Archive for August, 2009

Cat Massage

A cat in Japan that loves his master’s electric back massager:

(Posted at the request of a Google Japan guy who thinks this site doesn’t feature enough cat videos.)

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

Tokyo Summer Land

A weird English commercial for Tokyo Summer Land:

The commercial doesn’t show footage of the actual water park – maybe because they don’t want people to realize just how crowded it gets?

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

Japanese media attacks Noriko Sakai

If you live in Japan and have turned on your television some time in the last few days, chances are you heard nothing but news about the drug scandal involving celebrity Noriko Sakai (“Noripi”). Her husband was initially arrested for possession of stimulants and Noriko promptly disappeared. Most media coverage painted her as an embarrassed victim of a bad husband, but things have changed since her husband told police that Noriko was also a drug user. Police have issued a warrant for her arrest, and the media has begun to air any bit of information they think might support the case against her.

One of the examples they’ve dug up is a video clip from 5 years ago showing that she got a -*GASP*- tattoo on her ankle. The media cannot confirm whether the tattoo was real or just temporary, but is nonetheless proof of her abandoning her pure image (and heading down the road to drug use?).

She also gave an interview in 2007 with a strange streak of coloring in her hair. She told the interviewer that she is an adult and wants to spend more time to indulge herself.

Other examples of her suspicious activity include: not consenting to a voluntary search of her bag when she was called to the scene of her husband’s arrest and refusing to take a urine test.

Update: She’s turned herself in.

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

Sudanese husband on Japanese TV

An episode of “Majotachi no 22ji” that aired earlier this week had a story about a Japanese single mother who married a Sudanese man:

The guy from Sudan was introduced to her via a friend and they married after dating for a year and a half. He was very kind at first, but their relationship soon began to worsen (eventually resulting in a divorce).

Instead of appreciating the flavor of each dish she put great effort into preparing, he followed Sudanese custom by mixing the food together. Apparently Sudanese culture expects married men to take care of their single male friends, so almost every night he would arrive home very late and bring a group of loud friends. To make matters worse, he expected his wife to stay up and make food for them.

When she angrily demanded that he stop bringing friends over late at night, he responded by beating her. The narrator does not describe this activity as a consequence of the husband’s Sudanese upbringing [such a conclusion could have been made about a country that practices female genital mutilation and arrests women who dare to wear trousers].

The end of the clip shows the 41-year-old single mother and her children are paraded before a studio audience. The primary purpose of the show was to demonstrate how young and stylish she appears, and viewers can see that she continues to achieve physical beauty despite the difficulties she has faced in her life.

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

Pre-bombing Hiroshima recreated with computer graphics

A brief clip from this morning’s “Mezamashi TV” showing a CG recreation of what Hiroshima looked like before it was destroyed by an atomic bomb:

The interview the creator of the CG project (who lived near ground zero but was away from the city on the day of the bombing) via telephone and he repeats an opinion one frequently hears about the issue: it is important to teach younger people that nuclear weapons are horrible. By creating a representation of what was lost in the bombing, he hopes to remind people that such a thing should never be repeated.
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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

Cat wants squid (not tuna)

A Japanese master offers his cat tuna, but the animal makes it clear that squid is preferable:

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