Alright, Ninginers, it’s time to start packing, because you guys are following me on a journey! I will now be covering a recently released drama called Chuno (추노). The translation of the title is “Slave Hunters.” I will update Ningin weekly with a synopsis/reaction post, as well as a predictions post later that week. More »

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On Sunday night, Japan held its first Billboard Music Awards. The winners are determined by internet and cellphone voting. Although most winners were voted by the fans, there were also winners determined by the charts, which is still technically the fans. EXILE went home feeling good as they won Best Artist of 2009 and Best Pop Artists, which they shared with Kobukuro, AI, and Remioromen. There were other familiar faces present as VAMPS won best rising international artist, After School won best new K-Pop artist, and BoA won US Billboard Publisher’s Award 2009. More »

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From Rekuru: Akira Kurosawa takes us on a journey through a gloriously reconstructed feudal Japan for an introspection on the reality of power and identity in his 1980 return to the samurai genre, Kagemusha.

As an aging ruler named Shingen passes on, his dying wish is for his death to be concealed for three more years until the army can overtake a strategic city. The estate’s principal retainers bring in a ragged petty thief to pose as a double for the late ruler, with only those closest to him aware of the hoax. The kagemusha (double), after being rescued from a death sentence, is reluctant to lose his identity for a warlord. After a change of heart, and learning that he really has no other options, the kagemusha is taught the finest details of the late ruler’s mannerisms, speech, and relationships. He must fool everyone, even a long-time doctor and Shingen’s mistresses and grandson, or the enemies will learn the truth and take down the estate. Through the kagemusha’s experiences of pretending to be powerful, being treated as a king and master of war, he learns what it is like to be the ruler but yet it is all false, and all the decisions are being made by the generals. It must have been a rather bizarre feeling for the kagemusha, but he knew he had a role to fulfill and everything was depending on him to be convincing enough. More »

What exactly is a Pikatron? Is it a guitar? Nope. Is it a weapon? Negative. Is it a new video game controller? Naw. It’s a noise synthesizer and I want one! More »

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via Wirebot: An Introduction: Why Reality TV is Gaming’s Black Plague Capcom’s Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth DS Demo Available Now

via Ziggytek: Amazon Kindle: What Users Want ExoPC Slate Featuring Windows 7

via HTCYou: Archos 7 Android Tablet

via Ningin: Japanese School Lunch Blues Hot or Not: Guo Pei’s sky-high architectural heels

via Rekuru: Rhapsody In August

via Flaunt Me: NARS Sexual Healing Lipstick

via GirlyBubble: Cupcake Bouquets for Valentine’s Day

via BlitzNation: A Look at the Teams to Never Make the Super Bowl

via CrazySingleLife: Julia Roberts offers Valentine’s Day dating advice

via SwanDiary: Battlefield Heroes turns Twilight? More »

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The seven member boy band U-KISS has just released a teaser for their new album entitled “Only One.” Only One was made available for digital download on January 26th, but is set to hit actual stores on February 3rd. More »

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Nigahiga’s new video “BEST DANCE CREW” featuring Quest Crew’s Victor Kim is hilarious as are all his videos. Now see I am a big fan of his, I can’t even count the number of times my friends and I watched his “How to be..” videos. I’m afraid that it is a lot — so many it could be considered stalking. . . Not really. Anyway, in this new video, he shows us various dance moves that he’ll teach us. My favorite has the be the “worm on dry land.” Victor Kim’s cameo in it was amazing. That last move he does makes me hurt just watching it. More »

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Afterschool gets an award from one of Japan’s highest music honors. The award was given for the 2009 New artist.If they were giving awards for Korean artists, I think that was pretty tough with all the competition that came out in Korea. Just about everyday for 2 months a new group debuted. I admit it comes to be a little bit of a surprise, because they didn’t have any Japanese songs out. More »

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The 2 hours I spent watching Gurren Lagann Movie Lagann-Hen were the best 2 hours of my life. The wait for the DVDs to come out was worth it. If anything, it made the movie even better. While the movie wouldn’t be too spectacular if I watched it right after the series. Revisiting it a few years later was a good reminder on why Gurren Lagann was so good. It’s not just a simple re-hash either. More »

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From Rekuru:

Perhaps the most relevant and topical of all of Akira Kurosawa’s films today, The Bad Sleep Well is an intruiging tale of corrupt businessmen, corporate kickbacks, and bribery.

And while we sit in the mire of a recession (as a result of similar actions mind you), Kurosawa here provides not only a deep and suspenseful story but also a film full of laugh out loud comedic moments. And we’re talking some seriously funny stuff here. More »

ABPOS is a chronic condition in which too many awesome blog posts get blogged from the previous week. So many, that they can’t fit on the main page. It helps if you take the load off by checking them out. More »

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From Rekuru:

Hiroshima from Tokyo: by bullet train (2 hours 30 minutes) Nagasaki from Tokyo: by bullet train to Fukuoka (4 hours) then by special express (2 hours)

There is a lot more to both these vibrant cities than that they alone, of all cities on earth, were once atomic bomb targets. But let’s be honest, we go there for one main reason. More »

I know many of you have some very interesting… ideas on what Japanese school life is like. I can assure you that it’s far more dull than your brains have made it out to be. For example, here is a bit of dry history on what Japanese children eat at school each day in Hiroshima. More »

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At the recent Hong Kong Fashion Week, designer Guo Pei debuted their winter shoe collection’s outrageously high heels that caught the attention of well, everyone. Meant more to be works of art, these shoes seem to be on the heels of an architectural, dangerously high heel trend revival started by Alexander McQueen’s Spring/Summer 2010 collection and recently popularized by my queen, Lady Gaga. More »

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All of you know that Sun Mi has left, which really really depressed me. She was one of my favorites! Her and Yubin are tied. She was amazingly cute and totally 4 dimensional. :P I especially loved her in Wonder Bakery.Here is my list of reasons why I loved her. More »

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From Wirebot:

Oh. My. God. I don’t even know if i need words for this. Their first foray into videogame mash ups, The Ocarina of Rhyme, got Team Teamwork(the masterminds behind the project) quite a bit of attention from the internet. Combining popular Hip Hop and Rap artists with music found in Ocarina of Time created such a weird vibe that actually, in some songs, worked.

Now they are back at it again, but this time tackling a whole different fan favorite: Final Fantasy VII. More »

I was really excited for Katanagatari’s first episode, and when it finally came out it didn’t really meet my expectations. Even though I knew nothing about it besides the pretty pictures I was really expecting more out of this. The first episode was still good. My biggest complaint was the dialogue. There was just way too much of it. I was so hyped up for a big action scene, but in so many cases they just continued with more talking. And more talking. More »

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