"WAKU WAKU -- !!" "GAAAASSHUUUUUUKUUUUUUU"
I am going to be on my first plane out of this country (!!!) in less than 26h and I am so exhausted from having gone out basically every single day in the past week to upkeep my social life.
So just a few highlights!!! of the public viewing from yesterday.
+ Ohno saying "OKAY LAH" is a highlight in itself, but when he looked back at the screen to see us in Singapore all freaking out about it and HE GIGGLED I just I am never getting over this.
+ They failed to herd sheep, as usual, even when Ninomiya-sensei walked over to help. The goats ended up trying to eat the flowers that made up the Waku Waku logo. It was all very glorious (':
+ Sho made a friend with Ito-san, an expert carp fisher (who's been at it for TWENTY YEARS) and invited him over to Tokyo Dome. Ito-san and Leader started talking about fishing which I absolutely did not understand a single word of, and then Ito-san gave Leader a fishing rod. Leader was fascinated by the fishing rod he was like a cat with a ball of yarn! Also, Ito-san is the coolest ever. I kept expecting him to tell Sho off or ignore him or tell Sho that "dude no shhh you'll scare the fish" but he didn't (: Such a sweet guy. Also, that photo he took with Sho is beautiful.
+ One of my favourite things about fandoms of all kinds is how it encourages fans to be creative, and the bento the fans prepared was just testament to this! One fan made the entire Waku Waku logo with coloured udon as the rainbow ribbon shooting out from the kanji, it was incredible. Aiba kept telling the staff to "STOP, STOP" so he could stare in wonder at all the incredible bento they made.
+ They interviewed a male fan, who was there with his girlfriend! Aiba was prodding him for their relationship ("Are you friends...? Siblings...?") until he finally just said "we're a couple". And he called attending Waku Waku their "Arashi date" and I died internally from the cute. Aiba was obsessed with the idea of an Arashi date later, repeatedly whispering "Arashi date". I just aww bb.
+ Aiba doesn't eat his cherry tomatoes.
+ Aiba also rudely interrupted Nino's eating to drag him out to cook his mom's yakisoba together. Aimiya were ridiculously cute the entire event I just.
+ Since Waku Waku this year is a camp, they 'slept' during the event. At one point the crowd starts murmuring (pretty sure everyone was fawning over how cute Ohno was in his sleep, because he was very cute in his sleep) and Ohno sits up and says "YOU GUYS, SLEEP."
+ VIVA青春!! They woke up to an 8-bit version of GUTS!, and started performing it. I just ughhh Jun was adorable.
+ Jun plays a game where Arashi has to guess the thing he wants most, and they'll place a real bridge towards the image of the item Arashi guessed but styrofoam bridges on the rest of the items. After this, Jun runs over the bridges towards the item he wants most, so if their guess is right, Jun arrives safely! If not, Jun falls into the pit of styrofoam cubes below. Arashi is pretty sure Jun wants a record player. Jun wants everything but the record player, and gets to fall in 3 TIMES. After this, Jun goes back to his table and declares "so, now we've confirmed Arashi's friendship" with the least conviction ever. Best boyband award.
+ During the game, Jun has to turn around and listen to music so he can't hear the other members discussing. Nino makes Jun listen to Shake It!, and Jun starts dancing to Shake It! in the cutest way. Nothing will ever beat those awkward, bashful but playful hip thrusts and body waves. WORK IT JUN.
+ Jun's lesson involves Arashi giving advice to fans who've sent concerns in, and a lot of it is very serious and I couldn't understand most of the conversation happening ): But there was that one fanservice concern: Ami-chan's boyfriend is shy, and she can't get him to hold hands with her! And she wants Arashi to show her how to hold hands inconspicuously. I LAUGHED SO HARD AT EVERYTHING most of their plans were horrible. It was beautiful.
+ Jun called Ohno "Satoshi". I WILL NEVER GET OVER THIS.
+ Sho also called Aiba "Makkun". SIMILARLY UNABLE TO GET OVER THIS.
+ Leader's lesson made me cry for forever because it was about "what would Arashi be like if it was missing one member?" and THAT IS NOT A HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION I CAN IMAGINE WITHOUT CRYING. It was all very sweet; the members all shared their childhood aspirations (Sho wanted to be a conductor, Aiba wanted to be a company president with a moustache [I'm not even kidding; yes the moustache is important!] while Matsumiya both wanted to be pro baseball players) and Leader gave them all titles: Sho is Arashi's pioneer, Jun is their idea man, Aiba is their sun, and Nino is their melody-maker. Aaaaand I got washed under a load of feels.
+ Ohno: And when I say "friendship", I want all of you to say "fire".
Arashi: "Fiyah"?
Ohno: "Fi-yerrrr". It's not "fiyah". It's "fire"
(ngl it was super attractive.)
+ Ohno: -talking about his speech in Thai for AAA 2006- 8 years later, I can still remember the speech. The Thai word for "do your best!" is "panyayanyan".
-after a short conversation between the members-
Sho: Btw, I think the Thai word for "do your best!" is "panyayan".
Ohno: -stricken look of horror-
Ohno:
Ohno: "Panyayanyan".
Arashi: No we're pretty sure it's "panyayan".
Ohno:
Ohno: "8 years later, I can still remember the speech. The Thai word for "do your best!" is "panyayan"."
Jun: Please cut the previous line out!
+ Okay I have a thing for people who speak multiple languages and I was treated to Ohno, Sho, and Jun speaking Chinese, Ohno and Sho speaking English, and Sho speaking Malay. I just. Yes.
+ Singing Furusato together is something I will never forget (:
Waku Waku was really great though.
So just a few highlights!!! of the public viewing from yesterday.
+ Ohno saying "OKAY LAH" is a highlight in itself, but when he looked back at the screen to see us in Singapore all freaking out about it and HE GIGGLED I just I am never getting over this.
+ They failed to herd sheep, as usual, even when Ninomiya-sensei walked over to help. The goats ended up trying to eat the flowers that made up the Waku Waku logo. It was all very glorious (':
+ Sho made a friend with Ito-san, an expert carp fisher (who's been at it for TWENTY YEARS) and invited him over to Tokyo Dome. Ito-san and Leader started talking about fishing which I absolutely did not understand a single word of, and then Ito-san gave Leader a fishing rod. Leader was fascinated by the fishing rod he was like a cat with a ball of yarn! Also, Ito-san is the coolest ever. I kept expecting him to tell Sho off or ignore him or tell Sho that "dude no shhh you'll scare the fish" but he didn't (: Such a sweet guy. Also, that photo he took with Sho is beautiful.
+ One of my favourite things about fandoms of all kinds is how it encourages fans to be creative, and the bento the fans prepared was just testament to this! One fan made the entire Waku Waku logo with coloured udon as the rainbow ribbon shooting out from the kanji, it was incredible. Aiba kept telling the staff to "STOP, STOP" so he could stare in wonder at all the incredible bento they made.
+ They interviewed a male fan, who was there with his girlfriend! Aiba was prodding him for their relationship ("Are you friends...? Siblings...?") until he finally just said "we're a couple". And he called attending Waku Waku their "Arashi date" and I died internally from the cute. Aiba was obsessed with the idea of an Arashi date later, repeatedly whispering "Arashi date". I just aww bb.
+ Aiba doesn't eat his cherry tomatoes.
+ Aiba also rudely interrupted Nino's eating to drag him out to cook his mom's yakisoba together. Aimiya were ridiculously cute the entire event I just.
+ Since Waku Waku this year is a camp, they 'slept' during the event. At one point the crowd starts murmuring (pretty sure everyone was fawning over how cute Ohno was in his sleep, because he was very cute in his sleep) and Ohno sits up and says "YOU GUYS, SLEEP."
+ VIVA青春!! They woke up to an 8-bit version of GUTS!, and started performing it. I just ughhh Jun was adorable.
+ Jun plays a game where Arashi has to guess the thing he wants most, and they'll place a real bridge towards the image of the item Arashi guessed but styrofoam bridges on the rest of the items. After this, Jun runs over the bridges towards the item he wants most, so if their guess is right, Jun arrives safely! If not, Jun falls into the pit of styrofoam cubes below. Arashi is pretty sure Jun wants a record player. Jun wants everything but the record player, and gets to fall in 3 TIMES. After this, Jun goes back to his table and declares "so, now we've confirmed Arashi's friendship" with the least conviction ever. Best boyband award.
+ During the game, Jun has to turn around and listen to music so he can't hear the other members discussing. Nino makes Jun listen to Shake It!, and Jun starts dancing to Shake It! in the cutest way. Nothing will ever beat those awkward, bashful but playful hip thrusts and body waves. WORK IT JUN.
+ Jun's lesson involves Arashi giving advice to fans who've sent concerns in, and a lot of it is very serious and I couldn't understand most of the conversation happening ): But there was that one fanservice concern: Ami-chan's boyfriend is shy, and she can't get him to hold hands with her! And she wants Arashi to show her how to hold hands inconspicuously. I LAUGHED SO HARD AT EVERYTHING most of their plans were horrible. It was beautiful.
+ Jun called Ohno "Satoshi". I WILL NEVER GET OVER THIS.
+ Sho also called Aiba "Makkun". SIMILARLY UNABLE TO GET OVER THIS.
+ Leader's lesson made me cry for forever because it was about "what would Arashi be like if it was missing one member?" and THAT IS NOT A HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION I CAN IMAGINE WITHOUT CRYING. It was all very sweet; the members all shared their childhood aspirations (Sho wanted to be a conductor, Aiba wanted to be a company president with a moustache [I'm not even kidding; yes the moustache is important!] while Matsumiya both wanted to be pro baseball players) and Leader gave them all titles: Sho is Arashi's pioneer, Jun is their idea man, Aiba is their sun, and Nino is their melody-maker. Aaaaand I got washed under a load of feels.
+ Ohno: And when I say "friendship", I want all of you to say "fire".
Arashi: "Fiyah"?
Ohno: "Fi-yerrrr". It's not "fiyah". It's "fire"
(ngl it was super attractive.)
+ Ohno: -talking about his speech in Thai for AAA 2006- 8 years later, I can still remember the speech. The Thai word for "do your best!" is "panyayanyan".
-after a short conversation between the members-
Sho: Btw, I think the Thai word for "do your best!" is "panyayan".
Ohno: -stricken look of horror-
Ohno:
Ohno: "Panyayanyan".
Arashi: No we're pretty sure it's "panyayan".
Ohno:
Ohno: "8 years later, I can still remember the speech. The Thai word for "do your best!" is "panyayan"."
Jun: Please cut the previous line out!
+ Okay I have a thing for people who speak multiple languages and I was treated to Ohno, Sho, and Jun speaking Chinese, Ohno and Sho speaking English, and Sho speaking Malay. I just. Yes.
+ Singing Furusato together is something I will never forget (:
Waku Waku was really great though.