A smile. Whenever I pick up Lee Tonouchi’s Oriental Faddah and Son, I can’t help but smile. The book’s cover is nicely designed and at 152 pages, it should be a fast read (compared to the 925 pages in Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 which I’m also reading) but in reality, it’s not because I often find … Continue reading »
Filed under Shopping …
UNIQLO’s UT Corporate Collaboration t-shirts feature two Okinawa awamori companies
I can file this in the “I should be in Japan/Okinawa now so that I can buy this” folder. UNIQLO, one of the coolest clothing companies in Japan (and the world?) has t-shirts in their UT Corporate Collaboration series featuring two awamori companies.
Buying sanshin in the U.S. has become that much easier
What an exciting time we’re living in if you’re a fan of the sanshin. In the past, those of us outside of Okinawa who play the sanshin would have to either go there or be fortunate enough to know someone who lives or travels there for us to buy the instrument or its accessories (e.g. … Continue reading »
Asoviva: Resort Instrument Factory
Jeremy over at AsovivaSanshin.com was nice enough to contact us to share links and of course, we said yes! We’ve actually blogged about their other website awhile back (there’s also a commenter to the post who had ordered from them) so it’s nice to hear that they’ve created an English-language website too. I like it … Continue reading »
asoviva34′s cover of Jack Johnson’s “Flake”
One way to get our attention is to send us a video of your playing a sanshin (check) and a very big plus is to play a song from an artist we’re big fans of here (check). So without further ado, here’s asoviva34 playing his sanshin arrangement of Jack Johnson’s “Flake.” Interestingly enough, asoviva34′s homepage … Continue reading »
One-of-a-kind gold sanshin (yes, it’s real)
Are you a sanshin collector with ¥1,260,000 (about US $14,000) lying around? Then, you’re in luck! Buy a one-of-a-kind gold sanshin. Yes, I kid you not and if you do buy it, make sure not to skimp on shipping. Me? Put an Apple sticker on a sanshin and I’m a happy camper. (Via @kyankyankyan.)
Web: Minami Sanshin-ten
If you’re into finding out more about the sanshin, head on over to the Minami Sanshin-ten blog for photos of their order-made sanshin. You’ll find a lot of great photos featuring different styles of sanshin (Makabii, Chinin Deeku, Kuba nu Funi, Yunaa), videos and photos of sanshin in different stages of development. You can also … Continue reading »
Beautiful photos of Okinawa on your iPhone? There’s an app for that.
We’re big fans of Apple Inc. here so of course, we love the iPhone. For USD $0.99, you can buy an app of beautiful photos of Okinawa shot by none other than Mr. O-pop himself, Rinken Teruya (founder of all things Rinken). The app, simply called “Okinawa,” features the song “Takouyama” sung by Tomoko Uehara, … Continue reading »
More iTunes links!
Yeah, I know. We just blogged about finding two Okinawan music collections on iTunes and here we are about an hour later and we have more links for you to click on. (Links will open iTunes.) Fumi “Sanshin de Kikitai Hikitai J-Pop Best 15“ HSB (Hirosaki University Steelpan Band) “Steelpan de Kiku Okinawa Ongaku“ Satoshi … Continue reading »
Okinawan music collections on iTunes (it’s growing, slowly)
It was quite awhile ago when we found the wonderful Okinawan music colletion “Respect Records Presents Okinawa Best Song Collection” on iTunes and since then we’ve found two more. Titled “Okinawa Traditional,” (iTunes link) the 16-track collection from the High Wave label features top utasaa (Okinawan folk singer) like Seijin Noborikawa, Sadao China, Tetsuhiro Daiku, … Continue reading »
