w-inds. worldwide Letter Writing Campaign 2011

Last year, we collected letters from international w-inds. fans to put in w-inds.'s present box at their concert. This year we would like to do the same! 

RULES

1. We would like you to send your letter so that w-inds. will easily be able to see the stamp or postmark from your country on the envelope. We will not be opening the letters for any reason, so if you would like to use a special envelop or decoration, please send it as if you were giving it directly to w-inds. 
2. ---NO PRESENTS--- We will not accept anything other than letters. While it is a very nice gesture, keeping people's precious presents in our tiny apartment and transporting them to the concert venue is too much of a responsibility. w-inds. will be more than happy enough with your letter. If we get any packages, we will give them away to other people. PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT SEND PRESENTS. 
3. We are not responsible for lost mail.
4. We cannot guarantee w-inds. will read your letter, and if they do, please be aware that they probably will never mention it. 

If you can follow those rules, please send us your letters by JULY 25TH! Please e-mail futarigafutaride@gmail.com for the address.


Thanks,
-Ash

How to Apply for the Backstage Campaign

A few fans have already asked us how to apply for the chance to go backstage at one of the w-inds. concerts this year. Let us explain!

In each of the new Best Of CDs, you'll find a piece of paper like this:

This is your entry form! Now, to use it, there are two very important things you must know:

1) You must have a Japanese cell phone or a Japanese iPhone. This cannot be worked around. You cannot use any other smartphones, nor can you use your phone from your country. You must be on a Japanese network and able to access the Japanese mobile web.

2) You must be able to bring said phone TO THE CONCERT with you. So, if you use your friends' phone, you should ask them if you can bring it with you in the case that you hit. I've heard of people being turned away for forwarding or copying the mail between devices, so be careful!

Also be warned that you must have a ticket for the concert that you'd like to go backstage after. You cannot show up just for the backstage.

If this is all clear, point your phone to the following URL, or scan the code on the ticket with your phone's code reader:

http://p4you.net/best10th

Once there, click the TOPページ(SSL) link.

This will bring you to a grey page with lots of text. The first link is just to get more information on the backstage prize. The ticket is a PAIR TICKET, meaning that you can bring a friend if you win. There are two deadlines:

1) July 11th is the first deadline. You can apply for any show in the tour by this date.

2) August 29th is the second deadline. You can apply for the shows on and after 9/19 then.

On the main page, if you scroll down you will eventually see a link that says ユーザー登録. Click this.

Where it says メールアドレス, write your keitai e-mail address. There are two blanks for this; the second one is to confirm.

Then in the next blank, パスワード, make up an easy password you'll remember. It can be 4 to 16 English characters long.

Then click 次へ進む. You will then be prompted for your Japanese zip code. Enter it, without any hyphens, and click 次へ進む again.

Now you have to fill out a profile. This is the order of the blanks:

1. Surname
2. First name
3. Zip code (should already be filled in)
4. City and town. This also should already be filled in.
5. Remaining address. You must write this in Japanese. Write the numbers using the full width option.

Click 次へ進む.

The next screen is more profile:

1. Birth year
2. Birth month
3. Birth date
4. Phone number
5. Gender. Left is girl, right is boy.
6. Do you wish to receive mails from Pony Canyon? Feel free to move this to the second option if you don't.

When you finish, click 確認する.

A screen will come up with all of the information you inputted. If there are no mistakes, click 登録する.

Next will come up a survey. You have to fill this out for every code you want to input, so be warned!

The first question is:
Where do you get information about w-inds.?
- w-inds.tv
- TV
- Radio
- Magazines
- Internet
- Fan club
- Other people
- Not listed

Click an answer and go to the next screen.

The question is:
Where did you purchase this CD?
- Tsutaya
- Shinseido
- TOWER RECORDS
- HMV
- Electronics store
- Another CD shop
- Amazon
- Another online shop

Click next and you finally get to the important page. The 応募ＩＤ登録 page!

Now, on your paper ticket, you have two codes. The first one (応募) goes in the first blank that says 上６ケタ. The second one (ID) goes in the bottom blank that says 下６ケタ. It doesn't matter if you write them in CAPS LOCK or not.

Then underneath that, you must pick the date you want to apply for. When you make your decision, click 次へ進む. It will come up with a confirmation page; if everything is right, click the button to finish your application!

Now, if you have many applications, the next time, from the main page, just click ログインする. You will be prompted for your mail address and your password, and then you will be brought straight to the survey again!

Also note two more things:

1. Please use the 前へ link on most of the pages rather than the back button on your phone if you need to go back.

2. Only five people will win per date, so don't get too discouraged! Mails will be sent ONLY TO THE WINNERS on 7/21 for the first drawing and 9/6 for the second. They usually send them around 2:00-4:00 PM.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask! Thank you!

MTV LIVE DAM VMAJ in OSAKA Sing For Smile Tour REPORT

MTV LIVE DAM VMAJ in OSAKA Sing For Smile Tour

Aoyama Thelma 

While we were quite unfamiliar with this artist before the show, we must say her performance was very impressive. Although she joked about people not really being able to know the words of  her songs, she had fantastic crowd control and took the time to prep the crowd so everyone could join along. She did a good job of both making the crowd energetic with her upbeat numbers as well as showing off her singing skills in her ballads. That along with her very sweet personality completely won the audience over. She did a great job.

SHINee

Well, honestly we didn't and don't know too much about SHINee, but what we did learn was that SHINee fans are very, very, very, very, very, VERY passionate about SHINee. They received an incredibly warm welcome from their fans and their performance was perfect. They also spoke Japanese quite well. We'd love to give a more detailed report, but we don't know the members names, and only recognized Ring Ding Dong and Lucifer.

w-inds. 

After SHINee went off stage, the SHINee fans nicely let w-inds. fans go further up so they could see better. We got a very nice view from second or third row center. Here was the setlist:

• New World
• Some More
• Let's Get it On
• MC
• Kirei Da
• Can't Get Back
• Rain is Fallin' 

Almost everything w-inds. was saying to the crowd during their songs was in English. Ryuichi came out with an energetic "What's up Party People?!" which made us nostalgic for the 1990s, but they got people to clap their hands and make noise which was great in a mixed crowd of fans.

Ryohei was wearing a Yankees cap with a red and blue patterned hoodie and jeans, Keita was wearing a wearing a yellowish plaid jacket with a studded  T-shirt and jeans (and muscles), and Ryuichi was wearing a denim outfit with his new hair. Sorry, we aren't fashion experts.

New World - What can be said? New World is flawless and perfect and the only way they could make it better is if they wore the blue jackets every time.

Some More - We're so glad that they're making some more one of their staple live songs. We love that Ryuichi and Ryohei get to have their singing parts, and also this song just makes you want to dance along. All three of them were really getting into making the "gimme gimme" motion at the fans which wa sfun.

Let's Get it On - Who ever came up with the handle dance is a genius. It's simple and everyone can follow along. The dance break in this song looks really, really impressive, too. People get really fired up about the raps, too.

MC

In this MC they talked a little bit about Keita's muscles which he decided not to show despite for many pleas from the audience and they did promotion for their BEST albums to be released on 6/22. When they noticed the energy dropping in the crowd while they were talking, they jumped right into another song which was a good strategy.

Kirei Da - We were so happy to see this song with them doing actual choreography! Of course Keita sounds great live, but the backing vocals by Ryuichi and Ryohei were also really, really nice today.

Can't Get Back - Only thing we can remember, but a funny thing: Keita did not drop to the floor today during the "aitai" part, but fans still screamed like he did.

Rain is fallin' - one of the coolest things about this performance was that when Can't Get Back ends, they bring their hands in front of their chest, and today they used this as a flawless transition into Rain is Fallin'.  The English in Ryohei and Ryuichi's raps have gotten so amazingly good, they must have been working on their pronunciation. Also noted the change from "GD and you" to "w-inds. and you". Sounds much better!

They were filming the show so they were showing off to the cameras a lot. There's going to be some pretty cool shots of them. Look forward to it!

After the show we very quickly were able to say thank you to the artists as we left. One of the foreign fans we brought with us was so happy to have the chance to meet w-inds. face to face that she started crying when she got outside.

We say this every time, but we mean it; w-inds. gets better and better with each performance. While SHINee may have a ton of fans, w-inds. looked like superstars up there. Keep up the good work, guys!

Thanks to all the artists for a great show!

-Ash