KAT-TUN 2 Me

I’m afraid I have some bad news about the whole Arashi concert thing.

Word on the interwebs is that they are getting much stricter about checking that only fan club members are attending the concert with their assigned tickets. Some kind of thing where you have to register your ticket before the show? I dunno. What this means is that while I’m still sure I can get tickets, I’m now much less sure that I’ll actually be able to see the concert.

Naturally, I am rather pissed off about this. I mean, why should I have to pay a bunch of money to join a fan club if I just want to see a concert? If I’m joining the fan club just to get the concert ticket,  because it’s the only way, then the real price of the ticket is like 10x what they claim they’re selling them for. And even if you join the club, you still might not get a ticket. Seems like sketchy business dealings if you ask me.

Anyway, I’m still going to try to go for sure, but I need to know which people, if any, are still interested in trying to attend with me. If I’m buying two tickets, I’m afraid I will have to demand payment whether or not we get to see the show.

Now, I’m hoping that it’ll all work out, but I can understand people not wanting to take the risk. It’s not a problem for me to buy just one ticket… just a little bit lonely.

~Celestia~

PS. And since that was kind of sad. Let’s all look at how utterly girly Ueda looks.

Do I see lipstick and eyeliner? That’s our pretty pretty princess.

Well, Matsuura Aya has the answers!! It’s so nice to see the real Ayaya on TV instead of that transvestite impersonator. Also nice when my fandoms collide, as Aya was a guest on a recent Arashi no Shukudai-kun.

So this all got started when Aya said that the way a guy smells is very important to her. Naturally, Nino has to lean over and sniff Oh-chan who was looking his zoned-out-iest.

Anyway, Aya was blindfolded, and then she smelled each of the guys, including some staff members to throw her off. So now, for the record, I can report that…

Nino- doesn’t wear cologne, but smells fashionable (whatever that means)

Aiba- who was picked on a lot this episode, is unscented and therefore boring

Sho- smells like incense/ a grandma

Ohno- stinks, at least to Aya

Jun- Smells just like a girl and/or a scented candle. LOL. He started smacking the camera when she said that.

In the end, Nino wins for smelling best. Hooray!

Hope you enjoyed this little segue. I’m going to a KAT-TUN concert tomorrow, so expect a full report when I get back!

~Celestia~

I know I already posted the video of this part, but GIFs and JPGs are more portable.

And once again, Matsujun’s shirt has found a way to detach itself from his body.

Ohno splashes Nino, who then pretends to be pissed off.

And everybody’s happy again! Tra la la!

Jun slides down the ramp and lands singing….terribly, but it’s still pretty cool.

This whole sliding thing looks so fun. I’m jealous.

Final jump!

Nino wins for altitude, Jun wins best pose, Ohno wins for wearing purple flip-flops, Aiba wins for looking like he`s just standing around in mid air, and Sho is still cashing in on his winnings for his running faces. Yay!

And that’s it ladies and gentlemen! The whole concert. Hope you enjoyed. Remember, comments are love.

~Celestia~

Lots of member-ai during “One Love”.

 ”Everyone put your hands in the middle” somehow turned into “everyone hold hands” 

This picture would have been a lot better if Jun hadn`t insisted on having his hand directly between the camera and his face the whole time.

OhMiya alert!! Kyaaaaaaaaa!

Sho secretly dreams of becoming a speed skater.

Nino and Sho celebrating not losing the “Fight Song” punishment game janken. Sho: “High five? Screw that! It’s hug time!”As a side note, I love how they always seem to get so caught up in the punishment game during “Fight Song” that they mostly forget to actually sing.

Poor Oh-chan, however, did lose the game and had to go in the dunk tank.

Looking cocky pre-dive.

Not so much after.

Then, Ohno’s microphone isn’t working. He`s just having all the luck this concert, isn`t he? Fortunately, he’s sharing a platform with Matsujun who is happy to share until the staff can hand them a new one.

Slowed down for maximum hilarity. Jun announces the fireworks and then startles like a bunny when they start going off.

That’s some hardcore air drumming.

One thing I noticed was that there were quite a few guys in the audience at this concert. Some of them seemed pretty into it. Then I saw this guy….

Everyone else is singing along and swaying with the music, Gramps is sitting there looking utterly stoic and unmoving. LOL and a half.

~Celestia~

2/3 of the way through a concert seems like an odd time to break out the member introductions, but hey, what do I know?

Sucking on his finger is Matsujun’s new second favorite concert move. Second only to ripping his shirt off/open, of course.

Nino does a magic trick.

Then Ohno does some hella freaky thing with his eyes that had me squeaking at my TV in horror.

Aiba-chan, so cute.

And Sho just does rapping which doesn’t make for a very interesting GIF, so we’ll have to move on.

“Oh my God, it’s torch!!!!”

Once again, Sho+Running…

= HILARIOUS faces

Rockin’ out with the guitar player. I like this live band thing.

3, 2, 1 JUMP!

~Celestia~

*Turns out that song is called “Gori Muchuu” (thanks Kristine!). B-side to Pikanchi Double. Talk about pulling a song out of nowhere.

Woo! Fire!!

Look! I made a full set. They didn’t all have a lot of closeups in front of the flames, but I did my best.

You know, the whole waving your arms in line thing isn’t always the coolest, but this one is pretty nice. I think the flames help.

Sho looks back and you can tell he’s barely keeping himself from laughing at their enthusiastic skipping while he’s doing his rap part.

Aaaaaand pose! Not an easy moment to capture. Jun decided to turn around, so he’s out, Leader is singing, and therefore making weird faces every other frame, and Nino is jumping up and down and therefore hopelessly blurry in most frames. Still, I kinda like how this turned out. Okay, excessive commentary over.

Juntoshi moment.

Play rockstar all you want, you’ll still be Matsujun, mega-idol and professional pretty boy. Also, I think he might be getting high of guitar fumes or something.

~Celestia~

Check out Aiba’s amazing shoes for his solo. They get a close up, because the cameraman also recognizes how special they are. One side has pink with blue velcro and the other side is blue with pink velcro!

Nino has the cutest smile! As a side note, I think Nino’s hands might be stuck in peace signs permanently soon if he’s not careful. I mean, I know that a lot of girls have fans begging for it, but he flashed peace signs (on camera) 44 times this concert, by my count. LoL.

Funny Riida dance.

Uh oh. Matsujun’s is having a wardrobe malfunction again. Funny how that always seems to happen to him.

Nino backflip pwns everyone else’s little dance solos.

Sho can be so adorably awkward sometimes.

“If I was a girl, this is where my boobs would be”

Some Carnival Night fun, courtesy of Sho and Nino.

Jun basking in the confetti. Aww, Matsujun is always SO happy at concerts.

~Celestia~

So, here I am at a Japanese internet cafe. Such is my dedication to blogging that I’ve spent quite a long time here assembling the tools I need to properly document the latest Arashi concert DVD. In fact, it’s taken me about four extremely frustrating days to work out how to do this on these computers. But, at last! My efforts have paid off!

If you squint, you might just be able to make out the stage, waaaay down there.

The Arashi Around Asia 2008 in Tokyo concert took place at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium, and oh my God that place is HUGE!! I’ve got to wonder though, could the people way at the top really see anything at all?  Actually, one of my only complaints about the concert is that at the beginning, while it is still light, the camera is constantly zooming way out to show how many people there are. Crowd shots are nice and all… but I kinda bought the DVD because I wanted to see Arashi. As long as I`m talking about complaints, my other is that the costumes aren’t near ridiculous enough. I mean, sure, they wear pastel pink suits at one point, and there are those costumes with the vests made out of big bandannas, but that`s nothing compared to the giant shoulder feathers of the Time concert`s opening, or those horrible green ruffly robes during “Wave”. I have come to expect some truly horrible costumes from Arashi, and at worst, the costumes from this concert were merely moderately tacky.

Okay, now that all my complaints are done, I must say that this concert was absolutely amazing. Honestly, I don`t know how they ever expect to top this. The sheer scale of the venue is pretty much unbeatable in Japan, right?

The DVD starts off with something called “Arashi`s Fight in Kokuritsu”. My first thought was “What? Arashi was fighting? And they featured it on the DVD?” But no, it’s just a bunch of rehearsal footage showing what lead up to the concert, along with a little bit of Re(mark)able recording and backstage stuff. I kinda want to start with the end, since the last 1/4 of the concert is so great (spoiler alert: it starts to rain and the guys turn the stage into a makeshift slip-n-slide), but I`ve heard it`s good to save the best for last.

This wouldn’t be my blog if I didn’t start off with some OhMiya silliness.

Actual dialog here.

• Nino: Oi! Stop staring at my nipples!
• Ohno: *giggles*

Bird Man tries to fly.

On to the actual concert!

Sho makes really funny faces when he runs. Has anyone else noticed this?

Tell me what you wanna…?

Matsujun doing what he does best, mugging for the camera. Expect lots more of this (see below).

Going through Jun’s mind right now: “Damn I’m pretty”

Fishing-crazy Oh-chan…. or maybe just crazy Oh-chan.

To sum this gif up in one word, “YAY!!!!”

You know what? I’m really tired, so I’m going to call it good for the part 1. Stay tuned for part two! Now that I’ve sort of figured this out, it might go smoother.

Hmmm. Needz moar Nino, yes?

~Celestia~

PS. Feel free to take these, but please comment first. It’s a little known fact that bloggers live off of a diet of comments, and we’ll actually starve without them. Hundreds of bloggers die of comment deficiency each year.

I went over to one of my Japanese friend’s house the other day. She’s a big Arashi fan. After chatting for a bit, we watched my “Time” concert DVD and her “Iza Now” concert DVD with all the extras back to back, along with a recorded episode of Himitsu no Arashi-chan, only stopping briefly to order pizza. So much fun! LOL. Well, that’s got me in an Arashi mood, and with like 5 days until their next concert DVD comes out (KYAAAA!), I took a few cute OhMiya-type screen caps from a random Arashi no Shukudai episodes I downloaded. Oh, and these aren’t my imagined captions. It’s what they’re actually saying.

I know, I am obsessed.

Reading over shoulder cuteness!!!

But wait until you see my first attempt at a picture like this. OhMiya look fine, but then off to the side….

LOLWTFSHO?!?!?

Later in this episode though, things took a decisively more pervy turn.

Nino: Actually, Leader’s fly has been down this entire time!

Ohno: Gaah! It’s true! (Such a cute surprised face. Nino can’t seem to tear his eyes away…lol)

Ohno: Where have you been looking at?! (and later “and how long have you been looking there?!”)

And Nino keeps insisting, “Shhhh! We’re on TV. We can’t talk about that now!”

We’re on TV right? So wave for the cameras!

~Celestia~

Happy 2nd Cake Day International Wota! Since I have two blogs, and I am always looking for an excuse to eat dessert twice, I bought two different cakes!

So I didn`t exactly make these desserts, but they are real genuine Japanese pasteries made in Japanese bakeries, so I think that`s worth some points.

For KAT-TUN 2 Me, a piece of sinful fudge-topped chocolate raspberry mousse cake. I didn`t create as much of a display for it as I did for Bikkuri Project`s. I`m ashamed to admit that this is because I really wanted to hurry to the part where I get to eat the cake.

Yes, it was delicious.

Omedetou,

~Celestia~