DUET February 2010
It's been a while since I had a week's off. I went for a meal with my friends and watched movies. I went for walks, tried going to places that were slightly further away and stretched my legs a little. Visited a soba shop that I've never been to before and spent a reeeeally relaxing day. It's been a year since I spent my time like that. Maybe even longer than a year?
I felt that time has really past when I see new buildings standing in front of me. In 2009, I didn't really had time to think of what I want to do as I was completely buried in work. But even if I managed to get a long break, there is nothing I want to do that immediately comes to mind. For now, I'll just fully enjoy this break where I'm not doing anything. But during this break, I'll probably can't wait to get back to filming.
This is becoming last year's talk but I performed in Yamashita's solo concert. I got a call from Yamashita informing me that his solo concert is confirmed. When I said, "I'll go and watch the concert", he said, "Appear in it." The show which I was supposed to perform was actually the first show on 21 Nov but somehow it seems that that guy (アイツ） was planning for me to appear in all the shows. We arranged to meet the day before the first show but he kept asking me things like, "I guess only tomorrow is possible?" "I think it's really such a waste..." "How about Osaka's shows?" But I couldn't fit them in my schedule so I could only appear in one show. I think it's about right to say, "what a waste." in this situation. (laugh)
The song we decided to choose was Kinki Kids, "Yokubou no Rain", a song that we used to sing together. We didn't want others to think that we only decided to perform in a spur of a moment so we took about a day to do everything from dance rehearsal to sound check. Even so, Yamashita managed to get the lyrics wrong on the day of the show! I teased him about that afterwards and he said, "I was overwhelmed with emotions!" That's true. We've always talked about doing something together and I really had fun during the concert too. But more than anything else, I'm really happy to be able to see Yamashita's dream of doing a solo concert come true because I know how hard he worked to get to where he is.
My relationship with Yamashita? HMM, I've been asked this quite a few times but I've always answered with, "It's difficult to explain." He's a close friend, an existence close to family and also a comrade from work since we were young. Well, this time I will leave it as "I went to help boost the temperature for Yamashita this time" (credits to enshinge for the last sentence!)
I spent the whole of 2009 filming. It was a stimulating year that started with "Ningen Shikkau". I managed to learn more about this new world known as "movies". After that, I was allowed to act in "Seaside Motel" and "Hanamizuki". This year, all of them will be released. So for now, my goal is to work hard at promoting the movies. (laugh) It seems I'll be able to spend my time slowly for the time being so I'll save my energy for my next work! And... I'll go on a holiday with my family!
Scans credit:toma_gallery