Saito Rie’s best-seller "Hitsudan Hostess" (Hostess who communicates in writing) about a how she became the No.1 hostess in whole Ginza despite her handicap of not being able to hear anything will be turned into a dorama by TBS. It will start airing in January and feature actress Kitagawa Keiko in the starring role. This might be Kitagawa’s most difficult so far, after all she has to play a character with hardly any spoken lines. However, she is said to have obtained amazing calligraphy skills in her childhood and now she finally has the chance to put them to use by portraying Saito’s interesting life so far.
The book only got released in May this year, but it already sold over 115,000 copies. Her life became a big topic in the publishing world and even already spawned a manga as well as another book related to her story. Born in Aomori, Saito lost her ability to hear at the age of 1. Her parents have been very strict and during junior high school she eventually became a juvenile delinquent and ran away from home several times. She started working in a local club and many customers were charmed by her unique way of communicating. Later she moved to a bigger club in Ginza, Tokyo and become one of the most popular hostesses in that area.

Kitagawa read the book as well and was very touched. "I’ll study everything about how you have to live as a deaf person, from your way of communicating, your facial expressions to all other kinds of habits. I’ll put my everything into this role." During her childhood she made calligraphy and writing in general to one of her specialties. "I’m very familiar with expressing yourself through letters and the way you write them." About being able to play as Saito very soon, she commented, "We are living in a world with really plenty of people, but there will always be someone who feels lonely. That’s the time we live in these days, so I’d like everyone who ever experienced such loneliness to watch this dorama."

Tanaka Yoshiko will play the role of Saito’s mother.


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Correction:

I just wanted to let you know that the upcoming "Hitsudan Hostess" starring Kitagawa Keiko will be a dorama SP only. This means it will just be a single 2h long episode. Sports Hochi only mentioned "dorama" in their article and I was led to the confusion that January means the start of the broadcast. However, thanks to another article on Mainichi I now know that it’s actually just a special and not a serialization. The fact that it will air in January stays true.

Excuse me for the confusion.


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Written by: www.kawaii-joyuu.com
Sources: Sports Hochi

Oricon did their annual "I want to have a face like hers!" (or: I’m envious of her face! / I want her face!) survey among women and surprisingly Matsushima Nanako was able to get the first place this year. In the past years we saw Sawajiri Erika, Aragaki Yui and Shibasaki Kou taking the upper spot. They’ve been very active in the years they got voted first, so it was really a surprise to see a veteran like Matsushima on the first place.
Matsushima made her first beg step into the acting industry with the dorama "GTO", but it wasn’t until "Yamato Nadeshiko" that she had her big breakthrough. Women of all ages praise her refined looks and her stunning charm. Getting back to what I’ve said in the first paragraph, it might actually not be that much of a surprise for her to come in first this year. After all there have been a lot of people who were amazed by her comeback as an actress in "Kyumei Byoto 24 Ji – Season 4" after going through marriage and giving birth to a child. With her still very pure looks, she even was able to score a deal with Nintendo for their Wii commercials. The support from women her age is simply overwhelming these days.

Kitagawa Keiko is another newcomer in the ranking this year. She totally falls into the category that I described at first, be active or have a popular dorama and you’ll secure yourself a sport in the upper half of such rankings. In Kitagawa’s case, "Buzzer Beat" really helped her to gain much more popularity, not just among men but women as well. The 3rd place goes to Miyazaki Aoi, something she should be used to by now. In 2007 she was 3rd as well, behind Sawajiri and Aragaki who shared the 1st place back then, and in 2008 she even reached the 2nd place thanks to "Atsuhime". Her popularity probably won’t decrease in the next couple of years.

Here’s the full ranking (Top 5). 01 – Matsushima Nanako 02 – Kitagawa Keiko 03 – Miyazaki Aoi 04 – Ayase Haruka 05 – Shibasaki Kou

2008 Ranking: 01 – Shibasaki Kou 02 – Miyazaki Aoi 03 – Amuro Namie 04 – Takeuchi Yuuko 05 – Hamasaki Ayumi

2007 Ranking: 01 – Sawajiri Erika 01 – Aragaki Yui 03 – Miyazaki Aoi 04 – Nagasawa Masami 05 – Karina

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Written by: www.kawaii-joyuu.com
Sources: Oricon

"Dove" of Unilever Japan has established November 08th as the "Good Skin Day" and as part of their "Dove Good Skin Day Project", they’ve asked several hundred men and women questions about "faces with no make-up" and similar. Actress Koyuki (32) has been chosen as the performer with the most beautiful face with no make-up, but there are more interesting results. Some rankings contain both, female and male celebrities. Have fun checking them out below!

Performer with the most beautiful faces with no make-up: 01 – Koyuki 02 – Kanno Miho 03 – Kitagawa Keiko 04 – Miyazaki Aoi 05 – Momoi Kaori 06 – Ayase Haruka 06 – Aoi Yuu 08 – Ueto Aya 09 – Shinohara Ryoko 09 – Kimura Takuya
Beautiful skins you would like to have yourself: 01 – Koyuki 02 – Kimura Takuya 03 – Kanno Miho 04 – Momoi Kaori 05 – Fukuyama Masaharu 06 – Shinohara Ryoko 07 – Koike Teppei 08 – Ayase Haruka 08 – Mizushima Hiro 10 – Oguri Shun	Male Celebrities who probably "charm" their wife: 01 – Kimura Takuya 02 – Mizushima Hiro 03 – Eguchi Yosuke 04 – Sorimachi Takashi 05 – Funakoshi Eiichiro 06 – Sasaki Kensuke 07 – Karasawa Toshiaki 08 – Fuji Takashi 08 – Darubisshu Yuu 10 – Tsuruno Takeshi 10 – Hatoyama Yukio 10 – Sugiura Taiyo
Couples where you can see that they "profit" from each other: 01 – Mizushima Hiro & Ayaka 02 – Kimura Takuya & Kudo Shizuka 03 – Sorimachi Takashi & Matsushima Nanako 04 – Sugiura Taiyo & Tsuji Nozomi 05 – Oguri Shun & Yamada Yuu 05 – Eguchi Yosuke & Moritaka Chisato 07 – Takahashi Jo-ji & Mifune Mika 08 – Shoji Tomoharu & Fujimoto Miki 09 – Fuji Takashi & Otoha 10 – Eita & Kimura Kaela	Performers you would like to see with no make-up: 01 – Hamasaki Ayumi 01 – Haruna Ai 03 – Gal Sone 04 – Demon Kogure 05 – The Kano Sisters 06 – Ayase Haruka 07 – Koyuki 08 – Koda Kumi 09 – Kuroyanagi Tetsuko 10 – IKKO

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Written by: www.kawaii-joyuu.com
Sources: Sanspo, Walkerplus

Goo published the results of a new poll and this time they asked which female celebrity you would like to hug from behind.

Top 30 – Female Celebrities you would like to hug from behind

01 – Aragaki Yui 02 – Ueto Aya 03 – Ayase Haruka 04 – Kitagawa Keiko 04 – Horikita Maki 06 – Nagasawa Masami 07 – Miyazaki Aoi 08 – Toda Erika 09 – Aibu Saki 10 – Suzanne

11 – Ishihara Satomi 12 – Inoue Mao 12 – Minami Akina 14 – Kato Rosa 15 – Fukuda Saki 16 – Eikura Nana 16 – Sasaki Nozomi 18 – Aoi Yuu 19 – YUI 20 – Tabe Mikako

21 – Fujimoto Miki 21 – Yoshitaka Yuriko 23 – Naka Riisa 23 – Tanimura Mitsuki 25 – Kinoshita Yukina 26 – Kago Ai 26 – Iwasa Mayuko 28 – Ayaka 29 – Kawashima Ai 30 – Kashii Yuu

Goo also put up a similar poll oriented towards their female user base, but in their case they asked from which male celebrity they’d like to get hugged from behind. I’m posting this ranking too, in case some other sites want to copy the results without looking up the names.

Top 30 – Male Celebrities from which you would like to get hugged from behind

01 – Mizushima Hiro 02 – Tsumabuki Satoshi 03 – Oguri Shun 04 – Yamashita Tomohisa 05 – Matsumoto Jun 06 – Eita 06 – Ichihara Hayato 08 – Tamaki Hiroshi 09 – Miura Haruma 10 – Matsuyama Kenichi

11 – Ikuta Toma 11 – Sakurai Sho 13 – Hayami Mokomichi 13 – Ninomiya Kazunari 15 – Sato Takeru 16 – Matsuda Shota 17 – Mukai Osamu 18 – Nishikido Ryo 19 – Aiba Masaki 20 – Koike Teppei

21 – Yamamoto Yusuke 22 – Takizawa Hideaki 23 – Kamenashi Kazuya 24 – Okada Masaki 24 – Akanishi Jin 26 – Uentsu Eiji 27 – Shirota Yuu 28 – Tegoshi Yuuya 29 – Ono Satoshi 30 – Kamiki Ryunosuke

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Written by: www.kawaii-joyuu.com
Sources: goo