A response and a caveat

As we prepare to mail our puzzle pieces, we know that some of you have some concerns about whether our envelopes will be turned away by those fearful 'gatekeepers' who receive the Johnny's Fan Club Mail.

We understand your concern and are aware of the restrictions. In planning this project (almost a year ago from now) we knew of the risk that our envelopes might get turned away, but we accepted it as an unavoidable risk we have to take. We made no guarantees and still make no guarantees that Johnny's or Arashi will read our puzzle postcards.

We've made it so that our envelopes are a standard card-sized envelope, the puzzle piece is light enough that when the envelope is weighed, it weighs close to any 1st-class mail, and the color of the envelope is not flashy (per their guidelines).

It is our hope that the novelty of our idea and of our puzzle pieces will help give us the benefit of the doubt -- instead of having them dismissed right away. Furthermore, the video that we will email to each Arashi member announcing the pieces will, hopefully, pique their curiosity - or at least someone's curiosity - and make them be on the lookout for them.

As much as we wish we can predict what they will do, their reaction to our video and our puzzle pieces is beyond our control. Especially for myself and my sister since we've put in so much for this project, we want nothing more than to know that our efforts will have not been in vain. As it stands, there is no means for us to do this.

Actually there is one way to know -- and that is to try and send our video and our puzzle pieces. There is no other way around it - we won't know until we try. Yes, in a few weeks we may get our envelopes back, but there is also a 50% chance that they will open up our envelopes. If we don't mail our envelopes/puzzle pieces to them, then we have zero chance of them having it in their hands and opening it.

As I told my sister when we were beginning this project, our goal is to hopefully send a message to Arashi. Even if we were successful or not in achieving that goal, we still would have been able to make some 33 new Arashi friends (and have actually met some very wonderful people along the way)...and that's not so bad now, isn't it?

Should our project actually reach Arashi, it will be a big bonus for us, icing on the proverbial cake... But the memories from this project are something that my sister and I will always cherish -- hopefully you will too.

Steadfastly wishing for your continued support and understanding,
Joan