Thursday, March 17, 2005

>> Yukie Nakama Flops

If you’re like me and you love Pocky (a Japanese snack), you’ll certainly get a kick out of this CM starring Yukie Nakama where she takes a huge flop and gets you to buy Pocky :p. Link.

Thursday, November 25, 2004

>> Happy Thanksgiving!

I’ll be heading over to my relative’s house in a few hours for our annual gobble gobble feast today. There are many things that I’m thankful for and at the top of the list is my family and friends. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving too! :)

Saturday, November 13, 2004

>> Pop.i-O Looks Great on Camino Too

If you’re a regular reader of the site, you probably know that I love web browsers (I currently have three running on my Mac). I’ve had that little (Mozilla) Firefox button on my side bar since the design renewal, but not much mention for other worthy web browsers (other than in the “About” section of the site). If you’re a Windows user who is still using IE, you should seriously consider making a switch to something better.

With all that said, if you’re a Mac user on OS X, you’re probably using Apple’s web browser, Safari. Why not try something different for a change like Mozilla’s Camino web browser? Just think of it this way, your Windows using counterpart has ditched IE for Firefox — which is available for PC and Mac — how about showing her/him a Mozilla-made web browser that’s only designed for the Mac you know and love?

Sunday, October 03, 2004

>> Help Wanted

I’m planning on having my entire CD collection ripped and I’m looking for any Hawaii friends (bloggers and others) to help me. Of course I can’t pay for it so the exchange will be that you can keep the songs that you rip and return the discs to me with a CD-R/DVD-R of the mp3s. You’ll probably need a tray-loading CD drive since I own 3-inch singles and I haven’t tried to load the little buggers in my slot-loading one. I’m thinking of importing them at 160 kbps or higher.

Since I have a lot of Japanese-language albums — some of which may not be in the CDDB — being able to read Japanese is preferred. I guess you could also do it the hard way by searching for the artist on the CD Japan website and jotting down the site’s Japanese romanization for the album’s songs. (I’m okay with everything being in Japanese too.)

My collection consists of J-pop, jazz, classical, soundtracks, rock/pop from America, Okinawan music, etc. I’ve been buying CDs for the past 13 years so you can imagine how large my collection is of those shiny silver discs. After everything is ripped, I’m planning on donating, selling (to obtain credit and buy more music) and keeping my faves.

If you’re interested, send me an email at riccin[at]internet-okinawa[dot]com.

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

>> Order Your Very Own NS&CS T-Shirt

I received my Noborikawa Seijin & China Sadao (Respect Records) t-shirt in the mail last week! To order your very own t-shirt, go to their website and follow these steps:

1. After the splash page, you will enter their information page. Scroll down until you see the image of the t-shirt and click on the link to the left of it.
2. You should now be on the t-shirt promotion page. From here, scroll down to the online form. (Note that they are only offering three t-shirt sizes: S, M, L [these are Japan sizes so they are a bit smaller than US sizes].)
3. Fill in your name in the first blank area, then hit your “Tab” key (nifty trick huh? you’d be surprised that not many people know about this) to go to the next blank area and fill in your email address.
4. The next three blank areas are asking for: your zip code, followed by your shipping address, and lastly your phone number (don’t worry, they won’t call you).
5. The pull-down on the left side is asking for the size of your t-shirt; the one on the right is asking for your order quantity.
6. Finally, click on the little button (it’s read soushin in Japanese and means submit) after the rather lengthy blank area to complete your order request.

You will receive an email from Respect Records about your order. They will ask for an International Postal Money Order (buy it at your neighborhood post office). I sent them US $40 (there’s a US $3 charge for the IPMO) to cover any extra shipping/handling costs (each t-shirt is priced at ¥3,650). One thing I would recommend is to rewrite your shipping address in your return email to them since they are not familiar with shipping to the US.
If you need any further help, drop me an email.

Sunday, November 02, 2003

>> Yukie Nakama Kabegami

Yukie Nakama has a new kabegami (wallpaper) available through her association with Shiseido’s Beauty Voltage line of cosmetics. Now this is quite unusual for her to have an official kabegami so download it as soon as you can (i.e., if you’re a fan of hers). The CM is worth viewing too. b(^-^)

[link via Kabegami Fan!]

Thursday, September 18, 2003

>> Amuro Namie Mandom Lucido-L Kabegami

A new kabegami (wallpaper) for J-pop diva Amuro Namie is available for a limited time. Namie is the image girl for Mandom’s Lucido-L line of toiletry. To be able to download the kabegami (available for Windows or Macs), you must first take a quiz (the answer to the fill-in-the-blank question is shitsukan [質感]) and become a member of their website. The kabegami is a two-month calendar (November & December 2003) type and worth trying for if you can navigate through the Japanese questions.

>> Kuninaka Ryoko and NTT’s CoDen

Kuninaka Ryoko (“Churasan 1 & 2”) is the image girl for NTT’s new CoDen service. The website has a Kuninaka Ryoko screensaver available as a free download for Windows, Mac OS 8.6∼9, and Mac OS X. There’s also a TVCF starring Ryoko (available for viewing with Windows Media Player or Apple’s QuickTime).

Saturday, July 12, 2003

>> Lots to report

I’ve been gone for much too long and I have a lot of stuff to report. The first of these entries should be done in about an hour.

Sunday, June 29, 2003

>> My picks for the Album of the Year

We’re at the halfway point to the end of 2003 so what better time than now to roundup my favorite albums of the year?

Best J-pop Album of the Year (a tie):
Suite Chic (Namie Amuro) “When Pop Hits the Fan”

HY’s “Street Story”

Best O-pop Album of the Year:
Rimi Natsukawa’s “Sora no Keshiki”

Best Minyou Album of the Year:
Chihiro Kamiya’s “Miyarabi Shimauta”

Newcomer’s Award:
Ryouko Kuninaka’s “RyûKyû Moon”

Saturday, June 14, 2003

>> Brazil’s Banda Tontonmi

I received a very cool email (they used a screenshot of my personal weblog site set on an Apple iCard) from Tiemi of the group Tontonmi (Brazil). They have a very cute site up with bios of each member as well as a history of the band which I believe was originally created by China Sadao (the sensei for the group I belong to called Nidaime Teishinkai Hawaii Shibu). The original group as I know it was made up of three female singers from Brazil and released a CD album called “Saudade de Uchina” several years ago. Banda Tontonmi seems to be an evolution of this trio which now consists of six members: Alexandre, Cristiane, Mayumi, Harumi, Tiemi, and Fabio. Nifee for the email Tiemi and I can’t wait to hear your group’s music!

Tuesday, May 27, 2003

>> JAL Kabegami Collection

I’m way late on this one but here are some kabegami (that’s Japanese for wallpaper) for your Mac or PC desktop. The kabegami are from the JAL Kabegami Collection (JAL=Japan Airlines) and are available in screen res sizes of 800x600, 1024x768, and 1280x1024 (for you lucky ones with big screen real estate).

What’s the Okinawan pop connection? Well, there is a calendar (it’s for the month of May) kabegami of JAL’s image character and current hunk of the J-dorama world, Kenji Sakaguchi. And, there’s a calendar kabegami of Shuri Castle. Happy D/L!

Monday, May 26, 2003

>> RecordStoreReview.com

I’ve added my review of Hokama’s music store to the database over at RecordStoreReview.com — “the worldwide directory for serious music buyers”. Go check it out (it’s a summary of my original review) and don’t forget to vote for the store too!

Tuesday, May 20, 2003

>> Ryukyu Festival 2003 in Tokyo

Stumbled upon this bit of news while updating my Parsha cluB Fanblog: The Ryûkyû Festival 2003 in Tokyo will take place on Sunday, September 28 at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall (Hibiya Yagai Ongakudou).

Gates will open at 3:45 pm and the concert will start at 4:30 pm. Presale tickets are Yen 6,500 and tickets at the door (on concert day) will cost Yen 7,000. More info on this wonderful event can be made by contacting M&I Company at: 03-5453-8899.

Some of the performers will be: Seijin “Seigwa” Noborikawa (utasaa), Kousei Miyara (Yaeyama utasaa), Yoriko Ganeko (utasaa), Parsha cluB (O-pop), Begin (O-pop), Shakari (O-pop), Isamu Shimoji (Miyako utasaa), Tôru Yonaha (utasaa — he’s also made his name a little easier to read: よなは徹), Chihiro Kamiya (utasaa), among others.

Tuesday, April 01, 2003

>> Ara Yukito Plans to Stay in Hawaii

After last night’s Aloha Party with the performers from Saturday’s “Imai no Kaze” performance, Ara Yukito stated that he plans to remain in Hawaii.

As to where he plans to stay, he said that Riccin’s house will do until he finds a home in Kahala. Riccin quickly agreed to this sudden announcement with only one thing to say, “wow, cool.”

Today Riccin showed Mr. Ara around his room and showed him how to work his Classic iMac and even let him handle his beloved iBook. When Mr. Ara’s keen eyes noticed that the left-shift-key on Riccin’s iBook is broken, he offered to buy him a brand new 12-inch PowerBook to which Riccin gleefully replied, “wow, cool.”

Happy April Fool’s Day. I know I’m a bit late, but it’s still 10:58 pm in Hawaii! Têgê. :P

Monday, March 31, 2003

>> Two new posts on Shida Fusako Sensei’s Honolulu concert

Check out my other site for two posts on this past Saturday’s Okinawan dance concert, “Winds of Good Fortune - Imai no Kaze”. The first link is here and the second one, mostly about Ara Yukito is here. Enjoy!

Friday, March 28, 2003

>> A call for Okinawa-related weblogs and online journals

Are you a blogger or online journalist who loves to write about Okinawa? Send me an email at: riccin@internet-okinawa.com. So far I’ve only located two by doing a Google search: mine (tUP) and our (Internet-Okinawa.com) Jedi web master Donna’s one.

>> Another Blog

A new entry at my other site about last night’s rehearsal for Shida Fusako Sensei’s concert this coming Saturday. Check it out here.

Thursday, March 27, 2003

>> Via My Other Site

I blogged a little something about last night’s rehearsal on my other site which is available here.

No updates to the site today. Have another rehearsal tonight.

Wednesday, March 26, 2003

>> Happy Kuhio Day!

I hope those in Hawaii are enjoying this little holiday in the middle of the week. For those of you who’re still in school, I hope you’re enjoying your Spring break. :)

Tonight I have the first of two important rehearsals for this Saturday’s concert featuring Shida Fusako Sensei’s dance group. Wish us luck!

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