Video: Kids React to Hatsune Miku
Some American kids react to Vocaloid idol Hatsune Miku:
I found the kids so annoying that I couldn’t watch more than 30 seconds of the video, but maybe some people out there will find this entertaining…
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Categories: General Japan
Bruce Willis’ Funny Japanese Car Commercial (Daihatsu Mira e:S)
Bruce Willis has been appearing in a couple new commercials for Daihatsu’s Mira e:S. One commercial pokes some fun at the fact that so many Japanese commercials feature foreign celebrities who horribly mispronounce product names:
In the first of the two commercials, the man in charge is explaining that the new Mira e:S is so great it can stand alone in its own commercial. It gets 30.0km/L (about 70.5mpg) and it’s cheap – they don’t need a celebrity spokesman for that!
He is informed that they’ve already hired a celebrity. It’s Bruce Willis, who is on his way to Japan. As Bruce sits in a first class airplane seat, he practices saying, “the new Daihatsu e:S.”
In part two of the series, the boss is informing his crew that the automobile should have the leading role in the commercial. Bruce Willis should only be a supporting actor! Bruce gets on camera and butchers the pronunciation of the company and car name (“Daimatsu Miro uusu“). The boss is highly annoyed. Goddammit Bruce, get it right!
Bruce is obviously in on the joke, because he does a far better job of pronouncing the name of the car in the first commercial.
This is Bruce’s first commercial for Daihatsu (a Toyota company). Because he has been starring in Subaru advertisements since the 1990′s, this represents a major shift in his brand loyalty.
Categories: Celebrity News, Foreigners in Japan
Japanese Enka Music in Ethiopia
A Japanese tourist visits Addis Ababa, and is surprised to hear Japanese enka music playing on the streets:
It is “Kita no Yadokara,” a 1975 hit song by Harumi Miyako. You can hear the original version of it here.
[hat tip to Hussien]
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Categories: General Japan
Drug Smugglers Used Curry: Couldn’t Fool X-Ray Machine
Sherif Narin, a 41-year-old Turkish resident of Tokyo, has been arrested after authorities discovered that he was having illegal drugs shipped to his motorbike shop:
The drugs, hidden in the double-bottomed box, were detected during X-ray examinations conducted by customs, the police said, adding that curry had been spread on the bags containing the drugs in an attempt to deceive sniffer dogs.
The police suspect the man, whose business has been struggling, may have been asked by an Israeli acquaintance who has left Japan to receive the drugs for a reward of 750,000 yen.
According to the Yomiuri, Narin told police that he thought that the box would contain marijuana. It actually contained 2 kilograms of methamphetamines, which have a street value of about 165 million yen ($2.1 million).
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Categories: Foreigners in Japan
Mount Fuji’s Mystery Pond
Following the recent typhoons that swept through Japan, something odd has happened near Mount Fuji. Near its five famous lakes, a sixth “mystery lake” has appeared:
The tiny new “lake” (called Akaike) is adjacent to Lake Shoji (see the red dot on the map above). Its water is unusually clear and beautiful, so it’s been attracting a lot of attention from tourists.
Experts speculate that it was formed because of an underground link to Lake Shoji. The heavy rainfall from the typhoons, which caused Lake Shoji to rise by four meters, probably also pushed some water up from the ground and made the new pond.
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Categories: Odd / Strange
Countries That Donated to Japan (Seven Eleven Stats)
I recently stumbled across a Seven Eleven press release from late June, summarizing the results of charity fundraising efforts undertaken by its convenience stores. Its summary of international breaks down the 420 million yen ($5.45 million) of donations by countries and regions.
The results are quite interesting:
Total Amount of Donations Raised:
- Taiwan (4,753 stores) – 303,680,000 yen
- America/Canada (6,636 stores) – 65,340,000 yen
- Thailand (5,962 stores) – 16,000,000 yen
- Hong Kong (949 stores) – 11,880,000 yen
- Singapore (550 stores) – 11,270,000 yen
- Malaysia (1,235 stores) – 5,280,000 yen
- Hawaii (54 stores) – 4,180,000 yen
- Mexico (1,240 stores) – 3,870,000 yen
- Indonesia (27 stores) – 2,930,000 yen
- South Korea (3,404 stores) – 740,000 yen
- Philippines (577 stores) – 300,000 yen
Average Amount Raised Per Store:
- Indonesia – 108,518 yen
- Hawaii – 77,407 yen
- Taiwan – 63,892 yen
- Singapore – 20,491 yen
- Hong Kong – 12,518 yen
- America / Canada – 9,846 yen
- Malaysia – 4,275 yen
- Mexico – 3,120 yen
- Thailand – 2,684 yen
- Philippines – 520 yen
- South Korea – 217 yen
The data only reflects donations made through Seven Eleven convenience stores, which were probably only a small fraction of the total charity donations that came from each country. Nevertheless, it does seem to fairly reflect the tremendous outpouring of goodwill from Taiwan (over 20 billion yen ($259 million) in charity donations). It’s also interesting to see that Hawaii, an American state with close ties to Japan, had a very high amount of donations per store.
The tiny amount of donations collected by South Korean convenience stores might reflect the negative effect that a tantrum of anti-Japanese nationalism had on that country’s charity fundraising campaigns. In one case, millions of yen that Seoul City employees had donated for Tohoku earthquake relief were re-directed and given to ultra-nationalist groups.
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Categories: General Japan