In the recent Star Show with DBSK as guests while everyone was going gaga over their messages to their future wife, the one and foremost segment I was interested in was actually the first and last few minutes where they talked about their time in Japan. It's the thing that defines my love for them. Without even knowing the content in the last few minutes, as the atmosphere became solemn we knew it was serious talk between the host (who is the actor to this popular period drama I can't remember right now) and DBSK.

Coincidentally over the weekend I had the chance to watch the DVD History in Japan 1 which I ordered before I left for HB and it arrived while I was away. How should I say it. Even the DVD was about DBSK, it was somewhat painful to watch. The year when they were at the peak of their popularity in Korea they went to Japan and greeted by a few hundreds of fans. They debuted with the song "Stay with me Tonight." Honestly, it's not a great debut song. In fact I hate it. There was this event where the young men had to wear these white oversized lobster tails suit (for the lack of a better term) and came on stage to a small audience. They stood there in these ridiculous outfits greeting to the fans, letting the wind blew the flowy garments shaping their package in front of the audience. Okay maybe I was being perverted but seriously I would be cursing at the designer if I was made to wear those outfits. At any rate they being the performers continued the show with singing and dancing. I cringed because they had to sing and danced in those outfits. Maybe it was just me but I found this segment the most painful to watch.

Second was a-nation. If there's a way to measure their popularity, it's none other than a-nation. It's also a way to gain new fans which is precisely the reason why they have to participate every year. Being fresh and new, it wasn't unexpected to have very few fans. In fact in the whole vast audience I saw a handful of people waving balloons and responding to their singing and dancing. Their singing, dancing and jumping seemed lost in this vast mass of an audience who had no idea who they were. I wonder how it felt like to perform with a scene like that. It's like a comedian who tells a joke but nobody laughs. But the show must go on. Even if things didn't look too encouraging, performers had to push through to the end. A-nation in 06 was a big improvement. In fact I saw quite a mass of audience responding to them when they greeted. They also felt less awkward on stage. The year where they looked most confident was of course 07. They could even hear the audience cheer for them. I saw smiles on their faces. For the first time on stage of a-nation, they actually looked like they enjoyed it and truly had fun.

Back to the last couple of minutes of the Star Show segment. Jae talked about the year of 2006 when the swept a good number of awards then came to Japan and reverted back to an amateur group singing before 100 audience. Yunho started to speak of how hard it was that they wanted to do a lot of thing but couldn't, that he was envious of other Hallyu stars who got recognition (more so without efforts like they did.) Looking at Yunho I could see that he was trying to hold his tears. It must be a period where their pride got hit pretty hard. How could their pride not got crushed in such extreme shift of mentality, one on top of everything while other at the very bottom of everything. To simply put by Jae, "if we don't have that switch we would go crazy." Now I understand why Junsu and Yoochun cried on stage while singing "Proud". It was the turning point for them. It was the time when they felt things were going the right direction and that their efforts finally began to pay off.

Japan was a good experience for them and they know that. Now they've been through both worlds. One world was a world where they've achieved fame and popularity overnight. One world is a world where they've started from scratch and worked their way to the top. Victory only tastes so sweet when a lot of efforts were involved in the process and there was hardship to achieve that very success. Being the grateful people that they are I'm sure they treasure the achievements they had in Korean but even more so to the achievements they've worked hard for in Japan. The days of living dangerously seem to be over. Their experiences were not the only ones but I talk about them because I only see them.

This will probably be my last cheesy post about them and may be last public post period. I began to feel like I'm repeating these things like a mantra. Then again I also lied about not doing polls again. At any rate, I can only wish them to shine even brighter and brighter for they're like little jewels I love, like that of a family, like the little brothers I never had. May the force be with DBSK.