Author Archives: Skoban

♪ Buono! –Deep Mind ♪

Momoko announces that this is the last episode of Trattoria Buono! for the year. Looking back over the year, a lot of things happened on the radio show. They feel that  the appearance of Baron-san on the radio show was the biggest thing that happened. Getting to interact with him was something they hadn’t expected. They praise his dulcet tones, and Airi wishes that he’d pop by again.

Momoko also remarks that Airi-sensei hasn’t been appearing recently. A bit of explaining may be in order. As you may know, one segment of the Trattoria Buono! shows is an advice corner. In the past, Airi would disappear somewhere, while Momoko and Miyabi would mull over the given question for a while. They would then summon Airi-sensei, a ‘character’ played by Airi. According to Miyabi, Airi wears black spectacles when in the Airi-sensei role. Airi-sensei would give her frank opinions on the problem at hand, in a somewhat airy-fairy manner. In mid-2014, both Airi-sensei and Airi ‘met’ one another in the advice corner, and from then, Airi-sensei slowly stopped making appearances.

Coming back to the radio show, Momoko recalls that up to the first half of the year, Airi-sensei would often pop by and given her frank opinions on the various situations they received from listeners. Airi suggests that they should try contacting Airi-sensei, and asks if the others remember when both her and Airi-sensei appeared at the same time. Airi herself personally enjoyed that encounter. Her schedule and Airi-sensei’s hardly ever match, so Airi enjoys the occasional chance they get to meet. Miyabi and Airi start going back and forth about contacting Airi-sensei, until Momoko tells them to stop with the farce, and commences with wrapping up the opening segment.

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♪ Buono! – Winter Story ♪

Momoko announces that the day after the show, December 21st, would be ‘Enkyori Ren’ai no Hi‘ – ‘Long-distance relationship day’. It’s a day for long-distance couples to reaffirm their relationship before Christmas (Airi: ‘Christmas should be sufficient though‘). The girls do find it a tad unreasonable that these couples can’t wait the three, four days until Christmas. The discussion spills over to them talking about the proliferation of couples in town during this period of time – all flirting here and there.

Momoko: Please, think about where you are.

♪ Jackson 5 – Little Christmas Tree ♪

Discussion topic: This year’s Christmas presents recommendations for children

 Momoko thinks that there are quite a lot. Firstly, Yo-kai Watch. Miyabi comments that it feels like all the toy stores are inundated with Yo-Kai watch products. Not just the medals, but even the capsule toys seem to get sold out. It’s similar to the Pokemon boom of their childhood days, though the girls don’t really know the names of the characters. However, they are familiar with the sight of the series’ mascot, the orange cat Jibanyan. The series’ Pikachu, if you will. Momoko seems to be the resident expert, which is attributed to her involvement with the kids programme OhaStar.

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♪ Buono! – co・no・mi・chi ♪

Momoko announces that December 13th is ‘Biyoushitsu no Hi‘, or ‘Hairdresser’s day’. She points out that a lot of events occur in December, so lots of people visit the hairdresser’s to prepare for things like dates on Christmas or just to get refreshed to greet the new year.

Miyabi loves going to the hairdresser’s, and Momoko comments that she seems to go once every two weeks. Miyabi agrees – she drops by the hairdresser’s quite often, whenever she has free time (Airi: ‘Every time we meet, it feels like your hair’s changed‘). In fact, even as they’re recording, she feels like going to the hairdresser.

Momoko, however, isn’t a big fan of hairdressers. She may drop into one about once in a half a year (Miyabi: ‘Isn’t that bad?’ Airi: ‘That’s pretty bad‘). Asking the others if they like to chat with their hairdressers, they reply that it depends on the the person doing their hair – they’ll talk if the hairdresser is chatty, and keep quiet if they aren’t. For Miyabi, if she doesn’t feel like talking, she’ll feign sleep.

Momoko’s all right if it’s chatting when her hair’s getting cut, but she’s really bad when it comes to talking while she’s getting shampooed. Airi reveals that when she’s getting shampooed, she uses her nose to move the gauze, where it could end up in a position that allows her to peek. The others find this horrible and in bad taste, and you don’t actually want to see anything, right?

Airi admits that it isn’t like she wants to peek. From since she was small, she really likes the feeling of the gauze coming loose (Momoko: ‘I don’t get you~ That quite the obsession‘). Momoko notes that if you accidentally raise your neck, it gets pretty loose and becomes pretty uncomfortable at  the nose and mouth regions. Airi declares that having the chin exposed is all right, and you can use your chin to stop the gauze from dropping (Momoko: ‘My gauze technique still isn’t at that level‘).

Airi’s familiar with her hairdresser, having been a regular from when she was small, and her hairdresser asks her to stop it when she does these things. Airi finds it fun, but also adds that you can’t let the whole thing fall off. You have to make just loose enough that you don’t get exposed. . She tries explaining it further, but Momoko’s already completely lost.

 Airi: I should probably quit this before people start thinking I’m weird.
Momoko: Don’t worry, don’t worry, you’re plenty weird already.

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♪ Buono! – Baketsu no Mizu ♪

Momoko announces that December 6th is ‘Oto no Hi‘, which roughly translates to ‘Sound Day’. She asks the others: do they have any sounds that they like? Or dislike, like a blackboard being scratched, which turns out to be something that the girls unanimously dislike. Momoko herself loves the sound of running streams.

Miyabi: The ones that play when you’re in the washroom?
Momoko: Don’t equate it with an otohime! They’re different!
Miyabi: They’re different?
Momoko: Stop it, don’t relate idols with washrooms.

Airi hails from Chiba, and she enjoys the chirping of crickets on summer nights. She loves how beautiful the evening sky gets during summer and autumn, and when she goes outside, she hears the crickets chirping. Fellow Chiba resident Momoko understands, while Saitama representative Miyabi isn’t familiar with it at all.

Miyabi professes to liking the background music that’s playing while they speak.

Miyabi: This kind of unknown song…
Momoko: So for Miya, it’s because it’s unknown?
Miyabi: This unknown song, with its unknown singer.
Momoko: There’s no vocals though.

Even though the current background music is just an instrumental, it creates a cafe mood. When Miyabi hears a song sung by a foreign artiste she doesn’t know, she just enjoys listening to the singer’s voice, though she doesn’t actually go through the effort of looking up the singer. Basically, she likes music she’s unfamiliar with. At cafes, music like that helps her relax. Recently she’s been turning on such background music-type songs when she goes to sleep, which she finds calms her down. Momoko and Airi find this action pretty stylish.

Momoko: In Miya’s case, her bedroom is a cafe.

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♪ Buono! – Rock no Kamisama ♪

Momoko announces that November 29th is ‘Ii Fuku no Hi’ – ‘Good Clothes Day’. A day for highly recommended winter fashion items and popular techniques for making use of clothes (Airi: ‘That’s a clearly defined day!‘). Fashion leader Miyabi is asked for her recommendation – she doesn’t know much about popular techniques, but at any rate, she recommends knitwear, for girls wanting to look cute in winter. Something white with large stitched knits.

Airi, however, finds it cold if she goes out with large stitches. The wind blows through the gaps. Miyabi thinks that it’d be fine, but the other two disagree. They’d have to wear Heattech clothes on the inside, which would clash with the white knit. Then there’s some confusion about whether Miyabi’s talking about ‘knit’ or ‘net’.

 

At photo shoots, Momoko’s often told that longish sleeves are the way to go – long enough to cover the palms, the so-called ‘moe-sode‘. Airi also brings up mufflers, which the girls agree are both cute and warm.

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♪ Buono! – Kira Kira ♪

Momoko announces that November 22nd is ‘Ii FuuFu no Hi‘ – ‘(Married) Couple’s Day’. Getting married is something everyone’s dreamt about, and Momoko asks the others if their parents have good relationships with one another. Airi thinks that her parents have a good relationship. Her ideal marriage, perhaps from her observations of her mother, is one where the wife walks 3 steps behind the husband.

Airi: That’s my ideal. But there are all types. Even ones where the woman is in control.
Momoko: That’d definitely be my preference. I’d keep my spouse on a short leash.
(Airi and Miyabi shriek and applaud)
Momoko: Wouldn’t that be better? I’d seize all the power. In the future. If I get married.
Miyabi: (laughs) Momo would be like that. That’d happen.
Momoko: One step, two steps behind? No way, no way. Or even the same level? I’d rather be on top.
Miyabi: The same level would be fine for me.

For Airi, her father is the provider for the family. While in the Tsugunaga family, the mother may not be the backbone of the family, but she despite that, she still commands the father.

In Airi’s opinion, being at the same level is fine. But she’d like to become a wife who would support her husband whenever anything happens. The other two agree that it’s important to be supportive at times like that – what they’ve been discussing is a different thing altogether. When outside, of course they’d be supportive of their spouse, but their earlier discussion concerned domestic matters.

Airi thinks that she’d dislike a situation where you’d have the children observing that the mother is in control. The mood in her family is that the father of the highest importance (Momoko: ‘It’s definitely my Mama in my home‘). Her mother would notice when her father wanted additional servings of rice and bring it to him. This doesn’t happen in Momoko and Miyabi’s homes – their fathers would have to ask for seconds. In fact, when Momoko’s father asks Momoko to bring him some water, Momo’s response is, ‘Eh? Don’t you have legs?‘ If he asks nicely and explains that he’s tired, then Momoko will understand and go get it. But if it’s just a ‘Momo, water~‘ she’d just respond with a insolent ‘Come agai~n?‘.

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♪ Buono! – One Way = My Way ♪

Momoko comments that November 15th is Shichi-Go-San, a traditional festival day in Japan for children aged 3, 5, and 7. For the girls, it was something that last happened way in the past, when they were 7 years old. That would have been 13 years ago for Airi and 15 years ago for the others. While Momoko can’t remember hers, Airi remembers hers pretty well. Miyabi, however, seems to be trying  to recall something:

Miyabi: Really long… long and thin… milk-flavoured… a sweet…
Airi: Chitose Ame?
Momoko: Yeah, that’s Chitose Ame.

Miyabi likes those so much that she eats them even out of Shichi-Go-San festivities – though she still can’t remember the name.

Miyabi: I love it. That long, thin candy.
Momoko: Got it, Chitose Ame. Try saying it once.
Miyabi: Hitose Ame.
Momoko: ‘Chi’ It’s ‘Chi’.
Airi: Chitose.
Miyabi: Chitose Ame.

 Girls celebrate Shichi-Go-San at ages three and seven. According to Airi, she was still cute when she was three. Asked to explain, she mentions that in the photos taken of her when she was 3, she was dressed up and adorable. But she wore a kimono when she turned 7, and she looked really ugly in her photos from that time. At the time,  her brother was also celebrating as a 5-year old, and her brother looked super cute in the photos they took together. She remembers everyone fawning over her brother’s cuteness. It bewildered her a bit until she saw the photo.

Momoko would like to see their photos from that time, someday. Miyabi says that she was pretty round when she was small. You probably wouldn’t recognise her. She was like a balloon. Balloon Natsuyaki.

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