Are you using rikai-chan? This excellent firefox extension is made by the folk(s) over at polarcloud.com. I love this program. Basically, you install it, install a dictionary, and then toggle it in firefox. Then, when you mouse over some Japanese, the dictionary will do its best to find the reading and a translation of the word you are mousing over.
Seriously, this program is a life saver for 漢字 (kanji) impaired people like myself. Give it a shot and then go try and read the perfume blog! ;)
The fabulous trio known as Perfume are starting to leak across the sea...
There is this odd phenomenon where when you don't live in Japan, but are interested in it, it takes a while before something reaches critical mass and starts to leak out to other country's Japanese-speaking populations. perfume archived this a few weeks ago.
perfume (generally not capitalized) is a three girl group from Hiroshima. The members are あ～ちゃん (A~chan), かしゆか (Kashiyuka, sometimes ksyk in ローマ字), and のっち (Nocchi). They struggled for many years, apparently since elementary school, to make hit songs, but until Yasutaka Nakata, a fairly popular DJ, picked them up, they didn't really succeed.
My personal history with perfume started when I saw the IKZOLOGIC video a while back. From that video, I started to get into capsule. Yasutaka Nakata is the DJ for capsule, so when I went looking for more music by him, I ended up hearing a lot of perfume.
But I didn't think much of them. And then they took off and started showing up on TV and now I am on-board... they are a girl group... they don't make their own music, but Yasutaka-san is awesome, so at least it is good music. They are just there to look pretty and dance. All their live performances are lip-synced to allow them to dance in their very unique way.
Funny thing is most people have a favorite. They are made to all look different, mainly with wardrobe and hair styles differing. I must admit that のっち is my favorite. She's the short haired one... (-.-;)
Their blog is here. Sorry, it's in Japanese... for now...
I leave you with their music video/commercial for Pino brand bonbons. Enjoy!
It's that time again! Time to register for the 2008 日本語能力試験 (nihongo nouryoku shiken), aka the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. Registration is until September 26 at 5:00 PM (PDT) in the US (And you can register online!). One month left! If you are taking it elsewhere, check out the official site for more info.
I have registered to take level 1 again. I have level 2 already, but level 1 defeated me last year. So, I try again. Maybe if I pass, I can beat out the coming changes that are going to make level 1 even harder.
Also, if you are in the greater Los Angeles area and want to study for 1級 or 2級, gimme a holler in the comments!
This ニコニコ動画 video is the pinnacle of human evolution. It has since inspired not only the name of this blog, but also my newly re-born love of electronic music in general. The title is "吉幾三×Capsule×DaftPunk×BeastieBoys StarrySky - IKZOLOGIC Remix."
For those without a NicoVideo account, here is the YouTube link. For those who don't get it, you should first get familiar with 吉幾三's song 俺ら東京さ行くだ.
Anyway, so in the mix I am posting about, they mixed 俺ら東京さ行くだ with capsule, Daft Punk, and the Beastie Boys... It blows my mind clean off my shoulders. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Also, since it is the pinnacle of human achievement, I think we can all pretty much give up since it is all down hill from here until the end of the world in 2012. ;)
No, this isn't an emo post about living in the country side of Japan. ;) This is a post about the song 俺ら東京行ぐだ (ora tokyo sa igu da) by 吉幾三 (Yoshi Ikuzou).
This song is awesome. Released in 1984, it is about living in this little village with none of the modern amenities of life and wanting to move to Tokyo. It is sung in Tohoku-style language, which gives it this awesome campy feeling. While most people in 1984 thought it was a fun poke at the countryside and it ended up as a big hit, many of the local agricultural villages took offense and protested it.
It was also part of the birth of rap in Japan... as odd as that may sound.
As an American, the song reminds me of Gilligan's Island... you know, "no phones, no lights, no motor cars, not a single luxury." But it also has the Beverly Hillbillies chic with the ideas of raising cows and driving a horse cart through Tokyo. XD
ニコニコ動画 (niconico douga) is often touted as "Japan's YouTube." I dunno how fair/accurate that description is, but here is what it is; it's an online video site that is very popular in Japan.
The first thing that make ニコニコ動画 stand out is its unique comment system. Rather than putting comments at the bottom of the video, what you write is immediately put over the video anonymously at whatever timestamp you happen to be watching at the moment.
What this leads to is every video being covered up in everyone's comments. Popular videos end up with so many comments, it is sometimes hard to see what is going on in the video! I have to admit that at first, it was really distracting. But once you start getting into it, it's almost like watching a video with friends who are commenting in real time. What you get is an amazing feeling of community.
And that's the other thing that makes ニコニコ動画 so amazing. The community, which is pretty much all anonymous in nature, is much akin to the sort of people you might find on fark or YTMND. Culture is happening en mass. It's brilliant.
The reason I even mention the site is that I watch it pretty maniacally. I've even been called a ニコ厨 (nicochu) at work. If you are going to read this blog, you are going to get a lot of links to ニコ動画. Thus, you need an account!
If you speak Japanese, just hop on over. If not, Tokyotronic walks you through the registration process.
If you are having second thoughts, let me assure you... someday, you will thank me for it. XD
My excellent friend Luka has started Shin Yamato Damacy, which you could say is a spin off of Yamato Damacy. In their first episode, they ask people (I think around Maebashi station XD) who they would want to be.
If you know anything about me, you know that I lived in Japan for 3 years and that I made a series of videos while I was there with my friends Rahman and Luka.
The name comes from 大和魂 (yamato damashii), which is a phase roughly translated as Japanese Spirit, and is generally a nationalistic phrase. You'd never hear a gaijin saying it... which is why we used that name. It goes along with the suprise everyone had at us foreigners speaking Japanese.
It was a lot of fun. And people seemed to like it. But since I haven't been able to do anything nearly as big, it makes me feel like a total internet famous has been. ><; The best episodes are as follows: Episode 9: Setsubun
This episode was the BEST. Dressed up as an 鬼 (oni), I ran out of a phone booth to scare people.
Episode 3: Karaoke
This episode was funny just for the end, if nothing else.
Episode 10: Vanity Project
On the whole, we usually would just do interview videos. But in this one, we were fed up showing others, and just made a short film featuring us. It turned out okay, but people really seemed to like it.
Episode 29: Vanity Project 2
This episode was the prequel to Episode 10. The editing and cheesy dialogue make this a classic.
The fabulous trio known as Perfume are starting to leak across the sea...
ニコニコ動画 (niconico douga) is often touted as "Japan's YouTube." I dunno how fair/accurate that description is, but here is what it is; it's an online video site that is very popular in Japan.
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