My Tackey, My Sadame...

Saturday, February 16, 2008,

**My sudden ‘jaunt’ to Las Vegas and to see MatsuJun from Arashi!!!!**

Okaaaaay. What I’m about to say, I hope you’re sitting down for this, and what I’m about to do, you’re probably gonna think ‘What the heck is Reiko thinking anyway? Has she gone ‘mad’? lol It’s as if she’s in ‘high-school’ all over again. Well…yes and no. :P

A close, fangal friend of mine from facebook has asked me to accompany her in driving to Las Vegas to see MatsuJun (Matsumoto Jun from the JE grp, Arashi) in person. Found out he’s filming a movie there in relation to his dorama, ‘something Yoridango’. Sorry…I can’t seem, for the life of me, remember the dang title of the dorama he just acted in. lol :P But anyway, he’ll be filming in the back of a parking lot of a hotel and since my friend is a huge Arashi & News fan, she HAD to take this opportunity to see him. For me, I just wished it was T&T we were seeing. lol (ok, so I’m biased)

I wanted to do this for her and figured hey…when will there be an opportunity to even get to see ANY JE grp, period. Down where I live, I’ll never have the chance to see them, let alone even one group. Yeah, right. Like they’d wanna visit San Diego? *pfffft* lol What’s in San Diego? lol :P All there is out my way is Sea World, Legoland, Wild Animal Park, and World Famous San Diego Zoo. Whoopdeedoo. lololol :P No Jpop group would wanna visit here. The way I see it, if you’re interested in military stuff, great, because San Diego is noted to be a ‘military town’. And since there’s a vast majority of Mexicans that live here, there’s a lot of Mexican restaurants. So, if you’re into eating Mexican food or into military stuff, great for you. If not, oh well. lol :P Well, there is Sea World, Legoland, the World-famous Zoo and Wild Animal Park to see. =D

See…I told you no Jpop group would wanna come here. lolol

I think about the only thing great about living here is you’re not that far from Disneyland and you can drive there. Also, you can drive to varying cities within California, including LA and San Francisco. And if you really wanted to be adventurous (like my Japan friends who live here), you can take drives to varying States (from state to state). That’s what I wanna do in the future, is to drive to another State, or even cross-country to the East Coast where New York and Washington D.C. is. Knowing my hubby he’ll tell me, ‘What…are you nutz??!??’ lolol :P

Anyway, back to my story... :P

Our itinerary (if there even IS one…hahaha) is to leave for Vegas on Monday, around 4:00-5am in the morning and drive there. Usually takes between 5-6 hrs., depending upon traffic and everything. I really hope there’d hardly be any traffic, especially in the early ‘wee’ morning hours. If all goes planned and with no stops, we should arrive around 10:00am or so. But, since she told me she plans to make a pit stop, well…count that arriving into Vegas even longer. lol I’m hoping we’ll actually drive fast and get in sooner than 10am.

I plan on bringing my Apple Nano in the car to listen to (driving to her house alone to begin with and going to Vegas with her) T&T music…and whatever else cool sounds I have on it. Btw, if you haven’t d/led that song that germini posted on the forum called ‘Promise of a Lifetime’ and she made a fanvid dedicated to T&T with this song, then you should d/l it because this song, I swear, is my all-time favorite songs. It’s sooo niiiice and I’m always finding listening to it over n’over in my car wherever I go and I sing along to it too. lol And now I’m always thinking of T&T whenever I’m singing it. ^_^ And the fanvid itself...homg...I have no words to describe but...WOW!

Here's the link to germini's fanvid: http://www.megavideo.com/?v=5W871N7P

Here's the link to the mp3 song "Promise of a Lifetime":
http://www.mediafire.com/?am9dj1xosgd

I also plan on bringing along my video camcorder…hehe~ Now I’ll be the one that’s like Takki except, you can call me ♥director Reiko-san♥. lol :P And Azuki, like we chatted Sat. nite on msnchat, you can be my reporter ok? *pfffft* lol Ohhh…and Miron, you can be my video tech-y person who puts together the footage once it’s done. Actually, better yet, why don’t you come along with me and I’ll be your video assistant? :P You can take my place and be the videographer instead since you’re experienced in this.

I told her that I swear I hope I won’t be like that cameraman. On SC, one of Takki’s Special Project vid clips, ‘the making-of’, you remember when that cameraman dropped the camera on the grass (it was the part where Takki was running toward the sports arena on the grassy area) and it was still filming like that? lol :P That was so funny…but at the same time, that seems to be like what I’d do. lolo

Omg, I hope not. Because I’m sure there’d be lots of screaming fans that have followed MatsuJun from Japan and I’m pretty sure we won’t be the only people to see him in person either. lol So, because of screaming fans and because of my lousy coverage (i.e. being shoved & pushed by screaming fans...lol) I hope I can take something. Sorry, Miron, it won’t be like your professional footage. Be easy on me, ok? I’m just an ‘amateur’, doing this ‘for fun’. lol :P

Trust me. I DO know it’s not easy trying to film a bunch of military airplanes doing aerobatics in the air at a professional exhibition air show either. Every year around October, we have a military Air Show and the famous Navy ‘Blue Angles’ come to San Diego to perform. (Btw, Japan has their own military air show team, “Blue Impulse’) Reason I say this is because last year when the U.S. Air Force’s ‘Thunderbirds’ came here to perform, I had the opportunity to shoot some footage with my video camcorder. Not an easy thing to do when planes keep moving so fast in the air and you’re not on a steady platform to shoot the footage either. lol My gawd, after we got home and watched the video, my hubby laughed at my ‘amateurish’ recording. Yeah, okay…so, the beginning of the video was taken of the ‘sky’. :P But, that was only a few seconds until I could tell where the planes were in the air. *pfffft* It’s haaaard you know, trying to shoot footage of planes in tandom, in a diamond formation, moving fast in the air and having to zoom in on them too. NOT easy. -_- Now I really have a great appreciation for what Takki and professional videographers do. (now that I kinda-sorta been in his shoes…per se. Not on a professional-level but, you know what I mean) lol

But omg, even though it’s not T&T and not Takki, still. It’s MatsuJun! *kyaaaaaaaaa* lol :P I don’t care for him but, hey. I’ll take any JE grp that comes our way. ^_^ (even if I have to drive for 6hrs. just to see them) I’m gonna see if she’s bringing along her digital camera too. (I hope so) I gonna ask her for copies…hehe~

And you know what’s the coolest part of it all too? I haven’t even met her in person either. lol Yeah, this will be our first get-together…FINALLY. Took us long enough to meet and now I’m sooo thrilled and excited to finally meet her. (even though she’s not into T&T or Takki…lol But she does think Takki's cute tho...hehe~)

Oh, I forgot to mention that my fangal friend used to be a Tsubasa-fan long ago (before or during Venus-days). =D Yeah, she was really into Tsu until she turned ‘JE whore’. (like how I've heard some fangals talk about JE...hahaha) Sorry Cecilia, I didn’t mean to say that about you. lol *gomen, gomen* Actually, to tell you the truth, I don’t think Arashi or News is like that. I can see KAT-TUN being ‘JE whore’, but I think Arashi has always been one of the classy groups like T&T. If you ask me, Arashi is faaaar from being ‘JE whore’. ^_^

And I have a confession to make. :P I don’t like any JE grp except T&T, but I do happen to think (from Arashi) Kazunari Ninomiya is a great actor and is cute. =D I guess after we bought the Clint Eastwood “Letters From Iwo Jima” dvd and watched it, I really had taken to that movie…and him a lot more. I never really knew who he was, just knew him of ‘his name’, that was it. Never saw any of his doramas or seen him act in anything. Then this movie came to the U.S. and low and behold, I had taken to Ninomiya’s acting. And, watching the ‘making-of’ footage and Press Conference interviews on the actors with Clint in Japan (on the dvd), this was my first time I’ve ever heard Ninomiya’s voice. lol He seems pretty quiet and shy, but that’s good because, I’m like that too in a way. (until you get to know me…then I’m a chatterbox…lol)

She said she’s got some stuff to give me when we see each other. (i.e. T&T mag clippings, stuff on Takki and Tsubasa, etc. etc.) She’s kept all her Tsubasa collection for me so…hehe~ I can’t wait to see what she’s kept all this time.

Anyyyyway, don’t wanna bore you with my sudden ‘jaunt’ to Vegas and I seriously need to start packing a few things, going on errands, to the bank, etc. etc

I guess I’ll see you all when I get back from here on out. I probably won’t be online on Monday (for those of whom I chat with on msn…=D) as it’s also a holiday for us…President’s Day. Everyone has a holiday off, so that means even my hubby and daughter will be home too; no school. Wish me luck that I’ll catch even a ‘glimpse’ of MatsuJun and I’ll promise to bring pics back here, whatever I can get. (even if it’s only a few) Oh, and can’t forget my ‘report’ too, right? lol :P Take care and seeee ya!! *peace out*

*REIKO*

10:03 PM