Baby Metal

Do you know the Japanese band Baby Metal ?

They are a unique “heavy metal” meets J-pop band that consists of three junior high school girls!
The girls are ages 13, 14, and 15…and they’re not even actually heavy-metal fans. They prefer pop music (as most girls their age do).

Not your typical metal band. And, to be honest, I’m not really a big fan.
But, it is an interesting concept for a band, I have to admit.

If these girls aren’t really “metal heads”, then why are they in a band called “Baby Metal”?

They were in a pop band together but their producer, who is a metal-head had an idea to fuse their music with thrashing guitars and metal growls!

Unsurprisingly, the girls weren’t keen to becoming a heavy-metal band at first. In fact, the youngest member asked “What’s ‘heavy metal’?“. But they say that they’ve warmed up to it and enjoy being a totally unique act…and also being able to act “wild” on stage.

The even do a unique spin on the “metal horns” hand gesture that they call “kitsune” (which means “fox” in Japanese).
The reason, actually, is because on their debut photo-shoot, their producer told them to do the “metal horns” (which they had never seen before)…and they mistook the hand gesture for the one that became their signature hand gesture.

They have songs with titles such as 「イジメ・ダメ・ゼッタイ！」, which means “Absolutely no bullying!” (which, although has a good message, I don’t enjoy much), and 「ヘドバンギャー!!」 (“Headbanger!!”) which is a lot better.

Their newest song, titled 「メギツネ」 (“Female Fox”), is their best so far.

Here is the video for Baby Metal 「メギツネ」 (“Female Fox”):

Mt. Fuji – World Heritage Site … finally

富士山 (Mt. Fuji), a symbol of Japan, has finally been granted status as a World Heritage Site.

In honor, Google Japan incorporated the mountain in their logo today (although Google U.S. didn’t).

Lun-chan

My pet turtle is getting big!

So cute, isn’t she?

Worst movies

Tell me some of the worst movies you’ve ever watched.

As for me … here are some movies that I’ve had the misfortune of enduring:

Lost In Translation
2001
The Shining
Forrest Gump
サンシャイン 2057 (Sunshine 2057)

Have you seen any of those?
What did you think of them?

What are some movies you hated?

Birthday of Anne Frank

Anne Frank (アンネ・フランク) would have turned 84 years old today, June 12th 2013, if she were still alive.

Have you ever read “The Diary of Anne Frank” (アンネの日記) ?

She received the diary as a present from her parents on her thirteenth birthday.
She began writing in it immediately and continued for two years until she and her family were captured by Nazis in early August 1944 when she was fifteen.

Her father was the only member of her family to survive the hard-labor concentration camp.
He had her diary published after the war when a family friend, who had kept Anne’s diary safe, returned it to him.

“The Diary of Anne Frank” wasn’t immediately successful in Europe, and  it was mildly successful at first in America…but it was an immediate bestseller in Japan!

In her diary, Anne wrote:

“I want to be useful to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living even after my death!”

and:

“Will I ever be able to write something great?“

She definitely wrote “something great”…and she’ll go on living forever!

– Anne Frank, RIP
June 12th 1929 – March ?, 1945

KISS Monster Tour, Japan

KISS is scheduled to play four shows in Japan to promote their latest album “Monster”.

The scheduled dates are:

★ Saturday, October 19, 2013 – Chiba, Japan

☆ Monday, October 21, 2013 – Osaka, Japan

★ Wednesday, October 23, 2013 – Tokyo, Japan (still unconfirmed)

☆ Thursday, October 24, 2013 – Tokyo, Japan (still unconfirmed)

Here is the チラシ (flyer) for the KISS Monster Japan Tour 2013:

And when major world-famous musicians are scheduled to play in Japan, there is usually an ad or article about it in the newspapers here.
KISS’s upcoming tour is mentioned in today’s paper:

It says “Seven years since their last Japan tour, the American hard rock band KISS”

Yamanote Line … 50th anniversary

The JR 山手線 (Yamanote Line ) is probably the most famous train line in Tokyo.

It’s a one-hour loop around 29* stations in the heart of the city. (* a new station is planned to be added soon).

Every train and subway line in Tokyo has a unique color to make them easy to identify.  These colors are used on train and subway maps, on platform signs and the trains themselves are painted those colors (either a solid color or, more commonly nowadays, two-tone silver and the “line color”).

The Yamanote Line‘s color is lime-green.

For the past thirty years or so, the Yamanote Line has been using “205 series” trains. Older model trains have been phased out of use many years ago.

But, this year only, the Yamanote Line has re-introduced the older “103 series” trains back into service.

This is because the 103 series trains were first used on the Yamanote Line in 1963…fifty years ago.   So, the older model trains can be ridden until December 2013!

Here are some photos that I took last weekend of the special 50th anniversary 103-series Yamanote Line trains:

These special 50th anniversary trains are painted solid lime-green just like they used to be years ago (as opposed to the current silver and lime-green).

If you’re in Tokyo, you can ride this train until December 2013.

It says “50th anniversary of the birth of the green Yamanote Line 103 series train”.

(By the way, if you were in Tokyo four years ago, you may remember the only time that some Yamanote Line trains were brown instead of green. Click here to read a post about it.)

Passion Fruit Kit-Kat

The newest Kit-Kat flavor in Japan is 「オトナの甘さ　パッションフルーツ」 (“Adult-taste sweetness Passion Fruit flavor“)*.

Have you ever tried any of the numerous Kit-Kat flavors in Japan?

* (edit. Maybe this would be a better translation of the name.)