J-Pop

Tokito Saburo – Kimi no Kaeru Basho

. J-Pop, Japan, Lyrics

I would like to recommend this song to all of you. This song is sang by Tokito Saburo with just acoustic guitar as music. Firstly, I heard this song from drama “Hanayome to Papa“. This song is very warm hearted, expressing the love of a father to his lovely daughter. I feel comfortable while listening to it. Some part of song was duet with his daughter, which make this song even touching.

Hanayome to Papa is talking about relationship of father and daughter. The father was very strict to her daughter by setting some rules like “Cannot stay overnight outside house”, “Must reach home before 7” etc. The daughter felt her father was very “UZAI” and want to stay away from father’s hand. But in the end, is the father who help her all the way. No matter what happen, is parents who love their kid the most.

Read more to listen the song (via imeem) and the lyric. Enjoy! šŸ˜€
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ERIKA – “FREE” Single Lyrics

. J-Pop, Japan, Lyrics

Yesterday, Sawajiri Erika just debuted with the name ERIKA with the maxi single FREE. I already listened to the song and watched PV of FREE & FANTASY too. I would say FREE is just so so only, but FANTASY is quite good. Even I think Time to go home is a nice piece too. Wow, I just checked the Oricon chart, this single is topping the daily single ranking for two days in row! That’s pretty encouraging!

This single gets no.1 spot in the first week of release despite just selling for a mere 50,287 copies. She already had a no.1 single previously when she released “Taiyou no Uta” under Kaoru Amane. She became only the second solo female artist in Oricon’s ranking history to achieve #1 with her first two singles!

Read more for the lyrics of the 3 songs & listen to it.

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Nodame Cantabile – “Onara Taisou” Lyric

. J-Pop, Japan, Lyrics

Anyone who watch Nodame Cantabile the J-drama should know this cute song haha :D!! Noda Megumi (act by Ueno Juri) or Nodame, who dream of becoming a kindergarten music teacher, wrote this song. Onara Taisou means “The Fart Exercise” in English. The song comes with exercise too! I still remember where there is a scene in the drama, where Nodame plays the onara taisou music piece and her teacher is exercising the move, hahaha, that was hilarious!

Because the song is so cute, and many people requested to release as single, and Ueno Juri sings the song. There are a total of 5 songs in the single. There is one song in it I quite curious about. The song name is called “Koi no G Cup”. What does the G Cup related to!? Funny. Click on title to get the lyric of the song. Credits to Random Flowers.

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First half 2007 Oricon Ranking

. J-Pop, Japan

Recently Oricon posted up the single and album selling ranking of the first half of year 2007. Akikawa Masafumi big hit “Sen no Kaze ni Natte” top the single chart with a whooping 915,884 copies sold. His single leads a pack above the 2nd place as Utada Hikaru’s “Flavor of Life” only sold 629,904 copies. Akikawa’s single was not that hit when it first released 1 year ago, but after the performance of this song in last year’s NHK Kohaku Utagassen, it become a sudden hit and always into the top 10 singles ranking after then, and now it nearly reach the 1 million mark.

Both Hana Yori Dango 2’s opening and ending theme did quite a great job by taking the 2nd and 3rd spot. Both songs are soft ballads and really nice to listen. The 4th is Kobukuro’s “Tsubomi” and Kanjani8 took the fifth spot. Other honorable mentioned are the 8th place’s “Winding Road” by Ayaka and Kobukuro, 10th spot’s “Ashita Hareru Kana” by Kuwata Keisuke, 16th spot’s “Shirushi” by Mr. Children and 23rd spot’s “Tokyo ni mo Attanda” by Fukuyama Masaharu.

More than half of the single chart songs I already listen, but I was really impress by the Johnny’s music group, their singles are really well selling! Groups like Arashi, Kanjani8, NewS, KAT-TUN, Tegomass, kinki Kids, V6 can be seen on the chart, I wonder how they have such a power to make the fans buy their single? šŸ˜›

While the album chart, Mr. Children’s “Home”, tops the chart with the only album sold more than a million. 2nd place is Koda Kumi’s album “Black Cherry”. Both of them normally doing well in selling their albums. While Ayumi Hamasaki’s A Best 2 album selling is quite disappointing. I thought will hit 1 million mark for each of album but just over 600k. Haha, I think her popularity is dropping already, because her first best album “A Best” sold more than 4 million copies alone.

Avril Lavigne is damn popular in Japan! Her album “The best damn thing” takes the fifth spot, cool. She is quite influential in Japan because her music and fashion was favorites and followed many female Japanese teenagers. While the four Japan new Diva: YUI, Yuna Ito, Kimura Kaela and Ayaka take the 7, 10, 13, 17 spot respectively. This shows that they are quite popular in Japan now.

Check out the rest of the ranking!

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Kousuke Atari – “Hana” Lyric

. J-Pop, Japan, Lyrics

I first heard this song in the Music Station that aired in Friday on Animax Channel. They introduced a newcomer named Kousuke Atari. Absolutely no relationship with ATARI the game developer, he has quite a great looking face, but his appearance is a little simple, so I think he is not sing those pop songs. But when he perform his song, I was “pikkuri shimashita”. He sang like Hajime Chitose’s type of style and the song “Hana”, is very nice! Immediately I go find his biography and background.

Now I know, actually when he was young, he is a fan of Hajime Chitose. Having influenced by her, he starts to teach himself to sing in shima-uta style. The song “Hana” is very nice to listen, definitely a song worth listen, if you like Japan folk songs with a modern fusion, something like Natsukawa Rimi’s modern Okinawa style. And I want to share the lyrics with you guys too.

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YUI – My Generation Lyric

. J-Pop, Japan, Lyrics

Today, YUI releases her latest maxi single My Generation/Understand. Actually, back in few days earlier, I already listened to this song from the PV that aired in May. The single is a rocker, I fall in love with this song and keep on looping in my media player. I like it because the song is like a expression of the youth.. actually I really dunno the lyrics but from the rock music and a little assist from the PV, I can feel that. And this song actually is the theme song for current airing drama Seito Shokun!

About the B-side of the song “Understand”, is more down paced. The single also includes the acoustic version of CH.E.R.RY. Has to thanks ch.e.r.ry because it was this song that intro me to YUI since March or April. Now, YUI is one of my favourite singer and you can see that in my Last.fm profile. Click this link to grab My Generation lyrics (Understand included too).

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Sawajiri Erika debut as “ERIKA”

. J-Pop, Japan

Japan popular young star Sawajiri Erika will make her debut as ERIKA with her first single “FREE”, to be released on 4th of July! Her “FREE” single will release in CD and CD+DVD version. CD+DVD version will features an original 12 pages color booklet. CD will contain three songs which is “FREE”, “Fantasy” & “Time to go home” plus original instrumental edition of “FREE”.

Sawajiri Erika, previously known as gravure artist, gaining her popularity through the tear jerking drama “1 Litre of Tears”. This is not her first time singing because, she released a single as Kaoru Amane entitled “Taiyou no Uta”, when she acted in a drama with the same name. The single became one of the top selling singles in year 2006. Maybe because of this encouragement and training, she decided to debut under her name ERIKA. Not much exposure about the new songs but Japanese now can first preview the song “Fantasy” via hand phone.

Actually the image of ERIKA is somewhere similar to Kaoru Amane, because the guitar is there too, seems like she don’t want to tag as “idol singer” but a more character way. I’m very eager to watch the PV of the song, because she looks kinda sexy in both single cover šŸ˜›

Credit: Ikimasshoi

Four Japan new divas!

. J-Pop, Japan

In recent edition of “Nikkei Entertainment” magazine, they elected out the new 4 Japan singing divas! They are YUI, Kimura Kaela, Yuna Ito and Ayaka. They can sing well, write their own songs, multi-talented and have many fans among the 10 – 30 years old fans. Research shows that Kimura Kaela has the most male fans, while the pretty Yuna Ito popular among female fans. Below are their introduction and my recommendation.
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