And time flies, it’s already more than a year since I became a Tsubasa/T&T fan. I was celebrating his birthday last year by singing a song for him with my friends and we had a birthday cake. This year everyone’s busy, and it falls on a Sunday, so no special plans. Of course I didn’t forget, I’m still as excited as ever. And yes there’s a new T&T video up on J-net (viewable through J-net video main page), one they recorded during/after their Nagoya concert! Halfway through the fans were chanting and Tsubasa was like “there goes the Takitsuba call” xD The video is about their new single, and we get to hear it for a little bit for the first time (unless you’re able to attend the concert of course…. LUCKY YOU xP) It’s a happy happy song, with dance moves, and colourful feathers decorating their mic stands. They look ultra happy dancing to the song :D

‘Ai wa takaramono’ (Love is a treasure)

Release date: 24 Nov 2010

PRE-ORDER NOW!!!

Jacket A (w/ DVD of PV and Making of PV): CDJapan / HMV.co.jp / YesAsia

Jacket B (w/ DVD of a documentary on their concert tour 2010): CDJapan / HMV.co.jp / YesAsia

Jacket C (Regular Edition): CDJapan / HMV.co.jp / YesAsia

OMG record-breaking TWO days for my order to arrive! I chose Airmail, it’s even *more* convenient than EMS and much cheaper too :D

Yes my KinKi J-con DVD is here! It’s like OMG SO PRETTY ♥ Damn awesome!!! And Tsuyo’s voice was fabulous in it! I’m just done watching up to Harmony of December, and I already know I love this xD Ahhhh I’m on a high now and I need to finish watching the DVD ♥♥♥♥

Update: **SPOILERS**

Awesome is not enough to even begin describing the DVD. It’s waaaaaaay better than expected!!! The concert began with the KinKi call, then Secret Code’s music came on and flashes of Tsuyoshi’s face across the screen. Then Tsuyoshi appeared (on a damn high mini-platform stage, no less) and he sang the first verse of Secret Code. There’s a huge screen in front of the platform below Tsuyo’s height and when he’s done with his part, flashes of Koichi appeared and then Koichi himself showed up and sang his part. And finally both Domotos can be seen and they sang Secret Code. It was FABULOUS!!!! And that’s only the first track!!!

Then they had awesome moving stages from Destination to Harmony of December. Tsuyo’s voice was soooooooo good ♥ And then after Night + Flight was THE SUPER LONG KOICHI BIRTHDAY MC. Tsuyoshi’s song was reaaaaally sweet!!!! And I laughed so hard as his random spontaneous lyrics, like when Koichi was pretending to fall asleep, Tsuyo sang “Don’t sleep! You’ll catch a cold!” And he sang at least 10 “I love you”s ♥♥♥♥♥ and awwwww Tsuyo was really fantastic!!! Then they pushed the cake out and had this fascinating singing candle and Koichi was really amused xD They also played a game with MA and a few other Jrs, where they stand in a line to say something to Koichi one by one, with the sentence beginning with the last syllable of the previous sentence. Machida Shingo (MA) had Tsuyo literally ROFL-ing!!!!! His turn was ‘Ka’, then he suddenly raised his hand and went “Katsura-chan!!!!” (Katsura = Wig) OMG the entire MC was hilarious. As usual Tsuyo ‘hosted’ the show and gave a drawing to Koichi. This time, the drawing was ‘Pan’. He got Koichi thinking that he drew his beloved Chihuahua ‘Pan-chan’ but instead Tsuyo drew a loaf of bread xDDDD (I remember seeing this in the J concert reports :D) And Tsuyo said his drawings have a lot of love in them, so they are worth a lot of money. Koichi doesn’t believe that it will fetch a lot of cash, and started asking the audience who wants this, starting from 2yen. and it went up to 100k yen. Haha Ko-chan, Tsuyo’s love is priceless!!! You can’t sell his presents like that!!! Then Tsuyo kinda signaled the end of the ‘birthday party’, and Koichi asked “This is all (the presents)?!” And Tsuyoshi replied without any hesitation, “Hai!” xDDDD

The MC was like 50 minutes or something!!! I couldn’t stop laughing!!! OMG someone needs to sub this! I need a translator!!!! Anyway after this was the first dance, without KK. Then they had a change of clothes, into ancient middle-east style kinda clothes. Tsuyo had his stylo sunglasses on :D They had a randomly weird choreography for Houseki wo Chiribamete, but it looked kinda cool at the end… the 2nd dance was nice too, this time KK joined in. Then it’s the awesome moving stages again. I’m always amazed at the stage settings of KK’s concerts, especially recent ones! The Φ con had the Φ shaped stage with audience on 4 sides, and the KinKi you con had the huge flight of stairs that was actually a screen when it rises up to the ceiling. This time the J con there were 3 moving stages, 1 with KK and dancers, and the other two for the band and chorus people. THEY ALL MOVED AT THE SAME TIME and it was really fantastic!!!!

And the song I was looking forward to listening a ‘live’ version of… “Missing”!!! They had to look at the prompter quite a bit, but otherwise they were great! They wanted the audience to sing along but it didn’t work that well coz the song was in English… LOL.

Disc 1 ends with a little MC… with KK-sempai bullying the kouhais xD The kids kinda froze in position after the song and had to wait for KK’s cue before going off. Koichi went to one of them and asked him how old he is. The boy replied “7″ and Koichi then continued, “I’m 31. From a 7-year-old’s point of view, am I an oniisan (older brother) or ojisan (uncle)?” and the boy said “oniisan” and Koichi was soooo happy xDDD They had fun playing with the others too, and Yonehana (MA) happily and genki-ly replied “TWENTY-NINE!!!!” with Tsuyo commenting that the voice doesn’t sound like 29. After asking a few others, Tsuyo went back to Yone and asked him again, and Yone used the same tone and said “18!!!!!” ROFL!!!!!

I’ll probably continue onto Disc 2 tomorrow, the whole set is about 200 minutes long! :D

I love their efficiency and awesome service. And I can’t wait to watch KinKi sing ‘Missing’ xD

Anyway I’m wondering if there’s a huge demand for raw PVs out there? I have a bunch of T&T ones and a few KinKi’s, if you’re looking for any, drop a comment and I’ll upload if I have them. Will include the links over at the media page too :)

PS: Currently uploading Backborn, while I realise I have “x~Dame” and “Venus” up already xD

Edit: Backborn’s done! :)

I didn’t buy the OST, there really isn’t a HUGE reason for me to buy it for almost S$60 and I wanna leave some extra cash to buy T&T stuff when they fulfill their promise (SOOOOOON!!!!). And of course save up for a Japan trip if they actually GO ON TOUR ♥

Anyway I found mp3 versions of ROAD TO PLAYZONE on the net, and by version*s* there really are TWO. The version I listen to on repeat is (most likely) the Johnny’s Net version with the video. The other is the OST version. Try listening for yourself to hear the difference! (And you’ll know why I chose the Johnny’s Net one over the OST one xD)

Version 1 (JN) <- Not my upload, the MF link was found straight off Google.

Version 2 (OST) <- A Chinese Yara fan’s blog. With lyrics (kana) and the download link is below the lyrics with a little ‘gift’ icon. If you have problems downloading from the link (because it’s a China website and they can be really slow to access if you’re not in the country) let me know. I don’t think the blogger will mind me reuploading to MF since it’s the OST version and anyone who bought it would be able to rip the mp3 and share.

CDJapan has been offering me a number of coupons that are expiring soon, so I thought maybe I should just place my order for the PLAYZONE soundtrack. I typed “road to playzone” in the search box and out came THAT. And from the description (in Japanese) it *IS* THE PLAYZONE that Tsu is now busy with. (Not that there are other “playzone”s out there ^^)

Didn’t see any info on it on LJ, but it’s a CD+DVD thing… AHHHH I WANNA ORDER THAT TOO IF IT HAS FOOTAGES OF TSUBASA’S SEXY HIPS IN ACTION ♥

Edit: Found my answer here! *Goes over to the other tab at CDJapan cart to click ‘Proceed to check out’* xD

Grenoble, Foot38

Seeing his good friend working hard by himself in France, Tsubasa felt his eyes warming up unintentionally.

“Lifelong friend”. If Tsubasa were to call someone that, it’d be Matsui Daisuke. He moved to Le Mans, France from Kyoto in 2004. They made a promise that Matsui will show Tsubasa his brilliant side on the field and this was fulfilled 2 years after.

They met up in Paris, and since Matsui-kun is fluent in French, Tsubasa asked Matsui to accompany him wherever he goes. Tsu wanted to visit Versailles Palace and it was an entirely different place from what he imagined.

Matsui invited Tsubasa to watch the match between Le Mans and Troyes, and this was the place where the promise was fulfilled. It was really memorable, and Tsubasa’s first time watching a match outside of Japan. And the theme song played in the home stadium when the players enter the field was U2′s “Where the Streets Have No Name” which Tsubasa had always loved. When he saw Matsui-kun interacting with players of all nationalities and proudly entering the field, he felt the corner of his eyes warm up. It’s like, a fellow Japanese man, furthermore a close friend of his, fighting hard by himself in a foreign land… That match was decided by 2 goals, and they went drinking together to celebrate. This is a memory that Tsubasa would never forget in this life.

There’s only good things (to say about Matsui). He’s under various kinds of stress, but the way he fights against obstacles bravely inspires Tsubasa a lot and something Tsu’s very proud of. In the future Tsubasa wants to give Matsui support in the background (referring to watching his matches I guess~)

—

I’ve been watching a couple of Matsui-san’s interviews on YouTube, and gosh I think Tsubasa and Matsui are so alike…!! I didn’t watch the entire interviews as they were pretty long, but the way Matsui-san is so polite and self-motivated and charismatic, is SO TSUBASA. And also the way he carries himself and the way he speaks. Both of them also become an entirely different person when they’re doing what they’re good at and brimming with self-confidence. They definitely pursue their interests with much passion. It’s just such a huge pity that Matsui-san’s long shot was just a bit too high in that match against Paraguay, or else it’d have been Japan facing Spain this weekend. Even though it is against the odds for Japan to actually proceed on and knock down humongous barrier Spain, it’ll still be a huge milestone for Japan and Asia. Like Japanese captain Hasebe said, they have to look forward and continue to improve themselves so they may make it further in the next WC. Ganbatte Nippon!!! :D

Anyways, Best Stage August issue arrived at Kino today and I headed there after work to get it. And OMG the cover!!! Those pretty eyes ♥

And plenty more pages with his kakkoii-ness :D

There’s a folded pin-up inside showing the cover pic :D

Lalala~!! And there’s Gackt too xD

I happily headed home with my Best Stage mag, and as I stepped into my room I saw a HUGE parcel sitting on my chair. Not that I mind it taking up my space of course xD Coz inside the parcel is my Yakushiji DVD and Barfout mag!!! :DDDD

As promised in the item description when I ordered from CDJapan, there’s a 13-page feature on Tsuyoshi. Now, if only he had more than one set of clothes for the shoot… LOL

Tsuyo’s got really beautiful eyes too ♥

Winku! xD

This is the pose he did most in the photo shoot. He’s starting some sort of revolution as his next project~ He has eyebrows here though, so I’m still wondering when will we know the purpose of him bleaching his eyebrows a month ago…?

This is not all. On top of the above, CDJapan tweeted and subsequently sent me an artiste newsmail about KinKi’s new DVD!!! They’re releasing their Concert Tour J!!!! OMGOMGOMG. And I just placed my order for the Limited Edition, which comes with the MC portion and a 56-page booklet xD The Regular Edition comes with a postcard. AHHHH I wanna hear them sing Missing ‘live’!!!!!!!!! Tsuyo and his cute Engrish :DDDD

In Tsubasa’s family, they call their grandfather ‘Tocchama”. (Note: I don’t know if there’s a certain meaning to it but that’s how they address him.) Imai-grandpa was the one who started Tsubasa on sports, to chase different genres and helped him build his foundation. One whom he loves and respects very much.

Generally speaking, Imai-grandpa’s a fashionable and talented person. His trademark is a hunting hat. With a single-lens reflex camera in his hands, he’d take pictures of his grandchildren. or possibly try to play the guitar at home. When he drives a manual car, the way he handles the gear when going uphill was fabulous. And because he’s good at writing, he was in charge of the display board for players’ names in Hiratsuka baseball stadium.

Of course, as a sports lover, Imai-grandpa possess extraordinary enthusiasm, especially with regards to baseball and sumo-wrestling. At that time, when Tsubasa goes to play in grandpa’s home at Hiratsuka, the first thing he’d do is to check the pro-baseball player directory with grandpa. They’d do that for a while, then because Tsubasa wants to play catch-ball, he’d make grandpa drive him to Shounandaira (a park in Tsubasa’s hometown Kanagawa). With the help of his kind grandma Tsubasa always broke the rule that banned food or drinks in the car. As there’s always some hidden in the trunk, he’d be given a can of soda. Then one day, Tsubasa accidentally spilled his drink on the seat, and he almost burst into tears. But Imai-grandpa didn’t scold him, instead he stroked Tsu and said to him, “I used to drink cola secretly too. It’s alright, just wipe it up will do. Hahaha”

Tsubasa had to meet with a sudden end to these enjoyable days. “Tocchama, let’s play catch-ball one more time at Shounandaira” When Imai-grandpa was in critical condition, Tsubasa repeatedly said this with tears. In the end he never heard the reply. That was 20 years ago. After a long time, there was once he drove back to Hiratsuka to watch soccer. Carparks were all full. When he finally parked his car, he realised that, miraculously, he parked next to the hospital where Imai-grandpa passed away. For a moment, a warm sea breeze entered the car and brushed his cheeks. It felt like the warmth of Tocchama’s big, manly hands. When this book was completed, Tsubasa wants to return to his grandpa’s grave and report this in detail.