The talented Mr Kimura

There are a few celebrities who start off their career in one area, like acting and after a while they become Miss or Mister everything and everywhere. You see them doing tv shows, hosting sport events, doing community work, their face is on commercials everywhere. They are hyper public, living their life in the brightest spotlight and eventually you become a little tired of seeing them. Heidi Klum is an example, formerly a model, now presenting shows on tv, a face for all sorts of products, and companies even such unlikely ones as Mc Donalds. Or David Beckham, soccer star turned model, advertising champ and gay icon.
Japan`s interpretation of the multi-functional star is Takuya Kimura or "Kimutaku" as his fans obiously like to call him. He started off as a member of a boy group named S.M.A.P. The principle is the same as with all boy groups, a couple of cute boys casted at a very teenage age, each given a fake "character" (the "rebel", "mama`s boy", etc.) are chased around the country to woo teenage girls. The bands usually disappear quickly with a few exceptions (Backstreet Boys) and their member equally disappear from the public stage, again with a few exceptions (Justin Timberlake). S.M.A.P. was the one of the very first group of this type in Japan and has known success for many years. They still occasionally appear in concert, most recently this spring again. The members are in their mid-30s now and Kimura is by far the most successful.
Walking around the city you virtually see him everywhere. Currently he is on posters for Levis jeans, Toshiba laptops, some chewing gum Xyli-something, Gatsby hairgel and Samantha Thavasa handbags (hmmm, but metro is cool here...). He appears in tv commercials for these companies as well. He has been a long term model for Levis for example and was the first Asian male model to star in their campaign. He has been voted "Sexiest Man" in Asia for the past 11 or so years. He stars in various tv dramas, the best known is "Hero" where he plays an prosecutor. I have actually seen an episode of it on my flight back to Europe in December, so although it`s a few years old it still seems to be in demand. He also starred in some "serious" movies and was nominated as best actor at the Japan Academy Awards for his role as a blind samurai in "Buchi no Ichibun".
So maybe not just another pretty face, but some real talent? Well, I`ll keep watching, it`s hard not to notice him on posters and screen these days anyway and it`s sure a pleasant sight.Takuya, Takuya, whereever I venture, your pretty face catches my attention... Here one of his Levis commercials:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRZ54hAB42w

This week's sample...

... of J-Pop music... This time I'd like to cite the not-so-scientific book "Dirty Japanese" that mentions the subject, but the author's speaking my mind... :
"Speaking objectively, I have to warn you that Japanese pop music is relentlessly horrendous crap. This is a quantified fact, but also one of the world's great misteries. I mean, Japanese visual arts are uniformly amazing, right? Japanese fashion is light years ahead of everybody. Japanese cuisine is nothing less than delectable. And Japanese video games have invented the industry. So why is J-Pop so unlistenable? Oh yeah... They don't have black people in Japan."
I love "relentlessly horrendous crap" - couldn't find a better expression to describe the J-Pop phenomenon! All the flatteries are correct too, especially the one on fashion, Japanese people tend to look like stylish time travellers from the 22nd century. The last comment has to be corrected though, there are black musicians in Japan, but they now sing Enka, traditional Japanese folk songs, or "Schlager" as we call it in German. I am refering to Jero, the black singer I've read about in a magazine in July and who's now all over tv channels in Japan. A HipHop-looking guy singing cheesy Japanese songs.
Well, here's the J-Pop hit of the week. I handpicked it for my dear blog readers for it's poor quality music and the examplarily silly video. TV watchers of MTV Japan and other music channels are tortured with it every day right now...

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=DIm5lpWaEWc
If you think Enka might be your relief from J-Pop, have a look at Jero's work:
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=YEmeVeQe56U

Another pearl of J-Pop

I like a lot of things about Japan and some that I didn't know of before I came here. J-Pop is not among them. I find it decidedly horrible. Maybe it's just a deeply hidden love or I haven't heard the right groups yet? Let's see as time goes by... But please slap me when I start defending crimes on vinyl as this one.
So the musical pearl that I wanted to share with you today is by a group called Kat-Tun and it's called "Make U wet". Suggestive title, poor English, guys who get undressed and lame tunes make up another J-Pop classic. Also read the comments of the YouTube viewers, as usually this is half of the fun.
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=i63tK97GYfM&feature=related
And another sample from the same group. Here they try to be more, eeeehm? Gangsta??? Whatever... Maybe I should not put them in the J-Pop category after all?!
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5vqXRpT6dE&feature=related
Enjoy!

Hiphop in Japan

Did you know that HipHop and Reggae are really popular in Japan? I didn't until I came here. Clubs here play a lot of Hiphop, R'nB and there's quite a few laid back bars.

In Fukuoka one of the popular places for HipHop is "Sam&Dave's" which is really packed with people both on Friday and Saturday evening. The music played is quite mainstream American hiphop, but it's nevertheless a fun place to be. They often organize special events too. One was the recent "bikini night". The guys from school of course wanted to go there absolutely. A lot of women were actually wearing bikinis, but you couldn't see them. They simply took off their shirts to get in for a lower price and receive extra drink vouchers and then put their shirts back on... There are also some dancing contests and there are some guys who're really good. For the more exhibitionist ones there is a big mirror to dance in front. It's transparent from the other side and behind is the men's toilet!

The other very popular joint is "The Happy Cock". Yesss, the animal - what did you think?! Hehe, remember Alex asking some US marines whether they had ever been to "the Happy Cock" or "The Darkroom" :-). The "Happy Cock" plays music similar to "Sam&Dave's", but has two advantages: cheap all-you-can-drink offers (20 CHF a night) and a decent aircon so it's not that boiling hot inside.

There are some other cool places to go out in Fukuoka. For dinner I would say that "Alohana" and "Fasika" are some of the nicest restaurants. "Alohana" is a Japanese-Hawaiian restaurant with a beautiful interior and delicious food. "Fasika" is a recently opened Ethipian restaurant which is really nicely decorated too and food is interestingly new and tastes good. For an evening drink at the beach, go to Mamma Mia on Momochi beach. Great sunset, reggae music, cute waiters and decent Italian food and fresh fruit juice. For a classy, but slightly pricey drink on a beautiful rooftop, go to "La Bohème". "The Darkroom" features another rooftop terrace and you can play table soccer and pool. "Morris" and "The Three Kings" are traditional British pubs with a happy hour from 5 to 7 and good pub fare if you get hungry. The pizza at Morris is actually better than in most "italian" restaurants in Fukuoka. Another cool and very stylish place is the "Tatoo Bar" with chandeliers everywhere.

See last picture for proof that the Japanese are not always polite...

Japanese karaoke song

I finally tried it... Two Japanese karaoke songs, I sang together with Kathrin. I went ok I think. Maybe due to the fact that I had a) heard these songs several times before b) the texts are rather simple and repetitive, but I would also like to think that it is c) due to my improved kana reading skills...

Whichever the best explanation may be, karaoke was again fun. This time we were extremely many students at the party and we had to rent two rooms. Not everybody dared to sing however, so we still got the mike a few times. One of the new students was a bit annoying though. He took the mike all the time and was singing so completely wrong and obviously didn't know the songs. Don't know whether he was just really really drunk already or just crazy.

Check out the Japanese songs we sang on Youtube:

"Linda, Linda" by the Blue Hearts:

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=kACmuAREEf8

Sounds a bit like a Japanese brother band of "Die Ärzte", doesn't it? Funny enough to sing, especially screaming the refrain. Sounds more like "rinda rinda" though, the letter "L" does not exist in Japanese.

"Daite señorita" by Yamapi:

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=e0rN64gRPj8

Eeehm, Japanese version of Ricky Martin?! Although he's kinda cute, I am not convinced that he's a good dancer. This does look more funny than anything...

Karaoke rocks!

The school had advertised a karaoke night for Friday night- something I always secretly wanted to do. For 1800 Yen we would get 2.5 hours of dancing and endless flows of beer. So didn't sound too bad and a whole bunch of students and teachers ended up going there.

They had a super thick catalog with songs to choose from, both English and Japanese. Most needed a few beer before daring to go on stage. Some singers were actually pretty awesome, others rather the funny kinda genre... The most daring would choose Japanese songs and practise their hiragana/katakana reading skills. Well, for anyone from MY class this would probably have been a foolish project as opposed to just daring...
The teachers were really active with singing as well. Chihomi deserved special mention, her performance of ABBA's dancing queen will be dearly remembered :-)

I was sitting with Alex, Jon and Johanna and we were more involved in emptying the beer glasses than in singing. Too shy to go on stage obviously and also slightly too stupid (or drunk?) to properly sign up for a song. We got to sing at the very end. I happened to be outside for most of the song though because I had understood that there's be a 10 minutes break (NO- it really wasn't my intention to skip). Joining for the final tunes only was not that satisfactory. Jon closed the show with a pretty good performance, Alex failed to sing alltogether. Well, maybe next time we'll have a more impressive appearance on stage...

After karaoke we felt pretty "joyful" already and were looking to get some more entertainment. We went to a club named "The darkroom". No, it's not what you might think. Neither is another club that's named The happy cock" - the Japanese just seem to like allusive names... The club offered a "drink as much as you want" option for women, for only 1000 Yen (10 CHF). We didn't realize that this came with a twist. You were required to stay till 2.30 and also you could not go to the rooftop (we finally sneaked out though).

We had a couple of drinks and danced a bit. Our teachers were still with us and of them got pretty much down and dirty with a students half her age or so. Dirty dancing contest?!. So I saw my observations from a previous post confirmed - teachers are not shy to get involved with students beyond lessons:-)

I played some table soccer with 3 Japanese. It was hilarious, I usually really, really suck at table soccer and would always loose. In Japan you can really shine with these lousy kinda skills, because they suck at it much worse. I'm gonna play again...

I took a taxi home. Didn't really know what my address is, so I mumbled something about "Ohori koen shitekatsu" - Ohori park subway. I was pretty confident that I'd find my way home from there.

Big bullshit in Japan

That 80's song "Big in Japan" has been echoeing in my head lately (yeah, admit, used to dig that stuff). The subject is obviously relevant to me, so I wanted to check whether the text gives me advice on how to become big in Japan :-)
Let's look at some text passages then:

• Here's my comeback on the road again.Things will happen while they can
  Hm, sounds pretty philosophical. So anything that CAN happen WILL happen? Not sure that I like that, could be anything from becoming a superstar in Japan to a major earthquake or something...
• I will wait here for my man tonight--It's easy when you're big in Japan!
  So being famous means you're more patient? Not sure...
• Big in Japan, all right, pay, then I'll sleep by your side
  Becoming a hooker = becoming big in Japan?!
• Shall I stay here at the zoo,Or should I go and change my point of view for other ugly scenes?
  So zoos in Japan are ugly, thanks for the advice. Changing your point of view once in a while might not hurt, so why not?
• Things are easy when you're big in Japan, when you're big in Japan.
  Yeah, got that. But after considering the above I still don't wanna become big in Japan. Thanks.

Please advise if I misunderstood any part of this highly relevant text. The video is quite funny too, over-the-top 80's style. Watch on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXPUkrz7Uow