On Vox: Dream "A" Live Sapporo 1 - 2 Reports

Alright. There is already a lot of information out about things like what was discussed during the MC and what not. Therefore -- and not in a rude way, its just that I am not fluent in Japanese and Arashi talks FAST witch each other, talk over each other, spaz like idiots, etc -- I wont be like transcribing that or anything. My apologies!

Before I begin however, thanks to my Neighborhood/friends/family who kept me in your well wishes and prayers. I had only been in this country two days and then had to figure my way to Sapporo alone. In the end it wasn`t a challenge but it could have been. So, I sincerely appreciate the kind words! <3

Traveling to Sapporo
I had my trip planned out and what not. I printed a timetable for all the trains/shinkasen/etc that I had to ride all listed out. When I went to go cash in my rail pass, they told me the train I needed to catch was completely full. I like almost fell out -- I had already started crying actually. They then said, you can catch this train to Hakodate (which is in Hokkaido but is 4 hours away) but I would have to sit around, doing nothing for almost 6 hours and would arrive at like 10AM. That was 4 hours later than I had planned for. However, I said you know, "Whatever I will take it because I will see this concert." so I took the train.

While on my last train (Aomori -- Hakodate) I notice the two girls in front of me are watching Maou on their keitai. Firstly I was like O_O because I missed it by going to see them! I still regret missing it >.< However, you know I established they were Arashi fans. So after a ton of mental prep (I am kinda terrified to speak Japanese, you see) I finally asked, "Um, where does this train stop?" and they answered "Sapporo." So I am like, "...eh?" because I was under the impression that its last stop was Hakodate. So I explained to the girls about my ticket and they summon the train conductor(?) over and told him. He tells me, "Oh you can ride to Sapporo -- just move to the unreserved seats when we get to Hakodate." So I am like, " THANK YOU THANK YOU!" and was able to arrive at the time that I planned.

Arriving at the Dome/Meeting Clarice
So I arrive in Sapporo just fine and search around to find the subway to Fukuzumi -- the train stop nearest to Sapporo Dome. Found it just fine, got off and then met up with Clarice about 20-25 minutes later. She was wearing green (guess who she is a fan of~) and we hugged and were like YAY WE ARE GOING TO SEE ARASHI~

Fans
Japanese fans are serious business outside the show. Not a lot of people outwardly flailed or anything. It was interesting on my end, because where I come from, we flail with little to no shame. They are all very fashion concious too. A few people either made/customized their own shirts. Some people just wore cute outfits in their ichiban`s colors. I only saw one Live Cosplay of Yuuji (OMSK) and it was very cute. ^^ No one was rude to me from what I heard. I got stared at but then again, aside from one other person that I knew was there, I was a total gaikokujin and so I`m sure it was more like, "She knows Arashi??? HOW??" than anything else. Which is fine -- spreading the word, right? :)

Concert -- Day 1
Before the show: While sitting, everyone in a while they would show Arashi ads and what not.

J-Storm bundle --
One Love single: Footage from the PV.
Dream "A" Live album: Footage from Happiness and Step and Go PVs
TIME -- kotoba no chikara -- DVD: Footage of them singing Happiness during the TIME concert.

Right after each ad, it was like *EPIC SWOOSH* "J-STORM!" I was like, "REALLY, THREE TIMES? I get it!"

(Epic) Yatterman CM --
It was narrated in English, kinda weird but very entertaining. NO footage of Sho! You know, they REALLY want to surprise us I think. I mean we all know Sho + tight clothes is like MECHA YABAI but I`m getting impatient. O_o

Hana Yori Dango Final --
If you`ve seen any of the CM`s online, it was the same. XD

24 Hour Television --
The infamous, "Who will cry first?" question.
Sho: Hm....probably Aiba.
Nino: I think Aiba.
Jun: Aiba.
Ohno: Maa, it`ll be Aiba right?
Aiba: It SEEMED like he was getting all huffy, like "WTF it WONT be me T_T`

Poor thing. LMAO

Go For Beijing--
News Zero! It was a great complilation of all the Sho Ichimen where Sho-chan would go talk to various Japanese athletes participating in this year`s Olympics. August 8th is when he heads to Beijing. Ganbare Sho-chan!

One thing about it though, if you can imagine it.

Epic music.
A small window showing the individual athlete.
A epically serious image of Sho-chan right by it.
Subtitle, "TABLE TENNIS!"

Sorry, but I cracked up! To me, table tennis = ping pong. It`s a skilled sport but he looked SO serious in the picture and I`m like, "It`s PING PONG!" Ok I`m done. XD

Move your body: They wore these really really amazing black outfits. Its comparable to their epic yellow outfits during this past year`s Johnny`s Countdown, but ALL black. The performance was as epic as you can imagine an Arashi styled intro to be -- maybe more.

Happiness: I loved loved this performance! The furi was a lot of fun to do along with the audience!! Sho-chan speaks English at cons usually (like -- to get the crowd hype) but I really think he`s been focusing on pronounciation. He was REALLY GOOD! Then again, I am easy to please. During Happiness, the English he spoke was just,

Come on, everybody!
Yeah Yeah Yeah!

and...

Last time!
Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah~

See? Easy to please. *dead*

Life goes on: This song was SO fun to sing to! It`s one of my favorite DAL songs -- along with Niji ni Kanata e which I was SO wanting to hear!

Step and Go: Everyone was excitable during this song. Man, you know during Ohno`s solo when they`re like in a line and does the clockwork move? I SO DID IT TOO. I love that part like a crazy person.

Member Introductions: The usual!

Jun: Hey! (Audience: HEY)

Nino: Irrashimase! (Audience: KYAAAA!!!!!!)

Aiba: I couldn`t understand it...he was asking questions though. XD

Ohno: Hi! (Audience: HIIIIII)

Sho: What`s up, SAPPO~RO! + Arashi chant.

I LOVE the Arashi chant! Especially when he`s all, "Motto Arashi!" He`s amazing, Sho is. XD

Introduction to the concerts theme -- Dream "A" Live Carnival: M.A.D. came out as clowns/circus folk/ringmaster/etc. 2 balloons (hot air balloons) with Arashi written on the pop up on the right of the stage. The main castle like set is to the right actually. Arashi enters from the right side on their floats.

Jun: Stallion
Aiba: Present -- AND a monitor! It had a huge monitor on it for the people with arena seats I presume.
Sho: Heart dealy -- it had like heart shaped balloons jumbling around in it too. Very cute
Ohno: I think it was an ice cream float...float. XD
Nino: Gardeny thing.

The outfit that stood out to me the most were Nino`s and Sho`s.

Nino is like a sunflower prince of flowerland! It`s just very grassy/sprouty.

Sho`s I was just in love with. I think it`s based off the Queen of Hearts...but he was super pretty in it! Like a girl! Hahaha.

For this song, they stayed on the right side of the Dome. That`s where I was sitting that night!

Love so sweet: They moved to the center to do Love so sweet. It`s hard to dance to LSS with people by you!

Everybody Zenshin: They moved to the left to sing this. Man, when the intro started, everyone went NUTS!

Carnival Night Pt. 2: It was like remixed! You know how Arashi has a ton of "concert versions" of their songs? Well this was just that! It was GREAT too! It`s so fun to shout "C-A-RNI-VAL NIGHT!" with everyone.

Take me faraway: FIRST SOLO, WOO! Ok, um sorry but...earlier concert goers, what the hell? Not only did Ohno DANCE during his solo, it was SEXY AS HELL. I was like OOOOOHWEEEE! It was awesome too -- he did a chair dance deal and I was just like *_* Waaaaai~ Satoshi~

Hip Pop Boogie: Not gonna be biased not gonna be biased it was the best thing ever so not biased. REALLY THOUGH. Sho was poplocking the shit out of this song! I was like DAMN BOY YOU GOT MOVES. Sho`s pretty freaking fly man. Nah but it started with two guys with a ghettoblaster (huge boombox from the 80`s) trying to get it to work. (You hear HPB but its muffled and whatnot) then you hear it all loud and clear though and Sho emerges! Thats when he starts breakin it down man. LOVED IT. Sorry about all that -- I just showed my race. XD DUDE THOUGH. His thumb is FINE. MORE than fine! He flashed it like 50 times to prove it too.

(I forgot to write this song down. >.>)

Hello Goodbye: I didn`t realize there was furi during this night! So I was just like singing/screaming and waving my penlight sporadically! Aiba is seriously adorable during his solo -- like scarily so. I loved it.

We can make it: Not much to say other than it was really cute and great to hear live.

Kitto Daijoubu: Man this one was FUN! Like the "When I was driving through the niiiight~" line started and it was just like "KYAAAAAA!!!"

MC: I`m sure there are already transciptions of this MC up so...yay! MatsuJun`s Maou impersination was hilarious! Especially since he kept repeating the line and THEN doing the face. I was like "What the hell -- you`re kinda crazy today. XD"

Then there were three~ Jun talked about the HYDF/ANA promotion deal. He`ll be flying all around Japan apparently? I can`t believe I`ll still be out here actually. I`m going to go to Tokyo/Osaka if I can and report it to you all.

Sho went on about Yatterman and all that fun stuff. Basically, nothing we didn`t already know.

Then Sho introduced images from FREESTYLE. It was like,

seahorse
rows of drawings
crazy robot
OHMIYA.

People (guess they didn`t read spoilers) were like "Eh? EH?!"

Ohmiya SK: Yuuji was looking at the blown up picture of the Ohmiya clay heads they were in front of, going "I`m not that dark! The artist here has no sense." then while Yuuji was ranting, Taka would randomply quip in, "None!" Then it was like "La la la CHIKUBI BATTLE!" and they ran on stage to sing the Mikoshi song. <3 Afterwards the bazooka shot off the wrong way and...well, I think the rest was reported. XD

After Ohmiya Skoshi, they showed an animation of the Arashipillar (so they could all change I presume. The Arashipillar was walking all over different places, ate a leaf, and then like seperated into 5 little...turtle things. Uhhhh....

Sakura Sake: Right! Sakura Sake~ They were hanging in the air with a blimp carrying them out. They had on orange. They rode acrros the center of the arena. It was neat!

Fight Song: Same deal, they were still in the air and Sho didn`t spin. >.< I`m scared of heights too so I understand. Nino messed up the lyrics -- I don`t know WHY.

WISH: I am not a big fan of WISH but it`s quite fun to sing at a live!

A day in our life: I was so amped, like "YAY ANOTHER CHANTING SONG!" Everyone was so excitable and into it!

Gimmick Game: Nino`s dancing was REALLY great! It still had that kind of...Ninoness to it but it was pretty fly. The licking finger thing was only done once though -- I was under the impression he KEPT doing it. That`s why I told my friend, "OH GOD, I AM NOT READY FOR NINO`S SOLO."

Naked: It was just as depicted on the pictures of it -- quite etheral, very hmmm sophisticated-like? Very Jun, I`d say. Everyone was a lot more "KYAAA!" and "WAOOOOO!!!" this day though.

Greeen: It`s actually a catchy song...maybe hearing it live helps? I know at first I was like "Yeah....o_O" but it grew on me.

Once Again: I know everyone loves this song and I heard it a few times but it is SO MUCH HOTTER at the live, Ohmiya gosh I kid you not! Like they should do a live PV version of it.

Theme of Dream "A" Live: Introduced M.A.D. and the female dancers. Then they introduced Arashi again and they all did silly stuff. What was neat was for each member, their solos was remixed with the DAL theme. SO great sounding.

Ohno: Made his eyes follow his finger/creepy face
Aiba: Backflipped, screwed up. XD
Nino: Card trick. I SAW RIGHT THREW IT!
Jun: Sucked on his fingers.....?!
Sho: He was just all, "Hip hop hibi to the hip hip hop and ya dont stop!"

Then it was like EPIC DANCE TAIMU and they did a dance.

(Forgot to write this song too >.<)

Hidashi no Mirai: This was great fun! They had red, dancing letter A`s to help with the furi! So I was like YAY I`m Hidashi no Miraing!

Oh Yeah: This song at the start, they were like JUMP JUMP and the arena was like LIFTS! It was a crazy sight to see.

Your Song: This was the moment when I kinda went you know...language barriers, sure. Individual differences, whatever but...you know we were all just Arashi fans and I felt really unified with everyone around me at that moment. Like, someone could step on my shoe or spill a drink of me and I wouldn`t care. It was touching, seriously.

Encores

One Love: A LOT more fun at the lives! They still do the corny like hand movements but I dunno, its fun to do when you have a penlight.

Kansha: OLD SCHOOL ARASHI YAAAY~ You know the lyrics, "Smile again! Arigatou" after they say Arigatou, the audience shouts, "Arashi!" Its very cute.

Gori Muchuu: I DIED. I FREAKED OUT AND DIED. Gori Muchuu is my FAVE Arashi song. So, I was like flailing/waving/being insane during it all.

Pikanchi Double: Aw it was fun to hear! After Sho`s ending rap, they bowed and walked out. People were like OH HELL NAW and chanted Arashi again.

Hero: Then they played Hero! It was great since we had seen the 24 Jikan Ad earlier. It`s still a super touching song.

Then that night was over. I was still kind of in, "I just saw Arashi....I JUST SAW. ARASHI." mode...

Concert -- Day 2
Instead of re-typing the things that didn`t change, I will type the things that DID change.

Take me faraway: MUCH MORE HIP SHAKING THIS NIGHT. Ohno was feeling particularly sexy I think `cause boy was on fire. I WAS LIKE DEEEEEENG who taught you that. XD

Ohmiya SK: SHAFTED! We were SHAFTED! Well I`ll start. After Mikoshi song, they tried to shoot off the bazooka like, 4 times! On the last time Taka did a running start and jumped like the FREESTYLE pose!

It was hilarious to see them both totally break character after that. THEN THOUGH -- it ended all abruptly!! All I heard was "BlahblahCHIKUBI!" and they ran off. T_T

Fight Song: Sho STILL did not spin BUT he apologized, LMAO.

A.RA.SHI: I CANT BELIEVE THEY SANG IT FINAL SHOW! LIKE I KNEW IT WAS POSSIBLE BUT I FIGURED JUN WOULD BE PRETTY MUCH LIKE, MY FOOT IS DOWN! AND NOT DO IT BUT THEY DID! >.< The people around me were totally crying too it was amazing. Thats like the epitome of Arashi no matter how young and whatever they were.

Originally posted on chesto.vox.com