tokyographers

It looks like my computer has recovered, though I’m not yet sure if it’s permanently fixed. I thought I might have needed a new motherboard, but perhaps it was just a temporary issue. In any case, it now means I can get back to working on improving the site, so yay!

Also, if I can stop being so lazy, expect some new articles to go up.

Filming for Masahiko Tsugawa’s “Jirocho Sangokushi” (Yahoo! Japan Video News)

New Toray campaign girl Aoi Nakabeppu (Yahoo! Japan Video News, Sanspo, Sponichi, Sports Hochi)

Asami Kumakiri promoting Sega (Yahoo! Japan Video News)

Miki Nakatani and Hiroshi Abe at the opening of “Happily Ever After” (Yahoo! Japan Video News)

Ryoko Yonekura and Keita Suzuki promoting Rado (Yahoo! Japan Video News, Sanspo, Sponichi, Sports Hochi)

Hideaki Ito in a new Nissin CM (Yahoo! Japan Video News)

Thelma Aoyama at her debut performance (Sanspo, Sponichi, Sports Hochi)

Yui Aragaki and Haruma Miura at an event for “Koizora” (Oricon)

Yoshino Kimura hosting the Japan Prize 2007 (Sports Hochi, Sponichi)

X Japan filming the PV for “I.V.” (Yahoo! Japan Video News, Sanspo, Sponichi)

Mari Natsuki at a book signing, talking about her engagement to Nobu Saito (Yahoo! Japan Video News)

Celebrities walking down the red carpet and at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo International Film Festival (Yahoo! Japan Video News, Oricon [2], Sanspo)

Aoi Miyazaki at the screening of “Habu to Genkotsu” at TIFF (Yahoo! Japan Video News, Oricon, Sports Hochi)

Miki Nakatani, Hiroshi Abe, and others at the screening of “Jigyaku no Uta” at TIFF, then at another event for the movie (Yahoo! Japan Video News, Oricon, Sports Hochi)

Saki Aibu promoting her new photobook (Yahoo! Japan Video News, Oricon, Sanspo, Sponichi, Nikkan Sports, Sports Hochi)

Ryoko Hirosue in a new CM for Karada Meguricha (Yahoo! Japan Video News)

Ryo, Yuki Uchida, Kankuro Kudo, and Suzuki Matsuo at the opening of “Quiet Room ni Youkoso” (Oricon)

Shoko Nakagawa at her first concert (Oricon [2] [3], Sanspo, Sponichi)

Kurara Chibana at a running/walking event (Oricon)

Yu Shirota and others at the opening of “Heat Island” (Oricon)

Yuko Ogura promoting “Deko-Waku” (Oricon)

Shun Oguri and Yu Yamada promoting “Surf’s Up” (Oricon, Sports Hochi)

Chiaki Kuriyama in costume for “GS Wonderland” (Sanspo)

Katsunori Takahashi, Ryoko Kuninaka, and Kotaro Koizumi promoting “Otoko no Kosodate” (Oricon)

I’ve been having some issues with my desktop in the last two days. I’m trying to not let it affect my work on the site, but there are some new features I’ve been working on that may be delayed. News should still be updated regularly.

Meanwhile, I hope everyone has been enjoying the new Polls feature. Make sure to support your favorite actor in the current Ikemen Battle! Also, if you have any questions you’d like to see in future polls, just drop me a line.

I’ve also added a chatbox to the forums (as suggested by pixie464). It’s lonely at the moment, so go ahead and say hi!

Comedians in a Halls commercial (Yahoo! Japan Video News)

Tak Sakaguchi, Shintaro Yamada, and others at a press conference for “Sakigake!! Otokojuku” (Yahoo! Japan Video News, Oricon, Mantan Web)

Shun Oguri and Takayuki Yamada at a preview screening of “Crows ZERO” (Yahoo! Japan Video News)

Yuki Amami and Hiroshi Abe in an “eco Style” CM (Yahoo! Japan Video News, Oricon, Sponichi)

Misako Yasuda promoting the shampoo “Scalp D” (Yahoo! Japan Video News, Oricon)

Ami Tokito promoting Second Life (Mantan Web)

Saori Kawamura winning the Miss University Contest (Oricon, Sports Hochi)

Hiromi Go promoting BS Digital (Yahoo! Japan Video News, Sanspo)

Press conference for “Utatama” (Yahoo! Japan Video News, Sanspo, Sponichi, Nikkan Sports)

Rosa Kato promoting Kentucky Fried Chicken (Yahoo! Japan Video News, Oricon, Sponichi, Nikkan Sports)

Umika Kawashima promoting her first photobook (Yahoo! Japan Video News, Sanspo)

Mariya Nishiuchi with Riko Narumi at the auditions for “The Golden Compass” (Sanspo, Sponichi)

Yuki Amami and Yu Shirota at a rehearsal for “Take Flight” (Sanspo, Sponichi, Sports Hochi)

Maki Horikita and others at a press event for “Always: Zoku Sanchome no Yuhi” (Oricon)

Rei Kikukawa at a press conference for the stage version of “Dae Jang Geum” (Sanspo, Sponichi, Sports Hochi)

Kyoko Sugiyama being crowned as Japan’s representative for Miss International 2008 (Oricon, Sponichi, Sports Hochi)

Hidetaka Yoshioka and Kumiko Aso in a new Yamasa CM (Sanspo)

Hitomi Yoshizawa as a teacher (Sanspo, Sponichi)

Yu Shirota at an event for “Heat Island” (Yahoo! Japan Video News)

Shun Oguri, Yu Yamada, and Mike Maki at an after-recording event for “Surf’s Up” (Yahoo! Japan Video News, Oricon)

Leah Dizon in a new CM for No Calorie Coca-Cola (Yahoo! Japan Video News, Sponichi)

Kenichi Matsuyama and Keiko Kitagawa at an event for “Southbound” (Yahoo! Japan Video News, Oricon, Sports Hochi)

Juri Ueno making a Fibe Mini CM in Second Life (Mantan Web)

Nao Matsushita and Mickey Mouse at DisneySea (Sponichi, Sports Hochi)

Kaori Manabe and others at the Megane Best Dresser Awards (Oricon)

Shun Oguri promoting I SEED eyeglasses (Sponichi)

Uno Kanda and Takuro Nishimura registering their marriage (Sanspo)

Chinatsu Wakatsuki promoting Ameba (Sanspo, Sponichi, Sports Hochi)

Kenichi Matsuyama, Hiromi Nagasaku, and Yu Aoi at a press event for “Hito no Sex wo Warau Na” (Yahoo! Japan Video News, Oricon)

Yuki Uchida, Kankuro Kudo, Yu Aoi, Ryo, and Suzuki Matsuo at a press event for “Quiet Room ni Youkoso (Yahoo! Japan Video News)

Yusuke Yamamoto promoting his first photobook (Yahoo! Japan Video News, Sponichi, Sports Hochi)

Uno Kanda’s wedding (Yahoo! Japan Video News [2], Sanspo [2], Sponichi, Nikkan Sports, Sports Hochi)

Aoi Miyazaki in a new CM for Glico’s Choshoku Ringo Yogurt (Yahoo! Japan Video News)

YUKI at her first solo live in two years (Yahoo! Japan Video News)

Etsushi Toyokawa, Yuki Amami, Mika Nakashima, and others at the opening of “Southbound” (Yahoo! Japan Video News)

Aki Hoshino promoting her new DVD (Sanspo, Sponichi)

Aya Ueto and Yo Oizumi at a press event for “Abarenbo Mama” (Sanspo, Sponichi, Nikkan Sports, Sports Hochi)

Mickey Yoshino’s wedding (Sanspo, Sponichi, Sports Hochi)

Ami Tokito cosplaying for “Ex Machina” (Sanspo, Sponichi, Sports Hochi, Nikkan Sports)

Maki Horikita celebrating her 19th birthday (Sanspo, Sponichi, Sports Hochi, Nikkan Sports [2])

Aoi Miyazaki, Maki Horikita, and others at the cast announcement for “Atsuhime” (Oricon)

Masaharu Fukuyama and Kou Shibasaki at a press event for “Galileo” (Sponichi)

Etsushi Toyokawa and Yuki Amami promoting “Southbound” (Yahoo! Japan Video News)

Nana Eikura promoting C1000 Vitamon Lemon (Yahoo! Japan Video News, Sponichi)

Maki Horikita and Takuya Ishida talking about “Tokyo Shonen” (Yahoo! Japan Video News, Oricon, Sanspo, Sponichi, Sports Hochi, Nikkan Sports)

WaT together in a commercial for SKY PerfecTV! (Yahoo! Japan Video News)

Shoko Nakagawa and Rinka at a TV show announcement (Oricon)

Yasuko Matsuyuki, Suzuki Matsuo, Sadao Abe, and Mirai Moriyama in “Cabaret” (Oricon)

Hisako Shirata at a Miss International event (Sports Hochi)

Takao Osawa, Yuko Takeuchi, Hiroshi Tamaki and others at the “Midnight Eagle” premiere in Hollywood (Sanspo, Sponichi, Sports Hochi)

Takashi Sorimachi and Ai Kato promoting “Dream Again” (Sanspo, Sponichi, Sports Hochi)

Kenji Sakaguchi with Fuji TV’s “drama bus” (Sanspo)

Jun Kaname, Ami Suzuki, and others at an event for the BS Fuji drama “Itsumo Kimochi ni Switch wo!” (Sanspo)

I’ve been working on the redesign for the site (which includes both backend and frontend), and I’ve finished off the first stage. A quick rundown of some changes:

• All of the major stuff (news, database, articles, feeds) and the additional sections (links, forums, blog) are still intact. The events/birthdays calendar is also working.
• Rankings and releases are gone for now, until I can build in more automation into those sections.
• Search now works (or at least, much more than before). It functions in boolean mode, so typing in something like Yuko Takeuchi will match either Yuko or Takeuchi. If you want to match both, put + signs in front of both words, or you can put quotes around it.
• The front page now summarizes the news, articles, links, blog, and forums. The old version had just news stories - if you prefer that, you can jump straight to http://www.tokyograph.com/news/ though I’m considering the option of making the front page customizable.
• Color scheme is obviously different. For those that prefer the old color scheme (or something else), I’m hoping to make multiple skins for more customizability.
• The articles are now listed under the “articles” subdirectory rather than the “features” subdirectory. From now on, articles will only be found under the new folder, but for the sake of keeping the old links live, articles written before now can still be found at their old urls.
• Some searches are now limited where they weren’t before. For some of these, I’ll be adding AJAX controls to let you navigate multiple pages of results.

I’m sure there are still some bugs to work out - let me know if you spot anything wrong. And I know this doesn’t look exactly the same in IE, but hopefully it’s close enough (it should be in at least IE7, not sure about previous versions). Safari and Opera should also be rendering it fine, though I can’t be certain.

Anyway, I hope you all like the changes! Give me some feedback and suggestions, too. I’ll be slowly rolling out new features from here on out, but I may need to take a small break first! On that note, I may be gone for part of this weekend, so expect the possibility of no news updates this Sunday.