Ippoippo

Ahh, this takes me back. I used to love watching this programme on TV when I lived in Japan. Of course, it was in Japanese which made it hard to understand, but I still always enjoyed it.

Well, someone has gone and posted copies of it online with English dubbing. Plus point is that I can understand it better. Downside is that the English language narrator has such a dull and uninterested voice.

Anyway, over at Youtube here.

Link found via article over at Japan Probe.

Ouch. That’s a nasty looking typhoon. Went through pretty much the same area where we used to live too.

Yuko’s cousin is coming out to the UK, though it turned out he wasn’t that affected. His flight was ‘only’ delayed by 90 minutes. Will find out later today if it was a bumpy take off.

Talking of Japan… this has to be one of the most stupid ‘Commentary’ articles I’ve read at Japan Today.

And finally… well, there is going to be a big media scrum now.
I must admit, when the whole affair started, I had a ‘bad feeling’ about the parents. However, it was just a bad feeling, and I would be daft to say they were innocent or guilty. Even now, we’d be stupid to jump to conclusions.
Now, if you live in the UK, you would have certainly been exposed to the media frenzy around this case, especially the printed media like the The Daily Express and The Daily Mail.
Those papers have been rather supportive to the McCanns. In fact too supportive. They ignored the obvious questions about why they left their children alone while they went out to party in the evening. These papers instead decided to be typically xenophobic/Little England and bitch off about the inept foreign police.

So, with this announcement, how long before they change their tune and quietly forget their previous stance on the subject. Going by previous evidence… not long.

At last, something decent on TV.
Heroes has finally arrived onto Digital Terrestrial TV in the UK (after some showings on Satellite and Cable) over at BBC2.

First two episodes were last night. It’s quite amusing because there is a Japanese character, with some bits being in Tokyo (well, maybe not all bits… there were some rather onset shots of what was meant to be a Tokyo back-alley).
So, I’m having fun trying to understand a lot of it… not doing to bad at times. Of course, the character Hiro can speak some English too (the actual actor is very good at English… ).

Yuko enjoyed the show in general, as well as the Japanese segments. She was quite quick to point out that Hiro’s work friend though didn’t seem very Japanese, as his accent was wrong, and he looked Korean. Turns out she was right… that chap is a South Korean.
Doesn’t bother me too much, as I can’t pick up his fake Japanese accent… though now it’s be pointed out, I can see he isn’t Japanese.

Anyway, we’re both looking forward to the next episodes.

YATTA!!!

Japan News

Good old Aso. Never fails to amuse me.

In other Japan related stuff, I read quite an interesting story. As you may have read elsewhere, it has been decided that Pluto is not a planet anymore, but a dwarf-planet. What’s this got to do with Japan. Well, I hadn’t thought about this until reading the story, but ‘dwarf-planet’ needs to be translated into Japanese. Turns out it’s not such a simple task.

Finally, in Japan new, seems someone has been caught out about their true age. I suppose it really does show the pressure that Japanese girls who are trying to break into showbiz (whether that be modelling, singing etc) are under. Mind you, we do get it in the West as well, but this seems more extreme. I can ‘understand’ a women lying about being 29 when she’s 32, if she was just trying to get into showbiz. That’s the kind of thing that would happen here. But saying your 19, when you are ONLY 22!!!

Non-Japan

From the BBC.

Eyeing the fish on offer in Brixton Fish Market suspiciously, Dennis McCann, 52, said: “It all looks a bit to foreign to me.

“I like fish and chips and I like a good cod or plaice. I just can’t imagine having pomfret and chips.”

That’s so typically little-islander British. I despair sometimes.