Gilles' WebLog : Japan

The J-POP saga continues: SweetS - Love Like Candy Floss

gzunino — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 07:47:00 GMT

In the past, I have outlined some of the most famous J-POP artists: EXILE or DREAM . Today, let me introduce the (now defunct) Japanese band SweetS ( official web site in Japanese). Formed in 2003, the group experienced minor success before disbanding...(read more)

Commercials from Japan Part I: Candies for your throat

gzunino — Thu, 15 Jul 2004 02:39:00 GMT

I have mentioned previously that many famous Japanese songs are used in commercials. Well, more than often, famous singers or otherwise known personalities record commercials. This is the case of Kaori Mochida, the lead singer of Every Little Thing.

Kaori praises the merits of candies supposed to help appease the pain of a sore throat. These are not an actual medicine, just candies with fruits/vegetable extracts and flavored with lime, or as in the one below, honey. You can see the commercial here (Windows Media Player).

Kaori sits on the branch of a tree and it seems that the day is beautiful (it seems unlikely she would have a sore throat). She eats one of the candies and while her last song "mata ashita" (Windows media player 9, Romanji lyrics and Japanese lyrics) plays, she drops a shoe quickly found by a dog. She only mentions the name of the product and smile.

More commercials from Japan are coming. Stay tuned!

The J-POP bands story continues: EXILE - Choo Choo Train

gzunino — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 19:08:00 GMT

EXILE (official web site in Japanese) is currently a very popular band. They have produced a limited number of records under the name "EXILE" (four, one being a conceptual album and one track on a compilation of multiple artists) but are an unusual band for many reasons.

EXILE's story indirectly started roughly ten years ago when a today defunct band called "zoo" released a single called "Choo Choo train". At this time, the economy was doing well in Japan and the song was used in a commercial for skiing facilities in Tokyo, increasing the popularity of the song. Today, Japanese around 30 years old remember this record and the commercial.

"zoo" later disbanded and one member of this formation became member of EXILE as we know it today. With his previous experience of "zoo", he noticed that record companies usually keep a large amount of the revenues made by records. To prevent this, he decided to create a company responsible for selling EXILE's titles and suggested to all the member to become employed in this company. This way, the proceeding of the records would benefit the band more than they would benefit a third party record company.

A few months ago, EXILE became really popular when they re-released the old zoo single "Choo Choo train" (click to listen to a short clip with Windows Media Player 9). As with the previous edition, the song quickly became very popular, perhaps because the lyrics are easy to remember (Fun fun we hit the steps steps, onaji kaze no naka we love we love).

Most of the band's production and audio clips are available here.

I love Dream World: The story of J-POP band Dream

gzunino — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 19:43:00 GMT

Dream is a Japanese POP band. It first appeared on January 1st, 2000 when the large Japanese record company Avexnet (official web site in Japanese) held a contest to find the most talented young female singers. Three girls won the Grand Prize (in Japanese). They were chosen for their exceptional voices and talent.

When SPEED broke up in March 2000, the group Dream was created. Unlike other popular groups like Folder 5 or SPEED which had one or two main singers and backup singers, all three original members of Dream had main parts in songs. Today, this specificity remains. While the band was not considered very innovative, it quickly became very popular. One of their famous songs is "Reality" and a short clip can be found here (Windows Media Player 9 required). I would qualify their style as "Italian Disco Dance" but others believe Dream is closer to "Euro Dance". Regardless of how you wish to name the style, Dream is considered a "typical" J-POP band. Another famous clip "My Will" is available here.

On July 8th, 2002, Dream officially became an eight members band and the cover of their last album "ID" appears below. Their official web site at Avexnet provides a profile for every member as well as the traditional BBS and tour dates:

A special edition of the single "I Love Dream World" (from album "I World") was released as a DVD before Christmas and the video pictures the band singing under the snow. In Japan, it is not uncommon to see popular J-POP artists contribute to video games. "ID-Prologue-" was used in a video game which I cannot remember the name right now.

If you would like to listen to more sound clips, most of the band's production can be browsed here.

Want cash? Use a cutting machine at the office to make bundles the size of 10,000 yen notes!

gzunino — Tue, 22 Jun 2004 16:07:00 GMT

This article on mainichi left me speechless...

Do you see a rabbit or a smiling face?

gzunino — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 05:45:00 GMT

Personally, I do not see anything special on this picture of the moon!

Many Chinese and Japanese people see a rabbit instead of a smiling face and they believe it is making rice cakes (mochi). Maybe this is because the word “mochizuki “ has two meanings in Japanese: “making rice cakes“ or “full moon“. Click here to see exactly where the rabbit is.

Vacations in Kobe, Japan

gzunino — Tue, 25 May 2004 05:28:00 GMT

I am going on vacations! I will soon be in Kobe, Japan. Near Kobe, the Akashi bridge is one of the longest (if not the longest) in the world. It is 3911m long. Its construction started in 1988 and it took ten years to complete.

I am dying to have some yakitori (grilled chicken and vegetables on skewers pictured on the left below), bento box (middle) and mushroom with udon (right):

When I am back, I'll start a serie of posts on graph algorithms. Stay tuned!