Archive for March, 2009

Asashoryu: fashion model?

Sumo grand champion Asashoryu has made his fashion modeling debut:

The yokozuna danced to the loud music along with female and male models during the event Shibuya Girls Collection in front of some 20,000 people, mostly teenage girls, at Yoyogi national gymnasium.

“I felt a kind of tension that was new to me,” an excited Asashoryu said, referring to the difference of the pressure from that he feels during sumo matches. “The shrill voices were also impressive,” the yokozuna also said.

Asashoryu wore the school uniform for the show because he played the role of a junior high school student in a recent TV commercial film promoting a beverage.

For those of you who haven’t seen it, here is the commercial mentioned:

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Korean men arrested for trafficking gay prostitutes in Japan

The JoongAng Daily reports on two South Koreans who have been arrested for working with the Yakuza to traffick gay prostitutes into Japan:

Investigators have found that Park and Lim had sent over 30 male and transgender sex workers to Japan to work in brothels in Yokohama’s red light district since January 2007, charging them fees ranging from 10 million won ($6,443) to 15 million won.

Police said Park has amassed a total of 500 million won for offering such jobs. Some of the people he transported to Japan told police they were sometimes forced to have sex with Park, despite the fact that he knows he is HIV-positive, police said.

Those brought to work in the Japanese port city worked at Yakuza-operated brothels and were forced to pay an extra 80,000 yen ($811) per month to the Yakuza in “protection fees.” They received between 15,000 yen and 20,000 yen for having sex with clients.

The Korea Times also has a story about this.

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Curry rice and Japan’s Imperial Family

A video clip explores the Imperial Family’s love of Japanese curry and rice:

• The emperor and crown prince would often order curry and rice from the cafeteria when they were students at Gakushuin University.
• Prince Akishino and his wife have also ordered curry and rice at restaurants.
• Prince Hitachi is also known to eat curry and rice (in variations that include Thai and Indian curry).
• The Fujiya Hotel is Hakone is famous for its curry and rice, so the emperor ate it when he visited

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Fried salamander, anyone?

FTV reports about eating Mexican salamanders:

Apparently this particular type of salamander, the axolotl (aka “wooper rooper”), used to be quite popular in Japan back in the 1980′s. Many people had kept them as pets, but when the fad died down, salamander breeders were left with tanks full of the creatures. Observing that axolotl are sometimes sold as food in Mexico, a company in Toyama that is trying to market them as a food source.

The reporter tries both fried salamander and salamander tacos, and claims that both taste pretty good.

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15,759 homeless people in Japan

That’s what the official government numbers say:

Of the 15,759, 14,554 were males and 495 were females, while the gender of the remaining 710 was unknown.

While homeless people were found in every prefecture, Osaka was ranked top with 4,302, followed by Tokyo with 3,428, Kanagawa with 1,804, Fukuoka with 1,237 and Aichi with 929, according to the survey.

The homeless in Tokyo’s 23 wards and government-designated major cities accounted for about 70 percent of the overall figure at 11,245.

Despite earlier press reports of increases in the number of homeless, the homeless population remains at about the same level reported last year.

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Blood: The Last Vampire Live Action Movie Preview

This looks like it will be, considering the nature of the beast– what with a vampire girl that hunts other vampires while decked in a Japanese schoolgirl outfit, a decent action flick. It has been interesting to watch the evolution of the Blood series, from the oddly English-laden original short anime movie way back in the year 2000, to a crappy, barely-related anime series, a video game, novels, etc.to where we are now.
[hat tip to ANN]

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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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