Categories
Music

Perfume

Perfume is a J-pop/electro/techno music group composed by three girls from Hiroshima Ayano Ōmoto, Yuka Kashino and Ayaka Nishiwaki. They founded the band in 2001 and they are right now one of the most popular bands in Japan. They are also starting to build an international presence, for example they made the song for the soundtrack of Cars 2 that is played in the movie when the cars are in Japan; the song is called Polyrhythm. Their coreographies, specially their “sweet dance”, has become an Internet phenomenon.

perfume. Japanese band

perfume. Japanese band

perfume. Japanese band

perfume. Japanese band

Do you like the music of Perfume? What are your favorite Japanese music bands?

If you like it you can find this playlist in YouTube with their music.

Categories
Traditional

Shisa Artisans

I love shisa lions/dogs from Okinawa. At the Tsuboya district in Naha (five minutes walking south from Kokusai-dori) I had the chance to see several artisans creating these figures that are usually seen at the entrance of houses or on rooftops to protect them against evil spirits and dragons.

Legend has it that an envoy from China came to visit the king of Okinawa (Ryukyu kingdom) and was hosted in the Shuri castle. As a present to the king he brought a necklace with a small figure shaped like a dog/lion. The king liked the present so much that since then he wore the necklace all the time.

Near the king’s castle there was a village by the coast where all the villagers had been terrorized for a long time;a huge sea dragon had been eating their children and destroying their houses. One day the king visited the village, he faced the dragon and raised the shisa figure that he had in his necklace, then a huge rock felt from the sky crushing the tail of the evil dragon and leaving him immobilized for ever.

Depending on who you ask in Okinawa you will hear the story with different variations.

Shisa

Shisa

Shisa

Shisa Artisans

Shisa Artisans

Shisa Artisans

Categories
Various

Toilet Motorcycle

Japanese toilet maker TOTO has created a motorcycle prototype to raise awareness about water waste and emissions from live stock. TOTO has compromised to reduce its CO2 emissions by 50% during the next five years.

Toto - Toilet Motorcycle
The motorcycle runs on bio-fuel.

Source: NyDailyNews