Shirihoudai

While looking for Japanese grills and charcoal, I stumbled on this “guide” on how to make an usb powered “grill”.  And yes, of course it’s Japanese!

Few highlights from the site:

Just take 30 usb ports and cables. . .

plug it in to your coffee cup warmer. . .

add your meat and you’re good to go. . .

can’t forget the rice!

The inside of your computer also makes a great area to put your tea.

The High School where I taught English had a Baseball “club”.  But I swear, they only had about 6 guys total - not close enough for a full game, or even a scrimmage game to practice.  But I’d see them throwing balls to eachother after school, take batting practice, etc.  I wonder if they had to recruit some free agents from other schools to help them play against the rival school down the street?  But i’m pretty confident they would be able to beat the Kawamoto technical high team.

Japanese school team hit for 66 runs in two innings

TOKYO, April 17 (Reuters) - A Japanese high school pleaded for a regional game to be abandoned after surrendering 66 runs in less than two innings, local media reported on Thursday.

The coach of Kawamoto technical high school threw in the towel to spare his pitcher’s arm with his team losing 66-0 with just one batter out in the bottom of the second.

The hapless hurler had already sent down over 250 pitches, allowing 26 runs in the first inning and 40 in the second before Kawamoto asked for mercy.

“At that pace the pitcher would have thrown around 500 pitches in four innings,” Kawamoto’s coach was quoted as saying. “There was a danger he could get injured.” Opponents Shunshukan were officially credited with a 9-0 victory, giving the scoreline a tinge of respectability for the luckless Kawamoto school. (Writing by Alastair Himmer; Editing by Justin Palmer)

250 pitches?  Thats abuse!  I think the coach was waiting for the cheerleaders to finish their songs - those take forever!  story

Glad to see the hot pants fad is spreading around Asia.  Last October in Japan thats all I saw around Tokyo - girls in hot pants and fishnet stockings.  Damn that was HAWT!  Well, the fad spread to Thailand but it wasn’t the reaction I was expecting.  Come on people, it’s THAILAND!  The world of champion girly-boy-muay-thai-trannies!  And they are worried about a little cheek showing? 

Thai girl band berated for skimpy New Year outfits

BANGKOK (AFP) - A Thai girl band that took part in a government push for women to avoid skimpy outfits during Buddhist New Year was Thursday berated by the culture ministry for subsequently stripping off.

Girly Berry, a four-piece outfit known for hits such as “Shake It” and “I Like Ugly Guys,” slipped into traditional Thai dress as part of a campaign ahead of Thailand’s New Year, known as Songkran, which ended Wednesday.

Days later, however, they were back on stage in buttock-skimming hot-pants and tank-tops for a performance on Bangkok’s Khao San Road, the centre of the capital’s raucous water fights that mark the new Buddhist year.

“We campaigned to promote proper dressing, including Thai-style dress, but they appeared in very little clothing on the Songkran festival,” said Chaweerat Kasetsoontorn, deputy permanent secretary at the culture ministry.

“I wonder if they might have forgotten that they were ambassadors for the campaign,” she told AFP.

The Bangkok Post newspaper reported Thursday that Anusorn Wongwan, the culture minister, had threatened to blacklist Girly Berry from future government campaigns.

Despite the government’s best efforts to convince women to cover up for Songkran, teenage girls strutted through the water war on Khao San Road last weekend in skimpy white shorts decorated with Playboy bunnies.

No need for pictures since the one in the original story doesn’t do anyone justice.

[EDIT] At the request of my boss, here is how they do it in Japan:

Photo via my original starbucks rant.

Since I have complete control of this <evil laugh>bwahahahahahaha</evil laugh> of course I’m going to talk about my favorite hobby:  fishkeeping.   And I couldn’t think of any better way to tie in fishkeeping with Japan than to introduce Takashi Amano. 

This guy is a fishtank designing god!  More specifically, aquascaping - the practice of underwater landscaping using live plants.   Living works of art.  Someday I’ll have tanks that look like this:

Picture of a bed of glosstigma, rummynose tetras and discus courtesy of dude at myfishtank.net. He even got to see the real deal in person in Niigata! damn him!

Here is the official site of Takashi Amano’s HQ.

A couple of Amano’s books are in the Shirihoudai store that make great coffee table books.

It all started with that damn holiday called Valentines Day.  For some reason, Japan thought it would be good for their economy to force the women to buy the men in their lives chocolate on February 14.  A month later they came up with White Day - where the guys who received gifts a month before, have to return the favor. 

Not to be out-done, the Koreans come up with Black Day:

Black Day for love, big day for noodles

By Jon Herskovitz Mon Apr 14, 12:40 PM ET

SEOUL (Reuters) - It was a Black Day for love in South Korea on Monday with lonely hearts trying to ease their pain by diving head first into bowls of noodles.

South Korea celebrates Valentine’s Day, where local custom dictates women give gifts to men. It has taken on a popular event born in Japan but sweeping Asia known as White Day on March 14 when men return the favor with gifts for women.

But Black Day, on April 14, is a South Korean original. It is marked by people who have not found love dressing in dark colors and commiserating over meals of black food, with the dish of choice being Chinese-style noodles topped with a thick sauce of black bean paste.

“I had a miserable time on Valentine’s Day, felt even lonelier on White Day and now I’m crying over a bowl of black noodles,” said a young women who asked only to be identified by her family name Na out of embarrassment.

“Things better be different next year.”

At universities across the country on Monday, students without lunch dates ordered black noodles, dined with other lonely hearts and searched for companionship.

South Korea marketers have hatched special days for the 14th of each month to create a calendar laden with love.

Some days have gained traction such as Black Day, while others such as Green Day in August, when couples are supposed to drink cheap liquor that comes in green bottles and walk in the woods, have yet to attract much of a following.

Black Day events have snowballed, with a major matchmaking service this year providing an evening of speed dating where the dish of choice is sushi blackened by squid ink.

An on-line company for movie tickets sponsored a speed eating competition of black noodles for those who bought single tickets for the latest films.

“It is depressing enough going to the movies by yourself,” said Shin Youn-joo of the company called Max Movie.

“We just wanted to spread a little joy to the ‘with-outs’.”

So there you have it, white day, black day, even green day.  There are still a lot of colors left in the color spectrum and I propose the following ideas:

Purple day - May 14.  Everyone drinks wine, gets drunk, and the night ends in a heap of human nakedness.

Blue Day - June 14.  Girls get to tease the guys but don’t offer themselves up in the end.  aka blue balls.

Yellow Day - July 14.  Girls set up lemonade stands and the guys must buy a glass of lemonade.  The only trick is that one of the glasses contains pee.

Brown Day - August 14.  Guys return the favor but instead of making lemondade, they bake chocolate cakes.

Ok, i’m just getting gross now. . .

Story from the Mainichi again on Jero - the newest enka singing sensation in Japan.  He released his single called “Umiyuki” and is getting invited to sing it at different venues around the country.  This latest story is about him singing at a basketball (hmm, racial profiling) game in Japan’s Basketball league.  It normally wouldn’t be newsworthy enough to repeat here but the title just had me do a double-take:

Black enka singer puts on Fukuoka show for bj league

Enka crooner Jero belts out a tune before a bj-League game in Fukuoka over the weekend. (Mainichi)

FUKUOKA — Black enka singer Jero put on a pre-game show for the Basketball Japan League’s Rising Fukuoka before it played its final home court match against the Ryukyu Golden Kings here over the weekend.

The 26-year-old American singer with a Japanese mother sparked up the crowd with something of a mismatch, singing traditional Japanese songs before a bj league game, where the atmosphere is known for its trendy, razzmatazz feel.

Fukuoka fans got behind the popular young singer and would also have been pleased after their team got up to win the game following Jero’s show.

Jero made his singing debut in February this year and has seen his popularity rise steadily since. He arrived at the game on a huge motorbike and belted out “Umiyuki,” his debut single.

How can I join this bj-league? Sounds like fun!

Someday I’ll get around to my tribute to Hard Gay, but in the meantime, ran across this article on the Associated Press.  Not quite the hip thrusting sado-masochist type of gay, but he has put his own spin on being a fruity wrestler south of the border.

Mexican wrestler puckers up to fight

MEXICO CITY - In a hot-pink Mohawk haircut and leotard to match, he pirouettes before taking down his muscle-bound enemies with a swift kick to the groin.

Maximo, Mexican professional wrestling’s latest sensation, then delivers a crowning blow — a kiss on the lips of his macho opponent — to the delight of a roaring crowd.

Maximo is one of the “Exotics,” a group of effeminate fighters in the testosterone-fueled world of Mexico’s Lucha Libre, the inspiration for the World Wrestling Federation, now World Wrestling Entertainment. Known casually as “gay” wrestlers, Exotics have been around since the 1970s but are experiencing a wrestling revival. Their characters are strong, yet sensitive good guys overcoming evil, they say.

But showing your soft side in the ring isn’t as easy as it might look, Maximo says.

“It’s kind of hard playing this part, no? Especially because the sport is about being tough, rude and violent,” he said. “But as long as the public loves us, we’ll be there.”

haha, this first pic. . .is that a. . oh wait, it’s the referre’s arm

What an odd story on Mainichi today. 

Average age of socially withdrawn people passes 30 for first time

The average age of people who isolate themselves from society has climbed past 30 for the first time, according to a survey on a group supporting family members of socially withdrawn people.

The finding was made in a survey that experts conducted on members of Zenkoku Hikikomori KHJ Oya no Kai. While there is a base of young people who shut themselves off from society, the latest survey highlights the definite increase in people in their 30s and 40s who have kept themselves isolated and have not managed to make a return to society.

The survey found that the average age of people isolated from society was 30.12. By gender, the average age for males was 30.35 and the corresponding figure for females was 28.87. The youngest person withdrawn from society was aged 13, and the oldest was aged 52. The average amount of time they spent withdrawn from society was 8.95 years, and the longest was 25 years.

The poll has been conducted every year since 2002. In that year, the average age of people who isolated themselves from society was 26.6, and in 2006 it was 29.6, showing that the age is increasing. The average age of parents of people who shut themselves off from society, meanwhile, was 63.23 years for fathers and 58.28 years for mothers.

When respondents were asked, from the viewpoint of family members, what support socially withdrawn people wanted, “financial support” was the most common answer, accounting for more than 50 percent of responses and surpassing the answers “counseling” and “diagnosis from a doctor.”

In a section that allowed people to freely state their opinions, one of the respondents wrote, “I want a system in place so that I can die in peace, “and another said, “I want a social security system to be founded, showing that parents worried what would happen when they were gone.

The representative of Zenkoku Hikikomori KHJ Oya no Kai, Masahisa Okuyama, said that a safety net would provide security for people.

“Concerns by socially withdrawn people and their parents are leading to family breakups, and we’re starting to see terrible situations in which people kill their parents, carry out murder-suicides or take their own lives. If there was some kind of safety net, that would give people a sense of security.”

The survey was conducted by a team including University of Tokushima Associate Prof. Motohiro Sakai between November 2007 and January 2008. Members of Zenkoku Hikikomori KHJ Oya no Kai were asked to fill in questionnaires, and officials analyzed the responses from 331 people.

I did come across my share of weirdos in Japan and the good vs bad reasons for them to be socially isolated probably even themselves out.  The first theory that popped into my head was the proliferation of the internet and the ability to hide behind a false e-personality.  I’m pretty sure the increasing ways in which one can interact in their virtual world and with their “friends” whom they’ve never met face to face has something to do with the inability for people to interact with humanoids in the real world.   Society on a whole is moving in a direction of antisocialism whether we are aware of it or not.  The inventions that are making our lives more convenient are perhaps somewhat to blame for the increased inability (of some) to function in our changing society.

text messaging vs calling on the phone

emailing vs writing a letter by hand

calling someone by phone vs talking in person

talking to someone vs punching them in the face

but I digress. . .

Don’t you hate theories that pop into your head after reading a simple news article?  As comedian Chris Rock said, “What ever happened to just being crazy?”  I agree.  “Socially withdrawn”?  Nah, that person is just crazy!

image via random google search

In my search for the coolest and cheapest “engrish” t-shirts, I have found this, this, and this one.   So now I present to you, my favorite one in the collection which I am wearing today.   When viewed from afar, it looks like a dumb t-shirt of a tree with writing:

When you get up close, you are then aware of the great message this t-shirt brings:

Bwahahahahaha.  I love it. To the designer of this room, great job! Looks like someone reading up on a bunch of asian stereotypes got a little too full and exploded a mosaic of asian crap. Lets analyze this room, shall we?

Click on the tv spots to see the different tv commercials in multi languages. I challenge you to find the one that is different.
Finally, click on the bag of food for a real surprise. Korean and Vietnamese burritos!!! mmm mmm good!