Utada is currently on a break from the music industry. We don't know how long her break will be. I wanted to send her a fan message telling her how much she is missed and I hope she returns soon to produce more music. She has stopped tweeting for over a month, fans are missing her even more!
Our Japanese tutor Ben has helped me translate my message to Japanese. He did a great job translating (I did put him on the spot).
A story I had on the show last year was - middle aged Japanese men having pillow girlfriends. These men had given up all hope of finding a real girlfriend, so they resort to having virtual girlfriends. Do you guys remember this story (link to story)? It is very fascinating.
The pillow girlfriends are printed pillow covers of cute, young anime characters. The men would carry their girlfriends everywhere like on shopping trips,to work... They also take their pillow girlfriends on dates to the movies, restaurants and even on holidays.
In August, a new pillow girlfriend model will be released. Instead of hugging a normal sized pillow, people can now hug a life sized pillow girlfriend that has two arms. The shape of the pillow is like a cross. The pillow girlfriend can now hug the owner back.
The height of the pillow is 160 cm (that’s almost as tall as me), and the arm span is 50 cm.
The picture on the pillow cover is a bit disturbing - well all pictures of pillow girlfriends are disturbing because they are sexually suggestive.
Some of the men were quoted to saying they were very happy in their virtual relationship with their pillow girlfriends. If for some reason they were not happy with their current pillow girlfriend, they can chuck her out for this new life size pillow girlfriend.
When I went to Japan last year, I picked up some words - but I wish I knew more Japanese so I could talk to the locals more. Luckily, special guest Ben Morgan joined us in studio this week for a Japanese lesson.
