Konya mo Usachan Peace #418 (2014.10.27)

Since Sayu never got around to talking more in-depth about Morning Musume’s New York concert, she’ll do so now.

While Sayu had visited places like Los Angeles, Paris and the rest of Asia, this was the first time she’d been to New York. She wasn’t sure what the fans there would be like, but when the concert finally began she quickly found that everyone was really excited. She was expecting more of a language barrier, but the way everyone was singing along to the songs proved her wrong, and it made her see how much the fans there had been listening to their music and how much they knew about the group.

Sayu talks about how she started by reading aloud a letter to the NY fans that was in Japanese, but even then it seemed like many people were reacting to it and understanding what she was saying. Although the fans did have a bit of a laugh at Sayu’s difficulty in getting through the English portion of her letter, everyone kept carefully listening to what she had to say. Thanks to this, Sayu really felt how kind all their NY and other overseas fans are, and it was obvious to her how eagerly everyone had been waiting to see them. She was also very moved hearing about the fans’ project to hand out pink glow sticks when people told her about it at the handshake event. All in all, the whole concert was just full of joyous and touching moments for her.

Finally, Sayu gives a genuine “thank you” to all the fans who attended the concert and made it a success, whether they were from Japan, New York or elsewhere in the world.

Aside from the concert, the group also went to see the Statue of Liberty on the day they arrived. As they were heading out there on a ferry, Sayu and the 10th gen members were talking about just how big the Statue of Liberty actually was. Sayu announced that she’d read in a textbook or somewhere that it’s around twice the size of Harunan. Harunan immediately said Sayu was definitely mistaken… adding that it’s actually more like five times her size. Sayu responded by laughing and flat-out rejecting the idea that the Statue of Liberty could be that big.

When they finally started approaching the statue…

Sayu: Wait…?! Hold on… That’s easily bigger than twice your size!
Harunan: Right?! I told you so! See, it’s five tim– Huh?!

The two quickly realized that the “Harunan scale” had been painfully inadequate for measuring the Statue of Liberty.

Song: Michishige, Fukumura, Iikubo – Koibito ni wa Zettai ni Shiraretakunai Shinjitsu

Sayu no Kobeya
Letters from listeners

Fan mail #1: This listener is getting ready for their high school festival and says that their class is going to do a dance performance of “Say Yeah! -Motto Miracle Night-” (which the listener says they’re having a lot of trouble keeping up with). The listener asks if Sayu did any dancing back when she was in school, and if so, to which songs.

Sayu reports to dancing and singing to KAN’s “Ai wa Katsu” and Shingo Mama’s “Shingo Mama no Oha Rock,” but with lyrics changed to cheer on one of the sports teams appearing at the event. She also danced to Oguro Maki’s “Natsu ga Kuru” back in kindergarten.

Aside from that, she’d just make up her own dance moves to Morning Musume and SPEED songs at home. Back then Sayu wasn’t receiving any pocket money so she couldn’t buy her own CD’s. Still, she wanted to dance to all kinds of different songs so she went through her dad’s cabinet and found a CD with Minami Kousetsu’s “Kandagawa.” While not a particularly danceable song to say the least, it nevertheless became part of Sayu’s dance routine. Many years later she was moved when she saw the song covered by Matsuura Aya.

Fan mail #2: The listener asks about the extended “Mikaeri Bijin” music video and if the letters the members can be seen reading in it were actually written by Sayu.

Sayu answers that they were indeed. Her manager told her to write the letters three or four days before the music video was shot, and Sayu thought long and hard about what she wanted to write to each of them: she says it would have been somewhat easier if it was her last day in the group, but the video was shot around with still around three months to go until then. Plus, her manager told her the letters shouldn’t be long: one or two lines was enough. For Sayu, finding something meaningful to say in just one or two lines made it even harder.

Sayu was happy seeing the members’ reactions to her letters, with some of them crying and others just looking happy — and Ikuta laughing for some reason.

Fan mail #3: With Sayu having been overseas many times for all kinds of concerts, events and photobooks, the listener asks what has been so far the biggest failure she’s experienced abroad.

While this failure wasn’t by Sayu, she tells an episode of when she went to Guam for her photobook “17.” The stylist who was with her at the time is quite an airhead, and literally the moment they landed in Guam, he/she stepped on some gum — “gum in Guam.” Sayu thought that was pretty incredible.

Listener requested pose: “Sayu’s image of “merci””

Usapii Kaeuta Senshuken
Sayumi sings parody versions of H!P songs submitted by listeners

This week’s subject for parody is Password is 0, and more specifically these lines: “Zero zero zero, password is zero / Zero zero zero, password is zero / Umaretekuru no ni nan no riyuu mo nai.“

Parody #1: “♪ Zero zero zero, scandal zero / Zero zero zero, scandal zero / Sayumi no mawari ni warui uwasa wa nai ♪” (“Zero zero zero, scandals are zero / Zero Zero Zero, scandals are zero / There are no bad rumors surrounding Sayumi“)

Parody #2: “♪ Zero zero zero, genkin zero / Zero zero zero, genkin zero! / Genzai Michishige de chokin mo mattaku nai ♪” (“Zero zero zero, savings are zero / Zero zero zero, savings are zero / I have no savings left because of Michishige“)

Sayu apologizes and thanks the submitter of this parody if these lyrics are about him.

Parody #3: “♪ Zero zero zero, power zero / Zero zero zero, power zero / Concert last, Sayumin no tairyoku nai ♪” (“Zero zero zero, power is zero / Zero zero zero, power is zero / Sayumin has no power left at the end of the concert“)

“There is quite a lot of truth to this one,” Sayu says.

Parody #4: “♪ Melon Kinenbi no Shibata-san / Melon Kinenbi no Shibata-san / Sayumi wa takusan doku wo hakimashita ♪” (“Shibata-san from Melon Kinenbi / Shibata-san from Melon Kinenbi / She got to experience Sayumi’s poison tongue a lot“)

Sayu says that Shibata-san is really kind and that even when Sayu does get a bit poison-tongued towards her, Shibata-san still keeps watching over her gently as always. Even now when the two occasionally meet, they get along just as well as they always did. Sayu still considers Shibata-san like a kind, big sister.

Parody #5: “♪ Sayu, Eri, Reina, 6ki wa saikyou / Sayu, Eri, Reina, 6ki wa saikyou / Dareka hitori dake wasureteru ki suru ♪” (“Sayu, Eri, Reina, rokkies are the best / Sayu, Eri, Reina, rokkies are the best / It feels like we’re forgetting about someone…“)

As Sayu can often be heard talking about the Rokkies as the “three of us,” Miki herself will jokingly scold her for this, going “why aren’t you including me?!” Sayu feels that this superb balance between the Rokkies is what made them so great.

Parody #6: “♪ Kira kira kira, meccha kawaii / Kira kira kira, meccha kawaii / Sotsugyou riyuu wa tairyoku igai ni nai ♪” (“Twinkle twinkle twinkle, very cute / Twinkle twinkle twinkle, very cute / The only reason I’m graduating is because my body can’t keep up“)

Sayu strongly denies this, laughing.

Parody #7: “♪ Sotsugyou suru last tour / Sotsugyou suru last tour / Kui wa nokosanai, nokosu tsumori mo nai ♪” (“My last tour before graduating / My last tour before graduating / I’ve no regrets and I don’t intend on having any, either!“)

Parody #8: “♪ Ero ero ero, Sayu wa ero / Ero ero ero, Sayu wa ero / Kawaii ko miru me chotto futsuu ja nai ♪” (“Perv perv perv, Sayu’s a perv / Perv perv perv, Sayu’s a perv / There’s something off about how she looks at cute girls“)

Sayu: Really? I feel like I’m just being myself though…

Song: Morning Musume ’14 – Asu wo Tsukuru no wa Kimi

Tottemo Moechau Mousou Sexy Word
Sayu recites innocent words in a sexy way

Sexy word of the week: “Machiboke” (“waiting in vain”)

Fan mail #4: The listener mentions seeing Sayu’s recent two-shot with Reina on her blog and asks what the two talked about that day.

This picture was taken on the day of Sayu’s last Hello!Con performance so lots of members were doing “Usachan Peace” in her honor, including Reina when she was performing with LoVendoЯ. Sayu saw this on the monitors and thanked her for it later, and Reina was glad she’d seen it. Sayu says she felt relieved hearing Reina’s Hakata dialect again.

Sayu: Oyasayumin ♪