Archive for October, 2009

Kazuko Hosoki: Sexy?

Yesterday, we took a look at how some Japanese netizens reacted to a nude photograph of Serena Williams. As a follow-up, let’s see how readers of this Japanese blog post responded to semi-clothed photographs of celebrity fortune teller Kazuko Hosoki:

This is terrible.

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This crashed my browser.
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Gross! Gross! Groooss!
I’m totally going to barf… *dies*
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T-O-O G-R-O-S-S
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TERRIBLLLLLEEEE━━(ﾟﾛﾟ;)━━ﾝ!!
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If only these pictures printed here were of a beautiful lady….
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I figure she’d be fun to “play with” if she were twenty or so years younger.
She was probably good when she was younger, she probably didn’t look like the pig she is now.
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God help me!
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My dinner….I just threw it up.
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Regardless of what convincing and clever stories she might tell, it’s really unfortunate for her to be taking these kinds of pictures. I don’t know what her feelings were, if she wanted to seen as a woman, but from my point of view I get the feeling that Hosoki Kazuko has thrown off her image as a good woman that she’s had since the old days, and she’s betrayed our expectations of her.
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It’s no use…the image is burned into my eyelids.
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Wow…this is just…wow!
From now on whenever I see her on TV I’ll think of this…
Even if one is mad about it, being nude…hm…
Is there profit to be had in posing as a “lucky nude”…?
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It won’t go up, I can’t get it up!
It’s like something has been taken away from my “son.”
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[hat tip to Ponta]

[The Japanese news article translations in this post were provided by myGengo's simple human translation system.]

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

Emmy stars on Japanese TV

NTV’s Sukkuri recently sent a reporter to America to cover the Emmy Awards. Here’s a clip of the few celebrities he was able to rope into short interviews:

People we get to hear say “Sukkuri” include: Daniel Dae Kim of Lost, Chandra Wilson of Grey’s Anatomy, Jesse Spencer of House M.D., Alexander Gould of Weeds, Christian Clemenson of Boston Legal, Tony Shalhoub of Monk, Tracy Morgan of 30 Rock, Yunjin Kim of Lost, Dianne Wiest of In Treatment, Jemaine Clement of The Flight of the Conchords, and Simon Baker of The Mentalist.

Kevin Bacon and Charlie Sheen were too cool to speak to Japanese television. Drew Barrymore walked by, probably because the reporter miserably failed to learn the proper pronunciation of her name and called out “DORYUU (ドリュー)” instead.

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

Stormtrooper does Gatsby dance in Harajuku

Even if you’re not into the whole anime/otaku scene, you’ve gotta admit that Tokyo Stormtrooper Danny Choo has leveled-up his dancing skills since he posted his first YouTube vid:

As some of you out there familiar with Japanese TV may have noticed, this is a parody of Kimutaku’s popular series of Gatsby commercials:

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

Prairie dog in Japan

A pet Prairie dog in Kanagawa Prefecture gets its head stuck in a whipped cream cartoon:

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

Odd pedestrian crossing

“Nanikore Chin Hakkei” discovers a seemingly pointless pedestrian crossing signal in Tokyo:

Their investigation finds that the signal actually corresponds to a tiny far away crossing. Apparently it would not have been a good idea to place the signal in a closer location.

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

Japanese netizens reaction to nude photo of Serena Williams

English translations of a few selected comments left by users of 2-channel, Japan’s largest online bulletin board, in response to the news that American tennis player Serena Williams posed nude for the cover of a recent issue of ESPN magazine:

Gross.

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Even though I know it’s gross I couldn’t help but open it.
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Don’t paste such gross pictures.
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I’m not turned on by black (kuronbo) nudes.
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Looks like fried dough cake.
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Black color sure is pretty.
She seems so strong.
But I don’t think anyone could stand up to (keep up with ) her unless they were black …
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If she were white and not black I’d find her about 20% more erotic.
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She looks like Akiko Wada.
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Isn’t sex with black women supposed to be awesome? I mean, they seem to have so much stamina…
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That I’m not turned on isn’t due to her being black but rather a question of the make (of her face).
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I have to tell you, I think it’s erotic.
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Something about it is awesome.
Black people’s skin glitters and is healthy and pretty.
The part I can see, at least.
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If you fight her you’ll definitely lose.
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Standards of beauty vary a lot between countries and races, but is Serena hot to a black person?
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Although I’m looking at this as a Japanese person, she’s a pretty person.
In America special reports on athletes are included but
I was raised in America I wonder if my sense of it has become American-ish.
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It’s good to have a little bit of padding.

Over 500 comments were left in the original thread. Most were negative (about 30 comments compared her to a gorilla), but there were quite a few that thought she looked good.

[The Japanese news article translations in this post were provided by myGengo's simple human translation system and have been revised by helical.]

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