Bikkuri Project

I never thought that costumes would be in this feature based on their color rather than design flaws, but today I have been proven wrong. When a group of idols has been around as long as h!p has, they start to run the risk of repeating the same costumes twice. No doubt, the designers rack their brains before every concert, trying to come up with something they haven’t done yet, but when the idea well is really running dry, they have to use a less than optimal color pallet. Surely though, they couldn’t have been desperate enough that their only option was to use these particular colors together.

Orange fluff and brown velour. On idols. Idols are supposed to look bright and sparkly on stage, aren’t they? Well, this is whatever the opposite of bright and sparkly is. The brown is just horribly drab and muddy, and while the orange adds color, it also adds several metric tons of clash. Ewww. Don’t ever do this again! Do you hear me Country Musume?!

Ack! No no no!! Bad Country Musume! Bad! I see that you have lost the brown, which is good, but you have expanded the orange, and that is not good at all. This isn’t just orange, it’s traffic cone, life-jacket, construction worker vest ORANGE. It’s not that I hate the color orange, but costumes that are entirely this shade of it are downright eye-smarting. Very bright colors are like hot sauce, good in moderation and as seasoning for other things, but painful in large doses and by itself. Despite the potential risk to my retinas, I have studied these costumes further and come to the conclusion that the color is just a clever ploy to distract us from how poorly-made they are. They don’t really seem to fit the girls, and the whole thing just looks unforgivably cheap. It could have been worse I guess. These could have been the costumes for Mikan.

Unrelated note time! To cleanse your soul of orangeness, please examine this preview picture from Sayumi’s upcoming photobook. Once again, I am stunned by how flipping beautiful this girl is.

I have early Christmas presents for you all! They’re download links for my favorite tracks off of the 2001 fanclub only CD which features solos by each member. Yuko’s beautiful Yu-u-wa-ku, Yossie’s snazzy Yoshite Yoshite, and Aibon’s adorable Renaitte Nani! I get the impression that these are kind of rare, so I hope you enjoy.

Yu-u-wa-ku

Yoshite Yoshite

Renaitte Naani

Don doka don doka don doka don YAY!!! Minimoni post desuuuuuuuuu~~~

Today’s edition of Top 5 Song ranking is all about that plaid-loving, cake eating, ever-pyoning group of shorties known as Minimoni.

5. Mini Strawberry Pie- One of Minimoni’s many “gets stuck in your head” forever songs. I’m not sure how good strawberry pie tastes, but I am comforted by the inclusion of apple later on. The song’s as sickly sweet as it sounds, but it is 100% completely Minimoni, and I love the little “junjunjunjun” sections (JunJun should totally sing this song!). The PV features lots of the girls’ cute animated alter egos. My favorite animated mini is Tsuji with her little fangs. It’s also interesting to consider that, technically, a lot of the lyrics are in English, even if it is only 3 words of English: strawberry, apple, and pie.

4. Okashi Tsukutte Okasuii- Is this post making you crave sweets yet? This unusual song from the Minimoni movie explores the deeper reasons behind the phenomenon of cake possessing qualities of shyness. The results are inconclusive: okasuii (it’s strange), but surprisingly, the song does have some attitude to it, especially the verses. Every single section is catchy and memorable, so its hard for me to pick a favorite part. I do know my favorite part of the PV though: the very very end when Tsuji pops up and whispers “okashi” with such relish. The expression on her face is priceless.

3. Minimoni Jankenpyon!- It would be a crime to leave Janken off of this list, but you probably know all about this song, so instead of a review, a story may it please you. I was at work (I tutor Japanese exchange students), and a girl came in who was planning to visit a local elementary school and teach some Japanese games to the kids. I was helping her put the instructions into English, and one of the games involved handing the kids a red flag and a white flag and playing a bit of a game of “simon says” telling them to raise or lower a certain color. Do you know where I’m going with this yet? If you didn’t know, Japanese for ‘raise white’ is ‘shiro agete’. Similarly, ‘raise red’ is ‘aka agete’. I begun subconsciously humming Jankenpyon without really knowing why, when suddenly light bulbs flashed, trumpets sounded, and fireworks were launched! The verses of the song and the strange accompanying dance! It’s referring to this game, one that every kid in Japan would probably have played! It isn’t as purely random as I thought it was!!! (Please don’t tell me that I am the only living h!p fan who didn’t already know this. That might make me sad).

2. Genki Jirushi no Oomori- I swear I’m not obsessed with the Minimoni movie. I just happen to really enjoy the songs from it is all. This song nearly topped my “songs that get stuck in my head” list, but my strong affection for it is really hard to explain. Sure it’s extremely catchy, but it has something that goes beyond that. Something that makes me find myself singing it all the time for no apparent reason. Something that puts a big goofy smile on my face whenever my mp3 player decides to play it. Maybe if I listen to it a few thousand times more I will understand what it is about this song. It’s the Momoko Tsunaga of songs for me since I find myself equally inexplicably fascinated with her. I do wish we got concert renditions of this song. Is it because the monologues are related to the movie?, because you could modify those you know!

1. Crazy About You- I know that it compl
etely betrays the spirit of Minimoni (Seriousness? Mika wearing an outfit that matches everybody else!?! Unthinkable!), but I can’t help it. I really like the song. Please don’t hate me. Were it sung by any group other than Minimoni, I think that more other people would love it too. If you demand humor in your Minimoni songs, look no further than Takitty trying to pronounce, “No no can’t hurry love. You’re the love of my life”. I will never understand why they didn’t just give that line to Mika, because Ai mangles those words. Going back to the positives, this song has the strongest vocal performances out of all the Minimoni songs, reminding us that although they often sing in cutesy high-pitched voices, all of four of those girls really are talented singers. Since I’m always interested in dances, I should mention that I’m a big fan of this one. The moves for the chorus are just perfect, and the “for you” lines accompanied by the heart beam move ismy favorite part of the song both vocally and dance-wise. So yeah. You now know my secret shame. My favorite Minimoni song is the least Minimoni of them all.

Unrelated note time! I was thinking, we should have h!p “blog of the year” awards. There could be catergories like most creative, best eyecandy, most informative, most thought provoking, funniest, and best overall. Everyone could vote! Wouldn’t that be fun? No, I’m not suggesting that I deserve to win any of these awards (because I really don’t think I do), but it would be a nice way for people who are putting a lot of effort into their blogs to get some formal recognition. There are some problems though. Someone would have to pick the nominees, and I don’t know if anyone is objective enough, I don’t know if people would actually vote, and it would take some work to set it up. Ah well. It’s an interesting thought though, isn’t it?

I was reading Tsuji Eriku’s post about old school idols in “Your Opinion Doesn’t Count” (link), and I became interested in the story of Yukiko Okada. Not to ruin the ending, but this cute little idol seems to have committed suicide at age 18 for unknown reasons. I was looking for more videos of her, and I came across this little gem. It’s a performance of the last single she released while alive, which is enough to make it weird and unsettling all by itself, and….well…just take a look at it. The Japanese set the bar pretty high for putting weird shit on TV, but this ranks unusually well on the wtf? per minute scale. You’ve got to watch most of it, to about 1:40, to get the the weirdest (and most amusing/disturbing) parts.

Lalala. Riding my ladybug through the frozen forest of groping turtle-men(did I imagine it, or did it slap her ass as she was driving away?), some kind of hanging larva thing, and the absolutely terrifying trees that will haunt my dreams tonight. Not to make a terrible joke about this, but I suspect that those trees are telling her to do it. Okay, so that is a terrible joke. I do not want to make light of suicide in any way, and her death is no doubt a tragedy, but you’ve got to admit that those trees are hella creepy.

I seem to have ruffled some feathers recently (hehehe). For this entry, though, I’d like to focus on some of the other, and perhaps less controversial, Hello Pro Eggs. The Eggs who are not in THE Possible, or Ongaku Gatas, or one of the main Hello Project groups. The undebuted Eggs who are currently eagerly waiting to be plucked from idol limbo and given their shot at stardom. I can’t claim to be an expert on these Eggs (who can really?), but I do have a few things to go off of: their audition footage, the newcomer’s concert footage and interviews, the set-lists from the Egg concerts, and the recent “Delivery Station” shows. I’m not going to bother to post links to clips of all this stuff. Videos can be found easily enough on youtube or your video site of choice.

The Hello Pro Eggs have undoubtedly been getting more attention this year. The Possible has graduated, there’s the Ongaku Gatas Eggs, and they’re getting their own small concerts now. There could be a few reasons for this. Maybe with Cute and Berryz becoming more popular, h!p is just in need of a new flock of background dancers and figures that as long as they’re being put onstage they might as well be given something of their own to do. Maybe the older girls were getting impatient and beginning to quit (kind of true. 3 quit this year so far), so they are being given their own concerts to pacify them. Maybe, with the h!p kids getting a bit older, the younger Eggs are now in charge providing the ‘cute little girl’ factor. Maybe all of that is true, but I can’t help but think that there are some bigger plans in the works for at least some of the Eggs.

If that was the case, what are their options? There’s always creating another all Egg, The Possible-type group, or maybe a group for an anime. There seem to be enough talented Eggs floating around to pull it off, and realistically, I think that’s the most likely next step. However, that’s not as interesting to me as the other option: adding Eggs to the established groups. Which groups though? There are the Kids groups, and I’m sure some of the Eggs would fit in well there, but the Kids groups haven’t had many changes in the line-ups so far. Sure, Kanna was added to Cute (and some of the other Eggs probably secretly hate her for it), but that was before Cute even started producing singles, so there wasn’t as big an impact as there would be if they add a new girl now. At this point, Berryz and Cute seem pretty stable, so I don’t see them adding any Eggs unless they lose a member or two and need to fill their spots. There is one major group in Hello Project that is known for having a constantly rotating lineup though…

So, what about adding Hello Pro Eggs to Morning Musume as part, or even the entirety, of the 9^th generation. Could it happen? Would it be a good idea? We’re due for 9^th generation auditions, and I would be surprised if they didn’t happen in 2008. I’m not sure if adding Eggs into the mix is likely, but I think it’s definitely possible, and probably a good idea. I’m thinking that one or two girls from the Eggs and one from open auditions would be a good way to go. It’s important for Morning Musume to maintain open auditions so little girls watching can feel that they could maybe be a part of it someday, and so we the fans can root for Little Miss Nobody to become a popular idol. However, the Eggs bring some things to the table that Little Miss Nobody can’t: many have a (relatively small) pre-existing fan base, they have experience, and the company knows what to expect from them. The Eggs have been around enough that the company has a pretty good idea of their skill level, how hard they work, how much they appeal to the fans, and their rate of improvement, which would allow them to make a more solid choice when selecting a potential new Morning Musume.

Let’s just suppose that Hello Pro Eggs were a part of Morning Musume’s 9^th generation. Again, it’s not very likely to happen, but just suppose for a minute that it did. The important issue now becomes which limbo Egg(s) to pick. In my opinion, below are some of the more likely candidates. I’ve ranked them on a scale of 1-5 according to likelihood for them to be chosen for MM if they did add Eggs (5 being the most likely). I guess you can assume that if a girl’s not on this list I would rank her likelihood at 0.

Fukada Kanon (12)

This girl may be the most popular of the undebuted Eggs. She’s got great stage presence (she dances her little butt off out there), surprisingly strong vocals for someone so tiny, and she’s as cute as a button. Naturally, Kanon gets a lot of attention, and she stole the show in her “Delivery Station” group. Going against her is the fact that she’s only barely old enough (though she’ll turn 13 soon), and she looks even younger than she is, so she would really stand out. Then again, Aibon and Tsuji sure were popular little 12 year olds, and Kanon might have the spunk to pull it off. Liklihood: 4

Mano Erina (16)
I know she’s busy with Ongaku Gatas stuff right now, but she has gained too much popularity with the fans to be left off this list. She has the looks and the appeal, and while her vocals aren’t the best, they’re good enough. Could her inclusion in the Ongaku Gatas just be a ploy to test her out and prepare us for her addition to Morning Musume? Meh. Probably not. If Ongaku Gatas is a permanent thing, she’s found her place. If it’s not though, there is real potential for bigger things in Manoeri’s future. Liklihood: 2

Furukawa Konatsu (15)
Age is right, she’s pretty cute, she’s gotten more attention than your average Egg, and her voice isn’t bad, but I don’t feel like she stands out enough as evidenced by the fact that I don’t have anything more to say about her. Liklihood: 3

Kitahara Sayaka (14)
She’s about the right age for MM entry, and she’s rather pretty and mature-looking for only just turning 14. She would fit right in with the MM crowd looks-wise, and her vocals and dancing were pretty impressive in the Newcomer’s concert performance of Oosaka Koi no Uta. Overall, a very strong candidate. Likelihood: 5

Ogawa Saki (11)
Is too young, this I know, but it’s hard to ignore all of her lead parts in the newcomer’s concert and her inclusion in the “Delivery” shows. She has an adorable and unique look about her, she seems to have a really nice personality, and her voice is good, but she’s just too young for Morning Musume (I think the cut-off is 12). I would bet that h!p will put Ogawa Saki in a real group, but not until she matures a bit. Liklihood:1

Mori Saki (14)
Another one in the right age range who gets some attention and has a decent voice, though not one that stands out among the eggs. She’s cute (amazing hair!) and has a pleasing and entertaining personality, so I’m giving her good odds. I think she would do well in Morning Musume. Likelihood: 4

Kikkawa Yu (15)
Again, about the right age. She made it to the final round of auditions before, and if they considered putting her in MM once, they might consider it again. She has a pre-existing fanbase rooting for her to be added to the group, and you know she wants it. She also has some of the strongest vocals in the Eggs. She’s cute, but somehow I don’t know if it’s the right kind of cute for Morning Musume. Maybe she just needs a different haircut? I think that the main thing standing in her way right now is that adding her to Morning Musume would mean the company admitting that they made a mistake in not picking her in the first place. On the other hand, her story of perseverance and not giving up would resonate well with the fans, so I’m still thinking she has good odds. Likelihood: 5

Maeda Yuuka (12, 13 this month)
Her vocal performance in Oosaka Koi no Uta was good, especially for her age, and though she hasn’t gotten that much attention yet, and is a little on the young side, just look at how freaking cute she is!!!! Maybe I just really really want her to be added to the group because I want to see more pictures of this girl. Liklihood: 2

This time the sort of unrelated note is at the end instead of the beginning! I really want to see Chisato and Asuna Okai perform something together, even if it’s just on Uta Doki. How cute would that be!?

There has been a lot of buzz about Ongaku Gatas lately, but rather to express my opinions on the group in general (fun, but a group based on such a specific gimmick will never go that far), I’d like to focus on their one most major, most glaring flaw, and that flaw’s name is Mika “Mucchi” Mutou.

I’m going to go ahead and call her “Mucchi” from now on, because I think that it’s the grossest nickname I’ve ever heard for an ‘idol’. It reminds me of a combination of ‘poochy’ and ‘mucus’.

Mucchi’s main problem is that she is a futsal player first and an idol second. There is much more of Gatas than Ongaku in her. Actually, Miki Korenaga has the same problem, but I can’t hate Korenaga because she seems to have some personality. If you look at the Eggs that are in Ongaku Gatas, Korenaga and Mucchi are the only two who are on the main team. The rest are all reserve players AKA: girls we’re only putting on the roster so they can be in Ongaku Gatas. Those Eggs were selected for their idol potential, whilst Korenaga and Mucchi were selected to play futsal and are in Ongaku Gatas because it would look weird to take all the other Eggs but not those two.

I have never seen a so called ‘idol’ who was as completely useless to her group as Mucchi. She has not been given a single solo line in either of their singles, though most of the other Eggs have, which I think is a pretty strong indication that she can’t sing. I don’t think she even has any duet lines. Is her voice so bad that she needs to be covered by two other girls at all times? Now, not being able to sing is forgivable if you have looks or personality to offset that (Sayumi, Koharu, etc), but Mucchi has neither. I hate to say this about a girl, but if you put yourself in the idol industry you should be prepared to be judged by your physical appearance. Mucchi is neither pretty nor cute, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to call her ugly. Even the flattering lighting and professional makeup of a promotional photo does nothing for her. Not only that, but she’s as awkward as hell in the PVs, and I’ve said before, whether she’s singing, dancing, talking, or being photographed, she doesn’t seem to have so much as a drop of charisma in her whole body.

And for those of you who are angry about this post, I challenge you to find one, single redeaming quality about Mucchi. Anything. And don’t give me, “she has potential” without some evidence of that so called potential. I’ve watched the PVs, seen the live performances and the making of, and watched the Eggs introduction stuff, and I have yet to see so much as a glimmer of potential from this girl. Am I being way too harsh on her? Undoubtedly. It’s really not her fault I guess. Some girls just weren’t meant to be idols. I don’t really hate her so much as I hate whoever put her in this kind of position, but the unfairness of it all is what really infuriates me. How many Eggs do you think there are out there who are fifty times cuter, more engaging, and more talented than Mucchi who will never get a chance to record an album or be in a PV? How many Eggs do you think are out there who would kill to have her place while Mucchi constantly looks like she’d rather not be on camera at all? I mean, is she even trying? There really is no justice in the h!p world, is there?

To start out on a sidenote (why do I always do that?), Mikan has sold about 5,100 copies in its second week which is slightly higher than Onna and KT’s second weeks sales. It’s not a huge amount, but considering that Mikan’s first week sales were so much worse than those two singles, it’s good to see that the second week sales haven’t also sharply dropped with this single. It’s not much, but it’s something.

I am about halfway through my top # lists, so I think it’s time to take the plunge and rank my Top 10 Morning Musume Songs. Are you ready for some shameless praise spam? Then here we goooooo!!

10. Iroppoi Jirettai- My relationship with Koharu is strained at best, but I won’t let the fact that this is her debut single stop me from putting Iroppoi on my Top 10 list. This latin infused song is, in my opinion, the sexiest of Morning Musume’s singles. The opening sequence with the girls wrapped around Eri and Koharu and the whispering is genius, and the dance is amazing. It’s my favorite of the MM singles dances. The singing is notch above the other songs released around this time, especially the “hoshiii”s. I wish there weren’t so much engrish though, because hearing the phrase “sexy island” sung so emphatically just makes me want to giggle, and that’s not really fitting with the mood of the song.

9. Say Yeah! Motto Miracle Night- Techno done right! The energy of the song builds and builds with each repeated ‘zenin issho ni mirakuru mirakuru’ and stuff being triumphantly shouted between them whipping the listener into a veritable frenzy. I feel ready to take on the world after listening to this one. It’s nothing short of a tragedy that this song wasn’t released as a single, but it’s also a testament to how great the “Golden Era” really was.They had so much good material that a song like this was relegated to being an album track.

8. Aruiteru- Aruiteru came at a time that I was dangerously close to losing faith in Morning Musume’s music. I still loved the girls, but I pretty much hated Chokkan2, Sexy Boy failed to interest me, and Ambitious started to seriously annoy me after listening to it only a couple of times. Then, like a breath of fresh air, Aruiteru came along. Not an annoying pounding techno beat in sight, a genuinely catchy chorus, a PV where all the girls look fresh-faced, natural, and adorable, and a solo line from Miki near the end that sent chills up my spine. Ahhhhhh.

7. The Peace-Classic Momusu. What can I say about this song that hasn’t been already said, really? My favorite part is the verses rather than the chorus because they’re full of great hooks and nonsensical lyric choices like “konbini ga suki” which means “I love/like convenience stores” or the previously mentioned “delivery pizza!”. The PV is wonderfully bizarre, and no one can deny that it is a creative and unique song. There’s a reason that The Peace is still on the regular play list. It’s full of that special 4^th gen sparkle that captured, no demanded, Japan’s attention back in those Golden Gen days. Peace peace!!

6.Shabondama-So much angst! Here’s a sound that we hadn’t heard from Morning Musume before. Shabondama is the only Morning Musume song that I can confidently sing all the words to (I can rather unconfidently sing many others), and I can say that it’s damn fun to sing. What I really love most about it is the PV. I love the frantic dancing and the splashing in the water. I love the clothes. I love the creepy-ass stares we get from the girls in the dress shots, especially the part where Aibon and Nono look up, I love the pouty “ah”s, and I really love the Reina. Reina is my second favorite Musume and this is HER song. How could I not love it?

5. Souda! We’re Alive- Mari!! And lots of her. That might be reason enough to put this song in the top 5, but I have more. I can’t believe how creative this song is. Really, who thought that it would be a good idea to blend Russian dancing, with chanting, rapping, and sugary pop interludes? How in the world did it turn out that, yes, in fact it is a good idea? The song’s a miracle in itself for accomplishing that. You’ll notice, as you read this list, that a lot of my favorite MM songs are the super-positive energetic tracks like this one.

4. How do you like Japan?- I love this song for so many reasons. Risa’s ‘yoyoyo mic check’ introduction, Yossie’s trilling thing, the aggressive way that they all spit out “nihon desu“, and that Risa gets the entire last chorus and does an amazing job with it. I vote this song the most likely to make me say, “hell yeah!” My dream is to see this song in concert someday, because from what I’ve seen in videos, it’s one of their best live songs. The girls get so into the attitude of the thing that even Sayumi manages to intimidate me a bit, and I desperately want to be shouting “LIKE THIS!” along with the fans.

3. Ai Araba it’s all Right- If you read my moments post, you know the reason that this song is so high on my list. It just makes me happy, pure and simple. Nothing can cheer me up quite like viewing the Ai Araba PV. By the way, this is the song that got me interested in Morning Musume in the first place. I watched a video of a live performance in my Japanese class back when the song had recently come out, and a wikipedia/youtube visit or two later, I was hooked! For that I am eternally grateful to the song. Also, this is probably my favorite lineup, after Kei left but before Nacchi did.

2. Koko ni Iruzee- Pushing the limits of crazy energetic bounciness… it’s Koko ni Iruzee!. Man do I love this song, its PV, and especially its dance. The whole thing lets the Momusu take a break from being cutesy or cool or sexy and have an awesome time being just plain silly. There’s just so much joy in this song both the lyrics and how they are performed. It’s a song that I can listen to over and over and over again and still not get tired of it. Aibon and Tsuji’s lines are great in this, but Ai-chan’s “breakthrough” at the end is what really seals the deal for it getting the number 2 spot on my list.

1. I Wish- It’s really hard for me to explain why “I wish” is my favorite Morning Musume song. The song itself is wonderful, and might very well deserve this place purely on its musical quality, but the reason it’s here is more about what it represents. “I Wish” has the ability to simultaneously bring a smile to my face and a tear to my eye. I don’t think I’m alone in this, as it has been cited as a favorite by many of the Musume themselves. The members clearly have
a strong emotional connection to the song, and maybe that’s been vicariously passed on to me. “I Wish” is the song that made 4^th gen, the song featured in many a bittersweet tear-filled graduation performance, the song that ends with a quavering perfect note from little Aibon, the song with the most inspiring lyrics (imho) in the entire hello project discography, and without a doubt, my favorite song by my favorite group of all time.

Hi guys. This is really more of a personal entry, but it does relate to h!p in a very important way, so I’m hoping you will consider helping me out with some advice, because you might be the only people who can understand the situation I’m in right now.

Allow me to explain. I’m a senior in college, and I’m going to graduate with a degree in biology this year. I have plans to take a year off of school after graduation, and after that I’ll be going to graduate school (either for research or pharmacy). During the year I take off, I’m going to have to find a job, ideally something that relates to biology like being a lab assistant. Before that though, I’m going to take a trip to Japan (ahh, the h!p connection is gradually becoming clear, they say). I have lots of people I can stay with in Japan including my amazing host family from the last time I was there, my two very best friends one of whom is doing JET and the other is working for another teaching program, and numerous Japanese friends who have been exchange students at my university (I work as an english tutor for the Japanese exchange students). Considering the cheap and abundant lodging, I plan to stay for about a month, right after I graduate, and then find a job back in the states.

However, there is a major problem with this plan. I graduate in May a few days after the end of Morning Musume’s spring concert tour, and the hello project summer concert tour is bound to not start until around mid July. If I follow my current plan, I will have ZERO chance to see Morning Musume in concert while I’m in Japan. I seriously doubt I could find a temporary job that would allow me to take a whole month off of work once I’ve started, and I do intend to go to Japan for at least a month.

This leads me to considering option number two. The organization that one of my best friends is working for will be hiring again around the time that I would be coming to Japan. With my experience in teaching English to Japanese students, and the recommendation of my friend, he thinks it’s almost guaranteed that I could get a job there. I could stay in Japan for the entire year and still succeed in earning some money for grad. school. I would also be able to catch a whole year’s worth of hello project concerts.

Here is my list good and bad points about this plan.

GOOD-
-this is really my only opportunity to do this kind of thing, at least for a long time. Once I’m in graduate school or trying to start a real career or even a family, odds are slim to none that I’ll be able to run away to Japan. By the time I could, the face of hello project will no doubt have changed drastically, or it might even not exist anymore (cries). Realistically, I may never have a chance like this again, and I might regret it if I don’t take it.
-I love Japan. I really do. Also, I love my best friends who will most likely be living far away from me after they return to America. This is a chance to spend lots of time with them before that happens.
-I’d still be making money
-I won’t be living at home, which would feel kind of like a step backwards after graduating college. This would be a great opportunity for me to develop more independence
-My Japanese would certainly improve
-A WHOLE YEAR’S WORTH OF H!P CONCERTS!!!!

BAD-
-Teaching English in Japan isn’t exactly related to my major, and a biological research job would look much better on a grad school application
-I’d be leaving my boyfriend for a whole year
-Living in a foreign country for a whole year is kind of a scary thought, even if it is Japan
-My parents most definitely would not approve
-Of course, if I were staying for a long time I wouldn’t bum off of my friends for all that time, so I’d have to pay for my own food and lodging, and I wouldn’t be able to save as much money for grad. school
-The primary reason I’d be doing it would be to see hello project concerts, and I thin
k it might be crazy to make such a major decision in my life based on hello project. I might be crazy to even consider that.

Basically, not doing it makes more logical sense and sets me up much better for my future career and financial stability, and it’s less risky, but as ‘they’ say “LIFE IS ONE TIME” and this might be my one time chance to fulfill this dream of mine. One last fling with the selfish and impulsive before I settle down and enter the real world of serious responsibilities.

You’ve got the facts…. now, what do you think I should do? Or, if you were me, what would you do? I’m seriously looking for advice here. My friends who are not into JPop really don’t understand how I’m feeling right now, so I’m turning to you, my readers. You can comment anonymously if you don’t have a livejournal, I don’t mind. Thanks so much!

Since more and more bad costumes seem to keep piling up (and I swear, I’m trying to be lenient), The Costume Hall of Shame has left me with many questions. Mostly, they are along the lines of “Why??” and “Are they blind??” (the answers to which are “see the answer to question 2″ and “yes”), but I often find myself left with questions that are more difficult to answer than these two. Perhaps you will have more luck with them than I have.

What the hell is on Maki’s face?

What the hell is on Rika’s head? Is the costume a homage to the famous Princess Leia/gold bikini scene from Star Wars? Is Rika a fan of Star Wars or is she just hoping to appeal to Star Wars geeks in the audience?

Is Ayaya trying to appeal to Renaissance fair geeks in the audience, or is she actually on her way to slay a dragon?

If you have to take a second look to make sure a girl is wearing an actual costume underneath her boas, is she wearing too many boas? Is there such a thing as too many boas in the h!p world?

How about too many plaids? Is that why Yossie is so angry here?

Did Sayu just realize she forgot to pull her napkin out of her shirt-front after her lunch break? Does she think it’s okay to leave it that way because her napkin happened to match her bloomers? Why is she even wearing bloomers? Is that why Yossie is so angry?

Where will Maki’s crazy crochet-happy grandmother strike next!?!? (just try to tell me that this costume didn’t start out life as an afghan or table cloth made by an insane octogenarian)