Arasick Time

Hanadan location part 1

 * Pls do not remove, repost or link these photos out of this blog, Thanks.*

We wanted to go this place after we found out about this location! Is a very nice and cooling place on highland.. Very clean and fresh air!

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 Doumyoji House!

 

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 The dining area where Doumyouji and Mother sit at the ends of the long table.

 

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 The "Harry Potter" dining room

 

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 The corridor area where the casts walk up and down...

 

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The main lobby hall area

Hiroshima sightseeing

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I went for Speed concert after my Fukuoka trip. The concert was held in Alsok Hall.

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The goods I got! A very nice and colorful towel and the phamplet

 

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After Speed concert we went to eat Okonomiyaki here! This is the shop which Sho and Aiba went during Childminder in Hiroshima! And according to the program. All Arashi members went here before 10years ago!

As it is Silver Week, the stall is packed with local tourist! There is a super long queue and we waited for like 2hrs!

 

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Maru of K8 also went! And Sho pointed it out ! The sign is on the ceiling!

 

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According to the bangumi (Childminder in Himitsu) the sign is next to the clothes hanger on the wall. And was dated!

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This is written by Sho! This is the child's name! Can see that Arashi fans also wrote beside Sho's handwritting.

 

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We found another same name on the wall.. the handwritting looks the same! we wonder if this is written by Sho also!

 

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We are so lucky ! we sat at the table where Sho and Aiba sat !!! Here is our food after 2 hrs of Q-ing ... the osusume menu is okonomiyaki with noodles...but it taste not delicious at all, not nice at all even when we are hungry! leftover of cos..we told ourselves that we will never queue again! But we look at the Japanese around us! They finished everything! I wonder is it really we had different taste from Japanese?! 

 

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Wonder what is this? I think only crazy Arashi fangirls will get excited over this ! Maybe it is only us! haha.. This is the Hiroshima Green Arena! The good old Arashi concert venue when they are still in Arena class! We missed the good old days!

 

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The father of the child in childminder is a baseball player and Sho and Aiba brought the boy to this stadium before! The child's father team looks famous in Hiroshima as we can see merchadise of the team in  the train station omiyage shops. 

 

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Fukuoka Sightseeing

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Since we are in Fukuoka we want to do some Banbino sightseeing..We only remember Jun walked around and we remembered that there is this building and some bridge and also the tower at the background.

 

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After our so-called Banbino sightseeing.. cos there is nothing much site for us to go. We decided to revisit the ramen shop which Sho went abt 2yrs ago.. We also ate at this stall 1yr ago when we were there for Dream-a-live concert. Last year we can see some fans but this year no fans at all!

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The soup is extremely oily ! with fats deposit floating in the soup! but it is nice !

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Mini gyoza

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The shop is filled with artist signboards and we found something new after our last visit! And it is Uehara Takako from Speed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are super excited cos we are going for Speed concert the following day!!

 

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No far from the ramen stall we passby Aiba Mama's idol (Yon-Sama) jimushou! So we went in and take a look since is Aiba Mama's idol! No photos allowed! As we are in Arashi T-shirts and carrying Arashi Shopping bags and so the shop person ask if we are going for Arashi concert and we said yes and she said that her colleague is also going for Arashi concert today!

  

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I shook hands with the late Michael Jackson outside Fukuoka Yahoo Dome..

 

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View from Fukuoka tower overseeing the beach with the word Arashi and Yahoo Dome.

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Back to Home! plus Speed Concert Report

Sorry for not able to reply to comments as I was really tired ! Just came home yesterday from Japan and flight was delayed and only touched down at 1.30am and have to start work immediately today! I think I was stoned during all the teleconferences and meetings I had today! Chasing idols for a person who lacks of exercise is really physically stress! I ate alot and ate late dinner everyday but yet lost weight! My back, shoulders, legs, arms are all aching from all the carrying of heavy concert goods and standing through out concerts and walking long distance to find location site!

In short this trip is really a fruitful one. I will try to update more outdated reports for my personal reference and if anyone interested to read outdated reports!

Beside chasing Arashi concerts, I also attended SPEED concert and DreamBoys..and of cos all the sightseeing are Arashi related..

Ok Let me update Speed Concert first..A lot of personal experience here and comparison with Arashi concerts.

I went to the Speed Concert in Hiroshima on 20 Sep, the day right after Arashi Fukuoka concert. I think for Jpop fans in Singapore whom are around my age will like speed during our schooling days but no chance to see them back then. Since there is Arashi concert in Fukuoka and Hiroshima is so near to Fukuoka of cos we must go and watch!

I think we are so funny! We went to Speed concert in Arashi shopping bags cos we do not have another shopping bags so we go in Arashi shopping bags and try to cover the Arashi wordings by carrying the side with Arashi wordings inside! As this is the first time we going for non-JE concerts we do not know what to bring! Of cos we had our binoculars and my friend brought her recycled her Arashi uchiwa with the word "Singapore". And we also brought the Arashi penlight just in case.. I really dont dare to bring out my Arashi penlight but since my friend said just bring so just bring ! haha..

The concert venue is very very small, less than 2k audience! And we just came from Fukuoka Dome and it is like dont know how many times bigger so the venue is really so small in comparison! We do not have to pack like sandines on the bus! The theme of the concert is rainbow colors and on the way we see guys dressed in the rainbow colored T-shirts! My friend said that rainbow colors is gay color and I really not used to seeing male fans in concert T-shirts! It is such a funny sight! and Amazing to me!  

Before we go in my friend tried to hide the uchiwa.. as we are scared that uchiwas are not allowed! But they checked only for cameras only. The concert goods are more expensive than JE ones. Which I guess becos JE can sell in cheaper price cos they manufacture in bigger qty which makes it cheaper? I bought the rainbow towel and the phamplet only and I took damn long to decide what to buy. When it comes to Arashi dont need to think and I want everything and will only think abt how many more duplicates I am getting !! And when you spent more than 4k yen you will be given a free gift but we dont know what is that cos never research abt it. And the free gift is actually a pack of tissue!! so cheapo ! The queue is short but they are taking a long time ! I think they can afford to take their own sweet time! The staff are taking their time to attend to customer and some pple are still deciding what to buy last min!

We are at the fifth row that day! And the venue is like a butai venue! Unfortunately we are behind  4 hyper high female fans whom keep jumping and swing their hands up the in the air and blocking our views! If is Arashi concert we will have asked them to stop blocking us but it is not JE concert so we wonder if it is "right" to tell them off ! We realized that Speed fans also bring uchiwas! But their uchiwas is like the mini uchiwas and not the standard Jumbo uchiwas we had! And the 4 hyper girls keep changing uchiwa when different members came! haha! Seeing them is like a mirror when we are at Arashi con! Very busy ! changing uchiwas all the time! haha But this time we only had one uchiwa! As we have "SS" seats we had a lot of eye contact with all the members. We know they are waving to us and I think the 4 girls in front thought that speed is waving to them! haha.. We managed to catch attention from Hitoe first. And later the rest of the members. I think soon all four of them know there are Singaporean Fans around! And once Takako is infront of me and nobody is waving to her and suddenly I started waving to her and she waved back! haha! so happy! And the four hyper girls in front as so happy thinking that she is waving at them! BTW my favorite in Speed is Takako and Eriko. And I think Takako is so pretty !! I cannot get my eyes off her face! haha..

We are impressed by Speed! In fact we are impressed not only by Speed! I mean I am impressed by Japanese artists! They are really very professional ! Speed concert is shorter than Arashi's by abt 1hr which is about 2.5hrs. But these girls can sing and dance for 2.5hrs and their singing is till very powerful and good !! I think I cannot do that for even half an hour and standing to watch concerts only is so tiring for me! I watched before a live performance of one of the subgroups of Morning Musume also and I think they are just as good! Can sing and dance at the same time ! I think they really make alot of effort to build up their stamina and perfect their performace ! I still remembered my friend told me that she is same age as Ohno but why Ohno can sing and dance for the whole concert but she feel that she is too old to stand through out the concert!   

I think I don't really like speed in the past but I love the speed now. Cos their voice is still very kiddy and too high pitch back in the 90s. I love their retrack album! I think they do not have many songs so they sing the full songs unlike Arashi whom usually cut short some songs !  

They shot out their signed T-shirts to fans with air guns and all 4 T-shirts are taken by male fans! cos they can jump higher to catch them! I think speed fans have a well mixed of both female and male fans..and there are alot of fans who are old couples and even father and children combination.

We realised that speed has their own colors and as diehard Arashi fans we are talking abt what is the Arashi colors.

Eriko - Pink (Sho color) -> Not sure

Hiro - Blue (Ohno color) -> Not sure

Takako - Purple (Jun color) 

Hitoe - Green (Aiba Color)

During MC can really see that Speed are very gentle. They singing voice is very powerful but when they speak they are so gentle and soft! They are really kawaii and their complexion is real good except for Hitoe. They are all very fair and look very young!  I cannot stop laughing when my friend take out her Jumbo binoculars to look at them clearly from the 5th row !  

Their fan service is mostly to the nearby fans near to the stage which is very unlike Arashi who will try to service the fans behind. However, Since we have the "S" seats we dont mind that at all!

The voices for calling for encore is very different from Arashi concert! The call is loud and rougher ! haha cos there are lots of male fans voice! 

At the end of the concert, Takako said Thank You to fans whom came from Singapore! That is us! And after that Eriko and other also thank us for coming! We had 5 seconds of limelight! haha.. And we see shocking faces looking at us! including the 4 hyper girls in front of us! We really enjoyed ourselves and we feel is like a childhood dream come true! Cos we really listened and watched speed when we are young! haha..