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!

Japanese spiderman TV show circa 1978

The opening song to the Spiderman TV series in Japan, circa 1978.

By the way, you should check out Gizmodo '79 &mdash it's an awesome series of posts celebrating gadgets and the 70s. That's where I found this video.

Link

Watch Japanese comedy show Gaki on Hulu

Woohoo! I mean, Hulu! Japanese TV is coming to the US. NTV (Nippon Television) is partnering with Hulu to bring cool Japanese game shows, the real kind, not the fake kind, to the US. Check out episodes of Gaki, in which comedy team Downtown do things like get stuck in a gym for 24 hours, or compete in Golf Club Assault Battle, Chili Bean Paste Smearing Battle, and Mini Champagne Ass Catch Battle. You can also watch the entire Nasubi series from Denpa Shonen, a classic. It's great for getting your daily dose of Japanese humor, if you're one of those people that needs that. No more digging around YouTube for something worth watching.

Related posts:
Nasubi, the naked guy who lived on freebies for a year
Ken Shimura's Thriller parody (and tips on upping your Japanese joke cred)
I survived "I Survived a Japanese Game Show"
My below-the-belt prank tutorial

Bikinis + old man + lots of lotion = lotion curling game show

This is a funny, horrifying clip of a Japanese game show featuring 30 hot girls in bikinis, one old man, and lots and lots of lotion. In the first challenge, called "lotion curling," they try to see how far the guy can slide across a row of bikini-ed, lotion-ed up girls. My thoughts as I watched this were:
- I would NEVER want some old dude sliding across my chest, especially if I was wearing a bikini.
- If I had to be in that row of girls, I would want to be towards the end of the row. Not the beginning.
- How much did they pay these girls to do this?

Watch Nasubi, the naked Japanese comedian, on Hulu

About a year ago, I blogged about Nasubi, an aspiring comedian who took up the challenge of living in an empty room by himself, naked, for a year, relying only on magazine giveaways for food and sustenance on a national TV program called Denpa Shonen. It was a crazy, controversial, hilarious show. And now available in full episodes on Hulu!

Related story: Nasubi, the naked guy who lived on freebies for a year

I Survived "I Survived a Japanese Game Show"

During lunch yesterday, I watched the first episode of ABC's new reality series called I Survived a Japanese Game Show.

In it, 10 Americans who know next to nothing about Japan get on a plane and go to Tokyo. The day after they arrive, they're taken to a TV studio where a live audience and a game show host await. They divvy up into two teams—the Green Monkeys and the Yellow Penguins—and take part in this silly game where they run on a treadmill and feed mochi off their heads to a teammate. The winners get a helicopter ride; the losers have to work as rickshaw drivers in Asakusa.

While I'm not really one to judge, there were a few things about this show that made me want to barf. Bullet points after the jump.

Masi Oka of Heroes Writes his own Japanese Dialogue

The LA Times has a fun piece called 10 thing you may not know about Masi Oka, the guy who plays Hiro in Heroes—one of my favorite shows. Oka plays a Japanese otaku who can time travel in the series, but he's actually Japanese-American. Did you know he translates all his own dialogue in Heroes? He says:

It's important to me to translate the English dialogue in a way that I think Hiro would say it. A formal translator would make it too rigid and not colloquial. I've been tempted (to sneak in a Japanese curse word) but I'd never get away with it. I have sometimes mis-translated things on purpose when we're shooting and then there's one person laughing -- the Japanese language coach we work with. So yeah, I'd get caught.

I think that's so great! Hiro is best known for putting both arms in the air and saying: "Yattaaa!!" When he does something cool, like saving the world from mass destruction. It's nice to know that it's genuine.

Link

Eva Popiel, Korean Celebrity

Apparently, this girl—whom I swear was in my brother's middle school class in Tokyo (can anyone confirm?)—is a celebrity in Korea. Here she talks about sex ed and Korean chicks.

Little Chinese Girl Rocks Out On Xylophone

This little Chinese girl, who makes an appearance here on a Japanese TV show, is really good at playing the xylophone. And she's having so much fun!

(Thanks, Cherlyn!)

Star Wars Theme Song in Japanese

I don't watch Star Wars, but this adaptation of the movie's theme song in Japanese is silly enough that even I can appreciate it. The guy in the afro is the singer/songwriter, and the music video is being introduced on a variety TV show.