Hirano Aya made a quick trip to Hawaii last weekend for a photo-shoot. She found it beautiful, but a bit chillier than she expected. Click photos to enlarge. She enjoyed some bits of American commerce (below): a hamburger as big as her head, and a big Disney store, where she bought pajamas, among other things. "I want to be a kid again." She says that girls' sizes for 8-10-year-olds or 10-12-year-olds seemed to fit her. Below left is her New Year's picture, with which she wished everyone a happy new year on January 1. And here are a couple of pics from late December: one from a photo-shoot, and one that shows her eating dinner at a restaurant. Is that the "real" Aya? All these photos are from Aya's blog. There were some great shots in late December. She even did a photo-shoot as Alice in Wonderland. She wrote that when she lived in the US as a toddler, she won a Halloween costume contest as Alice, so she feels a connection with her. She laughed that the right-hand picture is "disgusting." Finally, here are some pics of Aya with her family's dog Chibi-chan ("Midget"), also known as Chibi Taikun ("Lord Midget"). She says it's a seven-year-old male "wiener dog," and she loves it, and it loves its "big sister" Aya. Personally, I find kissing dogs fairly disgusting, but since it's Aya.... Besides the continuing stream of TV appearances and photo shoots, Aya's main work this month is as host of Moegaku 5 (もえがく★５), a daily 15-minute TV show that teaches kids languages. She also voices a character in the animated part of the show.
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