Ichigo ichie 8/13 - Mitsui guest appearance

By: Zabel

Mitsui Aika joins Takahashi Ai on this week's web broadcast.


Ichigo ichie 8/13


Aichan was the type who would wait until the last moment to do her summer schoolwork.

Aichan times Aika as she talks freely for one minute. Aika talks about having had a fight with her mom, and her (Aika's) tone of voice as she quarreled.

For the Ainote corner, Lovely recommends the love comedy Gossip Girl, which was recently brought over to Japan. She says that the drama is somewhat different than the books it is based on. But she is studying English with it :) She liked a certain phrase from it so much that she wrote in her diary that day -- "Do you know love me?" (should be "You know you love me") Aika wants her to tell this story at a concert.

Aika has been watching a television drama called Ghost, which is scary but also funny. Aichan says that her mom watches it too, and many other foreign dramas as well (such as Charmed and Prison Break). Aichan says that if Mitsui likes Ghost she might also enjoy Tru Calling, and explains the premise of the show.

They talk about concert tours. Mitsui says that she became stronger in spirit from the spring tour in which she sung a solo. During that tour each song was assigned a 'leader' and Mitsui was in charge of Resonant Blue. Aichan was glad when Mitsui told her she needed to fix a part (fix how Aichan was singing or dancing it).

At the concert in L.A. they were happy to see people not only from America, but from Japan, Australia, Europe, and all over. Aika especially liked meeting people at the autograph session. They remember seeing female fans in tears. Also people cosplaying as them (Morning Musume).

For the upcoming fall tour "Nine smiles" Mitsui would like to perform not just cool songs, but songs such as 3,2,1 Breaking Out with which they can show everyone their nice smiles.

They next answer a Tettekete question about how difficult it is to sleep in a hotel with an unfamiliar pillow. In fact, the last place they stayed at had hard beds, and several musume had trouble sleeping. Aichan had four pillows and she used them all together! As for Mitsui, she likes to sleep with a folded towel instead of a pillow. Aichan says that placing a towel under your neck and facing upwards is a good way to sleep. But normally she (Aichan) sleeps with a thin pillow.

Mitsui would like Aichan to invite her to see more plays. Aichan: "Then please call me Aichan". It seems they've both still been calling each other by last names.

English lesson: "Have a nice day". She learned from Ogawa that this is an often-used phrase.

Lastly, Aichan asks Mitsui to offer to the listeners a massage tip.

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Ichigo ichie 8/6 - Linlin guest appearance

By: Zabel

The second public recording of Ichigo ichie is held, and Linlin is a guest. Linlin provides anxiety relief for Aichan, and comic relief for all of us.


Ichigo ichie 8/6


Aichan goes shopping alone when she needs a change of pace. Things are on sale now, she tells us, with a hint of excitement in her voice.

Linlin is introduced and the initial topic is the new Minimoni Lin now leads. Aichan repeats to Lin what she said about Lin appearing big besides the even smaller girls in Minimoni, and for a moment Lin refers to herself as 'dekamoni' ('dekai' meaning 'huge'). Most of the time Lin would like to be taller, but when she is among her fellow Minimoni she wishes she could compress herself.

She asks Aichan what is most important in leading, and Aichan says such is a question she has wondered herself. In the beginning when she took on the role of leader, Nakazawa and others advised her to just lead in her own way. She talks about naturally learning to look after the girls she leads. Lin: "That was a great speech, but you tripped up there in the middle." Lin makes a point of notifying Aichan every time she trips on words during the show. Chinese directness, I guess.

Ai asks Lin to say something about Nanchatte Ren'ai, so Lin tells everyone that if they sing the song at the part where the word 'hamburger' appears in the lyrics, they should eat a hamburger while singing it.

Ainote... Today Aichan recommends Me and My Girl, originally a Broadway musical, starring Amami Miyuki and Asano Kayo, which she saw at the Imperial Theater around the time she was studying for her own role in Ribon no Kishi. On a quasi-related topic, we learn that Linlin gets a funny feeling in her stomach when she is about to cry (watching a sad play), and seems surprised that she is the only one. Lin recommends One Piece the Movie: The Miracle Winter Cherry Blossom.

For the remainder of the show they read messages and questions from the audience. Some interesting bits:

- Lin went home practicing the "imi naku konetari" rap line from Nanchatte Ren'ai out loud, to peoples' amusement.

- As for Aichan, she worked hard on the "honmono ni" line at the very end, to peoples' annoyance.

- Lin learns that 'maemuki' (前向き) means 'positive'. Literally it means to look forward, which allows Lin to make the pun.

- Aichan asserts again that she is a rain woman, and takes responsibility for her first photoshoot, the first gokkies photoshoot, and her first concert all having been rained on.

- The outfit Aichan wore for the Mr. Moonlight performance of the complete singles collection was very heavy.

- Aichan's number one goal, in case there is any fan alive who doesn't yet know, is to master English.

- Linlin's number one goal is to be able to play guitar while singing.

- Aichan feels she is not good with people older than her, but has no problem with people younger than her.

- Lin says cup ramen is the one dish she can cook.

- Aichan loves to put shisohijiki (a dried seaweed seasoning) in her rice.

As the segment concludes, Lin's capacity to express herself in Japanese fails her.

Linlin: This corner is like...really, like...there's a lot of good...like, the advice is...it's like 'shinriisha'.
Aichan: 'shinriisha'?
Linlin: Um, how do you say. Heart...um.
Aichan: You wanted to say...
Linlin: Um, sorry. Um, I can't get it across. Don't worry about it.
(audience laughter)
Aichan: I wanna know after you've said that much!
Linlin: I've reached the limits of my Japanese.
(audience laughter)
Aichan: If you remember, please say it!

Lin has finally been calling Aichan 'Aichan' rather than 'Takahashi-san' or 'Ai nee-san'. At Aichan's request she teaches a Chinese phrase, "wǒ è le", meaning "I'm hungry".

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