So anyone who pays any attention to me at all probably knows about my new….we’ll say passion (I hate the word obsession). That is a Japanese boys band called Arashi.

First before I tell you anything I should tell you how I found out about them...

Well ever since I was in ummm…maybe 5^th  grade I have been watching anime, I know anime (actually did you know that if you live in Japan and don’t read manga (the comic books) or watch anime you are considered a freak, I think it is totally unfair that people here who read manga or whatever are considered nerds of freaks or whatever, even if they have never even attended a convention or anything, grrr…our society is screwed up, but that is a topic for another day.) Anyways there is this one anime show that I especially love called “Boys over Flowers” I was looking at pics that other fans had drawn of this show on deviant art, and I came across a still image of a Japanese TV show that was based off of the same anime that I loved. I got kind of curious about, especially because I couldn’t get enough of the anime, so I decided to watch it.

At first I thought it was kind of weird, but by the third episode I fell in love with the show especially with one of the actors. In the TV show he played a very rich, snobby, stupid, mean guy. This guy was the ruler of the high school, and the leader of a gang, his favorite thing to do was torture people. Then he fell in love with a strong willed poor girl who changed his life. Sound interesting? I think so. Anyways the actor who played tsukasa was absolutely amazing, he was exactly as I would imagine a real tsukasa, and his acting was amazing.

I decided to google him and came up with his Wikipedia page. His name was Jun Matsumoto, and he was an extremely popular actor and….what? Singer!? When I found out he was a singer in a Jpop band I decided I had to see more, so you tubed him.  I came across one video of him singing a song at a concert on his own, one video of him dancing this weird hip hop techno dance, and then I saw one of his singing in a group. I watched all of them and for some reason couldn’t get the groups song “Sakura Sake” out of my head. So then I decided to try and find them on imeem. I found one playlist of 127 songs of theirs it was crazy.

At first when I saw the other band members they didn’t mean anything to me I was only interested in Jun, but then something about their music that was different caught my attention: they were a pop band, not hip hop, or anything like linkin park, and yet they had a rapper. Soon I fell in love with the sound of rap and decided to learn more about the person behind it. Then I noticed that one person had a really good voice, one person had kind of a strange voice, and one person looked like a cute little boy. I decided that I liked their music a lot and so I wanted to get to know the rest of the band better. I decided to Youtube Arashi, and slowly but surely I got to know them all a little better, Like Aiba, the goofy tall one who loves animals and has a very unique voice, Ohno the talented artist who also has the best voice and is an amazing dancer, Nino, the talented musician, who would be considered a game freak here because he is always playing a video game, and Sho, the rapper who graduated from college and is a new anchor for one of the best News stations in Japan. Weird huh? I watched videos of interviews, their TV dramas, one of their movies and then I finally watched one of their concerts. That was the end of it! Their concert that they had in 2007 was absolutely amazing. It looked like so much fun, they are such wonderful performers, they are all funny, and talented and I wanted to be part of that audience sooooo bad! It was AWESOME!

OK so now to the passion part of it…. I take after my dad where if there is something I really love, I am not just satisfied with knowing about the thing, I have to know everything about it and I have to show documentation of the thing I love, like a poster or something.  I can’t help it it is just my natural instinct. So naturally I now own one arashi poster that I ordered from Thailand, Arashi’s latest CD (special edition) ordered from Hong Kong, I have two more small posters, and one Uchiwa (japenese fan thingy) special ordered for their latest concert coming to me from Japan. I am also part of three fansites. That is just how much I seriously love this band. Not only that but if you asked me anything about these guys I could probably answer it, I could talk about these guys for hours.

But it’s not only me. There are thousands of fans in the US, including my sister Tessa, who loves them just as much as I do.  I am too the point where I watch one of their concerts and almost cry because I just want to be there and I just want to see them soooo badly.  Now I know many of you are like OMG Sarah you disgust me, or your crazy, but ya know, I am at the point where I am really sick of being made fun of for this.  But I don’t care anymore because it is part of who I am, I get a little “passionate” about things, and I don’t think that is bad at all. Finally I don’t care what you think about me. And just because they speak a different language does not mean I can’t enjoy their music or laugh just as hard when I have to read subtitles. I am proud of myself for being open minded about other cultures and I think this makes me a unique person.

Sorry that this was so long. I am sure no one has read this whole thing, but if you have thanks! I hope you can understand my world a little better. If you are a little bit curious about these guys I could lend you a CD or show you video of them I really wouldn’t mind! Haha!

“Arashi means Storm in English”

“We want to be a Storm, that spreads throughout the entire world” –Arashi 1999 <<<<I’d say they are succeeding wouldn’t you?