In sad news today, popular Japanese comedian “Yakkun Sakurazuka” (real name Yasuo Saito) who is famous for dressing in girl’s high school uniforms mimicking the Japanese film archetype of the badass, bullying high school girl. He studied Cinema at Nihon University, and has appeared as both a regular and a guest on several TV shows,…
Erana Brewerton, a respected Maori scholar on a cultural program visiting Hokkaido was denied entry to a hot spring in Hokkaido that prohibits tattoos. Brewerton is a celebrated scholar in New Zealand and has a traditional tattoo on her face. Many hot springs have policies prohibiting tattoos but in many cases are not enforced unless…
Japan’s prime mininster’s office has spent 4.5 million yen (nearly US$550,000) on an overhaul of the Prime Minister’s website. The redesign was done to improve communications. A new section of the site was also designed for kids. The site, titled” The Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet” can be found at http://www.kantei.go.jp/ . It includes links…
Because Aya Sameshima is a popular search term for this blog, I decided to follow up on her story. After the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, Aya Sameshima and her Tepco Mareeze teammates were sent to new homes. Sameshima ended up in the United States playing for the Boston Breakers after Japan’s Women’s World Cup…
One quick update to my article on the usefulness of eReaders, and especially the Kindle in Japan, is that surprisingly, English language newspapers from Japan are available on the Kindle. Even better is that even if you don’t own a Kindle, they are available through the Kindle for iPad, iPhone, and Android app. This means…
The YouTube Japan official blog recently announced the creation of a Tokyo Metropolitan Government channel. It is all in Japanese but has some surprisingly interesting videos (unlike a lot of the other YouTube channels of Japanese government agencies… I’m looking at you MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology) because I had high…
Many Japanese news media outlets are reporting that Ai Kago (age 23), formerly of Morning Musume attempted to commit suicide on September 11th. She was found in her apartment in Roppongi in Tokyo by a member of her talent agency. The agency member then immediately called 119 (the equivalent in Japan to 911) for an…
We reported back in April that model/actress Koyuki, who is also well-known in the United States had married uber-popular actor Kenichi Matsuyama who may be best known abroad for his work in the Death Note live action movie series. (Koyuki and Kenichi Matsuyama Get Married) On September 3rd, they announced that Koyuki is pregnant. She…
I’m going to embed the video right here so you can watch and try to figure out what’s going on here… Looks like something out of a science fiction movie. The person in the video seems to be a worker at the plant, based on his official clothing, but I’m not sure why he is…
As Japan enjoys the honeymoon after a historic World Cup Finals victory, one starting member of Japan’s Women’s Soccer Team will be preparing for a real honeymoon sometime in the near future. As she and the rest of the team were still on the pitch celebrating their victory, about 30 minutes after the deciding goal…
Lady Gaga recently showed up at an MTV Video Music Aid Japan event recently with her eyes closed the whole time. The pop star showed up wiearing sunglasses but surprised the crowd when she removed them. She had anime style eyes painted on her eyelids and did the entire press conference with her eyes closed…
There is news going around that seems to reference a 5 year old BBC article that calls up 20 year old research and has been recycled into an article on the internet that points out that nearly a dozen (nearly a dozen! That could be 10 whole people or more!) Japanese citizens are treated for…