Furukawa Konatsu has finished her Egg training

YES! If you recall, Konatsu is one of the Eggs that I originally wanted to be added to Morning Musume's 9th Generation. After I realized that wasn't going to happen, I then hoped that Konatsu would follow in Kikkawa's footsteps and "finish her Egg training". Sengoku Minami and later Mori Saki completed their Egg training, which gave me hope for Konatsu. Now, finally, Furukawa Konatsu also has completed her Egg training and will no longer be a...

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Kikkawa Yuu to make her debut March 30

Not wasting any time, Kikkawa Yuu's debut single will release on March 30th, 2011. It will be available in four different versions (Regular, and Limited A + B + C), all of which will have a different B-side. ...

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Berryz's 7th album announced + American release planned

Announced today, Berryz Koubou's 7th album will hit Japanese stores on March 30, 2011. The tracklist is still unknown, but it will definitely contain Maji Bomber, Shining Power, and new songs. HelloStoreUSA has also announced they will have an official American release of this album. I normally don't buy albums (due to their price), but I'll definitely pick up a copy of this since it's only $16. You can pre-order it at HSU here: http://www....

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OhMyGoshCaptainWithLongHair

I have no idea what this is for, but I don't really care. ....It's Captain with long hair! Excuse me while I go faint now. Ky...

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Buono! - Zassou no Uta PV

After nearly a year between their last single, Buono! is back and better than ever. Here is their new single, Zassou no Uta, via their official Youtube channel. The cutest mechanics I've ever seen. Oh Buono! <3 The only thing missing is Dolce. Hopefully they'll still be around in concerts. But seriously, this is instantly one of my favorite Buono! songs ever. I haven't bought multiple copies of the same single since.. hmm.. Kimagure Princess, but I have a feeling this single will break that streak. I think that Buono!, more than any current...

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Newest Hello! Cover release

UFA has uploaded an Okai Chisato cover of Mikitty's Romantic Ukare Mode to iTunes. If you live in the US, you can buy it through this link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/id415603829 Just click "view in iTunes" and iTunes will open where you can buy the song for 99 cents. I never really got into this song (I just liked it because it is a legendary wota song) but Chisato sings really well here. Buy it if you can! And that's another thing to scratch off of my 2011 Hopes and Predictions li...

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Learn about Japan with Japancast

It's no secret that I love Japan. If you're reading this blog, then you probably feel the same way. So today I want to share a website that I really enjoy visiting called Japancast. If you were to look at my subscription list on Youtube, you would find that around 80% of my subscriptions are of people who either live in or blog about Japan. Japancast is similar; they just aren't on Youtube. Every week they upload a video in HD which lasts about 25 minutes. In each video, they talk about recent news from Japan, give a short Japanese lesson, answer...

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Full length concerts on Youtube

A while back, Youtube removed the upload limit for a select few accounts and shanmar33 has one of those special accounts. This wota has kindly been uploading full-length Hello! Project concerts in one part. Some are even in HD. Here is one of my favorite concerts, Buono!'s We Are Buono! concert in 720p. You can watch more concerts on his channel. Though you'd better hurry and watch since UFA has been cracking down on Youtube uploaders lately. Here are links to more of my favorites: Berryz + C-ute 2008 joint concert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Iw2qzKyuSA H!P...

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New Aichan drama + her future plans

Tokyograph has translated an article describing what Aichan will be up to later this year and also what she plans to do post-Musume. She will be co-staring in a short drama with some guy, which tells the story of Aichan randomly falling in love. I don't really care about the drama itself (but you're more than welcome to read more about it at Tokyograph); instead, the real part of the article that drew my attention was Aichan's plans for when she...

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Fun with Japanese tongue twisters

It's still pretty slow with news right now, so here is something kinda fun (if you like failing, that is)! Learning Japanese (and any new language really) can be tough at times so it's a good idea to have some fun with it. While I was studying Japanese earlier, I was reminded of a word that gave me big troubles when I first learned it: atatakakunakatta. Which brings me to actual Japanese tongue twisters. My favorite one is: Kaeru pyoko pyoko mi pyoko pyoko awasete pyoko pyoko mu pyoko pyoko By the way, that's an easy one. Here's how it's pronounced: Ready...

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Morisaki too has completed her Egg training

First Sengoku Minami and then Kikkawa Yuu, now Hello! Project Egg member Mori Saki has also finished her Egg training and will no longer be an Egg. Yuu's future seems to be pretty bright, with her just beginning her career as a soloist, but Minami and now Morisaki's future with the company is still uncertain. I doubt they would just kick both Minami and Morisaki to the curb after they've both been in UFA for over half a decade, so I'm excited...

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YES YES MIYABI YES

Excuse my excitement for a moment, but it's been far too long (four years to be exact) since we've seen gravure Miya. That's right, Natsuyaki Miyabi will have a solo DVD sometime next month. Right now only an e-LineUP special edition DVD is announced (Called Natural & Cool), but I still have my fingers crossed for a photobook, too. Preview from Berryz's official channel...

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My picture collection part one

This is the final part of my collection. I have already photographed my CDs and my DVDs and here are my photocards. This post will mostly contain Aichan photos because that is what the bulk of my collection is made of. I was a huge Aichan fan from 2008-2010 until Airi took over the top idol spot in my ranking. First you get to look at one of the actual albums that some of the photocards are located in. I'm not going to comment on every single...

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100 Truths

Oh joy, more tag games. This time it's super long. thanks melisa WHAT WAS YOUR: 1. Last Beverage: Pepsi (ew) 2. Last Phone Call : my school telling me that the school is open friday (nooooo) 3. Last Text Message: from the phone company telling me i need to renew my subscription (pre-paid ftw?) 4. Last Kiss: ひ。み。つ。 5. Last time you Cried: Pretty recently actually. After hearing the Aichan announcement and reading Airi's blog post about how much Aichan means to her made me shed a couple of tears, I won't lie...

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Kiss Me Aishiteru radio rip

Airing on Maimi's radio show was the radio version of C-ute's new single. I edited it and uploaded it to Youtube. You can listen here: And don't forget to support C-ute if you like this song! http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=EPCE-5...

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Mail from your waifus

News in general seemed to completely die out since Aichan's graduation announcement on Sunday so here's something fun (for some). Samuel-san over at his Chisato Intellegence Agency blog (CIA for short.. best blog name ever) found an entertaining wota-made website: http://shindanmaker.com/24997 It's completely in Japanese, but don't freak out just yet (save the freak outs for later). There is a box in the middle of the page for you to type your name....

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Mano Erina - Seishun no Serenade full PV

Uploaded to the official Manoeri channel yesterday is the full PV (..MV?) of Manoeri's latest single, Seishun no Serenade. ...

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Two ways to make iTunes better: Smart Playlists

Part two of my iTunes improvement post. Right now I'll tell you what smart playlists are and how they can make your life easier. For someone like me (that has thousands of songs and loves playlists), I find iTunes's smart playlist feature to be really useful. So what is it exactly? Smart playlists takes the work out of organizing your music library and makes making playlists so much easier. For me, one of my smart playlists is titled J-pop. Inside that playlist is, yep, J-pop songs. Now normally I'd have to add the thousand or so J-pop songs...

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Two ways to make iTunes better: Half-star ratings

Because I have nothing better to talk about, here is another tutorial, this time involving my favorite music player: iTunes. The first thing I'll talk about isn't supported by iTunes by default, but it is something that is relatively easy to enable. I'm talking about half-star ratings. Let's take a look at iTunes to see exactly what I'm talking about. As you can see, I have some songs rated 4.5 and 3.5. If you've read any of my concert reviews,...

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Snow days are awesome

It's been a while since I posted about my personal life, eh? For the past couple of days I've been sick in bed, but I've actually been pretty happy (except for the Aichan announcement of course). It's because my college (along with pretty much all of mid to north Georgia) has been shut down since Monday. The 10th was supposed to be the start of the Spring semester, but I just got news from school that they will be closed again tomorrow. A pretty...

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Thoughts on Aichan's impending graduation

I didn't want to say too much on the subject yesterday because I honestly didn't know what to say. Airi may be my #1 love for now, but Aichan was one of my very first Hello! Project crushes. She is the sole reason for me getting into Morning Musume. And most importantly, Aichan is a huge reason for me becoming the fan that I am today. So then, a day has passed since news broke. How do I feel now...

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Don't get too used to 9nin Morning Musume

I didn't expect one of my predictions to come crashing down so quickly (though I did write that blog post about a week ago and just finished editing it yesterday night), but at the end of the year Morning Musume will be down to 8 members. Current Hello! Project and Morning Musume leader Takahashi Ai will graduate during Morning Musume's 2011 Fall Concert Tour. Normally this is the time where I would write a long post about what this means for Morning...

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2011 Hopes and Predictions

Now that 2010 is over, it's time for my predictions for the new year. I'll break this up into two categories - what I want to happen and what I actually think/predict will happen in 2011. What I want to happen in 2011Shuffle groups used more There was a small revival of the old shuffles last year, but they didn't really do much besides perform a song or two at H!P concerts. At the 2011 H!P Winter concerts, the shuffle groups have performed, but no replacements have been made to make up for the recently graduated members. I'd like for new members...

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My Hello! Project DVD Collection

Last year I showed you my Hello! Project CDs in two parts and left photographing my DVDs and official photocards for another day. Well, that day is today, for the DVDs at least. I have at least 500 photocards so they will have to wait. I'll start with my concerts that came in normal sized DVD cases (you'll see what the alternative looks like later). H!P Concerts. All three are FC DVDs and all three are some of my favorite concerts of all ti...

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Bijou Gaku Morning Musume 9th Generation Special Episode (2011-01-07)

Earlier today another Bijou Gaku special aired on Japanese television. This time, the focus moved from the auditions to the audition winners themselves. The episode begins announcing the winners again. And then a short preview of the contents of this episode. The audition winners are watching Aichan with a look of excitement on their faces. Tsunku shaking Riho's hand....

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Fukumura Mizuki had no idea

that she would become the fourth member added to Morning Musume's 9th Generation. Daww, Mizuki almost made me cry too. You can watch the full video here. Or read my thoughts on the auditions in my other blog po...

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Don't forget to tune into Bijou Gaku

There is another Bijou Gaku Morning Musume 9th generation special episode that will air Friday the 7th at the usual 1 AM Japan time (that's 11 AM Thursday the 6th for all of you United States east coasters). I'm assuming that this will be the last 9th gen special, but I certainly won't be complaining of there are more. Just in cased you missed it, here is how to watch Bijou Gaku live on your computer: http://airiindeshou.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-to-watch-9th-gen-audtions-live.h...

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New H!P TV show featuring S/mileage

Starting in April 2011, S/mileage will get their own monthly TV show on Japanese television station Space Shower TV. S/mileage will perform a special live in March to promote this new TV show. via the Hello! Project website: http://www.helloproject.com/event/1012281500_live_smileage.html With this news, I hope that Bijou Gaku will go in another direction. I really like the show and it's probably my favorite since Haromoni@ went off the air but I still can't help but miss the old Hello! Morning. It would be really awesome to break in the new...

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C-ute's new single: Kiss Me Aishiteru, Berryz's new single: Heroine ni Narou ka

In all of the excitement from the 9th gen announcement, I almost forgot about C-ute's new song. It was performed at the concert, which means concert rip time! (thanks to Chobineko @ H!O for the mp3) I like it. C-ute is on roll lately. Aishiteru...

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Morning Musume 9th Generation members finally announced + You?

The long process is finally over. Three of the audition finalists made it and Tsunku threw a bone to one of the Eggs and added her too. Sayashi Riho, Suzuki Kanon, Ikuta Erina as well as Hello! Project Egg Fukumura Mizuki are officially your new Morning Musume 9th Generation members. Now before I start the rest of the post, let me go ahead and get the I-told-you-so's out of the way. In my original post about the matter, I wanted 3 Eggs and 1 or...

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Best of 2010: Live Performances

With all of the Hello! Project concert DVDs finally released (I was just waiting on S/mileage's DVD release two days ago), I can finally make my top five live performances of 2010. I wanted to make sure that every single concert had a chance to make the list. Speaking of this list, I had so much trouble making it. I went through all of the setlists of the concerts released this year, picked out all of the memorable performances and came up with about 15 performances that I felt worthy. Then I re-watched each performance so that I could narrow...

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