It's An Older Appearance of the Business Park, But It Checks Out.

Longtime readers of this blog know of my obsession with Yokohama Business Park and the way its wonderful "Circles and Doors" design architecture appears in the darndest of places, and just the other day watching a special documenting the Top Hits of the 1990's, I saw that superduo B'z shot their entire 1995 PV for their song "Negai" right smack dab in the middle of that famous waterfront!

Yokohama Business Park...where will it appear NEXT?!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Another Yokohama Business Park Sighting!

Toma Ikuta on the steps of Yokohama Business Park

Regular readers of this blog know of my obsession with Yokohama Business Park with its unique design and familiar cobbled pond in front. I first saw in in “Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon” but only noticed it when it appeared in an episode of “Tsuki No Koibito” a few weeks later! From then on it became my hobby to document it whenever it showed up in the background of the dramas I watch…and the latest was in the penultimate episode of the highly riveting “Ouroboros”!

 Funny, I know this Waterfront Park so well that even before the structure itself showed up,  in an earlier part of the show, Ikou (Toma Ikuta) is talking to Hibino (Ueno Juri) and I said to myself, “Those buildings in the background look like the ones behind Yokohama Business Park!” 

I wondered if it was…and then, sure enough, the group meets up right at the shores of the famed waterworks and corridors!

One really cool thing about this appearance is that a significant portion of the scene takes palce BEHIND the structure, so we get to see Oguri Shun running through the corridors and  exiting out through the side, into the lobby area! Ah, it's like taking a tour!!! LOL

Yokohama Business Park…where will it turn up NEXT?!!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Back To Yokohama Business Park!

Kamenashi Kazuya and Fukada Kyoko in Second Love

I was watching the first episode of the Kyoko Fukada/ Kamenashi Kazuya drama "Second Love", and in the scene where they finally meet up to talk, where should they choose for their rendezvous but good old Yokohama Business Park!

Long-time readers of this blog know of my obsession with this place. I first noticed it in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon in the scene where the Senshi meet up with Dark Sailor Moon, then when the same waterfront wall with the cutout circle appeared in Tsuki No Koibito, I leapt up and said Hey, that's the circle Usagi was sitting in

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon

Lin Chi Ling and Kimura Takuya in Tsuki No Koibito

At the time I had no IDEA where this place was until fellow blogger runpup sent me a link to information on the park as well as maps and pictures of the whole place...the mystery was solved! From then on, I would see the waterfront from time to time, and every time it did, I was always sure to mention it here! 

Fukatsu Eri and Tsumabuku Satoshi in Slow Dance

Kuroki Meisa and Karasawa Toshiaki  in Take Five

Tamayama Tetsuji and Mokomichi Hayami in Brother Beat

Yokohama Business Park...where will it turn up next?! LOL

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Meisa Kuroki Appears on Take Five; Steals Things, Turns Me On

Meisa's Back in TAKE FIVE!

  Seems like quite awhile since I've had the pleasure of feasting on Meisa Kuroki's lovely features, so it was a nice surprise to see her appearing in the mid-drama arc of the Toshiaki Karasawa/ Matsuyuki Yasuko crime drama TAKE FIVE as a svelte covert theft operative giving the guys a run for their money!

Caluculating Queen: as Shibasaki Narumi in TAKE FIVE

As you can see, Meisa looks just as fine as ever, and in fact her "look" for this drama reminded me not just a little of her role in the ARASHI SP "Saigo No Yakusoku", itself a similiar crime scenario where the bad guys have infiltrated a building to carry out their evil deeds. In both they featured a very demure and sexily spectacled Meisa scrambling around in the dark, only this time, she's on the OTHER side of the law!

above and below: as Niimi Yuriko in "Saigo No Yakusoku"

And if this reappearance of Meisa on my radar wasn't ENOUGH to celebrate, they even took the time to shoot the episode at Yokohama Business Park, that stunning architectural Water Park that ALWAYS seems to turn up in these dramas as a pretty backdrop...
I'd see this Water Park in the backgrounds of all of these different shows and just wonder where the HECK it was! It wasn't until fellow blogger runpup pointed out it was the Yokohama Business Park (along with a link to the Park's site and even more pictures!) that the mystery was solved! LOLOL

Anyway, looks like Meisa's part of the villainous gang for two parts, so I'll get to see her again in Episode 6 of Take Five, too bad I couldn't see her in an even bigger role here- Maybe next time!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

It's That Waterfront Again!

Hahaha, finally getting around to finishing up that old Fukatsu Eri/Tsumabuki Satoshi drama "Slow Dance", and had to laugh when this scene came up where Eri's character Isaki visits Tsumabuki's Ricchi at work, and the place they sit down to talk is a waterfront that is ALL TOO familiar to me:

Yes, it's that famous park that we've all seen in NUMEROUS japanese dramas including PRETTY GUARDIAN SAILOR MOON with Usagi and the girls...

Kimura Takuya and Lin Chi Ling  in Tsuki Wa Koibito...

...And Brother Beat with Tamayama Tetsuji and Mokomichi Hayami!

Haha, this waterfront, identified by blogger runpup as the famous Yokohama Business Park (thanks for the detective work, runpup!) is a backdrop coordinator's dream come true, and one can only wonder: where will it turn up next?! LOL

Sailor Tsuki No Koibito

So I'm watching another episode of Tsuki No Koibito, and it comes to the pivotal scene where Ren Hazuki (Kimura Takuya) meets up with cute Xiu Mei (Lin Chi-Ling) who is looking for water striders at the Hotel's waterfront. It's an emotional scene as Xiu Mei has just found a sort of peace with her life in Japan, and Hazuki is finding himself beginning to cherish her. Watching this scene struck me as somehow familiar- and why wouldn't it?

In the craziest coincidence, this Hotel Waterfront was the same place that the Sailor Senshi in PRETTY GUARDIAN SAILOR MOON met up with Usagi who'd been transformed into the cold Princess Serenity!

And the Courtyard shot where Ren finally embraces Xiu Mei...

Is the same courtyard where the Senshi ran down to confront Princess Serenity!

Ahahaha, considering Kitagawa Keiko is in both Tsuki No Koibito AND Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, it woulda been hilarious if her Tsuki No Koibito character was at the waterfornt, too! She would be thinking "Hmm....this pond gives me the strangest sense of...deja vu!"

8/09 Edit: Hahahaha, While going through my Brother Beat episodes looking for Kuninaka Ryoko Screencaps, I came across ONE MORE appearance of this famed watering hole, this time with Tamayama Tetsuji and Mokomichi Hayami enjoying the scenery!