Archives For Japanese

where did this come from?
and when did it happen?

About “A day in the life of…”
In the limited edition series A day in the life of… photographers are portraying a day in their lives, fiction as non-fiction. The fourth publication in this monthly series is completed by Stockholm based artist Jenny Källman where she assembled pictures of young peoples everyday lives. She blends documentary shots of the social games of the street with more or less pre-arranged scenes. – from Libraryman Co., Ltd.

A Day in the Life of... Yu Aoi

Found out about it here. You can get the book here. Roughly $15-ish USD.
Maybe Julyssa can scan bookstores in Sweden for it…

Yu just updated her site with a whole magazine batch, which seems the only thing she updates now… which is kinda boring. BUT… they also announce she’ll be on Vogue Japan on December (dunno if on the cover, or just a feature article…) – which leads me to post a great scan of her cover on Vogue Taiwan from last Oct.

There weren’t good scans that I’m aware of, so I was surprised to find these.

Yu Aoi - Vogue Taiwan - Cover

Continue Reading…

Juri Ueno WOWOW Marathon!

August 29, 2009 — 5 Comments

While we wait for Juri’s WOWOW project (please, please! Someone sub this!!! And please, please WOWOW release this with subs), the programming  (non-coding) people have decided to do a Juri Marathon with 6 films! (Sounds like Comfy Monki to me xD) starting on September 7th (That’s a Monday, just so you know~)

  • Sept. 7th – Jozze to Tora to Sakana-tachi (Josee, the Tiger and the Fish)
    with Satoshi Tsumabuki and Chizuru Ikewaki
  • Sept. 8th – Kame wa Igai to Hayaku Oyogu (Turtles Swim Faster than Expected)
    with Yu Aoi (!!! xD)
  • Sept. 9th – Naoko
  • Sept. 10th – Swing Girls (!!!!)
  • Sept. 10th – Warau Mikaeru (Arch Angels)
  • Sept. 11th – GuGu Datte Neko de Aru (Gu Gu the Cat)
    with Kyoko Koizumi~~~

Why they chose Josee instead of Rainbow Song makes me wonder… after all she was barely in Josee xD – Anyway, if you get WOWOW, don’t miss the chance to watch these six Juri films!

Kame wa igai to hayaku oyogu

Only like 6 days, in fact!

Here’s some more info~~~

Episode 1 – GITA~ KE~SU no Onna (Her Guitar Case)
Episode 2 – HOPE
Episode 3 – Tonari no Tonari no Akira (Akira, the neighbor of the neighbor? LOL)
Episode 4 – Tabi no Aida (Traveling Time)
Episode 5 – Aru Asa, Hinata wa Totsuzen ni (One Morning, Suddenly Sunny? xD)

And Juri singing the closing theme! which she also wrote xD LOL

Continue Reading…

More updates from Ivan Simeon~
and in case you’ve missed them~~~
The New Green Deal
and… “the assassin

Juri Ueno - Myth and Realities by Ivan Simeon

Isn’t that hot? xD
That’s a hot photo, Juri can probably grab the shovel
and hit me in the face with it, at the same time she would
be making me laugh~~~

More photos below the break~

Continue Reading…

I’m also preparing for 2009, though to be honest~~~ I’ve noticed that I don’t have many 2009 albums – so we’ll see how that goes. I’ve chosen Top15 Songs of 2008 excluding Soundtracks, except for my #1 for sentimental reasons.

No, really. Continue Reading…

I just noticed I can direct link to my LivingSocial:Albums on Facebook.
Babo me~ now if only they would allow embedding…

LivingSocial Albums

5 albums in Chinese, and loads of high-rated Asian albums. LOL
You can fully check it all out here.

First, I meant to post these yesterday, but my computer screwed up. I’ll talk about it later.

Second of all… It’s been a while since a proper Yu post, apparently most of you don’t care about other Yu-tagged posts, and want Yu-centric… which kinda sucks, but maybe that’s just because I’m in a bad mood. So I will try to forgive…

Onto business…

Yu did a series of LG commercials, since I’m all lost on translation, I didn’t really know that 1. it was gonna be a Japanese campaign for new LG phones shot in France. 2. Yu did her French xD 3. I don’t understand her French. 4. She did mention she thinks French pronunciation is difficult. 5. I have suggested she learns Spanish because pronunciation is pretty close to basic hiragana/katakana – 6. when asked what her favorite feature was she said it was the address book because she tends to save many numbers for sweet shops, gohan shops and cake shops, LOL – so anyway!

Pretty cute CMs, but check the one below the break which is all of them into one video xD

https://youtu.be/_SOT743n3k0

an Asian-centric place?

I seem to complain a lot about the West lately. I dunno if you’ve noticed. I’ve noticed, and my parents have noticed. The four featured articles are Asian topics (kind of, since YAM005 has Yu LOL), I listen to a lot of music from Asia, watch a lot of films from Asia (though I’m also watching Mad Men Season 1 at the moment – actually on Ep08) – Everything seems Asia.

What the heck.

Have I opened my eyes to something I had never known before? Oh how I wish I had been so Asian when my grandfather was alive, maybe he would’ve been proud. I’m sure he’d be thrilled I’m all over Chinese music (I still got six albums to listen to xD), and maybe I’d be speaking Chinese by now instead of just fraking around.

So when did this happen? Why did this happen?

Is it because American music sucks? Is it because American celebrities suck? Is it because British music sounds the same? Is it because everyone on this side of the world looks and sounds the same? Or am I just tired of hearing how evil China is because that’s what they keep telling me on the papers and online news. Perhaps all the negative propaganda makes me like Asia even more.

Or is it the Anti-American “ideas” of everything American sucks? Because that’s what people think, right? But I don’t think so, I don’t have a problem with the American people… maybe their music industry, and their movie industry… and their media… or how the media portrays anything. No, scratch all of that. I have a problem with people in general. People suck, and I’ve become very anti-social. I don’t like western media, because that’s what I get to read since it’s all I can understand. I would probably hate other reporters and writers in Asian language if I could properly read what they write. But as it stands, I hate the media I get to hear and read about. The so-called defenders of the truth and objective point of views. I have given up on objectivity on television, but they keep shoving it in my face.

So yeah, it seems this blog (and YAM for that matter) is turning more and more towards an Asia focus because I’m getting more and more fed up with the West. For anyone else out there who find themselves only focus on Asian (or only Japanese, only Korean, only Chinese) Entertainment, why did it happen? How? When?

Tokyo Film Festival 2009The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF, not to be confused with Toronto LOL) has just announced that Mexican director Alejandro Gonzales Iñárritu (Amores Perros, Babel) will be presiding the 22nd edition of the festival to be held from  October 17 to October 25th this year.

Also… like I’ve mentioned before, the Tokyo Film Fest, alongside the Shanghai Film Fest are quickly turning into the most important in the region.

Anyway, as all things West media… when you search for the news, you get the articles talking about how dolphin documentary The Cove wasn’t allowed to open the festival. With titles such as “Will Tokyo Film Fest man up and show The Cove?” or “Hypocrisy, Thy Name Is Tokyo Film Festival.”

That is why I was so disappointed that our film, after winning awards in the last 13 film festivals it had entered, was rejected by the Tokyo Film Festival, whose theme this year is green. Not that it is that much of a shocker, but the main goal for making the film was to shut down the cove in Taijii, Japan, where 2,300 dolphins are killed every year.

Remember that time when Hayden Panettiere got in trouble in Japan for eh… I dunno, swimming with the dolphins?

But you know, dolphins are cute this is why it deserves a documentary (and it will probably win an Oscar for it if the cuteness continues). Penguins are cute too, I admit it (and they also won an Oscar, LOL). But cows aren’t. This is why cows don’t get a documentary, and we all get to eat meat regardless of how they are slaughtered.

I’m usually not a big fan of this one-side documentaries, because I’m pretty sure they won’t show how Taiji sees this as a way to sustain its town. And it will be all about saving the dolphins… and the people saving them. – I’m looking at you Panettiere. xD – I wonder if they give an alternative to sustain the town’s economy, as well as ranting about how people kill dolphins. You know, it’s fine to show the problem, but it’s not much use without a solution. So we stop hunting them, then what? How would they survive? Please, they’d better not suggest “Dolphin Watching” or I’ll shoot myself. As far as I’m concerned, we shouldn’t be allowed on “x-animal watching” ever and allow the disturbance in their habitat.

Anyway, this has turned into a rant instead of reporting. LOL

I love eating. I love meat, I can’t live without it. A meal without meat feels not done.

One of the reasons I can’t be a Buddhist – I tried a Buddhist meal once in Hong Kong. So good, but gone so fast. Had to eat again 2hrs. later. Perhaps, I can suggest watching Departures? Things sometimes need to die for you to survive.

Here’s The Cove website.

Here’s a bit more on the Film Festival timeline~~~

Also, when I was 17-ish… I used to sort of look up to PETA, now I just think they’re pretty annoying. Perhaps they should try to change the way they preach. It seems like they just lost something along the way. Like their sanity.

Crap! Now I’m really in the mood for some Sirloin. T-T