-Honda ZEST SPARK-
Ayu's recent Honda ZEST SPARK endorsement did quite surprised us as she has not been a Honda spokeperson for almost 10 years. She was last seen on Honda Giorno Crea CM in 1999 (if we didn't miss anything in between). Do check out Race Queen Ayu as well as a sneak preview of upcoming Ayu song "Sparkle" in the following CM.

• Download CM  • Stream CM  • Honda ZEST SPARK official site

-Ayumi Injured In Fall-
Ayu injured her right hand Wednesday (12.24.08) and had no choice but to cancel her Music Station Super Live 2008 performance last Friday (12.26.08) and is hoping for a speedy recovery in order to perform at Kouhaku and Countdown Live 2008-2009 the day before new year. Original article as follow:

TOKYO — Singer Ayumi Hamasaki, 30, has injured her right hand, and with only four days to go until NHK’s Red and White Singing Contest, she is in a race against time to recover and take to the stage to lead off the New Year’s Eve show. NHK announced Friday the order of songs for New Year’s Eve, and it would be the first time in the show’s history if the opening artist were to be unable to perform.

According to her agency Avex Group, Hamasaki fell down the stairs at her apartment on Wednesday and injured her right hand. Staff took her to hospital where she received medical attention, and on Thursday she underwent surgery. Hamasaki later had to cancel her live performance at TV Asahi’s “Music Station Super Live 2008” on Friday night. Her doctors say the injury will take three weeks to heal, and her fall was caused by anemia exacerbated by fatigue.

Hamasaki wrote on her blog: “I can’t even hold a microphone. I’m really upset and truly sorry I couldn’t make it to ‘Music Station.’” In addition to the Red and White Singing Contest, she is scheduled to perform on the 30th and 31st at Yoyogi National Stadium. “I just have to believe in my strength, and hope my body can heal before then,” she wrote.

Shin Ishihara, chief producer of the Red and White Singing Contest, said: “We wanted to open the show in a certain style and Hamasaki was going to do that for us. But now we’ll have to wait and see.”

Rehearsals will be held on Monday, where it will become clear if Hamasaki will open the New Year’s Eve show as scheduled.

~Source: Japan Today

Update 12.31.08: Ayumi performed "Mirrorcle World" at Kouhaku moments ago and will show up at Countdown Live 2008-2009!

"ayumi hamasaki ASIA TOUR 2008 ~10th Anniversary~" DVD-
It is not common to see Ayu related news published at Yahoo! Taiwan but this article shows that Ayu loves Taiwan so much that the upcoming convert DVD will have Taiwan as its main content.

Ayumi Hamasaki (Ayu) recently also joins the crowd of "Taiwan Loving" Japanese singers, where she not only specifically designated Taiwan as her very last stage of 10th anniversary of debut Asia concert tour, but the Concert DVD will be including live footage of the Concert in Taipei, that let even more fans feel the vibe of "Ayu-type" luxurious concert.

Ayumi frequently waves to her Asian counterparts over these few months, besides taking over the ambassador of the Wacoal Asia undergarments, live footage in Taiwan inside her new DVD release, and even mod-up her latest music video in the setting of retro 1930s Shanghai nightclub. While Ayu dressed herself up in cheongsam(qi pao) and dance around, The Shanghai studio made 1930s Chinese movie theater hand-drawn Ayu signboards to appease the crowd.

Ayumi Hamasaki's 10th year anniversary debut concert finally lowered the curtain in Taipei, and the longed-for DVD will be having the live footages as well. It triggered waves of discussion online between Taiwanese fans that truly felt her sincerity. The 2nd single (Days/Green) that marked the 10th year career milestone of Ayumi will be in-sync released in Taiwan and Japan on 17th Dec 2008.

~Original article translated by Isaac Hiew.

-"Days" PV-
Broadcasted by Space Shower TV yesterday was the lovely PV, "Days" by who else, Ayumi Hamasaki! For the uninitiated, this PV will be included in the upcoming single "Days/GREEN", scroll down for details. As usual, check out the screenshots as well as downloadable full-length PV below.

• Download PV "Days" (Password:divineayu) Format: MP4-AVC, VLC Player recommended, Playstation3 compatible. *Remember to support Ayu by purhasing "Days/GREEN" CD+DVD single to enjoy hi-quality video :)

-"ayumi hamasaki ASIA TOUR 2008 ~10th Anniversary~" DVD-
Announced yesterday at Ayu's official site were the details and tracklisting of this upcoming concert DVD and surprisingly, footage from Taipei Arena which was dated 11.02.2008 was chosen instead of the usual Japanese footage for this time around!

Pre-order from Yesasia US Customers: Japan version Global customers: Japan version

ayumi hamasaki ASIA TOUR 2008 ~10th Anniversary~ DVD: AVBD-91592~3 Release Date: 01.28.2009 Price: ¥4,800 Tracklisting: [Disc-1] 00. reBiRTH 01. The Judgement Day 02 .talkin' 2 myself 03. A Song for ×× 04. Depend on you 05. Fly high 06. (don't) Leave me alone 07. decision 08. my name's WOMEN 09. Marionette -prelude- 10. Marionette 11. HANABI 12. End roll 13. tasking 14. SURREAL~evolution~SURREAL 15. Mirrorcle World (encore) 16. Dearest 17. Voyage 18. Humming 7/4 19. Boys & Girls 20. MY ALL [Disc-2]  • MC footage collection  • Concert screen footage collection and more... New live DVD release from Ayumi Hamasaki featuring footage from final day of her concert tour "ayumi hamasaki ASIA TOUR 2008 - 10th Anniversary" on Novermber 2, 2008 at the Taipei Arena. Disc 2 features MC footage from her concert, screen footage, rare footage, and more. ~ Excerpts from CDJapan

-"GREEN" PV-
Broadcasted by MTV Japan on 11.26.08 was the PV of "GREEN"! Check out the screenshots as well as downloadable full-length PV below.

• Download PV "GREEN" (Password:divineayu) Format: MP4-AVC, VLC Player recommended, Playstation3 compatible. *Remember to support Ayu by purhasing "Days/GREEN" CD+DVD single to enjoy hi-quality video :)

-"Days/GREEN" Cover-
Reveal moments ago were the covers of Ayumi's upcoming single "Days/GREEN" at her official site! Do check out the sneak preview of both songs and PVs there! Note that the layout of the site has also been updated to "days/GREEN" theme.

Jacket A CD+DVD+Poster Buy online from Yesasia US Customers: Japan version Global customers: Japan version Jacket B CD only Buy online from Yesasia US Customers: Japan version Global customers: Japan version Jacket C CD+DVD+Poster Buy online from Yesasia US Customers: Japan version Global customers: Japan version Jacket D CD only Buy online from Yesasia US Customers: Japan version Global customers: Japan version CDJapan customers:   • Jacket A   • Jacket B   • Jacket C   • Jacket D

-New single "Days/GREEN"-
Announced today was Ayu's next single "Days/GREEN" scheduled to be released 12.17.08 with 4 different jackets. The tracklistings show that Ayu is including re-recorded version of her 8cm-single songs "LOVE~Destiny~" and "TO BE" on this upcoming singles but unfortunately they are available seperately on different jackets. (Note: Jacket naming sequence is yet to be confirmed until Yesasia* puts them up for pre-order).

*Update 11.08.08: Yesasia has put up a CD+DVD+Poster package for reservation below, however, this time around it seems that another popular online shop CDJapan (links below) has a much better deal (depending on where you reside) where the poster comes with their "First Press" reservations.

Jacket A CD+DVD+Poster Buy online from Yesasia US Customers: Japan version Global customers: Japan version Jacket B CD only Buy online from Yesasia US Customers: Japan version Global customers: Japan version Jacket C CD+DVD+Poster Buy online from Yesasia US Customers: Japan version Global customers: Japan version Jacket D CD only Buy online from Yesasia US Customers: Japan version Global customers: Japan version Buy Japan versions from CDJapan • Jacket A • Jacket B • Jacket C • Jacket D Days/GREEN Jacket A (CD+DVD): AVCD-31580/B Jacket B (CD only): AVCD-31581 Jacket C (CD+DVD): AVCD-31582/B Jacket D (CD): AVCD-31583 Release Date: 12.17.08 Price: ¥1,890 for Jacket A and C, ¥1,050 for Jacket B and D Jacket A track listing: [CD] 01. Days (Original mix) 02. GREEN (Original Mix) 03. LOVE ~Destiny~ (10th Anniversary version) 04. Days -Instrumental- 05. GREEN -Instrumental- 06. LOVE ~Destiny~ (10th Anniversary version -Instrumental) [DVD] 01. Days 02. GREEN 03. Days (making clip) Jacket B track listing: [CD] 01. Days (Original mix) 02. GREEN (Original Mix) 03. LOVE ~Destiny~ (10th Anniversary version) 04. Days -Instrumental- 05. GREEN -Instrumental- 06. LOVE ~Destiny~ (10th Anniversary version -Instrumental) Jacket C track listing: [CD] 01. Days (Original mix) 02. GREEN (Original Mix) 03. TO BE (10th Anniversary version) 04. Days -Instrumental- 05. GREEN -Instrumental- 06. LOVE ~Destiny~ (10th Anniversary version -Instrumental) [DVD] 01. Days 02. GREEN 03. Days (making clip) Jacket D track listing: [CD] 01. Days (Original mix) 02. GREEN (Original Mix) 03. TO BE (10th Anniversary version) 04. Days -Instrumental- 05. GREEN -Instrumental- 06. LOVE ~Destiny~ (10th Anniversary version -Instrumental)

-New song "GREEN" on Panasonic Lumix FX37 CM-
Panasonic have recently rolled out their new FX37 compact camera in their Lumix line and as usual their spokeperson who is none other than Ayu was featured in their CM. Note that there's a sneak preview of Ayu's new song "GREEN" in the CM:

• Stream CM   • Download CM   • Download Wallpaper

-New Ayumi Hamasaki Official Site Layout-
It's quite a surprise that Ayu's official site layout is now optimised for widescreen and higher resolution monitor such as 1280x768 or 1680x1050. At these resolutions, you could see a nice background featuring the cover of the "A COMPLETE ~ALL SINGLES~. Stream CM here.

-"A COMPLETE ~ALL SINGLES~" Covers-
Revealed recently was the covers of both 3CD+DVD and 3CD-only versions of the upcoming compilation album scheduled to be released 09.10.08!

3CD+DVD Preorder from Yesasia US Customers: Japan version Global customers: Japan version

3CD-only Preorder from Yesasia US Customers: Japan version Global customers: Japan version

-Wacoal Lingerie Ads-
Ayumi Hamasaki endorsed a lingerie ads campaign entitled "TRUST ME" by international company Wacoal last month. Surprisingly, it was reported by JapanToday (7/16) that this ads will not be uesd in Japan. Full report reprinted as below:

Lingerie maker Wacoal has signed up singer Ayumi Hamasaki, 29, for its lingerie advertising campaign in the Asian market. According to Wacoal, photos of Hamasaki in Wacoal underwear will be used for advertisements in China, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Vietnam from the end of July. The ads will not be used in Japan, the company said.

A spokesperson for Wacoal said, “Ms Hamasaki has the highest profile in Asia and is supported by females fans in their 20s who are our target consumers.” The company is expecting a synergy effect from the ads with her Asian tour in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taiwan from Sept 20.

Photos were taken by Mika Noguchi who is president of lingerie maker Peach John and Hamasaki’s close friend.

Additionally, here's a short video clip of their photography session on DailyMotion and their product: