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BEGIN announces tribute and cover albums, plus more – Tokyograph
Pop group BEGIN celebrated the 20th anniversary of their debut this year, and they have now announced the simultaneous release of two special albums to celebrate that milestone. Titled “BEGIN 20th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL TRIBUTE ALBUM” and “BEGIN 20th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL COVER ALBUM,” the albums are scheduled to go on sale on March 2, 2011. The…
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Tokyograph: Manami Higa to star in “Dondo Bare” sequel
NHK is reviving its 2007 morning drama series “Dondo Bare” with a sequel that will be aired as a special program next year. Production on the show was announced at a press conference on Wednesday, attended by the drama’s lead actress, Manami Higa (24). […] (Via Tokyograph.) We’re big fans of Manami Higa and it’s…
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Choho Miyara Music Award (via Power of Okinawa)
The 8th annual Choho Miyara Ongaku Sho (Music Award) ceremony was held yesterday at Ryukyu Shimpo Hall in Naha. I was very pleased and honoured to receive an invitation to attend from Yasukatsu Oshima’s management office. The award is named after the late Choho Miyara who was a songwriter and an educationalist. The Ongaku Sho…
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Learn about awamori? There’s an app for that.
Modern technology is reaching every corner of the globe, and leaving no industry untouched, as now a local company has come up with an Awamori Large-Scale Dictionary for the smart phone iPhone. The software application produced by Rakuen-Keikaku, a company that deals with the restaurant and publishing industries, works with the Apple iPhone, listing all…
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The Power of Okinawa – 40% discount (via Power of Okinawa)
If you’re just getting into or already fairly knowledgable about Okinawan music, I recommend picking up John Potter’s wonderful book, The Power of Okinawa. Check out his website for more info. There is a new reduced price for the 2nd edition of The Power of Okinawa. For those buying the book through the internet only,…
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iOS app: iOkinawa!
Billing itself as a combination of beautiful Okinawan girls and Okinawan dialect, out of curiosity I installed the free (with ads) iOkinawa! app (link opens iTunes US Store) on my iPhone 4. Developed by Sayobs (Ray Matayoshi) from Tokyo, it looks like it’s their first iOS app made for the iPhone. Released November 10, 2010,…
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Calling all Blackanese Artists, Writers, Comedians… (via Grits and Sushi)
My friend Eriko Ikehara and I received a grant from the Center for New Racial Studies to put together a multi-media/mixed performance on Black Japanese. It will be February 12th in the bay area (space tbd). If you (or someone you know) are Blackanese and has photos, comedy, performance pieces, spoken word, prose, artwork, etc.…
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Wallpaper: Yui Aragaki for Tokyo Metro (December 2010)
Sad that this’ll be the last wallpaper for the year (2010) but on the bright side, it looks like Yui will still be the image girl heading into 2011! It’s also worth clicking through the CMs and the “Making of” features are pretty cool too. Just seeing Yui smile makes one want to smile too.…
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Island Voices: Misako Oshiro (via Power of Okinawa)
Misako Oshiro is one of the greatest singers of Okinawan traditional songs. Born in 1936 in the Taisho-ku district of Osaka, where large numbers of exiled Okinawans live, she moved to Okinawa when still a child and grew up on the north of the main island in the village of Henoko. She took an early…
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