Hello, and welcome! Nippon-Ichigo is this year’s host for September’s Japan Blog Matsuri theme!

A big thanks to last month’s host, Through Eyes from Afar, and their great theme “Japanese Nature/Culture“!

Aaand September’s theme is…

“Japanese Music!”

That’s right! I can’t believe this hasn’t been done yet. I’m a big fan, as are many others all over the world. Whether you’d like to talk about artists currently in the Japanese media, different aspects of Japanese musical style, your favorite Japanese songs, Japanese instruments of ancient times, or whatever else have you, it all fits into September’s theme! Just make sure your post follows the Japan Blog Matsuri guidelines for submission.

Rules and Guidelines

• Include at least one picture. People need visuals!
• Write enough substance. Not too many pictures, y’all.
• And, of course, follow all the rest of these guidlines!

Ways You Can Submit

You should send me the url/link to your entry by doing these things:

• Email me through the contact form on this site! (Preferred)
• Email me directly, if that somehow fails: self (.) revolution at gmail (.) com
• Leave a comment in this post with the link to your blog post!
• Submit it through the Blog Carnival Widget!

Deadline: September 24th

Let’s get to it, and have fun with it! Feel free to contact me about questions, too. Yaaay!

Click here to view the embedded video.

With his record label, Hydeout Productions, he collaborated with people from all over, music that could touch souls from all the way across the sea. He produced music like no one else had. His enlightening hip hop beats helped me get through a rough patch in my life… not all music can do that.

It’s people like him I look up to — real innovators, with real passion, inspiring all who hear his music. People like that are of real value to the world…

Click here to view the embedded video.

…which is why it comes as a shock to most of the world, especially the creative world, that now, just Wednesday, Satoshi Kon has also died. Prevalent in the famous director’s work was a real unconventional approach to heady topics in animation, much different than anime and movies in general.

His last words, posthumously publicized, have been unofficially translated. I cried…I felt emotional for a good part of the day. No one knew about the nature of his condition until nigh the very end; understandable, as he had his reasons… I especially respect someone who admits his own flaws, who obviously has reverence for other people, with maturity in coming to terms with things. I want to cry again…

This has lit a fire under me to finally see more of his works. I’ve been intending to see the rest of Paranoia Agent for ages… Kon’s work is intriguing in a way that snags me, questioning the perspectives of characters, of viewers, of people, probing the mental, the subconscious, the emotional. I watched Paprika with friends the other day, and I can recommend it to anyone.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks for doing what you did, Kon and Seba. We’re all glad you did what you loved and enjoyed it. Your influence will be seen in the world for ages to come.

No...Nooo!!

As one of my favorite animation studios, this could be a tragedy! I want to see Studio Ghibli stand firm and produce classic feature animations long until my great-grandchildren have their own kids.

This is a call to all my Totoro-loving, cutbussing friends: see this movie when it comes out! See it twice in the first week! Tell all your friends — even the ones that still dismiss animation as “kid cartoon stuff”! American celebrity dubbing can only do so much as far as nabbing a wider audience is concerned. I’m more than willing to throw some extra cash at Ghibli to keep it going, and you’ve got to be, too! So keep that in mind!

Such a rare post just within hours of the last. It has stricken me! I must tell all!

(First things first! This is an entry for the August Japan Blog Matsuri, specifically Through Eyes From Afar’s Nature and Japan entry! Thanks, Lands From Afar Embassy! You should see what other J-bloggers also have to say about nature!)

Popular Mushi

If you’ve got any familiarity about Japan or even just anime, you already know about the Japanese rhinoceros beetle (甲虫 ~ Trypoxylus dichotomus) and the exciting fights they often engage in for money. That’s right, two males are pitted against each other, and people bet on which one will push the other off of a log or table first. Apparently it’s very popular to do in Ryukyu. (For some reason, I couldn’t find any video of this. Figures.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

The closest thing I found. How can you tell when a certain one will win, anyway? (I mean, when one isn’t robotic.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

They also make good pets. I WANT ONE.

Rhinoceros beetles are short-lived, but bright stars burn briefly.

Something you might not have known: The beetle has a fan page on Facebook. Only 18 people are fans as of this posting! C’mon people, these beetles are awesome. I actually owned the shell of a similar-looking beetle when I was a kid, but I lost it in a move. It was pretty awesome, though. It was as big as my hand. (I used to keep giant bugs’ shells after they died.)

Oh God get it away

Another much more horrifying mushi is the Japanese giant hornet (大雀蜂 ~ Vespa mandarinia japonica). Like the rhinoceros beetle, it looks pretty awesome, and I’m pretty sure there are some vehicles themed off of its appearance.

I'll admit I only knew these existed because of FLCL

I say they’re horrifying only because they are awful mass-murdering bastards, and on the off-chance you get stung by one you’ll probably be hospitalized.

Click here to view the embedded video.

OH MY GOD RUN

Click here to view the embedded video.

What happens when a terrifying killer engages my favorite insect? It’s not pretty. (This saddens me, as I only just found out that praying mantises can eat snakes…and I think birds, too. Holy crap, nature.)

Apart from being the enemy of bees, they’re a fine part of the balance of nature… I guess. Hey, who am I to question how nature works?

Some Household Mushi

Here in the US, bugs + indoors usually don’t mix. Me, I can’t get enough bugs, personally, but in Japan there are a handful of good-luck bugs that actually enhance the home. Bugs such as…

Whoa.

The huntsman spider (Sparassidae), which is actually harmless to people, and comes in varying levels of cute and fuzzy.

To this day, this is the only thing I think of whenever I hear "huntsman". Yeah...anyway...

Looks like something that could kill you, right?

And this gejigeji bug, Scutigera coleoptrata, the household centipede. Every kid is informed at a young age that centipedes (or was it millipedes…?) can freaking kill you, so I guess it becomes ubiquitous that avoiding them is necessary. However, these things are also cleaner-uppers for homes and actually won’t kill you. I love giant bugs that won’t kill you! Yay!

Miscellaneous Things About Mushi

Those insanely popular and/or infamous mushi, as well as others, are constantly featured in Japanese media.

The manga series Mushishi obviously takes its influence from little things crawling around in the ground, with its ubiquitous supernatural spirits (also called…”Mushi”) that have existed since time’s dawn.

Pokémon, great game series and childhood favorite of many, was originally inspired by bug-catching. Pokémon executive director Satoshi Tajiri-Oniwa enjoyed collecting bugs as a kid, as did I! Specifically, in an old TIME interview, he said,

The place where I grew up [in Machida, a western Tokyo suburb] was still rural back then. There were rice paddies, rivers, forests. It was full of nature. Then development started taking place, and as it grew, all the insects were driven away. I was really interested in collecting insects. Every year they would cut down trees and the population of insects would decrease. The change was so dramatic. A fishing pond would become an arcade center.

If you recall how the original two games played, there were always a lot of simple bug-catching kids in the beginning, and to this day there’s still lots of wading around in grass, looking for things… even if the pocket monsters these days have grown to ridiculous proportions.

There are several tokusatsu series with bug-themed heroes, such as the Kamen Rider series.

I was into American tokusatsu when I was 10, but I missed out, oh I missed out

Anyhow, bugs are awesome, and they’re a big part of Japan. Should I ever get the chance to go there, I want to go bug-watching. (I also want to hunt bugs in Australia, except I know I’ll probably definitely die over there.)

Flickr credits: kaidohmaru, burleydude, miguelitos91, sakichin, smashedpoodle

Also informative: here

It makes your Twitter feel special!

I’ve already done this like 8 times.

By the way, I’m on Twitter a lot. If you are, too, you could follow my main account (on which there are many artistic/design ramblings) or the one for this blog (which is similar, but also a feed for posts here).

See, I have appreciation for both the impractical and the practical, so long as things are unique and really do what they’re supposed to — whether it’s to look good or function in some way. For example, Nintendo systems host gaming franchises that have held up over the course of 25 years, but the systems themselves are also pretty physically resilient. My DS should have broken a couple of times.

Figurines and similar toys have absolutely no uses other than looking pretty and taking up space (having been a Beanie Baby collector in my childhood, I can attest to something like this), but some are so awesome that they compel you to buy. The expense is justified in how awesome you feel while looking at them. If you live with other people who appreciate them, the awesomeness doubles!

So, I am an appreciator of Good Things and Cool Things. I don’t buy things unless they are either Good or Cool. If I think I’ll be tired of something in a year, or 5 years, or ever, I probably won’t invest in it — after all, all those little plastic things will be around basically forever, so if you’re going to buy into them, they might as well bring you a lifetime’s worth of entertainment! When I adopted this mindset, I became much less entranced/overwhelmed by stores like Spencer’s Gifts and anime con dealer rooms (respectively). I also felt much less compelled to buy random crap on a whim.

ANYWAY, Flutterscape is a website where people take pictures of cool Japanese stuff, and you can get that stuff if you’re not in Japan. Here is some stuff I want!

Ukiyo-e Stamps: $18.98 ($2.03 shipping)

I love Ukiyo-e. I also kind-of collect stamps. They’re a few steps down from my eventual goal of obtaining an original print — one of my graphic design teachers had one and showed the class, and it was so fragile I kind of freaked out inside — but it’s still pretty neat!

Edible Sakura: $15.93 ($3.16 shipping)

I tried to eat flowers when I was little (dandelions, in fact). They looked so good. They tasted so horrible. But these look so delicious, and pink, and I can’t resist the urge to try them…

JSG Reversible Parka w/Ears: $66.21 ($12.20 shipping)

I love small, non-bulky jackets with a bit of “pop”. I looked for a good one last winter that was small but still very warm (to compensate for my smallness and inability to carry heat in cold) and never found one suitable enough. For the record, I’d never wear that with its pink side out (ears are enough of a “different” feature), but I love clothing with wild patterns on the interior.

Koopa – Loud Music Nintendo CD: $34.31 ($2.03 shipping)

I never knew this existed! There are at least two more just like this, a Luigi “B-Side” music CD, and a Peach “Healing” music CD, from the exclusive Japanese Club Nintendo. I want this one because it has some of the most interesting tracks, and some (or all?) of them might be remixed. Awesome. I love video game music.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 OST: $46.32 ($5.52 shipping)

Did I mention I love video game music? It’s no secret that Mario Galaxy 2 is my favorite modern Mario game so far, and this Japan-exclusive soundtrack is something I simply must have. So I requested it!

Grand Total: $206.69

That’s a little over $200. As another option, and especially if that doesn’t fly, I’m kind of dodging between that JSG jacket OR this other thing I requested:

Chi’s Sweet Home Volumes 1-7: $47.86 ($12.42 Shipping)

I can more or less read kana, so using this series of manga would be a cute way for me to try to up my kana recognition and reading speed in a practical way…by reading comics. Besides, it’s adorable.

If I took that jacket out and replaced it with this, the grand total would be $188.56, leaving about $11 to be spent. I’d totally be okay with that though. I can’t think of anything else low-priced to eat that up, anyway!

Big Success!

As it turns out, Flutterscape is actually a little hard to navigate, and a lot of stuff is also miscategorized, but it’s like a golden opportunity to score some really neat Japanese stuff. People are happy to fulfill your requests! It’s quite good.

As for why I deserve any of this, apart from my general appreciation of Good Things (as well as Good Acts, like simply giving me $200 worth of stuff in return for a blog post :D), well… I’ll put them to good use. I use stuff, enjoy stuff. And I take to heart the thoughtfulness put into a good product (especially music, more recently). I’ll even encourage people I don’t even know to invest in the kinds of stuff I like. It’s awesome.

Besides that, I’ve really wanted Chi’s Sweet Home for some time now, and I’m kicking up my Japanese studying again. I like to try new things lately, and reading an all-Japanese comic for kids is definitely new. Just like edible sakura!

On that, I’m with Kobayashi, but not so much on the crashing-the-competition-and-then-getting-arrested part. It’s not a good idea to resist the police just because you want attention, either. I’m sure this will all be worked out eventually. Don’t compromise your hot dog eating freedom, Kobayashi!

While I’m at it, here, watch this commercial featuring two hot dog champions going at it in a convenience store. I couldn’t even remember what this commercial was for until I watched it again just now:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

On that note, I always disliked Super Mario Land. It’s like the “red-headed stepchild” of Mario platformers, and Princess Daisy’s return to the series some decades later isn’t exactly as good as you’d hoped it would be in your younger years.

(Nah, I’m working, honestly… with a little peep here and there.)

So anyway, I got a real kick out of this.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Teppei Okada has the right idea. If I could even remotely play violin, this is exactly what I’d do, too.

While I’m at it, here are a few more Mario videos I’m liking the hell out of. SPOILERS: Mario dies at the end of all these videos. (Why are we all so cruel to him? But I enjoyed long-jumping him into walls in 64, if only to hear that goofy “d’oh, oooof…”)

Click here to view the embedded video.

You know how much I like Paper Mario? Well, this is real paper Mario, made out of post-its. Bored Japanese schoolkids also have the right idea!

Click here to view the embedded video.

I really like this. I keep watching it. It’s so serene…and cute. Mario learns of a GREAT SECRET obvious to anyone who isn’t a native to the Mushroom Kingdom.

I’ll throw in this bonus: a fun video of Super Mario Galaxy mashed up with Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now.” Fits oddly well!

Click here to view the embedded video.

I hope that person does a similar video with Galaxy 2.

There’s no shortage of videos like these, but I can’t get enough of them. Mario continues to inspire!

A wall of wonderful

I like full-screen websites when they're simple like this.

Display of designs

I do enjoy a well-presented Interior Design website, so this is excellent. What’s impressive about the site itself can be seen in motion, so go and click around. On top of all that site-ly goodness, the company also has a very nice body of work.

As an all-around design geek, I’ll be making more posts like this.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Quaff or Die!

Quaff: a Japanese visual kei band. Officially described thus: “Quaff is a band like none other. They bring elements of traditional Japanese music and culture into their heavy hitting music and live performances. Quaff rocks out with dual vocalists emphasizing their Japanese roots. Everything from the vocal melodies, to the rapping, to the drum beats, to the music screams of Japanese which takes their rock sound to a completely unique level. Even in a country saturated with musicians, Quaff is the only one to create a fusion of synergy between the traditional Japanese aura and modern music.”

MTAC: Middle Tennessee Anime Convention, the only con I’ve ever gone to (saving its new sister-con GMX on my birthday last October), for seven years now. No matter your level of anime involvement, it’s a great and fun environment of geekery. It’s almost like home; the congoers are nice (and clean!), and staff are good at what they do.

Anyway, Quaff came to MTAC this month, becoming the first band to attend the con straight out of Japan. In short, they were wonderful. At first I hadn’t expected much; I didn’t have time to check out the band’s videos very thoroughly before the con, and at a quick glance they look like most other visual kei rock bands out there. Well, I was pretty wrong.

Through the great fortune of having awesome friends, not only was I able to meet them briefly and take a picture with them at the con Friday; I was able to stand right at the front at their concert Saturday night. It was there that it became obvious: not only are they a good band (in my opinion, without hyperbole, the best band to have played at MTAC thus far) with an awesome variety of music that made me even want to dance from start to end in a kimono when my legs were worn out and my back was sore — not only that, but they also all have a ton of heart. For them to have been so kind, so smiley (I’m drawn to people who smile a lot), and so awesome at music all at the same time blew me away. Really, I had expected to be mildly impressed at best. Them playing a con that has obtained a kind of personal connection with me makes it even better, too. It was an all-around great experience for my first actual concert.

So, they are worth a listen, especially if you already like Japanese rock. A lot of bands everywhere wash out or blend in amidst cultures of pop idols. This one connects straight to the heart (and to the booty!).

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

From their Myspace. I'm in the pink kimono near the bottom right

Here’s wishing they return when MTAC “takes it to 11.” They HAVE to. Quaff or Die!

(Addendum: my friend caught Makito’s rose. Jealousy ensues! But it was awesome.)

Anyways, I like to see practical things with a creative/cute design spin. I was going through the backlog of Engrish.com Brog posts (because for some reason I had never read them, despite being a big fan of the site since 2000) and saw these adorable Japanese barcode designs.

My favorites are umbrella-related.

I’m mainly making this entry because there’s a hot pink kappa in the village stage, which amuses me to no end:

Referred to as simply "Imp" in-game

Imp took my protein!

He stands out so much that it’s hard not to follow his movements, but that doesn’t make him any easier to catch. Here’s a video of his stage.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I would’ve edited this into the Matsuri Kappa post, but that might not be fair as this month is a competition to win something, and I already made my (somewhat rushed) entry! So I just posted this separately. Hurrr.

With any luck NA support for this game will inspire them to eventually bring Captain Rainbow over here, since Captain Rainbow looks awesome.

The Study of Kappa

Although I didn’t like it very much at first, the kappa has quickly become one of my favorite mythical creatures. What is it that I like about them? Is it the fact that there are many different interpretations of them historically, or that they can be downright adorable in modern depictions? Or maybe it’s just that little bowl of water on their heads. Let’s talk about it some more!

But first, note that this is an entry for this month’s Japan Blog Matsuri. Mazikeen is hosting it this time! Awesome! Thanks, Mazikeen! Take a look at the other yokai-related entries, too.

Raising kappa: is it easy?

Anyway, kappa. At first I thought they looked terrible. Duck-things with reptilian bodies! It didn’t help that I don’t really like ducks or turtles. (Except sea turtles. They’re adorable. Kappa sea turtles would be adorable, too, I guess.) And if I were to see one in reality, they would frighten me. I mean, that’s just too creepy to see walk up to you, realistically.

But the cuter they look, the more acceptable they become… (Which I believe is a general rule. Do you think anybody would have cared about Pandora if all the Na’vi resembled Gremlins? Exactly.) Kappa are known as troublemakers, and also consumers of children. Of course, they don’t really seem to have any ill will towards humanity. Why else would we love them?

The kappa that appear in Muramasa: the Demon Blade are actually annoying as hell and frightening to boot, but the helpful kappa children that appear are ADORABLE.

I am in fact writing and drawing a short comic story for print centering around a kappa right now, which should be out later this year. Perhaps I’ll post about that then. Another one of my comics, this one online, involves many yokai and other types of demons, and a kappa may make its way into its story as well.

I can show you the kappa my mom drew for me for the print story:

D'awww.

Kappa Stuff

Ooo, scaaaary

The famous King Bowser Koopa from the Mario game series may have taken inspiration from kappa. He’s not very watery, though. You’ve got to admit, their names do sound similar. (His name actually is more closely inspired by a Korean food dish. Appetizing!)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Trailer for an animated movie called “Summer Days with Coo”, which I absolutely need to see

Click here to view the embedded video.

A very old series of ads spanning many years (1939-1980) for Japanese Sake Kizakura, using kappa

Stay! Good boy!

Kappa no Kaikata (カッパの飼い方, How to Breed Kappas) is an anime series about…raising kappa. I haven’t seen it, but it hosts an adorably unforgettable kappa.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A Spore-created kappa with interesting…features.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A kappa-related independent short animation

As you can see, the kappa is fairly popular in Japan. (Understatement!) I’m beginning to understand why! People cosplay them, they crop up here and there in stories of all forms, both ancient and modern, and they serve as friends, symbols, and mascots. Long live the kappa!

A very informative historical perspective on kappa: http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/kappa.shtml

Historical kappa pictures and Kappa mummies!!! from Pink Tentacle

Another nice kappa article: http://monsterama.blogspot.com/2007/10/clap-for-kappa.html