Beri nervous today

I am very proud of myself now. Today I managed to wake up as early as 6:30 AM. Which means it won't be too hard to get up at around 3:30 AM tomorrow, to go line up early for Mano's mini live. I also already managed to take a shower, watch one episode of Huse M.D., write a fan letter to Saaya and make this blog post! I are so productive. Yay!

So, yesterday I went to the Egg FC event. Actually I wrote the lineup wrong in my last post. Karin was there and not Kaneko Rie. Which is win because Karin is just 10 years old but already on the level of her 14-15 years old senpais. I'm already convinced that she one day is going to be one of the stars in H!P.

The event itself consisted of the girls practising for "Phantom of the Opera". I didn't get everything but I feel no need to go into the details anyway. The story is basically around that and the girls did a great job. I liked the mix of girls. Their characters in this mini play fit them well.

Afterwards there was a handshake event. It was so fast so I didn't bother say anything special to the girls. At least I can add a couple of more eggs to my list of H!P girls I've met, heh.

When it was finished I went to an idol event in Akiba with my friend. It was a free to attend release event with "Kotone Mai" (小桃音まい). An ex H!P wota who just had her first indie single release. Her style reminded me about animu and Perfume's music. If you ask me she's cute but not that much of a talent,. It was fun though with a lot of hardcore Akiba idol fans freaking out to the max with their wotagei, lol.


Today I'm heading to Berryz Koubou's tour start. And I'm worried as hell. Already there have been graduations announced for all groups this year and it would be a disaster if a girl from Berryz would leave too (or well, almost).

I want to make some prediction though of which girl would be leaving if any. Just to be able to say that I was right afterwards. At first I was convinced that Saki-chan would be most likely to leave. But someone made me convinced that Miyabi is actually more likely and it makes sense to me now. I'll save the reasons why to a post tomorrow, if/when it has been announced.

So, if any Berryz is leaving - which is not very likely - it will be Miyabi. Arright.

オマリー

The Emperor's Paste (ウエイパー)

Since it was a while ago since I tried out any idol food recommendations, I decided to go out and buy a can of 味覇 (ウエイパー/Uei Pa), which means Emperor's Paste in Chinese. Recommended by Suzuki Airi!

Uei Pa comes from China and is a sort broth, used in soups. I'm not sure what Airi recommended it for, but I tried to put some in my soy sauce ramen now and it was very good! Well worth the price of ~1000 yen per can since you can use it for a long time.


Just now I got contacted by my friend who told me that he has a spare ticket for the Egg FC event that I wanted to attend on Saturday. Lucky!

The event is a stageplay "actress recital". It seems like it's some sort of theatrical sketches with a handshake event afterwards.

The lineup for the event I'm going to is: Kitahara Sayaka, Maeda Yuuka, Kaneko Rie, Sano Kaori (UF Egg) and Katsuta Rina.

I'll try to come with some sort of report after I've been to the event!


I also of course just watched the Kimagure Princess PV and I have to say that I'm disappointed. The girls look great but the video feels empty when it's pretty much just filled the dance and closeups. That fire waving thing I didn't like in the Iroppoi Jirettai PV and here it looks even worse. At least the set is kind of cool and I like the outfits. Overall I guess it's a decent PV based on H!P standards.


Tomorrow I'm out shopping a birthday present for Risa and perhaps something for Saaya and Mano-chan as well. I also need to get started on more fan letters that I will give to all of those girls. In Japanese... orz


オマリー

Yes, more Mano

Because I have nothing better to talk about.

This week has been terribly boring so far. No events to attend and shitty weather. The typhoon prevented us from getting more Mano events this week, but luckily one more has been announced on Monday. I had planned to go see Berryz at that time but of course I change my plans for Mano-chan <3. It's interesting how I have different obsessions with each trip I do to Japan. First it was Musume last fall, then Berryz this spring and now Mano-chan. Who will it be next year? lol.

Anyway, yesterday we received something that came out with perfect timing. Mano's next single (yes, already) was played on a radio show on bayfm for the first time. Usually I wait for at least a live performance or for the PV to be uploaded to Dohhh UP! This time I'm glad that I didn't. [stop reading here if you don't want to get any spoilers]

For those who have happened to missed it, it goes under the name of "LOVE & PIECE = Paradise". As you kind of expected out of the title it's a cute and warm tune, which can turn any shitty day to a good one. Exactly the reason why I got into H!P and still the main reason for why I'm a fan. It makes you forget about all hardships in life for a while and raises your spirit.

After this single I don't want to hear anyone ever more say that Mano's voice is dull, boring, emotionless etc. You can hear through her voice how happy she is while singing this.

What's missing though for it to reach Hajimete no Keiken level, is a stronger instrumental. It has no intro at all, she starts singing right away. I want to believe that this song was actually recorded this Monday, when she said she went to the studio, and that it was just pushed out fast so they could start playing it on radio. I'm sure that the actual studio version will be different and so also the live performances.

What would a Mano song without her piano? A radio rip of the song can be grabbed here.


Besides that, I've been occupying myself with Mano's blog and trying to follow discussions on 2ch. Not much interesting has happened there either. This week Mano has been doing early updates on her blog everyday from strange places like - according to 2ch wota - Yakushima, a small island south of Kyushu, in Kagoshima prefecture, not telling us what she's been doing there. I guess it's all about photoshoots (as always) and of course practicing for the upcoming stageplay.


This weekend it seems like I'll have to pass on the Eggs FC event that I had planned to go to if I could have just found a decent priced ticket. Then on Sunday, Berryz are having their first concert for this tour and on Monday it's the Mano event followed by another Berryz concert.


Until then I guess I'll keep looping LOVE & PIECE = Paradise.. "Pa-pa-pa Parapipu lululu luula..."

Maybe I should actually try to learn the lyrics this time for once. Heh.

And oh, in the pic in the top of the post she's holding a lantern she received by the hotel staff because there was a power outage. The reason why I choosed it however is because I love to see her without makeup, lol.

オマリー

MANO MANIA - CONTINUED

Here's a round-up of the last couple of events Mano had last week, promoting "Kono Mune no Tokimeki wo".

At Friday, she went to Queens Square mall in Minatomirai, Yokohama, for a mini live and handshake event. Assisting her did the same lineup as the day before; Kikka, Saaya, Sekki and Momoka.

The set list:

1. Kono Mune no Tokimeki wo
2. Otome no Irori
3. Kono Mune no Tokimeki wo

I arrived around two hours before the mini live would start, after have planned to get there earlier but managed to miss two trains (lol) and got there an hour later than planned. But it was ok since I managed to get like 4th row and made it to the reherseal :-). Saaya was once again looking stunning with a one piece dress and a cool baseball jacket. Kikka also looked great in a black kind of casual dress.

Mano as always talked about the weather, which today was rainy, but wasn't an issue since the events were taking place inside. She also talked about how she used to go to this mall when she was a kid to visit a Snoopy shop. Adorable as always.

The handshake event wasn't all too intresting, but here's some highlights:

①

俺： 俺名前は？
北原： オマリーさん！
俺： 女優宣言行きます！
北原： お～ありがとうございます！
（まってます？ｗ）

桃香： オマリーさん！
俺：　ありがとうございますｗ

真野： オマリー！
俺： Thank you！ｗ
俺： バイバイ！
真野： バイバイ！

Me: My name?
Saaya: O'Malley-san!
Me: I'll be going to Joyuu Sengen! (Egg FC event)
Saaya: Oh～ Thank you!
(I'd expected her to say "mattemasu", as in "I'll be waiting for you", so I'm not sure if she understood what I said, lol.)

Momoka: O'Malley-san!
Me: Thank you! *lol*
(I feel bad about never having more to say to this lovely girl... orz)

Mano: O'Malley!
Me: Thank you! *lol*
Me: Bye-bye!
Mano: Bye-bye! *lol*

②

俺： 新人公演に行たけど、見えた？
北原： え？お～はい！見えたー見えた！

真野： オマリー！
俺： Hello！
真野： Hello！
俺： How are you？
真野： I'm fine, thank you！
俺： Thank you！ｗ
俺： Bye-bye！
真野： Bye-bye！

Me: I went to Shinjin Kouen, did you see me?
Saaya: Eh? Oh～ Yes! I saw you!
(To get yesterday's confusion cleared up ^^;)

Mano: O'Malley!
Me: Hello!
Mano: Hello!
Me: How are you?
Mano: I'm fine, thank you!
Me: Thank you! *lol*
Me: Bye-bye!
Mano: Bye-bye!


After the event I went with my friend to the radio studio in Yoyogi I went to the other day where he's usually going every Friday with his friends. I hanged out with them and we went to a family restaurant where we spent the night, before me and my friend took the first train to Toro in Saitama the next day for another event with Mano-chan.

When we got there at 6 AM in the morning there was already around 10 people there! Surprisingly the weather seemed to turn out to be good that day. But after a couple of hours waiting and then getting to take our spots in front of the stage, of course it started raining right before the girls would come out for the reherseal. Mano hadn't brought her piano with her since the weather forecast had said there was a high chance of rain. The lineup was the same as the two days before and today the set list was as following:

1. Kono Mune no Tokimeki wo
2. Hajimete no Keiken
3. Kono Mune no Tokimeki wo

Again, Saaya and Kikka looked stunning (lol). I was glad to see Kikka's energy this day since she had to run out during the handshake event the day before for some reason, making me worried she wasn't feeling all okey.

The rain was really bad but when the girls entered the stage for the mini live it had stopped. Then of course when Mano mentioned that it was ok it had just started again, rofl. Still it was a lot of fun. I love when they perform Hajimete no Keiken (my by far favourite Mano song).

This day I gave Mano-chan the letter I've been mentioning before. It was written with hast, but I believe it was still good. However, it was in English, so I have no idea if she actually managed to understand all of it, even if someone helped her translate it. So I'm definitely gonna try to write something in Japanese before I head back again to make up for it.

Handshake event summary:

①

俺： 僕は何歳ですか？
北原： えぇ・・・２５歳？
俺： 二十歳ですｗ
北原： お～
桃香： w

Me: How old am I?
Saaya: Ehh... 25?
Me: I'm 20 years old. *lol*
Saaya: Oh～
Momoka: *lol*

俺： Ehhh, see you in Shinjuku!
真野： See you in Shinjuku! ｗ

Me: Ehhh, see you in Shinjuku!
Mano: See you in Shinjuku! *lol*

②

俺： Can I send you a fan letter in English?
北原： えぇ？
俺： Fan letter, English, OK?
北原： NO, NO, NO !!!
俺： 済みませんｗ
桃香： w

Me: Can I send you a fan letter in English?
Saaya: Ehh?
Me: Fan letter, English, OK?
Saaya: NO, NO, NO !!!
Me: Sorry. *lol*
Momoka: *lol*

俺： See you later!
真野： See you later! w

Me: See you later!
Mano: See you later! *lol*

After the event I went back home to get a couple of hours of sleep before heading to Shinjuku for another handshake event with Mano only. I was still really tired, so even though we got A LOT of time with Mano (once I was standing there for probably around 20 seconds!!!), I wasn't able to get much said. I asked her in English, just to test her, if it's ok that I gave her a fan letter in English. She got lost and I repeated myself, talking extremely slow, and then she looked at the staff for help (cute, lol), so I explained the situation to her in Japanese and told her that I was sorry, lol. This was pretty funny, however:

俺： 恋するハロキッテイに行きません、ご免。
真野： マジで？！
俺： はい、来月は、スウェーデンに帰ります
真野： お～スウェーデン！！すごい～！
俺：　がんばってください
真野： はい～がんばります！
俺： バイバイ！
真野： バイバイ！

Me: I won't be going to "Koisuru Hello Kitty", sorry.
Mano: Seriously?!
Me: Yes, next month I will be going back home to Sweden.
Mano: Oh! Sweden!! Cool!
Me: Please do your best.
Mano: Yes, I will!

I was surprised by her reaction over that I would be going back to Sweden. I thought she already knew that I'm coming from there and I had expected her to be sorry or something for me having to go back, but she just found it cool, lol.

The next day was the last day of events. Held at La Qua, next to Tokyo Dome. It's a huge outdoor space so I didn't rush with getting there, instead heading to an event with my friend's favourite idol group, "Momoiro Clover". They are not very famous at all, but did manage to sell around 10,000 copies with their major debout. It was only 1,000 yen to attend the event which consisted of a mini live for then having a signing session where you got a personally signed autograph from one of the girls. It was random which girl you'd get it signed by and luckily I got it from the one girl that had caught my interest, Akarin. Unfortunately I didn't have anything cool with me that she could sign so I just got it on a blank piece of A4 paper, lol.

I arrived at La Qua for Mano's events about 20 minutes before it would start. Already around 1200 tickets had been sold for the handshake event! (Compared to the previous days number of around 700 per event.) Even though I was standing in the back I was surprised to get to see Mano noticing me and waving at me. I could tell because she always change her normal smile to this huge big grin on her face when she notices me and starts waving faster while locking her eyes at me, lol.

For the event I attended, she had S/mileage as backup dancers and once again Kono Mune no Tokimeki wo was performed twice and also Sekai wa Summer Party.

At the handshake event I only said thank you to all of the girls because it was so fast. However Mano managed to squeeze out that she had read my letter already and thanked me for it!

I was sad that I couldn't go to the evening event, which involved Saaya and the other girls again. Unfortunately I had to go to a Morning Musume concert that I had already bought a ticket for. Which was a lot of fun as well though, of course. The end of a really awesome week. :-)


Right now I still feel a bit overwhelmed and extremely happy for Mano-chan's achievement earlier today with the daily #1 at Oricon. After been supporting here for over a year from her first indie release, attending her events at locations outside of Tokyo, at would you cold almost call the country side, with less than 50 people showing up, following her from practically not having much support at all for then making it to something as big as getting a daily #1 Oricon. There's no greater satisfaction from being a fan than seeing your idol reach a major success.

To be honest, I think I have to admit that this girl currently is my favourite H!P member. Everything she does just amazes me and makes me want to support her as much as possible. Her mentality and devotion towards her job and obvious love for her fans is just mindblowing. She's making up for her lack of talent in other aspects (such as singing, dancing and being entertaining) by always working extremely hard but yet not showing any signs of getting out of energy, constantly having a smile on her face and showing how much she loves what she is doing. Mano Erina is simply awesome. Period.

PS. In 4 hours Mano is gonna be at the Hello Kitty show "Kitty's Paradise Peace", as a host of her own corner and having the ending song. Don't miss it!

オマリー

MANO GETS DAILY #1 ｷﾀ━━━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━━━ !!!!!

It was just announced that Mano-chan got her first daily #1 at Oricon!! The official website ain't updated yet but it's all over the net already. You can access the daily charts quicker through mobile site, which I don't know how to do. But I trust it anyway.

CONGRATULATIONS MANO-CHAN! You sure deserve it after all hard work!

Too bad though that there wasn't any events this evening so we could get to see Mano's reaction when they told her about the rank. When I went to Akasaka Sacas for an event for Hajimete no Keiken earlier this year, Mano started crying when it was announced that she got #2 and it was probably the best Mano moment for me so far.

Edit: Oricon has updated it's site!












And oh, today I bought 7 damn copies of her LE to apply for her "premium live" release event that only 200 people get to attend. It better be enough for me to get a ticket. In which case, whenever/wherever the next event for her is I will make sure to make it there.

オマリー

Mano fan letters

A long week with six straight days of Mano events is now over. I'm incredibly tired but also very happy after been having a great week. I will try go into details about the last three days of events tomorrow. I'm just too tired to go through everything right now.

After I got back home now I sat down to go through all sites that I visit frequently, to catch up with what I've missed the last few days. When I got to Mano's blog I saw this post about her receiving a lot of fan letters.

Yesterday I wrote her a letter in English after my friend had convinced me that even if I couldn't write in Japanese, he was sure that Mano would appreciate it. I've felt a bit so-so about been doing it (it feels somehow disrespectful), until now when I read this:

「中には,
英語で書いてある手紙もあって,
音楽の力ってすごいなぁ
って思ったり...」

"One of the letters is written in English.
The power of music is strong, huh.
I think so..."

Mano-chan was touched by just me writing her a letter even if I didn't even try to at least write some of it in Japanese. I'm satisfied, since that's the reason for me even writing it, but I do want to ask her if she managed to understand all of it. She told me at the handshake events today that she had read it but I didn't have enough time to ask her about it. I tried to buy a CD for another handshake but they were sold out already at that point...

Now I have to somehow make it to some more event with her before I go back home to Sweden next month. Or, try send her another letter and hope that she will reply. I didn't include my address in the first one, lol.

オマリー

MANO HANDSHAKE EVENT MANIA - DAY 3

I got to today's events in Kawasaki a bit late so I missed the rehearsal for the mini live. My favourite egg member Saaya was there so it was kind of a disappointment. Then when the mini live started there was already so many there so I had to watch it from a spot where it was hard to see much. At least I had a good view of Mano and Saaya all the time. The other members was Kikka, Sekine and Momoka and they did backup dancing for Mano.

Set list:

1. Kono Mune no Tokimeki wo
2. Hajimete no Keiken
3. Kono Mune no Tokimeki wo

Once again Mano talked about her being an "ame onna" but somehow had managed to get good weather without any rain for the today's events that took place outside. Besides that I didn't get much except from her going through the usual stuff like please listen to the new single a lot and to come see her at the stage play in November (which I unfortunately will miss.. orz).

Today's handshake event (Scroll down for English translation.)

①

俺：　さぁやファンです！
北原：　お～！ありがとうございます！お久しぶり！
俺：　はい、ありがとうございますｗ

真野：　オマリー！
俺：　僕は何歳ですか？
真野：　ありがとうございます。お～・・・２６？ｗ
俺：　二十歳ｗ
真野：　お～ｗ　バイバイ！

②

俺：　新人公演行きました！
北原：　未定～未定～（？聞き逃す・・日本語・・orz)

桃香：　THANK　YOU
俺：　えぇ～？ｗ　Thank you!

俺：　せっきはひかりききですね？
関根：　えぇ？
俺：　お～左利き！ｗ
関根：　お～はい～
俺：　僕も！
関根：　Thank you～

真野：　オマリー！ｗ
俺：　Thank you～ｗ
真野：　バイバイ～
俺：　バイバイ！

③

俺：　Your hairstyle today is very beautiful～
北原：　お～Thank you!

俺：　桃香はすごい優しいキャラです
桃香：　おぉ～！Thank you!!
俺：　バイバイ～ｗ
桃香：　バイバイｗ

俺：　Now I will go back home!　お疲れ～
真野：　お疲れ様でした！
俺：　See you tomorrow!
真野：　はい！バイバイ！
俺：　バイバイ～

④

俺：　僕はオマリーといいます。覚えて下さい！
北原：　オマリー・・？
俺：　はい！オマリー！
北原：　はい！Thank you!　バイバイ！

桃香：　オマリーさん？
俺：　はい！ Thank you!
桃香：　Thank you! バイバイ！
俺：　バイバイ！

俺：　僕はオマリーといいます。覚えて下さい！
吉川：　オマリー？
俺：　はい！バイバイ！
吉川：　バイバイ～

関根：　オマリーさん？
俺：　はい！バイバイ！
関根：　バイバイ～

俺：　Do you speak English?
真野：　English... speaking? Oh..uh... See you later! w
俺：　See you later! ｗ
真野：　ｗ　バイバイ！
俺：　バイバイ！

①

Me: I'm Saaya's fan!
Saaya: Oh, thank you! Long time no see!
Me: Yeah.. thank you!

Mano: O'Malley!
Me: How old am I?
Mano: Thank you! Oh~! ....26? *lol*
Me: 20! *lol*
Mano: Oh~ Bye-bye!

②

Me: I went to Shinjin Kouen!
Saaya: "Mitei~mitei~"(?) (I couldn't hear this well.. but I believe she misunderstood me for asking if she will be at the next Shinjin Kouen and replied that it's not decided yet.)

Momoka: THANK YOU!
Me: Ehh? *lol* Thank you! (I think she actually heard what I said to Saaya, haha.)

Me: Sekki is light-handed, right?
Sekki: Eh~?
Me: Oh! Left-handed! (I said hikari and not hidari, lol)
Sekki: Oh! Yes!
Me: Me too!
Sekki: Thank you~

Mano: O'Malley!
Me: Thank you! *lol*
Mano: Bye-bye!
Me: Bye-bye!

③

Me: Your hairstyle today is very beautiful~
Saaya: Oh, thank you!

Me: Momoka's character is really very kind. (Here I accidentally said "yashii" and not "yasashii" at first, so I couldn't finish the sentence, lol.)
Momoka: Oh! Thank you!
Me: Bye-bye~

Me: Now I will go back home! Good job!
Mano: Thank you!
Me See you tomorrow!
Mano: Yes! Bye-bye!
Me: Bye-bye~

Then I realized that the speed got slower so I decided to go once more.

④

Me: I'm called O'Malley. Please remember it!
Saaya: O'Malley?
Me: Yes! O'Malley!
Saaya: Ok! Thank you! Bye-bye!

Momoka: O'Malley-san?
Me: Yes! Thank you!
Momoka: Thank you! Bye-bye!
Me: Bye-bye!

Me: I'm called O'Malley. Please remember it!
Kikka: O'Malley?
Me: Yes! Bye-bye!
Kikka: Bye-bye!

Sekki: O'Malley-san?
Me: Yes! Bye-bye!
Sekki: Bye-bye~

Mano: O'Malley!
Me: Do you speak English?
Mano: English... speaking? Oh..uh... See you later! *lol*
Me: See you later! *lol*
Mano: *lol* Bye-bye!
Me: Bye-bye!

Mano-chan needs to calm down with showing that she remembers my name, haha. It's hard to talk to her because she is not listening being busy shouting my name, lol.

Then I waited for the girls to change clothes before leaving since I missed them during the rehearsal and was curious what they were wearing. The staff pulled a nice trick on us, though, by letting the girls leave from another side of the building than what is usual. So I didn't get that close to them and couldn't say good-bye to them again. Oh well, they at least noticed me and waved to me! lol

Tomorrow it's the same lineup of girls in Yokohama. I'm glad to get to meet Saaya and the other girls again!


Lastly again Mano's outfit for the events (also used in her debut concert in June):



















オマリー