Translation - "And that's why I'll go on living" explanation

I've decided to translate Tsunku's newest book, "And that's why I'll go on living" (だから、生きる。）

I don't know if I can make a set schedule, but I hope to make my blog active again and I would like to share what I am sure is going to be an emotional roller coaster of a book.

Tagline: "I threw away my most precious possession, my voice, and I chose to keep on living."

Tsunku's movie - Atsuhime Number 1!

So haven't posted on here in a long time huh?  Well, that's because I haven't gone to ANY HP related events, too busy and no concerts in my area right now.  So sorry I have been absent from blogging for a while.

But that all changed today when I went to see the movie Tsunku was executive producer of, Atsuhime Number 1! Starring in the movie were Yossi, Rika, Yuko, Tokki, Tsunku himself, Dandy (the "gets" guy), among others.

Looking at this poster you probably think, I have no clue what this movie could be about.  So, here's the trailer.
Still no clue, well here's the basic plot:

The famous Atsu-princess is very reluctant to go off to Edo to be married to the Shogun so she tries continually to run away from Tae (her caretaker played by Yuko) and Mitsu (her guard ninja played by Tokki) and ends up on the edge of a field looking up at a meteor.  She wishes to be somewhere far away and her wish is granted as she ends up in the middle of Hakone in modern day Japan.  Picked up by an otaku artist and his girlfriend (who works as a hostess)  the three are taken to their apartment in downtown Tokyo and proceed to be surprised by everything around them.  Mitsu even throws a shuriken into the telephone as it rings.

Taken to the hostess' workplace out of curiosity at women working on their own Atsu is convinced to try out hostessing for one night.  Right away she crosses path with the current No.1 at the club Ami (played by Yossi) and the two are instant rivals, especially after Atsu and a customer have a near violent fight.

Their competition starts from that encounter and we see Atsu grow more and more accustomed to life in the modern age, so accustomed that when the customer she previously fought confesses his love to her she really wants to stay.  But along with learning a secret about Ami and why she needs to be No.1 so badly, she also overhears a conversation between the otaku and Tae about how drastically history may change if she doesn't go back.  And so she makes the difficult decision to go back, prompting a tearful goodbye scene when the man who loves her runs to where she is waiting for the meteor to pass by again so that Tae and her can go home.  (Mitsu has fallen in love with the janitor at the hostess club and decided to stay in the modern age.)

~~~~~

Overall I would say it is a comedy but it has some very touching moments to.  There is a great scene where Atsu finds out Ami's secret and has a heart-to-heart with her that really changes how she views the girl she has had such a fierce rivalry with.

Then, comedy-wise, there are many scenes with Tsunku (playing himself) in and out of the club where due to Mitsu's rashness he is put to sleep with drugs several times while trying to creep on the hostesses he is enamored with.

I definitely recommend this movie to anyone in Japan or anyone who can see the DVD when it is released.  Though I would suggest waiting for it to be subbed because the Japanese the three Edo-period ladies use is old-styled Japanese.  Great movie though ^^

Akihabara: Backstage Pass - The place where you raise the idols

Akihabara Backstage Pass

Produced by Tsunku ♂ and Chiyomaru (producer of Afilia Magic School)

 As some may know December 23rd, which is also the current Emperor's birthday, was the opening day of Tsunku and Chiyomaru's joint project in Akihabara: a cafe where you raise the idols by choosing an 押し　and giving her your points.  It is similar in style to the Afilia Magic School (well it is run by the same guy) so you have different levels of point cards and can put your points towards the different girls.  As you spend more money, you get different cards.  All the cards have different levels of "Producer" on them.  The starting level is Assistant Producer.  In the picture below you can see all the levels (thanks for posting that yesterday Chiyomaru) the first level is the red one.

Now, before getting our cards we had to GET into the cafe.  By we, I mean me and my boyfriend who I convinced to come with me (he loves maid cafes so something of a similar nature as a Hello Project wasn't too hard to convince).  The Grand Opening was at 3pm, with a 1hour limit for opening day (and maybe opening weekend,not sure) but there were a lot of people watching Chiyomaru's live stream on Thursday so it was really hard to guess just how many people would be coming.  So we left the house around 11 to get there at noon, checked out the 6th floor.  No people, wandered back downstairs to look around some shops, went back up around 1 and there were 2 people waiting, one of which had seen us going up and down so let us ahead of him, making us 2nd in line.  And then we sat down, with 2 hours to go til opening, on the stairs as we asked and were given permission to do.  I had my tablet with me so used that and drinking bottled iced tea to kill time.  

And as time passed, it was easy to see that coming early was the right thin to do.  The cafe is on the 6th floor of a popular building called Akiba Culture's Zone.  By the time the cafe opened, the line snacked down the stairs to the first floor.  And since it was 1 hour limit on opening day, with Tsunku and Chiyomaru obviously there... yeah you would be waiting an hour if you didn't get in first loop.

10 to three came and we were asked to stand up and a couple of people from the press came and verified that everyone was OK with being on camera (you probably picked the wrong day to come if you weren't OK since there were obviously going to be news outlets as well as filming crew for Tsuntube and Nico Nico Streaming).  Then, one by one we were led inside.  Since we were second I was actually quite nervous and when it was our turn smiled at the camera and was led to the door, greeted by a very cute idol named Azuna (or Azunyan as she likes to be called) and then led down (not kidding here) a corridor of all the girls lined up through the center of the restaurant to the second to front table in front of the giant stage.  They left the first table open for filming and interviews until the cafe was completely full up. 

Wow, the stage was right there, and Tsunku was standing to the wing.  Right away he saw me and nodded.  Pretty sure he recognized me from the couple of other times I have been in the front of events he has been at.  Even if it was just the foreigners well, it was very obvious all the staff were amused at the two foreigners who were practically first in line.  There were cast members everywhere (we were constantly told by the announcers and Tsunku/Chiyomaru to not call them maids) film crew everywhere and a giant stage with Tsunku standing to the wing.  It was amazing and I was grinning the whole time.

We signed up for our producer cards and ordered drinks and talked with Azunya until she went off (for a long while actually x_x) and then looked towards the stage and Tsuntube staff as they were interviewing different cast members.  Then Tsunku and Chiyomaru came out for a bit, did more chatting with different girls before introducing 3 idol groups who had come to support the opening of the cafe.  Two of the groups were minor idols: OSU and Doll Elements (the trainees of Lovely Doll) and the third was a very underused group (hehem Tsunku) The Possible.  Each said hello and then all together they performed (with Possible in front) the Tsuntube created song (Aiyaya Papaiya Aiyaisa ~) that has now become stuck in my head.  

We ordered food, but it must have gotten forgotten about in the busy rushing around, no big deal.  As it hadn't come by the time the hour was up they just took it off the order list and it was amazing how quickly one hour went by.  Along with Azunyan several cast members stopped over at our table to chat with us, all of them being curious how we came to know about the cafe.  One girl even called us the "cool foreign couple" and that made us laugh.  All the girls were rotating around to try and build reputation, since they need to earn points from us in order to advance and be given more opportunities to go out into the media etc.

There are about 100 girls who made it through the auditions (unfortunately not me but they were nice enough to email polite rejections to everyone which is pretty awesome actually) and I am pretty sure all were there rotating in and out yesterday, or at least most.  Here are two who I know talked to me.  Others did talk to me, but I either can't remember their name, or the name on their name tag and introduced to me is not the one on the profile site so I can't figure out who.  And it is hard to figure out by looks as there are tons of them.

 Azuna - 19 years old

Harushan - 15 years old

Azunyan was so nervous, she kept forgetting parts of everything she had to explain to us in the beginning and it was adorable.  I just told her to slow down and relax.

Well the greatest part of the day was actually when we were leaving.  Our hour was up and we were led by Azunyan to the counter to pay.  Tsunku and another male staff member were standing only a couple of feet behind us chatting, waiting for the first group to all leave probably.  So we finished paying and I glanced again at Tsunku, who met my eyes and then walked over to us and first asked in Japanese if we could speak it.  I said yes.  So he stood there right next to me and asked how I found out about this cafe.  I told him I had seen it on his blog, and then Azunyan blurted out how I had told her I knew about it 3 months ago right when it was announced and he seemed amazed.  I said that I was a big Hello Project fan so was always going to events.  He did the obvious thing of thanking me for that and then I told him I was definitely going to be coming back to the cafe more.  He told me he hoped we had a good time, then smiled and said "Thank you for coming" in perfect English before walking off.

I was in shock that we had such a normal back and forth conversation.  I mean I knew he had spotted me and obviously nodded at me a few times while on stage but apparently he was really curious as to how I got there on opening day.  I was so happy leaving the cafe and promised Azunyan that we would come back soon.  Wow... I really should have asked to shake Tsunku's hand but I am just in complete awe that we had a totally normal exchange and I definitely think he'll remember me ^_~

Can't wait to go back again.  Price wise it isn't too expensive so hope to get there at least once or twice a month.