Arashi Summer Tour 2006 pamphlet translation part 2

JUN MATSUMOTO
After having a period with "just the four of us", i have a feeling that our views towards "ARASHI" and "being with the five of us" will drastically change this summer.....
I Like COLORS
His unique sence of beauty and his strong sence of professionality - features of Matsumoto Jun has often been described by cold and mechanical words.
But that is starting to change. He had a hard time coming up with the answer to the theme "what i like", questioning himself "maybe its ......no........maybe not.....", trying to come up with a word that will describe what he "likes". During that process, he starts asking people around him "what is my public image?......i don't even know my self (lol)" and starts to laugh. 
It is very "matsumotojun like" to come up with "color" as something he likes, but during the interview, "changes" of matsumotojun is discussed.
His straight foward seriousness never changed, leading him to progress slowly taking the dangerous path.
"I like colors which are a bit worn out and dirty, but strong." - don't you think this is a very jun-like way to express his way of "progressing"?
I'm very good with pure colors. I like rusty and strong colors.
What i like ? its really hard to find a similarity between things i like.....maybe something unbalanced, something thats not the same, something that resembles "rock" (lol)
Obviously, the above will be just from my point of view....but i think "rock" is close to what i like. Something thats edgy......sharp......something thats out of the line. Maybe im just different with normal people....(lol) i like things that are unique and filled with originality. yeah.....
(thinks for a moment)
The other thing i like is "color". Therefore i should talk about iroiro na things (lol). (*color = iro in japanese. iroiro means a lot of different things....jun was just playing with words lol) well, i always had colors i like, but recently, i noticed that i started liking the colors i used to hate. I used to not like colors like brown and gray. I liked colors like black and white, very obvious colors right ? and gray seemed dull for me, standing in the middle of those two strong colors. But i started liking it bit by bit during these few years......an brown too. i can relax around brown now. I didn't like colors like green and brown, colors that will resemble nature. but somehow i love green now (lol) I bought a green air refreshener the other day (lol) but the colors i like never changes....black red purple....i especially liked red and white. blue and black too. I think people have their own color too. I sometimes go for white...but i definetly like people with the colors red and black. I think people with thoese colors are "edgy". but like i said, even people wise, i've started liking all the colors. now i get along with people with different colors. but i don't really connect with people with gentle and vague colors. It doesn't mean i don't get along with them, but i don't have anything in common. They are nice and gentle....but not enough for me (lol) My color is probably a strong primary color plus a extra shiny glitter topcated (lol) The reason why im not very keen on vauge colors is that, i have this image that vauge colors arn't dirty.....if you go through rough times, without noticing, colors get dirty. and if colors are mixed with other colors, it also won't become pale or vague. in that sense, i don't like vague colors. I like colors that are a bit worn out and dirty. so it doesn't mean that i just like bright colors, but i like colors with strength and taste. the reason why i've managed to accept colors like green and brown is the same. Now i can accept those colors as their own uniqueness. And although i don't love the color gray, i can now accept it. So i sometimes do like gentle and vague colors too....because of its own uniquness and i like how its a soft color. but if the vagueness is from the result of a mixture of different colors......i don't like it. and i also don't want to be like that....

i think jobs have different colors too. well, not exactly....i think i change my color, during different jobs. I have to change my colors to fit the role for the job. For example, i have this image that variety show jobs are yellow, orange.....light colors. For acting jobs....like movies butais dramas, i change my color according to the role i get. I change my color so i fit the role and the whole production. Its not what color i want, but changing my own color at the time so it will become something i want to achive during the acting. I add or subtract different colors to my self on my palette. 
I think people's color change according to their emotions. People would have their strongest "main" color, and that color will change according to their emotional up and downs. It might also change on different days.....and thats the interesting bit. If people have a color they want to be, im sure they can change it and become that color. And i think thats great. Don't you think so ? i think another great part about colors is that its the same for everyone in the world. Feelings and point of view change within different people, but purple is always purple for everyone. its something that won't change within different people. So when i see something or some people with nice colors, i feel happy and it influences me. On the other hand, i love having a colorful side, and a monochrome (white and black) side of my self. Its the same for us five, arashi, and the audience who comes to watch the concert. Everyone has their own color. And that mixes to make a new color every year, and creates a different show every year. And that influences each other.....mixes.....and thats the good part about doing a concert. 

(comment: at first i was thinking....what the heck is jun talking about colors all the way through ? and at last i thought....ahhhh ! *ding* this boy is deep lol)

this years concert...i have a lot in mind, but i can't say right now because im not sure if its going to really happen. if i reflect on last years concert, we made it compact, and the moving stage was new, and i guess we could call it a success. We concentrated on the speed and the tempo of the whole concert last year. So rather than making one song long, we had a list of songs bombarting.....trying to not make the audience bored. To make the flow of the concert good, we used....although this sounds wrong....songs we just used for the sake of making the flow good...but this year, because we already have so many things we want to include in the concert, i don't this its necessary for us to put a huge weight on the flow of the concert. I think a little "gap" between songs will also fit in. 
This year, there was a period where arashi was with just the four of us....without nino. That experience was new, and changed us in a good way. I was happy for him from the bottom of my heart...think about it....my group member is going to the US ! its more than just a big deal. and its not like we lost nino because he did something bad, rather it was because he did something great, and that made the four of us be able to work as a x5 when there is only the four of us. and im sure the other members felt that too. 
This is just about myself, but on the last day of last years summer tour, i heard about the "hanayori dango" drama. and that lead to "boku wa imouto ni koi wo suru" and the butai "byakuya no valkure"......which made me separated from the group members for most of this year. and on top of that nino went to LA......so starting from the release of "kitto daijyoubu", us five spent a lot of time together. this sudden gap changed the view of my "arashi" and the importance to be together with the five of us. This summer, as usual, we are with the same old five of us (lol) but i have a feeling that our views are changed. 
I think concerts are the best way to get contact with our fans directly. To be honest, we barely have the time to get together to do a concert once a year schedule wise. but we look foward to it because he have a great time, and i hope our fans will gather for the occasion to fun together. Us arashi also get power from the fans by doing concerts. But this is hard to explain but.......i like making concerts that attracts the audience by just watching....i like the idea of creating a concert with the fan and im sure thats another way to create a concert....but i feel a responsibility to create a concert that makes the audience to think "how fun ! i want to join the fun!" rather than make them feel "i have to join the concert so it will be more fun". And in that sense, i think last year was very successful. i think we made a stage good enough that attracts the audience by just watching. I think there is a need for a concert to be like that. Otherwise it will be boring. There should be a point where we "show" the audience our dance, and there should also be a point where we dance "with" the audience. So i think there is always a need for subjective view of the whole concert stage. Don't you think so too? Im really scared of the concert being arashi's selfsatisfaction. And also another thing i have to be careful is that....we can't be used to the fact that the seats are always filled and a lot of people come to watch the show. Its not about how many people come to watch us....its important that someone wants to watch our concert. and for that sake, we make our concerts different every year. We have to make it like that, and we will never think of making a similar concert how successful it is. Maybe theres 10 encore songs.....i think a "surprise" factor is always necessary.  Thats why its so fun to create a concert, and if my idea fits..........its great. So when i sang "sakura sake" last year (* sakura sake was the first song they used the moving stage) IT FELT SO GOOD...and my tension was at max (lol) Last years first day of the concert started from osaka hall, and we were still between the lines of whether or not to use the moving stage. I'm very sorry for the people from osaka hall, but we pushed and pushed to use the moving stage. They were saying "its impossible" to use the stage, but we said "please, let us build up the stage...then see whether or not we can use it". All the staff and the security were watching....while we went on stage and we explained how it wasn't dangerous. It was decided that if we couldn't use it at osaka hall, we weren't going to use it at all. so it was a bet. And we were still debating about it with the osaka hall staff until the first day of concert.....we talked among us that if it was a "no", then we just have to accept it. But the osaka hall staff and the Osaka prefecture officials also said it was okay to use it......so when we used it for the first time at the first concert....even we weren't really sure how the audience will react......We finished singing "jidai"....and the stage rose.......and i was thinking to myself "the stage rising....not a big surprise.....the real surprise is from here!".....and the stage moved.....and i can't forget the experssions on the face of the fans....."what the heck..." "something huge is coming towards us...." (lol) i was so happy ! I'm not sure it will be a big suprise like last year, but we intend to do something surprising this year as well. I don't think we're going to do something fancy with the set this year....but im sure the solo's will be different, as how the album is unique this year. 

The most important thing is that people come to watch us - and its not about how many people. If there weren't any audience, there won't be us, and we won't be trying to make the show happen. And if i can make the audience move with what i create, thats my pleasure and joy. yeah.....i want to make a concert that makes people be touched....i want to make their hearts move.  Not just our looks and our visual, and not just with the hyper tension. Using the choreographic, entertainment strategy as a director of the show, i want to make people impressed. everyyear, we try our best to reach this goal. I think people come with different reasons....."want to have fun" "want to be refreshed" "want to make a good memory with a friend" ....and some people just come for the sake of watching us.....and if fans gather to see us with different reasons, im really happy and so i feel that i have to make a great concert that fufill their wants. 


comment: matsumoto jun is sugoi..........thats all i can say. especially the moving stage part. i never knew until i read this. i highlighted the part that hit my heart.