Celebrities: Hikaru Utada (宇多田 ヒカル)

Hello everyone! Welcome to Liv N' Luv Japan! Today, I will be talking about a popular Japanese celebrity who is a solo artist named Hikaru Utada~! ! ! ^_^

• Name: Hikaru Utada (宇多田 ヒカル)
• Birthday: January 19th, 1983 (currently 31 yrs old)
• Birthplace: Manhattan, New York City, NY
• Height: 5'2" (1.58m)
• Spouse: Kazuaki Kiriya (married from 2002-2007)
• Parents: Teruzane Utada & Keiko Fuji
• Occupation: Singer & Songwriter

 
 Hikaru Utada is a Japanese-American singer and songwriter. She has been in business ever since 1996 and then ended it in 2011 on hiatus. Which means she probably paused on her music to handle personal things in her life. She is originally from Japan but, was born in the U.S. Her music is really popular in both Japan and the U.S. among both Japanese and American people. She plays many varieties of different music such as pop, R&B, rock, alternative, dance, electronica, synthpop, and experimental. She also knows how to play the piano, vocals, and guitar.

On September 7th, 2002 she married Kazuaki Kiriya. He is a photographer and a film director who was 15 years her senior and he had also directed several of her music videos. After 4 and a half years, the couple divorced on March 2nd, 2007. Soon, she confirmed she had a boyfriend 8 years her senior which they begun their relationship in about September 2009. Then on January 27, 2010 it was reported that their relationship had ended due to the fact that Utada was extremely busy with her "In The Flesh 2010", and the fact that they never saw each other. 

Sadly, on August 22, 2013...Utada's mother, Keiko Fuji, died by apparent suicide by jumping from the 13th floor of a 28-floor condominium building in Shinjuku, Tokyo. 

Soon, she announced on her personal site, that she was engaged to be a wed, asking for her fans and the media to view her personal life from a "respectable distance" as he is not in the entertainment industry. On that same day, her ex-husband congratulated her on her marriage. Then, on February 10th, 2014 Utada and her fiance Francesco Calliano left a message on Hikaru Utada's official site about how they met each other, him being a bartender in London hotel and asking for privacy. They were wed on May 23rd, 2014.

Here are some amazing photos of her family:

                                                This is Hikaru Utada's mother Keiko Fuji

                                        This is Hikaru Utada's ex-husband Kazuaki Kiriya

                                             This is Hikaru Utada's father Teruzane Utada

                                    This is Hikaru Utada and her husband Francesco Calliano



Now, I will show you guys videos of a few of her songs that she had written (it is kinda hard for me to find the official version of MVs but all the songs is the official version) Also most of her songs that she I have written are also part of the video game "Kingdom Hearts".:



                                                                  "Simple and Clean"

                                                                         "Passion"

                                                               "FINAL DISTANCE"

Thank you guys so much for checking out Liv N' Luv Japan! I will be posting more articles soon for you guys to check out! Bye Bye!! Love you!! Arigatou gozaimasu~!! ^_^

Celebrities: Ashida Mana (芦田 愛菜)

Hello everyone! Welcome to Liv N' Luv Japan! Today, I am going to be on the subject of celebrities. I want to talk about a famous Japanese child named Ashida Mana~! ^_^

Birthday: June 23rd, 2004 (currently 10 yrs old)

Occupation: Singer, Actress, Model, and Tarento

Birthplace: Hyogo Prefecture, Japan

Talent Agency: JobbyKids

 Now, here is a little more about Ashida Mana and my opinions on her. She has been on so many movies, j-dramas, commercials, and voice acting for animations/cartoons. So I am going to give you guys a list of the many things she has appeared in:


MOVIES:

• Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora (2010)
• Kokuhaku (2010)
• Ghost Mou Ichido Dakishimetai (2010)
• Inu to Anata no Monogatari (2011)
• Hankyuu Densha Katamichi 15 fun no Kiseki (2011)
• Usagi Drop (2011)
• Liar Game: Saisei (2012)
• Nobo no Shiro (2012)
• Pacific Rim (2013)

I am planning to check out all of these movies and plan to watch them since I am a huge fan of this kawaii little Japanese girl Ashida Mana. I am really interested in one of these movies which is "Pacific Rim". After I watch these movies I will also plan to write a review on my blog about them. ^_^

Now here is a little bit of information about Ashida Mana that you may not know about her. Her favorite foods are cucumber, fried vegetables, sukonbu and kameni. But, she dislikes eggplants, pumpkin, and milk. Her hobbies are riding the unicycle and reading. She looks up to the K-POP group KARA. She became famous and rose up to popularity after she was starred in the award winning j-drama "Mother" and she end up winning "Best Supporting Actress" at the 14th Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix. And at the age of only six, she became one of the youngest leading actress in a Japanese drama called, "Sayonara Bokutachi no Youchien" in 2011.

Now like I said before, Ashida Mana is a singer so I am going to show you a couple of her music videos:


                                  Ashida Mana - Sutekina Nichiyoubi ~ Gyu Gyu Good Day!

                                                   Ashida Mana - Zutto Zutto Tomodachi

                                                   Ashida Mana - Minna no Happy Birthday

                                                  Ashida Mana - Maru Maru Mori Mori

That was just a couple of her music videos and I find all of them to be very adorable and I love listening to her music. It's hard to really choose my favorite song by her but, I gotta say that I would choose "Maru Maru Mori Mori" because the song is super adorable and so is the very colorful music video and just listening to the song makes me feel really happy and makes me feel like a really happy little kid~! ^_^

Now also like I said before, she has also been in so many commercials!! So, I will also show you guys a video full of most of the commercials she has been in:

And do you remember when I said that Ashida Mana looks up to KARA and is a really huge fan? Well, here is another video which was on her birthday and she meets the group KARA for the first time! Really cute~! ^_^

Well, that is all for this article on the celebrity Ashida Mana~! I will be posting more articles soon so stay tuned and don't forget to follow Liv N' Luv Japan on Twitter at @LivNLuvJP ! ^_^