Hey! Say! JUMP in Nagano Big Hat, July 2013
I already saw Hey! Say! JUMP's "Zenkoku e JUMP tour 2013" in Tokyo Dome back in May (and wrote a report here), when they were celebrating Sexy Zone getting their own fanclub, but 1) I was sick on that day and therefore didn't have as good of a time as I might have and 2) I don't have any concerts on the future roster right now and yomimashou and I were really sad about that, so we hit ticket.co.jp and got ourselves a pair of ARENA SEAT tickets for the Nagano location as well. This was our first time being in the arena, and especially since Nagano Big Hat is a tiny venue (it seats around 5,000), it was an amazing experience!
Like always, this isn't a full report with the setlist and everything like that. There's absolutely no way I could remember every single thing that happened, and the setlist will probably be available in any number of magazines. This is simply the highlights in order according to me.
We already had our goods from Tokyo Dome, so we came later than usual to Big Hat and mulled around for about an hour until the doors opened. Right as we were about to go in, however, some Japanese fans found us and wanted to have a photo with us |D;;; Usually, at Tokyo Dome, you see a fair number of foreign fans and boy fans, but since Nagano Big Hat is so tiny, I think it's entirely possible we were the only foreigners there (yomimashou claims she saw some boys, but I didn't XD). They were really nice and not super awkward about it, though, so it was fine.
From there, we headed to our seats, and they were amazing. We were in the last row of the B-block (it was set up with A-block in the front, then B-block, then C, then D in the back), which meant we were really close to the center stage and had an aisle for the moving carts directly behind us. We also happened to be to the far right of B5 (it was set up in columns from 1 to 6, with 1 and 6 up against the outer catwalk, 3 and 4 on either side of the center catwalk, and 2 and 5 in the middle of the section), which meant we were on another aisle for carts to move through AND had a great view of the right-hand catwalk and they could see us easily, too. Basically, the seats were ideal.
Like last time, the concert started with the Johnny's web video of JUMP teaching the dance to Come On A My House. There was no intro with Juniors this time, since in my experience, they haven't had Juniors in Nagano Big Hat in the past few years, but the venue is so small that it was better that way, and there were no distractions from JUMP (and this is coming from someone who LOVES her some Juniors!) They started right on time this time, and came right out with Super Delicate! Yuto is so over the fan service with Yamada XD;; He started pulling Yamada's shirt open with this trolly grin instead of touching his face like they used to. Next they moved into Hitomi no Screen (yes please get all the Yamada stuff out of the way first =___=), but during the part where Yamada always says "I love you," they had a bunch of photos of JUMP making trolly faces on the screen... so it's good to see they aren't taking it so seriously? All in all, it was heartening to me. XD;
After the first few songs, they started to walk around the catwalk, and to be honest, I have no idea what songs they did next, because I was too much in awe that they were SO CLOSE. When they walked on the catwalk close to us, I could see their sweat (ew, I know) and facial expressions really well, and it was during this first bit that Chinen noticed my uchiwa with his name on it and smiled at me~ He really was amazing the whole time, trying to do as many of the requests on people's uchiwa as possible and only looking at each person once so that he could smile and wave at as many girls as possible. He even made it a point as the show went on to look up to the upper stands and try to wave back at the girls who were waving at him up there, and I saw him waving and being cute for some little girls (maybe 8-10ish?) who were in the block behind us. Basically, he was amazing, and even if it was only for one brief moment, I'm really happy that he saw me!
Next they came to the center stage for OVER, and it was amazing how close we managed to be to that, too! I could see all the choreography really well, which was great. Chinen is really an amazing dancer (and I really mean that; I have 15 years of classical ballet training and college degree in dance), and being able to see him move up close was really great. His movements are just so sharp and precise... he makes the rest of them look bad |D; Which is saying something, because I think altogether, JUMP have some of the best executed dance numbers in Johnny's (or at least, they definitely did before KisuMai and ABC-Z debuted |D).
After the center stage, they got on the little carts to be brought through the audience, so we got to see Daiki go by VERY close right behind us. Close enough that sweat could have dripped on us or something... a fact that I'm really glad I didn't think of at the time, or else I might have been hesitant to get much closer |D;;; 7 stayed out for a little longer while BEST got into costume for School Days, and then their intro song (of which I'm not sure the title...?) It was the same as Tokyo Dome, though I got to see them attempt to play their grade school instruments up close and personal this time! Next up was 7 with Nounai Dance and then Ganbaretsugo, complete with the bunny outfits from last year! I have to say, a year later, those outfits are still adorable, but seeing them up close was even better! Yuto and Chinen put up the hoods of the sweatshirts so that they had bunny ears, and their little tails were so cute, too... Yamada also seemed to think Chinen looked cute, we caught him staring at Chinen's bunny tail~ XD
After the BEST and 7 segments, the guys all gathered on the main stage again in some fabulous sparkly purple suits and did a few more of their singles like Mayonaka no Shadow Boy and Your Seed. The stage had a bunch of movable blocks that the guys could stand on at various heights, which was kind of cool, and the they also used them to mirror the guys' dancing beneath them, or the guys would go behind them and a filmed image of them would play in front, so it seemed like you could see them still. It was a pretty neat gimmick, and I assume it also gave the guys a short time to breathe XD;;
After a few songs, they went away again, and the Vermont Curry ad played on the screens. After that, the guys all showed off their curry recipes one by one (or rather, an image of the each recipe was shown on the screen while the corresponding member talked about it). Chinen was particularly cute, saying "カレが好き？僕が好き？" (the lines from Come On A My House, "do you like curry/him, do you like me?"... it's a pun, but by now, if you know Come on A My House, I'm sure you already know that... anyway |D) For "Do you like curry?" the crowd screamed, but for "Do you like me?" the crowd screamed even more, and he grinned, saying "seems like I'm more popular!" before ending his segment. Runners up were Daiki, saying his curry was the rival of Chinen's, and Takaki, whose natto curry did't look very appealing, but he insisted "I swear, it's good!" XD;
Up next, naturally, they did Come On A My House! It was adorable, though a particular highlight for me was when, during the part where Takaki and Yabu give fanservice, Hikaru and Inoo both popped up an blocked them from sight. In the past, it's just been Hikaru, but clearly, he got Inoo in on it too! I don't have much else to say because... Come On A My House is just sheer perfection, no matter what ♥
After this was the MC, which somehow always seems most amusing in Nagano. They did say that they liked the Nagano venue (though I'm sure they say that about plenty of places), and it just seems like they talk more freely about random, less-scripted things. They mentioned that the night previous, all nine of them had gone out for yakiniku, and the tables had been split between 7 and BEST, except somehow, Inoo ended up at the 7 table, and Keito with BEST. They teased Keito about wanting to join BEST instead. XD;; Also, apparently Yamada was getting really excited and worked up at dinner (possibly since he just turned 20 and can drink? XD) and kept asking why everyone else wasn't worked up and excited, too. The rooming arrangement in the hotel seemed to be Hikaru and Keito, Chinen and Inoo, Yabu and Takaki, and Yamada, Yuto, and Daiki in a triple. Yamada, in usual Yamada form, made fun of the noises Daiki made while getting up, Inoo was apparently getting too hyper and jumping on the bed and Chinen had to tell him to stop of he'd hurt himself, and it was apparently Daiki's first time rooming with Yuto ever, or something? Also, Yamada talked about working on his 24 hour TV drama with Ohno, and mentioned that topics of their conversation included Chinen! XD; They they brought up Yabu's play, and somehow, this got onto the topic of Yabu's mom and how she looks and acts just like him (but is way shorter). Someone mentioned him loving his mom, and Yabu replied that no, no, no, that was "the red guy." Apparently, this was referring to Yamada, and Yabu thought it was really funny... but Yabu had been thinking he was funny a lot that whole time, like saying Chinen and Inoo were doing "acro-bed" instead of acrobat in their room XD; The others were making fun of him for laughing at his own jokes too much. Also, during the whole MC, Yabu and Takaki were right up next to one another, so cute~ At the end of the MC, they all introduced their own characters as drawn by Hikaru, with pictures up on the screen! It was nice to finally hear them explain the reasons behind the names and the drawings.
After the MC, just like in Tokyo Dome, was Yamada's solo corner... but this time, he only did Mystery Virgin, not Ai no Katamari, also! I was really thrilled that they had cut down on his solo time, and also took guilty pleasure in the fact that quite a few other fans were sitting down during his solo instead of standing and participating in any way. I did stand-- I don't necessarily actively want to hurt Yamada's feelings, but I definitely didn't get into it. All the JUMP members love Yamada, and while they support him, it would kill me (and all of them) to see him end up like Yamapi or Jin.
Next up was BEST's new song from the Come On A My House single, Scramble. I like the song, I liked the choreography, and I generally enjoyed it. Afterwards was Just For You, 7's new song, and while I find the song kind of whiny and annoying, they looked really good performing it, and of course, Chinen is an amazing performer. They did it on the center stage, so I could see it really well, and Keito played guitar! So even though it's not my favourite 7 song, the performance was really good.
After that was a more upbeat dance section, with BEST leading into BOUNCE, followed by Beat Line and Arigato. During BOUNCE, there was a bit of a technical difficulty-- Yamada backed up a count early and ran into Keito! |D;; Oops. However, in the middle of this section, they moved around the arena again on the catwalks, and I was able to admire Inoo's truly fabulous and flamboyant dancing, Keito's amazing upper arm muscles, and Chinen's crazy dance skills. They did a few more numbers around the catwalks and on the back stage before returning to the front for a JUMP band segment! I was surprised that there was NO saxophone appearance this time, yay! They did a few songs before doing Magic Power, which was really amazing. They're all so cute, but the Yamada and Chinen moment near the end was above and beyond perfection! Afterwards, they did some more band songs including Dash and Hero... but they all forgot the English lyrics to Hero |D Their solo lines sounded reeeally special.
Next was the ballad (New Hope~Sonna ni bokura wa hitotsu) and the speeches, which were similar to Tokyo Dome, before the oddly timed last spurt |D This time, they rode in on the hanging platform thing while singing some of their older songs, and finished with Dreams Come True and Ultra Music Power. Somehow during this time, Keito and Yuto had a collision, and after that, Keito seemed really nervous about running into people, poor bb D: But they rode in the carts one more time, this time with the corresponding image character attached to the cart! Keito rode right past us, and we were thrilled that he saw us and blew us a kiss! He looked really surprised to see foreign fans, but I'm really happy to know that Keito (who could probably appreciate us the most?) saw us. Takaki, on the other hand, had seemed really terrified of us the last time we saw a JUMP concert in Nagano Big Hat, and seemed to be studiously avoiding eye contact until finally, near the end, he finally gave us a smile |D;;
They changed into their concert shirts for the encore, and sang Come On A My House for us one last time. They seemed really relaxed for the encore, and Inoo and Daiki were going full out and fooling around dancing to the music together. Also, Yuto seemed to notice that Keito was still nervous and hugged him really tight for like a good minute or two, and it was the cutest thing! Unfortunately, since there was still a later show, they ended quickly, and that was that. :< Still, it was an amazing concert, and I don't think I've gotten that into a concert in a long time, so... thank you JUMP for being amazing ♥
Sorry that this took forever to write up and it's already the day of the next JUMP concert, but... at least I eventually got it done? :D;; They were really amazing, I hope I get the chance to see them in Nagano Big Hat (especially in the arena) again!
Like always, this isn't a full report with the setlist and everything like that. There's absolutely no way I could remember every single thing that happened, and the setlist will probably be available in any number of magazines. This is simply the highlights in order according to me.
We already had our goods from Tokyo Dome, so we came later than usual to Big Hat and mulled around for about an hour until the doors opened. Right as we were about to go in, however, some Japanese fans found us and wanted to have a photo with us |D;;; Usually, at Tokyo Dome, you see a fair number of foreign fans and boy fans, but since Nagano Big Hat is so tiny, I think it's entirely possible we were the only foreigners there (yomimashou claims she saw some boys, but I didn't XD). They were really nice and not super awkward about it, though, so it was fine.
From there, we headed to our seats, and they were amazing. We were in the last row of the B-block (it was set up with A-block in the front, then B-block, then C, then D in the back), which meant we were really close to the center stage and had an aisle for the moving carts directly behind us. We also happened to be to the far right of B5 (it was set up in columns from 1 to 6, with 1 and 6 up against the outer catwalk, 3 and 4 on either side of the center catwalk, and 2 and 5 in the middle of the section), which meant we were on another aisle for carts to move through AND had a great view of the right-hand catwalk and they could see us easily, too. Basically, the seats were ideal.
Like last time, the concert started with the Johnny's web video of JUMP teaching the dance to Come On A My House. There was no intro with Juniors this time, since in my experience, they haven't had Juniors in Nagano Big Hat in the past few years, but the venue is so small that it was better that way, and there were no distractions from JUMP (and this is coming from someone who LOVES her some Juniors!) They started right on time this time, and came right out with Super Delicate! Yuto is so over the fan service with Yamada XD;; He started pulling Yamada's shirt open with this trolly grin instead of touching his face like they used to. Next they moved into Hitomi no Screen (yes please get all the Yamada stuff out of the way first =___=), but during the part where Yamada always says "I love you," they had a bunch of photos of JUMP making trolly faces on the screen... so it's good to see they aren't taking it so seriously? All in all, it was heartening to me. XD;
After the first few songs, they started to walk around the catwalk, and to be honest, I have no idea what songs they did next, because I was too much in awe that they were SO CLOSE. When they walked on the catwalk close to us, I could see their sweat (ew, I know) and facial expressions really well, and it was during this first bit that Chinen noticed my uchiwa with his name on it and smiled at me~ He really was amazing the whole time, trying to do as many of the requests on people's uchiwa as possible and only looking at each person once so that he could smile and wave at as many girls as possible. He even made it a point as the show went on to look up to the upper stands and try to wave back at the girls who were waving at him up there, and I saw him waving and being cute for some little girls (maybe 8-10ish?) who were in the block behind us. Basically, he was amazing, and even if it was only for one brief moment, I'm really happy that he saw me!
Next they came to the center stage for OVER, and it was amazing how close we managed to be to that, too! I could see all the choreography really well, which was great. Chinen is really an amazing dancer (and I really mean that; I have 15 years of classical ballet training and college degree in dance), and being able to see him move up close was really great. His movements are just so sharp and precise... he makes the rest of them look bad |D; Which is saying something, because I think altogether, JUMP have some of the best executed dance numbers in Johnny's (or at least, they definitely did before KisuMai and ABC-Z debuted |D).
After the center stage, they got on the little carts to be brought through the audience, so we got to see Daiki go by VERY close right behind us. Close enough that sweat could have dripped on us or something... a fact that I'm really glad I didn't think of at the time, or else I might have been hesitant to get much closer |D;;; 7 stayed out for a little longer while BEST got into costume for School Days, and then their intro song (of which I'm not sure the title...?) It was the same as Tokyo Dome, though I got to see them attempt to play their grade school instruments up close and personal this time! Next up was 7 with Nounai Dance and then Ganbaretsugo, complete with the bunny outfits from last year! I have to say, a year later, those outfits are still adorable, but seeing them up close was even better! Yuto and Chinen put up the hoods of the sweatshirts so that they had bunny ears, and their little tails were so cute, too... Yamada also seemed to think Chinen looked cute, we caught him staring at Chinen's bunny tail~ XD
After the BEST and 7 segments, the guys all gathered on the main stage again in some fabulous sparkly purple suits and did a few more of their singles like Mayonaka no Shadow Boy and Your Seed. The stage had a bunch of movable blocks that the guys could stand on at various heights, which was kind of cool, and the they also used them to mirror the guys' dancing beneath them, or the guys would go behind them and a filmed image of them would play in front, so it seemed like you could see them still. It was a pretty neat gimmick, and I assume it also gave the guys a short time to breathe XD;;
After a few songs, they went away again, and the Vermont Curry ad played on the screens. After that, the guys all showed off their curry recipes one by one (or rather, an image of the each recipe was shown on the screen while the corresponding member talked about it). Chinen was particularly cute, saying "カレが好き？僕が好き？" (the lines from Come On A My House, "do you like curry/him, do you like me?"... it's a pun, but by now, if you know Come on A My House, I'm sure you already know that... anyway |D) For "Do you like curry?" the crowd screamed, but for "Do you like me?" the crowd screamed even more, and he grinned, saying "seems like I'm more popular!" before ending his segment. Runners up were Daiki, saying his curry was the rival of Chinen's, and Takaki, whose natto curry did't look very appealing, but he insisted "I swear, it's good!" XD;
Up next, naturally, they did Come On A My House! It was adorable, though a particular highlight for me was when, during the part where Takaki and Yabu give fanservice, Hikaru and Inoo both popped up an blocked them from sight. In the past, it's just been Hikaru, but clearly, he got Inoo in on it too! I don't have much else to say because... Come On A My House is just sheer perfection, no matter what ♥
After this was the MC, which somehow always seems most amusing in Nagano. They did say that they liked the Nagano venue (though I'm sure they say that about plenty of places), and it just seems like they talk more freely about random, less-scripted things. They mentioned that the night previous, all nine of them had gone out for yakiniku, and the tables had been split between 7 and BEST, except somehow, Inoo ended up at the 7 table, and Keito with BEST. They teased Keito about wanting to join BEST instead. XD;; Also, apparently Yamada was getting really excited and worked up at dinner (possibly since he just turned 20 and can drink? XD) and kept asking why everyone else wasn't worked up and excited, too. The rooming arrangement in the hotel seemed to be Hikaru and Keito, Chinen and Inoo, Yabu and Takaki, and Yamada, Yuto, and Daiki in a triple. Yamada, in usual Yamada form, made fun of the noises Daiki made while getting up, Inoo was apparently getting too hyper and jumping on the bed and Chinen had to tell him to stop of he'd hurt himself, and it was apparently Daiki's first time rooming with Yuto ever, or something? Also, Yamada talked about working on his 24 hour TV drama with Ohno, and mentioned that topics of their conversation included Chinen! XD; They they brought up Yabu's play, and somehow, this got onto the topic of Yabu's mom and how she looks and acts just like him (but is way shorter). Someone mentioned him loving his mom, and Yabu replied that no, no, no, that was "the red guy." Apparently, this was referring to Yamada, and Yabu thought it was really funny... but Yabu had been thinking he was funny a lot that whole time, like saying Chinen and Inoo were doing "acro-bed" instead of acrobat in their room XD; The others were making fun of him for laughing at his own jokes too much. Also, during the whole MC, Yabu and Takaki were right up next to one another, so cute~ At the end of the MC, they all introduced their own characters as drawn by Hikaru, with pictures up on the screen! It was nice to finally hear them explain the reasons behind the names and the drawings.
After the MC, just like in Tokyo Dome, was Yamada's solo corner... but this time, he only did Mystery Virgin, not Ai no Katamari, also! I was really thrilled that they had cut down on his solo time, and also took guilty pleasure in the fact that quite a few other fans were sitting down during his solo instead of standing and participating in any way. I did stand-- I don't necessarily actively want to hurt Yamada's feelings, but I definitely didn't get into it. All the JUMP members love Yamada, and while they support him, it would kill me (and all of them) to see him end up like Yamapi or Jin.
Next up was BEST's new song from the Come On A My House single, Scramble. I like the song, I liked the choreography, and I generally enjoyed it. Afterwards was Just For You, 7's new song, and while I find the song kind of whiny and annoying, they looked really good performing it, and of course, Chinen is an amazing performer. They did it on the center stage, so I could see it really well, and Keito played guitar! So even though it's not my favourite 7 song, the performance was really good.
After that was a more upbeat dance section, with BEST leading into BOUNCE, followed by Beat Line and Arigato. During BOUNCE, there was a bit of a technical difficulty-- Yamada backed up a count early and ran into Keito! |D;; Oops. However, in the middle of this section, they moved around the arena again on the catwalks, and I was able to admire Inoo's truly fabulous and flamboyant dancing, Keito's amazing upper arm muscles, and Chinen's crazy dance skills. They did a few more numbers around the catwalks and on the back stage before returning to the front for a JUMP band segment! I was surprised that there was NO saxophone appearance this time, yay! They did a few songs before doing Magic Power, which was really amazing. They're all so cute, but the Yamada and Chinen moment near the end was above and beyond perfection! Afterwards, they did some more band songs including Dash and Hero... but they all forgot the English lyrics to Hero |D Their solo lines sounded reeeally special.
Next was the ballad (New Hope~Sonna ni bokura wa hitotsu) and the speeches, which were similar to Tokyo Dome, before the oddly timed last spurt |D This time, they rode in on the hanging platform thing while singing some of their older songs, and finished with Dreams Come True and Ultra Music Power. Somehow during this time, Keito and Yuto had a collision, and after that, Keito seemed really nervous about running into people, poor bb D: But they rode in the carts one more time, this time with the corresponding image character attached to the cart! Keito rode right past us, and we were thrilled that he saw us and blew us a kiss! He looked really surprised to see foreign fans, but I'm really happy to know that Keito (who could probably appreciate us the most?) saw us. Takaki, on the other hand, had seemed really terrified of us the last time we saw a JUMP concert in Nagano Big Hat, and seemed to be studiously avoiding eye contact until finally, near the end, he finally gave us a smile |D;;
They changed into their concert shirts for the encore, and sang Come On A My House for us one last time. They seemed really relaxed for the encore, and Inoo and Daiki were going full out and fooling around dancing to the music together. Also, Yuto seemed to notice that Keito was still nervous and hugged him really tight for like a good minute or two, and it was the cutest thing! Unfortunately, since there was still a later show, they ended quickly, and that was that. :< Still, it was an amazing concert, and I don't think I've gotten that into a concert in a long time, so... thank you JUMP for being amazing ♥
Sorry that this took forever to write up and it's already the day of the next JUMP concert, but... at least I eventually got it done? :D;; They were really amazing, I hope I get the chance to see them in Nagano Big Hat (especially in the arena) again!