Can you say the name of your beard in Japanese? There are so many of them. Here you can learn some words and a little of Japanese society over beard.

Yoko Ogawa (小川洋子) is a Japanese novelist, born in Okayama prefecture (岡山県) in 1962. She won one of the most important prize in 1988 with her debut novel, "Agehachou ga kowareru toki (When the swallowtail breaks)" and since then she became one of the leading novelist in Japan.

 

The first book I pick was this, "Kanpeki na byoushitsu (the Perfect hospital room)".

The story is about the little brother of the protagonist who is about to die.

The theme is a little dark but some how it was subjective. I mean I know he is dying but the focus isn´t on his death.

 

One of the characteristic of Yoko Ogawa´s work in general is silence. It´s not plain nor dull, but it wraps you in the silence, as if you are in a crystal cubicle which is totally sterilized. Very clear her writing.

In the private life, she is an usual housewife who love music and a fanatical fan of Hanshin Tigers (One of the Japanese baseball teams).

 

Some of her book available in English are these.

ISBN : 9780099521341

ISBN : 9780099521358

ISBN : 9780099548997

 

What day is today in Japan? It´s the day of moustache. The reason why comes from Japanese writing.

TRI4TH is a Japanese jazz band formed by 4 musicians, Yuusuke Orita, Junnosuke Fujita, Tomotaka Sekiya and Takao Ito. In 2009 they released analogue single "TRI4TH plus EP" and in 2010 the first album "TRI4TH" was released. TRI4TH´s official website is HERE.

 

 

Yuusuke Orita is a Saitama born trumpeter, also work as a composer. He collaborates with many Japanese artists such as SMAP, JUJU, akiko and musicals. His blog is HERE.

 

 

 

 

Junnosuke Fujita is a Tottori born sax player. Although he started with classical music, since when he was interested in jazz, he´s been playing in various units. His blog is HERE.

 

 

 

Tomotaka Sekiya is a Osaka born bassist. Studied at LAMA and at the age 20, he recorded the first album "footprints" as a lead musician in LA. In 2009 joined TRI4TH. He is also a big fan of fishing. Sekiya´s blog is HERE.

 

 

 

Takao Ito is a Toyama born drummer. Sorry I couldn´t find much profile about him. His blog is HERE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This video is from one of the sessions at Shibuya Plug.

 

 

JDs is a project of a Japanese jazz/FUNK/R&B base band, JiLL-Decoy association also known as JILLDECO (ジルデコ). JDs is formed by JillDeco´s guitarist, Kubota and the drummer, Towada.

Kubota is a Shizuoka born guitarist although he started his music career as a pianist and discovered jazz guitar when he was in the university. He began his professional career in the US and has participated IAJE International jazz festival.

Towada is a Tokyo born drummer whose mother was a music teacher. He started classic piano when he was 6 but since the day he listened to Miles Davis, his passion for jazz arose. He studied music in Chicago Music University, after coming back to Japan, Towada formed various jazz band and one of them came to second at a jazz contest in Tokyo in 1999.

Japanese Jazz Duo Yuusuke Shima & Iori Kimura (島裕介×木村イオリ ).

Yuusuke Shima is a Osaka born jazz trumpeter. He started playing trumpet when he was 13 and since 2002 he has been playing as a professional trumpeter. He performed at FujiRockFestival 07'. 2009 Shima started a new project, Silent Jazz Case as a producer.

Yuusuke Shima official website is HERE.

 

Iori Kimura is an Aomori born pianist and a keybord player. 2008 a new band, bohemianvoodoo was formed.

2010 the band met Yuusuke Shima as the producer and in July they released the first album, ”S”.

Kimura is a talented pianist and collaborates with many artists from diverse areas; from jazz to Hip Hop.

The official website of bohemianvoodoo is HERE.

 

 

 

These two talented musicians make this sound. The video is one of the sessions they did at Shibuya Bar Music, called Neko ga kuru (The cat is coming). They make jazzy sweet sound, like a music box. I like it, nice.

 

 

What is Japanese onomatopoeia? Why it´s so important? Here we explain using a poem of Taro Gomi, a Japanese poet.

Taro Gomi (五味太郎) is a Tokyo born novelist for children, a poet and a composer of kids songs. He studied industrial design and used to work as a designer.

It´s a high school drama, “Tobidase seishun (飛び出せ青春 / Shoot out, youth)”, a story about this passionate teacher and the students who can´t keep up with the others. It´s cheesy and the teacher is too atsui.

The 7th of July is Tanabata (七夕/ the star festival) in Japan. We make decoration with colourful paper, loops, some patterns then the most important thing about Tanabata is you write your wishes to hang them from the bamboo leaves.