, I had goosebumps all over my body. My dream had finally come true. I was lost for words and I silently but vigorously waved my penlight to the beat of the songs. It was such a surreal scene to see a sea of light move in unison to the beat of one song. Of course, the voice of the NEWS members were great as well. I was particularly amazed by Tegoshi's vocal prowess. I knew he sang well, but I didn't think it would sound that great LIVE. The DANCE MOVES were also great. This probably is one of the biggest difference of watching the concert DVD versus watching the concert LIVE... You can see all of them dance together from beginning to end. In the DVD of course there are times the individual members are focused, so your view of the entire group will be cut off. But, in the LIVE concert, you have the freedom to focus on what/who you want. You may focus on just one member, or look at the whole group. This was really nice. Who said Japanese boys dance like girls!!??? They pulled off those swift manly dance moves so smoothly!
I was also glad that they sang some nostalgic songs like TEPPEN, CHERISH, Akaku Moyuru Taiyou, Sakura Girl, Sayaendou, Weeek, and Koi no ABO. I was able to sing along naturally (I was surprised I still remembered the lyrics)!
The MC was hilarious too. One of the things Koyama said was related to the uchiwa experience I had... Apparently, his uchiwa was the only one left so this meant that he had the lowest sales to be brutally frank. So, Koyama said during the MC while walking down the stage with Shige (they were waiting for TegoMasu to come back from their toilet break) "If you'll buy Shige's uchiwa, please buy my uchiwa too!" XD This made me laugh so hard. ;-) I won't dwell into the details, but I somehow felt that it was a good thing the group turned into the 4-member group they are now. This is just my opinion, but they are perfect as they are. And they have grown into mature, open-minded men with a big heart. I really hope they continue to be active and spread more love to their fans all over the world.
As I mentioned in the beginning, this is not a concert report so I will not mention the details on what happened during the concert. Overall, I was really glad that my first Dome concert experience was with NEWS, and with 2 Cebuana NEWS fans who were really sweet and nice. I'm looking forward to be able to join more concerts like this in the near future! The concerts of Johnny's talents are addictive. They really have the special power to attract the loyalty and love of the fans. <3