2010 February - Duet

New Year
Arashi's Promise
2010

After their huge success last 2009, what will Arashi be this 2010?

Let's all take a closer look as the guys talk about their personal and work-related aspirations and goals for the year 2010.

Each represented by symbols and Kanji characters.

Plus a peek on what the guys are up to from the start of November to mid-December of 2009.


Represented by the character: 寅 (Tiger)
After all, it's the year of the Tiger right? Like the tiger, I'll mercilessly dig my teeth into everything I see, in other words I'll do my utmost best. Working～
Ninomiya Kazunari

Represented by the character: 籠 (Cage)
In total isolation. I'll be locking myself up in a room to finish the painting I'm currently working on. That seems a little private but I'd want to display it in another personal exhibit someday. I have my work too.
Ohno Satoshi

Represented by the character: 一 (One)
The number 1 in Chinese.
One thing at a time, a day at a time, a step at a time... I'll be committing myself to one thing at a time. I don't want to spend each day by letting it just pass by but I like to relish each passing day.
Matsumoto Jun

Represented by the character: 明 (Light/Bright)
However you look at it, the brighter the better. I'd like this year to be a bright year in all aspects. I'd prefer to be somewhere bright than somewhere dark (^_^)
Aiba Masaki

Represented by the character: 次 (Next)
Next stage, or something to that effect. For us and for the people around us, reaching our 10th year is an amazing moment. It makes me want to go one stage higher. It's really hard to express though, what I mean is that I don't want to just stop and stand in one place but I want to move forward.
Sakurai Sho

Arashi's Dreams and Plans for the Year 2010 Personal and Work-wise Plus What's Currently Happening

Ohno Satoshi

2010/Work
First of all, we'll still be doing some live performances for our 10th year so we'd have to deal with that first. But I want to do another live immediately after that. Of course, I'd prefer a live concert tour. I want to go to the concert halls similar to those we have gone to so far, and to our provinces. not just large venues but it'd be great if we were also given the chance to hold concerts in all kinds of places. For our individual jobs, I'd like to do a drama, if there's a good story... I've been doing dramas for the last 2 years (2008, 2009) and I realized from there that doing a drama is also a good opportunity to meet great people. Yeah, getting to know your co-actors is great but it's also fun meeting the people behind the scenes. What's interesting is that some staff from the drama "Saigo no Yakusoku" (The Last Promise) that we're currently shooting are the same people who took care of me when I was doing "Uta no Oniisan". With that, I realized that doing a drama is also a good way of meeting people with whom I can make wonderful music.

2010/Personal
I wanna go into arts. Right now I took a little time off drawing. While on that break, I decided that I'm going to complete my unfinished drawing by the year 2010 (^_^). That's why I'm planning to restrain myself from fishing. I wanna focus on my drawing. Just the other day, I went to go fishing with Shige (Katou Shigeaki) and we caught an ocellated octopus. Shige caught a lot of fish, while I only got a good tan. After that, Shige and I went fishing again. We're the prefect fishing tandem you know. I'm planning to invite Yaracchi (Yara Tomoyuki) into the team. He also goes fishing. He sent me a photo of the fish he caught but I wasn't able to catch any in the same place this year. It'll be the first time I'll be taking him along with me so if I had to take him with me, I'd better give him the experience of having a good catch (meaning: that fish must be in season). It's quite hard for us to find time to hang out together so for this year I'd like to make a little change and put "Yaracchi and fishing" together.

Current Events
All the members will soon be doing "Saigo no Yakusoku". It's been quite a long time since all 5 of us worked on a drama together. But since we're almost always together, it doesn't feel odd working with them (^_^). Anually, towards the end of the year we do special programs, of course countdowns, it's actually exciting while the crossover happens, though this year we'll be doing the usual stuff plus a drama and the "Kouhaku". So it's really work until the end of this year. When the news broke that I'm going to do "Kouhaku", I received a lot of e-mails then from people like classmates... more than when I celebrated my birthday (^_^). My mom also congratulated me, so for the mean time I'm thinking of doing my utmost best. O yeah right, I went to watch Michael Jackson's "This is It". I received an invitation to watch it, actually, but I gave it to my mom. Just when it was about to end, I realized I wanted to watch it so I bought a ticket and I watched it. I'm glad I did. That 2 hours was quite short. In the movie, Michael's choreographer, Travis, was also our choreographer when I did "PLAYZONE". I was happy to see that face again after such a long time-.

Ninomiya Kazunari

2010/Work
We'll be filming a movie called "GANTZ" and it will be a two-part series. We're currently going to different places for the filming of the first part. Though it's quite hard since the taping goes from morning up to the next morning, I'm doing my best. And there are a lot of action scenes so I have to train my body. I asked someone to beat my abs with a log to make my muscles stronger... of course that's a joke. I train through WII fit, actually, and now my muscle's so firm. While doing the movie, we also have our Nagoya Dome concert but that's not new so it's not so hectic for me as of the moment. It's our 10th anniversary so I have to do my best. I've got 3 movies lined up for 2010. "GANTZ" has 2 parts so that'd be 2 movies and the first part will be shown winter of 2010 while the second part will be shown spring of 2011. After that I will also be doing "Oooku", which will be shown fall of 2010. It seems the year's just going to pass by with the filming of the movie and the promotions. By the way, "Oooku" is originally written by Yoshina Gafumi-san and is mainly about the role reversal of men and women inside the palace. Shibasaki Kou-chan will be playing the role of General Yoshimune while the man who's going to enter the palace would be = ME. I'll be playing the role of Mizuno, the shogun's servant. Though that'd be a handful already I'd still want to do a concert tour, drama, still movies, plays. That's how it would be and this 2010, I'll do my best!

2010/Personal
I wanna go out. Where'd I go? O I just bought a blue bike. I wanna go to Hokkaido riding my new bike. But that's impossible so I'm thinking of just riding around the metro calling my manager up when I wanna go home. But the only thing I'm worried about is, when I bought that bike, I called my manager to pick me up. We put the bike in the car the the handle was pressing against my cheek throughout the ride. But the truth is I don't know if I'll ever have the time to ride that bike as I please.

Current Events
I'm doing "GANTZ" and all 5 members are doing "Saigo no Yakusoku". We've been filming individually until yesterday. We filmed that scene where all of us were together and the filming ended 2 hours after midnight. It wasn't just us, we were with Masahiko Tsugawa-san, Fujiki Naohito-san, Ootsuka Nene-san, Kuroki Meisa-chan. It was fun you know. It'll be shown immediately after the year starts so please watch out for it. Please enjoy it with your family. I'll be under the spotlight! And we'll be having a meeting regarding the NHK special "Kouhaku Singing Festival" and a special singing program... The year is, without a doubt, coming to an end.


Matsumoto Jun
2010/Work
Actually it doesn't depend on the year or whatnot, what I do is that I live each day to the fullest. So it's not about what level we are right now. Up to now, we're still given the chance to hold concerts and I wish that it would still be the same for the year 2010. Yeah we're still doing our 10th anniversary concert tour, which extends up to January next year but I do wish that before 2010 ends we'd still be given the chance to have another concert tour.

2010/Personal
I don't have any detailed plans about this too but I'd like to go on a trip. After our filming for "Smile" I was able to go to Yakushima twice this year. Somehow if the plan pushes through I'm thinking of going up a mountain. I'm not yet sure whether I'd go mountain climbing within Japan or outside the country. Which reminds me, when I went up a mountain in Yakushima it just felt so great! It took us 5 hours but it was really fun. Because of that, I'd want to go mountain climbing again. Of course I wouldn't go up high mountains just yet. Little by little, I'll challenge myself to take on a bigger mountain after each climb and someday I'll go climb those high mountains outside Japan. The problem is, these stuff take up time and I don't know if I'd have the time to be able to do them. Well, that's basically what I want to do this year.

Current Events
We just had our concert at Tokyo Dome and it felt like we've been away for so long. The concert tour started at the national stadium then we went back to Tokyo. When we got back to Tokyo, I couldn't help but say to myself "This city's warmth feels so great". Our concert at Nagoya will be on January 16 and 17 and we'll still be doing the Johnny's countdown at Tokyo Dome but it feels like it's the last live performance we are going to do this year so I saw to it that I'd make the most out of it. During the last encore, when I saw a strip of silver tape fall, I picked it up and tied it around my head! When I realized what I was doing I got totally embarrassed and took it off. (^_^). That's how fun it was. Soon we'll be having our concert in Nagoya, and when we say Nagoya, Sho got injured during the 2nd month of our rehearsal. So it's been quite some time since all 5 of us sang with much vigor together. But, the mid of December is a pretty hectic period. We're going to shoot "Saigo no Yakusoku" (FujiTV Jan. 9 OA), and we'll be doing a year-end special, a New Year's special, and we'll be appearing in the annual "FNS Kayousai" (FNS Best Hits Festival), the year's really nearing its end... The year just flew by didn't it? "Saigo no Yakusoku" is not a product of Arashi, it is a product where all 5 of us were given a chance to appear in. It is a collaboration of some of Japan's greatest actors, so please watch out for it. That's how it is... It's all work every month (^_^)

Aiba Masaki

2010/Work
It feels like the 2009 and 2010 is crossing over. For example, "Saigo no Yakusoku" which we're shooting right now (end of 2009) is going to be shown at the start of 2010. There's really no clear boundary between this year and the next so I was wondering if I could do it just like that. 2009 was a year of many firsts for us and closing this year with "Kouhaku" is really a great thing for me. I used to watch "Kouhaku" when I was a child and I think that it's a great venue to meet people within the music industry that we don't normally see or get acquainted with. That's how it is for me and I also know how big its impact is. When we first learned that we'll be appearing in "Kouhaku" I received a lot of e-mails! It's really cool! After that, I'm very happy to say that we're going to show Arashi's drama "Saigo no Yakusoku". It was really a great 10th year for us, we had the "Arashi Challenge Week", the Disney event, and a whole lot more. Those stuff we really unexpected, they were really a series of fortunate events and I'm hoping that it'll be the same also from here on.

2010/Personal
I wanna play golf! I haven't had the chance to go the last few days. It's actually connected to [Arashi ZM] page 179. It's about clothes suitable for playing golf this winter. It's about looking for clothes that are more functional than stylish. While shooting dramas I can't really play golf right? When I watch somebody else play golf on TV, I really want to just go. Coz I record golf tournaments. I record Ishikawa Ryou-kun's tournaments. (^_^) Though it's better to memorize my lines while taking a bath at night, I read Aoki Isao-san's (pro golfer) articles! What else, I'd also want to watch movies through DVD. I haven't seen Michael Jackson's "This is It" yet. I used to go to DVD rental shops and take home a movie or two but due to my schedule, I wasn't able to continue doing so from the mid of this year. That's why I wanna go and rent a movie! Those are my goals! (^_^)

Current Events
Our Tokyo Dome started December 4 and the excitement's rising, my body's already telling me. I've got muscle aches allover! On the first day of our Tokyo Dome concert, Nino and I went out to eat. All 5 of us usually went out to eat after the concerts we held outside Tokyo, but it's not really unusual. Nino hates oily food so we didn't have yakiniku (barbeque/grilled meat), we had shabushabu. On the final day of our Tokyo Dome concert, we all drank and made a toast to everyone's success. We followed Riida's lead and thanked everyone for their hard work. I'm so thrilled to do the Nagoya concert! Well about stuff aside from work... the other day I went to a golf shop. For me, I get really excited when I'm in a golf shop, just like when I'm in an appliance store or a video shop. I find happiness just by looking at the stuff, even if I don't get to buy anything. I have loads of fun just by checking out the stuff and trying them out even in such a short span of time.

Sakurai Sho
2010/Work
For the mean time, I'm loaded with dramas. As of now (date of interview: End of November) we're shooting "Tokujo Kabachi" (TBS Sunday 9:00 pm, Starts on January 17). We had an early crank in so the shooting will take 5 months and I wanna focus on that. After that, come February, I'll be covering the Vancouver Olympics. I don't know how far I'll go for this opportunity but with the Beijing Olympics, I was given the chance to go there and witness the actual event while I was covering it. I'm just focusing on the early half right now. About the later half of next year, that I'd want to relish a bit more. Just like what I've been saying for 2 years now (^_^). Well, this year really is just crossing over to next year without a clear boundary. Coz everything we're doing right now will be shown next year. At any rate, I'll just do my best in doing my job! All 5 of us were talking and it felt like everything's so fresh! Now we're targeting that 20th year mark!

2010/Personal
If I had the time, I'd like to travel. It's been a year since I last went on a trip. Anywhere's fine but I'd like to go out of the country. And I wanna go on with going to the gym and studying english. I wanna learn more stuff. There are a lot of things popping up in my mind but I'd rather not say them coz I don't wanna hate myself for not being able to do them.(^_^) Once I start, I'll let everyone know!

Current Events
Drama filming takes up much of my time as of now. We just finished filming "Saigo no Yakusoku" and "Kabachi" but I still have the "15th Year Commemoration of The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake for Kobe newpaper" which will be broadcasted January 16 by FujiTV, then I still have to gather materials for "NEWSZERO" then on January I'm going to appear in a special "Sakurai Sho x Ikegami Akira Sou ka! Omowazou Naru Tokujo News!", it's really all work. This is probably the busiest year-end I've had so far. We had the chance to guest in a lot of music programs, do dramas, and hold a concert, it's definitely awesome! The year-end music program is really fun! It's a great venue to meet other artists. But still, even though we get to meet a lot of people, I guess there's not much time to chat. We were also given the chance to be the MC for "2009 Best Artist"... Then we were also called to be the chairpersons for "Music Lovers" (March 2009)... Everything happened one after the other. I'm happy to say that I've already made a commitment to do a year-end special. The program was about to finish when I heard about it but working with the likes of Hatori Shinichi-san and Nishio Yukuri-san (Nihon Terebi Announcers), my old and trusted colleagues, I wanna have fun doing it with them. I only have a set of winter clothes so I went shopping the other day. I bought a jacket, a coat, 2 pairs of pants, boots. Then I bought a new heater. After all these, I'll be dashing off again so right now I'm just preparing for the unexpected.

★Finished★