Mini-Moni -- Mini-Moni. Hina Matsuri!（ミニモニ。ひなまつり!）

Missed it by a day but March 3rd was Dolls' Day or Girls' Day in Japan with its greatest representation being the traditional doll set that is presented in people's homes. I think the above video by "Learn Japanese with Japanese Pod 101.com" will answer any questions and there is also the article on Wikipedia. I don't know how very important the festival is but I remember being invited by one of my students to visit her home to witness her family's doll set while having tea and snacks. I've also heard that supposedly the set is not to be left out too long at the risk of damaging a daughter's chances at matrimony.

Last night on NHK's "Uta Kon"（うたコン）, the theme was a mixed one between a Beatles medley and spring songs, and among the latter, there was a return of an old Hello Project tune that I hadn't heard in years. That would be "Mini-Moni. Hina Matsuri!" (Mini-Moni. Doll Festival!) by Hello Project/Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）sub-unit Mini-Moni.

Now, it's been a long time since I've even had to juggle the various Hello Project groupings so at first, there was some confusion between Mini-Moni and Petitmoni（プッチモニ）. After looking up the latter on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I realized that Petitmoni was the trio consisting of then-Morning Musume members Kei Yasuda（保田圭）, Maki Goto（後藤真希）and Sayaka Ichii（市井紗耶香）whose biggest hit was the really happy-go-lucky "Chokkoto Love"（ちょこっとLOVE）.

Mini-Moni was well-named since the initial four members had heights that were 150 cm or lower. They were Ai Kago（加護亜依）, Nozomi Tsuji（辻希美）, Mari Yaguchi（矢口真里）with the final addition being Mika Todd（ミカ・トッド）from Coconuts Musume（ココナッツ娘。）, and apparently being especially so cute and short, their contributions were more for the kiddie set, including "Mini-Moni. Hina Matsuri!".

Their 3rd single from January 2002 was appropriately adorable with a bit of an old-style doo-wop touch, although I was never all that crazy about Tsunku's（つんく）back chorus. Of course, Tsunku was the one behind words and music. Going Gold, it peaked at No. 2 on Oricon and sold a little over 325,000 copies. "Hina Matsuri!" was also included on Mini-Moni's debut album "Mini-Moni. Song Daihyakka Ikkan"（ミニモニ。ソング大百科1巻...Mini-Moni. Song Encyclopedia Vol. 1）which was released in June 2002. It also went Gold, peaked at No. 4 and sold about 187,000 copies.

I've sometimes wondered what happened to Mika since her days with Hello Project. Well, the Hawaiian native is currently living back in the Aloha State, and according to her J-Wiki profile, she's singing jazz. However, I found this 2012 video from her own YouTube channel with her singing a cover of "Dark Side".