December 30, 2007

An Open Letter to Erika

Dear Erika:

You are human & have every right to behave as one. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You're young yet & have a right to have life experiences--whether postive or negative--because that's how we learn. If you want to cry, then by all means, do so.

If you want to spend money that you earned, be my guest. If you want to party like Jimmy Page on a week-long bender in 1972, then you have my blessing. (Life is for living, yes?)

You have to realize a cold fact, however: The the only thing the media likes more than the rise of a young star is to see that same star crash & burn--all the while preaching their smug, self-righteous "morals" to the public from their sanctimonious bubble of hypocrisy. And unfortunately, the public jumps on the bandwagon to nod their heads & agree like a herd of mindless sheep. We've all been guilty of it.

No one is perfect, & not everyone can express themselves accordingly, especially if they're depressed, stressed & exhausted. If you don't want to want to disclose your feelings & secrets to the public, then don't. Not everyone feels comfortable with this sort of thing...unfortunately if you're private or shy then you "have an attitude." On the other hand, if you do speak your mind then you're "difficult". (Really, in the public eye you're damned if you do & damned if you don't!) So I say damn it all & do what the hell you want. You have talent so stay focused on your music, because if you're a good enough artist then you'll get by on that merit--that's what's important in a musician--to me, at least. And if your fans have their priorites straight & leave their judgement of your personal life at the door, they should know this as well.

To quote you: "I am myself. Hear the future in the wind...and together, we will hear a voice we have never heard before." Good stuff, there.

So when all is said & done just be yourself, after all--who else can you be? If someone doesn't like it, they're the ones who'll have to deal with it. And Erika--you're stunning...live a little & have fun. But why.....WHY are you seeing someone who resembles Rhesus Macaque? This is easily forgiven, however-- you stone-cold rock some of the (second-best!) hats in the business.

Then again, why not come to America--where you can shave your head, make a sex video, drive drunk, take pics of yourself snorting coke in a hotel room, & then be photographed with no panties on! (and that's on a slow night) If we're offended-- splendid! It's what we need & we expect no less.

...and remember--a well-behaved woman seldom makes history!

Written by solstar

December 29, 2007

Erika Dominating News Of 2007

Many news sites make a ranking of all news of 2007, including MSN. MSN Sankei recorded how many times each article has been accessed throughout the year. While Erika may not have gotten in the first place, she still dominates the ranking with a total amount of 6 articles in the Top 100, and 9 in the Top 200.

11 - Erika-sama's teary apology (The complete breakdown.)
14 - Sawajiri Erika's apology ("It's all my fault.")
36 - Obliquely good mood? Sawajiri Erika-sama's silence at the stage greeting.
44 - Erika-sama, disliked-woman no.1
65 - Togashi Shin's angry statement regarding Erika-sama's "Betsu ni.." speech.
83 - Kameda Kouki comments on Erika-sama

Top 100: http://sankei.jp.msn.com/special/news2007/news2007.htm
Written by HPriest

December 25, 2007

Erika Wants To Double Credit Card Limit? + More Information

According to someone from an advertising company again, Erika requested to increase the limit of her gold credit card that she got from her office. The current limit is said to be around 2 million yen and with her request she wants more than the double amount of that. Her office doesn't really understand why they should give her a higher limit. The reason behind her request is unclear as well.

There have been quite a few rumors going on since she came back to Japan from the Led Zeppelin concert in London. It seems that she wants to study abroad in Great Britain or somewhere close to that, and nearly everyone has already accepted this fact. However, when you ask the staff/people of her office, they will probably give you a confused look and answer with "Huh? You knew that?" . They probably don't even know about this credit card rumor yet.

Stardust also doesn't seem to be too happy about the amount of leaks coming from their own people.

It's obvious that this information can only come from somebody with the staff. Who allowed you to spread this to the public?, the company president in a rage. It really is burden for the office, especially because of so many details that get leaked with each rumor. It makes it really easy to find out about her and her current schedule.
Will Erika have a more private life in 2008? We will see..

Written by HPriest

Destination Nowhere Week 4 Sales

ERIKA's latest single Destination Nowhere placed at #39 this week. It is only a 6 spot drop from last week, compared to the 15 spot drop from first to second week, and 10 spot drop from second to third. The exact amount of sales this week are 2,152 copies sold, which brings the total amount of copies sold to 39,780.




39 32 **2,152 *,*39,780 *4 ERIKA 「Destination Nowhere」
32 22 **3,842 *,*37,628 *3 ERIKA 「Destination Nowhere」
22 *7 **7,162 *,*33,786 *2 ERIKA 「Destination Nowhere」
*7 -- *26,624 *,*26,624 *1 ERIKA 「Destination Nowhere」

December 20, 2007

Closed Note DVD Release - March 28, 2008

Erika's latest movie, Closed Note, will be released on DVD in March of 2008. It will be released in two versions, a special 2-DVD limited edition, along with the standard edition.

2-DVD Special Edition:
Release Date March 28, 2008
Duration 198 Minutes
Features Movie, Special Reports, Trailers, CM, Making-of, Interviews, Previously Unreleased Footage, Event Footage, and More.
Price ¥4,662 ($40.00)
Order Amazon.co.jp










Standard Edition:
Release Date March 28, 2008
Duration 138 Minutes
Features Movie, Special Reports, Trailers, CM
Price ¥2,953 ($26.00)
Order Amazon.co.jp

December 19, 2007

Google.co.jp 2007 Search Ranking

Google.co.jp has released the rankings for the most searched things in 2007. Erika came in at #2 for the list of celebrites.

01 Nakagawa Shouko
02 Sawajiri Erika
03 Hatsune Miku
04 Leah Dizon
05 Kojima Yoshio
06 YUI
07 Aragaki Yui
08 Nagasawa Masami
09 AAA
10 Asao Miwa

December 18, 2007

Erika Causes Traffic Accident

Actress Erika Sawajiri caused a traffic accident in Tokyo on Monday. Fortunately, no one suffered any injuries.

Sawajiri was driving in the Meguro ward of Tokyo at around 9:00pm on December 17. She was making a right turn at an intersection, and her car came in contact with a motorcycle making a left turn from the opposite direction.

The driver, a man in his twenties, was not injured. The police are treating the incident as a traffic accident resulting in property damage.

December 17, 2007

Stardust Announces "New Erika"

Erika just returned to Japan from the Led Zeppelin concert with her boyfriend Tsuyoshi and immediately is in the topics of newspapers again. In the past we heard several rumors about that Erika's schedule for 2008 is blank, that according to some people she wishes to study abroad (like Great Britain) and so on. Now Stardust finally makes a move and even already has a replacement for Erika, the so called "post-Sawajiri". "The belonging office, Stardust Promotion is giving Sawajiri a special holiday, already announcing the promotion of a "post-Sawajiri". This "post-Sawajiri" has already been decided and will be the pure and innocent actress Kaho (夏帆), 16. Her character may be the exact opposite, but Kaho already is at the same level of Erika when it comes to acting. The announcement of her taking the leading role in the upcoming dorama "4 Shimai Tantei Dan" has been a great push for her popularity."
So the rumor about her studying abroad might be true, but this actually hasn't been quickly decided after her riot at the press event. "Her manager said that long before the riot, about six months ago, in meetings she already started to ask for a one year long paid vacation. That's why even the autumn schedule hasn't been fixed for a long time and that's also why there still is no schedule for spring 2008. At first the office didn't want to give her the allowance for this paid holiday, but she kept on bringing up this topic again and again. When looking at the riot, she probably only did it to finally get the permission, don't you think?"
So from now on Stardust will keep on pushing Kaho's career instead of Erika's. We will have to see how well she will do in the tough competition among the actresses, but so far it looks like that she is going to have a bright future... at least until her own riot....

Written by HPriest

Erika at Led Zeppelin Concert (News Clip)


December 16, 2007

Erika in GDC (2007-08 FALL/WINTER COLLECTION)

(HQ) Erika in Oricon Style 12/10 Issue Scans

December 15, 2007

Erika Is #2 Top Female Star in 2007

Oricon has released the results of its end-of-the-year survey asking men and women who they thought was the most successful young star of 2007. With two thousand people participating in the survey, the answers were actress Yui Aragaki and comedian Yoshio Kojima.

Aragaki has had a phenomenal year, which included her first starring roles in film and television, the start of a music career, and an increase in commercials. Erika Sawajiri, who ranked 2nd among female celebrities, also saw similar success this year, though it was marred by the "Closed Note" PR incident.

The rest of the women's top five were Kanako Yanagihara, Sumiko Nishioka (the oldest of the list at 33), and Maki Horikita.

Kojima easily topped the men's list, as he was ranked first by all age groups. His silly routine has become amazingly popular, and his catchphrase "Sonna no kankei nee" was named one of the top ten "buzzwords of the year."

Shun Oguri was second in the rankings, followed by Yu Darvish, Ryo Ishikawa, and Toma Ikuta.

December 14, 2007

ERIKA's Rank in Oricon Top Singles of 2007

ERIKA's debut single FREE has ranked at #67 in the Oricon Top 100 Singles chart of 2007 with 119,817 copies sold. Destination Nowhere would have gotten into at least the top 200, if it wasn't for the release date being the very last week of the Oricon year.

67 - 119,817 - FREE / ERIKA - 07/07/04

December 13, 2007

Sawajiri, Takashiro spotted together at Led Zeppelin concert

As was reported last month, Erika Sawajiri was invited to the Led Zeppelin reunion concert in London that took place on Monday. She flew to England at the end of last week with her manager, but her real companion while she was there was her boyfriend, media creator Tsuyoshi Takashiro, whom she was recently revealed to be dating.

The couple was seen enjoying Led Zeppelin's concert together, and photos of them after the show have been published in Josei Seven this week.
Daily Sports also took pictures of them arriving together at Narita Airport on Wednesday, dressed in similar outfits (black jacket, sunglasses, and jeans). A friend of Takashiro met them there and took their luggage while the couple walked calmly to the parking lot. They apparently were not disturbed by the people around them staring and taking pictures, though they silently ignored all questions.
Josei Seven reports that Sawajiri and Takashiro have plans to visit England again before the end of the year.

December 12, 2007

Erika at Led Zeppelin Concert

There it happened, the big reunion concert of Led Zeppelin. Many fans still hope for a whole tour, since only 20,000 people were able to see the show live. Over 100 million people applied for a ticket and through auctions those tickets have been sold for up to $170,000 (19 million yen). The special guests didn't have to pay this fee, of course. While a lot of celebrities from around the world (Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck, Naomi Campbell) came to watch the show, there only have been three seats reserved for Japanese stars. As we all know, Erika got one of those three seats. Accompanied officials said that she has been completely thrilled and stood during the whole show in pure excitement. In Japan she has to worry about a lot of things that went wrong during the past few months, but at the concert she was able to let loose. In an earlier interview she mentioned that this chance is like a "dream come true" for her and that Led Zeppelin influenced her a lot, regarding her musical career.

Written by HPriest

MTV Long Interview with ERIKA



MTV Japan has updated its website with a special page for ERIKA's interview that aired earlier today. You can view the interview, which includes more making-of footage from Destination Nowhere at the special page, here. The interview will be up from December 12 to December 19, so watch it before it is too late! The interview will also be available to download here later.

December 10, 2007

Destination Nowhere Week 2 Sales

Erika's second single Destination Nowhere ranked at #22 in its second week on the Oricon charts with sales of 7,162 copies. This brings the total amount of copies sold to 33,786.

22 *7 **7,162 *,*33,786 *2 ERIKA 「Destination Nowhere」
*7 -- *26,624 *,*26,624 *1 ERIKA 「Destination Nowhere」

December 9, 2007

Making of Pepsi Nex XMAS Version CM


December 8, 2007

Destination Nowhere on CDTV (2007.12.08)





DivShare Download

If you like these songs, and videos, we ask you to please purchase the single

December 7, 2007

Pepsi Nex CM (Xmas Version)





Erika has shot a new CM for Pepsi Nex, this time it is a Christmas version. You can stream the commercial on the site below.

Special Stardust PEPSI NEX Page

December 6, 2007

Takashiro Denies Pregnancy/Marriage Rumors

Takashiro Tsuyoshi (43), the reported lover of Erika and creator of "Hyper Media", has been at a public event the first time since the news about their relationship circulated in the news. It was the announcement party of the new model of the "NISSAN GT-R". A reporter bumped into him and pretty much straightforwardly asked him, "Any marriage plans?". "No, no," Tsuyoshi immediately replied. "That's what everyone says when being asked the first time." Tsuyoshi then stopped the interview, said "Please leave me alone." and walked away with a smiling face, adding "And I am not becoming a father either." Later they happened to bump into each other inside of the GT-R again. Tsuyoshi sat on the driver's seat and while sitting on the passenger seat, the reporter tried his luck again. "You can drive it with your girlfriend," but Tsuyoshi repeatedly asked him to please leave him alone. To sum it all up, no marriage plans and Erika is not pregnant.

Translated by HP@ESN

December 4, 2007

Destination Nowhere Week 1 Sales

Destination Nowhere has ranked #7 on the weekly charts for its first week, with sales of about 26,624 copies. This is about half of what FREE sold in its first week, and still less than what it sold in its second week. It looks like this single will have trouble to (and probably not even be able to) reach even 100,000 copies sold! Erika's recent behavior may be the reason for these sales, or the fact that people just weren't as interested in this single as they were with her past releases.

Destination Nowhere

Daily/Weekly Ranking:
Mon -- 11 x
Tue 4 21 x
Wed 4 23 x
Thu 6 x x
Fri 7 x x
Sat 6 x x
Sun 10 x x
Week 7 x x
Week1: ~26,624

Sales/Ranking table from ESN.


December 2, 2007

(LQ) Erika in Oricon Style 12/10 Issue Scans

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