Hatsune Miku is Japan's most popular virtual idol, appearing in television commercials, music videos, albums, advertisements, and even, ugh, Playboy. Not a video game character, not a mascot, she is Vocaloid software personified in a cute human form by Crypton Future Media back in 2007. Ever since she proved popular with massive audiences in Japan, her influence has expanded far beyond...
How to explain who Hatsune Miku is? She's a fake Japanese pop idol, a video game character with a cute face and turquoise hair, and a self-conscious voice synthesizer with the persona of a spunky young female. Every street I walk through in downtown Osaka, this girl can be found slapped on the cover of a magazine or advertising for some new soft drink on a vending machine. Obviously...
I have a deep love of Japan and its culture. I can clearly remember being in the second grade and a teacher showed us a slide show of a vacation she took there over the summer, and I was instantly hooked. I knew I had to go there at least once, and although it took me 21 years to get there the first time, I have been multiple times since. It's a great country full of incredible nice...