On pleasant surprises at the 100 Yen Shop

My favorite Japanese entertainer of all-time is a man by the name of Nagase Tomoya (family-name first, personal-name last). He's the lead singer of the band TOKIO and an actor who has appeared in many, MANY dramas. In fact, he's the guy who played the lead in my very first (and still one of my favorite) Japanese dramas, My Boss My Hero. You may or may not remember the post I made about it shortly after moving to Japan in 2007. He was also the lead in Utahime. ^_^

Anyway, I've made good use of this particular idol, all of my students know he's my favorite and I often use my "crush" on him to humorous effect in the classroom. It comes in really handy for demonstrating personal preference "I like Nagase Tomoya. Do you like Nagase Tomoya? Yes, I do!", comparatives "Nagase Tomoya is the most handsome actor in the world", passive-voice "I have loved Nagase Tomoya since 2007", etc.

And one of the best parts about living in Japan is that I get to see his mug everywhere. On tv. In movies. In magazines. And advertising just about anything you can imagine.　Like cell phones



And jeans


Just today I was at the 100 Yen Shop and I saw this beautiful advertisement for Asahi beer:

I do believe he has advertised Suntory Beer as well

photo from tubefire
I'm actually more of a Kirin fan, but they've yet to use him in advertising (that I know of, anyway), hahahahaha
d(^_^)b