Monthly Archives: February 2015

AS1422 #105 (2014.01.18)

International Travel Dreams

The opening discussion question is, “What country do you want to visit?” Kananan’s first choice is Saipan. Rinapuu does not know what that is. Instead of explaining what that is, since she probably doesn’t really know, Kananan details her plan for Saipan, in which all of the 2nd gen members go on vacation for a week in Saipan in 10 years’ time. Rinapuu wonders how old they’ll be then; Kananan says 30, but then she realizes her math is all wrong. Then, she changes when she wants to go from 10 years to 7 to 5 to 6. Basically, a year or so after they graduate from ANGERME, she wants them all to go on a trip overseas together. Rinapuu doesn’t know about Saipan or this timeline, but she agrees with wanting everyone to go on a trip or at least getting together again once they leave the group, however long that will be. Right now, even though they’d like to travel together, they never have that long of a break, and when they do have days off they spend them with their families and they aren’t all necessarily in charge of their own finances yet, so it just makes sense from a practical and an economic perspective to wait until they’re done with the group. Whether it’s 4 members or 6 or 9, they both want to have a fun trip with the group.

She just wants to see the Saipanda, because who wouldn’t?

As for Rinapuu, she wants to go to Hawaii. She notices that a lot of entertainers choose Hawaii as their destination of choice for vacations and end-of-year activities, and she reads a lot of blogs by people who go to Hawaii this time of year since it’s so cold in Japan. She gets really jealous over this, because she hates winter and wishes she could spend the whole season or even just live in a country with a more tropical climate where winter doesn’t really exist. She also loves the ocean so some place like Hawaii or Australia would be perfect for her. Kananan disagrees because she would get worried if her mother ever got sick so she’s going to stay in Japan. Continue reading →

BZS1422 #132 (2015.01.25)

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The opening topic is “things you’re really into lately.” For Kumai-san, that’d be a certain mobile phone game: Tsum Tsum. And it’s not just Kumai-san: Captain and Risako, too, are not only very into the game, but they have crazy high scores on it as well.

For Chii, the only thing she’s into as of late is her blog: she still hasn’t broken her run of consecutive daily blogs that started from January 1st. Well, for the most part: there was one day when she only managed to post her blog some minutes past midnight, and while this made her seriously consider giving up, she decided to keep going anyhow.

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BZS1422 #131 (2015.01.18)

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The hosts begin by talking about how much they’d like to go overseas right now, especially somewhere warm. Kumai-san would especially like to visit the Hamilton Island to see its heart-shaped reef, whereas Chii wants to visit the Maldives — she appreciates the fact that Maldives apparently doesn’t offer much in the way of shopping opportunities or even things to do in general, so she figures it’d be really relaxing. In any case, the two are looking forward to their February trip to the warmth of Thailand and the many massages that await them there.

“So how are you lately?” Chii asks her co-host. Kumai-san recently bought herself a new wallet that she began using at the start of the year. This is good since Chii’s heard that it’s recommended for all people to change wallets at least once per year. If you don’t, it’ll cause bad luck: the money is going to “escape” from your wallet.

Meanwhile, Chii finally finished cleaning her room — a New Year’s tradition in Japan. Her room is a great deal neater now, and even the Barbie, Toy Story and Disney dolls she’s been collecting for the past five years or so are now all in perfect order. She actually finished this clean-up operation just before the recording of this show which means she’s kind of tired right now.

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Itsudemo! Kannon Smile #11 (2015.02.10)

Recently, Kanon has been experiencing kindness from various people. To start, her father normally takes her to the radio show every week. This time Kanon received the script for the show the day before the recording. Her manager explained that she had to use certain type of software to open the script. Kanon ended up having a lot of problems with the software and got angry and yelled “This is annoying! I’m done!”. Apparently she would try again and again to get the software to work, get angry with it, leave, then come back. She did this about 8 times. At this point, it had gotten late and her father had already gone to bed. Kanon planned on giving up and going to sleep too, but her dad ended up getting up and helped her locate the Kanon! Smile’s script, print the document, and stapled it together easily. Kanon thought it was crazy that her dad figured it out so easily because she couldn’t seem to figure it out for the life of her. Looking back on it, she is grateful her father sat down with her and figured it out so nicely and it gave warm memories.

Her second instance occurred when Kanon still had the flu, so she had to miss out on a Hello! Concert and dance rehearsals. Overall she felt very bothersome for the other members and apologized a lot, however Sakura told her “Its totally fine, just get better,”. Kanon got really lonely while she was sick, but the kind words Sakura told her made her feel a little better. Kanon really appreciated that Sakura seemed genuinely concerned with her health by sending her kind emails telling her to come back soon.

These two instances made Kanon very happy and grateful for others kindness.

Song: Morning Musume – Onna Gokoro to Nanto Yara

Sakura: The caring kouhai

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Morning Musume ’15 12ki Nikki! #7 (2015.02.15) (Surprise Guest)

Finally, mixing things up, they have split up the younger and older pairs. Maria is in charge this week, with Ogata as support.

Of course, as Ogata mentions they don’t actually have really anything in common, but they will try their hardest today.

Song: Morning Musume – Happy Summer Wedding

Maria starts us off by mentioning that something really awesome happened to her and Ogata recently. Ogata takes over from here and explains that Ikuta-san and Fukumura-san have invited the two of them to go to Disney Sea with them. Why exactly Ikuta and Fukumura invited her and Maria, and only the two of them, she’s not sure… to make it worse they also haven’t exactly told Nonaka or Akane about it yet.

Ogata apparently can’t help but blurt out things like “Ahh! I’m so happy!” and “I wonder what kind of rides are at Disney Sea”. While Maria accidently exclaimed “Ah! I’m so excited!” one time and when Akane took interest, asking her what she was excited about Maria had to play it cool and replied with “Ahhh… nothing~”

Ogata: That sounds so suspicious (laughs).

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BZS1422 #130 (2015.01.11)

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January 12th is Coming of Age Day in Japan, and the H!P members celebrating the event this year are Iikubo Haruna, Suzuki Airi, Okai Chisato, Wada Ayaka, Fukuda Kanon, Miyazaki Yuka, and Sugaya Risako. Chii asks Kumai-san — their “senpai in life” — for her take on this. Kumai-san still remembers how tiny they were and is touched to see all of them now becoming proper adults. She feels proud of them, like they were all her own children. The two congratulate this group once more.

This is actually the first recording of BZS1422 in 2015, and the two talk about how New Year’s was for them. The two were in fact sitting next to each other the very moment 2014 turned into 2015 as they both took part in the Countdown Live. Kumai-san fondly remembers their seniors like Nakazawa and Yoshizawa talking to them about how big they’d gotten.

After the concert, they got back to the hotel and went out to visit a shrine. The next day, Chii slept until about 1 PM and later went to her grandma’s house where they had a crab party. Kumai-san, too, ate so much crab that day, she felt she’d come to hate it if she’d eaten any more.

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BZS1422 #129 (2015.01.04)

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“Merry Christmas!” While this is the first broadcast of 2015, the hosts explain that this episode is actually being recorded on Christmas Eve. Still, as it still is the first broadcast of the year, Chii says she’s sure she isn’t going to flub her words even once during the show, partly also thanks to her recent enthusiasm towards rapping and “rhythm.” Kumai-san expresses doubt at this claim, and as probably goes without saying, Chii’s confidence turns out to be completely unjustified not many minutes after.

January marks the beginning of the final Hello!Con tour for Berryz, and our hosts were actually rehearsing for it prior to recording this episode. Chii says she has something she feels very sad about regarding this rehearsal: even though it’s Christmas, the members received no cake, no nothing from the staff! Chii couldn’t believe it.

Lack of cakes aside, the two talk about how there are now so many new members rehearsing with them. “It’s overflowing with youth!“, Kumai-san describes. But the rehearsal space seems to be overflowing with feelings of something else as well: Kumai-san has noticed how members of the staff — many of them who have been watching over Berryz for many years now — have been looking at them as they rehearse, some with perhaps a hint of nostalgia in their eyes.

Chii wishes to share something with the listeners before the first corner of the show. The other day, a fan who attended an individual handshake event with Berryz Koubou shook hands with Kumai-san and told her that they’d become a fan of the group through listening to BZS1422. The two were very happy about this, and they agree: if even one person became a fan of Berryz through BZS1422, then these 129 episodes of the show have all been worth it.

Chii: But for some reason, that fan didn’t come and shake hands with me.
Kumai-san: … Huh?
Chii: Let us move on to the first number of this week’s BZS1422.

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AS1422 #104 (2014.01.11)

Adults

This is the time of year for newly 20-year-olds and not quite 20-year-olds to dress up in their finest kimono and wander out into the cold to get a certificate confirming that they are now adults. It’s the Coming of Age Ceremony, hooray! Unfortunately, none of 2nd gen are getting to participate, and even though 1st gen should be, they aren’t, because their managers are buttheads. In any case, Kananan and Rinapuu talk about what an adult woman is to them.

Rinapuu: In any case, an adult woman is very calm…
Kananan: Ah, like me.
Rinapuu: …when she’s walking…
Kananan: Yes, yes, like me.
Rinapuu: …and she seems very distant…
Kananan: Mhmm, just like me.

Rinapuu notes that she has this image of an adult now, but she recalls back when she was younger that anyone older than her seemed like an adult, so she thinks that even when she reaches 20 and technically becomes an adult herself, she will have a completely different idea of what it means to be grown up. Still, for right now, the primary characteristic she sees in an adult woman is her composure. Kananan is clearly already an adult woman so she doesn’t have any impressions as to what one would be.

New Year’s Celebrations

It’s the first show to be recorded in the new year, and so they go over what they did to bring in 2015. Rinapuu wrote about her big event in her blog, but she went to see the Kpop group Supernova in concert. She’s been a huge fan of theirs for a long time and really, really wanted to go see their end-of-the-year concert. However, the end of the year is a notoriously busy time for the H!P members, between the Countdown live and rehearsals for Hello!Con and everything in-between, but the concert just so happened to occur on the one day this month that she has off. She got to buy a penlight and a t-shirt and had a great time.

Why are Rinapuu’s blog pictures so tiny?

As for Kananan, she spent her day off back home in Kansai, since they were prepping for the Countdown in Kobe and Osaka. This meant a lot to her since most of the time she’s in Tokyo, even on her days off, and she could go do New Year’s festivities with her friends from back home. She actually slept through the change between 2014 and 2015, which shocked her, but once she woke up she went to go hang out with her friends. They went to Nara together to do the first shrine visit of the year, they played with the deer, and they got to write down their wishes together. Kananan notes that this year is supposed to be an unlucky one for her, so while she didn’t get a chance to go see a Buddhist monk to perform a ritual to ease some of her future misfortune, she feels she got off to a good start. She’ll just need to be extra careful in February.

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