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Digging Yanawarabaa
Currently collecting a lot of play counts on my iPod and in iTunes is “Haikei (maru maru) san” from an indies J/O-pop duo (Rio Aizato & Yuu Ishigaki) from Ishigaki called Yanawarabaa. The song also happens to be the theme song for a Yukie Nakama drama called “Erai Tokoro ni Totsuide Shimatta!”. Talk about making…
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Rina Chinen Becomes a Single Mom
Actress and singer Rina Chinen (26) and model Kentaro Nakamura (24) got divorced on March 15, it was revealed on Sunday. According to the faxed announcement, the couple mutually decided that their married life was not what they had hoped for, and they decided to go their separate ways. The two got married in 2005…
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Amuro collaborates with ‘Golden Eggs’ – Tokyograph
Her new album, “Play”, hits record store shelves on June 27, 2007, and so far 2007 is looking like a great year for Amuro. Amuro collaborates with ‘Golden Eggs’ Namie Amuro is collaborating with the computer-animated series “The World of GOLDEN EGGS”, which has become increasingly popular among young people. Amuro will appear as a…
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8 More Hits and We’re at 5,000!!!
Since starting this blog up in earnest from January 2007 we’ve been receiving at least 1,000 hits a month! While it’s not in the same league as say, a J-pop blog, 1,000 hits is pretty swell for a blog about Okinawan music and pop culture. I want to make 5,000 special (some how) so I’ll…
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Misako Koja and Kazuya Sahara
It doesn’t get any better than this folks. Misako Koja (known as a member of the 1st generation Nenes and for the hit song “Warabigami”) is in Hawaii now and let me tell you, she and her husband (composer, arranger) Kazuya Sahara are two of the most down-to-earth people you may ever meet. It’s a…
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melody. Takes It Up a Notch for 2007
She’s one of my favorite J-Pop artists and it looks like 2007 is going to be a big year for the Hawaii-born melody. With the release of her forthcoming single “Love Story” (video) looming ahead of us at the end of this month, melody.’s been busy as the VJ for an NHK music show called…
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Higa Middle School
In the “you never know what you’ll find when browsing the ‘net” category comes this interesting manga/anime called “The Prince of Tennis” and a character from it by the name of Hiroshi Chinen, from Higa Middle School. Here’s a tidbit about the school via Wikipedia: “The members of the tennis team have a rather bad…
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HUOA.org Website Renewal and Okinawan Festival Website
The Hawaii United Okinawa Association (HUOA.org) website has undergone a major overhaul. Gone is the splash page and although they’re still using frames, navigating the site is a lot easier now. Also of note, is the addition of a special website dedicated to the annual Okinawan Festival which will take place from August 30th to…
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Metropolis Tokyo’s JAPAN BEAT
I’ve been meaning to blog about this site for awhile (but you know how that goes) and better late than never, right? The Metropolis website has a handful of pretty good reviews/interviews with artists from Okinawa. Although there are a few small parts where they can be totally off (they misspell Toru Yonaha’s name twice…
Karakui 