After getting over the initial excitement of getting my ATSUHIME Official Drama album book, It was my friend Car who first pointed out that there were quite a few important characters that seemed to be missing from the book! Her first concern was that actor Ikki Sawamura wasn’t covered, and then it crossed my mind that they’d forgotten to put Kyozo Nagatsuka in it as well, and that was just mystifying, because he was such an important character in the Taiga Drama!
I was to later find out that the book I had purchased was in fact, the SECOND book, released to coincide with the show’s second half, and all the characters and incidents we’d wondered about had been covered in the FIRST release! KUYASHII!
I went back to Hakubundo, where I’d bought the second book, hoping wishfully that they’d still have some of the first book in stock, but not only did they not have that first book, I was to find that the second book that I’d just bought had ALSO sold out by then! Thank God I picked up those copies when I saw it that first time!
I figured I had to get used to the idea of not owning the first book, but was suggested I try Amazon Japan, and I was happy to discover that they still had lots of copies of the book in stock, and for only around $10.00! I quickly ordered the book, and was shocked to find the postage was $30.00! Yikes! But I would have paid a lot more for the book on ebay anyway, so I gladly purchased it.
And guess what? That postage was well worth the price, because my book came in THREE DAYS! Yep, I ordered the book Saturday Night, and the package arrived Tuesday afternoon! I thought I’d scan a few pics to celebrate my completion of my Atsuhime Books at last (unless NHK decides to release one more book, which is pretty unlikely!)
Below: The obligatory "Out of Costume" interview, in the second one it was with Aoi Miyazaki and Masato Sakai, in the first book, it was with Aoi and Eita...Such a nice picture of Ms. Miyazaki, dessho?
One thing I wanted to mention that I didn’t touch on before is that Atsuhime’s mother Oyuki is played by veteran actress Kanako Higuchi, whom I’d fallen in love with years ago when she played the mother (again) of the show’s heroine in the NHK Morning Drama Amakarashan, (a show that had me running out to try and find her Water-Fruit Shashinshuu!) and it was really sweet to see her in a drama again-She still looks just as beautiful as ever!
When I have the time, I'll have to scan more of the lovely ladies from this excellent Taiga Drama!
