Author Archives: Henkka

Speaking about Morning Musume’s (and Sayu’s final) appearance on Music Station the week before, Sayu talks about how the group have been invited on the show for every single they’ve released starting with “Wagamama Ki no Mama Ai no Joke,” which was the first time back there in six years. Sayu still remembers the many emails she received when they promoted “Wagamama…” on the show: even many of her old friends from Yamaguchi sent her messages congratulating her.

However, Sayu only received one email after their “TIKI BUN” appearance on the show: it was from Kamei Eri, who complimented Sayu and said everyone looked really cool. But as for everyone else not mailing her about it, Sayu figures it must’ve actually been a good thing — in her mind, if people sent her lots of emails after “Wagamama…” because Morning Musume hadn’t been on the show for so long, then they must’ve not sent her emails after “TIKI BUN” because seeing the group on the show has become something commonplace again.

Sayu also talks about how kind Tamori has always been to her. Whenever Sayu’s appearing on the show, he’ll remember her cutesy character and ask her if she feels she’s cute that day. On this latest appearance, although he jokingly gave Sayu a kind of half-hearted reply on-air when she asked him if he thought she was cute, when Sayu asked him again after the broadcast, Tamori replied “yes, I think you’ve become even prettier than before.” Sayu was happy to hear this from him.

Sayu was very glad to appear on Music Station one last time, and she’ll look forward to seeing Morning Musume ’15 on the show next year.

Listener requested pose: “Sayumin’s favorite pose from her final photobook “YOUR LOVE””

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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.

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Commenting on Morning Musume’s new members, Sayu says that all four of them are very much her “type.” She thought they were really cute ever since she first learned who had been accepted into the group when she did the video letters for them, announcing that they’d passed the audition. But while she just thinks they’re all very cute, she strongly suspects that the other members might have varying feelings about the recent inductees.

For example, Kudo has stated that she needs to do her best to remain the person in charge of the group’s looks department, even though that’s something she would’ve normally never said herself up until now. Sayu has started noticing sudden changes like that in all of the members after the announcement. In other words, the 9th, 10th and 11th gen members have become very conscious about things with the new members joining the group, and Sayu thinks this is definitely a good thing and will lead them once again into creating a whole new Morning Musume.

The new members will start performing with the group starting next year, and while Sayu will have graduated by then she looks forward to what will undoubtedly be a great Morning Musume ’15.

Sayu mentions the members of the group all having a day off on September 28th, and they celebrated by having a takoyaki party together. It was a lot of fun and to her it proved how friendly the members are with each other — this kind of thing happening as of late has reminded her how much she loves the group, and while that has never changed in these past 12 years, she says the feeling is only getting stronger now near the end.

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With Morning Musume’s new single soon to be released, Sayu talks a bit about the three music videos.

Although “TIKI BUN” was shot in a kind of warehouse-looking location that might look a bit chilly, Sayu says it was actually crazy hot there. She felt hot even before they started, and although you can’t see it on the video, everyone would be all sweaty with each successive take of the dance shot.

Sayu once again mentions the cuteness of the “Shabadabadoo” music video, and although too much praise might raise everyone’s expectations of it, she says the video is so cute it can take it. After most of the members had already seen it, Oda revealed she had yet to do so. This prompted Harunan to tell Oda that her life was about 50% incomplete, just because she hadn’t seen the video yet.

Finally, Sayu says she always feels touched seeing the members’ expressions when they’re singing about her in “Mikaeri Bijin.”

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

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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.

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Sayu begins by talking about Morning Musume’s recent guest appearances at the Budokan concerts of Berryz Koubou and °C-ute. While she did have fun appearing, there was one slip-up she made prior to °C-ute’s performance. Before they got on stage, everyone there including the members of Berryz Koubou, Morning Musume and the Kenshuusei all gathered around to do °C-ute’s signature call before the show: “zenin sorotte hajikeru zoi!“

The way they usually do it is, Maimi says “zenin sorotte“, Nacky says “hajikeru” and everyone yells the final “zoi” together. Despite this being explained to Sayu beforehand, she nevertheless got confused and mistakenly joined in too early, saying the beginning of “hajikeru” with Nacky, much to her embarrassment. What made it even worse for Sayu is that Momochi and Ikuta gave her looks that made it clear they’d heard her.

This embarrassment fresh on her mind, Sayu made sure not to repeat the mistake the next day before Berryz Koubou’s performance.

Listener requested pose: “Sayu updating her blog while battling sleepiness”

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