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American Wota 2.0: Market – Stuff For Sale
This looks like a very good idea — especially as an alternative to eBaying stuff — that I may do in the near future. For the Okinawan pop-cutlure connection, you’ll find Amuro VCDs and a Gackt limited edition CD + DVD single on sale among other J-pop goodies. So here’s some stuff I’ve got for…
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Web: Picture Okinawa
Being a fan of annya_okinawa’s Flickr photostream, I was quite happy to see a post introducing her new photography website called Picture Okinawa. Filled with a growing number of beautiful images from Okinawa, you can easily spend an hour or two at the site. Photo blog, HDR Japan, is also worth checking out too.
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Tatsuya Shimabukuro’s debut album ‘Tunugi’ hits stores on March 12!
Perhaps the most anticipated CD debut (for Okinawan minyou) of the year is Tatsuya Shimabukuro’s “Tunugi” which is set to be released on March 12. Tatsuya’s “Tunugi” will contain 12 tracks including two that he composed the music for. The reasonably priced ¥2,500 album, from Campus Records’ Tundami label, will also feature the talents of…
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J-Pop CD Cover Art Shares Amuro Cover via Feed of Pop
[Blogs] J-Pop CD Cover Art Shares Amuro Cover: “‘PLAY’ Front Covers + Promo Recommended ogling. It would’ve been nice to have a scan of that back cover where Namie’s wearing that magnificently sexy eyepatch…” Link (Via Feed of Pop.) Continuing onto 2008 with the great success of her PLAY album Namie will be releasing a…
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Kazutoshi Matsuda posts pics from Okinawa’s New Year’s TV specials
Popular utasha (Okinawan folk singer) Kazutoshi “Kaazuu” Matsuda recently performed in two of Okinawa’s New Year’s TV specials: RBC’s “Kouhaku Uta-gassen” and OTV’s “Shinshun! Shimauta no Saiten.” Although both shows won’t air until January (RBC’s one on 1/2, OTV’s on 1/3), Kaazuu is sharing a few pics on his blog which gives us a preview…
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They call him ‘jimihen’
Continuing their tradition of releasing a commemorative t-shirt with album releases from legendary utasha Seijin Noborikawa, Respect Record has the “Suikojizai” shirt available for purchase at record stores (like Takara Records on Kokusai) or online at their website. The album is set to be released on 1/16/08. (Via the Campus Record Staff Blog.)
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Singer Kozue Chinen posts kunkunshi of her song ‘Imenshori Iijima’
In a very cool move, Okinawa minyou singer Kozue Chinen posted kunkunshi (musical notation) of her composition “Imenshori Iijima” on her blog along with the lyrics which are a tribute to her hometown. “Imenshori” means welcome in Iijima (Iejima) dialect and she also links to a YouTube clip of her performing the song.
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Blogs worth subscribing to from Vision Factory’s artists
Vision Factory, which manages artists like J-hip-pop queen Namie Amuro, has a listing of blogs (Namie is unfortunately not on the list) up on their site. The great thing is that a few of these blogs contain video clips (so they’re closer to vlogs). Below are a few of my faves: hiro (ex-SPEED) – ‘Constanze…
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On Gakky’s 20th birthday – karii (cheers)!
A recent entry titled “Ichio” (いちお) on Yui Aragaki’s (Gakky) blog mentions that the actress will turn ’20’ (the legal drinking age in Japan) in seven months (June 11th to be exact) and she already has a special Ryukyu glass (pictured above and comes via her blog) that she wants to drink awamori from. Oh,…