Archive for April, 2009

Celebrity scandal deserved scale model of entire neighborhood

Congratulations, FTV, for going the extra mile and building a model of the neighborhood around the park in which SMAP member Tsuyoshi Kusanagi was arrested for being loud, drunk, and naked:

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Experimental Japan photo animation

David Lee has posted this pretty neat experimental photography animation set in Japan:

I hope he took some of those early photos in an area of Kyoto without the [Ｄｏｎｏｔ　ｆｏｌｌｏｗ　Ｍａｉｋｏｓ　ｉｎ　ｔｈｅ　ｓｔｒｅｅｔｓ] signs.

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The foreigner who saw Tsuyoshi Kusanagi prancing around naked

This foreign dude who apparently witnessed SMAP member Tsuyoshi Kusanagi’s nude dancing and subsequent arrest appeared on just about every TV channel yesterday:

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Have a lollipop and “get high”

A lyric from Japanese hip hop group Rip Slyme may make this lollipop commercial slightly amusing for English speakers:

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The internet is already making fun of the Kusanagi nudity scandal

As news of SMAP member Tsuyoshi Kusanagi’s arrest over public indecency dominates every news outlet, Japanese netizens are hard at work creating humorous parody images about the scandal. Here’s a fantastic photoshop an advertisement poster [via Zaeega]:

The original advertisement, a PSA in which Kusanagi informs everyone that analog TV broadcasting will soon come to an end, has been changed to an announcement about Kusanagi disappearing from television. It also lets us know that SMAP will now only have 4 members.

Like just about any other advertisement starring Kusanagi, the Association for Promotion of Digital Broadcasting ads are being pulled from the air and posters are being taken down.

Also appearing on the internet: T-shirts bearing the phrase “What’s wrong with being naked?!”, which Kusanagi is said to have shouted at police officers when they arrived on the scene of his nude noise making.

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Gunkanjima (Battleship Island) opens to tourists

Nagasaki’s famous Gunkanjima (Battleship Island) opened to tourists this week. Here is a clip from FTV’s Mezamashi TV morning show featuring a tour of the island:

The 6.3-hectare, 480-meter-long island at its peak had some 5,200 workers and their families living in a tight jumble of apartment blocks, which include the country’s first high-rise made of reinforced concrete.

Tourists are now allowed to visit the island if they join a ship tour that costs ¥4,000 for a round-trip ticket, plus an additional ¥300 landing fee. The stay on the island is limited to one hour, according to the city of Nagasaki.

Unfortunately, tourists will have to stick to a specially-constructed pathway, only able to view many of the abandoned buildings from the outside.

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