.... Yeah, I'm pretty slow when it comes to these things.

Anyway, watching this concert made me appreciate Arashi more than ever. I love how genuine and earnest they are, I love how hardworking they are, I love the message that they send through their beautiful song lyrics, I love the fun dances, I love how much detail is put into every single one of their performances, and most of all I love them as people. Seeing 10 years of hard work pay off for them in such a way makes me so proud of them. Words cannot explain how much I respect them as artisans of the highest caliber.

The way that they can so easily engage, captivate, and entertain audiences is so staggering. Even though I can only understand about 50% of what they say in concerts, they never cease to amaze me. Seeing them fly through the air during "truth" [the first Arashi song I ever liked and memorized], listening to Jun's whine while happily snapping along to his version of "Wish," watching the fireworks during "Believe," shouting along with Sho's rap in "Lucky Man" - all of it is the most amazing, unique experience that is Arashi.

Extravagant. Fabulous. Stupid. Talented. Inspiring. All of these words describe the magic of Arashi. Only Arashi would make me will my computer to continue working after three hours of downloading videos. Only Arashi would have me singing Japanese pop at the top of my lungs - in the middle of school. Only Arashi would motivate me to spend hours flooding twitter. Only Arashi would inspire me to shout "do it!" at random times. Only Arashi would have me singing, clapping along, and making a fool of myself in front of the computer on a regular basis.

I can't express how thankful I am to have become part of this fandom. Although it's clearly taken over a *lot* of my time and my level of insanity has probably been taken up a notch, it's opened up doors to learning the Japanese langauge, it's given me a chance to meet and talk to fans from all over the world, it's been a solid source of inspiration, and best of all: it's been a source of pure positivity in an environment that lately has had loads of things ready to bring me down. I hate how cliched this metaphor is, but they really have been a beam of light in the darkness that is our world.

All I really can say to end this post is that it's 2:44 AM, I should go to sleep, but I can't until I say one thing:
嵐, ほんとにありがとうございます!!!

-K