Restarting the Old Rusty Engine
(For the 2nd Time too)


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Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Stop

HNPH is closed.
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Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Berryz Koubou at 5th Asia Song Festival


Hello! Project's very own Berryz Koubou is set to perform in the 5th annual Asia Song Festival. They are performing for the Main Concert and Eve Concert on October 3rd and 4th at Sangam World Cup Stadium in Seoul, South Korea. A total of 16,000 people are estimated to attend those two dates. Berryz Koubou as well as South Korea's Shinee will be receiving the Asia New Artist Award. Congrats to the both of them.


Some of this year's guests are: W-inds (Japan), Fahrenheit (Taiwan), Agnes Monica (Indonesia), Rivermaya (Philippines), and more. South Korea's own So Nyuh Shi Dae, Shinee, and Dong Bang Shin Ki are also set to perform, too.


ASF's Offical Website | Shineee.net
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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Real Life, Net Life... Aibon Life and Idol Life

Needed to have this written down, to compose my thoughts and as a reminder to myself.

Balance. Who can find the middle ground for it?
Real life has caught up to me and I find myself in constant struggle with it ever since my change of marital status last year. Everyone wants attention from me everytime, everyone want SOMETHING from me all the time. And it is getting more and more each day. Have I bitten off more than I can chew?

Sacrifice is needed under these circumstances, but I grew tired of it. For some reason, everyone demands it of me, unwilling to make some sacrifice of their own. What have I lost during the past one year?

It was around this time last year that I greatly slowed down my writing because of the changes that comes with my marriage. Obviously, my bachelor and otaku style of living needs to change somehow. I used to spend hours without sleep on the Net, as if the Net IS my life. And it was. Modding and roleplaying my Baldur's Gate games for the n-th time was my life. Writing songs and arranging music with my guitar and Fruity Loops was my life. Manga and Anime was my life. And especially HNPH, it was my life and my life's work.

I have since pushed away many, many, many requests for help in Japanese translations of even more projects in Anime, PV and lyrics. (For those of you reading this, I apologies again.) I have since stopped reading manga and purchasing/downloading anime. I have since stopped keeping up to date with the Jpop world. I have since put my writing and blogging literally to a stop. At times, I find that I have lost my passion in whatever I have done so far and have contemplated of getting away from it all. How has this happened?

Interests have diminished for the things that I have utmost passion for. Following the developments of the entertainment scene had always excite and inspire me. What do we have so far? Wedding bells for Ayaka, Goto Maki shifting label, new songs for C-ute, Gaki-san and Ai-chan in a dorama. Yet I find no joy in things like this anymore. Started to look at the idol scene in a different and twisted way. I recount another one of my most passionate interest, in the one Kago Ai - Aibon. My love for Aibon was HUGE a few years back, even when she got caught in her famous scandals I am supportive of her. But now... I am not afraid to admit that I have not read her blog entries even once. She is not Aibon anymore, she is just .... "Kago Ai". A struggling celebrity looking for a comeback in her career, trying to find a balance between her life's challenges and making it back to the mainstream of people's minds in the entertainment scene. In a way, I can relate to her and her suicidal attempts. I have scars of my own in my left forearm to show for that. Sometimes pressure and dissapointments in life can really bring you down. But it is not about always about the people around you, rather it is your own life that you have come to despise and you wish nothing else than to put at end to it. I sympathise with Kago. She had it rough, took it hard and made it hard for herself.

However, again it is in her that I find inspiration. Certainly, the things that she has gone through in her life - broken family, pressure from work, pressure from public, the media - it must have been even harder for her, considering that she faced all that before reaching her 20th birthday.

Therefore, I see no reason I cannot do the same. After looking at her blog for the first time yesterday, I thought to myself - I shall make MY own comeback. Things that I resolved to do last year, MUST be done in this year. Don't have time? Make the time. The Merovingian seems to think it is possible. Hopefully and with luck, I will not be defeated this time.

If possible I would humbly to ask the support from all reading this post as you have supported as always. Perhaps, you may even have a chance to embark on this quest with me. Will let you all know more in due time.


Best of Love and Peace ^_^

jin
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Thursday, July 24, 2008

Gaki`s Letter to HNPH Readers

Dear HNPH Readers And Supporters of Gaki.
First, let me say thank you for your support for me since I joined HNPH, your comments have given me ideas for things to write about in the future.

You may have noticed that over the past few weeks, my postings have stopped on HNPH and the article series, that I promised you suddenly stopped.

For sometime the staff has known and now it is time, that the readers of HNPH and those of you who my have enjoyed my articles and hopefully in your own way offered your support through your comments to also know ,something that I am facing in my life .

Recently ,I suffered some nerve damage to my hands that makes it difficult for me to write ,even now this letter to you ,is uncomfortable and at times painful to write ,so I cannot say everything that I wish to say to everyone at this time.

As my voice has grown silent in the past few weeks ,my work has not , I have been helping my fellow HNPH staffers ,by providing them content for the web site and they have been posting it instead of me .

I plan to continue with HNPH or what ever we decide the new version of the site will be called and on good days, I will write as news develops. On bad days, I will work behind scenes and allow others to post the days news. There are other things, which Jin and I are considering to help me complete my articles in the future.

I can not say when my hands will be well ,but I ask each of you to not feel sad for me ,but to continue supporting HNPH and our new site and to know that each day ,that I am able to post ,means one more day that I have recovered.

Manny thanks to everyone, who found my contributions to HNPH of value, I look forward to writing for you again.

Gaki
HNPH Columnist
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Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend.... I've Come to Talk To You Again...

I guess this is what happens when life happens.

Due to things that are happening in real life, HNPH has been suspended and will have to come back to this blog for the time being. I guess life is getting back at me for neglecting it in the first place. However, I shall remain optimistic and hope things turn for the better.

Writing in the old Blogger software is giving me mixed reactions, as I have grown accustomed to the Wordpress software. Other than that, reading the old posts made me realize just how much passion I have lost on the Jpop scene when I returned to real life. Don't get me wrong, real life is REAL, and is a necessity. It is finding the balance that is difficult.

The only way to get me back on track, as with my style, is to go extreme. When HNPH is to be revived, it will be totally different and much better than ever. That is what I planned, hopefully God will agree.
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Wednesday, March 12, 2008

How come, how long... Drafts in the Queue

There have been some posts that I wished I have the time to write, but always I got distracted someway or another. Here are some:

- FNS and YTV charts; 30-11-2007 (No biggie, really)

- Of Leah Dizon, AKB48, Shokotan in Kouhaku 2008; 26-11-2007 (You all know this)

- Other variations of wotagei; 20-11-2007 (Yes there are others, darn cute too)

- Yaguchi Mari denying her alleged relationship; 12-11-2007 (For those who missed it, yeah she had one scoop but not big news either, since she is not in MM anymore)

- Hello Non Pro Hour Lost Months EP01-05; 31-11-2007 (Remember the time when I was missing for months, there were 5 episodes of blog contents that was in queue to catch up on old news while I was away. But time and wife got in the way.)

- Onna ni Sacchi Are translations; 02-07-2007 (Yes I am still doing translations, but now... now i am not so confident of squeezing the free time anymore)

- Bishoujo Club 31; 29-06-2007 (Found out about them while I was looking for info on Berryz Captain Saki-chan. A very interesting alternative to MM, NGP and AKB48)

- KiraPika; 11-06-2007 (Trying to detect a plagiarism act on LuckyStar manga ^_^)

- Relationship between Sky Corp and UFW; 25-05-2007 (The agencies from Sugiura's and Tsuji's agency. There is a connection....... i think. )

- Hello! Project Idol Life and Private Life Part 1 & 2; 09-05-2007, 10-05-2007 ( This series was actually 90% finished. But I forgot now why I did not publish it. Perhaps it was too spicy for anyone to read. This series talks about boyfriends of MM girls and discusses the meaning of Dekikon (shotgun marriage). Also included are my own conspiracy theory of what happened behind closed doors. Could potentially be a novelty piece. )

- Sukeban Curse; 30-04-2007 (I did not come up with this one. But this was too funny, XD)

- Morning Musume Alpha - Onyanko Club; 23-04-2007 (Yes, I did not lie... there is a follow-up piece to the Tokyo Performance Doll article. Yet this article went unfinished due to lack of research materials. )

- Sunday Girls; 07-04-2007 (Old Jpop lovers should know them. The fate of all Japanese act that invade Taiwan with little follow-up)

- Aibon - When did Fiction become fact 29-03-2007 (One of my many Aibon articles, which I am known for. This one talks about the many versions of eyewitnesses on what went behind the curtains of that "love onsen trip". The question is of course which one of them is true. Confession excerpts come from a Aibon fan-forum.)

- Morning Musume - Asahi Shinbun Interview 25-03-2007 (Translation from a newspaper interview)

- Psychology analysis on Morning Musume's body language; 22-03-2007 (Definitely pseudo-science. For fun only.)

- Another H!P curse - Newscasters curse 22-02-2007 (Ever noticed that one by one, every newscaster/reporter of H!P mock news segments like Hello Pro Wide and Hello Pro Channel are in some sort of trouble? ^_^)

- Are the girls in H!P happy? 21-02-2007 (Ever wonder if the girls in Hello! Project are happy what they turned out to be? Would they want to be an undying idol legend like Matsuda Seiko or a ero-kawaii and sexy Koda Kumi?)

- Michishige Sayumi - Unsung Talent 11-01-2007 (An entire article dedicated to Sayu, the true epitome and definition of a pure Japanese Aidoru/Idol)


- Berry Koubou - Healing Power 09-01-2007 (I was sick at that time, and listening to Berryz made me get well faster. I'm not kidding! Therefore i wanted to write a single by single review of all Berryz singles. But once again, no time.....)

There are more of these. Any of these of any interest to anyone?

I'm banging on the idea of plucking some of the old drafts to be published once and for all. But time... time is my biggest enemy. Real life catching on you is NOT something fun. I wish there are 36 hours in an Earth day. If not I'd settle for Earth to have the same length of day as Mars (24.7 hours), cos it sucks to have Venus' length of day (eq. 243 Earth days!).


(; -_-)b Voo!
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Sunday, January 20, 2008

LAUNCHED!! HNPH - Hello! Project News Blogzine

After many weeks of delays, I have soft-launched the new site. H!P Hello Non-Pro Hour will now continue in its new form - HNPH - Hello! Project News Blogzine.

http://jinryuichi.com/hnph

The format of this new site is a blog cum magazine, hence the name blogzine. It will feature more journalistic elements into it and hopefully everyone will accept.

H!P Hello Non-Pro Hour will remain as it is, and I do not plan to migrate the contents over to HNPH. You can still come back and revisit any blog posts over the year. As such, I am starting afresh with HNPH, and I ask for everyone's support and love as always. Hope that everyone will continue to join me in my journey of discovering and re-discovering the wonderful culture and music genre known as Jpop. See you there!

Love and Peace (^_^)v
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Saturday, January 19, 2008

Delay of launch.....

Sorry.

I didn't expect it to happen, but i was caught up with work, and has been chained to my workdesk and the customer's place for 2 days. For a moment i thought i was in hell.

For those expecting the launch, apologies again.

My time is up. See you tomorrow. Hopefully...
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Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Launch Dates for New HNPH

Sorry for the 2 week silence. Been caught up with personal stuff. I have a plateful of responsibilities and commitments starting yesterday. It will take a miracle to be able to take on them all.... but I will have to make it happen by hook or by crook. ^_^

I plan to launch the new site this Friday on the 18th January and the forum on Sunday 20th January. Mostly, lots cosmetic works to be done. There are some new features not entirely ready at launch, but it will be added as we move along.
Here are the URLs, I blocked it for the moment, so that the web-crawlers don't index it just yet.

The new site
http://jinryuichi.com/hnph

The new forum
http://jinryuichi.com/forum

My new personal blog
http://jinryuichi.com/blog

For those who are interested in taking the posts of forum moderators at the new forum please send me an email.

Peace ^_^
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