Shibuya 109

109 (Ichi-maru-kyū) is a department store in Shibuya, Tokyo.The store is operated by the Tokyu Malls Development (TMD), a company under the Tokyu Group.

Shibuya 109 located across the street from Shibuya station, Dogenzaka district of Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, what used to be called Koibumi Yokocho (Love letter lane), the center of fashion for young women in Japan, which opened in April 1979.

This building, which has variety of trendy clothing outlets, has succeeded by targeting women age 15 to 20, and have many new brands stuffs here. The main customer base of Shibuya 109 is girls in their teens who are fans of the popular all-girls group “Morning Musume”. Many popular foreign singers and actresses come here when they are in Japan. Not only foreign singers and actresses, Japanese singers and actresses also come here to shopping, even Japanese top diva, Hamasaki Ayumi, has her own store here.

The architect was Minoru Takeyama. Tokyu, the building's operator, designed the building as a "Fashion Community" containing small retail stores targeting the early-30s female consumer.

The name of the building, 109, is taken from the Japanese characters to (meaning 10) and kyu (9) as in Tokyu. The interior of the building is designed to move shoppers in a loop on each floor from the elevators past various shops. A movie theater was originally planned for the top floor, but the fire department would not grant approval due to emergency-evacuation routes not meeting appropriate standards. Although originally targed at women in their 30s, the building later became more known as a mecca for young women from the gyaru subculture

When it first opened for business, this fashion center aimed at a wide range of customers, from young people to the middle-aged and elderly. Following the collapse of the bubble economy in early 1990s, sales dropped off sharply. In 1995, Shibuya 109 reinvented itself by deciding to cease targeting men and to draw young women instead. The strategy paid off, and Shibuya 109 posted record sales of ¥23.5 billion ($213 million at ¥110 to the dollar) in 2003.

Because this fashion center has been attracting customers from all over Japan, such as middle school and high school girls visiting Tokyo on school trips, Shibuya 109 marked its twenty-fifth anniversary by beginning sales over the Internet.

Dorama

Dorama (ドラマ) or Japanese drama is television series in Japan. Word “Dorama” was absorbed from English, “Drama”. Dorama was very popular – like manga / comic.

Dorama has various story like school life, comedy, mystery, detective, etc. Dorama also has different story like another drama. Because of that, Dorama become very popular. Most of doramas story taken from manga. Like Zettai Kareshi, from manga with same name “Zettai Kareshi”

Dorama was turning during 3 months and according to four seasons in Japan, there are Winter (Januari-Maret), spring (April-June), summer (July-September), and autumn (Oktober-December). In beginning of a season, new title of dorama was turn. Therefore, dorama always up date every season.

Dorama – majority – in television from 21.00 until 23.00. Dorama which is in night, turning every week and usually the episodes number was among 9-12 every season. Dorama which is turn in morning (in NHK television) turning every day, called asadora.

Here some Dorama, include the synopsis.

Hana Yori Dango

Makino Tsukushi is the only poor student at Eitoku Gakuen, the school of the ridiculously rich and privileged that is ruled by Flower 4 or F4, a group of four boys who come from extremely powerful families: Domyoji Tsukasa, the leader and heir of the Domyoji World Finance Group; Hanazawa Rui, the introverted son of a large company; Nishikado Sojiro, a player who is the heir of a tea ceremony school; and Mimasaka Akira, a madam killer with ties to the underground. If a student gets on the F4’s bad side, he/she gets a red notice and is bullied and driven out of school.

Makino hopes to pass her days quietly-- without drawing any attention to herself-- but one day, she stands up to Domyoji in defense of her friend. The next day, Makino gets the dreaded red notice. Even though she is harassed, Makino decides to keep going to school because she is a “tough weed”. She declares war right back on the F4. Her resolve gets the attention of her crush Hanazawa Rui and oddly enough, rouses romantic feelings in her worst enemy, Domyoji Tsukasa.

The series is based on the Japanese shoujo manga "Hana Yori Dango" (Boys Before Flowers) by Kamio Yoko.

Atashinchi no Danshi

Horikita Maki’s character is burdened with 100 million yen worth of debt after her gambling father disappears. Chased out of her home by collectors, she is forced to sleep in places like internet cafes. However, she meets the president of a major company who offers to pay off the debt if she marries him, and she soon finds herself moving in with a rather eccentric family.

Banbino

A drama adaptation of a popular comic written by Sekiya Tetsuji. After a year of working at a neighborhood Italian restaurant, Ban Shogo (Matsumoto Jun), an enthusiastic, cocky young college student from Fukuoka, comes to Tokyo to perfect his cooking skills as a chef in Italian cuisine. He discovers he has much to learn and has to continually prove himself to the very competitive, quick and efficient staff at the upscale Italian restaurant.

Kimi wa petto

Smart, successful and good-looking Sumire Iwaya works for a big newspaper. However she is dumped for being a “perfect woman” followed by degradation. Then she finds Takeshi Goda (Jun Matsumoto) in a box out the front of her home and takes him in. He looks like a dog she used to own called Momo. She dubs him Momo and decides to “keep him as a pet.’ It’s the start of an unexpected life together as they overcome obstacles and gradually deepen their feelings for each other.

Manga and Anime

Manga is a terminology for japan’s comic. A word “Manga” used first by an artist named Hokusai that means “human picture to tell something”. Manga is one of popular Japan culture that is very dynamic and already 2 centuries. Manga including caricature, anime, and comic.

Manga divided into two kinds, those are shounen and shoujo. Shounen is boys comic. Like ‘Dragon ball’, which is included in action category. Shoujo is girls comic, like “gals” which is easier to understand and soft.

According to the reader, manga divided into :

Kodomo (for kids), josei or redikomi (for woman), seinen (for man), shoujo (for girls), and shounen (for boys).

Zettai Kareshi (Absolute Boyfriend) manga

Nowadays, manga was very famous in all over the world. Even ever blocked by World War II, but manga always exist, until now on. Everyone in the world know about manga or comic.

People who really addicted to manga called “otaku”. To express their inspiration, there is a show for otaku, named “cosplay”, or costume play. In this show, people wearing anime or comic characters costume, as total as they can, as resemble as the original character, so that it looks like comic or anime character appear in our real world. Not only in cosplay event, wearing anime or comic character clothes already shown in Harajuku style.

Metantei Conan (Detective Conan) Anime

Because of the famous of anime and manga, Japan’s government prepare their young with built Department of Animation from Graduate School of Film, and New Media Tokyo University of The Arts. Presented of this department of animation become an affective step to defend anime and manga in future, with 2 years study with 3 curriculums and direct their young to work in anime and manga production, like 3 dimension, 2 dimension, [project planning, and story writing. The teachers are from anime and manga industry or anime award winner like Yamamoji Koji, Atama Yama, etc.