Kashiwagi Hinata being diagnosed with sudden deafness

It was announced yesterday that Shiritsu Ebisu Chuugaku's member Kashiwagi Hinata was diagnosed with sudden deafness on her right ear. Because of this she will stop all her activities until at least January..

When I first read this, I was just really, really shocked. I thought she was fully deaf on one ear, so I guess you can understand why.. I really thought she wouldn't be able to hear again. The bad thing about a group not being part of 48 or H!P is, that it takes a while until you can get any English information on something. I did some research on Japanese sites and to my relief it looks like this isn't a permanent deafness. There's a pretty good chance of her being able to fully recover again.

But this made me think about actually getting deaf.. This incident made me really emotional somehow.. And it shows once again that Idols are just human beings who can get ill just like every other person. This was just something I haven't heard someone getting before..

And just imagine, you could never listen to music anymore.. Just, just.. I can't imagine that. And especially for someone like Hinata, who is part of a group that sings it would probably be one of the worst things to ever happen. I'm still not really sure, if or when she will come back as a singer, but I just hope she will recover from this!

She has the best voice in Ebichu, so it would be sad to lose her. But she needs to take a break now and hopefully she will be back soon! :)