Ichigo ichie 7/16 pt 1 - Michishige guest appearance

By: Zabel

Here's an Ichigo I've been looking forward to ever since Aichan started having guests on the show--AiSayu! They talk about their experience in Los Angeles, celebrate Sayumi's 20th birthday, and tell funny anecdotes about Kamei. It's another long one so I'll be doing two segments.


Ichigo ichie 7/16

Aichan's summer goal is to be careful because she seems to think her skin is becoming dark. Sayumi would like to become an 'unstandardized woman'.

Aichan: Unstandard...season?
Sayu: No. Um, Aichan you're tripping on words right from the start.
Aichan: It's true.
Sayu: Probably 5 minutes can't go by without you tripping up around 5 times.
Aichan: No, it's 'cause I'm nervous.
Sayu: You're kidding!
Aichan: Really.
Sayu: Really?
Aichan: Yes, whenever I have a guest on I get nervous and trip.
Sayu: Is that so? But even when you're not nervous you trip.
Aichan: Oh, is that so. (sheepish laughter)

That's the standardized Aichan, Sayumi says, but what she means by a standardized Sayumi is that she relies on established gags doing concert MC's or on her radio show, such as saying "All right, today I'm cute too!" She would like to become less predictable.

Aichan wishes Sayu a happy birthday and presents her with a gift from Ichigo ichie, something delicious with strawberries in it. They tell how Eri surprised not just Sayu but everyone for Sayumi's birthday. They were finishing a photo shoot when suddenly the lights went out. Eri was more talkative than usual, and kept assuring them that it'll be okay. In the end she brought out a cake. It was a surprise birthday present, but Eri wasn't very good at it, Sayumi says. As for Aichan, she got Sayumi pink chocolate-shaped speakers and earphones. She went shopping with Gaki, and it took her an hour and a half to decide on what to buy for Sayumi.

Sayu: Really? I'm so happy. That means you were thinking about me for an hour and a half.
Aichan: Well, I was also shopping for myself. (laugh)
Sayu: Ohhh, so that's how it was.

About Nanchatte Ren'ai, Sayumi says to pay attention to how you can distinctly hear each member's voice.

For her recommendation today, Aichan pushes the movie Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. In this installment in the series, a certain character dies which made Aichan cry when she read it in the book. Aichan says that the author herself was depressed about killing off this character, which was moving to read about in the afterword. Sayumi likes reading afterwords. When she is in a bookstore and doesn't know what book to get, she decides which books are interesting by reading the afterwords. Aichan says that Sayumi reads a lot and is always lending books to the other members. She especially likes mysteries. Aichan, by the way, is on the 6th book in the Harry Potter series, which Sayumi, who has read some of the series, hadn't even heard of.

Sayumi is not a big filmgoer, but she recommends Titanic and The Green Mile.

Then the promised backstage recording in L.A. after the concert at Anime Expo is played, which includes Eri spilling her food, Risa praising Aichan's use of English, and "Hello! My name is Koharu Kusumi. Nice to meet you. I like umeboshi." After the recording, they talk about L.A. and Sayumi has some amusing stories to tell.

To be continued.

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Iiza Ee-Day 7/13

By: Zabel

Last week Aichan went around to random places in Fukui to sample food. This week the theme is 'yumeoibito" (夢追い人) or people chasing dreams, drawn of course from Morning Musume's recent hit single Shouganai Yumeoibito. Aichan gets to meet various people in Fukui who are following their own dreams.



In the vicinity of Fukui station, Aichan visits a new shop on its opening day, part of the "Challenge Shop" project. It is the 'Cherry Forest' and the proprietor is a woman who calls herself 'Cherry', which she can get away with because the character for 'cherry blossom' is actually in her name (桜里). She sells custom-made trinkets. Aichan becomes her first customer.

At Echizen, she makes a surprise visit to Tamamura Akiko, a person who was featured on a television show two months ago, for which Aichan did the narration. Aichan had wanted to meet her in person.　She shows Aichan how to make Echizen paper (越前和紙).



Then at a gym the host tells Aichan that she has something in common with the woman she is about to meet -- they both have 'Ai' for a first name. But the similarities end there. Takei Ai is the world bronze medalist in power lifting. Aichan participates in a curious muscle traning exercise that I'm not gonna attempt to describe. Somewhere along the way she changed into a blue shirt with a skull on it. Afterwards, Takei, who wants to become an action actress, asks advice from Aichan about acting.



The host wraps up with a hint that he was trying to impress Aichan just a little bit as they went around to all those places. Aichan roars in laughter, but says that her mom thinks the host is cool. Here and in other segments of the show, the Fukui dialect flies fast and hard!

Finally she returns to Tokyo to unveil gifts from the people she visited, together with two musume associates.



(in English)
Ai: Hello everyone! I am Ai.
Lin: I am Linlin.
Sayu: I am sorry. (?!)

We can always count on Sayu for a laugh, can we not? Don't forget to check in this weekend when I'll be writing about this week's Ichigo. Sayumi will be a guest so it should be lots of fun!

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