ARAFES 2020 - My first Arashi concert!

[arashi143]

I saw people with physical tickets on Twitter. I was wondering if they printed it out on their own and cut it perfectly to shape, or if they were sent to fan club members who bought tickets.

When I found out that they would stream Arafes 2020 and people outside Japan could watch, I immediately bought my ticket. It was October 9th and I bought my ticket as soon as I woke up at 6:30 am. I have never been to an Arashi concert and it has always been one of my dreams. I don't have a Japanese address so I could only get the one that was for general viewers, but I was so excited to purchase that I did before realizing there was a separate English Arafes website. Now I'm wondering whether the MC and other talk segments were subbed for the English website and whether they were able to count me as a part of their huge international fanbase!

Although it wasn't a live concert, I prepared for it like one. I bought my goods that same day and had to let go of the penlight and keyholder so that they would arrive in time for today, but sadly they still haven't arrived. I watched the Arafes 2020 episode of Voyage the night before, and since I bought my ticket I almost exclusively listened to Arashi songs and went through the entire discography. I filled in the newer coupling songs I didn't have yet and listened to them on repeat, but sadly they didn't make the cut. I also listened to the new album over and over as soon as I got my hands on it, in case they sang some songs from there.

Finally, the day. I couldn't sleep and woke up very early to the news that they launched a new version of AR-A-SHI for Hello! New Dream and a lot of CMs for it. Then, I saw through Twitter updates the special contents for fan club members that included variety style skits that looked really fun and I was sad I missed out on those.  Finally, the concert hall was opened. I logged in an hour before, and the PVs that were on Youtube were playing alongside a countdown to the concert — In the Summer, Whenever You Call, Party Starters. Then, about 30 minutes before, out of nowhere they started playing the digest for Arafes 2020 Part 1 which looked super epic and I wish I could've seen as well. After that, it was just tweets until the 3 minute mark, when the timer disappeared and I had to mentally prepare myself cause I knew it would start soon.

I had doubts that it would be like Johnny's World Happy Live with You, which although I enjoyed, felt more like a performance from a TV studio than a concert to me. They definitely took advantage of the fact that it's online and they can do fancy computer tricks this time, and the Kokuritsu as a venue really completed the feel. The first time they changed outfits after distracting us with some digital stuff left me in awe. I was expecting 5x20 somewhere towards the end, so it being the first song made me unprepared for the mess I became after. My connection stopped for a few seconds during the MC I had to switch to the secondary stream button, but I was so glad since a super typhoon just came by a couple days ago where I am and I was so worried it was gonna affect the connection. It was also spectacular to see Kokuritsu becoming a sea in In the Summer, and the drone shot of Tokyo blending into their background for Whenever you Call.  Kite is such an epic song for me and I loved the effect of the balloons flying alongside the lyrics about the wind blowing . I love Turning Up and I was glad to see it as the last song, but I also heard there was an encore for fan club members.

I decided to revisit My Page on Johnny's net after the event to make sure I didn't miss anything, even if they clearly said it was over. And I was greeted with this surprise. I couldn't zoom it very closely, but nevertheless, I'm happy.

I didn't catch Nino doing his signature wink, but I did see Jun wink a couple of times. I really like Nino's hairstyle today and maybe it's my bias but I feel like he wasn't shot by the camera much. I was sad that there weren't any solos but they wouldn't have fit it in time anyway. I heard from Twitter on October 24th? that a baseball game by the Yakult Swallows? were interrupted by the fireworks twice from the Arafes filming and saw that some people were even able to catch the balloons. Which made me wonder what time they started filming and if they filmed both parts in one day.

As I'm writing this, I'm listening to the playlist I made of the setlist for Arafes 2020 Part 2. The end credits were made Netflix style and they still credited Johnny as their "Eternal Producer" (which reminds me of Akanishi Jin's Eternal, lol) and Jun as the concert Director. I really liked that they included some behind the scenes photos in the credits too. I really really did not want it to end. They say Van Gogh ate yellow paint because he believed it would make him happy. Everyone has their own yellow paint and Arashi is my yellow paint. But Arashi day has now come to a close.

Since I don't have a Japanese address, I'm not in the fan club so I wasn't able to vote (please let me know if there's a way around this), but these are some songs I would've loved to see in the setlist:
Hitomi no Naka no Galaxy
Ichioku no Hoshi
Time Capsule
Everything
Winter Days
Perfect Night
Party Starters — I have been playing this nonstop, no joke. I thought they would make it their song for the opening greetings, but as expected it is still new and unfamiliar.
Journey to Harmony — I really love this song and the lyrics and would've wanted them to sing it towards their fans this time.

Overall, Arashi's concerts are still really the best quality entertainment and I still hope I'll be lucky enough to see them live one day. (But when I watched Ohno's diary on Voyage, I sort of felt for him and wanted to let him go if he really didn't wanna come back in showbiz anymore.) When I made a Johnny's net account, they said the nickname would be used for the livechat, so I expected a livechat and thought that maybe Arashi would be able to read it, but it wasn't there so I don't know how to express my thanks to Arashi since my Twitter is a private personal one and I only comment on Youtube or their Instagram page, so now I'm just writing my post-concert thoughts here. Sorry if there's no structure, I'm literally just typing down every thought I have because I am so overwhelmed with happiness right now.