Hey.

So I haven't been around much lately. It's sad, really but school work and life calls...
However, what wasn't sad was my trip to Vietnam! I was sadly only able to go for 10 days, but it was amazing. I actually was still in Vietnam when we heard about the earthquake in Japan, which was scary not necessarily for us, but for my friends from school who were from Japan and back home for the holidays. (Everyone's safe now by the way)

Anyway, I finally got to putting some of my photos on flickr, so if you want to take a look here's a link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/belvederefoist/sets/72157626362734691/

Yes, it's not Japan, but I'm interested in Asia in general, and Vietnam is truly a wonderful place!


//goes back to dreaming of pho noodles.

Also since I've been out of the Anime/Manga scene for a bit now, any recommendations for what to watch this season? :D

I went through 60+ pages to find these.

Anime Google Chrome Themes!

K-on!: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/kijflhbdemeapphigbhefhdpncmliike

Kuroshitsuji: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pkkmoncmbpmjbiihcibcfjhfmcflefbn

Catherine (the game that everyone's literally salivating over): https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nfagapgonojeaekbgfchkeimcpapkohl

BRS: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mfkcnmibecjfaiejecabihnfmmifidkk

Vocaloid (Megurine Luka): https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hdidcdgnekkgfdlhomdnkcpijiophcog

Toradora!: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cmaedeamabfpjamlehicnakjcafapfeo

I'm currently using the good smile skin, but I'm switching to this one: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lonejpghplnechighncmcldilpfminkj

I'm kidding about the cookie. Well slightly. I would like a cookie, but I did this for my own personal use and I thought I'd save everyone else the pain of flipping through 60+ pages of google chrome themes.

Note: I didn't include the Naruto and One Piece ones because I wasn't interested in them, your loss I s'pose.

Any one else using Google chrome?

As anyone else alone on Spring break, bored of everything and anything, you look up random youtube videos. Somehow I found this one providing pretty interesting info on the agriculture needs of Japan with really amusing animation to go with it. Nothing says "Let's become self sufficient" more than faceless people bobbing mechanically up and down! Needless to say, I was amused.

(Direct Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok3ykR2GHCc&feature=related)

Do you agree with the 'solutions' they gave? As in going back to mostly rice and I guess the Japanese equivalent of "Made in the USA" stickers?

Hopefully that image will make sense by the end of this post...

Whether you have realized it or not, it’s likely that the first time you encountered anime you also entered the world of catchy, one minute and thirty second long, eye—or rather ear catching Japanese music. It could have been a synthesized pop tune, a simplistic instrumental piece, or something just incredibly bizarre that worms its way into your top played in iTunes; but I feel we’ve all played that one song one a loop for an entire day. I don’t know if it’s the head-bopping rhythm, the lyrics in which you have no idea what is being said, or the careful placed random Engrish word that causes you to smile at the ridiculousness, but either which way I know for me I was hooked.

I warbled somewhat aimlessly in my search for 'cool Asian music' looking at first for the theme music to my newly acquired favorite anime after my christening into the anime world, however I was not satisfied. I continued and soon found out about Utada and Buono among others through various music videos. Though I noticed that I was in some sort of tunnel vision, for I was picking songs I was listening to solely through their affiliated anime.

It took me some time but actually after an argument with one of my friends on JPop vs KPop I was shown this video which (hilariously) introduced me to some of the more popular KPop songs of which I have never heard.


I’m not going to delve into the merits of JPop and KPop right now, but I found myself drawn to KPop more, not because it was ‘better’ but I think it was because I was finding actual artists rather than single songs attached to a random anime. Recently I learned that most anime theme songs are chosen specifically for advertisement for that artist, based on the genre of the anime and how the audience would receive that artist. Kind of like how in Japan TV air time is considered only advertisement for the DVD that will be sold later on, maybe that’s why I was having a hard time sinking my teeth into JPop. I was attracted to the earworm melodies, but I had a hard time finding substance keeping me to JPop, so I went on to KPop looking at artists for their musical styles other than generic beats. Currently I’m still in the KPop boat, but I’m thinking of going back to my JPop roots and looking for groups I like and going from there. Who knows, I might find something amazing.

I think the purpose of this post is to say that I came for the “new, exciting, and different” Asian music, got that, and then decided to push the Asian novelty approach aside and now I’ve been able to find certain groups that I can actually name in my favorites (such as Clazziquai Project!), rather than that one random song that I played 40 times on a loop and never came back to it until just yesterday when my iPod was on shuffle. Which was my prompt for this ramble.
This was the song if you were curious. It’s still damn catchy though….


My Question to you: Did you find yourself looking at Asian Music after getting into Anime? If so what were you looking for? Who are you currently listening to?

Link to Original Article

I know it's come up often/recently here at Japanator, the subject of 'herbivore men' but I really just thought of it as a passing fad. However, after reading this NPR article on the subject, they seem to refer to herbivores almost as a catalyst of change towards the idea of masculinity and manhood. Do you agree? I was suprised that the article seemed to have a favorable light cast upon this phenomenon rather than a 'wow Japan is wierd' tone that pops up often.
Overall I think the article did a good and informative job on the possible outcomes of such a lifestyle, etc.

Anyone else come across this, what do you think about it?


(Random aside: First blog post! Though does this even count as one? haha)