Japanese Girls

Tokyo Women vs. Other Asian Women

Kanebo recently conducted a study comparing women in Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei, and Seoul:

“The biggest difference we saw was the emphasis that Japanese women place on human relationships – in particular they care about being liked by others – while the women in the other cities are more concerned with personal growth through their work or studies,” said Sakae Nomura, director of Kanebo’s Beauty Research Institute.

According to the survey, which covered around 450 women between the ages of 18 and 59 in the five cities, women in Tokyo place more emphasis on personal relationships and achieving a work-life balance, while the women of the four other cities want a high income and “personal development.”

When asked what sort of person they wished to be, Tokyo women most frequently replied “someone who is considerate to others.” Their counterparts, however, tended to reply they wanted to be “cheerful” and “feminine.”

While women in the Japanese capital like to be praised for their appearance – and particularly like to be described as “stylish” and having good taste – the respondents in Beijing, Taipei and Seoul most like being praised for their work abilities.

Tokyo women use makeup more frequently and extensively than their counterparts, the report identifying that 79.5 percent of women apply makeup five days a week. That figure fell to 38.7 percent in Shanghai, 44.5 percent in Beijing, 45.1 percent in Taipei and 58.7 percent in Seoul.

Read more in the Independent and the WSJ.

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“I’m Part Anime”

So says the guy in this video, which falls a bit short of College Humor’s usual quality.

Here are some other things said or written in pseudo-Japanese, which was obviously made via machine translation, in the video:
彼はKeyマスターです= He is the key master
やった！= Yesssss!
不幸= unhappiness [actually closer to bad luck]
かんつ= [gibberish that sounds like an English swear word. Perhaps one of these.]
super 騎兵= super cavalry
私を見て= look at me
1000幸せの涙= 1000 happiness tears
米= rice
笑うんち= the kanji for laugh+ poop
愚かな= foolish
nya!= meow
キャッハチャブ= Chibchub [I guess]
寿司= sushi
これは段はアニメキャラクターやジャック方法について映画を見るには、クレジットです= This paragraph is the credits for watching a movie concerning anime character or jack way

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AKB48 Members in Vogue: Idols as Adults

An NTV news entertainment report on how Yuko Oshima, Atsuko Maeda, Sayaka Akimoto, and Tomomi Itano have appeared in the most recent issue of Vogue Nippon:

Their “sexy” adult fashion in the Vogue photo shoot is contrasted with their usual cute idol image. When they are always playing the role of kawaii teenage schoolgirls, it’s easy to forget that several of them are in their twenties.

The “Making of” video:

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AKB48′s Yuko Oshima: Japan Fought Against Italy in WW2

Back in August, Yuko Oshima of the idol group AKB48 appeared as a guest on an educational TV special marking the 65th anniversary of the end of World War 2. Oshima was meant to be a representative of the young generation of Japanese, all of whom have not experienced war.

At one point, Oshima was quizzed on her knowledge of the war. She was given a set of flags representing nations that participated in World War 2 and was asked to identify the Axis powers and the Allied powers:

She obviously knows that Japan fought against America, but has trouble figuring out the alignment of other countries. She seems pretty confident that Japan’s Axis partners were Germany and the United Kingdom (this produces some laughter from another guest, so she probably begins to doubt her choice). Italy is placed in the Allied column. Despite the fact that earlier parts of the program were discussing Japan’s war against China, she pauses in confusion for a few moments before she is able to correctly label China as one of the Allies. When she finishes by placing Australia in the Allied column, the presence of Union Jacks on opposing sides must look pretty odd. She finally corrects her mistake.

She explains her error by saying that she knew the Axis was known as the “Nichi-Doku-I“(日独伊) alliance in Japanese, and she mistakenly thought that he “I” stood for Italy ["Itaria"(伊太利亜) in Japanese, while the U.K. is "Igirisu"(英吉利)].

Update/Note to readers: I’ve already noticed that one twit is using this clip to back up the claim that “Japs aren’t taught about the war at school.” What an astounding stupid statement. If you judge the entire Japanese education system based on the comments of an air-headed pop star, you’re dumber than Ms. Oshima.

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Japanese Rifle Girl vs. Carnival Game

It takes about 10 shots for Tsuruoka to figure that dead center hits on the targets won’t result in wins. A price has to fall off its ledge and onto the ground, and that requires a shot aimed at the edge of boxes.

After 62 shots, she has claimed 49 of the 50 prizes. The total cost of her ammo was 2,480 yen (40 yen per cork). The total cost of the prizes won was 3,940 yen. However, the remaining prize is a large box that cannot easily be knocked down. Single shots are too weak to move the box, so she gets her friends to help her fire volleys at the target. This tactic works, and after 9 volleys it falls to the ground. Unfortunately, that used a lot of corks, so the total price of knocking over all 50 targets ends up at 5,360 yen. The actual price of the prizes totaled to 4,535 yen, so the festival booth guy made a profit of 825 yen.

The conclusion is obvious: normal people who visit festivals and play the games there should be prepared to lose some money. [Unless they are skilled marksmen who only aim at small prizes.]

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Japanese Girl + Dangerous Job

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