Showing posts with label ohno satoshi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ohno satoshi. Show all posts

Friday, April 3, 2020

J-Drama Deja Vu: Found That Parkway!

That Waterfront Parkway
There are certain walkways, buildings and parks that show up over and over again as backdrops in J-dramas, sometimes so many that you feel like you KNOW the place.
Some, like the Urban Building and the Koi Ga Heta Apartment are almost certainly (but not positively) studio sets which can't be accessed by the public, but other like my beloved Yokohama Business Park are real places that can be seen and visited, and such is that curious Waterfront Parkway that showed up in so many dramas!
I was looking through a folder of screen-captures I took with Chiba Yudai and the devastatingly beautiful Satomi Ishihara from an episode of Takane No Hana. 
It was clear that they were at that waterfront parkway, posing in front of a gazebo-lookout structure and I screencapped a few images, but for some reason, I never got around to posting it.
Taking them out and looking at them again, I noticed there was that freaking huge ferris wheel behind them. It's repeated appearances in J-dramas is a whole 'nother post, but seeing it, it occurred to me: I bet I could locate that waterfront by FIRST identifying that Ferris Wheel!
Simply typing "Giant Ferris Wheel in Japan" into Google, I IMMEDIATELY learned that it was called DAIKANRANSHA and was in Pallette Town in Odaiba, Tokyo!!! I had a definite location at last!!!
RUNNING to Googlemaps, I typed in the ferris wheel location, and then, using the aerial view, INSTANTLY saw the Waterfront Parkway!!! ZOOMING down on it and checking it out, I discovered that my mystery waterpark was called "Mizu No Hiroba Park Azumaya" and was indeed a public access park!!!
Here was the waterfront in all it's glory, and I immediately found that gazebo lookout that Satomi Ishihara and Chiba Yudai was in front of:
But that wasn't ALL!
Normally Googlemaps only adheres to roads, but here they also documented the walkways, and using google's cams, I walked the entire pathways from one end all the way up to the adjacent bridge, and was able to positively pinpoint where MANY of my earlier posts were shot! I did my best to match the places to the screencaps:
Mirei Kiritani and Satoshi Ohno in Shingami Kun:
 Googlemaps capture:
Opposite direction towards Yume no Ohashi Bridge
 Googlemaps:
 In Front of Stairs
 Googlemaps:
 Mirei with Ferris Wheel behind her
 Googlemaps:
 Mirei and Satoshi Ohno
 Googlemaps:

Nao Matsushita in Dear Sister
  Googlemaps capture:
 Yukie Nakama
  Googlemaps capture:
 Megumi in Facemaker:
  Googlemaps capture:
Using the stairs at the end of the path, I was even able to get onto the Yume No Ohashi bridge where the guys were...
  Googlemaps capture:
...as well as a MUCH earlier Satomi Ishihara visit in Hanayome no Papa:
...Misako Renbutsu in 37.5°C no Namida
and can't forget Shiro Demo Kuro Demo Nai Sekai de, Panda wa Warau!

Ain't GoogleMaps GREAT???!
Posted by zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Friday, August 31, 2018

Crush Of the Day: Haru

With the onslaught of new dramas from favorite actresses like Ayase Haruka and Satomi Ishihara, and Riho Yoshioka, I’ve been enjoying a renaissance of J-drama love, but the drama that is FAR and AWAY my favorite HAS to be “Survival Wedding” and it’s all thanks to the absolutely precious performance by actress Haru!
She's been winning me over left and right with her turns in dramas like Sekai Ichi Muzukashii Koi, ON, and Okaasan, Musume Wo Yamete Ii Desuka? and with Survival Wedding, has undoubtedly become one of my new BIG fave actresses!
Survival Wedding tells the tale of tomboyish Sayaka who is forced to become a more stylish and outgoing personality a la "My Fair Lady" or "Pretty Woman" for her job, so we get to see Haru in the prettiest of clothes, much to my delight (and much to Sayaka's chagrin)!
I’d thought that Sekai Ichi Muzukashii Koi was the first drama I’d seen Haru in, but going over to Dramawiki, I was stunned to discover I’d seen her in many EARLER shows, albeit in a much smaller capacity! Digging them up I was thrilled to see the same Haru I know and love now playing daughters and schoolgirls! Screencapped for your enjoyment:
One of Haru’s earliest dramas was a role in the drama “Koizora” where a very garish and tuff Haru spent the drama harassing poor Elena Mizusawa! I noted that she already sported her trademark shag haircut!
Koizora (2008)
I was surprised to see her with long hair in her next two appearances, first as a schoolgirl in “Othrus no Inu”…
Othrus No Inu (2009)
And a bit part in Hiroshi Abe's Shinzanmono:
Shinzanmono (2010)
 
Next were bit parts in Tobo Bengoshi with Satomi Ishihara in 2010…
Tobo Bengoshi (2009)
…as well as a fun turn as Mariya Nishiuchi’s nemesis Reika in “Switch Girl”(she reminds me so much of Violet in “the Incredibles” in this role, LOL)…
Switch Girl! (2012)
…I then saw her appearing as a cute (and scene stealing) blogger taking the stand in Legal High...
Legal High (2012)
…before I FINALLY saw her for the "first time" in Sekai Ichi Muzukashi Koi! I remember already really liking her here, and that love would only grow with her subseqeunt dramas!
Sekai Ichi Muzukashi Koi (2016)
I then saw her in the Movie Grasshopper,
Grasshopper 2015
...the crime drama ON, where I first began to really appreciate her as an serious actress…
ON (2016)
and then the wonderfully crazy “Okaasan Musume Wo Yamete Ii Desuka where Haru plays the sweet daughter under the thumb of her smothering mother (Yuki Saito)…
Okaasan, Musume wo Yamete Ii Desuka (2017)
We got to see her as an energetic, spazzy detective Tomo Yashiro with a nose for crimework in the mystery drama “Mikaiketsu No Onna”…
Mikaiketsu no Onna (2018)
And now here we are in 2018 and Haru is starring in my current favorite drama on the air right now! Really, Haru is so great in her role that I can just sit back and enjoy the show on her sheer charisma, she is so endearing here, I'm JUST LOVING HER!
Oh, and one other great thing, you know how in these kind of dramas the heroine always has the sexy best friend (like Fumino Kimura had Nanao in Boku Unmei No Hito Desu and Satomi Ishihara had Tsubasa Honda in Jimi Ni Sugoi), Haru's Sayaka is paired up with the stunning Maryjun Takahashi (Last seen by me in The Sniffer) as best friend Takako Miura, and as these screencaps can attest, they are hilarious and FUN whenever they're together!
Can't wait to get back to this fun drama and MORE HARU!!!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com