Archive for January, 2010

George Takei on the Adam Carolla Show

The irreverent and often hilarious Adam Carolla sat down with Japanese American Star Trek alumni George Takei last year, and I caught the interview in a recent “best of” rebroadcast. George talks about growing as a Japanese-American in internment camps during World War II in the podcast. Adam puts forth the theory that while the internment was evil, it was not born of malicious intent, but George doesn’t seem to buy that.

They also discuss the plight of the woman who came to be known as Tokyo Rose and being gay and Japanese among many other topics.

You can find the show easily on itunes, or download the show directly
here.

For those of you that don’t like listening to Adam can get George’s message in this video.

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Contributor Bio: Claytonian blogs and vlogs about Japan, language, and news at The Hopeless Romantic.
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Wild drunks in Shibuya on New Year’s Eve

Both ATV and FTV aired news reports this week about the drunken chaos that took place at Shibuya Crossing on New Year’s Eve. Despite the fact that there is no countdown event, young people nonetheless gathered in the area around midnight, drinking alcohol and making noise. Dozens of police officers were required to keep people from obstructing traffic.

First, let’s look at ATV’s report:

The young people are shown engaging in some wild behavior. The police seem to stay calm and keep things somewhat under control. One person did seem to be injured and received first aid at a police box. Hours later, we see that some drunk people are passed out on the street.

FTV’s report was a bit more sensational:

It starts with some footage of the wacky people who have turned out to celebrate the new year: break dancing weirdos, a group wearing tiger masks, and a man “rapping” about the soba at his restaurant.

As midnight approaches, the pleasant mood changes to one of tension. Police prepare barricades and the big screen on a building overlooking Shibuya crossing is turned off early to discourage people from thinking there will be a countdown event. When clocks hit 0:00 and people begin celebrating, the wildness begins.

The a great “panic” fills the area around the station as it becomes too crowded for people to move. Police officers try to push people so they stay within the barriers. One cop is knocked over by the crowd. Broken glass bottles litter the street. There are also several people who have passed out from drinking too much. There was also some fighting.

It is noted that this event seems to be popular among foreigners. A few are more than happy to drink and dance in front of the news cameras. For some reason, one group of Japanese and foreigners was singing the “Ponyo” theme song. At least one foreigner joined a group of young Japanese who were climbing street poles.

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Tommy Lee Jones built the Great Wall of China

The latest in the “Alien Jones” series of Boss Coffee commercials depicts Tommy Lee Jones in various eras of human history, where he observes and appreciates how humans value hard work:

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Stunt pilots of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force

The pilots of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force’s elite Red Club put on a stunt show for visitors:

This radar base in Shimane prefecture lacks an airfield, so the main event of its annual festival is not an air show – it’s a bicycle show. The Red Club built their bicycle planes from scratch using materials such as cardboard and styrofoam.

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Pre-fabricated basement

It seems that houses in Japan just don’t have basements.* Luckily, there is a company out there that is selling pre-fabricated mini basements. All you need to do is bury it under your house (or in your yard, if you have one):

A company has taken techniques originally used to make underground storage tanks at gas stations and used it to create “Depot Angel” underground storage rooms. They offer a variety of pre-fabricated tank rooms for between about 200,000 yen ($21,000) and 10 million yen ($107,000).

We can see two examples near the end of the clip: one that is being used for rice/vegetable storage and another that has been turned into a wine cellar.

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*Note: Alex Kerr’s Dogs and Demons briefly mentions that there is some sort of regulation that prohibits the construction of basements for houses in Japan.

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HIV positive foreigners in Japan

A very interesting English language news report from N-H-K about foreigners in Japan who are HIV positive and the services that are available to them:

Unlike countries such as South Korea, Japan does not have a policy requiring HIV tests for foreigners and HIV-positive foreigners are not stripped of their visas. Making sure Japan’s HIV-positive foreign residents get proper care is an important issue.

According to the video, about 1,900 foreigners in Japan are known to have HIV or AIDS. Most of those cases involve people from Southeast Asia. Since there is a considerable number of Southeast Asians who are in Japan as migrant workers, there is a danger that those in the community who lack proper health insurance may avoid seeking medical care.

[via JapanSoc]

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