Here We Go! The Arashi Trivia Encyclopedia

[t101-mod.livejournal.com]

GIF: milkyr@tumblr

*takes a deep breath*

Okay, so I asked in a previous post whether people would be interested to read and contribute to an Arashi Trivia Encyclopedia, and a number of you actually said yes! (Surprise, surprise.)

I thought we'd start with something small on T101. If it gains enough momentum (and contributors!), it can be hosted on another platform. Let me just say that everyone can be a contributor to this encyclopedia. It will function a lot like Wikipedia in style, where information gathering will be collaborative. It will also, however, require contributors to quote their trivia sources; because there's just so much information on the internet these days, and some things can literally be lost in translation from Japanese to English.

Here's how it works:

1. Choose the category that your trivia belongs to.

I will create the following categories for each trivia topic.
Individual members: Ohno, Sakurai, Aiba, Ninomiya, Matsumoto
Pairings: Ohmiya, Sakumoto, Matsumiya, Nino-Ai, Juntoshi, Yama, Junba, etc.
OT3/4/5

2. Write up your trivia in a clear and concise manner. Focus on facts and events, not feelings or opinions.

Acceptable: Nino has confessed that he could spend up to 17 hours a day, just gaming at home.

Not acceptable: Nino is such a SLOB for spending two-thirds of his life gaming.

3. Quote the source.

I know quoting that specific TV episode or magazine can be a pain, but it really helps fandom in the long run to sift through and verify information. What's more, the members' memories aren't always perfect, and I find the boys actually contradicting some of the things that they mentioned in earlier interviews. So spare a little more effort and write the name of that magazine or TV show down! Chances are, people will want to read about the incident in its context, so it's best that they know where to find the information.

4. Post your trivia in as a comment on this post.

Please feel free to embellish your comment with pictures and GIFs, and I'll add the text to this post!

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Trivia Encyclopedia:

Ohno Satoshi

- The staff members of Kagiheya bought Ohno a bearded dragon, named Kaagi, from the set of Kagiheya. Ohno left it at his parents' place, and his parents ended up taking care of it for him. Ohno's mother used to refuse to touch Kaagi, but now she's fallen in love with it. She has even become some sort of bearded dragon expert. (Arashi Discovery, 2013.12.17 and 2012.08.22)

- As a Jr. Ohno acted in a mini-drama in he 'Ai LOVE Jr - Sound Story' "series" (along with his buddy Machida Shingo) called "We can fly". The woman playing his sister is his sister in real life. This is revealed in the talk after the drama (apparently it aired as a part of the Johnny's Junior program) by Machida who also says that Ohno and his Nee-chan get along really well.

- When he was little, he cut his hand on the cap of a shochu bottle. He was warned not to grip the serated cap, but he immediately did it anyway and got sent to Nishiyama emergency. (Mago Mago Arashi, 2006.12.02)

- Ohno was ranked fifth in "Who, as a senpai, will you fall in love with?" and they criticized him so much that Ohno thought only "new halfs" are interested in him. (Himitsu no Arashi-chan, 2010.05.27)

- Ohno took calligraphy lessons before, in fact he has a level 4 certificate and is just one level shy of becoming a teacher. (Arashi discovery 12.23.2013).

- Ohno owns two phones, one is a phone that can only be used in Japan, and the other is a smartphone. He used to leave the Japan-specific one at home a lot, so one day he decided to cancel the contract for it. However, Ohno forgot that nobody knew his smartphone number. Apparently, Nino tried to text Ohno for his birthday, but got a message back saying that the number didn't exist. Matsujun, as well as Shige from NewS, lectured Ohno about his missing phone number too. (Arashi Discovery 2013.12.24 [translation] [audio])

- Ohno can't get massage because he will get tickled right away. During Arashi's Asia live in Taiwan they went to massage place but Ohno didn't join them. Nino said Ohno hates it when being touched for massage. It even tickles him immediately when Jun touched his knee. (Music Station 2008.11.07)

- He befriended a bird at Central Park, New York. He gave it water and watched football together for around 2 hours. The bird pooped on him without him realizing (Himitsu no Arashi 25.10.2012)

Sakurai Sho

- In his free time, Sho almost exclusively hangs out with his friends from school. There's a mailing list which has around 13 friends, and Sho would use an Excel spreadsheet to manage the attendance of each outing. (Arashi ni Shiyagare, 2012.04.14)

- Sho said that he can't sleep peacefully at night if he can't have a 'kaimaki', even in hot summer nights he can't be relax if the kaimaki is not beside him or if he can't touch it. (Waratte Koraete, 2009.03.11) [T/N: A kaimaki is basically a blanket with sleeves attached. Click here for examples.]

- When she came as a guest on Arashi no Shukudai-kun, model Marie introduced herself to Sakurai as the younger sister of his former classmate, Caline. Other celebrities with school connections to Sakurai include talento Mori Izumi, with whom he used to walk home when they were children, and actor Mizushima Hiro, who is his junior in Keio University. Mizushima and Sakurai admitted that they had not met even once in school. [Arashi no Shukudai-kun, 2007.01.29; Arashi no Shukudai-kun, 2008.03.10; VS Arashi Golden, 2009.10.22]

- Ninomiya and Aiba liken Sakurai’s old room in his parents’ house to a cold storage area. When Aiba came over to Sakurai’s house, there had been piles of books everywhere, and the host had simply shoved some of them aside to make space for his guest. In contrast to the rest of the house, which is clean and ideal, Sakurai’s room is said to be very messy. Even Sakurai admits that he had come home once to find that his mother had thrown all his clothes into the hallway and told him to clean up. Aiba attributes Sakurai’s inability to clean to exhaustion caused by his busy work schedule. [Arashi no Shukudai-kun, 2009.01.12; Himitsu no Arashi-chan, 2010.11.25; Arashi ni Shiyagare, 2013.01.19]

- When he was in the second year of middle school, Sakurai fell in love with a visiting student from Hungary named Karako Gabriella (sp?). He considers her his first love. [Arashi no Shukudai-kun, 2009.11.23]

- Sakurai claims that he’s been told that he’s an S (sadist). [Arashi ni Shiyagare, 2010.05.15]

- Sakurai is the appointed second-generation heir of self-declared playboys Takada Junji and Tokui Yoshimi (from comedy duo Tutorial). As a result, he has been given the privilege of dancing both the Takada dance and the Tokui dance. [Arashi ni Shiyagare, 2010.05.15; Arashi ni Shiyagare, 2010.07.10]

- Popular fortuneteller Sakana claims that the other members of Arashi have to cherish Sakurai and use him properly in the future, because he will become a person of high rank, such as a chairman, but not necessarily in the entertainment industry. She also claims that although he is not cold-hearted, he is the type to keep going straight at his chosen path no matter what may happen to the people around him. [Arashi no Shukudai-kun, 2009.06.08; Arashi no Shukudai-kun, 2009.08.10]

- When asked for a story about his popularity, Sakurai shares that when he was still a student, someone had confessed her love to him by the side of the campus stairs. [Arashi no Shukudai-kun, 2009.05.11]

- Hardly able to do a backflip on his own, the members play "hyponosis" with him on a live SP episode, and Nino commands him to do a backflip. And so he is bullied into doing one with the members' support, who all pitch in by supporting his body and grabbing his legs to flip him over. (Arashi no Shukudai-kun, 2008.08.04)

- Infamous for his supposed lack of fashion sense, Sakurai’s inability to choose stylish clothes was first sensationalized through the Himitsu no Arashi-chan corner Mannequin 5. For the episode with a clothing battle centered on the theme “Red”, Sakurai wore red boots, white shorts, and a gray parka over another gray parka. This bothered some fans so much that the staff of the show opted to read on-air a letter from the mother of a boy named Koutarou, who had refused to wear parkas since seeing Sakurai’s parka-on-parka combination. To improve his fashion sense, Sakurai eventually went on a fashion lesson around Tokyo with style icon Verbal of M-Flo. [Himitsu no Arashi-chan, 2009.11.19; Himitsu no Arashi-chan, 2011.01.20]

- Sho confessed that he had once borrowed the transparent raincoat costumes they were for their first ever music station appearance - for use in a halloween party. While the rest of the guests were dressed up as witches and superman, he dressed up as Arashi when they just debut. (Kotatsu de Arashi, 2014.01.03)

Aiba Masaki

- Aiba entered the agency because he caught SMAP playing basketball on TV and wanted to be part of that experience. He wasn't into dancing or singing. However, he hasn't played basketball with them to this very day. (H magazine, 2004.04)

- The other members reveal that whenever Aiba receives a call on his phone, he answers it no matter where he is. Whereas during meetings the others apparently only check to see who had called them, Aiba definitely picks up and says, “I’m sorry. I’m in a meeting right now.” Sakurai also adds that 2 out of every 10 calls Aiba receives are from his mother. In defense, Aiba says this is only because his mother worries easily. [Himitsu no Arashi-chan, 2010.08.19]

- He once fell between the tracks of the train and the platform because he was too focused on playing a game on a video game console when he stepped off the train. (Mago Mago Arashi, 2007.06.30)

- Aiba confesses that he kept a at his grandparent's house when he was young. He also kept white peacocks before. (Kotatsu de Arashi, 2014.01.03)

- Aiba incorrectly reads Kuroki Meisa's hobby of 殺陣 (swordfighting) as murder (which is 殺人) (Himitsu no Arashi-chan, 2010.05.27)


Ninomiya Kazunari

- He wet his bed when he was 18. He was dreaming about his childhood experience when he had to water flowers in a garden, and in his dream, when he looked down, he was watering the flowers by peeing. (Arashi ni Shiyagare, 2011.11.19)

- On one particular Valentine's Day long ago, a girl gave him a homemade chocolate. It was heart-shaped, but it had a bunch of white dots on the surface. Since the girl gave it to him in person, he felt obligated to try it. Upon eating it, he spit it out because it was super salty; apparently the girl had mistaken salt for sugar. (Arashi ni Shiyagare, 2013.11.23)

- Ninomiya has a troublesome relationship with the ocean. He claims to hate the sea and getting smeared by sand. He especially hates sandy beaches. For a location shoot of the infamous Odoroki no Arashi Boat Series, Ninomiya had to serve as a crew member of a boat made of paper. Halfway through the adventure, he developed seasickness and was out of commission for a while until the boat started to sink and everyone had to evacuate. During the Mago Mago Boat Club series, however, he was fine with sitting on boats for hours of practice and competition. He was even praised by Arashi’s rowing coach, Nishimura Hikaru, as being a natural rower, eventually earning the position of coxswain in the Arashi rowing team. [Himitsu no Arashi-chan, 2009.07.09, Odoroki no Arashi, 2006.09.26]

- Since entering the entertainment industry, actress Naka Riisa has apparently been told that she looks extremely like Ninomiya. She claims that the parts around the nose and mouth are similar, but the other members of Arashi insist their eyes are alike, too. For this reason, Naka sometimes calls Ninomiya “onii-chan” or older brother. [Himitsu no Arashi-chan, 2009.06.10]

- Instances of Nino magic:

Utaban

2008.06.26

2008.07.03

2009.04.26

Others

Shiyagare: 2013.03.02

Heyx3: 2008.07.07

Hanamaru Cafe - 2008.10.17

Rajikaru!! - 2009.03.24

- Ninomiya did not get any votes in "Who is the coolest ranking" among the yankees in North Tokyo. (Himitsu no Arashi-chan, 2010.05.27)

Matsumoto Jun

- Jun loves high places. and places where he can feel danger. he said it was exciting. When there's a VTR about someone went to the highest point in Tokyo Tower, exactly 260m tall, he said he would like to bungee jump from there (99Plus 2008.05.06)

- Jun said that he used to have a habit to put 2 pillows at the head and another 2 beside himself when sleeping. (2004 Hamamatsu Venue MC)

- One of Jun's favorite manga is Yu Yu Hakusho. (Arashi ni Shiyagare 2013.11.23)

- He often talks to himself like "i'm home" when he gets home and "good night" when he goes to sleep (Himitsu no Arashi 25.10.2012)

Nino-Ai

- These two are Soubusen buddies. They took the same train home together, and occasionally Kamenashi Kazuya would join them as well. Since Aiba-kun lived the farthest away (45 minutes on the train), the three of them would sometimes grab a meal together at a ramen shop, even though it only took Nino and Kazuya-kun about 15 minutes to return home. (VSA, 2013.05.16)

- Nino's first kiss was with Aiba. (Potato 1997.03)

- Aiba lent Nino a brand new belt because Nino's pants were a little lose back in their junior days. Nino never returned the belt till 17 years later, during their '15th anniversary confessions' segment of the Koutatsu de Arashi show. The belt that was once new had become pretty tattered and torn by then. (Kotatsu de Arashi, 2014.01.03)

Juntoshi

- On HEYX3 unaired footage from the 23.04.2007 appearance (watch here), Jun said about Ohno that if they weren't both in Arashi, there's no way they would be friends.Ohno was shocked and said they should start doing things together.I think this was a real turning point for their friendship moving forward. Afterward, they became a lot closer!

Ohmiya

- Ohno got hooked on smartphone gaming because of Nino. (Arashi Discovery, 2013.10.01)

Sakumiya

- Sho once blew his fuse at Nino because Nino's peers didn't pack up their beef bowl containers after eating. (ONE Summer Tour pamphlet)

Sakuraiba

- Sho gave Aiba a bottle of sweet potato shochu for his birthday but Aiba's dad had it all. In return, Sho received a birthday present from Aiba's dad. (Tokyo Friends Park 2007.07.02)

Tennen

- Aiba has become an uncle in 2011 and really adores his nephew (as you would expect). When the boy was already one year old, Ohno asked him whether the child had been born yet or not (Music Station: 2012.12.21)

- For a certain period, Aiba-kun and Ohno-kun shared a lot of the filmings for MMA. Ohno-kun secretly revealed to Aiba-kun his concern about whether he would be okay with filming if he wasn't with Aiba-kun. And in Ohno-kun's schedule, it said he had to film with Jun-kun in an upcoming shoot. (Mago Mago Arashi, 2007.08.11)

Junba

Aiba also lent one of the members a video tape of denkiki network years ago. Jun confessed that the tape was still in his house. (Kotatsu de Arashi, 2014.01.03)

Yama

Ohno and Sakurai accidentally met at a festival in Osaka which was really crowded (around 900.000 people). They hugged each other accompanied with Misia's "Everything" song in the background (HnA 25.10.2012)

OT3/OT4

- There is an infamous DVD of dubious content that Sakurai says he wants to return to Ohno. Sakurai claims to have borrowed it around two years after Arashi’s debut, and he has watched it many times since. After many years of trying to return it, however, Sakurai admits he has lost it. To which Ohno replies that the video probably isn’t his in the first place, and that it, in fact, belongs to Aiba. When Ninomiya’s hypnosis forces Aiba to disclose the contents of the DVD, his answer is bleeped out by the Shukudai-kun staff. [Arashi no Shukudai-kun, 2009.01.12; Arashi no Shukudai-kun, 2010.01.18] Fans in the studio have reported on the nature of the dubious video in this post.

Aiba gave out personalized New Year cards to Arashi and Becky in 2009 (year of the ox). Sho mentioned that he drew different kinds of ox on the new year cards, but Nino said that his card's drawing was only the butt of an ox. (Himitsu no Arashi-chan, 2009.08.07)

OT5

- Check out the cars which the Arashi members drive here.

- Arashi first went on Kouhaku in 2009 [60th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen (第60回NHK紅白歌合戦)]. Sho mentioned that they were really nervous then. In between their songs there was a super fast costume change (6 seconds only!), and not once did all five of them succeed in the rehearsals. Thankfully all of them managed to succeed during the actual show. They kept on practicing the costume change even during the show, till right before their act. [Yume no Kouhaku 2013, 2013.12.28 ; Studio Park kara Konichiwa 2013.12.27]

If Arashi gathers as a group and go out for ramen, Ohno will be paying. Ohno treated the members and their managers to ramen after the Oricon awards presentation on the 15th of December, 2013. They took a photo and showed in during the LOVE concert later that day. (Various news reports of LOVE concert, here and here.) Ohno later complained on his radio show that the bill came up to over 10,000 yen. He was shocked that eating ramen could end up being so expensive, and then he commented on how petty he was. (Arashi discovery 12.28.2013)

- They don't really go to yakiniku because Nino and Ohno don't like it also because Nino doesn't like expensive meat (Picaru no Teiri 10.04.2013)

- When they have hotpot, Jun's the one who serve the members (Picaru no Teiri 10.04.2013)

- Arashi debuted at Hawaii because of their senpai, Noriyuki Higashiyama who wanted to go to there at that time (Arashi ni Shiyagare 09.06.2012)

- Arashi was asked to pick a kanji as the kanji of the year for 2012. While all the members picked a single kanji as was requested, Aiba picked 'issho', which is a phrase made of two kanji, earning laughter from the reporters and a spot in the news headlines.

The following year in 2013, Aiba successfully picked a single kanji as word of the year, but still earn laughter from the reporters. (Source)

Thanks to all the contributors so far! I'm having fun recalling the memories!