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Nanaironote x i-Dushi
Perhaps one of the best YouTube channels around is Nanaironote who does covers of J-pop songs in Uchinaaguchi (although they use Okinawa Hougen in their music video descriptions) with many of the top musicians from Okinawa. We’ve featured their videos on Karakui before but here’s one featuring our favorite now-on-hiatus duo, i-Dushi, covering J-pop star…
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Ishimine Airi’s Memorial Song “Minazuki no Hana”
Having recently performed with her group Aimamire, to an enthusiastic crowd at this year’s HUOA Okinawan Festival, singer Ishimine Airi (who we proclaimed to have one of the best voices in the industry) released a beautiful single on 6/23 as a tribute to Irei no Hi (Okinawa’s Memorial Day) titled “Minazuki no Hana” (June’s Flower).…
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Karakui Joins the Fediverse
Although we’ve been on a server for a while, there was no way to easily set up a WordPress.com blog for the Fediverse until now. You can now follow us on the Fediverse @karakui.blog@karakui.blog. ✌️ Sorry in advance as we’ll also be testing a ‘Share this post’ to see how it works on @karakui@shimanuchu.social and…
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Agena Sisters Announce New Music Group “Unaikanai”
Singer-songwriter Agena Mana announced that she and her sister Halu started a new music duo called Unaikanai. (There’s a third sister who often appears on Mana’s YouTube channel that’s currently not part of this unit.) The name of the duo is a play on Niraikanai with Unai meaning sisters and Kanai make it come true…
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Anly’s 5th Album “26ml”
Our beloved singer-songwriter from Okinawa’s Ie Island Anly is set to release her 5th album “26ml” on 10/18! 🎉 We don’t have any links to streaming platforms at this time but we’re pretty sure we’ll get them soon. For now, physical copies of the album are being sold on online retailers with special limited edition…
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YU-KA’s “Hoshizukiyo (Starry Night)” Reaches 12 Million Views on YouTube!
Wut. It was just April of this year that YU-KA announced that her music video for “Hoshizukiyo (Starry Night)” reached 6-millions views and a few months later it’s doubled that and is now at 12-million! Could being on The First Take have that much of an impact? The answer is yes. Yes it can. Un.…
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An Introduction (Pinned)
But first, a meme. The image (a meme) reads: When Twitter was the place all of us with similar interests would gather, we often saw the same complaints (very justified IMHO) whenever an anime, TV show, or movie about Okinawa (or filmed in Okinawa) was released. In reaction to this, a prominent Okinawan stage (Okinawa…
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YU-KA on The First Take (YouTube)
Singer-songwriter YU-KA continues her dominance on the new music scene with an appearance on the prestigious YouTube channel The First Take! YU-KA performs her song “Hoshizukiyo (Starry Night)“. Episode 330 welcomes YU-KA, a singer-songwriter fluent in both Japanese and English, to THE FIRST TAKE for the first time. She will sing “Starry Night,” a song…
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i-Dushi’s “Kaanaa” Becomes “Kanae” as a Solo Artist
One of our favorite Okinawan pop duos, i-Dushi, went on hiatus at the end of last year after a tumultuous two years due to the pandemic and one of the things the artist formerly known as Kaanaa did was change her name to Kanae (which is her real name) to begin life as a solo…
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Two Okinawan Films at the HIFF 2023 Fall Festival!
The 2023 fall Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF) will screen two films from Okinawa. The first one is “This Land is Your Land (Shima ni Kaeru)” directed by Mitake Naoto and stars the most famous male actor from Okinawa, Shogen. Two actors I’m interested in seeing from this film are Miyara Shinobu (one of the…
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