Finally,
my concert viewing tour ended by a 4-member SMAP concert in Sapporo. I have gone to Nagoya Dome, Tokyo Stadium
and then Sapporo Dome, that means at the end I still could not see Goro in this
year’s concert. What a regrettable
experience though…
I knew
Goro might not be able to come out at the end but I still set off for
Sapporo. I just wanted to try my best
to support Goro and SMAP and didn’t want to miss the chance to see Goro in case
he could show up in the concert. In
order to tell SMAP that we are supporting them and waiting for Goro, on 29th
concert, we invited those audiences sitting in our block to tie a pink ribbon
on their wrists. By doing this, we
hoped that SMAP could get our messages from our waving hands with pink
ribbons. It’s a very unforgettable
experience to me: using my very bad and terrible Japanese to persuade people to
join us. It’s not very successful
because we hadn’t prepared thorough enough, we hadn’t got enough time and actually
it’s a very difficult job to talk to several hundred people. Almost all people I talked to were very
nice. They were very patient to try to
understand what we were doing. Most of
them gave me a very warm and supporting smile when they said yes. I would like to say thank you to all of them
and also those friends who wore the ribbon voluntarily.
And then
29th concert started and I could only see 4 member on the
stage. Of course I was upset, though I
had prepared for this. Concert was
running on but I was a little bit out of it.
Maybe I was too tired after the pre-concert work and also I could not
accept the absence of Goro very well.
The concert was more or less the same as what I had seen in Tokyo
Stadium. In the first encore, just like
what they have done in Tokyo Dome concerts, 4 members all wore T-shirts with
Goro’s face. They were really close, if
not the damn platform was unable to lift up, I could have seen them at eye
level. They all looked good and smiled
friendly. I hope they had noticed the
pink ribbons, especially Tsuyoshi and Kimura, since they were standing in front
of us for quite a while. So it’s the
end of first day concert of Sapporo.
Like the
first day, 30th concert started and there’re only 4 members standing
on the stage. I realized that I had no
chance to see Goro anymore. However, I
did expected it after the first day concert and so not that hard for me this
time. In this concert tour, every time I saw SMAP singing “Yozora no Mukou”, I
felt very sad. They looked really sad,
and Tsuyoshi in particular looked tearful.
I didn’t know if this had anything to do with Goro’s absence but it’s
definitely not the same feeling in the past concerts when they sang the same
song. And no matter how many times I
watched “Donna Iikoto”, I felt wanted to cry.
During
the MC part, when Kimura said he was tearful in the earlier part of the concert
(probably because he was touched), Tsuyoshi replied very straightly that he
didn’t. This upset Kimura and he went
away from them. Tsuyoshi tried to
persuade Kimura to come back and he held Kimura’s hand and pulled him back to
the center of the stage. It’s a
heart-warming scene. It reminded me
that in the last two years concert, I have seen other heart-warming scenes
having Kimura Vs Goro or Shingo Vs Goro.
For the Moshimo no SMAP, we had a bonus from Kimura. TakuMama, having put some lipstick on her
lips, was so sexy and attractive. Kama
was so happy being kissed by TakuMama but Tsuma looked so poor being slapped by
TakuMama.
In the
first encore while Kimura and Tsuyoshi were riding on my side, my friend and I
showed them our “Goro” uchiwa instead of being “bimyou”. I also did the 2-4-4 hand sign to
Tsuyoshi. They waved to our direction,
though may not be solely to us anyway.
After the second encore, it took a while for them to come out again for
the final encore. Music of slow tempo
came up and they were standing on the higher stage. Shingo and Tsuyoshi kept wearing the Goro’s T-shirt starting
since the first encore. Takuya had taken
it off in the second encore but wore it again in this final encore. Nakai was holding it on hand and then
dressed it up after the speech. Here’s
what they said briefly. (The following
is based on my poor listening and what I read from other reports, it may not be
completely correct.)
Kimura:
Really thank you very
much. Till now, 10 years, for the group
and also for myself, really a lot of things have happened. Being able to meet all of you and having
members who are standing here, for the things I cannot do by myself, with them
I have been able to do these things.
Since we have concert every year, please come to meet this group, we
SMAP. Definitely it will be done by 5
people.
Tsuyoshi:
All of you, really thank you very much. This year’s concert, a lot of good things
and also bad things happened. It became
the concert I won’t forget in my life.
Though there’re sad things, being able to meet you all, I feel very happy. Seeing your smiling faces, I want to hold
out more, even there’s bad thing. Being
able to meet once a year, I am very happy.
We will still have a lot of things to come up, please support.
Shingo:
All of you, really thank you very much. Concert became being done by 4 people, it’s
lonely, Goro is not here. He will be come back soon. Because it’s strange when there’re not 5 people. Definitely next year we’ll be 5 people,
having Goro together, to do the concert and work hard for it. Thank you for today.
Nakai:
Today, thank very much. This year SMAP is having 10-year debut
anniversary. The anniversary concert is
ended this way, became doing by 4 people.
However, SMAP is a group which has a lot of things happened. All of you who have come here and all our
fans in Japan are giving your support to we 5 people. If you are not supporting, SMAP cannot make it. From now on, please keep supporting we 5
people who are incapable. Please come
to meet us again.
Kimura was
quite emotional doing the speech. He
took a deep breath several times, very much like when he was talking about the
absence of Goro in the first Nagoya concert.
He sounded particularly firm when he was saying concert will be 5 people
in the future. Tsuyoshi’s voice and his
eyes turned into quite tearful during the speech. I could still hold my tear when Kimura was talking but I was
totally collapsed when it’s Tsuyoshi’s turn.
Shingo was calmer than I expected but when I heard him saying
“sabishii”, sounded really lonely, my heart was broken. Nakai kept using a smiling and comforting
face to talk. He was speaking in a soft
and gentle voice but at the same time in a very firm way telling us that SMAP
can get over all these things happened and they need our support.
I have been
wondering what would be the last song.
Lot of songs they chose in past years for last song had been sang in the
earlier parts already. The one I bet
was “Aoi Inazuma”. But no, they have
chosen a much much better song – “Oretachi ni asu ha aru” (We have tomorrow). Last year they didn’t do any water/champagne
shower in the final concert, this year they did a great champagne one. “Goro” was all wet on each of them. I was deeply impressed by this final encore,
though regrettably there’s no Goro, physically. I’m glad they finally finished the concert tour though having
such a difficult time which imposing so much pressure on them. And, despite I could not see Goro at the
end, I do not regret for coming to Sapporo for the final concert. It’s so good to know that many fans and most
importantly, SMAP, are waiting for Goro to return. Let’s say goodbye to concert of 2001 and look forward to seeing 5
people on the stage again in the coming concert tour.
By ginny
01’ Autumn