Song by Mika Nakashima: When the petals of cherry blossom fall

Nanase Aikawa (相川 七瀬, Aikawa Nanase?) is a Japanese musician known for employing a variety of musical styles, most notably rock. She publishes her music under the Motorod label, a division of Avex Group.

Nanase Aikawa was born on February 16, 1975, in Osaka, Japan. Throughout her school years, Nanase had sung and participated in a several singing competitions, which brought her to the attention of a well-known music producer Tetsuro Oda. At the age of 15, she dropped out of school to be trained by Oda. At the age of 20 she released her first single, Yume Miru Shoujo ja Irarenai on 8 November 1995.

After she released her first single on 8 November 1995, she released three more singles, and then her first full album Red in 1996, which sold more than two million copies in its first month. That album won her an invitation to perform on Kōhaku Uta Gassen, a New Year’s Eve singing contest between male and female teams of popular singers sponsored by NHK (one of Japan’s television networks).

Since then, she has released about one album each year, plus an average of three mini- or maxi-singles. Her second album, Paradox, was released in July of 1997, selling 1.8 million copies, coinciding with her first concert tour Live Emotion ‘97 (consisting of 20 concert dates, and attracting a total of 65,000 fans, according to Avex).

July of 1998 saw her third album Crimson, and another concert tour with over 40 concert dates. Her 1999 release, I.D. was a compilation album, but it debuted at number one on the rock chart, her fourth consecutive album to be released at the number one slot.

In 2001, she also released a ‘mini-album’ (sometime between a full album and a single) with only 7 tracks called the Last Quarter of uncharacteristically soft ballad-style music, recorded during her later months of pregnancy.

It wasn’t until 2003 that she released another album, another compilation, called ID: 2.

At the 11th Annual Japan Gold Disc Awards, Nanase’s album Red was voted the Best Album (Japanese Rock and Folk music, female vocalist category). Her album Paradox was also voted Best Album of the Year at the 12th Annual Japan Gold Disc Awards.

In February of 2004, three years after her last original album and many singles, she released 7 Seven. An album devoted to feelings relating to music and color, with each song dedicated to a certain color. Since then she has released four more singles.

In July 2004 her song BYE BYE was covered by UK singer Jennifer Ellison.

As of August of 2004, Nanase Aikawa has released six albums, plus two compilation albums and the mini-album, a total of 24 singles, and no less than three separate concerts and two music video collections on video and DVD.

A year later, in February of 2005, she released The First Quarter mini-album. This album focused more on ballads and soft music than her well-known rock edge. In November of that same year she released R.U.O.K?!, a mini-album with seven songs. In July 2007, Nanase Aikawa began work on her new album.

Song: Bye Bye

Song: Ai No Uta

Check out her official website

This is Utada Hikaru’s latest single out from her fifth Japanese Album called Heart Station.

The video reminds me so much of Madonna’s Frozen video. Check it out:

Copycat. :P

Does her face look porcelain to you? Damn airbrushing! But she’s beautiful none-the-less. I am sure with the number of Hikaru’s videos you would know by now that I am a big fan of hers :)

And this song comes with subtitles too. This is her latest video :)

Chinen Rina (知念 里奈) is a female former Japanese popular music artist, turned Japanese TV Drama Actress. Her blood type is O. Rina was born in Okinawa in February 6, 1981. Although Okinawa is now part of Japan, it has evolved its unique culture and music blended from Chinese, Japanese and Pacific influences. Rina was trained in dance and song at the Okinawa Actors School, whose graduates include Namie Amuro and SPEED.

Debuting in 1996 with the Single “Do-Do for Me”, Rina’s career transitioned through bouncy pop songs and ballads to rock and then R&B. Rina had a powerful and versatile voice and could deliver powerful rock ballads such as “In Your Eyes”, hard rock “Yes!” or bouncy pop-cum-dance “Baby Love.” Her voice is at its best when she sings at lower, throaty pitches. Some earlier songs such as “God Bless the World” and “Wing” sung in a high-pitched voice, perhaps in an attempt to come across as cutesy, are not so pleasant to the ear. Although there are many high-pitched singers in Japan, in Rina’s case this tended to polarise listeners in a way seldom seem. The songs were hits nonetheless. Like other Okinawa Actors School alumni, she is an accomplished dancer.

n 2002 Rina appeared in the Japanese TV Drama “Yume no California” (夢のカリフォルニア, “Dream of California” also known as “California Dreamin’”). She subsequently moved to another drama, “Kochira Hon Ikegami Sho” (こちら本池上署, Central Ikegami Police) and was with the successful show for its entire five season run. In 2007, she appeared[6] in the Tokyo Production of Les_Miserables.

Song: On My Own (From Les Miserable)

Song: Baby Love

The biwa (琵琶) is a Japanese short-necked fretted lute, and a close variant of the Chinese pipa. The biwa is the chosen instrument of Benten, Goddess of music, eloquence, poetry, and education in Japanese Buddhism.

The biwa derives from a Chinese lute called pipa, which itself derives from a Persian/Middle Eastern lute called barbat (whose modern descendant in Arabic regions is called oud). The biwa reached Japan from China during the Nara Period (710-759 AD), and five instruments from that time are kept in the Shōsōin, the national treasure house of Japan. One of them, a rare, five-stringed gogenbiwa (五玄琵琶), is decorated with Central Asian themes, including a camel. This instrument is literally one of its kind in Asia, being the only one preserved from the period, although similar instruments are manufactured in small numbers today. Wandering biwa players, similar to minstrels, were known as biwa hōshi (琵琶法師).

The playing of the biwa nearly became extinct during the Meiji period as Western music and instruments became popular.

Check out this instrument in play:

What’s up with the head banging? Btw, that’s Maria Cross, the cross dresser.

Lyrics:

konna koto ii na
dekitara ii na
anna yume konna yume ippai aru kedo

this sort of thing is good
I wish I could do it
that sort of dream, this sort of dream, I have many of them but

minna minna minna
kanaete kureru
fushigina POKKE de kanaete kureru
sora wo jiyuu ni tobitai na

all of them, all of them, all of them
he grants my dreams
he grants my dreams with a mysterious pocket
I want to fly freely in the sky

(hai! takekoputaa!)

(Here! Bamboo-copter!)

AN AN AN
tottemo daisuki
DORAEMON

ah ah ah
I love you very much,
Doraemon

shukudai touban shiken ni otsukai
anna koto konna koto taihen dakedo

homework, school duties, exams and errands
because that sort of thing and this sort of thing are awful

minna minna minna
tasukete kureru
benrina dougu de tasukete kureru
omocha no heitai da

all of them, all of them, all of them
he helps me
he helps me with a convenient tool
look! a toy soldier

(sore! tototsugeki!)

(Here! Attack!)

AN AN AN
tottemo daisuki
DORAEMON

ah ah ah
I love you very much,
Doraemon

anna toko ii na
iketara ii na
kono kuni ano shima takusan aru kedo

that place is nice
I wish I could go
this country, that island, there is many of them, but

minna minna minna
ikasete kureru
mirai no kikai de kanaete kureru
sekai ryokou ni ikitai na

all of them, all of them, all of them
he makes me able to go to them
he uses a gadget of the future to grant my wish
I want to go on a world trip

(ufufufu… doko demo DOA!)

(ehehehe… Anywhere Door!)

AN AN AN
tottemo daisuki
DORAEMON

ah ah ah
I love you very much,
Doraemon

AN AN AN
tottemo daisuki
DORAEMON

ah ah ah
I love you very much,
Doraemon