There's a ton of things I want to translate, but for the sake of completion, I swear I'm going to finish off this Taipei concert pamphlet no matter what. XD I only have the group interview left now, so hopefully I'll have it out soon!

I know this is way late considering it was from two years ago, but with their second Around Asia tour coming up it does seem rather fitting, don't you think? I really enjoyed Sho's interview though, you can really tell just how much he appreciates the fans from abroad.

As per usual, comments are appreciated! I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. :3

~*~

ARASHI First Concert 2006 in Taipei

+ Aiba Masaki
+ Matsumoto Jun
+ Ninomiya Kazunari
+ Ohno Satoshi
+ Sakurai Sho

+ Special Interview_2

~*~

Gate S-05_Sho Sakurai

There will be a next time, and a next next time, right!
Because this is Arashi's "First Concert"! I hope I will be able to
successfully convey my desire to repay everyone for waiting
seven long years for us through our performances.

When I first heard that an Asia tour will be possible, to be honest... I really was very happy. Finally! Finally! We can also perform overseas, I was seriously very happy. I've already visited Korea and Thailand before on my own, and I've seen for myself the many fans we have there. And because the trips weren't work-related but private vacations, it left an especially profound impression. Though, because sharp-eyed fans often recognized me as I was having fun, I was often surrounded by people. I brought this up at the end of last year when I ate dinner with the higher ups at the jimusho. The conversation that that time sparked a mention of this Asia tour, and in the end resulted in "Then, go hold concerts over there". Though I can't say that this is directly because of me, but behind the fact that an Asia tour will come true, there is a background story like this too. I really am very happy, and I think the topic I'd brought up at that time was invaluable.

The fans who write letters to our radio shows or come to Japan to watch Arashi in concert, these things all allowed us to feel the anticipation and support they have towards Arashi deeply, but what moved me most is still my trip overseas two years ago. Maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but the happiest thing that happened to me is the achievement of foreign diplomacy through contact with our culture. Because of interest in Arashi, fans in Asia listened to Arashi's music and learned Japanese at the same time; in order to understand us, they began to draw closer to Japanese culture... and then, in order to go to your countries, we've begun to learn about your cultures too. Although it's not at a nation-to-nation level, looking at it at a smaller-scaled level, our communication had overcome many obstacles in order to achieve this, so just this one little thing is enough to make me happy. Nn... being able to communicate through Arashi and Arashi's music, I think that is an amazing, joyful thing.

Speaking of Taiwan? Although it doesn't really count as roots, my great grandfather had worked in Taiwan before, so the design and construction of my grandfather's house had been completely influenced by that, and it totally looks like the home of a Taiwanese family. I only found out about this after my grandfather passed away when I was in middle school. That's why, Taiwan isn't a country that has absolutely nothing to do with me. Though the distance isn't exactly close, it's definitely not a faraway nation either. To be able to go to a country like this makes me feel exceptionally happy. And Korea? I've already been there twice, and they were both private trips (laugh). Although it was February when I went, the fans there called to me, "I participated in your D no Arashi special concert in January of 2004!" And they used Japanese to speak to me, it's Japanese that even Japanese people find pretty hard. It made me incredibly happy to hear them speak to me in Japanese. That was the first time I experienced something like that on an overseas trip, and so my memory of it was especially deep. And because I had thought I wouldn't be recognized, I went to a random restaurant and was planning to enjoy my meal without purposely disguising myself, but in the end fans yelled "Sho-kun, Sho-kun!" and ran over to where I was; that was the first time I came across such a situation. The fans in Asia are all very enthusiastic! After that experience, their enthusiasm felt especially profound.

This time, what I want to put strong emphasis upon is the heading for our Asia tour, ARASHI "FIRST" CONCERT. This is the first time we will be in Taipei. This will probably be a first time for many people to watch Arashi perform, and to these fans I want to let you guys know "just what Arashi has done in the past", I want to insert the past into our performances. That's why, the contents of our concerts in Asia will be a bit different from the ones within Japan. The concerts in Japan mainly focuses on the songs in our album ARASHIC. Of course, the performances in Korea and Thailand can't be exactly the same either. To be honest, coming up with the arrangements for each set list is pretty tough, but at the same time it's very fun. This is the "first concert", after all, so there is an especially deep meaning to it. Because there will be a second time, a third time... that's why we used "first" in our heading. This heading was conceived by all the members in Arashi; we maintained that we wanted to use a heading we thought up on our own no matter what. In the Chinese sub-heading, there is also a "sorry for the long wait!" meaning to it, because we've really made you wait a long time over these seven years (laugh). I hope we can incorporate everything we want to say to you into our performances.

I once again felt that holding concerts overseas is really an amazing thing, because before this we were unable to do so. At that time the senpais had finished up their trips to Asia, so next up should be Arashi's turn, right? But we hadn't expected SARS and the Avian Influenza to break out, making it impossible for us to go. Now that the problems have been resolved, the conditions within and outside of our group have also improved, and we can finally set out... the meaning within this naturally became even deeper. That's why, in the album ARASHIC that is being released in Asia, there is a song called COOL & SOUL which included the following lyrics in English: "The story goes back to the 2nd album~". We added this sentence in English so that when the album is released in Asia, the fans can better understand the message we want to convey; that's why we used English to express that. In the second album... so that you guys can also like our older songs, "we hope you guys can more or less understand our feelings"; no matter if it's through the events at the concerts or us performaing, we hope we can incorporate our appreciation into our performances.