AKICILJ: Japanese pop culture recommendations for Alex.

[rivka]

Alex is learning about Japan this week. We're going to be doing origami and reading stories and going to the museum to look at classical Japanese art and eating sushi and learning to write a few kanji and so on. But modern Japanese pop culture is so vibrant, and is such a massive international phenomenon, that I'd really like to expose Alex to some of that, rather than just the high and/or folk culture elements that kids' educational materials tend to include.

I know that there are people on my friends list who follow Japanese pop culture, and others whose teenage kids follow it. It would be awesome if you could link me to web-available resources like songs/music videos, cartoons, toys, clothes, etc. which are young-child appropriate (that's the part that makes just Googling this on my own tricky) and which would give Alex an idea of things that might be enjoyed by young Japanese girls.

(No tentacle porn please, kthxbai.)

Comments

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

Hi! I'm here via mactavish. :)

Most of what I can think of is not available online because of copyright issues. I really want to recommend the manga Chi's Sweet Home (about a kitten), but you'd have to get it from the library. You can watch it online legitimately, but only with subtitles, and while I usually prefer subtitles, I totally recognize that dubs are a lot more kind to young kids! http://www.crunchyroll.com/media-526174/chis-sweet-home-chis-new-address-1/

Music:

Halcali - Marching http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8OfrfK7Z1w
Halcali - Tandem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOXKmrKTjvM
10nin Matsuri - Dancing! Natsu Matsuri http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EIRFaIQ7i4
Zone - Secret Base http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFCHNgkfU10
Otsuka Ai - Planetarium http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIxJH4JqrII
WaT - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68pgSr4T7BA
Utada Hikaru - Boku wa Kuma http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhgHJgUc4JE

Street fashion:
Style Arena - http://style-arena.jp/street/
Tokyo Fashion - http://tokyofashion.com/photos/

Magazines:

Akasugu Kids - http://www.vvshu.com/view/akasugukids/09summer/ (It's a complete magazine, which is both good and bad--you can see all the toy ads and adorable bento photo shoots and all the boring ads!)
Kids & Mam - http://www.vvshu.com/view/kidsmam/2010summer/
mono kids - http://www.vvshu.com/view/monokids/2009ss/

Random, inoffensive art:

http://akaeigacyou.at.webry.info/
http://www.wachi.co.jp/atelier/ (Oh, I think you can get some of the Wachifield books in English now)

Toys and things from one of my favorite places I wound up shopping when I was in Japan, and a place I'm sure she'd love:
http://www.hands-net.jp/shop/special/100805kenkyu/index.html
Toys - http://www.hands-net.jp/shop/disp/CSfDispListPage_001.jsp?action=&dispNo=001008016&q=&v=&j=&type=03&sort=&rowPerPage=50&min=&max=&page=1
Puzzles - http://www.hands-net.jp/shop/disp/CSfDispListPage_001.jsp?action=&dispNo=001008002&q=&v=&j=&sort=&rowPerPage=50&type=03&min=&max=

They sell these awesome automaton kits, but I couldn't find them.

Re-ment toys/collectibles... just click on the colorful pictures under New Item to get the idea.
http://www.re-ment.co.jp/
Pictures of the boxes here: http://www.hlj.com/hljlist2/?Word=rement&Dis=-2&MacroType=FigGsh
People playing with them here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/re-mentaddicts/pool/

Modern Japanese dolls:
Jenny's Room - http://www.jennys-room.net/
Pinky Street - http://www.pinky-street.com/index.php?page=all_releases

From a famous Japanese kids' show (oh, I see takumashii already linked it, because we're often on the same wavelength, but I'll leave them ;)):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rk1YYqDYD0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v93nBnQWRw4 (there used to be a subtitled one explaining the steps of the march, but I can't find it!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v93nBnQWRw4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYJ-eVDH6OE

Anyway, let me know if you want more of something in particular. :)

P. S. I was partly homeschooled myself. :)