I was real bummed with last AKB to XX. The teams broke up. At first I was like, “Who are these scrubs?” but like usual, I began to grow to like them. It was this plus Naniwa that made me like NMB48. It was here that I started to know about Churi and Non. It was here that I thought Ooya’s skills developed.
Well, a new age begins… and with a new team too. I can’t say I’m as thrilled as I would compared to the others, but, I’m sure I had those same thoughts when the first senbatsu started out.
As usual I don’t know the SKE members. It’s cool that they brought Ranran along, but a kenkyuusei? Keila, the Biracial Butterfly, replaces Haruna. Guess they needed more loli. Haruna hit 13, must be past her expiration date.
And also as usual, the staff is up to their secret plans, and we are in a hurry to do whatever they’re supposed to do.
I remember when all the NMB members on G+ would take pics of Yamamoto sleeping and she'd get mad. Ah, good times.
Turns out we’re headed to an inaka, or, the deep country. And we have a special guest leader person thing!
Do-re-Miichan
You know what’s great? You can literally see Miichan’s accumulated experience shine. Everyone else looks pretty raw and shy, but Miichan looks like a pro even though she is in fact younger than some of the members. Pretty cool. I’m also happy to see Miichan back to AKB variety show work. Like, yeah, it’s cool that they get on bigger and better variety shows that have nothing to do with AKB, but I really miss AKB senbatsu being on AKB shows.
The plan is for a BIG event to happen in the fall. In an inaka. Pretty cool. If you hear something, that’s just your personal rant detector going off. But I’ll get to that soon enough, don’t worry. We start by visiting the city office, getting to know the officials and their specialties, etc. The first leg of the plan is to throw a mini-party thing to introduce themselves to the city and to that they go around and make flyers and distribute them while getting to know the city.
Keila's skill is counting to 10 in Portuguese, and skipping either 7 or 8. She ends up nailing all 10. I wish I got a lot of credit for counting to 10 in Japanese. Instead people go nuts on me with calculations and prices.
Miichan is one captain, and Milky is captain of the other team. Damn. Yamamoto must feel shafted, lol.
There are two zones to cover; the neighborhood and the mountain. Miichan is the official leader of the entire team. Guess which zone she decided to pick.
So Milky’s team climbs the mountain and they meet some store owner.
I haven't had Mitarashi Dango in forever. I soooo want some now.
Milky's secret skill: Looking at the camera
Sucks for her team though. You can tell there’s like hardly anyone on the mountain.
Miichan visits some old dude who takes them around. They visit a kids school.
Miichan is so good with kids. It'd be cool to give her a kids show.
But this kid looks angry for some lol-tastic reason.
Then back to more footage of Milky’s team climbing the mountain. Apparently, climbing the mountain is a hobby for everyone. It’s about 1,300-something meters high, and if you’re considered a pro if you climb it 5,000 times in your lifetime. Pretty cool stuff. I climbed Mt. Misen, which was 530m, in Miyajima during my trip two years ago. I have flat feet. I literally could not walk after I was done. I had to walk sideways because my feet were just burning. Also I’m born and raised in the US, so meters confuse me, lol.
So, 1,300 something meters, 5,000 times? We got some ballers up in here.
How’s Yamamoto doing?
I think this is funny for some reason.
They visit some dude who has a truck that sprays… pesticide? I think. They also visit the oldest house in the city and it looks soooooo awesome. Forget Shoujo Jidai, it’s all about that Edo Jidai.
How cool would it be to have a gate like this to your house?
Milky finds someone on the mountain. He’s smoooooth.
"I thought you guys were really beautiful." BIG pimpin... only 60 years too late.
In the end they collect everyone at the meeting site, serve them some pork soup. Obviously Minegishi’s team wins, etc. It was more of an introduction episode of what’s to come, so I’m curious to see how they’ll build on this.
Oh gosh, that bell of yours keeps ringing? That’s because it’s personal rant time!
Honestly, I love inaka. It’s so fresh there. I love the old style houses. I like the warmth of the community. I like how for the most part, inaka are rich with nature. It’s just really cool. When I read about inaka though, I get sad. All the young folks leave for the big city since there’s hardly any business advantage to be in inaka. Everyone makes fun of them for being backwater, country, etc. Everyone rants about inaka being boring. But I really love it out there.
It’s really sad seeing how most of the people here are old. There were very few young people being shown, presumably because it’s uncool to be there and they’re all moving inward. I really feel like this kind of old-style living needs to be protected. And it’s not even as country as the US, where you imagine like 2 houses in the middle of wheat fields where a farmer lives and farms every day. These inaka aren’t quite suburbs but they are just little more country than that. I think XX is gonna be great for me to watch because I love these small towns in Japan.
And they're just so pretty... compared to the artificial lighting of Tokyo.