Watermelon Half-pipe
A truly glorious work of performance art:
As we can see from the second half of the clip, this feat is not easy!
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Categories: Odd / Strange
George W. Bush impersonator appears in Japanese commercials
George W. Bush lookalike Brent Mendenhall has been appearing in tea commercials on Japanese TV.
Each scene of the Bush lookalike acting goofy/stupid is followed by a message letting you know that Herbal Clear is supposed to help wash away bad things.
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Categories: Foreigners in Japan, Japanese TV
Green tea-flavored Coca-Cola
Green Tea flavor zero calorie Coca-Cola Plus, Japan’s newest weird soft drink:
The cola, which contains catechins, will hit stores across Japan on Monday, June 8th. Judging from Coke’s press release, the target demographic is women in their 20′s and 30′s who are concerned about health and beauty.
Expect a bitter battle to take place this month between this cola and Pepsi’s new shiso-flavored drink.
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Categories: Japanese Food, Odd / Strange
Push the buttons before you fall into hot water…
A new wacky clip from “Haneru no Tobira”, with comedians trying to press buttons and inflate floating platforms before they slide down a slippery incline:
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Categories: Japanese TV
Kickboard scooter challenge
The crazy crew from “Haneru no Tobira” put on bug suits and try to ride a kickboard scooter through a 45-centimeter wide corridor:
Those who knock down walls or can’t make it all the way through the corridor are punished by having stinky spider breath blown into their faces.
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Categories: Odd / Strange
Electricity theft in Japan
A story on Mainichi the other day about a man secretly stealing electricity from his neighbor with an extension cord is strikingly similar to another story that made the national news last week.
The incident in question took place in Sasebo City. Here’s a video embed showing FTV’s coverage of the story, complete with a comical cartoon reenactment:
A 49-year-old unemployed man was arrested for entering a neighbor’s house and stealing electricity to power a rice cooker. The electricity in the man’s house had been recently shut off due to nonpayment, so he resorted to electricity theft to cook a meal for himself.
His plan failed when his actions were noticed by his neighbor, who happened to be in a adjacent room at the time of the break-in. The neighbor called the police, who arrived and found the criminal laying around outside the house. Inspection of the rice cooker revealed that the man had accidentally set it up to heat the rice instead of actually cooking it, so he didn’t even get a chance to enjoy his meal!
Categories: Odd / Strange