A couple new commercials for ABC Mart’s Hawkins Sport shoes, which apparently look so good that they’ll have foreign waiters turning their heads:

Making of clip:

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NTV’s “Zoom In Super” morning show takes on the “History Girl” (rekijo) boom that is hitting Japan (subbed in English):

The AFP has a good article up about this trend:

In testing times like these, “people tend to turn to strong symbolic figures on whom they can project their ideals,” said Hideki Nakagawa, a Nihon University sociology [...]

Miss Universe Japan 2009 Emiri Miyasaka answers some questions in English:

Rate her English:

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And here’s a clip of her on stage in a swimsuit and a evening gown:

Rate her swimsuit / evening gown:

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View Results

[hat tip to Brian in Jeollanam-do and 3Yen News]
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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 [...]

New research has found that tanning machines cause skin cancer.
In Japan many young women darken their skin at tanning salons, so the TBS News went to the streets of Tokyo to get some opinions from tanned gyaru. Here’s their report (subtitled in English):

Quite a few of those interviewed don’t intent to stop visiting tanning [...]

It would seem that a lot of internet users are upset about the “Japanese” national costume that Miss Universe Japan 2009 Emiri Miyasaka will be wearing in the big competition.
A ZakZak article introduces the controversy to Japanese readers, revealing that many comments have criticized the design and American blogs are calling it something a porn [...]

Female students at a high school in Fukui participate in a screaming contest:

Summer vacation is about to begin, so the school and local police held the contest to help teach the girls to make some noise if they run into suspicious individuals. A little gadget is used measured the decibel levels of their shrieks [...]

For those of you who were disappointed about the lack of video in our post about Miss Universe Japan 2009 Emily Miyasaka, here’s an HD quality YouTube clip uploaded by the Asahi Shimbun:

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A Japanese reader named Mika has written to ask how the foreign readership of this site views Japanese girls with yaeba:
I research what foreigners feel about Japanese culture.
Especially I am interested in Yaeba.
Yaeba means double teeth/crooked teeth.
As I understand, Only Japanese feel it cute.
I am Japanese girl and have Yaeba.
Japanese say to me your teeth [...]

Sachiyo, a Japanese woman who blogs in English about her life in Jamaica, has written a very interesting post about how some people think Japanese women are popular in that country. Here’s a short excerpt in which she mentions men who approach her on the street:
A man who comes up and says “You come [...]

Back in September, people from all walks of Japanese internetness gathered under the banner of networking. Somehow I got invited then, and yet again. This time Danny Choo hosted and organized the event, with Andrew Shuttleworth co-hosting, and the number of attendees was even greater than before.
Here’s my humble recap, in video [...]

Erika Toda goes nude in a commercial for Cup Noodle Light (Cup Noodle in a smaller cup with air-dried noodles = healthy):

And Kyoko Uchida’s commercial for the same product:

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