HelloProject :: Morning Musume & Aya Matsuura News

Italian

I’ve said it before, but whenever I go overseas, I end up having three big meals a day. I wonder why.

I’m going to come back fat. I’ve been at my current weight ever since I came back from Beijing two years ago.

Well, maybe it can’t be helped, now that I’m over 40…

Yesterday, I visited a musician friend who lives in LA, and we went out for Italian.

It was just casual Italian, but the pasta was great.

“Italian”

“Thin tomato pasta”

Even though it was this casual, it was reasonable, and I had a fun time. It reconfirmed my idea that everything in Japan is overly fancy.

It was a great meal!

Time difference.

Man, because of the time difference, I’m totally exhausted during the day. It’s a 16 hour difference from Japan.

My rhythm is off.

And there’s not a cloud in the sky. Looking up at the sun makes me dizzy.

It’s the same sky, but it feels completely different from the skies of Japan. I understand the difference between the music in LA and the music in New York, and the even bigger difference from damp England, so there’s no way it’ll become the same as the music of the Far East and Japan.

And for breakfast today, I had a breakfast set with natto that probably came a long way to get here.

The taste was…

It was a good meal. Today is Morning Musume’s concert.

In the dressing room before the concert.

I came to LA with Morning Musume. The mid-summer fine weather continues here.

I wonder if you can see that it says Hollywood! behind me.

But because the humidity is basically pretty low, the weather doesn’t feel as hot.

Because of that, in the evenings it feels like it’s in the 20s, and it’s easy to cope.

But the dry air is scary.

It makes my skin and my throat dry.

Okay, here’s the dressing room just before Morning Musume’s concert.

In the dressing room!

For shows in Tokyo and in Japan, they’d have separate dressing rooms, so you don’t normally see them all together like this before the show. But this time, we got a group photo to celebrate.

Before the show, a commemorative photo in LA.

Okay, it’s time! I’m counting on you!

Morning Musume’s American Concert.

Morning Musume held a concert in LA.

The concert has begun!

It was a 90 minute battle, but all the Americans there received them perfectly. The roughly 7500 guests already knew the songs.

An audience of 7500 in LA, USA

So they were in perfect unison with the “Fu fu” and “Wow wow” parts of Love Machine.

Kachoii!

Amazing.

There were a lot of cosplayers, men and women, young and old, so many different people who came to enjoy the divas who came from Japan.

I’m kind of touched.

Breakin’ Out 3, 2, 1!

Okay, there was one other special event today. The contest for the general public to create a promotion video for Morning Musume.

I went to the award ceremony for that contest.

There were entries from 27 countries around the world, and I was able to see so many different people’s styles. And the three winners amongst them were really well done.

Thanks to everyone who participated!

I took part in the award ceremony.

I’ll announce the grand prize!

Hangry showed up to help announce the winners!

Michael Jackson.

The recently deceased Michael Jackson has been brought back to life. Huh? That’s impossible!

You may think so, but nothing’s impossible in Hollywood.

It’s that powerful.

That’s right, there was a Michael Jackson impersonator working as a street entertainer in Hollywood.

Michael J

The umbrella was kind of shabby, but this really gentle Michael was speaking so kindly to the little kids.

And he was interviewed for a TV show on the street.

During a street corner interview

Amazing! Michael.

There were also some KISS members who seemed to have some spare time to chat. I wonder where the other members were.

Members of KISS chatting

My soy sauce.

So, just like last night, I went to a Japanese restaurant. I guess eating Japanese food puts me at ease somehow.

We went to an izakaya-style Japanese restaurant that’s rumoured to be really good! I could hear Kansai and Kyushu accents coming from the kitchen, and with all the different speech styles in the air, it gave the place a bustling atmosphere. We were next, so we had to hurry unexpectedly to make our order.

But we ordered and ate a lot. The one I really liked was this pork belly ramen.

Beef tongue

Pork belly ramen!

And I know that a lot of Kansai natives find Kanto style tamagoyaki to be too sweet, like, “Huh?” But the tamagoyaki here was Kansai-style and really good.

Kansai-style tamagoyaki

Oh yeah, I always carry around my own soy sauce for times like this, so I had it with Naaogen soy sauce.

Damn good. No matter where in the world it’s from, any food can have its flavour enhanced with just a touch of soy sauce. It’s so good.

Tomo-Colle.

I’ve got a brief pause before heading to the next site. A little relief. I’m playing “Tomodachi Collection” on my Nintendo DS.

A little relief

Playing Tomodachi Collection!

Anime Expo

Okay, I’ve come to Los Angeles. My job here is to answer the questions from all the Morning Musume fans, Tsunku♂ fans, and anime fans who have come here from all over the world. It’s a Q&A panel discussion.

A lot of people gathered in the hall so early in the morning.

They gathered here from all over the world.

They asked a lot of questions, but the questions were all so naïve. Even though I was answering the questions, I was having fun, too.

Answering a question

Let’s all meet again.

To the next location.

Okay, I have a little time before the next part, so it’s time for lunch. But the convention is packed with people, so I left. “I’ll eat at the food court that’s no more than 10 minutes away.” In Tokyo, it’d seem like that would be really close (if you’re unlucky [with traffic], it might even be quicker to walk), but here, you can go a long distance in 10 minutes. It was so far away, it would have probably taken four hours to walk there.

So, time to eat. I wanted to slurp down some noodles, but they didn’t have any, so I had spaghetti instead. I pointed and said “pasta” at the restaurant, and they replied back, “Spaghetti, right?”

Huh?

I’d only said pasta, so I wonder where the spaghetti came from.

I don’t really get it.

What I ended up eating was spaghetti with tomato sauce and chicken!

Chicken spaghetti with tomato sauce!

Judge.

In LA, there are a lot of people trying to make it as Hollywood stars and celebrities every day.

And even at this Anime Expo, there was a voice actor contest and a anime song singing contest. And I got to be a judge.

Everybody gave such powerful performances. It felt like, this is American style!

A contest performance!

It was a two-hour long event, but it seemed to be over quickly.

One of these singers would be chosen as the winner!

Congratulations to the winner! And good job to all the participants!

Judging

The winner was the crying girl in the middle!

The last of LA.

Okay, we travelled to LA. And along with the Morning Musume members, we enjoyed our last night here. I’m sure they were all worn out, but they did really great. But a lot of good came out of LA.

Enjoying the last night!

OtsukaReina!

Time for dessert!

LA! Thank you! Bye bye!

The return flight took about 11 hours. It was pretty rough.

I broke into a cold sweat over and over. I kept pushing my foot down like on a brake pedal.

I know there’s nothing I can do about it, but honestly hundreds of people have died in plane crashes recently, and who knows if that’ll continue?

You really can’t think of it as something that only happens to other people…

It was really scary.

But I watched three movies on the plane, and they showed an episode of “Himitsu no Kenmin Show” too.

To avoid the mistakes I made last time, like not being able to see the end of the movie, I managed my schedule properly. And at the end, I watched a TV show, so it wouldn’t matter if I missed the end.

Yeah, perfect.

I’m glad I made it back safely!

Thanks, LA!

Memories of LA.

There’s a place called Little Tokyo in LA, so I took a walk there.

There was a boutique where a cute cat lived.

A cat that lives in LA.

What do you want?

The rest of the staff bought some really sweet ice cream.

The sweet-looking ice cream shop.

It looks so sweet.

Doesn’t it look sweet!?

Chinatown and Koreatown are pretty big there too. In Japanese terms, Chinatown is about one or two train stations big, and Koreatown is about the same.

But from one end of Little Tokyo to the other, there are only about two sets of lights, and it’s over… And for some reason, Ninomiya Kinjiro was there.

Ninomiya Kinjiro

It’s kind of sad.

But it’s better that the Japanese who live in LA are gradually setting up shops all over the different shopping districts in LA, rather than just sticking to Little Tokyo. They’re not being forced to open shops just in one place.

I get it now.

They say there are 1000 sushi bars there.

Amazing.