Tag Archives: Kumai Yurina

The hosts begin by talking about how much they’d like to go overseas right now, especially somewhere warm. Kumai-san would especially like to visit the Hamilton Island to see its heart-shaped reef, whereas Chii wants to visit the Maldives — she appreciates the fact that Maldives apparently doesn’t offer much in the way of shopping opportunities or even things to do in general, so she figures it’d be really relaxing. In any case, the two are looking forward to their February trip to the warmth of Thailand and the many massages that await them there.

“So how are you lately?” Chii asks her co-host. Kumai-san recently bought herself a new wallet that she began using at the start of the year. This is good since Chii’s heard that it’s recommended for all people to change wallets at least once per year. If you don’t, it’ll cause bad luck: the money is going to “escape” from your wallet.

Meanwhile, Chii finally finished cleaning her room — a New Year’s tradition in Japan. Her room is a great deal neater now, and even the Barbie, Toy Story and Disney dolls she’s been collecting for the past five years or so are now all in perfect order. She actually finished this clean-up operation just before the recording of this show which means she’s kind of tired right now.

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January 12th is Coming of Age Day in Japan, and the H!P members celebrating the event this year are Iikubo Haruna, Suzuki Airi, Okai Chisato, Wada Ayaka, Fukuda Kanon, Miyazaki Yuka, and Sugaya Risako. Chii asks Kumai-san — their “senpai in life” — for her take on this. Kumai-san still remembers how tiny they were and is touched to see all of them now becoming proper adults. She feels proud of them, like they were all her own children. The two congratulate this group once more.

This is actually the first recording of BZS1422 in 2015, and the two talk about how New Year’s was for them. The two were in fact sitting next to each other the very moment 2014 turned into 2015 as they both took part in the Countdown Live. Kumai-san fondly remembers their seniors like Nakazawa and Yoshizawa talking to them about how big they’d gotten.

After the concert, they got back to the hotel and went out to visit a shrine. The next day, Chii slept until about 1 PM and later went to her grandma’s house where they had a crab party. Kumai-san, too, ate so much crab that day, she felt she’d come to hate it if she’d eaten any more.

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“Merry Christmas!” While this is the first broadcast of 2015, the hosts explain that this episode is actually being recorded on Christmas Eve. Still, as it still is the first broadcast of the year, Chii says she’s sure she isn’t going to flub her words even once during the show, partly also thanks to her recent enthusiasm towards rapping and “rhythm.” Kumai-san expresses doubt at this claim, and as probably goes without saying, Chii’s confidence turns out to be completely unjustified not many minutes after.

January marks the beginning of the final Hello!Con tour for Berryz, and our hosts were actually rehearsing for it prior to recording this episode. Chii says she has something she feels very sad about regarding this rehearsal: even though it’s Christmas, the members received no cake, no nothing from the staff! Chii couldn’t believe it.

Lack of cakes aside, the two talk about how there are now so many new members rehearsing with them. “It’s overflowing with youth!“, Kumai-san describes. But the rehearsal space seems to be overflowing with feelings of something else as well: Kumai-san has noticed how members of the staff — many of them who have been watching over Berryz for many years now — have been looking at them as they rehearse, some with perhaps a hint of nostalgia in their eyes.

Chii wishes to share something with the listeners before the first corner of the show. The other day, a fan who attended an individual handshake event with Berryz Koubou shook hands with Kumai-san and told her that they’d become a fan of the group through listening to BZS1422. The two were very happy about this, and they agree: if even one person became a fan of Berryz through BZS1422, then these 129 episodes of the show have all been worth it.

Chii: But for some reason, that fan didn’t come and shake hands with me.
Kumai-san: … Huh?
Chii: Let us move on to the first number of this week’s BZS1422.

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As it is the last broadcast of 2014, the hosts wish to introduce the kanji characters that best represented the year for them. Kumai-san mentions that the official Kanji of the Year for 2014 — as selected by the Japanese Kanji Proficiency Society — was “税” (zei, tax), referring to Japan’s consumption tax increase from 5% to 8%. Kumai-san still feels that 8% is huge, and she hates it when some prices are listed only as e.g. “5000 yen plus tax,” wishing that they would just list the full price as-is, tax included.

Kumai-san’s kanji of the year is “瞬” (shun, moment/instant). For her, it felt like the year was over in an instant. Also, after their hiatus announcement, she has been treasuring each and every moment with the group more than before. Chii praises Kumai-san’s kanji as being very deep and agrees with her choice: she can’t believe that it was only earlier this year that they went to France or released “Diet Oukoku” — she says she probably wouldn’t be able to do the choreography right now if asked to.

Chii’s kanji of the year is “思” (omo, think/consider/reminisce). Chii explains that she thought about things a lot, what with their hiatus announcement, their trip to France and such. Plus, she felt that she made lots of memories with the group this year, like going to Disneyland together, sleeping in the same room with everyone, etc. Kumai-san is impressed with Chii’s kanji choice, too.

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There’s three days until Christmas Eve, and our hosts can now finally reveal that the Berryz gift exchange discussed last week will take place this year as well! The two groan about how difficult it is finding a present that could make all of the other members happy, but somehow they must try.

S/mileage has just announced their name change, and the hosts are impressed it was Kananan who actually came up with the new name. Kumai-san thinks that whereas S/mileage sounded cute and energetic, ANGERME brings to mind an image of grownup women. She thinks this name means they might now mostly have songs that sound more “grownup” as well; Chii, however, points out that their new songs have already been announced and they’re titled “Taiki Bansei” and “Otome no Gyakushuu.” Learning this, Kumai-san is relieved that perhaps not much will change after all.

Recently announced were also the top buzzwords of Japan in 2014. While these were the hot words of 2014 among the general Japanese public, Chii proposes that they in turn announce the buzzwords among the members of Berryz Koubou.

Unsurprisingly, Kumai-san says her buzzword of the year was “enjoy.” “Isn’t that your buzzword for every year?” Chii deservedly asks, but Kumai-san explains that this year the word permeated not only to the fans and the other members more than ever before, but also to her private life: even her friends would use the word around her with no rhyme or reason, leading to frequent curious looks from passersby.

For Chii, she thinks her buzzword was “rap.” On Berryz’ autumn tour, Chii got to sing “Loving you Too much” with Maasa. The song includes a brief rap part; Chii says this made her “awaken” to rap, and she now tries to rap in her private life as well. She wasn’t sure if she should reveal this information on the radio — the staff appear to be looking at Chii quizzically, wondering what on earth she’s going on about — but she swears it’s the truth.

Kumai-san says she has actually noticed improvement in Chii’s rapping. She then gets a great idea: Chii should showcase her skills right now on the show! Chii hesitates, saying she already knows people on Twitter and elsewhere are going to laugh at her, but eventually gives in — she’d been practicing in their dressing room just yesterday, after all. Kumai-san offers to provide her a beat to rap to.

Chii: Wanna eat crab / Wanna eat sea urchin / Wanna eat salmon roe / If that’s the case, HOKKAIDO IN THE HOUSE!

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Chii announces that we’re now entering December which means there’s only a month of 2014 left. She then spends a good thirty seconds praising herself for having been able to successfully read that aloud from her script.

Song: Berryz Koubou – Towa no Uta

Moya Moya Tokkuma
Listeners try to answer questions posed by
the hosts and other listeners

Old question #1: The first answer is to a question Chii asked last time on this corner. It was concerning her problems with blogging; fans complain if she doesn’t blog enough, but they also think something must be wrong with her if she blogs too much, so just how often should she then blog?

Fan answer: The listener says that as a fan, the more often their favorite idols blog, the happier the fans are. The listener has also noticed how Kumai-san has become more active with her blog, and that her uninterrupted run of daily blog posts since the end of October has become a hot topic among fans. They look forward to continued frequent blog posts from the two.

Chii: … What happened to you, Kumai-san?!?
Kumai-san: I don’t know! I just feel like blogging more!

Right now, Kumai-san has been blogging every single day for more than two weeks. Chii can’t seem to believe this, sounding just a tiny bit betrayed. Kumai-san explains that now that she’s been at it this long, she just doesn’t want to give in anymore — though she does say she’s going to need a break at some point. Chii recommends that Kumai-san follow up this sudden spike in activity by in turn taking a full month’s vacation away from blogging.

Chii has found some joy in her blog as of late, too: rather than waiting for something significant in her life to blog about, she finds it easier to just post quick, Twitter-like updates, such as writing about what she just ate. Thus, Chii makes a grand declaration: she will begin blogging daily starting in 2015.

We’re now three weeks into 2015, and so far Chii has miraculously been able to keep this promise: she’s blogged at least once every single day except for one small slip-up when she posted 30 minutes past midnight, and she apologized profusely, going to bed feeling angry at herself for that.

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