I had first discovered her as the result of a bored-during-lunch-at-work search through LiveJournal for people in my area and my own age there in October of that year, communicated with her through Yahoo! Messenger for awhile, and first saw her face to face at the KMart photo lab she worked at on Black Friday. What is funny is, I had discovered the day before via one of her LJ posts that she lived three blocks down a side street from me.

Three years later, on Christmas Eve 2007, I proposed to her. In less than seven months, on June 26, 2010, we finally tie the knot.

Looking back to our first date itself, much of it resembled the lyrics of a certain Tanpopo song from what I consider to be their true classic lineup of Kaori Iida, Mari Yaguchi, Ai Kago and Rika Ishikawa or as I call it after close to six years of following Morning Musume, the Johnson/Marippe/Aibon/Charmy lineup (derived from each members’ nicknames). Tara is not a fan of J-pop by any stretch, but when I showed her the lyrics a little later on, she too was amused at how much the song’s storyline resembled our first night out. So, in honor of a night five years ago that altered both of our lives for the better, here’s that particular Tanpopo song, their classic “Koi Wo Shichaimashita” (“I Fell In Love”)

I love you, Tara. <3

Tsunku announced on his blog today that he’s reviving MiniMoni with an all-new lineup. 

MiniMoni hasn’t exactly been far away from Tsunku’s – or fan’s – minds. Their first single, “MiniMoni Jankenpyon”, has turned up on set lists during the W/Berryz Koubou 2004 tour (sung by members of Berryz, despite the fact that two ex-MiniMonis were headlining) and during a Wonderful Hearts package tour a few years later with random MoMusu (one of which was Reina Tanaka, who had once cosplayed as a MiniMoni member in her pre-MoMusu days), Berryz and C-utes. Both times, the random members were dressed in the standard old-school MiniMoni covers. 

So far, only one member has been confirmed for the new lineup: Hello! Project Egg Kanon Fukuda: 

My initial presumption would be that Tsunku will be utilizing mostly H!P Eggs for the new lineup, rather than shoehorn existing Wonderful Hearts into the band, despite the original group’s origins as consisting of 3/4 Morning Musume. Whether the original 150cm and under rule concieved by Mari Yaguchi in 2000 is held to is also presently unknown. But whoever gets in the new lineup will have some big shoes to fill – especially vocally, since the group had four very distinctive voices in Ai Kago, Nozomi Tsuji, Mika Todd and Mari Yaguchi. Ai Takahashi’s later membership in the band in Marippe’s place did nothing to diminish that, thankfully.

The timing of this annoucement is interesting: Mari Yaguchi FINALLY issued a solo single earlier this spring, and was recently in the studio with fellow O.G. MoMusu Kei Yasuda. Meanwhile, Ai Kago’s first post-Hello! Project single is coming out in a few weeks. Nozomi Tsuji is concentrating on her “new” career as a designer of baby clothes at present, and it’s been awhile since anything new was heard about Mika Todd. 

Also a mystery right now (give Tsunku a break, he’s only announced one band member so far!) is what the musical content will be like. MiniMoni’s original sound, however varied, was more youth-oriented, until 2003 when the group started turning towards a more mature R&B-oriented sound. An educated guess might surmise that a new lineup might hark back to MiniMoni’s original approach, but again, with only one horse in the starting gate it’s too early to tell. 

More on this when there’s more to talk about.

Now I get to explain myself again…

1. Reina Tanaka – Yeah, was there ever any other doubt? This hasn’t changed. Not just my favorite MoMusu, not just my favorite H!Per, but my favorite J-idol, period. Beautiful voice, beautiful face, nice rack, nice butt… fuggedaboutit.

2. Koharu Kusumi – My geinou adopted daughter, and the young woman responsible for three of the most twisted albums in the Hello! Project canon to date, was #3 on last year’s MoMusu poll. Curiously, she was listed twice on Paul’s new poll as both a MoMusu and 1/3 of MilkyWay, so for shits and giggles I went with her MilkyWay outfit, since her tenure voicing Kirarin Revolution is coming to an end (along with the series itself) soon – and also because I seem to be cuing up “Anataboshi” quite a bit lately.

3. Mari Yaguchi - It’s about fucking time Mari hit the studio for the first time in four years and recorded something. My copy of the new single came in today, although I’ve been spinning a leak on my iPod since I caught wind of it (my impatience strikes again, buffered by my conscience saying that since I already bought the record, it’s OK.)

4. Hitomi Yoshizawa and 5. Rika Ishikawa - Placed here mainly because the HANGRY&ANGRY EP has been a frequent visitor to my iPod and CD player. Not to mention I liked Ongaku Gatas and Viyuden. And no, I’m not putting Yossy in this spot just because Reina placed 4th in Vee’s own survey last week.

6. Miyabi Natsuyaki – 1/7 of Berryz Koubou, 1/3 of Buono! and Aa! Responsible via her shirt on the Yuke Yuke Monkey Dance single for the name of this blog. H!Per most likely to make like Mike Watt or Jah Wobble. Shares a birthday with Elvis Costello. 

7. Airi Suzuki - 1/7 of C-ute, 1/3 of Buono! and Aa! H!Per most likely to make like Johnny Ramone or Ron Asheton. Responsible for those great high notes in “Maasara Blue Jeans”. 

8. Yuki Maeda - I’m probably going to be one of the few people voting for the Elder Club’s resident enka singer, but I don’t give a fuck. Yuki set off my interest in enka music long before a fellow Pennsylvanian flew to Japan and gave the genre a kick in the ass. Here’s hoping her future singing career brings her a longevity that equals, if not rivals, Sayuri Ishikawa’s and Yuriko Futaba’s. 

9. Kaori Iida - We still love you, Johnson. Please make another solo album soon. 

10. Nozomi Tsuji - Ah, Nono, if only things were different (read: If only Naoki Yamazaki wasn’t such a stick-in-the-mud prude)… Someone at UFW should dust off the master recording of W3: Faithful and, if not give it a legit release right away, at least force one by leaking the goddamn thing online.