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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.   

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.

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.

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.

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Moussy

Moussy is a Japanese fashion brand well known for casual & sexy women’s clothing in their teens or early twenties. Moussy’s fashionista-in-chief Yoko Morimoto was a former sales superstar who is putting her own spin on kawaii. The look Moussy is flogging can best be described as otona (adult) type�sophisticated, chic, the look a girl wears when she wants some respect. Moussy, a boutique located on the fifth floor of the 109 Building in Shibuya.

w♥c

w♥c is a fashion brand designed by Japanese talent and model Chinatsu Wakatsuki. The theme of wc’s spring collection is “ready made vintage clothing”. While wc only offers brand-new products, wakatsuki is always loving vintage clothing…so,w♥c spring collection helps you to enjoy vintage look. w♥c shop is located on the 8th floor of Shibuya 109 department store.

Camera&Photo Imaging Show “CP＋” 2011 being held　

  A big Camera & Photo Imaging Show called “CP＋　2011”, is being held this Feb. 9-12 at PACIFICO  YOKOHAMA JAPAN  http://www.cpplus.jp/en/index.html .

This year both Japanese and overseas camera or photo related manufacturers, totally 99 (last year the number was 77) join the event.

So many visitors including  a lot of  foreign buyers and agents are visiting there.

  　

  From very old and primitive digital camera to state-of-the-art greater gadgets, there are various cameras and photo devices are exhibited. This time there is a special corner of “The 30th anniversary memorial booth of electronic cameras “, where old and new devices are shown.

 

Koharu Kusumi(/久住小春)　releasing her first book 　

  Koharu Kusumi(/久住小春), an ex popular member of  “Morning Musume.”(MM),released her first book, “Jyuunanasai no tenshoku”(/１７歳の転職, a carrer change at the age of 17), which is an essay,on this Feb.10th from Up Front Books http://www.ufb.jp/.

 Kusumi guraduated from MM, one of the top female idol groups,  in Decemebr 2009 as I wrote at that time here http://www.tenkai-japan.com/2009/12/22/the-career-options-of-morining-musume-graduates/ .

Since the graduation, she has been working as a model and an actor. In the book, she writes about her ideas and memories over how it is like  for a 12- year-old anonymouscommon girl to be suddenly become a top idol, and whta it means to her,and reasons and circumstances of  retiring from that kind of life at the age of 17 yeas old.  Therefore, some parts of  her essay is a sort of  autobiography as an ex-top idol, Yet,  she is also interested in cause and effect between health and beauty and food.  While she lived as an young female idol, she had no choice but to eat comparatively unhealthy food,which in her opinion, made her less healthy, compared to her innocent food habit before she had become a showbiz  personality. Som also writes about her ideas over food, health, and beauty, and their correlations.

“Jyuunanasai no Tenshoku” is available at ￥1,500 (≒＄18, €13).

“Setsubun” ,the traditional end of winter falling on Feb.3rd

 A Feb.3rd of a year  is a special day on which “Setsubun”, our “traditional end of winter” or “the day before calendric beginning of  spring” falls.

On this day, it is customary to throw beans at our houses, cars, buildings,and properties , shouting, “Fuku wa uchi, oni wa soto !”(Fortune in and demons out !) in order to ward off evil and bless our home and things.  People say  evils come out to bring bad luck on Setsubun, so we need to dispel them by throwing beans, and this custom has more than 1,300- year-old history in Japan.

 

In addition to the practice at housholds,schools, and corporations, every year, at temples and shrines priests and monks host this “Setsubun-sai ” of  a ward-off evil ceremony and some celebrities join them.

Usually, at a big ceremony of  this, a “Toshi-otoko”(/年男) or a “Toshi-onna” （/年女）, “a man or woman who was born in a year of the same Chinese Zodic as the current year” are appointed in charge of  throwing the beans.

We also eat Ehoumaki(/恵方巻き, an auspicious direction hand-rolled sushi), which is believed to have a magic power to make your wishes come true when you eat it standing and facing the auspicious direction of the year (this year it is south-southeast) ,keeping eating it and wishing without uttering anything while you eat. Actually, a lot of  shoppers stood in line at supermarkets and sushi stores to buy ehoumaki and I ate it taking a few minutes wishing and without saying anything this year.     

 

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A new model poratble game “NGP” from SONY coming in 2011

  Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), the subsidiary of SONY in the game field announced it was going to release a new poratble game machine called  “NGP”(Next Generation Portable) tentatively at the end of this year 2011  on Dec.27th.

NGP is to be the successor machine to current PSP(Play Station Portable),whose first type was released in 2004.  This new type machine is expected to compete with nintendo3DS which is going to be released on this Feb. 26th and smartphones.  

NGP has state-of-the-art functions, such as  a  5- inch- wide organic EL touch panel, the first 3G  correspondence line system for a portable game, and so forth.

“Not yet” from AKB48 is debuting

  A new spin-off group from AKB48, currently the most popular national young female idol group is anounced to going to release its debut single CD on this coming Mar. 16th   on the Jan.21 at the AKB48’s “AKB48 Request Hour Setlist Best 100  2011”, its annual concert this year at  SHIBUYA-AX  in Tokyo.    

The name of the new spin-off group is “Not yet” , consisting of four popular members,namely, Yuko Oshima(/大島優子), Rie Kitahara(/北原里英), Rino Sashihara（/指原莉乃）, and Yui Yokoyama(/横山由衣).  Oshima is  the winner of the “gereral election of AKB48” last year and Yokoyama is a new regular member having  been promoted from  traineeship just last October.    

 The four members announced they are going to debut as  Not yet and release the first CD “Shumatsu Not yet”(/週末Not yet,  A Weekend Not  yet).  This song was written by Yasushi Akimoto (/秋元康), AKB’s  general producer as all the other songs of AKB, SKE, SDN, and NMB.  Yet it was composed by Jun Abe(/安部純), some of whose songs in the past  were for anime works, and arranged by Daisuke Suzuki(/鈴木大輔), a member of  “GIRL NEXT DOOR”, one of the currently top popular J-pop music groups.

AKB has already accrued some smaller groups, such as “Chocholove From AKB48”, “No Sleeves(/ノースリーブス)”, “Watarirouka Hashiritai（/渡り廊下走り隊）”, “Team Dragon From AKB48″, and”French Kiss”. And just recently Tomomi Itano(/板野友美), one of the original members and quite popular one debuted as a solo singer.  Most of those “subgroups of AKB” are so popular themselves and the constituting members are usually supported by their entertainment agencies respectively. Actually, three of the four members of Not yet are entertainers of  Ohta Pro.(/太田プロ), an influentioal talent agency http://www.ohtapro.co.jp/.

Those groups and members will hopefully establish good rivalry with one another to enhance their talents even more.

The Feast of the Seven Herbs of Health

 We celebrate “Jinjitsu no Sekku”(/人日の節句, the Seasonal Festival of the Person-day)　or “Nanakusa no Sekku”(/七草の節句 or 七種の節句, the Feast of the Seven Herbs of Health), eating rice porridge with the seven vernal herbs of  health on January 7th every year.

 

The seven herbs are;  seri(Japanese parsely),  nazuna(shepherd’s- purse),  gogyo,hakobera(chickweed), hotokenoza(hawk’s-beard), suzuna(leaf of turnip), and suzushiro(leaf of Japanese radish).

“The first seven days” of a new year is called “Matsu no uchi”(/松の内, ” the term of the pines”, or,the auspicious new year holidays) and we celebrate the festival on the final day wishing health for everyone.  And in olden days, even criminals were not punished on January 7th. 

In autumn, we also have the Seven Autumnal Herbs of Health as well.

On this 7th ,actually, I ate rice porridge of the seven herbs of health with my family.

 

The Dedicatory Ring-Entering Ceremony of Sumo at Meiji Shrine

 Hakuhou(/白鵬), the currently only one  Yokozuna(/横綱, the Grand Champion of Sumo wrestling) hosted the “Hounou-Dohyoo-iri”(/奉納土俵入り, a dedicatory Ring-Entering Ceremony) at Meiji Shrine in Shibuya-ward Tokyo on this Jan.6th. 

This ceremony is a popular annual ritual conducted by (a) Yokozuna(s). Sometimes tehre are more than one Yokozuna and the two host it jointly like the one last year. Yet, as Asashoryuu(/朝青龍)　retired last year, Hakuhou did by himself , and  this ceremony was solely done for the first time in four years.  

This ceremony is a special dance of oblation for the deities done by the primary sumo wrestler(s) accompanied by two follower wrestlers. This time Hakuhou did so-called “Shiranui-gata” (/不知火型, a sea fire style) performance.  This time the ceremony was spectated by about 3,000 audience. 

Meiji Shrine http://www.meijijingu.or.jp/english/index.html is a place where the Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shohkenare enshrined and one of the most popular Shinto shrines, which is visited by both Japanese and foreigners.  The number of the visitoes there during the new year holidays susually sets the highest of the year.  Actuallty,  more than 3200,000 people visited the shrine on the first three days of this year 2011.   

As some other writers wrote on this site before, the shrine is now a very popular tourist destination even among foreign tourists due to its cultural significance, modern amenities around the facility and its neighboring area, and “Kiyomasa no Ido”(/清正の井戸, the Kiyomasa’s Well) in its garden as one “power spot”.   So-called “power spots” are now becoming more and more popular among even Japanese who are interested in health issues, realm of healing or supernatural.  Such spots are said to have special healing power or effect to make or keep a person who visits there.

Hakuhou who established remarkable 63 winning matches in a row and five winning seasons in a row at the same time may be an adequate “hero” to celebrate the new year in a quite auspicious atmosphere.

The first auction of 2011 set the record high of maginificent tunas’ price

  The First Auction(/初競り, “Hatsuseri” ) or  the first trading of 2011 was held at fish, vegetable, and some other markets in Japan nationwide at dawn on this Jan.5th.  The hatsuseri is one symbol of “the beginning of the trading of the year” in Japan.

 At the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo,one of the most popular destinations among  foreign tourists to Japan,  a maginificent bluefin tuna was sold at 32.49 million yen(95,000 yen/kg) (≒$396,000, €296,618),the price of  all time record high.

The  splendid tuna weighs 342kg (752 lb), caught off  Toi, a southern area in Hokkaido, a Japan’s northern island.  For the first time the  highest-price tuna was caught in an area other than Ohma area in Aomori pref..   The successful bidders were Ginza Kyubey(/銀座九兵衛)http://www.kyubey.jp/index_e.html,the most famous first rate sushi restaurant in Ginza Tokyo and Itamae Sushi(/板前寿司)http://www.itamae.co.jp/index.html, a sushi restaurant chain mainly developing in HongKong , Macao,and others. The two buyers jointly bought the tuna and shared it.

Ginza Kyubey is well known for that its first owner invented “Gunkan maki” style(/軍艦巻き, warship roll style of nigiri zushi) in1931, which is widely prevalent nowadays as one of the nigiri zushi(hand-formed sushi ) styles.    Itamae Sushi is rapidly becoming popular as the number of people outside of  Japan in Asia who love sushi as healthy food is increasing rapidly these days. That chain has successfully bidden the highest- price tunas at the hatsuseri  four times in a row.

As for the price to sell the tuna as “dishes” to the consumers, Ginza Kyubey will serve ohtoro(the fattest meat) and  chuhtoro(medium-fatty meat) at 2,500 yen and akami(lean meat) at 800 yen per piece, while Itamae Sushi will serve  ohtoro at 1,300 yen, chuhtoro at 900 yen, and akami at 500 yen per piece at four of its chain restaurants in Tokyo.

 Sushi, one of the symbolic items of  the Japanese culture, now is completely accepted in the international community and the quality of the ingredients, the degree of refinement as a cuisine, and also the understanding level of  the people in the world are all being enhanced.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011 !!

 Happy New Year !!   Thank you very much for your kind and warm continuous  reading　and supporting for my blog here.  I hope this year 2011 will be a very good year for everyone .

As for the result of   “the 61st Kouhaku Utagassen 2010”, the most popular national singing TV program of the year end,  the White Team won.

 

The White Team made the sixth time victory in a row (totally 33) this time.  The voting system to decide the winner was a bit complicated, as it had  the guest judges, TV interctive judges, one-segment judges using cell phones. Actually I voted using our TV at my own home.The event  was exciting and lively. For example, AKB48 made the record- high of the time of turning up in the program of 12 times in history of the event, not just performing their songs but for supporting  other singers.    Some actors who played parts in “the Wife of GeGeGe”(ゲゲゲの女房) ,which was often referred to by writers here, appeared to support Nao Matsushita（/松下奈緒）who had starred in the TV drama,  hosting this Kouhaku as the emcee of the Red Team.  The word “GeGeGe”  had won the grand prix of  “The Buzzword-of-the year 2010” as I wrote here before.  http://www.tenkai-japan.com/2010/12/04/the-new-words-the-buzzwords-of-the-year-2010-selected/   

 Anime or manga characters also appeared in the slot of “Character Kouhaku” to support the related songs’ singers. The event included such various and attractive slots and ideas to entertain audience and people.

 

 

Nana Mizuki(/水樹奈々) is publishing her autobiography in the January

  Nana Mizuki (/水樹奈々), “the top anison singer” as well as one of  the top voice stars of anime works in Japan currently is going to publish her autobiography commemorating  her 10th anniversary of her career as a singer on the Jan.21st 2011. 

The title of the book is “Shin-ai”(/深愛, Deep Love)and that is also the title of her 19th single music CD which was released on the Jan.21st 2009.  January 21st is her birthday as well.  In her book she writes about her childhood ,where she wanted to become an enka(Japanese popular ballad)singer and performed at a lot of  karaoke contests and competitions for amateurs  some of which gave her prizes. She also refers to the hard times, such as suffering from not being able to debut for a quite long time, her father suffering from a serious disease who had kept supporting her since she had been so young, her talent agency having gone banckrupt,and so forth.

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