Archive for March, 2009

Profile of a foreign butler cafe employee

An NTV news special report about residents of Ginza that aired yesterday included a segment about a foreign guy who works at a butler cafe:

The main focus of the report is on his living conditions and his dream of becoming a pop star. Here are some brief notes on its contents:

• The guy’s name is Will and he’s a student at Sophia University. He pays 88,000 yen to rent a room at a guest house in Ginza. He earns his living expenses by working at a butler cafe.
• He wants to be a pop star in Japan. Much like Jero, he has a Japanese grandmother who taught him about Japanese culture and music. His favorite singer seems to be Utada Hikaru. When he sings an example song, the narrator comments on how he needs some more practice. Ouch.
• The narrator makes fun of his inability to follow the cooking directions on his instant rice package. When he adds ramen to the rice, the narrator hopes that he didn’t learn how to make such a monstrosity from his Japanese grandmother.
• Lacking a piano at home, he uses one at an electronics store for practice.
• At the end of the report he goes to an audition. The judges are not very impressed with his attempt to sing a popular Japanese song and say he might have a better chance if he tries to create original songs. Will seems determined to follow this advice.

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Review: Arcade Mania

It’s like I am starting my own little Oprah book club. The proceeding sentence should warn you that my sad sack is all over the following video review of the book Arcade Mania.

You can buy the book at Amazon:Link to Amazon America’s site for the book.
Or if you live in Japan, you can buy it at Amazon Japan too
The official Arcade Mania website is here. Also, here is Ashcraft talking about the book on Kotaku. Come to think of it, the book needed an intro like this…

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Contributor Bio: Claytonian studies the Nihongoes in Saitama and blogs about Japan, language, and news at The Hopeless Romantic.

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Patient forced nurses to kneel in apology

A 42-year-old man has been arrested in Niigata after he forced nurses to kneel for an hour in apology after they were supposedly late in responding to his calls:

Kaneda checked into the hospital in the city’s Nishi Ward on Jan. 28 for an internal ailment. That night he called for assistance by pressing the nurse call button, but when the nurse arrived, he reportedly said she was late and accused her of laughing when she saw him, police said.

Kaneda allegedly became further enraged when four nurses tried to restrain him because he tried to leave the hospital. He allegedly told them: “Why must I listen to what you say? Apologize!” He then made the nurses kneel in the corridor in front of the nurses’ room at about 1 a.m. on Jan. 29, police said.

Kaneda also punched a doctor who tried to intervene.

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Wireless internet access on Japanese bullet trains

Starting March 14th, JR’s N700 shinkansen trains will have wireless internet access:

The maximum line speed is 2Mbps within the trains even when they run at full speed or through tunnels. Speed tops 54Mbps in the waiting loung areas. There are several mobile stations (access points) on the trains that are linked wirelessly with cables placed along the railroad lines.

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Yoshitomo Nara arrested in New York

A famous Japanese artist has been arrested in New York City [Via Jean Snow]:

Yoshitomo Nara, a contemporary Japanese pop artist known for sculptures and paintings of doe-eyed figures, was arrested in late February for tagging graffiti in the Union Square subway station, a New York Police Department official said Monday.

The artist was arrested at 3:10 a.m. on Feb. 27 and was charged with criminal mischief, possession of graffiti instruments, making graffiti and resisting arrest, detective Martin Speechley told Kyodo News in a phone interview.

Nara, who has already been released, has said that he enjoyed the experience of being held in a jail cell and that it was “like in the movies.”

[image of the graffiti taken from The Art Collectors via Watashi to Tokyo]

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Ancient Colonel Sanders statue discovered in Osaka

Construction workers have discovered an old Colonel Sanders statue in the Dotonbori River in Osaka:

The statue was taken from the front of a KFC store and thrown into the river during a wild celebration of a Hanshin Tigers baseball victory 24 years ago. The statue did not turn up during searches at that time, and for years some had blamed the Tigers’ many losses on “the curse of Colonel Sanders.”
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