Kyoko Fukada: She's a Lady!!!

She's a Lady! The Still captivating Ms. Fukada

Watching an episode of SHIN DOMOTO KYODAI with the adorably precocious Shida Mirai as the guest, as the Domoto Brothers chatted up with the Hammer Session star, I happened to glance at the the back row of people sitting directly behind them, and was taken aback by how beautiful and grown up Kyoko Fukada was!

Shida Mirai with Yucali and a very gorgeous Fukakyon

Now, I've ALWAYS loved her since the first time her cherubic smile graced the cover of idol magazine BOMB waaaaaay back in the day, but I hadn't realized til I saw her sitting next to Shida Mirai how she had grown from this cheery chipmunky girl into this gorgeous WOMAN! WOW!

Never mind Koichi, look at that stunning woman behind him

There was even a cute segment where Shida Mirai wanted to pretend to be a guy and "hit on" Fukakyon, and her choice of word during the skit sums up my sentiments EXACTLY!!! AHAHAHA!

"You're So Pretty!!!" says an energetic Shida Mirai-chan

Favorite J-Pop Singles: KinKi Kids / Zembu Dakishimete

By the time Morning Musume had released their 7th single “Manatsu No Kozen”, I loved them so much I ran out and bought “Zembu Dakishimete” by KinKi Kids!

EH?

Yes, My Love of Morning Musume got me to buy a Kinki Kids Single! But Why?

Well, for most of you, the reason I did this is probably glaringly obvious, but for the sake of this blog, here’s the story of how an obsession with Hello Project ended up with me buying a Johnny’s Jimusho CD single!

I wasn’t really a fan of Morning Musume when they first came out, but when a sub-group of MM featuring members Iida Kaori, Yaguchi Mari and Aya Ishiguro called TAMPOPO appeared on Music Station, I was instantly taken in by Aya (Ayappe, as they called her!) They were on to perform a single called “Motto”, and the song really stuck with me, too! In the end, I dubbed that video rental, and later that week, trucked down to the local J-music store and bought Tampopo’s first CD.

From there I had to have everything Ayappe was in, and of course it didn’t take long till I started buying all the Morning Musume stufff with her, too! Pretty soon I was a big fan of both groups,and wanted to see more!

Right in town there were (at the time) about five or six places you could rent the latest japanese music shows that frequently had Morning Musume on as guests, including shows like MUSIC STATION, UTABAN, HEY HEY HEY, COUNTDOWN TV, FUN, and…

LOVE LOVE AISHITERU!

Yes, the variety show hosted by Johnny Jimusho’s dynamic duo KinKi KIds and wackily co-hosted by ever-suffering Tomoe Shinohara was a GREAT place to see the latest musical acts, and to that end, Morning Musume AND Tampopo regularly made visits, so much so that at one point, it occurred to me:

1. Hey, I’ve watched that show so much, I remember the theme song!
2. Wow, I really LIKE that theme song!

In the end I loved the song so much that I special ordered the single, ZEMBU DAKISHIMETE, the “catchy song with the unbelievably hard-to-sing speedy verses” and amidst much ridicule by friends who thought it wasn’t “cool” to be buying Johnny’s, ran out of the store clutching my CD single with a cackling laugh!

The cool thing about it is years and years later, after watching the awesome Akai Hidekazu/Tanaka Misako drama SECOND CHANCE, my friend Car fell hopelessly in love with Tsuyoshi Domoto, and I was able to turn her on to Tsuyoshi and KinKi Kids in general through this awesome song, even thought the show itself had long been replaced by its seemingly similar show “SHIN DOMOTO KYOUDAI”!

We even got a kick out of watching old live performances of Zembu Dakishimete on Music Station, and realizing the background dancers featured future members of NEWS, T&T, ARASHI and KAT-TUN! How many can YOU recognize?!