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Rinken Band & Tink Tink on YouTube
Listening to Rinken Band’s music is both nostalgic and emotional for me so the orchestra version of their song Funayare in the YouTube clip above pulls at my heartstrings. Uehara Tomoko’s voice is one-of-a-kind and the music Teruya Rinken composes is truly original. Like many musicians during the pandemic, concert tours have been canceled and…
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5th Elements 10th Anniversary
Vocal duo 5 Elements (A-RA and YU) is celebrating their 10th anniversary with the release of a new album THE BEST which features 15 tracks — including the song below (Minami no Shima e Dekakeyou) with sanshin by Maeda Hideyuki. The new album also features the song Party which was written by Daizou from the…
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Ganeko Yoriko’s Utahime Livestream on YouTube
It’s crazy times that we’re able to watch a livestream of the amazing Ganeko Yoriko‘s performances at her minyou stage Utahime. I visited there a long time ago with a group and we were invited to do an impromptu live performance on her stage. She’s very gracious and kind so if you’re in Okinawa, be…
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GACKT GAMEz New YouTube Channel
Speaking of sub-channels and multiple YouTube channels, GACKT recently created a new one showing him playing games called GACKT GAMEz. The new channel joins his already established channel with 800K+ subscribers, GACKT Channel Gaku-chan. Judging by the number of likes and comments on his tweet announcing the new channel, it looks to be off to…
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MAX THE BOMB’s New Sub YouTube Channel
As if one YouTube channel wasn’t enough, we now see sub channels (or is it subchannel?) and additional ones being created for fans. (Even my favorite YouTuber, MKBHD, recently created a new channel for his podcast.) Called【MAX】MTB まっく素のて〜げ〜ちゃんねる ([MAX] MTB [for Max The Bomb] Makku Moto no Teegee Channeru), they will release videos on a…
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Chuning Candy’s Moving On
Idol group Chuning Candy recently shared a YouTube clip of their new single MOVING ON!! (April 7th digital release) showcasing their amazing dance performance (just a reminder that their dance performance of Dynamic Ryukyu has over 3-million views on YouTube). The title of the new single is interesting (coincidental?) given the April 24th sad news…
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i-Dushi’s YouTube Channel Almost at 40K Subscribers!
As announced on the group’s Twitter, i-Dushi is closing in on 40,000 subscribers on their YouTube channel! At the time of their tweet, they were 500 away and today they’re less than 200 away! As mentioned in one of our earlier posts, they have been uploading amazing new content frequently so now is a great…
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Okinawa VTuber Nema Ui
If you’re into cute culture you’ll definitely want to check out the Okinawa VTuber Nema Ui. If you’re not familiar with what a VTuber (Virtual YouTuber) is, here’s an English example from Wikipedia: … an online entertainer who uses a virtual avatar generated using computer graphics. A growing trend that originated in Japan in the mid-2010s, a majority…
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“Hanamizuki Okinawa Hougen Ver.” is the MV of the Year
If you watch one music video on YouTube, this must be it. The MV is an acoustic cover of the very popular J-pop song Hanamizuki by Hitoto Yō (she’s Japanese and Taiwanese) and matches well with Uchinaa-guchi and Ryūkyū instruments, dance and vocals. (Another version to listen to is from Amami Ōshima’s Minami Kizuki.) The…
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Eisaa Don-Don (Drama)
To commemorate the 65th anniversary of the All-Island Eisaa Festival (canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic), a drama special was shown on OTV on February 13th of this year. It looks like a must-watch drama and I love the part in the above trailer when it shows one of the drama’s themes: “We will…
Karakui 