Hello to you friends,
Here's another episode from Shabekuri 007, this time featuring Kitagawa Keiko. She started off as a model in popular teen girl magazine and became on of its biggest stars before moving onto the world of acting. The only drama that I've watched with her in (I don't watch a whole lot though) was the basketball based, Buzzer Beat with Yamashita Tomohisa aka Yamapi. She has become quite popular recently and scored some roles with Sakurai Sho from Arashi in a drama and a movie based on a Yazawa Ai manga with Mukai Osamu.
Just letting you know of some subbed video's of the manga artists, Inoue Takehiko on the internet. It wasn't done by me, and I don't know who did it unfortunately but they are there and they are excellent. You get to see more of the working process of a manga artist compared to the interview of Araki Hirohiko that I did a few days ago. After watching these you will appreciate manga so much more as you see just how hard and passionately they work.
I was actually going to do a different post but that annoyingly and mysteriously deleted itself.....and I was almost finished so scrapped that idea for another day when I can be bothered to rewrite it.....
Instead, I'll do an easy one where I don't really have to write that much.
If you are somewhat familiar with Japanese geography, you may know of the Ryukyu islands. They are a series of islands located in the southern seas of Japan, between Taiwan and Japan. The most famous is Okinawa and is now a popular place for vacations for it's warm climate and beautiful beaches. It is kind of like a Japanese Hawaii, but with no volcanoes.
During the second world war, Okinawa was an important strategical point and so many battles were fought on it's lands, especially against the Americans towards the end of the war. Like all wars many innocent villagers lives were taken by the advancing Americans, and many even forced to commit suicide by the military when it was just about certain that Japan would lose there.
After the nuclear blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Japan surrendered, America put an army base in Tokyo. Once many years of peace was restored and relations became much more friendly they relocated the base to Okinawa. So now there are many American people there and many mixed race people.
The Ryukyu Islands have not always been part of Japan however. Once upon a time they were their own independent kingdom, the Ryukyu Kingdom, and so have their own customs and traditions, which have been influenced greatly by Japan and China.
I don't want to go into a long history lesson so see wiki for Ryukyu Kingdom and other link on that page.
So, now to what the post is supposed to be about....Songs by people from Okinawa, or about Okinawa.
Here we go.
NATSUKAWA RIMI 涙そうそう
This is a song called 'Nada Sou Sou' by Natsukawa Rimi. The title means 'Tears falling' in Okinawan and
it's actually a cover song originally written by the Ryukyu born group, BEGIN and Moriyama Ryoko. This version was hugely successful song in Japan and was in the singles chart for three years. It was also used as the theme song for the film with the same name starring Nagaswa Masami and Tsumabuki Satoshi.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SHOKICHI KINA & CHAMPLOOSE -花
This is a song called 'Hana' which means flower by Shokichi Kina and his band 'Champloose'. They became popular after their first album in 1977 for their fusion of ethnical Okinawan music with Western rock. This is a a shamisen version so sounds more like a traditional style Okinawan song.
Another famous song by them is 'Haisai Ojisan. Haisai means 'hello' in Okinawan whereas 'ojisan' just means old man. It is sung in Okinawan so most Japanese people don't know what is being said but it is still loved for it's uptempo and cheerful island feeling.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HAJIME CHITOSE - 春のかたみ I was thinking of putting her song 'Wadatsumi no ki' here but I had already put that up on a different list so here's another song by her that I like. She's not from Okinawa but another Ryukyu Island called Amami Oshima. This song is called 'Haru no Katami' which means 'Memento of the Spring'. She sing in the traditional style from her island which you might notice?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MORIYAMA RYOKO- さとうきび畑
This is the song 'Satokibi batake' which means 'Sugarcane Field' by Moriyama Ryoko, a singer who is considered as Japan's Joan Baez. It is a song about the battle in Okinawa during the Second World War and goes originally for a whole 10 minutes. Strangely enough it doesn't feel that way though (for me anyway). There are many sugarcane plantations in Okinawa, and the word 'Zawawa' that she says often in the song is a word that signifies the sound they make in the wind.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE BOOM - 島唄
The Boom was a band that became hugely popular in the early 1990's for this song and several others. They're not from Okinawa, but got the feeling of it with this very good song.
According to some interviews with the singer Miyazawa Kazufumi, these are the origins of the lyrics (from Wikipedia)
In a 2003 interview for fRoots, Miyazawa explained that he got the idea for the song after speaking with Okinawan survivors of the US invasion of Okinawa during World War II.
“
...for the first time saw a deeper side of Okinawa. I saw some remains of the war there and visited the Himeyuri Peace and Memorial Museum and learnt about the female students who became like voluntary nurses looking after injured soldiers. There were no places to escape from the U.S. army in Okinawa, so they had to find underground caves. Although they hid from the U.S. army, they knew they would be searching for them, and thought they would be killed, so they moved from one cave to another. Eventually they died in the caves. I heard this story from a woman who was one of these girls and who survived. I was still thinking about how terrible it was after I left the museum. Sugar canes were waving in the wind outside the museum when I left and it inspired me to write a song. I also thought I wanted to write a song to dedicate to that woman who told me the story. Although there was darkness and sadness in the underground museum, there was a beautiful world outside. This contrast was shocking and inspiring.
”
[4]
In another interview, Miyazawa explained that most Okinawan casualties were not caused by American troops, but by Japan's instructions to commit suicide rather than surrender.
“
When the United States were about to invade Japan during the Second World War II, the country was instructing people telling them, 'before USA has you, kill yourself'. In Okinawa 200.000 people died. And most of them weren't killed by USA... They hid under the earth.
”
[5]
While the song does not specify who the people being separated are, Miyazawa stated in the 2002 interview, "It is about the separation of a man and a woman, a separation that they couldn't control, and didn't want."
I was actually planning to do a written post but couldn't finish it today. Instead, I've done another video sub work. If you've been checking this blog for a while you'll probably know that I'm a big fan of the manga, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. There was a second hand book festival thing near where I live so I went, and to my surprise and joy, found a few JoJo manga in Japanese! Of course I bought them as they were only $1.25 each!
Although I had been planning to eventually sub an interview with the creator, Araki Hirohiko that event prodded me to speed my plans up. Surprisingly (or maybe not?), there were no English subbed videos with him already so I felt even more of the need to do so. Yes, the need to, for all the fans in the world that love him to pieces. lol.
So here's an interview with one of my favourite manga artists, Araki Hirohiko, the creator of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
Here's another requested video sub. It's from the show Domoto Kyodai which is hosted by Kinki Kids, and features various musicians as regulars of the show that basically just sit in the background and generally don't even say a word. Pretty easy money don't you think? Back in the days of this episode, people like Gackt used to make funny comments once in a while though.
This episode features Shingo Mama, a one-off character by Katori Shingo from the boy group SMAP, that became really popular for a brief time at the start of the 2000's. He even had a show where he dresses up in the Shingo Mama outfit and goes and cares for some kids for a day or something I think. I have a feeling I've seen it anyway.
Yuzu-pon
Yuzu-pon is a type of ponzu flavoured with a citrus fruit called yuzu. Ponzu itself is a dipping sauce usually used for dishes such as shabu-shabu and hot pots. It is a mixture of soy sauce, vinegar and a few other things.
Well the shit just hit the fan in the internet world and everyone has gone all crazy because of the FBI shutting down megaupload. Everyone hates America even more now, unfortunately for the mostly innocent people that live over there. I feel most sorry for people that have uploaded gazillion GBs of data on their accounts that possibly may be lost forever though. I'm just happy that I ended u choosing mediafire over megaupload so my files are safe (for now at least) and they're still available for you peeps
So anyway, here's another requested video of Gackt. It's only a short one of around 10 minutes. They do some pressure point massage on some peoples feet while dressed in cowboy attire. Really only a video a close Gackt follower would be interested in.....which is quite a lot of people it seems.
'You' do it This was an impersonation of Johnny Kitagawa, the creator of the Johnny's & Associates, which is the agency that handles idol boy groups such as SMAP, Arashi etc etc.
The idol boys often tell stories of Johnny telling them to do stuff say "You shichaina yo" (You しちゃいなよ). He says 'you' in English while the rest of the sentence is Japanese.
So.. I was wondering what interesting topic I could write about for a post, and couldn't really think of anything apart from things similar to what I've already done before. Still not sure that what I eventually settled on would be particularly interesting for people reading it but oh well, might as well try.
So here's my first post on a (possibly) running series which I unimaginatively named 'Japanese Fighting Legends'. I'll be trying to introduce some highly regarded martial artist of Japan in these posts, which will hopefully be somewhat enlightening for those reading.
As you may have noticed from the title(s) this post will be on man named Sakuraba Kazushi, a Mixed Martial Arts fighter. I'm not sure how familiar you are with professional fighting, but generally fighters are divided into different divisions based on their weight and only fight people of roughly the same size as themselves. Sakuraba however, is famous for taking on fighters much heavier and bigger than him and very often beating them. And not just people that are simply big, but the strongest and powerful ones among them.
At a glance at his face, you wouldn't expect this person to be a competitor at one of the most bloodiest and violent forms of professional fighting. He looks more suited to being a quiet farmer wearing a straw cat and tending cows, or being a shy store clerk at some ordinary supermarket. Even as he enters the ring wearing his trademark orange fighting shorts, he still doesn't really seem to fit the picture. Once he starts fighting however, he exudes a silent and calm yet menacing aura and suddenly transforms into one of the most talented fighters in the world. Much loved for his humble sportsmanship, his entertaining style and original moves, Sakuraba was a superstar in Japan and followers of the sport.
Cart wheeling through defences
THE GRACIE HUNTER
Although his career doesn't have the best stats in regards to the number of wins and losses, that is mainly because of the fact that he almost only fought people far bigger and heavier than him. This is one of the reasons why Sakuraba's fans love him though. Time and time again, he would fight top fighters that outweighed him in David vs Goliath type matches. And he beat them, most of the time. The most important of his victories however, were with the fights against 'The Gracie Family', an elite martial art family of Brazilian Jiujitsu fighters trained by the late great Helio Gracie. At the time, the Gracie family dominated MMA (mixed martial arts) with their brand of fighting that put great emphasis on grappling on the ground.
Sakuraba's first encounter with Gracie was with Royler Gracie. In the fight, Sakuraba caught Royler in a arm lock and the referee stopped the match, handing the victory to Sakuraba. This caused an uproar from the Gracie family and Royler himself, as he had not tapped to signal that he had given up (usually that's how matches end). Not only that, but the arm lock Sakuraba used resurfaced memories of the historical rivalry between Japanese fighters and the Gracie family. The arm lock he deployed was the 'Kimura lock', a move that was used by the legendary judo-ka Kimura Masahiko on Helio Gracie, the co-founder of the Gracie family all the way back in 1951. This sparked a kind of Sakuraba vs Gracie family war and would lead to Sakura fighting and BEATING, four of the top Gracie fighters at the time. Most famously he beat Royce Gracie, the strongest fighter of not only the family, but all of MMA. In that particular match, the Gracie's asked for it to have no time limit and no referee stoppages. This meant that the fight could only stop when someone either forfeited or was seriously injured. In the end Royler Gracie's brother had to throw in the white towel to forfeit, after an exhausting bout that lasted a whopping 90 MINUTES.
Famous image of fight with Royce Gracie as he towers over the Brazilian.
Many people claim that Sakuraba would have easily been the best fighter ever if he just fought people of his own size. However, he constantly battled with people that outweighed him and has suffered many injuries because of that. For example, he had an ear torn off and has had is face pummeled into a bloody pulp numerous times. Check out his ear on the image on the right (x_x)...
He is still an active fighter but is past his prime. The accumulation of injuries and head blows over the years of fighting men that are more closer to beasts than humans have turned him into a shadow of his past self. Despite that, he is still considered a legend of the sport and is a firm fan favourite, who have many fond memories of all the entertaining and epic matches he created.
Here's a video tribute to the man from youtube that shows many of his highlights.
I'd really like you to watch this 10 minute documentary about him from youtube too.
I'm actually only a casual fan of watching martial art matches but for some reason I really found the fights with Sakuraba really entertaining. I had a look at highlight clips of other fighters considered great but they didn't seem half as interesting as videos of Sakuraba. Maybe I'm biased towards him because he's Japanese? I don't know. Well, I like him more because he's Japanese but I don't think that has anything to do with how interesting I think his fights are. He's probably actually much more entertaining than the others.
Sooo, well I hope you found that somewhat interesting.
Hey there, here's the Shabekuri 007 episode featuring the actress Yoshitaka Yuriko. The sound is a little bit out of sync for this video unfortunately. The only better version of it that I could find was over 900 MB and didn't want to download such a big file.... If someone wants to make a high quality version of this (or any other video of mine) just tell me and I'll send you the sub file.
The first time I saw this actress was on the drama, Tokyo Dogs. I actually didn't like her at all after watching that, but after seeing her on Shabekuri and other shows, I've become to like her quite a lot. Well anyway, hope you like this episode.
HORIGOTATSU A horigotatsu is a small hole in the ground under a low table so that you can put your feet inside. It gets rid of the need of chairs, and suits the traditional style of Japanese tables, which are very low.
GYOZA
Gyoza are dumplings originally from China. They can include a variety of things, but usually meat or vegetables flavoured with Chinese chives and garlic. Most people dip them in soy sauce, vinegar, chilli oil or a mix before eating them. They can either be cooked (yaki-gyoza) or steamed/boiled (sui gyoza). In the video they were introducing yaki-gyoza only, although the first one kind of seemed like a mix style.
It has cooled down in my country after the intense burst of heat this past week. It looks like it might rain for a few days. I like rain so that's good.
I was asked to write about 'Amigurumi' by a follower and was thinking of doing that but I wasn't sure if she/he just wanted a general post about it or how to make them or what...? And I'll have to do research about it as I've not much knowledge about it.
So today's post is about a mysterious legend about the 'Utsuro-bune' (Hollow boat) that supposedly took place in 1803, on a beach in a place that is now called Ibaraki prefecture. It is located just east of Tokyo.
There are several versions of the legend but in general goes something like this.
In the spring of 1803, an unusual object thought to be a boat was observed to be floating in the close to shore by fishermen. They set out on their own boats, captured it and pulled it onto the beach.
The boat was round and resembled a Japanese pot and was approximately 6m in diameter. The bottom was made from iron and was so strong that it could withstand crashes into rocks. The top was made glass and so it was possible to look straight in.
In the the vessel was a beautiful young female of around 20 years old. She was approximately 5 shaku (151.5m) in height and had pink face. Her hair and eyebrows were red and also had white hair extensions that that fell below her back (sometimes just black). She undoubtedly had very attractive face.
The garments she wore were unfamiliar in style and were made from fabrics they had never seen before. The language she spoke could not be understood at all and she held a mysterious box. She guarded it very tightly and would not allow anyone to open it or even get close to it. There were two carpet like things inside the boat which seemed very soft, but again, the material used for it were unknown. She had about 4 liters of water in her boat. For food she had things that looked like sweets, something that looked like mince meat. She also had one tea bowl with impressive but unfamiliar patterns.
The people didn't know what to do with her, but all she did was smile or look blank. An elder them suggested that she was probably abandoned into the sea by her country as a punishment and that her husband's head must be in the box she was guarding. It would become a bother if the bakufu (Japanese government) found out, so they put her back in the boat and pushed it back into the sea for it to drift away.
Pretty heartless of the people to make her drift off again don't you think? It would have been nice if they tried to find out more about her.....too bad I suppose.
Here are various pictures portraying the legend.
The writing on the left are unfamiliar letters that were said to be written inside the boat.
Same letters on the right of this picture.
Japanese cooking pot 'kama'
As you can see, it resembles what we nowadays call a 'flying saucer'. So obviously, UFO fanatics and people studying these subjects use it as proof for existence of aliens and encounters with Earthlings. It is a very interesting story though, and that's all it can be proven to be at the moment unfortunately, 'a story'. Even so, it's kinda hard for a foreign person to drift from another country in a strange boat never before seen. The closest country is Korea and although that'll explain the different clothes and language, what was the strange boat? It's equally as possible to be an extraterrestrial person stranded in the see I suppose?
Well it's more interesting to think that way in my opinion.
The place I am is summer at the moment unlike most other countries and is super stinking hot all day all night.
It's very uncomfortable....feels like the air is on fire during the day. My nose felt like it was burning when I was breathing through them when I went outside.....
I'm sure most of you would be in winter right now and probably have your own problems with that such as freezing mornings and dirty sick people sneezing on you and stuff, so I suppose I can't complain.
Well setting that aside, here's the point of today's post. My top 5 favourite Japanese female singers.
Not the most imaginative idea for a post but oh well.
The list isn't in any particular order....except for the first one.
SHIINA RINGO
The mainstream image of female singers from the Japanese music industry are that of cutesy high school girls bobbling up and down in groups and 'almost' flashing their underwear. It's hardly anything most people past the age of twenty can look up to although the tunes may be catchy. Shiina Ringo on the other hand is a person that could be admired by both females and males for her music, personality and other talents.
She emits a very different aura and vibe compared to most and although what it feels like has evolved throughout the years, it hasn't ever failed to mystify her fans. She is also quite diverse with her works, sometimes singing crazy semi-screamo rock, sometimes jazz or funk, sometimes a Broadway musical style, or sometimes even standard J-Pop. All of this, in her own distinct and identifiable sound.
Maybe one reason I like her so much is that she came when my musical tastes were at a transition. During high school, I used to like old American hip hop. Although I also liked a diverse style of music back then, that was what I listened to most at the time. After I listened to too much of it and got tired of it, I tried looking for Japanese music as at the time, I couldn't stand listening to most American accents in English songs (Sorry Americans....). I got into Japanese music, mainly J-Pop, since that's the easiest place to start but then got tired of all the similar sounding music. I found Shiina Ringo's music around that time, and although I wasn't blown away the first time I listened to it, I could sense something different and interesting about her and her tunes that I liked.
Making a long story short, after downloading some of her music I got heavily addicted to it. The end. lol
UTADA HIKARU
Well this quite a standard pick for these kind of lists. Utada Hikaru is basically the queen of J-Pop. Or at least used to be. She has been taking a lot of breaks recently so hasn't been around making songs for a while but even so, her popularity is still meteoric. Not only that but the influence and impact she had on Japanese music when she appeared was immense. Anyone who begins to like Japanese music and starts looking for more will inevitably pass through her at some point.
Although it's not uncommon for Japanese girls to become a hit artist at young ages such as 14 etc, she not only did that but absolutely took it by storm. She has a smooth and soulful voice uncharacteristic of girls that age and also Japanese people in general, especially of those times, where this modern brand of R'n'b was virtually non-existent. You could say that Utada Hikaru was the reason for the popularity this type of music enjoys nowadays in Japan. If you look for artists before her that who may have sung that style of R'n'b, chances are that your search will end empty handed. There still probably isn't anyone that does it as nicely as her, although I can't really say for sure as I don't listen to new artists that much.....
KIMURA KAELA
Kimura Kaela is has a nice balance between rock and pop and doesn't it tip too far onto one side and so draws fans from followers of both genres. Although she initially became popular among teen girls with simple pop tunes she steadily evolved and experimented with her music.
Although she's not an extraordinarily amazing talent, her tunes are simple and pleasant to listen to and good to turn on when you just want to casually hear some music.
However, she does have a few fast paced tracks that pump me up, and some mellow songs that make me feel a bit melancholic, so some credit should be given to her as a vocalist.
She is also a very down to earth person and friendly person and is often joking around on tv shows when she appears. Oh and she's cute. lol
NAKASHIMA MIKA
Nakashima Mika was one of the first Japanese singers that I started liking. She has a very beautiful voice that can make me feel very relaxed. She usually sings a lot of slow songs backed with piano after a stint at rock music for the film "Nana" she also delved into those types of tune slightly afterwards too. That's probably what she's most well known for in the West. I've heard that there are lots of fans of that movie and the original manga series. Anyway, she did those songs greatly too in my opinion. I really enjoyed them and the few others rock songs that she has done. They were probably the starting point for me beginning to look to that genre for new music actually.
She has had numerous hit songs, and one especially called "Yuki no Hana" (Flower of Snow) is regarded a classic J-Pop tune. It has been covered countless times by many different people, including men (despite being a song from female perspective), Korean people, Korean men, and lots of others.
Well I would've liked to embed the song but all of them have been blocked from doing that by the uploaders so here a link instead...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muGwLz6BSyg
UA
UA's stage name holds the meaning of both 'flower' and 'death' in the African language of Swahili. She is renown for her husky voice and has dabbled with many different genres, including Dub, Jazz, R&B, Folk and Ethnic inspired music. If I was to compare her music to someone in Western music, I would have to say it's something similar to Bjork, so lots experimental shit with strange vocal noises that don't make much sense. lol For this reason she may not be everyone's cup of tea.
However, when she does sing normally, she does it excellently and very beautifully (as does Bjork). For some reason I don't listen to her music as often as I think, but when I do, I'm always (well usually) get sucked into her musical world.
Aaaand so there you have it folks. That should be my top 5, unless if I somehow forgot someone important.
So what are you favourites, if you have any that is. I'm confident that I'll already know some of yours.....(the Matsuura Aya fans....)
Sooo here I come with another video subbing, and this time it's one that I chose to do myself rather than a request. The show I subbed is Matsumoto Hitoshi's Suberanai Hanashi, or just Suberanai Hanashi, as often shortened down to.
Basically it's a show where a group of comedians sit around a table and tells stories that are guaranteed to make you laugh. Well that's the aim anyway.
'Suberanai' is the negative of the word 'Suberu', which literally means 'to slip'. (So subernai= don't slip). In comedic terms it used to refer to a situation where a joke fails to get laughs. You can think of it as the person 'slipping up' in English I suppose. 'Suberu' can also be used outside comedy too such as when you fail an exam or mess up a speech.
Anyway, these guys have gathered to tell their 'suberanai' stories and although my subtitles may affect whether you laugh or not, they certainly made me laugh listening to them in Japanese.
*I will not be uploading on megaupload. Sorry about that.
It will be on dailymotion in a few days ~ 1 week
Here's a subtitled episode from the show 'LINCOLN'. It is a hosted by the members from comedy groups, Downtown, Summers, Ameagari Kesshitai and Kyai~n. Not sure if that would mean anything to most of you but just mentioning it for the sake of it. Even so they often have younger comedians as guests, mainly to undertake the ridiculous punishment games that they have on offer. This particular episode features them having to dress up in embarrassing costumes and do various activities in the city. Well better to just watch then me trying to explain.
YUMI KAORU
Yumi Kaoru is an actress famous for various roles, including that of the female ninja O-gin on the long running periodical drama 'Mito Komon'.
MAJOR LEAGUE TRAINING TOOL
The thing Himura was made to wear is a training device that appears in the baseball manga Kyojin no Hoshi. It is meant to be used by the Major League players in America to strengthen the upper body.
Some time ago I subbed a video of Shiina Ringo and Matsuura Aya on the show Music Station. If you've seen it you'll probably know that the quality of the video was bad lol
So for the second time, a dedicated fan of Matsuura Aya has decided to redo it with a high quality version of the video for your viewing pleasure. Unfortunately this version doesn't have the song performance by Shiina Ringo with her band Tokyo Jihen but is still much nicer to look at compared to mine.
Please thank matthecat from the Matsuurian forums for the work.
Here's another Gackt video I've managed to finish. I've been requested this video by a few people so I'm assuming it will be popular among the Gackt fan community? Well either way, it's a nice interview, he seems relaxed and happy and very nice in his kimono style. He talks about breaking his tooth and his own crazy method of dealing with it and some other random stuff that will probably make you laugh or snigger.
Seems like he has appeared in some shows over the New Years period too....and they seem to be 'Specials' that go for 2 hours and such....so not very keen to be doing those...so....maybe don't....request them please (-_-) lol
Well I'll take a look at them to see if they're interesting enough for me to keep sane while subbing and then decide.....lol.
Hope this video satisfies you lot for the time being though~~~~~
Hey everyone, how's stuff going. Thought I'd do a written post again so that there's some sort of variety to this blog. Soooo...quite a while back I wrote about the Japanese cat monster 'Bakeneko' and now would like to add onto the Japanese monster series again this time.
The monster I'll be writing about is the Umibozu. Umibozu literally translates as 'Sea Monk'. Reasons for this naming are credited to either it's supposed bald smooth head akin to that of Buddhist monk, or that they may be spirits of monks who drowned.
They are very big in general, and range from several metres to several tens of metres. They have cloud/shadow like bodies and long snake like limbs. When they appear, calm waters suddenly get very violent and they come and capsize ships. Some other local folk tales however, just tell of them appearing to fishermen asking questions like "Do I scare you?" and then disappearing. (lol).
Another story claims that if the Umibozu is angered, he will demand the ships crew to hand over a barrel so that it can fill it up with water and drown them in it (even though they're surrounded by sea....). The way to avoid being drowned in a barrel by this stupid creature is to give it one with a bottomless one, so that when he fills it up with water, it will just fall straight through. lol.....
Well hope this was somewhat interesting to read about.
Good day to you!
I'm doing fine, just waiting to see if the world will end this year as the Mayan's prophesised. lol
Well not really, but it's an event to look out for this year. Who knows though, we might die before even noticing.
Ahhhh anyway enough of that.
I noticed that I had a pile of Gackt video requests waiting to be done (and keeps growing...) and some were asked for quite a long time ago. The reason that it's been so long, is that due to the number of Gackt requests I get I might do about two and then skip past some to do other requests for a while. Or I end up doing recent Gackt video's which then pushes back the other ones even more.
So this is one of those 'pushed back' ones, and the next one is also highly likely to be one. I'd only recommend this videos to close followers of Gackt most people will probably find it boring otherwise. So yeah if your not much of a fan then now is the time to retreat.
The video features some of his band members and they basically just talk about how weird Gackt is. I'm not reeally familiar with his band members so I don't know his name (he's referred to as the Chief Treasurer) but he reminds me of Naboo from the show Mighty Boosh.
Yeah this fella.
I don't know if this is the full video as it ends quite abruptly but it's the only version I could find/ be bothered to find. If someone finds more and wants it subbed just let me know.
TRANSLATION NOTES The guy asking all the questions is a comedian called Haraguchi Akimasa that specializes in impersonations. He's actually acting as the comedian Sanma here for some unknown reason. In the video he also impersonates Ishibashi Takaaki from the duo 'Tunnels'. Tunnels are a very famous veteran comedians who have also had some successful music singles. Recently they cross-dressed as some African American females from Nevada along with the DJ Ozma (also sometimes the leader of Kishidan), and had a few hit songs and even a lame ass movie. Back in the day (early 1990's) they made a song called 'Gara Gara Hebi' (Rattle Snake) which was also a hit. This song is actually a bit special for me as there is a CD of the single at my house, and I used to listen to it when I still lived in Japan when I was around 3~4 years old lol. Here it is if you're interested.
Oh and here's the cross-dressing Afro-American thing lol. They went by the name 'Yajima Biyoushitsu' which means Yamjima Beauty Salon.
