Archive for April, 2006

A Glimpse of Okinawa at San Fran’s Cherry Blossom Festival

Published by Richie April 30th, 2006 in Music, Food & Drink, Community, Performing Arts and Travel. 0 Comments

LJ blogger gekka_no_neko (who, btw, does awesome work on all things Gackt) recently posted an entry on the sites and sounds (oh, and the tasty food like Okinawa soba and sataa andaagii) of this year’s Cherry Blossom Festival in San Francisco. The parade featured a performance by the Northern California Okinawa Kenjinkai (pictured above) complete with shiisaa and eisaa drummers with musical accompaniment.

G_n_N also spotted an Okinawan store in Japantown called Akabanaa (pictured above) with a banner that reads: “The unique products from Okinawa. Coming Soon!” Cool!

[Nifee to gekka_no_neko for the story and pics! Link.]

Kurara Chibana: 2006 Miss Universe Japan

Published by Richie April 26th, 2006 in Television and News. 21 Comments

This is a first. Heck, I’m not even sure if I should let this entry have its own category or not. :P Well, here goes. The 2006 Miss Universe Japan, CHIBANA Kurara (23), is from—of all places—Okinawa! Yay! The 5′7″ (173cm) Sophia University (JouchiDai) Philosophy student beat out 4,000 contestants (number is based on entries submitted) to win a spot in the Miss Universe 2006 pageant which will take place on Sunday, July 23rd, in Los Angeles. The official MUJ site which has lots of eye-candy pics, videos and links, is worth checking out. [Above image of Kurara is from her blog.]

[Nifee to Mark for the info!]

Radio 5558!

Published by Richie April 16th, 2006 in Music, Web and Community. 0 Comments

Is your “favorite” playlist getting a bit overplayed? Need a break from it? Check out goyablog’s Radio 5558! (’five’ is ‘go’ in Japanese and ‘eight’ is ‘ya’ in Japanese, so it’s Go-Go-Go-Ya!)

For a year and half I’ve been broadcasting nearly 24/7 Okinawa Pop music on Radio Go Go Goya!, but now that I have a Mac mini (christened goyamini) that I’m using as a media hub, I’ve decided to keep it on 24/7 and broadcast Radio 5558! (that’s go go go ya in Japanese) on it… [Read on: Radio Go Go Goya!: Redefined.]

Oh, and I’ll add that it’s being streamed from a Mac mini—24/7—how cool is that? Uh huh. :D

Calabash Featuring Keith Nakaganeku Album Coming Soon!

Published by Richie April 10th, 2006 in Music and Community. 2 Comments

Dude, count me as one of the lucky ones. Keith Nakaganeku let me listen to two of the tracks that’ll be on his forthcoming album (which I’ll have to get the title to): “Katami Bushi” and “Umi no Uta”. Yaeyama folk song “Katami Bushi” has a house twist to it that would totally rock Okinawa’s radiowaves and its popularity could possibly crossover to mainland Japan too. Is it J-pop or Contemporary Hawaiian music? You’ll be able to decide for yourself when “Umi no Uta” (yeah, BEGIN’s “Umi no Uta”) is the current track playing on your [the name of your personal media player here]. The version I had a chance to listen to featured none other than HIGA Eisho and Keith trading off on the song’s verses. Totally awesome. Keith hopes to have the album out next month so I’ll keep all of you posted when it’s released and where you’ll be able to purchase it.

CALABASH Featuring Keith Nakaganeku.

Tired of Your Current Desktop? Change It!

Published by Richie April 5th, 2006 in Web and Community. 5 Comments

Ryukyu Internet Kingdom (or Rikku for you cool folk) has four new kabegami (desktops) up on their site for the month of April.

Dude, I’m still digging the pics by Myron that you see up there in our header. I think my fave (so far) is the pic with all the dead fishies waiting to become food on your table.

[Updated 2006.4.17] Visit RIK’s “Okinawan Gallery” for more info.

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