Pop duo Puffy have started their second U.S. tour, kicking it off at Webster Hall in New York. About 1,000 fans turned out to see Ami and Yumi, who are also promoting a new show set to start on the Cartoon Network from November 19. “Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi” features the pair as animated characters, and the soundtrack goes on sale on November 16. Ohnuki Ami (31) spoke to the audience in English saying it was great to be back in New York two years after their last tour. They play Los angeles and San Fransisco on Sunday and Monday. They have already slated another U.S. tour for next spring.
• meanwhile at home, we have just had the biggest typhoon in several years. Typhoon #22 dumped huge amounts of rain on Tokyo yesterday but couldn’t stop Devilman! The new live-action movie version of the popular manga and anime opened on Saturday, and 600 people came to the Toei 1 cinema in Marunouchi to see the director and cast greet the audience after the first showing.
The Tokyo District Court ordered the magazine publisher Bungeishunju to pay actress Nishida Hikaru ¥1.1 million compensation for libellous articles and advertisements. Nishida’s lawyers had sought ¥24 million, following an article which appeared in the Shukan Bunshun magazine in April 2003 suggesting that Nishida and the president of a cosmetics firm were having an affair. The magazine published photos of the two taken at the company’s shareholder meeting, and also ushed the story in its advertisements for the magazine. Married in 2002 and now living in the U.S., Nishida’s image has long been that of the typical “girl next door.”
Ditzy pop star Kahara Tomomi (photo, 30) not only spells her name differently (it used to be Kahala) but is with a new record company and back in the charts. Her latest single “Kimi ga Ireba,” with Universal Music, entered the Oricon singles chart at No.15, her 23rd chart entry. It is the first cover of a Korean song to make the charts in 21 years. Kahara has had an up and down career that peaked under the Svengali-like eye of producer Komuro Tetsuya in the mid-90s. The two also had a brief romance, and the breakup led Kahara to problems with her weight, sleeping pills and a rumored suicide attempt.
The waning popularity of baseball’s Yomiuri Giants continues. Never having strongly contended for the Central League pennant didn’t help, but this season’s 12.2% average audience rating for night games is the lowest ever since Video Research started analyzing the figures in 1965. That year, the Giants won the Japan Series and the figure was 23.3%. In 1987, when they won the pennant race, it reached 27.1%. This year’s ratings and the team’s failure to advance to the postseason is all the more disappointing for fans as this year the team had spared no expense to put together arguably the most impressive lineup of power ever seen in Japan.
J-pop star Hamasaki Ayumi (26) has been chosen as the female Best Jeanist for 2004, for the second year in a row and her fourth title in all. One more, and she will be the first woman to enter the award’s hall of fame, home of 
Transsexual celebrity Carrousel Maki (61) is now officially a woman. Under a recent change to the law, she was allowed to legally change her sex in her family register. Real name Hirahara Tetsuo, she is one of nine children born to a Hokkaido family. After making a debut at 15 and working in gay bars across the country, at the age of 29 she went to Morrocco to have a sex change operation. On returning to Japan, with feminine looks and an unmistakably male voice, she became a star of TV, movies and stage. In recent years, she has made headlines for drug arrests.
Comedian Kazama Kampei (55) has said he’s had enough of the Spartathalon, after failing to finish the 246 km race from Athens to Sparta. Having run the first 75km in nine hours, he was 20 minutes over the allotted time and disqualified. He has competed in the race seven times since 1988, completing it three times. The full distance must be completed within 36 hours, and only about 20% of runners make it to the finish line. For anyone interested in seeing more of this self-proclaimed “gag machine” and his variety of whacky characters, he recently launched a new web site at 
Supermodel Tominaga Ai (22) is four months pregnant and is to marry this month. The father is a Japanese in his 20s who is currently working in Paris. The couple will register their marriage when he returns to Japan later this month. The happy event is almost concurrent with her upcoming appearance in the eagerly-awaited movie “Devilman,” set to open on October 9.
Seattle Mariners outfielder 
Actress Ono Mayumi (23) is having a secret romance with actor Sasaki Kuranosuke (36), according to the weekly magazine Friday. The pair both happen to live in the same Tokyo apartment building. Ono made her breakthrough with her beaming smile on the “Ha-ji-me-te-no ACOM” TV commercial. It has been running since 2002. Sasaki’s career is also on the up, after appearances in several recent hit Fuji TV dramas. But it was said to have been an appearance together on an NTV drama during the summer, which included a kiss scene, that sparked off their relationship.