How long did Ayu train in New York for?

[ExodusUK]

Before her debut, I think I read 3 months, is that right?

[kinix]

Not really sure but from

Originally Posted by channel-ai.com

Since Ayumi was literally doing nothing productive in her life, she decided to take vocal training. However she realised that her choice was a huge mistake since she felt as if she went back to school. She hated the idea of following rigid rules and so she started skipping classes. When she confessed this to Matsuura, she expected he’d write her off, but he suggested sending her to New York for some real training. Ayumi was stunned at this proposition, but she reluctantly decided to go for three months. She stayed at a midtown hotel and was surprised to see that the lessons were so less strict. She corresponded with Matsuura through letters. This made him realise that Ayumi had the potential to become a songwriter.

http://www.channel-ai.com/blog/2007/...yumi-hamasaki/

Originally Posted by asiafinest

"I felt like I'd gone back to school," she says. "If there are rules and regulations, I can't help it, I want to break them."

Finally she confessed to Matsuura that she'd skipped most of the classes. But instead of writing her off, he proposed sending her to New York for some real training. "I thought he was kidding," she says. "I mean, I was 17." Reluctantly she went, staying in a midtown hotel for three months, taking singing classes a few blocks away. "New York was a relief-not all hierarchical and rule-bound," she says. When Hamasaki returned to Japan, Matsuura proposed another challenge. Because she has trouble voicing her thoughts, Hamasaki had over that year corresponded with Matsuura through letters, which must have echoed of simple yet poignant lyrics. He read them and said, "Why don't you try writing songs?" The idea that she could express herself in song imbued her with a new sense of direction. "No one had ever asked anything of me before, or expected anything of me," she says of Matsuura, whom Hamasaki and everyone at Avex calls by his title, senmu, or managing director. "Part of me was flattered; part of me was terrified but didn't want to admit I couldn't do it. Plenty of people had patted my head and said, 'Aren't you cute.' Senmu gets mad, but when he praises me, I know I've won it. He's the one who found me and drew me out."

http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/lofi...hp/t41235.html