Ippoippo

For some reason, I found this most amusing.

EDIT: Found a higher quality link on YouTube…
plus as a bonus… here’s something from Japan (It’s from a show called “Mecha mecha” which was something I used to enjoy watching when I was in Japan).

This modern interpretation of Japanese samurai armour is quite funky….
Picture here of the whole kit.

Here’s a close up of the helmet, showing how we get from old Japan to Star Wars to fake old Japan.

Yes, those are todays topics

Crazy Monkeys

Lets get the more light hearted stuff out of the way first. Here in Japan, the various theme tunes from the Star Wars Trilogies (Classic and Prequel) are used all other the place as backing music to various spots on TV. (Other favourites include ‘Aces High – The Luftwaffe March’ from the film Battle of Britain, or the music from the Great Escape. Hmmm, seem to be noticing a war theme here).

So, looking around on other Japanese blogs and I find this posting. There’s two video clips, plus some stills and text describing what’s going on in the videos (since it’s in Japanese). Pretty entertaining to watch though, especially when the ‘oji-sans’ (old folks) seem to have flash backs to 1944 or something, and go ape-shit (no pun indended) on the monkeys with their air-guns!

The Sucide Saga continues

Ahh, us Gaijin’s favourite person, Ishihara gets in on the story.

Shocked

Whilst I happy to see the proposed new laws in Pakistan, I was actually pretty shocked to see the current system regarding Rape in Pakistan. Details here and some blog extracts here. Whilst it is important to remain open and try to understand other countries culteral differences, sometimes it’s just too bloody hard to try and understand why things the way they are and have a irrational emotional response to it.

Queens Speech

Well, it’s interesting to see how Climate Control has figured in the speech this year. Personally, I think Climate Control is being used as a cover for Peak Oil/Gas and Energy Security concerns…. but there you go.

Yesterday, we saw the main display of the Art of Star Wars show in Japan, in the International Forum in Tokyo.

Whereas the show in Meguro mainly had Episode 3 derived drawings, the IF show covered a lot from both trilogies. There were a LOT of static displays, including the ‘life size’ vehicles used in making Epsiodes 2 and 3 (Bail Organa’s Speeder (Ep3), Anakin’s Star Fighter (Ep3), Obi-Wan’s Star Fighter (Ep2) and the Yellow speeder from Episode 2). There were LOADS of the models used as well in the making of Episodes 4-6. The Star Destroyer model was fecking huge!!!

One thing I was kinda shocked by is finding out how small Natalie Portman is! Her white Padme costume from Episode 2 was there. She’s tiny!!!

After wandering around the exhibition Yuko shocked me, and suggested that we go and watch Episode 3 again! Had planned on watching tomorrow after Japanese class (which I’m doing in the day this week, since I’m on holiday)… but thought what the hell.