One Love

Newspaper interview of Ohno

This is an interview of Ohno kun from my local Japanese newspaper. I tried to translate it as close as I can to the original, but my Japanese isn't perfect so there may be some mistakes.

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Cold-heartedness That has Gone Beyond Hatred

Ohno Satoshi, who is always quiet and has a gentle expression, is showing a cold-hearted face in his first appearance in the serial drama, "Maou" (TBS).

He acts as the main character, a lawyer who is putting his revenge plan into action one after another against the man who stabbed his younger brother to death 11 years ago (Ikuta Toma) and others. 'Going beyond hatred and using up emotions to head towards a perfect crime.' he said, carrying an expressionless face with his feelings put away.

'I want to know the atmosphere.' So he went to listen to the trial of a criminal case beforehand. 'It was tense. Even someone who looked good-natured couldn't answer the prosecutor's questions. You can't understand people.' he said, having gotten a hint.

Although the stage play "Pu" series which he stars in started in 2003 and has continued for 4 works, the circumstances are different for serial dramas. 'There's one month rehearsal for stage plays, but for dramas, you have to make a judgement instantly. There are times when I want to do it once more afterwards.'

He entered Johnny's jimusho at the age of 14 and debuted as a member of Arashi 5 years later. He has lead the group with his graceful dancing and rich singing voice. He showcased his resin clay artwork and pictures in February and his versatility is gaining attention.

'Right now, I can relax best when I go home and space out by myself.' This says just how busy he is everyday. ' It's different from when I debuted, where I didn't know what I was doing.' he said, feeling the change.

He has worried about wanting to fit into the fans' image. 'If I tried to fit into it, I won't be myself any longer. I'd like to be how I want to be.' he said, so as to strengthen his determination. 'At that time, I think it'd be good if I can do as I feel.' he said, without getting carried away.

The comment underneath his photo: Generally recognised as a guy who brings the rain. 'There are times when I finish filiming and return to the location bus, it becomes sunny.'

Ohno Interview

My rainbow

I thought I might do this too since it seems interesting.

Your rainbow is intensely shaded blue, green, and white.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is says about you: You are a tranquil person. You feel strong ties to nature and your mood changes with its cycles. Those around you admire your fresh outlook and vitality. People depend on you to make them feel secure.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

Happy birthday Ohno kun!

Happy birthday to our dear Ohno kun! This has been a great year for you. Hope next year will be even better as Arashi heads towards their 10th anniversary.

Happy birthday Matsujun!

Happy birthday Matsujun! Hope this will be a great year for you and hope 24 Hr TV all goes well.

The resemblance between Arashi and the Olympic mascots

After seeing the souvenirs that Sho kun brought back from Beijing for the other members, I decided to look up more info about the official mascots. Besides the fact that both have 5 members, here's some more interesting facts. I've only taken out the ones that I thought are relevant. 

http://en.beijing2008.cn/spirit/beijing2008/graphic/n214068254.shtml

Olympic Mascots 2008

Beibei (the fish) - known to be gentle and pure.

Jingjing (the panda) - charmingly naive and optimistic.

Huanhuan (the Olympic flame) - the big brother who is open and inviting. Also outgoing and enthusiastic.

Yingying (the Tibetan antelope) - fast, quick-witted and agile.

Nini (the swallow) - innocent and joyful 

I just think it's so coincidental that the colours (let's pretend purple is close enough to black) and the characteristics of the mascots relate this well to the boys. It's kind of freaky XD

Sho in the eyes of an athlete

Suzuki Keiji, a judo champion, was interviewed by Sho kun on The Moments and he mentioned Sho kun in his blog.

 http://ameblo.jp/suzukikeiji/entry-10110866176.html

嵐の「櫻井翔」くんと話しました。

もう、ホントに、ものすんごく！！！！！

ナイスな男でした。

(I talked with Sakurai Sho kun from Arashi. He was an extremely nice guy.)

 

Near the end of his blog entry, the athlete mentioned Sho kun again.

櫻井君は？

まぁ、マジでいい男に出会えて、また１つ成長しました。

(Sakurai kun? Well, being able to meet such a great guy, I have matured a bit more.)

 

Anyone who's watched the interview will realise that both Sho kun and the athlete have something in common. In the interview, Suzuki Keiji talked about the bond between him and his friends and how important his friends are to him. You can see Sho kun nodding in agreement and saying 'I understand' several times to the athlete's comments because we all know Sho kun has a bunch of good friends and also treats them importantly.

It was a really interesting interview to watch and Sho kun looked like he was enjoying himself and laughed quite a lot. Here's a screencap of the interview. Suzuki Keiji is the guy sitting next to Sho kun, who has a wonderful smile on his face. 

Sho_The Moments

  

This time last year

It's been one year since I went to Japan to watch Arashi's concert and Takki's stage play. It doesn't feel like one year has passed and I can still remember all the things that happened on the trip, including complaints of the hot weather everyday. But it was worth it and I've never regretted going, since it was my first time going to Japan not for sightseeing but just to see the boys.

To commemorate this special day, I've posted up some photos that I took while I was there.

Japan 1

This billboard was near my hotel and I would walk pass it whenever I went to the station or went back to the hotel, so I always took a glance at it in the morning and at night XD

Japan 2

                 More billboards at Shibuya. It's hard not to notice the bright yellow against the dull grey building.

Japan 3

                      Yet more billboards at Aoyama. JStorm really put a lot of effort into promoting the album.

Japan 4

Time poster signed by Arashi members. This was taken at Johnny's Family Club. Couldn't get rid of the glare no matter how many times I took the photo >_<

Japan 5

                                     Window display in Shibuya promoting Yamada Taro no Monogatari.

Japan 6

                                                   Poster of Yamada Taro no Monogatari at TBS.

Japan 7

Large billboard of C1000 Lemon Water at Okachimachi station. Sorry for the reflection, but I was too excited when I saw this and took the photo in a hurry. This same billboard was at almost all the stations on the Yamanote Line.

Japan 8

Ikebukuro was one of the stations that didn't have the large billboard, but instead had 2 smaller billboards placed next to each other.

Japan 9

Not really sure what this is, but I think it may have been a place for live radio broadcast in Shibuya. My cousin took this photo while I was at Arashi's concert.

Japan 10

The display taken inside Yokohama Arena after the Time concert. So many girls taking photos of it and I had to wait for them to finish before it was my turn.

Japan 11

A sign outside an omurice restaurant in Osaka that said this omurice was presented in one of the episodes of Shukudaikun. Shows that Arashi is really popular because the restaurant thinks using Arashi to promote will bring in more customers.

Japan 12

I've always wanted to visit Keio University to see the uni that my ichiban went to how it looks like and finally I was able to go there. This is the side entrance of the uni.

Japan 13

                                                            This is the entrance of the library.

Japan 14

The school building at the front entrance. I'm sure Sho kun would have climbed these steps many times during his uni days.

Japan 15

Can't forget about my other ichiban, Takki. This poster of his stage play, Takizawa Enbujou 2007, with his autograph and a strange but cute picture he drew was taken at Johnny's Family Club.

Japan 16

                         Poster of Tsubasa's show, World's Wing Premium, at Shochiku Theatre in Osaka.

Happy Birthday Nino!

Happy Birthday Nino!

Hope you will remain looking young forever and continue being love love with Ohno kun XD Really looking forward to more songs composed by you.

Nino1

 

Nino2

Australian composers for Arashi

The composers for Once Again are from Australia! Alfred Tuohey and Thanh Bui are from a production team called Yin Yang Productions and they also run the International Artist Academy in Melbourne.

You can see how these 2 composers look like here: http://www.internationalartistacademy.com/production.php

In the Bulletin section on the website, it even mentioned Arashi.

"IAA, with Yin Yang Productions, has secured its first NO 1 Album in Japan through the band ARASHI. Set to sell platinum, this band continues to be one of Japan's biggest selling acts."

Good to know that they're informed of the popularity of the artist for whom they composed the song for XD  

An insight into Your Song

The songwriter of Your Song, Sugiyama Katsuhiko (杉山勝彦), wrote a bit about the meaning of the song in his blog, so I thought I'd do a rough translation of it because it was an interesting read.

http://ameblo.jp/jigsoulband/entry-10090851919.html 

Basically, the songwriter was asking himself what kind of song can continue to be sung for many years afterwards and finally came up with the answer that for him there's no such song. The reason is because such song doesn't exist by itself but usually it's synchronised with a special story or a memory you shared with someone, which makes you want to sing it.

Therefore, his conclusion is "Such a song doesn't exist but when I sing it with you, I want to continue singing all the time and I can think like that no matter what song it is."

He explains that a large part of the lyrics is "lalala..." because it's not what you sing but who you sing it with. The sound of "lalala..." when both of you sing is the song that you'll always want to sing and this is the song that you've been searching for.

After reading the songwriter's explanation and understanding how he came about to write it, the song means so much more and I like it even better. Hope Arashi will continue to sing it in concerts in the future years.