Report of Naohito Fujiki Live Tour ver 11.1Asia Tour in Hong Kong

Going to watch Naohito’s concert in HongKong is always the dream of me and many HK fans. Although I write a letter tohim every year, and ask him to have a concert here, I think it is difficult andmay not be possible. However, as he said, overcome all the difficulties, he finallyhas the first Asia concert tour. I saw the HK concert only. I think he is onlyfamous as an actor in here, and quite worry about if there are only a fewpeople come to the concert. But we and Nao himself should have more confidencein his music. The seats are 90% full and the atmosphere is lively and hot, no diffidencewith the Japan concerts.

“Welcome to kkwd show!” the concert startedwith Nao shouted this, and band members started to play the song <Exclusive>.I must say that his English sounds sexy. We greeted them with loud cheers. Mostof the audiences sat in the front and middle include me, stood up immediatelywhen the music started. My seat was in the middle of the third roll, I havenever sat so close to the stage. This year’s concert tour is quite differentwith the past, only Nao and the 4 basic band members would be on stage, noother instruments and dancers. The stage setting was also simple, only a largewhite cloth with Nao writing “Go back to the starting point” (in Japanese kanji)on it. But that is enough. This simple band even made the songs sounded morerock style. Another special thing is that, not only Nao has short haircut and highlightdye, but all the band members have short haircut. Maybe it was because Nao andthe band started their first tour with short hair, although this time, only thebass player, Keisuke, was from the original band “Nothing.” <Exclusive>was a new song in this year’s single, gorgeous, lively and sexy; it is verysuitable for the opening. I like it a lot.

The second song was <Little wing>, wehad some simple cheerleading motions. I must say the condition of his voice wasgreat. The third one was <Eぜ>. This song is areally new style, sounded wired when you first listened to it, but you wouldlike it a lot if continue to listen it more times. After this, Nao said” Helloeveryone in Hong Kong! I am Naohito Fujiki!” each words clearly and slowly, inCantonese. His pronunciation was quite good. And throughout the show, he saidThank you! in Cantonese many time, it sounds cute. I really appreciated hiseffort in learning our local language; especially when he was busy with jobsother than the concert.

After the greetings, he said he would talkin Japanese on the stage, and asked if we understand it. Many audiencesanswered yes, and raised their hands. I don’t expect there would be atranslator, but they had her on stage. It was good for those who don’t knowJapanese, but I think include the translation part would make Nao had less timeto talk. Anyway, he said this was the third time he went to HK. The first timewas a private travel in the beginning of 1997; the second was shooting the <Boysover flowers F> movie with other famous actors in 2007.It was like he wentto HK every 10 years, and the next time would be 2027. Disappointed sounds camefrom us; he smiled and said it was a joke, a joke. He asked people who had cometo see his concert in Japan, or saw his concert DVDs before, to raise theirhand. Surprisingly, there were quite a lot of audiences answered with cheers. Thenhe asked if anyone had never seen him singing, didn’t afraid, just raised yourhands in confidence. There were a few audiences answered. He always carries outthis kind of marketing research in his concerts.

After<アイネ・クライネ・ナハト・ミュージック> (Serenade of alone), he asked if the audience know the band L⇔R, most of us seems don’t know them. He said it is a great band andrecommended us to listen to their songs. <Serenade of alone> is a song ofL⇔R, wrote by Kurosawa Kenichi. Naoliked this song a lot, asked Kurosawa if he can cover it, and got his approval.Kurosawa was passed away at 48 years old in 2016, only 3 years older than Nao.That is why Nao was so shocked and regretful, and he will continue to sing thissong, continue the spirit of Kurosawa’s music. Then he said, if you don’t familiarwith the songs he sang in this concert until now, you must never know the nextsongs. I really want to tell him that I know every songs of him. Then hestarted to sing the medley, which was the only part all of us sat down.

After the medley, he talked about the stagedrama<魔都夜曲>. It is based at Shanghai in 1939,but his role was Japanese, so he didn’t need to learn any Chinese language. Theaudience pointed out that, at least he called her girlfriend (in drama), <紅花> (red flower)in Chinese. He questioned if it is a Chinese wordor a name only. The translator did not understand this conversation, and translatedit wrongly as his role is named<紅花> in the drama. Theaudience tried to correct her, but she did not understand. It was a bit chaos.Anyway, Nao said he just prepared a song in Beijing language (Putonghua),please don’t mind. Then he sang an old Chinese folk song, <茉莉花> (Jasmine). The song was rearranged with acoustic guitar anddrums. He may not pounce every word correctly, but his voice was so clear andbeautiful, sounded like the singing of an angel. The next song was <シュクメイ>, the lighting was really amazing.

He knows that some of his drama was broadcastedon TV channels of HK, and asked us which drama? Some audience answered all. Hesaid it must be a lie. (But we watched all from the internet). Then he talkedabout <Hotaru no Hikari>. He was 35 only when season 1 was filmed. InJapan, you really got very fast promotion to be the manager at 35. So, hethought he was too young for that role. For season 2, he was 37, and it wasstill quite young to be a manager in Japan. If there will be a season 3, he isin the right age for the manager role. The audience burst into cheers as we alllove this drama. (But he actually had some CEO/Owner role in recent years,really fast promotion). Then he sang the theme song of< Hotaru no Hikari>season 2, <キミがいる> (Have you by my side).

In the middle part of <Go for it! >,Nao and the bass, Keisuke, stood in the front and sang together. Nao put hisright hand around Keisuke’s shoulder, and sang” Go for it—“, then Keisuke and the audience sang ”Go for it—“,for a few rounds. Not only the band performed on the stage, but all of usjoined the show. I love this lively atmosphere. For <サンクフル★エブリナイ> (Thankful Every night), I took out the little kettle bottle(11.0 goods) in hurry, and tried my best to dance. There were no dancers on thestage for us to follow, so it was all by my own. I practiced the dance of thissong and <Oh! Brother! >for many times, but he did not sang <Oh!Brother! > in Asia tour. I think I danced quite good for the whole song, justtoo concentrate on watch him singing, and my gesture was a bit wrong for a moment.When he was singing<パーフェクトワールド>(Prefect world), he walked around on the stage and pointed the mic to us in thechorus part, and we sang. Then he walked back to the center and continued tosing. I saw him smiling sweetly. As I sat in the middle of the third roll, itseems like he was smiling at me. It was super cute.

Before< Hey！Friends>, Nao said let’s not rely on the translator full concert;he wanted to speak some Cantonese by himself. Then he took out a letter, andread it loudly in Cantonese, words by words. The content was, he enjoyedtonight’s show a lot, did all of you had a great time? Hope that it will notneed to wait 10 more years to come to HK again. He know that the drama <ギャルサー > (GAL CIRCLE) was broadcasted in HK before. He acted as acowboy from Arizona, and went to Shibuya, Japan. He would sing the theme song <Hey！Friends>. He will continue to work hard on dramas, hope all ofhis dramas will be broadcasted in HK. He may not speak our language very welland clearly, but the effort wins our heart. Cantonese is a difficult language;I am surprised that he prepared such a long paragraph. At lease, I understandmost of the content. It must take him a lot of practice.

After < Hey！Friends> is the encore part, we shouted “直人”, than clapped three times, then shouted “Naohito”, clapped threetimes, followed this round again and again, until Nao and band members cameback to stage. The translator also came back. Nao asked us, how many colors arein the rainbow of HK? We answered 7 colors. He said he searched on the internet;the rainbow in different cities of the world has different numbers of colors.For examples, there are 5 colors only in the rainbow of HK. The audience didnot believe that and questioned him. “But I read that on the net~ ” he saidthat in a really cute voice. Then he said there are 6 colors in the rainbow ofsome places in U.S.A., and 2 colors only in some places of Okinawa, Japan. Theaudience still did not believe him, and he repeated that sentence in a cutevoice for a few times. For me, I am such an indoor person that doesn’t have manychances to see the rainbow. I am not sure how many colors here? So I did notquestion this, just listened to him. After reading this from the net, he is surprisedand thinks that, although all of us see the same rainbow from the sky, peoplefrom different places see different colors. Different people have difference inculture, if we can respect and embrace each other, the world will become morepeace and wonderful. (I didn’t think it would be such a meaningful conclusionwhen he started.) Then, all of them stood in the front of stage, sang<七色> (7 colors) with acoustic guitars and simple instruments. In thechorus parts, we sang together. Different from the hot atmosphere throughoutthe concert, this part was quiet and warm, so warm that could make you fall intears. (I felt like that, but managed not to cry, wanted to watch him clearly).

The last song was <陽のあたる場所> (A sun shining place), it is a traditional ending song of hisconcert. Before singing, he told us that, as it was the first time he organizedthe Asia tour; he needed to manage and take account of many things, and limitation,so he had an upset stomach. But it was great that the tour was organized successfully.Then, he sang <陽のあたる場所>.When the song finished, he wantedto introduce band members one by one. Before he talked, some of fans who sat inthe front rows, started to sing the chorus part of <Years>. I followedthem. We sang a few sentences, and he smiled happily. (So cute) Nao introducedthe name of band members, and they answered “Thank you!“in Cantonese. Theaudience reacted with cheers and claps. The bass, Keisuke, said “Good night!” inCantonese after “Thank you!“. Nao asked us the meaning of that word, and staredat him. The last member was the guitarist and music arranger, Maruyama Tenshi.He said “ See you again!” in Cantonese. “I am Fujiki Naohito! Have a reallygreat time tonight!” ”Thank you! See you again!” He threw some guitar picks tothe audience. We were so eager to catch them, and all raised our hands. I waslucky to get one. Nao and band members went to back stage. The concerts ended. Itmust be a special night for everyone.