Swept up in Arashi's viral wave at a Hawaii Whole Foods Market
I’ve had Arashi on my mind for more than a month, and somehow I ended up crossing paths with members of the Japan supergroup at a Whole Foods Market in Honolulu.
Since early August, PBN has covered the plans for Japanese supergroup’s anniversary concerts at Ko Olina Resort. Reporter Duane Shimogawa first broke the story after receiving a tip from an area Realtor.
After the first story ran, our website traffic spiked so we pursued it. We found that tickets previously were only available as part of a Japanese tour package, that concert-goers would receive special seats for the shows and Shirokiya at Ala Moana became Arashi merchandise central.
We also reported that Hawaii Tourism Japan had worked on the plans for two years and the concerts were expected to bring in more than $18 million in direct spending. Even then, promoter Tom Moffatt surprised us when he said the Arashi project was the biggest thing he’s ever worked on as he gave a tour of the stage setup to our photographer, Tina Yuen, who returned to Ko Olina on Saturday and took photos of the band and their first song on stage for a slideshow.
I didn’t attend the shows over the weekend, but I needed to buy groceries on Sunday. My significant other and I entered the Whole Foods in Kahala Mall sometime around 2 p.m. and noticed a huge crowd of Japanese tourists, as well as a film crew.
I knew it was Arashi.
I walked around the aisles to see if I could get a glimpse of the boys, and I was surprised I could stand right next to them in the aisle. Honolulu Police Department officers dressed in logoed polo shirts stood at each end of the aisle, but for the most part the band acted like they were on a quick trip to grocery store. While there were gawkers, the band members shopped undisturbed.
The atmosphere at Whole Foods echoed the experience I’ve had all month when I told people about the concerts. People looked completely starstruck or wondered aloud, “A Japanese boy band?”
I snapped a photo before a video producer told me to put my phone down.
What were they filming? In a previous interview, Eric Takahata of HTJ said the group would be filming additional trip scenes for a DVD of the concert.
By chance, we checked out at the same register as Arashi. With what now sounds like a really fangirl question to ask, I said, “What did they buy?” The clerk said they bought “a huge fish and lots of tomatoes.”
I posted my photo to social media, and as of Monday afternoon, a tweet with the photo had 395 retweets and was favorited 630 times. On Instagram, it reached 484 likes and comments saying, “omg ur like the luckiest person ever!!”
In comparison, I have never had a tweet hit double-digit retweets.
I’ve never listened to Arashi's music. I can’t tell you the names of the band members. But I do know that Arashi is a big deal, and seeing them in person was memorable.