I stumbled into many interesting shops while cruising the downtown shopping district of Kumamoto. From designer clothes stores to hip-hop boutiques, there was a store for every style I could think of. The clothing shop that caught most of my attention was a t-shirt store named graniph.

graniph logo, graniph.com

I was walking by the stores, looking [...]

The headlining band that rounded out the day as the last band that I saw was Quruli. The hugely famous rockers from Kyoto capped off the day with a big ‘rock’.
Kishida Shigeru (vocals and guitar), Sato Masashi (bass), and Omura Tasshin (guitar) come together to form the drummerless trio (there’s no “official” drummer though one [...]

Along with The Back Horn, Acidman was my most anticipated show of the day. I felt excited knowing what to expect since I’d watched their live DVD earlier. That made the anticipation of their performance even more exciting.
Teruyo and I secured a place to stand up close on the side where bassist Sato Masatoshi would [...]

KREVA was second in line as far as hip-hop on the day goes…
There was no formal introduction, he hit the stage and the rhymes. The moment KREVA set foot onto the viewable platform, the DJs began spinning as he darted to the edge of the stage and performed his hit song, “The Show”.
Decked out [...]

I could probably give the award for the “funnest” performance that I saw at COUNTDOWN JAPAN 06/07 to Bennie K.
The female hip-hop/pop duo put on a show that was simply a good time. They performed some great songs and had a really powerful stage presence. Vocalist Yuki and rapper Cico combined on-stage with their [...]

The performance by Overground Acoustic Underground was a bit of a change-up from what I was starting to get use to at COUNTDOWN JAPAN. Not only is their music exclusively perfomed with acoustic instruments, but the member make-up of the band is rather unique.
Overground Acoustic Underground or more easily, OAU is composed of 6 members. [...]

The band that proceeded The Back Horn at COUNTDOWN JAPAN on December 30th, put on one of the most interesting and entertaining shows that I’ve ever seen. After a 20-minute or so break to do sound checks and all, ULTRA BRAiN hit the stage. I had no clue what is was in for, but I [...]

One of the most notable bands that I saw live at COUNTDOWN JAPAN 06/07 -west- in Osaka on December 30th, 2006 was The Back Horn. Their performance kicked off the festivities that day as they opened up on the Aurora Stage, one of the two main stages at Intex Osaka.
I was amazed by how well [...]

My adventures in Japanese Tower Records Land continued… I was ready and went up to the counter to pay for the “Good Morning” CD by Special Others. There was a little stack of cellophane CD cases to my side so I flipped one around and read it. “Take Free!!” was printed on the CD. A [...]

About the only manga that I read these days is “Love Roma” (ラブロマ) by Toyoda Minoru (とよ田みのる). I was able to purchase all 5 books from the series while in Japan. I also picked up a copy of AFTERNOON Magazine (アフタヌーン), the monthly manga magazine which first ran “Love Roma”.
As I flipped through the [...]