Konya mo Usachan Peace #415 (2014.10.06)

The first concert of Sayu’s final tour with Morning Musume took place on September 20th, and Sayu repeats here the announcement she made that day about taking a leave from the entertainment industry following her graduation from the group. She wants to emphasize again that although it may seem like a big deal, what it really means is that she just wants to take a break after these 12 years, and following that, she’s going to start thinking about what she wants to do next.

Interestingly, the allotted rehearsal time for this tour was really short — in fact, Sayu reveals it was the shortest of any tour she’s ever done in these past 12 years. She kind of felt like she wanted to rehearse more considering how it’s her last tour, but thanks to everyone focusing even harder than usual she felt confident even with the smaller amount of practice time. While there was the initial nervousness on the first day of the tour, she didn’t feel scared at all when it was actually time to get on stage. She says this is thanks to all the fans: the moment she walks on stage and sees everyone there to see them, it blows away all her worries.

Sayu also loved how the members all wore pink Michishige T-shirts at rehearsal that day, and it reminded her how strong the unity is between the members of this current line-up.

Song: Morning Musume ’14 – TIKI BUN

Sayu no Oobeya
Letters from listeners

Fan mail #1: The listener asks which is Sayu’s favorite cover art of their newest single, and asks if she has any behind-the-scenes episodes from the photo shoot.

To start with, Sayu says the soap bubbles visible all around her in the close-up cover of just her were indeed real: they were blown in by the staff just outside of the frame. There were actually several shots where she thought she looked really cute, but were found to be unusable due to the soap bubbles blocking her face. Although Sayu never asked anyone if this was really the intended meaning, she loves the idea of how her career in Morning Musume will have both started and ended with soap bubbles (“shabondama“).

Sayu was having major difficulty with setting her bangs on the day they shot the “Mikaeri Bijin” cover art and music video. It took her ages and ages to do properly, and when the staff told her it was time for the photo shoot, she had to ask for extra time as she still wasn’t happy with her hair. Maa-chan came into the room and told Sayu she looked fine, but Sayu wasn’t having any of it — she even had to grab a pair scissors and cut her bangs a little to finally get the job done.

Since this was the last music video Sayu shot with the other members, they surprised her by giving her a board with handwritten messages from all of them. By that point she’d forgotten all about her earlier hair trouble, but she was reminded of it thanks to Ishida’s message: “you’re cute even when your bangs aren’t perfect!” Sayu was very glad to hear this.

Fan mail #2: With the members all wearing pink Sayu T-shirts in rehearsal and so many fans wearing ones, too, the listener says the concert venue looked almost like he was attending a Sayu bus tour event. The listener asks what Sayu thought about this love shown towards her by both the members and the fans.

Sayu was really glad and full of gratitude. Her day was filled with pink all the way from rehearsal through to the end of the concert, so she was truly happy. She thanks everyone once again.

Song: Morning Musume ’14 – Mikaeri Bijin

Fan mail #3: Sayu’s last performance at Nakano Sunplaza — also known as the “holy grounds” of H!P — is now behind her. The listener admits they felt sad when they realized they’d never see Sayu standing on the stage of Nakano Sunplaza again as a member of Morning Musume. They ask how Sayu feels about this, and what her best memories concerning Nakano Sunplaza are.

Sayu states that she has indeed stood on the stage of Nakano Sunplaza so many times she can’t even begin to count them. As for her best memories about it, the first thing that pops to her mind is the Cozy Corner near it. Cozy Corner serves (or used to serve) Harori-inspired cakes — if you forget, Harori is the Dragon Nest character Sayu once voice acted and cosplayed as. During a Hello!Con at Nakano Sunplaza, Sayu asked fans to go there after the concert and buy some Harori cakes, which everyone proceeded to do. Cozy Corner later returned the favor by sending Harori cakes to every single member of H!P.

Sayu shares another memory from the venue. Morning Musume always has two dressing rooms when they’re performing at Nakano Sunplaza, and when the members enter the venue there are two sets of stairs, one to the left and one to the right, which both lead to these dressing rooms. Like Sayu mentioned in an earlier episode, when Kamei Eri was still in the group the two would always want to end up in the same dressing room no matter what.

One time when Sayu got to the venue before Eri, she mailed her saying “I took the dressing room closest to the stairs!” The only problem is, she failed to say which stairs she meant. Sayu had taken the dressing room closest to the left stairs, but Eri mistakenly went to the dressing room closest to the right stairs.

So the two ended up in different dressing rooms, and Sayu instantly regretted not wording her email to Eri better. And because other members had already seen them, it would’ve been rude for either of them to leave and change dressing rooms at that point. Right after that they started doing their pre-concert stretches and they used that time to whisper to each other about how they could manage to get in the same dressing room together. Ultimately, though, the two ended up in different dressing rooms for that whole day.

This episode and that feeling of wanting to always be together with Eri is just one of the many memories Sayu says she has of Nakano Sunplaza.

Fan mail #4: The listener mentions Sayu making a surprise appearance on former v-u-den member Miyoshi Erika’s radio show recently (Sana Miyo Upstage 2014.08.10) and asks for Sayu’s impressions on that.

Sayu was supposed to just appear on the show via phone, but after the phone call she actually ran into the studio and surprised both hosts. She’d actually blogged about being in Hokkaido which is where the show is recorded, so Sayu figures Miyoshi-chan wasn’t reading her blog as otherwise she wouldn’t have been caught by surprise.

Sayu says that with each time she sees her, Miyoshi-chan is getting prettier and prettier but also more and more airheaded. Some time ago when Sayu was appearing on another show with Miyoshi-chan, Sayu really liked her skirt so she pointed at it and went “that’s really cute!” For some reason, Miyoshi-chan then suddenly started opening the zipper of her skirt, attempting to take it off. Sayu went “Huh?! No, no! I don’t want it and I don’t want to see what’s inside! You don’t need to take it off!” Miyoshi-chan just went “Oh, okay” and closed it back up.

Sayu still doesn’t know what Miyoshi-chan was trying to do. When Sayu asked her if she was okay, Miyoshi-chan just mumbled something in response. Sayu repeats that Miyoshi-chan appears more and more broken every time the two meet.

Fan mail #5: Out of all eleven Sayu photobooks and the hundreds of photos included in them, the listener asks Sayu to name just one ultimate favorite shot from all of them.

While Sayu says she has lots of favorite shots, the above two are the ones that she thinks of off the top of her head. The first one is from her first photobook. In Sayu’s mind, that photo is like of a girl who’s come to play around at her grandma’s house, and she then gets bored and starts playing around by lifting her feet up against the pillar.

The second one is from “Doukei,” and from the moment Sayu saw it, she instantly loved how her hair looked in it. Normally she wants all pictures to be focused on her face, but this one was an awesome exception to the rule. It moved her seeing how pretty she looked from behind.

Song: Michishige Sayumi – Shabadabadoo

Sayu: Oyasayumin ♪

Listener requested pose: “Blowfish, the symbol of Yamaguchi”