Japanese Christmas playlist

Now we are in December I thought to myself: I want to do a post about Japanese Christmas songs! I’m not sure I know that many, and most of them I know are from idol groups, but well here is my list~

Many probably don’t know about this Arashi song (I didn’t at least), but as I searched to see if Arashi had a Christmas song hidden in their discography, I found this! Ano Hi no Merry Christmas （あの日のメリークリスマス） is a light, typical Arashi song. Nevertheless, it’s a Christmas song and it has sort of grown on me, after having listened to it a couple of times. I would have liked some solo lines, but apart from that it’s a nice jingle for Christmas~

This is a song I know well, having listened to it many times. As always Buono! produces some great pop-rock tunes and this is no exception. I love Winter Story‘s catchy and groovy sound, as well as the brilliant chorus. A Buono! classic of mine and a great song to make me in mood for Christmas!

I can’t forget to include Momoiro Clover Z’s crazy and energetic Christmas song Santa-san! From the first time I listened to this song, I was hooked. It’s such a great, funny song with a lot of small gimmicks. Here I’m thinking of things like Reni’s ii toko (“good qualities”) dance for Santa Claus (or whatever it is) and a mentioning about Australian Christmas being in midsummer, which results in a throwback to their summer song Coco☆Natsu （ココ☆ナツ）(haha), so crazy!

This year Momoiro Clover Z’s “little brother” group DISH// (under Stardust) has released a Christmas single, nearly as crazy as Santa-san. Itsuka wa Merry Christmas （いつかはメリークリスマス）is a funny rock/pop song with fresh voices from the group’s young members (15-18 years old). Like Momoiro Clover Z they sure like to make funny gags during their songs, which I really like about this group. I also like the message of this song, which is wishing for a girlfriend from Santa Claus in order not to be lonely on Christmas eve (lol). DISH’s members always seem in desperate need of one, even though they are all quite handsome! That I find very ironic. Then again it’s just a song, and an entertaining one at that.

This Christmas song by actress Maeda Aki is from her album Winter Tales, and is the only song of that album which isn’t a cover of previous Christmas hits, I believe. I think it’s a nice “gentle” song (like the title Fuyu Fuwari ふゆふわり, meaning “gently winter”) which a  lot of bell chimes, beautiful violin and Aki’s sweet voice to top it all. I like this actress a lot, as well as this Christmas song.

I love this Christmas love ballad by C-ute! I like Aitai Lonely Christmas （会いたいロンリークリスマス）so much I even listen to it when it isn’t Christmas (haha). It’s such a catchy song and the chorus is easy to remember too~ I wish C-ute could make songs like this again. It has a strong setsunai (“wistful/yearning”) feeling to it right? I kind of like that type of songs. I guess it’s because we all yearn for that special someone during the holidays (sigh).

I know this isn’t a song sung by a Japanese person, but Canadian René Simard released many Japanese songs as a child, and I like his song Christmas Tree （クリスマス・トォリー）a lot, so thought I would include it in my list. René has a nice heartfelt voice and delivers yet a beautiful song to enjoy during Christmas. He has released a lot of other Christmas songs in French as well as some in English I’m sure. So if you like this song, you should check his other songs out (even though they are old)~

This is such a happy song from Hey! Say! JUMP about having fun in the snow with one’s sweetheart (or that’s what I gather at least). I’m not sure it’s a Christmas song, but the theme “snow” is enough for me to make it so (haha). I love the intro line: masaka, yuki da! (“no way, it’s snowing!”). That line always make me in a good mood. Not that I’m too fond of snow, but I guess we all love the magic of the first snow of Christmas right?

I had to include Nino’s Winter Song as well. Nino is my favorite member from Arashi and I just love this beautiful Christmas ballad from him. I only have the version recorded from his radio show Bay Storm, and I’m not even sure if it’s been released anywhere else. He should totally release this on an album though! My favorite part of this sweet song is when he ends the song with the line: Merry Christmas to you, Merry Christmas to you~ ♪

Fairies has also released a Christmas song! Sweet Jewel has a very uplifting feeling to it and always make me in the mood to be productive (haha). Fairies always knows how to make very girly, yet stylish songs. That’s what I love about them. In addition, the PV for this song is so glittering and pretty, you should check it out if you haven’t!

This is the theme song from Morimoto Shintaro’s movie Snow Prince and is such a beautiful Christmas song! I love the piano play in the background, as well as the Snow Prince choir’s young adorable voices. I totally wish they could have been a permanent group, but unfortunately they only released this single. And I wish Johnny’s would do other songs like this too. It’s so precious!

I know this isn’t an official Christmas song maybe, but I always found it very Christmas-like for some reason! Apart from that, I see the light ~Bokutachi no Stage~ is one of my favorite Sexy Zone songs. It was included on their first single and also features the very young fresh voices of Marius and Sou (I totally miss their voices now! *cries*). I would have included their more official Christmas/summer song Sexy Summer ni Yuki ga Furu （Sexy Summer に雪が降る）as well, but Soundcloud wouldn’t let me upload it (buuhuu).

So these were my suggestions for Japanese Christmas songs (which aren’t covers of English ones). I hope you enjoyed and if you know some other good J-Pop Christmas songs, don’t hesitate to mention them in the comment section below~
And let’s hope Soundcloud doesn’t delete my uploads.

マイブーム Fairies~

Long time no see! I’ve been pretty busy with school exams and applying for scholarships for my exchange trip to Japan in the last months or so. That is why I’m first posting again now. I’ve missed by blog lol.

Lately my obsession have been mostly Fairies and I think I know why. So many new exciting things have happened with this group recently. In April they started their own TV show Harajuku Kira Kira Gakuin (which now has aired 10 times and started its own cafe in Harajuku!) and promoted TIGON’s Lazer Beam sneakers. Then it was announced that Fairies are getting their own manga as well! This manga will start releasing in the shoujo magazine Margaret on the 4th of August. Pretty neat huh?
Fairies were also rated 3rd for most likely idol group to get its big breakthrough this year on Tokyohive! (Of course I voted for them too).
Apart from that I’ve started listening to Fairies radio show Fairies no Fly to the World which is so good with its funny English lessons, “right or wrong” corner and unpredictable topics (even though they changed the great and really funny English teacher Craig Russel out with a poor wannabe English teacher who has worse pronunciation than Fairies and goes by the nickname “Grover”, but is obviously Japanese). Anyway… It’s great to get to know the girls’ personalities better by listening to the way they talk with each other away from the camera and flash lights. For example you hear stories like Momoka has promised to go watch Dark Shadows with Mahiro (watched it too – great movie!) and Kawane just bought a Beyonce album and the likes :P It’s a lot of fun~
About a month ago I joined an English speaking Fairies forum called YouseiKiss where we have started subbing some Fairies shows into English~ It’s a great place to find news about Fairies and follow their excellent show Harajuku Kira Kira Gakuin (which I watch every single week ^^) There are a lot of nice people and surprisingly some of them knew my blog OoO. Crazy huh? Sometimes it’s just hard to believe there are people out there who do read my blog, haha.
About the members, in the beginning I mostly liked Sora, but now I’m beginning to like Miki more and more. I can’t believe I didn’t see how amazing she is to begin with! I just love her eyes, her dance style and above all her funny and fuzzy  personality (don’t ask me why I used that word lol) xD Like, when she in an interview where made fun off, because her way of speaking is always kind of slow. I don’t really mind though, I think it’s cute! And then her dance pirouette is really impressive (see here what I mean).

People who have checked out my tumblr recently, may have noticed it has become more and more Fairies-based lol. Even though I also upload a little Arashi stuff (my “comeback” fandom at the moment) ;> I try finding as many pictures with Fairies as possible to upload, but sometimes I have a feeling I’m missing out on something.. I follow their blogs, their twitter and check sites such as Baidu, Puri Eisou and twitter of course. But even though I check up on magazines they supposedly should have appeared in I can never find anything (for example when clicking through a whole magazine uploaded on Hudie or Zazhimi) ;__; It’s kind of frustrating… If anyone know more good sources please tell me!

Check my tumblr for more gif pictures with Fairies :3

Right now Fairies fans are anticipating the events of June, where the results of the FairiesNEXT audition will be revealed. No one knows if they are auditioning new members for Fairies or maybe a whole new Fairies-inspired group. I personally hope for the last option, as I think the 7-member line-up is perfect as it is and more members would simply make it crowded and less smooth when they perform their complex dances. But I guess time will tell. I’m definitely excited for June! *o*

Then of course I’m also super excited about Fairies 4th single getting released on the 25th of July! It’s called Tweet Dream and will be a song about twitter and the love teens their age experience. I think the concept of the song sounds really cool and I’m very curious what the lyrics are going to be. I hope for a fun, cute summer song with a catchy beat – yeah! I just hope Fairies wont join the “bikini PV trend” like other current idol groups, but then again it doesn’t fit their image at all. So I’m pretty sure they wont do that ^ ^;

I can’t wait for more Fairies news though, they are my drug right now just love them so much ♥
And one thing that excites me a lot right now is the fact that I’m going to Tokyo this September to study for 5 months, which means I will probably be able to watch them perform in real life!! *-* Can’t wait for that!

Fairies “More Kiss” single（⌒▽⌒）

Over two weeks ago, I bought myself Fairies‘ debut single More Kiss but never got the time to actually post about it. That really bothered me, so now I’ll make a delayed blog post! ^^; (haha)
Ever since I read news about the agency Vision Factory (under Avex) debuting a new idol group and watching videos with the girls training their dance, singing and performance skills like crazy, I’ve been very interested in this group. The one thing who really got me intrigued was probably the strong focus on dancing and then the more overall mature look being promoted with these idols. Recently, K-pop has started to become really popular in Japan, so I’m glad to see that the Japanese are trying out more mature styles for their girl units for once. I feel like that’s been a rare thing among Japanese girl groups until now.
Then of course there’s the little detail concerning the girls’ age. They are definitely too young for this mature style, but then again I think it’s a good thing to start girl groups out when they are young, because it will be easier for them to learn new things and adapt to the idol business at that age. I also guess they will grow to fit the image in some years time – then it will be better. Otherwise I’m really loving their style! I love that they aren’t afraid to wear their hair in ponytails and without any bangs (well almost none of them) which is so refreshing ^o^ I also want to thank the one who’s responsible for the girls’ wardrobe; their clothes really rock! Not to mention that they wear LOTS of different set clothes *O* Wohuu~ ^o^b I seriously never get tired of watching Fairies perform, as they always have a new cool dance to perform in a new set of glamorous clothes xD Yay!
Apropos dancing, I love that guy Kenzo who teaches and comes up with dances for Fairies! He can really make the girls move in amazingly bad-ass way :D Just check out their dance moves to this remix of Trish’s Mannequin and Freefire’s Dataloss o_o

It’s insane right?! xD I was really impressed by this performance. After watching this video I was convinced that I wanted to follow and support this group. I ordered their single (Limited version B) and started watching anything I could find with Fairies ^^ Luckily they have been promoted like crazy and starred as guests in a lot of TV shows I could watch – really nice! ;D After listening to their two songs More Kiss and Song for You numerous times, I’ve decided I love them both equally much. At first this wasn’t the case at all. I didn’t like More Kiss very much, because I thought Momoka was too dominant with her practically singing solo and all. I actually found the song a bit dull, maybe apart from the very catchy chorus verses. Now I really love this song and like to sing a long. I think it’s a great debut song and it deserves to be the A-side song.


Song for You I’ve liked pretty much since my first listen. Some people say it’s a typical boring idol song without any originality – well maybe that’s sort of true – but that doesn’t change that it’s a nice, genki idol song with good vocal power which I like a lot! I’m so glad that all girls get to sing in this song and then I also really like how they sing in pairs a lot. This reminds me of Arashi and Berryz songs, where they do that quite often. I definitely prefer this form of singing instead of the typical “all members sing” formula :3


Right now my member ranking is as follows:
1) Nomoto Sora (野元空)
2) Shimomura Miki (下村実生)
3) Fujita Miria (藤田みりあ)
4) Itou Momoka (伊藤萌々香)
5) Hayashida Mahiro (林田真尋)
6) Inoue Rikako (井上理香子)
7) Kiyomura Kawane (清村川音)

I’ve chosen Sora as my favorite member, but actually I like Miki and Miria just as much. I just had to give one of the girls first place, but actually I almost like all three equally. Maybe I like Sora a bit more than all the other members though ^^; I think she’s really pretty and has a nice voice. Then I also love her name ♥ I learned to write “sora” in kanji (空) the other day actually. Sora means “sky” – isn’t it just a beautiful name? ^o^ Maybe that’s why she wears the color blue a lot? :) I’ll have to admit I like Miki a lot because of her unique looks. She has such beautiful cat eyes and a very lean body – maybe she was a cat in her previous life? xD And Miria I like because of her cute personality and charm. She has such an adorable voice too, doesn’t she? :3 Then of course I like all the other members too, but that’s more  hard to say right now what I think of them.
I’m really glad to see that other girls than me seems to like Fairies. In the video below, some Japanese girls tell about how they like Fairies’ style and look up to them as role models :O It also gives a good impression of how the girls have been promoted these last weeks and how hard they have trained in order to debut.

I totally approve of them having English lessons, but then again Rikako sort of failed with her sentence there xD (lol) And wow Karate lessons o_o That’s awesome ^O^

With my single version a little mini photo book was included and I decided to scan it for you :D There are a lot of great solo shots in it too ♥

I’m glad I bought this version of the single; just look at those pictures *o* Even though I would very much like to watch the full version of the Song For You PV xD (Why doesn’t anyone upload it huh?? I’m going crazy here x_x)

But now I think I’ve mentioned most of my thoughts about Fairies and have only one thing left to say:

Please continue to make other awesome releases Fairies!
~BECAUSE YOU ROCK MY WORLD!~
\（⌒▽⌒）/♪

That was all, bye bye ~