KAT-TUN is a very famous boy band in Japan. They are from the Johnny's Entertainment company (same entertainment with Arashi). There are six members of KAT-TUN and one of them, Kamenashi Kazuya, is one of the hottest Japanese idol star. He's one of my favorite celebrities too!
"Dann wird alles gut. :: ." Dann wird alles gut. :: . N.p., 16 Feb. 2009. Web. 29 Mar. 2010. .
Profile Birth: February 23rd, 1986 Height/Weight: 172cm, 58kg Debut: 2006 KAT-TUN single album "Real Face" *2006 was when he made his debut as a singer. He actually started as an actor in 1999, when he was only 13 years-old!
"♥ AKAME LOVE ♥ - J-WEB PHOTO SHOP.." ♥ AKAME LOVE ♥. N.p., 19 Jan. 2009. Web. 29 Mar. 2010. .
He looks like a typical Japanese person which attracts me. The pictures above are captures of a music video of KAT-TUN's song "White X'Mas". I provided you with the music video below, if you wish to listen to the song!
Series. "Crunchyroll - Forum - actors and actresses in uniform - Page 2." Crunchyroll - Watch Naruto and Anime Videos free online. N.p., 1 July 2008. Web. 29 Mar. 2010. .
He starred in several very famous dramas in Japan, such as Gokusen 2, Nobuta wo Produce, Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge, and much more. Gokusen is one of my favorite Japanese dramas and Kamenashi played the main role with Akanishi Jin, who is another member of KAT-TUN. Akanishi and Kamenashi are known as Akame to the fans! It's a nickname for those two. I don't really like Akanishi Jin because he had many scandals with female celebrities and he sort of has a play boy image. Even though Kamenashi sort of looks cold and self-centered, when he smiles, he looks really cute and kind. I like how his face can change so much.
Kamenashi is a great baseball player too. He participated in a world wide baseball championship as one of Japan's representative in elementary school. When Johnny's Entertainment holds a sports day, Kamenashi always wins the MVP in baseball. He looks really good in a baseball cap! Due to his great interest in baseball, he's recently become an emcee of a sports news. He has so much talents! KAT-TUN is holding a concert in Korea this summer. I'm really looking forward to it! However, since there are many fans of KAT-TUN in Korea, it's going to be really hard to get tickets for the concert. I hope I'm lucky enough to get a good seat for the concert.
Jay Chou is a very famous Taiwanese celebrity. He's was born in Taiwan on January 18th, 1979 (I have the same birthday as him!). He is very talented; he works as an actor, singer, song writer, director, and a producer. The most important thing is that he has succeeded in all of the areas listed before. I got to know him while I was studying Chinese. I started learning Chinese about three years ago and while my Chinese teacher was teaching me about Chinese culture, she told me about Jay Chou. I became his fan after watching the movie Secret. Jay Chou directed, co-wrote, and played as the main character in this movie. Isn't that amazing?! This was Jay Chou's debut film as a director in 2007 and it was a big hit. It won several awards and with this movie, Jay became an even bigger star in Asia. He was already known as a successful musician but he took another step and it was a success. His courage and continuous passion towards improvement and new, inexperienced things made him really attractive. Honestly, I don't think he's good looking but his thoughts and attitude is surely very attractive to everyone. I believe these aspects of him led to his big fame and popularity. I think Jay Chou is an amazing celebrity! (Click here for more info. on Jay Chou!)
Movie Secret movie trailer!
It's an amazing love story!
These are my favorite scenes from the movie, Secret. Enjoy! (The person wearing the black jacket, who plays the second is Jay Chou!)
As you can see, Jay Chou is a fabulous pianist. It's himself who's playing all that!
I love this scene! Aren't they so cute?
I strongly recommend you to watch this movie. I've watched it three times already and it's fun every time I watch it! (Click here for more info. on Secret!)
Music I want to introduce some of my favorite songs by Jay Chou! 1) 我不配 (I'm Not Worthy)
2) 最长的电影 (The Longest Movie)
3) 東風破 (East Wind Breaks)
Jay composes all the songs his sings, which is fairly rare in Asia. It's amazing how he is capable of doing so many things. I love his voice: it's really sweet and comforting. There are much more songs by Jay other than these three. If you're interested, you can ask me through the comments!
Jay is an amazing celebrity. I wish you got to learn about him through this post!
As I informed you before in the previous posting, today, I'll introduce you to a drama that is very popular all around Asia. This drama, "Hana Yori Dango" was made in Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. The original story was made as a comic in Japan but as it became popular, it was made into dramas all over Asia. I'm a really big fan of Hana Yori Dango so I read the original comic and watched all the different version it. It's a really fun love story and especially entertaining for teenage girls like me!
Synopsis: "Boys Over Flowers" is a love story between a boy who seems to be perfect, who is from a very wealthy family (Domyoji Tsukasa) and a normal girl from a common low class family (Makino Tsukushi). In the drama, there are four boys called the F4, who are sons of very rich families. The leader of F4 is the one who falls in love with the very poor girl but there are many events that separate them from loving each other. The story is about a series of conflicts and hardships that the two main characters go through to reach their happy ending. F4 (Flower Four) - Four boys who are from extremely wealthy families (most popular boys in the school). 1. Domyoji Tsukasa He falls in love with Makino(the main character) in the story.
2. Hanazawa RuiHe's Domyoji’s best friend but they run into a conflict because Makino likes Rui in the beginning of the story.
3. Nishikado Sojiro Makino's best friend, Yuki's admirer. He doesn't believe that true love exists.
4. Akira Mimasaka A member of F4.
This is a video comparing the actors/actresses and the scenes from the three versions!
My favorite version of Hana Yori Dango is the Japanese version. It had a beautiful scenes and actresses were very good in acting out their parts. On the other hand, some of the actors and actresses in the Korean and Taiwanese version weren't experience which made their acting seem very awkward. This is one of my favorite scene from the Japanese version! It's really beautiful!
Hana Yori Dango is a very famous comic/drama all over Asia. I wish more people watch or read this fantastic dramas or comic. If you're going to watch the drama, I recommend watching the Japanese version! I hope you enjoyed!
"아 라 시." naver. N.p., 22 Jan. 2010. Web. 9 Mar. 2010. .
Today, I want to introduce to you my favorite Japanese boy band, Arashi. They were formed by a very famous Japanese talent agency named the Johnny & Associates, Inc.. Johnny & Associates, Inc. is well known to only promote boy bands (no girl groups are promoted from this company). Members of Arashi got trained from this agency since they were ten to thirteen years-old.
There are five members in Arashi, they are:
1. Sho Sakurai
"Sho Sakurai." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2010. .
Sho is very well known for his intelligence. He graduated from Keio University, which is one of the top universities in Japan, while doing all the work as a member of Arashi. Since he is very smart, he also takes a job of an anchor in the news every Monday afternoon. It's really interesting how a singer could take a job as a new anchor. He says that he reads three newspapers everyday to be updated with new information for the news. I think he's doing a pretty good job. I proud of him!
Ohno is the leader of Arashi but he barely talks on television shows but he has a very calm personality which gathers all the members together. He is the oldest of all the members and he is very artistic, he even had an art exhibition with his own art work. His hobby is to go fishing, he says he goes fishing whenever he has free time.
3. Kazunari Ninomiya
"Kazunari Ninomiya." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2010. . "니노미야 카즈나리." naver. N.p., 10 Nov. 2009. Web. 9 Mar. 2010. .
He is very well known for his great acting skills. He even starred in a Hollywood film called "Letters From Iwo Jima" and was invited to the Berlin InternationalFilm Festival. He is also very good at playing baseball, his dream was to actually become a baseball player when he was young. I like him the most out of all the members of Arashi because he has a very cute face!
Matsumoto is well known for his handsome face and fashion sense. He is also well known as "Domyoji", which is a character that he played in a very famous drama called "Hana Yori Dango (or Boy Over Flowers in English translation)". I really liked this drama! This drama is actually based on a very famous Japanese comic and it was formed into a drama three time already (once in Japan, once in Korea, and once in Taiwan). I'll tell you about this drama later on in my blog! Anyway, I like Matsumoto but he's not my favorite because he is not very good at singing. He has a nasal singing voice, which makes me frustrated sometimes. However, I really like him when he's acting! 5. Masaki Aiba
"Masaki Aiba." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2010. .
Aiba is well known for his good personality. He always smiles and he is energetic all the time. When I look at him, he makes me feel happy! Aiba is the tallest of all the members of Arashi. He just finished filming a Japanese drama named "My Girl" a few months ago. I don't think the story of the drama was very entertaining but Aiba still looked really cute in it so I liked it!
Arashi is definitely the most popular group in Japan right now. They won first, second, fourth, and fifth place on the yearly J-pop chart last year and they have three television shows of their own. 1. Himitsu no Arashi-chan (ひみつの嵐ちゃん!)
<-----Click to watch "Naver." Naver. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2010. . 2. Arashi no Shukudai-kun (嵐の宿題くん)
<-----Click to watch "Naver." Naver. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2010. .
3. vs Arashi (VS嵐)
<-----Click to watch "Naver." Naver. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2010. .
This year, every song they've released was ranked number one on the J-pop chart and all the members are really busy with movies, dramas, television shows, singing, play performances, and more.
This is a new song by Arashi called "Troublemaker".
I really like this song! I think it's really cute which matches very well with Arashi's image. When I listen to songs by Arashi, it give me energy. I think that's the best part of Arashi and that's on of reasons that I like them.
I wish Arashi was interesting to read about! Ask me any questions or leave comments if you enjoyed this post or you're really interested about Arashi. I'll be more than happy to provide you some more resources!
Today, I'm going to introduce you to my favorite female Korean singer. Her name is Sun Min. She's actually not very well known in Korea but I knew her from two years ago because she has been working in Japan since 2006.
First, let's start with the basic introduction!
Name: Sun Min Birth: June 4th, 1987 Height: 163cm (about 5.4ft) Debut: 2006 'Keep Holding U' Official Website
Currently, she released a song in Korea,the title is "Miss". This song is about a girl who regrets breaking up with her boyfriend and how she tries not to think of him. It's a song of a heart-broken girl. I think that was enough explanation. I think it's time to listen to it!
Lyrics: 먼저 연락 하지 말자 보고 싶다 하지 말자 "don't call first, don't say that I missed him" I say that to myself 그래 놓고 먼저 전활 해 but I pick up the phone to call him
사랑 한다 하지 말자 너뿐이야 하지 말자 "don't say you love him, don't say that he's your everything" I say that to myself 그래 놓고 먼저 말을 해 but I tell him first
착각인줄 알면서도 맘을 다지고 다져도 I know it's a mistake and I try to make myself stronger 고장난 내 맘이 미워 지우고 지워도 자꾸만 보고 싶은걸 but even though I erase and erase him from my heart, I miss him. I hate my broken heart.
사랑 이라 믿어 보고 맘을 열고 열다 I open my heart believing that it's love 다시 이별 앞에 서서 펑펑 우는 바보 but I cry our loud again, when it comes to breaking up. 멍청한 줄 알면서도 사랑 앞에 울고 I know it's stupid but I cry because of love. 아파하다 울다 망설이다가 또 놓치고 While I'm suffering, crying, and hesitating, I miss again. 놓친 사랑에 또 다시 우는 나 And I cry again because of the love I missed.
보고 싶다 말해도 돼 그럼 그러고 싶은데 If someone tells em, "You can say that you miss him" then I want to 그 말이 너무나 어려워 but those words are too hard to say.
혼자 집에 가는 일이 혼자 밥을 먹는 일이 Going back home alone, eating alone, 혼자 생각 하는 일이 자꾸 어려워져 and thinking alone just gets harder and harder. 사랑이 하고 싶은데 I want to love.
사랑 이라 믿어 보고 맘을 열고 열다 I open my heart believing that it's love 다시 이별 앞에 서서 펑펑 우는 바보 but I cry our loud again, when it comes to breaking up. 멍청한 줄 알면서도 사랑 앞에 울고 I know it's stupid but I cry because of love. 아파하다 울다 망설이다가 While I'm crying and hesitating..
사랑인줄 알면서도 내 맘이 걱정돼 I know that this is love but I'm worried about my heart. 속상한줄 알면서도 다시 사랑 앞에 I know it's annoying but I stand again for love. 그저 그냥 바라보다 다시 우는 바보 I'm a fool who just stares and cries again. 아파하다 울다 망설이다가 또 놓치고 While I'm suffering, crying, and hesitating, I miss again. 놓친 사랑에 또 다시 우는 나 And I cry again because of the love I missed. Don't you think this song is great? Her voice and the song fits so well! I've translated the lyrics for this song but some of it doesn't make sense because of the difference in grammatical structure between Korean and English but I wish you get a basic understanding of what this song is about. I wanted to share the lyrics because I thought this happens pretty commonly to young women in Korean when they're in love with someone. Many people miss there old boyfriends and they hesitate because they don't have the courage to talk to them so they miss their love. I think Sun Min does a really good job of expressing those feelings in this song. I really like this song!
This is another song of Sun Min. The title is "Keep Holding U" and there's a Japanese and a Korean version so you can choose to hear either of them, or both! Let's listen! Japanese Version:
Korean Version:
This song was a main theme song of a Japanese movie called "Sinking of Japan". Since this song is a duet song, she sang with male singers from Korea and Japan. For the Japanese version she sang with a singer named Kubota. He is a very famous singer in Japan, he has many hit song! In Korea, she sang with a popular Korean singer named Shin Hae-Sung. He also has many hit songs!
Her nickname in Korea is the Korean Beyoncé. She got this nickname because she covered many songs by Beyoncé. I think her voice really fits for Beyoncé's songs, I think they have a similar voice color. Listen to Sun Min's cover! 1. Listen:
2. Honesty:
It's amazing how a twenty three years-old girl can sing like this. I wish Sun Min gets more famous and popular in Korea. I think she's a great singer and she has the talent to become a singer to represent Korea. I wish you enjoyed listening to her songs too! Please support her!
First, to start off my blog, I want to introduce myself to everyone. My name is Natalie Ha and currently I am a high school student in Korea International School. I actually started my blog a few months ago but I've restarted it because we have a blog writing project in English class. It was really hard for me to choose what to write about in my blog because I wasn't sure what kind of topics would attract people to actually read it. After thinking about it for a long time, I finally decided to write about what I'm interested in. During my free time, I really like to watch movies, dramas, listen to music, and to do research on Asian celebrities. Therefore, I will be writing about Asian culture and stars/celebrities in my blog. I will be focusing on food, language, music, movies, dramas, celebrities, and other famous people from Korea, Japan, and China. I think it would be a very interesting topic to write about because the culture of these three countries is very similar and different at the same time. I wish everyone enjoys reading my blog!
"Dann wird alles gut. :: ." Dann wird alles gut. :: . N.p., 16 Feb. 2009. Web. 29 Mar. 2010. 
"♥ AKAME LOVE ♥ - J-WEB PHOTO SHOP.." ♥ AKAME LOVE ♥. N.p., 19 Jan. 2009. Web. 29 Mar. 2010. 
Series. "Crunchyroll - Forum - actors and actresses in uniform - Page 2." Crunchyroll - Watch Naruto and Anime Videos free online. N.p., 1 July 2008. Web. 29 Mar. 2010. 
