Saturday, September 5, 2009

Ichigo ichie 9/3 - Good for the throat

By: Zabel

Takahashi Ai's wonderful weekly web talk show.


Ichigo ichie 9/3


As with last week, Aichan opens her show with a little poetry. Then asks us "What's new?" She takes a call from a listener whose face gets red when nervous, and even worse when someone points it out. Aichan says the thing to do is run away XD

Aichan gives her impressions of the Broadway musical Spelling Bee, starring Fujii Takashi and Niiduma Seiko. She saw it together with Aika and Koharu. As the name suggests, the story is about a spelling bee contest, and they even get some audience members involved; Koharu was hoping (out loud) that she would get called up. Aichan describes the characters and the climax. I think Aichan is not bashful about spoiling endings when talking about plays and musicals, which most of her fans are unlikely to have the opportunity to see. (she refused to spoil much about Harry Potter last week)

Fall is said to be a tough season for choosing one's fashion, and Aichan agrees. She wore a salopette (overalls) that she bought two years ago for the first time. She also loves her sheepskin boots, and one-piece shirts. Colors...Aichan wore black a lot when she was new in Morning Musume despite being told she was too young for black. She branched out and enjoyed wearing other colors, but is now wanting to return to black.

The English lesson is a follow-up to last week's "What's up?". "Not much. And you?"

A listener who is unable to eat sesame asks Aichan for advice on how to overcome foods you just can't seem to eat. Aichan likes sesame oil with boiled komatsuna and suggests that the listener try it. She reaches for the liver when she goes out for yakiniku since it is supposed to be good for the throat, although she isn't crazy about the taste. Fujimoto Miki loves it. Miki would devour a plateful of liver when they went out to yakiniku after a concert. As for a food that Aichan has overcome, she discovered she can enjoy the taste of yuzu.

The sub-leader will be a guest next week :)

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Sunday, August 30, 2009

Ichigo ichie 8/27 - Hello! Champuru

By: Zabel

A brief summary of this week's show.


Ichigo ichie 8/27


Aichan likes to eat lotus root candy (れんこん飴), which is good for the throat, and rusk, which she recently ate with her curry.

Having just finished reading the Harry Potter series, she went to see Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince. To Aichan, Hermione has become a beautiful lady, Ron has become muscular, and she particularly enjoyed a confrontation between Harry and Draco Malfoy.

A listener asks Aichan how she watches Takaraduka. Now when she watches Takaraduka she studies their acting, but to the listener she recommends just taking in the magnificence of it; the aura the top stars convey, the clothes they wear, how they enter the stage.

She reports on the summer H!P Concert. Aichan says it was good for Morning Musume to have a feeling of rivalry between Berryz and the others. It had been awhile since High King performed Cinderella Complex so it took her time to remember how. They also sung Diamonds, a cover of a song by the classic girl rock group Princess Princess. And Aichan's mom loves the song which Aichan covered as a solo, Yamaguchi Momoe's Cosmos. She worked hard to prepare for it, Tsunku guiding her on details as fine as which angle at which to hold the microphone. The song is sung at a difficult low pitch, so she was relieved when fans complimented her on it at the handshake event afterwards. Unlike the dance songs MM performs, a song like Yamaguchi's calls for more subtle motion; the expression on your face, the movement of your hand. Aichan thinks she could do better if she had more time. Her satisfaction with the concert was 70%.

English phrase... "What's new?" Her English teacher begins lessons by asking her this.

In the Tettekete corner she gives advice on gymnastics, which can be scary if you're just learning how. There was a time when she was trying to learn backwards somersaults. Also, back in elementary school she took a bad fall playing on the horizontal bar (I think) and needed five stiches below her lip.

Aichan recently changed her hair black, and then brown again. It seems she has been told that brown is better on her, but she is aware that there are fans who prefer her hair black.

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