Moon Crying and Do Me More

Divas in Japan are going all out this summer. With Ayumi Hamasaki’s world tour on the way, Namie Amuro and Kumi Koda have both released their new singles and videos. Amuro’s Do Me More is a catchy dance hit following her previous Black Diamond and I’d say it’s inspired by Gwen Stefani and Timbaland (watch the video and you’ll know what I mean). Koda’s Moon Crying is a sad ballad about a lover’s death. Miss Koda has sure changed her style from sexy pop diva to ballad queen in her past few albums. I think I like her being a diva more.

P.S. Koda should never be on tv without make-up again, ever!

The Second Week of Tokyo Gay Film Festival

This year’s Tokyo International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (TILGFF) is doing something different by expanding to encompass two locales over a total of eight days (July 11-13 and 17-21).

“While the festival’s second half will continue to make its home in the artsy venue of Spiral Hall in Tokyo’s fashionable Aoyama district, this past weekend’s films screened for the first time in festival history at the deluxe Wald 9 Cinemas in Shinjuku, adjacent to Tokyo’s famed gay neighborhood of Ni-chome.”

Read more about this event on Fridae.

Asian Pop Divas for June

Namie Amuro from Japan and  Joey Yung from Hong Kong both released the music videos of their singles this month and they are hot. Amuro’s “Black Diamond” herself and Double as femme fatales who stole the precious black diamond right in front of the crowd while performing. On the other hand Yung’s “On the Treadmill” took a rather colorful approach and have her stick to the beat. They’re definitely spicing it up for Asia!

Namie Amuro’s Black Diamond:

Joey Yung’s On the Treadmill:

Christian Dior Cell Phones

It’s official, these $5000 phones manufactured in partnership with ModeLabs feature a touchscreen display, camera and mini-phone extender called My Dior. About the size of a USB key, My Dior is linked to the main one by Bluetooth technology and allows you to take/make calls. It is meant to clip onto the outside of your handbag (tsk tsk to those women who put their cell phones into their Gucci bags full of make-up).

Remember how the Japanese and Korean make crystals on phones popular? The Dior phone also embeds Swarovski crystals, so it says something to the Swarovski lovers out there too.

No Pussyfooting Around With Japan

If only it had a mouth, that fatuous feline Hello Kitty would certainly be smiling.

Japan has appointed the mouthless moggy as a goodwill tourism ambassador in Hong Kong and China. It marks the first time a cartoon character has become a goodwill ambassador for Japan under the governments campaign launched in 2003 to promote visits to the country.

A Hello Kitty blog will be on the campaign website to introduce tourist attractions in Japan. Sounds like a game of cat and mouse to me.

P.S. Am I the only one who is freaked out by the fact that this thing hasn’t got a mouth?

Mile-High Skyscrapers and Floating Cities That Never Were

Wired.com has compiled a portfolio of “promised skylines we never got to see — and a few that may yet come to be — as seen from the imagined eyes of those who live there.” The picture above is Frank Lloyd Wright’s “This Illinois”, which was supposed to shoot 5,278 feet above Chicago. Other “alternate reality architectures” include

Welthauptstadt Germania: The projected renewal of the German capital Berlin by Adolf Hitler

X-Seed 4000: Home to 500,000 of Tokyo’s finest.

The Arcologies, 2070: Sets of architectural design principles aimed toward the design of enormous habitats (hyperstructures) of extremely high human population density.