Ayu's left ear
 

I don't post so often here, but I wanted to share the following observation
I read in 2ch about Ayu's left ear.
I understand it is clear to all of us that Ayu has completely lost audition on her left ear.
But in 2ch, a guy found this particular situation that probably none of us observed before.
In the following video, at the second #51, you can see SHU-YA mumbling on Ayu's left ear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzVfn...tailpage#t=50s

And here, another video where a different dancer does the same on stage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbhnJ...tailpage#t=80s

Source: 2ch
thread:【うどんの歌が】浜崎ﾌｧﾝのﾌｧﾝ離れ74【大不評】
http://anago.2ch.net/ami/

Conspiracyyy

It is kind of suspicious, but who knows how loud he 'whispered' to her? And I don't know what else she'd have done in this situation... turn her head all the way around so her good ear could hear what he's saying? Or have Shu-ya go to the other side and whisper to her?

:yes:no:confused

More importantly...WHAT THE HELL IS TIMMY WEARING.

Someone call the fashion police, pls. He's so tacky I can't stand it.

I think he's not really whispering but talking in a normal voice. We can't hear it in the video as they didn't speak into the microphones. Timmy doesn't seem to whisper either when talking to her.

Do we actually know how much hearing she has lost?
Ha she come out and said.. I can't hear at all?

Yes, when she made a statement about it she said that she completely lost hearing in her left ear. She put off the option for surgery too long and lost her chance; it's irreparable.

here it is!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7174893.stm
source: BBC

And this from TA:

http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=67929
Source: AHS (and probably misa-chan translated it)

That's probably what's going on. I think it'd probably be pretty difficult to hear otherwise even with the ability to hear. Weren't there a ton of fans present at this event screaming?

I wonder how much she can actually hear though... I mean during concerts she wears both ear pieces... There would be no reason to wear one in the left ear if she cant hear... or "it doesn't work anymore..."

I wonder how much it "doesn't" work...

guys, I made some research about Ménière's disease some time ago and I found out that a patient can recover and the hearing can be completely restored.

so I hope she CAN hear nowadays.

about the concert earphones. i think thats more for a balance issue. you know ears are not only for hearing right. that explains also why during encores she usually takes the left one off since theres not much intense motion involved

The doctor's diagnosis was that it had gotten to the point where she can no longer recover though. And I don't think we ever got confirmation that it was Meniere's.

The simple answer about the earbuds is that they come in a set of two and there's no reason to chop the other one off or not wear it.

We can also say that it's because it's cute. Since some years, her earbuds have strass. She maybe just want to wear both.

maybe... I don't know...
It just always seems weird to me to see that and think why wear when you cant hear?
Balance is a good point, but I have been on the tread mill many times with only one ear bud in so that I can listen to my music and listen to what is going on around me...

Thats what makes me wonder how much she can actually hear.. the way she describe it just makes it seem like its not working the way she wants it too... lol, if that makes any sense.

It doesn't really make sense. She's already said she lost all function in her left ear. What more do you need? :shrug

I thought it was right ear that went to deafness?

i think Shuya was leaning in so she could hear him better over the translator and the crowd. i don't think he was actually whispering though.

and omg her english has improved alot, and i always loved her motto "think for today, not yesterday or tomorrow."

HER ENGLISH OMG! I love her!

^ just kidding :laugh

:roflmao

Meniere's disease is characterized by sudden hearing losses and vertigo that reverts after a relapse. However, at time, as the disease progresses, the recovery is only partial and can lead to permanent hearing loss without chance of cure.

On the other hand, I believe there are surgeries (baha implant or maybe there might be something newer) that can transmit sounds transmitted to one side and deliver it to the opposite healthy ear through bone conduction. ayu could have done such surgery, which doesn't take the fact that her lost ear can't be recovered even with surgery anymore. People with unilateral hearing loss aren't as doomed to complete handicap as those with bilateral.

BAWHAHA! funny

I don't know about her ear...but that make me smile...
Not yesterday,not tomorrow just TODAY
:weep
How beautiful she is...

I haven't heard Ayu speak English since that CNN interview, it just sounds so strange to her her speak like that! Also, her voice tone really shocked me as I wasn't expecting it to be so deep :)

No comment about the left ear topic, but her English! Omg! :heart And when she dazes off into the crowd, they called her name and she goes: "Huh? Wha? Hai!" :laugh "Why do you have my microphone?"

I forget that she even has a hearing issue. She doesn't seem to let it stop her in the slightest. I have a friend from college with a similar issue but with her right ear and she still performs in plays and sings no problem (she's a speech therapist).

Actually I was thinking about this the other day.
When I met Ayu in San Francisco, I gave her a hug and said, "I love you so much," in her ear, and she said, "Aww." The other day, I realized I had said it in her LEFT ear. So she probably didn't hear me. But she reacted to what I said. But maybe she didn't understand me because of her hearing, so she just said, "Aww." But isn't that an appropriate response to a fan telling her they love her?
I think Shuya was speaking in a normal voice, not whispering, it just wasn't picked up over the sounds of the microphones and the fans. But still, it's interesting to think about.

Giiirl, I love you more than life itself!

Actually, my mom is completely deaf in her left ear as well, and she constantly turns her head so she can hear from her good ear, because she cant hear at all out of the left.

She doesnt have Menieres though. Maybe Ayu has at least a little function? idk. He was probably talking louder than it seemed.

Wow her English really DOES sound good! God, I knew it must've improved quite a bit since that message she wrote about her divorce had almost flawless grammar.

But about the ear thing...Geez I really don't know :(...Maybe she could hear from her other ear??? LOL

My mom is completely deaf in her left ear as well. But, she says she can hear a tiny bit of noise when people talk in her left side but she can also still pick some of it up on her right. I think this might be the same case with Ayu. She might be able to hear some slight noise in her left ear but her right ear may be picking up the slack.

^yeah, the effects are so different, and on such a case by case basis...its kinda ridiculous people would be using this as evidence of anything lol

They'll never quit.

^Exactly! It's a little irritating.

Exactly! Even if she is deaf in her left ear, she can still hear on her right. Even if someone is on her deaf side, I'm sure she can still hear them even if it's not as well.

^agree agree.

and about the headphone thing if I was deaf in one ear, I would wear both.
I mean is the logical thing to do.
It doesn't matter if you wear both or one it doesn't bother it either way.

Plus, wearing only one would just draw attention to her deafness which I doubt Ayu really wants to do.

As someone who had a lot of ear problems, I can say that she probably does need both ear pieces. I never understood how much the ears affect balace until I had my ears drained and I kept walking into walls and getting major headaches.

^O.o I hope your ears are ok now! Walking into walls doesn't sound healthy...

Even if she can't hear anything with her left ear, she still has her right one.
Just try and keep shut one of your ears and lean forward to the TV/radio etc.
You're still able to hear with your open ear...Probably she is now able to hear with the healthy one very loud and precise...

I didnt either until my mom was doing the same things. Sometimes its scary when we're hiking or on really steep stairs or something, I always want her to go first lol

My mom also has issues like, not being able to tell where sound comes from, or with really loud places.

I was wondering if that happens to ayu, especially in her concerts and stuff...anyway, she seems to have gottem used to it now~

Completly off topic but what is Shuya doing with his free hand? xD
http://youtu.be/OzVfnT8PZIg?t=3m:innocent

I like Ayu's English! It has really improved a lot :)

Wait!! I don't get it when she told the MC (or the interpreter) that why was he "using" her microphone??? at 1:08

:laugh
it looks wrong but i think he was adjusting his belt or shirt or something.

Oh, I believe she said that because he was standing right in front of her asking the question on the microphone and she was asking why he was using the microphone. Then he explained it was so that everyone could hear the question or something like that.

She said when mirrorcle world came out that the title was connected to her hearing healing miraculously. She isn't even slightly deaf anymore.

^That really makes no sense at all. At the beginning of 2010 she announced that she is now completely deaf at her left ear and count down on RnRC deals with this issue. But MW was released 2008.

With the first video, just because someone leans to your left ear doesn't mean you can't hear with your right one. We don't know what he said so who knows how much she relied on actually hearing him. Sometimes we all have conversations, then someone says something hours later and you look at your friend and just laugh.

For the second, again, who knows how loud he spoke to her? Those screams are crazyloud xD

maybe ayu's left hear is healing even just for a little bit?

:thud

She announced her ear being completely deaf at 2008. A few days after CDL 2007-2008 (where her voice really didn't sound that good at all, I was there at the time).

But saigo... Lol and lol on you. Where did you see her say/write that? Can you please give me some source of that? :) Mirrorcle World is just a developed title of the interlude "Mirror" from GUILTY that was released before she announced her deaf ear. And while count down did mean alot about her ear Last Links was the clearest no-hearing-left-in-her-left-ear since the intro just plays on the right stereo... = We get to hear what Ayu hears. Only the right side. If her hearing was back, I don't know if she would have done that in her album2 years later.

^strange, somehow I remember it was 2010. But if you were there you will be right and I need to do something for my memory.^^

i thought that too but after looking it up, she announced it on January 8th, 2008 in a TA entry.

saigodansu, you still happen to amaze me lol


He was fixing his...belt >D

There was a bit of a 'thing' where she said that during a concert on her anniversary date in 2008 which was also when Mirrorcle World was released, "it was as though her ear had healed completely" because everyone in the audience was her left ear... or something. Here's the quote from the article:
It wasn't meant to be taken seriously, I think.

I'm half deaf in my left ear, and when I was a child I was completely deaf, but I can pick up some sound in my left ear though. I don't know if this is the case with Ayu, but if someone is talking in my left ear, I can still pick up what they're saying from my right ear, so I guess it's sort of like overcompensating? Or it's doing twice to work because the other one can't hear too well. Maybe that's the same thing with her?

Also, keep in mind that sound does travel, and if they're talking normally and not whispering, there's a good chance she heard it from her other ear. I know that's happened to me plenty of times.

I get the ringing in my ears a lot, and sometimes I'll just lose hearing in my left ear completely until the ringing stops. It's very annoying, so I hope she isn't going through that during live shows.

I think she had the ringing ages back (Like, DOME TOUR 2001 back.) but now she doesn't hear anything. If you want to see her struggles with it at the time, watch this video clip from the NTV special. The ear problem actually caused her to fall into an open part of the stage injuring her leg at the time, but she still performed with the injury (as she usually tends to).

She really had to deal with a lot during her peak... and I don't think fans knew about it until years afterward when they released this footage.

I can imagine why she kept it hidden. I've had years to deal with telling people my hearing loss, and some of the responses are pretty negative or snide. She went through so much and kept a lot hidden probably because she was confused, scared, and probably didn't think about the future in those terms; but that's one of the many reasons why I respect her as an artist and as a person, because she never gave up, even when suffering like that.

The balance thing really is an annoyance and I can definitely imagine the pain she was going through during the Dome Tour. I felt that fall when I watched the documentary on youtube, it truly is a scary thing to experience.

If I recall correctly, she's only LEGALLY deaf in her ear. She may have retained some hearing, but for purposes of japanese law, she is able to claim "deafness" in her left ear