Girls’ Generation’s cannonball into the Japanese pop scene – starting with the initial crossover singles last year and fully splashing with a record-breaking Japan-only album this year – charmed plenty of people, among them the foreign-born music writers/observers living in this country (guilty!). The shiny new sound of K-Pop gems like “Gee” and “Run Devil…
December already? Well, let’s make the remaining bits of 2011 count by…listening to J-Pop together. KAT-TUN “BIRTH” [youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlYS7Vve26M”] KAT-TUN seemed quiet for a while, yeah? Well, here they are again with something called “BIRTH” which an astute person would assume signals a change in style, a fresh start, an escape from the womb-like chambers of…
The Kohaku Uta Gassen is a Japanese New Year’s Eve tradition, where a “red” team of musical artists compete against a “white” team of…uh…other musical artists. It is a relatively big deal, as my teachers and students are already talking about it. I’ve never seen it, as so far I have spent every New Year’s…
The world’s most expensive photograph, ya’ll. Over the past week I’ve seen a bunch of people guffawing at the price (completely fair) and buzzing off about how this isn’t art but rather a glorified Polaroid snap (wrong!). It’s a very pretty shot that also came in a pretty huge size, and seeing people be all…
Up there? That’s the new seasonal flavor of Pepsi here in Japan, the stomach-churning “Strawberry Milk” flavor. I’ve yet to summon the courage to try it, but the very presence of the word “milk” on the soda wrapper has me buggin’ out. Just a terrible combination. Arashi “Meikyu Love Song” [youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_b5fgzCC34″] AKB48 grab all the…