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The thing is, I grow so easily attached to locations. Not any kind of location, but locations where at one point in my life I’ve felt happiness. Even if that happiness was triggered by something that happened at that location rather than the location itself, the location will stay in a special place in my heart for a very long time, usually forever. Sometimes I visit these places years later and they still look almost the same and they smell the same and suddenly that feeling of happiness that had been just a distant and fading memory for a long time comes back and feels so real that you can almost touch it. Often I don’t get the chance to visit these places whenever I want to, so I visit them on Google Earth. It’s not the same as being there, but it’s a whole lot better than just closing your eyes and trying to remember what it looked like.

The Globe Tokyo is one such place. It’s where Ya-Ya-yah performed Stand By Me in 2004. It’s the first place I went to right after checking into my hotel when I first came to Tokyo. I knew Ya-Ya-yah were there and I wanted to be there too. I took pictures. I touched the walls. I sat down on the stairs in front of the theatre and was happy just for being there and knowing that Shoon, Taiyo, Yabu and Hikaru were just a few meters away from me. My first stay in Tokyo lasted a mere 100 hours. I spent 10 of them on the premises of The Globe. Four hours watching the play twice, six on the outside feeling happy just to be there.

I haven’t been to The Globe since my first trip to Tokyo in 2004, but I’ve visited it countless times on Google Earth, and whenever I was in Tokyo and I was on a Yamanote line train going somewhere I always made sure that shortly before or after Shin Ookubo station I’d look out of the window to catch a glimpse of it, indulging in those happy memories. The Globe Tokyo = happiness.

Another such place is Yokohama Arena. Ya-Ya-yah had three solo concerts at Yokohama Arena in 2005, and I was lucky enough to see two of them. It’s where Kamenashi Kazuya (Happy Birthday btw) gave me a weird look when he noticed me, and it’s also where Taiyo once won an Onigokko game. I haven’t been to Yokohama Arena after those two Ya-Ya-yah concerts three years ago, but the mere sound of the words “Yokohama Arena” give me a tingling feeling. Yokohama Arena = happiness.

I’m nothing but a Pavlovian dog. To know that Hey!Say!JUMP will have concerts at Yokohama Arena from May 3 – 6 and Shoon will appear in the play フルハウス at The Globe from May 2 – 11 makes me drool.

If I wait until summer for the HSJ event there’s no guarantee that Shoon will be there and if he’s not it would be my very first trip to Japan without seeing Shoon. The weather in May is not as hot and humid as it is in July or August. If I go in May I’d be able to see Shoon and JUMP, and I’d get to back to two places that mean a great deal to me. Plus, flights are a lot cheaper in May than in the summer.

If I go in May it’ll be a stretch as I won’t have as much money at my disposal as in the summer. It’ll be Golden Week, many shops will be closed, and the airport will look like the battle scenes from Lord of the Rings. JUMP won’t be complete. And I won’t be able to see the summer event and meet up with Akaru.

I’m confused and, as of now, completely undecided.

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