Uniqlo x Meisa Kuroki

There's only one thing I love more than my vast collection of Uniqlo clothes, and that's Meisa Kuroki, actress/model from Okinawa. Some of her recent roles have included J-doramas Ninkyo Helper and Shinzanmono, and she also appears in the commercials for Kirin's Cola Shock.

On Aug. 18th, Uniqlo announced a new type of jeans called leggings-pants and introduced Meisa Kuroki as the spokesperson/model. Here's some video from the PR event:

In my e-mail this morning, I was delighted to find Uniqlo's daily ad splattered with Meisa goodness. Check out some of the pictures:

You can probably see why Uniqlo chose her, she's got some nice legs, she's not just a pretty face ;-) Meisa Kuroki has a couple photobooks out, Love Meisa is very nice!

And we're back...

After a few days of R&R, the beNippon gang has returned to fulfill your otaku desires (sorry, not in that way, though). Let the orders commence!

Finish what you start.

I've always been curious about our customers here at beNippon. For all the manga that we sell, they're not possibly all being read, are they? If they were, there'd be an incredible number of literate Japanese learners out there.

But, I regress. There's a phrase in Japanese that reflects the buying habits of adults, otona-gai (大人買い) is the phrase. It is particularly used when adults purchase manga, translating into buying all of the tankobon in a manga series. I see a lot of otonagai-ing going on at beNippon, people buying blocks of Ginga Densetsu Weed, Shaman King, and the like. It's great to be able to buy large blocks of manga, that way you don't get stuck when you finish the last one.

Which leads me to my question. For those of you that do read your manga (in Japanese or whatever language), do you read all of your purchases before you buy more? I've only got one more issue of Bamboo Blade, before I have to go out and buy the rest. On one hand I really want to finish the series, but on the other, I feel like jumping onto something else...

New Arrietty plushes from Sun Arrow.

It's been a couple weeks since the Arrietty was released, and I've yet to see the movie. To accompany the Karigurashi no Arietti (The Borrower Arrietty) premiere, Sun Arrow has released it's first set of plush toys:

First we have the Arrietty mascot, at 12 cm (1:1 scale??) it can attach to your bag or cellphone?!? Mascots on bags have seemed to replace the cellphone lanyard fad as of late. I've got Docomo-dake attached to my bag right now, and have been eying this Kodama.

Also from Arrietty are these great Neeya plush toys. Having not seen the movie yet, I don't know what, if any, character Neeya plays, but judging from previous Ghibli movies, she or he is probably a lazy house cat that just lounges around. Neeya currently comes in Medium (40 cm), Small (25 cm), and Mascot (13 cm, with chain). Aside from Jiji and Lily from Kiki's Delivery Service, Neeya is probably the only other cat (normal cat, sorry Nekobus) plush Sun Arrow has made in its Ghibli collection.

If anyone has seen the movie, I'd love to hear what role Neeya plays, just leave a blurb in the comments.

Serving the mangaka in you.

Walking into the office the other day, I came across one of the various pose books we carry, the "High School Girls" pose collection for mangaka. After just watching Danny Choo's Culture:Japan trailer, and remembering him writing about how hard it was to get filming permission, I thought these pose books are and excellent way to see Japan in a different light.

The fact is that there are all kinds of different pose books for traditional artists and mangaka alike. Let's take a quick look at a several choice selections from our book catalog.

For those of you looking to perfect the human female form, the Ima-doki Nude Pose-shu will be perfect.

How about some Moe poses?

I was also able to find a selection of BL themed pose books, BL/Yaoi manga are big sellers here.

Again, if you're interested in drawing the insides of schools or Japan in general, we've got the excellent Background Visual Material series.

Finally, if you're interested in the mythical, Ghibli forest, kinda thing, you must get the Kusanagi series of Background Illustrations.

With the Japanese manga/anime industry outsourcing more and more, foreign mangaka will need to get their scenery in order. There's plenty of help though, right from the source.

Ghibli Director Hiromasa Yonebayashi in Kanazawa

Ishikawa Prefecture native and director, Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Cécile Corbel are making an appearance at Aeon Cinema Kanazawa, Forus Shopping Center outside of Kanazawa Station on Tuesday July 27th, 2010, 8:10 PM. They'll make a brief presentation for about 15 minutes, after which you'll be able to enjoy Yonebayashi's directorial debut, Karigurashi no Arietti.

Aeon Cinemas are fairly small, which will make for a intimate viewing experience of the director. Reserved seating only. Info in Japanese here.

Happy Hacking Keyboard

In June, to celebrate PFU's 50th Anniversary, they held a prize drawing. You could select one of several different awards centered around the limited HHKB Blue (ESC) Key, or you could purchase a Happy Hacking Keyboard and get the blue key.

Since PFU is located near Kanazawa, I thought I'd try my luck. No e-mail from them as of yet. Did any one enter, or better yet, did anyone purchase a HHKB Professional and get the blue key?