Asia Blog: China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam

According to Mainichi news, the reason Ayumi Hamasaki and Tomoya Nagase divorced was an abortion Ayu allegedly had:

“Ayu is a formal member of a top Tokyo hospital, which guarantees her absolute privacy, but apparently somebody happened to spot her bawling her eyes out while at the hospital in the spring,” the reporter says. “I have to admit that I don’t know whether the rumor is true.”

If she did become pregnant, her music career would be on hold, possibly forever. And with competition from Koda Kumi, she has to be on top of her “j-idol” game.

The guy has so many names: Jung Ji-Hoon and 鄭智薰. I didn’t particularly like it, but some might.

Utada Hikaru just got divorced. She writes about it (in translation by Hikki):

Yesterday, on March 2nd, I, Utada Hikaru, and Kiriya Kazuaki, officially divorced.

To all the people who have supported us until now, we would like to thank you very much. Our apologies for surprising you with the short notice. We believe that both of us have learned so much and grown up with the 4-year and a half marriage. While we mutually keep changing, a perception gap on the direction of the future and concept of marriage has gradually emerged between us. The lack of communication in our life, passing each other while both are working internationally, is one big reason as well.

“Though divorce is a pity, it was good that we have met each other” - that is what we talked. As an creator and a dear friend, we hope we can continue watching the growth of each other. I am looking forward to following Kiriya-kun’s career in the future.

March 3rd 2007 Utada Hikaru

It’s a pretty mild divorce–probably the result of her growing musical ambition and her husband’s divergent movie career.  It’s hard to stay together when you’re not in the same business.

I just got a chance to listen to Soulhead’s Crystallized, a remix album of their favorite songs. Here’s the track listing:

1. Sparkletrain [MARK DE CLIVE-LOWE]
2. At the party [OCTOPUSSY]
3. You can do that [REEL PEOPLE]
4. Got to leave [GOTA YASHIKI]
5. Fiesta [PE’Z]
6. For all my ladies [ICEDOWN]
7. XXX [KODA KUMI and SA-RA]
8. Whatchagonnado? [D.O.I.]
9. Pray [KENNY DOPE]
10. No Way [DJ MITSU, THE BEATS]
11. One more time [OCTOPUSSY]
12. Furusato [SEIKOU NAGAOKA]

It’s actually quite an excellent album, so pick one up on Amazon today. Their remix of DDD with Koda Kumi is particularly good. Everything’s incredibly upbeat and poppy. Their music videos are quite hard to find online, but I shall never give up the hunt…