Sugai Yuuka at Saturday's handshake event...and afterward with Tom

At Saturday's handshake event in Yokohama, a fan gave Yukka a great flower arrangement based on sunflowers:

She took it home for her famous cat Tom to enjoy, too:

Moriya Akane goes full-on cat costume at handshake event

Moriya Akane did the Saturday handshake event in full neko mode, featuring both cat ears and cat paws:

 

My favorite photos:

Imaizumi Yui's brother lines up to shake hands with Suzumoto Miyu

In her blog, Zuumin says it seems that her brother lined up at the handshake event on Saturday to shake hands with Suzumoto Miyu.

Zuumin (left) and Miyu-chan, at the handshake event.

 Zuumin thanks Miyu-chan for doing it, lol.

The handshake event was in Yokohama, which is the capital of Kanagawa Prefecture, where the Imaizumis live.

Imaizumi Yui quashes a rumour

A tweeter claimed Saturday that he and Imaizumi Yui talked at that day's Yokohama handshake event about communicating by text-message.

Apparently alerted by staff, Zuumin immediately blogged that it was not true and more or less threatened to stop doing handshake events if this kind of false claim continued to be made.

The tweets claimed that in two visits to her line on Saturday, he gave her his handle and they talked about texting each other. She replied in her blog that it never happened. She said the report shocked and saddened her, and apologized to her fans for it.

Age-chart of Members in Nogizaka46 and Keyakizaka46

Keyakizaka46 members are generally younger than Nogizaka46 members, but there is a lot of overlap between the two groups -- as well as between generations of each group.

Sugai Yuuka (K46) is a month older than Ikoma Rina (N46). Nagahama Neru (K46) is only a month younger than Saitou Asuka (N46).

I found a chart on a Japanese site that made all this visually clear and have created a romanized version of it, for the information of anyone interested. Click here or on the image below to go to the chart.

More on Nijika's Corpse Party

Ishimori Nijika says more in her blog today about her role in the film Corpse Party: Book of Shadows.

She thanks Ikoma Rina over and over again for being so nice to her, and with a smiling face helping her to relax:

She thanks model, talent and actress Maeda Nozomi, who plays her sister in the film. She praised Maeda-san's acting and said she learned a lot about breathing from her:

Does Kobayashi Yui read 2channel?

In her blog today, Yui-pon refers to the two weeks during which the Keyakitte, Kakenai? TV show has been bumped for tennis as a "Keyaki deficiency" (欅不足 keyaki fusoku).

This expression comes from 2channel, but is widely seen on Keyaki news sites. So using it doesn't prove she reads 2channel, but maybe.... I wouldn't put it past her.

But an idol has to be mentally strong to read 2channel, where she could easily come across some pretty nasty stuff about her (not in Yui-pon's case so far, though, as far as I have seen).

More Keyakizaka members are aiming to be centre

I had begun to think that Techi (Hirate Yurina) was the fixed centre in Keyakizaka46. But it turns out that other members have ambitions to rise to that position.

In an interview in Bubka magazine, Mona (Shida Manaka), Risa (Watanabe Risa) and Sugai-sama revealed their ambitions.

Risa:

• Mona asked if she was competitive. "Uh-huh. I hate to lose."
• There's no way she could be satisfied with her current position
• She thinks it would be good to stand at centre someday, but she doesn't have the inner strength for that (yet).

Sugai-sama:

• She does want to move forward.
• Mona: "Surprising." Sugai: "Does it not seem like it?"  Mona: "You want to go there?" Sugai: "Uh-huh. As long as I'm good enough."
• But she doesn't have the image for centre now. Her ability is not there yet.
• She thinks her age (20) is a handicap. The lack of time makes her impatient.
• She'd like to be in a sub-unit, with "Akanen or Habu-chan." Three people would be okay, too.

Mona:

Ikoma Rina to star, Ishimori Nijika to appear in Corpse Party film

Ikoma Rina of Nogizaka46 will star in the film Corpse Party: Book of Shadows, which comes out at the end of July.

Ishimori Nijika of Keyakizaka46 also has a role. Nijika and Ikoma-chan:

Nijika looks good here:

Here's the trailer, in which both appear:

Takahiro says Keyakizaka46 was inspiring and he'd love to work with them again

In an interview in modelpress magazine, Takahiro (Ueno Takahiro 上野隆博) talks about his work choreographing Keyakizaka46's performance of Silent Majority.

Takahiro is a world-famous dancer who has worked with Madonna and some years ago was chosen one of the hundred most internationally respected Japanese by Newsweek Japan. (click images to enlarge)

The enormous success of Silent Majority is due to a number of factors, from the words and music to Hirate's dancing and singing. But I think Takahiro's choreography was a key factor in getting 15 million people to view the music video on YouTube.

Japanese schools use Silent Majority lyrics in language tests

Some schools are using lyrics from Silent Majority in questions on language tests. Using pop song lyrics is apparently not that unusual, as teachers grasp at straws to retain students' interest:

 

(Click image to enlarge.)

Hirate Yurina and Shida Manaka Planned to Leave Japan to Study

If they hadn't been accepted into Keyakizaka46, Techi and Mona both planned to go overseas to study. But fate stepped in.

On Techi's radio show on 27 April, when Mona was her co-host, the topic came up when someone who was living overseas sent a letter asking them is Keyakizaka46 members ever thought of going overseas, and where hey would like to go:

Shida: "Actually, if I hadn't been accepted into Keyakizaka, I was thinking of going overseas to study."
Hirate: "Ehh? No way! Me, too...."
Shida: "You, too?"
Hirate: "I was going to go overseas to study, too."
Shida: "Eh? Really? Where were you going to go?"
Hirate: "Australia."
Shida: "Ah, Australia."
Hirate: "That's right. What about you?"
Shida: "I wanted to go to English Canada."
Hirate: "Oh! Why did you want to go?"
Shida: "Yes, why... I didn't have anything in particular I wanted to do. I guess it was just that I wanted to leave Japan and get a wider point of view."
Hirate: "Me, too."
Shida: "You, too? Ha, ha."
Hirate: "I didn't have any special dream."
Shida: "None."
Hirate: "Yes. I just wanted to fly away for a while and try it out. Maybe you were the same."
Shida: "The same!"