It's Thursday and all of the new H!P releases for the week (except for the Morning Musume Blu-Ray concert which I don't expect to show up) have surfaced on the internet. Last night after I got the concert up on my channel, I was able to watch the concert in it's entirety and so here is my review.
I've been looking for those two ISOs (as well as the Morning Musume Blu-Ray concert DVD ISO) at various Japanese sites/places and finally found the ISOs earlier and I'm downloading them now. Will upload to Youtube when they finish in a couple of hours tomorrow~
I was a bit worried about this single because Dance de Bakoon! was full of all kinds of win and I wasn't expecting Lonely Christmas to be anywhere near Bakoon!'s level. This time, I am so glad I was wrong. I think I might like Lonely Christmas more than Bakoon! Airi's solos are amazing.
On the 27th, some Nicovideo (think of the Japanese version of Youtube) singer named Mitani Nana will release a CD of some vocaloid single. Kozue will be in the PV as a dancer and also took a lovely picture for the CD's cover.
Cover of the single
Check out the official website to see small pictures of Kozue or various online stores if you want to support her by buyingthesingle (which releases on the same day as Morning Musume and AKB48 lol).
It was recently announced that Hello! Project's 2011 Winter Concert will follow the same pattern as the Hello! Project 2010 Summer concert - meaning the setlist will change for every city that they visit.
I absolutely love this idea. It allows a bunch of different songs to be performed by an almost random group of members. That is exactly how I prefer the Winter and Summer concerts to be. Some of my greatest H!P concert memories were performances like Mikan at the 2009 Winter concert where most of Morning Musume and Risako and Maimi join together for a unique performance of that song.
So all of that got me thinking. If I were in charge, what would my H!P 2011 Winter Concert setlist look like? Probably something like this.
Note: I included a few songs that aren't too well known, so I listed the original artist and attached a video to each song.
Warning: long blog post is long.
1. Souda! We're Alive (all)
(Originally by Morning Musume)
2.Our Songs (all)
(Originally by Buono!)
3. MC - Group introductions
4. Aitai Lonely Christmas (C-ute)
(Originally by C-ute; not released yet)
5. Onaji Jikyuu de Hataraku Tomodachi no Bijin Mama (S/mileage)
(Originally by S/mileage)
6. Shining Power (Berryz Koubou)
(Originally by Berryz Koubou)
7. Onna to Otoko no Lullaby Game (Morning Musume)
(Originally by Morning Musume)
8. Namida ga Tomaranai Hokago (All of Morning Musume except Ai and Risa)
(Originally by Morning Musume)
9. MC - Ai and Risa
9. Matsu wa (Takahashi Ai, Niigaki Risa)
(Originally by W)
10. Forever Love (Berryz Koubou)
(Originally by C-ute)
11. Onegai Dakara (Natsuyaki Miyabi)
(Originally by Mano Erina)
12. Dakishimete Dakishimete (S/mileage)
(Originally by Berryz Koubou)
13. Otakebi Boy WAO (C-ute)
(Originally by Berryz Koubou)
14. MC - C-ute
15. Ai no Bakayarou (Mano Erina)
(Originally by Goto Maki)
16. Friendship (Mano Erina and Hagiwara Mai)
(Originally by W)
17. MC
18. Amai Wana (Morning Musume)
(Originally by C-ute)
19. Iroppoi Jirettai (Berryz Koubou)
(Originally by Morning Musume)
20. Watashi no Mirai no Danna-sama (C-ute)
(Originally by Berryz Koubou)
21. MC
22. Otoko no ko (Suzuki Airi)
(Originally by Berryz Koubou)
23. Lady Panther (Kumai Yurina, Sudo Maasa, Yajima Maimi)
(Originally by Buono!)
24. Everyday Everywhere (Morning Musume)
(Originally by Taiyo to Ciscomoon)
25. MC
26. Genki+ (Morning Musume)
(Originally by Morning Musume)
27. Kanashimi Twiilight (Morning Musume)
(Originally by Morning Musume)
28. Anata Nashi de wa Ikite Yukenai (Berryz Koubou)
(Originally by Berryz Koubou)
29. Sakura wa Raku sa (Berryz Koubou)
(Originally by Berryz Koubou)
30. MC
31. Dance de Bakoon! (C-ute)
(Originally by C-ute)
32. Bishoujo Shinri (C-ute)
(Originally by C-ute)
33. Yume Miru 15 (S/mileage)
(Originally by S/mileage)
34. Smile Bijin (S/mileage)
(Originally by S/mileage)
35. MC
36. Homerare Nobiko no Theme Song (all)
(Originally by C-ute)
37. Arigatou Otomodachi (all)
(Originally by Berryz Koubou)
Again, just so we're clear, this is NOT the real H!P 2011 Concert setlist (which won't be out for months); this is what my setlist would look like if I had my way.
Some time later I'll do my dream version of the 2011 Shuffle Concert.
Okay, so some quick background information on me. I'm on my third semester studying Japanese. The end of this semester will mean I have been studying for about a year and a half.
Inevitably this meant I would learn the Japanese writing system. For those of you that don't know, the Japanese use three different systems as a means to communicate. Katakana, Hiragana, and Kanji. I knew basic things like that, but I really doubt I knew what I was getting myself into when I signed up for Japanese.
Katakana is mainly used for foreign loan words. Words like ファーストキス (Read as "Faasuto kisu"; translated to "first kiss") and ショック (Read as "shokku"; translated to "shock") are examples. In my class, we learned this first.
But still, overall, Katakana isn't that bad. You'll notice the characters have kind of a sharp edge to them, which I find pretty easy to write. The hardest part is actually trying to pronounce them. Since most of them are of English origin, your (or at least my) mind will want to pronounce it as an English word, which is totally wrong. So many people think of Katakana words as English words and that totally throws them off. You have to realize that as soon as they are written in Katakana, they become Japanese words and need to be pronounced as such. Even with that said, words like ウィスキー (read as "uisukii"; translated to "whiskey") still makes my tongue hate me.
Another random thing that makes Katakana more difficult is that occasionally you'll come across characters that look pretty similar. For example, ン ("n") and ソ ("so"). Because both are Katakana characters and both can appear in the same sentence (or in the same word), it took me a while to be able to functionally tell the two apart. If it were just those two it wouldn't be so bad, but there is also シ ("shi") and ツ ("tsu") and a couple of others that will throw Japanese students for a loop.
And that's just Katakana; 1/3rd of the Japanese writing system. I haven't even touched on Hiragana and the dreaded Kanji.
Okay, so if you've read this far you're probably ready to cry. But don't worry, there is good news. Once you learn the basic 46 or so Katakana characters, you'll have a head start learning Hiragana. This is because each Katakana character has a match in Hiragana (and the opposite is true as well). For example, "ra" is ラ in Katakana and ら in Hiragana. Both are read exactly the same way, "ra". So in essence, by learning Katakana, you've pretty much learned Hiragana as well. You just need to re-learn what each character looks like. Unfortunately this also means more characters that look alike. Behold れ, ね, and わ ("re", "ne", and "wa") to name a few. But eh, I can't complain too much. There is a feeling of accomplishment when you finally do master Katakana and Hiragana.
Which leaves Kanji. Oh boy where to begin? First, I should mention that both Hiragana and Kanji are used for Japanese words. The difference is Hiragana is all about sounds - each Hiragana character represents one to three letters ("a", "ma", "ri", etc..). And you need a bunch of Hiragana characters to actually form a word (わたし ; read as "watashi"; translated as "I" or "myself"). Sentences can get pretty long using only Hiragana, so that is where Kanji comes in. Just one Kanji character can represent a whole word (私 ; read as "watashi"; translated as "I" or "myself"). On one hand it's a lot easier in that it saves space, looks neater, and is overall more useful. On the other hand, there are thousands of Kanji characters to learn (as opposed to 46 or so Hiragana) which I don't have to tell you is quite a challenge for anyone.
And then you have the same situation as Katakana and Hiragana where a lot of Kanji looks similar. Last week I learned 人 (read as "hito"; translated as "person") and today I learned 入 (read as "iri").
So far, Japanese has a love-hate relationship with me. I wouldn't have it any other way.
