Author Archives: Henkka

Nakajima Saki no °C-ute na Jikan #138 (2014.08.23) (guest: Yajima Maimi)

By | September 12, 2014
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cutenajikan

Nacky introduces her guest: °C-ute’s leader, Yajima Maimi!

This is Maimi’s first time back on the show since last coming on as a guest back in June, and Nacky says that she already noticed then how reliable Maimi is when it comes to doing radio together since Maimi has her own show, too. Maimi says she still remembers when Nacky started this show and how she had trouble reading aloud the contact information for the show without stumbling over her words. Nacky says she still has trouble with that even now, Maimi says she does, too, and they come to the conclusion that stumbling over one’s words is impossible to fix entirely.

They talk briefly about the events they had over the summer. Starting with OTODAMA, Maimi says she had lots of fun firing off water guns and throwing water balloons at the audience. Nacky says their shows at OTODAMA always leave her with a sore throat since she has so much fun performing there.

As for Mezamashi Live, °C-ute appeared at the event with the band Akai Kouen. Maimi remarks how cool it was seeing a band play live, and how she hoped some of their fans would also become interested in °C-ute as well. Nacky remembers there being lots of young students at this event.

Finally, they appeared at SUMMER STATION, a new event that was held for the first time this summer. Since this event was in the evening, Maimi figured the heat wouldn’t be that much of an issue, but she found herself sopping wet with sweat in no time. Regardless, they were both happy to see that the venue was so packed with people.

Song: °C-ute – Bagel ni Ham & Cheese

°C-ute with Akai Kouen at Mezamashi Live

°C-ute with Akai Kouen at Mezamashi Live

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Morning Musume ’14 no Morning Jogakuin ~Houkago Meeting~ #125 (2014.08.23)

By | September 11, 2014
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jogakuin

Fuku-chan & Sayashi & Maa-chan: Aloha~!

Fuku-chan explains their opening greeting by saying that the three will be in Hawaii on the day this episode is broadcast. At this point they’re still in Tokyo recording the show though, and Fuku-chan asks the two how they’re doing with their preparations for Hawaii. Sayashi says she hasn’t done a single thing yet — she only just found a carry case at home today. Maa-chan immediately asks Sayashi what color her carry case is, and Sayashi says it’s somewhere between orange and pink. Maa-chan says she hasn’t done anything yet either, and Fuku-chan admits that neither has she. Fuku-chan wonders how many changes of clothes she should bring with her. Sayashi says they’ll probably be mostly wearing outfits provided by the office, so just bringing T-shirts and Relaco should be enough.

Fuku-chan mentions that August 23 is Ukulele Day in Hawaii. She has a DVD where the members of Berryz practice playing “Happy Birthday” for Risako on the ukulele, so when she got the opportunity to play one herself, she remembered that scene on the DVD and tried to see if she could play it, and to her surprise she found that she actually could. Sayashi is surprised to hear this and they hope they get a chance to play some on this trip to Hawaii as well.

Opening Question

The three take turns in answering a question about what they’re generally doing before concerts. Fuku-chan says she applies lip balm given to her by Kenshuusei Yamagishi Riko, Sayashi says she drinks black tea, and Maa-chan says she fixes her hair.

Fuku-chan says this is the first time she’s heard about Sayashi’s tea thing. Sayashi explains that it’s not like she has to drink it every concert, but since hearing other artists saying they drink sweet teas such as herb tea, she’s gotten into the habit of doing so to help herself keep her throat in good condition throughout the concert.

Fuku-chan: As for Maa-chan, you fix your hair, huh?
Maa-chan: No. I double-check the lyrics.
Fuku-chan: …Oh. So you changed your answer.

Fuku-chan mentions how the other day she had her hair done curly for Hello!Con, but the curls got undone and she was talking to her manager about what she should do. Maa-chan suddenly offered to fix Fuku-chan’s hair for her, and she first weaved it and then braided it for her. Even though there was hardly any time to spare, Maa-chan pulled it off in no time and Sayashi says it really suited Fuku-chan. Maa-chan says she wants to change back to her original answer after all.

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Konya mo Usachan Peace #408 (2014.08.18)

By | September 9, 2014
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konya

Looking back on the last two weeks on the show with Maa-chan as the guest, Sayu says it was just “amazing” — she says the people who listened to the shows will know what she means by that. She describes Maa-chan as a storm that just swept its way through the show, and says that her antics didn’t stop only at what was broadcasted: she was also on a rampage behind the scenes, too.

First of all, when they were heading towards the studio to record the episodes, Maa-chan told Sayu she was hoping they’d have recorded them in the daytime instead (this was in the evening). When Sayu asked why, Maa-chan said she wasn’t feeling all that energetic. Sayu obviously didn’t like that someone who was coming on her show as a guest wasn’t feeling very excited about it, but she nevertheless told Maa-chan she’d be doing her best to make it exciting so she wanted Maa-chan to do her best, too. Maa-chan just answered with a half-hearted “Yeah, sure… I guess…“

But the second they arrived at the studio, even before the recording started, Maa-chan suddenly got insanely fired-up to the point that Sayu even wondered what on earth she’d meant when she said she “wasn’t feeling very energetic.” Maa-chan was just eating everything in front of her, constantly talking and not making any sense, carefreely calling over staff members just to talk to them… Sayu says Maa-chan was 100% “Sato Masaki” that day.

Maa-chan, too, said she had a lot of fun, and a couple of days later she sent Sayu an email saying “I want to appear on Konusapii again!” However, that email was immediately followed up by another email that said “I forgot to bring my training wear with me today. I’m very sorry to trouble everyone.” Sayu figured Maa-chan was feeling nervous the members would get angry at her for forgetting to bring her gear so she must’ve been trying to butter Sayu up with compliments to hopefully soften the blow.

Sayu hopes to get back to her usual, Maa-chan-less, more relaxed radio show this week.

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BZS1422 #109 (2014.08.17) (guest: Fukuda Kanon)

By | September 8, 2014
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bzs1422

Kumai-san and Kanon begin the show just by the two of them and Kumai-san introduces herself as the “caster” of the show — a role that is usually reserved for Tokunaga Chinami.

Kumai-chan starts by asking Kanon about her memories of summer. Kanon talks about how she bought the “3 Natsu Natsu Mini Berryz” mini-album because she wanted to wear the beach sandals that came with its limited edition. When she actually got them, though, she suddenly thought it’d be a waste to use them so she decided to just treasure them without using them.

But the sad part happened when Kanon’s family moved out of that home. They got a moving contractor to do a thorough clean-up of the whole house and they, for some reason, threw Kanon’s beach sandals in the trash. Kumai-san is shocked to hear this and asks why they would just throw them away without asking first. Kanon explains that since her room was so messy, her mother had just told the contractors to throw away everything even resembling trash. Kumai-san wishes she’d have known this just a little bit earlier: she actually gave a pair of these beach sandals away to a fan at an event last summer.

Kumai-san and Kanon introduce their super special guest of the week: Tokunaga Chinami! Chii says she’s kind of getting used to this nonsense about her being referred to as the guest. She quickly reassumes her position as the caster.

Song: S/mileage – Chikyuu wa Kyou mo Ai wo Hagukumu

Mail Corner

Fan letter #1: The listener says he only just recently found out about this show and is already hooked. Chii-chan’s frequent fumbling of her words, Kumai-san’s weird interjections, the peculiar atmosphere on the show… the listener is so hooked on it all, he says he now listens to past episodes when he’s commuting to work, when he’s on his afternoon break, when he’s in the bath and when he’s about to sleep. He tried thinking about why he wasn’t listening to this show before and realized it was because of two reasons, namely Tokunaga Chinami and Kumai Yurina. He says the two don’t promote this show nearly enough and asks that they start doing so more.

Chii says she’s very happy about such praise, but wonders if they’re really not doing enough to promote the show. Chii thinks she actually does her fair share and asks Kanon how much she usually promotes things on her blog. Kanon answers that while she herself doesn’t do much promoting, she’s also the type of person who will look up upcoming events and concerts on her own even without hearing about it somewhere. She just recommends people to check artists’ official sites for that sort of information.

Kanon offers that she can start promoting this radio show for Chii and Kumai-san, and the two sound very pleased with this offer, calling her a simply wonderful kouhai.

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Nakajima Saki no °C-ute na Jikan #137 (2014.08.16)

By | September 3, 2014
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cutenajikan

Answering Oda Sakura’s question from Morning Jogakuin #124 as to whether she’d ever like to sing Tanpopo’s “I & YOU & I & YOU & I,” Nacky says she thinks it’s a really cute song and remembers someone once singing it at a Hello!Con and thinking she wanted to sing it, too. She thanks Oda for wanting her to sing such a cute song, and recommends that anyone who doesn’t know it checks it out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OjwQBHQmZQ

Nacky notes that there is now less than a month to go until the upcoming °C-ute & Berryz Koubou Budokan concerts. Nacky says she’s happy just to be able to stand on the stage of Budokan again, but the fact that Berryz is going up there with them makes it even better. Thinking back to last year when °C-ute was a guest at Berryz’ Budokan concert, she really had a feeling of close friendship between the two groups when they sang “Ganbacchae!” together. Even now, well over ten years since they joined Hello! Project, she says that she still doesn’t talk to the members of Berryz much because of her timid nature. But even so, they all feel like big sisters to her — even if Sugaya Risako is younger than her. She says she really felt the importance of friends at Budokan last year.

As for this year’s Budokan, Nacky thinks she might become even more emotional, especially with Berryz’ upcoming hiatus. That’s her only concern about the upcoming performances: she might end up crying her eyes off on stage. She says she’s going to do her best to make it a truly memorable concert.

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Morning Musume ’14 no Morning Jogakuin ~Houkago Meeting~ #124 (2014.08.16)

By | September 2, 2014
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jogakuin

Suzuki, Oda and Kudo talk about their Hawaii tour that’s next week. For Oda, it’ll be the first time she’s ever been overseas in her life. She’s been told that Hawaii is basically the same as Japan as you can get by with just Japanese, but Kudo says that it still takes some time to get used to the different currency as well as everything, especially food portions, being bigger. Speaking of the different value of things there, Kudo tells a story about how last time when she was in Hawaii, she found a pair of black Converse sneakers she’d been wanting for sale at $19. She thought that was still a bit steep, but when she came back and looked it up, the cheapest pair she could find for sale in Japan was $40.

The three name the H!P members they’re most interested in as of late: Inaba Manaka (Oda), Takeuchi Akari (Suzuki) and Wada Ayaka (Kudo) — the last one earns Kudo few whistles from Oda.

Elaborating on their choices, Kudo says she got close to Wada-san thanks to them appearing in Lilium together. Oda notes that Kudo’s and Wada-san’s feelings for each other seem mutual and Suzuki figures Wada-san must have a thing for narcissists. Kudo starts making up an excuse to prove Wada-san’s innocence, and the other two say it’s cool how Kudo is trying to protect her so desperately. Kudo wants to change the topic.

Oda says she’s noticed Suzuki really likes Takeuchi lately which Suzuki admits. She says that when they’re hanging out together, she’s just “Akari-chan” as usual. But when Suzuki is by herself watching S/mileage’s videos and stuff — “Samui ne” or “Choto Mate Kudasai!” for example — she finds her so cute she doesn’t know what to do. Kudo asks if Suzuki saw their new PV yet, and Suzuki says (or rather, screams) that she did and that Take-chan was really cute in it. Oda explains that Suzuki first took notice of Take-chan’s appeal during the final day of Lilium: after the performances had all ended, she was just backstage watching their videos when she suddenly went “…Akari-chan is cute!!!” Suzuki says she’s lately often showing S/mileage’s videos to her dad and going “Isn’t Akari-chan just so cute in this?!” Kudo suggests that Suzuki has fallen in love with Take-chan. “Love, huh…?“, ponders Suzuki.

According to Oda, her pick, Inaba Manaka from the Kenshuusei, is first and foremost just really cute. She says she, too, may have fallen in love with Manaka-chan. Manaka-chan, though, says she likes Kudo, so Oda often tries to help her out by making her and Kudo closer. Once she called Manaka-chan and Kudo in the same room and made them link their hands, and afterwards Manaka-chan approached her and said “I was so nervous, Oda-chan! Thank you!” Oda then said “but I actually like you, you know…” and Manaka-chan happily replied “then it looks like this is becoming a love triangle!” Kudo says Oda’s pretty amazing for doing all that just to be close to Manaka-chan, but Oda corrects her and says she just does it because she wants the person she likes to be happy.

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Konya mo Usachan Peace #407 (2014.08.11) (guest: Sato Masaki)

By | September 1, 2014
5 comments

konya

Continuing from last time, Maa-chan is Sayu’s guest again this week. Sayu begins by doing an impression of what Maa-chan said first thing after they were done recording last week’s episode:

Sayu asks why she has to listen Maa-chan sighing like she’s just suffered through some really hard work when it’s Sayu herself who feels like doing so. Maa-chan laughs through her protests. Sayu asks why Maa-chan was saying she wants to come again this week if she felt so tired already, but Maa-chan assures her that she wants to do two, three, even four weeks of this show in a row with Sayu.

Sayu: A full month with Maa-chan as the guest, huh…
Maa-chan: A month is four weeks long?

Still, Sayu shes say’s glad Maa-chan seems to be enjoying herself.

Sayu: Konya mo…
Sayu & Maa-chan: Usa-chan peace!

Song: Morning Musume Rokkies – Watashi no Jidai!

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SS1422 #82 (2014.08.10)

By | August 31, 2014
2 comments

ss1422

Kananan and Meimei begin by talking briefly about several subjects including the Obon festival in Japan, their upcoming tour FULL CHARGE and the places they’re most looking forward to visiting on it (Meimei: Okinawa, Kananan: Wakayama) as well as recommended souvenirs — Kananan recommends the two Osakan delicacies takopatie (takoyaki sweets) and butaman (pork buns) from a store called 551 Horai, whereas for souvenirs from Gunma, Meimei recommends Shichifukujin arare (a brand of rice crackers that come in several flavors).

Song: S/mileage – Aa Susukino

Nakanicinema Paradise
Nakanishi Kana talks about movies

Kananan starts the corner this week by reading a letter.

Fan letter: The listener says they watched the movie Usagi Drop thanks to Kananan previously introducing and reviewing it on this corner. They call it a wonderful film and say it made them feel all warm and fluffy inside. They say they’re looking forward to more movie recommendations by Kananan, and request that she do The Grand Budapest Hotel next. (Kananan also touched briefly on this film when she was a guest on LoVendoЯ no Love-On! #59.)

Thus, Kananan does as requested and starts reviewing The Grand Budapest Hotel. Kananan says she went to see this film with Fukuda-san, and explains that it’s about a high-class European hotel called the Grand Budapest Hotel. A murder occurs (Meimei: “*gasp!*“), and the protagonist who is a concierge at the hotel is suspected of committing it. The story follows him and a lobby boy who also works at the hotel as they try to find the truth behind the murder.

Nakanishi talks about how Western films are sometimes considered difficult to understand by Japanese audiences — Kananan mentions how she’d previously asked Take-chan to watch one with her, but she was reluctant since she hasn’t watched many. (Meimei, on the other hand, says she thinks they’re interesting.) Kananan says she recommends this film especially for people like that since she finds it so comical and cute, and because it’s about human relationships. The film shows you how even complete strangers can with time become as close as family. She says that all ages will find things to enjoy in this film: it’ll make the older audiences think, whereas the kids will be able to enjoy its cute visuals.

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