For Simon Bartz's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Four cute young women clad in ghostly white robes prance around in a forest holding twigs: No, it's not an outtake from the classic 1973 pagan spookfest "The Wicker Man." Yes, it is the excellent video for the Merpeoples' spankingly sublime song "Sherman." Singer/guitarist Charlotte ...
Long, long ago . . . in a distant age . . . there was no karaoke (cue twang of shamisen and cymbal flutter). "My uncle played guitar at a place like this before karaoke kicked off," says Toshiaki Chiku, now in his 40s, at ...
"What's that smell in here?" I ask The Harpy's in the dressing room of the livehouse Motion, which lies at the butt end of the sleazy Kabukicho entertainment area in Tokyo's central Shinjuku district. "It's the smell of roses," says bassist Maki Sato, her of ...
"Deep in the Valley," which was made in downtown Tokyo and appears to have had a budget of ¥5 plus, probably, a box of persimmons for all involved (random gifts are very downtown), is an accident. And I mean that in a good, romantic ...
Director: David Bowers Language: English Is a quake hitting Tokyo's manga mecca Akihabara? No, it's the collective groan of thousands of Atom fans as the manga legend suffers Hollywoodization. And in "Astro Boy" (as Atom is known abroad) the voices (including Nicolas Cage and Bill Nighy) ...
Miho leans out over the Lotus Pond to get a good photo of one of the bright-red flowers when the camera slips out of her hand. Standing next to her, I instinctively lean forward, stretch out my hand (my reflexes, even if I say ...
"We've come back and we're going to attack your planet with humongous love," says Seiji (that's Mr. Guitar Wolf himself) as he downs vegetable juice at a Jonathan's family restuarant near Yoga Station in western Tokyo. I light a cigarette and look at him. He ...
I'm bent over double, throwing up water I've just drunk. I can't keep anything down. "Excuse me. What are you doing there?" I look up. She's perhaps in her 30s and her wavy, auburn hair curls into her face, accentuating her small upturned nose and ...
The Wedding Present's latest album, "El Rey," is one of the best records I've heard over the last few years and has also been widely lauded in the British music media. Criminally, it has not been picked up for distribution in Japan. But you'll ...
"What are your three favorite things about Himeji Castle," I ask my guide, Ayumi Miyazaki, an elegant middle-aged lady, as we slurp down tempura soba in the dungeons of Himeji Station in Hyogo Prefecture, prior to walking the 15 minutes up the main drag ...
