AnShi 30th Nov 2013 Part 1

[coolohoh]

Ok, its been a real long time since I last did AnS reviews. Not that I’ve done many in the 1st place. AnS is a talk bangumi and  translating all that talk is tedious work. Nonetheless since this week’s guest is Shirai Kenzo and I love watching Japanese gymnastics (my fav is still Uchimura Kohei though, I still can’t get over how that guy’s my age, the world’s strongest gymnast, AND a dad. Opps, I just said my age…). Anyhow… I will just skip over uninteresting parts as usual. (Actually more like the parts I can’t translate.)

We start off with the relatively new corner, the delicious but tedious shops in Tokyo segment.

Oh this part is going to be bad, bad bad. I probably won’t be able to understand most of the ‘tedious’ part.

O and J are the ‘victims’ today.

They got a tedious guest to join them today.

She starts off with an imitation of someone else, which got everyone laughing a little.
This time the shop is in Shibuya. The MC asks if they (arashi) comes here in their private time.

J: I do come but… I’m glad (the shop) its in the city.

Every time i see this screen I’d wonder if the word tedious is a good/the best way to translate kudoi. But since the program themselves uses it… i’ll just follow suit. (I can’t think of anything else anyway).

Today they are visiting this shop.

It’s a 35 year old famous shop, Kushi toku (hope i got that right).

MC starts by asking them what they think of the shop’s atmosphere. J: Its very clean/beautiful!

Here’s the shop owner. Apparently this kind of shops are aplenty in Osaka, but there are hardly any in Tokyo

Ahhhhh this is hard to translate now. The shop owner’s real name (as in, he didn’t change it because of what he’s selling) is 三串. 串 means erm… skewer. As in the skewer in Kushiyaki (串焼き), which is exactly what his shop sells.
The MC goes on to explain that in this shop, there is no menu. The owner will bring out seasonal kushiyakis for the guests instead. First up is prawn shiso roll.

Shop owner: The sauce in the middle is this shop’s pride. If you will try the sauce I will be extremely happy.

J: Ja is it ok if i just dip it in the sauce?
Owner: Sauce! (Sou desu) MC: It has started! Delicious but tedious shop in Tokyo!
J and O: … Ahhh looks delicious! I’m hungry… ><

O: Ah umai!
J: Saku saku desu ne? (Saku saku meaning: SFX for quietly eating something lightly crunchy, like biscuits)
Owner: Yes, its my work (saku) desu.
Get the (lame) joke? XD Leader is amused.

Next up is this… arghs… I AM STARVING. Waiting for my dad to get home then we’ll going out for dinner to celebrate my mum’s bday. And I’m starving!!! Lets see how far I can get on this review before its dinner time XD.
Ok back to the show, this delicious looking thing is… tomato + sausage? Ah so that’s what it is. Sausage pieces plus mini tomato. An original creation by the shop owner.

To be eaten with the ketchup sauce recommended by the owner.

Yet another close up. Sorry, I just can’t resist.

The shop owner made some joke about the tomato. Some word play which my level of Japanese does not allow my to fully comprehend...

J: Oishii!
J says it’s a good mixture of Japanese and western. The shop owner explains that humans get hungry after laughing, so he makes his customers laugh and then they can eat more, and he’ll sell more and earn more :P

Next up is chicken. OMG look at how juicy it is…. *drools*

Shop owner: This is ‘toriyasui toriniku’ desu. (meaning: easy to take, chicken meat. Another word play pun.) And another wordplay on the word salt that i can’t catch later, they start eating.

J looks like he has flown to heaven :P
J comments on how the breadcrumbs used in the outer coat is very good. The breadcrumbs are self made, and purposely ground till they are extra fine to give the coating a light texture.

Indeed it looks as fine as sand
Guest: Its really light, just like my weight.
haha, guess she wants to be part of the action too. Just specially for them, the owner is taking requests on what they want to eat. Normally the shop owner will do all the choosing. The MC gives them some choices from 3 broad categories: meat, fish, and veggies. Ohno makes his request first.

O: Ja, the fish category, hamaguri (a type of shell fish).
Here it is! Spring onion and hamaguri! And then another joke about how this is called ‘beach melon’. Beach being the shellfish, and melon being the spring onion.

Hahaha J’s face!

Ohno comments on how the combination is perfect, and it feels like the taste got condensed.
———————
Dinner time!
Right, allow me to side track for a bit… we had Japanese to celebrate my mum’s bday… ordered an amaebi sashimi  among other things and it comes with the shiso veggie. Not the first time i’ve eaten the leaf… it tastes kinda tangy, a little like mint but with a twist...

--------------------------

Ok back to AnShi proper...

The next item they introduced was lotus root (ordered by the guest), with meat stuffed in the holes of the root.

Its curry flavoured meat! Wow, i so want to eat this!

Last is the pork ordered by J

Its pork and ginger. And they recommend it to be dipped in salt before eating.

J: Unn! UMAI! The balance is superb!

Kyaaaa…. just looking at their faces makes me hungry!

And that was tokyo delicious but tedious shop, file. no. 21!

Hohoho, now we move on to the main part of the show! The gold medalist in the floor exercise in this year’s world gymnastic championships at Antwerp. Watched his performance (and the rest of the Japanese team as well) during the competition period, so I was very excited when I found out that Shirai Kenzo is going on AnShi. This guy is freaking amazing I tell you! Only 17 and he twists like nobody can. He needs to work on his execution though - its not very clean and pretty, but hey he's only freaking 17! That’s like 2 years younger than my sis! I wonder if he’s good at the other apparatus though… wonder if he’ll be able to become an all rounder like Uchimura… but still, this guy has got the most difficult routine in the ENTIRE WORLD and I mean it literally! Crazy, just crazy! Definitely the next up and coming gymnastic star, you’ll see him shine in the Tokyo Olympics I swear.

Yeah! AnS starto! (Gosh can you believe it? Its been a whole 5 days since i started watching this episode, and only now am I getting to the start. Been tired and busy with a wedding dinner and visits to the doctors… >< )

My sis was remarking to me about how short this guy is… indeed… totally dwarfed by arashi… (and in the tall world of idols, arashi is like really short) he’s about my height… ah so this is how i will look like (in terms of height) if i were to stand with arashi… ><

Sho introduces today’s guest. Which i’ve done earlier :P

Sho asks how he feels, is he nervous because of all the cameras around, and the guests? He replies that he isn’t nervous at all. In fact, he’s the type who gets motivated because of all the guests watching.
Arashi comments on how great that is, and one of them said that (his feeling) is that of a star. Sho congratulates him on the gold medal win in Belgium. He is the youngest gold medalist in the history of Japanese gymnastics. Sho asked he if knew he would break this record if he wins. SK (Shirai Kenzo): Yes, I knew it beforehand. J: Did you have the confidence to get it? SK: As long as it (the quadruple twist i think, basically the most difficult item in his routine) succeeds, I will get gold.

Everyone is in awe of this young star.

He’s the first guy to perform that skill successfully, and it’s now named after him. J asks if he was aware that the skill will be named after him. He reply was something like he wasn’t aware of it at all, until after the competition ended and they asked him about it during interviews, that he remembered about it.
Sho asks if someone who’s not Shirai does the Shirai (the skill), how will Shirai feel? SK: Ah, but i’ll be happy! Like, ah, that’s my skill! And we proceed to the first corner. News Live Ninomi Ya (Ninomi House)
Nino starts by asking J when he got into Johnnys. J: In 96. N: And Aiba? A: 96. (haha I know where he’s getting with this one… :P ) S: 95.

N: And Ohno? O: I don’t wanna say!
Finally he said it, he got into Johnnys in 1994. (which happens to be my sis’s birthday, and two years before Shirai was born haha. Arashi, you guys are getting OLD!) There, born in 1996, August 24.

The two old guys looking… mystified.

The next bit of info… Height 161cm - that’s my height! Weight 51kg - wayyy lighter than me. Body fat 8%… ><
Sho starts asking him about his muscles… and then he asks if its ok for Ohno to touch his muscles… Lol Oh-chan! Are you trying to scare the kid or something?

LOLOLOL!

LOL!

S: How? O: I love those muscles! S: Are you going to become a gay?
Lol oh-chan! That guy is still underaged!

Ohno reports that his muscles are really soft. Not the rock hard type. Sho asks if its ok to his arm muscles. SK: As long as I take of my jersey its fine. O: Ah then take it off!

And ohno immediately starts helping him out of the jersey! LOLOLOL! Since when did Ohno have such a fascination for young boys… :P But i must say that Shirai reminds me of chibi J. Esp the thick eyebrows.

Ah look at those huge muscles! SK: But this is totally on the skinny side.
Sho:  Ah indeed, Uchimura’s ones are really big ne?

Nino checks out his non-existent muscles.

Aiba helps him hold up the pin mic that fell off when he took the jersey off. SK wants to grab back themic. A: Its ok, just talk normally, it ok! SK: Ah thank you. And then Nino steals the show...

Muscles? What muscles! hahaha!

His 1st turning point in life came at the tender age of 5, when he did his first back flip.

He can’t rem when he first started trying to do back flips, or when he first succeeded. But he started gymnastics at the age of 3 as both his parents are teachers at a gymnastics club. Both his brothers are there as well, so he goes there with the feeling of going to a park to play.
S: Ah Uchimura was like that too yeah?

SK: The swing is like the trampoline, that kind of feel. J: The swing is like the trampoline????
A: Jumping on the trampoline to play at 3 years old ne? Nino announces that they have a video of Shirai doing backflips. The video is of Shirai when he was 6.

Chibi Shirai did like  10 or more backflips in a row, with fantastic form, across the entire diagonal length of the mat.
N: Its not like he was playing at home and managed to do one messy backflip. He went like *up down up down* and did a lot of backflips.
SK: It was probably a game to see how many backflips we can do in a row, and I hate losing and so I did it. N: And 12 years later, at age 17, he’s turning point no. 2.
S: That’s right now isn’t it?
SK: Yes right now
N: Gold medalist at the world championships!

How ever, no video of his quadruple twist will not be shown! LOL. Pesky nino. He explains that there’s some other stuff that he wants to do first and the video will be shown later.

The origin of his twists comes from beef bowl rice! SK loves beef don. He’ll eat it even before competitions.

On to Part 2

AnShi 30th Nov 2013 Part 2

[coolohoh]

My posts always seems to be too long... ><
Go back to Part 1?

Nino then asks arashi to guess the food that SK doesn’t like. S: Sashimi!

SK: I love it loads!

J: Sweet foods.

SK: I love sweet food the most!

Nino doesn’t give Ohno a chance to guess :P

The answer is vegetables!

The next question is what music he listens to before competition. N: Why did we ask this question. Why he did come on his program…
A: Indeed.

J: Let me think about it.

Sho guesses first: Kaze no mukou e. The beijing olympics theme song

Ohno guesses A.RA.SHI.

J’s guess: Kitto daijyobu

Aiba’s guess: Kimo no tame ni boku ga iru

And the answer! Sho by Yuzu! Hahaha i knew it wasn’t an Arashi song. Wouldn’t be Nino if it was so…!

SK: Sorry!

Arashi: ...

After Nino teases Aiba some bit, Nino reveals the next answer. Uchimura said of Shirai: He does too many twists that its disgusting! (in the complementary way)

Aiba asks if Uchimura can do the Shirai skill. SK: He can. We were at a training camp and playing together. We were doing twists together on the trampoline. The rest of them couldn’t catch up with us at all, and complained that “you guys are playing at a weird level!”.
He also talks about how there were a total of 6 passes in his routine. After he finished the 4th pass, he was confident that he could nail it already. Like the whole world was watching him with bated breath but he was the only one who was calm and confident.

And now we get to see his winning routine. (just search youtube for it if you’re interested XD )
Arashi asks him to give a running commentary of the routine. S: This time you’re a bit nervous?
SK: Nope, i was laughing. Its hard to take SSes of someone tumbling past at high speed… gomen ne? 1st pass. Two continuous twists… as much as I’m a gymnastics fan, I don’t know all the proper names for all the skills so… >< SK: If this wasn’t done properly (like ending in the correct position), the 2nd pass will fail.

And the 2nd pass… J: Over here did you feel good? SK: At that point in time there’s still no. 4 to worry about, so not yet.

After this is the 4th pass

SK said something about Uchimura Kohei having done a good performance, and wanting to put up a good performance too.

And the 4th pass that he was so worried about.

SK: At this point it was like ‘i made it!'

And the 5th pass. And this point he was no longer worried. Although he had a serious face, he felt that he had already nailed it.

At the 6th pass, he felt that it was just like during his practices.
N: REALLY?
S: Relaxed?
O: Calm and collected?
SK: Yes, i think Kohei-san was right over there though. (not too sure about what he said here)

Twists too fast to be seen via the untrained eyes like mine.

This is Uchimura Kohei btw, clapping for his junior XD

Slow motion video plus counting the number of twists.

The 4th twist is completed right before he lands.

Another look at his triumphant face XD

After the 4th pass he felt that he his earlier performance was done properly, and he just needed to finish the rest enjoyably.

The quadruple twist at the end, he did it for the sake of the audience who came to watch him.
A: You actually thought of so much! Lol @ J!

Aiba asks if we’ll get to see 4 and a half twists, or 5 twists in the future. SK: I don’t feel like doing it now, but if in the future a lot of people can do four twists already, maybe i’ll do it.

Shirai shows his hand stand in the studio. Nino comments on how its hard to do it so slowly.

Sho looking at the way the hands are positioned XD

They ask him about how the hands are turned in.

Nino gets forced to try.

hahahaha! Its like the age old joke… how many people does it take to do a handstand? All 5 member of arashi!

Shirai can only laugh as he looks down at the mess of body. J and O are forcefully pushing N’s legs under his hands, like how it was done earlier by Shirai.

And done!

Next up, why is Shirai Kenzo not nervous at all?

It was his first world championship, and what he believes is that Japan’s gymnastics is strong, and strong enough to ‘pull’ the world, so he believes that he is strong, and gives himself confidence, and that makes him not as nervous.
His first nationals was when he was in primary 5. He was really nervous then, and did not perform well. The failure made him realise that its useless to be nervous. In the next competition he just went with a relaxed state of mind, and wasn’t nervous. Like after a lot of consideration, he realised that its useless to be nervous because it won’t make you perform better, so its better not be be nervous. Only for him he’s more stiff at the start though.

Nino decides to conduct a test to see if SK is really not nervous at all.

LOL. Putting the iPhone screen protector as a test. I’m good at that… don’t ask me to do for big objects like laptop though… it was utter headache… you can say that I’m a perfectionist when it comes to such stuff and with a huge screen like the laptop… -.-‘’’ so many air bubbles… ><

It’s the staff’s handphone! He just got it like the day before, and the seal is still on even.

SK: Ah, please paste it on yourself!
Lol! This guy is really cute. IMHO this is more about how careful you are rather than nerves… They ask if he’s good at sticking on the screen protector. He replies that he doesn’t really do it, he just gets the shop staff to paste it for him.

They laugh at his honest reply.

He starts. J comments on how he tore off the entire protection layer in one go. Which is what i was about to say too. Its not a good idea as the chances of dust floating in the air and sticking onto the film is very high. Dust particles = air bubbles.

That was fast!

SK: Umai! Umai kore! (This is good!)
SK looks the most surprised XD

SK: (the staff) will be very happy with this i think.

Nicely stuck on!

SK loves watching and reading detective conan! He’ll record the anime every week, and he has the whole series of conan manga!

They got conan to appear on the show!

SK: Kawaii!

N to conan: Shall we give him that?
Conan: *bunch of stuff about Shirai and the skill named after him* The thief is Shirai Kenzo!
SK: No!

Nino asks if there’s anything he wants to ask Conan. SK: It’s a really detailed question but… recently Conan-kun changed his phone in the anime. SK: Why did you change your phone?
They repeated Conan’s introduction sentence as the answer XD

J asks if Conan was really good friends with Nino. The staff starts playing the intro again and J gets angry XD

S: Conan joke ne?

Conan has a challenge for Shirai, if he succeeds, Conan will give him a present.

It’s a question from one of the Conan movies. If Shirai-san has watched the movie, he’ll be able to answer easily. (too bad i’ve only read the manga, have not watched the anime or any movie)

Too lazy to translate the qn >< Something about the king in the fish kingdom… and which is the previous (or was it next) king.

SK complains that he can’t really remember. He has watched all the movies though. Nino informs him that it’s the movies that aired in 2007.

SK: Ah! Its number 1!

He got it right! It’s a pun on the word ika-sama. I think apart from meaning squid king, it also means previous king. (i think! some kind of word play lets just leave it as that)

And the present! A signed panel drawing of conan from the author!

Cool!

SK: I’m more happy than (winning in) the world championships

And a last word from Conan. It’s the conan movie promotion!

J had to ask the question abt Conan being friends with Nino again. And they end off with the post together XD

Even J has to laugh at that XD

With that Conan-kun leaves and they move on to the last section of the board (and the show). The current biggest problem faced by SK.

And what is it? “Doesn’t understand fashion” Yup, that’s his headache right now. They remark about how indeed SK doesn’t have much chance to wear anything but jerseys (and his other sportswear)

N: After this, for the sake of SK, we are a really good corner just for him!

They all complain about how the Ninomi house corner just ended like this.

And so we move on to the 2nd and last corner of today’s AnShi. The new corner Select Shop by Don Matsumoto J!

This is the kind of clothes he wears normally. Cute! N: Understand understand! O: This kind of feeling ne? SK: I donttatck, i don’t know if it’ll be suitable or not
N: Like just wear what everybody is wearing yeah? SK: Ya
S: Something safe but still fashionable. What do you think about this J? Honestly.
J: To be honest, its not attacking at all (attacking in the sense of like, wearing something more unique, more outstanding, to show more individual personality etc…)
S: So if he attacks, what will be be like?
J: Ah… indeed… why don’t you come to my select shop?
And so they leave the studio to go to J’s select shop! SK: I’ve not really come to this kind of shops before

And there’s the shop XD

J starts picking out some clothes right away

SK comments that he prefers the jackets more, and so they go off to look at the jackets.

J: For example something like this…
SK is skinny but… ah the muscles! S: Matsujun is like a shop staff!

SK asks what to wear inside the jacket. J comments that just something that what J’s currently wearing will do… or if its him he’ll pick something like this (see below)

J is totally in his serious mode now.

N: We are watching him just shopping normally!

J decides that he wishes him to wear something more mature looking and picks out another jacket

A: Attack more for the bottom please! Use more colours… J: You’re noisy! SK: *laughs*

Aiba: o.0 You can hear? N: We can be heard? J: Yes i can!
Wow, i thought they won’t hear what going on in the studio too! He sends SK off to change. J is confident of his selection

J folds a pair of jeans and put it back on the shelf while Shirai is changing. Just like a shop attendant. Nino asks what he’ll pick if he were to go all out and attack. J: then it has to be this… *walks over and picks out a piece*

J: Either this or...

J: That.

Change completed!

I must agree the J’s choices are great. Esp love the red socks. Adds that touch of playfulness to the otherwise more serious/mature outfit.

J comments that SK can wear this anywhere. The rest of Arashi requests for a more outstanding outfit. A ‘5 twists’ outfit…!

J returns to the studio… clothes selection complete!

J says that we’ll be able to see a SK that we’ve not seen before.

And the stage is set!

Oh nice!

I can’t help but notice the number of rings he has on. Oh well, he fashion coordinator was J after all.. XD

I count at least 4 rings, two on each hand...

J: This (the top) is from london, the shorts from new york, the shoes and hat from paris

And if you didn’t notice earlier, the cap has misname Kenzo on it!
Sho comments on how the outfit looks fits for a king. They ask how he feels about it. SK: Eh, its really embarrassing!

If it was me I’d probably be feeling like how arashi did when they had to wear the transparent rain coat outfits :P

And the ending! Sho ask SK how was it. SK: It was really fun. S: Are you really Shirai-kun?
Hahaha XD 1,2,3,4 4 rings!
S: Ano, are you a lost child? SK: This is really embarrassing!

Sho asks him to say a word about the Rio olympics in three years, as well as the Tokyo olympics in 7 year’s time.

He couldn’t finish saying it properly though… Shirai’s outfit was really too amusing XD
J: I wished we asked about this earlier! After Sho asks the qn again, without laughing this time, SK answers. My rough translation: For Rio, he will be following in the footsteps of his seniors and they will be pulling him along. He will challenge and try to enjoy himself. But for Tokyo, he will be at the age where he will have to lead himself. He hopes to be a reliable Ace player then.

He’ll be 23 during the Tokyo olympics, right at the prime of his career!

S: Be a reliable Ace, and then wear the Kenzo cap!

N: Hope to see you wearing this!

N: Keep wearing it!

Phew finally finished!