SHINee's Tokyo Dome

I started writing this post weeks ago and honestly I've been really frustrated with it. I'm just kind of posting, even though there's more I'd like to say, but at this point I think it's just mad ramblings. A lot happened in the space of two days and it was an amazing amazing experience, so I think I'm struggling to put it into words well. Please forgive me for not writing something more interesting or eloquent~



Tokyo Dome~!

I'm really excited to write about this and it's taken me ages because I wasn't even really sure what to write. The whole weekend was a jumble of mixed emotions, both good and bad. The good emotions all being for SHINee and the lovely people who kept me company over the weekend, and the bad feelings being for some of the upsets relating to ticketing and various technical difficulties regarding our trip to Japan. For anyone who's even slightly invested in SHINee, Tokyo Dome has been on the brain since it was announced and I'm still not entirely sure I believe it was real.

This is ridiculously long, so huge apologies for that~! So in my case, I live in Korea. My job and home is in Korea which means that in a little under 2 hours I can take myself over to Japan via plane. When Tokyo Dome was first announced I just kind of heard that SHINee would have a concert in Japan and I was like: meh another concert in Japan business as usual, until I looked into it properly and realized it was Tokyo Dome. The big one. For any artist to perform at the dome they need to actually receive an invitation from the venue. The way I hear it SHINee's people can't just ask for a booking. Furthermore SHINee's been mentioning in interviews for years that their long term goal is to perform at Tokyo Dome so this concert was a pretty big deal.

That said 55,000 people is no small amount and I'm completely blown away and ecstatic at the amount of people who flew in from all over the world for this event. I flew from Korea which cost a decent amount of money and time, but I know people flew from much further including as far away as America and Australia. It gives you an idea for the depth of the community you're apart of. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life being one of those 55,000 specks of light in The Dome this weekend. I'll never forget those two days.

In my case attending a concert in Japan was a really interesting and educational experience on top of being mindblowingly awesome. I'd never been to Japan and it's one of the first times I've been to a country where I don't speak and read at least a little of the language since I majored in Korean and Chinese (my Chinese is almost entirely gone though OTL). I spent all weekend speaking Korean to people accidentally and feeling like an idiot.

We arrived in Japan at around mid-day on Saturday and immediately dropped my bags at our hotel, shoveled down some donkatsu for a late lunch and high-tailed it over to the dome. Coming out of the train station at the Dome all my worry and stress and panic just melted away and I felt really excited and peaceful to be apart of this sea of girls carrying SHINee bags, dressed in SHINee colors. Japanese concert culture is so different and fascinating compared to Korean concert culture. I've been to a lot of Korean concerts now and even at the venue in Korea fans don't tend to wear their fandom pride outwardly. I guess the general public's disdain for fangirls in Korea means that fans are more subtle about hiding their fangirl habit ^.^;;; In Japan this definitely wasn't the case. On the second night of the concert nearly every person in my seating area had a towel draped over their shoulders for their bias. The concert goods being sold had individual member towels; Green for Onew, Red for Jonghyun, Pink for Key, Blue for Minho and Yellow for Taemin. There were cosplayers everywhere of nearly all of SHINee's various music videos and cd jacket looks and people had temporary tattoos on their face with SHINee's name as well as hand made signs with their bias' names. It was really crazy and surreal.

I spent the few hours running up to the concert rushing around and meeting friends from all over the world, shopping for merchandise and handing out SHINee albums ^.^;;; A friend of mine actually brought a bunch of Korean albums to Japan in her suitcase and so we were handing Jonghyun's Base albums and Everybody albums out to all the high school girls we could see that obviously couldn't afford too much merch or anything. The whole situation was made extra hilarious because I can't say much in Japanese other than; hello, goodbye, thank you, sorry, where is the toilet? So I was just kind of thrusting the albums into random stranger's hands and running away. Also a friend brought me a SHINee strap which is what I really wanted so a super big thank you to that lovely angel who knows who she is ^.^

For day 1 of the concert my seat wasn't that great honestly. When I initially got my seating I was a little upset by how far the seat was even though I knew it was likely my seat wouldn't be that great given the size of the stadium. When we got inside it turned out I was in the second last row on the top floor. Amazingly the seat wasn't as bad as I had dreaded it would be and we had a beautiful birds eye view of the stadium. I couldn't see SHINee's faces at all, but I was a part of the magic and that's all that mattered.

It's really hard to describe how it felt when the lights started to go down in the dome. I had no idea that our lightsticks were going to be remotely controlled. The watch like light came with the cost of the ticket and was taped to your seat along with a few promotional brochures and the piece of paper we would later use in the special encore event. We were all completely shocked when everyone's lightsticks simultaneously died out and then after a moment lit up together. I remember looking at my friend and shrieking a little I was so excited.

I feel like I spent half the first night of the concert in tears. I didn't know I was such a crybaby until SHINee. Honestly I always fancied myself pretty tough but turns out so much as a whisper of moisture in SHINee's eyes reduces me to tears. I was hardly the only person whose eyes welled up when that opening sequence started, the infamous voice over calling SHINee's names ringing in our ears. Replay was performed with clips of SHINee performing the song over the years at various concerts which I'm sure made everyone super emotional. I know I was clutching my face and sobbing a little. I have to admit among all the crazy emotions though feeling a little disappointed they weren't performing the Korean version of Replay. Given that this was Tokyo Dome in Japan they probably couldn't, but it would have been really nice to hear their original debut track 7 years later in the Dome. SHINee are nothing if not professional though so of course they need to perform the Japanese versions when possible seeing as we were in Japan.

I spent the first quarter of the concert really disoriented and reeling from all the emotions and sensations. I was squinting at the stage trying to watch SHINee from my extremely limited vision and nothing felt real at all.

In the case of the ments throughout the concert, I was face palming a little and feeling a touch nostalgic and weird because I remember all those years ago listening to SHINee speak Korean was one of the reasons I ever thought to learn Korean in the first place; being able to understand them with my own ears was always something I desperately wanted and it didn't really occur to me that of course SHINee are amazing and can speak Japanese really well and I have a long way to go before I can catch up with them in Korean let alone Japanese. So I had to listen out for the English and Korean loan words and keep my ears peeled for the phrases I picked up all those years ago when I was an anime/manga fan ^.^ I spent this concert back at square one and completely unable to understand them, which I'm sure a lot of people can relate to me on. It's bittersweet and frustrating in a way; you can fight your way into the stadium, book the hotels and the flights and the tickets but there's no easy way to understand what they're saying.

Like I mentioned earlier SHINee performed Replay and I think a good chunk of people started sobbing like babies. It was a really proud, sincere moment and I think it marked the point in time the mood in the concert began to settle into something more profound.

And then they threw this at us:

So I remember actually sitting in my seat during this VCR and thinking: and so it begins. I was a DBSK fan a million years ago and I also dabbled briefly in Super Junior so I know SMs strategy with their boy groups. They tend to introduce skinship with girls in vcrs/with female backup dancers as time goes by and this is the first time I've seen substantial skinship with our boys. I....didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would ^.^;;;; I mean don't get me wrong, SHINee are beautiful and the scenes were super sexy but unexpectedly I found myself in the camp where I was like......don't touch them please......you don't deserve them. kekekeke. Interestingly I was talking about it with a friend afterwards and speculating that it feels weird to see an actress be all sexy with SHINee because they're being paid to do it; it's just their job. Like... honestly I'd pay to be in these scenes. Why does this girl look so dead in the eyes?!

So Onew was the King, Minho was the Knight, Jonghyun was the Bishop, Key was the Rook/Castle and Taemin was the Pawn in the SHINee chess match~ Honestly I think I, along with every other girl, melted into a puddle of hormones when Jinki appeared sitting in that damn thrown. Nevermind Minho looking like a freaking Prince Charming straight out of a fairy tale on that horse ㅠ.ㅠ I wonder if Jonghyun has a no girls clause in his contract though because it seems pretty rare that he ever does anything sexy with a girl. I think he's just too awkward with them so they don't make him try  ^.^;;; In this VCR he's just running away holding her hand and in the 'Your Number' video he's just in the library staring at the girl awkwardly~ Ugh though I was shrieking like a banshee when Key ran his hands all over the girls legs and it was hysterical in hindsight because most everyone in the stadium went from excited screaming to demonic, possessed screaming. I can just imagine SHINee getting changed backstage and laughing at us OTL

They performed Bounce and there was a little touchy touchy choreo with the backup dancers, which is part of the choreo and whatever but I was feeling tender after the VCR and I was....descending into madness at this point and feeling a little like: NO OPPA DON'T TOUCH HEEEEEEEEEEER SHE HAS COOTIES!!! I quickly slapped myself in the face for being an insane person, but it was my instinctual reaction I think OTL. Also I despise using the word Oppa so the fact I was shrieking it inwardly is a sign of great inner distress.

The dance break for Bounce was Onew performing the sexiest piece of tap dancing I have ever seen in my life. Onew trained in tap dancing because of Singing in the Rain; the musical Onew never got to appear in because of his vocal surgery, so it was a really triumphant, special moment. I really liked that he chose to share that with us in concert and make it something really memorable and beautiful, instead of leaving it as the painful memory it could have been. After all, it's just another pretty amazing talent that Onew's got in his arsenal now.

I was especially happy in the part where the other members were kind of jamming out to Onew's sick tap beats at the front of the stage. Felt like they were throwing him kudos and supporting his stage~ It really was a phenomenal addition to the choreography and I felt so happy to be able to witness it.

In any case Hitchhiking was next and is one of my favorite songs and it was also in Korean so I could happily sing along~ I would also like to point out that Taemin was shirtless under his jacket for Bounce, Hitchhiking, Evil and Picasso which is just cruel really. SHINee also wore black blindfolds in Evil and Taemin's slipped down over his mouth on night one and honestly it looked like someone had gagged him OTL. What's with all the bondage imagery in SHINee though seriously?? Jonghyun's scrapped Internet War collar and harness, the handcuffs, Key's riding crop and leather harness and Taemin's lace gag o.O SHINee really are very contemporary kekeke In any case I think I've seen Evil a few times now and the only time Taemin hasn't lost his blindfold in some way was at the first night of SHINee World Concert 3 and the second night of the dome.

See! It looks like....a lace....gag OTL ㅠ.ㅠ ㅠ.ㅠ ㅠ.ㅠ

So it was at this point they began to reveal the full capabilities of our lightsticks~! Everyone got the wristwatch style light squares and the default color is, of course, SHINee pearl aqua green. But turns out it could change color depending on the song. If you looked at the packaging of your wristband it actually had a number on it and your lights would change color according to the number. So when Minho sang the light turned a deep blue, Green for Jinki, Pink for Key, Red for Jonghyun and Yellow for Taemin (which actually looked really gold). It could also go a pale yellow-green color, white and a blueish white color depending. There were times where everyone's lights would turn a different color and I think this is where the numbering came in. My night 1 lightstick/watch thing was an 8 and my night 2 one was a 9. My friend next to me had a number 8 and so on the second night when the lights would all start flashing different colors my number 8 and her number 8 would be the same color ^.^ So I think that's how they worked it. Which means the staff had to work extra hard and assign a different numbered lighstick to all 55,000 seats. Can we get a round of applause for those poor brave souls!

So this was filmed during the light show VCR and you can kind of see on the screen that SHINee are passing and kicking balls of light around and it's effecting the colors of everyone's light. It was, frankly, the coolest thing ever. It was so impressive and well done. And you can hear people very frankly losing their shit over how cool it was. I think it was also really amazing because you became a part of the performance in a more meaningful way and it was just stunning to look at.

Here's another good video to show the light changing VCR~

After the light show VCR the ballad section started and SHINee came out in this ensemble:

SHINee sung 1000 Years With You and Moon River Waltz, two of their phenomenally pretty Japanese ballad tracks. There was a short VCR in Japanese which were SHINee's messages to SHINee World (I'm searching for these but can't find them dammit) Once again I felt the language barrier between us and very selfishly wished they were speaking Korean ^.^;;; I'm a pretty selfish creature and I desperately wanted to be able to understand what they were saying even if it was easy to make a guess at the Japanese.

And it was in Colors of the Season that Kibum started tearing up a little on the first night of the concert. I guess all the fans singing along and the colors changing all over the stadium together, as well as the pretty lyrics for Colors of the Season really got to him because he started choking up way earlier than anyone expected, himself including apparently ^.^;;;;

This is a fancam from day 2 so no tears from Kibum but where I was sitting on day 1 it was really hard to see the black pedestal contraptions they were standing on so it just looked like they were floating in a sea of lights. It was really beautiful. Hats off to the lighting and props and stage hands on this concert, because it was flawless and phenomenal.

So one thing that always amazes me about SHINee is that they're able to flawlessly handle mood changes. They went from this beautiful, emotional serene ballad segment to one of the most emotionally traumatizing things that has ever happened to us SHAWols. There was a brief band break where the SHINee band played some awesome instrumental tunes and then IT began.

So first of all I was completely bewildered as to what was happening because even though Onew had mentioned earlier that there would be some kind of fashion event, we didn't really know what to expect. DJ Key rocking it on stage wasn't it. Initially I had a crazy moment where I thought this was his solo stage, but then there were models strutting everywhere and Jonghyun appeared and I was thinking: Oh they're doing another JongKey collaboration. Instead they started performing the truly phenomenal Amigo remixed with Dynamite while models strutted down the run way wearing Philipp Plein. You can check out Philip Plein's stuff here: http://www.plein.com/shop It's pretty stylish-edgy-chic, I approve greatly of this collaboration. I would also like to take this opportunity to comment and say there were absolutely no questionable outfits at this concert; everything looked pretty stunning. In the past SHINee's stylists have once or twice put them out in some kind of strange stuff in Japanese concerts especially so I was ecstatic that SHINee's outfits were completely beautiful at every stage in this concert (I don't care what anyone says about the massive hats, I think they're precious)

So it was firstly really appropriate that DJ Key be in charge of music at a fashion show and secondly really awesome to see Key at the DJ helm seeing as we've seen Jonghyun remixing a lot in both his solos and in SHINee appearances back in the Dream Girl days. I don't know how remixing or DJing works, so I don't know whether it was all pre-mixed or if Key was working hard on stage twiddling with the sounds but I'll leave that to an expert on the subject keke ^.^ I think my favorite part might have been Minho standing around in this massive furry jacket, high fiving the models as they left the stage. It was hysterical and he looked like some beautiful princely pimp man greeting his girls.

SOLOS

Jonghyun started off with a slower tempo version of Deja-boo. I mean...it sounded slower tempo to me anyway? Maybe everything was suddenly happening in slow motion ehe. I really liked that Jonghyun was getting everyone in the audience involved in his performance by getting everyone to sing the 'Lalala' bit at the beginning. It would have been nicer if more people caught on and participated though seeing as it was pretty quiet singing given there were 55,000 people in the stadium. Jonghyun performing in the SHINee colored suit was just perfect, even though the SHINee suit is usually reserved for Crazy. I'm glad he went with Deja-boo over Crazy, because based on Jjong's solo promotions I think he has a greater attachment to Deja-boo. I don't remember much from Jjong's performance past fanchanting like a maniac though it seemed most people around me didn't know the fanchants. Jeeze guys, get yo shit together.

Fortunately you can hear the fanchants pretty decently in this fancam ~~ ^.^ Jonghyun's really giving it in the choreography here though. He was super pumped and into Deja-boo at the Dome.

Taemin playing the piano with Onew for his solo was really perfect. Onew sang Rainy Blue, which is a super famous song, and sung it to absolute perfection. I was completely awed and blown away for the whole performance and the most touching part was how emotional Onew was at the end of the song. Whether it was the overwhelming emotions from standing in a stadium of 55,000 people having achieved SHINee's big dream, or the joy and relief that his voice was ok and he was still with us, doing what he loves after his throat surgery, I don't know, but either way this really was a truly beautiful performance. And seeing Onew cry on stage this openly is still pretty rare. It's his habit to turn away or hide his face usually.

So. Key. I kind of have no words and way too many things to say all at once about this performance. Honestly I've been anticipating this stage for a really long time. The last time SHINee did proper solo stages was all the way back during SWC2. They did some kind of solo stages at The Wizard, but since JongKey collaborated on Daeng, daeng, daeng, Key didn't do a solo. I had imagined all sorts of songs that Key could have done, knowing that Key is nothing if not unpredictable, I thought I'd prepared myself mentally for literally anything.

except what he did.

Born to Shine is a youth anthem therefore 100% up Key's alley, but since Key has talked about not being interested in composing or writing music, I had resigned myself to never hearing an original song from Key during his solo stages. Kim Kibum blew that out of the water when he revealed on the second night that the song was an original one he'd chosen specifically for Tokyo Dome. I mean you've all seen the photos and the fancams by now. Not only is the song freaking amazing, but Key is strutting around shirtless with bright red hair, leather harness, riding crop and the most sinful pair of torn skinny jeans I have ever seen. He's also wearing the most gorgeous pair of boots ever and dancing like a sinful pixie siren luring you to your death. I think I blacked out. People around me were screaming hysterically, but I felt like I was underwater because the sound of Key's voice was floating like smoke throughout the stadium. Ordinarily I'm hysterically loud whenever Key's on stage but my voice died in my throat and all I could hear was the dying animal noises people were making around me and Key's voice rising over the crowd's screaming, his little kitten mouth upturned in a devilish smirk: 'We were born to shine'

....I got a little carried away but you get the point.

Anyway I listened to the awful audio recordings of the concert nonstop for the last few days, I ripped audio and put it through music editing software to try and hear the lyrics better and I think I might be deaf from all the continuous screaming in the audio, and I had the lyrics written out but a friend posted her version on twitter already and honestly I have more faith in her version than mine so I'm going to link it here instead ^.^;;;

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1slc4bl

So Minho's solo was about as dramatic as it was cute and I nearly had a heart attack when, saddened by being separated from his ballerina lover, he jumped into a hole on the stage and disappeared!!!! It honestly looked like an accident!!!! I died!! But he was ok a re-emerged to perform this spectacular number:

So cute ㅠ.ㅠ ow ow it hurts he's so cute ㅠ.ㅠ

Now Taemin. Taemin. We need to talk about how Japan is definitely Taemin's country. Holy crap the fanchanting for that boy was insane. And I mean the screaming I could understand because he was gorgeous and stripping one article of clothing at a time and we're only weak hearted fangirls at the end of the day. The girls I was sitting with on night 2 were super Taemin fans so things got pretty intense, pretty fast for us.

So at this point I feel like I probably shouldn't have spent so much time waxing poetic about the events of the concert seeing as most people can watch fancams and followed the fan accounts on the night, so they might know how it went down. I want to talk about some of the things that came to my mind about the concert in general.

So firstly, in the Ments I felt a teensy tiny little bit bad for Minho since he seemed like he had a lot of emotions and a lot of things he wanted to say but he was struggling to put them into words in Japanese. I guess all the members might have felt this to a certain extent, but seeing as the Dome was such an emotional event for them not being able to express themselves in their mother tongue must have been a little hard. I can't speak Japanese but I could see Minho struggling to string sentences together and repeating the same grammar structures a lot. I can understand where he was coming from completely though because there must be so much pressure standing on stage in front of 55,000 people, speaking to them in a language that you're still in the process of learning. I sometimes have to make small speeches at work functions in Korean to my coworkers and it's hella intimidating. So my heart really went out to our sweet Minho on the night.

I guess one of the things I really want to address in this post was some of the interesting issues that came about because Tokyo Dome was actually a Japanese concert. In my case I've never been to Japan before the Dome and I've never been to a Japanese concert, but I have been to heaps of Korean events. I'm really used to and comfortable with how things work in Korea, so being in Japan was a steep learning curb. However I wasn't actually too surprised by what I found. A lot of Japanese fans come to recordings and concerts in Korea. They're usually very polite, very sweet girls and I don't have any problem with having them in Korea, but there are people who predictably don't like having foreign fans at recordings especially. And the reason I even bother to bring this up is because I think there's a good reason for it. Before anyone gets upset I think it's really important to consider just how completely different concert culture and fan culture is between Korea and Japan.

So first of all in Korea a concert is usually very loud. Fandom in Korea really is surprisingly hidden, secret. For the most part worshiping an idol group is seen as a middle school girl past time and I've mentioned this heaps in the past. So when it's concert time it's the one space a fan can absolutely lose her shit and everyone around her will be behaving in exactly the same way and they won't get judged by the general public.

Also in Korea there is a huge turn over rate for Idols and it's extremely important to a hardcore fan that their idol remain relevant. One of the reasons fanstaff encourage fans to scream so much and shout fanchants so loudly is because it sounds amazing for the group in question on the broadcast when the fanchants come out loudly. And of course the big reason is: it's to support the idol on stage while they're performing. The fanchants are away to express support and make SHINee feel our love and dedication while they're performing. The louder, the more passionate the chanting, the more SHINee can feel our sincerity and effort. At least that's how I feel about it now.

I can remember when I first started going to recordings I had a huge issue with fans screaming and chanting all the time. It was really annoying to my ears and I just wanted to hear SHINee perform. This was back in the day's of Lucifer/Hello when SHINee's fandom was a little smaller and more frantic and energetic. It didn't take long for me to learn why it was so important. If you go to a live show where multiple performers are on stage, it actually looks like most girls will go out of their way to look super bored until their idol comes on stage at which point they will absolutely lose their shit screaming the fanchant. This is because they want their idols fans to sound the loudest and most passionate in the fanchants.

This is not how it works for Japanese fans. Tokyo Dome was a really interesting mix of dynamics given that there were thousands of Korean fans who flew to Japan for the concert, as well as international fans who seem to function more in line with the Korean way of things. The first night I was on the top floor of the Dome and predictably those girls weren't all necessarily feeling it. They were probably really disappointed with their seating and while they definitely screamed and cheered, it was not the level I was used to from a Korean concert. Maybe if I'd been to other Japanese concerts before this one I would have been better prepared for the lack of noise, but this was my first event so I was a little shaken by it. We were sitting in a stadium of 55,000 people. Why was it so subdued?

The second night I sat with a few Korean friends in the center on the first floor. I was a lot closer and there were a tonne of Japanese girls around me cheering and screaming and having a lot of fun. I think saying Japanese fans don't cheer or make noise would be wrong of me, because that's not the case, but there were definitely more reserved fans in the audience. In any case the girls I was sitting with were fanchanting and screaming super loudly. Personally I really liked the atmosphere, I really liked the feeling of supporting SHINee and letting them know we were there and enjoying their performance. I much preferred it as well because the Japanese girls around me were screaming and fanchanting as well. It feels like we're giving SHINee a kind of positive feedback. However towards the beginning of the show I noticed a woman in front of us was getting really irritated by the fanchanting and screaming and she actually turned around and tried to scold my friend in Japanese. She complained to her friends a lot about us constantly and even though her friend in front of me directly seemed to be a huge Jonghyun fan, she didn't do any fanchants for Jonghyun's solo; Deja-boo. It was really strange and confusing for me and I had to keep reminding myself that I was in Japan and it was a different culture.

In hindsight I don't think there's a wrong or right way; there are just preferences. I can see that remaining quiet and listening conscientiously to SHINee perform is a way of showing respect to them and enjoying the performance. I can also understand the desire to have SHINee hear your passion and support for them vocally. Given that I remember fan accounts from the Hall tours where SHINee were asking fans to make noise, it could be that they're used to hearing the fans ^.^;;;

The reason I even bother writing this is because I think it helps us understand why some K-fans get frustrated with foreign fans attending SHINee events in Korea. The vast majority of foreign fans here are Japanese and so the rest of us just kind of get lumped in together. I remember I went to a Jonghyun Base live stage where only 20 SHAWols were able to go inside and a handful of Japanese fans, who clearly loved and supported SHINee, kept quiet during the recording and Jonghyun's fanchant didn't come out well. It was really frustrating, especially given that the majority of girls, including a handful of foreign fans like me and the K-fans, screamed their lungs out hoping it would come out well in the broadcast. Of course the same can be said for a lot of fans who aren't Japanese, but I think J-fans have an excuse given their concert culture is so different.

Overall in terms of the cheering in the Dome I wish it had been louder. Especially during Deja-boo. I don't think many people knew the fanchants at all and given that there's a lot of Korean and screaming Jonghyun's name at specific times I could understand the confusion. It didn't stop me being disappointed on Jonghyun's behalf. Especially seeing as Taemin-biased Japan did a fantastic job of the Danger fanchants. I think it goes without saying that Japan is Taemin's country. In Korea the bias distribution is beautifully equal. I never ever feel like any one member is loved less than another. I hear Minho is very popular in South America and I know Jonghyun has a tonne of Chinese fans as well as Western fans. It was really surreal and weird that Taemin could so much as blink in Japan and people went completely mental ^.^;;;

I should probably disclaim myself by saying this isn't a Korea is better than Japan neh neh neh neh whinge post. It was just so interesting to me, how different the two countries are. And since I live in Korea and I'm used to going to Korean concerts, the different atmosphere in Japan was really strange for me

That being said I really enjoyed the Tokyo Dome concert. It was beautifully planned out, beautifully timed and executed and costumed and performed. SHINee themselves were the absolute highlight of the show and honestly I can't express how happy and humbled I was to be in that room. For SHINee 55,000 people in the same room at the same time is mind-blowing. It really is a huge number. But what people often forget is that there are just as many fans online and overseas, in Korea and other countries, that would have loved to have been there as well. 55,000 people is nothing compared to the actual fanbase SHINee commands. Which makes the 55,000 in that room a pretty damn lucky group of people.

I feel like for me, the climax of the concert was, of course, Love. Love came out on the Your Number single and the instant we heard it we suspected they'd composed and recorded it specially for Tokyo Dome. I had a feeling it was going to be the big climax of the night and man did that hunch come true. Everyone's seen the fancams at this point, but holy crap was that one emotional moment, especially on the second night. They all cried a lot, all through singing LOVE but the amazing part about that night in Tokyo Dome is that not only are the lyrics for love completely gorgeous, at just the right moment the lights go up and SHINee are able to see the message spelled out on colored paper held up by fans all over the stadium. I have no idea if SHINee knew what was going to happen at that time or whether it was a complete surprise. But the lyrics to the song at one point says: Thank you for everything and on the first night the message spelled out in the crowd was: Thank U SHINee.

I'm not going to lie I was crying a lot at this point, but I was also kind of laughing because all 5 of those boys absolutely came to pieces as soon as they read that message. It was really sweet and touching. As always Jonghyun and Key were the messiest of messes.

Night 2 was probably on of the most touching moments in SHINee fandom history though. The message for night 2 was: We love SHINee. Short and sweet and so very true. Key completely lost it. All of them were very teary and emotional, but Key especially was crying so hard he could barely finish the song.

Taking just a moment to examine how any outsiders must have felt at this point; there was a guy in front of me who was at the concert with his girlfriend and clearly very confused and bemused by the whole experience. He was shaking his lightstick around obediently but was obviously just being a supportive boyfriend to his Jonghyun biased girlfriend. I can only imagine what this must have looked like to him; SHINee were sobbing and hugging, there were literally thousands of fans in the audience watching enraptured with silent tears pouring down their faces and he was probably just wondering when it was all just going to be over.

At the time Love finished, all of SHINee kind of gathered around Key and tried to comfort him. It was really cute because on night 1 Minho had kind of tried to huggle Key a little when he was crying, but Key wasn't really having it, but on night 2 Minho was hugging Key and Key was just kind of....clutching him a little ㅠ.ㅠ And then Jonghyun was 'comforting' Key, which turned into the two of them clinging to each other and Key presumably telling the other three that Jonghyun was now the one crying, while the others just kind of hung back and gazed over the Kim Brothers fondly. I remember the whole stadium giggled a lot when Jonghyun drew away from Key and revealed he had, of course, spent that whole time sobbing into Key's neck.

So all of my SHAWol friends reported back that they were crying and/or sobbing and/or in hysterics after this concert. I went outside to meet my friend on Sunday night and the two of us just kind of clung to each other and sobbed for a while as Japanese people walked past us looking kind of concerned. I know in my case I've been having a bit of a rough year between my job, my family and a few things in my social life, but the Dome was like this shining beacon of hope for me through all those problems. I feel like it has been for most of the SHAWols that went. I really appreciate the emotions and positivity and the happiness this concert gave me. Not only was I able to spend the night with SHINee, I was able to see lots of friends who I consider to be a part of my SHINee World family and it made me feel alive and happy and at peace all at once. It was beautiful.

Being in the room with them at Tokyo Dome....I know SHINee don't know my name. They don't know who I am and they don't know about me, but this is another one of those moments where I just felt apart of something so much larger than myself. I can't sing or dance. I'm not beautiful and past talking a lot I don't have that many talents. But despite all those things I still felt like Tokyo Dome was in some small way my win. It was a win for SHAWols because it was just another example of how we chose the right guys. I've said this before and I think I'll continue to say it; we chose really well when we chose SHINee. And never more have I felt that than when I was sitting in that room. I literally had thousands of things zooming through my brain all at once. I want to study more. I want to be a better person. I want to aspire to greater things in my life so I can possess even a fraction of their glow. It sounds ridiculous to be so attached, so emotionally invested, so consumed by something like a boy band, but I dare anyone to stand in Tokyo Dome and scoff at what SHINee has achieved. I'm not religious in any way, but I think the kind of fervor, the kind of emotion and faith I felt must be something similar to how people feel about their religions.