Talilele || My Space Page (Kobe, Japan)

Check out this orchestra from Kobe, Japan

http://www.myspace.com/talilele

http://www.myspace.com/talilele/blog

UOGB Japan Tour || Take Off Your Shoes and Sit a Spell

A New Japanese Blog || Photos of Uke Books

The Japanese have a long love of all things Hawaiian. I found this photo on UkuleleNavi of the Top 50 Ukulele Sites. This blog was recently added and is the last spot of 142. I startted HU in when there were 128 sites. (Today HU is # 24 and has probably stabilized at or near that point for a while. Michael DaSilva is at #21.) So as I look at this pile of books I wonder if there's a great "chord solo" or "baritone" book hidden away?

Have tried Google Translate on some of the pages of Ukulele Navi and the results are mixed. They note that there may be an english translation coming.

Ukulele T-Shirt from Japan

Here's the shirt for when your hands are too busy too play...

DaisyUkeBlog (In Japanese)

"Battle song" by Ukestar (making video 2010)

I had seen Gio on the late great Midnight Ukulele Disco. Here he is in Japan as part of a film. This video is a "the making of" type video. If noting else check out the ukulele conglomeration "ukeytar" shown at the 8:00 minute mark. Gio also has a cool scene at the 8:38 mark. It's a crazy video of Japanese Uke Punk. Are you crazy enough to check it out?

Bluegrass / Folk Visual Tutorials

There's a few more videos like this at his Many Things website...

http://www.manythings.org/ukulele/

But here's the real treasure chest... his FAVORITE MUSIC VIDEOS BLOG... which has:
One Man Bands, Jug Bands, Non-Standard Instruments. Just some fun stuff.

G-U-I-L-T-Y P-L-E-A-S-U-R-E-S [YAZIMA from Japan] (Music, No Ukulele) "GUILTY PLEASURES"

I had this saved on my HumbleUker YT Page under the title "Just Plain Weird". I really enjoy the playful nature of this Japanese production. I like it but it is one of those "Guilty Pleasures" for me... It had me wondering what warped minds might come across this blog entry and have videos that they like but haven't ever told anyone. Hey you can post anonymously if you want to keep it private.

Rules:
1) It should be a music video -- ukulele videos are a plus!
2) Respectfully weird, crazy or zany.
3) Respectful to all races, credes, religions.

4) It puts a mischievious smile on your face! (I can't believe they did that!)

HERE ARE 2 of MINE FOR A START

SHIN KAWAHATA, IWAO / JAPAN

I am always networking when it comes to the ukulele. I have been selling items on eBay to pay for a custom ukulele from Mike DaSilva. I had some Hawaiian and Ukulele CD’s for sale and I was contacted by Shin Kawahata of Toyama, Japan, who wanted to know if I would ship to Japan. I said sure I would treat him fairly and only charge the actual postage.

I went to our local UPS store with my 9 CD’s and showed them the smallest box. They quoted me $55 for a U.S. mail rate. Ouch! I asked, "What if the box was smaller?" (I thought I would remove the CD’s and paperwork to get it as small as possible. They told me the U.S. mail rate would then be $44. Then after Shin and I agreed on the postage I went to the local post office and was only charged $11.95! Shin was happy to see a big refund.

I asked him to send me a picture and some info about his club. He told me that he likes Herb Ohta Sr. (known as, Ohta-san, in Japan) He sent me the picture at the top of this post and a link to his club in Japan. The link was all in Japanese, so I just kept clicking and found some pages that looked interesting and I was able to make some sense of the content.

http://www.ukefan.com/cgi/code/omakecode.php Japanese song sheet

http://www.ukefan.com/codehyo.html Japanese Chord Sheets

http://www.ukefan.com/mb/u_pearlyshell.php?inp=0&ktpc=0&frhyoji=1 Pearly Shells

http://www.ukefan.com/codefu/4slow/perlyshell-h.html Pupu o Ewa

Shin also indicated a favorite of his named, Iwao. Here’s Iwao’s info page…

http://www.iwao.info/profile/index.html and him playing…

When you wish upon a star – Iwao (Takes about 50 seconds before playing starts)


Other Japanese players to enjoy…

ALL THAT UKULELE XMAS - Gensblue (Walking Bass Ukulele from a previous post.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVo55iGvOh8&eurl=http://humbleuker.blogspot.com/search?q=japan

Shigeto Takahashi at New York Ukulele Festival (Mike DaSilva Videos)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-ljBZCBqd4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXV340S-Eqw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--T7t5VfOp4&feature=related (Raindrops)