Predator: A Manifesto of the Fist

Here’s a Japanese commercial advertising the airing of ‘Predator’. It starts out by pointing out that viewers will be able to see California’s governor battling enemies. It describes the movie as having a meat/muscle density of 1000%. While the movie is 1000% meaty, I’m afraid that Japanese viewers miss out on the amazing one-liners that Arnold delivers in that film( For example, the “stick around” knife throwing line, and the “knock knock” door-kicking-in line). Dubbed or subtitled, you just can’t properly translate an Arnold pun.

THIS PRESS CONFERENCE IS OVER!!!

Popular Japanese idol Yuko Ogura, AKA Yukorin, has been the topic of tabloid scandal recently. Yukorin, age 22, tries her best to act like a little child by acting dumb and speaking like a toddler (much to the joy of all the lolita complex losers out there). Several tabloids recently revealed that she is probably dating a comedian. At a press conference a few days ago, reporters had been warned not to ask any questions about the tabloid reports. Here’s what happened:

One reporter asks her what kind of movies she likes. She answers “romantic comedies”, which sets her up for a line of questioning that eventually makes one reporter mention her alleged boyfriend. At that point, her managers immediately declare the interview to be over, and rush her off the stage. Shame on you, reporters! How dare you suggest that a pure little girl like Yukorin could be dating a man!

Shibuya is still shady

Mainichi’s WaiWai has yet another story up about Japan’s shady side. The topic of Today’s entry is Shibuya:

A few years ago, things were hairy in the entertainment district. The weekly says foreign drug dealers were everywhere and gangs roamed the Shibuya streets. A harder line taken by authorities was supposed to have wiped out these less appealing elements.

“Shibuya has definitely lost the risky types that used to be around. It’s definitely a much safer place,” a streetside talent scout says.

Nonetheless, Shibuya remains a magnet for runaway schoolgirls and the streets have junior high school girl runaways selling their bodies off, high school girls regularly indulging in hard drugs and other teens using fake IDs to find jobs working in the sex business.

Police efforts to crack down on enjo kosai — the euphemistic expression translated as “compensated dating” that is used to describe mostly teenage prostitution — were supposed to have worked, but the girls on the streets of Shibuya tell a different story.

“If the cops in Shibuya are giving us a hard time, we just go somewhere else,” a first-year high school girl engaging in enjo kosai tells Friday. “We can go to places like (other Tokyo districts) Ikebukuro or Uguisudani, where the cops aren’t so strict and there’re still lots of love hotels around to do business in. It’s not a problem at all.”

Read the full article here.

For a close look at the shady side of Shibuya, I suggest the following: Go to Shibuya at around the time the trains stop. Wander around the streets alone and see the wonderful sights! Marvel at the prostitutes who attempt to bring you to their establishments. If you look foreign, they might even try their poor English on you. It’s a shady experience you have to try at least once.

(But it doesn’t compare to the bouncer/staff guy standing outside of a Korean brothel in a certain city in Gunma who approached me as I was passing by and said, “Sex?” in his best English.

“No” I replied, not having the heart to tell him that his use of English implied that he was propositioning me to have sex with him.)

Now On Sale: Takeshima Manju!!

I was at an eletronics store in Akihabara yesterday and I saw a very interesting report on one TV’s there. I cursed myself for not being able to capture the video clip, but thanks to the wonder that is Youtube, I’ve found that somebody else posted the same news clip I saw. Here it is:

If you don’t understand Japanese, here’s a brief summary: A Japanese company has started producing manju shaped like the Japanese islets known as Takeshima (South Korea, which has been occupying the islets since it claimed and occupied them in the 1950′s, calls them Dokdo). The manju have proven to be extremely popular, and orders are pouring in.

Get yours today! Nothing makes a better souvenir for your Korean friends/coworkers!

Columbus team defeats Kawaguchi team to win Little League World Series

Japan may have topped America in the World Baseball Classic, but America is still number 1 where it counts: little kids’ baseball teams. Here’s what an Associated Press article said about it:

The chants of “USA! USA!” spread through the crowd when the kids from Columbus, Ga., got the last out in the Little League World Series. How fitting.

Cody Walker hit a two-run homer, Ryan Carter struck out 11, and Columbus beat Kawaguchi City, Japan, 2-1 on Monday, giving an American team the championship for the second straight year.

I know what many of you readers are thinking. “How fitting??? The Associated Press seems to have stooped to a new low in its AmeriKKKan nationalism!!” That “how fitting” line is pretty lame, but what’s wrong with an American audience cheering on an American team?

Lame writing aside, Japan has always fielded strong teams in the Little League World Series. Japanese teams won the 1999, 2001 and 2003 Little League World Series. I credit their strength to their hardcore training and commitment to the sport. At an elementary school I used to teach at, their baseball team seemed to practice almost every day, regardless of weather. I recall seeing them out there in the rain and snow, running laps around the field. You just don’t see many American kids engaging in brutal training routines these days, they’re too busy playing their X-Boxes.

While it isn’t actually relevant to this story, I’d like to point out the case of the Taiwanese Little League team that was invited to a South Korean tournament and subsequently banned from competing in the final round because the organizers did not want to see a foreign team win. Let’s hope the Little League World series never turns into an ultra-nationalist sham like that.