Day 4: Sapporo

Honestly, a lot of things happened on the second day that I wanted to write about (when it was happening), but by the time we got back to the dorm we were staying at I was just too tired. And by now, a week later, the memory of the two days have kind of blurred together ^^;

Second day, our view.

We had thought that our seats for December 1st weren't very good at first, but once we sat down, the first thing that we said was, "so close!" And it's true, I've never been so close to the stage before. The "Superfresh" march/dance was on our side of the stage so we got to see that pretty clearly, and when they were on the balloons during "Tabi wa Tsudzuku yo" and "Lucky Man" they were probably the closest. Yet again, during "Lucky Man", I was too busy looking at MatsuJun even though Sho-kun was in front of us *failed ichibaner*. Sho-kun was kind of mean, though. When he was near us he had three of the Popcorn balls that he hadn't thrown yet. It wasn't like I was thinking I'd catch one - he had his back turned to us, facing the arena instead, waving one of the balls like he was going to throw it to them. Every time, he turned to the stands at the last minute and threw it towards our side instead. None close to us, but I remember saying to Kelly, "Sho-kun's mean, teasing them like that!" But, I guess to me that's his charm point? Haha.

 

During their MC, they talked about how Jun-kun spent the night playing Intro Don with the Juniors. Lol. They also seemed to notice that a lot of us were there for the second time, and asked us if it's our first time, or not (we lit our penlight to answer; it looked like it wasn't the first time for almost half of the audience). Besides "Superfresh", I think my favourite songs for the second night were "Kakenukerou!", "Fly on Friday", and Nino's solo. Oh my, Nino's solo. Maybe because he was close to our side of the stage, and his back was facing us when he played the piano, but I really couldn't keep my eyes off him throughout the whole time. Most of the people on our side looked at the screens (which was nice, and showed his face, and mixed the visuals with scenes of him performing "Niji") but I really only looked at Nino. Or rather, Nino's back. For some reason, I just really, really loved him back then. (And I'm saying this as someone who claims to like Nino the least among the five of them) Maybe it's just that Nino's the only one who never failed to wave towards our side every time he passed by. It's something I've noticed in the other concerts, too.  

 

Hmm, what else? There were obviously lots of otp moments - all of which are included in the list of many things I had wanted to write about, and now only vaguely recall. I know that there were Junba and Matsumiya moments that were kya-worthy, but my favourite is the Juntoshi, for which I have visual help to jog my memory <3

 

When the concert ended, an announcement came out for us to be careful because it's snowing outside. It had been snowing on and off since we arrived in Sapporo, so we didn't think it was that big a deal, but when we left the Dome we realised that it was really snowing. It was pretty bad. We were leaving for Tokyo very early the next morning, which meant we had to take the 5:30 am bus to the airport - so I started packing almost as soon as we reached. While I was packing I talked to a Korean girl who stayed at the same dorm - she's an Oh-chan ichibaner, and was going to the Dec 2nd con. Apparently she had went to the same Fukuoka date I did for Beautiful World! We talked about our favourite concert moments (mostly Sho-kun's birthday celebration), and how cute Oh-chan was (this is a topic that could keep anyone occupied for quite some time, I believe), and probably would have gone on and on if Kelly didn't remind me to have dinner. The lady who ran the dorm had pre-recorded Arashi shows that she put on the television while we had dinner, with three other Japanese girls who were also staying there. So we ate while talking about the show and the concerts. Hearing us talk about it, the lady who ran the dorm said that she might go for the Dec 2nd con, since her friend could get her tickets. I hope that she did, and that she had fun!

Saw this on our way back to the dorm.
While I like Oronamin C, the idea of selling cold drinks in a vending machine in Sapporo baffles me.

Overall, I was really grateful to have had the chance to attend two dates this time, and glad that I actually took the chance (thanks Salwa for talking me into it). But. I'm not so sure I would try for another Sapporo concert, because it's really too cold >_<. The walk to the bus station the next morning, when the snow was so deep it was hell dragging our way-too-heavy bags through it, was probably the lowest point of the trip. I had never been so happy to be back in Tokyo, after! I nearly laughed when we were walking out of Narita, and I overheard a guy saying that it was cold.