We'll win the next one against Cuba
Note: They did win, they also won against Korea. Now they are up against the USA in the semi-finals (3/22).

Today was the 2nd scenario reading!
I might be a bit subjective regarding the 1st one, but I think I did good this time.
I got a little accustomed to it.

Up to now I never practiced the script at home,
I always tried to get right into it during the actual scene,
but that didn't seem to be the right way for a play...
The other day the scenario reading resulted in a failure,
I realized that it's impossible to do the same in an historical play
like in a contemporary dorama and decided to change my method.

Still, for the first time I didn't know what to do
and so I started with the movie "Yamazakura" last night.
Right at the beginning I noticed a scene similar to one in our play
and I watched it many times over.
I tried to follow along the movie's actor lines simultaneously.
I simply copied all his line and I wasn't really sure, whether it really would be effective that way, but I couldn't think of any better lines.

I really didn't know of anything else to do
and thought that it would better to imitate someone
than trying to think of some random things.
When I looked back at my childhood and how I improved myself piano and swimming skills, I noticed that I also just tried to copy the technique of my teachers or those who have been better than me.


I tried some of my lines that way;
such as "It became late" - "I'm home!" or
"Yes" - "Right" - "No" - "Eh?" - "Oh well",
and I realized that greetings and other simple things like approvals are harder than they seem. They are all very short, but it's very difficult, if you are only used to modern spoken language. I continued doing that until morning and went to the scenario reading with quite a lack of sleep (I didn't lie down longer than 3 hours max.), but I could feel a bit of a feedback and so I think it turned out all right in the end.

The gestures and the sword fighting are pretty much clear now, but my expressions when speaking, the variety in my facial expressions, my impression on other people and so, I still want to further study those things until we begin.

The filming also won't be done in the same order as in the script, so it will yet be another problem to accurately catch the whole picture during the filming.

My anxiety caused by my inexperience is slowly going away.
It doesn't change the fact that I'm inexperienced at all,
but I really changed my way of thinking from
"I don't know what I don't understand" to
"I do know what things I don't understand and what things I can't do yet."

I'm getting back my sense of myself.
I'm the weakest when I'm cornered.
Even when you are just guessing around and loose your goal, you always find at least one thing that you can do and with some effort you will be able to advance forward again.
Anyway, I'll continue to watch and study some more other historical plays for now.
Today I think I will repeatedly watch "Fuji no Ichibun".
I'm making progress!


By the way, the photos are from the new Glico Palitte CM that went on-air today.
They also changed their official site.

That day when we filmed the commercial, I kept on dancing and eating ice throughout the whole time! Laughs
Later someone told me that I ate up to 50 ice creams during the filming.
Yeah, no wonder my stomach grew that cold.
Palitte, it's really delicious and therefore it's also very popular.
Thanks to all of you who are buying it!
However, be careful not to eat too much, since it's so delicious!

Not more than 50 per day for each!

Please don't forget that!



Bonus: The new Palitte CM!



Written by: jyoyu.blogspot.com
Please don't post this translation anywhere else!

Say what you like, but i could really say that's NOT truth

A somewhat late update.
As usually I've been busy practicing and promoting Orion every day.
The photos were done for an article in Street Jack.

I successfully finished my gesture training the other day.
The sword practice is also coming to an end.

The day before yesterday the other starring actors and I wore the actual outfits, hairpieces and make-up and conducted a sword fight as a camera test and did a scenario reading.

Nothing went as planned that day and I lost the little self-confidence I already had.
I clearly became aware of the difficulties of a historical play.
I felt so miserable when seeing the degree of my incapability,
how many times I kept on appearing in movies without any concerns and
how much I have seemed to deny my life as an actress so far.


It's my first time, so I didn't know. Or..
I haven't done it yet, so I can't be good. And so on..
You are working for the wage you get,
so such cheap excuses shouldn't be used and I won't either.

I still thought that it's strange,
there was so much time, so why wasn't I able to put more effort in it?
Up to now I wasn't really thinking about the huge importance, the gestures and the sword fight have for the actual play and the people who are making it, I guess.

I realized that there still a lot of things I have to do.
I embarrassed myself during the camera test,
but I'd like to use this disgrace as a motivation.
I should rather be happy that
I was able to experience this disgrace
and that I suffered by those problems.
Because I think that I'm still growing through those kind of situations.
Basically I'm glad for that we had this camera test and it means that
there's still plenty room for improvement.
I'm glad that we didn't went straight to the filming without me becoming aware of that.
There are still about 10 days left and I would like to use that time to study absolutely every little detail about historical plays.


Yesterday I bought the DVDs of Sean Penn's "Into the Wild",
which I always wanted to see, and "snatch" and "Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels"
from my favorite director Guy Ritchie, but I'll be putting them aside for now...
The historical play comes first.

By the way, a few days ago I cooked for myself after I don't know how many years and Jill (her pet male cat) came too close to the saucepan and burned a little bit of his whiskers.
Sorry, Jill...

Written by: jyoyu.blogspot.com
Please don't post this translation anywhere else!

shouldn't forget "rebellious spirit"



Unfortunately we lost in the WBC yesterday.
That sucks...! Why? Why did Japan loose?
I've been really down today, since I'm such a baseball fan.
Sure, simply seeing baseball player Ichiro on TV would be enough to satisfy me, but it still sucks!

I'm from Kobe and I've been a big fan of him ever since he was a member of Orix.
In my opinion he's a living national treasure.
By the way, I've been a fan of the Tokyo Giants among the Japanese teams from the cradle. I never missed a match of Matsui or Kiyohara.
What's more exciting than ending the 9th inning with a sudden walk-off home run?
Cheers to whoever invented baseball as a sport.



Today I have to write about one sad and one happy thing.

First the sad thing...
A few days ago, my sword fight teacher pointed out the following after practice.
"Today I couldn't see any tension in your movements at all, because you grew too accustomed to them. There was no variation like you had before. The kata for this technique depends on that. Last month you've been a lot better at this."
I was completely shocked.

Every day I practiced for 1-2 hours by watching a recording of my own training and I studied all the videos of my trainer in order to make some progress...
Who could have thought that I'm actually becoming worse.
I've really been careless that day and foolishly I jammed my left little finger and my right thumb. That injury caused me to do a lot of mistakes, but it wasn't so bad that I would loose my feeling and attentiveness. However, when I watch my performance from that day I definitely have to agree with him, I completely lacked my fighting spirit.



I know the best what's the cause of this.
It's my own laziness and carelessness. I hate myself for that.
I always completely sag before a filming.
One thing I had the most about myself and up to now I always tried not do is "idling". As soon as I grow accustomed to something, I slack off and become negligent so much that I can be completely irritated. When that happens I return to my initial resolution and study in my very own way.
I'm really afraid of "becoming accustomed" to something. You may never forget your original intentions and work on it with a lot of patience.

To quote Shakespeare,
"These flaws are what make us human."

..if that's so, then we should just gratefully accept those flaws.
However, you should still try to defeat them.
I think that recently I'm more and more able to win over my weak and incapable self.



Now about something happy...
A few days ago I worked together with the incredible Ninagawa Mika for a magazine article!! I've always been a fan of her pictures and always wanted her to take pictures of me someday. I was so happy to be able to do that now! After the photo shooting we talked a bit and she said that also always wanted to work together with me, I can't find words to describe how happy this made me.

Ninagawa often uses flower and vivid colors in her pictures, but this time she wanted to create the image of a retrospective pinup girl and so she used funky gadgets and a background with polka dots.

The hair was done by Kuroda-san who usually works for Voce.
This time she made the hair style look a bit like that of Marilyn Monroe.
I had really bright red lips and even got a beauty spot near the mouth.
The nails were also done with a red color to match the lips.
The whole hair was wig.
I had to cut my bangs for my next role and thanks to the wig I was able to see myself with bangs after a long time again. laughs

Recently I have to wear a lot of wigs.

It's still amazing how they can look so naturally each time.
They really evolved over time, didn't they?



For this photo shooting I had to wear a lot of different outfits and a lot of different wigs (laughs), it really was a lot of fun.
Please look forward to its release.

Written by: jyoyu.blogspot.com
Please don't post this translation anywhere else!

Louvre Exhibition



I haven't updated the blog in a little while.
Lately I'm busy practicing every day as the filming
for the next movie is steadily approaching.

A few days ago I went to the National Western Art Museum in Ueno after training! There are paintings from the Louvre Museum since the end of last month. I absolutely wanted to see it before I have to leave for the movie and I'm glad that I was able to go. The practice ended at noon and then was my chance. Unfortunately it rained throughout the whole day, but I still went. Thanks to the rain it wasn't crowded at all and I was really able to enjoy the art.

There have been a lot of pictures from Europe during the 17th century, my favorite era. Disputes, religion, commerce...
You are able to see the way of the world at that time and read the painters mind through their paintings. When looking at the paintings from the time of Louis XIV of France and imagining that at the same time Japan was still in its Tokugawa shogunate with total national isolation, it's somehow a strange feeling. If Japan kept on isolating itself from the world forever, I would have never been able to see this painting.
I'm glad that's not the case.



Last winter I went to the same museum for the Vermeer Exhibition, but unfortunately they didn't bring Vermeer's "The Lacemaker" painting to Japan. This time it's here and I'm very happy that I was able to see it.

It's miraculous how you are now able to see and appreciate all those paintings from 3 or 4 different centuries at one place like here in Ueno, Japan and how they will probably continue be appreciated by many more people in many more different places for many more centuries. It would be great, if I could see the same picture again at a different place someday~.
(^The picture above is the rainy Ueno.)



It's a sudden topic change, but let me introduce to you the things I recently bought. I checked an exhibtion of my favorite brand DIESEL and focused on the spring collection only.
A T-shirt, a cap and a pair of sneakers.
I fell in love with the silver sneakers right at the moment I saw them.
I combine the sneakers with roll-up denim pants.



A PR person from DIESEL gave me those sunglasses as a present.
They are unisex glasses and look really cool.
Recently I've been alternating between them and my Ray Ban sunglasses only!

Well, yeah. I really only spend my money on fashion.
Especially shoes, I can't get enough of them. Seeing my entranceway, people usually ask me "how many family members do you have?"

Written by: jyoyu.blogspot.com
Please don't post this translation anywhere else!

Left-handed

Following my block update from 02/12, I received mails
from my friends asking: "Huh? You are a left-hander?".
I'm sorry for posting such a confusing picture.

Since it's me who caused the misunderstanding,
I'll now explain the kinda trivial matter about "my dominant arm."
The case is that... in my private life I most of the time use my left hand,
except for pencils and chopsticks for which my parents taught me to "hold it in your right hand."
In the moments when I take or hold something, or when pushing the button of the elevator, and whenever I don't think about what I'm doing, I naturally use my left hand.

I usually don't concentrate on it and am not aware of what hand I'm using,
but I guess that not a lot of people around me notice that my innate dominant arm is my left one, because I use my right hand to hold pencils and chopsticks.
During the summer in the year before last, there was a salute scene in the movie "Southbound" and during the test for that scene the director noticed that I was using my left hand to salute.
"Kitagawa, you are left-handed?" laughs
Eventually he liked it and told me to keep on doing it with my left hand and so I did.


Therefore I re-thought the matter and
noticed that I'm using my left hand in a lot of situations in my private life.

Whether I put on my shoes or other clothes, all with my left hand.
Cutting and eating bread, left hand as well.
When playing baseball, too.
Or when using my mobile phone.
Even when washing the tableware.
I hold coffee cups or glasses in my left hand.
I put in tickets with my left hand, too.
(that's why it's difficult to get through a ticket gate)
And when scrolling through my blog I also noticed that I'm unconsciously using my left hand for writing on white- or blackboards, as well as when eating with a fork or a spoon.

Ever since little was taught things like, "chopsticks in the right hand, rice bowl in the left". I hated those manners so much, that when I started to live alone and my parents weren't able to watch over me anymore, I didn't care about them anymore and started to eat in my own style. In doramas and variety shows I feel a bit awkward, because I always have to think about that I have to take care of those manners when eating. I often didn't like myself for that last year, because there were many occurrences where I had to eat during work, but lately I improved a lot and usually eat in the right way now!


Recently I practiced gestures and tea ceremonies and when you take things in you pick something up, "you first use your left hand to hold it and then add your right hand as support".
I had to do that a lot of times and to tell you the truth, it was quite a hard fight until I got familiar with it.
The binding of the obi and the tasuki was something I had to practice many times over, because it always came out reverse than that of my teacher, or when thinking about it in my head, it always became an odd granny knot.
My teacher said that left-handedness was against the manners in the Edo period and that it was absolutely necessary to convert into a right-hander.

Somewhere I heard that one's dominant arm is somehow related to one's brain and that statistically right-handers have a more developed brain on the left and left-handers on the right side.
I'm glad that it doesn't say anything about having both sides equally developed, because that means that it is okay if I'm not able to become a right-hander, except for pencils and chopsticks~
Seriously, what am I think about? laughs
I have written really well today, haven't I? ...a self-reflection.

The pictures are from an interview with MORE last month.
I already mentioned it last time, but the PR machine for "Manatsu no Orion" is beginning to roll and the coverage in fashion magazines also seem to increase again.
It's no problem when being inside a studio, but at an outside location it becames a battlefield with all the pollen.
It's im..., impossible... geez... not good, but I'll try my best. laughs
When I heard in the news that they are expecting a lot of pollen until GW (Golden Week), I unintentionally covered my ears,
but I sincerely hope that it was an incorrect report.

Written by: jyoyu.blogspot.com
Please don't post this translation anywhere else!

Hey there! I decided to translate yet another blog to kill some more time. This Kitagawa Keiko's blog entry from Friday and I hope that you will enjoy her blog messages from now on as well.

First snow and the outfit for my next project



Today fell the first snow of this year.
It didn't snow a lot in my hometown Kobe, so it's still fairly new to me.

Today I also tried on the costume for my next movie.
I've always been practicing sword fight for that role since September last year.
A hakama* and a headband... it's really manly.
Other than the hakama I also tried on a lot of kimonos.
It's the first time that I heard that the role is going to wear kimonos
and now I can't wait to get started with the movie.
*hakama=man's formal divided skirt



We recently increased my training to 3 times a week and
now I don't have time to get over my muscular pain before the next training anymore.
The speed of the drills also picked up since this year.
It's difficult to keep up and I'm almost fainting after the 2 hours of practice each time. laughs
I'm afraid that I will have to fight every day once the filming starts.
Anyway, I'll try to keep up with it.

Next month I'm going to start practicing with the other cast and
therefore I have to remember and perfect all patterns this month.

I also have my manager take videos of my training sessions and
then I study my bad habits and all the parts I didn't get right
while watching them at home every day.
It's still far away from being perfect.
I have to become better.



The campaing for the movie "Manatsu no Orion" is also slowly starting to roll.

I was able to see the first preview on the 23rd with all the CG and music added.
It looks much more wonderful than the raw material from the filming.
It's a movie about war,
but it got a feeling to it that even the young audience or women will be able to enjoy.
It's more about survival than war and that defeat isn't decided until the end,
and I'm very happy that I was able to appear in that movie.
I think that recently there weren't too many war movies that focus on survival rather than death and therefore I think that many people should go and watch it.

That's exactly the reason why I'm exerting myself for this campaign as well.
I wish I had two bodies.



^That's me after training when I'm not able to stand on my feet anymore. laughs

Written by: jyoyu.blogspot.com
Please don't post this translation anywhere else!