The Oddest Coincidence...

So I had two programs set to enjoy this afternoon: this Sunday's podcast of eclectic NPR Radio Show "This American Life", and the latest subbed episode of the awesome Kyoko Suzuki/Yamada Ryosuke drama "Riso No Musuko". Though the two were about as different as you could get, a funny coincidence happened!

This week's This American Life's story was "Switched At Birth", the unnerving story of two girls who were switched at the Hospital when they were born, and how they and their mothers dealt with it when the thing came out 43 years later. (If you're interested, you can listen to it here.)

After that sad and rather poignant show, I REALLY needed something fun and zany to brighten back up my day, and of COURSE Riso No Musuko was the way to go! I immediately put that show on and settled in, but funnily enough, not even five minutes had passed before they unveiled the story of that week's episode:

EH?! HONTO KA? (Or, Rather, Are You Fo' Reals, Yo?!) It seems that (at least for today) I can't get AWAY from the subject! AHAHAHAHA

Yubiwa Wo Hametai: Onegai Shimasu!

Yubiwa Wo Hametai

Awhile ago, Car had told me about this upcoming Yamada Takayuki movie coming out that I was sure to want to see, since it starred not one but THREE actresses i really liked, Yoko Maki, Chizuru Ikewaki, and Manami Konishi in a humorous love-triangle story with Yamada as the hapless guy-in-the-middle.

Yoko Maki, Yamada, Manami Konishi and Ikewaki Chizuru

Well, months passed, and funnily enough, only a week or so ago, I asked Car, "Hey, whatever happened to that movie the those three girls I liked? Did It even come OUT yet?" Car admitted she hadn't heard anything about it , but said she'd go online and check up on in when she had the time. 

Then, just the other day, I'm laughing and telling Car about some movie they'd posted onto the marvelous OUR HOUR site with a picture of Yamada Takayuki wearing a yarmulke or something on his head. Pausing, Car asked, "Wait, what's the name of that Movie?" 

Clicking Back, I re-uploaded the page and said, "Um, it says it's called Yubiwa Wo Hametai""

"Yubiwa?" asked Car excitedly, "Yubiwa means...RING!" Then she exclaimed, "That's IT! THAT'S THE MOVIE WITH THOSE THREE ACTRESSES! Remember, Yamada plays a guy with amnesia who can't remember which girl he gave the engagement Ring to before his accident?"

"Oh," I said, laughing, "So that's bandages on his head, NOT a Yarmulke! AHAHAHA"

Well, a celebration was to be had, but I'll still have to sit tight as there are so far no subtitles to be found for this film. To all of you wonderful subbers out there I gesture towards Yubiwa Wo Hametai and ask (in my best Harvey Keitel) "Please. Pretty Please. With Sugar On Top!" Consider THIS movie for your next project! All us non-Nihongo speakers will love you for it!

PS, Looking at that Press release picture  above, several things occur to me: 

1. Yamada's doing his best Robert Downey Jr. in that Picture.

2.  I never knew Konishi was so freakin' TALL! (or all the rest of 'em SHORT?)

3. I hope that pic isn't spoiling the ending of who he marries. I really hope not.

Akiko Yada Wines and Dines in "Hungry!", Looks Sexy Doing So

The Delectable Akiko Yada

Aw MAN, Akiko Yada looked sooooo YUMMY in the latest episode of Hungry! Nice to see she's maturing very nicely, getting even more and more gorgeous each day! This episode showcased the beauty doing all the things I love:

 Looking Sexy as Hell

As She gives Eisuke the 411, telling him she 

wants him and his restaurant off her property...

Looking Adventurously Cute 

as she Salt n Peppers the HELL out of a Gourmet Dish...

 And of Course, All the Eating and Drinking you could shake a stick at!

I was in HEAVEN with the Screencaps!

Bottoms Up!

More Gastonomic Glee...

and even a bit of Sexy J-Drama Femme-Fatale flair when she destroys Eisuke's dreams of building his restaurant on her property, and all over a meal with a smile!

Yup, this is one DREAMY chick who has it ALL!!!!

The Zdorama Blogsite gives her a 5 out of 5!!!!

Re: The Akanishi Jin Penalty

This slightly edited Calvin and Hobbes strip (from the story where Calvin is transmogrified into an owl) says everything that I'm feeling about the penalty laid upon Akanishi regarding  his marriage to / destroying music career of Meisa Kuroki...LOL

Yamaguchi Momoe Premium LIVE Box Set

Momoe Premium Live Box Set

As documented here on the zdorama blogsite, I was a relatively late-comer to the awesomeness that is the eternal idol Momoe Yamaguchi, and though I had a few of her singles from various Hit Record Collections, it wasn’t until the arrival of Youtube that I realized what a cool, charismatic singer and performer this girl was! impressed by what I was seeing and hearing, I ran out and purchased a double CD Collection of hers, and was then so blown away by what I heard, I made it a point to try and get all of her regular releases!

Momoe Premium Box Set

The most sensible way for me to get those albums was, of course, to purchase her epic PREMIUM BOX set which contained all of Momoe’s albums as well as bonus disc of Karaoke and unreleased tracks, but unfortunately for me, by the time I came around to it, the Box Set was long out of print, and I had to do some SERIOUS wheeling and dealing (and shelling out quite a bit of the green, truth be told) to get that Box Set sent to me from Japan! Even more riling was when I had to go through the business all over again when I realized there was an equally out-of-print Two-Disc Premium Box Set ADDENDUM (featuring all of Momoe’s non-album tracks and Singles), that came separately!

Momoe Premium "Update"

Anyway, throughout all of those shenanigans, the one set that kept coming up in my searches and queries was ANOTHER box set in the “Momoe Premium” Catalog, and that was the Momoe Premium LIVE Box Set, containing all of Momoe’s Live Concert Album Releases. Live Concerts? At the time that I was still trying to get all of Momoe’s albums and singles proper, that last thing in the world I needed was her live stuff! Or so I thought…

Well, after getting the aforementioned Momoe Box Set and the Momoe Premium Extra set, I hunkered down and began immersing myself in the glory of all that is Momoe, and over time, she slowly but surely became one of my very, very favorite J-pop performers of all time! As time went on and EACH and EVERY Momoe Album became beloved and precious to me, and one night as I was out blasting Momoe’s awesome “MOEBIUS’ GAME Album and just LOVING every single track on it, that I realized: You know what? All these songs you love so much on Momoe’s albums are all performed LIVE on those Live Concert Albums! I realized the truth: I NEEDED TO GET THAT LIVE CONCERT BOX SET!

Momoe Premium Live Box Set

As with all of Momoe’s Box Sets, the Momoe Premium Live Box Set was out-of-print, (shimatta!) and I prepared myself for another stressful and confusing time trying to coordinate a purchase via Yahoo Japan or the like. More daunting was the fact that this Live Concert Box Set was selling upwards of $700 on the Amazon Used Dealer listings! GADS!!!! At that point I thought it might be easier to try and get the individual Live CDs myself, but not only was that even MORE scarce, the set offered a bonus DVD, remastering and BEAUTIFUL and collectible packaging. I just HAD to get the Box!

The searching went on for months before I finally hooked up with a dealer from Japan who was not only willing and able to sell and ship to America, but had it listed for a  (while still expensive) price range that I was a LOT more comfortable with! So when my tax return came, I pledged a chunk of it to that Dealer in Japan, and in DAYS, my beautiful, beautiful MOMOE PREMIUM LIVE BOX SET arrived! YATTA!

Momoe Premium Live Box Set Contents

Japan has ALWAYS set the bar for beautiful packaging, and the Momoe Premium Live Box was NO EXCEPTION! So much detail and CARE went into this thing- not one single thing was missed in its recreation of the original albums; CD Booklets and picture inserts had all been faithfully re-created, as well as the breathtaking double and even TRIPLE gatefold jackets themselves! 

Momoe On Stage Gatefold and Picture Booklets

Budokan At Last Triple Gatefold, Booklets and discs.

And Man, if that weren’t enough, they’ve even recreated the sleeves of each album’s corresponding “single” release with two selected karaoke tracks on eight 3” discs! What a gorgeous package!!!

3" discs featuring Karaoke Tracks

Momoe’s Live Concert Album output consisted of six double albums (!) and as the bonus for this set, they also included the heralded “Final performance” Concert at Budokan on DVD, making for a total of 13 discs!(heck, 21 if you count the 8 mini karaoke discs!)

Momoe Premium Live Digipak CDs, front

Momoe Premium Live Digipak CDs, back

Momoe Live Premium Box Set Contents:

MOMOE LIVE- MOMOE CHAN MATSURI YORI (10.01.75)

MOMOE ON STAGE (10.21.76)

MOMOE IN KOMA (11.01.77)

MOMOE-CHAN MATSURI ’78 (11.21.78)

RECITAL- AI GA UTA NI KAWARU TOKI (11.21.79)

DENSETSU KARA SHINWA O- BUDOKAN…AT LAST (11.19.80)

Momoe released a live concert album about every three records or so, so her entire body of work is covered nicely. Since each Live Album focused on the Momoe albums that were at the time current, you got to hear a lot of the more obscure tracks from the albums that were played only for those tours (and never again, or only in medley form) and it’s nice to listen and hear Momoe growing as an artist as well- from the first live album where she sounds very much like her Star Tanjo idol days, through her big theatrical events and onto her final at Budokan where she’d matured into this smoky chanteuse before giving her thanks to the audience and leaving the stage forever…

I’ve already got the first concert disc all set up in my car’s CD deck, and we’re off to give ‘er a spin! I plan on making these Momoe discs the main event this coming weekend, and one thing’s for sure- It’s gonna be one HECK of a ride discovering these NEW TREASURES for the first time!

Princess Princess (Slight Return)

While we all wait in anticipation for Puri Puri's full-blown return to the Rock and Roll World they dominated for so long, the Girls (along with Kome Kome Club and TMNetwork) appeared at the ALL THAT LOVE GIVE&GIVE charity concert for the Tohuko Earthquake relief as reported by Tokyohive.

Looking at that picture that accompanied the ALL THAT LOVE GIVE AND GIVE concert information, I have to laugh noting that Akko-chan looks almost exactly the way she looked back then, and as usual, Konchan is the only one dressed sensibly, elegantly. Well, truth be told, Akko-chan's dress is pretty nice, and Kanna-chan's dressed pretty much as rocker-ish as I'd expect, but what's up with Kyonchan and Kaori's Outfits? LOL! 

No Matter, Soooo Excited!!!!

Hawt Chicks and Krazee Shizz at the 2012 Kawaii-Kon

2012 KawaiiKon Fun n Games

When My friend and I set out to go shopping at Alal Moana Shopping Center after lunch, we had no idea that our humdrum day was going to end up surrounded by the height of cartoon craziness that afternoon! 

It all began when driving by the Hawaii Convention Center, my friend looked over at a group of people crossing the street, and stated, “That guy has a Pochacco on his head, no, a Pikachu to be precise.” I looked over and confirmed what he’d just seen, then took the turn onto Atkitson Drive and saw another group waiting to cross, and leading them off was a girl completely duked out in full Gothic-Lolita fashion, from the ribbons at the top of her head down to the shiny laced-up boots. “WHOA!” I exclaimed, “Gothic Lolita! Now THAT’S a chick walking about with CONFIDENCE!"

“Dude,” my friend observed “It’s not JUST her…EVERYONE in that group is in costume! Hey, they must be having a Cosplay Convention at the center, or something!” 

Sure enough, as we drove down the street, we began to see more and MORE people garishly suited up as they walked from the Americana Ala Moana Hotel down to the Center. My friend laughed, “That’s CRAZY! I wonder if their event is open to the public!” He took out his iphone and began googling online to see if he could find any information about it. Driving into Ala Moana, I suddenly thought out loud, “Hey, I wonder if it’s the Kawaii Kon? I seem to remember reading about it online, but have NO IDEA when or WERE it was supposed to be!” 

Kawaii Kon 2012 Program

Scrolling through his phone, he said “Kawaii Kon’s the first thing that came up in the listings here!” Reading further he found the event at the Convention center was INDEED the aforementioned Kawaii Kon, and wouldn’t ya know it, it was open to the public! “Dude, we HAVE to check this thing OUT!” my friend laughed, and when I told him I was game, our day was solidly booked!

Walking into the Center, there was already a good buzz about the place, and as we got closer, could hear the soft roar of a pretty substantial crowd coming up ahead! Getting onto the main floor, we were HIT with the sound and vibes of hundreds of attendants, all running to and fro, getting in and out of lines, and then we saw all the people dressed up in costumes- 

Kawaii-Kon 2012

Kawaii-Kon 2012

Kawaii-Kon 2012

The  kinds of outfits really ran the gamut of styles-some were cool, some were fun and cheap, some were serious (and mighty professional-looking), and HOLY CRAP were there BABES GALORE there, all DOLLED UP and draped in the SEXIEST, sultriest and totally ROCKING outfits this side of Jurai!!

Kawaii-Kon 2012  Gals

Kawaii-Kon 2012  Girls

Kawaii Kon 2012  Gals

Kawaii-Kon 2012  Girls

Kawaii-Kon 2012 Gals

Kawaii-Kon 2012  Gals

After checking out several of the various rooms devoted to a specific “theme" (including the Dealer Booths, the Maid Café, Cosplay Video Room  and the Game Room) we went back out to the floors to soak in the craziness that WAS the Kawaii Kon! It was Heaven to see the parade of all those lovely Costumed Vixens, and I just couldn’t resist joining the throng of people taking pictures of these genki gals as they came sauntering by!

Kawaii girl meets a KAWAII GIRL!

Aw man, there was such a good vibe running through this event we totally had a blast! Pretty good considering this morning we had no IDEA that the KawaiiKon was going on and just happened to be right there where it was as simple as pie to drop the Ala Moana Shopping plans and check out those oh-so-fine Cosplay babes! Yep, this was a day well spent! 

PS: At the Information Booth, there was a Television set up for folks in line to watch as they waited, and what do you think was being played on said set? Why, none other than episodes of VS ARASHI! AHAHA, THAT was a Surprise! Those Boys appear in the darndest places!

Kawaii-Kon 2012