^that's so cool. I wish i had relatives who liked japanese stuff. as far as i know. i'm the only one in my entire family that likes jpop or really anything japanese related. :/ boring. i wish i had someone who was into it before me to get me involved earlier.

Got into Ayu because of the "Distance-A BEST" scandal haha. Damn you Distance wiki page!

I got into Ayu because of fanmade youtube vids counting down their favorite jpop artists....it was incredulous to me back then how anyone could put someone before Utada Hikaru! :laugh I had to investigate who this Hamasaki person was.

I forgot the details of getting into Ayu, but it was definitely Hikki who started it all for me! It all began when I bought Kingdom Hearts..

And now I'm studying Japanese at university, gee, thanks Hikki :D

I got into Hikki through lurking around iTunes Japan and wondering what the heck was so special about Flavor of Life for it to be at the top so long.

To this day it is still the #1 most played song on my iTunes library (if you count the original with the ballad version, lol)!!

Wow so you must've been around the Distance VS A BEST era.

Well you can marry someone who likes Jpop or Japan and there you go! Make a Japanophile family~

It all began in the summer of '08 in Taiwan where I was anticipating Hana Yori Dango and Flavor of Life blew me away :thud

utada is actually the artist that introduced me to jpop!

i discovered her when i first attended college and napster was huge. i used to download tons and tons of music, mostly remixes because thats what i was into at the time. anyway, in late 2000 or early 2001, i ran into the johnny vicious remix of automatic which led me to check out utada and shortly after i discovered ayumi's remixes and from there out i was hopelessly hooked!

haha i did that too. thats also what pissed me off. i was so taken aback by anyone not putting hikki as number one. i think one only had ayu and mika nakashima before her and i was disgusted lol. another had ayu,boa, and mai kuraki before her if i can remember (and i think i can) overall

of course now. i accept opinions more easily haha. golly gosh im so ashamed of my old "hater of anyone who doesnt think hikki is perfect" self ^___~

I remember when I first saw the cover for Distance
I was like to my uncle "that's not her she doesn't look like this"
(pointing to FIRST LOVE cover).

and then I saw DEEP RIVER "THAT'S NOT HER EITHER!"

Hikki looks so different in each album cover well to me anyways

hell yeah! have my babies sleep in their crib with a kuma chang stuffed animal, and print the A symbol on all their stuff lol. jk

Let's start a family.

If we have twins we can name one Ayu and the other Hikki and they can be rivals for the rest of their lives.

I didn't know who hikki was until a month after First Love release, didn't really get into her until June or July.

And how I got into ayu? Well I went a website that updated and connected to other mp3 websites as usual. I was gonna hunt for Addicted To You. Then I saw two cd covers with a naked "white doll" and a naked "black doll" (you know which covers I'm referring to rite?). I was like, "wow that's kinda cool..." That my first ayu mp3. Then my brother bought LOVEppears at x'mas. Didn't really get into her until feb 2000 (cuz ayu's music was very different from hikki's music (and as well as the EPop).

And yes I've been through Distance vs. A BEST era. I can tell you it's really painful.. :P

...lol...YAY Distance is #1 this week! Yay...then next week....WTF....it's #2....but YAY A-Best is #1....and next week....YAY again Distance is #1 again...but poor Ayu....ZOMG 4th week Distance is #2 again wtfx. LOL. Win win situation for both?

was it really so super competitive? sadly i was like 6-7 yrd old and listened to the Backstreet boys in that era haha. i never saw the point of it. and overall it seemed pretty stupid to have rivalry between a mainly r&b and pop artist compared to ayu. i guess it mustve been painful huh? :)

Aw, hikki's boring me to tears :(. ayu bumped up to #1 in my favorite artists list...
hikki! :weep

After I got into Hikki, through Simple and Clean (I don't like to say Kingdom Hearts because I really only bought the game to see who sang the song. I don't play video games.), it took me a long while to get into any other J-Pop. I became obsessed with Hikki and solely her for a while, but then I discovered Koda Kumi and Shiina Ringo. I liked both of them, but not nearly as much as Hikki. There were others too and lots now, but back then I hated Ayu. I could not stand her voice.

The first time I encountered Ayu was when I went on YesAsia to buy COLORS and saw No way to say on the main page. I listened to some of her stuff (I think Boys & Girls and TO BE) and just cringed. I really didn't like her. When CAROLS was released, I heard it and liked it quite I bit. I was surprised, and it was my "guilty pleasure." haha When MY STORY came out, I decided to go ahead and give Ayu another shot and I was so shocked. I loved every song on the album, especially About You. I still didn't really like her voice, but it grew on me a lot and now I love her so much. :) haha

^LOL....first time I heard Ayu it was a really bad performance of UNITE! and I think I wrote some really mean and derogatory things about her......* embarrassed*.

I was horrible forever ago. I refused to get into anyone besides utada. I was like "it's weird enough that I listen to music in another language, I don't want this to turn into an obsession, so I'll just stick with hikki, I really don't want to get too into japanese stuff" and i stuck with it. for the longest time I refused to explore anything more than what hikki released. it wasn't till like end of 07, beginning of 08 that i started listening to more artists and opening up. It kind of sucks that I got into these artists late in their career cause of my stubbornness but here I am now lol. i knew people would look at me funny because I'm not asian, and don't speak any asian languages and here I am singing "omoidaseba haruka harukaaaaaaaa" lol. I remember when I first bought utada's "Exodus '04" single years ago, my aunt looked at it and was like "who is this asian chick?" and just stared at me. >> to this day, my brother still makes fun of me for it. I'm just like "**** off. D< atleast they don't sing about how kick ass they are cause they beat up their girlfriends and get put in jail every other day." (he's really into the rap scene)

I used to follow so many artists...

I really, really followed:
Koda Kumi, Ai Otsuka, Shiina Ringo, Mika Nakashima, Namie Amuro

I also kind of followed:
Porno Graffiti, Nana Kitade, Kou Shibasaki, ahhh.... there were SO MANY.

Now I ONLY follow Utada, Ayu, DBSK, and BIG BANG.

*tear tear* my brotehr still makes fun of me too. and hes so mean. hes so immature about it too. and showing him i listened too visual-kei was just a bad idea. he never stops with the stupid girl jokes. i insist theyre beautiful. and he just hates hikki and ayu with a passion. but he loves his lil wayne and gucci mane and plies (plies is actually funny though. i just laugh). all in all he just claims that he respects them all but he doesnt like foreign artists that dont speak english *pouts* whatever ^___^ i love em all haha

@amorphose: i hardly follow anyone either .its all ayu. and hikki whenever she does something. i have Eiko Shimamiya cuz shes the loveliest thing ive ever heard but she doesnt release a whole lot. then theres jrock bands who i pay attention too when i feel liek it. sadly An Cafe is on hiatus and Ayabie is anotehr pretty boy band now sooo its hard (but other bands still dependable). i stopped with Namie after Dr./Wild and BoA after i realized its too generic for me to waste my time with(still good though). but hikki and ayu still there ^___^