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Actress Nikaido Fumi in FX’s Upcoming Drama “Shogun”
Actress Nikaido Fumi, already an established actress in Japan and known to film festival goers (not to mention that she’s one of our favorite actresses from Okinawa), is about to become a household name worldwide when FX’s upcoming (2/27) drama “Shogun” airs on Hulu and FX. She will play the role of Lady Ochiba who…
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Enka Singer Ishihara Masashi Says Happy New Year to His Fans
Enka music and Okinawa? Yup. 20 year old Enka newcomer Ishihara Masashi shared a heartfelt happy new year to his fans as a YouTube Short. He’s amassed 5,000 followers on his YouTube channel so we hope that’s enough momentum to see his career bloom. He’s definitely got the good looks and if Natsukawa Rimi and…
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Touma Ami & Mitsushima Shinnosuke Part of the Cast of “Sayonara, Maestro!”
Two actors from Okinawa will be part of the cast of the new TBS drama “Sayonara, Maestro!”. Upcoming (well, she’s actually quite popular already to consider her ‘upcoming’) actress Touma Ami plays the role of high schooler Tanizaki Amane who plays what looks to be the violin and actor Mitsushima Shinnosuke (from the famous and…
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Sumo Wrestler Churanoumi (Yup, That Name Says it All)
We haven’t been following sumo lately but now we have a very BIG (no pun intended) reason to watch! Churanoumi Yoshihisa, is you guessed it (for those who noticed the Okinawan word chura), a sumo wrestler from Okinawa (Uruma City). Here’s his profile on the official Japan Sumo Association page. The next tournament starts this…
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Kuninaka Ryoko in 2024 NHK Taiga Drama
Actress/singer Kuninaka Ryoko (“Churasan” series) will be starring in the 2024 NHK Taiga Drama “Hikaru Kimi e” which tells the story of Murasaki Shikibu (author of the “The Tale of Genji”). Kuninaka will be playing the role of Shikibu’s mother, Chihaya, and as amazing as it sounds, it’ll be her first appearance in a taiga…
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Speaking of the Los Angeles Dodgers
As a bonus to one of our recent posts (Okinawa Everywhere All at Once), we wrote a bit about a large number of Japanese pro baseball players from Okinawa to kind of tie it in with the big baseball news of Otani Shohei signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now their manager, Dave Roberts, who…
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Orion Beer’s First Official Store Opening!
A visit to the Orion Happy Park in Nago, Okinawa is a must-go on everyone’s list and it used to be one of the only places to purchase their official goods. But now, we can visit their official store on Kokusai Street! And of course, it’s not just located anywhere on Kokusai Street but on…
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Aragaki Yui Stars in “Seiyoku” (Film)
Aragaki Yui can be seen on the big screen starring in the highly rated Japanese film “Seiyoku (Ab)normal Desire” released on 11/10. Yui plays the main role of Kiryu Natsuki and as a bonus, the insert song “Differences” for the film is by Okinawan rapper Chico Carlito! We don’t see a link up the song…
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Taira Hibiki, Racing Driver
A friend of ours was talking about the recent Las Vegas Grand Prix race which peaked our interest so we looked it up and found that Okinawa has its very own racing driver too! His name is Taira Hibiki and he was the previous champion of the 2020 F4 Japanese Championship. We love that he…
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Amuro Namie’s Catalog on Streaming Services Go Poof!
Ryukyu Shimpo is reporting that Amuro Namie’s entire catalog of albums, singles, etc. have disappeared from streaming platforms. We checked Apple Music and sure enough, although her page is still there all of her music is gone. In addition to streaming platforms like Apple Music and Spotify, her music videos have also disappeared from YouTube.…
Karakui 