Koharu removed from the Apple App store

This came as a shock to most people yesterday when Apple removed the Koharu PB app from the app store. Although this app wasn't that sexually explicit, the rules have become more clear according to an apple rep.

If you read this, one of the rules says "No images of women in bikinis". There are also other rules app developers must follow. This deals as a somewhat blow for UFA which saw this as a new market to distribute PB's and make their $2.99 off each sale. I managed to buy it before Apple took it away and is still on my phone. I bought it since I didn't buy the actual photobook. Honestly most of the "actual" sexually explicit apps took over rankings for either free or paid apps in the app store and it was getting out of control. For the Koharu PB, I thought I saw nothing wrong with it. I don't know what UFA could do to change the app and make it for sale again, we shall see.

Read this for more info: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=6102

also: http://chillifresh.com/2010/02/20/5000-apps-banned-the-new-rules/

Onna ga Medatte Naze Ikenai

Well the single is out in just a couple days from now. I had a chance to watch the PV on Dohhhup last night and I have to say that I thought the PV was good, ok maybe not like Kimagure Princess where they shot it at a fancy wedding hall, but they are shown when they put makeup on and all that. Too bad Koharu is gone, she would have been a perfect fit for the PV. The song I thought sounded good although there are some people that say it wasn't that good and prefer the B version, I have not heard the B version so I can't say anything about that yet.

I think the single is going up with some competition when it comes out so will it make #1? We shall find out.

Will Morning Musume come back to the US this year?

I have been thinking of this for a while now, will they come back to the US after a successful Anime Expo last year? AX had their highest attendence ever last year, over 44,000 attendees which makes it the largest anime con in the US. Based on watching the MM Documentary, the concert was very successful IMO, lots of people watching the greatness that is Morning Musume. This was a major gathering for all the fans in the US and around the world. Some people I know went there like Paul from Hello!Blog and Mozenator who I met after he went to LA. This was their first time seeing them in LA (also I see a snippet of Moze in the documentary at the Saturday autograph session).

If you see the right, I put up a poll asking this question, people appear to be mixed about whether they will come back this year. (The poll is now closed)

UPDATE: The poll has ended and 33% of voters say Morning Musume will come back to the US this year, and 66% of you think they won't come back this year.

For me, I happened to be in Florida on vacation when everyone was in LA and I probably regret that now. Last year we knew in February that they would go to LA in July, a 50-50 chance tells me that they may come back this year, although they are going to Hawaii at the end of March. Besides Moze, there are other US fans I have met mostly via Twitter but they all live far away from me and Paul is from the UK who has gone to New York in the past. They are basicly the only friends I have, most of my school friends have moved on and don't really want to talk to me anymore which is sad. I have a couple friends from Germany, Chris is a sayu fan and would surely want to get her autograph, and maybe a kiss from her lol. Kana is another sayu fan but mostly likes AKB48, but it's ok, maybe she can convince me to be a partial fan someday. One day maybe i'll send her a sayu something or another, I think she would love me for that.

Do you think MM will come back to the US this year? Your opinions are welcome.

New Morning Musume single

Morning Musume's new single comes out soon and we now know what the single covers will look like. See here:
http://www.helloproject.com/discography/musume/s_046.html

Although the image quality is not that great, I decided to order the C version this time. All Limited Editions contain a DVD this time with a close up version, a dance shot version and a something with the C version. The last single had 10 interchangeable covers with the C version but they decided to go back to DVD's this time.

Also Japanfiles will sell the new MM album "10 My Me" one month after the Japanese release. It will contain the Japanese booklet and a photocard which is the same as the Japanese first press release.

It will be $14.98 and it comes out on April 10th a month after the Japanese release. Preorder here at Japanfiles. Note it can only be sent to addresses in the US, Canada or Mexico, others will have to get the Japanese version.

MM Nine Smile Concert Final Shirt

I got this shirt from Ohta today (although it took more than 2 weeks to get here because of the holidays), It's the MM Tour final shirt that you could only get at the concert hall. I managed to find it on Yahoo Auctions and told Ohta quickly about it and he bought it from the Japanese seller. Whats different about it is on the back it lists the concert halls and the dates of the concert, I haven't seen that on a MM concert shirt in a couple years.

So here is the shirt:

My first HelloStoreUSA order

Well my first order from HelloStoreUSA came yesterday as the most expensive MM order I have ever made. I'll let the pictures do the talking here, comments surely welcome:


Visual Book, and all the photosets


Reina Towel


Reina Shirt


Koharu Shirt (Both shirts came with photos which are not pictured)

Merry Christmas

Today is Christmas day and I just want to say Merry Christmas to all MM fans everywhere. I also want to mention a few people who I have gotten to know since I have been a fan.

Thank you to Kana, Chris, Strawberrie, Mozenator (Met in New York), and Paul, just some of the people I have known for a while and are all good friends. The lucky thing is that my Christmas gift to Kana actually made it to Germany yesterday on Christmas eve, how lucky was that? I sent her 2 bits of Japanese Chocolate, a Lotte Ghana Bar and Meiji Chocolate blocks, she told me she loved the Ghana bar and will keep the Meiji one wrapped a little longer. I've known Chris since 2007, he's been a sayu fan for a while, we have been good friends since then. He sent my card a little late but I should have it next week, thank you Chris. Strawberrie sent me a nice Christmas card too and she liked mine. We talk occasionally and she will be finishing her Semester in Japan starting next month. She says she can get me stuff from Japan while she is there, i'm still thinking it over, there's so much stuff you can get there. Thank you for your offer Strawberrie. I've known Paul (HelloBlog) since he first started the site. If I had your address I would have sent you a Christmas card, oh well maybe next year I guess. But anyway he went to AX this year and met alot of fans out there. I still regret not going, it would have been my first time meeting him. But he's been a good friend since the beginning and we talk on occasion.

And yes I finally did get to meet a fan in New York this year, He's Mozenator and he also went to AX this year with Paul. See my recent posts about our day in New York if you want to learn more about what we did, but he's a great friend and we will meet again. I'm hoping this year I will ask if he wants to go to the New York Auto Show. I went to it last year to see all the new cars, it was my first time going to an auto show. Thank you Mozenator for the opportunity to meet me and talk about MM and Japan.

Merry Christmas to all.

My day with Mozenator #2

So Saturday was the second time I have met with a cool H!P fan in the area and I had a really good time. This time he told me about when he actually met Aibon in New York last month. It was mentioned on H!O's twitter page, if it wasn't for that, he would never have known she would be in town. But one night, she went to a karaoke night at some bar and someone from a production company contacted him and told him to go there. Forgive me if I forget some parts of the story, but he had the opportunity to sit down and talk to her for a few minutes there. He was a bit nervous which is ok since it's the first time he met a former MM member. Then Sunday comes and she is at a mall in Fort Lee NJ doing something for KDDI corporation (KDDI is a mobile phone company in Japan, she is the spokesperson for KDDI in the US), so basically the same guy that contacted him the other night called him again if he wanted to come up to NJ. At this time he thought he was going to be late getting there but in order to get into the event, you needed a ticket. Long story short, someone actually had a spare ticket, gave it to him and he got into the event to do a meet and greet thing (I think that was it). That was one of the best days of his life to meet a former idol from MM, he could not have been more happy to meet Aibon.

Besides that, we went to the bookoff, looked around for a while there. Then went up to Kinokuniya, did pretty much the same thing. While we were there, he was trying to find UTB, but apparently they don't get that many issues in. The lady said their last shipment was back at the end of October and they only got, just 2 issues. The last time we found UTB was when Asahiya was open (they have since closed) and got the last issue there. He likes AKB48 and we saw a book of them when they went to New York back in September. It was 30 dollars though, he thought of getting it but because of the price, didn't.

Then we had to go to Dainobu and look at what they had in store to buy. He didn't get anything but I bought more Japanese chocolate lol. I have like alot of it now, most still have to be eaten.

Then that was it, he had something else happening later that day and we parted ways after that. Before he left, he mentioned that there might be a fan get-together of New York area fans maybe next month or February. He said he would get back to me on that but it would really be awesome to go to it. I surely would like to meet other MM fans since there are none where I live.

All in all, we both enjoyed the day.