Saturday, 25 August 2007

Nada SouSou : Japanese, English and Chinese Versions

After writing the recent post about the song, Jupiter being used in an Australian commercial I remembered how I had heard another famous Japanese song, Nada SouSou being played in The Body Shop in Shibuya though... in English. I'd been after any info about this English version for ages before it finally occurred to me to search for it on YouTube. Duh!

Not only did I find the Japanese and English versions (sung by a New Zealander no less!) but also a beautiful Chinese version! I simply love Chinese music. There's something in the way the language is used in music that always impresses me.

Here's the original Japanese version, Nada SouSou written by the group Begin lyrics by Ryoko Moriyama and sung by Rimi Natsukawa. Feed and Email Readers click here for the clip:

Anyway, here's the English version, Tears For You sung by, Hayley Westenra. Feed and Email Readers:

And now the Chinese version, Joi Chua Cai Chun Jia sung by Tsai Joi. Feed and Email:

Like this site? Subscribe to my site feed or email newsletter to get our updates as soon as they're online.

Labels: Chinese, English, Japanese, Music, Nada SouSou

Wednesday, 22 August 2007

Xian Hotels

After travelling to Beijing and Shanghai (still want to head back there at some time in the future!) I've been wondering which part of China I should visit next. Hong Kong is a given but while searching the web about China I came across, Xian (or "Xi'an") which I admit to having never heard of before.

I'm really surprised I haven't as it seems like an amazing place with hundreds of great sites to see and features to enjoy.

The cheap Asia hotels site that I found last month has a huge listing of Xian hotels available for booking complete with useful customer reviews, ratings and important information such as hotel features, locations and whether or not booking with certain hotels will give you instant confirmation after you do so so you don't end up arriving in town without a place to stay due to miscommunication.

Personally I'm kind of a hotel freak. I just love staying in hotel rooms and enjoying the hotel atmosphere. What's great about China though is due to the currency being so low, it's possible to stay in a 5 star hotel for under US$50 a night!
Check out this hotel for example. How nice is that!

I know some people like to travel cheap but if you can travel a country and spend the same amount on a 5 star room that you would on a 3 star back home, why not splurge a little?

Can't wait to head to China again.

Labels: China

Tuesday, 21 August 2007

"We wish England was Australia... or Jupiter?"

Just saw a new Australian commercial for Bundagerg Rum (Click here to view it) that has a lot of British people singing a song called "We wish England was Australia" which sounded REALLY familiar! It wasn't long until it ocurred to me that the song is actually to the tune of a Japanese hit that was released around the time I first came to Japan 3-4 years ago called Jupiter by Ayaka Hirahara.

Funnily enough I saw this song being used on a tv commercial when I was in Shanghai too.

It's a beautiful song which is why it's probably used so much. I just find it interesting that if I'd never come to Japan I would be completely ignorant of this bit of trivia.

Here's the song. Feeders and Email Readers Click here.

And Now watch the Rum ad! Haha.

And because I love it so much here's a stunning tv live performance that's well worth a watch. Email and Feeders

Labels: Australia, China, English, Japanese, Music

Monday, 13 August 2007

Tokyo People Watching

Man Tokyo people are so interesting aren't they? You never know what they could do next. They could walk forwards, backwards, maybe even turn their head (I'm waiting for the day!).

Sometimes I'm amazed at the vibrant use of the colours white and black. It's like a moving rainbow but in classic black and white. Maybe this has to do with Charlie Chaplin's popularity here.

Walking, walking, walking. This whole post is starting to sound like a first year art student's poetry but I was just going for sarcasm.

Feed and Email Readers click HERE.

Like this site? Subscribe to my site feed or email newsletter to get our updates as soon as they're online.

Labels: home movies, japan

Charity Time

As most of you can tell by my WWF badge on the lower right hand corner of this page, I'm a big supporter of the World Wildlife Foundation and have been giving monthly donations for the last 4 years or so since being introduced to the concept while working for Good Cause where I used to raise funds for Diabetes Australia.

There has always been a lot of rumours about just how much of your donated money the WWF spends on actually doing what they say they do with very little to back up anyone's claims.

Luckily this site called Charity Navigator.org was brought to my attention.

It lists almost every charity you can think of including the WWF. Here's what they had to say about it on this page here:

Known worldwide by its panda logo, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) leads international efforts to protect endangered species and their habitats. Now in its fifth decade, WWF works in more than 100 countries around the globe to conserve the diversity of life on earth. With nearly 1.2 million members in the U.S. and another four million worldwide, WWF is the world's largest privately financed conservation organization. WWF directs its conservation efforts toward three global goals: saving endangered species, protecting endangered habitats and addressing global threats such as toxic pollution, over-fishing and climate change.

What really impressed me was how it gave a completely public breakdown of the charity's expenses so you know exactly what your money is doing. As expected, WWF does seem to spend a fair bit on itself though it's probably justified by how huge the organisation is with branches in almost every country and the range of projects they take on.

I for one am a strong believer in WWF and will continue my donations. They've just done so much for this planet to save the environment, prevent global warming and save entire animal species. Read for yourself.

Back to CharityNavigatory, the site is run by a guy named Navtej Kohli who was generous enough to actually sponsor this post for me to write about a cause I firmly believe in. You can read more about this interesting fellow here and here (cool!).

If you aren't currently involved in a charity, now's a good time as any to get involved. My monthly donations are as little as US15 and even if you can't afford that much there are other ways to get involved in a cause you believe in. There's always something that effects everyone.

Labels: Sponsored Posts

Sydney Hotels

While searching for online for travel agencies to book some cheap hotels around Australia I decided to narrow my search for hotels located within Sydney as that's where I may be spending the most of my time once I'm back in Australia.

Last time I went back (two years ago) I found quite a few nice Sydney hotels but they kind of broke my budget and disappointed me in their promises (for example a park side hotel with no view of the park let alone windows!!!).

Hotel Club seems to be another good quality travel site worth checking out. Thankfully it's fast loading and has a clean user interface that seems to match it's claim of "Fast secure access to over 30 000 hotels in 120 countries!" rather well.

Something that I LOVE is the fact that each hotel profile actually has several photos of the place from hotel exterior to photos of the rooms. This coupled with the listing of facilities, member ratings and a discussion forum (new) make this site shine above the rest.

Bookmarked.

Friday, 10 August 2007

Perth Hotels

On my next trip back to Australia this New Years I'm thinking about doing some travel around my home country. Frankly it's a bit sad how I've seen more of Japan than Australia but I guess most people see more of other countries than their own.

Anyway, I was thinking about Melbourne and possible Brisbane or Perth and while surfing around came across some nice Perth Hotels on RatesToGo.com.

It's a HUGE site and has a massive listing of cheap hotels sorted by location, star rating and price. I'm seriously going to be using this site this January. They've even got listings for Cambodia, where I'll be going after Oz!

While surfing the site I found it incredibly fast loading with zero ads popping up and blinding me. The whole page has a very professional look unlike other questionable hotel booking sites I've come across.

Having heard horror stories from friends about booking hotels online and then arriving in a foreign country to find the hotel full has left me so paranoid that I normally only book from established sites. Thankfully RatesToGo has been online since 2002 and offers real time booking (Very important! Trust me!).

Very nice! Have bookmarked this for use next month when I lock in my end of year plans!

Labels: Australia, Cambodia

WireClub.com

Having seen my fair share of online social networking sites, I'm always surprised that people feel the need to create new ones.

The thing is though... I guess we like them. For people that don't run their own blogs or websites, social networking sites are an easy and fast way to post something online about yourself and for those who are paranoid about strangers reading your info most of these sites offer the option to make your page viewable to your friends only.

The latest in this genre appears to be WireClub.com which takes the novel approach of focusing mainly on chat rooms sorted by numerous clubs of almost any topic.

The good thing about this site is that it loads so fast compared to say, MySpace and also unlike MySpace it's not full of flashing animated crap and music and appears to be very streamlined and easy to navigate.

Finding someone to chat with is nice as you don't need to sign up with the site to see what kind of people are members. In fact, a lot of the site is viewable to first time visitors allowing you to make your own decision about signing up or not. The plus side of this is that only people who are interested in chatting would sign up.

WireClub.com may be for you.

Labels: Sponsored Posts

Blogging for Money is EASY!

Just read THIS POST over at Kumiko's and can't agree more. So many bloggers bitch and bitch about how hard blogging is when basically all it is is writing about whatever you want while your site brings in the money.

Recently I've been lucky enough to be getting quite a few offers from companies to write about their sites and services on my blogs and it's been great! I'm nowhere near quitting my day job but it's a start. My Adsense on several of my sites has really taken off as well and I think I'll meet my New Years Resolution by the end of the year quite easily at the rate I'm going.

Sure it takes time and effort, but it's something I enjoy and a hell of a lot easier than a "real" job. I think that's why everyone is trying to make money online in the first place, it's easy.

Anyway, speaking of my New Years Resolution, let's see how I'm going 8 months in:

Get to a conversational level in Japanese. Umm... am getting there! A lot better than this time last year. Really need to dig my heels in.

Work out at the gym six days a week. Well I don't have a gym membership at all now as I've been happy with daily Yoga in the comfort of my own home. However am thinking of picking up capoeria.

Make Yoga Today a part of my daily regime. Done!!! Sure I've missed a day or two but I've been pretty good with this and my body really feels the difference!

Work to live. Don't live to work. Working less now which is good. Am getting there.

Get my sites to a point where I can make at least US$300 a month (currently in the US$45 range) via GoogleAdsense, Revver, EmailCash.com.au and other programs. US$1000 a month would be dandy but I think US$300 is a bit more realistic. Well I'm now at about US$60 a month and it's rising monthly! Am feeling pretty good about this one!

Relax more. A lot better than I was in January. Am getting there. Work in progress.

Not bad at all!

Like this site? Subscribe to my site feed or email newsletter to get our updates as soon as they're online.

Labels: blog, internet, new year, Yoga Today

Tuesday, 7 August 2007

Web Hosting Information

Finding a good hosting plan to host your websites can be a long and painful journey. In the 10 or so years I've been designing websites I've gone through 3 free servers and 2 paid ones with each transfer to the new server being as frustrating and time consuming as the last.

Luckily there are several sites that review the different companies and the services that they offer. One such site is Web Hosting Information.

On first glance, the site has a nice clean design though slightly on the bland side of things with the use of (and only of) red and black text on a white background. It certainly doesn't leave a long lasting visual impression but most people will be visiting the site for it's content so it's not really a major issue. It's a shame that while checking out the content though the journey has to be such a boring one.

The design could definitely benefit from some photos added to the layout in addition to some more use of colour (other than red, white and black).

The site's focus seems to be on reviewing hosting packages and services and so far it's done very well with lots of content and reviews sorted by categories and even an effective search form in the easy to find top left hand corner.

It's not until I check out the actual dates on the site that I begin to feel underwhelmed.

On the front page are several "LATEST" updates such as links to the "LATEST" podcast and news, but the freshest content under both categories is dated mid July 2006. That's just over a year old and makes the site look abandoned or at the least static.

If a webmaster can't update a feature on a regular basis it's probably not a good idea to advertise it on the front page as it makes the entire site look irrelevant.

There is a fair bit of content here worth sifting though, especially if you're thinking about changing hosts but a bit of works needs to be done both on the layout and content before it convinces me that it's a resource I should be returning to on a regular basis or when in need.

Check it out though, a lot of companies have been reviewed on the site and it's good to check out hosting providers before signing up for any plan no matter how cheap they are.

Monday, 6 August 2007

01-18-08

Went and saw the Transformers movie the other night on opening day here in Tokyo and LOVED IT!!!! Have been waiting for that movie to be made since I was 5! Definitely on my DVD must have list whenever it comes out. Can't wait for the two sequels which have been confirmed. Just hope Michael Bay does those ones too.

One question though: Why didn't they play the new remix of the Transformers Theme during the credits when it's available on the soundtrack? Weird.

Anyway, before the movie there was this great trailer for an upcoming movie which looks incredible. I would have had no idea what it was for if I hadn't been following everything JJ Abrams online (loved Felicity, Alias, Mission Impossible III and am LOVING LOST).

The guy's trying to create an American monster movie. The Japanese have Godzilla but English speaking films don't really have an equivalent. Yeah they remade Godzilla but that's still a remake and nothing unique (though I thought it was okay).

So far everything about the movie has been kept top secret. Noone knows what kind of monster it will be and the film doesn't even have a name yet. It's currently going by the release date which is 01-18-08 (18th January 2008).

The trailer which is incredible can be viewed HERE AT APPLE.COM/TRAILERS. Thought it was fun how it features a guy's farewell party before he goes to teach English in Japan.

The even more mysterious official site, www.1-18-08.com is also up. Cool how you can drag the photos with your mouse. Couldn't find much on it though.

Seriously can't wait for this movie. Am looking more forward to this than the new Indiana Jones movie.

Like this site? Subscribe to my site feed or email newsletter to get our updates as soon as they're online.

Labels: movies