Blog#8: The Hunger Games

Hi, I'm Noriko. I read a book during the summer vacation. It hit very much in US. Its name is "Hunger Games". I introduce the starting part of this book.

There is a capital and 12 districts in a country. Each year, 2 children (boy and girl) are chosen from each districts, so total number of children is 24. And they are left in the ground and forced to fight until everyone dies except one child. This survival game is called "Hunger Games", which is entertained by people in the capital. The main character of this book is a girl living in district 12 which is the weakest district. She attends this game replaced for her younger sister chosen firstly.

In short, this book describes how she acted in this game. But it's not so boring. The content of this book is quite similar to "Battle Loyal" published in Japan in 1999. But if you don't like "Battle Loyal" because it's too crucial for you, you might like "Hunger Games". It's because "Hunger Games" is more humorous and light story.

I like "Battle Loyal" much more than "Hunger Games" as a book, but I guess "Hunger Games" is appropriate story for movie. The movie is also very big hit in US, so it's worth checking.

It will be loaded on September 28th in cinemas in Japan.
Coming soon...

You want to get more information, check here. There is Japanese official site as well though I don't attach it here.

Blog#7: A stra...unique K-pop star

Hi, I'm Noriko. Are you enjoying your summer vacation? Where did you go, or are you going to go? In my case, I went to Seoul in South Korea. This trip made me interested in South Korea very much and I found the attractiveness of K-POP.

Have you heard 'PSY'? This is name of a singer who is one of the most popular singers in Korea now. His attractiveness is different from other singers. What do you think the reason? Ok, please check this video, firstly. It's PV of a song which is sold the best in 2012 in Korea. The name is "GANGNAM STYLE".
* Stop watching and just listen to the music if you become to feel bad.

Now, what do you think the reason he is very popular among Korean people? You may have no idea about his attractiveness. He is very different from other K-POP artists who we familiar with, isn't he? K-POP artists look kind of perfect: slender body, long legs, beautiful or handsome face, cool dance and so on. It's the character of K-POP. How about him? He is fat, short legs, not handsome, weird dance. I don't know the exact reason why Korean people are hooked on him. But! Actually this music (only sound. no watching. jaja) is very nice and cool, isn't it? I can't help but move my body to this music :) It's just my opinion but I guess Japanese people tend to dislike his style of PV despite music. That's why he is not known in Japan so much, though he debuted January 2012 in Japan. I can't find so much information of him. There is  only Korean website and information in Korean. But when his music was played in a club in Seoul, people who were there began to sizzle. This situation proved that he is super attractive for them now.

Do you think he will be popular even in Japan in the near future?

I introduce another K-POP video whose music is also club music but is standard type, so that they are popular in Japan jajaja Compare to "GANGNAM STYLE".

This group is BIGBANG, and the name of this song is "fantastic baby".