Aino Minako-chan

For those who are curious, the Japanese parliament is currently starting its debate on reforms to the current organ transplant law (concerning deceased donors). The main catalysts for this change are a combination of A) problems with the current law, especially with the fact that donors must be 15+ years old, thus essentially making transplants for children illegal, and B) changes to WHO rules on transplants in foreign countries (in order to combat the concern of "transplantion tourism" as far as I can tell). I'm not an expert on transplants by any means (although I know people who are!), but it's an interesting debate in Japan, and I'll try to summarize it here.

( Cut for those who don't really care and b/c it's kinda long... )

In short, it's an interesting debate to watch. We'll see what happens.

UPDATE: Surprise! Plan A passed in the first house by a rather wide margin. We'll see how it does in the second house.

UPDATE #2: Plan A passed the second house in mid-July. Hurray! Now if we can only get families to agree to donate...

I had a pretty good weekend to combat recent work/life stress. On Saturday, johnabe took me to see "Terminator Salvation" (just known as the more logical "Terminator 4" in Japan). It was my first ever Terminator movie, and you know what? I quite liked it. It has lots of fun action and explosions and some pretty amazing shots (there's a helicopter crash in the beginning that I thought was really well done... it really DID remind me of being in my mom's SUV when it flipped, only, obviously, longer). Plus, it has MARCUS WRIGHT (played by Sam Worthington), who was totally awesome and I loved him like an awesomely awesome thing. Anyway, for some non-spoiler fun, the credits to the movie turned out to be accidentally hilarious:

1. One poor actor was accidentally credited as "Soilder". I loled pretty hard. Go go proofreading skillz!

2. At the very end, when they had the "Special Thanks" part of the credits, there was one line that went something like this: "Special Thanks to the Department of Defense and the U.S. Air Force, but especially to the Department of Defense."

No seriously, it mentioned the DOD twice. I couldn't stop laughing. I imagine a meeting with the producers and the guys from the DOD went something like this:

Producer: ...and, of course, we will make sure to credit both you and the Air Force for your cooperation...
DOD: But we're responsible for the Air Force.
Producer: Um, yes, but the planes are actually being flown by the Air Force, so...
DOD: Well, sure, you have to thank them... but it's thanks to us that the Air Force even exists! So you need to, you know, thank us double.
Producer: Oh, well. I guess we could...
DOD: Can you print our name in big letters?
Producer: I suppose...
DOD: Or make it flash or something? Like, one of those scrolling thingamabobs?
Producer: Er...
DOD #2: What about sparkle font?
DOD: Oooooo...
Producer: ...We'll just thank you twice.

---

One of my friends invited me to a little livehouse on Sunday night. Her boyfriend is acting as the temporary bassist for this comedic three person rock band. Their music was actually pretty good, and they were also very funny as well. They had songs called things like "My name is Bacteria Man" and "Draemon Ash" (a play on famous cartoon "Doraemon" and rock group "Dragon Ash"). Their lyrics were by turns humorous, surreal, and weird, and I quite liked it. I think my favorite song was one that mainly consisted of instrumental music while the lead singer/guitarist Sugawara-san (I've met him a couple of times) talked, giving a short setup to a joke (about current events, politics, whatever) that lead up to a killer punchline. But after Sugawara-san made a few good jokes, he forced the drummer, Endo,  to take a turn, and his joke went like this:

Endo: You know, you hear people talking about all of the horrible things happening to modern Japan, but I don't think people talk about Japanese eating habits a lot. You know, more and more people are cutting back on rice, and they're eating more and more bread (pan in Japanese). And to me, that's the real PANdemic.
Audience: ............
Endo: [attempt to hide behind drums]

I laughed. It was a pretty entertaining show. ^_^

I saw him again! As I mentioned twice before, there's an awesome guy at my gym. And today, while walking around in Shinjuku, I think I saw him again! Okay, so I was walking along, and I saw this person from the back. At first, I thought it was a middle-aged woman, but the outfit... yellow turtleneck, yellow socks, Birkenstocks, and teeny TEENY khaki shorts that not only displayed rather significant amounts of ass cleavage, but also appeared to be giving the world's most painful-looking wedgie. As this person also had long hair tied into a side ponytail (with a hairband attached to a giant pink flower) and was also carrying a purse that (although I wasn't close enough to see the entire pattern) would have likely worked as a purse for My Little Pony or Care Bears, I assumed that said person was a woman. But then, as said person turned a corner, I caught a glimpse of this person's profile, and there was a rather significant beard. I couldn't tell for sure if it was actually gym guy, but I'd be rather frightened if there was more than one of him hanging around Shinjuku.

---

Some videos I should mention... There's a commercial for Combat (a cockroach insecticide) that never fails to make me howl with laughter:

( Cut for the YouTube embedded version. )

You can watch the YouTube version (bigger but low quality) or you can visit the web site (teeny but high quality). Long story short, it's got the Johnny's-related idol group Butokan doing a very idol version of this insecticide commercial, and it ends with a very dramatic, "Gokuburi (cockroach), to the heaven." Seriously, I WEEP with laughter.

---

Also, http://www.dothetest.co.uk/ has a new version of their awareness videos. The original one "Basketball" is still incredible, but the new version "Whodunnit?" is equally pretty awesome.

---

Finally, my parents are currently in Hawaii visiting relatives, and they went to my cousin's graduation. Now, Hawaiian graduations are always celebrated by giving the graduate leis. Basically everyone the graduate knows sends a lei, so every graduate can end with piles of flowers. (Even I, when I graduated in Colorado, ended up with two fresh flower leis and a ribbon lei from relatives.) Monday is Memorial Day in the US. (For non-Americans, this is the day for commemorating soldiers who died in battle. A separate day, Veterans Day, is set aside for other veterans.) In honor of Memorial Day, a large veterans cemetary in Punchbowl (Honolulu) asked for donated leis, as they cover each grave in a lei. They needed 50,000 leis. They apparently now have too many leis, but they're still collecting anyway. My mom said that at my cousin's graduation, they had a box near the exit. Anyone who wanted to donate the leis after the pictures and all were over could drop the leis off in the box. Sounds amazing... I'd like to see that.

I literally ran from my dinner when I heard the news so that I could post this as quickly as possible:

SMAP's Kusanagai Tsuyoshi was arrested for public indecency after apparently getting drunk and running around a public park naked.

I shouldn't laugh at someone getting arrested, but I find this to be absolutely hysterical. I'm in tears with laughter after hearing this news. This is the definition of LOLz.

On the minus side, this is Japan, not the States or Britain or somewhere (where this would just be a hilarious story to tell interviewers), and Tsuyoshi-kun's not just a normal celebrity, he's a JOHNNY'S, and therefore technically an idol, and therefore this looks like it's going to be a HUGE deal. There's already been an official statement from Johnny's stating that Tsuyoshi-kun has been temporarily suspended, no indication yet of when he'll be let back in. OH THE DRAMA.

I apparently forgot to mention this, but last month, I was kinda stressed from work and had a day off on Feb. 11th, so I decided to make red velvet cupcakes for Valentine's Day. I'm really not a domestic type, but I'm Virgo enough that things like cleaning and baking relax me. They were slight failures (I don't have a mixer, so the frosting ended up with small lumps of cream cheese that I couldn't quite smooth out, and I didn't put enough food coloring in (liquid food coloring is nearly impossible to find in Japan, so I just added powdered red color until the batter looked vaguely bloody), so I ended up making plain chocolate cupcakes instead of red velvet). Still, they turned out well. (I assume. I made ALMOST enough for everyone in the company, male and female, but I was two cupcakes short, so I rather apologetically informed my fellow translator Horinouchi-san that neither of us were getting cake. She didn't seem to mind, but I was honestly a big upset. lol)

Anyway, today (tomorrow, technically, but it's a Saturday) is White Day, so I ended up getting swag from the guys at the office: a bag of cookies, four small chocolates (from 2 different co-workers), a little box of 4 truffles, a little box of chocolates (which my co-worker hysterically hid in a work envelope in order to hide from prying eyes), and apparently some cake from the guys in the Engineering department. \(^o^)/ Hurray! I am the winner!



(No, actually to be entirely honest, it's pretty embarrassing. I wanted to bake because I was bored and stressed; Valentine's day was really just an excuse and a good way to make sure that I didn't scarf a sheet cake by myself. Next year, I'm pooling my money with the other women to buy chocolates. If I want to bake, I'll make sure to do it on a non-reciprical-gift-giving holiday.)

( ETA under the cut )

I previously mentioned that Utada's second album is dropping soon. It comes out on March 14th in Japan and March 24th in the States. (The first single is already available.) I'm so excited about the album, however, that I completely forgot to mention the OTHER super-famous Asian singer coming out with a US album: BoA.

Yes, BoA's debut US album hits stores on March 17th. It's supposed to be a hard-hitting dance album, which admittedly makes me blink a bit, because US audiences aren't exactly known for being connoisseurs of dance albums. So far, I've heard two songs from the album: "I Did It for Love" and "Eat You Up".

( See the YouTube videos behind the cut! )

I quite like "I Did It for Love", but "Eat You Up"... Is it just me, or does that song sound like it's running at half speed? It's one of the least danceable dance songs that I've ever heard. Seriously, it's kinda weird.

Long story short, I passed the Level 1 JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test)! I was busy at work and didn't really study for the test (my studying basically invoved cramming kanji on the train ride to the testing location), but I somehow squeaked a win. Hurray!

---

In completely (and I mean COMPLETELY) different news, does anyone remember an April Fool's joke on one of the internet gaming magazines sometime around, say 1998? They printed up a fake article about how FFVII, after being ported to the PC, would be enjoying a new port on the Atari (or something like that) taking up only 64 cartridges. They included a "movie" from the game, which was an animated gif of blocky Sephiroth killing blocky Aerith, climaxing with a single green pixel slowly bouncing away. It was horrifying funny, but I can't find it any more. (I can't even remember which online magazine it was... I believe that it changed names since then?) Does anyone remember this?

ETA: FOUND! Or, the animated gif, at least. It was ironically reposted recently. Enjoy!

http://www.gamesniped.com/2009/02/04/final-fantasy-vii-for-the-atari-2600/

---

I'm unfortunately having a falling out with the video game Demon's Souls. And it's not because it's too hard or frustrating or anything... it's because it's starting to scare the crap out of me. I finished the first part of the first area, which unlocked all of the other areas, and two of them scare me half to death. I was doing well with one area, killing slow, stupid zombies, but I could hear banging from the next room. "Hm, wonder what that is!", I thought to myself. The answer came quickly when three zombie doggies burst out of the room. I literally turned and sprinted all the way to the exit while screaming, "AHHHH, EVIL PUPPIES!!!". (Note: this is the exact same thing that happens when I play Resident Evil games. I hate zombie doggies!) And then another area? Is the dungeon area, making it dark, narrow, and filled with torture equipment. It's creepy enough, but what makes things worse is the fact that every so often, you can hear a man's voice calling out, "Oh god, please help me! Someone, save me!" I basically ran from that level, too. It reminded me of when I played Silent Hill 2, a task that I was only able to accomplish by playing in full daylight, with all of the curtains open, while my roommate was home. Without a roommate, I honestly don't think I'll be able to play the dungeon area. (T_T) Too scawy!

---

And in final news, Utada's second CD will be dropping in a few weeks. Hurray! You can check out the first single from the album here. On one hand, it's a bit too mellow for my tastes, but on the other hand, I have a tendancy to start singing it to myself at odd times, suggesting that it's surprisingly catchy. Not that I'm sure how people become famous for music these days, outside of T&A or American Idol.

OH HOLY CRAP, GUYS! OKURIBITO WON THE BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE OSCAR!

I loved it when I saw it, but I admittedly never expected it to win anything, especially when I kept hearing about the entries from Israel and France. Holy crap!

Yes, this means that I'm checking the Oscar results at work. Shut up.

Reason that I cried yesterday: I went to see Okuribito (Departures), which is the Japanese film nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars. (Fun fact: I looked at the list of Oscars nominees and discovered that I've only seen two other nominated films: The Dark Knight and Iron Man. Isn't that really sad? And this is even an Oscar year that includes movies that I'd actually want to spend money on!)

Anyway, it's a comedic story about the funeral business, or more technically, noukan, which is the traditional Japanese act of preparing the body for burial/cremation. After losing his job with an orchestra, Daigo goes back to the country and accidentally gets a job working as a noukanshi. (He thinks he's getting a job at a travel agency, due to the newspaper ad that talks about helping people with their precious departures. As it turns out, this was a misprint; it was supposed to read "helping people with their precious departed.") It's a very funny story about life and death and family, while still making me cry like a little baby. (Seriously, it was almost funny! There were points in the movie where all you could hear was people sobbing and sniffling into their hankies.) I don't know if it deserves the Oscar compared to the other films, but it is a very good, very Japanese movie. ( Cut for a very minor spoiler from Okuribito, although technically, I have a feeling that this wouldn't be a spoiler if I were Japanese. )

Reason that I'm going to cry today: My boss came down with the flu, so I came in to work only to discover that he'll be gone for the next two days. This means that I'm now in charge of my own work (still slightly behind due to the training session last Friday), plus half of my boss's work. My coworker will likely take on the other half, although she's currently moving and therefore taking a half day today. Seriously, I'm going to cry. Get better soon, Yagi-san! We miss you!!

This happened sometime last week.

Kanda-san: Excuse me, has anyone seen the computer that we keep here? We're missing a computer.
Satou-san: Please tell me that he's talking about a laptop.
Kanda-san: There used to be a Windows PC, right here!
Minako-chan: (????)

Apparently someone took it home with them. To get some work done. Without asking anyone. It was weird.

---

I was doing a proofreading job with no Japanese text to fall back on. From what I can tell, a Japanese company wrote the previous English-language catalog, and our company was supposed to create a new catalog based on the old one. Therefore, there was honestly NO Japanese text available. Perhaps the biggest sign of Japanese-English came from katakana words that were hysterically not written into English correctly (such as "dorill" instead of "drill" or the constant use of "magneto", which made me want to say, "I seriously doubt that your product includes a high-powered Magneto.").

Anyway, there was one part in the catalog under flags and banners where they listed one product as "Paul (for burner)". I had no idea what it meant, but I assumed that it was the name of one of their flags, so I didn't think about it. Today I was doing the second check, and I nearly killed myself laughing when I realized what they were trying to say:

Paul (for burner) = バーナー用ポール = Pole (for banner)

Yes, they were just selling a pole that you could hang your flag or banner on. Seriously, HILARITY. I nearly killed myself trying not to laugh hysterically. And this, people, this is why you hire me.

Two of my recent obsessions:

1. Little Big Planet
   I bought myself a PS3 and Little Big Planet this weekend. ^_^ Little Big Planet is pretty darned fun; I've been playing it nonstop and I like to amuse myself by creating hideously tacky Sackpeople. It's easy enough that I can beat levels (eventually), but tough enough that I spend time trying not to scream and throw my controller at the screen as my stupid little Sackgirl gets herself blown up AGAIN. But I'm having a blast and I may actually need to try multiplayer in order to get some of the extras... Anyway, it's really fun and I give it two thumbs up. b(^_^)d
2. セレブと貧乏太郎 (Celeb & Poor)
   This is a silly romance/comedy show running right now in Japan about Alice, a super-rich super-celebrity who grew up with ultimate wealth and now runs her own fashion brand. (She's also the daughter of a rich hotel magnate. Any similarities to current celebrities living or dead is, er, totally implied.) When she needs a new driver, she ends up hiring Taro, an unlucky, working-poor stiff who's trying to raise three young kids by himself after his high school sweetheart dies. And when Alice needs a fake boyfriend to piss off her ex, who better to play the part than Taro! It's a very stereotypical "pretending to be together" romantic comedy mixed with a "the poor, but kind and happy person teaches the rich, but cold and miserable person how to be a decent human being" heart-warming tale, but it's really fun and surprisingly addicting. WILL ALICE AND TARO HOOK UP AND HAVE A WACKY OPPOSITES ATTRACT ROMANCE!? (Probably. I mean, this IS just a cheesy J-drama after all.) I'm sooper excited to see the next episode tonight. Seriously, it makes my week.

---

And in completely different news, the big story in Japan is that Komuro Tetsuya was arrested. Yes, THAT Komuro Tetsuya. Long story short, KT has apparently had debt problems, so he offered to sell the rights to his songs to an investor for about $10 million (USD). He got half up front, but then it turned out that he doesn't actually own the rights to his songs. The rights all belong to AVEX, and KT gets paid yearly royalties. But KT either couldn't or wouldn't pay back the $5 million advance, so he was arrested today for fraud. It's a HUGE scandal, as you might imagine.

---

And on a very side note, I'm currently proofreading a document translated by an outsourced translator. He's American and therefore my proofreading should theoretically only be for technical terms and adherence to basic style, but it's simply so hideous that I almost want to print it out, rip it to shreds, and then rewrite the whole thing. It's simply HIDEOUS. The document is release notes for an updated version, so there's lots of information about new features and bug-fixes, stuff like that. It should be a simple translation, but it reads horribly. I mean, every SINGLE sentence reads like, "It is now compatible to the Web function" or "It is possible to communicate between multiple points" or "It makes possible to input a 720p format video." Every SINGLE last freaking sentence; out of a list of 11 additional functions, a 9 of the descriptions started with "It is" (and a 10th was completely wrong due to an addition of the word "not"). I'm going to kill someone. I've proofread this guy's translations before, and it all smacks of the same horrible writing. He's either the world's most incompetent writer, or he's outsourcing the outsourcing work. >_< Seriously, it shouldn't be this hard to find good translators. Help me Obi-wan Kenobi! You're my only hope!

Well, I watched the final ever episode of "Gakkou e Ikou" last week. Despite the fact that I haven't watched the show regularly for about two years, I've been a fan since 2000, so it was still very sad to have it come to an end. Then again, the show ran 11 years, so it had a good run. They've done some retrospectives over the past few weeks, and it's surprising how many clips I remembered or had already seen before. (Most of the old stuff I remember seeing back in the 5 year anniversary special.) It reminded me of all the good times and why I became such a fan of V6: because they made me laugh.

For those who ever watched the show around 2001-ish, there was one very interesting note in their retrospective three weeks ago: Remember Mackey, the absolutely adorable boy (who looked like an absolutely adorable girl) in the "Minorikawa Otome Dan" segments? He is now a she and she's cute like a button! Suprisingly enough (or perhaps not surprising at all) she looks almost exactly like she did when she was a 13-year-old boy. (Mackey was always a shockingly cute girl.) And she's still got that same nervous half-smile and the same crush on Sakamoto-kun. Awwww! Go Mackey!

---

Also, remember when I talked about the totally awesome guy at my gym? Well, I saw him again for the first time in about a year, and he only gets awesomer by the minute. I was walking past the elliptical machines when I noticed him: still solid bronze all over, still solid-but-with-beer-belly, still long wavy hair. But of course, I mainly noticed him because he was wearing lime green sneakers, a black tank top, and teeny black shorts with multicolored stripes. But the best part? The tank top had ridden up a bit and the teeny black shorts had ridden down, so it was very very clear that he was wearing a neon pink thong. I did an actual double-take when I saw him. It was totally awesome.

P.S. No, he really IS bronze all over. ALL over.

---

I've been playing Final Fantasy XII International, which has inspired a random poll, because seriously, it's starting to bother me:

Poll #1255626 Parlez-vous francais?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

How do you normally pronounce the word "marquis"?

As I'm sure many of you have heard, the next Harry Potter movie has been delayed until next summer. I am upset like you wouldn't believe. B-but.... [sniff] And I was so EXCITED when I first saw the trailer. Stop teasing me, Warner Brothers! Moosh.

In better news, Sigma Harmonics came out yesterday and I'm very excited about it. I'm not quite sure, but it appears to be a time-traveling murder mystery RPG with card battles that involve manipulating music. Seriously. It sounds kinda like the creators all played drunken darts one night and decided to make a game based on any keywords that they hit. I have no freaking clue, but it sounds awesome.

In just odd news, I got a call a couple of days ago, and it turns out that I won a free full body massage or something (I wasn't technically paying attention, so I'm not 100% sure what it involves). I was actually trying to win the Wii, so I'm not hugely elated, but whatever. Free things are always fun!

And in Olympic news, Japan's softball team beat out the US softball team, resulting in the US's first loss, well, EVER. I'm very proud of Japan. Everyone needs a good rival, and I'm happy that Japan was able to step up to the (metaphorical and literal) plate. The one thing that I thought was weird was that Japan got there after losing to the US only days earlier in the semi-finals. For some strange reason, Japan lost the semi-finals, but instead of battling the loser of the other semi-final match for the bronze medal, they had a match against the winner of the other semi-final (Australia) for the bronze medal. In this case, Australia lost (earning the bronze medal) and therefore Japan went up against the US (again) for the gold medal. Obviously this worked out very well for Japan, but it seemed like a bizarre system. I feel like I'm missing something. Does anyone else know what happened?

Saw Dark Knight at a new theater in Shinjuku on Saturday. The theater was very nice, but my personal favorite part was the concessions counter. In addition to normal things like popcorn and french fries, they also served danish-and-soup sets. (Technically, they served "denishes". Oh, Japan! You and your Engrish!) I ended up getting soft-serve mango ice cream for the movie, which was fun.

As for the movie itself, I really enjoyed it. The only problem for me was that every time I saw the mayor, all I could think to myself was, "Batmanuel!!" You'd think that I would stop after a while, but no, the ENTIRE FREAKING movie I kept wanting to shriek "It's Batmanuel!" That was either the most inspired casting or the worst.

---

In other news, I haven't really watched any Olympics yet (just whatever they show on the morning news). Overall, I'm not a huge sports fan. However, I like watching minor competitors from countries that you've never heard of, or events that you hadn't realize were Olympic sports. Four years ago in Athens, I developed a weird fascination with synchronized diving. There's something very intriguing about it. This year I've decided that I really want to watch the Modern Pentathalon, which I had vaguely heard about but had never really considered before. I must admit that I thought it was a track and field event. Apparently it's not. It involves competing in 5 events: shooting, fencing, swimming, equestian, and running. Which is just WEIRD. I mean, running and swimming, okay. But then shooting? Fencing? Equestrian!? There are people who do ALL of these things? That's super awesome.

Things that I have thought were pretty cool so far (from the Japanese perspective):

• I unfortunately missed the Japanese female weightlifters competing in the 48 kg class. It's kinda hysterical. They heave these giant bars over their heads, but of course they only weigh 48 freaking kg (just over 100 lbs), which means that they're teeny tiny and don't look muscular at all.
• A single Japanese mother came in 4th place in trap shooting. She almost won a medal, too; she missed the last shot in the tie-breaking shoot-off. Her little daughter was the one bawling afterwards; it was very cute. The mother calmly held her daughter and said that she had been "given permission" by her daughter to train for the 2012 London Olympics, so she would try to do even better. At which point the bawling daughter said in a wobbly voice, "But after London, you have to quit." Everyone had a good laugh; it was seriously very cute.
• I'm actually looking forward to one equestrian event (dressage, whatever that means). There's a 67 year old Japanese man competing in one of the equestrian events. He's apparently been in the Olympics before: the 1964 Tokyo Olympics when he was 22. Now that's pretty darned cool.

• Have other people seen this? http://www.dothetest.co.uk/ It's a really great video that works best when you don't know what it's about. Just follow the instructions and count carefully. If you do this right, you'll be pleasantly surprised by the results.


• Infinite Undiscovery is an RPG being published by Square Enix for the Xbox 360. It looks like a fairly standard RPG so far, but the reason why I already adore it is the title. It's like the developers went, "We need to make an RPG for the Xbox that is totally not like Final Fantasy. So not 'final'.. It'll be... infinite! Infinite Fantasy! No, Infinite Unfantasy!! No no, I've got it, Infinite UNDISCOVERY!" Seriously, doesn't the title sound like something that was the result of a late night meeting involving way too much beer and someone repeating the phrase "Final Fantasy" one too many times?


• Sakamoto Maaya's latest single Triangular (the "Macross F" anime theme song) has been doing surprisingly well on the single charts, but the reason why I bring it up is because on my morning TV show, they said something about how she's become more and more famous thanks to her musical roles. So I looked it up quickly... Turns out she was one of the actresses who played the roll of Eponine in Les Mis from 2003-2007. Huh, go Sakamoto Maaya! And you mean I missed a chance to hear her as Eponine? Damn.


• As mentioned on kinomakoto's LJ, THEY'RE MAKING A HERE IS GREENWOOD TV DRAMA. Oh be still my beating heart. Greenwood is one of my favorite anime and manga of all time, so I am super-de-duper excited. Having said that... I already disagree with the casting of Shun, and I seriously doubt that anything can change my mind. I honestly think that they should have cast a female actress (for those who don't know the series, the entire joke about Shun is that he looks (and acts, for the most part) exactly like a really cute girl; the lead character Suka-chan rooms with Shun for several days before figuring it out, and that's only because he finally walks in on Shun at a urinal). I'm sure that the guy playing Shun is perfectly nice, but it's tough when you think that they cast a character as the wrong SEX. But the guy playing Suka-chan is cute like a bunny, so we'll see.


• Just when I think that I'm starting to get used to living in Japan... Without talking too much about the show, I was watching this normally funny "talk with celebrities" program, and they were discussing "kawaii" and women being cute. Anyway, they had three examples (sent in from actual viewers) on the topic "Things that I do to make myself seem cuter": Purposely walking slow behind a guy and complaining, before jogging up and tugging on his sleeve; pretending to get caught in clothing while taking off sweaters or whatever; making expressive little hand gestures to emphasize emotions like sadness or shock.
  
  I would just like to say that these are not only all actions that annoy me, these are all actions that actually make me raging mad. Every. Single. One. I was ready to hit something just after watching the little reenactment videos. That, or start screaming, "OMG, it's your fault that women can't advance in the workplace!" My rage almost overwhelmed my desire to start sobbing on behalf of double-X chromosomes everywhere. I felt ill after watching this little comedy program. Honestly ill. Don't make me smack a bitch, Japan! I'll do it! I totally totally will! Minako-chan smash!!


• In better news, Superfly's new album hit #1 on the charts. I adore Superfly. She's this teeny girl with massive vocal power who reminds you more of Janis Joplin or Grace Slick or some other 60's powerhouse vocalist. I quite like her; I have a soft spot for teeny powerhouses (see: TMR). Go go Superfly!

So over the four day Golden Week holidays, Mommy and I went to Osaka. We walked an insane amount, saw takoyaki stands every few feet, and spent an entire day at Univeral Studios Japan. That was actually lots of fun (except for the "Back to the Future" ride; both Mommy and I got very very motion-sick, so we really should have skipped it). But the best part by far was the "Jurassic Park" ride.

See, my mother actually hates "scary" rides. And by "scary", she meets anything that bumps, has sudden movements, or drops. She's ridden "Splash Mountain" exactly once, and she was terrified. "Pirates of the Caribbean"? She considers that to be plenty scary as far as sudden drops go. (No seriously, it has teeny mini-bumps at the very beginning. I swear. I know this because my mother brings them up every single time.) But I wanted to ride "Jurassic Park", so my mom bravely agreed to ride it once with me (I figured I could always ride it once by myself later). So we rode, we got "spat" on by random dinosaurs, we got suckered in by the first fake drop, and we screamed our heads off as we dropped away from under the T-Rex's snapping jaws.

My mother's reaction?

"Oh, that was fun! I liked that."

We ended up riding it again later that night, and according to Mommy, it was just as fun the second time around. It was seriously kinda weird. "Who are you and what have you done with my mother?"

Has everyone seen this? http://garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com/ It's Garfield, without Garfield, and it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Brilliant.

---

I also read that the final Harry Potter book will be broken into two movies so that they don't have to worry about cutting out information. I will fully admit that my first thought was, "Oh, that is a horrible horrible idea." I understand what producer David Heyman says about it being difficult to cut anything from the book. It's the last book, afterall, so there's no time to slip information into the story at a later point. But making two movies out of the book sounds absolutely horrid.

( More about Harry Potter... )

---

In random Japan news, there have been recent articles about proposed revisions to the bicyling rules, which actually involve fewer changes and more crack downs on unsafe riding practices, such as wearing headphones, talking on the phone, or holding an umbrella. The reason these changes have been coming up in the news, however, have been because of the crackdown on people who ride with three people on one bicyle: one adult riding with a kid in a back basket and another kid a front basket.

( More about bicycles in Japan... )

Vacation is almost here, and I'm so excited!

( Flying Excitement! )

( Family Excitement! )

( Work Excitement! (Part I) )

( Work Excitement! (Part II) )

( Variety Show Excitement! )

( Net Excitement! )

As most of you probably already know, I'm going home in a week, and I am soooo excited. I realize that I'm probably talking about it too much, but not only is my first Xmas at home in 4 years, but it's also the first reunion of our immediate family in, like, ever, so I think I get some slack. ^_^ In celebration(?), here's some news from the past week.

Hard Core Christmas Spirit
On my morning news program, they did a little segment about Christmas decorations in Japan, and how people save on electricity bills and all. One of the methods was using non-light-related decorations, like little balloon-type lawn figures and that sort of stuff. But one of the sample houses they showed? One wall of the house featured a giant picture of Mary holding baby Jesus. I thought it was hysterical. That is seriously hard core Christmas spirit for Japan.

My Niece Rocks (Part 1)
I mentioned previously that Detroit Niece started wearing glasses, and she looks too cute for words. She's an active three-year-old, so I was hoping that she wouldn't be bothered by things on her face. But word is that she LOVES her glasses. See, she doesn't know anyone else with glasses at her preschool. And the only other people she knows are adults. Therefore, she has come to the conclusion that glasses are big girl accessories, and that she is obviously far superior to her peers if she gets to wear glasses and they don't. It's rather hysterical toddler logic, and I absolutely adore her super-positive spin on the situation.

My Niece Rocks (Part 2)
Yet another story about why this niece of mine rocks. They've apparently got a fake Christmas tree at their house, so my niece has never been to a tree farm to get their Xmas tree. Therefore, when she first saw a car with a Christmas tree strapped to the roof, she apparently started shrieking, and told her parents very excitedly, "Look! They have salad on their car!!!" Everyone in the family thinks it's a hoot, and no one can figured out why she called it salad. My own attempt at decoding toddler logic says that A) Trees and plants stand upright and B) The thing on the car was not upright, therefore C) The thing on the car cannot be a tree or plant. But D) It was still green and leafy, ergo E) It must be salad.

My Boss is Cooler Than Your Boss (Part 64)
I've mentioned the awesomeness of my boss and his many hobbies before, but after learning Arabic last year and starting to make his very own Middle Age-esque sheepskin book, he decided that it would be fun to learn Arabic calligraphy. And since he's my boss, he doesn't just go at it half-assed. He's apparently in some sort of correspondance course with a calligraphy master living in Israel. It sounds like this calligraphy master is a good teacher, and my boss doesn't want to let the guy down, so he's started practicing during lunch. I have no idea what anything means, but everything that I've seen is pretty impressive. Seriously, I want to be my boss when I grow up.

Danger: Avoid Death
Some of you might have heard of this, but I read an article about some organization chose the best idiotic warning labels of the year. As someone who ends up translating warning labels many times a year, I can honestly say that some of it is pretty detailed. You can see the winners on the web page here, including the best warning label of the year: Danger: Avoid Death. Now, that's a pretty wacky warning label, but seriously? Visit the web site and check out the picture that goes along with it. That's the actual highlight of the warning. I nearly choked on my lunch when I saw it. Ohhh, you gotta love the American legal system that necessitates this sort of stuff....

I'm sooooo excited about going home for Christmas; I'm already getting impatient, which is bad. So here are some random thoughts for the week:

---

( An Open Letter to the Girl Walking to the Train Station Tuesday Night )

---

I got a letter from one of my sisters last night, and she included pictures of the kids. How come no one ever told me that Niece got glasses? She's soooo cute. Also, Nephew looks like a mini-version of my brother-in-law; it's pretty scary. But I'll be seeing them in 2 weeks! Hurray!

I must admit, though, that there will definitely be things that I'll be missing about Japan during the holiday season. End-of-the-year parties. [sigh] Luna Sea concert. [whimper] And, of course, New Year's Day sales. [sob sob!!] Seriously, basically every store worth its beans sells awesome grab bags, filled with random crap that you never knew that you wanted, for super-de-duper low prices. Stores that normally sell a single shirt for 10,000 yen will offer a grab bag with 6-7 items, dresses and coats even, for the same price. Pay 1000 to get a bag filled with random socks or jewelry, and get your money's worth if you even if you just like one or two of the dozen items included. And I've had awesome luck the past two years with a slightly more upscale jewelry store in Shibuya; I've gotten etched silver rings and 18k gold jewelry for super cheap. Ohhh, grab bags! You'll all be gone by the time I get back to Tokyo, and I will miss you. [sob sob sob!!]

---

I would like to quickly note that I have no desire to see the new Beowulf animated movie thingie. Partially because I'm always wary of people trying to "modernize" classics or make them "hip" for modern audiences, partially because I haven't been entirely impressed with what I've seen of the animation (big monsters = look cool. anything supposed to be human = dead and soul-less eyes.). But I think it's also possibly because I was so traumatized by learning Beowulf in high school English. See, I liked our teacher fine, but she was... flighty. She didn't always realize that we weren't psychic. And the highlight of our learning experience came with the Beowulf test, which included the following question:

Beowulf is a ____ and a ____ of a ____ .

( Seriously, WTF? )