A short press conference was held today for the opening of AKB48′s official merchandise store in Singapore and their first permanent theatre outside of Japan. There was also a short photography session with Misaki Iwasa, Mika Komori and Miho Miyazaki from AKB48 who were present for the opening ceremony.

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Read the rest of AKB48 Singapore (403 words)

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Post tags: akb48, idol, singapore

I expected last year to be my first and last chance to watch Maaya Sakamoto perform live, but I was wrong and my sentiments at the time were rendered somewhat hyperbolic in retrospect. In spite of the recent events in Japan, I managed to make my way to Osaka International Convention Center last night for her “You can’t catch me” live tour.

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Read the rest of Maaya Sakamoto 2011 Live Tour (Osaka) (1,079 words)

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Post tags: 2011, japan, live, maaya sakamoto, osaka, utsukushii hito

Maaya’s latest album You can’t catch me was just released a few days ago. The best song in the new album is by far Utsukushii Hito, a collaboration with Yoko Kanno for the Kentoushi Fune Saigen Project at last year’s Shanghai World Expo. The exhibition itself was basically a replica of a ship used during the Tang Dynasty to bring Japanese envoys to China and Utsukushii Hito was the official theme song for the project. Maaya performed it live at the ship’s departure ceremony from Osaka but didn’t actually show up at the Expo.

Lyrics and translation after the break.

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Read the rest of Maaya Sakamoto – Utsukushii Hito (494 words)

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Post tags: lyrics, maaya sakamoto, translation, utsukushii hito, yoko kanno, youtube

Or the one where I got to see SCANDAL perform live but showed up too late to get an autograph. Alternatively, it is also acceptable to refer to it as the one where I still had yet to buy an external flash for my camera and ended up taking shitty photos.

Oh wait, that applies to all of them. Bazinga. How about we just call it the one where it was AFA X and I went there.

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Read the rest of AFA X (1,080 words)

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Post tags: afa, afax, angela, event, may'n, scandal, suntec city

It’s finally here.

A few months ago, I spent 13 hours in an oversized aluminium alloy tube to get to Japan and back so that I could attend Maaya Sakamoto’s 15th anniversary concert at Budokan. A few days ago, the DVD and Blu-ray recordings arrived at my door step. A few hours ago, I finished encoding them into H264 MKV files and went out for ramen.

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Read the rest of Maaya Sakamoto 15th Memorial Live “Gift” DVD (680 words)

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Post tags: blu ray, budoukan, concert, dvd, gift, maaya sakamoto

The cherry blossoms bloomed early this spring, just as it did thirty years ago on Maaya Sakamoto‘s birthday. The date was 31st March and the venue was Budoukan. I stood in line at the entrance of Kitanomaru Park along with thousands on that cool spring afternoon and waited.

This is the story of the time I finally saw Maaya perform live.

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Read the rest of Maaya Sakamoto 15th Anniversary Concert (1,838 words)

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Post tags: budoukan, live, maaya sakamoto, shoko suzuki, yoko kanno

This song is Sayonara wo Kikasete by Nanase Aikawa, a veteran female J-rock singer. It’s the B-side of one of her earlier singles from the late 90s and it is one of my favourite songs from her. This is not the song I am looking for.

[See post to listen to audio]

However, I know for a fact that there is an 80s song with English lyrics and a male vocal out there somewhere that has the exact same tune as this song for its chorus. The rest of the song sounds rather different but the chorus is an almost perfect copy. I used to know the song’s title but not any more. (Getting old…)

I’m not sure if Nanase lifted the (rather catchy) tune subconsciously via osmosis or whether Sayonara was meant to be a tribute, and I can’t find any information about this online, whether in English or Japanese. So, please leave a comment if you know the title of this elusive song. It’s driving me crazy.

Incidentally, I just found out today that Angela Aki‘s Kiss From A Rose — another song I love — is actually a cover: the original Kiss From A Rose is by Seal. My whole life is a lie.

© DarkMirage for Ramblings of DarkMirage, 2009. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: nanase aikawa, sayonara wo kikasete

Maaya Sakamoto, the greatest singer/seiyuu in the history of the universe, held a live tour at the start of this year (2009) called “We Are Kazeyomi!” This was her first proper concert in the five years since she released her album Shounen Alice and her third since her debut as Hitomi in Visions of Escaflowne.

This is a story of what may be the greatest regret of my life. And oh yeah, the official concert DVD is out too.

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Read the rest of Maaya Sakamoto – We Are Kazeyomi! (867 words)

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Post tags: concert, dvd, kazeyomi, maaya sakamoto

Washinomiya Shrine (鷲宮神社) is the oldest shrine in the Kantou region of Japan. It also happens to be one of the setting locations for Kyoto Animation’s Lucky Star, the very shrine that Kagami and Tsukasa work part-time as shrine maidens. I paid a visit today and took some interesting pictures.

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Read the rest of Washinomiya Shrine — the real Lucky Star (468 words)

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Post tags: lucky star, saitama, trip, washinomiya

Yes, this is NOT a joke. May’n (May Nakabayashi), the beautiful voice behind Sheryl’s songs in Macross Frontier, will be making her way down to this tiny-red-dot island to perform live at the inaugural Anime Festival Asia, previously introduced on my blog, to be held on the 22nd and 23rd of November 2008. This will be her first live performance outside of Japan and will possibly mark the greatest moment in Singapore’s short and pathetic history.

More details after the break.

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Read the rest of May’n Live in Singapore! (316 words)

© DarkMirage for Ramblings of DarkMirage, 2008. | Permalink | 40 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: afa08, concert, may'n, singapore