Protocol Snow

My order of melody.’s final album (a “Best Of” collection) came the other day, along with a nice poster. I went to Target to look for a cheap frame and was dismayed to see that none of the frames fit the poster exactly. Then I realized that I could flip the paper insert around and use it as a white background. I think it looks great!

I also got a couple Bathing Ape items from Yahoo Japan Auctions: the black Aoyama city camo shark hoody and a red BAPE letters crewneck. In general, I’m not really into clothing or fashion, but for some reason I’m a big Bape fan and keep up with the latest releases.

What I like most about the brand is its exclusiveness and the flashy designs, as well as the spectacular store designs by Wonderwall. So far I’ve been to the Taipei, Hong Kong, Harajuku, and Aoyama stores. I intended on visiting the newly opened Shibuya store this past summer, but I arrived 5 minutes after they closed for the night and didn’t get a chance to return the following days. Truthfully, Bape didn’t have any new releases at the time that I wanted, but visiting the stores is an experience in itself.

I also now have a near complete collection of catalogs/magazines. I’m just missing the first 2 issues.

First Leah Dizon abruptly announced her pregnancy and marriage, taking an extended break from the music industry (I’m thinking she won’t be returning). Then melody. suddenly retired from music to pursue a career as a fashion designer.

I’m not too upset about Leah Dizon. Her first couple singles were genuinely and surprisingly good, but I wasn’t into everything after that, including her two albums. Over the course of her career, her singing ability actually deteriorated, leading to cringe-inducing live performances where she looked flustered and sounded completely off-key. This break would be great for her to refocus and improve her Japanese, but the way her career was spiraling downward, I doubt she’ll have a successful return (if she returns at all) after having her baby.

melody.’s retirement, however, I’m quite sad about. I love her pop songs and her soft, cute voice (my former GameDaily buddy Eugene Huang likes to say that she sounds like a SoCal sorority girl). She just came out with a “Best Of” album a week ago and quit her hosting duties at a Japanese music TV show, so I suppose we all should have seen her retirement coming. I first heard of melody. early in her career with “Miss You”, her m-flo collaboration that is still one of my favorite songs. It’s been great following her career over the years and seeing her fanbase grow. When I went to Japan last year, I was delighted to see publicity for her latest album plastered everywhere in Shibuya. She even had commercials playing on the giant Q-Front video screen! I’m going to miss seeing her.

Every time I visit Asia, I search to see if there’s any performances I want to attend. My trips have never coincided with anything I find interesting, which I always find to be a major bummer. I’m not making a trip overseas anytime soon, but I just found out about this upcoming party that has a stellar line-up:

Shinichi Osawa (Mondo Grosso)
Taku Takahashi (m-flo)
Tomoyuki Tanaka (Fantastic Plastic Machine)
Genki Rockets (featured in Lumines II)
Jessica Michibata (Japanese model)
DJ Yummy (I’ve never heard her work, but I’ve seen her in commercials and she looks cute)

I would be interested to see any one of these people individually, but all of them at the same place on the same night?!? Unfortunately I can’t go, but this will be one rocking party. 10/24/08 at the Ageha club in Tokyo, if you’re in the area. More info and a promotional video for the event.

Jessica Michibata is gorgeous and seems to be everywhere on Japanese billboards. She also made a cameo in the latest Teriyaki Boyz single “Zock On!” where she looked amazing. I have a link to her blog in my “hot links” blogroll.

I bought melody.’s newest album “Ready To Go!” a couple months ago, but I haven’t had the time to really listen to it until recently. I’m loving the album and have it on constant replay. I don’t have anything profound to say about it because it’s pretty standard J-pop fare, but I like her voice and it’s easy listening.

Instead, I’ll share some photos I snapped while in Shibuya, Tokyo. I started listening to melody. when she first collaborated with m-flo in the “Miss you” single. She was a virtual unknown back then and I still find it amazing to see how far she has come in her career. The heavy promotion for her album (well, in Shibuya at least) was very surprising to me.

Big poster pasted outside the window of the Shibuya HMV.

Posters just outside the entrance to Shibuya 109, the trendy shopping complex for teenage girls.

melody. on the giant Q-Front video screen facing one of the most famous intersections in the world! (By the way, I took this photo from Shibuya Excel Hotel Tokyu and didn’t do a good job of blocking out reflecting light, which is why you can see hotel lamps in the background)

I went into Tokyo having throughly planned a list of stores I wanted to visit, mapping their locations using Microsoft’s Virtual Earth software. For pretty much any other country, this level of preparation would be overkill. But if you’ve ever been in Tokyo before and wanted to find a specific address, you’ll know how difficult it can be to arrive at your destination.

Tokyo blocks and buildings are organized very haphazardly, and hardly anybody besides the government uses the address system, preferring instead to navigate using landmarks. If you get into a taxi and give an address to the driver, chances are he’ll have as much of a clue how to get there as you do.

Let’s take a look at a sample address: 2-29-1 Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo. This says that the store is in the city of Tokyo, in the ward of Shibuya, in the area of Dogenzaka. That’s pretty easy. Going deeper, the store is in the No. 2 chome (sub-area) of Dogenzaka, in the 1st building on the 29th block.

Without a detailed city map, it would be nearly impossible to figure out which block is the 29th (let alone where the 1st building is) as there aren’t any signs posted on the streets or on the buildings. None of the maps I have go into sufficient detail to label individual buildings, so the best you can do is find the 29th block using a map by orienting yourself with nearby landmarks, and then walk around the block until you see a sign for the store.

It just so happens that this address is for Shibuya 109, which is a major landmark in Shibuya where trendy teenage girls shop for clothes. This place would be easy to find even without a map.

Anyway, here’s the multimedia goodies I picked up on vacation. Even though I went to all this trouble finding stores, I actually didn’t have specific things in mind that I wanted to buy and just browsed around. This was probably a bad idea going into Akihabara, the electronics neighborhood of Tokyo and the “gaming mecca” of the world. I’ll explain in a future post.

(clockwise from upper left)
Phantasy Star Online artbook, purchased at Mandarake in Shibuya.
Railfan: Taiwan High Speed Rail, purchased in the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi shopping mall in Tainan, Taiwan. This is the PS3 game that I alluded to several posts ago. I bought this even though I don’t even have a PS3 system and have no plans to get one anytime soon! But I did ride the Taiwan HSR twice last month, which was pretty cool. This game lets you drive it.
Bomber hehhe!, purchased at MediaLand in Akihabara. This is an obscure game about blowing up skyscrapers and one I’ve been wanting to get for years. I believe this game was released after 9/11, which is surprising in itself.
Pro Yayku Team de Asobou! (Let’s play pro baseball team!), purchased at Super Potato in Akihabara.
Frame Guide, purchased at Super Potato in Akihabara.

Cowboy Bebop limited edition boxed set, purchased at Trader in Shinjuku. This is the PS2 game based on the popular anime series.

An assortment of music CDs purchased at Book Off in Harajuku and HMV in Shibuya. (clockwise from upper left)
melody. “Be as one” album
melody. “Lovin’ U” single
melody. “Ready to go!” album
Genki Rockets “Heavenly Star” single
Nobuchika Eri “nobuchikaeri” album
Leah Dizon “Koi shiyou” single

Most of these games and music CDs were purchased used, which has none of the negative connotations associated with it in the U.S. In fact, I prefer buying used goods when I’m in Tokyo. The conditions are graded with labeled tags by the stores, and you get high quality merchandise at the low prices. For example, I found a used copy of the melody. “Ready to go!” album a few days after its official release in stores. I bought it for $10 less than the new price and the condition was pristine.

Two new singles to keep an eye on, both releasing May 30th:

melody. – Love Story
1. Love Story
2. BoRn 2 luv U　[melody. loves m-flo]
3. Lovin’ U～Deckstream Remix～
4. Love Story（instrumental）

Leah Dizon – 恋しよう
1. 恋しよう♪ (Koi shiyou)
2. Could you be that one?
3. アイシテル～ Love Story (Aishiteru~ Love Story)

The “BoRn 2 luv U” track is particularly interesting: another collaboration between melody. and m-flo? That’s what I’m hoping for, but I’m betting it’ll simply be an alternate version of the “STUCK IN YOUR LOVE” track on the latest m-flo album. I finally got that album in the mail today, I’ll post something about it when I get a chance.

m-flo recently announced m-flo Tour 2007 COSMICOLOR, which will be hitting 6 venues:

6.16 Zepp Osaka
6.17 Zepp Nagoya
6.22 Zepp Sendai
6.24 Zepp Sapporo
6.30 Zepp Fukuoka
7.21 Yokohama Arena

I’ll be in Taiwan this summer for a few weeks, so in an ideal world, I would be able to stop by Japan sometime and catch one of these concerts. However, I have no idea how I’ll be able to buy tickets from the U.S., plus Eugene tells me that m-flo is a very tough ticket, which comes as no surprise to me. Unless I can figure something out, I guess I’ll just have to catch the tour on DVD. Like always.

In other news, I also found out that BoA will be in Los Angeles performing at the Hollywood Bowl as part of a Korean festival. However, that takes place on May 5th when I’ll still be at school getting ready for graduation, so that doesn’t help me either.