26 year old goalie Yutaka Fukufuji has signed with Dutch club DESTIL Trappers of Tilburg. He hopes that this move will open doors for him to move around in Europe aiming for higher leagues in Germany, Italy, France, etc. Fukufuji and the Trappers’ new coach Mark Pederson were together with the Bakersfield Condors last season. Fukufuji did not receive an offer to re-sign with the team, but he did not make the reason clear in his blog. He considered returning to Japan, but he feared that once he gets back here, that he would never challenge himself again abroad.
Despite the fact that he sunk when thrown into NHL waters prematurely when the LA Kings wanted to avoid having Jason LaBarbera claimed off waivers, Fukufuji did put up respectable numbers in the AHL when given the chance. But I guess he felt frustrated that he was not being given a chance to perform at a higher level in North America despite performing well on mediocre teams.
After a long and successful career in the Japanese and East Asian markets, she has tried to penetrate the biggest pop music market in the world, the US (she’s born and partially raised in NYC so she is a native English speaker).
Her US debut album EXODUS in 2004 was a dud, topping the Billboard charts at 160. She has just released her second all English album aimed at the US market, This Is The One. And she has earned a network TV appearance on CBS’s 2nd Cup.
I gave the album a listen at my local HMV, and unfortunately her second all English offering is very similar in flavour to her debut effort. Her voice is extremely well suited for J-Pop but not the US Top 40. And her naturally bilingual wordplay makes her (especially early) Japanese albums great, but she can’t unleash this aspect in a monolingual album.
This Is The One has entered the Billboard Album charts at #69, which is an improvement from her debut album, we’ll see if this is the peak or she can gain word of mouth cred and air play to move up the charts. She also violates my sampling rules by heavily sampling Ryuichi Sakamoto’s classic tune Merry Christmas Mr.Lawrence. I’m all for sampling, but not when the new song basically freerides on the coattails of the original (even though this is sort of like a tribute/remix). Unfortunately, for me, her recent Japanese album was rather soppy and lame as well, so she hasn’t produced anything that I really like in a while. Maybe she needs to marry another guy who could be her father? 😛
Prior to the start of the interleague game at Yokohama between the BayStars and the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles on Sunday 24 May, infamous former slugger Jose Canseco faced off against former BayStar and Seattle Mariner closer Kazuhiro “Daimajin” Sasaki in a ceremonial “at bat”.
Because Canseco wanted to launch a homerun into the stands at the expense of Daimajin, he repeatedly asked for “one more pitch” resulting in a 9 pitch ceremonial at bat (which is reminiscient of Tsuyoshi Shinjo’s ceremonial first at bat against Hichori Morimoto last season in Fukuoka), but the attention seeking PED whistleblower could not reach the short porch of Yokohama Stadium.
Canseco had faced Sasaki 3 times during their MLB careers, and after the ceremonial at bat Canseco commented that “Sasaki’s fastball and forkball were just as I remembered from our playing days, I should’ve practiced more for this occasion”.
First ever Japanese NHL player and ECHL Bakersfield Condors goalie Yutaka Fukufuji has hinted on his blog that he’s looking outside America for a team to play next season. With his former Asia League team Kokudo/Seibu team folded, I’m not sure whether he means a return to Japan (the newly formed Tohoku Free Blades? Very unlikely), move to Europe (ECHL goalie would translate to second division in an elite nation?), or maybe he’s just yanking our chain and is looking into Canada 😛
More a note to myself than anything but I have a soft spot for genre crossing music… when done right (they can go awry very easily).
And Tsugaru-jamisen is an awesome traditional Japanese instrument that’s often played up tempo with passion, so it can meld nicely with modern instruments and sounds.
Itanji (異端侍) – I gotta check these guys out soon in Tokyo
Musashi (六三四) – I have one of their albums, and should own more, trad-prog-rock done to perfection
Yoshida Brothers (吉田兄弟) – One of the first big stars in the world of modern Tsugaru-jamisen fusion
The expected revenue to be distributed by the league to the 4 teams apparently fell short by 2-oku yen (~$2 million) and the teams were supposed to receive revenue distribution of 3000-man (~$300,000) from the league on 31 March, but that had not materialized.
This has put the 4 clubs under financial strain, and the initially guaranteed monthly salary of 20-man (~$2000) for the players may not be paid in full by some teams, and some teams may also cut players (if they’re carrying any extra players above the 20 person roster). The player salary payment plans for the 3 teams other than the Kishu Rangers of Wakayama on hold.
The Kansai League is, of course, famous for drafting and playing the first ever professional female baseball player in Japan in Eri Yoshida, the Kobe 9 Cruise sidearm knuckleballer reliever who has appeared in one game so far and is rehabilitating from shoulder soreness.
The 4 teams will form an operating company and take over league operations from the Stella group who started up the league but had defaulted on its revenue distribution payments prompting this dispute. However, the teams will not be taking Stella to court over this issue, and will look for ways to cut costs, delay payments, improve revenue (by recruiting their own sponsors for previously league reserved advertising space on uniforms, etc.), and the full league schedule will be played as the league resumes play after the current swine flu postponement in the schedule. The Kansai League will expand by adding the Mie Three Arrows to the league next season, and has big plans for future expansions that clash with other independent leagues expansion plans, and apparently there’s a plan to start up a Kanto Independent League in 2011 with teams in Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa, and Saitama, but who knows in this economic climate.
