Thank you, Kathryn, for linking to the results of the Mr Japan contest. I think they chose a good winner. Of course it’s not just about looks but also leadership and powers of expression.
And the winner is . . . Mr Kyoto!
Kathryn
1930s Mobster Boys Love Game
I heard about this BL (boys love) game called Lucky Dog from Bangin. After the disappointing visit to Miracle Jump BL (where, as Kathryn writes, there is “not even a bit of eye-fucking”), this game might be all the BL I need. Warning: this “gay” content is made by and for women.
Sakurai Sho & the making of an Ozzie fan girl
Lovely story by Project Me’s Kathryn about how she went from an Ozzie indie rock chick to a Japanese fan girl. I love how she hates when people call Arashi a “boy band.” They are IDOLS, she reminds us. Glad to know that super-vain Japanese boys are spreading happiness to the furthest corners of the Earth. And attracting new energy and life to Japan by inspiring immigrants!
Sui Sui!
Heavily male Kizarazu Cat’s Eye drama
Has anyone seen the J-drama called Kizarazu Cat’s Eye? Kathryn of Project Me wrote a wonderful review. It sounds full of boys love, yankiis, and costumes. I’ve borrowed these pix to motivate me to find this drama on the internets!
Softbank is bringing fun back to family
Softbank, one of Japan’s large mobile telephone companies, has a long-running ad series with an unusual family: an elegant mother, her husband who is a white dog (with the voice of Kitaoji Kinya), and two children, one of whom is African American.
The best thing about this series is that no explanation is given for the inter-species and inter-racial nature of the family.
Thanks to Kathryn of Project Me I learned about the latest ad in which kimono-clad grandma, the mother of the white dog, introduces her new husband, a very handsome and very young man, also wearing kimono. He’s played by Shota Matsuda.
Introducing Nakamura Shido: Guest post by Kathryn
Guest Post: Created by Kathryn of Project Kathryn.
Readers, you are in for a huge treat!
After I complained that many of my loyal fangirl readers seem fixated on the super-young (at least from the perspective of this cougar, aka milf), Kathryn volunteered to introduce adorable Nakamura Shido. I love how her profile includes Arashi, Kathryn’s favorite group, and Donki! Thanks, Kathryn!!
—— —— —— ——
Shido Nakamura is apparently a famous Kabuki actor. Not being up with such cultured things like that, I only really noticed him when watching Letters from Iwo Jima (a damn fine movie – I resisted watching it for ages because I hate war movies but I’d highly recommend it).
After that, he became known (to me) as “the guy from Letters… no, not Nino, not Watanbe Ken, the other guy…”
Then I found out all about his kabuki past (he then became “the kabuki guy from Letters from Iwo Jima”) and, suddenly kabuki didn’t seem so boring. I could sit though some traditional Japanese theatre for Nakamura-san.
More recently he was a guest on Arashi ni Shiyagare – http://www.dramacrazy.net/japanese-variety/arashi-ni-shiyagare-episode-3/ as the “big brother” guest. He taught Arashi how to make ramen in a manly fashion *swoon*. He has a quiet, dry sense of humor you rarely see in guests on Japanese variety shows. But best of all, he talked about how, when he gets lonely in the middle of the night, he goes shopping at Don Quixote! And he loves it when he gets recognised and asked for autographs and photos. He (cleverly, perhaps) didn’t say which branch he shops at because that could possibly be opening the floodgates of fangirl stalking.
Still, good looks, manliness, sense of humor and shopping at Donki = a combination that will win my heart.
Tokyo Moe 