Bokunojpop.com

Former Hello! Project and Coconuts Musume member Ayaka has married pro golfer Hideto Tanihara.

The two have known each other for half a year and registered to be married on July 8th of this year.

Hideto was scheduled for his third appearance at the British Open and is expected to take Ayaka with him.

Known to fans from former H!P fandom as simply “Ayaka”, she was a part Coconuts Musume; a group mainly created of English speaking girls. To emphasize the cultural difference, she was made to spell her name in Katakana (Japanese alphabet used to spell foreign words). When she graduated from Hello! Project, she changed her stage name to Kanji and started to use her last name.

Small snippet of a translated article from Hello! Online:

Their first impressions
Tanihara: It was a normal, "Oh she's cute" but it wasn't love at first sight.
Nagate: I didn't really think much about him when I first met him. (laughs)

The shocking marriage
Tanihara: July 9 was my father's 60th birthday, so I wanted to bring her as my wife to celebrate.
Nagate: When I found out it was an important day for him, we did it on the 8th.

Just before the British Open
Tanihara: I'm definitely thinking about it, and I'll do my best.
Nagate: I saw him there in 2006. I was really impressed, thinking, "It's great that a Japanese player made 5th". It's weird that I ended up marrying him.

Any children in the future?
Tanihara: I'm happy with however many we have.
Nagate: I want at least two. One boy and one girl.

You can read the rest of the article here .

Congratulations Hideto and Ayaka!