If you’re currently in Japan or have been following the Japan blogosphere, you might have heard of the Tarako girls and their stupid song. If you haven’t you should definately check out the video-filled update about them over at TV in Japan. Determined not to let the fad die out before whoring it [...]

Here’s the latest commercial from NOVA, Japan’s largest private English school corporation:

Oh, what could that foreigner be saying? If only I understood English! Sorry, bye! If only she went to NOVA…then she would have been able to help him!
They may suck as an English school, but they do make amusing commercials.

So Japan says the disputed Liancourt Rocks are Japanese territory. How do South Koreans react? Why, by claiming the undisputed Japanese territory of Tsushima as Korean land, of course! From the Japan Times:

NAGASAKI (Kyodo) The city assembly of Tsushima, Nagasaki Prefecture, adopted a unanimous resolution Thursday demanding the South Korean city of [...]

Here are several crime-related news stories I’ve been meaning to post:

1) Christopher Drake, professor at Atomi University in Tokyo and an accomplished translator of Japanese poetry, was arrested for stalking girls he saw on the street. Just a word of advice to fellow gaijin: it’s not a good idea to stalk women in Japan if [...]

Shocking news from the streets of Bangkok:

Actors promoting a Japanese children’s show due to appear in Thailand next week are taken away in a police pick-up truck after posing in front of a tank in Bangkok September 28, 2006. Thailand’s military rulers, installed in a coup last week, have banned dancers or actors using tanks [...]

The Trivia show detemines the answer to the question, “What would happen if a dog went for a walk and came back to find his/her master with some other dog, completely ignoring him/her?” The master completely focuses on the new dog for 10 minutes, which is usually enough time to get a reaction out of [...]

Gerry Bevers over at Occidentalism has scooped this amazing story: The respondents to a CNN online poll asking “Now that Shinzo Abe has become Japan’s prime minister, do you think it is appropriate for him to visit the Yasukuni Shrine?” have overwhelmingly voted in favor of Abe’s visits. The poll has been up [...]

The Smoking Gun reveals:

SEPTEMBER 27–The mother of one of Japan’s biggest pop stars was recently caught with more than $400,000 in suspected drug proceeds as she tried to board a plane from New York to Las Vegas, according to federal prosecutors now seeking forfeiture of the funds. In March, screeners at JFK Airport discovered the [...]

How much power can an attractive woman yield over men? This girl is able to:
1) Convince an employee at a video game arcade to give her the stuffed animal from a UFO catcher machine after she fails to get it herself.
2) Play a raffle game until she wins by paying for only [...]

Last night Fuji TV aired another special in its series of “Beauty Colosseum” cosmetic surgery showcase series (ビューティー・コロシアム’06史上最大最高大激変SP). It’s similar to the plastic surgery shows that they have in America, in which contestants send in tapes showing how god-damned ugly they are and beg for the TV program to pay for a fancy surgical [...]

At least the last gravure idol video I posted with a chest massage scene actually tried to make the massage look legitimate:

From the Mainichi Shinbun:

KYOTO — Three former members of Kyoto University’s American football team were convicted of gang-raping two female university students in a ruling at a court here on Tuesday.
The Kyoto District Court sentenced 24-year-old defendant Ryo Ikeguchi to 5 1/2 years’ imprisonment, while the other two defendants, Junpei Shirai and Masahiro Kido, avoided [...]