Yui Kobayashi: Is now officially the ninth wonder of the world yet....

 

 .... in Nao's book she's the first wonder 😍 as can anyone top her?!?! Also number one in my book is that top photo which has been my #1 of all time for over five years and don't think it will ever be topped! So as most Yui and Keya fans know have been wanting to do a post such as this one for a few months but kept holding off with the main reason hoping it would never have to be done for she made a triumphant return! But now it's been almost six months since her graduation and starting to lose a bit of hope that we'll ever hear from her again and to me that would be the most depressing thing that has happened since I began this blog thirteen years ago. So there's been zero news for six months and will talk a bit about that in this post but won't be negative at all as we don't know what truly took place and don't want to speculate about things. Comments would be nice too as I'm sure Yui has many fans here and bet they too have been missing her.

 Back on November 29th Yui announced she was graduating from Keya(Sakura) and that was only three days after another first generation graduation. The timing was so odd to me plus the fact her leaving would be in only two months after that announcement. So I was thinking something that none of us were aware was going on as her leaving was so rushed and seemed she just wanted to leave the group as quickly as possible. Yui had been so busy up until September of last year and then her activities slowed way down, even more so after she said she was departing from Keya. There was no graduation photobook, a farewell appearance on 'Showroom', no rash of final magazine spreads, etc. and seemed she just wanted to end her days as an Idol ASAP! Further on down do have Yui's final interview that came out two weeks before her graduation concert and she did say her leaving was something that she had been thinking about for eleven months. Which I can understand as Yui had been with the group for seven years at that point but if that was the case why was there such a rush at the end to leave Keya?

 Those reasons are still unknown, did she perhaps have a boyfriend we never knew about or was Yui just tired of show biz and wanted to begin living a regular life? There could be other scenarios which may be the real reasons and she doesn't seem like the kind of person who would just up and disappear without a word to her fans and she was a popular Keya member. I have said for well over four years how Yui is the nicest person who I have ever posted about and my opinion hasn't changed but am at a loss on why she disappeared so quickly and in the way she did. These days it is very difficult to remain hidden but she's done a superb job at that but I'm also someone who doesn't post about stories or rumors that appear in tabloids but to date those haven't happened and hope they never do.

EDIT: It's about two hours later and did have a new thought(s). Which is that in a few months Yui will be hitting the age of 25 which really isn't that old. But it is if you want to make a career change or perhaps attend a university as she is an intelligent woman. So if she waited much longer for either one of those it becomes much more difficult to start something and not just for her but all of us.

 Last bit for my meandering thoughts and wish I didn't have to do a post such as this one. In a way with Yui being AWOL for so long I began to think has she been my #1 woman of all time but just didn't want to make it official? Had said Yui 😍 would probably have that honor if she remained with Keya until 2025 or even longer, of course that never happened. But no graduation/disappearance has hit me harder than any other one save for perhaps a 2017 Nogi gal leaving. I have lost so much interest in the world of current J-Pop and also Keya as Yui was my main reason these days for following the group though there still are some members I like. That's enough rambling for today and may have further thoughts in future posts as I would like to have a few more even if there is no news about her.

 Sigh, if she had spent the night there's no way I would be writing this up, gulp! In four days her close ex-Keya mate will be celebrating her 26th birthday so will be having a post right after that. Yui will be hitting the age of 25 in exactly three months, will do a post right around then but also would like to have one other at the beginning of September but wish it could be before then....

 That September post would be for Yui's February 1st graduation concert and have only posted a few photos from it. Do have a streamed version of the show but have really only skimmed through it as there was something else I was hoping for and that will be taking place. Which is that on August 28th there will be a DVD coming out of Yui's final Keya concert so do plan on having many screenshots from it. The DVD has some bonus features such as a behind the scenes segment of her final two shows plus some other things and wouldn't it be nice if the day after it was released she also made her return?! Below are some promo pics that have come out the last week for the DVD.

 Do have some new Yui pics, not recent of course but these came out just after her graduation. Which are her final sets of Keya group cards and aren't they sharp looking?! Yes they are and there were so many am holding back ten for her next post.

 This is Yui's 92nd post and no Idol had more from January 2020 to February 2024. So my goal is have her hit a hundred which is so rare these days and she could be the last woman to ever hit that milestone. Can see having 2-3 more posts but those other five could be so difficult but seeing as how there's no woman I adore more than Yui 😍 will make sure that figure is hit! It being Summer how about some older Keya cards for the season? Sounds good to me and have quite a few below, some are brand new for here and the ones for 2020 were the final cards before the name change to Sakura.

 It just occurred to me that Yui may have had her disappearance planned for a while. She was so busy dong many kinds of activities but stopped appearing at fashion shows five months before leaving plus also stopped her modeling with the With site in July. In December is when the final batch of modeling pics(below) for the andGirl site were released which were her best ever(!) 😍 so it makes you wonder if she didn't have a plan on quietly leaving show biz....

 In mid-January Yui had her final interview with Tokyo Calendar, that's a web magazine and I often post pics from that site. In her last post had the link to the interview if you want to check that out but have something even better for English speakers. The site Westillsubbing used to sub variety shows but no longer do that. However they do translate an occasional interview or magazine article, they did translate the Tokyo Calendar interview. The pics are from the site while the those the bottom five are screenshots of the interview from the Westillsubbing site so will give thanks to them for doing that project. It was an interesting interview and it's where Yui said she had thought about leaving Keya eleven months before. However she didn't give many solid reasons for her wanting to leave so quickly nor did she say what the future may hold for her.

 We've hit the end of this post and what a long one it was. Didn't want to say anything negative and don't think I did as it's almost impossible for me to do that to Yui. Also never used the word Retirement until now and that would be so depressing to me if Yui truly won't be heard from again. How many other very busy and popular Idols who are 24 in age with such a bright future in show biz can you think of who have just disappeared without a trace? Just the one Nogi member who I mentioned earlier and she does have a photo on the right hand side. Will end off with some ultra fabulous Yui pics and not many women I post about can top her looks, with each passing day her attractiveness just kept increasing.... whewwww!!!! Of course there's no new videos and surprised there aren't any yet for that graduation DVD. After the scorching pics have a very short clip from her final 'Soko' variety show appearance and Yui's dream had been to cosplay as a Maid! What's also been sad is that the show hasn't been subbed for about eight months and I had wanted to recap the final two shows she appeared on. WARNING.... Yui's kawainess in the video is off the charts 😍, wowowowowowow!!!!