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 Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2005 7:36 pm
Manga is taking over bookshelves at comic stores and Barnes and Noble's everywhere, but I thought it would be fun to talk about how the Japanese culture is increasingly making an impression on Western Culture. So post your little Japanese encounters here.
I bought Gwen Stefani's CD "Love.Angel.Music.Baby" and aside from it being a very, um, interesting CD, Gwen has this very entertaining obsession with Harajuku, a station in Shibuya, Tokyo where teenagers aparently flock to in their crazy clothes. She mentions "Harajuku Girl" in "Whatcha waiting for", "Rich Girl" and in the song "Harajuku Girls" there are occational Japanese phrases peppered in the song (actually written in japanese in the booklet)
Also, if you see the beginning of "I'm Really Hot" by Missy Elliott, theres a funny little dialogue at the beginning between Missy Elliott's gang and a Japanese girl gang in Japanese.
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Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2005 1:12 pm
Well, I know ramen has been invaiding. But I don't mind. It's all good. And, in Ventura, a beach town, there is sushi joints EVERYWHERE! eek Too bad I don't live there. gonk I love sushi...
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Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2005 8:52 pm
Went to little Tokyo in LA... BEST GREEN TEA ICE CREAM EVER!
on that note, have you noticed the extreme amount of "green tea" this and "green tea" that? I can't wait til they start selling green tea ice cream in stores. YUM!
And there are more and more Japanese restaurants popping up. I think that's Japanese invasion-y. ^__^
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Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2005 9:59 pm
mimeiko Went to little Tokyo in LA... BEST GREEN TEA ICE CREAM EVER! on that note, have you noticed the extreme amount of "green tea" this and "green tea" that? I can't wait til they start selling green tea ice cream in stores. YUM! And there are more and more Japanese restaurants popping up. I think that's Japanese invasion-y. ^__^ So far, my town only has one, and it's been there since I can remember.
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Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2005 11:01 pm
Really? I can vouch for at least three cities: Vegas, NV; Ontario, CA; and LA, CA.
Man, I wish I could take everyone to Little Tokyo with me! It is SOOOOO cute. There's this TINY supermarket with lots of Japanese people floating around, being friendly and such. The ice cream shop has mochi ice cream, and the strawberry is AMAZING. I absolutely LOVE Little Tokyo. I'll take pictures and post them here next time I go. It is so cute!
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Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2005 11:11 pm
We have I think 5 restaurants that call themselves "japanese," one's one of those restaurants where they cook at your table, and another is called "jeju" which isn't a very Japanese name sweatdrop I'm with your on the green tea ice cream, though, I love that stuff, i like mochi balls too. Yum, I want some right now! *realizes it's it's too late to get anything* dang!
There's a little Marketplace in Lodo, Denver called Sakura Square, but when I went there everything was closed (it was sunday). I'll have to try them again sometime.
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Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2005 12:56 am
i live in seattle so theres a big japanese comunity here ^^
we have a store called Uwajimaya where the have all kinda of japanese
grocery items ^^ there i can buy all the stuff i snacked on in japan and
started to crave when i got back to the states. like Hichyu candy ^^
and calpico water whee they ues to have na chan apple juce but they
don't any more crying
also next to it is Kinokunya. which is a japanese book store chain
it's where i get all of my manga, both tranclated and japanese
and all of my Jpop and Jrock CD's ^^
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Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2005 2:31 pm
Tsuki Chan Sempai i live in seattle so theres a big japanese comunity here ^^ we have a store called Uwajimaya where the have all kinda of japanese grocery items ^^ there i can buy all the stuff i snacked on in japan and started to crave when i got back to the states. like Hichyu candy ^^ and calpico water whee they ues to have na chan apple juce but they don't any more crying also next to it is Kinokunya. which is a japanese book store chain it's where i get all of my manga, both tranclated and japanese and all of my Jpop and Jrock CD's ^^ I love Kinokuniya! I go there whenever I go to New York! Well, at least sometimes. My Japanese class went there the past couple years when we went to the Sakura Matsuri at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. I hope we go again this year. On a side note, the Flaming Lips have an album called "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots." They have a few Japanese phrases scattered in the cover slip, and one on the CD. I managed to translate that last one: Kimi wa ichiban utsukushii kao wo shiteiru. You have the prettiest face. Tell me if I'm wrong.
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Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2005 3:05 pm
Murasaki Shikibu On a side note, the Flaming Lips have an album called "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots." They have a few Japanese phrases scattered in the cover slip, and one on the CD. I managed to translate that last one: Kimi wa ichiban utsukushii kao wo shiteiru. You have the prettiest face. Tell me if I'm wrong. You're pretty much right, but this is what I got in my dictionary, (and from what I know) Kimi = you wa = particle denoting subject ichiban = number one utsukushii = beautiful kao = face wo = particle denoting direct object shiteiru = this is wierd, because shite is the te form of suru, meaning to be, and if you add iru to that, it means a current or constant state of being, right at this moment. So it directly translates "you are being the number one beautiful face", which in English would mean "You have the prettiest/ most beautiful face." I hope that made sense. but I wonder why they didn't use arimasu, which means to have. It's probably a Japanese grammar quirk that I'm not aware of. sweatdrop
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Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2005 10:12 pm
must think of more ways Japan is taking over. biggrin
Um, well, 2 big movies in 2003 took place in Japan (Lost in Translation, Kill Bill 1) and then Linkin Park got the people who animated Oren Iishi's story in Kill Bill to animate "Breaking the Habit."
Missy's song "Get Your freak On" has some guy saying something at the beginning, then somewhere in there he says "Ichi, ni, san, shi" (1 2 3 4)
Then R. Kelly's video for "Thoing Thoing" (something like that) has a weird Japanese motif, he has shirts with names in Katakana and such.
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Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2005 10:22 pm
Some times it doesn't pay to live in a small town. sweatdrop
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Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 9:20 pm
I live in ventura, california. I really like this one japanese market called mama-ya market, and I love it! ^^
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Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 9:36 pm
It's nice to know that someone is near to Little Tokyo; I'm about 15 minutes away and go there a few times a month. Actually, Little Tokyo is pretty run down-- I showed my friend, who's a transfer student from Japan (she's back home now), what America's little taste of the east is like, and she was pretty shocked. "It's so old-fashioned!", she said. I kinda agree. It's nice and all, having a small Japanese community so nearby, but it is pretty shoddy. I usually just spend my time in either Weller Court or Mitsuwa.
Hum, speaking of Japan in the media, has anyone noticed the cartoons? There's the old Totally Spies!, the semi-recent Teen Titans, a new Disney show called W.I.T.C.H., and Hihi PuffyAmiYumi. Teen Titans is the only halfway decent show, but the angry red vein marks, sweatdrops and randomly going chibi really annoys me because, well, it's done bad and looks like it's only there to be like anime. Same with all the other shows, save for Puffy's show (which just screams mediocrity). It's nice to know that the voice actors in Puffy's show can't speak Japanese, and fail horribly when they try to do so.
Sorry, I'm just really bitter toward these shows. They just annoy me-- no offense to anyone that favors them.
There was also one episode of My Life as a Teenage Robot where the main character's language disc (or something) got switched with one that's in Japanese, so she spent the episode talking in Japanese with a pretty bad accent. It was pretty painful.
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Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2005 12:59 pm
I just found another thing about Japan taking over- untranslated mangas in Borders and Waldenbooks. 3nodding And I also live in a small townish, but I live in the south and anime is hard to come by though lately it's getting more and more.
Anyways I personally like the fact that American cartoons are mimicing anime. Personally I don't see something anime as something strictly Japanese because I mean I like Korean manwha . . . and I think that's very anime-ish even though if you go by the American term of anime- Japanese Animation- then Korean anime wouldn't be anime . . . though I do like in Japan how ALL animation is called anime. (Like how my host sister called Kim Possible anime I thought that was the cutest thing). I personally don't like anime brought over to Ameica and shown on TV do the American censors and Americanization of anime . .. but I don't mind american cartoons mimicing anime style. I personally love the animation style of anime and to see more cartoons like that then it's great.
Another sign of Japanese invasion that goes with the previous paragraph is that Cartoon Network and a Japanese studio have agreed to make three "anime" style cartoons to premire weekly on America and Japan CN channels. I'm all excited about this personally. Then again I'm an animation nut (plan on being an animator) so I love all animation . . . xd
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Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2005 3:22 pm
*Thinks* hmm I am not really too sure.. I would say hello kitty but I am not even sure that is japanese..Its sooo uber kawaii tho I must admit.Cartoon network must have been my top and beginning inspiration I believe. haha it all started with Dragonball Z. ^_^ The good ol days.
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