On being an Arashian

I really am against all forms of fandom since I thought it'll completely take up most of my free time and in some way, it'll be like a waste of time. Spending most of your time online, chatting with people whom you don't even know and in exchange for what? Nothing…

And everything changed when I became an Arashian.

"Arashian" is a term Arashi fans used to call themselves. ARASHI is a 5-member boy band group from Japan who appears on almost all media available. Truth to be told, I can say they're not only famous in Japan but internationally as well. I've been an Arashian (Arashi fan) for almost 4 years and I'm still an active fan. It's been some time and I last saw this post from Huxley via Vox but since Vox is now placed in a permanent downtime state, let me share this post with you guys.

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The reason why we, mother and daughter, became Arashi fans

Around April of last year, my daughter started to say that Aiba-kun, who appears on a certain animal show, is "cool".

I was anti-Arashi, and so continued to ignore such declarations by my daughter. And since she never asked me, not even once, to buy her this or that magazine or CD, I figured her interest was merely a passing one.

However, when she saw this particular magazine on display at a store at around October, for the first time ever she wanted so badly to own an idol magazine.

Yes.

By that time, she has completely become an Arashi fan. Not only that, her favorite is not Aiba-kun, but Sakurai Sho-kun.

But, as expected of someone who was anti-Arashi, I didn't take too kindly to this development. Still, I did rent their CDs from the rental shop, but only their albums.

So, the reason why even I myself became an Arashi fan... At that time, my daughter did not have many friends at school, and it seems that she suffered from some light bullying. It might also be because of her condition, but when the two of us had a huge argument once, My daughter appealed to me in tears:

"I've tried killing myself. But, I've stopped after becoming an Arashi fan."

She said something like that to me. To be quite honest, I was surprised. Outwardly she showed no such signs, and was very bright and cheerful. Certainly she didn't hang out with friends after school and such, but since I thought our relationship as mother and daughter was going well, I was honestly shocked by her teary-eyed appeal:

"Mama, you don't try to understand me."

It was from then on that I seriously began to consider just what kind of group this Arashi is, that my daughter loves so much.

I carefully read the Arashi books I bought her. I read their articles in magazines. And so "anti" changed to "understanding", and further transformed to "fan".

In a sense, this was quite a stunning turn of events for me. I mean, to be "anti" is to find everything about something wrong and disagreeable. But when one tries to "understand" it and becomes a "fan", everything turns to happiness, and one can only look upon it in a positive way. I think the biggest surprise was my own personal change.

And now we, mother and daughter, are fans of Sakurai Sho-kun, and we've been able to collect all of their albums and several of their singles. We constantly listen to Arashi songs, whether in the house or in the car. Not only that, we've also bought several of their concert DVDs, and watch them while going "kya~ kya~" together. We also went for the first time to their concert the other day, and have come to spend such a lovely and wonderful time together. ♥♥
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Well, I'm mainly sharing this because of the fact that Arashi does hold a powerful impact on their fans' life but side from that, I want to point out that gaps between parent and children can be minimized and shorten by trying to understand what your child's hobbies are. It doesn't have to be about Arashi or some music group. This refers to anything that parent and child can share their thoughts on. Games, books, movies, travel, blog, food, etc.

Children nowadays tend to keep everything to themselves since they think grown ups (parents included) won’t be able to understand them. Worse, there are times when the grown ups are the ones who actually ridicule and make fun of them. Personally, I think there’s nothing wrong with at least “learning” something about your child’s hobby? Who knows? Maybe that hobby will be the answer that will eliminate the gap between children and parents.

Try understand what your kids are into. You don’t have to like it but at least try to understand and get a feel of it.