Yamaguchi Maho (Mahohon) / 1st Generation

2017.07.24 Showroom. As per usual, Maho spending the last minutes of the day with viewers while unwinding. Going by the dialogue, the news of the day is that Maho just returned after being in Tokyo for a certain shooting. To be more precise, there was a shooting in Niigata early in the morning, and then another in Tokyo afterwards. What was this shooting for, you may be wondering? So did some viewers, but Maho kept absolute secrecy on it, so your guess is as good as mine. Hope it was something big.

Spoiler: Further Summary

Moving onto more personal matters, the summer heat these days is starting to become a little too much to bear for Maho, but on the brighter side she feels lucky that she has bought just in time one of those portable mini-fans to hang around your neck, for using at any time while on the move (and without the need to manually point it to your face, either, she explains).
Turns out there's more to it: Maho has actually been on a spending spree these last days, taking advantage of the large-scale clearance sale that was being held at a certain place, and now Maho is busy unpacking and sorting out all the cardboard boxes that have just arrived, which in Maho's words is looking to be a huge chore.

Of course, it took viewers no time to figure out that she was talking about the Rakuten sales season. And imagine the surprise when I checked out yesterday's (pre-recorded, of course) episode of Minna Kami-Taiou and found out that the topic was brought up by Maho again right during the regular mail corner, in speaking of something that the members have been hooked on this summer. Maho replied "the discount sales taking place on all the online shopping sites", and before she could finish her sentence Kani (well-known for being thrifty with any sort of spending) immediately screamed "Eh, they had one just yesterday but I forgot to buy anything! What a shock!", both of them sounding clearly on the same wavelength... ( ´∀｀)

Anyway, always expect Maho to prefer buying large orders of items at once through online shopping websites, rather than actually going through physical stores searching for them. I still remember how Maho used to talk about it with much satisfaction on last year's Showroom, and was even referenced on the talk related to the Rakuten Senbatsu competition.

One thing led to another, and we eventually find out that in the meantime Maho couldn't keep her ranking as a Diamond Club Member (the highest ranking on Rakuten, which she prided herself on having), with all the perks associated to it, and dropped in level. Maho said that this brought her motivation down along with it, but then again she concludes with a smile that this is nothing to be bothered about, and the most important thing to mind about is (the rank in) Sousenkyo at the end of the day.

On viewer's request, there followed some talk about Maho's day off with Riko and how it was like. A related Photolog post by Riko from the day before, in fact, talked about the two of them hanging out in Niigata again after quite a long time, going to sing at the karaoke and then watching a movie at the theater together, among possibly other things.
https://twitter.com/NGT48photolog2/status/1021393564192759808
Maho, still visibly reveling in the memories, talked about how there was "much to practice, much to watch, much to learn together, it was a really fun day", later adding how they enjoyed watching something on DMM while waiting at the bus stop. Overall, it sounded like one pleasant day together.
And then, as one would expect, some viewers asked Maho about what aspects of Riko she loves in particular, and Maho without hesitation: "the fact she is pure-hearted and it feels enjoyable to be together with her -- pretty much everything of her". No matter how many times she spoke of it before, somehow I feel like Maho never gets tired of restating it. (*´ω｀*)

Finally, ending this stream on an unusual note, even Maho looked surprised at how she has recently put on some decent muscles on her arms ...which makes Maho all the more surprised after noting how she didn't do any exercises in particular and they just happened to build up naturally.

Maho giving the permission to let anyone touch her biceps, though? "Iyada~", don't hope on it. (´∀｀；)

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

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Bonus: Finally, here's my humble translation of Maho's article from the Sankei Plus column. Considering that there'll be an important announcement about the 4th single to be revealed tomorrow, I figured it would be better to post this before it's out, if just to avoid having the closing paragraph possibly sound outdated by then.
Besides that, nice way to use a common, overarching theme to connect together so many different subjects on Maho's part, I must say.
Also, now I understand what Maho meant when on the past SR she said she'd prefer to put some kind of humor into her writings, making sure it's a humor that wouldn't hurt anyone but also without sparing the self-irony for a laugh.
So, without further ado...

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Do you believe in things that are invisible to the eye? Yamaguchi Maho



Do you believe in things that aren't visible to the eye? As for me, I only believe in things that I can see.

Whenever we are staying over in Tokyo for some event activity, such as handshake events, I quite often lodge together with other members in the same room at the hotel. On those times, if this happens to be a poorly-lit hotel, sure enough someone would always blurt out "There's a ghost in here!".

With a smile, I would then promptly reply back with a "Eeeh~ You gotta be kidding~!". And I would keep smiling even afterwards when I listen to their stories telling about some noise and how it indicates there might be a ghost around there somewhere. That's right, I smile at it. But despite this, inside of my heart, I can never fully convince myself that "this is 100% certain to be just the sound of the wind" or something. "But after all", I then ask myself, "would a ghost show up so frequently?", hence my conclusion.

A ghost that would always, without fail, manifest itself wherever there's a dark place cannot possibly be a ghost, am I right? Come on, this has to be a human being. Nonetheless, that's when I end up wondering, "Couldn't it be that someone such as me, who's sorry-looking and kinda gloomy, had just been mistaken for a ghost at a glance, instead...?"

Nah, thinking again, I find it already unpleasant even to say such a thing myself. Let alone to have someone else referring to me as a ghost, especially since I am still an idol at the end of the day.

And yet, even to this day, I would get told by other members that back at the time of NGT48 auditions their first ever impression of me was in fact that I "looked like a ghost, what with the long hair and the pale skin, staring down to the ground and looking so gloomy", in other words incorporating many of the hallmarks of a ghost. But this story is a thing of the past.

Even now that I have been working as an idol for 3 years already, I still haven't managed to get totally rid of this joyless image I project about myself, but I want to believe that I wouldn't be confused for a ghost at least.

Once again, personally, I tend to only believe in things I can see with my eyes. And considering I am visible to the eye by anyone, that would mean I am not a ghost ...presumably.

Still, it may be just a slight feeling... But as I am writing all of this, for some reason I have become a bit apprehensive about what if I might actually be a ghost after all.

Therefore, if you don't mind, please come to meet me in order to verify if this suspicion is true, everyone! It's not like I am as rare to come across as a ghost would, either, and I feel glad for not being such a rarity. Actually, this last part is not a thing to be glad about, but still...

With that said, NGT48's 4th single has been confirmed for release! Even there, I'll be working hard so that I can reach a position in the formation that'll be visible to the eyes. And as part of NGT48, too, I'll commit myself to achieve results that anyone can see with their own eyes as well! If you'd like, I invite you too to believe in NGT48 and lend us your support.

Source: https://sankeiplus.com/a/1zE6iU7Puc1kwnVNsMpXRk

 

2018.07.28 Showroom. Concerning the Mahohon Market, as well as the upcoming NGT Bowling tournament.

Spoiler: Abridged Summary

• Before getting to the core of today's talk, however, a little part at the beginning was first spent talking about some of Maho's more general concerns.
  In one, a viewer commented about how Maho today had been looking cute as usual with her pale skin at the handshake event, to which Maho noted how she ended up getting a little sunburned all the same. Health-wise, Maho also told of how she has been working to increase the vitamin supplements in her diet, also because of the benefits for beauty. To do that, she has made it a habit to drink orange juice, but she has also been observing that, being too addictive from the fats contained inside, drinking too much had an effect on her skin causing it to take a yellow hue, and had since considered cutting back on it in favor of drinking mainly water.
• Related to the Mahohon Market that Maho had announced on her Instagram stories earlier in the same day (more about it in the section below), the viewers' first concern was understandably about whether the bruises on Maho's arms had healed back at last. Maho reassured that they disappeared a little after applying some coolant on it, even revealing that when the bruises still looked black-ish a while back, it even got some members screaming out of worry at the sight of it.
  Maho explained once again to viewers the reason for those bruises, saying that while carrying the three heavy bags of personal clothes and accessories all the way to the handshake event venue, she ended up bursting a few blood vessels from the exertion. After then, she cooled the bruised areas and wrapped them in a towel to keep the ice pack in place, which helped them heal back a little.
  
  Leaving that aside, viewers were of course eager to know if juniors members (since the Mahohon Market was aimed exclusively at the 2nd generation members and Draft members) were happy to receive her gifts, and as expected Maho confirmed they were. Not only that, the consensus was unanimously positive and Maho called the whole operation a success, pointing out how soon enough everything had been already been picked up and taken away by members.
  It appears this is not over yet, though. Maho remembered how between purses, clothes, shoes and the likes, there is at least enough to fill another three bags to give away for free at her market, which hints that a second iteration of the event might be coming soon.
  At the same time, Maho was reminded about how she'll have to take care of house cleaning as well right now, much to her feeling of exhaustion.
• In another more work-related gripe, she talked about the workload she had to struggle with recently. Although she didn't go into much detail, she told that these days she had been busy watching and memorizing the content of plenty of performance videos.
  What bothers her the most is appearently how little time she was given for the task: "It would have been nice if I had got to know it one month in advance, I mean the song setlist of the live concert, I could have done lots of practice in the meantime if it were one month in advance. ...But when there's only three days to go...", Maho ended her musing with an exasperated gasp.
  
  Even some viewers started questioning why these preparations have to be done always at the last minute, but ultimately, Maho decided to give the people in charge the benefit of the doubt, wanting to believe that they worked hard to get things ready but they were still undecided on finalizing the details until the last moments before the deadline.
  A viewer commented about it being the destiny of every 48G group to face such issues, to which Maho had no choice but to agree.
• Of course, with the NGT bowling tournament about to take place on the next day, discussion about it and Maho's personal history with bowling took up a huge chunk of today's broadcast. And right off the bat, Maho declared that she set her sight on winning and winning only, determined only to return back home victorious, even on behalf of all those who applied for the event and didn't win the reservation.
  Some viewers worried if Maho was strong enough to hold a bowling ball due to its heaviness, to which Maho responded with an amused "Don't worry, I have these muscles here!" ( ´∀｀)
  
  
  Once again, as she would keep repeating throughout the stream, she stated her intention to go for victory and victory only, even swearing it on the name of her grandma.
  If some are wondering why, it turns out that her grandma has been playing bowling for a long time through her life, and even Maho herself had some experience with playing the game before since a young age (as we'll see later, not without some failures).
  More interestingly, we also find out that during the period in which Maho returned back to Aomori and visited her grandparents' house, when Maho's grandma heard that Maho was going to participate in a bowling competition, she showed much sympathy as she reacted back with a "You could have told me sooner, I would've given you my bowling ball!".
  Maho had no choice but to decline the offer, though, since it would have been difficult to carry it back to Niigata, among other things. Nonetheless, Maho was touched to see just to what extent her grandma was considerate and caring of Maho, and she stressed this point afterwards.
  
  Before that point, Maho also talked at length about how she herself had developed confidence in her bowling skills, after having played it together with her grandma since her childhood, and here she starts off a trip down the memory lane.
  "During my high school years, I used to work as a part-timer. And on those times when some employee resigned from their job, we held something of a farewell party in their honor. Here we would usually have a bowling tournament, at any of these farewell parties. During it, we would split into two teams and played in direct competition. Well, I was extremely confident in my competence at bowling, I even told them, «please leave things to me»"
  
  But there is a twist in the story.
  "And then... Would you imagine it? I just kept making the ball land in the gutter over and over. The team I was in even got awarded a 50-point headstart, so much I was terrible at it. Since then, I haven't been playing bowling ever again. But I am confident that I'll achieve my victory."
  With the same sober and calm tone, Maho also explains that this is a kind of baseless self-confidence, in reality, and like in all discussions on sports-related achievements, here she brings up again as an example the AKB Sports Festival.
  "Did you see it, right? I didn't know a thing about football. I learned the existence of penalty shootouts only when I got there, and didn't even know the rules about penalty shootouts, either. I only knew that I was fine to kick the ball once they blew the whistle. And then, in spite of it I scored a goal and achieved victory. That's when I thought that, after all, believing in yourself is an important thing to do. Right. So I'll return back with victory in my hands. I'm going to break out crying if I won't."
  
  
  But, possibly aware of Maho's precedents when it comes to sport challenges, some fans were nonetheless hopeful:
  Viewer: "Tomorrow give us a new legend!"
  Maho: "Leave it to me..."
  
• Some more self-encouragement talk followed, with Maho talking about how the greatest rival is herself, and how she probably resembles Riko in the way they both show this kind of unwarranted confidence in themselves sometimes (Speaking of which, Maho took this opportunity to talk about how Riko had been playing bowling for a long time as well. In a talk between the two, Riko even told Maho that "if I score a strike once, I am then able of scoring four consecutive strikes in the end", and Maho, laughing, "What kind of phenomenon is that?!").
  But all things considered, forgetting about the jokes and motivational talk for a moment, she makes no secret at the end of the speech that she'll probably wind up at the bottom of the ranking in the actual competition, which doesn't change the fact that she must still believe in herself and do give her best for the game.
  
  
  On a more self-ironical note, some viewers asked (likely with serious intentions) if she was doing any practice in particular, in preparation for the event. And Maho jokingly replied back that she is intent on doing some mental visualization training, instead, pretty much every instant she closes her eyes to bat eyelids, arguing this is essential to scoring a strike in a bowling match. The fact she delivered all this part in such a increasingly serious and self-assured way, meant that even Maho couldn't help from laughing at herself in the end at how it sounded like an actual sports interview.
  
  And again, when asked about if she has any sure-fire secret technique in store, Maho told "turning even the horizontal borders of the bowling lane into gutters by lifting them up", but she fears that she might not be able of using it the next day. "...so I'll have to fall back on mental visualization training until then". Oh Maho... (*´∀｀)

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

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Bonus #1: Related to the Mahohon Market, these two Instagram stories were posted earlier on the same day.
Like the other members' "markets" that were held in the past, in this one Maho decided to donate many of her used clothes and other belongings to the juniors. This is a market that was in fact aimed exclusively at 2nd generation and Draft members.
To be honest, it is best to look at them first before watching the SR above, since all the context is inside there.

The second story actually had me a bit worried about Maho overstraining herself, more so than her health would allow. Maho has never made a secret about what health issues she has been long dealing with. Since the beginnings she had been openly speaking of it, albeit lightly, within MCs and SRs even mentioning what supplements she takes to remedy for it. So she is already well aware of it, enough to take care of herself. But I take all of this as another example of Maho's selflessness -- being willing to give secondary importance to her own health when it's time to help out or do a favor for others. (´･ω･｀)

Spoiler: Click to expand

"I brought along with me three bags worth of clothes, purses, and more.
I am so tired now...

Since I had to walk to carry this all the way to the destination venue, I ended up dripping with sweat.
Also, I was looking like some sort of runaway girl while at it because of all these huge baggages, that I even got some people staring at me on several times.

To all Draft members and 2nd generation members~
Mahohon Market will begin soon~ "


"Being so busy nowadays, the only opportunity I have to meet with the kouhais is at the handshake events, so I decided to bring everything along at once...
I WANTED TO SEE EVERYONE'S SMILES...

Well, despite the packages being too heavy, I kept persisting at it, and that's what the result was like.
My skin is thin and quick to get bruised.
Even during the practice for the Guinness rice ball contest, I was rolling the steaming hot rice with my bare hands, and my skin is so thin that I got scalded as a consequence.
Whether it is something cold or something hot, the effects of the temperature would be felt immediately, which means I can't keep holding any of it in my hands for too long.

Now I have this blood vessel hemorrhage and it just wouldn't fully heal back.
Since people might probably be asking me "What happened?" during this handshake event, this was to make all things clear, for good measure."

And it looks like the girls are already utilizing the clothes that Maho has donated them. On today's Showroom, starting from 08:09 below, Chikana presented to the viewers a couple of shirts and skirts that Maho as well as Katomina have handed down to her these days. For some reason her comments kept focusing on what a nice smell the clothes had and what a difference there was in that regard between Maho's and Katomina's. Right from the start she was embarrassed that she would give the impression of having some abnormal fetish about odors, but still couldn't help it. Well, I just hope Chikana will make the intended use for those clothes after today... (*´∀｀)

Spoiler

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Bonus #2: About the Bowling Tournament. The news is already out and you should know already, but it turns out that the fears Maho was expressing on yesterday's SR proved groundless after all, and she and her fans team dominated the match by getting to 3rd place in the end, close behind Mofu and MiyuMiyu.
https://twitter.com/official_NGT48/status/1023578199345618944


Maho looking fired up for the incoming competition on today's Instagram stories:


And then, Maho's final comment for the day from Photolog, following the bowling match:
"#BowlingTournament

.
Amazingly enough, I got to the 3rd place!!!

In the cerimonial first throw at the opening of the match, I just ended up landing the ball into the gutter at full force.
I decided to just keep on acting lively to pretend that I could get victory in the end, at least that's what I meant it to be, but...
at the actual competition right after that, I actually scored several strikes, of all things!!

Turns out I was the type who performs well once the fight gets real.

Just like with the penalty shoot-outs at the Sports Festival (laugh)

Of course, my fans were amazingly good at it, too,
and it's thanks to everyone that we got to such a surprising 3rd place!!

I'm so happy.

Thank you so much for this."

Source: https://twitter.com/NGT48photolog2/status/1023576524895580161

 

2018.07.30 Showroom. Expectedly, like many other members had done these couple of days, today's stream was dedicated to looking back at the bowling tournament itself as well as some of her fondest moments within it.

Spoiler: Summary

Well, in spite of being overall a rather placid stream (as she goes on to acknowledge herself), it's pretty easy to tell right off the bat that yesterday's experience of bowling with fans has left an invigorating effect on Maho's mood and self-confidence.

Echoing what had already been written on the previous Showroom, even though she had been repeating again and again that she would go for victory, the most likely outcome Maho had been expecting, much to her own fears, was that she'd end up last in the ranking. However, today's experience only served to reconfirm, in Maho's eyes, that as long as you believe in yourself you are able to accomplish anything, something she's going to reassert often throughout the stream.
Maho recalls again that the last time she ever played bowling, about 5 years ago, she only managed to get the ball into the gutter, being basically a dead weight for her team, to such a degree that it had to be a awarded 50 points of advantage to make up for her ineptitude -- and these bad precedents are the reason she waited for yesterday's match with nothing but fear.
The fact that she and her team made their way up to the 3rd place, with a small margin of only 2 points behind the 2nd, came in as an exciting surprise.

Among the viewers, fans who were previously at the event were fast to praise Maho for the successful performance that she herself has showed during the game.
And it looks like even this aspect of herself had caught Maho absolutely by surprise, like she recalled excitedly. As she already wrote on Photolog, in the inaugural first throw to kick off the event, Maho's throw ended once again with the ball rolling into the gutter, which didn't bode well to her. Maho had to resort to putting on an act and reassure that her team would be victorious anyway, but deep inside she actually feared for defeat. Even so, not even one minute later she had already scored a strike on her first attempt, and later had been responsible even for several spares as well throughout the match.
On the other hand, thing went a little awry in the second part of the match. Of course, Maho is an optimist but a realist nonetheless, and is not afraid to admit that simply believing in oneself is not the only thing necessary to achieve something in the long run.
Like Maho brought up again much later, on occasion of talking about her endurance skills in distance running: "After a while, power just runs out. ... It's not a matter of strenght, on the contrary, but heart, it's a question of heart. I am not talking about giving up or the likes. If at the beginning you are firmly convinced you can get to the first place, you should be able to run 50 meters the fastest. But past the 50 meters, there come things you cannot hope to realize only by relying on your heart and believing in yourself. The same way, even in bowling at first I could get some great results by believing in myself, but it's in the final part that true skillfullness shows through. So I'm sorry for having caused trouble to everyone with my blunders."
For this reason, even Maho, on her part, thanked fans for assisting her along during that difficult part.
At some point later in the stream, Maho also expressed admiration at her fans for being so professional and serious about achieving a good score, too. For one thing, she noted that fans in her team were in fact constantly mindful of the score reached so far and how many points were still needed in order to get ahead and win the tournament. Not to mention that her designed lane was close to that of Mofu's team (who was eventually awarded victory) and even Maho could see with her own eyes what pros Mofu's fans were, even managing to get 3 strikes in a row. However, all of this combined only helped make Maho and her team more motivated to win. ( ´∀｀)

Also, a little moment of embarrassment happened while Maho talked about that photo depicting herself while in the act of throwing the ball, which was posted on the official Twitter. Maho agreed with everyone in saying that the goofy pitching style looked like typical of someone with poor physical coordination. Then again, this was not the first time she looked bad at it, either.
Watching it back, even in the footage of the penalty shootout at the Sports Festival Maho noticed she looked pretty awkward in her movements when kicking, as Renapon had brought to Maho's attention at the time. Always trust an expert on those things, I guess.
But looking at the bright side, "The fact that I scored a goal is amazing in itself. Believing in yourself is important, after all. Anything that you initially believe you can't do becomes possible once you engage into it this way."
As expected, the episode promptly reminded Maho's of that one time when they had a baseball competition against the pro player Igarashi Kei live on Smile Stadium. For those who didn't know already, Maho proceeded to give once again a quick rundown of the event. The game saw Maho, Igarashi, as well as Noepii involved in a free throw match. During the pre-broadcast rehearsals, Noepii tried it out several times, always succeeding in getting the ball into the hoop. On the other hand, Maho just couldn't manage to and only resulted in the ball landing all over the place, so much so that the rest of the people worried if she could perform well once on camera. Well, when the time for the actual game came at last, Maho gave herself a little motivation by remembering to believe in herself and, against even her own expectation, she ended up getting the ball into the hoop on her first try. A particular that always makes Maho laugh and which she didn't forget to mention even this time is in fact that the show's crew were apparently so sure Maho would fail the challenge, that they displayed "Too bad!" on the screen when the ball flew toward the basket, only to hastily correct it with the victory message afterwards.
"They had prepared the Too Bad message in advance, didn't they? How rude... (laugh) ... Well, everyone was assuming I would've missed anyway."

For those who want to see the clip itself, it is available here at this URL:

Spoiler

"...But yeah, if you believe in it, you can do anything. Even things you can't do become possible, if only you never give up your hopes, and work on it earnestly believing in yourself."

The talk went on along these same lines for a bit longer, with Maho listing in her discussion other all-to-familiar examples of unexpected achievements at sports, despite all the odds being stacked against herself, out of which the bowling game was but the last of it. More notably, among them there was the dodgeball match, always from the same Sports Festival but which sprang to Maho's mind only then, during which she managed to take down various opponents consecutively with her ball throw.
All things considered, viewers commented with particular surprise at the fact Maho has nice athletic skills after all, to which Maho reacted with a "Ain't it? ... Everyone... How come you are so distrustful of me?", at first putting on an amusedly disappointed face before finally breaking into a smile

Proposals from viewers flied in too, calling for a second edition of it at some point, possibly one with the addition of watching spectators. Maho felt a bit regretful to say that, but she didn't seem to agree with the idea, however, arguing that this would cause the players to loosen up their commitment about the game with an audience around them, not to mention it would take away time from the game when today's tournament was already pretty fast-paced in its execution. But at the end of the day, everyone was unanimous in calling today's bowling match a "god-tier event". (´∀｀*)

And this is pretty much all for the part of the talk related to her idol activities. A more cosmetic-themed and fashion-themed talk ensued from that point on, but I'll keep this part brief due to to the specificity of the subject. I'll just add that, after yesterday, Maho also allowed herself to a little treat as a prize. More specifically, by going to buy this certain set of make-up brushes from Hakuho-do, which she showed to and spoke of with the viewers. Here it is.

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

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2018.07.31 Showroom. Live from the hotel room on the day before the Thank-You Concert, to finally announce her Janken unit.

Well, the news should be already public knowledge by now, so there's no use making this part of the summary all too suspenseful, but it wouldn't hurt to repeat. The purpose of this stream was stated as soon as it began, and after letting viewers throw in their personal guesses as to who she might have teamed up with (which included Katomina, Rittan, and why not... Cinnamon, too!), Maho first drew this "portrait" of her Janken unit partner for viewers to take a look at and possibly get a clue. Admittedly, drawing people's caricatures is not Maho's forte, clearly not as much as drawing animals, so she concluded that whoever it could be, the face would have ended up looking all the same anyway. (´∀｀；)

After that, of course, she immediately followed up by getting on a live video-telephone call with Yunako herself (who was on her way inside a car for work reasons).

During it, they also announced together the unit's name, which is going to be Aomoringo. Of course, this comes from the fact the two of them are from Aomori, which also makes them "Apple sisters" in a way. It has been made clear various times already in here what relationship there is between apples and the Aomori prefecture, so I'll skip any personal explanations.
Also, when asked about it, Yunako had to admit she is not all too strong at janken herself, to which Maho heartily suggested to practice until the event comes around. (´∀｀*)

Spoiler: More highlights

With the announcement out of the way, some discussion followed about the reason behind this unit. The inspiration appearently came from the fact that Hokkaido-born members already banded together to form another one of their own. Originally, Maho and Yunako intended the name to be "Apple sisters", but apparently Maho was afraid that the reference in the name would be lost on many people, and they would misinterpret it as the two of them just having a taste for apples, hence why the choice fell on this more straightforward naming instead.
Maho's best hope would be for them to appear at the finals wearing Aomori-inspired costumes and for them to get a MV featuring apple imagery. In addition, she'd hope to have the opportunity to participate in PR and other unit-related jobs in their home region of Aomori if they'll manage to win, possibly gaining the attention of some influential people in Aomori in the process (but, about the last part, Maho told it clearly that "Well, a person can dream...").
The unit was also originally meant to include all Aomori-born members, and Maho even looked to invite everyone to join together. However, as she points out, when she checked again if Yokoyama Yui of Team 8 was available, she found out she was already involved in a dance-centered unit, whereas Miharu had already teamed up with the former Kenkyuuseis by then, which is all too bad...
By the way, Maho didn't forget to give Yunako her seal of approval. In praising her, Maho said she likes the way she is kinda leaning toward the sadistic side, due to the fact she loves to say anything she has in her mind without filters, but even so what she appreciates the most is that, despite the hard-hitting remarks she makes, she manages to always keep it within the idol boundaries. On the other hand, Maho was surprised to know that, among fans who visited her at handshake events, she has gained a fame as having an "ojiisan"-like behavior which many have grown attracted to. Either way, viewers are looking forward to what amusing things might come out of this duo.

Also deserving a little bit of mention, all the talk about Aomori made Maho realize how recently she has developed a habit of using Aomori dialect in her normal speech, and she went on to give some examples.
When it comes to ending the sentences with "nda ne", even Maho was convinced it must have been standard Japanese, while only "nda ga" was the local inflection. Other than that, ending sentences with "sa" is one thing that feels almost instinctive for Maho, and which she has still a hard time ditching from her everyday speech, consequently. In the past, she says she couldn't help inadvertently let it out even in the polite speech that she was trying to have with the staff, only to bitterly regret it moments later thinking how she probably came across to them as being excessively loose and casual.
Maho tells that most of this occurs when she's particularly in high spirits and speaking out loud, such as during conversations at the handshake events, but it seems few people have noticed these differences, enough to point it out.
One thing that everyone seems to agree on is watching out not to use "dakara sa" as a stand-alone interjection, however. In Aomori-ben this is supposed to be the have the same usage as "that's right", but to anyone who's used to listening to only standard Japanese, it of course sounds like "that's why..." to their ears. Even in Maho's case, it has been a source of many awkward gaffes when she would talk with other fellow members and couldn't keep her dialect expression in check. She says that, more than once. she would end up unsconsciously throwing in a loud "dakara sa" as a sign of agreement, only to cause the discussion to fall into an uncomfortable silence because everyone was waiting for her to complete the rest of the sentence with a reasoning or something. "Seriously... so I had been particularly careful to fix this part from the roots, at least..."


On a more serious note, though, another typical thing people in Amorori do is the tendency of adding great amount of salt of anything, and sadly even Maho is no exception to this. I remember Aomori members (Miharu comes to mind) already talked of it previously. Here Maho brought it up after mentioning she kept using the word "shoppaguchi" (meaning someone who has a taste for salty food) without realizing it was, again, a term unique to the Aomori dialect and not everyone could understand what she meant. Apparently all this salt consumption has been credited as the cause of shortened lifespan among people in the prefecture. Some viewer warned Maho about the dangers of developing a high blood pressure, but at least in that regard there seems to be no problems, as Maho pointed out that her blood pressure is naturally low, so low in fact that every morning feels tiresome for her to go through. (・ω・｀)

Also, yeah, new hair color for Maho. In case someone missed it, earlier on today's Instagram stories she posted an image about seemingly dying her hair pink, which understandably got some people excited about some kind of secret project, including yours truly. Well, turns out that it was a regular trip to the beauty salon and it was actually for the purpose of adding some orange-yellow highlights to it. Compare it by yourself.

But hey, it seem like viewers loved it nonetheless. And so did Maho, going by the proud display she made of it toward the end of today's stream... (*´ω｀*)

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

 

2018.08.02 Showroom. A short but sweet stream. A little less than 8 minutes long yet abounding with love for other members, but especially for Riko...

Spoiler: Summary

First of all, though, I think a little context is needed. Today's stream happened right on the same day as Ayutaro's Seitansai. Not only that, but with the two days of Thank-You Concert and whatnot happening at the same time, currently Team G had to experience a temporary "shuffle" in the stage units to compensate for the absence of certain members (or maybe it was upon request of the Seitansai Committe, thinking about it).
One of them, today, was for example Gatanee performing in Wagamama no Nagareboshi. Another one, the most notable and the one that caught even fans by surprise, happened in the Mushi no Ballad solo, where we found out that the member chosen to sub in for Hinatan was none other than Riko.

Maho's attention was obviously most attracted to this, and she spared no words of praise when talking about her.

Since I believe it really deserved a full-fledged translation, here below is a full transcript of this segment. You may also simultaneously listen to the video, starting from 01:06, so that you can read it with the right pauses and the right tone for a better effect.

"(reading a comment) «Did you feel awestruck by Rittan's Mushi no Ballad?» I surely did, I even wrote about that on my (mobame) mail. ...
So, back to Mushi no Ballad, I was actually there watching the rehearsals too, and even at that point, during the rehearsals, it brought tears to my eyes, so much I was moved by it.
Besides that... Even though they normally have no possibility to watch the performance on screen... I mean, despite the fact they were staying in the clothes changing room, and so they couldn't watch the live video on screen, but could only hear Riko's voice coming all the way through, even the make-up staff over there got goosebumps listening to it. They were like, «Do you see what goosebumps I got?». It was that amazing, truly cool.
But really, everyone was saying how amazing it was, but some also went as far as crying from how touched they were by it. It was fantastic, really.
Riko practiced so hard for it. When we hanged out together... although she didn't reveal why until she was about to perform it... she went with me to the karaoke, for the purpose of practicing Mushi no Ballad over and over again. In addition, she checked out every recording of Mushi no Ballad performed by the other members until that point, and did a lot of research by herself.
Riko has already been excellent at dancing since a long time ago, and she is also great at singing, not to mention she has emotional expressivity. And yet, she is the type of girl who never gets overconfident about her abilities, and never holds back any effort. Even if she manages to pull something off perfectly one time, she feels as if she can still take it one step further. How can I say? She's a girl who feels there are no limits to what she can do, which is why she is constantly practicing. Seriously. However, because this is something that Riko doesn't openly speak about at all, people outside are completely unaware of it, but she does possess an impressive talent. She's such a hard worker!
It would be great if as many people as possible would get to know about all the hard work she does...
In terms of character... (smiles) she may be a baka character, true, but she's truly gifted with a great talent... «As expected, Riko really shows her best when on stage», I though to myself. When I watched Mushi no Ballad, I thought «This girl is meant to stand on a theater stage».
For that matter, I was in the middle of talking with Riko just yesterday ...yesterday I stayed in a single room (at the hotel), but we also spent time the two of us together... when at some point I had been telling her how «I feel great respect toward Riko for this», and as I was speaking she broke up crying. (laughs) Even yesterday she was crying too. And then, moments later, Riko was there saying «I am not crying, I swear~» (doing a Riko's voice impression), and while she was still tearing up she eventually just fell into a slumber. (laughs)
After than, once she finally woke up, of course, she was already back at work practicing while watching the video recordings.

(reading a comment) «You are such good friends» ...Right..."


What else to say, other than suggesting to follow Maho's advice at the end of the story, and watch Rittan's performance of Mushi no Ballad on DMM? (*´ω｀*)

◇◇◇ ◇◇◇ ◇◇◇

Other than that, a little moment was also dedicated to talking about Ayutaro's Seitansai itself, which of course happened in the same theater show. It seems like the letter from Ayutaro's dad was another tearjerking part of the show for Maho, commenting how any letter from the member's family has in fact this natural effect on her. Although there was also a humorous episode inside when Ayutaro reacted with one loud "Papa~, iyada~" as she had the letter read to her, "Poor papa, despite being so nice to her daughter..." indeed. (´∀｀；)

Also, I am pretty sure that the last part was a countinuation of something that was previously brought up during the Seitansai itself, of which I still have to read any full report of it yet, but I gotta this is also my first time hearing that Maho was the original creator of Ayutaro's catchphrases (provided that I got the context correctly in this one).
I guess that this credits Maho as inventing the catchphrases of at least three other NGT members (the other two being Otaki's and, more recently, Yunako's).
Once again she didn't spare the compliments while reminishing about her first meeting with Ayutaro, either:
"That's right, since I love Ayutaro's smile so much, it was me who proposed that catchphrase. I mean, when we met for the first time I couldn't help thinking of what a cute smile this girl had. «Isn't the smile what, alone, makes an idol?», I thought to myself. She was truly so cute with that kind of smile, hence why I turned to this catchphrase. A smile that really comforts your spirit. ...Isn't it? Doesn't it fit her perfectly? ...The way Ayutaro is saving the world with it? ..."


Sadly enough Maho was so absorbed in her memories, that she completely forgot the Showroom time limit was about to cut off the stream. I just hope that the rest of the story will be for another time... (・ω・｀)

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

---

Bonus: An extre~mely vetted selection of photos of Maho from the recent Thank-You Concert. Not really a fan of spreading around photos where the face of wotas are clearly visible, for reason of privacy and such, so please enjoy just these few ones:



The Cinnamon doll was graciously brought by one of Maho's fans, who was sitting in the reserved Oshi Seats section, by the way. Needless to say that Maho homed in on it quickly, according to the Twitter report from him. (*´∀｀)

 

2018.08.04 Showroom. Time for rest at the hotel room, inbetween the Rock in Japan Festival and the TIF performance, which NGT was scheduled to appear in on the next day. One of the recurring themes of today's stream was the extreme hot weather which has been doing a number on Maho, as well as what ways to find some relief from it ...so what better solution than to get refreshed by having a very casual conversation with fans?

Spoiler: Summary

Other points of interest during the discussion:

• Despite looking visibly tired, Maho was definitely happy to see what a great number of people came to watch them at the Rock in Japan Festival and got fond of NGT thanks to their performances ...althought she feels the need to point out that her fans (at least those she could spot from the crowd) could be counted on the fingers of one hand, sadly...
  Admittedly, seeing as how this a place where the oshimen on stage wouldn't send back any special reactions to her fans in the audience in response for their cheering, Maho figured this is because they wouldn't have any reason to wear anything other than generic clothes, which wouldn't make them stand out much as a consequence.
  Either way, Maho was elated to learn from viewers that many regular people got their attention caught by Maho and tweeted about it, and what's even happier, on the mobame she sent on the next day on the occasion of TIF, she described how her fans over there were, on the contrary, "so many the couldn't be counted just on fingers".
• A pretty lengthy discussion with viewers followed up, regarding what food delicacies Maho would like to try again, if she were to return back to Sendai (Tohoku in general) likely for PR-related reasons (as a viewer asked "Mahohon, when will you be back in Sendai?), during which we also find out more about Maho's preferences leaning toward grilled fish and grilled meat. Apparently it was love at first sight when she had the local gyutan dish.
  A small anecdote also came up, talking about how Ogiyuka treated Maho to some komochi-shishamo the other day and many members later reacted that they would have never imagined Maho to have such eating habits -- although Maho argues that she just can't stop loving the taste of it, and it's only natural that the older you get the more you develop a liking for meat.
  The discussion went on pretty normally, actually, but I love how in the middle of this a viewer threw in a humorous "Although Mahohon's image is more associated with sardines...". It took Maho a second to connect the dots and get the joke, but she figured out it was because she would often say that, due to all the money she spends whenever a new Cinnamon lottery comes around, someday she'll have to resort to surviving for the remainder of the month only on sardines bought at the 100yen shop... Heh... (´∀｀；)
• Maho also talked about how for most of her life, back when she lived in Aomori, she has never been exposed to a summer weather of more than 28°C at maximum, and at any rate nothing near 30°C in general, which led her to presume for the longest time that the temperature would have been the same for every other big city in Japan.
  She confessed that finding herself in a weather over 30°C was something that left wondering "What the heck?" at first, as if it didn't even feel like being Japan anymore. And when it comes to temperatures reaching almost 40°C like it has been these days, Maho tells it feels as if alarm bells start ringing in her head and a big danger triangle is appearing in her field of vision to warn her that stepping outside is definitely unsafe.
  All jokes aside, all of this was for Maho to tell that even today it was a "danger" day for her. At different points during the stream, she even commented about having to alternate between practicing for rehearsals and taking a rest to alleviate dizziness, before the performance started, also adding how her body temperature got so high she couldn't move properly. But at the same time she was happy for all the cheers she received from everyone in the crowd, as they gave her the strenght to carry things off to completion.
• Also, a little talk about whether Maho has ever thought of going to the pool on summer. Right off the bat, Maho denied ever having "in her whole life", the reason being because of the great number of people gatering in the place, not to mention swimming in the same water, thus contributing to pollute it. I assume this is not only a matter of Maho hating crowds but also of Maho being a stickler for cleanliness, as she told in the past SR. The only beach she'd ever like to visit is one where the water is perfectly transparent, she says while recalling of a recent ranking of Japan's cleanest beach waters which she saw a while back.
  On the other hand, Maho tells that she used to attend swimming school and take part in little competitions back when she was younger. A bit bitterly, she tells that she couldn't keep her eyes open underwater and wearing goggles wasn't allowed, and that eventually caused her to give up after two weeks. Consequently, even to this day she has never been able to swim further than the 24 meters necessary to complete the race, but she still remembers that the motivation to get the prize for those who completed it, flavored shaved ice, was alone enough for her to keep persevering until the goal.
• And leaving it for last, for the usual MahoRiko episode, when some viewers asked (for whatever reason) whether Maho likes the children cartoon character Ganko-chan, Maho revealed -- coincidentally enough -- that it has even inspired her to call Riko with this very nickname because of the good-natured stubborness with which she goes about in any situation, playing on the words "ganko" ("stubborn", in fact) and the character's name.
  Not only that, but according to Maho's story, Riko would always end up laughing at it and then reply back every time with a "Who are you calling Ganko-chan?", which only motivates Maho to tease her back some more by calling her with the same nickname again (this time in the same fashion as in the TV show). A little reenactment with Riko's voice followed up, and when some viewers said they found it to be particularly funny, Maho says it has turned into somewhat of a habit between the two. "She's really this stubborn. But then again, she has turned more frank than before", Maho knows how to end every story about Riko with a praise about her.
  (*´∀｀)
  And, while speaking of the two of them being good friends, I guess some people might find it blissful to hear that some time before, on the same day, Maho got to take a nap on Riko's lap. Because she surely looked as blissful while she was retelling the experience... (*´ω｀*)
  

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

Bonus: Although not as extensively as Ogiyuka, it seems like Maho had some fans among the idols who attended TIF. And here are a handful of two-shots I could find. I especially love the second one, looks like the catering corner at TIF was like a crossroads allowing idols of different groups to meet each other.
Kawabata Mizuki - Idol College

https://twitter.com/ic_miiko810/status/1025963596939845632
Tanabe Manaha - IDOLING!!!

"I had the opportunity to take a photo with Yamaguchi Maho-san of NGT48. ( ˶ ̇ ̵ ̇˶ )♡
I abruptly spoke up to her while at the catering corner, but I was so happy that she gladly let me take a photo together anyway. ♪"
https://twitter.com/manahaballet/status/1026116055427510273
Saito Nagisa - =LOVE

https://twitter.com/saito_nagisa/status/1026797785402626048

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2018.08.06 Showroom. Tears for Ayanyan's graduation, but not only for that...

Spoiler: Summary

And indeed, there certainly were lots of them today, both on and off the stage. While, like I said before, Maho always tries to keep these displays to a minimum when out in the public, it was clear to anyone who were watching the graduation stage on DMM today that Maho just couldn't bring herself to hold back these emotions this time, as further proof of what a close friendship there was between the two of them.

Out of all the members today, Maho actually appears to be the one who was left more psychologically affected by today's this happening, even going to say she still hasn't come to grips with this reality yet.

In today's stream, there was first a brief reflection about the situation that NGT is facing at present. With Ayanyan's departure, this makes her the third 1st generation member to leave one after another. For Maho, after such graduation stages are finally over and all the celebrations have long passed, it always ends up feeling as if a hole has been blown in her heart when she sees that any of the 1st generation members is no longer there. This was also the case with Miizun and Otaki -- especially because she (and everyone else) has always taken it for granted up until that moment that they would always be there standing besides them, it only saddens and makes her feel uneasy to think that many other members are destined to leave at some point or another.
For this reason, Maho mentions how it was at around this same period, just one year ago, that she and Ayanyan had formed their unit for the Janken tournament and went on to participate together in the elimination rounds, and then recalled how at the time she strongly felt in her mind that "with Aya next to me, we are going be the strongest".
Maho goes on to tell that just like back then, and even previously when they used to perform Temo Demo no Namida together, she felt that the highest moments were when she had Ayanyan standing close by her side, explaining how during those times, in a way or another, this instilled courage and self-confidence in Maho, in turn helping them to accomplish things together. "I'm thinking how much I wanted for the two of us to meet again and perform together in a twin duet, be it if for a single or anything...", she also longingly added.

Maho is brought to recall also about another episode that happened between the two of them in the past, which left a particularly lasting impression in both of their memory. This time, it happened back at the very beginning of NGT's history, during the 10-day training campus after the members had passed the final audition, at which time Maho and Ayanyan happened to share the same room in the dormitory.
Maho brings this episode up as yet another example of what a naturally kind person Ayanyan had always been to others. Although Maho was still unfamiliar with the other members back then, and she still hadn't made any friends inside the group yet, Aya was the one member she could feel free to confide to even back then, talking about each other's past and the uncertainties that currently afflicted them.
As the story goes, there was also a time during which Maho had severe trouble learning the dance steps. Trying to find more time for her self-practice without dragging in Aya and personally burdening her any more, she feigned sleeping one night, before getting up again and going back to silently practice dancing in front of the mirror, alone with the lights out, while being careful that Aya wouldn't wake up. Before long, however, Maho soon noticed that Ayanyan too had woken up and was looking at her through the glass window of the room for the duration of her exercises. Even though they barely knew each other at the time, Ayanyan didn't hesitate to offer Maho assistance in her dancing practice, and they countinued to do so together for the remainder of that night.
As noted, the same story is a well know one and was already mentioned by either of them previously, most notably it was even published on a double interview on a magazine before, which I think you won't have trouble finding the scans of. It turns out that even at the time, they reminisced again about it while they were having a talk together, and as their thoughts eventually went back to those days, they couldn't hold their tears back even then.
Based on Maho's story, these same memories resurfaced once again in Maho's mind, whie Aya was in the middle of delivering her graduation speech at today's stage show. As Maho hoped she could have stayed close to her some longer, ultimately she concluded by wishing Aya to go on and find happiness for herself...

Besides that, today was also the day Maho was forwarded all the mails and presents that fans had sent her, which was another source of tears for her.
Somehow, a letter containing some very hurtful messages about her also found its way inside this batch and Maho couldn't help bring attention to it. Was it a letter from an antis? Maho didn't make any mention of the content, but all that she could say while putting on a smile was: "Why would they go to this length to do such things? When it comes to writing stuff on the Internet, I can still understand it, it's still part and parcel of this job after all. But going as far as picking up the stationery paper and writing on it...?".
Even so, Maho was quick to reassure viewers, specifying in advance that, while this was an unpleasant surprise for her, it was still nothing for her to cry over about, and what actually made her tear up in the end was all the gentle words from fans that she read in the many other letters afterwards, such as from those fans who recently came to meet her for the first time at the handshake events, which helped warm up her heart again.
Ultimately, in spite of everything, she agreed with viewers to just keep oneself motivated by the positive things and to hope for everyone of her fans to stay happy together.

Personally, regardless of what actually happened, from a fan's point of view, I wish that the NGT management would be more meticulous with protecting the members against these unwarranted abuses.

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

And I think this is obligatory, but... Farewell Ayanyan... (´；ω；｀)

https://twitter.com/NGT48photolog2/status/1026475075602591744
https://twitter.com/NGT48photolog2/status/1026440829886390272
https://twitter.com/NGT48photolog2/status/1026440332127268864

 

2018.08.09 Showroom. Speaking out a thing or two about the current state of the dating ban and the "idols" who violate it (and then something more...)

Spoiler: Summary

Actually, the original topic of today's broadcast was at first supposed to be the AKB Yukata Matsuri, which was set to be held just the day after. Maho talked at several points about what preparations she needed to take for the event, in the way of hairstyles and such, though not without some of the usual anxieties that tend to afflict her on the day right before any fan event, wondering if the lane will turn out to be "kasoson" (nearly empty, as she calls it) due to few people showing up. There was also a short mention about Maho going out for lunch along with Noe and Ayutaro earlier today and enjoying themeselves together while at it. All in all, it was pretty standard fare on the surface.

◇◇◇ ◇◇◇ ◇◇◇

With that said, like I pointed out in the beginning, what really stood out to me in there (and evidently I wasn't only me who felt this way, after looking at this) was however this little discourse revolving around the love ban rule, especially considering what set it off in the first place: a viewer (at around 06:35 in the video I linked) asking in jest "I love you! Please, go on a date with me!", to which Maho promptly replied back with, "I have resolved not to get in a relationship with anyone while I am still an idol. I am not a loose woman like that..."

This initial back-and-forth was light-hearted in its tone, there's no doubt about it, but Maho still took this opportunity to get out of her chest a few things she has probably been feeling about the matter since a long time ago, and more specifically about all those who had broken the rule with impunity.
In contrast with the rest of the stream (which was otherwise pretty light), what followed was a sequence of quite serious musings, of which I want to report a pretty much complete transcript, so that anyone may read and think about it...:

"(reading a comment) «You are more of a clingy kind of woman, then»... I don't mean it like that...! What I intended to say is that I am not that kind of idol who goes flirting around while making merry. If you really want to flirt around, you should better quit this job first. Even simply seeing these things happen, from the outside, fills me with distaste."
"(reading a comment) «Don't feel worried, everyone trusts Maho-chan!»... It's not a matter of believing or not believing. There's nothing involved behind, therefore I don't mind even if you decide not to trust me. Since there's nothing that is going to be exposed. I am not going to ask you anything like «Trust me, please». There's nothing in particular, related to myself, for which I'll need to get to the point of asking «Please, trust me»... I won't do anything that would bring suspicions on myself, either. ...Even during Majimuri Gakuen, I didn't even bother to chat up with the male actors in the cast, for that matter."
"(reading a comment) «If only all idols behaved like Mahohon...» Besides that, all idols have a relationship ban rule placed on them. The contract document states the same, too. It would be better if they applied much harsher measures when someone gets into a love affair, then, such as having to graduate. Because on the moment you are into a love affair you can't be considered an idol anymore, I say."
"It's often said that one-sided crushes are acceptable, on the other hand, but in the end even with one-sided crushes, it only makes it impossible to concentrate on your duties..."
"But anyway, doing your job with seriousness wouldn't hurt either, right...? I can't understand it anymore, this current world... Regardless, I love -- and I used to love them even then -- those type of idols who were determined to do their jobs with seriousness, looking at Mayuyu-san and Kojima Haruna-san was what motivated me to become an idol in the first place, that's why..."

On a side note, this is actually one of the few times I managed to catch the whole Showroom stream live on the site, and it goes without saying that during this part I saw the audience going abuzz with comments showing their agreement, along the lines of "Well said!" and "What Mahohon said is correct.", which is something you can't tell from the recordings alone.
There's no need to start pointing fingers at anybody ...but as they say: those who are willing to understand, should be able to understand...

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

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Bonus #1: Changing back to lighter topics, yesterday was "Hug Day" in Japan. I am going out on a limb here and guess that it's yet again because of a wordplay with the date's numbers, by which I mean: 08/09 -> Ha (for hachi) + Gu (for kyuu) -> Haagu (which of course is the Japanese pronounciation of "hug").
Leaving that aside, this is all to say that Yukarun tweeted this photo of herself being hugged from the back by Maho. As Maho kindly requested in the previous SR, make sure to like it and retweet it if you'd like...!

https://twitter.com/yukari__0828/status/1027564015155699712

It looks like that the two became friends when they participated in the Guam concert, and have been keeping in touch ever since, which is truly great.
Going off on a tangent little bit, this reminded me that a while ago Yukarun spoke a bit about it on a Showroom broadcast too, as soon as they both returned back to Japan.
https://www.bilibili.com/video/av22479705 - https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6sos80 (alternative)
At 06:05 Yukarun went on to talk a bit about Maho becoming friends with her while they were waiting at the local airport and eventually exchanging LINE contacts. True to form, when Yukarun mentioned going to Sanrio Puroland during a talk with Maho, the topic eventually landed on Cinnamon and if she has tried the special themed menu they served over there, which is when Maho found out by pure chance that she too is another dedicated fan. Seems like Cinnamon is always a good discussion-starter and a nice way to bond together, when it comes to Maho. Heh...
Other than that, jump to 10:30 also for Yukarun's reaction when she checks back LINE on her phone and finds out that in the meantime Maho had just sent her a long message to thank her for the fun times they had together, along with photos they took together in Guam. As Yukarun keeps reading out loud the letter that Maho wrote her, we also find out how Yukarun's acting in the Renacchi Gekidan audition really made her emotional, too.
In short, it seems like that the friendship between them is already going strong.

---

Bonus #2: And since it's almost mandatory for me to post it, here's a small gallery of photos of Maho from today's Yukata Matsuri to top it off.

 

I saw this come up on a matome yesterday, one of the first comments was succint

Spoiler

Please tell Nakai

 

2018.08.25 Showroom, a short one right after the @JAM Expo. Talking about gifts straight from the Sanrio management, and Maho's love for Cinnamon finally earning official acknowledgment in their eyes...?

Spoiler: Summary

So, yeah... Actually the big revelation today is not about the show itself, but what happened once the NGT48 members were back to the backstage room after the event was over.
As Maho was dying to let fans know about a certain something, she first pulled out this bag she received, and inside the bag there was this Hello Kitty box.


Turns out the members received an unannounced visit from Sanrio representatives while there, who came over to greet them and also brought along enough gifts for each single one of the girls.
Since Maho also participated in the talk-show stage (along with Ayutaro and Rittan), she said she was the last to receive it after everyone else was gone.
This one was what every member received. However, among them, another special present was also prepared by the people from Sanrio, this one meant exclusively for Maho, apparently. As Maho goes on to tell, they turned to her saying "Oh, and this is for Yamaguchi-san" and then...


...you guessed right -- as a little extra, they presented her with a variety of Cinnamon gifts, which she proceeded to show to viewers with much pride and pleasure! (*´∇`)
Shame about the image quality of the stream dropping to a pixelated mess at this point, honestly, but what can you expect from hotel's wi-fi... As she also pointed out again on Photolog later on, Maho was impressed that the people at Sanrio still remembered about her great passion for Cinnamon up to this day.


The last merchandise she showed, the mini-trash can, deserves special mention here, because it happens to be one of the prizes that are, otherwise, available only at this time's Cinnamon lottery. Well, not only did Maho recognize this at first sight, but when they handed it over to Maho, the first comment from Sanrio's representative was actually "I guess you own it already, right?", pointing out how even in the previous edition of the lottery Maho had splurged lots of money on the game. Needless to say, Maho could only conclude that they must have been checking her activities closely, for them to be aware of this. Naturally, a little surprised and awkward reaction ensued, upon realizing this fact. (*´∇`)


By the way, all in all, Maho confessed she felt a bit embarrassed at the whole situation she found herself in. She figured (even though nothing was said explicitly) that this was probably their way to help her complete the collection more quickly, but she admits that in reality she hasn't even begun it yet, even describing it as a "lapse" on her part. Usually, she would go play the lottery around the same day as the campaign begins, she says, but this time around she hasn't managed to get to the shop even once, what with being busy dealing with all the preparations for the 4th single's release and whatnot. Not to mention there are more serious matters at play, such as resident taxes to file, making the budget restricted...


A little dramatic moment of reflection followed up at this point, before reaching a decision... "But all talks aside, I'm taking all of this as a message that I must try my luck at the Cinnamon lottery nonetheless... or so I like to think of it. (laugh) ...therefore -- of course -- even this time I'm going to participate in the Cinnamon lottery!"
And as it was easy to predict, not even Maho could fully resist to the allure of it. (*´∀｀)



One thing leads to the other, and Maho was already in the middle of looking through Sanrio's website (which you can check here) and reviewing, one by one, each and every prize that are up for grabs this time. Like with Katomina before (she already talked about it on her SR previously), even for Maho the top prize in the category, the Cinnamon vacuum cleaner, was the one she desired the most, and the fact that it could potentially be won at the cost of one lottery slip, 700 yen, was too good to miss out on. Although she certainly expressed enough interest for just about every prize in the list -- be it the hugging pillow or even the set of bath sponges. Indeed, going off on a tangent, one thing that seems to bother Maho is just how few Cinnamon merchandise there is on sale at the Sanrio shops, generally speaking, especially when considering the popularity that the character enjoys (as demonstrated in the consecutive victories in the Sanrio Character Ranking contest, like Maho was reminded) even in comparison other more prominent Sanrio brands, such as for example Hello Kitty. But such is life...

As a final word, all I can say is that I sense another prize unboxing Showroom coming soon... ( ´-`)

◇◇◇ ◇◇◇ ◇◇◇

Oh, and also worth of note... right at the beginning we also had another minor story about how Maho donated to Yunako the one-piece dress she wore during the preliminaries of the Janken Tournament.
In fact, it didn't take long for fans to catch sight of NGT kouhais, and more specifically Kairi, walking around at the handshake events dressed in clothes that Maho used to wear and that has since donated to them.
As it turns out, Maho explained that in Yunako's case it was also a way to express apology to her, after their unit got defeated so soon into the tournament.
Such a nice gesture! And doesn't she look good in it? Here's some side-by-side shots for comparison... (*´ω｀*)

Source for the last one: https://twitter.com/NGT48photolog2/status/1030760534507806720

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

---

Bonus: Also, there is a related Photolog post from the same day, summarizing the episode in a more concise way than I ever could...:
"#Sanrio-sama

I have received some gifts from Sanrio-sama.

They remembered about my love for Cinnamon and they brought over these Cinnamon... ✨

Thank you so much for it!

The little trash can in here is actually an item from the Cinnamon lottery, which has started on the 15th of this month.
"I guess you might own this already, isn't it right?" they told me while at it,
which made me feel kinda embarrassed, as I have been so busy that I had no chance to go visit the Sanrio shop yet.

Well, even this year around, I'll get working on it!!"

Source: https://twitter.com/NGT48photolog2/status/1033360910281101313

 

Mahohon has now joined twitter
twitter.com/maho_yamaguchi

 

Not much, but I figured I'd catch up a little with these in the meantime... (・ω・｀)

2018.08.29 Showroom, a speed 3-minute Showroom with Maho checking in to ask if fans have watched the 4th single's MV already (and to quiz if she shows up inside of it, something which she apparently was particularly concerned about).

Spoiler: Summary

Nothing else to add, actually, but it turns out that today, right after she concluded today's theater performance and while still charged up from it, Maho was busy until late with recording the radio episode for next week's Minna Kami-Taiou, part of the reason why she guarantees it's going to be a pretty energetic and animated one. It looks like that, because of this, she also missed out the reveal of the MV on Showroom, never mind the fact that everyone were looking forward to it, including the members. A little moment of frustration set in, followed by surprise upon being informed that the music video has already being published on Youtube and the cover photos have been unveiled while she was away. To quote Maho: "Looks like lots of things have been progressing fast while I was working on radio ... Everyone watched the MV before me. Not fair!". ( ´∀｀)
And well, this is all for today... Other than that, the way Maho looked unusually hyperactive while goofing around at the end -- reminding viewers of the single's release details and then vowing to do her best so as to get more screentime by the next single's MV -- tells me that some of today's excitement still lingered on in the air... (｀・∀・)

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

2018.08.31 Showroom, mostly a rather casual talk stream.

Spoiler: Summary

What was initially a little reminder to fans about the schedule for the upcoming handshake events soon prompted a small discussion mainly about how recently, with more and more sessions becoming available for same-day tickets, Maho has noticed that people have started to come to her lane in droves compared to what it used to be just some time before. While Maho said she was happy to see this, and even smilingly invited those people to not wait until the day of the event and reserve it beforehand instead, at the same time she has also come to the realization that for many of such fans visiting her lane she represents their ni-oshi or san-oshi, while there are still relatively few who have her as ichi-oshi. In a light manner, Maho made it clear that she finds the situation somewhat unhappy, but also treated it with a bit of offbeat irony by sulking up and questioning viewers if she's "everyone's secondary girl". In any case, gotta love the happy reaction when a comment came in from a viewer that she was his "primary girl", and then everyone escalated with the praises afterward (The best part was when a viewer commented "As far as idols are concerned, Mahohon is the first for me", and Maho, without hesitation: "What do you mean? Ah, you mean in the sense because there's also your girlfriend...? (laugh)")... (*´∇`)

The second part of the talk revolved around some misunderstandings that some people happen to hold about her personality, specifically the idea of her being a somehow moody person, because of herself having what she calls a "menhera face" (and yeah, googling around it sounds like it's a real thing, with some facial features being popularly associated to a moody lunatic personality, although there are no scientific basis to it of course).
Luckily, this is not something that Maho took offence for -- she had to admit that she tends to be mischaracterized rather easily at first due to this fact, which is even a subject of self-irony sometimes, and on the other hand found the whole assumption amusing enough to eventually smile at it. People outside have realized this fact already, yet apparently more than one person has come to her handshake lane, half for counseling purposes (or so it seems to me), to discuss about their own emotional stability issues instead, something which the staff didn't find as funny as Maho did (Here came an example of a dialogue she had: "Mahohon is said to be a moody person but in reality she isn't at all. Well... I am, on the contrary. So... could you help me become more cheerful?"). Anyway, Maho would rather people not bring it up at all if possible, if only because she has no experience with "menhera"-related things that would entertain the talk anyway. Busting into a laugh at random and other typical "menhera" traits, those things are nowhere to be found, so yeah...
With all said and done, what's most reassuring is, however, that even fans in the chat recognized that Maho has actually a strong and steadfast spirit, in spite of any appearances.

On a side note, looks like today Maho had a little fever, hence why she excused herself for the low spirits she showed today... Hope she took care of herself afterwards... (・ω・｀)

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

---

Bonus: And with that being said, as pointed out on her Twitter as well, yesterday's theater show marked Maho's 300th performance. Looks like that among the audience there were people who didn't forget about it, and even brought along a placard to openly celebrate. Congratulations! (　＾ω＾)


This was also posted by Maho on today's Photolog. The middle part is another reminder of the obligations that Maho feels she has toward all fans, somehow echoing what she had already stated in a previous SR not long ago:
"#300th Theater Show

Thanks to everyone's support, I have made it to my 300th theater show!

Thank you for always coming all the way to our theater. ✨

And also to all those who watch us on DMM, thank you too. ✨

Whenever my name gets listed in the notice of members that will perform at the stage,
I always refrain from taking any day of rest, no matter what justification there could be for that.

This is because there are also many people who come here from distant places, looking forward to seeing me.

And for this purpose, they spend such a great amount of their time and money.

A sold-out theater show isn't something to be taken always for granted,
therefore, while being grateful for this stage on which I get to stand day by day, I'll continue giving my best effort from now on too!"

Source: https://twitter.com/NGT48photolog2/status/1036622415520878592

As a final note, from the Instagram stories of September 3, there's also a close up photo of the flower bouquet that she was donated by her fans to commemorate the milestone. Fans really thought this through: it also included a small trophy inside for a surprise.

"Right from today begins my 301st theater show!
So, let's get busy!

Flowers AND a trophy?
I'm extremely happy for all of this!
Thank you, Mahores! "

 

Omedetou~

 

2018.09.08 Showroom, to put it briefly: PR for the NGT48's 4th single is already underway, and also a few words of approval about Chikana in anticipation of her debut in Saka Agari...

Spoiler: Summary

• As for work-related matters, today Maho just returned back after what sounded like a pretty intense and jam-packed day, in which NGT members went through several interviews for various media agencies for the promotion of NGT's latest single. Of course, along with her there were also Hinatan, Miharu, Ogiyuka, and Katomina. But for all the work, Maho actually commented about how fun it was and all the laugh they had together during the day.
  And, yes, as some might have noticed (as did the viewers during the stream), a photo of the five of them getting a bit carried away and striking a hero-like pose was posted on the official Twitter account on the same day to document their job activity, with the accompanying text even starting with a "This one is the team of 5 people who stands up to preserve world peace ...not really, they are actually the 5 people who worked hard today for the promotion campaign of Sekai no Hito he!". Very fitting. (´∀｀ )
  https://twitter.com/official_NGT48/status/1038416703904829440
  Soon after, Maho pointed out to the fact that she just tends to act hyperactive to such an odd extent when she's together with other Team G members, albeit it's something which she comes to feel somewhat embarrassed about afterwards, because she doesn't feel herself to be normally like that...
  
  And indeed, while on the topic of both exuberant acting and today's media press trip, another talk of the day was this other video which Hinatan had uploaded on Instagram stories, and which she took while in a waiting room somewhere, during which Maho decided to ham things up for the fun of it while in the middle of eating some Shine Muscat grapes that were on the table. Obviously it didn't escape the viewer's notice and was even brought to Maho's attention later on, also. Truth be told, Maho told she thought at first that Hinatan was trying to take a photo of her, but anyway...
  
  Spoiler: Click to view the video
  By the way, Shine Muscat also happens to be in her top three favourite foodstuffs, as she took the opportunity to add (on the other hand, in joking with the viewers about the pineapple-looking hairdo she is sporting today, pineapples aren't featured anywhere in such list instead~...).
• Preparations for her Seitansai are already in the works, more specificially Maho mentioned that the t-shirt design for the event is supposed to have a simple design on it but with a color that would make it easy for her fans to stand out and be noticeable, although Maho still has to receive the actual color samples to check.
  Some viewers also expressed how lucky Maho is to be able to celebrate every year her Seitansai right on the day of her actual birthday, to which Maho also duly noted how curious it is that her birtday coincides with, or falls around the national Day of Respect for the Elderly, and thus a work-free holiday.
• Also, scheduled for the day after, Team G is going to have their first ever afternoon & evening double performance.
  For Maho, apparently this is also a source of worrying concern, as she says that even on normal days, after returning home from theater performances, she finds herself feeling so fatigued that she ends up falling asleep from exhaustion soon after hitting the bed. It goes without saying, but Maho brought up again in passing the fact that, to remedy to this health condition, it means she'll have to bring along some medicine supplements to restore nutrients in the blood, and drink it before carrying on through the rest of the day.
  
  I have to say, every time I hear Maho mention this so nonchalantly, I'm left wondering if this is either a condition which is hopefully not as serious as I image it to be (I'm aware at least that, in colloquial speak, "hinketsu" isn't literally anemia), or Maho has long learned to cope with it and she is not making much of a big deal out of it nowadays... (´･ω･｀)
• Perhaps most importantly, however, is that the Team G theater show for the next day was also scheduled to be Ando Chikana's first day taking part in a proper, full theater performance. Taking this opportunity, Maho didn't forget to share a few thoughts about her, and she left nothing out in her appraisal, starting from about 12:32 here's the transcript:
  
  "So, Ando Chikana-chan will be -- yes indeed -- the first member out of the kouhai members to appear on the Saka Agari stage, tomorrow. Isn't it impressive, how she managed to cram everything into her memory over such a short span of time?
  Chikana-chan is a very firm and responsible person, with a high sense of professionalism as well. And then, how to say, her sense of leadership is also outstanding: she doesn't give up easily, her attitude for self-improvement is strong -- for example, when there's something I want to be communicated to the kouhais, both the 2nd generation and the Draft members, if I tell it to Chikana-chan, she would then go ahead and make sure to relay everything of that to the 2nd generation and the Draft members on my behalf. ...Really. I was seriously surprised the first time I saw that, thinking to myself about what a responsible girl she is. So, yeah, she's amazing for that.
  Even back when she was still a Draftee, she already used to be somewhat of a leader among them, that is to say before they were separated (between the groups). ... Once again, a steadfast person, possessing an amazing amount of tenacity... In the end, in this world it is important to be tenacious, in my opinion. ...What can I add? When I look at Chikana-chan, I see the image of a future captain in the making.
  
  (reading a viewer's comment) «Chikana-chan is a self-assertive type, in a good way»
  ...I mean, right at the beginnings I looked at her and thought «This girl is the kind who can pull things off even when by herself», and indeed it really turned out to be so in reality, but anyway this girl is someone who would try her hardest in just about anything she does, she works her hardest, up to an excess, which is why lately I can't take my attention off Chikana-chan. In a positive sense, obviously..."
  
  
  Also worthy of note, in the middle of this musing a viewer intervened to let Maho know that in a post on her Instagram, Chikana wrote "Tomorrow, I'm going to cry" (as can be seen here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BndqjnjlfqD/), and Maho promptly answered that she had then replied back to her in the comments section with a "Don't cry, but have a laugh instead". Such a gesture of encouragement from a team's leader toward a junior member. ( ´-`)
• On a less serious note, we had a heads-up from Maho that on next week's episode of Majimuri Gakuen she'll finally make her appearance. On the other hand, commenting on how short her screentime is, she told viewers: "Actually it is a frame sequence lasting, what, few tenths of a second. There won't be any time to spare for batting eyelids, everyone! -- so keep your eyes from blinking, till they turn red"
  
  Cue Maho giving a demonstration of what to do, before laughing at the notion of it and continuing with the explanation (´∀｀；)
  "...actually, that isn't a good idea. But try your best to refrain from blinking and watch it while like that, please. That's impossible, right...? ...Still, make sure not to lose your concentration while you watch it, next week... (laugh)"
• And lastly, what else could there be, if not more talk about the recent Sanrio-related going-ons?
  Seems like, for one thing, that Maho still isn't done with playing the latest Cinnamon lottery just yet. One thing she thought of asking viewers for help (!) was in fact if any of them were aware of any convenience store in Niigata that was having the Cinnamon lottery: it turns out this is because she is looking for any places where the hugging pillow is available. Not to mention she's still aiming to get the Last One prize (awarded to those who take the last lottery slip available in the game), which happens to be an exclusive backpack, so that she could put it on for when she goes visit Sanrio Puroland. All I can say is, godspeed Maho...!
  But anyway, aside from speaking of her plights with finding in time any stores running the campaign (someone even suggested to try looking for any in Aomori, which got Maho laughing of course), Maho pulled out this ...actually not-so-mysterious bag, big enough to take up the whole screen.
  
  Considering also her recent trip to the Sanrio Expo in Tokyo (https://twitter.com/maho_yamaguchi/status/1037732886789537792) there could be anything inside, but whatever its content may be, she simply referred to it as a "clue" for something to come. In any case, I guess it all ties back to what Maho said at the star of the talk, that she intends to have yet another Cinnamon-related stream (such as those she had during the previous lottery editions, to show off her prizes) soon, but she is being too busy these days to possibly do it at this time, between the filming of special videos and the theater shows.
  
  Well, thus ends today's stream, basically, although not before Maho reminded again to herself and viewers alike about all the preparations to be done tomorrow for the Saka Agari afternoon and evening stages: in short, "it's going to be troublesome, there's lots of rehearsals to do, and I also ought to provide my support to Andou". In light of the previous speech, a special emphasis goes to the last part of the sentence.
  

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

 

Two days, two consecutive MahoRiko double features? I'm all for it. So, without further ado...

2018.09.11 Showroom, after the day spent hanging around together, just the two of them (more below), Maho decided to have a sleepover together at Riko's house for the night, and as one would expect here comes a new MahoRiko stream. By virtue of that, of course, this turned out to be a collection of pretty zany moments, as well as boke & tsukkomi situations which were spontaneous yet so well-executed they look as if they've been rehearsed... (´∀｀ )

Spoiler: Summary

(Note: as per usual to make things more enjoyable it would preferable to read the transcripts while the respective segments playing along, because watching the mannerisms in action is also part of the fun of these interactions)

May contain:

• A small back-and-forth on the topic that Niigatta Friend will air for a limited time on Kansai television as well (at 05:16):
  
  Riko: "(reading a viewer's comment) «Hope GataFure [Niigatta Friend] will be broadcast in Tokyo soon enough, too"
  Maho: "We need to do it. We are counting on Rittan's power to have it aired..."
  Riko: "...What do you mean?"
  Maho: "Aren't you GataFure's captain, Riko...?"
  Riko: "Right! Gotta push forward from here on, then."
  Maho: "Yet Riko, in spite of being the GataFure captain ...still didn't make it into the GataFure Senbatsu"
  Riko: "(whispering under her breath) You have a point..."
  Maho: "(laughing) You said that with such an extremely hush voice ... Why do you think it's so? Even I was surprised at Riko not being there. Like, I was asking myself "Why Riko wasn't there?". So, how come?"
  Riko: "(making long pauses) Why in my opinion, you ask?... Well... To be honest... Maybe ...a lots of ...various things are involved. Surely."
  Maho: "Then again, Nakaoka-san must have been wondering «Why Rittan isn't there?», perhaphs."
  Riko: "No way..."
  Maho: "Yes he surely would! ...Next time you show up on GataFure you'll have a new shtick to use: «I'm the GataFure captain but not I'm in the GataFure Senbatsu!» (laughing)"
  Riko: "Aaaah, right, for sure!"
• Another small discussion about Riko's own unique weather-related jinx (at 09:41):
  
  Maho: "(reading a viewer's comment) «Hope it won't end up raining (at the upcoming handhsake event)» I know, right. I'm a Rain Woman, you know, so it does nothing but raining."
  Riko: "Really? ...Really?"
  Maho: "Really. As soon as I walk out, it pours."
  Riko: "Riko, instead... the moment she walks out, it gets windy."
  Maho: "Windy? ...A Wind Woman?"
  Riko: "(awakward laugh) So, right I am a Wind Woman...! I mean, after going out I have a walk. When I just walk along it's all fine, then I turn around the corner and keep going like that, at which point ...WHOOSH, wind comes blowing. So yeah, I'm a Wind Woman. ...What's up?"
  Maho: "That's the first time I ever hear 'Wind Woman'. Does that even exist?"
  Riko: "Really? They surely exist, though, I am a Wind Woman myself."
  Maho: "A Wind Woman. Ooooh!"
  
  [epilogue: turns out it's the first time hearing it for viewers as well, thus Maho ends up declaring it a "new type", followed by viewers saying that they'll take notes to remember, in the sense of "Rittan - Wind Woman, Maho - Rain Woman"] (´∀｀；)
• Speaking of having to take a memo to remember important things, right after that (at 11:58) Maho redirected the question to Riko, asking if she ever felt the need to do so herself. To which Riko replied that if it's something she can use in a practical situation soon enough, she'll learn it instantly, hence she claims she never had the necessity.
  
  Well, all of this turns out to be actually a pretext for Maho to test Riko about some new things she taught her earlier today to see if she still remembered them.
  As a short introduction for the viewers, she tells about an episode that happened today: while they were together, Riko was for some reason singing a Merry Christmas song when Maho heard that and asked her what the "Happy New Year" part meant. Thankfully Maho taught her well in the end, so now she wanted to hear from Riko the translation of "New".
  
  To prevent Riko from getting clues from Showroom comments, first she covered her eyes with her hand, that is until she realized this ended up looking like one of those censor bars that show up on pictures of criminal suspects, hence in the same vein she quizzed her with a "Criminal suspect, what does 'New' mean?".
  
  And again Maho, after some times passes without receiving an answer: "I taught you this morning, didn't I tell that Riko needed to write down a memo about it? Is Riko able to answer it even though she made no memo whatsoever?"
  Riko: "'New Day'...?"
  Maho: "Nooo! You also added the 'Day' part...!"
  Riko: "Eh, doesn't it translate to 'A new day is beginning'. Eh, am I wrong?"
  
  
  But still, she got it partway right so a congratulation was in order...
  Maho: "So, can you remember what I have taught you this morning?"
  Riko: "Hu-Huh..."
  Maho: "...Ain't it amazing...? For Riko to remember something all the way until afternoon. You're awesome, Riko! This has never happened until now."
  
  Riko: "True!"
  Maho: "(increasingly excited) After Riko gets taught the meaning of words, she tends to forget afterwards, but now she managed to keep it memorized until afternoon what she learned in the morning! Everyone, please give an applause!"
  
  
  The exam isn't over yet, though, for here comes the second question:
  Maho: "Anyway, do you understand when 'Happy New Year' is supposed to be used?"
  Riko: "It's a kind of word that indicates a point when the day changes to the next."
  Maho: "OH WOW!"
  
  Maho: "So, wait, it's like «I'm so tired for today, good night and happy new year~!»? ... Have you ever been told anything like that?"
  Riko: "Never happened!"
  Maho: "Therefore, it can't have this meaning..."
  
  Riko: "So.. it means let's go on having a 'HAPPY' year."
  Maho: "Right! ... Now, when would you say it?"
  Riko: "You say it on a day when you feel 'HAPPY'."
  
  Riko: "Eh, it's not like that? Then what's the answer?!"
  Maho: "So what you say is that you hope to go on having a HAPPY year, on a day when you feel 'HAPPY'?"
  Riko: "Rigth! You express it to your speaking partner! ...Eeeh, isn't it that sort of stuff?!"
  Maho: "Well, for being a passable answer, it is passable... But it's not what it is meant to be. It's passable, perhaps. ... When Riko eats something delicious, does she turn to me saying «Happy New Year»...?"
  Riko: (awkward laugh)
  
  Maho: "Have you ever told me anything like that?"
  Riko: "I never did such a thing."
  Maho: "Except that you just said it's supposed to be used for 'HAPPY' days."
  Riko: "But no, I wouldn't say it"
  Maho: "You don't...?"
  
  Riko: "So what it could be? AH! It's the same as saying 'Akemashite Omedetou'"
  
  Maho: "Correct! Of course, you understood it after taking a look at the comments..."
  Riko: "Aaah, I have been caught!"
  Maho: "I could tell that she was just pretending to be thinking up the answer."
  Riko: "What is it supposed to mean?!"
  
• And finally (at 17:08), an impromptu press conference to extol the combined qualities of Rittan (and Reinya)'s omurice bread, their creation for the Laswson bread campaign, and one of their proudest works (as Riko goes on to admit after Maho asked her). As for Maho, she completely immersed herself in the role of reporter for Riko to answer her question, the first of which being "Is omurice bread more suitable for when you want to eat omurice, or for when you want to eat bread?"
  
  Riko starts off well, also explaining that the advantage is that it can be enjoyed without hassle even by people who are too tired to prepare food at the moment.
  Maho follows up by pointing out this is likely to be the first time ever combining rice with bread and Riko agrees, guaranteeing for the deliciousness of the product and saying that while this is a brand of bread, this way you can, at the same time, also enjoy the full taste of the omelette filling with all its seasonings.
  ...Then, an expression of bafflement shows up on Maho's face after she aks for a reason people should choose Riko's bread instead of just omurice, and Riko responds it's that you can't see the actual omelette part (Maho's inference after a moment of thought: since it's inside the bread)
  
  Maho: "...Wouldn't it be okay even if the omelette is visible?"
  And Riko's well-played explanation soon afterward: "I mean, if they see the filling inside even before picking up the omurice bread, people will end up thinking they'd rather just prepare one themselves (Maho's follow-up again: because they also sell premade omurice at convenience stores)"
  In conclusion, to quote Rittan's final sales pitch: compared to basic ready-made omurice, Rittan's omurice bread has "a food texture completely different" from them, something Rittan assures "nobody has never EVER tasted before, a soft spongy feel which I myself love. So, by all means, I'd appeciate if all of you would enjoy it!".
  
  Also, special attention goes to Maho constantly making overreacting faces throughout Riko's enthusiastic (but a bit too much dramatic speech), before switiching back to a more serious mood and summarize things up one more time... Heh... (´∀｀ )

Nothing else for me to say, except that I love how at some point (while they were busy fixing back in place Riko's smartphone cover) Riko picked up a request from a viewer asking "Please, do a skit together", and Maho casually commented "Having a conversation together is already a skit in itself". Can't argue with that logic.

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

Bonus: Chronologically speaking this one goes before the Showroom, but in any case here's Maho's tweet from earlier in the same day, the hashtags say it all. (*´-`)

#Was on a date with my girlfriend
#Don't you dare using this for your "On a date with my girlfriend now"
#This is my girlfriend
Source: https://twitter.com/maho_yamaguchi/status/1039490860650397696

---

For Day 2, things were once again preceded with this pretty self-explanatory tweet from Maho, so here it goes first:

"Yesterday, I went to the cinema with Riko to watch "Gintama", "Camera wo Tomeru Na!", and "Kasane".
Every single time, we always go out together to the cinema.

Afterwards, I stayed over at her house for the night. Also, today it was a day-off so we went to do some self-practice together, and now we are going to have a culinary broadcast on Showroom starting from around this moment.

Make sure to join in!"
Source: https://twitter.com/maho_yamaguchi/status/1039852418706460672

2018.09.12 Showroom, as announced before. Actually, not really the food stream we have grown used to (at least, since in the past they have prepared omurice, curry and even a Christmas cake together), but still fun regardless of this... As said, with two consecutive days of MahoRiko streams I feel as if they are really spoiling us fans recently.

Spoiler: Summary

Anyway, continuing from the previous food-making stream that took place a couple of months ago, today Maho and Riko are back having fun with another one of those foodstuff-themed candy kits from the same series. This time the product is called "Tanoshii O-Matsuri-Ya-san" (which more or less translates to "The Fun Festival Food Vendor").

Even for this one, an accurate English translation of the instruction leaflet can be found on the maker's website, which is accessible here, so there's not much else for me to explain about what is happening: the process consists of pouring water and the powdered ingredients into the molds, and then turning the resulting candies into the shape of street food from festivals -- french fries, candy apples, roasted corn, and choco-bananas.

There was a bit of tension running throughout the stream, since the two of them hurried up in order to get everything done before reaching the time limit for streaming, but regardless it's nice to see how Maho kept a close watch on Riko while giving her instructions on how to mix the ingredients, while Riko herself executed it all nicely. And indeed with only a negligible amount of JikoRiko moments (like Riko getting way too hasty because of time constraints, and accidentally spilling the grains into the other tray compartments while mixing them with the spoon. Panic ensued, but actually mostly on Riko's part. Heh...).

Even in terms of streaming, this time around the two got more organized, splitting tasks between themselves for better efficiency: Maho's SR was focused on the table where the food was being prepared, while Riko's SR displayed the duo and their reactions (although, if I have to make a personal judgement, Maho's SR was much funnier to watch because of the franctic action being in plain view, combined with the voiceover by Maho and Riko).


On a minor note, making a special appearance during this stream is also this little Cinnamon cup, which turns out to be a present from Maho, coming from her own collection of merchandise that she won at last year's Cinnamon lottery. Looks like Maho found a way to get rid of some of these excess prizes by donating some to Rittan, which is pretty lovely to see. (´∀｀*)

Also worth of mention: it's fun to hear how, years later, Maho and Riko are still there occasionally joking with each other when complimenting their manual skills at food preparation, by referring to it as "tebasaki" (when the right word should be "tesabaki"). Of course this is a mispronounciation that Riko committed in another cooking stream as far back as 2016 (!).
I think I already explained the whole context and reason for why it's humorous before, so I'll spare readers any more long-winded retellings -- the in-thread search function is your friend. ...But anyway, it's a nice reminder of how they still remember fondly of their times together, up to this day.

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)
(The same stream from the angle of Rittan's cam can be viewed here)

And for those wondering, since they couldn't finish it in time in the stream itself, here's the final product from Riko's Twitter (kinda sorry that I had to leave out Riko's typical crazy amount of emoticons from the post, I feel they always convey a feeling as much as the text itself):

"Today, we just held a festival of our own in the MahoRiko stream~~

We ended up having all sorts of troubles... lol
But how was that to youuu???
Aren't we capable of preparing them well enough???!!!

Riko's and Maho's manual skills were amazing, don't you think."
Source: https://twitter.com/riko__sakuranbo/status/1039865561323200512

 

2018.09.16 Showroom, in the same way as last year, even this time round we had another countdown live stream, for Maho to wait together with her fans for the new day, and her birthday along with it. Once again, this also doubled as an opportunity for Maho to do a recap of the situation so far, both hers and the group's, coupled with some personal considerations about the next future.

Spoiler: Summary

• Plans for the stream "suffered" a slight delay, actually, because according to her post on Tweet she first had to wait until AKB48SHOW was over. For those wondering why, this has also to do with the fact she was set to appear in the Katomina corner as the latest model for her portraits...
  And indeed, the first thing she talked about was actually AKB48SHOW, as she goes on to tell:
  "I was of the opinion that it wasn't a protrait at all, after all. But it left me speechless. What to say, I thought that was supposed to be a face somehow, but of course this was artist Katomina, with her drawing sense so out-of-the-box. But still in the end she worked over it some more and drew another face on where the mouth is. (laugh) Well, that made me happy.".
  
  Well, to see the end result I can only refer you to today's episode of the show. Actually, no, you can directly feast your eyes on this still of the finished work! (´∀｀；)
  
• With that being said, this was overall a pretty light stream in terms of talk, at least at the beginning but as usual with every Maho Showroom, the longer it goes on the heavier and more serious the talk gets.
  The topic at first revolved around wondering what fans will have in store for her tomorrow's Seitansai, which Maho says she can't imagine in her mind yet, but at any rate she took the opportunity to thank everyone for the celebratory banner they made to congratulate her on her 300th theater show.
  What caught her interest in particular was actually the design, which reminded her of the bath towel she used at the swimming pool back in elementary school, and which she found particularly cute at that, so now she is expecting something similar even tomorrow. A viewer also commented how it was "such a nostalgic comparison". Heh.
  Unfortunately I'm having trouble finding any photos of it, but it must have looked great, from Maho's amused reaction.
• I find it also great how, even in anticipation of the day of the year where others gather to celebrate her, Maho didn't forget, on her part, to also be considerate of others.
  She started off by speaking of all those fans who, in order to attend the event at the theater, went to great lengths to do so. Many refrained from applying to other theater shows just to win a seat at her Seitansai stage, and then they decided to take a day off work, or even a paid vacation to be more free, going through the trouble of booking a hotel room to stay over for the day, as well as paying for the plane or train fare necessary to get there. To all those people, Maho thanked them, saying that merely thinking of this is enough to bring tears to her eyes. But those are tears of joy, of course.
  Besides that, another thing Maho was careful to make clear was about the other performing members: "Of course, I would make me happy if you would send cheers to other members as well (during the Seitansai stage). I am appearing together with all the other members, so I want this theater show to be one that everyone would find enjoyable, in the end... So don't mind only about me, but I beg you to send your cheers to other members as well."
  
• One more thing that was brought up is the human wave from last year Seitansai, with viewers saying they are looking forward to a "full-on wave" this time, where all the audience would participate. In talking about what is now the "first anniversary" of said wave performance, Maho also brough up a little backstory involving it.
  As it was mentioned last year, Maho thought of getting rid of the "Mahohon~ Mahohon~" kind of magic spell from her catchphrase, thinking it didn't suit her age anymore. Turns out that when Maho went to Imamura's office to get the idea approved, he replied back that "It would be bad to just do without it. Fans would be left disappointed. Let's try to add a different twist to it", which left Maho in an initial state of perplexity.
  Hence, she then confessed a bit apologetically, "I was required to include something or another, therefore I ended up having everyone perform that embarrassing wave of mine, just because I felt it embarrassing to say my name over and over again..."
  
• From this otherwise fun episode also sparked a bit of a contemplative talk not long afterward (from around 18:31 and continuing on seamlessly till the end). Maho reflected on how "I feel very strongly that this has been a year during which my way of acting and doing things has changed a lot".
  "The top priority was to let everyone feel enjoyed. ... What I have in mind, what I am intensely thinking, if I were to speak it out it would end up feeling too depressing to everyone. For this reason, I feel that this year has probably been one where I have been thinking about any and every matter with great consideration, even up to a fault. (smiling back) Well, for a more detailed story, I'll talk with everyone about it when we get to the Seitansai..."
  
• And again, not much later (at 18:25), keeping the same deep tone she moved on to the matter of age seniority:
  
  "Last year a lot of different things happened, when I think back about it ... Over the past year, I felt resolved to make myself mentally stronger; With all the other girls older than me graduating one after another, between Miizun, Otaki-san and Rie-san, all being older than me, it prompted me to think how I needed to act more rigorously, how I couldn't allow myself to let out any complaints... (awkward smile) it was a year where I tried to look tough, perhaps...
  But this has been also a year where I came to perceive just how much I love anything about NGT48. In this one year I have also moved to Team G where I am now, and I came to feel so glad that I myself have become part of this team. I'm thinking very much about how I'd want to make this team greater, how I want to get together with everyone and aim higher.
  Even in light of my personality, and my stage persona, I don't give the impression of holding a position such as that of vice-captain, I guess. «Hey, I'm now the vice-captain, let's get moving!», I couldn't get into this spirit at first, just yet. However, with the team being formed and starting to get into action, gradually I have begun to cherish everyone more and more. ...«Also in the role of vice-captain, I would like to give my effort to provide support for everyone. I, too, am eager to become someone who can do something for the benefit of this group...», this is what I have then began to think. But this is because this is such a wonderful team, so I owe it to everyone in there.
  ...
  The fact everyone of you is there is why I feel motivated to work hard in all regards. It's why I am able to continue being an idol. Truly, this is all thanks to you being there with me. Thank you."
  
• Finally, shifting progressively to the the matter of kouhais:
  "It's 23 years already? I would have never thought during my teenage years that I would have been an idol at 23 years of age.
  How is it going to be next year? I can't stop thinking about it. All things considered, even being an idol has its own life span... (awkward smile) If only Doraemon was around, I'd like to have something to turn myself 5 years younger. But that's impossible after all, so I want to be able to lead everyone ahead as the grown-up older sister I am.
  
  And then there also the kouhai, right? For the longest time, in NGT we have never had kouhais, but the fact they are there now is an extremely positive thing.
  How can I put it? The NGT members all happen to be the youngest sibling in their own families, and so many are also the type who love to get pampered. In that regard, personally, I find it irresistible (laugh) -- besides, I am the oldest sister in the family, myself. But anyway, the fact we never had kouhais of our own has caused us, including myself too, to expect other to dote on us, so I do believe that the arrival of the kouhais into the group will give the 1st generation a spur.
  I want us to improve ourselves in a friendly competition, giving our best efforts, until we are able again to stand on the stage of Budokan and many other such venues..."
  
• To conclude, with now tears visibly on her eyes, a few words were spent again on the value of her fans, as well as family (at last), being both here to support her through her struggles. I feel this part also serves as a nice reminder of how the fan support served, in turn, as a way to reconcile the relationship between Maho and her family, which as we know from past episodes used to be adamantly opposed to her becoming an idol, and unsupportive at best:
  
  "When I were at Budokan, my parents also came over, and every time they spotted anyone in the crowd wearing any merchandise of me or holding my penlight, they told me «We should give a thank you to every single one of them», really. (laugh)
  It drove home the point that I should be holding everyone of them dear.
  Even my family, though, at first they were as supportive as they are at present. It all happened gradually while working hard in my group activities like this, and news of that began reaching back to my family... And now that Niigatta Friend has been confirmed to begin regular broadcast in the Aomori prefecture, well... Last year I also had the chance to appear at Kouhaku Uta Gassen, even that one was a national television broadcast so I was happy they could get to watch me there. The fact that news of my activities are reaching back to my family just makes me feel greatly happy.
  ...
  But anyway, all of this is thanks to my fans lend me their support. Everyone, I'm filled with gratitude for this."
  

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

 

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Mahohon,
Happy Birthday to you!

May the good Lord bless you,
May the good Lord bless you,
Happy Birthday dear Mahohon,
Happy Birthday to you!

 

Happy birthday to Maho
​

As per tradition, here's a small collection of photos of the Seitansai setup that was at the theater lobby today. Looks like the theme that the fan committee had prepared for her was, surprisingly, all about Alice in Wonderland (as it turns out, this happens to be Maho's favorite Disney princess, but since she has never mentioned it, even Maho herself had to express surprise at this spot-on choice on Showroom afterwards, wondering how fans had figured out this fact, if this was not just a pleasant coincidence or just a matter of image).
Starting with the flower stand.



The blackboard art, turns out that the witch on the left was drawn by Renapon (also according to her tweet, drawing the character faceless was her original intention, but she apologized for forgetting to draw the hands also, well...)


And then there was also this other message included inside... (´∀｀；)

"Happy Birthday
So, it's been 23 years already...
But teasing 23-year old Nishigata Marina about her age,
even though you are just as old,
is something you shouldn't do!!
Both the Gorilla and the Wizard are 23"

Table decorations, with the albums containing the handwritten messages of congratulations from fans. By the looks of it, the covers are modeled after Alice's dress, as well as Dakishimeraretara's costume (where Maho is pretty much the legitimate center, it should be noted), and the newly made emblem of Team G.


Also following the same Alice in Wonderland formula with original fanart and all, the pamphlet distributed by the committee to the crowd attending the show, as always containing also instructions on what special actions or chants to do at the specified points of the performance.


According to what's written in the guidelines, the human wave part that Maho was supposed to make happen during the self-introduction part also involved the audience holding said pamphlet up in their hands, with the art on the back cover facing to the way of the stage.

The committee also provided these specially designed flags for the audience to wave during the performance of Umi wo Watare. Gotta love the heart-shaped "Mahore" logo.


As for the customary screening of the fanmade celebration video, judging from the stills it looks like that it involves also location shootings from a drone. Treat these shots as just a preview... Can't help hoping that the original video will get uploaded by Maho on her own Twitter account, as other members did before, if she is in possession of the file...


Finally, close up shots of the cake. (*´ω｀*)

Quoting the message that Apron, the vocational school tasked with making cakes for NGT's Seitansai, has left for the members (transcript here): "This one here is Nyango Star, a mascot character from the Aomori Prefecture, which Maho-chan is native of. Nyango Star brought over with himself Shine Muscat grapes, Maho's favorite, and spread lots of it all over the cake itself, or that is the gist of it."
Mofu: "Apron-san, you know, said they wanted to cast a magic spell of their own on Maho that would make her happy."

AyuCamera always ready to capture the greatest moments. (*´∀｀)

For the record, Nyango Star is the specific mascot of the city of Kuroishi, Aomori (more infos about it here in English[!])

---

This time around the letter came from Hinatan, the following is a translation of the text, along with live comments from Maho that took place after the end of it:

Spoiler: Click to expand

真帆へ

To Maho

お誕生日おめでとう。

Congratulations on your birthday

私なんかの手紙でいいのかとちょっと緊張するけど、書かせていただきました。

I was a little tense wondering if a letter from someone like me would have been good enough, but in the end I was granted this opportunity to write it.

真帆とはチームGになってから話す時間が一番増えたと思います。

I believe that, after both becoming part of Team G, my time spent conversing with Maho has gone up more than anywhere else.

私がキャプテンをすることになって、真帆に初めてLINEした時、「お前は俺の相棒だぜ！」っていうスタンプがとっても嬉しかったです。キャプテンになることへの不安が一気に軽くなりました。

During my first LINE chat I had with Maho after I was appointed to become captain, seeing that "You are my mate, man!" stamp made me feel so much happy, in an instant all my anxieties about becoming a captain had eased up.

それからチームGについて2人でたくさん話し合った夜もありました。

Since then, there have been many night spent discussing about Team G, just between the two of us together.

超長文のやり取りが少し懐かしいです。

And I feel so nostalgic thinking back of those texing session about it, with those extremely long messages.

最近はよくご飯に行ったり、お泊りするような仲になりました。

We have since become such good friends to the point that, these day, we would often go out for lunch together and stay over for the night at the same house.

真帆と過ごす時間は凄く楽しいし、ありのままの自分でいられる安心感があります。

The time I spend together with Maho is extremely fun, there this feeling of security and serenity that allows you to just be your true self.

メンバーのことをよく見ていて、周りの空気を読んで、的確なつっこみ。私に無いものをたくさん持ってる真帆。真帆が副キャプテンで良かったなーと感じる毎日です。

Paying careful attention to other members, understanding the mood of the situation around herself, not to mention being able to deliver striking witticisms. Maho possesses so many things that I myself don't have. Every day, it makes me feel lucky to have Maho as a vice-captain.

本当にいつもありがとう。これからも一緒にチームG頑張っていこうね。

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all this time, from here on let's put our efforts together as Team G.

本当に本当におめでとう！

Thank you so very, very much!

日陽より

From Hinata.

---

山口真帆「嬉しい。ありがとうございます。なんかね、ちょっと日陽かなーって心の中で思ってた。なんとなーく日陽かなーみたいに思ってたんですけど、実際にお手紙もらうと。メンバーから初めて。でも去年りこだったね」客笑

Maho: "It makes me so happy. What can I say? Deep in my heart I had a little suspicion this could be Hinatan. Somehow or another, I had a feeling like "Could this be Hinatan~", but truth be told, as for receiving a Seitansai letter, this is the first time it's from another member. Well, last year it was Riko." (Audience laughs)

「初めてじゃなかった。メンバーの人間のほうの」客笑

"It's not the first time, I meant as far as human members go." (Audience laughs)

「(りこは)妖精なのでなので。人間の方から初めてだったので、凄い新鮮な感じで。ほんとにチームGになれて、凄い日陽とも仲良くなれて、日陽がいるから私も頑張ろうって思えるし、ほんとに2人とも、そしてみんなも凄いチームGのことが大好きだと思うので、このチームになれて良かったなと思うし、そんな時に日陽からお手紙をいただけてとっても嬉しいです。ありがとう」

"(Riko) being a fairy, it means this is the first time coming from a human insted. so it's such a fresh new feeling. But jokes aside, after becoming part of Team G I have become really friends with Hinata, the fact Hinata is there with me motivates me to give all my best as well. I am sincered about this, the two of us love Team G so much, as I imagine everyone in here does as well, so I feel lucky that I can be in this team. And to receive a letter from Hinata on such a day makes me truly happy. Thanks."

本間日陽「こちらこそありがとう」拍手

Hinata: "My pleasure" (Applauses)

As a very exceptional case, this is also the final address that Maho gave to all the fans who made holding this event possible. Since in the Showroom on the day before she disclosed she would deal with certain topics more in depth, avoiding reporting it would be too negligent of me:

Spoiler: Click to expand

山口真帆「本日は凄いお足元も悪い中、ここまで足を運んでくださったり、DMMでも観てくださってる方、モニター観覧とかも凄い皆さんほんとにありがとうございます」拍手

Maho: "To all the splendid people who on this day, even with their feet feeling terribly sore, came all the way here, to those who watched us on DMM, as well as those who followed the scenes from the theater lobby's monitor, thank you." (Applauses)

「この1年はあっという間だったんですけど、22歳になって、自分のやり方を凄い変えないといけないなと思ってて。自分より年上のメンバーがみんな卒業していって、私がしっかりしなきゃダメだなと思って、凄い自分の中で、何だろう、責任も感じていたし、プレッシャーも感じていて。そんな中、皆さんと、チームの副キャプテンになって、チームGのことをもっと大切に、もっと上を目指してチームで頑張っていきたいなと思って、皆さんのことを少し置いてけぼりにしてしまったんじゃないかなと反省しています。

"This one year flew quickly, but still, after I turned 22 I began to feel it was necessary for me to change my way of acting and doing things. With all the members older than me having graduated, I thought I needed to behave more rigorously, or else... Inside of me, I felt an incredible... How could I describe it? I felt a sense of responsibility, but also a sense of pressure. While still in such a situation, I was then appointed as vice-captain, and as I came to cherish and value this Team G more, I felt resolved for us to aim higher, giving our best efforts as a whole team, and that's when I began to reflect on whether I have ended up neglecting you a little bit, my fans, while at it.

あの、何だろう、なんか、その最年長になったっていうこともあって、今まで皆さんに甘えてたのもちょっと抑えなきゃなって凄い思ってて。1人で頑張ろうって思ってて、凄い皆さんと意思疎通ができてなかったんじゃないかなって反省していて。

How to explain it... By becoming the oldest member as I am now, among other things, I started to strongly feel that it was time to avoid relying on everyone else's generosity as I had been until now, and instead to get down working all on my own, but in the end I realized with great regret that by doing this way I couldn't have a mutual understanding with you all.

それで、総選挙も去年よりランクダウンしてしまって、それが凄い悔しくて。でもそれは私が皆さんと心を通わせることができていなかったんだなとほんとに申し訳ない気持ちでいっぱいです。

Then, even regarding the Sousenkyo, I ranked lower than last year, which felt truly regretful for me. But then, even there, I figured with my heart full of sorriness that this too was caused by the fact I couldn't get my sentiments across to you all.

みんなはそれでも私に凄いついてきてくれて、凄い私は3年もアイドルやってるのに恥ずかしがり屋で、いつも「恥ずかしい恥ずかしい」って言ってるんですけど、皆さんにも素直になれなくて、ずっと頑固でごめんなさい。それでも私のことをずっと応援してくれて、生誕祭にもこうやって足を運んでくださって、ほんとに嬉しいです。

Regarless of all of this, everyone still keeps following me along in such an amazing manner. Despite having been an idol for as long as 3 years I'm still awfully bashful, I would always repeat "Embarrassed, I feel embarrassed", but in any case I feel like I owe an apology for the fact I couldn't be that much direct with you all, always being so stubborn. The fact that you keep constantly supporting me, in spite of such, even by coming all the way here to attend this Seitansai, I feel sincerely happy for this.

最近は握手会とかもフル部数でAKBのとかもやらせていただくようになって、推し増しでも、推し増しが始まると凄い数の方がたくさん」客笑

Moreover, speaking also of handshake event, recently I have been moved on to sessions with a the full number of slots available, and then there is also the oshi-mashi system, as soon as the oshi-mashi tickets became free to use, an amaizing lot of people came over" (Audience laughs)

「思ってるよね？ 凄いね、それまで空いてて、なのに、推し増しになると凄いね、来てくれるんだよね。ねぇ、凄い推し増しになると混むんですけれど、でもそれも、なんだろうな、自分のイチ推し、私をイチ推しにしてくれてるファンの人を増やせてないのかなと思うし、フル部数でやってるのに握手会もたくさんやらせていただいてるのに総選挙の結果に私は凄い比例していないので、それは私、なんだろう、イチ推しの方が少ないのと、やっぱDDの方が凄い多いなっていうのは」

"Don't you think the same? That's impressive, up until then it was devoid of life, yet once it changed to the oshi-mashi system, people came in droves. Isn't that so? The place became so incredibly overcroweded after the oshi-mashi was introduced, but even then, how should I say -- my ichi-oshi fans, I had still a sinking feeling that those fans who are chosing me as their ichi-oshi haven't increased in number anyway. The fact that, despite holding handshake events so much and despite all the maximum slots, my own Sousenkyo results didn't match up with any of this would only mean that there are few people who have me as their ichi-oshi, and of course an overwhelmingly lots of DD as well, so..."

客「そんなことないよ！」

Audience: "It's not like that!"

山口真帆「皆さんともよく話してて、実感してるんですけど、そんな方とも、みんな、私のことを「一番好きだよ」って、まぁ、「二番目でも好きだよ」って言ってもらえるように今後の活動を凄い頑張っていきたいなと思います。

Maho: "I tend to talk with all of you often, and I could experience this firsthand, but even those people would always say to me that for them I am "the one they like the most". Well, I want to give my best in my activities so that in the future I can also be told by people "I like you, even though you are my second favorite"

なんか、争いごととか凄い苦手で、今年は凄いそういうチャレンジ出来るものも避けてきたと自分で自負してて。申し訳ないなと思ってて。

What else can I add? I have an extreme aversion to head-to-head competitions. For that matter, I even found a personal pride in the fact that, this year, I chose to avoid even those challenges where I could have managed well enough, but I feel sorry for that.

だから、明後日からアイカブのイベントが始まるので、それでは選抜に入れるようになりたいなと、私も今44レベなので、50レベまで頑張って、入れるように皆さんと頑張りたいなと思うので、ご協力よろしくお願いします」

Therefore, seeing as how the Akaibu event will begin in two day, I'm thinking about I'd wish to make it into their Senbatsu unit. Even for my part, I now am at level 44, but I am working to get to level 50. I hope to join forces with my fans and work together to make it into it. So I am counting on your support.

客「はーい」

Audience: "Okay!"

山口真帆「ありがとうございます。でもやっぱり一番悔しいなと思うのは総選挙なので、やっぱり来年の総選挙ではもっと上にいけるように、皆さんとも一緒に、一生懸命、素直に向き合って、もっと上を目指して、来年はちゃんとアンダーガールズに入れるように頑張りたいなと思うので、ご近所がうるさくてもSHOWROOMとかをやって」客笑

Maho: "Thank you so much for all. But at any rate, what I found the most frustrating was, all things considered, the Sousenkyo. As such, at next year's edition, in order to rank in higher, I want to set my aim further up, while sticking together with my fans, putting all my heart and soul into it, and debating with each other with sincerity. Next year I want do all I can so as to make it into Undergirls. Therefore, no matter if the neighbour on the other side is being noisy, I'll be doing SHOWROOM anyway..." (Audience laughs)

「ちょっとそれは誤解のないように頑張りたいと思います。引っ越しもしないといけないので。今年総選挙の公約を引っ越しにしたばっかりに引っ越しができなくなってしまって(客笑) 凄い最近も色々ね、騒音があるんですけれど、それでもね、皆さんとの時間を増やしていけたらなと思います。

"I'd just try my best to make sure it won't cause any misunderstandings, in that regard. I'd need to move out to another house, for that matter, but given how I had already made "moving out" as my Sousenkyo promise for this year, it means I can't move out anymore for the time being. (audience laughs) It's quite something, really, lately there's various stuffs they are doing, hence there's a lot of noise, but regardless of all that, you know, I still would love to spend more time together with everyone.

一番はあと、チームGの副キャプテンになれて、チームGのメンバーが本当に大好きで、何だろう、このチームになれて凄い今楽しいです。

And then, most importantly of all, I was appointed as the vice-captain of Team G. I really love the members of Team G, how can I say, it's just so fun to have come to be part of such a team.

みんながいてくれるから頑張ろうって思えるし、何だろう、ほんとにチームGのメンバーのことが大好きで、なんか副キャプテンっていうのも向いてないかなって思うんですけど、みんなのことをもっともっと引っ張っていけるように、支えていけるように、チームGが一番だって言ってもらえるように副キャプテンとしても頑張りたいと思うので、これからも応援よろしくお願いします」拍手

I can feel myself motivated to work my hardest thanks to everyone being here with me. Again, I want to say I love the members of Team G so very much. I can't help thinking that maybe I am not suited to be something such as a vice-captain, but nonetheless, even in this role as a vice-captain I'll put in my best effort so as to be able to lead everyone further and further ahead, and so as to provide my own assistance. So please keep rooting for us even from now on." (Applauses)

Source: https://akb48.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-28411.html

On a minor note: one of the talk corners during the Seitansai was what is something that the other members would love to do together with Maho.

As a little tidbit, I found out that Ayakani's answer was the most real of all: she went on to retell how they got to know each other back when they both participated in the Post-Yamada Nana auditions, and when they were on their way back home they decided to have a walk down the Doutonbori and then take a photo of themselves before the Glico Man advertisement billboard as a memento. As a well-know part of the story, in the end Kani pointed the cellphone the wrong way and only one of them was caught on camera (Kani herself).
So now Kani is promising Maho they'll go there again and take another shot, this time making sure both of them will appear on photo. (´∀｀；)
https://twitter.com/nyan_rion93/status/1041626814022541312
For context, the photo in question taken from a past Photolog entry:

 

2018.09.17 Showroom. With a slight bit of a delay, here is the stream she had immediately after her Seitansai.
Maho spoke of course about her feelings and impressions about the celebrations, and to thank all fans for what she called her happiest birthday of her life, Maho herself being moved to tears at the kindness shown by them in making all preparations for this day, not to mention the warm reception given to her on the day itself.
Today's Showroom also contained a repeat of the statements and resolutions she made during the final address speech at theater, on the same day, both to better convey her thoughts and to make them known even to those people who didn't watch the show.

Spoiler: Summary

The following as usual is a small roundup of some key point of her talk.

• Maho looking back at this year, with regards to how she tried to keep her feelings to herself so as to avoid worrying others, only for this to prove more conterproductive than anything (03:21)
"What can I say? All things considered, during my 22nd year I really couldn't manage to be open and frank with others, that's what I have deeply reflected on with regret. How to put it...? I tried to put on a cool facade, myself, I was rather reluctant to let you see me while I was working on strenuously. I didn't want to, what's the word, put a weight on your mind by doing so. I thought so much about how I wished everyone would just enjoy themselves while supporting me. Moreover, during my 22nd year, the members older than me, all of them, ended up graduating ...This is when I came to think how I necessarily had to handle myself more rigorously. Therefore... I tried to the best of my ability to keep myself from speaking out what I actually felt inside. Rather than my personal matters, I prioritized that of the other members, as well as the group, and shifted to thinking about them instead. I relegated my personal matters to the backseat. However, for someone who's technically an idol, I concluded how this was not beneficial at all.
Still, the fact that in spite of all that everyone kept supporting me, holding such a wonderful Seitansai today, not to mention how on the same day as my birthday you could all be here to cheer for me and give me lots of felicitations ...it all makes me feel so blessed."

• Speaking of her fans who, heeding her suggestion, were mindful to make every member feel included in the birthday celebrations (05:04)
"Also, what else, to sing fan chants only directed at the girl whom the Seitansai is for ...I still find that fantastic and all, but it makes me happier to know that my Seitansai isn't one of these. I adore all the members, and I feel truly glad for becoming part of Team G. I really love all the members, so I wanted this Seitansai to be one that everyone else could enjoy as well.
That's why I made an appeal to tell all people in the audience to go ahead and send their chants to the other members as lively as possible. ...And that's how it actually turned out to be, having people sending so many chants to many other members, with such loud voices ...to the extent I had to wonder if they'd get their voice hoarse, seriously your voice was that loud when you shouted them. You know, even the other members told me how, although this was my own Seitansai, they enjoyed it as much. And I am sincerely happy for that.
Thank you everyone, you are fans I am proud of!"

• Looking back again at the events of this year, regarding the changes they brought about in her mindset and, in turn, her priorities (07:13)
"During this 22nd year, I became vice-captain as well, and a sense of responsibility was born along with that. I kept in mind how I was now the oldest in there and thus I couldn't allow myself to whine with complaints ...I promised myself to act responsibly when in the presence of other members. ...Taking it upon myself to personally speak up and coordinate everyone's activities, or even trying to set up the right atmosphere, I tried to make my best effort while thinking up about various facets. But in the end, I found myself giving priority to group-related matters, while neglecting you all (fans), isn't it? I deeply reflected upon all of this.
But for all that, of course the team holds a great importance, isn't it so? To be able to work in my activities with Team G, even that, I owe it to you all for having been supporting me. From here on, I will keep putting great care in Team G, naturally, but I'll try my best to also give much, much more importance to you all and do my job as an idol more capably. (laugh)"

• On her resolve to become more intrepid in facing group competitions, after she had kept eschewing them for too long (10:49)
"With that said, in this last year of my life until now I felt extremely ... How can I explain it? ... I am an idol and all, but at the same time I absolutely detest competitive fights, of course there's also a side of me who isn't willing to give up easily, but I always chose to stay far away from any competitive fight, or that is the feeling I have... This included many kinds of challenges... Or any stuff you could participate in by applying. All the time, I thought: why should we fight against each other, when we are all fellow members in the same way?
But the fact is that we are idols, this is a group consisting of such a big number of people, and you can't progress on if you keep avoiding any of that. Consequently, I have come to think how I need to work along with you all to make myself stronger.
...And this is why this time I signed up for the Aikabu competition, too. (laugh)
But really, it was like that with the Renacchi stageplay, too. Throughout this year I have always shirked away from things by choosing to opt out. The Sousenkyo too, it was grueling ...Telling that to you all, everyone, pained my heart too...
However, as long as I am in a group with a large number of people inside, this is something I ought to do. (smile)"

• The fact that her Seitansai t-shirt, which was of course designed by herself, sold out quickly both on the online shop and at the theater venue is said to have surprised the staff, as it had surprised Maho too. In the design of the oshi towel, the color choice was a detail that Maho paid special care about: turns out in fact it was made to match Cinnamon's colors. Speaking of which, fans prepared a little surprise even with the flowers and placed a little Cinnamon inside, according to Maho's talk, though I personally have trouble finding it in the photos so far.
As told before, the decision of the Seitansai committee to go for a Alice in Wonderland motif drew Maho's curiosity and at the same time caught her by surprise, in speaking of it she couldn't help asking how the fans could have guessed that she was her favourite Disney princess since she has never brought it up to anyone (with Maho adding as a little reminder, "In terms of (Disney) princesses, I Alice is the one I like, but in terms of (Disney) characters as a whole, it's Baymax"). There followed a little speculation on her part about this choice: maybe it was a matter of shared image, maybe it was also related to colors since it's light blue as with Maho (speaking of penlight colors), but eventually some viewers told it was about the atmosphere they both had in common.

• As pointed out, fans also came up with the idea of distributing some specially designed flags to the audience, for them to bring them out and wave them all together during the performance of Umi wo Watare, just as Maho was doing the same as part of the choreography. Maho said it made her happy and complimented them for how fun it was. At the same time, seeing the flags reminded Maho of an amusing episode of her life, which she went on to explain (23:15):
"Actually, I have talked about the flag thing during the afternoon show, at the MC talk in the second part of it. The theme of the MC was about memories related to our grandmas and grandpas. While there, I told how during my kindergarten years my grandpa used to live in a house a little isolated from the rest.
When I was in kindergarten I commuted by school bus. and so the bus would come over to pick me up. So I then rode in the bus, and during the bus ride my grandpa was always... You know, he had his house somewhere like at the foot of a mountain, it was a rather elevated place... Right from there he would wave this huge flag like that.

As a result, now whenever I perform Umi wo Watare it always makes me think back of my grandpa, so much I love my grandpa ...I used to be a child so attached to my grandpa.
That means that when the fans (laugh) when Umi wo Watare was on and the fans then brough out the flags everyone started laughing so hard.

«Did they rush to make them as soon as they heard the MC talk about grandpa?», they were saying.
Of course, it's not like that, but since I had just mentioned it during the afternoon show and everything... (laugh)
Also, everyone... you know, after I told that at the afternoon show and then I performed Umi wo Watare later at the evening show today, everyone came and told me «I was reminded of Mahohon's grandpa and now I'm close to bursting out laughing». (laugh)
Therefore, yeah, now when we are going to perform Umi wo Watare, the Team G members are all going to picture grandpa in their minds again. That makes me so happy! You were roleplaying as grandpa? (laugh) Nah, of course not.
But seriously everyone looked like grandpa ...the way fans all waved the flag along. I'm happy that on my birthday, on Respect for the Aged Day, I could also meet with my grandpa. (laugh) Am I wrong?"


• Finally, with regards to the Seitansai letter, Maho told how pleasantly surprised she was that Hinatan had wrote it to her, once again she couldn't help pointing out that she could tell from the style that it was probably her even before getting to the name at the bottom, but that aside Maho said she's so happy for it that now, in turn, she would like to pay back the favor for her Seitansai.

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

As a little addendum, on the day after her Seitansai Maho, along with the rest of NGT, was already back at work on the recordings for an episode of AKB48SHOW. As it is common practice, another small celebration was held there for the birthday girl of the moment, complete with a small cake and all, and this time with pretty much every NGT members present. Luck had it that they could also meet with Kitarie again while there, and she also took part in it.

Source: https://twitter.com/maho_yamaguchi/status/1042032800839303168
https://twitter.com/Rie_Kitahara3/status/1042057842474213376

 

Well, it has sure been quite a long time since I have last put my hands on this thread. So, let's give it a tentative update and keep things concise while at it, then... (*´-`)
First off, since news just came in let me open by saying: congratulations on ranking 11st on the Aikabu senbatsu!


Leaving aside for a while all group-related matters, such as the promotions and mini-handshake events for the 4th single and whatnot, it's safe to say that this period of time going from the second half of September until now was in fact mostly dominated by the Aikabu competition, and this holds extra significance for Maho.

As she had declared in her birthday resolutions multiple times beforehand, this was intended to be her first step in taking on a more proactive attitude when tackling in-group competitions between other members, when so far she has always preferred shunning them whenever possible, as she saw everything more as (to summarize it using my own personal words...) just pointless carnage.
And I have got to say I am glad about her decision to participate this time around because the attempt proved to be well worth the effort, especially with a prize as appetizing as the one offered: the winners placing in the top 16 will be selected to form a special unit of their own, which will feature also a song and a music video.

Not only a good number of NGT members who also signed up for the event ranked well within the Senbatsu range (Ogiyuka above all, I think it deserves a big mention) or came really close to it, Maho had kept a stable position for herself since the beginning, climbing from the 10th position in the first-day announcement to secure the 9th position in all following announcements until now.

I think it goes without saying, but as some might have noticed from her frequent tweets about the in-game achievements around these days, during the period of the campaign Maho herself pitched in with her own efforts in order to accumulate enough funds in-game for her own side, rather than sitting back and just leaving her fans to pull all the weight alone.
(although, anyway, it's also worth reminding that Aikabu is said to be a game where long-time players have overwhelmingly the upper hand over the newbie players, and can easily make a difference by virtue of all the benefits and upgrades gained over time ...so it is also interesting to see which members their support has shifted to this time).

---
More for the sake of completion (seeing also how the activity was far more focused on Twitter), in the way of Showroom broadcasts there have been two streams from Maho over the course of this period, which I previously skipped on reporting, partly because I am not all that knowledgeable on the subject (and partly out of laziness on my part, huh...). Both of them have Aikabu as their main object of discussion, to no much surprise, just to serve as an indication of her investment in this competition.

The 2018.09.20 Showroom

Spoiler: Summary

...revolved mainly around looking for tips and what strategies are best to employ for racking up points, making the stock prices affordable and acing the game (besides, Maho apparently is already a major stockholder of her own in-game company, also).
A bit of a surprised reaction came from Maho when she learned straight from the viewers about placing 10th right on first-day ranking.
...And I think it's funny how Maho also ended up noting with a smile that, for her and Nanako, it means that now they both find themselves forced to jump back and forth between playing Aikabu and doing errands as usual on Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, where there apparently is a seasonal fishing event currently going on that they can't miss. Heh. (´∀｀；)

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

The more recent 2018.09.29 Showroom

Spoiler: Summary

...on the other hand, started off with Maho looking far more involved into the game mechanics and having already developed mastery at it to its fullest, as she went on to do a little mental recap of the long point-scoring routine she went through even today, for this final stretch of the game contest before the event deadline.
Of course, she also didn't forget about matters encompassing NGT as a whole, thanking fans for having attended the mini-handshake event held at Jouetsu on the same day as part of the pre-release sales promotion for the new NGT single (and indeed, one thing that struck her is how among them there were many visitors who already participated to the Jouetsu handshake event the year before, and didn't hesitate to greet the members by telling how it has been so long since they last met)
Like many other members did recently, she showed concerns about the typhoon raging on these weeks, reminding anyone to be careful when going outside due to excetional strength of it... Seeing as how this even resulted in the cancellation of handshake event scheduled right on the following day, at least some viewers tried to look at the bright side, saying that they'd spend their day holed up at home to dedicate all the time to Aikabu instead, much to Maho's amusement... (*´∀｀)

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

---

Bonus: And while it's a little too late, I know, it's worth reporting that not so long ago fans gathered at the end of the handshake event to celebrate her turning 23 years old, by bringing along the banner which, if memory serves well, was also displayed in the video greetings at the theater for the Seitansai.

Source: https://twitter.com/maho_yamaguchi/status/1044557432486129664

Not so long after, the artist also uploaded the original drawing on it on the Twitter account, thankfully since I think some of the smallest details in the design can be noticed and ejoyed only when taking a closer look at the picture.

Source: https://twitter.com/tatototot/status/1044588344426917891
The theme, as symbolized by the globe, was "global idol", a recurring term since this year Maho herself has consistently participated in various events abroad, as part of the activities of both AKB and NGT.
For the other references: the big portrait in the black costume represents Maho in her Whatcha Gonna Do outfit (from their performance at the Tandoku Concert, in case nothing comes to mind), and as for the smaller Mahos around it: the bunny costume is from last year's Halloween stage, the green pareo with the big G is from the Guam Tour, and then of course there's Maho as Vier from Majimuri Gakuen.
I'm still unsure as to what the upper right one is meant to represent (I'll pay a cookie to anyone who does). Seems like the upper right is a reference to the Bangkok TIF concert, in that she is wearing the same Toki costume she sported at the event and putting her hands together to do a "Sawasdee" greeting, like she did to the Thai audience. I am also told that the orange drink in the bottle might be a reference to mango juice, which she became notably fond of since her trip to Okinawa for the Sousenkyo. All in all it's a pretty unique way to look back at the past year in pictures. (*´ω｀*)

 

I was debating whether or not to post something about the recent Showrooms. It could be because of the restless schedule, but around these days they were somewhat diluted in terms of talking topics that could be of interest here, and didn't have that vlog-style (defunct terminology, I know...) nature which I have grown to appreciate about her, but well ...in the end I still decided in favor of posting.
As much as it is already last week's news, here are two Showroom streams that Maho had during the three-days long promotional campaign that involved all the members, in the run-up of the 4th single's release, then... (｀・ω・´)

---
2018.10.03 morning Showroom

Spoiler: Summary

...which, as it's pretty self-evident, mainly featured Maho as she was busy going through her make-up fixing routine at the hotel (her roommate for the day being Okappa).
This is actually a stream that happened right after NGT's appearance on national television on Sukkiri (cue Maho striking a Sukkiri pose as she underlined this fact, actually), with Maho now getting ready before having to head out again to Tower Records, where she was scheduled to appear next in the role of "shop clerk for a day" for the customary CD hand-over event, alongside Miharu and Ayutaro. In that regard, actually, the most attentive of you might have noticed that photos of it got uploaded on the official Twitter account of the store at the time, which you can check it here if you hadn't.

https://twitter.com/TOWER_Shibuya/status/1047472896778465280

Since the store was located in Shibuya and all, I love how Maho saw it fit to joke a little on this fact throughout this. At the beginning by extending her own invitation to the event: "From the «The true Shibuya party people are us» kind of people, to the «Shibuya is my backyard» kind of people, all the way to the (acting nervous) «Shibuya is a place I have never been to before, I mean this is my first time here...» kind of people", as well as the people who got interested in NGT after watching Sukkiri and HiruSon... Make sure to pay a visit there, y'all."
And then in the end once preparations were over by declaring she'll now have to get into the party people mood too, all the while mimicking some dance moves from the Whatcha Gonna Do choreography, before ending the stream.

That's the spirit. Heh. (*´∀｀)

If I have to necessarily look for a recurring topic, I noticed how as Maho was busy picking up and then putting back her belongings, she couldn't help remarking at various points how she overall has a habit of taking good care of her possessions so that they would last forever, even more so when it comes to any present she is given. The latter of course makes her happy (and she took the opportunity to thank fans for their generosity, while at it), but she also stated how she's someone who tends to make a practical use of them as well.

This was actually shown multiple times during the stream, as a matter of fact: a real example of this was right at the beginning with the pajama top that she brought along for the her night out, which she showed off telling it was the same she mentioned previously on radio (I have yet to find the exact reference, actually, considering how a good part of the radio appearances from the PR campaign haven't been recorded and made available, but I'm going to take a guess that she told it the day before on Recomen...?). This one happened to be in fact a present from one of her fans, and of a pretty high quality brand as well, whose black and white striped pattern inevitably inspired Maho to dub it a "shimauma design". You know, for obvious in-joke reasons...

And as it turns out, today's make-up was also pretty much done using presents she received from other members for her birthday, to the point I think it was a conscious decision on Maho's part.
The foundation was a present from Riko, more specifically. Whereas the cheek powder was a present from Aina. Meanwhile, one of the brushes Maho was using was a special-made one with her name inscribed on the handle, which was gifted by one of her fans around two years ago and which she still keeps using to this day.

I feel this is good to know for all fans, not to mention reassuring. Although on the flipside, in the middle of this talk Maho revealed that because of the very fact she is absolutely reluctant to part away from any of her possessions, let alone throwing anything away, it also happened that "when a friend of mine paid a visit to my house, they got upset at the fact there was way too much stuff in there", but oh well, this is what one calls dedication... (*´∀｀)

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

2018.10.03 evening Showroom

Spoiler: Summary

• ...returning back to the hotel, noticeably more tired, after today's long promotional schedule.
  A little moment inside of it, actually more toward the latter half of the stream, was devoted to looking back at some highlights of said promotion -- more importantly the appearance of NGT48 on UtaCon, and more specifically their performace as dancers during the musical number of enka singer Sakamoto Fuyumi.
  Maho sounded being modest on her own contribution to the choreography, especially with regards to the position in the formation, also mentioning a little issue about the parasol getting caught onto her kimono at one point, which I wonder if it was captured on camera -- but at any rate she confessed how it felt like a honor for them to appear there, especially since she would've never imagined for them to be granted the opportunity of sharing the same stage with a singer like her, whose voice (to borrow Maho's own words) gave her goosebumps from how great it was.
  For those of you who haven't checked it yet, you aren't too late and may still be able to watch some clips of that part at the following addresses
  
  https://twitter.com/HEARTSTATION648/status/1047076420948758528
  https://twitter.com/HEARTSTATION648/status/1047077013322756096
  https://www.bilibili.com/video/av32965193
• From the get go, Maho expressed happiness toward everyone who came at the event today, and she agreed with viewers about it being a wonderful song they received. To quote: "This is truly a song directed at all people of the world. A title such as 'Sekai no Hito he' is a solemn one to bear. I wouldn't exactly say 'solemn', but if it's not something to take with solemnity, it's something to take with its due seriousness. This is one title with great ambitions behind it, should we rather say? Therefore, of course..."
  At the same time she couldn't keep it secret about her frustration and discomfort, to the point of her eyes becoming shiny with tears as she went on to talk about this, upon learning about the single not reaching the first place in the daily Oricon ranking.
  As a matter of fact, she couldn't fully hide these feelings even when the fan event was underway, as she goes on to tell how tears were coming out even back at the venue, which prompted various people to ask for the reason of this reaction. In addition, viewers brought up their sadness at Maho behind stuck all the way back in the third row, and Maho, in response to all of this...
  "Even about my position in there, I find it regretful and all, I do feel so whenever I have to dance. But anyway, today being the release day, I could see this one coming, but to actually hear the news directly... Even if your head understands the situation, deep in your heart it is instictive to still find it ...frustrating.
  ...Even so, there's still the Weekly chart left to go.
  ...
  Last year, too. I think everyone had their own personal thoughts about it as well, however ...I would hate it to see every single end up with a disappointment"
  
  Throughout it, a comparison was also made with the atmosphere that there was back when they received the announcement of Seishun Dokei placing first on its debut day, which also happened while she was taking part in anotherCD hand-over ever in Niigata. Even at the time there were tears, although surely of a different kind, as Maho remembered everyone shouting in exultation at the news. And as she added later, "at the time of the first single everyone was so happy at it being in the first place on Oricon, thinking back at this today only adds to my frustratrion".
  Lastly, it seemed to me even that Maho herself felt a sense of personal responsability for the sales outcome of NGT as a while, which could explain her beating herself up so much over it in comparison to the reaction displayed by many other members on that day. "It's also necessary to step up with the had work, I agree", she replied to a viewer, followed by her expressing hope to one day be able to have all her available slots sold out at the NGT handshake event, for that matter.
  
  
  One thing to point out from all of this is how this wasn't so much a question of the number of copies sold, but of the ranking on the charts in itself. From what I can gather, I see that the members seem to place much importance on the latter, than the former...
• Thankfully, this pessimistic atmosphere didn't last for long. Just as when Maho was receiving enthusiastic comments from viewers for being able to meet her at the ongoing events, she also found an opportunity to lighten up the mood by speaking about a certain episode that happened with a foreign fan not very long ago.
  
  Coming in at 24:13, the story is prefaced by Maho explaining that, during her birthday Showroom stream, there happened to be many foreign users who donated buyable gifts, and among those there was one who went on to throw as many as five Tokyo Towers to her all at once.
  At a recent handshake event following the aforementioned stream, Maho was then visited by a certain foreign fan to her lane. As it turns out, Maho is actually familiar with such person, saying he often attends the events and noting he can't speak Japanese that much which means they'll have to communicate with each other in English for the most part instead. This time around he went on to greet her and, as soon as he did, suddenly started to repeatedly tell her "4000 yen, Birthday" and then in English "Present for you".
  
  This left Maho perplexed at the whole situation at first, looking around and trying to figure out what he could mean, and it wasn't until after some repeated attempts by the fan to make himself understood that he later added in "Tower, tower, tower. 4000 yen, I donated. It was nice.", at which point everything finally clicked into place for Maho and this time she broke into a big "Thank you" for the generosity, followed by a "Now I get it".
  
  As she goes on to comment, "Amazing how it is spreading all the way to abroad... I laughed so much at the time, such a kind person he is, isn't he? After spending days after days brooding over things, there was something that had me laughing. It was nice of him to let me know. ...It sounded like to me he wanted to donate me pocket money as a birthday gift, actually, and so he was telling it to me how glad he was to have donated them. ...That caught me by surprise. Thank you, though. That brought me to think «Let's spend those 4000 yen carefully». ...So now every time I'll see something on sale with a 4000 yen price tag on it, I think I'm going to be reminded of this scene once again (laugh)".
  
  All is well that ends well, then, with impressions from the viewers including "The tale that made all America cry" (actually, a blurb often used on the posters of imported Hollywood movies in Japan, now a running joke -- the more you know) and, even more topically, "This is 'To the people of the world' in the true sense of the word". (*´∀｀)
• Soon afterwards, remaining on the same topic, this inspired viewers to ask Maho if she's proficient at English.
  Maho herself replied that she is able to understand what it's being said to her, and that she can speak it a little as well. The problem is that she finds it hard to translate from Japanese to English on the spot, meaning that she can just speak a little in what she defines as basic English, while she says she's unable to write down a full text in English. "I could do any of this in the past, but of course after you stop studying your mind gets rusty...", she reminisced, although Maho still expressed her wish to challenge herself and try obtaining an U-Can certificate in English Conversation, if chance arises.
  As for Thai, since some viewer also asked for it, Maho went on to tell that for the TIF event in Bangkok she actually practiced strenously to learn some set phrases in Thai language, so that she could use them later on to incite the crowd at the performance itself, during the Koisuru Fortune Cookie part. Nevertheless, since she saw that the Thai fans were already lively and bustling with excitement as soon as the music began playing, she says she never found the opportunity to use any of it in a practical situation. "...Thanks to it, and I mean -- it was for a reason I'm more than grateful for", she specified with a bit of relief.
  Availing herself of this chance, this means that Maho decided to give a personal demonstration of them right there, live of Showroom instead, for the first time ever. Sooo, skip to 30:22 if you want to take a listen to it. (*´∇`)
• Also of note, here's some of the content of Maho's handbag for this trip, which she showed near the end of today's stream as a final aside. More of it was shown in the video itself, but anyway for the sake of curiosity...
  
  I think this one was shown some lo~ng time ago (by which I mean almost two year back), but this is a Sailor Moon case for eyedrop bottles. I find it particularly cute how Maho did a Sailor Moon impression while introducing it (one of those bits that are best enjoyed if seen in motion), before going on to talk about it, especially about how it was an item she couldn't find it on sale anywhere until her dad managed to purchase one for her back in Aomori at last.
  
  As for the second exhibit, this one began with Maho presenting this Cinnamon carry pouch, quizzing viewers about what there could be inside...
  
  ...followed up by showing everyone the Olympus PEN digital camera that she bought herself.
  
  I assume this one was the camera she was planning to bring with herself for the Guam Tour, but which apparently saw little usage until now. As she proceeded to talk about the qualities that brough her to choose it, of course, she also considered the versatility and specs, but particular attention seems to have been given to the external design. And indeed, with Maho explaining at length how the design is so elegant it also goes along well with fashion, I can say she has certainly an eye for such things...
  
  
  Finally, a little backstory related to this special hair brush. Little premise: this happens to be a product she bought about 5 years ago as soon as it was on sale in Japan, yet only began to catch on in popularity just recently. Maho herself tried on her part to spread the word around when it was still unknown, by suggesting her friends and other members to try using it, only to be met with everyone's indifference at first because of the unusual shape.
  The same thing happened when she recommended it to Katomina, who just made some noises of token acknowledgement. Time goes on and one year later (likely when the item was already popular) Katomina herself then approaches Maho and, ironically enough, recommends it back to her saying: "Hey, this one is so great". Maho's reaction came in fast enough, first by giving a wide-eyed expression back at her, then by going: "That's the thing I told you about one year ago, you know!". Oh, Katomina... Well, I think that was enough idle talk for today... (´∀｀；)

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

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Bonus: Some more fragments of the 4th single's promotional campaign, this time more individually related to Maho herself.

On October 1st, Maho and Ogiyuka were both invited as guests to the radio program Recomen. I have yet to listen to the content of it, myself, but you can check the full recordings below.

Bilibili mirror: https://www.bilibili.com/video/av33308682
Dailymotion mirror: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/k3wBpNmceMRyO9s5bMK

Well, I guess this is more aimed at a broad female audience than the idol fans who hang around this place, but also worth reporting is this article from Ranking Box, which Maho announced as coming soon during the Showroom above. For context, the three members who were interviewed for the single's release were each asked to make a TOP3 list related to a topic they are experts in, as such...

Getting soothed by the glamourous and sweet fragrances! BEST 3 recommended beauty care items which NGT48's Yamaguchi Maho loves to use

NGT48 has just released their 4th single, "Sekai no Hito he". And as someone who says to never go a day without gathering information from the Internet related to beauty care, while also frequently checking out the new trending cosmetics, we have directly asked Yamaguchi Maho for the Best 3 recommended beauty care items she loves to use. Her enthusiastic and meticulous talk blew away Ogino Yuka and Kato Minami, who were sitting next to her. (laugh) Included inside are also items ideal for the autumn and winter seasons, when the air tends to get dry, so if there's anything that piques your curiosity, make sure to try it out!!
-
Continues here: https://rankingbox.jp/article/61227

 

"Question: Staying out for 7 consecutive days, beginning after the theater show of the day before yesterday, Yamaguchi-san is going to set foot on a total of 4 prefectures.
Can you guess what these 4 prefectures are?"
Source: https://twitter.com/maho_yamaguchi/status/1050211675637346304

Well, the tweet above was posted by Maho just the other day, but it looks like we got one of the answers already. For all those who guessed Aomori as being one of them, congratulations -- on October 11th the trio consisting of NGT's Aomori members -- Maho, Miharu, as well as Yunako -- made a live appearance on two radio shows in the prefecture, from the RAB Radio and FM Aomori stations. Here are the recordings of both.


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Spoiler: Overview

Needless to say, the main purpose for both of these radio appearances was the promotion of Sekai no Hito he, accompanied by a description from the members about the main concept behind the song itself -- that is, of music and empathy transcending barriers to bring even people of different languages and nationalities happily together -- as well as the backstory behind its shooting location.

Maho showed a great sense of professionalism when taking the lead of the talk in this specific segment, without forgetting to point out how, true to the hopes expressed in the lyrics, the song will be soon available for streaming in 119 countries.
Again, I can't help but wonder if this spirit of initiative is part of the sense of duty she has often talked about in the past, arising from the fact she's tasked to represent NGT in her home territory, as well as responsibility from having become the oldest member in the group.
Miharu, on her part, followed up by reminding how the shooting location, which is Vladivostok, is a sister city of Niigata, hence the reason they flew there. She was also as professional in the way she gave a personal remark on how even this kind of collaboration is very NGT-like in its nature, since it is done for the good of Niigata itself in mind.

Other than that, another point was to inform about the mini handshake event to be held soon in Aomori.
Again, gotta give credit to Maho for being proactive and intervening in a well prepared manner on the subject, when it came to giving instructions on how to access the event. Not only that, because -- at the prompt from the radio host, reading a letter from a staff of the mall where the mini-event would be held who asked for "tips to best enjoy the event" -- I also loved the way Maho proceeded to give pointers on what preparations it would be best to take when watching the performance, inviting fans to bring along penlights and other such member goods so as to be more noticeable by the girls themselves, as well as to feel free to sing chants directed at specific members in between their respective part of a song.
Looks like that at a previous of such performances Maho's parents even came over to watch her, going by her story. She said it made her feel sort of embarrassed when she found it out, but then again the host pointed out it's only to be expected for members to happen to meet with their families by chance at these hometown events.

Leaving aside the business aspect of it, I can feel there was a tangible atmosphere of homecoming in the air. Just like with the previous instances of the Aomori members being sent to the Touhoku region for the singles' promotional campaigns, it feels as if the reception from all the show hosts was, above anything else, like warmly welcoming back home a member of their same local community, not to mention a fellow countryman.

And sure enough, Miharu felt right at home doing PR campaign back in Aomori, to the point (as one can clearly hear) that she didn't even hold back on speaking with a thicker Tsugaru-ben accent in her dialogue, just for the occasion. It seems that in the first radio appearance she was a bit incited by the local tarento personality (Kuroishi Hachiro) being present to host the show, who seems to be a pretty well known figure (Maho herself commented on how happy she was to get to meet him), but even so it's still in line with what Miharu tends to say at times on SR -- that once back in Aomori it just comes natural for her to talk with her close relatives and other people from the region with the local dialect.
And speaking of Tsugaru-ben, in both of their radio appearances Yunako received a due amount of spotlight for being the one talking in the tickest of all (indeed, a listener sent in a mail asking exactly for who did, among the three of them), which gave her a golden opportunity on both instances to showcase her special ability and deliver a long tongue twister in Tsugaru-ben.
While still on topic of dialect, they talked about how it is a common occurance that in a everyday discussion with other members, the Aomori members would end up mixing local dialect terms with the standard Japanese without apparently noticing, only causing their talking partners to go "Huh?" and react with an expression of puzzlement. It's only at this point they realize they started using words that aren't comprehesible to the other side, and they would stop themselves and quickly try to think up of the closest equivalent in standard Japanese to reword what they're saying.
I remember how this was talked more in depth by Maho in a past stream, bringing up real examples of which words cause the most confusion, but for the sake of this discussion she just limited herself to talking about how her most common tendency is when she needs to know when a program starts airing on television, and she ends up asking at what time it "goes in" (to give an approximate translation), instead.

Another question asked was what is something that makes the member feel they are back in Aomori.
As expected, for Maho and the rest it was cold weather, in the sense that it's much colder back at home, whereas down in Niigata they feel it hardly snows as much, with the exception of some specific places more into the countryside like Nakaoka or Kaetsu.

Finally, some advertisement also came in to inform about Niigatta Friend beginning its broadcast in Aomori as well, and after the host pointed out how the show is a location-centered one, members took turns to answer to the question of what places of Aomori they would like to visit and see represented in the show. Interestingly, Maho mentioned this was exactly something she was requested to write into a paper questionnaire before.
At any rate, Yunako said Hirosaki Park, which going by the photos on Google Images it really appears to be a beautiful place to go.
Maho said Hasshoku Center, with the other members making noises of agreement at it. The reason, she explains, is that it's a place often visited by assorted TV personalities for their location shootings when they come over to Aomori, and so, being in the same position as them, they'd like to do it as well now.
Miharu prefaced her choice by talking about her love for ikamenchi and chawanmushi, both staples of Aomori local cuisine, and explaining that she has often visited this one place to shop for groceries along with her parents, hence why she nominates the Hirosaki's street market instead.
That gave the opportunity for the host and the members to discuss how there's a lot of food specialities absolutely unknown to people outside the prefecture waiting to be presented them. Maho, on her part, couldn't help confirming how the fact there's a variety of foodstuff limited only to Aomori means that even many of their names are not understood by people outside, leading even to misunderstandings, such as the example of "ichigoni" (essentially stewed sea urchin). To add to the discussion, she in fact went ahead to tell a personal episode that happened in the past with a fan, who was asking her for what souvenirs to purchase when in the Aomori. Maho indeed recommended getting a bag of ichigoni, only to have the same fan later coming back to tell her that they tought she meant strawberries (ichigo), instead!

To make a long story short, with the members sounding genuinely involved and all, it looks like this PR campaign was a pretty good run for them.

To conclude, a couple of photos of the members during their stay at respectively RAB Radio and FM Aomori

The studios at FM Aomori seemed to be already in a Halloween spirit. Related to it, a mail from a listener during the show tried to guess what "costumes" (meaning the little head ornaments they had on) they were wearing for it, with his assumption being Maho as a wizard, Miharu as a bird chick and Yunako as Sadogashima (which totally baffled the host, Yunako had then to explain it was a joke on her catchphrase). Close, but no cigar.

Sources: https://twitter.com/piyomi48/status/1050318020520734720
https://blog.goo.ne.jp/mott20120401/e/f225fdff6cafbbea8d4a45ac1addc49d

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Later, today, the delegation trio also participated in the live broadcast of Wacchi, on Aomori TV, and by the look of some photos they were involved in some cooking segments of sorts while at it. This time around, fancy that, they also received the visit of Lotti as well.

Sources: https://twitter.com/maho_yamaguchi/status/1050669419934797824
https://twitter.com/piyomi48/status/1050738058608312322

Some stills of the program:


Also, click on the thumbnails to watch the (woefully incomplete) recordings:


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Catching up on the backlog, below are a couple of Showroom streams that Maho had over the past days:

2018.10.08 Showroom, taking some rest after the handshake event, updating on the condition of her stiff neck after it had been tormenting all day long, and then some.

Spoiler: Summary

A couple of other curious observations regarding what had been discussed by Maho in this stream:

• I think it fits perfectly with what Maho stated just on the Showroom right before this, about how she both makes sure to find a practical use for any gift received for fans, as well as being someone who tends to hold onto her belongings forever.
  
  As it's revealed, the white jumper she's wearing is actually one of the very first presents she was handed over by a fan, and it has been pretty much 3 years since then. Maho even joked about having used it beyond its limit, that it has become less and less "moko moko" (fluffy, to quote how a viewer initially described it), and more "boro boro" (ragged) instead. Not surprisingly, she also couldn't avoid getting reprimanded about this by a her friend of hers (likely the same that she told of before), who suggested her how it's "about time to throw it away already".
  A bit too insensitive to say considering the emotional value it holds, I guess.
• Sounds like "arch-angel"-like clothes combination that Mahohon wore for the handshake event gained positive reactions and lots of praises from the people at the venue, which is as good an excuse as any to post a video of it...
  https://twitter.com/maho_yamaguchi/status/1049309438375391233
  To quote what she said on Twitter: "I am the oldest one inside of the group, but since at the handshake event it's pretty much all people older than me who come to visit me, I can still afford to get doted on with the feeling of being the younger one, when there."
• On the topic of what's something Maho is trying to "keep moderate", Maho returned to talk about her passion for wine (thanks to Otaki for having introduced her to this world, I need to remind). In particular, she told she has recently made it a habit to dilute it using sparkling water, thought not without some inadvertent mishaps. Case in point: "since there was little water left, I decided to pour wine in the plastic bottle of the sparkling water I used for diluting, instead, making sure to keep it moderate. Well, I forgot it on the table. When I went on to dilute wine again, I did it as usual, so I ended up diluting it with water that had wine already diluted inside. «Huh, this one tastes stronger», I thought to myself. I didn't realize the reason until the next day"...
  I guess that Touhoku genetics making it easy to handle alcohol work in Maho's favor in events like these.

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

2018.10.10 Showroom, basically a "mogu mogu" Mahohon stream for the most part, but while also having a casual talk about the 7 long days ahead of traveling here and there for group-related work. Of course, this included also the away performance at the NMB theater that NGT has scheduled within this week...

(click on the image to jump to the Dailymotion video)

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And finally, I'd rather leave this for last because it seems to be something that might be developing into a worrisome issue if left untreated for too long. Earlier today Maho posted this -- objectively quite alarming, actually -- tweet, which I'll just let speak for itself:

"Sometimes, I have things similar to dark shadows showing up in my field of vision, causing me to be unable to see in certain spots. Once this is over, I would then experience severe migraine, nausea and a sense of fatigue, which makes me feel so painful tears come out of my eyes.
What exactly is all that?
These same identical symptoms have been occuring for 7 days already, even today it happened once again and it felt extremely painful,
therefore if there's anyone out there who had the same symptoms occurring to them, would you please let me know a way to treat them?"
Source: https://twitter.com/maho_yamaguchi/status/1050647232775483392

Again, I think anyone who cares should already know for a fact that Maho's health condition is obviously not flawless, not that she has ever made any big secrets in that regard. For instance, in the past she already mentioned taking iron supplements routinely, as well as having to deal with low blood pressure which causes her to feel a sense of dizziness if standing up and still for far too long (as it is the case of handshake events, which nevertheless she never missed once, to my memory). All of this is something she always used to address in a light-hearted or otherwise nonchalant way, and which she has similarly never made a big deal out of. More recently she had brought up both on Twitter and Showroom about an inflammation affecting her neck muscles (probably brought about by air conditioning at the venue), which forced her to take a break from some segments of the handshake event, but also in this case she thought nothing serious of it even in the face of the (probably overly) worried reactions coming from fans.
Differently from the previous times, today I can see that a lot of more serious concerns were raised, also in a more unanimous way, inside of the Twitter replies from fans, who suggested Maho to go to the hospital and have a doctor check her as soon as possible.
I'll just say as much: I am in no position to speculate on what the source of those symptoms may be, but I just hope that her intransigence in placing work and dedication to the fans above her own health concerns wouldn't take a toll on herself with serious consequences, especially in the light of the schedule that lies ahead...