Washing the Dog
Ah, America. Where people want to have pets but are too lazy to take care of them.
Apparently it’s the same in Japan.
Automatic Dog Wash
Poor dog. I used to work at a kennel, and just dumping water on a dog will not get it clean- you have to get in there with your hands and really [...]
Galactic Heroes Live!
The anime Legend of the Galactic Heroes is probably one of the greatest anime never released in the U.S. Maybe because it’s about five billion episodes long. But it’s really great if you like space opera/military sf/incredibly complex plots/dudes in fringey uniforms with capes (and if you can find it subbed online…).
Here\’s a Better Description!
Anyway, [...]
Wakaresaseya
In Japan, you can hire people to seduce your spouse so you have a reason to divorce them. And they even have a job title that isn’t ‘prostitute’ or ’skank’!
Wakaresaseya!
Kuwabara approached the 32-year-old mother in a supermarket in Tochigi Prefecture, north of Tokyo, in the guise of a chatty stranger, and asked her if she [...]
Great interview with Tokyo Vice writer Jake Adelstein
Boing Boing’s Lisa Katayama posted part one of an interview with badass reporter Jake Adelstein (Tokyo Vice), who is equal parts Hunter S. Thompson and Bunta Sugawara.
In April 2008, I was trying to figure out how Goto knew that I was writing a book about his liver transplant. There was a yakuza real estate broker; [...]
Kid Gets Bullied, It’s Major News
So the adorable daughter of Japan’s Crown Prince is getting bullied in school. Not like that ever happened to me. In Catholic school. For about 5 agonizing years.
But my mom couldn’t exactly pull me out of school. Nope, I had to endure it until I escaped to high school.
What seems weird about this is the [...]
JAL stewardess uniforms feared hot item on black market
Already engaged in a struggle to emerge from bankruptcy, Japan Air Lines is now engaged in a fight of a different sort: Keeping the stylish outfits of laid-off flight attendants off the black market and out of the hands of uniform fetishists.
A jacket alone can fetch several hundred pounds, while one site is presently advertising [...]
James Cameron moving ahead on film adaptation of discredited A-Bomb book
James Cameron still plans to film an adaptation of Charles Pellegrino’s not-quite published Hiroshima tome Last Train from Hiroshima despite allegations that Pellegrino manufactured several of the accounts contained in the narrative. Of course, this brings to mind the wholesale fabrication of James Frey’s ‘memoir’ A Million Little Pieces (and the subsequent duping of Oprah [...]
MW Achieved!
So, remember that Tezuka manga I love, called MW? And how they made a live-action movie? Well, I just purchased it on DVD. Now I shall wait on pins and needles until it arrives in the mail and I shall watch and review it as soon as I get it.
Maybe not as soon as I [...]
World’s Cutest…Snowplow?!
Good God, even their snowplows are freaking cute!
Yuki-taro!
It gobbles up snow and poops out igloo bricks. When I was a kid, I had to fashion my own damn igloo bricks with my hands in mittens that got soaked in about 10 seconds so by the time I came in I couldn’t move my fingers. Which [...]
Final Fantasy XIII: Just what is a ‘role-playing game’?
Non-Japanese reviews for SquareEnix’s Final Fantasy XIII are trickling in, and it seems there’s a disconnect between what Japanese gamers and Western gamers expect from their RPG’s…so much so, that FFXIII director Motomu Toriyama has weighed-in on the issue:
“We think many reviewers are looking at Final Fantasy XIII from a western point of view,” says [...]
“Sorry About the Rape.”
“Um, sorry we rules your country with a relentless iron fist for thirty years. And, uh, sorry about all the rape.”
Japan Apologizes to Korea
It’s nice to apologize, but if Koizumi already did, why should the latest prime minister apologize too? If every prime minister takes the time to apologize to everyone Japan ever did wrong, [...]
Vintage Japanese industrial expo poster gallery
Check out this sweet gallery of vinyage posters from Japanese industrial expositions from the 1920s-1940s.
(via BoingBoing)
Sometimes Memory Lane is an alley best avoided: Pink Lady and Jeff
Gaze upon the horror that is Pink Lady, a short-lived variety program that aired in 1980 starring Japanese singing duo Pink Lady (hence the title) and co-host (and occasional translator) Jeff Altman. Pink Lady are entertaining in a post-70’s kitschy sort of way, but Altman’s jokes are about as entertaining as a colostomy bag souffle.
Japan + Star Wars + Chicken
I have no words for this.
What has been seen cannot be unseen.
C-3PO has a nice ass.
Why does food in the 1970’s always look totally garish and gross? I have fondue cookbooks from the 1970’s and the food always looks horrible. And the people! Good God…like their souls have been devoured by The Unnameable. And those [...]
Domo’s Daddy Speaks
Here’s a neat little interview with Domo-kun creator Tsuneo Goda, who is probably swimming in pools full of cash thanks to his little brownie-with-a-face.
Goda claims that Domo is not out for world domination, but we know better. His explanation of what Domo rally wants, isn’t even convincing:
Domo doesn’t have plans for world domination as many [...]
