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Yay! It’s the last day of a crappy year. I probably don’t even have to mention what was so crappy about it, but I’m gonna do it anyway.

2007 marked the end of Ya-Ya-yah, a fact that will forever sadden me, but I’m not going to dwell on it. Ya-Ya-yah has given me countless beautiful and precious memories that I will forever cherish and keep in a very special place in my heart. The end of Ya-Ya-yah (the fact that they were disbanded, not so much the way it was done) crushed some very big hopes and dreams I had. That hurts a lot, but going on and on about it won’t do me any good, so I’m trying to put that behind me.

2007 also was the first year since I became a JE fan in which I couldn’t go to Japan, although I would have loved to go several times. I would have loved to see Daibouken. I would have loved to witness Ya-Ya-yah’s final concert appearance as a group at the Yokohama Arena concerts. I would have loved to see the announcement of Hey!Say!JUMP at Yokohama Arena, even if on this one occasion the Internet was even faster than real life and I actually found out about Hey!Say!JUMP a few minutes before the people at Yokohama Arena did. And of course I would have loved to see HSJ’s debut concert at Tokyo Dome. I’ve been looking forward to a debut and, subsequently, a debut concert for years, and even if it wasn’t the debut I had been expecting I still would have loved to see that concert. Who knows when there’ll be another debut concert and if I’ll be as excited about the next debut as I was about this one, so this just feels like another wasted chance to me.

But enough of that. I want to put these things behind me and think about the good things 2007 has brought me, and of more good things that, hopefully, 2008 has in store.

Quite a number of good things happened in 2007. JE suddenly unlocked their basement and let Chinen out into the light. That was a smart move. Chinen is so talented, and he’s got an awesome voice and such a beautiful smile. Ryosuke was in Tantei Gakuen Q. I liked him in the SP, I loved him in the series, and working on the English subtitles for both turned out to be a great experience. Hey!Say!7 released a single, and the making-of of the PV was one of the most fun things I’ve watched in a long time. I discovered ONE OK ROCK, the band of former NEWS member Moriuchi Takahiro. They totally rock, and seeing Taka and what he’s up to now made me think that leaving Johnny’s can actually be the smartest thing a young aspiring artist can do, which made it a lot easier for me to stomach Taiyo‘s departure. I also discovered Jovette Rivera. Okay, he discovered me first, but what difference does it make? So anyway, after listening to some of his other music I think that Baby Babe is actually somewhat mediocre compared to some of the really great tunes that can be found here or here.

Okay, what else? Ryutaro. OMG, Ryutaro! He’s so cute, but I actually knew that before. In 2007 he co-starred in Juken no Kamisama and did a great job. And ever since the HSJ debut announcement he’s been flourishing. It’s so much fun to see him grow and have fun and enjoy himself, I just can’t help but feeling happy whenever I see him. Ryu is awesome. Period. His niichan is another one of the great discoveries in 2007, even though he kinda scares me. XD

Ryutaro, Ryosuke, Yuto, Chinen, Yabu, Hikaru, Inoo, Daiki, and even Takaki. I love them all so much, and I’m incredibly happy for the chance they’re given with Hey!Say!JUMP and I just want them to succeed and be happy and jump to their dreams.

And then there’s Keito. Oh well, Keito…

If you’re a very attentive reader of this blog you may have realised even before I did that in the last couple of months I’ve developed a huge little crush on Keito. I don’t even know how that came about. Or do I?

I guess it started the very day he was first presented to us, back in August when he appeared as a backdancer for Hey!Say!7 on Music Station. Just like everyone else I had no idea who he was, and even though he wasn’t exactly ugly I probably wouldn’t have paid much attention to him if it weren’t for those people who didn’t know him either but who started bashing him right away because supposedly he was “just there because he’s got a famous dad”. And I really REALLY hated that. I mean, okay, he’s got a famous dad. So what? What if he’s really talented and a great guy? Should I hate him and not even give him a chance just because he has a famous dad? No no no, folks, this is not how Kamichan’s mind works. For all I cared Keito’s dad could have been a butcher or a car salesman or the Emperor of China. I had no idea who he was but I was ready to be open-minded and give him a chance. Some other people who knew just as little about him as I did just started bashing him for being the son of someone they didn’t even know either. Such behaviour is something that I just won’t tolerate because it’s silly and childish and unfair. And whenever I see such behaviour around me I just can’t do anything else but step in and stand up for the underdog, even if I don’t really know him. That’s how I ended up on Keito’s side. And he hasn’t really done anything ever since to make me think that it wasn’t the right thing to do.

But when I’m on somebody’s side without really knowing them I try to find out things about them and I watch them very carefully. That’s what I did with Keito too, and all I could find was things that made me like him more. Like, in one of the magazines he was asked what he thought his charm point was. And while everyone else gave standard answers like “my cheeks” or “my style” or whatever, Keito’s answer was “ぜんぶ”. “The whole thing.” How cool is that? Okay, but aside from that somewhat unrestrained answer he seems like a very shy person to me, and I generally like those a lot better than the loud and boisterous type. I like the way he talks with that very soft voice and the bashful smile. Ever since that Christmas medley on Heisei Families last week I like his singing voice a lot too. And I admit that I also think he’s rather pretty.

I dreamed of Keito a couple of nights ago. I usually write down all my Johnny’s related dreams in my blog, which goes to show that I don’t really dream of them all that often, just every now and then. The reason why I didn’t write down that dream about Keito until now isn’t that it was any “worse” than my other JE dreams, you know, it wasn’t explicitly sexual or anything else that would keep me from writing it down. It’s just that… I don’t know, it was a very long and complex dream, and also very confusing and very difficult to put into words. And it felt very real. I don’t really want to go into all the details of this dream, because for some reason the situation I found myself in in that dream seems very… precious to me. And I don’t usually like sharing things that are very precious. As I said, it wasn’t anything sexual. We didn’t really have a lot of physical contact in that dream, except for our hands. Our hands touched a couple of times. Nothing special, you know, handshakes and regular day-to-day interaction between two guys. Two friends. The most prevalent memory I have of that dream is that of a very strong notion of friendship, a kind of very close friendship that I have experienced before in real life, albeit very seldomly. I know this is kinda strange since I still don’t really know a lot about Keito, but I have very warm and tender feelings for everyone who ever gave me this feeling of friendship and appreciation in my life. And even though we never met in real life, which is neither his nor my fault, in that dream Keito somehow managed to give me that very feeling. That’s more than enough reason for me to love him.

So yeah, I love Keito. And if there’s anyone out there who hates him for whatever reason, be prepared to meet me outside! *rolls up his sleeves*

And finally, another thing that I enjoyed a lot in 2007 is blogging. I still don’t think I’m very good at it, but every now and then people tell me otherwise, and the number of my readers has quadrupled in the last 12 months. The appearance of this blog has changed a lot too, and some more changes are yet to come in 2008 because I’m still not 100% happy with it. And sorry ’bout all the ads (I hope they’re not too annoying), but I’m trying to make a living here.

So yeah, blogging is great, and I’m incredibly happy and grateful for all the positive reactions I’ve been getting from everywhere. Thank you all for reading and for your continued support. If you like this blog stick around because I’m trying to make this place even better in 2008. And if you don’t like it then what the hell are you doing here anyway? Go away! You suck! XP

Oh God, that was another loooong post. But it was the last one this year, I promise.

A very Happy New Year everyone! See you all in 2008.

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