UPDATE: Everyone who’s interested in joining us, please send me a sample writing along with your email. A link to your blog, to your FFN profile, fan fics, stories, whatever would do.

Hi Everyone!

As you may have noticed, Nihon Watch has currently been a bit inactive. Unfortunately, many of the bloggers are currently beleaguered with real life issues (including yours truly) and have to take an indefinite hiatus. As such, we are looking for people to join our team. We’re looking for bloggers on the following topics:
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What could be better than watching someone change into a bikini within one minute? Japanese TV at its finest. LOL.

Source: TV in Japan

Yamanbas move over, here come the Kegadoru girls. What can old mountain hags do against vulnerable, injured girls?

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Indeed, Japanese fashion doesn’t fail to amuse me. The diversity in taste and genre simply blows my mind away. To those who don’t have a predilection for heavy make-up, if you think the Ganguro trend is over the top, then you’ve got to see the Yamanba girls. Considered a spin-off of the ganguro trend yet a statement in itself, the eponym of the trend is the “yama-uba” — a character in old Japanese ghost stories.

Yamanba’s primary fashion monikers are 4-6 inch platform boots, micro-mini skirts and tops in vivid hues of yellow, pink, purple, blue, green and orange. Their unique style of make-up and hair, however, is what really sets them apart from the crowd. Deep, artificial-looking tanned faces are offset with white eye shadow, white lipstick and bleached white hair. (Imagine a negative image on a roll of film.)

Quoted from AsiaWeek

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I love Hello Kitty. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned this to even my closest friends but I used to collect Hello Kitty dolls when I was younger. But then I grew up and though I still think Hello Kitty’s such a cutie, I’m way past my Hello Kitty-mad phase. There are some girls (and boys???) though, who never get over their Hello Kitty craze. If you’re one of them, how about a Hello Kitty-themed wedding?!

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The Japan Record Awards is an award giving body linked to the Japan Composers’ Association. It’s an annual event held to honor and recognize the year’s most outstanding musical artists. Each year, a list of winners is given the Gold Prize. These Gold Prize recipients then vie for the Grand Prize. The 49th Japan Record Awards are going to be held on December 30, 2007, 6:30 pm (JST) at TBS.

The list of Gold Prize Winners and Grand Prize Nominees are as follows:

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Yep, you read that right. That’s Chipuya and not Shibuya. Media Groove, a Japanese mobile tech company has recently released a fashionista-centric keitai (Japanese mobile) RPG.
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You most probably won’t have any practical use for it. It’s not something which could save the world or anything as important. But fan girls (and boys) would die to get their hands on one. Presenting the Hello Kitty USB Aquarium. It features Hello Kitty as a mermaid and her rabbit-fish pet. Nothing like a cross-bred kitty every now and then, eh?
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If you can’t get your hands on a real Xbox 360, then check these plushies out! Even the manliest man can’t deny how cute these plushies are. Just take a look at those tinted cheeks and tell me they’re not adorable?

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After seeing the vending machine disguise, I reckon this will seem a bit tame, mundane even. Ms. Tsukioka, designer of the vending machine disguise, came up with even MORE wacky ideas. The first is the fire-hydrant bag designed to camouflage children.

See the cute grade-schooler transform himself into a fire hydrant.

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