Japanese guitarist Mr. JIMMY brings his Led Zeppelin tribute band back to Pittsburgh, March 6.

Japanese guitarist Akio “Jimmy” Sakurai will play at the Hard Rock Cafe on March 6 with his Led Zeppelin tribute band Mr. JIMMY Led Zeppelin Revival.

Japanese guitarist Akio “Jimmy” Sakurai has dedicated over 35 years of his life to faithfully recreating vintage Led Zeppelin concerts note-for-note. With years of practice and an incredible backstory, MR. JIMMY is a Led Zeppelin revival like you’ve never experienced before!

In snowbound Tokamachi, Japan, teenaged Akio Sakurai took refuge in his room, escaping to another world with a pair of headphones and a pile of Led Zeppelin records. Moving to Tokyo, Akio worked as a “salary man” by day, but by night became “MR. JIMMY,” adopting the guitar chops and persona of Jimmy Page. For 35 years, Akio recreated vintage Zeppelin concerts note-for-note in small Tokyo clubs, until the “real” Jimmy Page stopped by one night, and Akio’s life changed forever.

General admission tickets are still available from $35. Pittsburgh's Hard Rock Cafe is located in Station Square (map).

Love Live! Series 9th Anniversary LOVE LIVE! FEST in Pittsburgh, February 25.

The movie Love Live! Series 9th Anniversary LOVE LIVE! FEST will play in Pittsburgh on February 25. From the distributor:

Captured live from Saitama Super Arena (Stadium Mode) in Saitama, Japan in January, Love Live! Series 9th Anniversary LOVE LIVE! FEST will feature not only “Aqours” from “Love Live! Sunshine!!” and “Nijigasaki High School Idol Club” from the newest game, but also "μ's" from “Love Live!,” which has not been on stage since 2016.

It will play locally at the AMC Loews Waterfront and tickets for the 7:00 pm show are available online.

2019 Japanese film Children of the Sea (海獣の子供) coming to Pittsburgh, from April 20.

The 2019 Japanese animated film Children of the Sea (海獣の子供) will play in Pittsburgh from April 20. The distributor summarizes:

When Ruka was younger, she saw a ghost in the water at the aquarium where her dad works. Now she feels drawn toward the aquarium and the two mysterious boys she meets there, Umi and Sora. They were raised by dugongs and hear the same strange calls from the sea as she does. Ruka’s dad and the other adults who work at the aquarium are only distantly aware of what the children are experiencing as they get caught up in the mystery of the worldwide disappearance of the oceans’ fish.

Children of the Sea is the latest feature from Japan’s STUDIO4C (known for Tekkonkinkreet, MFKZ, Mind Game, Animatrix, Batman: Gotham Knight, and others), and is directed by Ayumu Watanabe, with a score by award-winning composer and longtime Studio Ghibli collaborator Joe Hisaishi (Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, My Neighbor Totoro). Children of the Sea is adapted from the manga of the same name by author Daisuke Igarashi, which won the Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival.

It has been announced locally for the Southside Works Cinema, though additional theaters and ticket information will not be available until March 13.

Bong Joon-ho film Parasite (기생충) stays in Pittsburgh through (at least) February 27.

The Oscar-winning 2019 Bong Joon-ho film Parasite (기생충) will keep playing throughout the Pittsburgh region through at least February 27. A synopsis from the movie's official site:

Bong Joon Ho brings his singular mastery home to Korea in this pitch-black modern fairytale.

Meet the Park Family: the picture of aspirational wealth. And the Kim Family, rich in street smarts but not much else. Be it chance or fate, these two houses are brought together and the Kims sense a golden opportunity. Masterminded by college-aged Ki-woo, the Kim children expediently install themselves as tutor and art therapist, to the Parks. Soon, a symbiotic relationship forms between the two families. The Kims provide “indispensable” luxury services while the Parks obliviously bankroll their entire household. When a parasitic interloper threatens the Kims’ newfound comfort, a savage, underhanded battle for dominance breaks out, threatening to destroy the fragile ecosystem between the Kims and the Parks. By turns darkly hilarious and heart-wrenching, PARASITE showcases a modern master at the top of his game.

Here is a list of currently-scheduled screenings:

• AMC Mt. Lebanon: now through February 26
• AMC Loews Waterfront: now through February 26
• Cinemark Pittsburgh Mills: now through February 26
• Cinemark Robinson: now through February 20
• Row House Cinema: February 21 through 27 (black and white version)
• Squirrel Hill Manor: now through February 20
• Tull Family Theater: now through February 20
• Southside Works Cinema: now through February 27
• Waterworks Cinema: now through February 26

My Hero Academia: Heroes: Rising (僕のヒーローアカデミア THE MOVIE ヒーローズ:ライジング) in Pittsburgh, from February 26.

The 2019 animated movie My Hero Academia: Heroes: Rising (僕のヒーローアカデミア THE MOVIE ヒーローズ:ライジング) will play in Pittsburgh at several local theaters from February 26. From the distributor:

Class 1-A visits Nabu Island where they finally get to do real hero work. The place is so peaceful that it’s more like a vacation … until they’re attacked by a villain with an eerily familiar Quirk! Now, Deku and his friends are the island’s only hope.

It will play locally at AMC Loews Waterfront, the Hollywood Theater, the Southside Works Cinema, AMC South Hills Village, the Waterworks Cinema, and the Cinemark theaters in Monaca, Monroeville, North Hills, Pittsburgh Mills, and Robinson. Tickets are available online and it will play here through at least March 7.

"Making Green Tea For America - And For Japan," February 21 at Pitt.

via cyclonebill (Creative Commons)

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host Dr. Robert Hellyer and "Making Green Tea For America - And For Japan" on February 21.

Join Professor Robert Hellyer of Wake Forest University for a discussion on the socio-economic history of green tea in America and Japan in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Soon after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Japan dramatically expanded tea production—especially of high-quality sencha green tea—specifically to meet demand from the United States, then a green tea consuming nation. This presentation will outline that export trade highlighting how tea production helped to ease social tensions in the nascent Japanese nation-state by providing employment for Tokugawa retainers who had opposed the new central regime during the Boshin War (1868-1869). It will also explain the ways in which a change in American tastes—the 1920s’ embrace of black teas produced in South Asia—brought a decline in Japanese tea exports to the United States. Facing a glut, Japanese tea merchants aggressively marketed sencha at home for the first time, emphasizing its health benefits. As a result, more Japanese began to consume sencha, setting in motion a trend that made that type of green tea the definitive daily beverage it remains today.

The event starts from 3:00 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map).

1963 Kurosawa film High and Low (天国と地獄) in Pittsburgh, from March 13.

The 1963 Akira Kurosawa film High and Low (天国と地獄) will play at the Row House Cinema from March 13 to 19, part of the theater's Film Noir series. The Criterion Collection provides a summary:

Toshiro Mifune is unforgettable as Kingo Gondo, a wealthy industrialist whose family becomes the target of a cold-blooded kidnapper in High and Low (Tengoku to jigoku), the highly influential domestic drama and police procedural from director Akira Kurosawa. Adapting Ed McBain's detective novel King's Ransom, Kurosawa moves effortlessly from compelling race-against-time thriller to exacting social commentary, creating a diabolical treatise on contemporary Japanese society.

Tickets are available online. The single-screen theater is located at 4115 Butler Street in Lawrenceville (map).

Profiles on Bloomfield's Cobra Lounge, a new space for yakiniku, Korean BBQ, and DJs..

Cobra Lounge, a new yakiniku + Korean BBQ place slash event space in Bloomfield, has been the subject of two recent profiles in Pittsburgh Magazine and NextPittsburgh. From the former:

The heart of the Cobra experience is the array of 10 smokeless Shinpo Yakiniku grills in the rectangular dining room. Burnell and Piso said they spent a lot of time researching Korean-style barbeque locations in Los Angeles, New York and other places prior to opening Cobra. The experience draws from those Korean culinary influences, and also is informed by the Japanese technique of yakiniku, meaning that all the butchering is done prior to service. “There’s no need for scissors or a steak knife. It’s perfectly butchered for one bite,” says Piso.

Participants needed for Bon Odori in Oakland "Open Streets" event, May 31.

One of Pittsburgh's Open Streets events will take place in Oakland in 2020 and will feature a Bon Odori performance. The Japanese Nationality Room is currently recruiting participants for the May 31 event.

Bon Odori - Join us at Open Streets in Oakland on Sunday May 31, 2020.
We are recruiting Bon Odori participants. It's really easy to learn the steps. If you have Yukata or Happi, it's a great opportunity to wear it too! See our FB Event page for registration.

Japanese film The Little House (小さいおうち) at Maridon Museum, March 6.

The 2014 Japanese movie The Little House (小さいおうち) will play at the Maridon Museum on March 6, the first installment of this spring's Japanese Film Series.

A woman looks back on her family’s life in Tokyo before and during WWII. A maid arrives from the countryside to work for an upper middle-class family. She fits in well, but everyone’s emotions are stirred up with the arrival of a student.

The movie starts at 6:00 pm. The event is free but reservations are required and can be made by calling 724-282-0123. The Maridon Museum is an Asian art museum at 322 N. McKean St. in downtown Butler (map) that runs film series periodically throughout the year, in addition to art classes, book club meetings, and its regular exhibits.