Na Yeon Choi and Ji-Yai Shin Tuning Up for Evian Masters on the JLPGA This Week

Fresh from her U.S. Women's Open victory and a blitz of South Korea, Na Yeon Choi will be playing in the Samantha Thavasa Ladies this week on the JLPGA.  She's going to get the full J-Pop experience, as the tournament will be augmented by fashion and talk shows, live concerts, and more.  Not only will she be facing off against the 9 of the top 10 on the JLPGA money list, from leader Mi-Jeong Jeon to the blazing-hot Chie Arimura, from young guns Mayu Hattori, Ritsuko Ryu, and Rikako Morita to wily veterans Miki Saiki and Ji-Hee Lee, from looking-to-find-their-A-games Sun-Ju Ahn and Sakura Yokomine to former LPGAers Soo-Yun Kang, Na-Ri Kim, Teresa Lu, and Young Kim, but she'll also get to test herself against Ji-Yai Shin, who's making her return from hand surgery this week.  This is shaping up to be a fantastic debut for this new event on the JLPGA.  Wouldn't it be cool if Choi and Shin, the top 2 Korean golfers in the world, made it to the final pairing on Sunday?

[Update 1 (10:39 pm):  Happy Fan reports over at Seoul Sisters.com that the Korean media has been anticipating this showdown for weeks and that KLPGA young gun Char Young Kim is also in the field.]

Lady Gaga on New Year's Eve Kohaku Uta Gassen

Just like Annika Sorenstam and Paula Creamer before her, Lady Gaga delivered a great performance in a big event in Japan:  the New Year's Eve countdown/musical extravaganza on NHK known as Kohaku Uta Gassen.

Somebody uploaded the closing montage from the 62nd annual show, along with the final judgment of who won the competition between the Red (girls') and White (boys') team.  It gives you some sense of the range and kinds of J-pop, enka, and other forms of music popular in Japan in 2011:




You probably noticed Lady Gaga in the montage, but here's her full performance of "Born This Way":



And "You and I":



I don't know if her performances counted toward the Red team's total, but maybe she helped pushed them over the top for the 1st time since 2004. Somehow I doubt groups like AKB48 needed the help, though:



Heck, I think they outnumbered the guys all by themselves!

Make It BABYMETAL in 2012!

Happy New Year from Mostly Harmless!  Enjoy some BABYMETAL, what looks like an elementary-school-aged kawaii metal band from Japan, to kick off 2012:



OK, so even though Laughing Squid thinks they're teenagers, I'm going with Blabbermouth, who has the lead singer at 13 and the 2 dancers/screamers at 12, not least b/c it fits my '12 theme.  Anyway, if you think they look young in this video, check out this fan montage, which lays the "Doki Doki Morning" track over clips of Sakura Gakuin performing live (that's the band they are an offshoot of):



It's going to be a great year!  Or at least a weird one!  How could it not be when a fan came out with a computer-game style video of their debut song within 8 days of its official release?

Lady GaGa Excited by Blenders, Big Knives, Teasing Kimutaku, Flirting with Tsuyoshi, Japanese Food

Yup, she was on SMAP Bistro! And gets all interactive while the guys are cooking....



Here she explains why she's so into Hello Kitty--and shows off how much she likes spicy food! Man, Shingo steals the scene at the end of this clip in his usual costumed appearance...this time as Shingo-panda!



So do Kimutaku and Goro win or Shingo and Tsuyoshi?



I won't give it away because I'm too hungry!

J-Pop Culture Update: Moe Madness!

Here's the anime du jour at the Constructivist household. It's called Kimi Ni Todoke and the Full Metal Archivist calls it "the Bible of moe." What's moe? Mao Asada would like to know. (Hint: Mao Asada is moe and so is her reaction to the question posed to her at the end of the video.) For more details, check out the hottest new anime in Japan and around the world at AnimeKuro. What's striking about "Reaching You" is how a subculture into fetishing the purity and innocence of young girls has gone mainstream via the manga and anime. And what's striking about the Discovery Channel International Made in J-Pop Culture documentary is the subtitles posted on it in Japanese on youtube:



Japanese pop culture is fascinated by how American (and other) pop culture is fascinated with Japanese pop culture. Check out the channel of the samuraitoshi3 to see what I mean.

Me, I'll go back to Karen Tei Yamashita's Circle K Diaries (2001).... Somehow I find the Discovery Channel's borrowing tropes from its nature documentaries less interesting than early Yamashita writing about the permutations and mutations of Brazilian, Japanese, and American identities.

J-Skate Fans Pwn J-Golf Fans

OMG! LOL! Mao Asada's fans rule!



At least Ryo Ishikawa makes 2 appearances here....

[Update 1 (6:36 am): Not exactly an inspired performance by Mao-chan in Moscow this weekend:



But check out the little girl shouting "Mao-chan, gambatte!" ("go for it, Mao-chan!") at the start and "sugoi" ("wow! amazing!") at the end of this home video of her free skate. Cho kawaii!]

[Update 2 (11/9/09, 4:11 am): And now I find out it's not even Ryo-kun but instead Ryota Ito in the video....]

HIMEKA Watch: YouTube Edition

If you aren't yet a fan of French Canadian anime songstress HIMEKA (Catherine St-Onge), you will be after checking out the following clips from youtube!

Here's her victory performance at the Animax Anison Grand Prix contest, with English subtitles of the judges' reactions and the award presentation:



Here's how she got there in the 1st and 2nd rounds:



The Full Metal Archivist was blown away by her singing, her gestures, even her breathing techniques, but how did authentic Japanese otaku react to her performance?



No subtitles necessary, eh?



Here's her song for the opening of Valkryia Chronicles:



Bonus points for true otaku wannabees--check out the differences in her style of singing the same song in this promotional video:



Now HIMEKA's getting the full-on Jero treatment, from TBS:



From a morning news program:



We think this was the same show Jero appeared on last year:



Let's check out with her debut single, a cover of "Sayonara Solitaire":



What a voice!

Jero + Utada = HIMEKA?

A Mostly Harmless regular pointed me to an article by Junko Hirabayashi about Catherine St-Onge, a Canadian singer who's made it big in Japan performing "anison," or animated songs, in Japanese. Sounds like Quebec's answer to Jero!

Sony Music Japan International, which signed up St-Onge after she won the singing contest, calls her the only "genuine" Western anison singer who debuted in Japan.

"I believe this is the first case a non-Japanese singer wannabe who has no Japanese background survived under the same conditions Japanese competitors did," said Sony Music's Yuichi Nakanishi.

Will she be the next Hikaru Utada? Only time will tell! Gambare, HIMEKA-san!

Atsui, Samui, Daijo Bu: Pink Lady Edition

Today is the 51st birthday of Mitsuyo Nemoto, who has been performing as Mie with Keiko Masuda (Kei) in the J-pop duo Pink Lady for most of the Full Metal Archivist's lifetime. In fact, the tsuma remembers rocking out to songs like "Tomei Ningen" when she was a toddler:



Well, Pink Lady is still performing, three decades later.



Here's hoping the golfers I'm focusing on this week have similar staying power, whether they're playing great (atsui), suffering through slumps (samui), or doing just fine (daijo bu).

Atsui

1. Angela Stanford: OK, so she had her worst finish in her last 8 events in Thailand, a T7, and had to settle for T3 in Singapore when her history of Sunday struggles cropped up again at the worst possible moment (see #2 below). But those 3 wins highlighting her 9-event top 10 streak still make her the hottest player in the world of women's golf in my book. She's gotta keep it going if she wants to stay #1, though.

2. Ji-Yai Shin: After a terrible 39 to close out her 2nd round at the Showdown in Singapore, she seemed stuck in two-steps-forward-one-step-back mode, but then she fired a pair of 66s on the weekend, chasing down two of the hottest players on the planet on Sunday for her 1st win as an LPGA member and 4th on tour since taking the Women's British Open last summer. She's moved from #5 on my samui lost to #2 on my hot list in 3 events. Not bad!

3. Katherine Hull: Even though she let her 3rd win in her last 16 starts slip away on the back 9 yesterday, she still got her 4th runner-up and 9th top 5 in that stretch and proved that her T40 in Thailand was a blip (after all, it was only her 2nd finish outside the top 20 since her win at the Canadian Women's Open).

4. Lorena Ochoa: Despite her win in Thailand, she's going to need to find another gear if she wants to outdo her start to the 2008 season, when she won 5 of her 1st 6 and 6 of her 1st 9 events. By normal standards, she's plenty hot lately, with 2 wins, 6 top 5s, and 9 top 10s in her last 12 starts, but that's only ho-hum for Super Ochoa.

5. Paula Creamer: Yes, she couldn't maintain her 3-shot lead on Ochoa on Sunday in Thailand and her Sunday charge in Singapore was too little, too late. But in her last 15 events, she has 2 wins and 11 top 10s.

Honorable Mention:

Cristie Kerr: Her hot streak dates back to last May, for in her last 20 tournaments, she's only finished outside the top 20 twice (her worst being a T34 in China), while garnering 10 top 10s, including a runner-up and a win. She missed a great chance to add to that top 10 total in Asia, but T19 and T11 are still very good results.

Jee Young Lee: Her top-10 streak ended at 6 events a couple of weeks ago, but since last June she has had 10 top 20s (including her most recent ones in Thailand and Singapore). Too bad for her that her best finish in her other 4 events during that stretch is a T22--incredibly, she missed the cut 3 times!

Ya Ni Tseng: Just missed her 4th straight top 10 in '09, counting her adventure Down Under, but going back to last season she has a 6-event top-20 streak going and looks unlikely to break it any time soon.

Yuko Mitsuka: With her win in the JLPGA's kickoff event of 2009, she extends her top-5 run to her last 4 events, for a total of 7 in her last 13 starts. Her worst finish in that run has been T22, so you know she's been playing very well, even if she hasn't been facing the same level of competition or pressure week in and week out during that stretch.

Angela Park: That's 2 top 3s in her 1st 3 official starts on the LPGA in '09 and 3 top 10s in her last 4, going back to the ADT Championship.

Jane Park: That makes it 2 top 10s in her 1st 3 events of 2009. Is this the start of a streak?

Sun Young Yoo. She was in contention briefly during the final 9 in Singapore, and even though she quickly dropped out of it, she nabbed her 4th top 10 in her last 8 starts.

Eun-Hee Ji: Her T14 in Singapore breaks her 4-round multiple-of-5 finish but brings her top-20 streak to 5.

Brittany Lang: Her top 10 streak ends at 7. Here's hoping Singapore was a blip.

Samui

1. Brittany Lincicome: Couldn't sink any lower, not having qualified for the early-season Asian swing. Oh wait, how about finishing out of the money last week on the SunCoast Series?

2. Julieta Granada: Ditto, except at least she took the week off.

3. Inbee Park: Couldn't get anything going in Thailand or Singapore.

4. Shiho Oyama: Having a tough time adjusting to life on the LPGA, even with a pair of sponsor exemptions that got her into the early-season Asian swing. To add to the indignity, the LPGA hasn't been updating her player page this season.

5. Ashleigh Simon: After getting her LPGA card with a great performance in Q-School, she's finished near the bottom of the pile in her only two starts in '09. My guess is she's playing hurt.

Daijo Bu

1. Na Yeon Choi: Her top-20 streak ended at 4 with her T31 in Singapore, but look for her to start a new one in her next event.

2. Mi Hyun Kim: Even a birdie-less 38 on her final 9 in Singapore couldn't knock her out of the top 10. It's her 1st since the U.S. Women's Open and the clearest sign yet that her recovery from knee surgery before the start of last season is finally on track.

3. Se Ri Pak: A top-15 finish in Singapore raises hopes that Pak is back!

4. Amy Yang: Got it to -7 on the final 9 in Singapore before stumbling down the stretch, but joined her peers among those playing their 1st full season on the LPGA in notching an early top 20. Officially off the samui list.

5. Ai Miyazato and Momoko Ueda: A great Thursday and terrible Sunday for Ai-chan in Singapore were the outliers on her very good play since the very end of 2008. Momo-chan still hasn't been playing to her potential yet in '09, but she's still nabbed 2 top 20s in a row on the LPGA.

Honorable Mention: Looks like Suzann Pettersen, Seon Hwa Lee, Song-Hee Kim, and Meena Lee are back, as well, after rocky starts to 2009 for all of them. And Anja Monke keeps putting together solid start after solid start, showing that her run at the end of '08 was no fluke.

One final note on Mie, the birthday girl: she sometimes sings for a Japanese metal group called Animetal. Here they are covering a Dragon Ash tune I blogged about a little under a year ago:



Small world, eh?

[Update 1 (4:04 am): Hmm, only Ji-Yai Shin and Paula Creamer made Jason Sobel's Weekly 18. Oh, well.]

[Update 2 (5:55 pm): Jim Gorant talks Annika, Lorena, Angela (Stanford), and Ji-Yai.]

[Update 3 (3/10/09, 1:09 am): Maybe I should add "the LPGA" to my hot list. Regular readers of Hound Dog, Brent Kelley, and Ryan Ballengee already know the Samsung World Championship is moving to Torrey Pines in '09, but unless you check out LPGA.com regularly, this may be news to you.]

[Update 4 (1:27 am): More good news for the LPGA, this time courtesy of Jon Show: their deal for their season-ending Tour Championship is with IMG, not Stanford Financial, which explains why they've been relatively calm and why Dottie Pepper has sounded so confident lately, despite the "massive ongoing fraud" investigation and all.]

[Update 5 (1:33 am): Show also notes the Samsung could come back to the South Course in 2010, assuming Samsung decides to keep sponsoring the event.]

[Update 6 (3/12/09, 2:18 am): Alan Shipnuck is wrong wrong wrong about Angela Stanford. In what universe is she not the hottest golfer on the LPGA right now? Not ours, that's for sure.]

[Update 7 (2:57 am): Hound Dog offers some indirect confirmation for my hot list with his latest Hall of Fame Watch post.]

[Update 8 (4:14 pm): Hound Dog reports the latest from the SunCoast Series and I'm happy to report that Brittany Lincicome finished under par, in the money, and only 4 shots out of the lead this time around! She finished behind Alexis Thompson, it's true, but I suspect a lot of people will be saying that in upcoming years.]

[Update 9 (3/18/09, 5:42 pm): Hound Dog has a surer method than mine for determining who's hot!]

Atsui, Samui, Daijo Bu: Hinamatsuri Edition

In just a few hours, Hinamatsuri will begin in Japan. What better time than during Girls' Festival to take another look at recent trends in the world of women's professional golf to see who are the hottest (atsui) and coldest (samui) players, and who's doing all right (daijo bu)? Let's get in the mood:



Now a little more up-tempo:



OK, then! The name of this new Mostly Harmless feature comes from a little song I made up for onechan when she was a baby, sung to the tune of "Frere Jacques," about filling the bathtub and getting it the right temperature, but its purpose is to give a little bit better information than jumps in the Rolex Rankings or Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index indicate.

Atsui

1. Angela Stanford: OK, so she had her worst finish in her last 8 events in Thailand, a T7. But those 3 wins in that stretch still make her the hottest golfer in the world of women's golf in my book. Still, guess who's gaining on her fast?

2. Lorena Ochoa: That's right, the undisputed world #1! With her win last week, she put the world on notice she's ready to outdo her start to the 2008 season, when she won 6 of her 1st 9 events. Even though she couldn't maintain that pace over the entire season, consider this: she hasn't missed a cut since 2005, she hasn't finished outside the top 40 since February 2007, and her worst finish since then was a T31 in the U.S. Women's Open. In fact, in her last 68 starts, she's finished outside the top 20 a grand total of 3 times. So the fact that she's got 2 wins, 6 top 5s, and 8 top 10s in her last 11 starts is only ho-hum territory for her. Still, it's enough to vault her ahead of the player she vaulted ahead of on the way to yesterday's win.

3. Paula Creamer: Yes, she couldn't maintain her 3-shot lead on Ochoa yesterday. But in her last 14 events, she has 2 wins and 10 top 10s. That's hot.

4. Brittany Lang: Although she faded on the weekend in Thailand, she still posted her 7th straight top 10 and her 2nd-best finish (T4) in that run.

5. Cristie Kerr: Her hot streak dates back to last May, for in her last 19 tournaments, she's only finished outside the top 20 twice (her worst being a T34 in China), while garnering 10 top 10s, including a runner-up and a win. She missed a great chance to add to that top 10 total in Thailand with a weak finish yesterday, but still nabbed a T19.

Honorable Mention:

Katherine Hull: In her 14 starts from the Canadian Women's Open to the Women's Australian Open, Hull had 2 wins, 3 runner-ups, 8 top 5s, 11 top 10s, and 13 top 20s (her worst finish? T23!). So why on earth did she finish T40 in her 15th event, her LPGA debut in Thailand? Let's hope that was just a blip.

Jee Young Lee: Her top-10 streak ended at 6 events, but since last June she has 9 top 20s (including her most recent one in Thailand). Unfortunately for her, her best finish in her other 4 events during that stretch is a T22--incredibly, she missed the cut 3 times!

Ya Ni Tseng: Just missed her 3rd straight top 5 in '09, counting her adventure Down Under.

Eun-Hee Ji: Now has a 20th-, 15th-, 10th-, and 5th-place finish over her last 4 starts (although not in that order).

Na Yeon Choi: Extended her top 20 streak to 4 events with her T13 this past week.

Hee Young Park: Known for her ability to go low and high in the same tournament, Park opened her week in Thailand with her 2nd-worst score on the LPGA (and a hospital visit), but then broke 70 3 times in a row for the 1st time in her LPGA career, including the 2 lowest rounds of her LPGA career, a 64 on Friday and a 65 on Sunday. Wow!

Samui

1. Brittany Lincicome: Couldn't sink any lower, not having qualified for the early Asian swing.

2. Julieta Granada: Ditto.

3. Se Ri Pak: Her slump continues. Hopefully she'll play well in Singapore.

4. Inbee Park: Not as bad an LPGA debut for her as I feared.

5. Amy Yang: Waiting anxiously to see how she handles the Showdown in Singapore.

Dishonorable Mention: Ashleigh Simon came in dead last in Thailand. Guess that back injury isn't fully healed.

Daijo Bu

1. Ji-Yai Shin: After an opening 75, broke par the next 3 rounds in Thailand and finished T13. Heading in the right direction as she heads into the Showdown in Singapore.

2. Ai Miyazato: Extended her par or better streak to 11 rounds before fading over the weekend with her worst 2 rounds over her last 18 (a 73 and a 74). But she's among the LPGA's leaders in birdies, putts per green in regulation, and scoring average. I've said it before and I'll say it again: watch out for her this season!

3. Sun Young Yoo. Her closing 68 on Sunday wasn't enough to snag her her 4th top 10 in her last 7 starts, but T11 is a giant step in the right direction.

4. Helen Alfredsson: Continues to show flashes of absolute brilliance since her breakthrough in last year's U.S. Women's Open. From then on, she's had 2 wins, 2 runner-ups, and 2 other top 10s, including her T7 this past week.

5. Natalie Gulbis: A bad weekend dropped her to T26 in Thailand, but she's still showing every indication of being all the way back from last season's back injuries.

Honorable Mention: Rookie Mika Miyazato posted her 1st LPGA top 10 in her 2nd career start on tour. She's only 13 points behind Michelle Wie in the ROY race.

Over and out!



[Update 1 (3/3/09, 11:20 am): Nice to see Lorena's win perking up the ears of Daniel Wexler, the Devil Ball Golf guys, and Ryan Ballengee.]

[Update 2 (7:58 pm): Here's Happy Fan's recap of Hee Young Park's excellent adventure in Thailand.]

Valentine's Day Showdown: Ueda and Moromizato VS Arashi

Momoko Ueda and Shinobo Moromizato appeared on the Japanese television show VS Arashi on Valentine's Day. Arashi's a boy band in the SMAP mode, just younger and less successful. They're branching out into other forms of entertainment, among them this game show/reality tv challenge type thing. You have to see it for yourself.



The Full Metal Archivist isn't that impressed. Me, I'm thinking that Ueda is hoping the Showdown in Singapore will be that much easier after facing off against Arashi the last two Saturdays.

[Update 1 (4:52 am): For more that hasn't made it to youtube yet, check ut this hilarious overview (in English, natch!).

Happy Birthday, FMA!

Some birthday wishes for the Full Metal Archivist....

May an international flight be in your future:



May J-pop always be on youtube for you:



May Daisuke Takahashi come back from his knee injury better than ever:



May you always have someone to take care of the alarm clock for you:

Love Love Love Live

The Full Metal Archivist didn't think my earlier Valentine's Day post was romantic enough. Here's one of her favorite groups from her high school years, Dreams Come True, performing live, impromptu, in a park:



What a voice, eh? Just as good for 50 people as 50,000:

Make It Hikaru Utada in 2009!

Hat tip to Bill Benzon for sending me to the Japan Times for this piece by Daniel Robson on the coming J-pop assault on America's top 40 charts. Here's hoping the 1st artist he features, Hikaru Utada, does as well in the English-speaking world in 2009 as Jero did in the Japanese-speaking world in 2008.

Here's the video for one of her older songs, "Travelling," which gets a lot of play on our Saturday rides to onechan's yochien:



Here's "Can U Keep a Secret," which stars not one but two robots:



Here's her debut single, "Automatic," which was released in late 1998, just before she turned 16:



By that point, she had been performing for 5 years already, mostly with her mom, Keiko Fuji, an enka singer in the '70s. Here's Utada covering the Carpenters, back when she started her solo career in Cubic U (a reference to her being a 3rd-generation female performer--her grandmother was a blind shamisen player):



Happy birthday, Hikki, and good luck! (Going by her first single, she won't need it....)

Before there was J-pop . . .

I remember this song from my youth:



It's the first (and only) Japanese-language song to be a hit in America.