Author Archives: Henkka

November is the season of school festivals, and while Kumai-san regrets not being able to attend nearly any of the ones were held during her high school days, she’s happy that nowadays Berryz gets invited to perform at these festivals quite often. This lets them meet more people who don’t usually come to their concerts: at the latest such performance they did, there were what Kumai-san guesses were just these little kids from the nearby neighborhood. She waved to one of them, but they got embarrassed and instantly looked away. Kumai-san thought this was really cute.

We’re a couple of days away from the release of Berryz Koubou’s final single, so Chii asks Kumai-chan what she thinks are the highlights fans should pay special attention to on these songs. To start off, Kumai-san thinks “Romance wo Katatte” isn’t very Berryz-like — in a good way. To her it feels more like the type of song they usually get as B-sides or album songs, and it’s almost like the cute songs always went to S/mileage or °C-ute instead. The music video, too, shows them in more natural makeup than usual. So Kumai-san recommends checking out the music video, too: you’ll be able to see a more fresh Berryz Koubou.

Chii was surprised to learn what the title of the song. Coming right after the more intense song titles like “1oku 3zenman Sou Diet Oukoku” and “Futsuu, Idol 1nen Yatterannai Desho!?”, she was sure the next one was going to be something equally as crazy. Still, she’s happy they got to show a new side of themselves on their very last single.

As for “Towa no Uta,” Chii points out that in its music video they got to wear checkered outfits, just like they did in their debut single. Above all, though, the two think the lyrics are amazing, and Chii found herself becoming a bit sad during the shoot when she realized it was going to be their last music video.

Chii demonstrating the Towa no Uta outfits

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November 3rd is Culture Day in Japan, and Chii asks Kumai-san what the word “culture” first brings to her mind. For Kumai-san, it’d have to be art. She doesn’t visit galleries or museums that much, but she does have a favorite style of art: trick art. A while back she actually had a blast visiting a trick art museum in Yokohama. Chii thinks she might like to go, too, and Kumai-san highly recommends it.

And speaking of art, on their recent trip to France Berryz got to visit the Palace of Versailles, which the two say is the very definition of art. This obviously gave them the chance to see some world-famous paintings up-close, and Chii remembers thinking to herself “ah, so this is what art is.“

Berryz Koubou’s final concert tour just started a couple of weeks ago. Kumai-san points out that it’s actually their first autumn tour in four years, and above all it’s just been really, really fun. But she’s actually noticed her age catching up to her on this tour: sure, performing two concerts a day has always been tiring, but now it’s started to affect her in all sorts of new ways. Nowadays, performing concerts makes her whole body hurt — long gone are the days when she could dance without a care in the world like the Kenshuusei girls now.

Chii doesn’t experience any muscle pain or such, but she finds that she has to put in more time for mental preparation to be able to pull off the two performances a day — how you feel mentally also affects how you feel physically. Chii recommends that Kumai-san, too, instead of thinking “oh dear, I’ve gotten so old,” she should phrase it like “I sure have grown up!” It’s all about that positive mental attitude.

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Halloween is coming up soon, and Kumai-san says she definitely wants to dress up as something this year. Chii points out that they have a Naruchika concert in Sapporo on October 31st this year, so they’re now making plans for that day. Just in the highly unlikely off-chance that not everyone managed to attend that concert, here’s what they missed:

The hot topic in Chii’s mind right now is H!P and the new friends that have joined its fold; namely, the 12th generation of Morning Musume and the 3rd generation members of S/mileage (though many of them were already members of Kenshuusei, as Kumai-san points out.)

Chii claims she kind of predicted that Makino-chan would be joining Morning Musume. She remembers seeing her back during the summer Hello!Con, constantly making eye contact with her seniors and quite simply “shining” — Chii could already tell back then that Makino was an exceptional girl. Kumai-san noticed this, too, and says she has the kind of eyes that once you look at them, it’s impossible to look away. Chii points out that it’s rare for Kumai-san to say that kind of thing about anyone.

The two have high hopes for Haga-san, too, considering her Kenshuusei past.

Next up is Ogata-san, or the “Mao-chan of H!P” as Chii puts it. The two talk about how there haven’t been that many girls in H!P so far who’ve had something they could say they were really good at, and they think especially Ogata-san’s figure skating is a first. No one in Berryz has any talent like that; some would say they played the piano or were good at swimming back when they were still kids, but these days, they have nothing. “So I really feel thankful from the bottom of my heart for having been able to join Berryz Koubou,” Chii sums up.

“And then there’s my rival: Nonaka-san.” With this girl having lived in the States, Chii says Nonaka-san is pretty much on the same level of English proficiency as her. But in all seriousness, Chii heard Nonaka-san’s self-introduction at Budokan and she thought her English was so good, she had no idea what she was even saying. She found her to be in a completely different league altogether, and thus she considers her to be a serious rival.

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While last week Chii said that autumn is the season of good appetite, she now claims that it is also the season of sports. Thus, she asks Kumai-san if she has been exercising as of late, and Kumai-san answers that she hasn’t been doing any whatsoever. Besides dancing the closest she’s gotten to exercise has been walking up escalators, and she’s now noticed a major decline in her physical strength due to her lack of trying. This, however, has prompted her to become interested in starting up yoga. She talks about her friend having started it and how it’s supposed to have all kinds of health benefits, but then admits she hasn’t actually tried it herself as of yet.

Meanwhile, even though Chii finally bought a pair of running shoes back in September and promised she’d begin her new hobby soon, she reveals that she still hasn’t gone running — only walking. What’s more is that Chii used those shoes on only a total of two walks, and since then they’ve been sitting in their box. Again. Kumai-san is in disbelief hearing this. Chii adds even further insult to injury and reveals that one of those walks she did take wasn’t really a walk for the sake of exercise: she just went shopping in Harajuku and Shibuya while wearing them.

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