宇多田ヒカル (Utada Hikaru)

A friend asked me to introduce some good Japanese music. Let's begin with my favorite singer ^^. I'm a big fan of Utada Hikaru. I like her music, her lyrics, her looks ^^, her voice and simply just the aura around her. She's a pretty popular singer in Japan and if you don't know her, well... now's a good time ^^. You could impress your friends by singing her songs at a karaoke session... her songs are difficult to sing though, 頑張ってね。Just to name a few of her albums I have in my collection.

First Love. Her first album was a big hit in Japan way back in '99 if I remember my history. This was when I my ears and eyes first met her ^^. Many hit singles from this album there was; Automatic, Movin' on without you, First Love, Time will tell etc. It was, and still is, a great album. Propelled her all to way to the top!


Distance is, imo, an excellent album! If you were to ask me which is my favorite album, this one wins hands down. It contains my favorite single Wait & See. Other songs I really like in this ablum; Can You Keep A Secret?, Distance, Addicted To You (great song), For You, Kettobase (prefer the unplugged version though), Parody, Time Limit.


Deep River. On my favorite album list, this one ranks right below Distance. Just because the single I like the most is not in here ^^. Songs I like; 幸せになろう, Deep River, Final Distance, traveling (this is among her best), Sakura Drops, 光 (also one of my personal favorites). 光 (hikari) has an english version called "simple and clean". I like the lyrics and this song has been used in the game Kingdom Hearts (if you've heard of it).


Exodus... This is a difficult album. Her first big release in the US. Don't think it did very well. I'm no expert, but I think she was experimenting with some new sounds. Some individual songs were good, but I haven't listened to any of those recently. I'm sorry, but this album didn't resonate within me although some singles did make it to the top of dance charts in the US and UK.


ULTRA BLUE. Also another experiment with sound in my opinion. The only songs I kinda liked were 誰かの願いが叶うころ、日曜の朝 and Keep Tryin'. Oh yeah! I almost forgot, COLORS is in this album too. COLORS is good. The others didn't make it to my frequent playlist. This album was a big hit nevertheless.


HEART STATION. Her latest album as of this post. I think her experimentation paid off. The sounds and tunes in this album are pretty cool. Many good songs in here. Fight The Blues, Heart Station, Beautiful World, Flavor Of Life, Stay Gold, Kiss & Cry, Prisoner Of Love (big hit now), ぼくはくま、虹色バス。Prisoner Of Love is the current opening theme of the drama ラストフレンズ (last friends). Good tunes, good lyrics, great song. I bought this album from the iTunes music store ^^.


I only have 2 concert dvds. The Bohemian Summer Tour and Utada Hikaru Unplugged. Wish I was there at those lives though. It looked pretty fantastic from the dvds. Unplugged versions of her songs were also good. If you're looking for a recording of a live performance, I highly recommend the unplugged dvd.

I've just listed some (if not all) of her albums and some of here live DVDs. She has also released dvd collections of her MTVs (called PV in Japan). If you're a big fan of some of her MTVs, you can buy and watch it over and over again instead of like waiting forever for it to appear in MTV today. If you're reading this from Japan, want some Utada Hikaru stuff but feel lazy to get to your nearest music store, you can always try searching 宇多田ヒカル on Amazon Japan. he has tons of other goodies than the few I've covered here. Check her out at wikipedia.

From elsewhere in the world, can't find it at your nearest music store (impossible I think), search for Utada Hikaru on Amazon.

Naruto Shippuuden filler

Ok. I guess my previous post about the current Naruto Shippuuden filler might have been just a tad bit naive. I guess since the characters from the current filler is in the opening theme, it will go on a little bit longer than I anticipated. Good luck catching up to the manga! All's not lost though. It seems that certain characters who appeared only once or twice in the manga, get more attention in the filler. More attention = more character development.

Anyway, the new opening is kinda growing on me. It's by an upcoming trio called 生き物語り (ikimonogatari). I think they are pretty new. Can't find their homepage... Here's the opening theme. The song's name is "bluebird". Enjoy!

Fuji-san from an airplane window

Ever wondered what Mt. Fuji looks like from an airplane window? There was a time when I was flying domestic. The weather was good, the sky was clear and I happened to be on the right side of the plane. Out popped the camera and "ka cha" went the shutter. I don't know about you, but being able to get a good shot of majestic Fuji-san isn't something that happens to me everytime I fly. Most times I don't get to see it at all due to clouds and, you know, being on the wrong side of the plane. Not to mention if I was flying at night. Sure, I could always leave my seat and check out the view from the emergency doors... but some passengers (I guess just me) get fidgety when they see people crowding around the emergency door. There's always this scene in my head where someone would accidentally open the door. Yeap. I worry too much. When has an incident like that actually happened?

¥2.5mil for a pair of melons

No pun intended in the title ^^. I am always amazed at how expensive fruits can get in Japan. Especially with the Yubari melon (It's orange inside). These babies from Hokkaido have been sold for a cool ¥2.5mil! ¥0.5mil more than what a pair fetched last year! What would you do with a pair of ¥2.5 millon melons? On my dining table, it'll probably be gone before the dealer closes all bets.

Photo from Japan Today

CHANGE

There's this new Kimura Takuya （木村拓哉）drama that started last night. CHANGE. He plays an elementary school teacher who, by a strange turn of events, finds himself succeeding his father and dragged into the House of Representatives. Somehow, hereditary succession seems to be a common occurrence in political Japan. That was yesterday's episode, but the drama's synopsis says that due to certain circumstances (low approval ratings maybe?) he will eventually be named Prime Minister. Eventually as in like the next few episodes. I quote,

"The new Prime Minister is mindful of the sentiments of the common people, tackles everything from the viewpoint of man on the street, and fearlessly says he doesn't know when he doesn't understand something but his stance is also affected by his surroundings. The drama will also depict the gap between the political circle's conventional wisdom, called "Nagata-cho logic" and society."

I think it has similar elements to HERO (not the "ヤッタァァ！" HEROES). In HERO, he played a street-smart public prosecutor who often goes against convention when solving cases. CHANGE seems to be HERO with a political backdrop, except that he gets to go all the way to the top and be Prime Minister.

Remember, every Monday night at 2100 on FujiTV. Monday nights will never be the same again! And who knows, maybe this drama will popularize politics among the youngsters in Japan. It does have a cool opening theme.

Wings of Redemption Spawn 2

I used to collect Spawn figures... well, kinda still collecting, but I've not bought any new Spawns for quite a while now. Speaking of Spawn, I took a look at Todd Macfarlane's current line at www.spawn.com and it was love at first sight! From Spawn Series 34: Spawn Classics, Wings of Redemption Spawn 2! This one I want! Hubba hubba. It's going to be released in July 2008. If I manage to get me grubby paws on it, you're definitely gonna see photos up here!

Meanwhile, check out one Spawn I have in my collection. Like the photos?

Modern Jedi Training

This is not really Japan-related (except if you associate the Jedi and the samurai), but it's entertaining ^^.

Cheap digital cameras in Japan!

It doesn't get any cheaper that this! Don't know how long it'll last though and they're probably clearing last season's stock. Up to 70% off! 安い! Saw this today. So don't blame me if it's not there tomorrow ^^!

Mishiro Akatsuki「美城暁」

My very first figure! シュラキ・トリニティBOX-01「美城暁」. This is a rather otaku-like post. Japan is probably the only country where you can find such detailed figures with big manga eyes. I thought I would take a dip into this area of subculture Japan; photographing figures... and along the way, collecting them ^^.

I don't know who she is, except that her name is Mishiro Akatsuki (美城　暁) and that she is part of the series Syuuraki (シュラキ). Btw, she's an original figure, not from any manga or anime (that I know of). Maybe from now on? The thing I like about her are her 2 Katanas. I'm a have a thing for katanas. If it's a figure and he/she is holding a katana, it peaks my interest. About the photos, you can take a look below. Just click on any for a bigger view. Check out the amount of detail on those katanas.... oh, and her as well ^^!

Ok, I didn't mean to, like, strip her and start firing away (I guess it's like baby photos. How many of you have embarrassing baby shots?), but it does show you the amount of detail the sculptors really get into. And that is real cool. I did take a little advantage and took some shots from a certain undesirable angle. It's all in the name of showing off detail ^^. She's not posable, but you can change her outfit (or not). There's the original sailor-type school uniform and the "battle-damaged" version of it. You can also mix and match to your liking. Katanas as well. She's supposed to hold the red katana in her left and the blue in her right. Although I kept it that way in my photos, I varied the way she held them. The first few photos show her holding the katanas "correctly", as she was intended to. Those towards the end are my variations. Which one do you like?

Usual price is ¥4800, but she's on sale right now. Going for about ¥3800. Check out other シュラキ figures here at Amazon, Japan. Get it while they last though. These things sell like hotcakes! She does look rather cute (可愛い、kawai) and cool (カッコイイ、kakkoii) at the same time doesn't she. Read up about her (in Japanese only, sorry). She's the first from a collection of figures released by Good Smile and Red Entertainment.

Although being my very first figure, she comes highly recommended!

Problems opening in IE7 fixed!

I had the IE woes. This site would open in Safari and Firefox. It just wouldn't sing for IE7. I was stumped for a while... until a few days ago. The problem was due to a javascript, Lightbox, that I am using for viewing photos; if you click on a picture, a contextual window opens up. I don't know if it's a bug in the javascript or in IE7. But since there are no problems with Safari and Firefox, I'll be biased and say that it's a problem with IE7 ^^ (sorry IE7).

I was using the latest version of Lighbox. The fix is to use a previous version of the javascript. If you want to use it, let me know. I'll zip it up and send it to you.

The "counting 1 to 10 in Japanese" song