Japan

Oricon: Fukuyama & Nagasawa to wake you up in the morning.

. Japan

Fukuyama Masaharu & Nagasawa Masami to wake you up in the morning

What is the most important thing when you wake up from bed in a brand new day? Yes, it’s the refreshing start that kicks out with full of energy. So, Oricon conducted a research on men and women about “Which talent you wish to wake you up in the morning”, and the research result is, women’s no.1 spot is Fukuyama Masaharu while men’s no.1 choice is Nagasawa Masami.

Women’s choice: Fukuyama Masaharu
The comments for no.1 selection Fukuyama Masaharu are “His voice is wonderful”, “He has the sexy voice which I wish to hear!” , “With his good wake up voice, I’m able to spend the day with good feeling”. Well indeed, Fukuyama has great and sexy voice that any man wish to have. Try listen to his song or watch his latest drama Galileo, then you will know.

While taking the no.2 spot is Koike Teppei (member of WaT), who show his refreshing smiles and singing voice in “Morinaga Aloe Yogurt” Commercial. Comments from women are “I wish to hear that voice and smiles”, and “because it’s refreshing”. This shows that the Teppei’s image in that commercial has make an impact in women’s world.

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Cute packaging: Tohato Caramel Corn

. Art & Design, Inspiration, Japan

cute packaging: Tohato Caramel Corn

Last tuesday after work, I head to one shopping center to look around for magazine and other stuff. Then when I walk pass Jusco supermarket, there held a small exhibition called “2007 Japan Autumn food festival” and I decided to take a look. Well, mostly were food packagings from some well known food maker like Meiji Seika, Lotte, Morinaga and much more. Then, I met this cute packaging, it’s Tohato’s Caramel Corn.

I already knew this packaging from MILK magazine as well as this website which I had covered it before during this “Creative packaging inspiration ~modern & vintage~“. But it’s my first time to see it in real life. The packaging is very cute and attractive! It has many variations of designs for different kinds of flavor. All of them will featured a character with cute expression, together with the food images either inside the character’s mouth or hanging somewhere in the packaging.

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9 Japanese designers’ flash portfolio that you should see

. Inspiration, Japan, Web Design

Japan are one creative country with diverse culture and design movement. Some are going for cute, some are experimentalist and some are towards form and function. Here I present you 9 Japanese designers’ portfolio site which all are built by using flash that everyone should take a look and be inspired.

Masaki Hoshino – hybridworks.jp

A portfolio of a graphic designer Masaki Hoshino. He is very good in designing icons, wallpapers and pixel art. His work is fine and the detail is amazing. The layout is functional and note that you can switch the layout style too, which is very cool!

Masaki Hoshino - hybridworks.jp

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How to spot a Johnny’s Jimusho members?

. Japan

Johnny's members disguised!

Johnny’s Jimusho is a factory of talented good looking boys, and their influence in Japan are huge. There are many popular artists and groups produced in Johnny’s Jimusho crossing music, dramas, movies and performances. Their names featured in many websites but have you ever wonder why all the pictures of Johnny’s Entertainment are altered or replaced by other pictures?

It’s a great honor if a boy successfully entered the Johnny’s Jimusho. But Johnny’s is a company that have strict rules in portrait rights. Johnny’s members portrait images is strictly prohibited in the official websites of dramas, movies or magazines which they participated. Normally their portrait will be replaced by an object or by shadow or an altered portrait image.

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Idol 01: Sawajiri Erika

. Japan

Idol 01: Sawajiri Erika

I found that idol posts get quite a lot of clicks so I decided to make this Idol series. Every in a while, one Japanese Idol will be featured here, with some details and personal feeling on her, as well as her lovely pictures to share. And for the very first edition, Sawajiri Erika is in the spotlight!

Some of you guys might already knew, Erika created some bad impression with her “Erika-sama” attitude during the Close Note movie premiere. She was just out of situation and showing her bad mood clearly. And this created a huge reactions on the Japanese media, because this is something that they don’t want to see. Finally, she apologized but the bad impression on her can’t be forgotten in short time. You can read more about this in JapanSugoi post entry.

Well, everyone has bad mood sometime. But, for a popular young actress like Sawajiri Erika, this is very unprofessional. But I do hope that after this incident, she will learn the lesson and be more friendly next time! We want to see the good image like what she showed in “1 litre of tears” drama.

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Dohzi-T – ONE LOVE feat. Shota Shimizu

. J-Pop, Japan, Lyrics

Dohzi-T - ONE LOVE feat. Shota Shimizu

Actually I’m not really into Japan Hip Hop music, but recently I heard this song and think that it is nice to share with you all. The song called “ONE LOVE feat. Shota Shimizu (清水翔太)” by Dohzi-T (童子-T). Dohzi-T was born in May 13, 1969 and to my surprise, he also participated in Ayumi Hamasaki’s pre-debut single “Nothing From Nothing“!

This song was released as single in July 2007, but I heard this song in his album “ONE MIC” which released not long ago. The album is worth a listen and I think ONE LOVE is the best in the album. The lyric was presented in rap by Dohzi-T and Shota Shimizu who has great R&B voice sings the chorus. It has a nice piano intro that brings out the love feel. The song is more on soft type of hip hop.

Read on to listen to the song as well as kanji and romaji lyrics! This song’s lyric is very hard to get, I only found it on Yahoo!‘s page and it is embedded in flash player which the lyric can’t be copied. So, I had to manually type it. Thanks Yahoo!, that’s very kind of you. And for the first time, this song is available for download.

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Ebihara Yuri – the pro smiler

. Downloads, Japan

I forgot how I get to know her, but I think is somewhere where there is a news about the trendy icon is no longer my idol Ayumi Hamasaki but her. I do some picture search about her and I found out that she is pretty! And her name is Ebihara Yuri (蛯原友里).

Yuri Ebihara little profile

Yuri Ebihara or nickname ebi-chan is one of the toppest model in Japan and her popularity is high. She was born in October 3rd 1979, in Sadowara, Miyazaki Prefecture. Before getting into modeling, she was studying fine arts in Kyushu Sangyo University and graduated there. She got her first exposure when she won an audition for TV advertisement for Zespri Golden Kiwi Fruit.

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Yasutaka Nakata’s remix is HOT

. J-Pop, Japan

Or shall I say cute? Recently I was keep listening to his works. Starting from LIAR GAME Original Soundtrack to Suzuki Ami’s “FREE FREE” single. His remix is very nice, and I like it very much! He has great talent and skill to play with electronic instruments mix with Japanese urban/pop/cute rhythm.. or people call it Picopop.. I don’t know how to explain it, but you have to listen to his remix to understand what I mean!

Actually when the first time I watch LIAR GAME drama, I don’t know the soundtrack is done by him. Indeed the soundtrack sounds really good. The mood, the music fits well to the story. I can say that, if without this soundtrack, the drama will lose 50% of its tense already.

Next is Suzuki Ami’s “FREE FREE/Super Music Maker” single. That time I still roughly to get to know his name, because this single’s spotlight is Suzuki Ami going sexy. I give myself a try on the single and it actually sounds rocking good! The disco/pop tune is catchy and it instantly become one of my most frequently played music.

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TOKIO – Honjitsu, Mijukumono

. J-Pop, Japan, Lyrics

Today I want to share a nice song from TOKIO with their latest single release “Honjitsu, mijukumono (本日、未熟者)”. This song is written by Nakajima Miyuki who last time wrote a song for them too which is “Sorafune”. This song was release in mid August and it was the theme song for a very nice drama “Juken no Kamisama” which acted by one of the TOKIO’s member.

In this song, the lyric is challenging and the melody is strong, but very suitable to the TOKIO lead singer Tomoya Nagase because of his great voice. The song is really nice because he put his soul in performing it and this song is actually pretty high pitch! I always amazed at Tomoya’s ability to sing in high tone yet maintaining the great control. He is one rare great singer in Johnny’s Entertainment!

As mentioned earlier, this song is the theme song for just ended j-drama “Juken no Kamisama” which means exam god. The drama is about primary students study hard to pass the exam and enroll to their dream school. Actually it is pretty sad to see in such a young age, and they already have so many pressures to handle, maybe because of their education system. This situation was portrayed clearly in the drama. The theme song “Honjitsu, Mijukumono” which means I’m still a kid today or Today, I’m the amateur, and really match the drama’s story.

On the other hand, it is also good to see that, they are mature enough to think about their future and fight for it. So, let’s work hard together for a better tomorrow and be cheerful :D. Listen to the song below as well as the lyric (with romaji) and translation!

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Autumn J-drama preview!

. Japan

Time passing so fast, the ever exciting summer season J-drama line up are going to end this month! I personally found that this summer season is packed with a lot of nice dramas, as I watch 7 of those. All of them are just nice but “Papa to musume no nanokakan” will be my first choice if you ask me which I enjoyed the most.

The next season drama will start on October. Tokyograph has posted a nice preview on the upcoming autumn season dramas, click here to take a look on the line ups and which stars is acting in. I can say the line up is huge and I spotted some nice dramas that I would like to watch.

The dramas are: Continue reading