Isn’t it amazing that our boys have been in the entertainment industry for SEVENTEEN years??
Considering that the longest I’ve been at my job is 5 years, I must say that’s pretty darn impressive..

In the past few years, I’ve been very very open over the fact that I love two boys who are in an idol group. Even in my last job, when I was in Tokyo for about 3 months for work, I told everyone I love T&T and that I came to Japan often to catch their concerts..
For most part, the colleagues are surprisingly very supportive (yes, not just accepting, but supportive). There are a few pairs of rolled-eyes, but I couldn’t care less about those… Haters are always gonna hate.

Anyhow… to continue in a tradition that Nikki and I started last year, this year’s 4/23 was also special.
First up.. I decided to take the day off so I could just stay home and soak myself in T&T goodness.

As per last year, no 4/23 celebration can be complete without having this:

This year, to make it even more festive, I decided to cook Red rice, which is typically eaten on special occasions ^^

The best part was, towards the evening, there was a thunderstorm brewing outside, which was perfect coz it’s my favorite sky. So there I was, putting Journey Journey on repeat, just gazing at the sky, when I spotted this:

The only thought I had when I saw it was that even Nature is celebrating with me, by arranging all the forces to work together to form that heart-shape ^^

It was gone within a minute, so I was really happy I managed to snap this picture.. is that a lovely coincidence or what? ^^

All in all, I’ve had a great 4/23… Too bad Nikki wasn’t free so we couldn’t celebrate it together like last year, but there’s always next year!

There was one thing that I didn’t manage to do though.. Been wanting to re-post all the old translations that I did, and put up new ones for the T&T event coverage.. but tried as I did, I couldn’t find the database file with my old blog posts!! The good thing is, I’m SURE it’s somewhere in my harddrive.. just have to search for it.
The bad thing is, I have to search for it, in one of the 3 external hard-drives I have.. I would have been easy if it’s unzipped coz then I could just run a search.. but that didn’t work so I think i probably zipped the database file before downloading.. Serve me right!

Anyhow, will continue to try to restore them, and hopefully post them up again soon.

Actually, I thought the suit that is worn by Mickey should have been worn by Takki instead ^___^

Anyhow, just got home and saw this and had to flail a little~
Super tired! Was up since 6am this morning… Actually could have left work early coz I started early, but today is WICKED day, so it sort of didn’t make sense to go home in between work and the show, since the theatre is very near the office.

Talk more about it tomorrow.. for now I need to ZZZ

Oyasumi~

In my own defense… I was sick!
Physically sick, as well as the love-sick type of sickness.
But ah well, no point regretting what happened ya?
Will just try harder~

Anyhow, today wasn’t a very good day… Work was crazy, and then right when I was heading home, Ai-chan texted me to tell me about the huge earthquake in Sumatra..
I immediately checked the news site after that, saw the report about the 8.9 (later downgraded to 8.1) quake and heart literally skipped a few beats..
Managed to speak to my sis and she told me everyone was okay even though they were all scared during the quake.. Then later on, after trying for a good 15 minutes, managed to get my brother in Pekanbaru and fortunately everyone there was safe too.
Apparently the mobile network was overloaded right after the quake so it was harder to get through..

Lately there have been many many major earthquakes around the region.. It’s very unsettling.. almost like something big is brewing, you know?
And the poor people who live in earthquake-prone area that has previously been severely affected like Padang.. I can’t imagine how they feel everytime there is a quake.. In the last major earthquake in Padang, my sis-in-law’s family house was totally destroyed. Fortunately no one was home when the quake struck, so at least they only lost the house. It’s been rebuilt now, but wonder if they’d ever feel totally safe again?

Anyhow, been trawling news websites, and it does seem like there are no major casualties and damages from this quake, and the tsunami warning has been lifted.. hope it stays that way.

In another news.. yesterday I suddenly remembered that I haven’t checked when registration for July JLPT exam was gonna be open, only to find out that it was already over on 5th April! *sigh*
Can’t believe I miss the registration again! *double sigh*
Ah well, at least that means I have more time to prepare..
Just gotta make sure I don’t miss the registration again in August.

Anyway, look forward to the weekend when I can just soak in T&T goodness~

Oyasuminasai~

But on the down-side, it made me miss them even more…
*SIGH*
I really really need to move to Japan!
Strangely enough though, I feel that given I’ve had really good luck with life in general thus far, the reason I’m still not living in Japan must be, well, me! For some reason, I’m stopping myself from moving :D
It doesn’t make much sense, and yet at the same time it’s making a lot of sense..
I’m delirious ^^

Just trying not to think too much into it for now, coz it’d just drive me nuts!
Will just focus on the short-term goal of passing JLPT N1 this July, and take it from there.

Actually, wanted to post photos of my loot from the recent trip, but just realised I left all the photos in the laptop at work, so that would have to wait till tomorrow..

Oyasuminasai~

Somehow, the past two days still felt so surreal.. One minute I was in Osaka screaming my heads off, next I’m at Yokohama screaming my heads off again, and suddenly less than 24 hours after that, I was sitting in the train on the way to work @@

Not living in Japan totally sucks T__T

Ah well… I’ve just got to hang on to the memory~

Anyhow… the funny thing was, I could remember the event much better after the 2nd show, so decided to write it all down before I forget~

But before all that, I think the Yokohama event was infinitely more energetic than Osaka! Not sure why, but even we the audience were more pumped up right from the start. The fans around me were really great~
I think we did the Takitsuba call before the start of the show for a good 5-10 minutes, and didn’t let up at all

And Takitsuba themselves….
HeyNow is officially my favorite performance…
Just like in Osaka, right at the start of the performance, they held hands and ran towards centre stage.. but today it didn’t stop there.. they sort of sang holding hands for a while..

BUUUT the part that got the ENTIRE AUDIENCE screamed like crazy was when they sang this part:
君に出会えたのは　偶然じゃなくって
愛の女神様が　描いたストーリー
きっと２人最後は　結ばれる運命
そんな風に思うのさ

Roughly translated:
Our meeting is no coincidence
A story written by the Goddess of Love
We are definitely fated to be together in the end

They were holding hands and SINGING TO EACH OTHER!
I tell you.. we all just went overdrive and SCREAAAAAMMMMMMEEEEEEEEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!

And all this while I was thinking OMG Tsu’s family is watching all this!!!!
Yes! His family came… Mom and sister and niece, I think?
Sugoi ne!!
I mean, fan service or not, it’s still amazing for them to be so bold in front of the family~
Soo totally loving it

Oh man, even thinking about it right now makes me wanna scream again~~~

Okay, before I get too carried away….. let’s try to write this all down…

First up, the sequence of performances and events:

Opening
- Ai wa Takaramono
- Journey Journey
- Hey Now
- Yamanote Soto Mawari

Battle call thingy… plus talk

Junior natsukashii corner
- PGF
- Garasu no Shounen
- ????? (the words were.. give me give me night, hold me hold me do :D… totally made it up last nite!)
- Koi Yo

(In Osaka, right after Koi Yo is when the prank was pulled)

Takki’s birthday celebration
- Birthday VTR
- Present Time!!

Throw colored ball for game
- Queen of R
- Hey Listen to The Music

Game corner
- @Osaka : Takki totally let Tsubasa win!
- @Tokyo : Takki was in the lead, but was sort of goofing around and TRIED to lose, but in the end he won :D

Single Medley
- Yumemonogatari
- Venus
- Ho! Summer

Ending
- Sora no Screen
- Journey Journey

Ending greetings
————————

More radio show titbits I remember:

Q: If you were to live together, what would your roles be?
A: Takki will leave all the housework to Tsu (what, no maid?!??!)
But Tsu gamely said he would be happy taking care of that, going grocery shopping, cook meals and wait for Takki at home ^_^
There were some parts I didn’t catch, but presumably Takki’s main role is, then, bringing home the bacon eh?

Q: Whose hand is bigger?
A: They put their hands together, said that they’ve never actually looked closely.. Tsu’s fingers are slightly longer, but I think his fingers are also slimmer… more dainty ^^

Q: What do you want your partner to change? (e.g habits)
A: Both said nothing! They want each other to remain as they are right now.. I approve!

I think I jotted down some stuff on my laptop while at the airport last nite *lol*
Will have to go dig it up tomorrow

Other Bits and pieces of stuff:

• The old lady who came out right at the end said that it’s well known within the Jimusho that Takitsuba fans are the most well-behaved bunch, which is why with each event, the number of staff required became smaller ^^
  I totally agree!!! We are all really nice and polite
• She also said that Takitsuba has fans of all ages.. the oldest registered Takitsuba fanclub member is 87 years old!
• She praised them quite a lot.. can tell she really likes them.. She mentioned more than once that they are both really good boys (いい男)
• Oh, I met Takichan! The blue character thingy… the real life version! I was just walking towards my seat when I saw this blue blob walking around with the old lady who came out at the end of the show to talk… So happen that my seat was in their direction, so I walked over, greeted them, and shook hand with Takichan :D
  Wish it’s Takki or Tsuba-chan instead, but that was fun too
• Then, the old lady handed me a small envelope and said “It’s from Takichan”.. and I was a little confused.. turned out it’s some card thingy they were giving out to some fans, and there were special ones where, if you got those, you can call in to the live radioshow and talk to Takitsuba for one minute!!
  Well, I didn’t get the special card, but still… I got ONE card lol

Getting more and more fuzzy minded, I think i’ll go sleep now…
Next time, I’ll try not to fly red-eye flight anymore… not a wink of sleep!

Getting into the whole blogging thing again, though I think I need to learn how to edit! The posts are so long, and with minimal formatting, it’s really a little bit daunting to read!
Will see how to deal with that later~

Okay, sleep, sleep!
Oyasuminasai

Anyhow… the day started really wet and cold! Weather has been sort of fine the past few days, sunny and all.. so immediately my thought was that this has to be the work of Takitsuba the ame-otoko :D
Wet day aside… got to Osaka-jou a half hour before the event started, collected me tickets, and it was time to go in..

The set was great! First up, on the way in, they hang these white/red vertical stripe banners on the walls, and there are pillar-like posts with red lanterns hanging on them.. The lanterns say “10週年” or “祝”(roughtly translated, 10th anniversary celebration/congratulation)..
It feels a little like walking down an old-fashion street or something..

Suddenly, we could hear Takitsuba’s voices, as if they are doing some sort of interview.. Turn out they set up like a make-shift mock radio station, and acted as if they are in the midst of doing a radio show.. The host, Kentarou-san (who used to occasionally appear on Tobase), read out questions that were submitted by fans when applying for ticket.. And we actually walked RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM…
It was rather surreal, coz they were literally just less than a meter away.
Tsu cut his hair, so in my head I was thinking that Nikki would be a veery happy girl if she saw him :D
Takki was wearing pink shirt and Tsu had on blue version… they looked sooo very very cute!

The whole radio show thing was beamed on the screens hanging inside the venue, so we could still watch after we went in.
The setup is quite standard for Arena, except that they only use half the hall.. the other half was just covered in blue light.. The whole thing looked really really pretty.. with Pink and Blue/Cyan being the two main colors.
(I actually snapped some photos, but.. in the spirit of “good” fangirl, not gonna post it here openly)

I can’t remember all the questions they answered.. some that did stick to mind:

Q: If you were to have a kid, would it be a boy or a girl?
A: Both Takki and Tsu said they’d prefer a boy.. Tsu said if it’s a girl, he’d end up just fawning over her… with a boy, it’s easier to “keep the distance” *lol*
Takki said he’d have a lot of worries if it’s a girl!! Takki the over-protective dad ^_^

Q: What do you find sexy about your partner?
A: Tsu brought up the last scene in Kakumei, where Takki was standing under some light or something… (I must confess, I have yet to watch the Kakumei DVDs, so no idea what he was refering to!)
Takki said, Tsu is sexy when he dances!!!! (YES I THINK SO TOO!!)
Somehow they (not sure who started it, Takki or Kentarou) said that Tsu’s BUTT looks good when he dances.. .and the leg lines too.. (YES I THINK SO TOO!!)

Q: Where would you go for holiday together?
A: Tsu clarified if they meant just the two of them… Kentarou said yes. So Tsu said maybe Hawaii. Kentarou asked what about the more traditional trips like to Onsen etc.. Both of them said it’d be strange if they go to a place where there aren’t much things to do – at which stage, my brain sort of went into overdrive thinking of possible scenarios…

Q: What would you be like when you are in your 60′s?
A: They talked a little about how it’s hard to picture, but then said that since a lot of their songs involve furitsuke, they can still do concerts in wheelchair, singing and furitsuke-ing :D
And by then, all the fans would also be around the same age, so the whole thing would be like a sit-down concert ^^
(I APPROVE! I like that they are starting to talk more about future together as T&T. I know it doesn’t guarantee anything, but still…)

Q: At what age do you think it’s appropriate to do dinner shows?;
A: Both said it’s something they wanna try.. Takki said they are probably at the right age now.. Tsu said maybe they should start with lunch show first, before jumping to something as “big” as dinner

Q: What makes you feel glad that you have each other as a partner?
A: They both understand each other so well, so there are times they can just read the mood/situation without having to exchange any words

That’s all I can remember right now… may add more if I think of more, or read fan reports later~

The main event!
After the last song of the radio show (Serenade) ended, it was quiet for like 10 seconds, so we started the Takitsuba call… suddenly there was an announcement being played through sound system, saying stuff like no taking picture etc, but on scree, we could see Takichan mascot, saying that they are preparing to play some tricks on the two of them, and for us to not let it out if we spot something..

After that, it was rather weird coz it was silent again, so we started the call again.

Finally… TAKITSUBA!!!
At this stage, I only remember bits and pieces :D

- Ai wa Takaramono
- Hey Now! ( I LOVE THIS SONG!) – they held hand and walk towards the centre stage… we were SCREEEAAMING :D
- I think there was Journey Journey and Yamanote song, but can’t remember…
- Takitsuba call battle
- Short talk… 10th anniversary, and they wanted to meet the fans, even with smaller-scale event like this.. Said that we’d all take a little trip down memory lane by looking at some old VTRs while they sing songs from Junior days..

- Junior songs medley (PGF? is that the title? The Perfect girlfriend song haha, Garasu no Shounen, Some song I dunno that has lyrics like Give me Give me Love, Love me Love me do?? and finally, Koi yo)

- Towards the end of Koi yo, they were on a raised platform on a main stage.. and instead of the usual solid black blob, we could see the platform was made of glass, and there were white stuff inside that looked like giant marshmallow from where I was sitting (no bino!)
As they were singing the last few lines sooooo emotionally, suddenly there were words flashed on the screen behind them that said “Here it comes! Watch the two of them *laugh*”
After the song ended, BEFORE the music stopped, the platform they were standing on suddenly opened up and they both fell into the white fluffy stuff *LOL*

They were soo shocked…. and of course we were all laughing and clapping like mad (#SadisticFangirls)
They came up all surprised and were acting indignant like “we were sooo in the mood singing that melancholic song!!!”
Then they came to know we all sort of knew, so Tsu was saying if there were something off again later in the event to please let them know *lol*

After that…. I can’t recall if there are more songs?
But then there was another talk section.. talked about Takki’s Birthday, and how they put together a VTR for him.. (It’s a little vague as to whether Tsu was the one who put this together.. I think he put together the plan, but not necessarily the one doing the editing and all.. probably the script)

Anyhow, it was actually quite brilliant!
They took footage of actual news programs from around the world, and sort of just have Japanese voice-over, as if translating what those people were saying! Script was funny ^^
About how Takki was loved, etc…

Then there was this African woman, and the voice-over said: “I’m Yayoi (Takki’s mom).. I gave him the name Hideaki because I want him to turn out exceptional/excellent (秀 hide) and bright (明 aki).. But he only turned up to be bright.. so really should have just called him Akira (明)”
- I have NO DOUBT this is the work of Tsu :D

Finally, after VTR, Tsu brought out a present for Takki.. said he wanted to pass it to him in front of everyone else. Turn out, it’s a Takki action figure, based on one of the scene in Kakumei. Maybe about 50cm tall? But looks very very well-crafted..
Tsu said he had it specially made by a master craftsman in China!
Takki looked genuinely shocked (in a good way).. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t expecting this at all, considering that last year, Tsu gave him the tour t-shirt he wore during D&R tour, which he customised himself.. and a bunch of coupons *lol*

I think at that point, all the fangirls were probably thinking “MAKE THAT AS PART OF THE GOODS FOR NEXT YEAR KAKUMEI!!!”
^__^
Takki said he’d definitely display it at his house.

(Sadly, we didn’t get to sing him happy birthday like last year… had t obe contented with witnessing the presents’ time)

A little more talk, and they both mentioned the upcoming activities – Kabuki for Takki, and the special drama for Tsu….
Apparently Tsu played this character, which sort of started when the character was 15 years old!! Said he had to shave his hige veeery closely..
I guess that explain it then :D

Then… what else..
Game corner!
Too tired to write about it in detail now, but basically they needed to
- pop a balloon
- two-persons-three-legs thingy for a distance
- move flag to centre
- hit giant balls to the stage.. first team to get the two giant balls on the stage win

Guess what… TAKKI LET TSUBASA WIN!
Actually, it was soo sweet how Takki seemed very concerned about Tsu.. in the beginning, the announcer said that Tsu was having problem with the first hurdle, which Takki and his partner cleared very quickly…so at one stage, Takki was actually just looking over to where Tsu was, and sort of continued staring for a good 10 seconds *lol*

This feels a lot like the older days when Takki is just like, you know.. all indulgent ^_^
Even when the two of them were demonstrating the two-persons-three-legs thingy.. Takki took the rope, and bent down to tie it around their legs, then afterwards took it of, and Tsu didn’t even glance down, like “yea, of course my aikata will take care of all that, I’ll just stand here looking pretty making smart comments”
I was like AAAAWWING at this point

Anyhow.. on the actual game itself, towards the end, it’s veeery clear Team Takki was winning.. the last task was hitting the giant balloon thingy.. Takki already had one ball safe on stage, and when the fans hit the pink ball to him, instead of catching it, he just sort of hit it right back at them, coz on the other side, Tsu was still struggling!
Takki basically could just take the win THREE OR FOUR TIMES, but he didn’t, and he just let Tsubasa win!
And Tsu was sort of oblivious and was all “YEAH WE WON!!”

I was sitting there all giggly and happy and clapping away, but poor Takki got booed by his own team :D

It’s really reminiscence of the “TSUBASA WA STAR” episode of Utaban ^^

After that, they sang some songs from single, and finally, at the end, they sent every one off just like during the April concert last year.
Big difference is, they weren’t really hurrying us this year, and actually let the fans passed by in one line (last year, they sort of just push for 3-4 lines to walk past at the same time)
The great thing is, they actually could take the time to really look at the fans and exchange greetings.. They probably don’t remember any faces, but I don’t care!! I got to look them both in the eyes and said my thanks~

All in all, I was really really glad I went!
I’m sure there are more details I left out.. but just wanted to write things down before I actually start FORGETTING more stuff..

Anyhow.. it’s now past 1am! Think I should go to bed now, else tomorrow would be super challenging!

Thank you Takitsuba for such a wonderful day!

Actually, I’ve been attending T&T concerts/musicals etc quite regularly for the past couple of year.. just that, because of many many things, decided that it’s gonna be too difficult to get myself started on the whole fandom thing without getting carried away, so just had to let thing go for a while.
Am I ready to start again? Who knows???
The best I can do is just to give it a shot, and see where it goes ^^

One thing of which I’m very sure: I’m so so happy to be a T&T fan!
Even after all these years, they are still a great source of comfort and love and inspiration to me (putting aside the angsty part, that is). Don’t know what the future brings, but all I know is, as long as there is still Takitsuba, I will be there cheering them on