大阪から帰ってきた！

初日ー９月２３日

My seat was in 4^th row stands, but since it was the front part of the stands it was relatively easy to see them. They expanded the set, as can be seen in the picture below, to add in 1 additional platform on either side. 

When they came for for Everybody Zenshin, I got a little shock. “Ah they are so far away”, I thought. The arena class performances had made me a little spoilt and I had forgotten how big the Dome was. The moving stage was lifted really high. In Niigata the moving stage was very lowly, because the stands had no incline, so it was very different to see that moving stage being lifted almost 2 stories off the ground. And the speed of the moving stage was naturally different as they had to cover more ground to get to the back stage. やっぱり、ドームは広いだなと思った。

 

When the 2 storey high moving stage passed the middle of the Dome during Everybody Zenshin, I trained my binos on the stage and I saw that Sho-chan had cut his hair. EHHHHHH!!!!! “翔ちゃんは髪切った!” I told my friend next to me、and then I spent the rest of the song trying to analyse the chipmunk”s new look. He had cut the back off, so that the back was STRRRR____AIGHT. Eeeks, from where I was it was like the hairdresser had used a ruler to measure the straightness to cut off the wisps he had before…Anyway, the more I looked at him, he looks like Horikita Maki in her Ikemen Paradise hairstyle!! Both of them have the big round eyes and the round face and his front parting still remained the same parting as before so exactly like Maki-chan. (hmmm…… tonight for NEWS ZERO I will do the close up check. XDXD)

 

The other new hairstyle was the mecha kawaii Aiba chan hairstyle during the 1^st encore. He had tied his fringe up! It was soooooooo cute. He pulled back the fringe and because it was rather short, it didn’t hang down, it was stuck right up in the air, like a small brush with the bristles sticking in all directions. XD ヤバイ！マジで可愛い！

 

Aibachan Kawaii Check: PASS!

 

 

They had made new costumes, it was major KIRA KIRA (shiny). They seemed to have retired (finally) the colourful shortsleeved jackets that they had been wearing for ages (Taiwan, dome, and summer) and in that place, they had gotten even more kira kira suits. It was major shiny and of course, everyone had long sleeves except Shochan. It was short sleeved so that we still could get a good look at the Banbi airmuscles (and naturally the accompanying armpit hair too (^ ^; ) but I guess they come in a set. (^ ^;)

 

For the ending, Be With You, they got rid of the PINK suits they had in summer con, and replaced it with Kira kira shiny silver suits, with red scarves and a picture of a crown at the back. BUT they kept the multi-coloured featherduster thing they wore for Taiyo no Seikai and Wave. (WHY WHY WHY!!??!) During Be with You, which is second last song, they had decided to throw out the confetti into the arena in the DARK, instead of during the last song, like they usually do. In the last song, they threw it out during Love So Sweet, the last song of the main set list. But this time, they threw it out during be with you, the 2nd last song, in the dark...ちょっと意味分からない。。。
Refreshing concept, but the effect is better when there are lights.

 

The hime got a new outfit – he replaced the purple pants and leopard jacket with a purplish horizontal striped pants and a bomber jacket that had the initials “MJ” in front and three BIG “YABAI YABAI YABAI” words behind. He had a beanie with a luminous yellow pom-pom at the top. The 2007 Autumn version of YAbai Yabai Yabai!!

He could not do the MJ walk over the audience like in arena and so had to do in on the main stage. And instead of starting upside down, he started on stage and gradually “airwalked” upwards to his upside down position, which was pretty high (about 3 stories up). Then in the middle of the song, he could not “fly” over the audience, so he got all the juniors to come out with HUGE alphabets of YABAI YABAI YABAI. ROFL.

 

 

 

Added Kansha Kangeki Ame arashi between kotobayori and kiminotameni boku gairu.

Replaced Love so Sweet with Happiness at the ending, moved Love So Sweet to the encore.
Uraarashi was 'Still'. YAY! 

 

 

My seat was 1^st base side, and it was a Satoshi and Aiba chan seat. I had Aiba chan for Wave. Shocan took the third base side. Nino took the 1st base side towards the backstage and Captain took the centre and Jun took the 3rd Base side nearer the back stage. (I think - didnt pay much attention to the Hime ^ ^;) 

 

 

 

Couple of things changed.. they didn’t build the hanamichi all around the dome as they did for arena. They only built the stage halfway down the 1^st and 3^rd base sides. The rest of the time, they got around with the trolleys. This time, they built a HUGE complicated trolley. It was like the one they used in the Dome cons in April, but they had built more structures above it, with beams crisscrossing all over plus they had neon lights going all around it, which I thought was quite tacky. It looked one of those floats in a Disney land parade without its decorations. I am wondering why they had built such a complicated structure, when there is no apparent reason to.

 

One thing they did about the Moving stage which I really liked: They had two moving stages, but they didn’t run side by side, they ran on the almost the literally the same tracks. But one moving stage could be raised and lowered to allow the other moving stage to pass above or below it, it was a good concept. For Love Situation, they did that and for Sakura Sake too, M.A.D was in the moving stage BELOW the top moving stage where Arashi was. (So you can imagine how high they were, MAD was already above the audience, and arashi was above them, so that was pretty high (Shochan, Daijyoubu??!!) XD

Fight song - They did it in the main stage. But only one member would do the bouncing this time when the rest of them watch... They would Jan Ken Pon (rock paper scissors) and then the loser or winner(?) wiould be the one on the harness.... It was Shochan's turn yesterday and we know how he hates to heights so he was like EHHHHHHH!! yada..... so the four of them would put the fifth person into the harness and then launch him (literally launch - stretch the rubber and then throw him up)  boing boing like 2 stories high.... and so Banbi was screaming his head off...... XD 

 

Shochan's  solo – He did it from center stage, and move to the front, not from Backstage, like in the arena concerts and the completed it in the front stage. His costume also changed. Its more silver and shiny then his summer one.

 

6.　MC Talk

 

 

Rida spoke about his new hobby – fishing. So the rest asked him to bring them along, but he replied,I cannot bring you unless I am convinced you love fishing!　He's been going fishing in at this place in Shibuya and he's been going there late at night after work. But some how all the fish he was catching are the baby fishes, not the big ones... And so he announced that he wanted to take boat driving lessons so he could drive a  boat out for all of them to go fishing.

 

 Oshiko Oji

Aiba chan mentioned that he was on his way back from Kumamoto when his plane got diverted to Nagoya due to the typhoon. He was asleep so he didn’t know about it, until he woke up and realized that he was in Nagoya. And so because everyone was in the same dire situation as him, all the hotels in Nagoya were booked up. He had to search 55 hotels before he found one. And when he finally found one, he was like “I need to pee!!’ so he ran to the bell boy to ask him where the toilet was.

(Pee in Japanese is known as “Shouben” and Front is known as “Shoumen”)  So our dear boy misheard. And when you mishear something like that, the situation can sometimes be pretty embarrassing. The bell boy was telling him that the toilet was in front -Shoumen. But he heard thought the guy was asking him if wanted to pee, so he said yes, Shouben Desu. In front of the hotel lobby in a loud voice! So they start calling him the Oshiko Oji (Prince of Peeing) XD

Yamada Taro Karaoke
Shochan and Nino chan they were talking about their karaoke party with the staff of Yamada Taro, and they sang like 20 arashi songs. He thought that since Sho was with him, they would sing the Arashi songs together but it turned out that he ended up singing by himself, because all Sho did was going Hey Hey Hey Hey Hey like in Fight Song! XD
and singing his rap part. XD And then around the 13th song, he was tell Nino that he wanted to go home.!

 7. Concert Goods

The mini uchiwas were cute.

 

 

 

 

 

 Erm, between my friend and I none of us, bought the Jun uchiwa.... (~ ~;
They look just like the same as their Jumbo uchiwa but a slightly diff angle only.
All the mini uchiwas were sold out today.
The mini tote bag is quite cute for shopping trips to the combini (if u have enough courage to carry it) and the pamphlet is just full of live photos! There is a very cute pic of captain covering his eyes with his hands and smiling  in there which I really like.

Next report..... today's concert!