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Canadian first lady snubs Japanese foot bath

A FTV report about Prime Minister Fukuda’s wife guiding the wives of G8 leaders through an exhibition of eco-friendly Japanese inventions:

The clip begins with Canadian first lady Laureen Harper riding around on Toyota’s i-Real personal mobility vehicle, followed by a look at a hot spring foot bath. Despite Kiyoko Fukuda’s insistence that the foot bath was really great, Harper did not give it a try. Luckily a few foreign journalists tried out the foot bath, giving FTV an opportunity to interview them about how great it felt.

20 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - July 9, 2008 at 3:03 pm

Categories: Foreigners in Japan Tags: G8, japan

http://chirimotsumoreba.net Jordan

Perhaps she didn’t want to touch the water because doing so would reveal her identity one of the elite reptoid rulers of the world.

Just a thought.

LB

Or she could be the unnamed “first lady” who created a minor dilemma by telling the Japanese government that she was not going to be shuttled around in a bus with the other first ladies and demanded she be provided her own car. The government never said which first lady made the demand, but they said if she wouldn’t change her mind they would just have to provide a car for each of the first ladies – which would blow the whole “eco” image they were trying to present…

So someone up there doesn’t want to play nice with the other ladies. Meow! Hiss! Claws out!

Tbone

I bet it was Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. She ended up “snubbing” the summit anyway, to launch her new album

http://chirimotsumoreba.net Jordan

That would make sense actually.

somegirl

perhaps she didn’t want to try, I didn’t see Fukuda’s wife get in to bath her feet either. Perhaps if she initiated getting into the foot bath perhaps others would have followed. Oh well, their loss for not enjoying a nice foot bath.
pwim

Canada does not have a First Lady. Laureen Harper is just the wife of the prime minister.
folosa

Harper has fungus and 6 toes.

Montsan

I really don’t know anything about the whole situation with the one stuck-up first lady making transportation demands etc., but do they ever consider that sometimes people are self-conscious about their bodies – especially if they have some sort of blemish or disfigurement? Ever see what pointed high-heels can do to women’s toes? Yeesh.

morningstar

Mrs Laureen Harper is very jealous that in Japan we have something to wash our feet with. They don’t have that in Canada.

Karyudo

You know that doesn’t make any sense, right? If she were jealous, she wouldn’t want to take her feet out of the foot bath, not refuse to put them in in the first place.
Randwulf

It may surprise you to know that we have bath-tubs in Canada. We don’t have to bring in buckets of snow from outside and melt it over a fire to provide the water for our tubs, we actually have piped-in running water that comes out of faucets! Imagine that! And while some of us use our tubs filled with ice to put our beer in when we have parties, we empty the tub when the party is over! Pretty nifty, eh?

http://www.japannewbie.com Harvey

Heh. I love ASHIYU. She shoulda tried it.

It -is- a pain though getting your socks back on and whatever once you’re done soaking it up.

Maybe she was wearing stockings or something?
nagisa

I’m amused that she’s even in the news in Japan, seeing as how we never hear about her over here in Canada. Most likely because nobody cares.

And could somebody edit the post so that she’s not referred to as the “first lady”? Last time I checked we still had a prime minister, not a president.

http://www.japanprobe.com James

One of the dictionary.com definitions of “first lady” is:

-the wife of the head of any country-

I won’t edit the post because Canadians are annoyed about having a common American term for the wives of world leaders used to refer to their leader’s wife.

lmshea

-the wife of the head of any country-

“I won’t edit the post because Canadians are annoyed about having a common American term for the wives of world leaders used to refer to their leader’s wife.”

Perhaps, then you should edit it for the sake of the definition:

The President, Emporer, and Queen are the “head” of the country. The Prime Minister is just that. The “prime” minister of the Soveriegn’s or President’s govermnent

England and Canada: Head of State: Queen Elizabeth.
Japan: Head of State: The Emperor

As an American I wish everyone would use American terms, but wrong is wrong.

http://www.japanprobe.com James

Even if Japan and Canada have monarchs, it is not uncommon for the wives of their prime ministers to be referred to as “first lady”:
http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/lYtRA8w0ebY/G8+Hokkaido+Toyako+Summit+Begins/2JsSKx2DmBD/Kiyoko+Fukuda

http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/weekender/story.html?id=a9b670c8-2587-49e3-8813-c508f94423a7

http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,170344,00.html

http://www.china.org.cn/english/2006/Oct/183211.htm

The correct formal/official title might be “wife of the prime minister,” but I prefer the informal and much shorter “first lady.”
http://en.equinoxio.org/ Julián Ortega Martínez

Are the prime ministers “heads” of government, right?

David

Apparantly there were plenty of snubs to Japan by the leaders their wives, and even plain reporters from everywhere. Even African journalists were apprehensive about sleeping on Japanese Tatami mats.

Where does it say every head of state in every country has to pay due respects to the host country for this sort of media extravaganza, which is all it was really, even though Japan spent a billion dollars to spruce up a bancrupt, bubble era, mega project in a backward, forsaken, frozen, colony.

These people are not exchange students after all with a deep and dearing affinity to Japan. Are all Japanese who go abroad deeply ingrained with a respect for the country and culture they are visiting? I doubt it.
binbiru

Seems like all the first ladies snubbed the foot bath. Maybe no one shaved their legs that day?
DrLazarus

The Harpers are known for their ugly feet. Hilarious that this is the first time I’ve ever seen news on Mrs. Harper, and I live near Ottawa.

Canadian first lady snubs Japanese foot bath

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