Archive for August, 2009

Mr. James : McDonald’s Japan has a gaijin clown

The white guy in the photo above is Mr. James, the mascot for 4 new burgers of McDonald’s “Nippon All-Stars” series. Residents of Japan who have been riding JR trains or passing by McDonald’s restaurants have probably already seen his face on advertisements. In his TV commercials, Mr. James speaks annoying foreigner Japanese (not unlike the wacky foreigner who spoke NIPPONGO in a recent Sony Commercial). Print advertisements convey his goofy gaijin Japanese by rendering everything he says in katakana.

Mr. James has an official blog chronicling his love for Japan and McDonalds. Its blog posts, no doubt written by a Japanese employee of McDonald’s Japan’s marketing department, put everything in a mix of katakana and hiragana. One blog post contains a special video of Mr. James acting like a moron while reading aloud from a fake Japanese phrasebook [actually an altered version of the book Dirty Japanese].

Judging from this page on his blog, McDonald’s Japan plans to send Mr. James to franchises across the country, allowing him to make lots of blog posts about the places he goes and the people he meets. As of today, he’s only visited Shibuya, but that map should fill up as the campaign gets underway. We can only guess what passing foreigners thought about Mr. James as he stood around handing out fans and speaking wacky broken Japanese.

Not surprisingly, Arudou Debito and the readers of his blog are outraged by the existence of Mr. James. Debito believes that the character reinforces negative stereotypes about foreigners and has compared the actor who plays Mr. James to Stepin Fetchit, a black American who made a became a millionaire in the early 20th century by playing dumb negro characters in Hollywood films. That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but the dude certainly is acting like the “jackass” Debito believes him to be.

Complaints can be sent to McDonald’s Japan through this contact information. Or you can go over their heads and complain directly to the U.S. head office of McDonald’s.

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• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

Wedding kiss confusion

Two little boys are told to give kiss the bride on her cheek, but one boy, 2-year-old Koichi, seems to not understand the meaning of the word “bride” (oyome):

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• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
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Predicting earthquakes in Japan

Vedic Astrologer Rahul Bhatnagar has e-mailed us about this video clip he uploaded on August 2, 2009. He claims that the vague predictions he makes in the video prove he has the ability to predict earthquakes:

i am researcher have done research in predicting earthquakes specially for japan i have predicted around 15 earthquakes for japan in the past including niigata earthquake.i predict earthquake which are more that 6 on richter scale.i have also predicted recent earthquake that strike japan on 9 and 11 august 2009.check my youtube video,if you like you can publish my predictions on your site,it would be very interesting news for you as i am only person to predict earthquakes for japan till date.

Few people who are exposed to his video will probably realize that Honshu is a pretty big island and that the areas he pointed to were way off the actual locations of the most recent earthquakes. Moderately strong earthquakes are hardly rare in Japan, so it’s not surprising that wannabe mystics have often used “predictions” of Japanese earthquakes as proof of their powers.

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• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
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Nobu’s doors blocked by protest over bluefin tuna

Remember Nobu, the expensive sushi restaurant that put a warning in its menu telling customers to not order their bluefin tuna dishes? Here’s a follow-up video report from the folks at Don’t Panic Online:

In a related story, Mainichi reports that a proposed ban on Northern bluefin tuna trade “could threaten Japan’s food supply.”

[via Our Man in Abiko]

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Buddha sculpture made from dead insects

“Nanikore Chin Hakkei” takes us to Gunma prefecture to see an amazing sculpture (video clip subtitled in English):

For directions on how to visit the Itakura community center and see the sculpture, check out the map on this site.

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• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
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Remembering Ward Wallach

TBS’s “The News” takes a look back at the life of an American resident of Japan who died in a plane crash this week in 1985:

Unfortunately, he was one of the passengers on board Japan Airlines Flight 123 when it crashed on August 12, 1985 in Gunma Prefecture. The first to find out about his death were his Japanese host family, whose phone number was written on a damaged piece of paper found in the plane’s wreckage.

In accordance with Ward’s wishes, his remains now rest on the grounds of Ryoan-ji, a Zen Temple in Kyoto. His name lives on through the Ward Wallach Memorial Scholarship, which was established soon after his death and has since helped 24 American students pursue studies in Japan.

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