Jin in the U.S. - photos and speculations

This post doesn't offer much new material, it is rather a compilation

of what was circulating the net so far in terms of pictures and rumours.

There may of course be mistakes since this is just my take on things,

if you spot one, please feel free to correct me! ^_^



The first picture to appear was the following one:

It was posted by the girl in the middle who said she met Jin through her

boyfriend (on the left). Her boyfriend was an exchange student and

good friends with Shirota Yû, who in turn is good friends with Jin and YamaPi.

What lends credibility to her post is that she already started posting pics,

taken in Japan, with Jin and the Pikachu guy in them before

Jin's hiatus was even announced.
The Pikachu pictures were taken in New York, where the girl's boyfriend was studying.


Note Jin's necklace on the previous picture, his hair on this one.

The hair style is correct, but the necklace was what first convinced me

that these pictures were older (when in fact they aren't).

Jin stopped wearing the Louis Vuiton necklace he wears in these pictures

when he finally came across the necklace with the kneeling

silhouette of a woman. He was kind of fed up with the LV

necklace back in June and started to wear some sort of plaquette,

before he mentioned in a magazine his joy about having

found the woman necklace. He had been searching for it

ever since Gokusen where he had a similar one which unfortunately got lost.

Ever since the end of June, he has been wearing the new necklace.

So I found it kind of strange that all U.S. pictures showed him with the old one.



After receiving threats from some overzealous fans,

the girl understandably refrained from posting more

of those photos in a public place, these photos were just circulated as avatars.


This picture appeared on 2chan as proof that Jin was in the

U.S. with Shirota Yû. While that might be true, the picture proves or

disproves nothing really and is just included here for completeness' sake.


Another picture that resurfaced on 2chan - but it is obviously not

"proof for Jin in the U.S.", since the picture is from a tabloid that

made a big fuss over him being seen in Japan's Disneyland

with a woman and a child (which later turned out to be Shirota Yû's family).


This photo was posted by the girl on the left on her myspace

account after she and her friend ran into Jin at a party in L.A..

She had some trouble with fans and anti-fans alike, though she

certainly didn't want to make a big fuss over all of this.
Note that we've now left New York where the first pictures

were taken and have moved to L.A.
L.A. seemed like a good choice - Jin has been there before,

Johnny's Entertainment has connections there. But apparently

everyone underestimated Jin's popularity which caused quite

an uproar among Japanese students in L.A..

It has been reported that Jin did not reappear at the school

after attending classes for four days in a row, though he still appears on the

"enrolled students" list.


This picture allegedly shows Jin walking away

from his language school, the following picture is

supposed to show him at the entrance to the school in downtown L.A.



The next picture to appear was the above one. It shows Jin on a party in L.A.

The other Asian guy is the one who was in the Pikachu costume,

back in New York. Please take a good look at both their clothes.



The above two pictures were the core of a "scoop" posted by popular rumour

blog Tantei File. They said the photos had been taken during a Thanksgiving event

on November 23rd Jin participated in (and basically just made bitchy

comments about his looks and behaviour).
Take a look at Jin's clothes. He's wearing exactly the same outfit

as in the picture of the party in L.A. If you look at the blurred

picture and look at the clothes of Pikachu guy -

the colors match that of the white tanktop and army coat.

But the party picture appeared before November 23rd,

way before Tantei posted their Thanksgiving story.

The photos also prompted a reaction from fans

(Chinese and Japanese) who went on to publish the following pictures

as proof that the photos had been taken when Jin was still in Japan.

The photos also feature Jin's friend who wore the Pikachu costume,

Shirota Yû, YamaPi, Ryô and Jin's younger brother Reo.





What does, on the first glance, make everyone question the authenticity of the

Thanksgiving party pictures is
a) Jin's clothes and pendant
b) Pi's hairstyle
c) Ryô's hand.
Jin is wearing exactly the same outfit as in those party pictures.

Pi changed his hair to this style shortly after GYM

(GYM officially lasted from August 18th to September 10th),

while Ryô's hand got injured at the end of summer 2006.

So one could argue that the party pictures were taken around the same time.

But take a closer look at Jin's and his friend's outfit.

Though Jin wears the same clothes plus the cap,

he wears different watches, his friend doesn't

even wear the same outfit on both pictures. The pendant is no proof,

since Jin is wearing the LV pendant on all U.S.

pictures that were published. Of course, this doesn't really qualify as proof,

but it makes one wonder whether the fans' claim is true.

After it had been quiet around Jin for a while, a new rumour

appeared in the tabloids, expressing worries that Jin might

be turnung gay, since he is supposedly staying with a gay male friend

(who is a DJ, some stories added) and has also been seen a lot hanging

out with other guys. Beside of this rather ridiculous rumour,

fan gossip blogs maintained that Jin still is romantically

involved with former SPEED member Uehara Takako, who has been in the

U.S. a couple of times since Jin went there. Jin's relationship with Uehara

came to light in November 2005, when popular tabloid FRIDAY's

paparazzi managed to get photos of the two of them on a date.

The matter was taken serious enough by the Jimusho to apologize

and explain that Jin and Uehara had broken up.




These pics were the next to appear. Again, there's the guy who was with

Jin on the Pikachu pictures, the second picture also features Joey Tee;

apparently this is the birthday party for the Asian guy sitting behind the cake.

Jin is wearing the same shirt in all three photos, as is his friend,

so one can conclude that these photos were taken at the same occasion.

The lighting in the last picture might suggest that it was taken at Christmas time,

but this is just speculation.

The folllowing two pictures are really the same pictures,

but both of them were photoshopped.

The pic first seems to have appeared with this fake

bottle of vodka edited in, then someone edited it again.



Finally, the last picture to have appeared so far:

Notice the girl who was also in the birthday party picture.

Oh, and there was a new one today (Feb. 2nd):

CREDIT : Ricci Hadaka no Johnny's Forum