news_jpop | NEWS news (week of 5 November)

Tegomass no Radio (8 Nov)
- At the opening, they said it was Halloween last week. Sakura said she felt that there wasn’t as much hype this year as compared to the last, but Massu said he saw on the news the other day that Halloween rakes in the most sales, just after Christmas. So this means that people around the world were more excited about Halloween that his birthday. (T: Obviously. Sakura: That’s right. T: Halloween would win by a hundred zeros. M: Halloween would? Over me? T: Of course! It’s a worldwide event!)
- The first listener said they watched the Halloween Music Special. Tegoshi’s oiran getup was very whimsical and beautiful. Massu’s Abi-kun was extremely interesting. How did they decide on what to dress up as? How much time did it take for the make up? Please share whatever behind-the-scenes stories they have. Tegoshi said they first received the offer to appear on the special, and while discussing what to do, they decided to dress up as whatever each of them would like to. Though there was also the idea of dressing up in matching costumes. Massu added that it was first decided that they would be singing weeeek. And as the set this time would be brighter and more pop-ish than the previous time, they were told that they didn’t have to do what they did for the previous year, when they first received the offer. For the previous time, it was like “Please dress up!” but this time, it was more like, “You guys would be dressing up, right?” in that there was a stronger request for them to dress up the previous time, but for this time, it felt more like it was up to them whether or not to dress up. So they decided to do it, and worked on it separately, with no discussion in between at all. They only found out what each other was doing during rehearsal the previous day. They didn’t even talk to their manager, only having discussions with the JE music producing staff and the costumes staff. What they didn’t do was talk to the make up artist, and there was some panic, especially for Tegoshi’s look as he had to be painted white. But Tegoshi said he didn’t have to be, as he only wanted to be oiran-LIKE. He also added that he is out of ideas after appearing for 2 consecutive years, and if he didn’t start thinking for next year, he’d have nothing. Massu offered that there’s a girl beside Abi-kun, so why don’t he do that. (T: Eh, Abi-kun again? M: Hurhurhurhur) So for Tegoshi, it was this sudden flash when he thought of what he wanted to dress up as. Massu said ideas come to Tegoshi relatively quickly. Tegoshi said there are many of such Halloween music events now, and it’s hard to find something that nobody else is doing. He thought oiran was one, but he didn’t expect Hyde to have dressed up as it too. As they share the same make up artist now, when they mentioned that he was dressing up as oiran during the rehearsal, the make up artist said that Hyde had done that. Alarms went off, but he’d already had the costume made and all and couldn’t change it for the performance the next day. So it’s important to do research on who’s dressing up as what. Massu said he had research done on whether anyone was dressing up as Abi-kun. (T: No way! You did? That’s really smart) So he was told no one had dressed up as Abi-kun yet, and he wondered why, as it was the most appropriate. (T: How many minutes did you spend on make up? M: About 2? Sakura: That’s fast! T: Oh yeah of course. Sakura: Yeah he only had to have those drawn) Tegoshi spent almost an hour, so he had to get changed immediately after he finished the medley with Golden Bomber, otherwise he wouldn’t make it in time for NEWS’ performance. He said it’s fun to be able to do this every year, and this eliminates the need for them to dress up for Halloween in private. Sakura shared that she did face paint at home alone as the red ranger. (M: Any photos? Sakura: I do. I took the photo myself and didn’t show anyone. M: You did it alone? Sakura: Yeah at home, alone. M: Your family? Sakura: They were all asleep. T, M: SERIOUSLY? T: Isn’t that scary? M: What’s that? T: Do talk to Tegomass if you have any troubles. Sakura: I’M OKAY. I have no troubles. None. T: Spit them out. You’re holding too many things in. M: Seriously? x3) Sakura probably showed them the photo as they started giving a lot of comments and questions. (T: Doing this alone is gross!) Massu suddenly started praising how the quality was super high but Sakura said it’s too late, plus he probably didn’t know how red ranger looks like either. Tegoshi said she spends every single event alone, so for this event, they thought they’d spend it with her. T: 9th November- Sakura: AH! T: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!! (Happy Birthday starts playing in the background) T: If we don’t celebrate for you here, you’d celebrate alone again. Sakura: EH? No way! You’re right! Today’s the 9th! T: Uh huh. Sakura: I forgot.
- Sakura then blew out the candles, and Massu (pretended?) to cough a bit as the smoke all went his way. She’s turned 34, and they asked her for her hopes for the year. (Sakura: To become a fighting hero-announcer. T: Huh?) She explained that she wanted to become a brave and cool announcer, just like a hero, and to bring love, courage and hope to everyone. They tried to make her say some lines, saying how it just so happened that the cake was red, a raspberry cake. She didn’t, and said she’d be alone again if that happens, and was still thanking everyone when Tegoshi asked her to move on to the request.
- The request was for “Fantasia” as they like this song very much and feel like listening this during this cold season. They didn’t manage to go for the Seishun concert, and hope to be able to listen to this song live one day.
- ♪ Fantasia ♪
- The first message was from someone who said that the word “charai” was going to be added into the dictionary. Tegoshi has ever mentioned that he doesn’t mind being called “charai”, but the definition for this word was going to be “loud; cheap”, and the listener said they are not sure about the “cheap” part. How does Tegoshi feel about this? The listener also loves Massu, who isn’t charai. (M: Arigato gozaimasu! Sakura: HOHOHO) Tegoshi said well this means the word can’t describe him anymore. They also discussed why the word ended up being defined as “cheap”, and who got to decide on the definition. In reply to how Tegoshi feels about this, T: I don’t really care! (studio laughs) It doesn’t matter what people call me, as long as they’re having fun. M: They said they love me, right? T: Yeah they did they did. “I love Massu, who isn’t charai” M: Arigato gozaimasu. T: It’s sad. Sorry that I’m charai. Sakura: Hahhahaha
- The second message was from someone who saves up 100yen coins that were made on the year they, their family and Massu were born. They are really bad at saving, but thought they could at least save up these 100yen coins, and then use them on concert merchandise etc., so they find this method of saving money suits them. What are the saving methods that suits the 3 of them? Tegoshi first said that they don’t talk very much about money.
- M: Well for me, you know the fee they pay us for appearing on shows & stuff? I get paid in cookies. T, Sakura: …… eh? Huh? M: Hurhurhurhur… T: Cookies? Sakura: This is painful, painful, painful! T: No, if you were receiving that in cookies, it’s dangerous. M: It’s okay. I started this myself. I’ll...I laughed the most. T: This was hell. What just happened was hell. It’d have been amazing you could continue for 16-17 years from just cookies! M: It’s 20 years! T: Ah, really! That’s amazing. M: For just one moment, both of you had that “Huh?!” look on your faces. T: Yeah, like, what cookies? I thought they were electronic money or something. M: Ah…. T: I thought there was that alternative to receiving money. Sakura: Like getting to accumulate points or something. M: Nononono… candy, that kind of cookies. T: Yeah I was surprised. M: Sakura-chan’s face now was scary.
- They went back to the question, and Sakura said she decides how much she was going to spend each month, withdraws just that amount, and keeps her expenditure within that. Massu said he doesn’t have any fixed rules, so there are months when he spends a lot, and months when he hardly spends. There are people who set aside a fixed amount each month, and that’s probably better. You have a goal, and you know how much you can save by when. Tegoshi said he does think about saving, and doesn’t spend that much unnecessarily to begin with, as he doesn’t have that many wants. Like maybe on sports products and rental fee for the futsal venue, and that’s pretty much it. He doesn’t go shopping either. Massu added that Tegoshi really wears his Tshirts till they get worn out. (T: Uh huh) He has probably only seen him in 5 different Tshirts. Sakura agreed. Tegoshi said he keeps wearing the same thing once he finds something he likes, to which Massu said he used to wear the same 2-3 tees over and over again in elementary school, because he liked them so much, and would be upset if they weren’t washed in time. Is that how Tegoshi feels? Sakura then asked if he just wears what’s before him, but he said it depends on his mood, and where he’s going. He picks stuff to match the setting. (M: Oh, you mean you can do that? T: Well if it were like weddings and stuff, I dress up properly. Sakura: Ah, of course. T: Like even for suits, I ask the stylist to rent them to me. Because I don’t own any. M: For wearing in private? T: Yeah. M, Sakura: Hehhhhh~) He said there are also times when he buys the costumes prepared for him. Massu shared how he bought a really good suit when he turned 20, thinking he’d need it, but he’s probably only worn it 3 times since. Only for weddings. They said they hardly ever need to wear suits in private. Tegoshi then brought up how ItteQ always has this rite at the beginning for the year, to pray for the programme. He wore skull printed clothes to the rite, and people got mad at him. Degawa-san went, “Oei oei oei” at him. By the way, for the previous year, both Degawa-san and him went in skull printed clothes. He also wore skulls once for Tegomass, and for weddings. M: For weddings too? Sakura: Eh? T: It’s fine, isn’t it? Sakura: No, it’s not okay, for celebrations- T: But it’s about here (pounds his heart) Sakura: It’s not about the heart. T: Like, thank you, God, from here (still pounding his heart). Whoever decided that God and skulls don’t get along anyways. Sakura: It’s not that they don’t get along, just about the TPO (time, place, occasion). T: It’s fine to wear skulls for weddings isn’t it. M: Unprinted materials are probably better for weddings. T: (starts pounding his heart again) But it’s here. Sakura: He thinks he’ll be forgiven just by doing that. M: Slapping away at his left chest.
- For Tegomass’ Debate this week, Massu did the opening introduction, where he mentioned how the 2 of them were supposed to shake hands when their answers match. M: We don’t, though. Sakura: Yeah you haven’t recently. T: Yeah. Sakura: Let’s do that properly today. M: (small voice) Not like it’d get conveyed through radio. Sakura: We’ll do it. (background laughter) The first laughter asked them what they would hate to not be able to eat anymore for the rest of their lives. A: Japanese cuisine. B: Western cuisine. (T, M: Ho~~ Sakura: This one’s simple. Ready, go! T, M: A! Sakura: OOOH! Shake hands shake hands! M: No… T: We did. Sakura: You didn’t. Don’t be lazy just because it’s radio! (laughter) T: We hugged! Sakura: You didn’t. There’s a huge distance between you guys now. M: We kissed. T: We kissed. Sakura: How do you do that with this table between you!? T: Ah yeah? Sakura: So let’s hear your reasons. T: Reasons? We’re Japanese! They then rattled a whole list of things they won’t get to eat, while they can still eat things like the hamburger patty lunch set at Japanese shops. Tegoshi said he might still be torn if it meant he could only eat Japanese cuisine, and nothing else, like Chinese, Italian, Thai etc… (Sakura: Which would it be in that case then? T: Shut up. Sakura: Hey! T: HAHAHHAA! Sakura: Aren’t we partners who work together!? T: HAHAHAHHAA. M: Like if it were between Japanese cuisine and everything else. T: Uh huh. If it’s between Japanese and Western, of course Japanese would win hands down. Sakura: Which cuisine do you like best, by the way? T: Thai. M: BEST? Sakura: EH… T: I order Thai delivery like crazy. M: Best?? T: I LOVE eating fresh spring rolls with sweet chili sauce. And also Khao Man Gai etc.) Tegoshi asked what Massu liked best other than Japanese cuisine and Massu said Italian.
- The second debate question was which they cannot stand. A: Not being allowed to exercise for a month. B: Not being able to watch TV for a month. (M: I get the feeling that this was sent in with the presumption that we’ll choose different answers. T: Yeah. M: I already know the answer) Sakura: Ready, go! T: A! M: B! See, I knew this would happen. Like, Tegoshi would probably say exercise. T: I’m wearing FC Barca’s uniform now too. Sakura: It’s terrible. T: I’ve got futsal after this. M: It’s been quite some time since the programme started, and no one has touched on this yet, but what he’s wearing is amazing. T: It’s okay. This is what I wear most often. Sakura: No… T: It’s normal. Sakura: It’s not what you see any Tom, Dick and Harry would wear. It’s what people who appear in stadiums wear. T: That’s right. I’m properly wearing tights too, as the time of the year has come. Sakura: I initially wondered who it was. T: Someone from Barcelona. M: He looks completely like someone soccer-related. T: Yeah I’m from Barcelona. Sakura: Ah, they just showed us a sign asking you guys to debate. Going back to the debate, Tegoshi said he hardly watches TV. If he couldn’t watch soccer matches, that’d be terrible. But he hardly watches TV so he knows nuts about the industry, like which comedians are popular and all. Sakura said it’s true he has the image of not being at home too much. He said he’s got to go for soccer and gym, and it’s part of his routine, so he can’t do without that. (Sakura: Why TV then? M: I’m a TV kid. Sakura: Hahaha!) Massu said he pretty much has the TV switched on if he’s home, like switching it on once he wakes up, and watches till he sleeps. Though he doesn’t watch it fully the entire time, and would read fashion books with the TV on in the background. If he was asked which he liked better, it might be sports, but if it’s just for a month, he’d pick TV. (M: Well, as someone who appears on TV, it’s not right to not watch it. Sakura: I see. M: On the contrary, it’s rude to not watch. It’s only right to watch. T: But if I’m doing a drama, I properly research on the co-stars! Because I don’t know them.) Sakura picked Tegoshi as the winner, though she didn’t agree with his opinions, as having exercise as part of the routine means the muscles built up would slowly be lost over the month and it’d be tough to build them back again. (T: You’d probably also put on weight. M: Were we supposed to talk about this on such realistic terms?) They then talked about why Sakura picked Tegoshi even though she didn’t agree, and concluded that she must have read the atmosphere, not because Massu lost, debate-wise. T: It’s either you lost debate-wise, or simply because Sakura-chan likes me. M: That’s probably it. Sakura: It’s not that. T: HAHAHA. M: It’s either or! Sakura: I am fair! Fair! It’s because I started exercising a little recently. T: That’s great. M: That was the Tegomass’ Debate.

Masuda Takahisa no Masterhits (10 Nov)
- He talked about how it was already November, and he probably should start saying things to evoke the “end of the year” kind of feelings. For him, he hasn’t felt any of that for this year yet, but maybe he will when Christmas is here. Recently, all his friends from his hometown (about 6 of them + 1 family) gathered at one of his friend’s place, who was living alone. He said it was really fun, and he brought over some of the champagne he received from the staff as thank you gifts at the end of the concerts. He shared how he feels champagne is something that should be drunk together with friends, more so than alone or with family. The staff probably brought the champagne with the intention of letting the members share them together on the spot, but everyone ended up bringing the champagne back. So he brought the champagne over to that gathering, a friend brought some meat they received from the hometown tax scheme, etc. While they usually meet up outside, it was nice to have gatherings at such quieter settings too.
- The first message was from a listener who asked what sauce Massu likes with his oden. He shared that he had oden just a few moments back, with no sauce. If the oden is already properly seasoned on its own, there really isn’t a need to dip them into any sauce. But if he were to eat two eggs for example, he might eat one on its own and one with mustard. So this makes him a mustard supporter for oden, but he’s really the type who can enjoy oden on its own even without mustard.
- ♪ Gamushara cha cha cha ♪
- The second message was from a listener who watched the Halloween Music Special, and said it was a fantastic performance that was both cute and cool. They asked if dressing up as Abi-kun was an idea Massu came up with by himself. He said he did the character that’s usually standing on the left for CDTV, dressed in hiphop fashion, then shared it started out from the offer, asking them if they would dress up. To which, they decided to each dress up as whatever character they would like. He’s not one who’s particular enthusiastic about such dress ups, but as it’s something that NEWS was doing for TV, he felt he had to do something. So since he didn’t feel very strongly about this, he first considered becoming a pumpkin with his face hidden, like wearing a pumpkin mascot costume, and have people going, “Oei, Masuda isn’t on screen at all” and that might be fun. But he really didn’t know what to do, and told the JE staff whom he was talking to about this programme to give him ideas if they had any good ones. They parted ways for the day, and that night, he had this flash of genius, “AH! There’s that guy! Abi-kun from CDTV!” After which, they got permission from the TV station, and had the costume custome-made. He was worried that someone else might dress up as the same character, or someone might have already dressed up as that before, but after having it checked up, it seemed no one had done it so far, which made this the best idea, and the TV station provided him pictures and all to looked at. He shared how at the start of weeeek, he was going to wave his hands around, and try to turn his head around like how Abi-kun would. But he did it such that it was like he tried to turn his head but his head wouldn’t turn, and that part ended up not getting shot on camera. To think that was the part he put in the most effort for. So yup, he came up with the idea by himself. On the contrary, if people had been coming up with ideas for him, the range might be so wide it’d end up scary instead. This was the first time he tried turning as a character and it was so much fun. He thanked the listener for watching the performance.
- The third message referred to Koyama’s jweb, where it was written how Koyama ran into Massu when shopping and had Massu choose between 2 pairs of shoes for him. They asked what kind of shoes they were. He said that it was at the one of the brand’s stores, but more of like a sample sale at the brand’s office. It turned out that Koyama was heading there at the same time as the only time he could make it. The staff asked him if it was okay if Koyama was there too, and he said sure. Koyama was really there when he went, so he called out to him, and Koyama was like, “Hey Massu you’re here too. Why don’t you pick this for me, which is cuter?” So he replied, “This one.” It really wasn’t like they were shopping at the stores, but more of them ending up going to the office at the same time, so it’s not like he met Koyama by coincidence. Having said that, the rate of him running into other Johnny’s member is pretty high - a number of seniors, a few members from JUMP, and Shige, once, a looooong time ago. They were both on their day offs, and happened to go to the same fashion store, each with their friend(s). Both of them went “??? Ah… wassup…” So he runs into people pretty often in private, be it seniors, juniors, people who entered at the same time, and even people from different agencies. This makes him think how there are plenty of celebrities around town. He’d update us as soon as possible if he ever runs into any of the members again.
- The fourth message was from a listener who used to make onigiri for their child(ren) everyday. For their family, it’s common to use seasoned seaweed to wrap their onigiris, but they just found out recently that it’s more common for the rest of the world to wrap theirs with toasted seaweed. They asked if Massu eats onigiri, what fillings he likes, and if he wraps them with toasted seaweed. He said that it’s probably more common to use toasted seaweed, and seasoned seaweed might be something more popular in Western Japan. There are people who grew up eating seasoned seaweed wrapped onigiris. He’s fine either way, but he’d prefer to have his onigiri wrapped with toasted seaweed, and eat seasoned seaweed on their own. As he gets the impression that part of the function of the seaweed is also to prevent the rice from sticking to the hands, so he’d like to use the regular toasted seaweed for this, and eat seasoned seaweed after, as a snack. He might have shared this before, but what he doesn’t like as a filling is pickled plums. He likes pickled plums, just not inside onigiri, as the sour taste comes suddenly when you eat onigiri. Like if there were like 4, spread out all over, it’d be fine. But to have only one wrapped right in the center such that you can’t tell when you’ll hit the plum isn’t. Though the same applies for all the other onigiris (Fufu). He wasn’t sure which he likes best, and threw out a few, like canned tuna, salmon...minced meats. Stronger tasting stuff. Canned salmon, fish roe, sea urchin, and even deep fried prawns are nice too. Kelp too. Which is pretty much everything. He likes onigiri on the whole, and think they go best with karaage and green tea. When he was in elementary school, he’d go to the onigiri store, buy 6 of them, maybe 4 or 5 karaage, one of those small packs, a bottle of green tea, and have that after school before dinner. The onigiri weren’t that big in size, but come to think of it, he ate a lot. He feels one isn’t enough for things like onigiri and sushi though, as there are so many options and all of them are different and nice in their own ways.
- The fifth message asked how Massu folds his socks. They fold theirs into a ball, and if they folded their socks the same way as Massu, they could then show off to their friends in school. He said they folded laundry for an open interview once, and it was extremely interesting how each of NEWS’ members were different. Well the way they folded tshirts were similar (fold the sleeves in, then into half, and half again), but for socks! While there are people who put both socks together, rolled them and turned one back to create a ball. But for him, it’s the direct opposite from the listener. He simply puts both of them together, and folds them into half. “So… we’re different, Riosa-chan. Different.” It might also be because he hardly owns any of the longer sneaker socks. But then again, flipping one side back to make the ball seems to make it such that one sock would stretch more than the other, and doesn’t that bother people? Like, having the left sock longer? Or flipping them in turns? But how would you know which is which? So he doesn’t recommend that. He’s not sure whether the interview is released yet, but that’d probably be released soon, so please check that out.
- ♪ Wake Up ♪
- At the end, he asked people to watch SCP next week. It was Tegoshi who did the “member produced Premium Show” the previous time, so who is it this time? He really wishes everyone would watch, but who would it be? There’d be no doubt that this is a must-watch. As it’s a Friday, please watch Netapare too.