X JAPAN NORTH AMERICAN TOUR ANNOUNCED. HIDE IS ALIVE: MEMORIAL MERCHANDISE AT MARUI ONE SHINJUKU, HIDE'S LEMONED SHOP IN TOKYO.
X Japan has announced a NORTH AMERICAN concert tour! As you may already know, the legendary Visual Kei band will be at Otakon convention in Baltimore (July 30-Aug 1) and Chicago’s Lollapalooza (Aug 6-8). Now, they’ve announced a full tour across the US and Canada, starting in California on October 1. The cities will include Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Vancouver, San Francisco, and Boston. (Source)
X Japan has been around since the dark ages (ok, they formed in 1982). Guitarist Hide (pronounced Hee-deh) tragically passed away in 1998 — thirteen years ago! But the band lives on, and is now finding new fans outside Japan. This spring, Marui One Shinjuku set up a special Lemoned Shop to commemorate Hide.
In addition to selling Hide merchandise, the store displayed the legend’s guitars such as the one played in Endless Rain.
While this was only a month-long special exhibit, you can always visit Hide’s Lemoned Shop in Harajuku, which sells goodies with a slightly worn or malformed aspect (hence the name “lemoned”). The boutique was also once Hide’s headquarters for his radio station, record label and tireless creative enterprises.
The logo — a bright, juicy lemon sliced in half — perfectly reflects Hide’s electric hair and showmanship.
Break out the… yen, if you want one of these rare Hide vinyls.
Fortunately, there are also affordable and cute little goodies for sale. Hoodies, t-shirts, pins, accessories, notebooks and kawaii bears. Perfect souvenirs.
Hide is alive… and on a t-shirt. Pick one up from the Harajuku shop if you find yourself in Tokyo.
We saw Kaya’s manly look… now let’s marvel at Yukiro’s! He was the model for Sembl’s new collection of Japanese deconstructed high-end mens clothing. (You can see the photos here.) The artsy video above was shot at Mt Fuji; poor Yukiro had to stumble around in icy water while chased by a shinigami (death god).
Are you looking forward to X Japan’s first “new” album in 14 years, to be released later this year? Will you be seeing them live?
Japanese Word of the Day: Higeki = Tragedy
Song of the Day: Kanon Wakeshima – Lolitawork Libretto (New PV from Mana’s cello-playing protege. What do you think of the music video and her Lolita clothing?)
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LA CARMINA TV REEL: CNN INTERVIEW SEGMENT WITH DESIGNER KENZO-A, ANDREW ZIMMERN QUOTES, BIZARRE FOODS TOKYO ON TRAVEL CHANNEL DISCOVERY.
I’ve been a busy bee! “The wheels are in motion,” as Seinfeld would say. Why don’t we catch up on press and talk about the controversy over novelty “circle contact lenses”? Let’s do it!
I can’t say enough nice words about Andrew Zimmern, host of the Bizarre Foods TV show on Travel Channel / Discovery. You may recall that I was his guide to weird theme restaurants in the Tokyo episode. I was amazed to see that in his Chow and Again blog for Mpls St. Paul Magazine, Andrew Zimmern gives me a shout-out: “My friend Carmina (her friends get to drop the La when addressing her royal hipsterness) pimps us out on her blog and if you don’t subscribe to this woman’s Facebook, blog, and Twitter feeds you are really missing out, kids.”
And then he takes the niceness even further in his Travel Channel blog! Andrew discusses the Tokyo episode and says it’s too bad the show changed its focus from strange subcultures — “exotic alternative lifestyles like La Carmina and her posse” — back to bizarre foods. As a result, the episode had to be re-tooled a lot of our footage was cut.
Andrew Zimmern laments: “I wish you could have seen the original program in all its glory. For example, the theme restaurant act was not originally about the restaurants, it was about the people that I dined with. Cross dressing, fetish party going, club crazy, hipster chic and phenomenally great company, La Carmina and her friends adore Tokyo because it’s the world’s trend setting capital, a city where you can be whatever you want.”
Speaking of eccentric fashion and theme restaurants… I did an interview with Hong Kong food website Asian Palate. I talk about how I became a foodie, and the oddest Tokyo theme restaurants such as “bonsai-shaped cake delivered by ninjas.” You can read the full interview here and after the jump. (And there’s more about my Theme Restaurants book on this page.)
I uploaded a recent TV segment on YouTube: “La Carmina interviews Rituals Gothic designer Kenzo-A about the evolution of Harajuku fashion for CNN. They shop along Takeshita Doori and visit Takuya Angel’s store to try on clothes. This segment appeared on the Tokyo episode of CNNGo TV and aired on CNN International.”
If you like the episode and want to see more, please subscribe to my YouTube channel — many more on the way. You can see photos and the entire CNN TV show in this post.
Now for some controversy… or not. Are novelty “circle” contact lenses from Japan — which give the appearance of big cute eyes — dangerous to consumers? The FDA has not approved them because of concerns that the lenses could harm the eyes.
Some of you on Twitter said it’s nothing but media hype. Others shared stories of eye damage from colored lenses. And the rest of you suggest common caution: as with normal contacts, don’t wear them for long and care for them properly.
What’s your opinion on “circle” wide eyed contact lenses like Geo? Have you tried them? I personally have never worn novelty lenses because my eyesight is horrid and I must be very careful with my eyes…
Japanese Word of the Day: Kanzen = Perfection
Song of the Day: GO!GO!7188 – Kinkyori Renai (The band that performs the song in our CNN segment.)
LA CARMINA
