Ayu in Oriental Daily 22/3/05

[extepan]

Title: earthquake in hometown fukuoka, relatives could not be contacted by phone
ayu worries about her friends and relatives & sang in tears

Text: an 7.0 scale earthquake just happened in japan. the epicentre is in the sea to the west of fukuoka. 2 days ago, ayu was in ??? performing her 'ayumi hamasaki arena tour 2005 my story' concert tour. she had tears in her eyes when she talked about the earthquake in fukuoka.

ayu said, she tried to contact her friends and relatives in fukuoka by phone after the earthquake. however, she could not get through at all ,making her very anxious. when she sang 'a song is born', she almost cried. apart from being worried about her friends and relatives, she has also expressed concern about the people affected by the earthquake.

earlier, there were reports criticising ayu for not participating in charity work, not even for the southern asia tsunami disaster, despite her sizable income from her huge record sales. ayu was criticised for being selfish and hence lost the hearts of the people. in the concert 2 days ago, some fans changed their opinion. they praised ayu for giving courage to the people, and they left messages on internet message boards to appeal to people not to say bad things about ayu anymore.

on the other hand, ayu wore a bright red low cut top waving a stick made out of md players in the new panasonic MD player tv ad. this ad has a similar feel to uma thurman's kill bill. in addition, she will sing 'a song is born', which is the theme song for the "love, earth" concert that she will take part on 24/3/05.