Shinoda Mariko and Matsui Rena are Chukyou Racecourse Ambassadors

It was announced today that Matsui Rena will be cutting the ribbon at the Grand Opening ceremony of the Chukyo Racecourse on March 3rd, 2012.

Official Website: http://chukyo-keiba.com/
Official YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/ChukyoKeibaCom

The Chukyo Racecourse was closed in 2010 for an extensive  two year renovation that cost over 17.3 billion yen. With the renovations comes a new grass turf, the longest in Western Japan at 1,705 meters, and new grandstand named Pegasus. The mascot character of the newly reborn Chukyo Racecourse is also called "Pegastar". The new stand is also eco-friendly, equipped with solar panels.

Mariko and Rena was appointed as the Official Ambassadors of the Chukyo Racecourse back in December 2011, when the reopening date was announced. They have also starred in 2 CMs. However, there was no mention of Mariko attending the Official Opening.








I could be wrong but I think this is the first time any 48 member was part of the ribbon-cutting ceremony for something this big. Wow good job Rena. It's unfortunate though that Mariko couldn't join her. Such a busy schedule she has. 


Anyway I would like to see more collaborations like this between the various 48 groups. Where they both are equal, and it's not "AKB48" that includes SKE48. 


Rena is extremely entertaining in those two commercials, the final "IKE!I IKE! IKE! IKE! IKE!" part in the 2nd CM especially. I certainly was not expecting that and it caught me so off guard that I couldn't stop laughing for 10 mins.