Author Archives: Lurkette

SS1422 #98 (2014.11.30)

By Lurkette | December 13, 2014

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The Year’s End

The show today gets off to a rocky start as Kananan accidentally introduces Takechan as “Takeda,” and they cry as they realize there is only one month left in 2014. But that’s okay, Kananan wants it to be over soon anyway. They also realize that the ending of the year means that S/mileage will officially be 9 members, however, and that is a very strange feeling. Kananan says that they’ve done a handful of jobs already as 9, but she’s so used to seeing S/mileage as 6 that it’s taking some getting used to. It’s only 3 new people but it feels like so many. It’s surreal for them to think that it will be a permanent change come next year. Then Kananan gets a little morbid.

Kananan: I do want it to be over… but I keep getting older every year and I’m going to die and no it’s too soon! I don’t want to die!
Takechan: It’s a little early for that.
Kananan: No! I don’t want to die…
Takechan: You’re still only 17, though.
Kananan: I have so many things I still want to do…
Takechan: You can still do them!

In any case, they’ll be doing Hello!Con rehearsals until the year ends.

Remember when I posted that picture of a super cute and girly Takeda? Yeah, this is more like it.

So this week, as is the case in the last week of every month, is Power-up Week, or Pair-up Week, or Pears-world Week, or something. Kananan can’t read it. Anyway, that means that two people who submitted messages and letters to the show will be drawn to receive autographed Smile Fantasy posters. The first name drawn is Higu, who writes that they have just started to like S/mileage. They were watching the 3rd gen announcement on Hello!Sta and then went back to watch some older S/mileage videos and found that they had a lot of fun watching 2nd gen. The last time they paid attention to S/mileage was during Samui ne., and they’re shocked at how much better everyone has gotten in their last single at singing and dancing and being expressive. Right now they’re taking college entrance exams so they want S/mileage to have fun in their place. The second name drawn is Miyuki, who drew pictures of AMeRiKa in their member colors in place of a letter. Congrats to the two of them.

Song: C-ute – Aitai Lonely Christmas

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SS1422 #97 (2014.11.23)

By Lurkette | December 12, 2014

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Christmas time is here

November 23 is Labor Thanksgiving Day in Japan, which is the day of this broadcast, but more importantly, Christmas is only a month away, yay! As Takechan glosses over the more current holidays, they go straight into talking about Christmas for this year. Takechan and Kananan joke briefly about their romantic plans for the holiday, since Japan doesn’t really have the religious factor for Christmas and it is celebrated largely as a holiday for couples, and then Kananan says she plans on having a Christmas party at her house.

Takechan really wants to go out and see Christmas lights… but only on her way home or through the window of a car driving by to avoid having to be the only single person in a cluster of boyfriends and girlfriends. Kananan concurs, as she really wants to go out and look at the lights but the last time she tried that she felt so bad about herself by going alone and being surrounded by couples that she left after a few minutes. They probably will not end up going out to see any at all.

30740639_624 Japan has some really impressive holiday lights… but yeah, it’s awkward going alone

However, something else important happens on Christmas and that is Santa. Kananan and Takechan drop some not so subtle hints about something they both want for Christmas, or at least who they want things from.

Kananan: Christmas also means that Santa comes, doesn’t it?
Takechan: It sure does.
Kananan: And I was thinking, hey, wouldn’t he come to the radio station as well?
Takechan: Definitely he would.
Kananan: I mean getting presents is lots of fun…
Takechan: Yeah, we’d just walk into the studio and… oooh! Santa has come!
Kananan: Yes, look at all our presents!
Takechan: We’ll be waiting.
Kananan: Please.

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SS1422 #96 (2014.11.16)

By Lurkette | December 8, 2014

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Winter Feels

The show today opens with Rinapuu asking Meimi what marks the start of winter for her, as it’s starting to get chilly during the morning and evening. Meimi begins to describe the cool winter breeze blowing into her room and sparkling in the morning in a very dream-like voice, which freaks Rinapuu out: “Please go back to normal,” she asks, before Meimi starts singing out of nowhere. “Please be quiet, the listeners–“ Rinapuu tries to stop her but it’s too late, Meimi is in her own world now.

It turns out that it’s the final day of Wicked in Japan and Meimi is doing her best Glinda impression as a result. Rinapuu doesn’t know who that is, but she does know that Elphaba is the name of one of the characters although she’s not sure which one (“The green one?”).

Rinapuu knows that it’s winter when she starts to get affected more by static electricity. She hates static electricity more than anything, possibly even more than bugs. Meimi remembers back when they shot the Mystery Night PV and it was freezing cold in those outfits so they all wore big coats… except Rinapuu. Rinapuu says it’s because taking the coat on and off would give her the static electricity prickles and she doesn’t want to staff members to keep getting shocked from putting it on and off of her either. Plus, her hair gets messed up from it and she doesn’t want to have to keep asking the hair dresser to fix it for her. Static electricity is her least favorite thing, but it’s how she knows winter is around the corner. Continue reading →

We are Juice=Juice #57 (2014.11.11)

By Lurkette | November 18, 2014

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“Sayuki”

If you follow Hello!Project at large you might be able to guess why the opening word this time is Sayuki. November 11, Pocky Day, is former Morning Musume member and Lovendor frontwoman Tanaka Reina’s birthday, and Juice=Juice’s own Sayubee is a massive, massive fan of hers. Now, why Tomo went with Sayuki instead of Reina for the opening word, I’m not entirely sure, but both Tomo and Uemu wish Reina a happy birthday, regardless.

Reina’s birthday is basically Sayuki’s birthday

Song: Juice=Juice – Date ja nai yo, uchi no jinsei wa

Fan Letter

This letter comes from Hanyuu. They remark on how they’ve been going to a number of different Juice=Juice shows around the country, and they end up being so pumped up when they get home that they can’t sleep. Tomo interrupts here with, “Really?” Anyway, they love the recent changes to the setlist and they want to know if they have had any particular juice that they enjoyed from around the country, since they do a toast at every venue with a local juice or drink from the area. Hanyuu liked the coffee drinks in Fukushima and Chiba. The two girls giggle at Hanyuu’s love of coffee and wonder if that might not be the reason why they can’t sleep, instead. Tomo thinks about her favorite drink, but says that Yuka’s favorite was certainly the yuzu cider she had in Ishikawa.

Tomo: I don’t know if I have one. Do you have anything, Uemu?
Uemu: Mikkuchu juuchu!
Tomo: … mikkuchu juuchu?
Uemu: Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.
Tomo: That’s not what’s called.

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SS1422 #95 (2014.11.09)

By Lurkette | November 17, 2014

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School Festivals

Since it’s November, the discussion opens up on campus festivals, which normally occur during this time of year. These festivals are what the name implies, they’re essentially carnivals on university campuses with lots of food and games hosted by different school clubs and their are music and dance showcases for the students, and usually the school books some musical acts to perform. Rinapuu, not a college student, remembers that they performed at one festival last year and it was kind of a surreal experience. Normally they have lots of fans that show up wherever they go, but their typical wota behavior like jumping or dancing isn’t exactly encouraged at these sorts of events, especially if they aren’t students, they had to rely on the reactions of the students who were there instead. They were all really worried about how they would react since they’re not college students and still rather young by comparison, but it ended up being really fun and the crowd was very supportive.

Who would ever guess she’s not a college student?

Meimi, also not a college student, says that she went to one once with Kanyon and Kananan when they had time to hang out. It was incredibly fun, so much so that she didn’t want to go home. Rinapuu wants to try working at festival or a theme park, as well. In particular, she wants to be that one person who always waves and says “have fun!” in kind of a sarcastic way at the front of haunted houses or roller coasters. You know the one. I think it suits her.

The 2nd generation members

They take a moment to reflect on the past two shows, in which all of the 2nd gen members were present. Rinapuu says it was a whole lot of fun and it made her appreciate the radio show even more, because she’s not sure there would be too many other opportunities to showcase how all 4 of them interact together otherwise. Meimi has a bit of a complaint, though: they were set up in a room to record where they really couldn’t see each other too well, and she thinks it would have been more fun to be able to see everyone’s faces as they talked. Rinapuu points out that this is rude to the staff who let all 4 of them get together in the first place and besides, if they could see everyone’s faces they probably would have laughed too much to actually record any talking.

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SS1422 #94 (2014.11.02)

By Lurkette | November 17, 2014

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Cultured Leader Wada-san

The discussion starts off today with the question, “What is culture?” Kananan responds quickly with, “Japanese food, Japanese clothes, Japanese art… which means Wada-san!” Takechan is incredibly impressed and asks her if she looked this up beforehand. She did, of course, but all of this was just an elaborate segue to talk about everyone’s favorite leader, Dawa. Meimi says that she has made plans with Dawa to share their respective hobbies. They went to see Wicked together (since there are few things Meimi loves more than Wicked) and they’ve been talking about visiting different temples together. Takechan, on the other hand, reports that she made a bet for the winner of a Central Baseball League game and her team lost, although she wants everyone to know it was a very, very close game. As a punishment, she has to make a written report of her thoughts on Dawa’s book, A Maiden’s Guide to Paintings. She has not started yet. Rinapuu says that Dawa recently bought her and Takechan some Harry Potter merchandise since their both such big fans. Meimi begins to pout, “She didn’t get me anything…” Kananan points out that earlier when Dawa was out with Meimi, though, they met up with Kananan and took purikura without Rinapuu or Takechan, so it evens out.

No Takechan or Rinapuu in sight

Personal Updates

Moving on, Takechan asks if anyone has done anything interesting lately. Meimi immediately chimes in with, “Religious study!” Yes, this is true: Meimi went on her own personal time out to a temple to do a day of training with the monks. Rinapuu thinks this is weird, but Kananan might like to go and try it once. Meimi says it was really intense, as she ran so much she thought her legs would give out and they hiked so far she couldn’t breathe and then she did some waterfall mediation. She was about to give up halfway through but then she realized she might never get the opportunity to do waterfall meditation ever again so she gave it a go. She thinks that if she had stuck with it she really might have considered becoming a monk.

A monk actually took this

While her generation-mates sway her away from the path of a monk, Meimi informs us that she did take away something very important from the experience and that is gratitude. She ate a meal with the monks and said that they spend a long time doing prayers before eating and always make sure to express their thanks for receiving anything. She emphasizes how difficult the waterfall meditation was, though, as it was very chilly and she can’t imagine doing it in February like the monks do. She also notes how very few women ever do the hike up to the waterfall so she feels special for being able to do it. Takechan doesn’t think that first year high school students ever do anything like that, either, and mentions how strange Meimi is.

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We are Juice=Juice #56 (2014.11.04)

By Lurkette | November 9, 2014

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“November”

Because it is. Like there’s no explanation given for why Tomo chose this word and it’s probably best that way.

Anyhow, they move on to talking about their new play, Koi Suru Hello Kitty, which is about what life for Hello Kitty would be life if she turned into a human (she’s already not a cat so we’re halfway there) and went to school, but I like to imagine that it’s just a Koi Suru Fortune Cookie dance cover set in Puroland. Tomo mentions that she’s really nervous to be acting on stage for the first time so she defers to Sayubee, who is far more experienced in this realm. Sayubee says it’s a bit too early to say how things are going, but she’ll do her best to make it good. Tomo is also playing a male role in the play, an attractive young man on the soccer team. To prepare for this role, she’s been watching a lot of music videos featuring soccer boys to get an idea of how to act. Sure, we’ll go with that.

I dig it.

Song: Juice=Juice – Date ja nai yo, uchi no jinsei wa
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We are Juice=Juice #55 (2014.10.28)

By Lurkette | November 9, 2014

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“Looking forward to it”

Today’s opening line comes to us from Sayubee, who really likes the drama Dear Sister and is looking forward to it. Tomo asks if this is a weekly thing, Sayubee says yes, and Tomo asks her if she’s really that excited for it every week. She is, but she confirms that she’s something of a drama fiend, and Tomo says that Yuka and Sayubee are the two always watching different dramas. Tomo gives a very insincere promise to try and watch one sometime.

They move on to talking about fall, since it’s the end of October. Tomo says that fall always makes her hungrier since the food is more tasty and she has been eating ramen regularly since the start of the season. Sayubee, on the other hand, hasn’t eaten any fall foods yet. She should get on it. Tomo says that another good fall thing to do is to snuggle with your pets. Tomo has her old cat Noontoon, but now she also has a hamster. She got interested in getting hamster when she went to a friend’s house and they had one, but then she found a reason to get one of her own:

Tomo: I went into a pet shop and they had hamsters and it was a sign.
Sayubee: They always have hamsters in pet stores, though.
Tomo: It was fate.

Song: Juice=Juice – Date ja nai yo, uchi no jinsei wa

Nivea the hamster still can’t compete with monster cat Noontoon

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