Archive for January, 2010

Surfing Japanese kids & dolphins

The grand prize winner from last night’s Kasou Taishou special:

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

Crime Minister of Japan Yukio Hatoyama

Remember the cleverly edited video that makes it look like Prime Minister Hatoyama is questioning himself over his questionable handling of political donations? Well, it seems somebody out there has taken the trouble to subtitle it in English and give it a pun-tastic title:

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

Drunk on Japanese TV

A bleeding drunk guy goes into a hospital to get treated for cuts, turns violent, and is unfortunate enough to have a news camera around when the cops show up to arrest him:

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

Kasou Taishou special to air tonight on Japanese TV

Attention readers: tonight from 7:00 to 9:00 PM Japan Time, NTV will be airing its 83rd Kasou Taisho special (aka “Kinchan and Katori Shingo’s All Japan Costume Grand Prix”).

Here’s an example of the cool kind of stuff that went down on one of last year’s specials:

Those of you outside of Japan may be able to watch if you keep an eye on the time different and use a program like keyhole TV.

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

McDonald’s brings giant “American” burgers to Japan

The fast food wars are heating up in Japan! McDonald’s is aiming to draw customers with four new limited edition “Big America” burgers, which will be released between January and March (there is a special preview taking place this weekend at select restaurants across Japan).

Here’s a clip that shows FTV and ATV news reports about the burgers and their rivals:

Each burger supposedly contains ingredients that give it the kind of unique flavor one would expect from hamburgers in the regions they are named after. Reporters try some of the new burgers and are impressed. The burgers will be a bit pricey by fast food standards, but McDonald’s is hoping that some customers will want a premium hamburger experience.

Other fast food chains are also launching new menu items. Lotteria has some new teriyaki burgers and a contest through which some lucky customers can win a year’s supply of them. Mos Burger is counting on its new tuna burgers.

The video also includes a look at some real premium hamburgers from a non-fast food restaurant -Blacows in Ebisu. You can read a review of their burgers in English here.

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Bonus clip: For those with long attention spans and a love for news about fast food, here’s a feature report from TBS news about the development of Mos Burger’s new tuna burgers:

The video also mentions Lotteria’s smoked bacon and Freshness Burger’s mushroom burger.

I tried the bouillabaisse sauce tuna burger at my local Mos Burger yesterday. I was unimpressed. Their Tobikiri Burgers are far better.

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

Introducing Twitter to Japanese TV viewers

FTV reports on the opening of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s official twitter account:

Twitter is still somewhat new to Japan, so FTV needs to introduce the concept of Twitter to viewers before it can explain about Hatoyama’s presence on the site. Japan isn’t quite at the level of Twitter love one now sees in the United States, where news viewers are bombarded with reports about “tweets.”

Hatoyama’s desire to bring his views directly to the people is compared to Eisaku Sato’s use of television in the 1970′s, Junichiro Koizumi’s use of an e-mail “magazine,” and Taro Aso’s internet videos. Since he started tweeting on December 31st, Hatoyama’s follower count has grown to an impressive 142,000.

People on the street are told about Hatoyama’s tweets and asked to give their own comments. One man says he’d like to know how Hatoyama, who can’t seem to manage his own funds, intents to do a good job managing the government’s money. Another guy asks that the DPJ fufill its campaign promise to lower gasoline taxes. A third simply asks that Hatoyama listen to the voice of the people.

The report closes with a comment on how some politicians such as Barack Obama may actually have lackeys writing their tweets for them. Could the same be true for Hatoyama?

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