Tag Archives: Yajima Maimi

Japan Hello! Pro Network #1 (2015.04.01)

By Skoban | January 14, 2016

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Our MC for today’s inaugural episode is Morning Musume。´15 leader Fukumura Mizuki, who gives us a quick introduction to the show. Also appearing together with her are ℃-ute and H!P leader Yajima Maimi and Country Girls’ Playing Manager Tsugunaga Momoko.

With Mizuki as the MC, Momoko hopes to get something yummy to work with. Mizuki was actually really nervous to be in the MC position – so nervous that she couldn’t sleep the night before.

This first broadcast is a meeting of leaders, so the girls will be talking about the charms of Hello! Project from a leader’s point of view. Momoko is grateful to be invited for this, since she’s technically not a leader – she’s usually only called when the circumstances are convenient. As she always gets left out despite wanting to join, she’s really happy for the opportunity to participate in the discussions this time around.

♫ Morning Musume。´15 – Seishun Kozou ga Naiteiru ♫

Momoko: For still being so cute today… ‘Gomennasai ne~’
Mizuki: Eh, Tsugunaga-san, have you quit with your ‘Yurushite-nyan’?
Momoko: Nope, I haven’t.

Momoko was just promoting Country Girls’ newly released song, Itooshikutte Gomen ne. Anyway, they start with a very brief outline of the history of Hello! Project: H!P started in 1998 with the debut of Heike Michiyo and Morning Musume。, and after 17 years, Hello! Project is now a bastion of various groups. Continue reading →

I My Me Maimi~ #378 (2015.09.25)

By Skoban | December 25, 2015

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♫ ℃-ute – Arigatou Mugen no Yell ♫

September’s theme is ‘I started doing this countless years ago‘. We start with radio name 24-san, who’s been doing samba for 18 years. Back then, 24-san was a student, and they started trying it out in a casual, non-committal way because it looked like fun. Now, it’s become an indispensable part of 24-san’s life. 24-san even came 3rd in the Asakusa samba carnival held once a year at the end of August – though they were just happy enough to finish without a single slip-up.

When they come back to think about it, 24-san wonders why they’ve been continuing on with samba – While samba uses Brazilian music, 24-san isn’t Brazilian, and hasn’t even been to Brazil. Even if you were to ask 24-san what samba’s really about, they don’t think they’d be able to give an answer. But 24-san isn’t going to quit, because there’s this passionate feeling that 24-san can’t experience with other music, only through samba. One of the items on 24-san’s bucket list is to put that indescribable feeling into words.

While 24-san can’t properly explain samba well, they would like to ask Maimi if she can explain what an idol is. To Maimi-chan, what is the definition of an idol?

Maimi thanks 24-san, who she remembers having sent in a letter about samba before. She herself isn’t really familiar with samba, and hasn’t really had opportunities to dance it, although she has watched it before. That said, live performances of ‘That’s the Power’ incorporate samba-ish dance moves, and there was a time when they wore flashy clothes and tried out a bit of samba dancing, but they’ve never done full-blown samba dancing before. Samba is something she can’t really explain well either, but in her mind, it’s something that’s amazing and colourful.

Coming back to 24-san’s question, Maimi thinks for a bit and comes out with the following: For her, idols are people who deliver smiles. When she was small, she remembers watching Morning Musume。 and thinking that they were truly dazzling. She thinks that the work of an idol is to truly shine, lifting the spirits of those watching them, giving them courage. What a wonderful line of work!

She’s recently been trying out the path of Japanese traditions at events, challenging herself to rakugo, recitation, iaido – and it’s thanks to her job as an idol that she receives these sorts of opportunities. She finds it amazing and enjoyable that she’s able to attempt all sorts of things as an idol. Experiencing differing things that excite her is something she enjoys. Being an idol is a fine job, one she doesn’t want to quit.

Maimi thanks 24-san for their letter, and hopes that someday, they’d be able to see 24-san samba performances.

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I My Me Maimi~ #300 (2014.03.28)

By Skoban | November 29, 2015

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Maimi’s photo book ‘Pure Eyes’ had just come out the day before the broadcast. She was still 21 when the shooting was done in Hawaii, yet she still enjoyed herself innocently despite being a grown-up.

♫ ℃-ute – Love Take it All ♫

This is the first time Deru-san’s sending a message to the show. Deru-san came to like ℃-ute through Maimi. Also by association, they came to like Maimi’s good friend, Tokunaga Chinami of Berryz Kobo. Their question: what led to Maimi-chan becoming really good friends with Chinami?

Maimi explains that she’s been friends with Chinami from the very start, from the day of the live broadcast when they would announce the results of the H!P Kids audition. There, shy little Maimi was quietly sitting on a chair, having no one to talk with. Right after her in line was Chinami, who went ‘This is nerve-wracking, isn’t it~?‘. They struck up a conversation and immediately became fast friends. Maimi was uneasy and looking for reassurance at the time, so finding out that she could get on well with Chinami untangled her nerves.

The first job they had was the movie ‘Koinu Dan no Monogatari’. The shooting took place at a distant location, so they spent a long time travelling on buses. Chinami, who was seated next to Maimi throughout the journey, offered Maimi crispy plums, and they chatted about all sorts of things while munching on them.

Then they were split into Berryz Kobo and ℃-ute, so they couldn’t always be together like before. Yet whenever they would meet, they’d always be together. The two of them had even gone for a meal recently, after they had wrapped up some work they had together. They had initially intended to go back home, but got to talking on the way back, and ended up going for a meal.

Chii really understands Maimi’s personality. Maimi’s bad with crowds, and they had gone to eat at Shibuya. For those unfamiliar with Shibuya station, it’s a labyrinth that’s packed with people, but Chinami helped guide Maimi – which platform to go to, which train line to get on. Maimi feels that Chii’s like her guardian.

Maimi enjoys her time with Chii, and finds Chii to be a really delightful girl.

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I My Me Maimi~ #374 (2015.08.28)

By Skoban | September 6, 2015

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♫ Suzuki Airi – Zansho Omimai Moushiagemasu ♫

We start with general letters! This month’s theme is ‘It’s summer!‘ The first letter comes from Dance-san, who also requested the previous song.

School starts a week earlier in Hokkaido than it does on the main island, and Dance-san’s younger brothers are getting Dance-san’s help with their homework. Homework reminds Dance-san about their research project in primary school – a papier-mache creation. Following up from that, Dance-san asks Maimi if she still remembers her research projects, and if there were any projects done by her friends that caught her eye.

Maimi once made a papier-mache savings box, but she feels like she probably got a lot of assistance with making it, as she’s pretty bad with that sort of hand-crafting. Moving on to projects that caught her eye, one of her friends used ice-cream sticks to make a savings box in the shape of a house. The roof could be opened by a hinge, giving access to the stored money. The girl who did it was really artistic.

Maimi takes the opportunity to talk about another project done by the same girl. It’s difficult to explain without seeing it, but it involved using papier-mache bricks held together with a steel frame, and a good use of colours – reds and browns. Maimi enjoys looking at that friend’s artwork.

By the time of broadcast, the kids in Hokkaido have probably started schooling. For the Kanto region, school would generally start in September, so Maimi feels that there are likely to be a lot of kids currently rushing to finish their homework. Maimi gives them a friendly reminder to not stay up late, take care of their health, and wishes them good luck.

Maimi hand-crafting: That’s supposed to be a poodle

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Nakajima Saki no °C-ute na Jikan #166 (2015.03.07) (guests: Yajima Maimi & Hagiwara Mai)

By Henkka | March 22, 2015

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This week is another broadcast of highlights from the recently held public recording of the show. Nacky apologizes to the listeners for how shy she might’ve sounded during the first part: the audience were pretty much right next to her which made her a bit nervous. She gradually got used to during the latter half.

Song: °C-ute – Tsugi no Kado wo Magare

Confessions

The public recording was held only a couple of days after Valentine’s Day, and as you know, Valentine’s Day just wouldn’t be Valentine’s Day without the confessions. Thus, Nacky, Maimi and Mai-chan will take this opportunity to make all sorts of confessions to the members of Hello! Project. Anything goes: doesn’t matter if they’re confessions of gratitude, repentance, complaint, or anything in-between.

Mai-chan starts: she has something she needs to confess and apologize about: there are times when she’ll forget all about Nacky’s existence. Nacky just disappears for her: she’ll push her out of the way to get out of the elevator, or cut in line right in front of her. This kind of thing is happening more and more frequently as of late. Mai-chan wants to apologize for this. Maimi, too, has noticed these kinds of unfortunate happenings befalling Nacky quite often.

Maimi, on the other hand, wants to confess to Natsuyaki Miyabi. She feels bad for having used her hairspray the other day without asking for her permission. Mai-chan doesn’t think she needs to apologize for this — she uses Maimi’s hairspray all the time without asking her. In fact, the other members of °C-ute often don’t even bother bringing their own hairspray bottles because they know Maimi will have one. The other day, Nacky was sitting in the dressing room with Chissaa who gave her orders like “Nacky, get me Leader’s eyelash curler and Airi’s mascara from their make-up pouches.” Borrowing each others’ things without asking is the norm in °C-ute.

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Nakajima Saki no °C-ute na Jikan #165 (2015.02.28) (guests: Yajima Maimi & Hagiwara Mai)

By Henkka | March 22, 2015

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There’s a question for Nacky from Fuku-chan: she really loves how Nacky looks with twintails, and she was wondering what her favorite hairstyle on herself is. While Nacky is happy to receive compliments on her twintails look, she herself actually hates how it looks on her. She prefers the cooler, “tighter” hairstyles that don’t get in the way when you’re dancing, especially the “half-up” which she thinks is a fantastic hairstyle.

Berryz Koubou recently did their final Hello!Con performance, and members of the two groups approached the staff with an idea at the last minute before that final concert: they wanted to sing “Ganbacchae!” together. This was the very first song the Kids performed at their very first Hello!Con so they wanted to sing it together one last time, and the staff were able to make it happen. Nacky felt especially moved hearing their own, still very child-like voices in the background as they sang together.

The members stayed in the same hotel between the last two Osaka concerts, so they got together and watched old concert clips from back when they were maybe half the size of their seniors, jumping around completely off-beat without a care in the world, singing the wrong lyrics. Now they suddenly find themselves in a position where they’re in fact the oldest members of Hello! Project, something that really makes Nacky recognize how long °C-ute and Berryz Koubou have worked alongside each other.

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Nakajima Saki no °C-ute na Jikan #139 (2014.08.30) (guest: Yajima Maimi)

By Henkka | September 19, 2014

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Nacky begins by saying she’s going to let Maimi herself answer the question posed by Sayashi Riho about Maimi’s abs at the end of Morning Jogakuin. Speaking about Sayashi, though, Nacky says she’s once again noticed Sayashi’s dancing skill going up a notch lately and she wonders just how much better it’s possible for her to get. She’s also noticed how well she works with the cameras at concerts — Nacky says she herself still feels quite nervous about them, but Sayashi can look right at them while singing her lines. Nacky says she needs to do her best to catch up to her kouhai.

Maimi, introducing herself as she joins Nacky, says she had a really fun summer and Nacky asks her for details. Aside from getting to hang out with °C-ute at the beach, Maimi says she used her summer vacation to go see the fireworks and visit an amusement park, among other things. Nacky is jealous: while she did have something of a summer vacation herself, she has such few friends that she had no one to hang out with. Thus, she spent the entire vacation in the house. Alone. “That’s sad…“, Maimi quietly says. Nacky says she didn’t even feel like going out and buying any clothes from all the summer sales, so she was just reading Maimi’s blog entries, thinking to herself how much fun it looked like Maimi was having eating watermelons and all that summery stuff.

On the subject of the fast approaching °C-ute no Hi, Nacky asks Maimi what kind of a performance she’d like to make it at Budokan. Maimi says she’s looking forward to seeing how it’ll be performing there with Berryz Koubou, and they both agree they’ll have to do their best not to cry on stage now that they’re aware of Berryz’ upcoming indefinite hiatus.

While Nacky was happy the last time °C-ute got to appear at Budokan, she was even more so nervous and worried she was going to mess up, to the point where she now only remembers sporadic images from the concert. Thus, she hopes that this time around she’ll be able to save some “video” of the concert in her mind, too.

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

By Henkka | September 12, 2014

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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

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