Title: Gold Rush (ゴールドラッシュ)
Author: Miri Yu
Year: 1998
Plot Summary: 14-year old Kazuki is disturbed by his surroundings, growing up in the depraved town of Kogane-cho, which is filled with prostitutes, gang members, and people stuck in this place of moral decay. The novel follows the unraveling of Kazuki’s mind as he struggles in an ambiguous […]

Artist: Tokyo Jihen (aka Tokyo Incidents)
Title: Variety
Label: Virgin Records
Release Date: Sept. 26, 2007
Music Videos: OSCA (see jump) | Killer Tune (see jump)
OK, so I am in the land of the rising sun, and along with sweltering heat and humidity in the late summer days, I am also in the land of where Shiina Ringo lives […]

Note: This article is an edited version of the one I’ve written for my blog about my stay in Japan.
Yesterday I saw a screening of the Great Happiness Space, a documentary that takes place in Osaka, Japan and discusses the issue of male prostitution (and to a lesser extent, female prostitution) that take place […]

Title: The Woman in the Dunes
Author: Kobo Abe
Year: 1962
Rating: 4/5
Thoughts: Extremely provocative, mind-bending, but most of all the uncomfortable. The story takes place in a remote town of Japan, a nonsensical place made of sand where the inhabitants spend their days toiling away under the wrath of the sun, digging their homes out of the […]

Title: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
Release Date: May 25, 2007
Genre: Action/Comedy
Rating: 2.3/5
Trailer: Here
I don’t really care for the Pirates series, but my boyfriend went and saw the supposedly “last” movie of the series. Here’s what he had to say.

Artist: Björk
Title: Volta
Label: Atlantic
Release Date: May 8, 2007
Rating: 3.5/5
Music Videos: Earth Intruders
This album gives me mixed feelings! Definitely keeping with the experimentation, Björk pushes her talents even further in this new album. However, I found some of the songs bland on the first few times that I listened to them–not usually a good […]

Title: Hot Fuzz
Release Date: Apr. 20, 2007
Genre: Spoof Action Comedy
Rating: 5/5
Trailer: Here
Let me set something straight. I normally dislike spoof comedies. My youngest sister is obsessed with the movie Airplane! and watches it whenever it’s on TV (which about every 45 minutes or so.) Slapstick movies are funny sometimes, but usually are […]

Game: Pokemon Diamond
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: Apr. 22, 2007
Genre: RPG
Rating: 4/5
This article was written by my boyfriend, an avid Pokemon fan.