Yoshida Brothers are Japanese musicians famous for playing the shamisen (三味線, lit. three flavour strings), a traditional Japanese music instrument.
Kodo (鼓動) was released in 2004 in the Yoshida Brothers II album; a remix version of the song was used for Nintendo’s Wii commercial in 2006.
Chinese song by Taiwanese singer Wilber Pan & Korean diva Lee Hyori, another one from Chinese-Korean combo group Suju-M; Japanese song by Yuki Kimura; and a Korean song by Clazziquai…
Lee Hyori & Wilber Pan – As Long As I Love You
K-pop diva Lee Hyori singing in Chinese for Hyundai i30 commercial, featuring Taiwanese star Wilber Pan. The MV style seriously reminds me of the Anycall commercials; same production team perhaps. Weird accent, but decent song…
Chinese song by Taiwanese singer Jam Hsiao; Japanese song by SMAP; and Korean songs by Drunken Tiger and Tiara.
Jam Hsiao – Princess
“Princess” (王妃; prince’s wife to be precise) by Jam Hsiao from his same-title album, released in July 2009. Not a bad song, love his voice as always…
Popular otaku celebrity Shoko Nakagawa, popularly known as Shokotan, will be performing at Anime Festival Asia (AFA) in Singapore on November 21-22, 2009.
AFA is one of the the biggest anime-comic-game conventions in South East Asia; first held in 2008, the event is back again in 2009 following last year’s success.
Besides Shokotan, other celebs that will be performing at the I Love Anisong concert are May’N, Aniki and Yoshiki Fukuyama. Other sections of AFA09 include cosplay, toys & games exhibits, and maid cafe etc.
The organisers held a press conference on September 1 to officiate the 2009 event; check out the coverage by blogger Darkmirage, Alafista and Double.
More details and updates on AFA09’s official website or Facebook.
Anime Festival Asia
Previous: Anime Festival Asia 2008
American actress Kirsten Dunst shot a video in Tokyo’s Akihabara otaku district in a seriously-too-colourful-and-wicked sailor costume on August 27.
The video will be used for an exhibition later this year at Tate Modern in London.
[Update] The music video is out.
[More images][via Japanprobe and 3yen]
Vintage world map by Japanese mapper Nagakubo Sekisui, created in 1850…
Notice how huge Antarctica was portrayed back then; global warming lol?
[more Japanese antique maps at Joel's blog]
Guinness World Records have officially recognised Yu-Gi-Oh! as the top selling trading card game of all time with more than 22.5 billion cards sold since its introduction a decade ago.
Yu-Gi-Oh! was first created as a manga by Kazuki Takahashi in 1996 before spawning into a huge franchise, which includes anime series, video & online games, and trading card games etc.
The collectible card game is developed and published by Konami since 1999; more about the game on Wiki [image from Yugioh-card]
A Japanese ramen restaurant in Tokyo, Japan, is experimenting with two robotic-chef to cook the noodles; would be really cool if the whole restaurant’s operation is automated, with robots serving the dishes as well…
