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This man is trying to sell a samurai sword on an infomercial when it snaps in half and slashes him by accident. The guy moans in pain, tumbles to the floor, and disappears.
What do you think, guys? Was this a real samurai sword? Probably not.
(Thanks, Walter!)
Check out this superbly written article by Wired senior editor and TV star Adam Rogers about xxx-rated weirdness and gender roles in Japanese animation. It starts like this:
Imagine if the centaurs in Fantasia abandoned their chaste little picnic and erupted into a wild orgy. The younger, more girlish colts might not be as into it, so they'd get tied up. Then a 1,000-foot high robot in samurai armor locked in battle with an equally huge demon that squirts fire out of tentacles shaped like penises might crash into the scene, killing all the centaurs.
This article was actually written a decade ago—I found it while surfing the web for blog ideas. I work with Adam at Wired, but had no idea he was an anime/sex/gender expert. (Now he has a wife and a baby and edits stories about science, politics, and law enforcement.) The guy's full of surprises! Just goes to show that you just never know where your editors have been—or what they've been imagining.
So what if you don't live in Japan and can't use any of the gazillion cool-looking Japan-only cell phones? You can still own a miniaturized replica of one—made to resemble the real thing down to every button. They're about the size of a finger and can be used as a cell phone strap for your much uglier, bulkier non-Japanese cell phone. (Wait, why is there a pink RAZR in this picture?)
By the way, here's a pop quiz: If anyone can name all seven handsets shown here, I'll send you a prize.
There's an awesome article in The Onion this week titled "Earthquake Sets Japan Back to 2147." I can't even begin to summarize it because the writer's so witty and satirical and I can't really compete with that. But here's an excerpt and a link:
Teleportation of food and water remains at a standstill as technicians in Kobe continue to fix the extensive damage to the eight-million-yottabyte mainframe computer, a four-by-three-inch quantum femtoprocessor responsible for accessing and fulfilling the thoughts and desires of all Japanese.
PingMag did a cool feature on funny-shaped vegetables made by creative Japanese farmers. We all heard about the square watermelons, but did you know there are also pyramid-shaped ones and ones with faces on them? Here's living proof. This one was made in Fukuoka.
And remember the heart-shaped cucumbers?? Here, finally, are some pics of what it would look like in a salad...
In 2008, Chronicle published my book: Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan.
I am also the founder of The Tofu Project, a boutique program that helps Japanese entrepreneurs and creators think deeper, tell better stories, and go out into the world in a much bigger way. We work with companies like Mixi, Japan Airlines, and Salesforce.com.
Sometimes I try to explain Japanese culture on CNN, BBC, CBC, WSJ, ABC (so many acronyms!) or in person at places like the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, ETech, and Ignite!
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