1960s, B&W, doo-wop Japanese styling
Topic: Media
Via Bitter Cinema
QUOTE: "An interesting collection of Japanese television advertising from 1960 to the present from Shiseido , a cosmetics company that has been around since 1872. I especially like the b&w; 1960 doowop guys with the checkered jackets and portable grooming kits. "
Also check out 1960s JAPANESE RECORD JACKET GALLERY<

Posted by trek/taro at 3:41 PM KDT
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Made in "JAPAN" Computer Girl?
Topic: Media
Via the Veronikaah livejournal blog, here is COMPUTER GIRL.
Veronikaah says, "The main reason why Computer Girl RULES is that she was designed in Japan, as was her box." However, "Song Yun Toys" is neither Japanese name nor a Japanese company. It's Korean which is equivalent to saying "Aeroflot is a French airline."

Let's FILTH!
Topic: Japanese life
Daily Life in Japanese High Schools.
ERIC Digest.
At the end of the academic day, all students participate in "o soji," the cleaning of the school. They sweep the classrooms and the hallways, empty trash cans, clean restrooms, clean chalkboards and chalk erasers, and pick up trash from the school grounds. After o soji, school is dismissed and most students disperse to different parts of the school for club meetings.

COMMENT: "O-sogi"? Just say no.
That is, Just-say-no to the total FILTH of Japanese schools. The students pretend to clean and the teachers pretend to not notice. The older the students, the worse it gets. By the time of public university, you need to wear a bio-hazard suit to teach. (Smaller rural schools although sadly lacking in paint like all Japanese schools are cleaner because the moms pitch in to make cleaning days worthwhile.)

Korea must exceed Japan in all things
Korea Aging Faster Than Japan
Hankooki Apr 18 2004 11:46AM GMT
...The UN forecast it will double by 2019, making South Korea one of the most aged societies in the world.
This is even faster than Japan where the doubling of the elderly proportion took 24 years. Though the UN predicted Japan will see the ratio exceed 35 percent in 2005, the growth rate is lower than that of South Korea....

OMGWTfgBBQ: Mission Complete
Topic: Me
On Sunday April 18th down and across the street from Snob Hair...

BBQ Chicken legs, nachos, beer and fiberglass insulation was consumed in Mass Quanties.

The more things change...
...the more they stay the same.

The "Loftcube" by Werner Aisslinger 2004.

VS

Matti Suuronen's design of "Futuro" of 1968.

Today's price?
$140,000 for the Loftcube vs a 2001 auction price of $25,000 USD
See: More Futuro info or Official Futuro Film site "What's FUTURO?"Japanese site

'Still crazy after all these years': Japan's Aum cult
Topic: Japanese life
Japanese doomsday cult still a threat to society, government says
AP - Friday Apr 16 1:49 PM SGT
The doomsday cult behind the deadly 1995 Tokyo subway gassing is still a threat to society, using businesses to expand membership and remaining faithful to its convicted guru's violent teachings, the government said in a report Friday.


Our Aum Emblem is embroidered with more than 4,000 stitches in stunning, shimmering gold thread. $15.00

Win the Platinum Piss Boy with diamonds
Topic: Media

Win the Platinum Pisser!

Platinum Piss Boy is worth1,000万円. See the pissing CM for the DaKaRa drink which is on all the Japanese TV networks this morning.
PS: Their Piss on it intro is a laugh too.

In Japanese you can't use ellipsis points excessively...
Topic: Japanese life

ん...

Ellipsis ....Japanese.

Quote:

In Japanese manga, the ellipsis by itself represents speechlessness, usually as an admission of guilt or a response to being dumbfounded as a result of something that another person has just said or done. The growing popularity of manga worldwide has extended this convention beyond the borders of Japan.

Posted by trek/taro at 11:40 AM KDT
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Ryann's reminiscing rapscallions relapse respectably
Topic: Japanese life
My friend Ryann waxes lyrical....

Japan biker gang born to be wired
By Ryann Connell / MDN. WaiWai April 15, 200
Japan's most notorious biker gang from the '70s is back on the roads. Well, sort of.
Instead of terrorizing motorists and making work for police patrols on Japan's myriad thoroughfares, the Black Emperors, the biggest bosozoku gang in the country's history, has come back to life with a vengeance on the Information Superhighway... reminiscing rapscallions who slipped into respectability. http://www.blackemperor.jp/index2.html
_________________
"we will burn them alive and feed them to the fighters"

Posted by trek/taro at 6:40 PM KDT
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Ainu eyes: odd 'science'
Topic: Japanese life
I wonder what is this guy smoking? I'd love to be selling it.
All Amazing Ainu -- The "Indians" of Japan
by John Erskine Banta, General Manager & Director, Radisson Miyako Hotel Tokyo.
Book Press Release: April 14, 2004
....racial mixing has continued to diminish the number of full-blooded Ainu...Ainu-Japanese mixtures are especially conspicuous in the vicinity of Sendai, north of Tokyo. They are noticeable for their abundant hair, and for their eyes. Strangely, the genes that make the Ainu eye are often incompatible with the genes of the Japanese eye, making deformities common. The most common of these deformities is eyes that are too far apart; often to such an extreme that one of the eyes withers away.
But, when the two sets of eye genes work, especially in females, the results are astounding. Their eyes are huge, striking in color, and so hypnotic that people can?t avoid staring at them.
In the 1950s and 60s, a number of mix-blood Ainu-Japanese girls were brought to Tokyo from the Sendai area and put to work as models and as extras in movies. They were very successful as models --- giving rise to the Japanese art and comic preference for drawing young females with huge, luminous eyes -- but they did not fare as well as movie starlets because their eyes distracted so much attention from the Japanese stars.

Official climbing season for Mount Fuji
Topic: adviceS
Gee. Some people. This clueless gaijin wannabe, " Chilibuddy" is "going to be in Tokyo at the end of the month and climbing Mt. Fuji in May!"

Dream on.
The Official climbing season for Mount Fuji is s from July 1 to the end of August.

T.I.J. ---> This is Japan
Topic: FAQ

"T.I.J. - any other way?"

T.I.J. or "This is Japan" is the answer to all amusing aspects of Japanese living.

Only in Japan: Dumb doctor dad broils baby
Topic: Japanese life

WTFBBQ! The Japanese baby killing season officially starts!

Japanese baby dies of heat exhaustion after forgotten in car by doctor dad
AFP / 14 April 2004 2239 hrs
TOKYO : A 14-month-old baby girl died of suspected heat exhaustion after her father, a doctor, forgot to take her to daycare and left her in his car in a hospital carpark, Japanese police said on Wednesday...."He said he forgot that he had put his own child in the car," Gifu prefectural police spokesman Toru Kunii said. The mercury hit a high of 23.9 degrees Celsius in the area on Tuesday....
In recent years there have been a number of deaths of infants left in closed cars in hot weather while a parent played pachinko, Japan's compulsive, pinball gambling game.

'Balmy' Demineralized mineral water for $33 a bottle
Topic: Japanese Tech
Buying or selling demineralized mineral water for $33 a bottle: WOTS funnier? Maybe the name?

Hawaii's Bottled Seawater Industry Booming
(Wednesday, April 14, 2004 1:37:30 PM / Honolulu-AP) -- Several Hawaii companies are taking the bottled water concept to another level. Consumers, especially from Japan, are paying top dollar for a bottle for desalinated Hawaiian deep-sea water.
The seawater is being marketed as a mineral-rich, dietary supplement.....
Small bottles of Kona Nigari seawater were selling for 33-dollars in Waikiki this week....

Japan: rotting squid guts kills 3
Topic: Japanese life
Here's the winner of legit Japanese headline of 2004!!
Police: Poison gas from rotting squid guts kills 3
(Yomiuri / Apr 14)