eggchan

Hey everyone.

I felt that it's been a while since my last translation, so I thought I'd work on a little more and get.. un-rusty.

if that's possible haha

Today I bring two members, Aiba and Nino from the December issue of Myojo. They talk about the past year and once again Nino goes off on a really philosophical rant about teacups (seriously this boy is whack and a genius at the same time, although aren't they always?)

Please don't take this out of my journal without my permission.

DO NOT claim these as your own. I spend a lot of time translating these, please be respectful.

Up next is Ohno and possibly Sho paired with it

Enjoy!

I’m really happy that our concert venues are getting bigger, our CDs are selling, and more and more people are watching and listening to Arashi’s songs. Even if you just said “Wow!” to me, I feel like, “Really?”, and there isn’t all that much change. I haven’t really thought about whether or not we’ve changed, and it doesn’t make a difference to me. More than that, the concert that we’re doing now, I really feel that it’s a tour to send our gratitude to all our fans, so I always feel so full of gratitude.

To Arashi, everything that we’ve come to is something we need, so there isn’t anything special about it. For example, starting from our first show we changed from, “Mayonaka no Arashi”, on to “C no Arashi”, “D no Arashi”, “G no Arashi”, and then “Arashi no Shukudai-kun”, right? All the way from the beginning, we have had the same staff with us, we saw the shows end, and in that we saw a lot of change, and I really feel that we needed everything. During our concert a few years ago, the fact that we got together and talked numerous times was really important. Even though we’re doing a concert tour right now, almost every time we go out to eat together, and then after that, we gather in our room and drink. We start out by talking about work, but then they swell into complete sincerity. So I feel like we will continue on like this. Even though 10 years has passed, like always I’ll seriously keep making silly plans for our variety shows… (laugh)

The big objective is that we don’t have to advertise/tout. If we do everything to the best of our abilities, a great thing will surely be with us. If Arashi, the people who we have influenced, and the people who are supporting us can be happy, that is a great thing to me. If we don’t do what’s right in front of our eyes well, we can’t see what’s ahead of us. To me, Arashi is like… a “dream”. When we performed on “Music Lovers”, when we were asked, “What is Arashi?” and “What is a live?” I could answer, but the Arashi now has the dream that we were aiming for, and it feels exactly like I’m in a dream world.

I don’t really have any special thoughts about us being able to do a 10th year concert. It’s amazing that we can do a concert year after year. I’m really grateful to the people who are coming to our concerts. Even if you say it’s been 10 years since our debut, for example, that many months and years hasn’t passed to the people who I am acquainted with through “Ryuusei no Kizuna”. If you put together a group involuntarily and 10 years pass, the extent of how much people know about me differs by person. If you say I’m an individual, it’s been about 13 years since I entered into Jr., and I don’t know what time I met everyone. Every year we get to do a concert, and I want to thank the new fans we get to meet.

This tenth year anniversary that we’ve welcomed, I haven’t really changed. I didn’t exactly have plans to not change. It’s a futile effort. Basically, I want to perform well. If there are people who change, there are also people who don’t, that’s all. I was told this at before when I was learning ceramics for a drama, but things like ceramics, pictures, and things in the arts, there’s only 1 thing that’s amazing. But the truth is, I think making 10 objects with the same quality is amazing. For example, if you compare it to a teacup, anyone can make the first one. Making 10 of that same thing is greatly more important. Ceramics is a little different, but rather than doing a fantastic thing once, offering something satisfying every time is difficult. I think I’m kind of insignificant in the “arts” world, but if I do only fantastic things, and that becomes the standard for me, I’ll get tired. If that’s the case, just going on like normal is fine. From now on, it’s best to just go on the way I have been. I mean, I’ve gotten along like this so far. Not doing only what I want to do, and properly doing something I’m given is, to Arashi, a great thing. I’ve been told things like, “It takes a while until you become popular”, but I don’t know who to compare to. I think looking ahead, it’s good for us to go on our own pace.