i-O Blog

Yukie Nakama Drops Her Pocky

If you're like me and you love Pocky (a Japanese snack), you'll certainly get a kick out of this CM starring Yukie Nakama where she takes a huge flop and gets you to buy Pocky :p. Link.

BEGIN's Video Message from Honolulu

A video message of BEGIN's recent concert in Honolulu has been posted on their official website (www.begin1990.com). Here's how to get there since the site is only in Japanese (btw, if there's enough people who'll ask me for it, I'll translate [or if anyone wants to volunteer I'll happily upload it to this site] the message and provide a text-based transcript of the group's dialogue):

1. Visit www.begin1990.com. (You'll need Macromedia Flash Player 6 or higher to view the site.)
2. Hover your mouse or trackpad over the final link on the menu and it'll read 'SPECIAL'. Click on that link.
3. You should now be in a window that's giving you a choice between two connection speeds: Broad and Narrow band. (You'll need Windows Media Player 9 or higher to view the video.)
4. Click on your connection speed and the video will begin buffering momentarily. Enjoy!

(Nifee to Isaac Hokama for the link.)

BEGIN at the 2004 Okinawan Festival in Honolulu

The best concert of the year? I think so. Not only was the 2-hour outdoor concert free (sponsored in part by Orion Beer), but the band also pulled out all the stops by bringing their tour members (a bassist and drummer) along for the ride (to Honolulu). The stage was perfectly setup for the five-member band and the sound was surprisingly good for an outdoor concert; it also helped that BEGIN is a very good live band and singer Eisho Higa is a very good speaker.


The band had the crowd on their feet for the songs "Kariyushi no Yoru" and "Ojii Jiman no Orion Biiru [Beer]" with several close-ups of a fan (implanted?) wearing a promotional t-shirt for the latter song during its time on stage. They performed all of their hit songs (i.e., from their two shimauta albums) and the song that first brought them in the J-pop radar, "Koishikute". Not surprisingly, the encore song was "Nada Sou Sou" with the crowd chanting -- instead of 'encore ...' or 'hana hou ...' -- 'nada sou sou, nada sou sou, nada sou sou'.

I personally think that this was one of the best Okinawan Festivals since the year with the fireworks off of Waikiki Beach. The outdoor stage was one of the best we (local performing arts groups) may ever get to use for the festival, and if not for the blaring sun, it would've been perfect in the daytime too.

I'm sure that the group made many new fans here in Hawaii and I've already received several inquiries as to where people can go to buy their albums. Places to go to in Honolulu are Bookoff or Hakubundo. On the web, I highly recommend CDJapan.co.jp or YesAsia.com.

Related Entry: A Closer Look at BEGIN

Pop.i-O Renewal

Haisai all! I'm back and rested from the 2004 Okinawan Festival in Honolulu so beginning today, I'll be posting new content to the pop site which has undergone a complete redesign. See you there!

A Closer Look at BEGIN

BEGIN (ビギン) is comprised of three members who are all from Ishigaki Island (石垣島) and friends since grammar school. The trio have been nicknamed as the "Takeuma no Tomo (竹馬の友)" group. The members are: Eishou (also written as Eisho) Higa (比嘉荣昇) on vocals, sanshin, guitar (b. 7/15/1968), Masaru Shimabukuro (島袋 優) on guitar, chorus, ichigo-ichie (b. 9/23/1968), and Hitoshi Uechi (上地 等) on keyboards, chorus (b. 6/23/1968).

THEIR first noted appearance as a group took place in 1988 when they performed for a friend's wedding party and was discovered by an owner of a live house (nightclub) who invited the group to regularly perform on stage. In 1989, the group appeared on the TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System which is one of Japan's major TV stations) show "Heisei Meibutsu TV Ikasu Bando Tengoku" (『平成名物TVいかすバンド天国』).

THE group's real (as in their recording) debut took place in 1990 with the release of their Teichiku Entertainment, Inc. single "Koishikute" (『恋しくて』 CARC-36 and rereleased in 2003 as a maxi-single TECN-10901), which was used as an image song for Nissan Motors. "Koishikute" is still one of their most well-known songs and one that I love singing whenever I go karaoke. ;) It should be noted that they debuted as a band whose style was more bluesy rather than the shimauta (which came almost 10 years later) that they're currently known for and they can be categorized as J-pop music.

BEGIN's "comeback" arrived in the year 2000 -- 10 years after their debut -- with cameos on the hit NHK morning drama serial "Churasan" (『ちゅらさん』 due to the popularity of the show, a third series has been added that will air this year). It could be said that they were in the right place at the right time because the year 2000 also marked their entrance in the shimauta genre of music with their album release "Begin no Shimauta: Omototakeo" (『ビギンの島唄 オモトタケオ』 TECN-20647) and more importantly, the release of the song "Nada Sou Sou" (『涙そうそう』 TECN-12613 which was covered by Hawaiian music recording artist Keali´i Reichel on his album "Ke´alaokamaile").

"Nada Sou Sou" would also launch the career of fellow Ishigaki islander Rimi Natsukawa (夏川りみ, 30) who released the song (VICL-35238) in March of 2001. The song became a hit throughout Japan and she would later perform on NHK's annual Kouhaku Utagassen (『紅白歌合戦』Red & White Songfest) which is known for only inviting the year's most popular artists. The lyricist for the song, folk singer Ryoko Moriyama (森山良子, the music was composed by the group), would also release the song as a b-side to her single "Satoukibi Batake" (『さとうきび畑』MUCD-5003) in December of 2001. (Her son Naotaro has become a famous J-pop singer with his single "Sakura", so that song seems to bring fortune for all of the parties involved with it.)

2002 saw their shimauta-inspired song "Shimanchu nu Takara" (『島人ぬ宝』TECN-12877) featured as the image song for NHK Okinawa's "Okinawa Hondo Fukki 30-shuunen (沖縄本土復帰三十周年)" and later in the same year the group would make their first appearance in NHK's Kouhaku.

IN 2003, the group took a large step as musicians with the release of the Ichigo-Ichie (一五一会), a hybrid between a sanshin and a guitar, made by established Japanese guitar maker Yairi Guitars. The philosophy behind the instrument is to make it very simple so that anyone can learn to play it without any prior knowledge of music. The body of the four-stringed instrument has a very unusual shape and I'm sure that Masaru (and Eisho) will be performing with it at the festival.

SINCE their debut with Teichiku in 1990, the group has released 8 singles, 11 maxi-singles, 11 original albums, 2 shimauta albums, and 1 best of album. In 1992, the group left Teichiku for BMG Funhouse and recorded 3 singles and 3 albums before returning to the Teichiku label in 1997. Currently, they belong to Imperial Records (part of the Teichiku Entertainment, Inc. group) and will be releasing a CD+DVD this month called "Reef Line" (TECI-1068, July 14th), and a maxi-single called "Chikai" (『誓い』TECI-65) on August 11th.

ALSO performing with BEGIN at this year's Okinawa Festival in Honolulu, will be the Shisars. I'll have more about the female duo in a future entry.

Guess Who's Coming to Honolulu?

Nifee to Isaac Hokama who let us in on the latest scoop regarding this year's Okinawan Festival (September 4th and 5th) -- BEGIN, yes, that BEGIN, will be performing for us this year! Isaac recently visited Okinawa to meet the group (hence the above pic) and he so graciously emailed us with a few pics of the group. (The pic below is of Isaac and Dazz [who is the current kenpi recipient representing Hawaii].)
I'll post more as the date draws nearer, but needless to say, I'm totally stoked about this news.

Pop.i-O's Spring 2004 Contest

It's been a l-o-n-g time but finally, here's a new contest for you, my precious readers. I must warn you that the Pop.i-O's Spring 2004 Contest will not be an easy one. First, the prize: Banda Tontonmi's debut album "Saudade de Uchina". Second, the contest: on Pop.i-O's new banner, name all of the album covers that are on it (see, I told ya it wouldn't be easy); i.e., the artist names and the album titles. If you can go even as far as to list the record label and release date for each album, I'll throw in another CD! Good luck!

The contest will last until we have a winner or until my next (easier) contest in the summer. :)

To enter the contest, send me an email at riccin[at]internet-okinawa[dot]com, with "Contest" in the subject line, or to make the whole process a little easier, just click here to email me. (Btw, there are a total of 15 albums.)

Updates over at the pop site

If you haven't visited the pop site in a while, head on over and check out a bunch of new entries. :)

I'm also pre-selling tickets for the Tamagusuku Ryu Senji Kai Frances Nakachi Dojo's upcoming dance recital on Sunday, November 2nd. More info can be found at the pop site.

Updates!

After being gone for a week from the pop site I'm back! I have a lot of updates over there now and several more on the way. So why not stay on your Mac or PC a little while more?

OMG (Okinawan Music Geeks) Update:

I haven't forgotten about OMG and it's on my mind every day. I'm still planning to get it started by the end of this month so nifee for being patient with me. I'm planning on having it powered by TypePad (for now) which is made by the same team that made the great tool that powers the weblog for this site.

Site Renewal at the Pop Site

Haisai all! I hope those of you in the U.S. are having a wonderful 4th of July weekend. I've redesigned my site so check it out! Everytyhing's still web standards-compliant, CSS only (look ma, no tables!), but it should now load better in older web browsers and Macs or PCs with smaller screen resolutions. Anyway, let me know if you run into any problems. Nifee!

Link: Yuntaku Weblog.

Sanshin no Susume

Looking for a cool sanshin site? Don't know what a sanshin is? Here's the perfect site for ya: uta34.com. (Note: site is in Japanese.)

Nifee for the link Bonnie Sensei!

New DotW

I have two new DotWs up at the pop site. Why two? As you may or may not know, I missed last week so I'm making it up by posting two, count 'em TWO, new DotWs today. The first artist is Nenes II, or Nidaime Nenes, which can be found here, and the second artist is China Sadao's discography which can be found by clicking on this link. Enjoy!

Okinawan Music Geeks (O.M.G.)

(Originally posted in the pop blog)

Okay, that (O.M.G.) name is not etched in stone yet, but it's a start. I'm starting an Okinawan music listeners (lovers) club so I'm looking for the all-important CLUB MEMBERS in order to make this thing work.

What will the O.M.G. do? Well, for starters, I want this to be a way that extreme lovers of Okinawan music of all genres can get together (in real life) to share music stories, trade music, listen to music, and perhaps go on a tour to minyou clubs and/or J/O-pop concerts in Okinawa.

Who should join the O.M.G. club? Anyone with an interest in Okinawan music who actually owns LPs, cassettes, CDs, videos, or DVDs of any genre of Okinawan music. How can you join O.M.G.? You can either 1) email me or 2) leave a comment on this post (it automatically gets emailed to me). Or better yet, if you know me in real life, give me a call.

New DotW

I have an early DotW entry up at the pop site. This week's featured artist discography is O-Rock star Kenichi Shiroma. Rock on!

New Stuff at the Pop

I have a new DotW up at Pop.i-O. This week's featured artist is the Yaeyama pop group Begin.

New DotW

I have a new DotW (Discography of the Week) over at the pop site. This week's featured artist discography is Yaeyama O-Pop star Miyagi Mamoru.

New DotW

I have a new DotW up at Pop.i-O. This week's featured artist discography is Natsukawa Rimi. Enjoy!