Arashi Japonism Concert Report for Sapporo, Nov. 15th
Last day for Sapporo!
It's raining this morning, or misting might be a better word.
Our seats were up on the second half of the upper stands.
The opening didn't change much from the other nights at Sapporo. All the way to "Troublemaker", I don't have many notes.
In connection with yesterday, "Troublemaker" evolved from Sho and Ohno's heart framing Jun's face to Jun hesitating to walk in behind their heart, because it meant he needed to cover his crotch, which he did.
Jun's greeting was the same, but he threw in that it was the last night.
N: Welcome! (X3) It's the last day! (X2) It's not enough! (X3)
Aiba waved his hand, "Ne ne! He said it's not enough! That's what he's telling you! Can you keep going? It's the last day! Yeah! (X3)
O: Hi! (X3) It's the last day!
He kept the rhythm well tonight too. When we called out "Dei!", he put his hands to his ears to encourage us.
S: (English) How are you feeling Sapporo?!
He called out to each of the sections and made us laugh by saying Aiba's "Ne ne, tannaitte!"
In "Make a Wish", Aiba hugged Sho from behind and swayed to the beat. We screamed at how cute they were, but Aiba just had to jab Sho in the stomach before hurrying away.
Nino played with the crowd a bit before his solo. When he raised his hands, we cheered and when he lowered them, we quieted down. He did it twice and was about to do it a third, except he teased us by stopping and smirked.
"Happiness" had it's usually Juntoshi moment. Jun threw his arm over Ohno's shoulder as they walked on the stage together and then spun both of them around before they kept walking to the large cart.
Jun didn't try to grab Ohno to keep his balance in "Ai wo Sakebe" when they stand on one foot, but just by staring over at Ohno during that part like he was thinking about it, he made Ohno crack a smile.
MC
S: Yeah! (X2) One more "Yeah"! We're Arashi! This is our third day here. How has it been Nino?
N: Hot!
S: Was it hot outside too?
J: Of course not, it was cold and rainy.
S: Well if it's hot in here, it must be because you are excited.
N: It was hot in the dressing room too.
A: Wasn't that just because the heater was on too high?
Sho asked Ohno to think up a good word for all the guys in the audience to shout out.
O: A call?
S: Which word should they say?
O: It should be something masculine... How about "omaera"? (A casual way to say "you guys")
He took a breath and was about to say it, but a lone voice from the crowd yelled it first.
S and O: Too soon!
J: When Leader says "seee no", you can say it.
Lone voice: Seee no!
Ohno put up a finger to his lips and made an adorable desperate "shhh" face. It was seriously so cute, so I will forgive "Mr. Lone Voice Man" for getting too excited.
Ohno finally got to say his "seee no" and the guy's voices rang out clearly.
S: How about the girls, Matsumoto?
J: Since they are girls, they should say something like, "In the name of the moon, I'll punish you" (If you didn't know, it's a line from Sailor Moon. And Jun even called us "beautiful warriors").
J: Okay, Bishoujo Senshi, I'll say "Tsuki ni kawatte" and you say "Oshioki yo!"
We followed his lead. It was obviously louder.
J: Thank you. That made me happy.
S: And one more for everyone. Aiba?
A: Then it's gotta be Arashi.
We all cheered their name.
Sho finally let us sit.
S: So it's day three of Sapporo.
A: Everyone's so excited.
S: Has there been any trouble yet today so far?
O: Just barely, but it's okay.
Nino and Aiba were quick to jump on that. "So there was something?!"
O:... No, it's fine.
Even if there was something, he wouldn't say it.
O: I didn't make any mistakes.
S: Kazunari?
N: I think that I'm doing okay so far. But not Aiba.
A: I'm doing fine!!
N: After your "It's not enough!", you said "That's what he's telling you!!" for your greeting, right? How is the crowd supposed to react to that? Cheer?
We didn't mind, but some people probably had no idea that was even what he said.
A: That's fine. It's a new pattern.
S: Speaking of the greetings, there's something bothering me. About Ohno's pose for when the audience shouts "Dei". What happened to the way you used to do it?
He demonstrated how Ohno would always put both arms high and cross his legs.
O: ...I changed it.
It probably wasn't a conscious decision.
Aiba objected to the change too.
A: Can you stop changing stuff like that so suddenly?
Nino and Aiba both did the previous pose, which they seemed to be rather attached to.
O: I'll try to change it a bit at a time.
S: Did you all notice that Ohno was changing his pose?
Us: .....
S: .... Who am I talking to here?
We laughed.
S: Are they supposed to be imitating your pose?
O: They don't have to. (We snickered) They can if they want. (Chuckles) Or they can do it with small movements instead. (Laughter) Or they can just not do it at all. (Laughter again)
J: Can we talk about "Troublemaker"? It's already been explained on the net for the people who know about it.
Sho and Ohno did their heart to show everyone the problem, but when the crowd kyaaaed for it, they pulled their hands back and did it again, several times, to see if we would yell every time or not.
S: This is the Nagoya version.
Jun leaned down behind the heart.
S: And then this was yesterday... When we realized it was too low and landed directly over Jun's crotch.
J: That cameraman isn't fair. I was purposefully standing to the side, out of the way, so that I would avoid being on the screen, but when I moved just a little bit, it was all I could do to cover it.
Sho laughed loudly at it, but stopped when he realized they were the ones laughing about that the most. Which made us laugh harder at that.
S: Can I talk about the "mystery of the dressing room"? It's about Aiba Masaki endlessly eating persimmons. When I asked him what it was, he showed me.
A: This is the season where they're the most delicious, so I've been eating them. Don't you remember learning about them in Waku Waku? That's why I've been eating them everyday. I even peeled one for Ohno.
O: He said, "Oh-chan, I peeled one for you" and handed me some.
J: Lately, you've been acting a lot more like a girl.
Aiba joked in a girly voice, "Ah, let's have some cake."
A: But I really do like persimmons.
O: He gave one to me, but I didn't eat all of it, so he had to finish it for me. He was eating so much of them.
S: Because I'd asked him about them before, I found one sitting on the table for me.
Aiba explained that persimmons were best when they changed color when they were ripe. "They're good for the body. I should bring some for everybody."
N: I don't need any.
A: You shouldn't say that!!
J: It'd be better if it was persimmon juice instead.
A: I don't think there's a mixer.
N: You'd have to go buy one.
S: What's the next fruit that's in season?
A: Tangerines?
They finally decided to go get changed. Jun was nominated as a "seed" and sent away first.
Nino exclaimed loudly when he saw his partner was Aiba. "Ah!" Sho and Ohno left first.
A: You can do your promotions first, but go fast.
Nino finished all of them in under a minute.
"Please watch them," Aiba said shortly, then smiling widely, he said, "Okay! It's free talk time! What should we do? Something with the Japonism theme..."
He thought of something rather quickly.
A: Okay, let's do a quiz! A "what sound is this quiz". I'll go first! Then you can do one.
N: I'M doing one too?!
All of this had gotten decided before he even had a chance to get a word in.
Aiba made a high pitched sound like a "hnnnn".
N: What is that supposed to be?!
Aiba did it again, but he added a "bmp, bmp" noise at the end with his fingers on his lips.
We laughed hard at his impression. I personally had no idea what it was supposed to be.
N: A person having stomach problems who farted?
We cracked up at Nino's halfhearted guess. Aiba apologized for the "bad quality" of his impression.
N: Eeeh?!
He had no idea.
They had the crowd guess and there was a clear answer of "fireworks" from around. At least some people had gotten it.
N: Are you sure that not the manner mode ring tone from your fake phone?
A: My phone is not fake!! It would be harder to find a place to buy a fake one!!
Sho came back on stage. Aiba explained to him what they were doing. Ohno returned too.
A: You're both so fast. Great! Now you guys can continue the quiz while we get changed.
S: Us?!?
Aiba's wonderful about dumping things on the other members with no warning.
S: Can you think of anything?
O: It's hard...
S: It can be anything.
O: Like an Arashi song?
S: Eeh?!?!
O: Just what is this game?!
He started thinking of a sound and Ohno's face lit up when he thought of one.
S: I'll keep thinking. Go ahead.
O: This is a good one.
Ohno made the sound. It's hard to describe, but something like a popping noise? If you knew what it was, it was obvious what the answer was.
Sho laughed and asked Ohno to do it again. Ohno tried a bunch of times, but the first one sounded the most alike. Jun came out of nowhere to give his guess, which was wrong. They said that he'd done the same impression before somewhere and people in the crowd were already shouting the answer.
O: It's the sound from LINE when a message comes.
He tried it again.
S: So quiet!!
O: Jun, you try one.
J: What is it? Imitations?
S: A sound quiz.
Jun was thinking and thinking.
S: This has got to be the quietest MC we've had yet this tour!
Nino came out and announced, "We were listening backstage and Aiba was laughing "what are they doing?!" at you guys."
Says the person who came up with the game.
J: Let's change it to a Johnnys quiz.
Aiba came back out just in time. Jun asked him, "You, Johnnys?" (Kitagawa's usual way of asking people questions.)
A: Yes.
J: Johnnys quiz. In the 50 years of history the agency has, what was the name of the first group that ever debuted?
S: Johnnys!
Jun made a buzzer sound.
A confused Nino asked, "That was the first group, right?"
Jun made the buzzer sound again.
Ohno guessed, "Four Leaves."
J: Is that your final answer?
Ohno said in an awesome English accent "Final answer".
Jun paused and opened his eyes wide, drawing out the moment and staring at a cringing Ohno.
J: That's correct!
He explained that "Johnnys" was a group that existed before the agency had even been founded yet. The first group to debut after it had been established was "Four Leaves". I was just proud I already knew the answer to that one. Jun teased that that was one of the hard parts of Johnnys, making a smug "I got you" face.
J: Do you have another quiz?
A: I'm thinking.
J: How about something about yourself?
A: A quiz about me?
N: But it has to be something since you debuted.
S: Nothing about when you where in junior high.
A: Okay, this happened when I was a junior. You come over here.
He beckoned Nino. He didn't want Nino giving the answer away since he was there when it happened. They sat down on the edge of the stairs.
A: We were sitting here when an old man came along and did something suddenly. Old man!
He called for someone to take the role of the ojiisan.
N: Have the courage to take the role of the old man!
Sho had a guess, so he came over and smacked Aiba on the head.
A: That's correct.
We laughed at them.
A: Probably I was being really loud at the time.
S: And where was Nino?
N: Pretending not to know him. I knew better than to get mixed up in his problems and when to run away.
A: That happened a lot. It was only me who ever got caught.
That finished their MC. Jun explained about the theme of the tour and Aiba got us warmed up for the second half.
Sho and Aiba's solos flew by.
In "Bolero", when they each do their celebratory soccer dance move, Nino yelled for Aiba to do more, so he did it slightly longer.
Before I knew it, I was watching Ohno's solo. My eyes were glued on him, for what may be the last time to see it before the DVD comes out.
The second half was entering the final spurt already. We got lucky enough to have Ohno directly in front of us in the raised stand in "Oh Yeah". I think this happened other nights, but I saw all of it this time. Nino started waving to Ohno to catch his attention and when he finally got it, Ohno pointed to himself, mouthing, "Me?" They both smiled, then Ohno pointed at Nino and Nino repeated the "Me?" gesture. Ohno gave him a big wave in return. Their exchange was really cute.
In "Believe", Jun was dancing with the juniors again. As usual, Nino sat down to sing to the fans under the moving stage. I was keeping an eye on Ohno to see what he would do during Sho's rap and I wasn't disappointed by his cute little dance.
Sho's speech was very stable and unchanged from the other nights. As expected of a pro.
O: It went by so fast. These were a very fulfilling three days. The theme of the tour was to go back to our roots. So for the first time in a long time, I found myself doing the "masks". And back flips. Things we did when we were juniors, if we do them again now, it makes people happy. That makes me glad. So I'm hoping to do more back flips. And move around a lot more. We still have a lot left of the tour, but I hope we can finish safely. Thank you.
A: Did you have fun today? I was impressed how together everyone was for "Funky". If I had to remember a move, I just had to look at the audience! Thank you for remembering it. There were a lot of fun things, but also some that made me nervous. "If I let go, I'll die" It's thanks to your cheers that I was able to climb up there. If it was just rehearsal, I can't do it that well. So thank you. I'm grateful for such great sempai, kouhai, and all the people alive. Thank you.
N: Today was the last of three days at Sapporo. Many people came to make this a great concert.
We clapped.
N: It was a wonderful concert. The theme was to go back to our roots and challenge things that you would enjoy.
He started listing off all the words he could that the fans would use to describe being excited. (Doki doki, kyaa kyaa, moe moe, etc)
N: This is Johnnys. And how great Johnnys is. As we get older and older, the MC will probably disappear... And the concert will only be 20 minutes... We'll do our best to last that long... Then when we get together, we'll just watch one of our past concerts together with all of you. We're happy when we can close the distance between us. Please come to our concerts again. Thank you.
J: Thinking about the theme for this tour, when I considered a concert with a lot of dancing, it didn't seem right. We had to consider what could we do that the fans would enjoy, because that it the type of concert that suits us best. We took time to think about it and come up with new challenges that would entertain you all. There's not much we can do, but it'd make us happy if you get something positive from this concert and connect it to others around you. That way, new paths will open for you. We plan for the five of us to stay together, so please come back to Sapporo and have a good time with us again. Sorry for making you wait. (He'd been talking for a long while) This is the last song.
"Bokura ga Tsunaide iku" ended at:
"2015.11.15
6:32:37"
During the encore when they move around on the large carts, they added small stationary cameras, one to each end of the cart, for the members to stick their faces in and provide a new view for us.
In "Love So Sweet", they used the cameras a lot. Ohno gave a peace into theirs and then Jun started singing to it. Ohno noticed and came to join him. Jun pull him closer and Ohno gave another peace into it. When Nino started doing the airplane on the other cart, he wouldn't look anywhere else but the camera, even as he moved around.
Nino was stealing the camera again in "Arashi", standing right behind Sho as he rapped, even POINTING AT Sho, but somehow keeping ALL the attention on himself.
Jun introduced the juniors, the band, and the pro taiko and shamisen players. All the members either imitated the taiko drummers playing or the strumming the shamisen.
All: Thank you!!
Sho really seems to like the Disco Star wave. And throwing confetti on Nino. Of course, Ohno was also tossing the confetti into the air, so we can be sure they were having a good time.
The concert finished for tonight at 8:49. We tried to yell as loud as we could, but after 5 minutes of calling Arashi, they still weren't coming back out. I think it's decided that Arashi only does double encores on the last day of a tour or when they randomly feel like it.
I'm done with the Japonism tour for this year, unless something crazy happens for Tokyo. I'll be looking forward to news reports!
<3
It's raining this morning, or misting might be a better word.
Our seats were up on the second half of the upper stands.
The opening didn't change much from the other nights at Sapporo. All the way to "Troublemaker", I don't have many notes.
In connection with yesterday, "Troublemaker" evolved from Sho and Ohno's heart framing Jun's face to Jun hesitating to walk in behind their heart, because it meant he needed to cover his crotch, which he did.
Jun's greeting was the same, but he threw in that it was the last night.
N: Welcome! (X3) It's the last day! (X2) It's not enough! (X3)
Aiba waved his hand, "Ne ne! He said it's not enough! That's what he's telling you! Can you keep going? It's the last day! Yeah! (X3)
O: Hi! (X3) It's the last day!
He kept the rhythm well tonight too. When we called out "Dei!", he put his hands to his ears to encourage us.
S: (English) How are you feeling Sapporo?!
He called out to each of the sections and made us laugh by saying Aiba's "Ne ne, tannaitte!"
In "Make a Wish", Aiba hugged Sho from behind and swayed to the beat. We screamed at how cute they were, but Aiba just had to jab Sho in the stomach before hurrying away.
Nino played with the crowd a bit before his solo. When he raised his hands, we cheered and when he lowered them, we quieted down. He did it twice and was about to do it a third, except he teased us by stopping and smirked.
"Happiness" had it's usually Juntoshi moment. Jun threw his arm over Ohno's shoulder as they walked on the stage together and then spun both of them around before they kept walking to the large cart.
Jun didn't try to grab Ohno to keep his balance in "Ai wo Sakebe" when they stand on one foot, but just by staring over at Ohno during that part like he was thinking about it, he made Ohno crack a smile.
MC
S: Yeah! (X2) One more "Yeah"! We're Arashi! This is our third day here. How has it been Nino?
N: Hot!
S: Was it hot outside too?
J: Of course not, it was cold and rainy.
S: Well if it's hot in here, it must be because you are excited.
N: It was hot in the dressing room too.
A: Wasn't that just because the heater was on too high?
Sho asked Ohno to think up a good word for all the guys in the audience to shout out.
O: A call?
S: Which word should they say?
O: It should be something masculine... How about "omaera"? (A casual way to say "you guys")
He took a breath and was about to say it, but a lone voice from the crowd yelled it first.
S and O: Too soon!
J: When Leader says "seee no", you can say it.
Lone voice: Seee no!
Ohno put up a finger to his lips and made an adorable desperate "shhh" face. It was seriously so cute, so I will forgive "Mr. Lone Voice Man" for getting too excited.
Ohno finally got to say his "seee no" and the guy's voices rang out clearly.
S: How about the girls, Matsumoto?
J: Since they are girls, they should say something like, "In the name of the moon, I'll punish you" (If you didn't know, it's a line from Sailor Moon. And Jun even called us "beautiful warriors").
J: Okay, Bishoujo Senshi, I'll say "Tsuki ni kawatte" and you say "Oshioki yo!"
We followed his lead. It was obviously louder.
J: Thank you. That made me happy.
S: And one more for everyone. Aiba?
A: Then it's gotta be Arashi.
We all cheered their name.
Sho finally let us sit.
S: So it's day three of Sapporo.
A: Everyone's so excited.
S: Has there been any trouble yet today so far?
O: Just barely, but it's okay.
Nino and Aiba were quick to jump on that. "So there was something?!"
O:... No, it's fine.
Even if there was something, he wouldn't say it.
O: I didn't make any mistakes.
S: Kazunari?
N: I think that I'm doing okay so far. But not Aiba.
A: I'm doing fine!!
N: After your "It's not enough!", you said "That's what he's telling you!!" for your greeting, right? How is the crowd supposed to react to that? Cheer?
We didn't mind, but some people probably had no idea that was even what he said.
A: That's fine. It's a new pattern.
S: Speaking of the greetings, there's something bothering me. About Ohno's pose for when the audience shouts "Dei". What happened to the way you used to do it?
He demonstrated how Ohno would always put both arms high and cross his legs.
O: ...I changed it.
It probably wasn't a conscious decision.
Aiba objected to the change too.
A: Can you stop changing stuff like that so suddenly?
Nino and Aiba both did the previous pose, which they seemed to be rather attached to.
O: I'll try to change it a bit at a time.
S: Did you all notice that Ohno was changing his pose?
Us: .....
S: .... Who am I talking to here?
We laughed.
S: Are they supposed to be imitating your pose?
O: They don't have to. (We snickered) They can if they want. (Chuckles) Or they can do it with small movements instead. (Laughter) Or they can just not do it at all. (Laughter again)
J: Can we talk about "Troublemaker"? It's already been explained on the net for the people who know about it.
Sho and Ohno did their heart to show everyone the problem, but when the crowd kyaaaed for it, they pulled their hands back and did it again, several times, to see if we would yell every time or not.
S: This is the Nagoya version.
Jun leaned down behind the heart.
S: And then this was yesterday... When we realized it was too low and landed directly over Jun's crotch.
J: That cameraman isn't fair. I was purposefully standing to the side, out of the way, so that I would avoid being on the screen, but when I moved just a little bit, it was all I could do to cover it.
Sho laughed loudly at it, but stopped when he realized they were the ones laughing about that the most. Which made us laugh harder at that.
S: Can I talk about the "mystery of the dressing room"? It's about Aiba Masaki endlessly eating persimmons. When I asked him what it was, he showed me.
A: This is the season where they're the most delicious, so I've been eating them. Don't you remember learning about them in Waku Waku? That's why I've been eating them everyday. I even peeled one for Ohno.
O: He said, "Oh-chan, I peeled one for you" and handed me some.
J: Lately, you've been acting a lot more like a girl.
Aiba joked in a girly voice, "Ah, let's have some cake."
A: But I really do like persimmons.
O: He gave one to me, but I didn't eat all of it, so he had to finish it for me. He was eating so much of them.
S: Because I'd asked him about them before, I found one sitting on the table for me.
Aiba explained that persimmons were best when they changed color when they were ripe. "They're good for the body. I should bring some for everybody."
N: I don't need any.
A: You shouldn't say that!!
J: It'd be better if it was persimmon juice instead.
A: I don't think there's a mixer.
N: You'd have to go buy one.
S: What's the next fruit that's in season?
A: Tangerines?
They finally decided to go get changed. Jun was nominated as a "seed" and sent away first.
Nino exclaimed loudly when he saw his partner was Aiba. "Ah!" Sho and Ohno left first.
A: You can do your promotions first, but go fast.
Nino finished all of them in under a minute.
"Please watch them," Aiba said shortly, then smiling widely, he said, "Okay! It's free talk time! What should we do? Something with the Japonism theme..."
He thought of something rather quickly.
A: Okay, let's do a quiz! A "what sound is this quiz". I'll go first! Then you can do one.
N: I'M doing one too?!
All of this had gotten decided before he even had a chance to get a word in.
Aiba made a high pitched sound like a "hnnnn".
N: What is that supposed to be?!
Aiba did it again, but he added a "bmp, bmp" noise at the end with his fingers on his lips.
We laughed hard at his impression. I personally had no idea what it was supposed to be.
N: A person having stomach problems who farted?
We cracked up at Nino's halfhearted guess. Aiba apologized for the "bad quality" of his impression.
N: Eeeh?!
He had no idea.
They had the crowd guess and there was a clear answer of "fireworks" from around. At least some people had gotten it.
N: Are you sure that not the manner mode ring tone from your fake phone?
A: My phone is not fake!! It would be harder to find a place to buy a fake one!!
Sho came back on stage. Aiba explained to him what they were doing. Ohno returned too.
A: You're both so fast. Great! Now you guys can continue the quiz while we get changed.
S: Us?!?
Aiba's wonderful about dumping things on the other members with no warning.
S: Can you think of anything?
O: It's hard...
S: It can be anything.
O: Like an Arashi song?
S: Eeh?!?!
O: Just what is this game?!
He started thinking of a sound and Ohno's face lit up when he thought of one.
S: I'll keep thinking. Go ahead.
O: This is a good one.
Ohno made the sound. It's hard to describe, but something like a popping noise? If you knew what it was, it was obvious what the answer was.
Sho laughed and asked Ohno to do it again. Ohno tried a bunch of times, but the first one sounded the most alike. Jun came out of nowhere to give his guess, which was wrong. They said that he'd done the same impression before somewhere and people in the crowd were already shouting the answer.
O: It's the sound from LINE when a message comes.
He tried it again.
S: So quiet!!
O: Jun, you try one.
J: What is it? Imitations?
S: A sound quiz.
Jun was thinking and thinking.
S: This has got to be the quietest MC we've had yet this tour!
Nino came out and announced, "We were listening backstage and Aiba was laughing "what are they doing?!" at you guys."
Says the person who came up with the game.
J: Let's change it to a Johnnys quiz.
Aiba came back out just in time. Jun asked him, "You, Johnnys?" (Kitagawa's usual way of asking people questions.)
A: Yes.
J: Johnnys quiz. In the 50 years of history the agency has, what was the name of the first group that ever debuted?
S: Johnnys!
Jun made a buzzer sound.
A confused Nino asked, "That was the first group, right?"
Jun made the buzzer sound again.
Ohno guessed, "Four Leaves."
J: Is that your final answer?
Ohno said in an awesome English accent "Final answer".
Jun paused and opened his eyes wide, drawing out the moment and staring at a cringing Ohno.
J: That's correct!
He explained that "Johnnys" was a group that existed before the agency had even been founded yet. The first group to debut after it had been established was "Four Leaves". I was just proud I already knew the answer to that one. Jun teased that that was one of the hard parts of Johnnys, making a smug "I got you" face.
J: Do you have another quiz?
A: I'm thinking.
J: How about something about yourself?
A: A quiz about me?
N: But it has to be something since you debuted.
S: Nothing about when you where in junior high.
A: Okay, this happened when I was a junior. You come over here.
He beckoned Nino. He didn't want Nino giving the answer away since he was there when it happened. They sat down on the edge of the stairs.
A: We were sitting here when an old man came along and did something suddenly. Old man!
He called for someone to take the role of the ojiisan.
N: Have the courage to take the role of the old man!
Sho had a guess, so he came over and smacked Aiba on the head.
A: That's correct.
We laughed at them.
A: Probably I was being really loud at the time.
S: And where was Nino?
N: Pretending not to know him. I knew better than to get mixed up in his problems and when to run away.
A: That happened a lot. It was only me who ever got caught.
That finished their MC. Jun explained about the theme of the tour and Aiba got us warmed up for the second half.
Sho and Aiba's solos flew by.
In "Bolero", when they each do their celebratory soccer dance move, Nino yelled for Aiba to do more, so he did it slightly longer.
Before I knew it, I was watching Ohno's solo. My eyes were glued on him, for what may be the last time to see it before the DVD comes out.
The second half was entering the final spurt already. We got lucky enough to have Ohno directly in front of us in the raised stand in "Oh Yeah". I think this happened other nights, but I saw all of it this time. Nino started waving to Ohno to catch his attention and when he finally got it, Ohno pointed to himself, mouthing, "Me?" They both smiled, then Ohno pointed at Nino and Nino repeated the "Me?" gesture. Ohno gave him a big wave in return. Their exchange was really cute.
In "Believe", Jun was dancing with the juniors again. As usual, Nino sat down to sing to the fans under the moving stage. I was keeping an eye on Ohno to see what he would do during Sho's rap and I wasn't disappointed by his cute little dance.
Sho's speech was very stable and unchanged from the other nights. As expected of a pro.
O: It went by so fast. These were a very fulfilling three days. The theme of the tour was to go back to our roots. So for the first time in a long time, I found myself doing the "masks". And back flips. Things we did when we were juniors, if we do them again now, it makes people happy. That makes me glad. So I'm hoping to do more back flips. And move around a lot more. We still have a lot left of the tour, but I hope we can finish safely. Thank you.
A: Did you have fun today? I was impressed how together everyone was for "Funky". If I had to remember a move, I just had to look at the audience! Thank you for remembering it. There were a lot of fun things, but also some that made me nervous. "If I let go, I'll die" It's thanks to your cheers that I was able to climb up there. If it was just rehearsal, I can't do it that well. So thank you. I'm grateful for such great sempai, kouhai, and all the people alive. Thank you.
N: Today was the last of three days at Sapporo. Many people came to make this a great concert.
We clapped.
N: It was a wonderful concert. The theme was to go back to our roots and challenge things that you would enjoy.
He started listing off all the words he could that the fans would use to describe being excited. (Doki doki, kyaa kyaa, moe moe, etc)
N: This is Johnnys. And how great Johnnys is. As we get older and older, the MC will probably disappear... And the concert will only be 20 minutes... We'll do our best to last that long... Then when we get together, we'll just watch one of our past concerts together with all of you. We're happy when we can close the distance between us. Please come to our concerts again. Thank you.
J: Thinking about the theme for this tour, when I considered a concert with a lot of dancing, it didn't seem right. We had to consider what could we do that the fans would enjoy, because that it the type of concert that suits us best. We took time to think about it and come up with new challenges that would entertain you all. There's not much we can do, but it'd make us happy if you get something positive from this concert and connect it to others around you. That way, new paths will open for you. We plan for the five of us to stay together, so please come back to Sapporo and have a good time with us again. Sorry for making you wait. (He'd been talking for a long while) This is the last song.
"Bokura ga Tsunaide iku" ended at:
"2015.11.15
6:32:37"
During the encore when they move around on the large carts, they added small stationary cameras, one to each end of the cart, for the members to stick their faces in and provide a new view for us.
In "Love So Sweet", they used the cameras a lot. Ohno gave a peace into theirs and then Jun started singing to it. Ohno noticed and came to join him. Jun pull him closer and Ohno gave another peace into it. When Nino started doing the airplane on the other cart, he wouldn't look anywhere else but the camera, even as he moved around.
Nino was stealing the camera again in "Arashi", standing right behind Sho as he rapped, even POINTING AT Sho, but somehow keeping ALL the attention on himself.
Jun introduced the juniors, the band, and the pro taiko and shamisen players. All the members either imitated the taiko drummers playing or the strumming the shamisen.
All: Thank you!!
Sho really seems to like the Disco Star wave. And throwing confetti on Nino. Of course, Ohno was also tossing the confetti into the air, so we can be sure they were having a good time.
The concert finished for tonight at 8:49. We tried to yell as loud as we could, but after 5 minutes of calling Arashi, they still weren't coming back out. I think it's decided that Arashi only does double encores on the last day of a tour or when they randomly feel like it.
I'm done with the Japonism tour for this year, unless something crazy happens for Tokyo. I'll be looking forward to news reports!
<3