Peachy’s, Part 2

More photos of the new Japanese lip singing idol unit “Peachy’s”. 3 popular gravure idols - Yuka Kosaka, Akina Minami and Rina Akiyama have come together to form this unique “no singing” group, a first in J-pop history.

The idea for Peachy’s came from Fuji TV’s Monday late night variety show “Jodeki! Pop Company Pop-ya” (～ジョーデキ！POP COMPANY～ POP屋)

The three cute Japanese pin-up girls were keeping it real, though. Rina Akiyama aka “Oshirina” (オシリーナ) whose claim to fame is her petite yet beautifully shaped ass said, “When I heard my own voice I thought, ‘Oh, this is bad.’!” The sexy Japanese gravure doll Yuka Kosaka aka “Kosakana” (コサカーナ) laughed, “We tried practicing but it was pretty disappointing. It’d be nice if one of us has a nice voice.” The cheerful Akina Minami aka “Akkina” (アッキーナ) added, “I don’t care, I like our group this way. We’d like to start a new lip singing craze!”

From L to R: Yuka Kosaka, Akina Minami and Rina Akiyama

Peachy’s had their second mini “live” concert in Ikebukuro’s Sunshine City (池袋サンシャインシティ) at the end of last month. The girls were pretty nervous but showed off their lip synching (口パク) skills in front of about 2000 fans. Yuka, Akina and Rina finished the performance with their upcoming single “My Baby Boy” which is scheduled to drop on August 6th.

Peachy’s

Meet Peachy’s, the first ever “lip synching” idol unit straight outta Japan!

Mystery solved!

While I was walking around the Fuji TV headquarters building in Odaiba during my recent Japan trip I noticed some type of live event was being held at the plaza below at street level. Curious, I got closer to take a better look and see what all the commotion was about. A sizable crowd had gathered in front of a temporary stage where 3 girls dressed in similar flashy 1 piece dress outfits were doing some song & dance routine. In the backdrop on stage was a sign that said “Peachy’s”, which I had never heard of before.

The temporary outdoor stage where Peachy’s had their first public performance was at the bottom left corner of this shot of Fuji TV headquarters in Tokyo

Naturally I whipped out my beat up but trusty camera and aimed for the stage. But I was told by what appeared to be an event staff to keep moving as I was getting ready to take some snap shots that would’ve been worthy of a “Tokyo moment”. At that time I was by the very side of the stage, just outside the fenced off area where the audience was. I thought they just wanted to keep the foot traffic moving so I walked toward the pack and took out my camera again.

Peachy’s - Yuka Kosaka (L), Akina Minami (C) and Rina Akiyama (R)

However as I was adjusting the frame and the zoom once again I was interrupted by some event staff with a badge. This time I heard what he was saying, “I’m sorry but there’s no photography allowed.” I was really puzzled, since right before I got idol-blocked I saw a couple people passing by taking pictures with their cell phones. I wondered maybe it was my lack of understanding of the Japanese language or perhaps they didn’t want me taking pictures from that particular spot and get in the way because I did see a camera crew filming the event. I said to myself, “third time’s the charm” as I moved to the right side of the audience and attempted to snap up some juicy exclusive photos for all you Sleepy John readers.

Sorry guys, in the end I wasn’t able to provide any shots of my own. But this is what Peachy’s first mini concert looked like.

What do you know…this time a dude in a suit came up and rudely idol-blocked me even before I pointed my camera in the right direction! I MEAN WTF?!?! What’s the big friggin’ deal if their objective was to promote the group? I know I wasn’t back home in the States, but common sense would dictate that everything’s fair game out in the public. And I certainly considered this outdoor event by the street to fall under public domain! Am I off on this?

A big F**k Y** goes out to the department of event planning at Fuji TV and Japanese nonsensical trivial practices in general!

I got frustrated and upset about silly little trivial things the Japanese insist on doing like this one so I split without taking any pictures. But now thinking about it maybe I should’ve just played the “dumb gaijin” card and ignored them!

To make sense of all this, the dream idol unit “Peachy’s” consists of Japanese gravure idol Yuka Kosaka (小阪由佳), Akina Minami (南明奈) and Rina Akiyama (秋山莉奈), who also often appear on Japanese TV shows. Peachy’s claim to fame would be, “We’re not singing!” The project was born half jokingly out of Fuji TV’s late night TV show “Jodeki! Pop Company Pop-ya” (～ジョーデキ！POP COMPANY～ POP屋). The cute Japanese idol trio has gained so much following that they’ll release their first single titled “My Baby Boy” later on this summer!

L to R: Yuka Kosaka aka “Kosakana” (コサカーナ), Akina Minami aka Akkina (アッキーナ) and Rina Akiyama aka Oshirina (オシリーナ)

Read more

Akina Minami

Today I’ve got the Up To Boy spread of the boyish cutie Akina Minami (南明奈). The 19 year old gravure idol from Kanagawa Prefecture just south of Tokyo has been receiving a lot of media attention the last year.