Mr. Jero Goes to Washington

For the DC Cherry Blossom Festival, of course:

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....)

JeroWatch Update

James at Japan Probe has got the background on Jero's new--and animated--music video for "Hare Butai," a tribute to his mother:



Go for the video. Stay for the interview!

JeroWatch: Enka Otaku

CNN's Kyung Lah (she of Obama, Japan, election coverage fame) did an extended interview with Jero late last month. Definitely worth a watch, even if you haven't been following his career as closely as I have. His next music video will be animated, a nice follow-up to a video game commercial he was recently featured in.

Jero Watch: For the Full Metal Archivist

Here's a Jero duet for your travels in Kyoto with onechan's and imoto's baba. Enjoy!

With Itsuki Hiroshi:



For those who need the Jero primer, check this quickie out from Reuters:



And here's a longer one from NHK, this part focusing on his background:



It continues, now with the early stages in his enka career and his thoughts on enka, the blues, and Japanese culture:



He reveals a crush here:



Here's the conclusion, focusing on the two months he's been touring in Japan this year, arcing back to his origins, interluding with an English test, and concluding with a look ahead:

Jero in Fukuoka

The Mostly Harmless Jero Watch continues. This weekend he performed at various places in Fukuoka, including a pro basketball game and at a shopping area we've been to many times:



That's the mall in Kashii at which we almost lost onechan!

Jero on SMAPxSMAP!

You know Jero has made it big in Japan when he gets to play pool with SMAP on their show. The first part features him singing different styles of enka; the second a call to his sister Yumiko in North Carolina:



This one's for Jennifer at Mixed Race America. And no, it's no April Fool's Day joke.

Make It Jero for 2008

The Full Metal Archivist is becoming quite the trendspotter these days. Meet Jero from Pittsburgh, enka singer extraordinaire:



His grandma's Japanese, as he reveals on this show:



[Update 2/25/08: Damn, Japan Probe beat me to Jero--twice! I'll fix the above links when I have time, but for now head over there for ones that actually work!]

Silly Vegetable Music

Note that the sound appears to be delayed with respect to the visuals.



This too is Japanese:



Twinkle twinkle little paprika:



I don't know whether you want to show these to kids. It might give them the idea that it's more fun, and more authentically Japanese, to make music with their vegetables than to eat them.

Here's a little meat:

Yes! More Enka! More! MORE!

Been waiting awhile to get this opening from Ojarumaru up here! With the bacteria definitely in retreat and the girls' moods stabilizing, now is the time.



Too bad the episode in which the protagonist gets in a poetry vs. rap showdown hasn't made it to teh U2bes yet. In any case, only a few more late-night antibiotic doses to go....

We Have the Bacteria on the Run

Both girls were feeling a lot better yesterday, which resulted in lots of "happy happy joy joy" time until the inevitable sisterly fight or parental misunderstanding of imoto's grunts and gestures arose--in which case full-blown tantrum time. Well, no tantrum could withstand this Enka performance (Japanese country music) that James at Japan Probe just shared. Take that, bacteria and bad moods! Away with ye!

[Update: Wil Wheaton rightly calls this list of 17 free downloadable graphic novels both awesome and sensational--and you know what? He's right.]

Time to Unleash the Awesome Power of Mottainai

Girls still not better. Must up ante. They're big fans of Mottainai Obaasan, this grandmother in a children's book who goes around telling the kids not to waste anything. Turns out there's an NGO called Mottainai, whose official theme song didn't pass the musume test. But here are two videos on the same theme that did, the first a little bit country and the second a little bit hip hop.





Maybe together they can lend extra power to the girls' immune systems!