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Atsuko Maeda made a come-back to No.1 at The 3rd General Election of AKB48
As I worte here before, there held the 3 rd General Election of AKB48 to select the members to sing the 23rd single CD’s song.
Atsuko Maeda making a speech in joy
The election outcome was announced at Japan Budokan in Tokyo on 9th, and Atsuko Maeda(/前田敦子), who had won the No.1 at the first and No.2 at the second, now made a glorious come-back to the No.1 status this time, and Yuko Oshima(/大島優子), who had won No.1 at the second election defeating Maeda last year, fell to No.2 this time. http://www.oricon.co.jp/music/special/2011/akb_senkyo0609/index.php?cat_id=rightbnr
Yuko Oshima of No.2
Maeda and Oshima, the twin tip-tops of AKB, sharing popularities of a lot of fans and competing neck-and-neck, proved to keep the crucial popularities this time as well. Maeda obtained 139,892 votes (No.1 at the second had got 3,851 votes and this time’s increased by about 4.5 times ) ,while Oshima got 122,843 votes(No.2 at the second had got 31,448 votes and this time’s increased by about 3.9 times ) . The total number of votes obtained by members of No.1~40 summed up to 1081,332, whose drastic increasing number clearly indicates the skyrocketing popularity of this idol group nowadays.
Rino Sashihara, No.19 →No.9 , her huge efforts made her a Media Selection Member for the first time.
There is also a big change in the “hierarchy of popularities” of the group. For example, Tomomi Itano(/板野友美）, fell from No.4 last time to No.8 this time and so-called “God’s Seven” (the top seven members none of whom had fallen to No.8 or lower at the first and the second election) received a shocking change of its members. It was Yuki Kashiwagi(/柏木由紀), that won the No.3 status to break through the old seven’s order. In addition, some members newly appearing or becoming popular these days won higher statuses , such as some SKE48 members (six of them got No.40 or higher ) and Sayaka Yamamoto(/山本彩) ,the captain of NMB48 in Osaka ,the new sister group of AKB got No.28.
Yuki Kashiwagi, No.8 →No.3, she broke down the "invincible God's Seven" for the first time.
The popularity dynamics of AKB is quite unpredictable and that is why it is interesting enough to draw attentions of the fans the mass. I would like to keep watching this splendid idol group.
The details of the outcome of the 3rd election is as follows;
■メディア選抜 （The Media Selection Members）
1位 前田敦子 13万9892票 (Atsuko Maeda)(139,892 votes)
2位 大島優子（Not yet） 12万2843票
3位 柏木由紀（フレンチ・キス） 7万4252票
4位 篠田麻里子 6万539票
5位 渡辺麻友（渡り廊下走り隊） 5万9118票
6位 小嶋陽菜（ノースリーブス） 5万2920票
7位 高橋みなみ（ノースリーブス） 5万2790票
8位 板野友美 5万403票
9位 指原莉乃（Not yet） 4万5227票
10位 松井玲奈（SKE48） 3万6929票
11位 宮澤佐江（DiVA） 3万3500票
12位 高城亜樹（フレンチ・キス） 3万1009票
■選抜メンバー (The Selection Members)
13位 北原里英（Not yet） 2万7957票
14位 松井珠理奈（SKE48） 2万7804票
15位 峯岸みなみ（ノースリーブス） 2万6070票
16位 河西智美 2万2857票
17位 秋元才加（DiVA） 1万7154票
18位 佐藤亜美菜 1万6574票
19位 横山由依（Not yet） 1万6455票
20位 増田有華（DiVA） 1万4137票
21位 倉持明日香（フレンチ・キス） 1万2387票
■アンダーガールズ (The Under Girls)
22位 梅田彩佳（DiVA）
23位 高柳明音（SKE48）
24位 仲川遥香（渡り廊下走り隊）
25位 多田愛佳（渡り廊下走り隊）
26位 平嶋夏海（渡り廊下走り隊）
27位 宮崎美穂
28位 山本彩（NMB48）
29位 大家志津香
30位 大矢真那（SKE48）
31位 仁藤萌乃
32位 小森美果
33位 秦佐和子（SKE48）
34位 佐藤すみれ
35位 大場美奈（研究生→チーム4昇格）
36位 須田亜香里（SKE48）
37位 前田亜美
38位 松井咲子
39位 市川美織（研究生→チーム4昇格）
40位 藤江れいな
(7 投票, 平均値/最大値: 5.00 / 5)
Loading ...“An-Dounatsu”(sweet bean paste-doughnuts) from “JIN” being a phenomenally hit
“An-Dounatsu”(“安道名津”, sweet bean paste doughnuts) having got started sold at Seven-Eleven Japan, a major convenience store chain, on this May 24th is now becoming a big hit and has sold more than 60,0000 sets just in the first three days. http://www.sej.co.jp/cmp/jin1105.html
This doughnut item is originally from a popular manga “JIN”. The manga work is a sci-fi describing a time travel of a excellent surgeon suddenly thrown into a past world of 150 years ago and meets some historical personages and saves a lot of sick or injured people using his advanced medical knowledge and skills of the future. 
In the story Jin, the hero of the this work , invented the doughnut items as nutritious food to cure patients of beriberi which was rampant in Edo city, the seat of shogun, which was to be Tokyo today,using his knowledge from the future ,yet with available ingredients in those days. 
In addition, as the manga work became so popular, it has been dramataized on TV and the first season of TV version made in 2010 won a great viewer ratings, which led to making the second season this year ;currently being aired from April 17th on. The average viewer rating of the episode 1 on 17th was so high as to 23. 7 % and momentary one was 26.0% , which is the highest of the current quarter season this year. http://www.tbs.co.jp/jin-final/
The TV version series are the special memorial drama of the 60th anniversary of TBS and, Season1 won a lot of awards . And ,moreover, the broadcasting right of season 2 has been purchased by businesses all over the world and being airred over 80 countries before even the end of the air of the drama in Japan, which had never taken place before and received as a good proof of the incredibale popularity of the drama even overseas.
The doughnut item is also described in the TV version and actually a lot of viewers might have taken interested in or even felt like eating it. Therefore, The TBS, the TV station of the drama, and Seven-Eleven tied up in producing and selling the fictitious item in reality, and the project now is conducting special present campaighn for the consumers and viewers.
The project also started selling “Tachibanake no Agedashi-doufu”（橘家の揚げだし豆腐, The fried tofu of the Tachibana family’s style） and “Tachibanake no Obento”（橘家のお弁当, The lunch box of the Tachibana family’s style） on the 27th. The ingredients of each dishes are both faithful reproductions of how they were described in the story as well.
“An-Dounatsu”(doughnuts) costs ￥120 （≒＄1.5, €1） , “Tachibanake no Agedashi-doufu”(fried tofu) costs ￥230 (≒＄2.9, €1.8) , all of which are now available at Seven-Eleven Japan stores.
(6 投票, 平均値/最大値: 5.00 / 5) Loading ...The mountain gate of Eisho-ji Temple restored for the first time in 88 years
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The monks of Eisho-ji hosting the ceremony at the newly rebuilt mountain gate
The map of Eisho-ji temple and its area in Kawamura
The three main parts of "Mito-kohmon", the central old man is Mitsukuni Tokugawa or Mito-kohmon, and the other two are his reliable strong retainers
(7 投票, 平均値/最大値: 5.00 / 5) Loading ...AKB48′s “3rd General Election” has begun
AKB48, the top female idol group of Japan at the moment, is now hosting its 3rd general election and the term is May 24-June 8th. The 1st election in 2009 a kind of drew attentions of the public, the 2nd in 2010 became a popular topic, and now, the current 3rd could be “a naitonwide phenomenon” with the group’s progressive popularity.
Team k of AKB48 attending an event of a flash report of the election's interim outcome
At this 3rd election, there are 150 candidates in total that consist of 68 memebrs of AKB48 based in Akihabara Tokyo, 57 members of SKE48 based in Nagoya Aichi, and 25 members of NMB48 based in Namba Osaka. Only the top 21 members called “Senbatsu members(elected members)” will be qualified to sing the main song of the group’s 22nd single CD, and top 22~40 will be allowed to sing the B side song. And only the top 12 called “Media Senbatsu”of the 21 will be allowed to sing the song in public via media, such as TV. Unlike the 1st and 2nd elections, NMB48, the new sister group of AKB48 is running for the candidacies of the 40 seats, which has made the situation much more intensive than the past ones.
The face photo of AKB48's 21st songle CD "Everyday, カチューシャ"（Everyday ,Katyusha）
If you want to vote, then, there are several ways to get a ballot. One: to become a memebr of the official fan club, two: subscribe to DDM live broadcasting services of AKB48 and SKE48, and three: to buy AKB’s 21st single CD “Everyday, カチューシャ”（Everyday, katyusha）released on this 25th, which each CD copy includes one ballot.
“Everyday,カチューシャ” won the No.1 at the daily CD video ranking of Recochoku on 26th, which has been the tenth straight No.1. The CD sold more than 9420,000 copies on just the first day, which is more than the number of the group’s last CD. There is even a quite huge fan who bought 5500 copies (which costs about 5.5 million yen ) on his own.
The ranks of the candidates are now quite dynamic and changing intensively,which makes it very difficult to foresee the final outcome. The final outcome will be announced on the June 9th at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo.
The interim report shows the current outcome as follows; (as of 26th)
１位 大島優子(Yuko Oshima) 17156
２位 前田敦子(Atsuko Maeda) 16452
３位 柏木由紀(Yuki Kashiwagi) 12056
４位 高橋みなみ(Minami Takahashi) 8833
５位 渡辺麻友(Mayu Watanabe) 8582
６位 篠田麻里子(Mariko Shinoda) 8016
７位 指原莉乃(Rino Sashihara) 7357
８位 板野友美(Tomomi Itano) 6596
９位 松井玲奈(Rena Matsui) 6559
１０位 小嶋陽菜(Haruna Kojima) 6534
(4 投票, 平均値/最大値: 5.00 / 5) Loading ...The Sumida River Fireworks Festival being held on Aug.27th
The 34th Sumida River Fireworks Festival has finally determined to be held on this Aug. 27th, announced by its Fireworks Festival steering committee on this 24th.http://sumidagawa-hanabi.com/index.html
The fireworks festival had been held annually , and usually on a weekend in the latter July, though the project was postponed and has almost suspended once, considering possible negative consequences due to the aftermath of the earthquake disaster in the East Region or Tohoku area in Japan.
The committee had long discussed if it might acquire consents and understanding of people and expect their co-operation, prepare sufficient security conditions before it finally resolved to host the event this year.
The committee also announces it will invite the sufferers and refugees of the disaster and the nuclear accident, and sales of the festival will be donated for supportive activities for them.
This festival held in Sumida-ward in Tokyo has been quite popular , with about 20,000 fireworks shot off and more than 900,000 spectators. As it is so popular, a lot of people are eager to watch the event even this year and have submitted requests to the committee despite some similar events have been canselled to extend condolences to the sufferers and casualties and voluntary restraint from pleasures. Now, people passionately welcome the committee’s resolution though the date will be about one month later than usual.
(3 投票, 平均値/最大値: 5.00 / 5) Loading ...Sendai Airport reopened on April 13th
Sendai Airport(/仙台空港) in Miyagi Pref., the hub airport of Tohoku Region(/東北地方, the Northeast Region of Japan),partially reopened for the first time in 34 days after the tragic earthquake and tsunami disaster on March 11th. http://www.sdj-airport.com/english/index.html
the Sendai Airport staff welcming the "first" airplane and its passengers on the 13th with huge zeal.
ANA will operate 3 Daily Tokyo Haneda – Sendai temporary service on board Boeing 737-800 aircraft, while JAL will be offering 1 Daily Tokyo Haneda – Sendai and 2 Daily Osaka Itami – Sendaiservice, also on temporary basis. JAL’sroutes both will be operated by Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Therefore, 6 (×2) flights a day will be all the temporary services at the Sendai Airport for time being.
JAL had withdrawn from Sendai Airport in 1985 and this time it reinstated its service there for the first time in 26 years.
The "first" airplane (Flight Number:ANA1520) taking off from the runway surrounded by huge amount of rubble
This good news implies the auspicious harbinger of progressive advances and improvements of logistics from now on. The resumption of such air supply logistic lines is surely to be the trigger for crucially exalting rebuilding of the damaged areas.
The "first" airplane of JAL(Flight Number:4721) which has letters of "がんばろう日本 JAL EXPRESS"."がんばろう日本"means "Let us hang in, Japan ". (at Tokyo Haneda Airport)
Sendai Airport was immensely damaged by the earthquake and the tsunami on March 11th.
The airport was so seriously damaged by the lethal earthquake and following tsunami on March 11thand had a lot of casualties ,and closed down for about 1month. Yet with intensive restoration and rebuilding operations of SDF and US army, now the facility has become able to use partially though. It still suffers from the power outage which restricts the facility’s business hours for only daytime, and only the 1st floor is able to use. The airport now entirely relies on its in-house power generation facilities. The affiliated railroad system is still out of service and the only possible public transport is the temporary substitute bus service for the train service at the moment.
Ito Shinichiro(/伊東信一郎), the president of ANA, said, “I expect the reopening of the Sendai Airport to be the symbol of the rebuilding of Tohoku as a whole. As the airport is the bub one in that region, I hope it will be totally restored so soon.”. And Katsuhiko Ito (/伊藤克彦), the president of Sendai Airport Terminal Building (http://www.sendai-airport.co.jp/index.php?lang=en), said, “We shall make every effort and hopefully we wiil be able to fully reopen and operate the airport by this September”. Hiroyuki Ohkawa(/大川博之) , the captain of the JL4721 said, “We shall do our best, so I hope people in Tohoku Region will do their best for recovery as well.”
The schedules of reinstatement of the international flight lines and freight flights are still up in the air as of the 13th. However, as President Katsuhiko Ito announces, we do hope all services will resume so soon.
(4 投票, 平均値/最大値: 5.00 / 5) Loading ...Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka opening a temporary evacuation center for the earthquake sufferers
Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka, one of the most famous first-rated hotel in Tokyo started accepting sufferers from the earthquake disaster, tsunami,and nuclear leakage in the northeast region in Japan on this April 9th. http://www.princehotels.com/en/akasaka/
That hotel closed and terinated its accomodation services at the end of this March after its 56 -year history as one of the fanciest hotels in Japan since 1955. However, the company decided to provide kidging service as a free evacuation center for the refugees from the damaged areas of the tragic huge earthequake, tsunami, and the power plant disasters on Mar. 11th and following days.
People give compliments to the generous attittude of the diginified hotel with traditions. Actually, my family and I stayed at that hotel last year and enjoyed it very much with its splendid building,environment,and services. Originally, the hotel’s premises were the cottage of Kishuu clan or Kishuu Tokugawa family which had been a branch family of the Tokugawa shogun in the Edo Era about 200 hundred years ago, and after that became a residence of Prince Kitashirakawa, and finally residence of the royal family of the Kingdom of Korea (Great Korea Empire). I gu(/李玖), the last crown prince of the Korean dynasty and a second cousin of the current emperor of Japan, passed away at this hotel in 2005.
The old residence of the old Prince Kitashirakawa and the old residence of the old royal family of Korea in the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka's land
All the hotel guest rooms are corner ones with big windows so that guests can enjoy the beautiful scenery from them. I do remember the lavish stay there.
For this charitable service of the hotel, some 170 households or 360 people are going to stay at the hotel. The accommodation fees with meals for the suffering refugees are to be at the expenses of the Japanese government. Yet they will be allowed to stay at the hotel until the end of this June, and then, they will have to move, which implies the sufferers will have to find the next lodging or permanent homes soon. I hope all the suffereres will be able to re-establish their stable lives so soon after the temporary camp life at Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka.
(5 投票, 平均値/最大値: 4.80 / 5) Loading ...A charity drive “Stand up Japan !”by popular anime voice stars in Akihabara
A charity drive for the sufferers from the huge earthequake in east Japan called “Stand Up Japan ! Charity Drive in Akihabara” was run by popular anime voice actors 15:00~17:00 in Akihabara, the mecca of Japanese subculture on this April 3rd.
The anime voice stars asking passers-by to donate money for the sufferers
According to the report in the blog of Tsuyoshi Koyama(/小山剛志), the facilitator of theevent, totally they have collected ￥2,450,568 (≒$28720,€20031). http://blog.goo.ne.jp/koyamap/
The drive was also cooperated by Yodobashi Camera http://www.yodobashi.com/ and Tablier Communications inc. http://www.tablier.co.jp/.
The fact the voice actors were able to collect such amount of donations in such a short time has proven their great popularity and influence as well.
The member voice actors of the event were: 小山剛志(/Tsuyoshi Koyama)、平野綾(/Aya Hirano)、福山潤(/Jun Fukuyama)、浪川大輔(/Daisuke Namikawa)、米倉千尋(/Chihiro Yonekura)、石川英郎(/Hideo Ishikawa)、榊原ゆい(/Yui Sakakibara)、石井真(/Makoto Ishii)、桃知みなみ(/Minami Momochi)、ジョイまっくす(Joy Makkusu)、岩男潤子(/Junko Iwao)、池澤春菜(/Haruna Ikezawa)、山本彩乃(/Ayano Yamamoto)、藤崎ルキノ(/Rukino Fujisaki)、長島☆自演乙☆雄一郎(/Yuichiro ☆Jienotsu☆Nagashima)
(6 投票, 平均値/最大値: 5.00 / 5) Loading ...A charity concert for Japan in Hong Kong
Jackie Chan, the great Hong Kong movie star administrated a charity concert for Japan seriously damaged by the huge earthquake, tsunami, and the nuclear plant accident. The concert was held in Victoria Park in Hong Kong on this April 1st with more than 200 groups of musicians from all over Asia. Some of them from Japan are AKB48 members,such as Ayaka Umeda(/梅田彩佳),Ami Maeda（/前田亜美）,and Sakiko Matsui（/松井咲子）. Other performers are such as Masatoshi Nakamura(/中村雅俊) a popular Japanese actor, and Masao Sen（/千昌夫）, a well-known enka singer who is from Rikuzen-takata City in Iwate Pref, which is one of the worst disaster-afflicted areas this time .
Jackie Chan
The three members of AKB48 singing at the charity concert in Victoria Park in Hong Kong
Lionel Richie and Kenny G, musicians of US sent video clips messages for Japan.
Jackie Chan made a speech saying, “We are here to tell Japanese people that they are not alone. I believe the Japanese people will surely remain strong and positive though they will have a long way to go to the reconctruction. Never give up, Japan ! ” He facilitated the event at his own expenses of HK$ 4 million(≒￥43 million).
All the performers of the event did their peromances wearing a T-shirt which had a written phrase of “Hope for Japan”
More than 10,000 people visited the concert and donated more than HK$ 2,500 (≒￥270 million ) in total which is to sent to the afflicted areas.
(3 投票, 平均値/最大値: 3.67 / 5) Loading ...Tokyo Sky Tree has finally become its full height of 634 m
The Tokyo Sky Tree, the new TV tower in Tokyo under construction, which has sometimes referred to in this site by other writers and myself, finally reached its “planned full height ” of 634m at 13:34 Mar.18th. http://www.tokyo-skytree.jp/english/
Tokyo Sky Tree that has just become 634m in Sumida-ward Tokyo
With this, the tower now has become the tallest building in Japan as well as the highest radio wave tower in the world ! However, the tower is still under construction and is planned to be complete in the next spring.
At first a ceremony had been prepared to celebrate this “reaching the top 634m high”, but due to the huge damages caused by the earthquake off the Northeast Pacific Ocean(/東北地方太平洋沖地震) on this 11th.
Now, the total number of the casualties of this earthquake disaster has added up to 6,911 as of 19:23 18th, which is higher than the existing highest one from the Hanshin Awaji Earthquake( West Region and Awaji isle. earthquake) in 1995 and now has become the worst casualties number caused by a natural disaster after WW2 in Japan. In addition, still more than 10,000 people are missing and more than 380,000 people are suffering from hard lives in temporary evacuation centers in cold and even snowing areas… A lot of provisions and necessities, medical help and others have been provided to the sufferers from all over the world with firendships, all of which are welcomed with huge joy and gratitude. the situations are becoming a bit better though stiil very tough.
Therefore, the news of the Tokyo Sky Tree’s reaching the planned top height is a shiny bright and positive information to make us recall the hope and possibilities of our future. I hope this piece of news also consoles the hearts of the sufferes in the damaged areas even if a little.
(3 投票, 平均値/最大値: 5.00 / 5) Loading ...Another spin-off group “DiVA” is debuting from AKB48
Sayaka Akimoto
Now, AKB48 has become the paramount top young female idol group in Japan and has produced several spin-off groups, some of which I have referred to here. And now, the newest group of such is announced to debut from Avex http://avexnet.jp/index.html on coming April. 27th on this Feb.27th at the AKB48 Theater. The name of this ramified unit is “DiVA”, whose members are four members of AKB, namely, Sayaka Akimoto(/秋元才加), Ayaka Umeda(/梅田彩佳), Sae Miyazawa(/宮澤佐江), and Yuka Masuda(/増田有華) .
Ayaka Umeda
Sae Miyazawa
Yuka Masuda
As I wrote here before, Akimoto successfully finished the Tokyo Marathon 2011 http://www.tenkai-japan.com/2011/02/28/tokyo-marathon-2011-being-held/ ,and declared to come cack as captain of Team K of AKB (Umeda and Miyazawa are also members of team K ,while Masuda is a member of Team B). At this re-inaugural announcement of hers , Akimoto notifed fans of the “formal” debut of DiVA as well. This is because ,strictly speaking, DiVA kind of debuted last October singing “Nakeru Basho”(/泣ける場所, a place where I can cry) the coupling track of “Beginner” , AKB’s 18th single CD. Yet this time with a new member of Miyazawa, the new DiVA is going to fully and formally debut.
Akimoto and Miyazawa are called “The Twin Towers” of AKB, as both of them are quite tall. The two girls were also members of “Chocolove from AKB48″, the first spin-off group of AKB. Umeda was the Image Girl of Tokyo Tower 2010 and Masuda, who often performs as an actor in movies and plays as well, had debuted as a solo ” ani-son singer” with “Stargazer”, the theme song of an fantasy action anime, “Ikkitousen XTREME XECUTOR~Yume Rokkei~”(/一騎当千 XTREME XECUTOR ～ユメ六景～).
Umeda notifed Miyazawa’s joining the group, Akimoto tells they are striving for becoming musicians showing different tastes from those of AKB , Masuda tells they are determined to try to do anything not to get fans bored as all of the four members have distinct characters respectively, and Miyazawa, being absent from the announcement, sent a message to the fans, saying they hope the new group to be a good rival of AKB.
(5 投票, 平均値/最大値: 5.00 / 5) Loading ...“Hayabusa”, the newest bullet train model launching
On this Mar.5th, the latest model of the bullet train of The Tohoku Shinkansen line(東北新幹線, Tohoku Bullet Train Line) E5 series called “Hayabusa” (/はやぶさ, falcon)launched and went into service. 
Hayabusa travels at 300 km/h which is the fastest of all the bullet train lines in Japan (the same velocity with that of N700 series of Sanyo Shinkansen line) and travels between Tokyo Station in Tokyo and Shin- Aomori Station (/新青森駅, New Aomori Station) in Aomori Pref. , one of the prefectures in Tohoku, the Northeast Region of Japan (the distance is totally 713.7 km)in 3 hous and 10 minutes. It takes two round trips a day and is planned to start travelng faster at 320 km/h at the least by the end of 2012. 
The grand opening ceremony was hosted by JR east Japan, the company of the line at Tokyo Station on the 5th with presence and celebration by its chairperson Mutsutake Otsuka(/大塚陸毅). The first train bound for Tokyo departed Shin- Aomori at 6:10am and the first bound for Shin- Aomori departed Tokyo Station at 8:20am. All of the first day’s tickets were sold out just in 40 seconds after having started selling,which has proven its great popularity.
The most notable feature of this new model may be that it is equipped with the first class seats named “Glan Class” for the first time in the Japanese bullet train lines’ history. The Glan Class contains only 18 seats equipped with the first car which has a special appearance of a rather flat and smooth shape in order to reduce possible noise a fast trains tend to make. Glan Class seats are all spacious and covered with deluxe leather. A passenger of Glan Class is provided with a free lunch box and free beverage services. 
A ticket of an economy seat costs ￥16,870 (≒$205,€146),and, a Glan Class costs ￥26,360(≒$320,€229) between Tokyo and Shin-Aomori. The Tohoku Shinkansen line ,which just fully opened on Dec.04 2010, now has a new model and services drawing huge attentions and popularity of people. A lot of travel agencies have various new tour plans to Aomori or other Tohoku Region using the bullet train line, expecting carrying so many interested tourists and visitors. I hope this new situation propels
(3 投票, 平均値/最大値: 5.00 / 5) Loading ...NMB48 made its “ringtone debut”
NMB48, a young female idol group in Osaka which is a sister group of AKB48, made its “ringtone debut” on this Mar.2nd. 
This is said to be the first step to subsequent processes of its strategies to public relation campaigns.
The group officially debuted as an idol group at NMB48 Thearter in Nanba, Osaka on this Jan.1st and it is currently performing its First Stage setlist of “Dareka no tameni”(/誰かのために, What Can I Do For Someone ?) . Now, 14 songs in the setlist have made to be ringtones using their each verses and choruses, which form 28 patterns of ringtones in total. These ringtones started being pre-distributed on the 2nd from Recochoku http://recochoku.jp/index.html, big music distribution website. This pre-distribution service is a special campaign before 16th on which date these ringtones will start being downloadablefrom any other distribution sites as well. Only during the special service period exclusively, you can download them with photo portraits of 25 NMB48 members and three types of logos of NMB for standby displays of cell phones. 
Aya Yamamoto(/山本彩), the captain of the group said she wanted both those who had been to the concerts and those who had not to carry the music all the time. And a popular member Miyuki watanabe(/渡辺美優紀) said she was so happy to have such a big opportunity for various people to know NMB’s songs and that wanted many people to set the music and portraits and visit the concerts.
In addition, at the NMB48 Theater, NMB is hosting a special service of “Hina-matsuri Week” that members distribute “Toyosu no Hina-arare” with members handwritten autographs to visitors to its concerts at the Theater. arare is a Japanese traditional rice cracker which looks like hail (actually, arare primarily means hail in Japanese) and we eat sepcial type of arare on March 3rd, Hina-matsuri or Dolls’ Festival Daywhich is called “Hina-arare”. In East Japan hina- arare are generally sweet but in West Japan, they tend to be salty like other ordinary rice crackers, and Hina-arare produced by Toyosu Co.,Ltd. in Osaka http://www.toyosu.co.jp/index.html is very popular in the western regions. NMB makes much of the people, ideas, and cultures in the western parts including its home base Osaka area.
the popular Toyosu Hina-arare NMB48's members distribute to the visiting fans
NMB48 Theater
(3 投票, 平均値/最大値: 5.00 / 5) Loading ...Chiaki Kuriyama hosting the”Hina-matsuri Rock Night”
Chiaki Kuriyama(/栗山千明) http://www.spacecraft.co.jp/chiaki_kuriyama/, a popular international actor as well as a singer from Japan, hosted a presenting event of her new single music CD ”Oishi Kisetsu/ketteiteki San-punkan”(/おいしい季節/決定的3分間, a delicious season/the crucial three minuates) called “Hina-matsuri Rock Night”(The Doll Festival rock night ) at Tokyo FM Hall http://www.tfmhall.jp/ on this Mar. 3rd, which is the day of Hina-matsuri or Dolls’ Festival.
Chiaki Kuriyama wearing a Japanese kimono and modern rocker's like lace-up boots to celebrate the Hina-matsuri or Girls' Day which is the Dolls Festival
As for the two new songs, another writer wrote about before on this site. She became a fashon model at the age of 5 first and debuted as an actor starring “Shikoku(/死国)”,a well-known J-horror in1999 at the age of 14. What made her famous today is her playing a part of a girl assassinator, Go-Go Yubari(/GOGO夕張) in Quentin Tarantino’s movie ”Kill Bill Vol.1″ in Hollywood in 2003. She was introduced as one of the “Great performers 2003″on New York Times Magazine. 
She also played a important part in the original video edition of “Juon(/呪怨)” which was remade as a hollywood movie “Ju-on -The Grudge” afterwards. 
At the concert event on the 3rd, Kuriyama introduced and played the music video clips of the songs of her new CD which were written, composed, and produced by Ringo shiina(/椎名林檎)、a popular singer who Kuriyama herself is a huge fan of. Those are the third part of ” the high-impact trilogy of the producers” and Kuriyama really likes those songs. The event showed the music video clip of the making of the two new songs for the first time and also showed the music video clips of “Kanousei Girl”(/可能性ガール,the girl of possibilities) and “Cold Finger Girl”(/コールドフィンガーガール) as well, which are the other parts of the trilogy.
(3 投票, 平均値/最大値: 5.00 / 5) Loading ...Tokyo Marathon 2011 being held
The Tokyo Marathon 2011, which has been a popular annual marathon event in Tokyo, was held on Feb.27th.
This year about 36,000 runners competed in the event ,which has been the largest number ever. The course is 42.195km between the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Tower in Shinjyuku-ward http://www.metro.tokyo.jp/ENGLISH/index.htm and Tokyo Big Sight in Koutou-ward http://www.tokyo-bigsight.co.jp/english/index.html, along Ginza, Asakusa, and other famous areas in Tokyo.
And the marathon started at 9:10am with the shot of the starting pistol by Tokyo Governor Shintarou Ishihara, the competitors started dashing.
(3 投票, 平均値/最大値: 5.00 / 5) Loading ...