Tuesday, June 25, 2019

190623 11AM Waku Waku Gakkou Report

On a large screen near the ceiling there were portraits of Waku Waku Gakkou’s principals, AKA Arashi dressed as old men.

12th Ninomiya
13th Matsumoto
14th Ohno
21st Aiba
25th Sakurai

To the right of the portraits was the phrase, “日々是気付” which means “Encourage righteousness every day”.



Opening

There was a clock on the main screens and at 11 o’clock it started shining, the hands started spinning, and the background was very Doctor Who-esque.

There was a clip of five little boys, whom I assume to be Arashi, walking through the woods. They come across an old Volkswagen van. They brush the dust off the front to reveal the WKWK logo and it basically turns into the BTTF DeLorean and flys away. (They even used the BTTF theme song later.)

A shot of Kyocera Dome from above and clips introducing each teacher.
Nino: Backstage at 5x20 receiving a birthday cake
Aiba: Japanese bathhouse
MJ: Slid into a convertible like on This Is MJ
Ohno: In the kitchen preparing a fish
Sho: Playing piano
They all saw something that reminded them of WKWK and they did like a Power Rangers transformation into their teacher’s clothes.

JUMP's self introductions
Arioka: I was the sub-leader of my elementary school trip!
Inoo: I was the secretary for my middle school trip.
Yuya: My fly was open for part of the first day of my school trip.
Chinen: I was never in charge of anything for any of my school trips.
Yuto: I accidentally washed my body with shampoo yesterday.
Hikaru: Aitsume! (That guy!) Koitsume (This guy!) I’m Yaotome!
Yabu: I wish today’s school trip could last forever.
Yamada: The bears at the bear farm I went to in middle school were twice as ferocious as I’d imagined.



Nino’s Lesson

Theme: Music
Assistants: Daichan, Hikaru
Talked about the history of sound recording technology.

They all moved to the left stage where Hika was dressed as Thomas Edison  and Daichan as John Kruesi.
Edison wanted to teach them about the phonograph.
Hika “和也こっち来い!”
1. Hika called Nino by his first name.
2. That’s a pretty blunt/rude way to say “come here”.

They talked about how sound is made of waves and were going to do an experiment with a balloon.
Daichan: Let me put this balloon on your face.
MJ: No! I don’t wanna!
MatsuJun sounded like a child. It was so cute. They did a bit of back and forth, talking over each other before he finally gave in.

And then Hika forgot his next part and tried to brush it off like, “I didn’t forget! Edison just goes at his own pace!” 😂

Nino, MJ, Sho, Hika, Inoo, and Chinen tested the phonograph by singing a children’s song. MJ was goofing off shouting things like “Oh yeah!” When they played back the recording without a mic that’s all you could hear. 😂

Ending Statement
音楽は人生を楽しくする友達
Music is a friend that makes life fun



Aiba‘s Lesson

Theme: Hawaii and Arashi
Assistant: Yuya

He asked who came to their 2002 and 2014 events in Hawaii and so few people raised their hand. I hate to sound like I’m bragging, but OMG I just again felt so incredibly fortunate to have participated in Blast in Hawaii! I love them so much!😭💚💜💛💙❤️

After the space-time jump they were all wearing leis.

Yuya played Kaimana Hila on the ukulele.
Aiba: He practiced hard for two weeks!

They moved to a sandy area with a beach background and replica Duke Kahanamoku statue behind the TV.
Aiba: I know you're busy, but could you make some wave sounds too?
Then Yuya made wave sounds with a wicker basket and rice or something?

Showed footage from their 2002 Hawaii tour. 1,500 fans got to spend 5 days 3 nights in Hawaii doing activities with Arashi like learning Arashi choreo, learning Hawaiian from MJ, and haivng a rock paper scissors tournament.

Quiz: What was the RPS tournament prize?
Chinen: Money!
Aiba: *accidentally presses correct button* No! Wait! That's not the correct answer!
Answer: Aloha shirts worn by the members.
Aiba: There are only five people in this world who own them... Unless they threw them away by now.

Both Arashi and JUMP were image characters for the volleyball world cup, so they decided to play beach volleyball to decide which group is the true image character. Yabu got hit in the face with the ball. JUMP got pretty ahead and I think they let Arashi catch up. One point to go, crowd starts chanting, MJ serves and hits the net. Lol 9-9 and Yuto spikes the winning point!

They had to play a penalty game where they hold a strip of rubber between their teeth, a JUMP member pulls it back and then lets go so it hits them in the face. Ohno was holding his mouth afterwards and they were like, "Did you lose a tooth?!" and he said, "My dentures fell out."

Ending Statement
Ole Ua, 'Ole Anuenue
"No Rain, No Rainbow"



Ohno's Lesson

Theme: Dance
Assistants: Chinen, Yamada

Opened with a video of CHINEN (and Yama) DANCING (arguably) OHNO'S BEST SOLO, "BAD BOY". WITH. OHNO!!!!! What did I do to deserve witnessing this? Chinen's literal freaking dream of back dancing for Ohno came true just before he goes on "hiatus".

They tested Daichan and Yuto to see if they remembered the choreo to a song they haven't performed in a while.
Yuto: I forget choreo fast... It's one of JUMP's songs, right?
Sho: Of course! It would be incredible if you knew Arashi's dances!

The song was I/O which was choreographed by Yamada. They both did pretty bad.
?: Yuto, you cheated and looked [at Chinen dancing] behind you!
Yuto: No! That was part of the choreography!
Yama @ Yuto: It's okay.
Yama @ Daichan: I'm gonna beat you up!

Ohno's Favorite Arashi Choreography
a Day in Our Life, "Specifically from Iza, Now because we're all so young."
Tokei Jikake no Umbrella, Ohno's choreo
Paradox,  NY choreographer who works with Beyonce and Britney Spears
UB, "It feels like if they mess up they'll get tangled."
ARASHI, most memories, "How many hundreds of times have we danced this?"

Clip of Chinen and Yamada in India.
Chinen: We've come to India! FOR OHNO-SAN.

They learned about the history of dance and shot a Bollywood style music video to an Indian style remix of A RA SHI and, I think, Ride With Me? It was really hard tell. The director praised them. They learned the dance the day of and in 40 degree weather.

They taught us a simple, four step dance that we all did together.

Ending Statement
ダンスは愛
"Dance is love"



MatsuJun's Lesson

Theme: Costumes/Fashion
Assistant: Inoo

MJ: Why do you dress up?
Chinen: Because I have nothing else to do.

Inochan visited Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo to learn about sapeurs. I thought this lesson was really interesting. Please excuse my extreme summarization and if I write anything incorrect due to mishearing. Sapeur means something like "fashionable and refined fellows". The sapeurs interviewed were gentlemen in their 30's to 60's. The average monthly income the RoC is only about 300 USD and they invest about 40% in their fashion. Many of them wear brightly colored suits. They each have a unique dance step called a ディアタンス (diatansu). Sorry, Idk how to spell it in English. Can't find it on Google. They hold respect in high regard and never condone violence.

A local woman was messing with Inochan's hair.
Woman, in French?: What weird hair. I've never seen anything like it.
Inochan, smugly: She says my hair's cool.

One of the sapeurs created outfits for everyone in Arashi and JUMP.
Inoo: Blue. Both sides of the suit jacket are a different length to represent teacher/sapeur and student/Inoo. Blue/white corsage and striped tie.
MJ: Purple with white lapels/pockets. Wine red tie/suspenders. Purple and white mean prayer and peace, respectively.

Then they had a little fashion show.
Aiba: Green (tree) suit with yellow (sun) scarf. His diatansu was the Disco Star run/wave.
Yamada: Red
Ohno: Mostly blue. White suit jacket with blue lapels/pockets. Hat and cane. Pretends to shoot cane like a gun. Others, "It's not a gun! No violence!"
Yuya: Purple. Puppy on his socks.
Yabu: Light green

Yuya: Is this outfit supposed to be this tight or did I gain weight?

Ending Statement
おしゃれには無限の可能性がある
Fashion has endless possibilities



Sho's Lesson

Theme: Photography
Assistants: Yuto, Yabu

They picked a random seat number and the staff took a green screen and arm shaped pillow to that person who gets to pick whoever they want to "take a photo with" and make it look like they're hugging them. The girl picked Yamada.

Nino: Momikesu na yo! (Don't erase it!)
Referencing Yama's drama Momikeshite Fuyu.

Then they looked back at and discussed some of Arashi's group photos.

At the beginning Nino decided the special hand movement for the space-time jump was like the how doctor's hold their gloved hand up, palms inward, before surgery, but Sho messed up and just threw his hands all the way up, palms outward, like, "Yay!". Also, they're supposed to pull a lever to activate the jump, but he almost forgot and literally threw himself at it at the last second.

They jumped to Bakumatsu era Nagasaki. Yabu was dressed as Sakamoto Ryoma, a historical political figure in Japan. Yabu loves history so he was really into his role. Lol Yuto was dressed as Ueno Hikoma, a pioneer Japanese photographer.

They talked about Louis Daguerre, one of the fathers of photography. They showed one of his photos that contains the first humans ever captured in a photograph. His camera required 30 minutes of exposure, so it was mostly used for landscapes. However, he captured a shoe shine and his customer on the streets of Paris.

Then they had a photographer who specializes in really old cameras to take a group picture of them with one. (Yuya did the Daichan pose.) They'd built a black room under the stage.

Ending Statement
写真を撮れば今この瞬間が愛おしくなる
This moment becomes precious when you take a photo of it.



Ending

Finally, they ended by singing Waku Waku Gakkou's school song, Furusato.
They sang in their teacher/student groups until the first chorus.
1. Ohno, Chinen, Yamada
2. Nino, Arioka, Hikaru
3. Sho, Yuto, Yabu
4. Aiba, Yuya
5. Jun, Inoo
Then they got on the big trolleys and went around the edge of the arena. They asked us to sing the beginning of the last chorus.

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