Japan Goes Ole!

In one of the translations of an A*rashi talk on their show, N*inomiya told M*atsujun that he should do the M*atsujun samba again. To which Jun replied: "Hell, no!"

I wondered what could have prompted that averse reaction. Yesterday, as I was surfing through youtube, I saw a fanclip of M*atsujun doing the samba in their concert last year.

Needless to say, I was doubled up from laughing too much. So... this is the samba!

Later at home, I was watching NHK's Tokyo-eye programme. There was this gaijin who came to the studio wearing this hilarious, if not, outrageous gold kimono costume. They started talking about the samba song and this actor named Ken who sang M*atsuken samba. Then they showed some footage of Ken (I was relieved to know he was not Ken W*atanabe but someone named Ken M*atsudaira and it was the same number that Jun did in their concert!

The M*atsuken (original) version:



M*atsujun's version:



The talk went on and on that M*atsujun had to wear that outrageously stupic costume through the next number. I wonder how everyone was able to keep a straight face?



But I have to credit the most popular A*rashi member for being a good sport considering that he does not usually like doing outrageous stints on their TV show. Too bad they won't be releasing the O*ne concert on video, it is definitely a collector's item to have the better, professional version of that number. (Then again, is the M*atsujun samba number the reason why J*ohnny's is not releasing it at all? Their prime property looking so baka?)

Also, that gold costume is said to have been so popular that Japanese would wear it to parties and they even held samba parties at the height of the song's popularity.

Ole!