[2007-12] Arena37C Special Vol. 39

This is our established custom of an after excursion interview. First of all, please tell me about your impressions on today. 

Hiroto: When you think of Kyoto, you think of Tora-shi!

Tora: Kyoto is a nice place. The streetscape is beautiful. I really like historical dramas, so I really wanted to try going to the movie village.

Shou: About once every two weeks, Tora-shi has a chonmage(1) day.

Tora: If I wasn't in a band, I really think that I would appear in a historical drama. With that kind of meaning, Kyoto is a place that is like a dream. I was glad being able to do a photoshoot in such a place.

Saga: This is the third time in my life that I have gone to Kyoto, but you usually see things here that you never see in Tokyo like apprentice geishas and rickshaws, it was interesting.

Hiroto: Huh, I have never ridden on a rickshaw.

Shou: Me neither.

Saga: I also didn't get to ride one.


Using that as a standard, did you ride one, Tora-kun and Nao-kun?

Nao: I said I wanted to ride one.

Tora: He said that he hadn't ridden one, so he said that he wanted to ride one straight away.

Saga: There are lots of things that you only see in Kyoto, I thought that it was a nice town. Also, the maccha(2) was delicious. At first I thought it was bitter, but for some reason it calms Japanese people down. I had another helping, and drank two cups.

Hiroto: I drank four (laughs)

Saga: Kyoto and I, are not bad together.

Nao: This was my first time having a photoshoot in Kyoto. I also was able to receive some maccha, during my student days I was a part of the tea ceremony club, so it had a nostalgic feeling to it. I haven't had the opportunity to drink it since I graduated from school, I was glad because it lifted me from my sad life. I rode a rickshaw with Tora-kun, but the person pulling the rickshaw was training his body, which was similar to mine. It seems like he drank Weider in Jelly(3) everyday

Shou: I also haven't come here since a school excursion, but I always hear Hiroto-kun talking about how nice Kyoto is, so I wanted to come here. I'm so grateful for Arena37c to have taken us to Yokohama and then to Kyoto. Lately I've wathced "Maiko Haaan!!!" and "Sakuran(4)", it felt like the uniqueness of Japanese culture was directly influencing me. To me, there was also some coincidences between our "Ruri no Ame" PV, although it was a coincidence I was glad.

Hiroto: Synchronicity.

Shou: Eh?

Hiroto: It's the European way of saying it.

Shou: Even though I'm talking about Japanese culture (laughs)

Hiroto: Excluding my home town, Kyoto is my favourite place, so I was really glad to come here for a photoshoot. I had just though that I wanted to come here, because I don't get to come here often. However I usually come here alone or only with another male friend, but I could see things differently coming here with everyone. It feels like we went around to many places for a little while, it was like a school excursion. When I come here alone I always go to the same places, for the photoshoot we went to places that I don't usually go to, so it was interesting catching a glimpse of a fresh kind of Kyoto. I think that it would be great if I could show everyone even just a little bit of Kyoto's appeal.


Kyoto's PR manager (laughs) 

Hiroto: I will be glad if I could first let the members know of Kyoto's good things and then the readers.

Nao: Hiroto-kun was always saying "Kyoto is a good place", but I fundamentally like a digital kind of world. But actually trying and visiting Kyoto today, where there is a streetscape Tokyo doesn't have, I felt a different kind of fresh feeling than usual.

Hiroto: I think that it would be good if the people in cities came to visit.

Nao: I had gone to the bathroom here and there, but they all had a Japanese-style appearance to them.

Hiroto: What was a bit disappointing today was that I couldn't go to the place that I always go to. In Kyoto, there is a place that is like a mountain to me. When this issue is released it will be Autumn, but we actually had the photoshoot in the middle of Summer, it was bad luck that I couldn't go to that place when it was hot. Everyone would change, if they saw there scenery of that place. I think everyone will become a better person.


Did you want to show that place to the members?

Hiroto: I did!

Nao: Let's go tomorrow!

Tora: When go home then (laughs)


Who is bad at climbing mountains?

Hiroto: Climbing a mountain isn't that big of a deal.

I mean like, it takes them thirty minutes to climb and such.

Saga: I'm ok at it. Climbing a mountain is similar to a human's life.

Nao: Right now, we are at the turning point on a mountain.

Saga: Right now we are on the toughest slope, we are almost at a point where we can see a volcano.

Hiroto: A volcano?

Saga: Then we will dive into the volcano.

Shou: There's magma in there~

Nao: Magnum?


There won't be any magnums in a volcano (laughs)

Saga: It would still be ok, even if it was a magnum!

Hiroto: It would be!

Saga: Mountains are really good. There aren't many people in bands who don't like mountains.


What about you, Tora-kun, you seem like you would dislike mountains.

Tora: Mountains? Mountains are ok. I should try climbing a mountain one day.

Hiroto: Huh?

Tora: I was raised in Yokohama, so there are sloped roads everywhere. The roads are not even and constantly go up and down, saying that I live on a mountain is not an exaggeration. That's why I can't ignore mountains.


I feel like gathering all five members and letting you climb a mountain.

Shou: Since I was a kid I've been skiing so I like snowy mountains, I might be bad a climbing mountains in the Summer. If you told me to put on skiis and climb the mountain, I would surely be able to do it.

Nao: That would be difficult!

Shou: It would be hard, but if the members were all competing to get to the top, I'm confident that I would be first.

Hiroto: If the mountain is rough then it is rough, but when you climb the mountain you will obtain many great things. Even if you are in the middle of climbing it, it will change your position of various things you do in your everyday life. Feeling that as you are climbing, you will be able to find the answers to many things. Everyone, go climb!


When you say everyone, do you mean the members? Or the readers?

Hiroto: Everyone!


Do you always climb alone? 

Hiroto: I generally do it alone. Occasionally, I do it when it's pitch black.


Aren't you afraid?

Hiroto: I'm not afraid. There is nothing to be scared of. With an alicenine. light, I climb the road on the hill. I even use the light in such a place!


What in Kyoto is something that you really love to calm down with, Hiroto-kun?

Hiroto: The air. I normally don't get the feel the sense that I am living, when I first came to Kyoto I unintentionally came to be at a certain place. There are a number of these places, but I get a really strong feeling of this in Kyoto. I've always liked places that were Japanese-like, places where you can feel the history of the town are good. Even if it's not a sight-seeing place, there are lots of places that still have the feeling of the past lingering. I don't really understand the reason why, but those places feel like they suit me. The first place which made me think "This is it!" is Mt. Daimonji, a place I couldn't go to today. When I first came to a place with a view, I thought that it was a place where I wanted to return to. Because that place exists, I do my best, it's a place that changed the way I think. I fundamentally hate losing, I thought that I couldn't go to such a place with that feeling. However my way of thinking did a complete 180, it's a place that made me think having that quality is not a bad thing. It's a place that has made me stronger.


Everyone, what is a place that makes you feel at home?

Saga: Probably my hometown. The radius of the town from my parents' house is less than around 10km.

Hiroto: Saying the radius is less than 10km, the place is still quite large.

Saga: Then, it's probably a 2km radius (laughs)

Hiroto: I was born in Hokkaido, I like on of Japan's best thre places to see at night, Mt. Hakodate. It's a place where I spent lots of my adolescence in, there are times when I suddenly feel like going back there.

Shou: The place my sprit wants to go back to is Paris (laughs). As expected, it would be my hometown ...... Also, I like Nagano's Kiyosato. It's because I have nice memories of that place from when I was a child. I like open spaces where you can see the horizon, like grasslands or pastures.

Tora: I liked the schoolyard of my junior school. You can see Mt. Fuji from there. Rather than the park that was about 20 seconds from my place, I often played in the schoolyard instead. Until high school the schoolyard made me feel free, now it's shame that I don't feel that anymore with that place. That's why I don't have a place that calms me down anymore.

Hiroto: Let's go climb Mt. Daimonji together!

Tora: Kyoto might become the next place where my heart feels at home.


Translator's Notes:

1 Topknot hairstyle for reference. The chonmage wigs are also popular xD
2 Powdered green tea, it's usually used in formal tea ceremonies
3 Kind of like JellyJoys, but healthy/healthier
4 Both are movies about geishas, apprentice geishas