Famous People: Morning Musume

Not a person, rather a group of people, Morning Musume is currently the most popular group act in Japan. The group originally started out with five original members: Aya Isiguro, Natsumi Abe, Asuka Fukuda, Kaori Iida, and Yuko Nakazawa. Morning Musume was the brainchild of SharanQ's vocalist, Tsunku, on the television program "Asayan." In order to debut, Morning Musume had to sell 50,000 CDs over a span of five days. Of course, the did this, selling out all the CDs in four days.

They went on to have hit after hit of catchy, but fairly awful, singles spawning a marketing campaign second to none in the Japanese music industry. As the number of members expanded they began forming sub-groups, with names such as Puchimoni, Minimoni, Tanpopo, and Country Musume. In 1997 the five girl unit had an age range of 12 to 24 which remains the same today, although the average age of the members is now younger.

How the younger girls manage to balance their work and school commitments is anyones guess as they seem to be promoting practically every product under the sun, appearing in their own TV shows and releasing singles on a regular basis. There seems to be no end to the counsumers willingness to embrace everything from the girls which suggests they'll be here in one form or another for a few years to come.

Information taken from:
http://www.japan-zone.com/modern/morning_musume.shtml
http://www.jpopmusic.com/mmusume/

Superstitions: Lying down after eating

I'm not sure of the origins of this particular superstition however it goes something like this:

If you lie down immediately after eating, you will become a cow.

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