Arashi ni Shiyagare! #042

Aired On: April 30th, 2011

When guessing who the guest might be, Aiba reminded the rest of Arashi that they had talked about it before, and had decided that it was about time for Matsu-nii (Matsuoka Masahiro, TOKIO) to appear. Sho agreed, saying that it's because Matsu-nii's drama (High School Restaurant) has started, so he would probably appear to do promotions. Nino commented that if he didn't come (that day), he probably wouldn't come at all.  Jun said that he thought that Matsu-nii really was coming that day. They all turned out to be right - both the audience and Arashi were really excited, and Sho and Nino claimed, "finally!" Since all of them kept expecting Matsu-nii to appear on their show sooner or later, and Matsu-nii haven't - until then.

Matsu-nii commented on a previous episode when Ohno impersonated him, and asked if he really walked that way. Ohno said that it was just his image of Matsu-nii, and that he exaggerated it, so Matsu-nii made him impersonate him again. It was really funny, Ohno captured Matsu-nii's arrogant entrance to the show, haha. Matsu-nii told them that people had been saying that Ohno's impersonation of him was really good. He then announced that he might have to retire from the entertainment business after the show, becaus he had a lot of secrets (about Arashi?) to spill! Sho commented that Matsu-nii had already spilled a lot when he was on Shabekuri 007.

They move on to the rumours segment, where the first rumour is...

• Rumor #1 Matsu-nii wears sunglasses even at night.

Hearing this rumour, Nino said that there were people like that, after all - although whether or not Matsu-nii was one of them was another story. Matsu-nii denied the rumour, saying that he didn't wear his sunglasses at night, because that would be weird. Sho countered that he always wore them, though, to which he replied that he was weak against sunlight and fluorescent lighting, and without the glasses, his head hurt. He said that even his regular glasses help (against the headaches), and passes it to Sho to try on. Sho agreed, and said that it had always been his impression that Matsu-nii often wore glasses or sunglasses - there were no one else in JE who wore sunglasses at the time, so the image stuck.

Matsu-nii said that he'd been scolded for wearing sunglasses, since it was definitely strange that someone who'd just debuted would go around wearing sunglasses. Sho then asked about those days, when Matsu-nii would join the rest of the Johnnys for dinners when invited. Matsu-nii recalled one dinner he had with (Nino and Aiba?) in Las Vegas, when they didn't really know each other yet. He had no idea what their names were at the time! Aiba asked if Matsu-nii spoke English, because he seemed to remember that he did. Matsu-nii said he didn't, and when they were just starting to get into the conversation Sho jumped in, reminding Aiba to not speak so casually, since Matsu-nii is their senior. Both Aiba and Matsu-nii laughed, and Matsu-nii said that Aiba had always been like that - Sho and MatsuJun were the only ones in Arashi to speak to him politely.

Then, out of nowhere, he dropped this fact - MatsuJun is actually the least celebrity-like of celebrities. (Really? The diva?) He said that MatsuJun is known to others as the Celebrity MatsuJun, but he really is an ordinary person - that is, when he was out drinking with MatsuJun, MatsuJun treats him like a salaryman would his section chief. XDD

• Rumor #2 Matsu-Nii processes tuna every day

Matsu-nii explained that there was this time when he had to process tuna (not that he did it every day). His friend loved to fish, and had asked him to take in a tuna. He had told his friend to cut it first, but received it as is. He impersonated his "friend", which sounded suspiciously like the leader of a certain pop group. Said leader looked away, seeming to have a hard time trying not to laugh. Matsu-nii said that he had called the friend to tell him to cut it first, but was told "I wanted to show you the whole tuna!" Matsu-nii concluded that his friend was an idiot.

At this point Nino turned to Ohno, asking if being an idiot was fine with him. Ohno agreed that he was an idiot. They showed a picture of Ohno with the tuna, and Nino said that if Ohno really wanted to show Matsu-nii the tuna, he could have just sent the picture instead. But instead, as Matsu-nii explained, he had to process the tuna himself, and showed a picture of it. There was a LOT of it; Matsu-nii claimed that if he made sashimi, it would have fed about 50 people, so he called Ohno over to "take responsibility" and eat some of it. They took it to a friend's restaurant to eat it, and Ohno was so excited, saying "I fished this, I fished this!" while Matsu-nii thought, yeah, it was a big fish, but he was the one that processed it!

• Rumor #3 Matsu-nii can't sleep without holding a cushion

Sho's comment - "I didn't know you had such a cute side to you." They were starting to say that there's no way Matsu-nii was like that, when Matsu-nii admitted that he'd been that way since he was little. Perhaps not a cushion exactly, but he had to have something with that texture, or he wouldn't be able to sleep. Sho was all like, "me too!" which I was actually surprised to hear. Matsu-nii showed Sho the callusses he developed while fingering the textures of the cushion, to which Sho replied that he wasn't that hardcore. Basically, according to Matsu-nii, he had to rub the fabric texture between his fingers to fall asleep.

 

Nino asked if there was a Johnny that Matsu-nii admired, and Matsu-nii immediately responded, Sakamoto Masayuki. He explained: Sakamoto was amazing; even in the Johnny's Sports Day, the MVPs were always the two of them (Sakamoto and himself). Sakamoto was good at everything, Matsu-nii said, and highlighted Sakamoto's singing. Sakamoto sang one of TOKIO's songs once, and he made one of the lines sound like it was part of a musical.

At this point, they received the cue for the title call - Matsu-nii was to teach them the essentials of being a manly idol (lolwhat?). Arashi wondered what that meant. Matsu-nii brought up the fact that his group members, Joushima Shigeru and Kokubun Taichi had both appeared on the show before. Arashi confirmed this, recalling that they did a Johnny's Intro Quiz and, uhm, received underwear as presents, which they put on over their regular pants. "How half-hearted", Matsu-nii commented. He clarified this, saying that since Arashi were men, they should show their manly side from time to time. "Even though you're gentle", he said, which made me laugh. Anyway his mission was to teach Arashi to be a more manly kind of Johnny.

At the first set change, the rotating set turns into a Las Vegas set with Ayabe Yuuji in tow as host. They introduce the first step to being a manlier Johnny:

• One - Become the Johnny's King!

About this point, Matsu-nii explained that most Johnny's don't really know much about their seniors, even when they're the back-up dancers of said seniors. Sho said that Arashi had mostly been the dancers for TOKIO, V6 and Kinki Kids. For Matsu-nii and TOKIO, it had been mostly Shonen-tai and Hikaru Genji (super-seniors!). Shonen-tai's choreography were notoriously tough, and Matsu-nii told them about a triple turn he had to do, adding that for Aiba, mastering it would be out of the question. So of course Arashi made Aiba try it. He did, and almost crashed into Matsu-nii and Ayabe-san. Matsu-nii told them that Uekusa from Shonen-tai might have accepted Aiba's attempt, but not Higashiyama Noriyuki. He demonstrated how a triple turn ought to be done, and did it perfectly, his glasses flying off stage.

So, in order to test their knowledge on their seniors, a quiz.

Question 1: What was Nagase Tomoya in charge of in TOKIO, when they debuted?

Aiba rushed to answer: tambourine! (Correct!)

At this point it occured to me that this is a good chance for me to learn about the JE senpai groups, since I only knew them through dramas.

Question 2: Guess the song from the intro.

All of them were unsure, and Nino finally answered that it was TOKIO's "Dr.", but he was wrong. He was

immediately afraid that Matsu-nii was going to kick his ass, but Matsu-nii said that he's most disappointed with the fact that one of Arashi should definitely know the answer, but apparently didn't. Sho was already saying that he thought it was him, but he couldn't remember the song.

Jun answered next: TOKIO's "Message". (Correct!)

Sho had retreated to a corner by this point. Matsu-nii approached him, asking, how many years ago did they work together on a drama? Ten years, Sho answered. And what was the theme song of that drama? ..."Message". This is the horrible thing about you guys!

Nino also said that Sho was horrible to forget such a thing, but one of the others retorted that Nino was plenty horrid himself, mistaking the song in the beginning.

Personally, I think it's cute that Jun began to remember the moment he knew that Sho is part of the clue. I'd like to imagine chibi!Jun watching that drama religiously when it was out, hahahaha.

Question 3: What was the shocking thing Kokubun Taichi had to do in the drama Alumni Reunion?

Nino: A kissing scene with Sakamoto. (Wrong)

Sho: A kissing scene with Yamaguchi. (Wrong)

Ohno: Dressing up as a woman in a wedding dress. (Correct!)

They then showed that scene - it seems like the young Kokubun would have made a believable woman 0_o. Matsu-nii said that Kokubun was the spitting image of his mom (whom Matsu-nii referred to as Kuniko-obachan), dressed up like that.

Question 4: Aiba's family runs a Chinese restaurant. What does V6's Sakamoto's family run?

Nino: A greengrocer's. (Correct!)

Matsu-nii was impressed, as it was obvious that all of Arashi knew this one. Jun explained that it was because when they were V6's back-up dancers, V6 had talked about the store during the MC once.

Question 5: Guess the song from the intro.

Everyone seemed to know this one; MatsuJun rushed towards the buzzer.

MatsuJun: V6's "MUSIC FOR THE PEOPLE". (Correct!)

As the one who correctly answered more questions than the others, Matsu-Jun won the title of Johnny's King.

As for the losers, it was a tie between Sho and Ohno. Batsu-game time! They were told to create their own original dance to TOKIO's "Rumoured Kiss". Yama being Yama, it turned out to be one of the cringe-worthy, laugh-out-loud funny things ever.

At this point we are reminded that there are two more points to being a manlier Johnny. (Oh, so that's what we were doing so far? HA.)

• Two: Whip up your own rice bowl!

The rotating set is changed to a kitchen battle set, and Matsu-nii selected Ohno to be Arashi's representative for their donburi battle against each other. Their judges would be Dr. Hattori Yukio and Ito Hideaki.

Matsu-nii chose ingredients without know what he wanted to make, yet, while Ohno planned to make "something like" an oyako-don. Ito-san is starring in the same drama as Matsu-nii, so he started to announce it while Matsu-nii cooked, but Nino interrupted, as Ohno was having trouble. Ito-san asked Ayabe-san to do the announcement as he tried to help.

Matsu-nii named his donburi a stamina mixture don, and both Hattori-sensei and Ito-san seemed to enjoy it. Ohno called his dish a pseudo oyako-don. Ito-san said that it was like a Japanese dish served in Europe - it looks like oyako-don, but something's lacking. Hattori-sensei clarified that it's lacking broth and soy sauce, but it's not bad if one doesn't think of it as an oyako-don, and thinks of it as a pseudo-oyako-don instead.

• Three: Play cat's cradle!

Arashi needed to "take action" and capture the hearts of little girls like Matsu-nii's younger relatives, who were into them. Hence, cat's cradle XD

They had fun playing cat's cradle - Aiba revealed that he has a lot of female cousins, so he played it quite a lot - before the show cuts into the "Encounter the Unknown" corner.

It's Nino's turn for this corner, and he meets with a hired driver, Nakamura, who had been appointed as the driver to VIPs like Tom Cruise, Jodie Foster, and Steven Spielberg before, and was to teach Nino all about hospitality. His first rule was to change one's cellphone to the national anthem - of the client. It could also be a theme song from a movie, or something related to the client. The reason is that even though the phone might not ring while at work, it's important to use a ringtone that would not irritate the client if it does.

Another rule is to always convert temperatures to Fahrenheit, when talking to clients from countries that uses it. Conversion method: CELCIUS x 1.8 + 32 = FAHRENHEIT. Nakamura-san said that he could do this calculation immediately. He also told Nino about his seven tools, which includes detailed schedules of the clients, to prevent overlaps.; a handmade map of the route of the day, which he would present to the client; and a handmade picture postcard of the places visited. Just when I started wondering what Nino would have to do, Nakamura-san said that he would like to drive Nino around famous areas in Tokyo. They went to visit the Kanda Myojin shrine, and just when Nino thought he was "safe", he was given the assignment to draw something for Nakamura-san to remember the day by :D

 

I always like the episodes where their guests are other Johnny's, because of the talks about the things they do when they hang out and such. This time, too, my favourite part was the story about Ohno and Matsu-nii's tuna. And while I don't always like the Encounter the Unknown corner, this time I enjoyed it. I love seeing people like Nakamura-san, who put a lot into his work. (I don't think all hired drivers go the extra mile of drawing picture postcards for their clients? Really cool.)

[vid credit: ANM]