Haruka Ayase’s got a new TV drama which starts tonight. It’s called Hotaru no Hikari and about a “himono onna” 干物女. “himono” is what they call dried fish and squid but in this case I think its meaning is more like “left out to dry” or “abandoned.” Maybe someone can tell me the real meaning of this expression. Anyway, the story is about a girl who would rather sit around at home sleeping and doing nothing than going out to find true love. It doesn’t sound like a very compelling premise but I don’t watch TV anyways. This poster keeps grabbing my attention every time I walk by it though. I think it’s the somewhat alluring pose. Danny has written a post about a new J-drama about boobies which seems more interesting.
Category: Girls
Hotaru no Hikari
Haruka Yamanote Line Posters
The guy who runs the Ayase Haruka Blog has a great post so I had no choice but to blog about it here. She released an album last month and to promote it they had different posters at every station on the Yamanote Line, the guy went around the loop and got off at every station to take a photo of each poster. Sound familiar? Unfortunately, at a few stations the posters were already stolen but he’s got a photo of the empty frame. There’s even a survey to vote for your favorite poster! Good work!
Miss Okinawa
There were actually 3 or 4 Miss Okinawas promoting some event in Shinjuku today. Leads me to suspect that this lady may not actually be from Okinawa. But who cares she was very pretty. I walked around Shinjuku all afternoon and almost died from Natsubate. Make sure to keep yourselves hydrated this summer.
Risa Shimamoto
Look!! There are REAL LIVE chicks in Akiba and not just plastic ones. Yes, on any given weekend in Akihabara there’s some sort of photo event for some unknown bikini gal (unknown to me anyway) They pluck some girl off a street in Harajuku, interview her about her favorite color, food, first love, type of guy etc and film her running along the beach in a bikini, eating ice cream in slow motion. Make that into a DVD and you’ve got a booming business. Danny’s got the exclusive on what these events are like with lots of high-res photos if you are into that kind of thing. Even if you aren’t the write up is an interesting inside view into something that most people would otherwise not experience. He invited me to tag along before which I thought might be an interesting blog opportunity. But I didn’t really want to pay for the DVD which you had to buy to see the event. I would just as well pay to visit ROCKZA in Asakusa. I’m not really into these Akiba type gravure girls but I can see what guys likes about them. “Fertile” is the word that comes to mind.
Check out Risa Shimamoto
And also previously featured Asaki Yoshida
Gubinama
Is Konishi Manami even old enough to drink?
Maids
I counted about 20 maids around Akiba Station on Saturday. The trend is becoming a bit tired, don’t you think? There should be more cat girls. They are the second most popular types of girls in Akiba.
Tax Return Girl
Nakama Yukie is back this year as the kakuteishinkoku girl in this New TV Commercial. It looks like you can file your taxes online now. They even got Web-TAX-TV to show you how.
Mob Mentality
You know how at a bargain sale some people start going crazy grabbing at some items, then other people will join in and pretty soon you have a crazy mob clawing their way at the goods even though they don’t know what hell it is? Well, that’s the way it is with guys with digital cameras at a car show. Yep, you see a crowd and you start to think “There must be something worth taking a photo of!” so you rush over, raise you camera up in the air to take a shot and pretty soon there are 50 more guys right behind you. My purpose for going to the Tokyo Auto Salon 2006 today was to take photos of the Roadster concepts but I couldn’t help getting caught up in the mob mentality. Although I enjoy taking pictures of the crowds rather than just the girls. Remaining detached is the key. Once that’s gone, it’s just straight to otakuland.
Sayuri
I went to see “Sayuri” aka “Memoirs of a Geisha” tonight. My impression of the film is more or less the same as what the critics have said, but here’s some of my observations/opinions in case you’re interested:
The GOOD: Suzuka Ohga who plays young Sayuri gives the best performance. Zhang Ziyi’s English is not bad and the Chinese accents didn’t bother me. The cinematography is very extravagant and rich and every scene is lush. Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li are gorgeous and nice to look at. Zhang Ziyi did a pretty good job as a Geisha but I watched “House of Flying Daggers” this morning so I kept expecting her to pull out a sword or do a flying kung-fu kick. I liked the scene where young Sayuri is running through the red torii to the shrine. It really captures her determination and feel spirit. It’s also the last sequence in the film.
The BAD: I swear at times the music sounding like something from the Peking Opera and I think I heard a gong once or twice. The earlier scenes of Kyoto seemed more like China. Nothing really resembled Gion to me, but then again I’ve only been there once. Kudoh Yuki’s American accent was out of place and the Chinese accents seemed more natural. The soundtrack was a bit “too much”, I didn’t really like it. And they kept showing this establishing shot with a pagoda, in the evening, in the morning etc. I found that a bit obvious. Guess the director feels like he has to hit us over the head with cliche images in every shot else we forget we are in Japan because of the Chinese actresses. Unlike the book, the film doesn’t reveal anything about a Geisha beyond the superficial. Sayuri’s tranformation from chambermaid to Geisha is compressed into a few minutes and we don’t learn anything about a Geisha’s art. Why is Sayuri the best Geisha? What sets her apart? The film is a very watered down version of the book. Only the basic plot and cheesy love story is left. It is weren’t for the spectacular production values, I’d think I was watching a made for TV movie.
Still it’s nice to look at on a big screen.
Go Deers!
Oooh Yeah! Cheerleaders! Bring it on! I hooked up with Brad for lunch and he was kind of enough to invite me to a football game at the Tokyo Dome tonight. Although there is no professional football league in Japan, there is a shakaijin league where teams owned and run by various companies play against each other. The players are also employees of the company. Strange but true. Tonight’s game was the IBM BigBlue vs Kajima Deers (Kajima is a construction company) Brad’s friend is one of the cheerleaders for the Deers so we sat on the Kajima side. I don’t have to tell you that I (we) spent most of our time watching the action on the sidelines and could not concentrate on the game much. I did catch a few replays on the big TV screen. Unfortunately, my canon camera sucks and I wished I had my SLR. I did my best with photoshop but the results are still less than acceptable. I’m sorry fellas. I will make up for it at the Tokyo Motor Show next week.
See below for more pom-pom pics.
2046
Does Zhang Ziyi look totally hot in this film or what?
From the director of “In the Mood for Love” this is a futuristic film that takes place in the sixties.
Drive Safely
Time to brighten up my top page with something nice to look at. Everyone drive safely!
Tokyo Motorcycle Show 2007
I took the day off work yesterday and went to Tokyo Big Site to see the Health Industry Show and the Tokyo Motorcycle Show. The health show was very interesting and I’ll be posting photos from that later on. The bike show started yesterday and was still pretty crowded considering it was a weekday. It’s difficult to take photos of bikes because there’s always someone sitting on it and you have to wait until they get off. I’m not particularly interested in motorcycles and went because the friend I was with is a biker, but after seeing all those nice shiny motorcycles I’m tempted to get my motorcycle license. You can see photos of the bikes in my gallery and more pictures of the girls below.
Haruka Ayase
Getting sick of looking at pictures of my laptop? OK here’s a photo of Ayase Haruka. She was that really cute running and jumping girl in those Pocari Sweat commercials that made you feel like you were experiencing puberty all over again. This one and this one and this one. She’s already pretty famous but I predict this girl will be endorsing some serious brands next year and we’ll be seeing her face everywhere. She’s going to be the next Nakama Yukie. We may be seeing more of her here too. Nice fan blog here and her official site here. Less mainstream but equally as bouncy idols here.
Ebi-chan
If you’ve walked thru Shinjuku station over the last week or so, you’ve already seen Ebi-chan plastered all over the place. But I thought I’d post some pictures anyway for those not fortunate enough to see them in person. She’s the Finepix poster girl for the moment. Makes me want to go and get a F30. Download her wallpaper and watch the TV CM here. ダントツ！！
Ayako Wakao
Found these photos of actress Wakao Ayako tonight while surfing for something completely different. If you’ve watched a lot of classic Japanese films you probably know who she is. Compared to most of the actresses of her era she had a very contemporary allure which I found extremely attractive. I first saw her in Kenji Mizoguchi’s Street of Shame (1956) when I was a film student. She plays a supporting role as a prostitute in a brothel called “Dreamland”. It’s a very good film if you are ever looking for something to watch.
Sukeban Deka 4
It’s all over the geino news this morning. Ayaya is going to play Asamiya Saki in the fourth Sukeban Deka スケバン刑事 movie. Woohoo!! Actually I think it’s pretty old news, but anyway, this time she wears a mini-skirt with that sailor uniform. The yoyo looks the same. Sukeban Deka has a quite a cult following and I have to embarrassingly admit that I did watch series 2 and 3 quite regularly way back when. Sukeban Deka is the epitome of Japanese B-Movie and kitsch. This time around they should make the fight scenes more believable, maybe use some wire action and CG, more Matrix-like. I’d pay to see that.
Ichiokuen
I was searching for a picture of ¥100,000,000 １億円 (don’t ask) but instead found this news article from 5 years ago. “Lucky Legs” is a group of girls that had their legs insured for ¥100,000,000 or about a million dollars. Not sure if that was the total for all them or individually but anyways their homepage no longer exists. Wonder what happened to them.
Pasnet
I went to buy a subway ticket this morning when I realized I only had ¥158 (2 yen short). I didn’t have time to go to the bank because I had a teleconference. I remembered this Ueto Aya pasnet card in my wallet which I did not want to use. But I had no choice. When I got to work I found out the telecon was cancelled. I’m so bummed out.
I want a life that is mine!
This is one of my favorite images in the Memoirs of a Geisha. I’ve been thinking about the film and remembering different parts and have decided that I rather like it despite its Chineseness. One piece of trivia that I did not pick up on but was told about later was in the Sumo scene. One of the characters talks about how the smaller Sumo wrestler can defeat the bigger wrestler. The smaller Sumo wrestler was played by Mainoumi (a real Sumo wrestler) who is famous for being able to beat wrestlers much bigger with his agressive attack. I was wondering why the Japanese in the theatre were laughing at this scene.
Memoirs of a Geisha
The trailer for Memoirs of a Geisha is out now. Zhang Ziyi looks very nice and her English doesn’t sound too Chinese. Gong Li looks good too but Michelle Yeoh still appears very Chinese to me. When I see Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi together I keep expecting them to starting flying and fighting like in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”. The visuals look very stunning in a Western-Interpretation-of-Japanese-Culture sort of way. Although I think Rob Marshal probably did a good job with the film, westerners tend to overdo it when they portray Japan. If this film were being made by Japanese, I think it would be more simplistic in a wabi-sabi way. Anyway, if it has Zhang Ziyi in it, I will definitely enjoy it.
Mari Iijima
Tonight, I happened to come across Mari Iijima’s Personal Website and spent an hour reading through it. She is most famous as the voice of Lynn Minmey in the early 80’s anime tv-series Macross. I got a hold of the entire original TV series way back in high school and watched all 36 episodes in one weekend, years before it got butchered into that god awful Robotech. The character of Minmey was an idol whose voice would mesmerize the attacking Zentrady while the earth SDF laid waste to them. She was the first virtual/anime idol that had a huge fan base. Anyway, to this day that soundtrack is one of my favorites and I’m embarrassed to say that I still have it on my iPOD. Mari Iijima was not your typical idol of that era although she looked the part. She composed her own songs for all her albums (her first was produced by Ryuichi Sakamoto) and she also had a magnificent singing voice, rare in those days. Unfortunately for her, she could not shake the Lynn Minmey image and moved to Los Angeles in 1989 where she has since pursued what seems like a steady musical and acting career. I noticed that she put out an album in 2002 called “Mari Iijima sings Lynn Minmey”, has she come full circle?
This page has some interesting pictures from her Macross days.
Yukie in Gamera 3
That’s Yukie Nakama making a brief but memorable appearance in Gamera 3 (1999) before she became famous. She had a bit part as a female camper out in the woods doing a dirty deed with some guy. Suddenly, the monster shows up, she screams and it turns her into a mummy. She’s on the screen for a whole 5 secs. It wasn’t until she played Sadako in Ring 0: Birthday that she got more exposure.
File Your Taxes
Yukie Nakama files her tax return below. I’m sure they did this for promotion as well as to make sure, as poster girl for the National Tax Agency, that she did indeed file her taxes and to pre-empt any possible scandal like with Makiko Esumi and the National Pension fiasco last year. Go here for a full size image of the posters.
