Also on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/arashickarened/status/1333521183095074816?s=20
2020年最後の一か月、毎週書いた嵐メンバーへの手紙を現地時間の午前5:20時にアップロードした
520は中国語で我爱你っていう意味です
大好き
そして、2021年の元旦にまた5:20時に送ります
これからも愛してます
何よりも嵐の健康と幸せを祈ります
My eyes are hurting, my head is aching, I feel drained of all energy. I pulled an all-nighter last night and only took short naps in the day....I probably should go to bed.
But.
I need to let it all out, in order to start afresh tomorrow morning, in the new year. A year without Arashi. All the feelings are crushing me.
It's not like we'll not see the boys (yes, I will still use this term to refer to them even though they are already in their late 30s/already 40 years of age) anymore, perhaps with the exception of Ohno.
But the change is so huge, I feel I need to pen down my thoughts before the page flips and another chapter opens up.
This is the long post that no one has to read. A post to mark a milestone in my story with Arashi.
The short
I was Jun baited into the fandom in 2005 and grew to love all 5 of them. In the past year, through their actions, they have shown us their professionalism, their thankful hearts, and most of all, their consideration of fans' feelings and experience of them.
The concert is evidencee of all that, and I keenly felt the love they had for fans..
I love them. I did, I do, and I will.
It was a terrible journey, having to plan the whole Mentor Outing which started as a 6 mentor groups' outing and ended up being the entire Group 4 outing. Juggling the planning, coordinating, overseeing with tight deadlines for my actual job was almost a nightmare (I'm talking about no proper lunch, 3 Subway cookies for dinner everyday, and a first-in-last out scenerio. Somehow I can't tell whether I'm just too inefficient or too hardworking). Plus family issues I want to avoid facing. But somehow, I enjoyed the journey, which reminded me of my 'glorious' SSC days. And the result was no disappointment either.
I didn't actually realise the sense of satisfaction derived from being one of the few behind this Mentor Outing until I was organising my photos and discovered these gems.
( Personal photos inside. )
Just finished all three episodes at one go.
Gosh, I really can't wait for tomorrow's episode, but at the same time, I don't want each episode to be delivered.
I don't want it to end.
This is the final installment, as promised by the production team, and as hinted by Osawa Takao's response to the sequel (that he didn't want to return for a sequel, but the plot was so compelling that he had to say yes).
The high production value (such beautiful scenery, costumes - oh, how much do I love kimonos for both genders! My dream wedding is set in this Japanese garden I visited in Japan, and I want to wear an elaborate kimono and my man to wear his too. I wonder if the radiation will be gone by that time hahahaha).
Such a tight plot that weaves in history in bits and pieces.
And of course, such good acting by the leads.
I wonder how the story will end. We know for sure that reality demands that history be unchanged, so Jin's actions/presence must be erased one way or another. Sadly, funny guy Sakamoto Ryoma must be assasinated as recorded in history too. So how will it end?
I guess I have to quote this line from Itoshiki hibi yo (theme song for Jin 2):
いとしき日々よ サヨナラは言わないで
あなたに会いたくて もう一度会いたくて
O endearing days, please don't say goodbye
I want to see, I want to see you one more time
One nugget of thought: if saving Nokaza has somehow altered history, causing Miki to 'not exist', why is it that Jin still remembers her? If she never existed, Jin wouldn't have gotten to know her in the first place, so why would he hold memories off his time with her? I don't think it's a plot loophole, because I can't find a 'correct' answer to it.
Why isn't Jin aired in Singapore? I want everyone to know of its greatness too!
( Encouragement. )
I've received ok emails from friends in Japan. Except for one.
For her, I've received a 'delivery failure' email, which usually occurs when the recipient email has been deleted. I hope that's the case, because I haven't been in contact with her for a while, so maybe she has indeed closed the account. I hope it's not something else.
And for another, I have no means of contact. I meet him only once or twice a year, so I don't have his personal contacts. But I do know that he lives near Chiba, and his rented house is next to the sea. Although he was most probably (I hope, I pray) in Tokyo working when the earthquake struck, his house...his everything...are they still intact? I won't know till much later. And I hope when I do know, feelings of regret will not hit me.
Jen replied on her iphone, but her sentences are incoherent and she sounds really shaken.
I pray that all be fine. It's not that much of the aftershocks and potential tsunamis that is worrying me too much at this point. It is the threat of a nuclear disaster. That, is much worse, because its effects are longlasting, even through generations. Like Hiroshima.
I'm just glad that this happened now, and not later in the year. Such as the busy tourism season of cherry blossom viewing and schools holidays, or the warm season for beach activities. And glad that Japan's building rules have been strictly enforced to avoid buildings from collapsing due to the earthquake. In a way, the damage is minimised? Really, thank goodness. I know three friends who have booked tickets for a Japan trip in June/July. If it had happened then...
I've been having this thought for a while. The earth is really dying. No. The human race is dying. Look at what's been happening in this decade. Countless disasters, people killing people (not just manifested through wars, but also unethical manufacturers who sell consumers products that are detrimental to health), rapid diminishment of resources... Is the Second Coming approaching?
I've actually planned to make a business call to Japan on Monday, but I'm not really in the mood to make such a call when everyone there is supposedly more worried about the lives of loves ones than about some stupid auditor calling from Singapore to confirm something. But, work is work. Time waits for no man.
Third, Chinese parents believe that they know what is best for their children and therefore override all of their children's own desires and preferences. That's why Chinese daughters can't have boyfriends in high school and why Chinese kids can't go to sleepaway camp. It's also why no Chinese kid would ever dare say to their mother, "I got a part in the school play! I'm Villager Number Six. I'll have to stay after school for rehearsal every day from 3:00 to 7:00, and I'll also need a ride on weekends." God help any Chinese kid who tried that one.
Read more on Wall Street Journal online.
It's a fun read, but at many points it gets frustrating, because I'm Chinese, and I've seen tons of Chinese mothers who are not what she claims Chinese mothers are in her article.
In the end, I left the page thinking, "Great. Now every single caucasian reading that article is going to have their stereotypical characteristics reinforced - that the Chinese are restrictive, autocratic and unreasonable."
特別な人じゃないけれど
この手にある自由で
誰よりも高く舞い上がろう
まだ見ないあの場所へ 辿り着くためにAlthough we're not anyone special
With the freedom that's in these hands
Let's soar higher than anyone else
So that we'll make it to that place we've not yet seen
Here's the view of someone who had been on both sides. Likely to be over-sympathetic, as I'm built that way.
Back when I was still a new fan, I never downloaded anything and had dependedfully on streaming clips. Reasons for that include:
Fear of virus
Lack of knowledge todownlodfrom clubbox (the most common/popular download source back then)
Slow Internet speed
Lack of hardrive space
Fear of being caught by authorities
Lack of proficiency in Japanese, hence can only watch subbed videos, which required me to join certain communities
Lack of knowledge of different video players/codecs required to play videos
I really feel like making an uchiwa that reads this:
翔さん、
裁定取引って知る？
Sho-san,
Do you know the term Arbitrage?
Plenty of examples here if you don't know this economics term.
But of course, it'll be too long to fit into the uchiwa ne!
On a separate topic, rumours may be rumours, but they still sting!
I really cannot stand seeing my boys' hard work being leveraged on like this. Not once. Not twice. But thrice (at least that's all I've read of)!
First time I read something like that was regarding Kohaku 2009, whereby some people said that Arashi was the exchange condition for NYC in the show. And then, Jen mentioned before (can't find the post) about rumours that a primetime slot aka Arashi ni Shiyagare was the exchange condition for Ohno in Kaibutsu-kun. Third time this.
...has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays, and 5 Sundays.
It only happens once in 823 years.
Oh, the little things in life.
Humans are REMMs. The first thing I learnt in my AA202 course this sem. The thing that I stuck with me from then on, for reasons I don't get. And it is true! Humans are REMMs.
I was watching BOF because it's really addictive, although now that I'm reaching the end (last ep!), it seems quite empty on hindsight. I definitely prefer this version over the tw one (maybe because MG2 ruined it for me), but I'm not sure about the Japanese version. In any case, BOF deviated from the original manga quite a bit, as compared to HYD, in the second half ('second season' lol).
It was very obvious that Jihoo (Rui) had his part increased by a lot, and at the expense of Junpyo (Tsukasa) and the rest. Of course, I've always favoured Rui's character, plus Hyun Joong (Or issit Hyung Joon?) HJL (stands for HJLeader coz he's the leader of SS501. The other guy is called HJBaby coz he's the youngest) is really gorgeous looking so I didn't mind the additional subplots and memorable moments that made the Jihoo's fate in the end all the more sad for me. But looking back, that really changed the nature of Rui's relationship with Makino. It's kind of strange that while I was yelling for more RuixMakino interactions and for him to go tell Makino his feelings in HYD, when that actually happened in BOF, I felt odd. Like Rui became too....proactive? Ah wadever. I'm not a diehard fan of the manga, so I'm ok with these changes to the original plot, although some people were unhappy that Jihoo's part increased while Junpyo's seemed to decrease in comparison.
The one thing I want to complain is the fact that Woo Bin (Akira) didn't get his share of screen time! Not that he's my favourite character or what. But since Yi Jung (Soujirou) had his subplot with Ga Eul (Yuki) developed this much, I expected to at least see Woo Bin's legendary mom and sisters. That part fell short of my expectation.
But the story between Yi Jung and Ga Eul was really striking, much more than the XimenxXiaoyou or SoujirouxYuki relationship in MG and HYD. Firstly, Yi Jung is waaaay cute, especially when he smirks. (I just found out, through a friend, that he's only like...18 or something. Younger than me, at least. O.O I feel sooo old already!) Secondly, Ga Eul is by far the prettiest among all the actresses that acted as Yuki (of course, Rainie Yang's an exception coz she really bloomed in recent years). Thirdly, Yuki wasn't as irritatingly proactive in wooing Soujirou in BOF. So I was really looking forward to their scenes, almost more than I was looking forward to JunpyoxJandi or JihooxJandi scenes.
I was crying (as usual) when Jandi went to Junpyo. It was especially sad this time because of all the sweet memories the screenwriter fed us with throughout the drama. Somehow, since the part of the plot where Junpyo left for Macau (OMG I'm amused coz I stayed in that same hotel - the Venetian, which Tackey dear went for the opening ceremony - a year before, and that time it was still very new so a lot of the shop spaces were still empty. It was interesting looking at the same place a year later!), all the sweet stuff went to Jihoo. I cannot remember how many times he hugged Jandi. There're hugs everywhere!!! Meanwhile, Junpyo was either pissing me off by hurting Jandi (makes no difference that he had reasons) or making me laugh by his silliness. So it felt somehow that the romance was really between Jihoo and Jandi, although this romance will not have a happy ending...
Ok, wait. I just realised that I have still not typed out what I intended to by making this post.
Yes, the REMM thing.
I was watching up to ep 21 when the links to the next eps went dead, due to *ahem* copyright issues (I have no intention to discuss my view on this). So I searched around. But everything was linked to everything else, so I could only find raws, Viet subs, Thai subs, but no English or Chinese subs. I decided to give it a try to watch the raws. It was a disaster because I had to depend on my still amateur knowledge of Korean verb forms, and on making logical guesses at meanings. So, I took like...15mins for a 10 clip. After an hour, I gave up. However, I really want to watch it so I thought of something else. I went to look for soft subs. I found them but because I couldn't and didn't want to d/l raws, they were kind of useless, right? NAH! In the end I watched the raws through streaming and whenever I can't understand something, I'll refer to the softsubs. lol. Yes, REMM. We can find a way out no matter what!
I find it an irony that...when I was in Japan, and saw like Arashi in every magazine, I chose to buy only that few which I really like, and decided not to go too over and buy everything....but now back here, with limited choices and amounts, I just want to get every single thing. Guess it's a "the more youi can't get it, the more you want it" thing?
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