I introduce you a ready-witted story taler, Shinichi Hoshi (1926-1997) as known a gland master of "Short Shorts" in Japan.

If you hear that you must die on 24 hours later, what do you chose to do? Someone wants to revenge who bullied him/her, or another one wants to stay with lover. "Ikigami" is a series of manga what make someone chose such a desperate situation.

I had thought that Japanese anime and manga contributed as a "gateway tool" to understanding Japanese pop culture for a long time. But I was completely wrong. Not just gateway tool. They are strongly retroactive media of communications between foreign people and Japanese. I knew my misunderstanding by "Shiki", which is originally a novel that Fuyumi Ono wrote, is made into manga by Ryu Fujisaki.

I wrote about "Ayakashi - Bakeneko" on this blog 5 days ago. "Ayakashi" is composed of three stories. "Bakeneko", which my friend Ms. Alla Koroid strongly recommended, is one of them. Alla gave me a review regarding the rest of them - "Yotsuya Kaidan" and "Tenshu Monogatari". Firstly I reprint Alla's wonderful review.

This is a writing by co-reviewer, Chizuru Takamine: Autumn is the perfect time to appreciate music. You grab your light-weight corduroy jacket, your fully charged iPod and start walking the sidewalks strewn with fallen leaves---the chill in the air nipping at your cheeks while the music in your ears warms your heart. You're walking alone, but the comforting blanket of familiar, slightly melancholy refrains accompany you and you feel pensive, but not lonely. I like taking Aoi Teshima's "Because"

My friend on Facebook - Ms. Alla Koroid recommended I see a horror anime movie, "Ayakashi - Bakeneko". Great fun and filled with scary but sad feeling.

The great ehon (picture book) artist, Yoko Sano died of cancer last week. Wish extend my sincerest condolences on the loss of her. The most impressive her work, in addition to the best selling children book in Japan, is "The Cat Who Lived One Million Times".

This is great reviews from Madogiwa no Totto san about "Haibane Renmei" and "5 Centimeters per Second".  

I would like to introduce you a Japanese famous novelist, Yasutaka Tsutsui and his early-masterpiece "The Maid", which is the beginning story of "Nanase" trilogy.

I just wanted you to see a cute manga and anime - "Kuimi ni Todoke - From Me to You" (another tittle: Reaching You). If you have read or seen that, which girls would you like? Maybe I must be minority because I like Kurumi-chan^^ 

In Japan, there are many horror movies, and they are so scary. I would like to introduce you its masterpiece, "Ring" and some of short movies from "Shin Mimibukuro" (English tittle is "Tales of Terror from Tokyo and All Over Japan").

Let me introduce you my personal favorite actress, Yu Aoi. She is surely cute, but she is more than that. She has something such as a fascinated smile or an impressive look in her eye. 

Just wanted, let you know a Japanese Rock Band "Asian Kung-Fu Generation" (for short: AKFG). I love their edge and solid sounds.