TOKYOMANGO

Get your hand-printed limited edition TokyoMango t-shirt now (2 weeks only)

My friend Ben and I made a test run of TokyoMango t-shirts on Saturday. They're really nice, do you want one? If so, you can buy one here. Below are the details:

- All shirts are 100% cotton.
- Each t-shirt will be hand-silk screened by me and Ben on his Yudu machine. The shirt logo was custom-designed by Ben. Mango design courtesy of my web designer James.
- The Women's tees come in a t-shirt style (pistacio and white) and a spaghetti strap ribbed tank (yellow).
- The Men's tees come in orange and white. In the pic above, Ben is actually accidentally wearing a girl's tee, but you get the idea... the sleeves will be more manly on the one you get.
- You can choose a custom colored tee for $25. Just shoot me an email with your preference after you place the order.
- The sizes tend to run a little big (except for the tanktops). They might shrink in the wash.
- Some of you will receive a free surprise Japanese toy or gadget with your t-shirt! I'm just gonna randomly stick them into bags, so keep an eye out.
- We're taking orders over the next two weeks only, at least for this first printing. They'll ship at the end of those two weeks, when Ben & I will silkscreen them by hand.
- Last day to order is Monday, October 5th.

UPDATE: T-shirts are no longer for sale. Maybe we'll do another round sometime!

Pics of readers wearing TokyoMango Ts

Here are some pics of you good-looking TokyoMango readers wearing the t-shirts that Ben and I made... from top to bottom, Mat, Nami, Derek, and Ruby & Malcolm.

New documentary about wacky inventor Dr. NakaMats

Dr. NakaMats, the kooky inventor whom I wrote about in my io9 column, MangoBot, in Jan 08, is the subject of a new documentary. It's an in-depth look into the life of a guy who claims to have more patents than Edison, a recipe for Super Viagra, a lifespan of 144 years, and who has run for political office several times.

Related stories:
Japan's wackiest inventor saves the world with super viagra
I met Dr. NakaMats in Shibuya
Dr. NakaMats' male model debut
Crazy inventor running for mayor

Crayon Shin-chan author dead from a cliff fall

The body of Yoshito Usui, the author of the hugely popular comedic manga and anime called Crayon Shin-chan, was found dead at the bottom of a cliff in Gunma Prefecture on Saturday. It appeared to have been an accident — his backpack full of hiking gear was found about 50 yards away, and it was near a hiking trail with no rails. His camera, found with his belongings, had a photo that looked like it was taken right by the cliff. He was 51. According to his wife, he left the house on the morning of September 11th and never returned.

Crayon Shin-chan was a hit among all age groups; he's an adorable little goofy boy whose dialogue and obsession with pretty girls are reminiscent of a dirty old man. It started as a manga in 1990 and became an anime in 1992. I didn't know this, but Usui had still bee creating new segments every month. Here's a short clip from an episode in which Shin-chan's dad loses his keys.

Rest in peace, Mr. Usui.

Link

Otamatone, Maywa Denki's new instrument, looks like a tadpole

In this video, inventor Novmichi Tosa of Maywa Denki demos his new instrument, the Otamatone, which looks like a tadpole (otamajyakushi) and sounds like a theremin. I met Tosa about a year ago to interview him for an upcoming story in Make Magazine — he's a super awesome, fun guy, and I encourage you to check out his work online or to try to go to one of his nonsense toy workshops at his studio in Tokyo.

Maywa Denki main page

The 6% Doki Doki crew in San Francisco

Here's a pic of me with the 6% Doki Doki crew at New People opening reception at the Consulate General's house in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. Apparently I didn't get the memo about the colored tights and super crazy earrings. The good news is that you or I can go to Japantown to buy these awesomely cute colorful outfits at their new store in New People World.

Pic of Fred Schodt with the emperor's "you're awesome" award

Here's a pic from when Fred Schodt received an award from the emperor back in June for being an awesome bridge between Japanese and US culture. He's photographed here with Consulate General Nagamine, his wife Fia, and a couple of younger relatives of his.

Related stories:
Fred Schodt wins the Order of the Rising Sun
Fred Schodt on MangoBot

Nori-P arrested for drug possession

For those of you who have been following celebrity news in Japan, the biggest fiasco this week was the disappearance of actress Noriko Sakai, aka Nori-P, whose surfer dude husband had been arrested last Sunday for possession of drugs. Not sure exactly what kind. Sakai, aka Nori-P, is now 38 has been popular in Japan and all over Asia for two decades. After this drug accusation Toyota pulled ads featuring the actress off of their web site. The actress turned herself in yesterday after leaving her 10-year old son with a friend.

It's always a huge media frenzy when a Japanese celebrity is caught with recreational drugs. I don't think it should be &mdash there are bigger things the country can and should be worried about.

Dan Osman, one of the craziest rock climbers ever to have lived

Dan Osman was a Japanese-American extreme athlete perhaps best known for the video (below), in which he speed-climbs a 400+ foot tall rock wall without a safety rope in four minutes. (I spent this past weekend in Lover's Leap, the area in South Lake Tahoe that he did this in, and climbed the same rock.) Osman later became hooked on free-jumping, which is kinda like bungee jumping but for much greater heights in much more dangerous conditions on a normal rope that doesn't slow you down at all. He even set a Guinness Record for it. Then, in 1998, he died doing when a rope failed him when free-jumping a cliff in Yosemite. A QA guy from Black Diamond, who made the rope, did an evaluation and concluded that it was a freak accident caused by the rope rubbing against itself &mdash something resulting from human error, a slight miscalculation in the angle at which he jumped.

There's a great story about the life and death of Dan Osman in Outside Magazine.

Japanese comedy skit from the 80s parodies Michael Jackson's Thriller

I've posted this before, but here it is again because it is, in my humble opinion, one of the best tributes to Michael Jackson originating in Japan. Around 1:58, Ken Shimura, who has just confessed to his girlfriend that he becomes a henna ojisan (a weird middle-aged man) when there's a full moon, jumps out of the bushes and starts dancing to the chorus of Thriller played on a Japanese flute. This clip is from the late 80s, I think, or possibly the early 90s.

Rest in peace, MJ.

In the Realm of the Senses, a film based on a true story about sexual obsession

In the Realm of the Senses is a 1976 movie directed by acclaimed director Nagisa Oshima about sexual obsession gone awry. I watched it on Friday night, and can safely say that I have never seen anything like it. 90% of the footage is sex scenes, but it looks more like Edo period erotica art than porn &mdash beautiful, fleshy scenes of a man and a woman (and sometimes, a man and women) exploring their sexuality on tatami mat floors with their kimonos strewn all over the room. It's set in the 1930s, when prostitution was legal and geishas were commonplace. Sada, the female protagonist, is a prostitute-turned-maid who she gets involved in a lusty affair with the charismatic master of the hotel she works at. They have sex all day and all night, and Sada quickly develops a serious obsession with Kichi's penis. Sounds like campy porn, but the actual film is nothing of the sort &mdash it's a true story told in a really beautiful artsy sexy way. Oshima takes us on a journey through their affair that is so provocative that the film had to be produced in France, was once banned from the NY Film Festival, and to this day is censored in Japan*. The Criterion Collection just released a fully uncensored version of the film with extras, though, and that's available all over the Internet. (Warning: Spoilers ahead! If you want to stop reading now and just watch the movie, you can get the Criterion collection DVD on Amazon.)

Child actor Yumi Adachi's mom to debut as a porn star at age 51

Everyone, meet Yuri Adachi. She is a new porn star &mdash her first DVD comes out in July. Apparently, the 51-year old spend $60,000 getting full body cosmetic surgery and increasing her bust size by 3cm to get ready for her big debut.

The most interesting thing about Yuri Adachi is that she is the mother of Yumi Adachi, one of the first and most famous child actors in Japan. Yumi Adachi debuted in 1993 at the age of 11 as a pop singer, and then became really really famous after starring in a drama about an orphan a year later. Actually, scratch that. Yumi Adachi made her debut at the age of zero, when she started modeling for baby magazines.

So now everyone in Japan is gossiping about how screwy the parents of child actors must be to want to have their kid in the spotlight from such an innocuous age &mdash Yuri Adachi has quickly become the epitome of that bad parent. I bet all the hype will drive a lot of people to watch her porn though.

Ronald Takaki, prominent ethnic scholar, is dead

Ronald Takaki, a Japanese-American historian and ethnographer from Hawaii, died yesterday at the age of 70. He was a huge advocate of racial equality, and played a big role in fighting things like the model minority stereotype for Asians, but also, he was the first person to ever teach a class on black history in the UC system. He wrote interesting books well worth reading, like A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America and Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb. UC Berkeley plans to publish a full obit tomorrow, but I just wanted to put up a quick post about it. May he rest in peace.

Link

Japan's Miss Universe rep announced (pic & video)

Japan has been kicking butt in the Miss Universe contest for the past couple of years—Riyo Mori won in 2008, Kurara Chibana was the first runner up in 2007. The 2009 candidate has some big shoes to fill. Meet her—she's Emiri Miyasaka, a 24-year old model from Shibuya. She'll be traveling to the Bahamas in August to compete against the rest of the countries,

In her finalist video (below), she compares herself to a bowl of natto—sticky and persistent in reaching her goals. Cute!

Fred Schodt wins the Order of the Rising Sun

My friend Fred Schodt just won the Japanese government's Order of the Rising Sun. That's, like, the second most prestigious honor you can win in Japan, ever. I think it's like being knighted in the UK. Fred was a longtime friend and interpreter for Tezuka Osamu, and he predicted Japan's humanoid robot craze and the manga revolution way before anyone else in the books Inside the Robot Kingdom
and Manga! Manga! respectively.

Congrats to Fred! You deserve it.
(Total coincidence, by the way, that the last two posts on this blog just happened to mention him.)

Japan's newest celebrity: Imalu

Japan's newest buzz celebrity is Imalu, the 19-year old daughter of big-time stars Sanma Akashiya and Shinobu Otake. She's kinda cute! Not much is known about her professional aspirations, but she did sign a contract with her mom's talent agency, and thinks she wants to be a singer.

Why was SMAP's Kusanagi naked in the park?

A couple days ago, cops found 90s boy band star Tsuyoshi Kusanagi sitting naked on a park bench at 3AM. As he was taken away, the drunken ex-heartthrob allegedly yelled something like: What's wrong with being naked???

Which not only brings up a valid point, but raises the question of why he was in the nude in the middle of the night by himself in a park. Here are my three best guesses:

1. It was hot. I am not sure what the weather was like that day in Tokyo, but it can get pretty gruesome.
2. Panicked by the lack of recent attention in his drunken stupor, he thought being in his birthday suit might bring back some fans.
3. He has a serious drinking problem.

From what the news reports are saying, it sounds like #3 might be the most realistic answer.

Video: Japanese man is the best bartender in the world

The best bartender in the world? Keisuke Goto, a Japanese guy who blew the crowd away at a Texas tournament recently.

via Japan Probe

Greatest living samurai is a TV sensation

My friend Jason just sent me this video of Japan's greatest modern day samurai. His sword skills are really quite amazing, but it's a little bit unfortunate that he has nothing better to slice than mushrooms and cucumbers on variety TV shows.

13-year old boy becomes the youngest weather forecaster in Japan

A 13-year old Yokohama boy just became the youngest weatherman in the country. Kazuya Yamazaki wanted to become a weather forecaster since the 5th grade, when he read about it in a reference book. So he studied to take the semiannual forecaster exam, a difficult test that has a pass rate of 6%, and passed it on his fourth try. His mom claims he was a science geek since kindergarten. He told the Mainichi:

"I'm also interested in chemistry, and I want to do jobs like making medicines and discovering new materials."

What a cute kid!

Beethoven and Schwarzenegger in instant noodle commercials

The newest instant noodle commercial celebrity is Ludwig van Beethoven. It's not nearly as hilarious as the series that the ones Arnold Schwarzenegger did years ago for Nissin Cup Noodle.

Ai Iijima predicted her death on TV

I just found this video from a variety show few years back in which Ai Iijima talks about a famous fortune teller she saw in Taiwan. The fortune teller told Iijima that she would disappear in three years. When Iijima asked what she mean, the fortune teller said: "When you die, you can't take anything with you," and started crying. Iijima tells the audience: Maybe you can use this video in three years. I'm curious to see what happens.

Iijima was found dead in her apartment in Shibuya on Christmas Eve.

R.I.P. Ai Iijima, famed porn actress-turned-AIDS activist

I am shocked to hear about the sudden and mysterious death of 36-year old Ai Iijima, a former porn star-turned-activist celebrity who portrayed a type of resilience, boldness, and femininity that is rare among Japanese female celebrities.

Her cries of "Iku! Iku!" (I'm coming! I'm coming!) made her 80s porn videos famous, but it also let women know in a very public way that it was okay to feel good during sex. After leaving the adult video industry, she made it up the ranks of the Japanese celebrity scene and maintained a regal presence on many a variety show stage where she talked frankly and surely about issues like sex, AIDS, and women while other women celebrities just looked cute and giggled. She was an important icon for female empowerment in Japan, whether she meant to be or not.

Emily wrote this about the incident:

Rumors about the Emperor's health, and why the Imperial Family is still relevant

The Emperor is stressed out. He's turning 75 this year, and bad relations with his son and heir, Crown Prince Naruhito, has him plagued with worries about the fate of the Imperial Family, causing rumored stomach problems that may keep him away from the spotlight this New Years. Since World War 2, the Emperor of Japan has just been a figurehead—its greatest role in today's Japan is as the favorite subject of fluffy rumors and as the symbol behind the Japanese dating system—since his reign started, we entered the Heisei era (Hirohito's time was Showa). Despite his lack of political power and the fact that most young Japanese people don't even know his name, though, I think he still plays an important societal role, maybe. Whose babies will we collectively fuss over as a nation if we no longer cared about how the Emperor's granddaughters look as they commute to school?

Link

YouTube manga girl Magibon explains fame, and parody videos

In a live interview on a Japanese TV show, Magibon explains how she became one of Japan's favorite YouTube stars. Also, some slightly disturbing Magibon parody videos after the jump.

American YouTube manga girl making waves in Japan

Magibon is an American You Tube idol taking her obsession with Japan to the extreme. The Florida-born 22-year old who used to be a supermarket cashier now spends a bulk of her time making YouTube videos of herself staring blankly into the camera, babbling elementary Japanese, and striking cutesy poses. Her popularity in Japan catapulted when Japanese online publication JCast wrote an article about her in January of this year. In April, a Japanese broadcasting company called Gyao invited her to be a guest on one of their shows. Here's one of her famous stare-down videos. What do you think? Cute? (by Emily Co)

Japanese man lives in Mexico's airport for no reason

Hiroshi Nohara is a mini-celebrity in Mexico City. Why? The Japanese traveler visited Mexico City, and then, on September 2, headed to the airport to fly home but never flew home. He's been living in Terminal 1 of Benito Juarez airport ever since, surviving off of fast-food donations. Apparently, neither Mexican nor Japanese authorities can make him leave until his visa expires in March. He's been there for nearly three months now—the media caught on, and now he's regularly asked for autographs and has even been on Mexican TV. When asked why he's doing this, he said:

"I don't understand why I'm here. I don't have a reason."

Apparently, airport vendors have been giving him clothes and mugs to carry when he's on TV to promote their brands. An interesting twist on the concept of free promo swag!

Link (Thanks, Mark!)

 

Late-breaking news: I was a Power Ranger for Halloween

Brian and I were Power Rangers for Halloween, and a bunch of Japanese people walking around the Castro were really impressed, even though we were just wearing plain clothes.

Meet TokyoMango intern Emily Co

Guess what guys, TokyoMango has an intern! Emily lives in Tokyo and is  supplying us with more quirky news and fun pics from my hometown—and she's also helping me tag old posts. I met her via my brother on my last trip to Tokyo. I had her write a short self-intro:

I spent a huge chunk of my growing years shuttling back and forth from my birth country, Singapore, and to my mother's homeland, Japan. Hence, my fascination with all things Japanese. In my free time I like to bust out my karaoke skillz, fuss over my furry dictator Pomeranian (Peanut needs his massages, he has fragile bones), and watch junky reality tv. I'm also a budding writer off to journalism school in January.

I'm about to dig into a bakudanyaki or an octopus ball bomb. Think enlarged 200g octopus balls (8cm diameter) with everything in it, including mochi! My favorite!

Emily has written for the Tokyo Weekender and Singapore's Business Times.

Beyonce and Solange's Barbie doll appearance in Tokyo

Beyonce and Solange Knowles made a mini press appearance at the Ginza Samantha Thavasa store yesterday to promote big sis' new album, I Am...Sasha Fierce. Beyonce looks like a Barbie doll, but at least you can't see her pubes.

Gamer geek mob at Tokyo Game Show

I think it was just bad timing, but when I walked into the second hall of madness at Tokyo Game Show on Saturday, I got stuck in a mob of gamer geeks. It took about 10 minutes to walk past Pingu's Wonderful Carnival. A few minutes later, the lane was empty. I have no idea what happened at that moment when I walked through, or why.

New PM Taro Aso depicted as a local hero in Akihabara

I knew that our new prime minister Taro "Rosen" Aso had a special connection with the manga geeks in Akihabara, but was pleasantly surprised to see him honored in such a big way—a cartoon depiction of him decorated the facade of a building. Around the corner, there was this lovely poster of him in various cosplay.

This poster says "He is OUR Taro" and has him in various Japanese costumes with notable quotes. Let's see if he lasts longer than Fukuda and Abe.

The one-man spade orchestra

Joe Masao is a one-of-a-kind musician. His instrument of choice is a spade. It's basically a shovel with strings, with a bottle opener as a plectrum. The 66-year old Miyagi native was kinda interested in the shamisen, but he chose a spade instead to defy convention.

"I don't like things that are conventional," he told Mainichi.

He got his bearings around shovels when he worked as an assistant steam locomotive engineer in his 20s. Now, his goal is to try to put together an orchestra of 20-30 fellow spade players.

Guy who makes sculptures out of mikan peels

Yu Sasakawa has a funny hobby. He likes to make things out of tangerine peels. He uses bamboo skewers to slice ripened mikan into the desired shapes. Other creations (besides this cute little guy carrying a backpack) include an elephant, sunglasses, panties, a sunflower, and Doraemon. A few more pics after the jump.

Nagi Noda, super-talented Japanese pop artist, is dead

Nagi Noda, talented, internationally famous artist and director who put her own unique artsy-girly high fashion sense on the international art scene map, died on Sunday.

Noda was born in Tokyo in 1973. She went to some really good art schools in the city before establishing her own studio, Uchu Country, in 2003. Since then, she went on to create ads for Nike and Coca-cola, album covers and music videos for artists ranging from Hikaru Utada to the Scissor Sisters, and a whole bunch of creative cool shit like the artsy poodle exercise video I posted a few months ago. In the US, she was represented by Partizan Entertainment and well-known in the NY art scene for being super-fun to hang out with. One of her newest now-posthumous creations is the upcoming album cover for Japanese singer MEG, which comes out on 9/17.

Her death was apparently due to complications from surgery she had after a bad car accident last year. She must have known she was going to die, because she got dressed up for it—she was wearing a Mark Ryden dress, Chanel boots, and Viktor and Rolf black lace eyelashes. 

Noda kept a scantly updated English language blog, where she wrote about nights out with fellow Partizan director Michel Gondry and other designer/artist friends. Her last post was in June—she blogged about going to a Miu Miu show wearing one of her awesome animal hair hats.

Fukuda: serious PM or silly web meme?

Yasuo Fukuda's heading out the prime ministerial door, but before he did, he accidentally became a web meme. Pink Tentacle reports:

At the end of the press conference following Fukuda’s resignation, a Chugoku Shimbun reporter told the Prime Minister that many people thought he often seemed detached when he spoke, almost as if the problems facing Japan were none of his business. The reporter suggested that Fukuda also sounded distant in his resignation announcement and asked what impact he thought his sudden resignation (which comes just one year after previous Prime Minister Abe suddenly resigned) would have on the country. Seemingly perturbed, Fukuda fired back at the reporter: “You said I sounded detached, but I am able to see myself objectively. I’m different from you.”

Fukuda’s jarringly out-of-character words came as an awkward exclamation point to his resignation and threw some people for an extra loop. The phrase has been percolating for days on 2-channel, where dozens of popular threads with the words “anata to wa chigau n desu” (あなたとは違うんです) in the title have been posted, many containing Fukuda-inspired ASCII art.

Somebody even made this MC Fukuda remix. Silly, silly.

Sexy model wears bikini backwards in her calendar

This sexy swimsuit model is moving up in the world—she became so popular that she came out with her own calendar for 2009. But now everyone's making fun of her because she wore her bikini top backwards in the top right photo. I think maybe she did it on purpose...what do you think?

Link (Japanese) (Thanks, Ichiru!)

Man documents bedhead every day since 2000

Every day for the past seven years and nine months, designer Negse has been taking photographs of his hair in the morning. ("Neguse" literally bedhead in Japanese.) He started documenting his 'dos after a friend told him his hair reminded him of Captain Tsubasa. "I like to go to sleep right after my bath, head flat against the pillow, so I have the best bedhead ever," he says. Since he started, he's only missed two days of bedhead photos—one on the day his wife went into labor, and one the next day, when his daughter was born.

(Reprinted from Boing Boing)

The girl who creates faces out of ice cream

Keiko Suzuki is a pretty woman with a strange obsession: she likes to carve faces into her ice cream. Her blog, called IceFace, chronicles her obsessions and encourages people to post their own where people can post pictures of their own icefaces, and occasionally holds contests.

Her number one rule of thumb? "Always eat the faces you create!"

Iceface main page (via the Alamanac of Weird Hobbies)

Hilton Sisters in Japan to Pick Miss Universe Contestants

I don't get it. Paris and Nikki Hilton arrived in Japan today to pick out two finalists for the Miss Universe Japan contest.

The Mainichi doesn't get why the sisters have time to jet-set to Japan to pick beauty queens when they've blatantly lagged on their charity support work in Rwanda. I, personally, don't get why the Japanese are ok with two ditzy American girls coming over to pick the women that will represent their country in the global competition next spring, especially when the Miss Universe pageant has been getting more buzz now than ever (Riyo Mori's victory this year was the first for Japan since the 1950s). Would the US ever let two Japanese girls help them pick Miss America? Don't think so.

If you haven't already, check out this video of Riyo Mori, the world's top beauty queen, talking her way out of forgetting to bring valid ID to the airport.

Hiroshi Sugimoto at the Asian Art Museum

The Asian Art Museum in SF is featuring two exhibits curated by renowned photographer and art collector Hiroshi Sugimoto, starting tomorrow. Sugimoto is a modern man who moved to NYC in the 70s and kicked off his photography career with an exhibit at the MoMa. Since then, he's turned his attention to colecting rare antiques from Japan, museum curation, and most recently, fashion photography.

Pictured above is a 13th century Buddhist reliquary with a photograph of a seascape in the Caribbean inside. It's part of the History of History exhibit. Also included in this collection is a series of 9 giant indigo blue and green hanging scrolls with a Buddhist sutra that got burnt in a fire; a giant phallic symbol from the Jomon era placed atop a CIA stretcher from the 1950s; and a 17th century Rembrandt etching juxtaposed onto a Japanese scroll. Pretty rad stuff. The second exhibit, Stylized Sculpture, is a fashion exhibit (a rare feat for the ordinarily conservative museum) featuring iconic works by Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto, and Rei Kawakubo.

It's a really elegant experience, highly recommended if you're in the area between now and January 6.

Asian Art Museum home page

Fortune Highlights Dearth of Powerful Japanese Women

The October 15 issue of Fortune Magazine features 100 of the most powerful women in the world, 50 in the US and 50 in the rest of the world. Pretty surprisingly diverse group of ladies—the #1 in the US is Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo. She's Indian-American. Andrea Jung of Avon is Asian, and Oprah is black, and they're both in the Top 10. The international list has plenty of representation from France, Britain, China, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa. So guess how many of the 100 are Japanese?

Two! Surprising, considering that Japan is so first world. But then again, not surprising at all if you know a thing or two about what it's like to be a woman in the Japanese work force. Anyway, Yoshiko Shinohara, president of Tempstaff, comes in at #39 on the Global List, and Sawako Noma, Pres and CEO of publishing giant Kodansha (she's the founder's granddaughter), comes in at #45. Interesting to note also that both Shinohara and Noma are much older than the average woman on these lists—they're in their sixties and seventies, compared to the American top dogs who are mostly in their early 50s (some are even in their thirties!).

Onitsuka Tiger Namesake Dies

Kihachiro Onitsuka, founder of Asics and namesake for its popular sub-brand Onitsuka Tiger, died today at the age of 89. Asics was originally founded as Onitsuka Co in 1949.

Link

Photo Of Killed Japanese Journalist

Check out this Reuters photo of demonstrators in Burma (Myanmar). Here, security forces shoot at the demonstrators, who are fleeing. The guy lying on the floor is 50-year old video journalist Kenji Nagai. This was taken shortly before he died from the bullet wounds that have him lying on the ground. He was 1 of 9 that died in Yangon that day.

Link

Chicchi, 9yo Guitar Prodigy & Hard Core Ventures Fan

The biggest guitar sensation right now in Japan is a little girl named Cicchi. She's cute. She's underage. And she can play any Ventures song on request.

The Ventures are a 60s instrumental rock band from Seattle, famous among surf music fans, that had—still has, in fact—a healthy following in Japan. Little Cicchi got to meet them this summer. Look how happy she is!

 

Check out the video from their 1965 Japan summer tour after the jump:

Sang Dae's Drunk Birthday Toast

This is my brother's friend Sang Dae on his 27th birthday. Apparently, he likes to get drunk and be silly and make happy toasts. (Who doesn't?)

Even though Sang Dae is ethnically Korean, this is a very Japanese gathering—the motivational speech before the shot, the passive participation of the bartender, and the well-deserved slap in the head at the end.

Translation:
"Ike ike go go" just means "Go go."
"Ikki" means you have to drink it all in one go.
"Kampai" means "Cheers."
"Lalalalai" doesn't mean shit. I don't know why he keeps saying it.

Housewife Makes Millions and Gets Busted for Tax Evasion

If I ever become a housewife, I'm gonna quit blogging and learn how to make millions on the foreign exchange market like Yukiko Ikebe, the 60-year old Tokyo woman recently arrested for hiding and evading taxes on $3.44 million that she made thru forex trading. Wow!

Link (Thanks, Jason!)

Japan's First Supermodel Dies

This is Sayoko Yamaguchi. In 1972, when Yamaguchi appeared on the runways in France for Paris Fashion Week, she was one of the first Asian faces and the first Japanese to step onto the catwalk.

In the years following, she modeled for high-end designers like Issey Miyake, Kenzo Takada, and Kansai Yamamoto, helping to put these Japanese haute couturists on the global fashion map. She was named one of the world's top six models by Newsweek in 1977.

News just got out that Yamaguchi had died last week of acute pneumonia, at the age of 57.

Here she is in an iconic Shiseido ad from the 1970s. Until then, Japanese cosmetics companies were using Caucasians to promote their products. Shiseido's bold and groundbreaking decision to use Yamaguchi as a model—and to make her up in a way that accentuated Asian beauty—was empowering to many Japanese women of that day.

How to Celebrate Gay Pride in Tokyo

Ever wonder how people celebrate gay pride in Tokyo? There's an excellent photo gallery on the Mainichi from the Tokyo Pride Parade, which was held this past weekend in Yoyogi Park. Turns out people like to dress in drag, hold hands, and wear leather just as much as they do in San Francisco. The attention to detail given to some of the outfits, however, is uniquely Japanese.

World's Oldest Person Dies

Yone Minagawa was just recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest person alive in January of this year, when she was 114 years old. Sadly, granny lost her title yesterday when she passed away peacefully at her home for the elderly in Fukuoka Prefecture.

Link

Legendary Hot Dog Eater Has Jaw Arthritis

Remember Takeru Kobayashi, the tiny little Japanese man who ate 97 hamburgers in 8 minutes last fall? Almost miraculously, the guy has evaded any gastronomical problems to date—but last week, Kobayashi claimed he was suffering from arthritis in his jaw, a result of misaligned wisdom teeth + his hard core eating skillz.

Kobayashi's attendance will make or break the championship at the Coney Island Hot Dog Eating contest, which takes place in New York next week. He won the last six years by a landslide. He is currently on standby at a New York City hotel, waiting for his jaw to get better. Right now, he can only open his mouth about 2-3cm.

We'll see whether he makes an appearance next week, July 4, to get his seventh title—or if a 3cm-wide mouth just isn't enough to beat his competition.

For more on Japan's "food fighting" industry, read this article.