Shirihoudai

(photo courtesty of Andy’s official website)

Andy Hug arguebly may not have been the best K1 fighter but there is no denying that he represented all that was pure in the sport.  A true warrior and showman, he never ceased to win over the crowd whether it be a spinning back fist, devasting axe kick, or that winning smile that just lit up the ring after a match.   I can pinpoint the exact moment when I became a K1 fan - Andy’s spinning back kick to Mike Bernado’s knee that resulted in a KO.  Up until that moment, I never saw fighting that you could KO someone with a leg kick. 

His life story is tragic.  Being able to retire from the sport on top, but then passing away a couple months later on August 24, 2000.   I’ll never forget his gyu-don commercials where he is holding a bento box in one hand and knocking down doors with his axe kick saying “gomennasaiyo!”  Those wacky commercials no doubt paved the way for other K1 athletes to cash in on Japan marketing (Bob Sapp).  In an age where corruption is tearing down the faculties of Japan mma, it was athletes like Andy who kept it afloat and still awe-inspriting.  Just felt compelled to write a little something about this guy after finding his website, thats all.

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

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.

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!

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:

This story from Reuters is like the movie iRobot come true. Sure we all want to have sex with robots and let them raise our kids but did we ever realize this fantasy world would come true?  But i’ll give them credit for this ingenuous way of saving pension money in the long run.

Robots seen doing work of 3.5 million in Japan

TOKYO (Reuters) - Robots could fill the jobs of 3.5 million people in graying Japan by 2025, a thinktank says, helping to avert worker shortages as the country’s population shrinks.

Japan faces a 16 percent slide in the size of its workforce by 2030 while the number of elderly will mushroom, the government estimates, raising worries about who will do the work in a country unused to, and unwilling to contemplate, large-scale immigration.

The thinktank, the Machine Industry Memorial Foundation, says robots could help fill the gaps, ranging from microsized capsules that detect lesions to high-tech vacuum cleaners.

Rather than each robot replacing one person, the foundation said in a report that robots could make time for people to focus on more important things.

Japan could save 2.1 trillion yen ($21 billion) of elderly insurance payments in 2025 by using robots that monitor the health of older people, so they don’t have to rely on human nursing care, the foundation said in its report.

Caregivers would save more than an hour a day if robots helped look after children, older people and did some housework, it added. Robotic duties could include reading books out loud or helping bathe the elderly.

“Seniors are pushing back their retirement until they are 65 years old, day care centers are being built so that more women can work during the day, and there is a move to increase the quota of foreign laborers. But none of these can beat the shrinking workforce,” said Takao Kobayashi, who worked on the study.

“Robots are important because they could help in some ways to alleviate such shortage of the labor force.”

The current fertility rate is 1.3 babies per woman, far below the level needed to maintain the population, while the government estimates that 40 percent of the population will be over 65 by 2055, raising concerns about who will look after the graying population.

Kobayashi said changes was still needed for robots to make a big impact on the workforce.

“There’s the expensive price tag, the functions of the robots still need to improve, and then there are the mindsets of people,” he said.

“People need to have the will to use the robots.”

(Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Rodney Joyce)

 If they look like this, then sign me up!

(image via www.whatheck.com)

Was in my old stomping grounds of Gardena this past weekend and had a craving for inari and maki sushi. I haven’t gone to Sakae Sushi since I was a kid so the need had to be filled. As you open the door to the little shop, your nose immediately notices the nice vinegar rice smell. Delicate and not overpowering. The menu hasn’t changed ever! Inari, Maki, saba, egg, shrimp, and california rolls.
Ordered a 7 pc mixed set and 7pc california roll so I can taste everything. At around 70 cents a piece, that has to be the best sushi bargain ever! So fresh and comes nicely wrapped in white paper with a green string. The Inari and Saba are my new favorites. Yes, it’ll make you smile.

storefront:

sushi box:

menu:

their sushi (top: egg, california roll, maki; bottom: inari, shrimp, saba) 

Notice how much rice they use? Its done that way for a reason. Eating their expertly prepared rice is a definite experience. Sticky with a hint of vinegar. I’ve gone to sushi shops that sell sushi for 10x this price and their rice can’t match what they do here at Sakae.

1601 W Redondo Beach Blvd Ste 112
Gardena, CA 90247
(310) 532-4550

(images via Yelp review)

 AKA Kanamara Weiner Festival - the celebration of ugly trannies and horny tourists.  This is still on my list of things to see in Japan as I love a good freakshow.  Women straddling the 6 foot rocket penis. . .

and 70 year old tranvestites. . .

what more could you ask for at a spring festival?  Phallic shaped candies? You got it!

As quoted from the Mainichi

Kanamara Matsuri, literally the Festival of the Iron Penis, had its beginnings in the Edo Period (1603-1868) with the prayers of women called meshimori onna, according to Wakamiya Hachimangu, the Shinto shrine in Kawasaki where the event was held.

Meshimori onna were women employed by the Shogun rulers of Japan during the feudal era to serve travelers along major roads such as the Tokaido that ran from Edo (modern Tokyo) to the ancient capital of Kyoto, with Kawasaki serving as a lodging spot.

Although the meshimori onna were supposed to serve only food, they also served themselves for a price, and it was their custom of praying to the gods that led to the festival as it is today.

Kanamara Matsuri is said to have positive effectives on business and fertility, increases the chance of an easy birth, heightens the possibility of finding a partner, boosts marital harmony and wards off sexually transmitted diseases.

So you see, there is a reason for all the madness.  In addition to helping solve  Japan’s declining population, the festival serves many purposes - increasing the population, helping the local economy, AIDS awareness, transvestite tolerance, uncensorship of genatalia in public places. . . the list goes on and on.

(photos via Mainichi)

They even posted a video of the phallic fun here