Official Morning Musume/Hello! Project Thread 8

[Genki+]

Buono! Renai Rider PV

http://www.dohhhup.com/movie/P5Qq9Av...FwmQq/view.php

I think it's cute ^^ & the song is seriously /awesome/

Café Buono! Tracklist

1. Café Buono!
2. 泣き虫少年
3. 恋愛ライダー
4. ホントのじぶん
5. バケツの水
6. ガラクタノユメ
7. Internet Cupid
8. Last Forever
9. こころのたまご
10. 星の羊たち
11. ロックの神様
12. 君がいれば

01. Café Buono!
02. Nakimushi Shounen
03. Renai Rider
04. Honto no Jibun
05. Baketsu no Mizu
06. Galaxia no Yume
07. Internet Cupid
08. Last Forever
09. Kokoro no Tamago
10. Hoshi no Hitsuji Tachi
11. Rock no Kamisama
12. Kimi ga Ireba

[PSYCHEDELICOdust]

That's a crap-ton of new songs. I just hope they're good.

[criminal]

Oh, Aika? I love her. Though there's no need for rivalry in the friendly rainbow that is ~MOONINGU MUSUME~.

[Foxxy_Fuyumi]

Ill post more later LOL
It's like an Hello Project Museum!

[Mirai Noah]

^ I wants to go there!

[Genki+]

DO WANT

[PSYCHEDELICOdust]

Man, I hated those shoulder pads on Aika's outfit for kanashimi.

[Genki+]

I never noticed those lol

I'd love to actually see those...I've seen pictures of the costumes for Do It! Now & another one which I can't remember, too bad I didn't save them ><

[JesA]

haha i loved those outfits...

[DA1SUK1DAY01691]

I thought Kanashimi was the most fashion forward out of EVERY single they released. ROMAN wasn't quite there, but it was approaching well. Kanashimi just brought it full-force, and it never faded in my mind. Although Michishige and Mitsui's mid-drift is showing (a big no-no!), they were able to really pull off that rough look with their hint of cute. Mitsui's shoulder pads really wasn't needed, but it did add shape to someone without broad shoulders.

It's a slightly biased theme, but it's obviously the most wearable out of the rest of the singles. My personal favorites are Yoshizawa's (for being able to combine long with short really well), Fujimoto's (simple, yet it has that hit that lingers), and Michishige's (if the top was slightly longer to cover the middrift well, it would kill).

[PSYCHEDELICOdust]

I think the ROMAN clothes are very wearable, imo. I mean, not for me, but in general.

Yossi's outfit's probably my favourite with Koha~chan/Reina being second.

[*Petit*]

Not liking buono song.

I think takahashi''s outfit was the best. Imagine what kind of people visiting that museum? THere's probably drool on the show cases.

[elepop]

I didn't like Ai's outfit. Where are the pants? LOL. I don't think it looks nice as a dress.

My favorite outfits were Kamei's and Gaki's! Overall looks with hairstyle, they totally rocked it! I like how Kamei's outfit has simple but also cute and edgy. I like that her top was sleeveless. I think Gaki was the one that was the hottest. The hair was a win win! She looked really great.

The outfits of Roman~MY DEAR BOY~ were really cool. Miki had the best outfit.

[Foxxy_Fuyumi]

My favourite is Ai's outfit. It's kinda different.. =)
But about the shop...

H!P OFFICIAL STORES IN TOKYO!
This post is really late in coming, I was hoping to type it up whilst out in Japan, that way if anyone had questions or wanted better directions I'd be able to wander back to the stores and find out, but unfortunatly I never had enough time to sit down and get it finished, now being back I've put it off mainly because it brings me down thinking about being back in the UK, back at work and no H!P shopping except via the web. Since coming back from Tokyo I've noticed that for a long while now, I hardly ever by anything from the shops in the UK any more. I wander around the shops and aside from the odd DVD (Super Bad, being the obvious buy this month, such an amazingly funny film), book or DS game I hardly buy anything, and what I do buy on a regular basis are H!P related magazines from the Japan Centre. Since returning I've found it quite depressing to wander around the shops on my lunch break as all I think to myself is, I'm bored, these shops do nothing for me. I miss H!P shopping! When will an H!P Official Store open in the UK, so I can be totally broke but be strangely satisfied!

To make my life easier I took a whole bunch of print outs with me on my trip, I was fairly confident that I would be able to find the majority of the stores I was looking for without them, mainly because I had no problem with wandering the streets until I found them, lol, but it's always best to have a rough idea of where you are going.
The Official H!P website has some very basic maps of where their stores are, but as with every Japanese map I've seen in my lifetime they leave a lot to be desired, tiny little fiddly things...with the main problem of everything being written in Japanese. But thanks to Haropedia I had a better idea of what and where I should be looking. To be honest the three Tokyo based stores I went to were fairly easy to find, so hopefully anyone else trying to find them shouldn't have any problems, but to try and make things a little easier I also took a couple of Google Map print outs with and marked them on there and have now marked them on the online versions, ready to be printed out if anyone needs them.
I'd really recommend that if you're a H!P fan (and you probably are if you're reading this) and you're in Japan, visiting at least one of the Official stores is a must. They really are a great experince and offer so much for us fans to buy, they mailny sell photos, but there are also things like mouse mats, cups, scarfs, binders..the list goes on. The order process is slightly awkward, although no where near as bad I thought it was going to be, but knowing the members and groups really does help as each one is assigned there own range of numbers and each range of numbers are in groups, for example the top row of boxes are all Morning Musume, starting with Aichan and working along in order to LinLin. I'm beginning to wish I'd brought a blank form back with me as it would be much easier to explain if I could scan it in. Once filled in, count the amount of items you're put down and enter it into the box on the back and then get in the queue. You're also supopsed to enter your name on the back on the form so they can call you once all you're items have been collected, luckily for me (I forget how to spell my name in Japanese) I was only asked to do this once, the other times they didn't bother, being the only non-Japanese guy in the shop it was fairly easy for them to spot and wave me over.
When I get a chance I'll get around to taken photos of the things I bought from the stores, I've got all the receipts in my coat pocket from all my visits...I'm too scared to look through them and work out exactly how much I spent :S

Harajuku Store (Google Map)
This was the first store I went to and the one I frequented most. On my first day in Tokyo, after spending far to long stuck in the airport it seemed only right that I should treat myself to a little bit of H!P. I ended up buying quite a few photos, some amazingly cute C-ute photos and some great looking Morning Musume Alo!Hello photos, which disappointingly I'm still one short, I'm missing Mittsi's bikini shot, which is quite upsetting as she looks amazing in it.
One thing I'd like to clarify before going any further, is the post made by Chris awhile back, Holiday Horror for Non H!P Fans. Something that I've learnt on this trip is that Chris doesn't like to be put in situations that make him uncomfortable (good examples would be anything H!P related, Maid Cafes and Karaoke) and when he is, he's pretty much always pulling the face in the photo included in the linked post above, generally in that stance as well, although on the odd occasion he'd be a bit more defensive and have his arms crossed ;p put simply if I worked in one of the H!P store and I saw him standing there like that, I'd be laughing and pointing too. The staff are friendly and helpful and although Chris assured me on a number of occasions that I was getting strange looks, I personally didn't see anything of the sort and the only time I did was when I was waffling in English to the girl behind the desk who spoke as much English as I do Japanese, I was poorly trying to explain I bought the wrong size photo sleeves for my photo folder.
The store is straight forward to find and to be honest I'm surprised I missed it the last time I was in Tokyo as I walked past the street that it's located on so many times. Simply walk down the Takeshita Dori (1st picture below), and then take a left after McDonalds (2nd picture below), walk to the end of the road and that's it. The store has a big window out the front which feature costumes, when Chris was there last it featured costumes worn by C-ute, this time around it has one worn by Morning Musume.








Although this post is supposed to be about the Official Store, there is another store within Harajuku that's worth mentioning, Gorakudoh, this is on the 2nd floor of the LOVX building, above an underwear shop (I realise now why people were giving me funny looks as I took a photo of the shop) this is quite a small little shop, actaully maneuvering around inside can be quite a task. Inside are numerous glass cabinets, the majority of which are filled up with concert tickets, and not just H!P related tickets all different JPop related groups, they all stock a number of older photos, DVDs and CDs. The prices on the tickets vary depending on where the seats are, I was hoping to be able to buy some more tickets from this shop and attend another concert, but when I looked prices were quite high, I could certainly afford them but with the potential to have such a huge chunk missing from spending money I went down the sensible route and decide against it. If there's one thing I'd recommend to anyone going to see a concert, try and get a couple of tickets, performances were going about twice a day, so there's always the potential to go see the concert twice in one day, but having left the only thing I wanted to do was to go back in and watch it all over again. Next time I'll attempt to buy a couple of tickets for different times.






Ueno Store (Google Map)
On a quiet evening with not much to do, we decided that a trip down to Ueno would be in order to check out the Official Store there, although it was relatively easy to find it had us stumped for a little while. Finding the building the store was in was the easy part, out of Ueno Station under the railway lines and then a left down an alleyway running parrallel with the tracks, following this down to the end the road splits and directly in front of you is the building where the store is located, the embarassing thing is, we were stumped for a good few minutes as to how we got into the building. It wasn't until we walked around the right side of it we noticed stairs going up to the numerous shops inside. Compared to the other two stores this is the smallest, or at least it appeared to be the smallest. And although the store wasn't busy I was asked to write my name on the order form, with me being one of the most forgetful people in the world I'd totally forgotten how to write my name in Japanese, so my response to the girl behind the desk was 'English OK?', she looked at me and gave a reluctant nod, I jotted my name down on the back of the sheet and handed it back, she looked at it and then out aloud said 'Paul!', I nodded, she cheered, gave a big smile and headed off round to the other side of the shop with a big smile on her face.
To collect your items from the Ueno store you either have to leave via the entrance and walk around to the other side of the shop, or you can squeeze through the little corridor along the side, this brings you to a desk where your items will be shown to you and collected. On this side of the shop an old guy was counting out my items and placing them on the counter for me to look at, he then went through the items with me in English. I think my visit to the Ueno store really goes to show how friendly and helpful the staff are in the shops, I know certainly if we were in England and the roles were reversed, the response in any shop would have been 'No, you'll write your name in English' and then the staff would have been awkward, well at least that what I've noticed from my working in retail.






Shibuya Store (Google Map)
All the stores have their own little features and reasons for going to them, but the Shibuya is the one I'd recommend going to if you want to a little bit more than just shop. Located in the basement of the 109 Building across the road from Shibuya station, you'll have to walk through the most amazing Hello Kitty shop I've ever seen and no doubt you'll also walk away with something Hello Kitty related along with all your H!P photos. As you come down the escalators the store will be directly in front of you. They have all the usual items, but to the side there's a little 'museum', with a collection of outfits, photos and written messages from member of H!P. It'll cost 100yen to get in, but for the price you'll also be able to choose a little photo card (I chose Nono). Wandering around won't take long as in all honesty it's not that big and as I went in there by myself I wasn't longer than 5 minutes, as I scurtanised all the photos and messages, but it's really worth checking out if you're there.
Within the Shibuya store I had my first interaction with Japanese fans. And this is the one time that I saw members of the shop looking and laughing in my general direction, but not at me...well not entirely at me. On my second visit to the store there was a couple of girls rampaging through the store harassing everyone in there, they were running around in quite a hyper state asking who people which member of Morning Musume was there favourite. The staff was watching them run around the store asking their questions...then we made eye contact....They come running over to me as I was jotting down some photo numbers onto my sheet of paper, excitedly they asked in Japanese who was my favourite member, I responded with the obvious answer of Koharu, they chatted and started talking to me about Reina, but unfortunatly I was completely lost and seeing that the conversation wasn't going anywhere they headed off to the next lucky shopper. I believe that even Chris had a run in with them as they left the shop and passed him sitting on the seats outside. Haha, I would have loved to been able to chat to them, although they were hyper and a little scary, it would have been great to speak with some Japanese fans whilst I was out there.




by; helloblog!!!!

This is a post where he talk about his experience.

[elepop]

That person was damn lucky to be able to go to Japan and visit those stores!

I would have bought so many stuff there. Since they don't sell a single H!P thing here.

[Genki+]

I want to go there so bad T_T

[truehappiness]

Amerikajinmusume [a dancing YouTube personality who dances to H!P songs] is in Japan right now for modeling and stuff, and she got an invite somehow to be on Haromoni@!

In a few weeks, we'll get to see her dancing! OMG. It's exciting. :O She's really quite good.

[elepop]

What the freaking hell? I'm so jealous! XD

[Foxxy_Fuyumi]

I'll start to dance too, maybe I'll receive an invitation too
LORD, SOME PEOPLE ARE FREKIN LUCKYY
GRR!

[PSYCHEDELICOdust]

no. I'LL start dancing and get an invitation. i know THE MANPOWER!!! by heart.

surely that'll get attention.