J BUROGU +Japanese Pop Culture Blog+

Covering Cover songs

2012-03-02T02:49:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, hope you've been well.
Thought I might do a (semi) written post today. So....what to write about?
Well, I thought I'd write a bit about covers.

For some reason Japan likes cover songs. Or maybe it's just an easy way for companies to make money? Who knows. Whatever it is, it is a fact that their music industry churns out heaps of cover albums. Way more than America.....probably anyway. They can sometimes be nice, and around 70% of the time be awful. That's probably because the original song is usually such a good song that it's hard to improve it, or the covering artist is some random unknown struggling one employed for half a buck. The remaining 30% however, tend to be pretty good and can become an interesting fusion of the original and (at least a bit of) the covering artists' own musical style. I find it pretty fun finding good cover songs, and especially nice if I don't even like the original song, but that's pretty rare. Anyhow, this post is just going to mention a few cover tracks that I liked.

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ELLIE MY LOVE
RAY CHARLES / SOUTHERN ALL STARS

Wait what? I thought this was supposed to be a Japanese song list? Well it is, or was, originally. Here it is sung by the legendary Ray Charles but it actually a cover of the song "Itoshi no Ellie" by the Southern All Stars. I've talked about this group a few times already so on this blog so....it's kind of a pain to do it again, but they are one of the most successful and influential bands ever in Japan. They are said to be the artists that paved the way for 'J-pop', a more Western sounding style of Japanese music, from the previous 'Kayoukyoku' style pop music, which was slightly different and more suited to Japanese phonetics. Both versions of this song were huge hits in Japan and in my head.

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HARMELN
BUCK-TICK/ LA-PPISCH

BUCK-TICK have quite a strong following around the world among J-Rock fans but I wonder if many know of this song by them? It's off a tribute album for the musician/songwriter called Ueda Gen that was created after his death. He was a former member of a Ska/rock band called La-Ppisch, who made this song. They've impressively made it their own song without straying away from the original, which is nice. Maybe the song suited them in the first place but they still deserve credit for what they've done.

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LUPIN THE 3RD -LOVE THEME-
IMAI MIKI

This is the love theme from the popular anime, "Lupin the 3rd". I'm not sure who the first person to sing it with lyrics was so I can't really compare it but it's still a very nice song. Although this is a slightly different version to the one I have (it's only piano and voice) but it's more or less similar. Imai Miki has a gentle and soothing singing voice which matches this slow tune perfectly. There was also a version by the anime theme singer, Mizuki Ichiro on youtuve while I was looking for this video. That was also quite nice and slightly different because it's a male voice. I suppose it helps that the original song is a really nice one. Well that depends on what kind of music you like, but this is my opinion so yeah~

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I LOVE YOU
UTADA HIKARU/ OZAKI YUTAKA

This is a very famous song originally by the male singer, Ozaki Yutaka. Back in the 1980's he burst onto the scene with the song "Juugo no yoru" (The Night I was Fifteen) which was about teenage rebellion and all that pubity stage stuff making him an icon among adolescents at the time. He was one of the biggest stars until his sudden and unexpected death at the young age of 26, leaving many fan girls (and boys) in tears. The song that I've posted is the song "I Love You", covered by the pop queen, Utada Hikaru. I actually found this rendition by chance a few days ago (can't remember how) but was very impressed. As usual she has a very clear and melodic voice.

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AUTUMN LEAVES
SHIINA RINGO/ EDIT PIAF

I seem to chuck on Shiina Ringo somehow on every list that I'm able to. That's what it feels like anyway. Well that makes sense, since she's one of my favourite musicians. Originally by the legendary French songstress, Edith Piaf, which is also a very awesome song. I'm kind tired writing so I'll be lazy and stop here. lol

&lt;p&gt;as&lt;/p&gt;

Well I hope you found something here that you liked. I was going to write about how much variety that this list has but then I realised that most of them are ballads so.......I won't lol......

I was originally planning to have a few different styles but they ended up being pretty similar since I wasn't thinking that much as I was writing. Oh well. In anycase, I hope you discovered a song that you fancy....

Video Subbing [REQUEST]: Murakami Shoji Ninja Class from GAKI NO TSUKAI YA ARAHENDE! (2006.09.17)

2012-02-28T18:00:00.003-08:00

Gudentaag!

University has recommenced for me this week, so I won't be getting as much time to work on subtitling. I still will try to when I have the time to but they probably won't be released as often as before. Better than nothing though.

Here's an episode from the long running show, Downtown's "Gaki no Tsukai Ya Arahende". This show has a very strong following on the internet by people around the world, largely thanks to their 24 hour batsu games, which have been uploaded by some people onto youtube. Even if you don't know what I'm talking about already, you quite probably have seen some before. The most famous seems to be a comedian called Jimmy Ohnishi trying to count in English but says, "ten ten" instead of 20 and "ten ten ten" instead of 30 and so on.
If you haven't seen it.................WATCH IT! You are missing out on one of the greatest pleasures of this earth.
I'll be happy to give you links if you can't be bothered searching yourselves.

So this video is the first volume of Murakami Shoji's Classroom Series. It's the only one I have seen so far, as there are so many Gaki episodes to watch, I haven't gotten around to them yet. There seem to be lots of interesting sounding ones (such as pirates and Ghostbuster classes) so I'm curious as to what they're like. Well anyway, for their first lesson they learn how to be ninja..........sort of.

Thanks to al4bandi for the timing :D
GET FROM MEDIAFIRE [193 MB]

Gaki no Tsukai (Ninja) by juxtapose31

TRANSLATION NOTES

MURAKAMI SHOJI
Murakami Shoji is a veteran comedian mostly famous for his 'suberi' comedy, which basically means 'not funny' comedy. Kind of paradoxical, but the laughs are due to the awkward atmosphere it creates rather than the actual joke. He is the senior of all of the gang here, including Downtown (notice how Hamada called him 'big bro'). He has a long history with Downtown as well as the comedian Akashiya Sanma and often appears on their shows.

YAGYU CLAN
The Yagyu Clan were a powerful clan of feudal lords and also founders of one of the most famous styles of swordsmanship, the Yagyu Shinkage-ryu. They were also very close to the Tokugawa family, who were the rulers of Japan at the time, by teaching them sword fighting and kind of being their elite squad of samurai.

IGA and KOGA
These are the names of the two most famous Ninja clans/provinces. I'll let wikipedia do the explaining.

The Iga and Kōga clans have come to describe families living in the province of Iga (modern Mie Prefecture) and the adjacent region of Kōka (later written as Kōga), named after a village in what is now Shiga Prefecture. From these regions, villages devoted to the training of ninja first appeared.^[25] The remoteness and inaccessibility of the surrounding mountains may have had a role in the ninja's secretive development.^[24] Historical documents regarding the ninja's origins in these mountainous regions are considered generally correct.^[26] The chronicle Go Kagami Furoku writes, of the two clans' origins:

There was a retainer of the family of Kawai Aki-no-kami of Iga, of pre-eminent skill in shinobi, and consequently for generations the name of people from Iga became established. Another tradition grew in Kōga.^[26]

Likewise, a supplement to the Nochi Kagami, a record of the Ashikaga shogunate, confirms the same Iga origin:

Inside the camp at Magari of the Shogun [Ashikaga] Yoshihisa there were shinobi whose names were famous throughout the land. When Yoshihisa attacked Rokkaku Takayori, the family of Kawai Aki-no-kami of Iga, who served him at Magari, earned considerable merit as shinobi in front of the great army of the Shogun. Since then successive generations of Iga men have been admired. This is the origin of the fame of the men of Iga.^[27]

A distinction is to be made between the ninja from these areas, and commoners or samurai hired as spies or mercenaries. Unlike their counterparts, the Iga and Kōga clans produced professional ninja, specifically trained for their roles.^[21] These professional ninja were actively hired by daimyos between 1485 and 1581,^[21] until Oda Nobunaga invaded Iga province and wiped out the organized clans.^[28] Survivors were forced to flee, some to the mountains of Kii, but others arrived before Tokugawa Ieyasu, where they were well treated.^[29] Some former Iga clan members, including Hattori Hanzō, would later serve as Tokugawa's bodyguards.^[30]
Following the Battle of Okehazama in 1560, Tokugawa employed a group of eighty Kōga ninja, led by Tomo Sukesada. They were tasked to raid an outpost of the Imagawa clan. The account of this assault is given in the Mikawa Go Fudoki, where it was written that Kōga ninja infiltrated the castle, set fire to its towers, and killed the castellan along with 200 of the garrison.^[31] The Kōga ninja are said to have played a role in the later Battle of Sekigahara (1600), where several hundred Kōga assisted soldiers under Torii Mototada in the defence of Fushimi Castle.^[32] After Tokugawa's victory at Sekigahara, the Iga acted as guards for the inner compounds of Edo Castle, while the Kōga acted as a police force and assisted in guarding the outer gate.^[30] In 1614, the initial "winter campaign" at the Siege of Osaka saw the ninja in use once again. Miura Yoemon, a ninja in Tokugawa's service, recruited shinobi from the Iga region, and sent 10 ninja into Osaka Castle in an effort to foster antagonism between enemy commanders.^[33] During the later "summer campaign", these hired ninja fought alongside regular troops at the Battle of Tennōji.^[33]

HADAKA NO TAISHO
Hadakano Taisho was a drama shown between 1980~1994. In short, it's about a wandering artist that goes to various towns and ends up settling disputes of the people he meets. The main character is a fat slobby looking kind of guy.

Video Subbing [REQUEST]: ARAGAKI YUI on Shabekuri 007 (2011.12.05)

2012-02-24T16:45:00.002-08:00

Hey there, here's another Shabekuri 007 episode. This episode features the second appearance of the actress, Aragaki Yui. Her previous appearance was on 2010 October 23rd, and can also be found on this blog if you search for it. Hmm......not much else to say. Hope you enjoy it!

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE [261 MB]

Shabekuri 007 (2011.12.05) Aragaki Yui by juxtapose31

TRANSLATION NOTES

SOUHTERN ALL STARS
Are a one of the most famous and influential pop/rock bands in Japan. Formed in the mid 70's and lead by the singer, Kuwata Keisuke, they brought a more Western feel to Japanese music. One significant thing that is usually thought to have been originated form this band is the stylised pronunciations of words when singing. For example, changing the 'ら　り　る　れ　ろ' letters to be pronounced as 'ra, ri, ru, re, ro' rather than the proper Japanese way (which I can't really write in English letters....as it doesn't exist). In general this and other changes to the pronunciation made the language more flexible and more ably suited for different styles of music.

MOCHI-TSUKI

This is the process of hammering mochi-gome (Sticky rice) with a large wooden hammer. There are usually one or two people hammering and another person to turn the mochi around in between hammer strikes. This is all done rhythmically over and over again, and skilled people will do it at a very fast pace. It's slightly harder than it looks, especially if for the one turning over the mochi as it can be very hot and must be done quickly or your hand will be pounded by the incoming hammers.

KANPUMASATSU

I just wrote this as "dry towel body scrubbing" or something on the video because.....well that's what it is.

Here's an explanation of what it is and why they do it:

http://www.japannewbie.com/2007/03/03/dry-towel-friction/

ASHURAMAN

Ashuraman is a character off the popular manga Kinniku-man. He has three faces; one on the front, and one on each side of his head. That's why he was mentioned by Ueda.

Video Subbing [REQUEST]: NOT INCULDING AKB48 IDOL SPORTS CARNIVAL from Mecha Mecha Iketeru! (2011.09.17)

2012-02-20T18:24:00.002-08:00

Hey everyone,

It's been a while since I last posted here compared to usual. I was away for a bit doing other stuff.
So anyway, here's the latest video sub job. This time it's a show that I haven't subbed before, but an extremely popular show in Japan called Mecha Mecha Iketeru! (aka Mecha Ike). It means something like "Super Super Cool" kind of thing and is hosted by the comedy duo 'Ninety-nine' and a bunch of other lesser known comedians. Ninety-nine consists of Okamura Takashi and Yabe Hiroyuki and shot to stardom with this show. To be honest, the show isn't quite what it used to be like back in the 90's when they did a lot of crazy funny stuff. I think it has been toned down a lot now because censorship has become much more strict in Japan nowadays. Also, Okamura who is the life blood of the show was hospitalized last year and has seemed to lost quite a bit of his characteristic hyperactive energy. I'm intending on subtitling some hilarious older episodes eventually so keep an eye out for those.

This one was a requested episode where they have an 'Idol Sports Carnival Not Including AKB48'. You may know that AKB48 are right now the undisputed top idol group in Japan and dominate TV and music. Well this episode features the other moderately popular idols (although no Morning Musume either) battle it out at some challenges.　Here's the list of contestants:

S/mileage
IDOLING!
PASSPO☆
SUPER☆GIRLS
Berryz Koubou
Nakano Fujoshi Sisters
SDN48
Ebisu Muscats

Just thought you should know beforehand that Ebisu Muscats are a group with 50% AV stars and 50% gravure idols.
Well anyway, it's a fairly funny episode but you may be annoyed by some of the girls......

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE [294 MB]

TRANSLATION NOTES
I'm sure there were more than this but oh well.

MONSTER PARENTS
Monster parents are described as parents who repeatedly make unreasonable demands to their children’s school and prevent it from functioning normally. Like demanding a teacher to be fired because he has a speaks in a different dialect. There's a TV drama about something like that actually...

GAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!

YABECCHI FC
Yabecchi FC is a soccer show hosted by Yabe Hiroyuki of Ninety-nine. As Yabe hosts this without his comedy partner, Okamura is often teased about this. That's why he was extra angry (said "Shut up!") when the girl mentioned it.

DICK DRUM
You possibly may have used your imagination to understand what this was? Well I'll explain it anyway lol
If a male did that Jamaican dance movement, his .......dick would slap onto both of his thighs and be like a drum.

Not really a good idea to post a picture of actual dick drumming so.....

Video Subbing: AMETALK (2010.06.17) Baki the Grappler Comedians

2012-02-14T01:03:00.001-08:00

Here's another episode of the show, Ametalk. This time they talk about the popular fighting manga, "Baki the Grappler". It's kind of similar to the other episodes I've subbed how they talk about stuff you probably won't understand. It's still quite funny though, and I hope you watch and like it.

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE [262 MB]

Ametalk (2010.06.17) Grappler Baki by juxtapose31

Video Subbing [REQUEST]: Aramaki Yoko on Shabekuri 007 (2011.10.24)

2012-02-10T16:46:00.001-08:00

Bonjour!

Here's another requested Shabekuri 007. It's only the second half of the 2011.10.24 episode featuring Aramaki Yoko. The guest before her was Watanabe Naomi, a young female comedian, which was moderately funny but wasn't requested/couldn't be bothered. (-_-). If someone wants it, they can request it, although I'm sure there are many more that are much better to do instead.

'Monomane' means impersonations and is a much more popular form of entertainment in Japan than most other countries. I don't know why though. They even have annual competitions at the end of the year and a few others throughout to decide who the best 'monomane' artist in Japan is. They type of monomane artists can usually be broken up into two categories, a comedic or a serious one. Comedic ones are usually originally comedians who have discovered that they have a knack for impersonating and so then make skits and such involving famous people. The serious type however, sing seriously and usually have good singing skills too.

This current guest, Aramaki Yoko, falls under the 'serious type' and is quite a newcomer to the business. However, she has quickly risen to the top grade group for her singing abilities and skill at capturing the distinct peculiarities of the voices she impersonates. You probably won't know most of the people she does impersonate, but I can tell you confidently that she is very good.

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE [188 MB]

Shabekuri 007 [2011.10.24] Aramaki Yoko by juxtapose31

SONG LIST
Here's a list of the songs and links to youtube vids of them.

Members' Choices

HITOMI - LOVE 2000
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iVauHaI4Eg

MISIA- AITAKUTE IMA
Great song by MISIA, and was used as theme song for the drama 'JIN'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAg7_P0vBtc&feature=related

OTSUKA AI- PLANETARIUM
Was a nice theme song for the super popular drama, 'Hana Yori Dango'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFdT_cIQ-5I

SAKAMOTO FUYUMI- MATA KIMI NI KOI SHITERU
An excellent enka style track. Really nice song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0BRKQbVTug

YASHIRO AKI - FUNAUTA
Another nice enka track
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO4zAkps9UE&feature=related

SHIMABUKRO HIROKO - WHITE LOVE
Former member of popular girl group SPEED.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIi5RgBPDXk

YAGAMI JUNKO - MIZUIRO NO AME
This one was very well impersonted.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej7_Yj2ph88

OGURO MAKI - LA LA LA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoC9Tc6Cwjg&feature=related

10 Successive Impersonations

HAMASAKI AYUMI - M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxMRwemx5WQ&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL8DF66D20D23FED97

MIHIMARU GT - KIBUN JOUJOU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS16c-ls3SM

HIRAHARA AYAKA - JUPITER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEZWyW4b4W8

OGURO MAKI - ATSUKU NARE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfDtiyYD-ek

ISHIKAWA SAYURI - AMAGI GOE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3f3LBWxGh0&feature=related

NISHINO KANA - AITAKUTE AITAKUTE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6KLmKErVNQ

EVERY LITTLE THING- TIME GOES BY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YGPJWcQvm0

CHARA- YASASHII KIMOCHI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OJP42UyDlo

KODA KUMI - CUTIE HONEY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvpkUHTTmDA

HIROSE KOUMI - ROMANCE NO KAMISAMA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzupowzHzAc&feature=related

Five Japanese Movies You Should Watch

2012-02-09T03:09:00.000-08:00

Hey there, I thought I might do one of those rare written posts that sometimes appear on this blog. To be honest I'm a little too lazy to write in depth about one particular thing.....and I can't really think of something to write about. So here's another one of those five item lists that I've been doing recently.

Most previous things that I've written about have been about music so I'll try something slightly different this time.........So movies. Five of them. That I enjoyed and would like to recommend. Think of it as my 'Tsutaya 007' for those who are familiar with Shabekuri 007. Too bad you probably don't have a Tsutaya to go borrow your movies, but I suppose the internet will be a more than adequate replacement....

These aren't in any particular order and not exactly my favourite top five. Just some that I recommend from various genres.

TASTE OF TEA
(茶の味 CHA NO AJI)

'Taste of Tea' was a very nice surprise of a movie. I wasn't really expecting anything of it as it just somehow made it's way onto my computer from someone's hard drive. I watched it as I had nothing better to do. It doesn't really have a 'story' in the traditional sense but rather has several little unusual stories of each member of the Haruno family, who live in the beautiful Japanese countryside of Tochigi Prefecture. For example, about Sachiko, the young girl of the family who keeps seeing a giant sized copy of herself, or Hajime and his experiences of girls, puberty and playing Go (board game). This may sound random and not very exciting well....that's true, but mainly because I only mentioned it in this short amount on text. Obviously you won't get gun toting and car chasing kind of action but you'll get a nice, feel good comedy. The tempo of the movie is really kind of consistent with the name of the title too. Slow but pleasant, like when you drink tea. There are also a number of surreal scenes that may appeal to some and it may deter other people. Personally I like quirky things like that. Even if you don't, this movie will have other things that will appeal to you as it has many unexpected comedic moments that suddenly have you chuckling/snorting slightly. Not sure that this description made it sound particularly great but....it's kind of hard movie to explain. Nevertheless, it is good and you should give it a chance.

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CONFESSIONS
(KOKUHAKU 告白)

Confessions is a dark psychological thriller. It starts off strangely, inside a classroom with a teacher giving a lecture about life to noisy teenagers who aren't listening. That bit is kind of slow and boring......and then it suddenly changes completely, when she says that someone in the classroom killed her young daughter. Her daughter (played by Ashida Mana) was found drowned in the school pool, and although it was ruled as being an accidental death, the mother is convinced that she was murdered by some people in the class. She then gives an account of how that was done, and points out suspects before threatening them that she will get her revenge. She then and scares them by putting something in their lunch milk (in a way I won't tell you) and quits her job. The story then continues from the next semester with a new replacement teacher and follows the lives of the two suspected boys, one of which is an evil mofo and plans to kill more people. Little does he know that everything he is doing is according to his former teachers plan to exact sweet revenge on him......

This is a dark movie. Some people may be disturbed by it but it's not the worst thing that has been made on film. I've also heard opinions that it's too slow, and, also uses too much slow motion, or uses it inappropriately. I didn't really notice it though. Anyway, you should watch it and judge for yourself.....

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SEVEN SAMURAI
(SHICHININ NO SAMURAI 七人の侍)

Well, you've probably heard of this one. The film by legendary filmmaker, Akira Kurosawa is widely regarded as a masterpiece and one of the greatest films ever to be made. It is in black and white and may be too old in style for many modern viewers to enjoy, but it is a very beautifully shot (even for now actually) and edited one for it's time.

It' is set in the feudal times of Japan when bandits pillaged and samurai were the main authority figures. The story is about a village that gets raided by bandits who just stop short of destroying it before deciding that it will be better to leave it and return several months later when their crops are harvested. Faced with the knowledge that their resources are just going to be plundered as soon as they get them, two villagers set out to the city in hopes of employing samurai to defend them. However, because they only have food to offer as payment they obviously have trouble finding any willing people, until they convince a charismatic veteran warrior who then searches and persuades five other warriors to join the battle, which might even ultimately be their last.

This part of the movie is interesting but there is also an epic battle scene when they clash with the bandits towards the end. It's amazing how black and white can make images look so dramatic, and it's especially intense in the scenes where it's raining heavily and the ground is muddy.

You should check out this classic tale of courageous heroes just to see what all the praise is about....
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FIREWORKS

(HANABI 花火)

This is a film directed by Kitano Takeshi, also known as Beat Takeshi in Japan. He was originally a manzai comedian in the duo 'Two Beat' before becoming an incredibly successful TV host/personality alone. He was one of the biggest stars of Japanese entertainment through the 70's~90's and is still a very highly respected figure in the industry. Amid controversy in Japan, he began to direct movies, and released his debut work in 1989 with Violent Cop. It was canned by the media at the time but is now a cult favourite in the West, along with the rest of Takeshi's work. This movie, Hanabi (Fireworks in American release) was released in 1997 and won the Golden Lion and the Venice Film Festival bringing him attention from the West.

It is about a violent cop who retires after an incident that renders his partner into a wheelchair and then takes up looking after his wife who suffers from leukemia. Pretty dull sounding? Well yeah sorta. But something about it is beautiful. The way you can tell that he obviously loves his wife without him saying it is touching, despite knowing that he can suddenly burst into a fit of brutal violence against the Yakuza that come to reclaim a debt that he must pay. The soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi is also excellent and matches the film wonderfully, The theme song 'Hanabi' must be one of my favourite songs by him actually. Like most of the other films here, it's probably suited for the general person's taste, but there's no harm in taking a look.....

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SUMO DO, SUMO DON'T

SHIKO FUNJATTA　しこふんじゃった。

This is a movie that anyone can watch and enjoy (finally). It's a comedy about a group of misfit males in a university sumo club that is close to being closed. Despite having a rich and successful history, the club only had one member until the lead character is forced to join or be kicked out of university for his poor grades. From there the two go about desperately attempting to recruit other club members so that they can compete in a tournament. The first time I watched this was when I was only about 9~10, so it's a great memory of my childhood. I remember mimicking one of the guys that always get's diarrhea when it's his turn to fight and runs off in a hurry lol......It's a very entertaining movie, and is fun to watch. The title in Japanese is 'Shiko Funjatta', which means, 'I Stepped Shiko'. Shiko is a ceremonial feet stamping thing that Sumo do before matches, as it is supposed to drive evil spirits away.

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Well I hope you find some movies that will interest you in this list. And hopefully when you watch them, you'll like them.... I know I did. Well until we meet again (won't be long) see you!

Video Subbing [REQUEST]: Abingdon Boys School on MUSIC FIGHTER (2009.02.27)

2012-02-06T03:38:00.002-08:00

Heya peeps

Here's another video for people who want it?
You might be wondering why it was so soon after the previous video. That's because I had been gradually doing this one slowly and finally finished it today.

It's an episode of the show, MUSIC FIGHTER featuring the band ABINGDON BOYS SCHOOL. Many of you may know of the vocalist, T.M. Revolution from his solo work as he is a very successful artist. They are quite a cool band, well obviously depends on your taste of music but you should at least check them out if you're interested. They seem to have a lot of non Japanese fans from what I've read in various places of the internet.

So yeah~, here it is.

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE [113 MB]

Music Fighter Abingdon Boys school by juxtapose31

Here's the song "STRENGTH" they were going to play on the show.

Credit to jehrolgi for uploading onto youtube

TRANSLATION NOTES

MIWA AKIHIRO
Miwa Akihiro is a very famous singer/ movie star of the Showa period. He is a cross dressing male, and one of the first and biggest gay celebrities of Japan. I've actually done a little post about him/her, HERE

MONSTER HUNTER
Monster Hunter is a super awesome game, mainly popular for the handheld psp version as you can easily link up with friends and go 'hunting' together. Apparently a lot of Japanese celebrities also played it. Basically you go around hunting down dragons and other exotic monsters with an array of weapons you can choose from and upgrade. Sounds like an ordinary idea for a game. Well it is, but it's still super special awesome.

TAKOYAKI
Takoyaki is a food that is a symbol of Osaka/Kansai region. Basically its a ball made out of octopus and batter. Common toppings are katsuobushi (dried bonito shavings), green shallots, takoyaki sauce and mayonnaise. It is also seems to be a name given to this hand sign when you put it up to your face.

I've never heard of it before this so maybe it's a Kansai thing? Who knows. Anyway, this is what real takoyaki look like.

SENNIN
A sennin is an old hermit/wizard guy that usually lives secluded on top of mountains. They appear in mythology as wise men who are experts in many things such as magic, martial arts, etc. Typical appearance is similar to a Western wizard. Generally an old man with a long white beard (but bald head) and carries a staff. Think Master Roshi from Dragonball. He's actually called Kame-sennin (Turtle Sennin) in Japanese. They're supposed to spend most of their time meditating, and generally people meditate in the lotus position. Hence why one of the guys called SUNAO a sennin.

Video Subbing: Suberanai Hanashi 2 (2005.03.29)

2012-02-04T22:33:00.001-08:00

Hello again, hope you've been good.

It felt like it took a while subbing this episode of Suberanai Hanashi compared to the previous one. It's not quite as funny and has a few unmemorable ones....but also still had some hilarious stories too.

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE [242 MB]

Suberanai Hanashi 2 (2005.03.29) by juxtapose31

TRANSLATION NOTES

SHIMAKI JOUJI + NGK
Shimaki Jouji is a veteran comedian now mainly known for his role in the Yoshimoto Shin-kigeki, a comedic stage play performed at the Namba Grand Kagetsu. One of his staple jokes involve banging his head with a pair of ash trays.

Observe from the youtube.....

YAMAMOTO KANSAI
He is a famous fashion designer, mainly noted for his avante garde designs. Among his works include costumes for David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust tour.

UETO AYA
You might know of her. She's a very famous, cute faced actress and appears in so many commercials that she is known as the CM Queen.

GOT MILK?

AIKAWA SHO
Is a very famous actor, mainly known for his yakuza roles and v-cinema movies. V-cinema are direct to video movies of Japan. There is less censorship of this type of movie so you usually get the experimental types and ultra violent stories with these videos. Anyway, he is/was one of the biggest stars.

BLIND PILE
A blind pile is a lump from when a part of the wall in you anus gets swollen.

Hemorrhoids is a scary illness....I'm not gonna go into a lesson but you can research yourselves....

Video Subbing [REQUEST]: Shabekuri 007 with Kitagawa Keiko (2010.03.08)

2012-01-30T18:31:00.001-08:00

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.

Anyway, here it is.....

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE [174 MB]

Shabekuri 007 (2010.03.08) Kitagawa Keiko by juxtapose31

HOW TO HARD SUB/ ENCODE SUBTITLES ON VIDEOPAD

2012-01-30T04:30:00.001-08:00

Howdy there everyone!

I was asked to do a post on how to hard sub a video, or in other words, encode subtitles onto the video.
If that still doesn't really make sense, it's basically just what my videos are like. The subtitles come with the video as opposed to you having to load the subtitles separately (that's called soft sub).

So! It's really quite simple once you know what to do and if programs don't decide to be retarded and not want to work properly. That was they case for me for some. There are two different way that I sub video's depending on what goes on in the video. I'll explain those as I go along.

For the 2nd method using Aegisub and VirtualDub click here

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VIDEOPAD

This is a much easier way of doing this, as it comes with almost everything you need for the job. All you need to do is download it for free from here:

http://www.nchsoftware.com/videopad/index.html

You will get a free trial version of VideoPad from here. It will say that you can only use it's full features for 20 days or something. Don't worry though, as even after 20 days you can still keep using it as the required features will still be unlocked.

It's very straight forward. Just drag the videos into the strip where I've indicated, and press the 'Subtitle' button in the red circle.

This program also lets you load several videos at once and supports many different video types (most importantly flv.....). Therefore, you can use this program to join up video's if they're broken up into several pieces (like if you downloaded them from youku). It's also good to use this to join videos and then sub in 'Aegisub'.

Once you click 'Subtitle' it'll come up with the following screen image. As indicated, that bottome bit is where you type stuff. So now for the goods and the bads of subtitling with this software.

Good:
-Easy to adjust precise times as you can type in specific times in the 'Show' and 'Hide' slots just above where you type.

-You can just press 'enter' on your keyboard to create a new line rather than having to making a separate line all together and setting times again.

Bad:
-You can't place the text wherever you want on the video freely. More than one bit of text in the same time frame messes up the positions greatly and is a mess. So if you're subbing a video that has lots of extra JAPANESE text on the screen that you also want to have translated, or want to put translation notes on top of the video, this isn't a very good.

You can save the movie into several different file types. Most often you'd probably be turning it into an avi. Although they have some presets there, a lot of the get blocked once the free trial period is over along with some file types you can encode it into. That doesn't really matter though as you can just manually customize settings to suit you and the file types that get locked are not really necessary anyway.

To encode the subtitles, all you have to do is press 'Save Movie' which is to the right of 'Subtitle'. There it'll come up with where you can set the details of your video output. Here you can choose your file type and resolution of the video (the size, height x width). You can just do a preset one that works or set it to whatever you want. If you press Encoder options it will come up with stuff to do with the sound. You can probably just leave them as they are. There will be button that says 'Video Compression Settings' however. Click that and set the 'Average bitrate' to somewhere around 700 unless if you want a really high quality video. There's not much point making it have a high bitrate if the original video isn't that great in quality anyway so it's best to have it around 500~1000. You can test that out yourselves.

Just press 'OK' and it'll start creating your video.

HOW TO HARD SUB USING AEGISUB+ VIRTUAL DUB

2012-01-30T04:30:00.000-08:00

So here's the second way that I subtitle videos. This method is more of a pain in the ass than VideoPad but gives you more capabilities with you sub text.

For VideoPad lesson click here.

For this method you will need (click to get),
Aegisub
VirtualDub
VS-Filter *WARNING* Please click the one that says 'without installer'. It's the 5th one down. You might get a virus otherwise. Once downloaded, please rename the VSFilter.dll file to VSFilter.vdf and save into the 'plugins' folder in the VirtualDub folder.

It's also good to have VideoPad to join seperate videos and converting them to avi, or some other program if there's only one video. Aegisub and VirtualDub only take a few types of files and .avi is one. Also, you MUST make sure that the resolutions for the videos are divisible by 4, or else VirtualDub will be a bitch.

So once you've got the video,
1. Open Aegisub.
2. Go to 'Video' in the task bar, then 'Open Video'. Choose video.
3. Go to 'Audio' and then click 'Open Audio from Video'.

Now you can start subbing.
Type in whatever you need to on the bottom part where you can write stuff. You can adjust the time in the audio wave thing on the top right by dragging the red and orange bars to where you need. It's good if it's a relatively quiet video as you can tell when people will talk as the waves will spike up. If that's not the case you will have to keep playing and pausing and looking at where the time stops in the counter below the video, or the audio wave place. If you need more than one line in the same time frame, right click the text and press duplicate. If you want one directly afterwards or before, press 'Insert (before) or (after)'.

You can explore the rest yourself.

So now to
Once you've finished subbing, open VirtualDub.

1. Go to 'File', 'Open Video' and choose your video.

2. Go to 'Video' and then 'Filters'. Now, out of the options choose the one that says 'TextSub'. You can now choose your subtitle file you created with aegisub.

3. Then go to 'Video', and then 'Compression'. Select 'Xvid MPEG-4 Vodec' and press the 'Configure' button.

4. Change target bitrate to a number between 500~1000 or whatever you want. If you can't see where to do this, press the button that says 'Target quantizer' and it will switch to bitrates.

5. Now go to 'File' and 'Save AVI'. It will now start compressing and encoding your video.

FINITO!

If you didn't read the top part, make sure your video has resolutions divisible by the number 4. This is because the Xvid codec only works with numbers divisible by that number (don't ask me why) so it won't work otherwise.

I think that's all? If you have any questions just leave a comment and I'll try to help. I've only started this method recently so I'm not that familiar with it yet though.

Subbed Inoue Takehiko Documentary on the Internet

2012-01-28T16:10:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

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.

Watch Professional - Perspectives on Work - Takehiko Inoue Subbed - Part 1 in Educational & How-To | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Watch Professional - Perspectives on Work - Takehiko Inoue Subbed - Part 2 in Educational & How-To | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Watch Professional - Perspectives on Work - Takehiko Inoue Subbed - Part 3 in Educational & How-To | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Watch Professional - Perspectives on Work - Takehiko Inoue Subbed - Part 4 in Educational & How-To | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Watch Professional - Perspectives on Work - Takehiko Inoue Subbed - Part 5 in Educational & How-To | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Five Great Ryukyu Island Songs

2012-01-26T22:56:00.000-08:00

Heya here's a written post for a slight change.

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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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."

Video Subbing: Manga Artist ARAKI HIROHIKO Interview

2012-01-24T23:10:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

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.

Anyway, here it is.

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE [140 MB]

Here's the PS2 game cover they he was talking about.

Video Subbing [REQUEST]: Domoto Kyoudai (2001.08.26) Shingo Mama and Gackt

2012-01-21T18:50:00.000-08:00

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.

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE [164 MB]

Domoto Kyodai (2001.08.26) Shingo Mama+ Gackt... by juxtapose31

TRANSLATION NOTES

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.

Video Subbing (REQUEST) Gackt Platinum Box VII clip

2012-01-20T06:12:00.002-08:00

Hey there,

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.

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE [77 MB]

GACKT-Platinum Box VII (Foot massage punishment) by juxtapose31

TRANSLATION NOTES

'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.

Japanese Fighting Legends - SAKURABA KAZUSHI-

2012-01-19T07:39:00.000-08:00

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.

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Japanese Fighting Legends - SAKURABA KAZUSHI-

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.

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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.

Errrr...yeah bye lol. See ya next time :)

Video Subbing (REQUEST): Yoshitaka Yuriko on Shabekuri 007 (2010.07.05)

2012-01-16T02:19:00.000-08:00

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.

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE [187 MB]

TRANSLATION NOTES

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.

Mediafire Uploads Final

2012-01-14T21:36:00.000-08:00

More mediafire uploads. These should the last of my videos, which means everything I've subbed is now available from mediafire. Hope you like them~

Ametalk (2006.11.09) Gundam 1

A-Studio (2011.08.05）Hotei Tomoyasu
A-Studio (2011. 06.24) Imai Miki

HEY HEY HEY in Universal Studio's Japan (Episode 1)
HEY HEY HEY in Universal Studio's Japan (Episode 2)
(with Gackt, w-inds, Every Little Thing etc)

Sekai Dangan Traveller (2010.12.11) Kato Rosa (in Miami)

Jounetsu Tairiku (2011.07.31) Hotei Tomoyasu
Jounetsu Tairiku (2010.02.20) Imai Miki

KREVA on Music Lovers (2011.02.28)

Doumoto Tsuyoshi's Shojiki Shindoi (2009.01.28) Urasawa Naoki

Hotei Tomoyasu V.I.P

The Legend of the 'Utsuro-bune': UFO in Edo Period Japan?

2012-01-13T23:38:00.000-08:00

Hello there~,

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.

MY TOP 5: JAPANESE FEMALE SINGERS

2012-01-11T07:34:00.000-08:00

How's stuff going everyone? Hope it's good.

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....)

Anyway, until next time,

Video Subbing: Matsumoto Hitoshi's Suberanai Hanashi Vol.1

2012-01-11T04:46:00.000-08:00

Howdy, how are you? Hope everything's good.

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

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE [197 MB]

Suberanai Hanashi 1 (2004.12.28) by juxtapose31

Video Subbing [Request]: Lincoln (2011.02.15)

2012-01-07T03:31:00.000-08:00

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.

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE [218 MB]

Lincoln (2011.02.15) by juxtapose31

TRANSLATION NOTES

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.

Video Subbing: Matsuura Aya and Shiina Ringo on Music Station (HQ version)

2012-01-06T13:35:00.000-08:00

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.

Forum:
http://matsuurian.18.forumer.com/index.php?act=idx

Media Archive:
http://matsuurian.com/rsaya/ayaya.htm

GET FROM MEGAUPLOAD

Video Subbing [REQUEST]: Gackt on Oshareism (2010.05.02)

2012-01-04T21:43:00.001-08:00

Hello there.

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~~~~~

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE [121 MB]

Oshareism (2010.05.02) Gackt by juxtapose31

"Ahhh....I'm so glad to have come to this BLOG!"

Japanese Monsters! THE UMIBOZU

2012-01-04T21:43:00.000-08:00

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!

Don't worry, this is just photoshopped...

HURRAH! MORE MEDIAFIRE UPLOADS!

2012-01-02T22:02:00.000-08:00

Here are some more mediafire uploads of video's I've previously done. Hopefully it makes you as excited as these kids here...

Arashi ni Shiyagare (2011.05.21) Hotei Tomoyasu
Arashi ni Shiyagare (2010.07.17) Kikkawa Koji
Arashi ni Shiyagare (2011.07.16) Gackt

Hamachan To (2006.03.31) with Gackt
Haneru no Tobira (2008.11.19) with Gackt

Hyde (from L'arc en ciel) on Happy Music
Tortoise Matsumoto (from Ulfuls) on MUSIC JAPAN

Video Subbing (Request): Gackt Family

2012-01-02T02:16:00.000-08:00

Well hello there, how are you today?

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.

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE (60 MB)

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.

New Years

2011-12-31T03:55:00.000-08:00

Hello Happy New Years everyone~.

Well, it's New Years Eve where I am at the moment. I think some countries like America are one day behind from this place so this may be a bit early for some people? Who knows.

Anyway, I hope you had a good 2011 and will have an even better 2012!

I was asked to do a post about some Japanese traditions for New Years. It's probably a good idea considering how different it is to Western countries (?). lol Anyway, there are many things about how Japanese people celebrate the New Years that you may find interesting.

OSHOUGATSU お正月

This is what 'New Years' is called in Japanese. Oshogatsu is probably considered the most important day of the calendar in Japan, and has been celebrated by the people for centuries. Typically, people all return to their hometown or to the eldest family member's house to celebrate the occasion with the whole family. Although this was much easier in the past as most people lived in the same town, most young people nowadays move to work in the big cities making it a bit more difficult for them to all return at the same time. Unfortunately.

It's kind of similar to the Western celebration of Christmas how all the uncles, aunties, cousin's etc all eat dinner together. Although Christmas is also a big thing in Japan, it's mainly the commercial side involving presents and parties with friends rather than celebrating Christian customs. It's also seen more as an occasion for young couples to have a romantic evening rather than a jolly family gathering.

So we now know what kind of celebration it is, what do they eat on Oshougatsu?

FOODS

OSECHI 御節
There are several foods that are traditionally eaten on New Years. On New Years Eve, the family will gather to have a feast of various foods, and then will finish it off with 'Osechi' 御節. Osechi refer to an assortment traditional kinds of foods, and are decorated in a kind of bento lunch box. Each type of cooking has a various meaning, which I won't go into as it's too long. Conveniently, Wikipedia has a page to explain it HERE. From my experience, it looks impressive and amazing, but doesn't taste good......

OMOCHI お餅
Omochi is a rice cake eaten around this period. This eaten in various ways, most commonly with soy sauce, anko (red bean paste) or kinako (mixed with sugar), which is a very healthy powder made from soybean. On New Years Day, it is tradition to eat 'Ozouni', which is a warm soup that has omochi inside. Other ingredients that feature in this dish vary depending on the region of Japan but generally have things like fishballs and vegetables. By the way this was my favourite food when I was a little kid. My grandparents would send it over and I'd have it for breakfast all the time..... 　

Top left: With kinako , Top Right: with Anko
Bottom left: Ozouni, Bottom right: Cooking omochi.

Omochi is traditionally made by hammering sticky rice inside this wooden bucket thing.

Although this is still done, it's more often made using rice cookers that have that kind of capability

or just bought from shops. There is a funny little story told in Japan about rabbits making omochi on the moon, as there is a pattern on the moon that is in the shape of a rabbits face. Check the moon and see if you can find it sometime~

OTOSHIDAMA
This is probably the best part of New Years if you are a child....but the worst if you're an adult. Traditionally, money is given to youngsters by adult relatives and friends. The amount of money depends on your age and how generous/rich the person giving money is but it can often be about 10,000 yen (about $100) from each person if you're in your teens. Sounds pretty awesome, and it is indeed awesome if you ask me. Only if you're young though. Thankfully I was the youngest person in my family (not distant relatives), and it is only recently that one of my cousins had a child. He's only about 2 or 3 so I only need to give him a tiny amount, or maybe even nothing. At least for now anyway.... and that's only when I go to Japan over New Years.

Otoshidama are given in envelopes. The one of the left is the standard type. However, there are also many nicely decorated ones as well, which are mainly given to children.

TEMPLE'S AND SHRINE VISITS
People go and visit temples and shrines on New Years day to make a wish and pray for good luck in the coming year. This is called 'hatsumoude' (first temple visit) and many people also wait in huge lines on New Years Eve so that they can be there at 12:00 at midnight. When the clock hits 12:00, the Buddhist temples ring their bells 108 times. According to Buddhist beliefs, there are 108 sins that humans can make, and so by ringing the bell it is supposed to get rid of each sin from the bodies of the Japanese citizens. It can get absolutely PACKED with people at this time, it's quite crazy to be honest.

Some people like to dress up in pretty kimono for this occasion (mainly on New Years Day, not Eve) which is nice to see. At both shrines and temples, people often purchase an 'omikuji', which is a paper slip foretelling your luck regarding various aspects of life for the year such as health, social relationships, business, schooling etc. There are different ranks for how much luck these slips foretell, ranging from Daikyo (Great curse) to Daikichi (Great fortune). Again, this can get long so you can check good old Wikipedia :)

If you get an unlucky omikuji, you can tie it onto a tree or a designated frame inside the temple/shrine grounds and hope that it doesn't turn out that way. However, you can buy omikuji as many times as you want (and they only cost 100 yen) so some people keep buying them until they get one that they like. Which is makes the whole thing kinda pointless.

FUN AND GAMES
There are many traditional games that kids play at this time. One is a card game called 'karuta'. It's a game similar to the Western card game 'Snap', in that you must grab certain cards quicker than other people. This is played with several contestants and one card reader. The card reader reads a card that gives a clue as to what card must be looked for, and players search for it among the pile of cards that are laid out on the floor before them. So you see lots of hands flying around, slapping other peoples hands etc. There are various versions of these games. Small kids usually use karuta with hiragana or katakana letters on them, with the hint being a sentence that starts with that letter. They sell various themed ones too like karuta with 'Ultraman' or Dragon Ball.

More advanced (and more traditional) ones are karuta with famous poetry from the 'hyakunin-isshu' on them. The card reader reads the first half of the poem and contestants search for the card with the rest of the passage. More info. They make you learn these poems at school and even have haykunin isshu karuta competitions once a year too.....

Other games are played on New Years day such as 'tako-age' (kite flying), koma (spinning tops) and sugoroku, which can either be a simple board game like Snakes and Ladders or Backgammon. Another game played is 'hanetsuki'. Hanetsuki is a game somewhat similar to badminton as it uses a shuttlecock and two players with rackets. The rackets for this game however, are small rectangular wooden plank type things. The aim of the game is to keep it in the air as long as possible by hitting it to each other with the racket. The fun part is when someone misses it though, as you get to draw on their face with black ink. A strange belief, which is obviously not that important now regarding this game is that the amount of time you are able to keep the shuttlecock off the group is supposed to reflect how much you'll be safe from being bitten by mosquitoes in the coming year.....

Currently battling it out for immunity against Mosquitoes.

HATSU-EVERYTHING
Japanese people also take note of the first occurrence of various events of the year. One example was already mentioned before with 'hatsumoude' (first temple visit). There are many other 'hatsu' somethings that are given attention such as 'hatsuyume' which is your first dream of the year. Supposedly, this also supposed to foretell your luck for the new year. It is considered especially lucky if you dream of Mt. Fuji, a hawk or.......an eggplant. Not exactly sure why though.

Other 'hatsu' things celebrated include the first sunrise, 'hatsuhinode' and first tea ceremony, 'hatsugama' (not that important now though...) and all kinds of other things......

Well I hopefully you learned a little bit about what New Years is like in Japan. Of course there are more things to it, and I could have gone into more detail for some of the things that I mentioned but writing takes a pretty long time lol. This post was more interesting to write about then I was expecting though. It made me remember some nice memories of things that I had forgotten so....it was good :)

Anyway, once again, I hope you have had an excellent year in 2011, and a superb 2012.

Maybe you should stare at a picture of Mt. Fuji for ages or eat heaps of eggplants for dinner so that you'll have dream about them.?

I'll try to make this blog better and more entertaining for all of you in 2012, so please stay loyal and check it out once in a while~

Video Subbing (Request): Nagasawa Masami on PuSMA (2009.11.17)

2011-12-29T05:41:00.000-08:00

This is the first time I've subtitled a video from this show. It's hosted by Kusanagi Tsuyoshi from SMAP and the actor, Yusuke Santamaria. They do all sorts of things on this show, mainly strange little games and it's usually fairly funny although theirs way too much pointless narration. This episode is from 2009 and features the actress Nagasawa Masami. They do several drawing contests and showcase their crap art skills.

Here it is:

Download from Mediafire (150MB)

Video Subbing Request: KANNO MIHO and KIRITANI MIREI on Shabekuri 007 (2011.02.07)

2011-12-29T05:32:00.000-08:00

Hello there, man I've been pretty busy with this blog these past few days trying to compress video sizes and uploading them etc etc. I've made time to subtitle some videos though. Well actually this one was half done and the other one that I'll post (Nagasawa Masami on PuSMA) was actually done about two weeks ago but I forgot about it...... This video is another Shabekuri 007 episode, this time featuring the actresses, Kanno Miho and Kiritani Mirei. Most Shabekuri episodes are funny but I found this one to be a bit more funny than the norm.

Hope you enjoy it!

Download from Mediafire (144 MB)

Translations Notes

Watabe Youichi
Wow I haven't done this for a long time. Kanno Miho said that she finds a man called Watabe Youichi interesting. Watabe Youichi is a war photographer who became popular on TV somehow, for some reason. Possibly due to the way he speaks, and constant gesturing which is very unusual for Japanese people.

Shabekuri 007 Uploaded on Mediafire

2011-12-28T07:11:00.000-08:00

More Mediafire Uploads

2011-12-26T22:05:00.000-08:00

Well the other day I posted links to some of video's that I uploaded onto mediafire. I've done some more, although they're still just the smaller ones. I've been trying to figure out how to decrease the size of video files without destroying the quality of the original video (some were crap to begin with though). I've found a pretty good way after experimenting and checking on the internet and stuff and have succeeded in halving which is good. I'll hopefully be able to put them up tomorrow if all goes to plan.

Well anyway, here's some other ones that I was talking about..

Anime-TV
Anime-TV: Elisa (2010. 01. 31)
Anime-TV: Elisa (2011. 09. 01)

Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ
Hirano Aya (2003)
Hotei Tomoyasu (1995)
Hotei Tomoyasu (1999) 1st visit
Hotei Tomoyasu (1999) 2nd visit
Thee Michelle Gun Elephant

Music Lovers
Hotei Tomoyasu (2011.05.15)

M-Stage Hotei Tomoyasu Week (1995)
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5

MUSIC STATION
Shiina Ringo on MUSIC STATION (2001)
Shiina Ringo and Matsuura Aya on MUSIC STATION (2005)

OTHER
Sakurai Atsushi on Waratte Iitomo
Tutorial Manzai Clip

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2011-12-24T16:38:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

Hope you're all having a jolly time, even if you don't celebrate Christmas (which I'm sure many don't).
Wasn't sure what I could do to possible give as a Christmas present to those that visit this blog.
As I haven't been able to work on subtitling for a week or so I couldn't really upload something new on here for this occasion. The internet at the place where I am now (parent's house) doesn't have particularly fast internet either so couldn't upload anything very big either....BUT I've decided to upload most of the smaller video's that I've previously subtitled onto mediafire for your convenience. I'm planning to eventually get on some of the bigger files too but please be patient with me!

Here's the list of video's that I've uploaded so far....
(Most of these were done when I kind of just started subbing so may not be that good(?) or hard to read. Sorry about that)

Gackt videos
Happy Music (2011.07.16)
Hey Hey Hey Music Champ 2001
Hey Hey Hey Music Champ 2004
Ousama no Brunch 2011
Interview about Sket Dance Voice Acting
Koi no Karasawagi
Waratte Iitomo (December 2011)
Yellow Fried Chickenz on Entame Zamurai 2011
Studio Park Interview

Wow so many Gackt videos....

Others
Ryuichi Kawanura (of Luna Sea) on Waratter Iitomo 2011
T.M Revolution on Hey Hey Hey (1996)
Miyavi Heyx3

There will be more to come in the following week. Hopefully I'll have them all up within two weeks.

Video Subbing (Request): Gackt on Pikaru no Teiri (2011.12.03)

2011-12-19T22:05:00.000-08:00

Hey again, here's another recent short clip of Gackt, this time on the show "Pikaru No Teiri". It's a skit show hosted by young comedians who aren't very funny although they try to be. They just make a lot of noise. Actually Gackt is the only funny one here and he's not even a comedian.

It's more of his famous training/torture equipment, including the crotch stretcher and the rolling push up thing.

Anyway here it is.

Mediafire link (45MB)

Pikaru no Teiri (11.12.03) Gackt [English subs] by juxtapose31

Video Subbing (Request): Gackt on Hirunandesu (2011.12. 12)

2011-12-17T23:51:00.000-08:00

Hey, here's the recent appearance of Gackt on the show Hirunadesu. Not much really happens in this show but a couple of people requested it, it's recent and only around 5 minutes so I did it. Since it's a small file compared to most other videos I do, I've also put it onto mediafire. Hopes you like it.

Click here for Mediafire - 37MB

Some Japanese Christmas Songs

2011-12-15T06:51:00.000-08:00

How are things going everyone? Hopefully good.

Well it's almost that time of the year again when a fat bearded man trespasses into homes and eats your cookies and drinks your milk. If you've been good then he'll leave behind some presents but that doesn't change the fact that he's sneaking into peoples houses. Anyway, yes. Christmas.

There's a little over a week to the joyous day and I thought that I might extend on my random song recommendation posts and share some Christmas themed Japanese songs. They're not Christmas carols as Japanese people just use the English ones with translated lyrics but are just pop songs that have something to do with Christmas. Well, hopefully you'll find some that you like here.

Ryuichi Sakamoto-
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
First is this theme song from the movie with the same name (Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence). It starred the Rock superstar David Bowie in the lead role and also Kitano Takeshi (teacher from Battle Royale) and Ryuichi Sakamoto himself too. It's a pretty decent movie and worth watching I think.....The song isn't a cheerful one that you probably want to listen to at Christmas but it's a ve~ry beautiful track that I think you should know. As I said before, Ryuichi Sakamoto the person who composed this song also stars in the movie. However, he's not an actor but a very highly regarded composer/producer, having won an American Academy Award and Grammy for his soundtrack on the movie 'Last Emperor'. He was also a member of the influential electro music group, Yellow Magic Orchestra and is quite well known in the West for this reason.

B'z -Itsuka no Merry Christmas
Itsuka no Merry Christmas (Merry Christmas of Someday) is one of the most popular songs by Japan's most successful rock act, B'z. There's a famous video on youtube of this song as a duet between Hamasaki Aymumi and Gackt, so fans of those two would probably have heard this song before.

Yamashita Tatsuro -Christmas Eve
This is one of the staple Christmas songs of Japan, and if you go there around this time you'll hear this song playing non-stop all over the place (as well as 'Last Chrsitmas' by Wham, and the song by Mariah Carey...). I think I might have kind of been brain washed into liking this song because of how often they play it. You have no choice but to come to like it or else you'll be walking around irritated wherever you go. It's also famous for the Japan Rail advertisement it was used on.

Dreams Come True -Winter Song
Dreams Come True are an extremely popular pop duo (originally a trio) and responsible for many hit songs mainly in the 80's and 90's although they are still very successful now. This song was the opening theme for the famous American movie, 'Sleepless in Seatle' featuring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, although I've never watched the movie in full so haven't really heard or seen the part with the song. There's an English version and a Japanese version, and both are honestly good. The singer, Miwa has an unusually good pronunciation of English for a pure Japanese person so it shouldn't bother people that don't really like Engrish.

Kuwata Keisuke -Shiroi Koibito-tachi
Shiroi Koibito Tachi means 'White Lovers' and is by the Japanese music legend Kuwata Keisuke. Kuwata Keisuke is credited as being the first Japanese musician to sing in a foreign kind of accent which paved the way for more Western sounding music to be created with the Japanese language. This is the main reason why a lot of the old rock groups of Japan sing in English (if you've bothered to search for some). The Japanese language with ordinary pronunciation doesn't flow as nicely so what Kuwata did back then with his band Southern All-stars was a revolutionary thing and responsible for the songs that we hear today.

L'arc~en~Ciel - Hurry Xmas
Well here's a song from the super popular rock group L'arc~en~Ciel. Although they do a lot of pop sounding music it's a very poppy song even out of them. Even so, it's a snazzy jazzy uptempo tune with a nice melody.

Video Subbing (REQUEST): Toda Erika on Shabekuri 007 (2011.10.03)

2011-12-11T22:52:00.000-08:00

Hey hey hey~, here's Toda Erika on the show Shabekuri 007. It's from a 2 hour special featuring others but I was only requested to do this bit (thankfully) so here it is. Toda Erika has been popular actress for the past few years after starring in hits dramas like 'Code Blue' and 'Liars Game'. She also starred in the very successful 'Deathnote' movie. Get ready for more Shabekuri silliness as the boys do more nonsensical jokes once again.

Get from Mediafire [159 MB]

BUCK-TICK VIDEO'S WITH SUBTITLES

2011-12-10T20:03:00.000-08:00

Hey again~

I thought I might as well tell you that I also help out with translating Buck-Tick videos from time to time for Sexualxxxxx subtitling community on livejournal.

http://sexualxxxxx-sub.livejournal.com/

You'll need a livejournal account to see some of the stuff released on there so you should if you do have one.
Otherwise you can just go to the dailymotion channel, where there is a tonne of other Buck-Tick videos with subtitles. I've only started helping so it's only the first few but there are crap loads of others to please you if you're a fan of the band.

http://www.dailymotion.com/user/sexualxxxxx_sub/1

See ya!

Matsuura Aya on Sekai Dangan Traveller HD Quality

2011-12-10T19:50:00.000-08:00

Greetings everyone, hope you've all been good.

Some time ago I uploaded a subtitled video of Matsuura Aya on the show Sekai Dangan Traveller. Because I uploaded it onto a video sharing site, the video didn't keep its original level of quality unfortunately. The good news is that an avid fan of Matsuura Aya has (with my permission) redone the subtitles on a HQ version of the video and uploaded it on megaupload.

The link is here:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FD67WLTJ

I've given permission to do the same to the other Matsuura Aya videos I've done so you might see them in the future too?

Anyway, if you're a fan of Matsuura Aya too, you should check out the forum and the massive video archive that he runs.

http://matsuurian.com/rsaya/ayaya.htm
http://matsuurian.18.forumer.com/index.php?act=idx

If anyone else wants to do something similar for any of the other videos on here then you're free to do so, as long as you let me know and credit the subtitles to me.
Cheers!

Video Subbing: AMETALK: JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE COMEDIANS (2007.08.02)

2011-12-09T22:46:00.000-08:00

Hello~ here's another video that I decided to subtitle from the show Ametalk. Last time I did one where they talk about Gundam, and this time it's another manga/anime. They talk about JoJo's Bizarre Adventures, which is one of my most favourite mangas. It took a while for me to get the motivation to read it as the pictures look kinda strange. But once I started I couldn't stop! I even wrote a manga recommendation here. This episode will be a lot funnier if you have already read a fair bit of it as they refer to lots of specific stuff from the series without bothering to explain very much (like with the Gundam episode). Even so, I think you'll still find it funny and hopefully it might make you feel like starting to read the manga too. The whole series have been translated into English and is available on the internet so it's very possible.

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE

I also wrote about JoJo stances too. If you're interested it's HERE.

Good songs by Japanese female singers that you might not know

2011-12-09T02:44:00.000-08:00

Hello there~

Well, today's post is about "Good songs by female singers that you might not know" lol
Pretty long title hey? But that's what it's about and I couldn't really bother thinking how to shorten it.
So....I don't think it needs much more explaining.

Hajime Chitose - Wadatsumi no Ki

This is song was was huge hit back in 2003. The singer, Hajime Chitose was born on and grown up on one of the Ryukyuu islands (around where Okinawa is). Her songs are quite special as she sings in the traditional style of that region. You'll understand clearly what that is when you listen to the song. The name of the song, ワダツミの木 "Wadatsumi no Ki" means "The Wadatsumi's Tree". Wadatsumi refers to a mythological dragon which is the god of the sea in Japan folklore (wikipedia). The lyrics were written by a musician called Ueda Gen, who said that it's a story about a woman who loved someone so much that she turned into a flower.

CHARA- Time Machine
Chara was one of the top stars among highschool girls around mid 90's to early 2000's. She's also got an unusual high pitched but husky kind of voice, which may put off some people (my sister at least). Even so, I think this is a really nice song.

Misia- Escape
Misia was a big star of the early 2000's and late 1990's, and helped popularise R'n'B in Japan, leaving behind many massive hits and great songs. She's still popular today and sang the theme song for the hit drama "JIN" about a modern doctor that get's sent back into time to around the Meiji Restoration. Although this isn't my favourite song of hers I felt that I needed a different sounding song to create more variation to this list. The video has some strange introduction for several minutes so you'll have to skip that to get to the song (-_-).

Ego Wrappin'- Shikisai no Blues
Shikisai no Blues 色彩のブルース, means 'Four Season Blues' and is tune by the jazz band Ego Wrappin'. This song was their biggest hit and the first one I had heard of them. I fell in love with it straight away and immediately went looking for more. They're fairly experimental people and you often hear the singer, Nakano Yoshie making strange noises but this is one of the songs where they don't, so you don't have to worry about sudden scatting half way through the song lol. Unless if you like scat.

Well I think that's enough songs for one post. Don't really want to bombard you with too much stuff or you probably won't bother listening. Who knows, this might even be too much for some people. Whatever the case, I hope you enjoy these as much as I do. I'll most likely be doing similar posts like this in the future, so watch out for those~

Video Subbing: (REQUEST): Sekai Dangan Traveller: Kato Rosa in Miami (2010.12.11)

2011-12-06T23:30:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, here's an episode of the show Sekai Dangan Traveller featuring Kato Rosa. She visits Miami in Florida, USA to take a drive down the Seven Mile Bridge, one of the longest bridges in the world. Kato Rosa is a half Japanese, half Italian model/actress, and is also married to Japanese football player Daisuke Matsui.

It's the second episode I've subbed from Sekai Dangan Traveller and I've found that I've quite enjoyed watching them. So it's likely you'll see more in the future, especially as there seem to be some fans of the show among the people that check this blog.

Well anyway hope you enjoy it.

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE [112 MB]

MY FAVOURITE GHIBLI FILMS (3~1)

2011-12-05T06:42:00.000-08:00

Yesterday or the day before ( my sense of time is kinda strange lately) I started writing my top 5 Ghibli films.
I only got to my 5th and 4th before getting tired and stopping so here's the rest.
If you haven't read the previous post then its' HERE

3. Spirited Away

Well this would probably be number one for most people? And deservedly so...despite being 3rd for me. It won an Academy Award (? or some American movie award anyway) which then sparked a greater interest in Ghibli films in people outside Japan. It's a bit like a Japanese version of Alice in Wonderland, a young girl getting stuck in a dream like world, meeting quirky characters and customs. It's amazing how Miyazaki Hayao and his team can think up and bring to life such amazing ideas and worlds such as these time and time again, yet keep each one somewhat different and unique to each other. The Kaonashi (don't know what it's called in English) is a bit creepy but it's "Ah...Ah....Ah...ah..." phrase got stuck in my head and I impersonated it a lot when asking people to give me something lol. Anyway, this one is a masterpiece.

2. Kurenai no Buta/ Porco Rosso

You might fine this decision surprising? It's definitely not a typical answer you'd get when asking people what they're favourite Ghibli films are. Nevertheless it comes second for me, mainly based on how I seem to 'feel' like watching it more than the others most of the time. I think it may be because the main character is a male again. Usually, the lead is a young girl that has a long future full of dreams ahead of her, but on this film instead has an adult man/pig bounty hunter that flies around in a bright red biplane above the blue Sicilian seas. That alone equates to awesome in my books.

Aside from that though, while keeps the typical kind of Ghibli humour and warm atmosphere, it also has a melancholic or more 'grown up' undertone. The main character has a mysterious past (like how he became a pig), one seemingly of regret and guilt. They don't tell you exactly what happened in his past, but that just makes me want to know even more, and watch it again.

1. Princess Mononoke/ Mononoke Hime

Number one for me is Princess Mononoke. Although Ghibli usually sets itself in an olden day Europe type place or modern Japan, this time they did a story set in a mythical old Japan. I really like the styles and just the overall atmosphere of stories set in medieval Japan in general, but when Ghibli Studio's did it they added even more of that sense of eerie mysteriousness and magic. The characters are all great, the scenery is magnificent and soundtrack is epic. Comparative to others, it was also a lot more serious and dark too, which I like. Usually in Ghibli they have a more comedic, feel good atmosphere (which is also very nice), but I tend to prefer films like this. The action scenes are also exciting and breathtaking, even shocking, especially when some poor guys arms were torn off by a super powered arrow shot by the main character, Ashitaka. I also loved the monsters/gods that appear on this film, from the wild shadow monkey things that throw stones at people, the gigantic warthogs, the white wolves, right to the strange forest god that looks like a deer.

Just a wonderful film. Miyazaki Hayao and his partners at Ghibli are all unbelievable genius'.

Well that's my 3~1 of favourite Ghibli films. I noticed that all of my top five apart from one have a main male character lol. I didn't even realise until taking a look at the list again. I guess that shows it's pretty important for viewers to be able to relate to characters in stories for them to like it more.

Other films that I thought about including but ended up not were Howl's Moving Castle and Lupin the 3rd: Count of Cagliostro. What are your favourite Ghibli films though? I'm assuming that it will probably somewhat different to my selection.

MY 5 FAVOURITE GHIBLI FILMS (5~4)

2011-12-04T04:43:00.000-08:00

Hello, thanks for visiting J Bugoru~

I thought it was about time I did a post that wasn't a video sub as that's kinda all I seem to do these days.
Even so, I couldn't really think of something I could bother to write about that wasn't music related, like usual. Well it's not like I thought very hard about it and there's probably lot's of people who've done this before but oh well.

So here it is. My top five favourite Ghibli films.

The main reason that I chose to do this was because I've seen all of them (apart from the most recent one)
so I can give an accurate decision, based on my preferences. It most probably won't be the same 80% of you reading this but I'm sure that you'll understand that it's just my opinion.

Well it's safe to say that all Ghibli films are amazingly beautiful and/or have excellent stories so they're mostly all deserve to be in the top five but obviously I'll enjoy watching some more than others. Oh and I'm assuming that you'd have watched them too so won't really be writing a short synopsis or anything hehe.

5. Grave of the Fireflies
This really should be at least one place higher, but it goes in 5th place. Why? Because it's soooo saaaad!!!
No other Ghibli film makes me think or feel various emotions as much as this one, but it almost brings me to tears and doesn't really leave me feeling good after watching it. Well it shouldn't really, since it's about the mercilessness of war. I remember that I could barely watch this when I was a little kid (like five and under or something) because of some of the gross scenes (rotting people). I didn't really understand what it was about very much back then. It was only later on in life that I realised just how serious and heartbreaking this story is. It makes me grateful for being born in this time period where I'm not deprived of anything and surviving is super easy. Hopefully the world doesn't become like that again. An interesting thing I heard about this movie was that the director decided to model the big brother on the modern teenage boy rather than what they may have been like back then so that the modern audience could relate to him more.

4. Laputa Castle in the Sky

This film really tickles my sense of wanting for adventure. If only worlds like this actually existed in real life! I always find stories about long lost civilisations with extremely advanced technology interesting. For example, Atlantis or Mu that is said by some to have sunk deep beneatht he oceans somewhere, or even in video games. There's a not particularly well known rpg called Oriental Blue on Game Boy that had a theme like that. It's personally one of the games that I enjoyed playing the most, staying up till ridiculous times at night playing....and getting in trouble the next morning for not being able to wake up. lol

Haha....anyway so Laputa just has one of those themes that I really love and find enchanting. It also has great characters, and one of the best bad guys ever in Muska. You really end up hating this guy. He's also inadvertently funny, at least to me, and a lot of his lines have become staple jokes among my siblings and I. Well....I didn't really discuss much about the film here but oh well.

Ahhh and I can't be bothered writing anymore at the moment. I'll post 3~1 in the coming days yo~

Video Subbing: (REQUEST): Gackt on Waratte Iitomo (11.30.2011)

2011-12-02T23:07:00.000-08:00

I didn't really want to do another Gackt video so soon but since it was a very recent video I decided to do it. I generally give recent videos priority because I realise that people would like to know newer and more relevant news about their favourite artists. Plus it was a short clip. It's pretty low quality but that's the best that can be found at the moment. He comes on this show to advertise his new single "Graffiti" which has a (in my opinion) very annoying cover. He does this cheesy face in the video a number of times when he gets the chance too hehe. One a better note, his hair is growing back and it made me realise again that he does look a lot better with hair covering his whole head. Feel free to share this with all your Gackt buddy community people too if you want. Just don't take credit for it though ♪

For mediafire link (83mb)

It was good too see someone not overwhelmed by Gackts super sex symbol status for once. Usually they treat him like a God or a King and try not to say anything bad about him. Tamori on the other hand pointed out that some snot dribbled out of his nose for a second. Maybe his black sunglasses deflect the strange aura that Gackt emits? Who knows.

I kind of sound like a Gackt hater after what I wrote but I assure you I'm not. I wouldn't have subbed so many video of the guy if I was.

Video Subbing: (REQUEST): Domoto Tsuyoshi's Shojiki Shindoi with Manga Artist: Urasawa Naoki

2011-12-02T22:54:00.000-08:00

Ahoy there!

Here comes more videos today. Due to it being holidays for me now I have a lot more time to do these things plus I think I've gotten a lot faster too or something. I remember when it took several hours just to do a short clip under 10 minutes....

This is a very interesting video, especially if you like manga, and especially again if you like manga by the Urasawa Naoki. He is the creator behind multiple critically acclaimed works such as the Monster, Pluto and 20th Century Boys. He is definitely one of my favourite manga artists (in my top 5 at least), so it was great to see what kind of person he is through this video. You don't often come across entertaining videos featuring manga artists so if you're interested in stuff like that, do watch. The show is hosted by Domoto Tsuyoshi of Kinki Kids, who I quite like, despite being Johnny's Boy. He (and his partner) don't really seem like typical Johnny kids anyway, they're way too laid back and cool for them. Plus they can genuinely be funny. I really enjoyed this video so if you have anymore requests like this then fire away~

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE [134 MB]

TRANSLATION NOTES

As you may have noticed recently, I haven't bothered to do very detailed translation notes like I used to. That's because.......well I can't be bothered. It takes too long. haha sorry but that's the case. I've started to put many of them on the video anyway too. So I'll only be writing stuff that I remember or are things that really really need explaining.

TSUYOSHI!
At the start Mr. Urasawa starts saying "Tsuyoshi! Oi Tsuyoshi!". As Domoto pointed out this was an impersonation of Yusuke Santamaria on his regular show 'Pu-SMA' with Kusanagi Tsuyoshi from SMAP.
On the show he regularly calls out to his partner like the way Mr. Urasawa says, and since Domoto shares the same name 'Tsuyoshi' he was saying that Yusuke could say it in this show too.

Video Subbing: (REQUEST): ELISA on Anime-TV (11.09.2011)

2011-11-30T05:13:00.000-08:00

Hey here's another requested video of the singer Elisa on Anime-TV. It's amazing how much her appearance has changed since the last video, which was taken 7 months before this one. I think she's overdone it a bit though.....

Get from Mediafire (30 MB)

Video Subbing (Request): Imai Miki on A-Studio (24.06.2011)

2011-11-28T19:30:00.000-08:00

Hey here's an episode of A-Studio featuring the singer, Imai Miki. As mentioned before of on many other posts she is a famous singer/actress/model etc etc mainly form the early 90's, and is also the wife of Hotei Tomoyasu. This episode features many conversations about quite private stuff of hers, for example her best friends, accidents at her wedding and more interestingly a chaotic period of her life where her father dies and her husband incurs a possibly life threatening injury, all while being pregnant at 8 months. Quite interesting stuff, especially if you're a fan of hers
or Hotei Tomoyasu.

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE [143 MB]

If there was anything you found hard to understand just let me know.

Video Subbing: (REQUEST): Yellow Fried Chickenz on Entame Zamurai (21.10.2011)

2011-11-28T19:28:00.000-08:00

Here's an episode of Entame Zamurai, a local show of Kyushu area of Japan. It features three members (Gackt, Jon and Takumi) from the band, Yellow Fried Chickenz. Gackt does most of the talking, and tells of things such as the origins of the band and how he met some of the members. Anywho, enjoy~

*EDIT* You can get it off mediafire here: http://www.mediafire.com/?t3t27rb4b91ojzp

TRANSLATION NOTES

FAIL
Apparently Jon is known to have lots of 'fail' moments. If you're from an English speaking country you probably understand how it's used. Other countries might too? I don't know. But basically it's when you do something that makes yourself look lame or like a loser. Such as slipping on a banana or telling a joke that's not funny.

IZUMIYA SHIGERU

Is a famous Japanese blues musician/ actor. You might have seen in in some dramas or movies. The only one I can remember is in Dr. Koto in which he plays an ill tempered fisherman on a remote island. He is well known for his vulgar language and once in an interview he said he was pleased when his grandson told him to "Go to hell".

..............................

Go to Hell!!

Thanks for all your replies

2011-11-28T19:24:00.000-08:00

Hello!

A couple of days ago I asked whether you'd prefer me to upload the subbed videos onto a file sharing site like mediafire etc rather than a video streaming site. Most of you that replied didn't seem to mind that much, although a fair few did say that they'd prefer a link rather than video.

Other things that you mentioned to me to do is to upload them on dailymotion or youtube instead. Many of my video's actually are uploaded on dailymotion and the reason that I moved to youku was because of the problems with people not able to see videos on that site. As for youtube, there is almost no point uploading it there as it will just get taken down due to copyright issues. I was also told that that can be avoided if the video was set to private, but unfortunately that didn't work for me either....

Since it seems unfair for people that can't watch it on the streaming sites I took a look at some file sharing sites. My first preference was mediafire as they have the least hassle for downloaders and uploaders, but unfortunately it wouldn't work on the computers that I use to upload videos......which really does suck.

Next I tried megaupload but it seems that unless if you use a paying account you can upload a small amount each day and the files are deleted after a few days if they're not downloaded. That was a major put off.

So......despite how I said that I was considering switching to mediafire etc it seems those sites have a number of problems themselves from my perspective. I really should checked these out before doing my previous post but.....well I'm lazy (lol) and assumed that it would work. Sorry about that.

At the moment I'm not really prepared to spend money on an payed account, although I'll consider getting a one in the future. Maybe (and if) this site gets more popular as to be honest it doesn't really cost a huge amount of money for the amount of time the benefits are valid for. But in the mean time, I'm sorry to those who have trouble with it but I'll keep uploading them on video sharing sites............

Oh and to the Anonymous person who asked whether I'll be playing the Zelda game, I'm assuming that you're asking about the latest wii game? My answer is maybe lol. I've got a wii so will be able to if I buy it but who knows....haha

POSSIBLE WAYS TO DOWNLOAD THE VIDEOS
I'll give you some suggestions on what might work for those people though. Since I don't have those problems (Obviously) it works for me, but you'll have to let me know if it also does for you.

The xmlbar method I posted about before apparently doesn't work very well and was still very slow for many people. Instead you can try using a site like Vid-dl or Flvcd. It's very easy to use these site and they work in exactly the same way plus there's no need to install any programs. It's extremely easy but I'll explain with pictures for people who have trouble understanding these things or hate reading.

1. Copy the web address on the video on the video sharing site and not my blog. (To get there click the 'youku' logo on the bottom right of the video.)

Click the 'youku'

and then copy the web address

2. Go to Flvcd. or Vid-dl. Paste the web address into the space they give you to do so, and then press enter.

3. It breaks the video into several parts for some reason. Click each one to download.

Hope that works.........

VIDEO PROBLEMS.....? MAYBE IT'S TIME TO JUST HAVE LINKS?

2011-11-26T21:34:00.000-08:00

Heya everyone,

As I always say, thanks for checking out this blog if you do and leaving comments and thanks and stuff. It's greatly appreciated. Unfortunately it seems there's a recurring problem with people not being able to play video's on the various video sharing sites I've uploaded them. Someone just always seems to have trouble watching them....which sucks, for me as it means that I have to try and find other places where you can watch it....and I really can't be bothered doing that let alone use up scarce internet download/upload allowances. However, it sucks even more for you guys since you can't even watch them at all a lot of the time. (Also I feel like a douchebag when I ignore all of these people telling me that they can't see it...)

So! ................I'm thinking of just scrapping the idea of uploading them on video sites and just putting them on mediafire or megaupload or whatever. Although it makes my posts look less exciting (...lol) it seems to be a more efficient way of distributing these to people. But before I start doing something like that I just wanted to here people's opinions regarding this, to see whether that would make it easier for them or more of a pain. I'm assuming it's the former, but just wanted to check with .........whoever feels like telling me their opinion.

So do you prefer links or videos?

Link

Video Subbing: (REQUEST): HOTEI TOMOYASU LIVE VIDEO'S WITH NARRATION BY HOTEI (2)

2011-11-24T22:03:00.000-08:00

Hey again, here are some more Hotei narration videos.

LABEL OF COMPLEX

BEAT SWEET

RADIO RADIO RADIO

Video Subbing (Request): HEY! HEY! HEY! in USJ II, Episode 2 (2003)

2011-11-23T16:51:00.000-08:00

Hello, here's the second half of HEY! HEY! HEY! in USJ II.
For those who have not seen the first episode yet clickety click here:
Heyx3 USJ Episode 1

I had to upload it on a different site AGAIN, as youku didn't accept these and dailymotion wasn't working and seems to be having a lot of problems recently. This time it's on a site called 'Tudou' and you can download it the same way as the other videos on here.
For How click)

I couldn't figure out how to embed the videos here easily so here are the links.

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE [189 MB]

Part 1: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/qDmIUAC0iQg/
Part 2: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/fBl6sxP1KPM/
Part 3: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/R-ElJTHuOyQ/
Part 4: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/4bC-3kGrrP0/

Recent Japanese Songs That I Like

2011-11-23T02:22:00.000-08:00

Heya!

How's everyone doing? Hope you're all genki.
I noticed that a lot of the things I write about or subtitle on this blog are things from several years in the past, rather than recent stuff. That's not really a problem but I suppose that its good to get with the times and mention some more up-to-date stuff once in a while?

And so......I thought I might introduce some recently released songs that have caught my attention.
Not a particularly exciting post, and just about everything I write about seems music related but well....yeah sorry about that lol. I'll have to think of something else to write for another time.

So! Yes. I few songs have been released recently that have left an impression on me.

SHIINA RINGO - Carnation
I'm a big fan of Shiina Ringo (and her band Tokyo Jihen), so was waiting for this to come out as soon as it was announced. And again, she didn't disappoint. It's a very beautiful and cute kind of tune, some have described it as Disney like etc etc. It's the theme song for a drama of the same name (Carnation), which is about the life of a fashion designer or something.

KIKKAWA KOJI- Ano Natsu Wo Wasurenai
Ano Natsu Wo Wasurenai (I Won't Forget That Summer) by Kikkawa Koji is about the atomic bomb blast in Hiroshima back in WW2. Hiroshima is Kikkawa's home city and his father personally went through the horrors of the blast. Kikkwawa made this song with primary school kids in Hiroshima and sang it with them on the memorial day of the bomb drop. The song's lyrics are about that despite losing your friends. family, home and almost everything else, there is still hope and that you can have a peaceful future.

KIMURA KAELA- 8 Album
I liked Kimura Kaela's recent album '8'. It's a lot more rock oriented than her recent albums, although there are one or two of the cute pop songs that Kimura Kaela known for too. To me it feels like she has progressed a lot as a musician in this album.

You can check it out here ----> Kimura Kaela -8

BUMP OF CHICKEN- ZERO
This is the theme song for the recent Final Fantasy Reishiki or 'Type Zero' in English. I've not really listened to a lot of this band's music and not really liked the songs that I've heard but quite liked this one. As I said before, it's the theme song for the latest Final Fantasy game on PSP, and that's where I heard it. It really fitted the game and the scene it played in and was really emotive. An enthusiastic person even reviewed it on youtube which was pretty interesting. He has also reviewed a lot of other recent singles so it might be cool to listen to a few if you're interested.... TH3JROCKFAN youtube channel

Video Subbing: (REQUEST): SHABEKURI 007 with NAGASAWA MASAMI (09.05.2011)

2011-11-18T23:50:00.000-08:00

Here's the Shabekuri 007 episode featuring Nagasawa Masami, who is a very popular actress in Japan at the moment. Shabekuri members get excited once again about a pretty actress visiting, and start up (like usual) some sort of contest to try and see which member the actress likes the most....

Tokui has a small role too this time, and if you watched the Aragaki Yui episode, you would know that this happens often when beautiful female guests come.

Get from Mediafire (262 MB)

Video Subbing (Request): HEY! HEY! HEY! in USJ II, Episode 1 (2003)

2011-11-18T23:11:00.000-08:00

Hey! Thankfully, I've found fast internet again so will be uploading bigger videos once more. It was quicker than I thought so I don't have a lot to post up but hey, better than nothing.

Here's the requested video of Hey! Hey! Hey! in Universal Studios Japan 2 from all the way back in 2003. It features a host of musician guests: Gackt, Every Little Thing, w-inds, Kiroro, MAX and Shimatani Hitomi. It's quite a long episode, around 50mins, and is only the first episode of two. I'm still working on the second episode so you'll have to wait a bit for it. I don't think there were much in there I need to explain in translation notes but if there's anything that confuses you, let me know.

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE [169 MB]

How to download videos of youku

2011-11-14T18:38:00.000-08:00

Hey there,

Thanks for visiting my blog to those who do and your comments too if you write them.
Unfortunately I've been getting a few comments about my videos not being able to be played on youku, which is a shame as the reason I started putting them on there was because people had trouble with Dailymotion.

I don't want to use Youtube as it's impossible to upload most videos on there due to copyright problems, and my account on it had even been shut down a few days ago lol. It's quite easy to make another one so it's not really a problem but.....yeah. I'm not going to use youtube unless if it's basically 90% sure to be safe.

So, basically I'll only be uploading on youku and sometime Dailymotion as some video's aren't accepted there either. However, as I said before people seem to have trouble watching it sometimes. I'm not really sure what kind of screen you get when you try to play it when it doesn't work but I'll tell you a way that you should probably able to download the videos.

It's really quite simple.

1. Download a program called 'xmlbar'
http://www.xmlbar.net/soft.php?lang=English

2.Get the address of the page with the video on it. To do this with my video's, just click the 'youku' logo on the bottom right of the video. That will take you to the youku page. Just get that address and paste it where the red circle is here:

3. Press download, and it will be where ever you set it to download.

You're supposed to be able do this with dailymotion too, although I last time I tried it didn't work. It has been updated a few times since then so it might work now? I don't know. You'll have to try it out and tell me : )

Video Subbing: SHIINA RINGO & MATSUURA AYA on MUSIC STATION SUPER LIVE 2005

2011-11-14T18:23:00.000-08:00

Hey there, here's another short video today. The good thing about small videos are that I can pretty much finish one and post it up everyday. This video is of Matsuura Aya and one of my favourite musicians, Tokyo Jihen (and Shina Ringo) on the show Music Station. Every year, this show has a concert called 'Super Live' where they invite many of the stars of that year and play live on TV.

I didn't translate the Tokyo Jihen song as it's quite complicated and sort of cryptic. It was also written in olden style Japanese in some parts and basically, it was too hard for me.....Since I didn't translate that one I didn't think it would be fair to translate Matsuura's song either. Well to be honest I was kind of lazy.....

Couldn't embed the video so have to click the link to go to video hosting site

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/mHZ3FaDffDo/

*edit*
For High Quality version click here: High Quality version

Get from Mediafire

Video Subbing: MIYAVI on HEYx3 MUSIC CHAMP

2011-11-12T23:20:00.000-08:00

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE

TRANSLATION NOTES

CEREZO OSAKA
Is a proffesional soccer team in the J-League. They used to play at field in Amagasaki, which is where Downtown grew up.

KISHIMEN
Is a thin and flat noodle made from the same stuff as udon noodles. So basically squashed udon lol.

PHS
Stands for Personal Handy-phone System
Check wikipedia lol......PHS -Wikipedia

Video Subbing: (REQUEST): HOTEI TOMOYASU LIVE VIDEO'S WITH NARRATION BY HOTEI

2011-11-11T06:29:00.000-08:00

Hey there,

I've done three video's of Hotei concert 威風堂々 'Ifuudoudou' (Pomp and Circumstance Marches), from his 30th Anniversary tour. These include some narration by him and the editor of the concert DVD.

HONKY TONKY CRAZY

IMAGE DOWN

DON'T STOP MY LOVE

TRANSLATION NOTES

TIGERS
Hotei noticed a person with a yellow towel that said 'Tigers' on it. The 'Tigers' would have been Hanshin Tigers, a baseball team based in Kansai.

ARIMORI
Hotei said that if he was holding a guitar he could probably run faster than Arimori.
Arimori Yuuko was a famous female marathon runner from Japan.

Gaaahhh.....Internet.....

2011-11-11T01:25:00.000-08:00

I've got some bad news...

I've lost access to internet with a decent speed so I won't be uploading big file videos for a while until I get that sorted out. That means I won't be able to upload many video requests, as quite a few of them are fairly big files and will take many hours to get on to the internet. Sorry about the disappointment it might cause.
I'll still be working on subtitling them though, and once I find another good source of fast internet, they'll be put up....

However, I'll be able to upload small videos though, as they don't take too long.
So you'll probably see more of those rather than full episodes of shows for some time.

So I suppose it's not all doom and gloom, as there are many entertaining short videos out there,
but basically I won't be able to put up most of the video request on display for a while.

Once again, sorry about the inconvenience and disappointment it may be.

I'll go back into my hole now.

Video Subbing: AMETALK GUNDAM COMEDIANS (09.11.2006)

2011-11-05T23:34:00.000-07:00

I've decided ignore the request list and finally do a video that I've chosen myself for a change lol.
I've still got a lot more requests to do so I'll be going straight back to that but.....I really wanted to do an episode from the show Ametalk!

It's a show hosted by the comedy duo Ameagari Keshitai, which includes Miyasako Hiroyuki and Hotohara Tooru. Basically in this show, a theme is decided on and comedians that fit that are invited in to talk about it. They occasionally have ones about various anime/manga but also do all sorts of other topics like 'Female Pro-Bowling Fans' and 'Shy Comedians' and stuff. It's a very funny show and is definitely one of my favourites.

And so, the one that I did this time is the episode where they talk about Mobile Suit Gundam. They actually have had 3 episodes regarding Gundam to date and they talk more about the story and characters in those other ones, but I thought I should start with the first one. The rest will come sooner or later.

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE [162 MB]

TRANSLATION NOTES

KINPACHI SENSEI
Kinpachi Sensei (Kinpachi the Teacher) was a very popular drama series of a passionate teacher dealing with a class full of troubled teens. It's a huge part of Japanese pop culture and is mentioned or parodied in just about everything. Kinpachi (Played by Takeda Tetsuya) is now the template for the passionate and heated teacher that you see in dramas and anime today, and has inspired many people too.

KITA NO KUNI KARA
Kita no Kuni Kara means 'From the Northern Lands' and was also an extremely popular drama series. It was about a male who returns to the northern state of Hokkaido after living in Tokyo. There, he has to deal with many family problems etc etc.

One of the stars of the series was Tanaka Kunie, who's character is now imortalised in popular culture with impersonations and parodies. He has a distinct way of talking on top of his heavy Hokkaido accent, and also has his mouth drooped open often. Well that's the standard thing that gets impersonated in shows that I see now at least.

G GUNDAM
They mentioned two strange Gundam fromt the G Gundam series. They really are strange, and there are even more. I'll just show you the two that they talked about though.

Mandala Gundam Mermaid Gundam

MY WIFE IS A RICK DOM
They talked about how their wives had changed to resemble a Rick Dom. Big and chunky.

DEEP IMPACT

Deep Impact was a Japanese horse that won many Japanese horse racing titles and was an extremely popular horse among Japanese people. One first glance Deep Impact seems like a small horse, but apparently has an extremely well balanced muscle structure, making it very quick at running.

Video Subbing: (REQUEST): SHABEKURI 007 with ARAGAKI YUI (23.08.2010)

2011-11-05T22:53:00.000-07:00

What's up everyone? I've got a couple of videos for you today. The first one is another episode of Shabekuri 007, this time featuring the actress, Aragaki Yui. She is very popular at the moment in Japan, and is probably one of the most well known young stars these days. I hear that she's also quite popular in other Asian countries too. Well anyway, you'll get to know a little bit about her in the video so I'll stop writing about her now. But as I said, it's only a little bit, as the Shabekuri guys go kind of crazy in this one. Well, they always do, but more than usual probably.

Get from Mediafire (279 MB)

TRANSLATION NOTES

24 HOUR TV
The 24 Hour TV that Ueda was talking about at the start of the show is a day that happens once a year, when the TV channel, Nihon TV, play their programs live for 24r hours. During this time they all wear yellow shirts.

GIRI GIRI 007

GIRI GIRI 007 is a corner of the show where the members ask the guest risky questions such as what celebrity they hate or what celebrity they had/would like to have sex with etc... Although they don't HAVE to answer it, generally the members will try to pressure them into giving an answer. Because their answers may affect other people, they usually put a beeping noise over the name so you can't hear what they say. However there have been instances of the audience letting it slip over the internet or being able to tell what the person is saying from the movement of their mouth. Sometimes they just accidentally slip it out themselves as on live versions, they must manually switch on the beeping noise.

They write all the questions on a piece of paper first and then

decide which ones are 'Giri Giri Yes' or 'Giri Giri No'. Giri Giri means 'on the verge'/risky

MATSUKO DELUXE

Matsuoke Deluxe is a popular TV personality and gossip columnist. She is a cross dressing homosexual male and has become famous for his/her scathing comments on other people and quick come backs. Oh, and probably because of her/his extreme body size (Deluxe size lol).

SHABEKURI NICKNAMES

The members gave themselves new nicknames in this episode.

Arietty: Is the name of the main character from the Ghibli film 'The Borrower Arrietty'.

Tokki~: Tokki~ is actually the name of Tokui's alter-ego character, a gay fashion columinst. He often appears on Shabekuri 007.

Fuki~na: Fukuda's nickname was copied the style of Minami Akina aka Aki~na. She is a popular model/ gravure idol.

RESET GENERATION

Reset Generation...? Was the reaction of everyone when Ueda called them that. The 'Reset Generation', refers to the people that have become so used to playing video games where you can just reset if you lose to start over again, that they think that applies to real life too.

MY FAVOURITE JAPANESE GUITARISTS

2011-11-04T18:23:00.000-07:00

Hey there, it's been a while since I've done a post.
About a week I think? Apart from not being able to finish video subtitles quicker, I basically just couldn't really think of something that I wanted to write about. Ha..... There should be some more videos in the next 2~3 days though.

Well anyway, I've got some motivation to write a bit now, so here we go.

My favourite Japanese guitarists.
This doesn't really have anything to do with skill or level or technique and isn't a list saying who are the best guitarists in Japan. The reason being, I don't really know enough about all that to make a proper judgement. I'll leave that for people who know about that stuff.

No, instead my list is basically one of the guitarists that I enjoy and find most interesting listening to.
Ahem, so let us begin.....Oh, and it's not necessarily in any order. Just whoever I think of first.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HOTEI TOMOYASU 布袋寅泰

Hotei Tomoyasu is a legend of Japanese music. At first he was part of the band Boowy in the 80's, a hugely popular rock group that started up a band making craze in Japan at the time. He was also part of a two man unit called Complex with the singer Kikkawa Koji, which is also considered legendary, as they only worked together for 2 years and 2 albums. He has also had a successful solo career with his music being a massive influence on many of the modern musicians. He'd be most well known in the West however for his song 'Battle For Honour and Humanity' which was used as a theme song on Quentin Tarantino's film, Kill Bill.

His music is usually very fast paced and energetic, and his live shows are great because of this.

Beat Emotion is probably a good example:

Here is a video of a great guitar solo of his from the song Fly Into You Dream. There's supposed to be a part where he sings before this but I think it's been cut straight to the solo.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HIDE

Hide of the super influential rock band X-Japan. He along with the rest of his band popularised the Visual-kei movement and started a Visual-Kei band boom in the early 90's. Although in his X-Japan work he plays more of a melodious speed metal style, his solo stuff is a little more varied, which I like. The way he plays guitar is kind of strange too. Well it's not strange but while other guitarists move around a lot with exaggerated movements and head banging, Hide barely moves at all. Even his hands seem to have minimal wastage of movement. I like how his songs are one the verge of crazy but still has a melody to it unlike some other insane and incomprehensible rock musicians. It's too bad that he died so early though, as he only left behind 3 albums.

This is a song of his that I like called Pink Spider. This and probably Doubt '97.

And 紅 (Kurenai) with X-Japan. I came across this song when I didn't even like rock music and found their appearance gross, but still found it really good.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ASAI KENICHI 浅井健一

Asai Kenichi is the vocalist/guitarist of 3 man band, Blankey Jet City. This is another band considered legendary in Japan, although barely even heard of by most Western fans of Japanese music. I suppose that's because they're not really the type of music that most of these people like (probably) but oh well. His singing is also one of those types that is hard to get used to, and may even be unlistenable to most. He doesn't hit his high notes properly and has a nasal almost monotone screech like Sid Vicious. I took a while to get used to it...but now I really love his music. It helps that the instrumental backing are very cool too though.

Well, so what I like about his guitar playing.....well it's quite unusual. I think. It's often very simple especially in the album he did with the singer UA as the group 'Ajico', where it is quite moody and eerie. With Blankey Jet City it's very Rock'n'Roll with elements of Jazz sometimes.

Arrrghh there are so many songs of theirs that I want to introduce that it's hard to limit it to 2~3...

Omaega Hoshii ("I want you") is one of my favourites. It starts off as a Jazz track but suddenly turns into Rock in the last minute or so.

A more typical Rock tune of theirs is the song 'Romeo'

Here's one with the group Ajico I mentioned just before. He teams up with the singer UA which incidentally have also done a post about (here). The song is called Shinryoku (深緑) which means dark green. It's very different to his Blankey Jet City stuff.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ABE FUTOSHI アベフトシ

Abe Futoshi is the guitarist for the rock band Thee Michelle Gun Elephant. I've written about them before (here) and have also subtitled a video of them on Heyx3 Music Champ (here). He's well known in Japan for his faced paced and rocking cutting skills (a guitar technique, not what you do with sharp objects hehe). Apparently he has never used an effector before, unlike most other rock musicians nowadays. Unfortunately, he has also passed away, fairly recently in 2009.

'Rhapsody' is a very fast paced tune and features a lot of the signature 'cutting'.

'Give the Gallon' is one of my favourite songs of theirs.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UKIGUOMO 浮雲

Ukigumo is the guitarist for Tokyo Jihen, the band lead by the singer Shiina Ringo. It's a very cool band that plays various types of music.

Song- Killer Tune

Shuraba

Superstar

Well that's as much as I can bother to do. You probably noticed that I barely wrote anything for the last guitarist. That's because I've gotten tired of writing....hehe. I don't really know much about him either so I can't write a lot without doing some research too so......sorry about that.

So who are your favourite guitarists and why? I suppose it doesn't have to be Japanese like the people I've mentioned.

Video Subbing: (REQUEST): ELISA on ANIME TV

2011-10-28T00:25:00.000-07:00

This is the requested video of ELISA on Anime TV.
ELISA is a lesser known female singer. She has sung the theme songs for several anime, although she admits to not knowing much about it. I hadn't heard of her until being asked to sub this, but I found her to be pretty good.
She really does have a nice voice, and there was a video on youtube that I liked where she sings "Ai Oboete masuka" (Do You Remember Love?" from the first Macross series.

Anyway, since I don't really know much about her I'll just let you watch the video now.

Get from Mediafire (85 MB)

Video Subbing: (REQUEST): GACKT on Haneru no Tobira (13.11.2008)

2011-10-28T00:13:00.000-07:00

Here's requested video of Gackt. It is his 2nd appearance on the show 'Haneru no Tobira'. On his first appearance he did some sort of word game (can't remember well) inside a train setting. This time though, he plays a game where you must guess (and buy) items that are 100 yen out of a group of items. You must pay for whatever you choose, and amongst these items are some very expensive ones, so it could become a very costly game if you're not lucky, or suck at judging the quality of things.

Gackt shows his prankster side a lot, so you'll probably like it. He also does a lot of tough man talk. as usual.

This video had some tricky bits to translate. They play around with words and stuff....but I did my best. Most, if not all are explained in the video so hopefully you'll understand. The subs are also quite fast paced as there are a lot of them speaking really quickly at the same time and stuff so....yeah~~. Sorry if you have trouble reading it.

Aside from that it's a fairly fun episode.

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE (121 MB)

To be honest I'm not a fan of this show and most of its comedians. The fat guy, Tsutsumushita Atsushi was really loud, spoke super quick and said pointless stuff a lot so I really agreed with Gackt when he said:

Unlike most episodes of this show however, this episode was fun. So that was good.

TRANSLATION NOTES

SUPER HITOSHI
They started talking about a how the hat look liked that of 'Super Hitoshi'. Super Hitoshi was a mascot from a game show called 'Hitachi World: Mystery Discovery!" (日立世界ふしぎ発見！, Hitachi Sekai: Fushigi Hakken!), modelled after the host of the show, Kusano Hitoshi. When a contestant gets a question correct he/she would get a Super Hitoshi, but if they get it wrong it gets "Boschuuto". Boschuuto is a fusion of the words 'Bosshuu' (Confiscate) and 'Dust chute', as it goes down a chute when it is taken away. (I just translated it as confiscated). If you want, you can see this in action here:

TOKITA REIKO
She is a fashion model/personality and the former girlfriend of Tsutsumushita. She publicly confessed to liking him on a TV show, and their relationship began from there. They broke up in early 2008 (the year this episode aired) so I suppose was still in recent memory for them.

CHORO-Q

Choro-Q's were popular little toy car that would move forward when you wound it up by rolling it backwards. It was immensely popular back in the late 70's and 80's.

SAMMO HUNG

Sammo Hung is one of the most famous Hong Kong martial art actors. He is characteristically fat, but still can pull off acrobatic kung fu moves. He is from the same generation as Jackie Chan, and was even in the same acrobatic troupe with him when they were still around 14~16. He and has also co-starred in many movies with him such as Project A. He is also a director and fight choreographer.

MATSUOKA SHUZOU

He is a former tennis player, and now a sports reporter. He was the first Japanese player to win a singles event of the Association of Tennis Professionals. He is now well known for being very passionate and heated guy, and often appears on variety shows making a lot of noise and moving around the place a lot lol...He was on Arashi ni Shiyagare a couple of weeks ago actually.

KRUMM DATE

Fullname is Krumm Date Kimiko, and is a female tennis player. She has had a fairly successful career, reaching the top 10 in the world in 1994. In 1996 she announced her retirement, but made a comeback in 2008, and is still playing today. She is married to a German motor car driver, Michael Krumm, which is the reason for her un-Japanese ish name.

And that's all from me.
PEACE!!

Memories of Super Heroes: My Top 5 Kamen Riders

2011-10-25T07:26:00.000-07:00

I reckon that many of you, especially if you're male, loved watching super heroes shows on TV.
I sure did. Around that age I still lived in Japan (I moved when I was 5) and absolutely loved watching these colourful suited fighters battling people in strange monster suits lol.

There are several different superhero shows in Japan, with the most popular ones being Ultraman, Kamen Rider and Power Rangers (which is also popular, or at least used to be, in Western countries).

My favourite out of these was Kamen Rider, aka 'Masked Rider'. I don't know where the creators of this series got their idea, but the hero is a person who wears a suit designed after a grasshopper, and more recently some other insects. I'm not really sure what these new ones are as I left Japan before they aired, plus I grew older and lost interest. They ride around on motorbikes and arrive at the scene of trouble on these (and often collide into enemeies with them too). This was one of the main reasons I liked Kamen Rider over the other heroes, and I also became a fan of motorbikes (for a while) because of this.

I remember making my mother draw all the different characters and covering a whole wall with them. I also had lots of toys of these Kamen Riders, which were my treasures and played with all the time. I also remember mimicking the movements that the hero does when transforming into the Kamen Rider, and having play fights with my older brother (I always lost...)

You can watch the sequence of movements here:
It's pretty hilarious.

The Kamen Rider series have been continuing since the 70's, so there are some really old and funny footage you can see lol. There were no new Kamen Riders from 1989 to 2000 apart from some movies, so I only got to know these old dudes while I was still in Japan. Since their revival in the 2000's there have been 13 new series with new Riders, which I was surprised and sort of amazed about. That's even more than the older group.

SO! Anyway, here's my 5 favourite Kamen Riders that I remember, which is not a whole lot, but I still remember that I liked them at least.

Kamen Rider

This is the original Kamen Rider. Without him there would have been no

other Kamen Riders, and so he deserves a place on this list

Kamen Rider Amazon

Kamen Rider Amazon was probably my most favourite one when I was a kid. I'm not sure why though. Probably because he looks so different to the others. His design is supposed to be inspired by a particular lizard unlike grasshoppers or other insects.

Kamen Rider Black

I think this was the series they were playing just before I left Japan.

I remember that I really liked the bike off this one. The arch-rival off this series,

called Shadow Moon is also cool, but was kinda scary to me back then....

The first episode is also sort of creepy. The main dude gets kidnapped by an

evil cult and is brain washed by some weird hooded people.

Shadow Moon

He's the bad guy I mentioned before and is not technically a Kamen Rider (I think),

but he looks like one and so he makes it into this list.

Kamen Rider Black RX

This guy one is from the sequel of Kamen Rider Black. It's the same person but

has got a newly designed suit, bike, and other weapons. They started playing

this series just as I was leaving the country.

Well I hope this was somewhat interesting for you to read. Although I don't really have any interest in these guys anymore they definitely were a huge part of my early childhood. It's also pretty fun to watch how cheap and dodgy these shows were made too. Well anyway, that's about it for today.

This guys is one of those minions that kind of dance around

like monkeys and then get beaten up by the hero. He's saying:

"I wanted to become a Kamen Rider."

So did I.

Video Subbing: (REQUEST): HOTEI TOMOYASU V.I.P

2011-10-23T21:44:00.000-07:00

Hey there!

Here's the video of Hotei Tomoyasu on V.I.P.
He talks about a lot of things on this show, such as how he got introduced to music, where and how he was inspired to play rock music, and much more things about his career.

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE [250 MB]

SHOULD J-BUROGU GET ON FACEBOOK?

2011-10-22T05:55:00.000-07:00

Heya people,

It seems that this place is growing in visitors lately, and I don't know if you're sort of regularly here or just mainly coming here from links on other blog etc. I think that most people might just be from the later situation, which is fine, but if you don't check this blog once in a while you might miss some video's that would interest you. Who knows.

Anyway, I thought that it might be better if I had a page on some sort of social site like facebook or twitter to send out notices to let people know the latest video I've subbed etc. When I first started blogging on blogger I had no idea of it's capabilities (or any other blogsite), and I've found out after a while, that it really quite sucks at keeping people up to date with stuff on here unless if they also have a blogger account or google account.
Also, maybe if I make one, I'd be able to keep the drifting random visitors more easily....

Maybe even twitter?

Aaaand so, that's the reason why I thought it might be a good idea to have some other method of sending out notifications via a social site. I could just make one, but I don't even know if people would be interested in it as I don't really have an idea of how many people check this site regularly, apart from a few people that kindly comment on the posts.

Maybe I could have facebook+twitter as there are some people that only have one or the other, or just prefer one over the other etc etc etc etc

ETC

So err yes. Please let me know what you think.

Video Subbing: (REQUEST): GACKT on HAMA-CHAN TO

2011-10-18T23:29:00.000-07:00

Well here's another requested Gackt video, this time on the show 'Hama-chan To' はまちゃんと, hosted by Hamada from Downtown. They play a game of darts and 'black beard' a game where you have to stick little plastic swords in a barrel and try not to make the pirate inside it pop out. It's nice to see how much fun they both have, and it really feels as though they are friends. The loser of the black beard battle must go through a certain punishment.....but what will that be? Hmm... I wonder. Well I already know but if you want to know too then watch the video!!

GET FROM MEDIAFIRE (124 MB)

TRANSLATION NOTES

PONZU
Ponzu is a watery citrus based sauce. It is usually used as dressing or dipping sauce for meat and hot pots.
It is also mainly mixed with soy sauce, which is accordingly called Ponzu-shoyu (Ponzu Soy Sauce)

NAKAO AKIRA
Is a very famous veteran actor.